The Vampire’s Servant
Chapter 137

Val started straightening up the office while I talked to Finn and Talia. I was grateful that he didn't decide to fight me on this. Once the updates were in, I needed to organize the territory. I didn't have any idea about what needed to be done to take care of a territory full of vampires. "Talia, I want you to take Victor's work and divide it between Talon and Silence. Tell them Victor is not available and they need to step up their roles while we get him taken care of." I said.

"Got it." She replied and left the room with her phone.

"Finn, you said there was something happening. Any idea what? When did you want to get into the nursing home?" I asked.

"No idea what. Just waves that are telling me our window for getting to whoever has the information is closing. I'd love to go tonight, but with what just happened to Victor, I'm not sure you're up for it." He said.

"I say what I'm up for. No one else. We'll go after dinner. Change your shirt and get ready. I don't want to dawdle." I told him.

Finn stood with a small bow and left the room. I tried to focus. I needed to do something else.... What was it?

"You should probably call Marius." Val suggested.

I smiled at him, grateful that he helped. "Thank you. I lost focus for a moment. Thank you, also, for picking up. I really appreciate it."

"I'll help however I can. Victor has Talon and Silence for his lieutenants, you have me." He smiled.

"You and Gray. He'll be a big help too." I replied as I pulled out my phone and dialed Marius' number.

He picked up on the third ring. I was a little worried that he would be too busy. He had a territory of his own to run.

"Echo? What's happened? You rarely call me." Marius said.

I realized that he was right. I was a terrible child for not staying in contact, there was just so much going on. I promised myself I would do better in the future.

"The curse has taken Victor's mind. He's in the cells. I need you to start coming over in the morning to train me on how to fight vampires. I can't be defenseless against them and Talia is already training Gray. I want her to keep teaching him." I told him.

"Gladly. You need a good education if you're going to be Mistress of this territory. I'm assuming you are. You sound more confident and sure of yourself than you have in the past." He chuckled.

"Yes. I am taking over as Master of this territory since Victor is unable to take care of things. Talia is dividing his work between Talon and Silence, and Finn is working on the next steps of the curse." I said.

"You seem to have this well in hand. I will be there first thing in the morning to start your training. I will not go easy on you, daughter. Learning to fight vampires is a life or death endeavor." Marius answered in a stony voice.

"Good. I don't want someone who will baby me to train me. I need to be able to fight for myself while Victor can't defend me." I replied.

"I shall see you in the morning. Make sure you're well-rested." He said as he hung up the phone.

I set my phone aside and put my head in my hands. That was all I needed to do, aside from letting everyone know what happened. They all needed to know to leave Victor in the cells.

"I can text Cam and Harmony." Val said, sitting in one of the chairs.

"Please do. Make sure they know that they don't have to come home over this. Just stay out of the basement." I told him.

I got up and went down the hall to the kitchen. Lisa and Wendell were working on dinner. I quickly briefed them on what was going on.

"You should probably call Alpha Trent and let him know what's going on, since he has a treaty with Master Nightshade." Lisa suggested. "It's important that he knows who to contact about stuff like that."

"Thank you, Lisa. I hadn't thought of it. I should have. Victor can go several days without feeding, but I want to make sure he's healthy. Only vampires are allowed to feed him. The scent of werewolf could make him more violent and I don't want you getting hurt." I answered before heading back to the office.

I called Trent and got things settled with him quickly. He asked if there was anything he could do to help us. I told him that his guards could probably use a day off and it would be nice if he could send someone out for a day or two to relieve them.

It was really the only thing I could think of. I didn't want them growing bored or upset and not doing their jobs properly. Trent said he would arrange for a third and fourth team to come out and cover weekends so the men could go home and visit their families and friends.

Lisa and Wendell had told me we could discuss days off after the curse was resolved. They didn't want us to split our attention. I was grateful to them.

Val and I worked on cleaning up the rest of the office. I filed away the papers that had been on Victor's desk, there wasn't much I could do with them. We sat down and rested afterward.

"You found your vampire power." I grinned at Val.

"Thank god for that. I wouldn't have survived a fight with Victor." He sighed.

"Marius is going to be so proud of you. That is an amazing ability. I wonder what else you can do with it." I continued, trying to keep the topic away from Victor.

There was a knock at the door and I looked up. It wasn't closed, so I could see Uncle Preston standing there. I waved him in.

"I was looking for Finn or Victor." He said, coming over to the desk warily.

"Finn is busy with something else at the moment. Victor is unavailable. I'm the Mistress of this territory. You can speak with me." I stated firmly.

"Well. I think I know why supernaturals can't leave the area. I was assessing the materials and nothing was coinciding with anything which could create a spell like that. Then, I started thinking outside the box. What if he did an intruder spell, but reversed it? If he lined out a certain area and set up wards, he could have made it so the rest of the world was protected from people coming from here. If he changed the word 'intruder' to 'supernatural', then it would affect everyone. Family members are rarely regarded as intruders, so they can come and go as they please without any negative effects." Preston explained.

"How do we break it?" I asked.

"We need to find the wards and a member of Fenton's family needs to break them. Only blood of the original caster can remove a protection like this. Normally, these wards are put up around coven towns to keep witches safe." He told me. "Where would the wards be, though?" I asked as I turned and opened a long drawer where Victor kept his maps.

I searched the labelled rolls until I found the one for the territory. Pulling it out, I slipped the ties off and unrolled it on the desk. The map showed several states and the border of the territory was drawn on it.

"That's a huge territory. I don't think he would have had the ability to ward this area in the amount of time noted from when he found out, to when he sent Grace back East." Preston said.

"Do you think he just warded the town and Grigori's death pushed the wards back to the edges of the territory?" Val asked.

"That doesn't make sense. Amy can leave the state without a problem. So can Lucien. That means that beyond this town, people aren't as affected." I replied.

"But people from here can live inside the territory boundaries without a problem." Val countered.

"It could be the safety zone was pushed out. It's not as tight as the borders. There's usually a safety zone in these so that people who pop into the boundaries by just, say, stepping over the border, aren't going to be affected. Instead of it being something like a quarter mile, what if Grigori's death pushed the safety zone to the borders he held? It could make sense if this was tied to all the other spells involved in this curse." Preston suggested. "That makes sense." I said and opened up the curse file on Victor's computer.

I typed in the information on the spell Preston thought Fenton used. I put in our speculation on the safety area and how Grigori's death changed that part of the curse. "What do we do about it?" Val asked.

"If I can find out where the wards are, I can break them." Preston said.

I dug through the map drawer and pulled out a map of the city and surrounding area. I linked Rosario to have him bring Sean to the office. He would know exactly what we were looking for.

"Sean's on his way. I'm betting the original spell was centered on the city and surrounding areas, because Fenton would have wanted to ensure that Grigori couldn't leave. He didn't want anyone to bring Grace back to him. It would've had to have included the surrounding areas so it could include the pack lands." I pointed out.

"I'm glad we're seeing that serious, commanding personality again. I wondered what happened to you." Preston chuckled.

"What do you mean?" I asked as I pulled pencils out of a drawer.

"When we first met, you were just like this. When we moved in here I thought I would see a cool, in-control woman, but you've just been weepy, weak, and nervous. I was so confused." He explained.

"Oh. Well, that was because of the curse. Not having Victor and Gray safe has taken a toll on me. I'm the Mistress of this territory since Victor can't take care of it right now. I can't give in to my emotions. It seems everyone thinks I was acting differently." I shook my head and sighed.

Rosario and Sean came into the office. Sean looked a little pale and sickly. I worried about him, but I was sure this was part of the changing process that he had taken on. I would support my friend if this was what he felt he needed.

I waved them over and pointed to the map. "Sean, I need to know where Fenton's property is. The curse was solidified there, I bet that's where the center of the spell is and it would give us an idea of how far out the wards could be." "Good thinking, Echo." Preston smiled and moved aside so Sean could get to the map.

Sean picked up a pencil and examined the map. After a few moments of consideration, he circled an area carefully. He looked closely and drew another circle inside of it.

"This is my family's land and the other circle is where the house stood." He said.

"Rosario, where is the fae village and neighborhood?" I asked.

Rosario took the pencil from Sean. He looked over the map and drew two circles. He set the pencil down and put his arm around Sean's waist.

"You need anything else?" Rosario asked.

"Will you two be down for dinner?" I asked.

"Yes. Sean's just experiencing some weakness right now. He's going to need a lot of fuel before he sleeps." He answered.

"What's going on? Why does he need fuel?" Val asked.

"I'm becoming fae. I had a cake imbued with the magic to change a human into a fae. Maeve said I would wake up in the morning fully changed." Sean replied.

"Why would you do that?" Val pressed. "Was it just because you didn't have an affinity? You could have been a powerful alchemist."

"Valor. He did what he wanted to with his own body. You have to respect that." Rosario glared.

I put my hands up, drawing their attention. All arguments died down as they looked at me curiously. I didn't have time for pointless fights. It wouldn't change anything and would just annoy me while I was working.

"If you don't have business here, leave." I said finally.

"Gladly." Rosario picked up Sean and turned to leave the room.

"Echo, you can't be okay with this." Valor whined.

"It's Sean's life, it's his decision. I'm not here to parent him. I'm here to beat this curse and take care of my home." I replied. "Do you know how big the pack lands are?"

"N-no. Your seriously okay with him changing himself like that?"

"Yes. I need Gray. Cam's out on a date, Uncle Samuel wouldn't know this. Do you think Lisa or Wendell might know? I don't really want to pull the guards from the perimeter to ask and the others might be in bed still." I pondered.

"Gray should be home soon. He was just going to go get those journals right?" Val said.

I nodded and pulled out my phone to text him asking him to come to Victor's office when he got home. I looked at the map and chewed on the end of the pencil. I wondered where Grigori's house had been. We'd need that information to get a solid idea as well. There had to be a vampire who could tell us.

"Dennis. I need to call Dennis. He's been here since the territory was settled by humans." I whispered.

Quickly, I dug into Victor's files and pulled up the information on Dennis. I was pretty lucky that there were only three vampires named Dennis in the area. I pulled out his number and called him.

"Hello?" He answered over some loud music.

"Dennis, this is Echo Nighshade. I needed to talk to you." I said.

"Just a moment." Dennis replied.

The loud music got quieter until it was completely gone. I suspected that he'd moved from the main part of his club to the office or outside.

"How may I help you, Mistress Nightshade?" He asked.

"Do you know where Grigori used to live?" I questioned.

"Yes. I was a guest in his home several times. He was very interested in my club." Dennis answered. "It used to be a jazz club back then."

"I don't know what that is. Anyway, I need you to come to my home and show me on a map where that was. I'll send someone to get you." I told him.

"Of course, Mistress Nightshade. Will I be meeting with Master Nightshade as well?" He asked.

"No. Master Nightshade is extremely busy out in the territory. I'm using his office while he's out, I'll send Finnick to you. I believe you met him the other night at Victor's ball." I replied.

"I'll be ready for him. Thank you for allowing me to assist, Mistress."

"I'm glad for your assistance, Dennis. I'll see you soon." I said, hanging up.

Finn came into the room while I was wrapping up the call. He looked at me curiously and waited for the call to be over.

"Who am I getting for you, Lady Nightshade?" Finn asked.

"Dennis. The one who owns the all species club in town. I need him for this." I told him.

"On it." He nodded and left the room.

I sat down and looked over everything. Visiting the nursing home would have to wait. This was a lot of work, but I was serious about running this lead down. Victor couldn't do it himself, so I was going to do it for him. I wouldn't give up.