The Vampire’s Servant
Chapter 126

We went down to dinner when we were called and I swear Dillon, Jean-Claude, and Gray were all looking at me knowingly. Like they knew I was just ravished by my boyfriend repeatedly. I blushed and held onto Rosario's hand. Chairs were brought in from the kitchen to make sure everyone had a seat. I sat gingerly on mine. It would take a while before I was used to this feeling. Dillon chuckled and Jean-Claude snorted. They definitely knew. Before the meal was served, Dillon had us all go around the table and introduce ourselves. He wanted our names, affiliations, and abilities. He said it was the best way for everyone to know everything about each other. I was seated between Cam and Rosario, on the opposite end of the table from the vampires. Cam was next to Dillon. He had wanted to sit with Harmony, but everyone had insisted the triplets sit next to each other.

As we went around the table, I was realizing more and more that I was the weakest member of the group. Rosario stood and smiled down at me. I had barely realized we'd made it all the way over to us.

"I'm Rosario Adair. Prince of the fae who live in the human world. My magic would be most closely associated to Echo and Harmony's magic. Plants do my bidding and I can speak with them. I have four twenty-foot-long vines that I can fight with. I am an expert archer and ranked fighter among all fae in the area." He said.

Pride overcame me. My boyfriend was strong and amazing. I hadn't even realized all the other things about him. I couldn't wait to learn more.

"Where are your vines?" Dillon asked.

He held up his hands and four thick vines protruded from his forearms. Two on each arm. They danced like they were alive and I was in total shock. One came near me and I reached out to touch it. It was warm and had several deadly looking thorns on it. "Nice." Dillon grinned.

Rosario sat next to me and looked at me. I felt my stomach flip. They were going to know that I didn't have anything to offer.

I stood up nervously. Echo smiled warmly. It made me feel a little better. If nothing else, she wanted me here.

"I'm Sean Flowers. I'm Echo's friend and Rosario's true mate. I mean... I'm friends with everyone else too, I was just Echo's friend first. I am a witch without an affinity, and I only just learned that recently so I don't know anything about witches either. I can't fight and I can't do magic.... I hope I'm not too much of a burden. I just really wanted to help." I said softly.

"I'll teach you potions and spells while I teach Valor." Preston offered. "Witches without affinities can often pull off more powerful spells because their power isn't going toward making their affinity behave. You wouldn't believe how many times I accidentally set things on fire when I was young."

"You can train in the morning with everyone else. We'll get you in fighting form." Jean-Claude told me.

"You're everyone's friend and you already helped a lot, Sean." Gray grinned at me.

"If not for you, we wouldn't have gotten all of the notebooks from your father. Lila has already been making a lot of headway on the spells." Victor smiled.

"You're more than just my true mate, you're the one who made me see the world around me and you brought me to this place where I'm safe to be myself. Please stop thinking you're not worthy of everything. You deserve everything." Rosario said, kissing my hand. I looked over at Echo who was smiling even more brightly and nodding. I smiled and squeezed Rosario's hand before sitting, gently. Cam stood up.

"I'm Cam Blake. I'm a werewolf with the Hallowed Moon Pack. I'm Harmony's mate and Gray's best friend. Just a standard werewolf no ranked blood or weird backstory and no, you don't have to make me feel better about it. I'm happy to be here with my mate and I'm happy to help my friend." Cam said with a little bow and sat back down.

"Now that's all settled, let's have some dinner. I know Lisa and Wendell worked hard on it and we appreciate them coming to stay with us and help around the house." Dillon announced.

With that, dinner was served. It looked amazing. They had cooked three large roasts with side dishes of broccoli, brussles sprouts, and honeyed carrots. There was a mountain of mashed potatoes and large bowls of gravy. In front of each of the vampires, and Echo, they put a dish with something orange in it. I caught the scent of fish.

"What's that?" I asked Echo.

"Salmon mousse. It's mixed with human blood. It makes the whole having to have blood thing easier on me, and it makes it so the vampires can eat with us, instead of having a liquid diet." She explained. I blanched. I had no idea that something like that could be a thing. It sounded disgusting. I dished up some of the other foods that were there, opting for the broccoli, because I hated brussels sprouts. Everyone chatted quietly. I watched Echo eat her mousse, then pile a healthy serving of all the veggies onto one plate and start mowing through them like they were candy. She still wiggled when she ate.

The werewolves all piled their plates high, like this was their last meal or something. Even Harmony's plate was completely filled. She ate like a teenage boy who skipped a meal.

"I just don't think it's fair. Sean and Rosario get to sleep together; you get to sleep with Jean-Claude. I should get to sleep with Harmony." Cam was whining to Dillon.

"Jean-Claude is my husband. We were married by human and supernatural law. You shouldn't be complaining to me. I didn't do the room assignments. That was all Echo." Dillon countered. "Echo, why didn't you put me with Harmony?" Cam asked.

"Because she didn't want you sleeping with our sister." Val growled.

"Stop that, Val." Echo chided. "Cam. It was all very simple. Val wouldn't let you sleep with Harmony. He would suggest Harmony sleep with me instead. Me smelling like a werewolf would upset Victor. So I couldn't have that. Then, Val would have suggested that he and Harmony be roomed together. That would have upset you, even though they're sister and brother. You wouldn't want to sleep with Gray and my uncles don't know each other well enough to be okay with sleeping together. I already moved all of the vampires into one room, so the only option was putting Sean and Rosario together because it was the most peaceful arrangement. I'm not having any of my guests sleeping on the couch. This is the only thing that works."

Her argument was well reasoned. I could follow her line of thought fairly well. There really was no other option.

"Echo, you know how hard this is for me. Being away from my mate." Cam pled.

"Yes, like I have to be away from mine. Unlike me, you weren't rooming with Harmony on the pack lands. If I can survive not sleeping with Victor and Gray, you can survive not sleeping with Harmony. That is the end of this discussion." Echo said very finally. "They could at least be a little quieter when they're f*****g." He grumbled.

I blushed and focused on my plate. My stomach was in knots. They heard us. That's why they were looking at us like that. Oh, god.

"Next time, make sure you close the window." Dillon chuckled.

"Will do." Rosario answered with a snort.

I hit him with my elbow, making a few people laugh. I was totally embarrassed. I couldn't believe my first time was overheard by pretty much everyone in the house.

"Don't worry, Sean. No one is judging you. It's just another way that you and Rosario show your love for each other. Cam is just grumpy. He'll get over it once he realizes that he gets to be around Harmony even more while they're living here. Before, he was living with his parents at their house and Harmony was living in the pack house. They didn't get to spend a huge amount of time together. Now, they'll be together from when they wake up until they go to bed. It's really much better than he thinks." Echo told me. "You don't need to be trying to get in my sister's bed." Val grumbled.

"You just don't understand what it's like to have a mate, Val." Cam growled.

I looked up at Val. He seemed hurt by that. I realized both of his sisters had mates, but he didn't. For siblings who did everything together, that had to hurt.

"Val has a mate somewhere." Harmony insisted. "He's going to find her."

"Witches don't have mates, Harmony." Preston said.

"Grace did. She was Grigori's Solus Amor. Our mother was our father's mate and she was a witch. Val will have a mate. I just know he will." Echo told him. "What an odd coincidence." He murmured.

"What?" I asked.

"My grandmother's name was Grace. She actually came from this area. I thought it was interesting that the kids all ended up here." Preston said. "Was her last name Aimes?" Echo questioned breathily.

"Yes! How did you know that?" He grinned.

Echo and Harmony covered their mouths and looked at each other with wide eyes before Echo looked down the table to Victor. He was staring at her in shock.

"Your grandmother was the daughter of the witch who cursed this territory." Victor said. "She was the mate of the Master of the territory. Sean is the great grandson of her oldest brother."

Echo was my cousin.... I couldn't believe it. Our family had been brought back together. That was why The Old Man liked her so much! He hated anyone who wasn't family!

"Tell me more about this curse. I want to help. If my ancestor did this, I need to help undo it. Like Sean here, I'm a part of this." Preston insisted.

"After the meal, we can go to my office and Finn will tell you everything. I want to make sure the children all have time to get settled before bed. They have school in the morning." Victor answered.

"I'm done now." Preston said and stood.

"I can go now. You good, Vic? Or should you come with?" Finn asked.

"I'm fine. We're going to see if the triplets can push off the curse's hold on me. It would be nice to get some work done without having to make sure several times that Grayson hasn't slipped into Echo's bed." Victor replied. "Let's go, Preston. It's a long as story and I'm sure you'll want to see what we have." Finn said, standing.

They left the room and there was an excited feeling in the air, which didn't seem to affect Echo. She looked sad. I didn't like that.

"Echo? Why do you look sad? Isn't it a good thing that we found this out? He could help with the curse." I whispered.

"If Grace had stayed with Grigori... I wouldn't exist and Victor would have been alone." She sniffled. "I wish they could have been happy together, but I hurt thinking that they had to be torn apart for me to be here today." Harmony and Val each held her hand. Gray's brow furrowed and I knew he wanted to hold Echo. Victor put his hand over his heart like it was hurting.

"Maybe that was part of why Fenton separated them." I suggested.

"What do you mean, Sean?" Rosario asked.

"This whole supernatural triad thing. It would be really powerful. Maybe he saw that marrying Grace to the other witch would create it and he wanted that power for our family." I said.

Victor stood. "That was precisely what I was thinking. I need to go talk to Preston. I can't believe I didn't smell that he was a dhampyr. Why didn't anyone else smell it?"

"Because he's not." Samuel answered. "My brother's mother was part vampire. Not enough to be considered a hybrid, but enough to pass on the blood. She died in a rogue attack when Adam was young. I was adopted by his father when my mother became his second chance mate."

"Why didn't you say something before?" Harmony growled.

"It's not like I'm proud of it. The vampire blood my brother had made you three possible and fated our pack to be wiped out! I didn't want to give you anything I didn't have to. I lost everyone I loved in that attack. All I had left was my mate and her family. All I could think of was how my brother had brought this curse on us all. That was before I started to get to know you three. I see my stepdad and my brother in you all the time. Sometimes, I even see my mom in you, even though she wasn't related." He admitted. "I understand, Uncle Samuel. Thank you for telling us now. It helps us understand where our family comes from." Echo said with a smile. "Let's all finish our meal. I can show you my moon garden before bed. It will help calm everyone down."

Victor and Talia left the room, presumably to go add this to their information about Echo, Harmony, and Valor. The room was quiet and tense. I didn't realize meals here would be an event too. At least we were a few steps closer. Maybe this meant there was hope for getting rid of the curse.