The Vampire’s Servant
Chapter 149

[Valor]

The house was buzzing with excitement. Echo announced to each of us outside of the office that there would be no talk of the ward breaking around Fenton. She set me, Harmony, and Sean to learning how to break wards. She was training at different times with Preston. The only one who didn't seem to be getting caught up in the excitement around us was Gray. He'd been getting increasingly sulky over the last few days. I kind of felt bad.

Gray was a good guy, but I kind of went into overprotective mode when I moved into the house. After Echo told me off a few times, Harmony did the same. She was pissed that I barged in on her making out with Cam and told him to get off her.

It was like my mind couldn't wrap around my sisters being able to make these decisions for themselves. They were so small and Echo had only just started coming out of her shell when this curse stuff made her all cold again.

I hadn't even realized how cold Echo had always been before. Not until she started opening up. I never realized how closed off her smiles were, how quick and light her hugs were, how her smiles never seemed to reach her eyes.

Now that I knew the difference, I think it hurt more to see her turning into the girl she'd been before Victor saved her. She was never light-hearted until after she started living with him. He gave her the security and safety to be truly happy.

That made me feel worse for Gray. If Echo was growing cold again, then he was losing out on the amazing girl she was turning into. I knew how much he cherished her, but she was already opening up when I first met Victor. She wouldn't have cried in front of me like she did that night.

I wanted to try and help them, but it was even harder since he was so against the torture thing. I was betting Fenton would start talking shortly after it began. It was one thing to be told you're going to be tortured and another entirely to actually be tortured. Sean's parents, Brian and Hope, were coming over for dinner tonight, so there would be no talk of the t*****e. We were entirely focused on getting Brian to agree to help with the wards. Echo wanted to wait to talk to him until the witches arrived. Preston and Brian were getting along great. Echo had told Brian our relationship to him when he got there and introduced them. Hope looked very happy. She started telling us we could call her Aunt Hope.

She was worrying over Sean. Like Echo, Hope had noticed the differences. Sean told us when he came home from his parents' house, that he didn't want to tell them so close to losing his great uncle. I could understand that. He wanted to protect his family from even bigger changes after losing someone.

We were all in the living room, except Samuel, Dillon, Jean-Claude, and Gray. They were off somewhere probably talking about wolfy things. Samuel had been very keen on getting to know me and Harmony, but he only ever watched Echo. I guessed he was feeling left out with the whole curse situation, but he never made a stink about it.

"Valor, pay attention." Preston said.

I turned my attention back to Brian. He was showing us an original spell he'd created when he was my age. I thought it was pretty cool. Preston said witches without affinities were innovators.

The air in front of Brian shimmered and shuddered while he waved his arms and chanted. Suddenly, a Twinkie appeared out of nowhere. I laughed.

"You need to have a stash you pull from. I would hide snacks in the garage and make them appear when and where I wanted one. It's like an item summoning spell, but with fewer steps. It took a lot of work to figure out where I could cut corners." Brian chuckled. "Once you are comfortable with the spell, you don't even need to do the chant."

He waved his hands and the air shimmered before another Twinkie dropped onto the coffee table. That was so cool. Being a witch could be a lot of work with remembering all the spells, the chanting, the conditions, and the repercussions of each spell. Witches with affinities tended to rely on their affinities and potions. Spells were kept in spell books and were accessed only rarely. Some witches kept particularly useful ones memorized. This looked like one I would want to memorize.

The buzzer in the hall went off at the same time as Echo's phone. I stood when she did and she gave me a look. I smiled at her.

"I'll get the gate and the door. You go take care of the vampires." I said.

"Are you sure? I can just let them in and run up." Echo offered.

"I'll let them in and get the door. Take your time. You don't have to do everything. Go on." I shooed her away.

Right as I got to the intercom, it buzzed again. They certainly were impatient. I sighed and hit the button. "Hello?" I asked.

"This is Amelia Grove. We're the witches from the Eaten Heart Collective." A friendly voice chirped.

"I'm opening the gate. Park next to the other cars and come to the door." I told her.

"Got it!"

I pressed the button for the gate to open and went to look out the peephole. I saw a car in the distance roll past. I felt something poke me in the ribs and I jumped. Echo laughed at me. "What are you doing?"

"Watching to see when they get here so I can open the door." I explained.

"There's a board in the porch that makes a slight clicking sound." She smiled.

She raised a finger and, after a few moments, I heard a click. Echo reached in front of me and opened the door as a pretty, blonde, girl was reaching up to knock. She looked startled before she smiled. "Hi, I'm Amelia. This is my sister, Emmalyn. We're here to meet Mistress Nightshade." The girl said.

"I'm Echo Nightshade. Thank you so much for coming. I'll show you to your rooms. Dinner will be served in a few minutes if you're hungry." Echo replied.

"Starved. We didn't really have lunch because we were meeting with Queen Bellamy's assistant and going through the vetting process to be able to see her without an appointment." Amelia explained. "Great. Please follow me." Echo directed with a brief nod.

I watched the girls head up the stairs. I wondered what their affinities were. This evened the numbers in the house a little more. Four witches, three vampires, two fae, one true dhampyr, and six werewolves. I wasn't counting the six other werewolves who lived on the property, though.

Victor didn't really count, since he was locked up in the basement. I wondered how he was doing. Echo came home with blood for him on Monday night. She said only Victor was to have that blood, so it must be special.

When I wandered back into the living room, Uncle Preston was showing off some of his fire magic. Brian looked amazed. Not living with witches would probably have kept that wonder in him.

Cam was in a corner of the room with Harmony. He had his arms around her and was whispering something in her ear. I felt my spine stiffen.

He was being dirty with my little sister. I started over there, when Harmony caught my eye and glared. She shook her head at me.

I turned and left the room. Even though Gray was sleeping with Echo, he was at least respectful enough not to slobber all over her right in front of me. Cam didn't even care who saw him. He just repeated that Harmony was his mate and he wasn't doing anything wrong by wolf standards.

Standing in the entryway, I tried to get myself under control. They kept arguing that they never told me what I was and wasn't allowed to do with the girls I dated, but they didn't understand. It was because I was a guy that I knew what those boys were after. They shouldn't be touching my sisters until they were married and I knew they would take care of Echo and Harmony forever.

"That looks like some heavy thinking." The blonde girl said as she stood on the stairs above me.

"Some thoughts take a little extra effort." I chuckled.

"You looked like you were trying to make someone's head explode." She giggled as she made her way down to where I was.

"I'm a light witch. That sounds like something a dark witch would do." I replied.

"I didn't meet you properly. I'm Amelia Grove." She grinned and stuck out her hand.

I took her hand and shook it. Normally, I would have done something like kiss the back of her hand and flirt a bit, but if she was here then she was related to me. It didn't matter how distantly, that was gross. "I'm Valor Gale." I said.

"Where exactly do you fit in all this, handsome?" Amelia winked.

"I'm Fenton Aimes' great great-grandson, and Echo's older brother." I told her.

"Oh." She looked disappointed. "Are there any cute boys here who aren't related to us?"

"I'm not one to ask about cute boys. Most of the guys here are either related to you or dating someone related to you. Or gay. It's really just the guards and Finn who are single." I explained.

"Oh! Guards. You mean like that hot guy who was walking by the fence? I'll take a couple of those." Amelia chuckled.

"Are you always like this?" I asked.

"No. I just finished college and I'm about to do my soulmate search. I want to have a little fun before I try settling down." She replied. "Here comes Emmalyn. Hey, Emmy. This one's related to us."

"You said you wouldn't embarrass me, Amelia." The other girl sighed as she came up to us. "I'm Emmalyn Grove."

"Valor Gale. Come on, I'll introduce you to everyone in the living room. Again, they are either related to us or dating someone related to us." I reiterated.

"You're not a lot of fun, you know." Amelia scoffed.

"I didn't think you would find it funny if I let my werewolf sister maul you because you flirted with her mate." I shrugged and led them into the living room. "She'd try." Amelia muttered.

When we got into the room, I introduced everyone. I told everyone how they were related to us as well. Echo joined us shortly after. I went and stood next to her. "Where'd you disappear to?" I asked.

"I went to see if Victor woke up normal. He didn't. Tomorrow we feed him again. Talia said it would be best if we fed him a little more often. She thinks he was able to be in control for as long as he was because Victor fed off me. I had some hope." Echo whispered. "I'm sure it will work. It'll just take a little bit. You aren't failing. You're doing great." I said quietly.

"Thanks, Valley." She said and hugged me briefly.

We started visiting with everyone else. Both Amelia and Emmalyn were earth witches. Emmalyn had a special affinity for crystals and Amelia had an affinity for minerals including iron.

That could be a deadly one if she ever decided to go dark. I could see being able to do things with the iron in people's blood. I didn't say anything, but I respected her a whole lot more.

After a while, the scent of vampire got stronger. It was different for everyone, I guess, because Sean told me they smelled like old books to him. They smelled a little like that mixed with something like blood.

I looked up as Finn sauntered in. He scanned the room, taking everything in. His eyes stopped on Amelia and he slowly looked her up and down. He quickly glanced over Emmalyn, Brian, and Hope, but his eyes went back to Amelia.

She didn't seem to notice. Echo smiled at Finn and looked around.

"Where's Talia?" Echo asked him.

"Downstairs with Vic. She wanted to take him some new papers to distract him. Who've you got here?"

"This is Brian and Hope Flowers. They're Sean's parents. These girls are Emmalyn and Amelia Grove. They're here to help us with the curse." She replied.

Amelia looked up at Finn. "Fuck. Where were you hiding your giant?"

Emmalyn snorted.

"You'd be surprised by the... small... spaces giants can fit in." Finn replied with a wink.

"Are you offering to show me? Or do I just have to guess?" Amelia purred, walking toward him.

Finn sniffed the air and his eyes dilated as they settled on her. He shook his head, turned and walked out of the room. Amelia started laughing.

"I didn't realize I'd scare him off. Who was that? Don't tell me he's related to us too."

"That was Finnick, Finn. He's normally more friendly. He must have been called away by Talia." Echo shrugged.

"Hmm. Finn. I like it. He looks like a Viking." Amelia said.

"I think he was back when he was alive." I answered.

"Why do you have more witches from our family coming? Why did you ask us to dinner, Echo? It can't just be for a family reunion." Brian asked. "I've waited for answers for this long. I'm tired of it."

Echo sighed. She stepped away from me and took a calming breath. I knew she was preparing for the worst. I wished she would lean on me more to help out.

"We've found out about some wards which exist and are anchoring two parts of the curse to the area. There is something defending the wards and they can only be removed by members of Fenton's family. If we remove them one at a time, the protections on the others will get stronger. We need to remove all eight at once. Sean, Harmony, Val, and I have been learning how to break a ward. With Preston, that gives us five witches. We need eight. Now Amelia and Emmalyn are here. We were hoping you would be our eighth, since you have been trying to break the curse on your own for so many years, we wanted to give you a part in breaking it. You'll have someone guarding you and it shouldn't take long." Echo explained.

Hope gripped Brian's arm. He patted her hands and looked to Sean. Echo looked hopeful.

"Yes. I want to break this curse. I'm glad you asked for more than just my notes. I've wanted to break this curse since I was a teen." He answered. "Thank the goddess." Preston sighed.

Talia walked into the room. Brian stiffened before nodding to her. She nodded back and looked around the room. Her eyes settled on Amelia.

"I am Talia, the Traveler. Thank you for coming to help with this curse." She said. "You seem to have flustered my childe. He refuses to come into the room."

Amelia's eyes widened. "Wow. I was just flirting a little. I didn't know he was so timid. He honestly seemed to be cool before he freaked."

"You're something Finn never thought he'd see. It will take him a little while to cope with what he's feeling. For now, I would like to know everything about you." Talia smiled and held out her hand to Amelia. "Umm. Sure. Come on, Emmy." Amelia said.

"No. Just you. I promise no harm will come to you. Come to the library with me." Talia urged.

There was a rattling sound and we all turned to Emmalyn. She pulled a crystal out of her purse and looked at it. She looked back up with a calm expression.

"Go, Amelia. I'll be fine. We'll see you at dinner." She replied waving her sister off.

Talia pulled Amelia out of the room. I was confused, but figured we'd find out about it later. The group quickly turned back to briefing Emmalyn and Brian about the wards.

Finn came back into the room and seemed a little agitated still. He contributed bits and pieces, but kept looking at the door. This was the first time I hadn't seen Finn being relaxed and joking around. I couldn't wait to find out what had happened. What on earth could have made a vampire of over eight hundred years look like that?