The Vampire’s Servant
Chapter 122

After school, Gray kissed me goodbye before he headed off to work. Sean and I met up in front of the school and he led me to the car. I couldn't wait to see his great-uncle. It would work out. I just knew it. We got in and buckled up before heading for the nursing home. Sean gave me a bit of a rundown on his great-uncle. I nodded as I listened.

"Most of all, I need to warn you about his cat. The Old Man. The thing is older than me. I don't know how he's still around. Now that I know my family is full of witches, maybe he's Uncle Fenton's familiar. The Old Man hates anyone who isn't family. Don't worry if he won't come over to be pet. Be careful, though, he bites." Sean said.

"Alright. I won't pet the cat." I smiled.

"You're still riding the high from lunch." He chuckled.

I nodded and smiled wider. If having my sister and brother around would help keep the curse from taking Victor any further from me, then I was thrilled they'd accepted. I just wanted to be around them, and it led to a break in the curse. It may just be a small one, but it was more than we had before.

A little while later, we were pulling into the parking lot of a large building. It had three stories and a lower level that seemed huge. We parked and I looked around as I got out of the car.

"This is an independent living home. Even though he's a little over one hundred, my great-uncle is a very independent man. Come on." Sean said.

I followed him to a covered drive and in the sliding glass doors. There was a long reception desk. There were a few ladies standing behind the desk greeting people.

"Sean! We weren't expecting you! You usually come on the weekend visitations." A pretty woman behind the desk said.

"I wanted to introduce my girlfriend to Uncle Fenton." Sean smiled at her.

I waved a little and wrapped myself around Sean's arm. She grinned. I thought she would send us away because I wasn't related, instead, she waved over another lady.

"Sean has a girlfriend, Desi! Come see her! She's so cute!" The woman squealed.

"Little Sean has a girlfriend?! I'm so happy for you. I always said there was a girl out there who would want a sweet boy like you. You know he comes to visit his great-uncle practically every weekend? He even takes that nasty cat to the vet for Mr. Aimes." Desi grinned.

"This is Desi and Remi. Remi is Desi's little sister. She's been here for three years, but Desi's been here since I was seven." Sean told me with a blush.

"I'm Echo. It's nice to meet you both." I said with a soft smile.

"She's precious, Sean. No wonder you brought her to meet Mr. Aimes. He's just going to adore her." Remi bounced a little.

"You know the rules about outside guests, Sean." Desi said solemnly.

"I have a letter from my father. He called my great-uncle so he's not surprised. We took care of all the formalities. We just need your okay, Desi." Sean winked.

"The little charmer. Of course you thought of everything. Let me see the letter and I need Echo's ID." She waved us closer.

I pulled my ID out of my backpack and handed it to her. She looked at the letter and the ID closely. I gripped Sean's hand tightly. He squeezed back, like he was telling me to relax. "Alright. Go ahead. Supper is at five. Make sure your uncle knows to leave that cat in his room. He isn't allowed in the dining room."

"Did he try to bring The Old Man down in his jacket again?" Sean laughed.

"At least once a week." Desi sighed.

Remi giggled. "Any night we do fish. I keep telling Desi to just send a double portion of dinner up to him, but she won't so we have to chase a cat around during dinner service once a week."

I couldn't help but laugh at the idea of that. I was betting the cat didn't like it any more than they did. It made me wish I'd had some sort of treat for the cat.

Sean pulled me through the lobby, saying hello to the occasional older person who called out to him. I loved seeing him like this. He was certainly popular with the people in the home.

We boarded the elevator. I hadn't been in one before, but Harmony explained it to me once. Sean hit the button with the number three on it and the elevator lurched a little before it started going up. I gripped the side rails. "Are you okay, Echo?" Sean asked.

"This is the first time I've been in an elevator." I admitted. "It's weird."

He chuckled a little. "You'll get used to it. Just stand like you normally do. This one has a bit of a rough spot, it's not breaking or dropping, just old."

I didn't understand what he meant until the elevator dinged for the third floor then shook and dropped a little. I squealed and grabbed onto Sean. He sighed.

"You're safe, Echo. I told you, it's a bit of a rough stop. Come on." Sean said, pulling me off the elevator.

We walked down the hall until Sean stopped at a door. He knocked and we waited. After a few minutes, an older man answered.

He had mostly white hair with some darker gray bits in it. The hair ringed around the back of his head. He had hazel looking eyes and a friendly smile. He was shorter than me and a little hunched over as he stood in front of us. "Sean? There you are, my boy. Is this the girl you wanted me to meet? She's a little young for me, but I'll make her feel like a queen." Fenton Aimes III chuckled.

"Very funny, Uncle Fenton. This is Echo." Sean told him.

"Come in, no point visiting in the hallway and my old bones don't like standing for too long anymore." He said.

We walked into his home. It was small. There was a little kitchen to the left and a two seater table on the linoleum. Past that was a tiny living room with a couch and a recliner around a coffee table, both were pointed at a television that was currently off. A sliding glass door behind it led to a balcony and there was an open door off to the side. I assumed that was his bedroom. Sean and I sat on the couch. His great-uncle groaned a little as he settled into the recliner. He indicated a plate of sandwich cookies and two cans of apple juice.

"I'm not supposed to have these, but Remi snuck them to me when I told her I was expecting guests today." Fenton winked.

"Thank you." I replied.

"You got yourself a cute little girlfriend, my boy." He told Sean.

"She's not my girlfriend, Uncle Fenton. Just my friend."

"Oh." Fenton sighed a little dejected.

I pulled out my phone and pulled up a picture I'd taken of Rosario and Sean. I handed it to Fenton with a smile.

"That's Sean's girlfriend." I explained.

"Damn, boy. She looks like a model. How'd you manage that? The old Aimes charm?" He chuckled.

"Echo." Sean hissed.

"Oh, your friend played wing woman. Understandable. Sometimes it takes a girl to get a girl."

I giggled. "Rosario and Sean are the cutest couple. Maybe he can bring her to meet you sometime."

"I'd like that. I never had kids and grandkids of my own. Sean is like my own kiddo. I want to see him happy before I go." Fenton said softly.

"No talking about that. We needed to see you about something important." Sean said.

Suddenly, a huge black cat jumped up on the coffee table. He sat facing us. His head was wide and sleek. The rest of his body was thick, but not entirely fat. His paws seemed large as he looked over at Sean.

It was like the cat was saying hello to Sean. He blinked at him and nodded. Then he turned to me.

The only experience I'd had with cats was a few strays that came into the yard from time to time. I remembered Sean's warnings. I stayed still as the cat looked me over, his eyes dilating until there was only a thin amber line around his huge pupils.

He put his paw up and motioned with it, like he was trying to scratch at something. I reached out my hand cautiously. When it got close to him, The Old Man sniffed it and hissed. I drew my hand back quickly. "Old Man! That's not nice, you asked to sniff her." Fenton scolded.

The cat laid his ears back and hissed again, at Fenton this time. He turned back to me with his ears back and watched me carefully. I put my hands in my lap and didn't make eye contact with him. "It's alright, Mr. Aimes. I'm part werewolf. That might have frightened him." I explained.

Fenton looked up at me in shock, then to Sean. "I thought your dad was keeping you away from the supernaturals."

"I ended up surrounded by them. Dad couldn't keep it from me forever. We're here about the curse, Uncle Fenton. I want to try and break it." Sean said.

"Why? Are your friends pressuring you to do this? What my grandfather did, is irreversible. They just need to deal with that. The only one who knows about what went into the curse is dead." Fenton grumbled.

"My friends aren't pressuring me. They told me I didn't have to help them, but I want to. Everyone has suffered enough for what Grace did. I don't know why it was so bad that she fell in love with a vampire, but great-great grandpa got what he wanted, didn't he? She married the witch he wanted her to and the vampire died, never able to take her back." Sean stated.

"How did you know that?" He asked.

"My mate is the descendant of the Alpha at the time. He wrote everything he saw every day in his journals. He covered everything from before the curse ever took effect up until the curse stopped him from writing about it. Plus, we know Lila. She told us what she could and several vampires worked hard to give us their knowledge, working through the pain. Maeve, the queen of the fae, gave us what she could as well." I explained.

"Why is everyone so hot to get rid of the curse now? It's been around for decades and they never worked together before." Fenton scoffed.

I felt something tap me and looked down. The cat was trying to crawl on me. I moved my hands from my lap and he crawled up, staring into my eyes the whole time. I got a little nervous. He started rubbing his face on mine, like Gray did when he was scenting me. Carefully, I scratched behind his ear. Fenton watched me and sighed. I looked over at Sean, who was looking at me in disbelief. "He's never done that to anyone." Sean whispered.

"The Old Man likes you. Look, I was just a baby when the curse was laid. It doesn't affect our family, that's why so many have moved away. All I know is that Fenton Sr. wasn't able to be talked out of it. My father tried. In the end, he let his sister and brothers be taken away by the other witch family and cut off contact with them, so he wouldn't give away anything. Especially after Aunt Grace's boyfriend died. It was his greatest regret." Fenton told us.

"So you don't know anything?" Sean asked.

"He just told us, Fenton didn't sacrifice any of his children for the curse. That was something we didn't know before. Everyone just assumed he did because they disappeared. That has to tell us something. We can tell Lila. She can take it into account when she goes over your father's notes." I smiled.

"You thought he would really do that after everything he did to save Aunt Grace from the vampire's thrall?" Fenton snorted.

"She wasn't in his thrall. She was his Solus Amor. His only love." I insisted. "Grigori would have never hurt Grace. He loved her with all his heart. When she was taken from him, he tried to follow, but started feeling drained the further he got from the territory. He had to come back. When he heard about the curse and how he was one of the focuses of it, he let himself be taken by the sun. He didn't want to live without her."

"That's not what I heard. I heard he was fighting with his supports who wanted him to give up the territory and they staked him out for the sun, then they ran to try and escape the curse." Fenton said.

"The letter he sent to the council said that he was sacrificing himself. So did the one he sent Maeve. It doesn't make sense, I know they disappeared after he did, but we all thought that was just the curse." I murmured.

"There's a lot you don't know. That split tree on the property, the one where the bloody tooth fungus grows, that's where he died. Why would he go to the property of someone who took his only love from him? Answer, he didn't they staked him to the earth there to punish him for dallying with a human and causing the curse. They thought the curse would be broken if he gave up the territory." Fenton stated firmly.

"Even William's journals say that he was meeting the sun himself. He went to that tree because that was where he first saw Grace and fell in love with her. There was more meaning behind that tree than you or your family realized." I replied.

He nodded. "So it seems. I don't have any information for you. If my father knew how to break the curse, he didn't tell me. If I knew, I don't know that I would help. Whatever reason my grandfather had for setting the curse, it had to be a good one. You don't curse so many people without a good reason. It can't just be because Aunt Grace loved a vampire."

"Please. Uncle Fenton. My girlfriend is fae. I want her to be able to go out in the world for more than eight hours at a time. I want to take her to see the world." Sean insisted.

"Break it off with her. All the other supernaturals in the area only want you to free them from the curse. Move away from here, find a nice human like your father did. Travel the world like your aunt is doing. Forget the hot fae girl. She's probably only using you." Fenton scoffed.

Sean stood angrily. "Rosario would never use me! My friends would never use me. They don't do selfish things like that. I'm not giving up. I refuse to let this curse affect another generation. Come on, Echo. Let's get you home to Victor."

I put the cat back on the coffee table. He moved his paw in a petting motion. I gave his ears another scratch before standing.

"I'm sorry to have bothered you, Mr. Aimes. Thank you for all your help. I hope you have a good evening." I said and followed Sean out of the apartment.

He paced as we waited for the elevator, growling and grumbling. I stood by silently. He was dealing with a lot.

When the elevator arrived, he pulled me on and pushed the button for the ground floor. I gripped the railing inside the elevator while Sean paced more. I'd never seen him like that.

He plastered a fake smile on his face as we walked past the reception desk and he waved to the women there. It was hard to keep up with his long strides. I was practically running to the car.

In the car, he turned to me.

"Tell Victor, Rosario and I are moving in. We'll sleep on the couches if we have to. I'm done playing around with this curse. We're on the case twenty-four/seven." Sean growled.

"I can ask him. We don't have too many rooms. You may have to room together." I winked.

That seemed to shake him out of his anger. Sean blushed deeply as a smile tugged at his lips. He started laughing.

"Did Rosario put you up to that one? He's been... persistent." Sean chuckled.

"Gray and Victor were like that. They taught me everything. They were very patient with me." I told him. "Why aren't you sleeping with Rosario?"

"It's never the right time or place. When I wanted it, he said it was the wrong place, when he wanted it, I said it was the wrong time. It was just never quite right. I really mean it about moving in with you." He said.

"Let's talk to Victor about it. You can't touch me in front of him. The way the curse is affecting him is making him more possessive. Okay?" I asked.

"Alright. I can do that. I want to do what I can, and I think that getting the vampires working with us will be the best possible choice." Sean smiled. "They just have to listen to us."

"They'll be more likely than other adults. Even though we're all teens, Talia is always open to hear what we have to say. Finn will do whatever she says." I said.

We headed to the house. The tension from the meeting with his great-uncle seemed to be dissipating. Sean relaxed more, the farther we got from the senior home.

By the time we pulled into the drive and I told him the code to open the gate, we were both in a better state of mind. We needed it for the next step in the evening. I had to get Victor to agree to have four new people move in with us.