The Vampire’s Servant
Chapter 115

[Sean]

Dinner and game night went perfectly. Rosario got along well with my parents. My dad really liked him and my mom was half in love with him. He even volunteered us to do the clean up afterward. I didn't mind, it meant more time just being with him without his on. My game group was made up of Terry, Elle, Mel, and Keith. Mel went to a private school now and Keith had moved across town and went to the other high school. They both remembered Rosario and were impressed that we were dating.

glamour

I had to remember to address him as a girl through the night. He played a male human sorcerer, which actually made it easier if I slipped up. Everyone loved the adventure and Rosario really got into it. He told me fae were huge on rules, so he'd read the entire rule book at the game shop today. I shouldn't have been surprised.

At the end of the night, we saw everyone off. My parents were always in bed by the time game night was over. I'd worried tonight would be different, but it wasn't. Rosario stayed behind because I wanted to talk more.

We finished putting everything away and sat on the couch in the basement. He dropped his glamour and laced his fingers through mine. I loved how his hands felt. They were calloused in some spots from his training with weapons and soft in others. The muscles in them were strong and I felt really good when he held my hand in his.

"What did you want to talk about, babe?" He asked.

"I still haven't decided about helping with the curse. My dad says it could make people angry at me, especially if we fail. I really want to help, though. I want to try and save everyone." I said.

"You want to be the hero in this story." Rosario chuckled.

"A little. But it's only a small part they want me to play. They just need me to get them into Uncle Fenton's room." I sighed.

"You can be more. We need all sorts of minds working on the curse. I've been working on this puzzle on my own for a while. I wanted to formally approach them about becoming official. We can do it together." He smiled.

I leaned against him. He smelled like the forest. It reminded me of when my dad would take me to the family property.

Since no one was cultivating it, the surrounding woods had encroached on the land. I never knew why we would go there, but dad told me earlier today that he had been taking samples from the burned out house to try and figure out the curse.

He'd been working on it since he was a teen. He wanted to break it and restore our family's good name in the region. That was what he was always working on in his workshop. I honestly thought he was just hanging out and watching TV in there or something. "Tell me everything. The curse, the Master of the territory, Echo, the fae, all of it." I insisted.

"It could take a pretty long time to go over all of that." Rosario said.

"We have all night... unless you have to get home." I murmured.

"Let me text my mom so she doesn't worry. I'd love to stay with you all night. Maybe we could even fool around a bit." He winked.

I laughed a little. I was really happy he wasn't upset with me about how everything went down last night. He pulled out his phone and send a message. It wasn't even a minute later that the response came through and he snorted.

"She says to have a good time... but not too good." Rosario told me.

Shaking my head, I chuckled. I didn't know how cool with it my parents would be, but I'd deal with that later. For now, I was just eager to know what was going on.

"I'll start with the curse, what we didn't cover in the brief talk we had with you, then we can move on to your other questions." He said.

Quietly, I listened to everything he knew about the curse. The effect it had on the supernaturals in each area, the cause, my family's involvement, and what the first Master of the territory had done to try and relieve it. When he was done, I nodded silently for a moment.

"My dad says that it was several curses combined and rooted into one. He's been working to untangle them. He said he was pretty close to naming at least one of them. I talked to him about giving the information he has to Echo. He wants to meet her first." I told him.

"That would be great. Everyone loves Echo as soon as they meet her. I'm sure your dad will give everything he has over."

"Tell me about Echo. Why is she living with the Master of the territory? What really happened to her parents? How is this whole thing connected to her relationship with Gray?" I asked.

"I can only tell you what my mother told me. She has people everywhere and Echo has told me a few things over the last couple weeks. The first thing you have to know is that Val and Harmony aren't her cousins. They're her sister and brother. They're triplets." Rosario explained.

"Wow. That explains why the girls look so much alike. Are they dhampyrs too?"

"They're hybrids. So yes, and no. Echo is more vampire than they are. Harmony is half werewolf and Valor is half witch. They all have some characteristic of all three species, but Echo is the most valuable. At least, to the vampires. To the witches, Val is the most valuable, and to the werewolves, it's Harmony." He said.

"Oh. That sounds complicated." I hissed.

"All three are most important together. That's why a vampire killed their family when they were little. He gave them to two people to raise and those people ran off and hid here from him. We believe that the husband was a witch without an affinity." "Like me." I noted.

"Not like you! This bastard was nothing like you. He let vampires feed on Echo for money. He treated her like a servant and beat her horribly when she was little. Not nearly as badly as his wife did. Echo heals like a vampire. There aren't any scars from what they did, except the ones on her soul. The witch got someone to help him create a spell to suppress their abilities and make them untraceable. They were raised together until about a month ago." Rosario told me.

"What happened a month ago?" I asked.

"Victor came to town. He was looking for a vampire who stole money from him and ran off. Victor doesn't like being insulted. This was a pretty big insult to him. He'd been hunting that vampire for fifteen years. When he found him, he found out the guy had been feeding on a child. On Echo. Victor hunted down every vampire who fed on her and killed them all, then he went to her house and bought her from her fake parents." He explained.

"Bought her? They sold her?"

I was angry for my sweet friend. I had no idea her life had been like that. She seemed so happy and excited for everything, I thought she'd had a peaceful, sheltered, life.

"Yeah. He intended for her to be his daylight servant until she was eighteen. I guess the kidnappers got the date of birth wrong when they made fake documents for the kids, though. Echo was already eighteen. It didn't really matter, I guess, because once he knew she was his Solus Amor, he would keep her forever. She met Gray a while after and he started pursuing her, he sensed she was his mate. Echo didn't even want him in the beginning." Rosario chuckled. "What changed?" I asked.

"You remember the week everyone was sick?" He questioned.

"They weren't really sick, were they?"

"Echo was kidnapped, again. The guy who killed her parents was able to track the triplets down. I guess he'd already started getting close. The suppression spell weakened when they turned eighteen. It took a week for Victor and Gray to find her. The vampire had been giving her only blood, no food, no water. Echo had never drank blood before that. It healed her faster. It made her smell more like a vampire. That's where I came in." Rosario said. "What does that mean?"

"When she got off the bus the Monday after the kidnapping, I smelled that she was a vampire. I was really confused and tried to talk to the other fae about it, but they started to bully her. I didn't mean for it to happen. I felt really terrible, because she seemed nice." He admitted.

"It wasn't your fault. You couldn't have known they would do that."

"No, I should've known the trolls would've done it. I should've known better. That was how she came to know my mother. Echo got some nasty notes in her locker and took them to my mother, the leader of the human world fae in the area. She didn't want to get the school involved, but wanted the issue resolved. My mom gave me an earful when she got home from meeting with the other parents and all the kids had pointed me out as the one who told them she was a vampire." Rosario chuckled. "I had to become the liaison or mom would've sent me to stay with my father for a week."

"Why would she do that after what he's done to you?" I asked.

"All this." He motioned to his chest and the scars hidden under his shirt. "Is because I'm different. I'm strange even by fae standards. My dad hated everything I did. He never understood me and choosing a female form for a glamour just made it worse. He may not care that I'm gay, but he hated that I chose for humans to think I was a girl."

"You were little. You made a choice based on what a child understood. You just wanted someone to treat you nice and everyone is nice to little girls. I remember how cute you were. You got all the good valentines every year." I chuckled. "I'm so glad I found you, Sean. You never made me feel bad for my choice. You've always just accepted me. How did I get so lucky?" Rosario smiled.

"The goddess wanted you to have someone who could make you see the world around you. That was me. Someone who has an open mind and can love you no matter what strange things you do." I kissed the back of his hand. "Mmm. I didn't know you believed in the goddess. It will make everything much easier on you. I just have one request, one small change I need you to make so you can be absolutely perfect." He purred and nibbled my ear. My stomach dropped. He thought I needed to change something. I knew I wasn't good enough on my own. I hoped it wasn't too hard to change, because I wanted to be with Rosario forever.

"Wh-what is it?" I asked.

"Stop thinking you're not good enough. Stop thinking I'm looking for reasons not to be with you. Quit with all the half jokes about me being crazy to be with you. All night, you acted like you didn't deserve me. Sean, I don't deserve you. You're good enough, you're smart enough, you're everything to me. I love everything about you." He implored. "Please stop trying to write us off as a fluke or insanity. We're everything we were meant to be and I will never regret loving you."

I couldn't think of what to say to that. I hadn't realized I'd been doing it, but he was right. I didn't really think I was worthy of him. Rosario was perfect in every way. He was gorgeous, intelligent, and sweet.

"I'll try my best. Can you keep reminding me, though? Sometimes I forget that I'm good enough to deserve you. You're everything I ever dreamed of, Rosario. What can I have possibly have done to deserve the man of my dreams?" I whispered. "Just being yourself was enough." Rosario murmured and started kissing down my neck.

"W-wait. I still needed to talk to you. If you do that, we'll get carried away." I stammered.

"Goddess, you're adorable. Kiss me to hold me over for a little while longer?" He requested.

I turned my head and kissed him. His hands went to my hair as he deepened the kiss. I basked in the feeling of being desired and playfully rubbed my tongue along his.

Rosario growled. Before I knew it, I was laying on the couch with him above me. He ground himself into me as our tongues battled for dominance. The taste of him was intoxicating. I couldn't get enough.

It was the feeling of his hand tugging at my zipper that broke me out of it. I needed to get in control of the situation. I put my hands on his chest and tried pushing him away. It was like trying to push a boulder.

I tried nipping at his tongue, but that made him kiss me more passionately. His hand finally won the struggle with my zipper and slipped into my pants. I moaned as he grasped me and started stroking.

My brain seemed to shut down and I was living for that moment entirely. I couldn't get enough of his kisses, his hands, the groans that came from him as he touched me. I grasped his shirt and pulled him tighter against me.

Rosario started kissing my chin and jaw, slowly heading down my neck. I didn't want to make him stop, but I had to. I didn't feel entirely comfortable doing this with my parents in the room above us. "Please, Rosario. You said just a kiss. We still need to talk." I gasped.

"How can you expect me to talk when you look so delicious? I want you so bad, Sean." He sighed as he slid lower.

"Rosario. Can you do this for me? Please? Just talk to me a little more and then we can fool around. I don't want to go too far tonight, but I want you as much as you want me. I promise." I groaned.

"I'll let you think that, but you have no idea how much I want you, Sean. When I thought you might reject me last night, my heart broke." Rosario said, pulling away.

He removed his hand from my pants and I was finally able to think again. I felt embarrassed at how I'd acted last night. I was just so overwhelmed and it felt like everything I feared was coming true. My friends didn't really like me, my boyfriend only wanted to use me. I couldn't think past the feelings that were overwhelming me.

"Forgive me for last night. Please. I just got emotional because I was scared." I murmured.

"I'll always forgive you. Just don't hurt me too much in the future. I don't think I could handle it." He whispered.

"I'll try my hardest to never doubt you again. Now, can we sit up? I think talking like this will make it more difficult to think." I chuckled.

"I don't know. I'm thinking of a lot of things right now." Rosario grinned.

"You're not thinking of the right things." I laughed.

We sat up and kept talking. He answered all of my questions. Everything I ever wanted to know about supernaturals. We would take breaks to make out and ended up falling asleep somewhere near dawn. I leaned against his chest and snuggled into the curve of his body. This was absolutely perfect.

When I woke up, I would let him know that I would help with the curse. I wanted to save my friends and my boyfriend from what my great-great grandfather did to them. It was the best way to show them how sorry I really was.