The Vampire’s Servant
Chapter 167

[Bellamy]

As I was dealing with my newest batch of paperwork to move more ex-packs into Lune Rouge, my phone started ringing. I picked it up off my desk and saw a familiar number. I hadn't been expecting a call so soon. "What's up, Troy?" I asked.

"We just got out to the hunter issue in Hallowed Moon's region. This is bigger than we thought. They look like they're getting ready to attack a powerful enemy. We've been watching them for the past two days. There are over twenty different hunters we've seen in and out of the house." He reported.

"Shit. Do you think they're planning on attacking Hallowed Moon?"

"With how many weapons boxes we've seen go into the house, I would say they were planning to attack something bigger, like Lune Rouge." Troy said.

Aurora and I went deadly calm. An attack on our pack wouldn't end well for the hunters. I would ensure there were no survivors. I would kill anyone who tried to harm my family.

I quickly sent a link to the head of my rogue guards to have them increase patrols. They were a more secretive force. Much better for patrolling and making people think we only had the more visible pack guards.

"Do you think they found out about me and Lucien? That could make hunters focus on us as a target. Have you been able to suss anything out about their target or mission?" I asked.

"No. We'll be watching them and trying to get closer. We've got Crazy Derrick with us. Some of the hunters go out to a bar. We're thinking of sending him in." Troy told me.

"Sending Derrick would be a good idea. They wouldn't know he wasn't human. Your mission is to find out their target and report back as soon as possible. I'm sending another team for backup. Any requests?"

"Send a group with females. The house across from them is for sale. Perry looks old enough to be my father. Get us a younger female and an older female and we can move in seeming like a family moving into the neighborhood. It puts us at a good advantage." Troy suggested.

"Alright. Text me the information for the house and I'll get it purchased. I'm renting you a moving truck. Go to a second hand store to start filling it. You'll need moving boxes with everything needed for setting up house. Hunters are more observant than most humans. You'll really need to sell it. Make sure you shave really well and go get a haircut." I ordered.

"Yes, Queen Bellamy." He said and hung up.

Sending Crazy Derrick in was a great idea. He would probably even be able to get into the hunters' house. That would put us at a huge advantage.

Derrick loved his nickname. He even got it tattooed in silver on his chest. That's how crazy Derrick was. He had silver studs pierced through his nipples, several tattoos using silver infused ink, and a couple more piercings that were rumored, but I had never seen. On top of that, he did crazy stuff. Derrick told everyone his great grandmother had been a shaman with an animal affinity. He said he can understand animals.

I know it's possible to be a hybrid of a wolf and a witch, but the affinities rarely went past the first generation unless more witch was mixed in. That was what made Derrick's claims seem strange. And his wolf was just as weird.

He would chase squirrels. When asked about it, Derrick explained that the squirrels all talked shit about werewolves and he had to defend our honor. He ate any squirrel that he caught.

Most notably, though, was the time Derrick ended up in the clinic after eating a leaf of Wolf's Bane. Someone had dared him to and he decided it would be funny. He almost died. He seemed to do that every couple of months. Derrick was sure to impress the hunters. A lot of them would test with colloidal silver. A liquid that contained silver.

It wasn't deadly, but it weakened our wolves and it burned like a bitch going down. Derrick would have drinking contests with his team. See, colloidal silver also made things have a stronger effect on wolves. He would drink alcohol with silver in it and it made him tipsy. He had built up a tolerance to silver laced alcohol.

If they put silver in his drink, Derrick would still be in his right mind instead of succumbing to the alcohol as quickly as other wolves might. That would be enough to convince most hunters that he was actually human instead of a wolf.

I pulled out my phone. It was nearly noon, so Victor would be asleep. I wanted to update him on everything as soon as possible. I set a notification on my phone to call Victor.

Trent was the next person who needed to know about the hunter threat. I dialed his number and waited for him to pick up.

"Queen Bellamy, to what do I owe the pleasure?" Trent asked.

"I've just received a call from my rogue team. They've seen something disturbing about the hunters in your area." I said and told him everything my team had reported.

I gave him a rundown of the current plan. I wanted him to be prepared. More than twenty hunters usually meant it was a party planning to go after a pack.

"I'll increase my patrols and have my warriors on standby. Gray's stumbling into this hunters' den may have saved our pack from an attack. Did he contact you about the further incident a few nights ago?" Trent questioned.

"Yes. It seemed like the girl was trying to figure things out for her apology, but I wouldn't put anything past a hunter. No matter their age, hunters are dangerous. Derrick is our best hope for now. Send more guards to Victor's home. The guards will have to figure out how to share space. I don't want the kids unprotected." I told him. "You're only a year or so older than them and you call them 'the kids." He chuckled.

"Every one of those children has been protected far more than I ever was. I've been an adult longer than you have, Alpha Trent. They could be two years older than me and they'd still be children to me. I need to get a second team out to support my guys. Can you do anything about that house?" I asked.

"Yes. It's owned by a company we work with. I'll contact my friend there and see about selling it to you. We can probably get things settled in pretty short order. I'll see if he'll take it off the market for now. Maybe we can just rent it." Trent offered.

"I would prefer to own it, but renting for now is acceptable. Call me if you need anything else. I'll contact Victor. We need to take this threat very seriously." I warned.

"Of course, Queen Bellamy. I'll get some more warriors sent to the house for the vampires and get in touch with my contact. I'll call you back later." Trent promised. "Thank you." I replied and hung up.

I rubbed my temples. Werewolves didn't get headaches, but I was pretty sure this was something like that. I was so frustrated that I wanted to scream.

Hunters being so close to my new friends frustrated me. I was grateful Dilly and Jean-Claude were back home, but also worried that it meant there was even less protection for Victor and his people. I was so torn as to what was the best way to protect them. Quickly, I contacted one of my other teams and pulled them from the hunters they were tracking. These ones were highest priority as of right now.

-

[Echo]

-

It was a little after one in the afternoon when the buzzer went off in the entryway letting us know that someone was at the gate. We'd been in the living room making copies of the spell for everyone.

The morning had been a lot of fun. Everyone was teasing Victor and Gray. Val eventually gave up on trying to get me to tell him what they stole. I was pretty sure he had some guesses about what we were up to in the garden. He looked like he was pretty grumpy. I got up and answered the buzzing.

"We're warriors sent from Hallowed Moon. We need to meet with Grayson and Mistress Nightshade. It's urgent." The voice on the other end came.

After opening the gate, I went and got Gray. He looked as concerned as I felt. Why would Trent be sending warriors?

Gray and I met the warriors at the front door. There were at least ten of them. My heart climbed into my throat.

"Is there somewhere we can meet privately?" Their leader asked, seeing the curious onlookers.

"Follow me." I directed and led them to the office.

Halfway to the office I heard some commotion. We turned around to see that one of the warriors was staring at Lisa. She stood frozen.

"Neil. Later. We need to work now." The leader ordered.

"What's going on?" I asked.

"She's his mate. This is the first time they've seen each other." Gray explained.

"Oh. I'm sure they can get to know each other as soon as we're done here." I smiled.

I took them into the office and went to sit behind Victor's desk. Gray stood behind me. Each of the wolves sniffed the air and looked over at Fenton.

He was watching quietly. I was put off by how little he tried to upset anyone now that we got him to talk. It was like he was deflated.

The leader of the warriors stood in front of the desk. All of them were tall and a little imposing. Gray didn't look nervous, so I tried to calm down as they closed the door.

"I'm Soren, leader of the second elite team from Hallowed Moon. We're being assigned to protect the land of the Master of the territory. A threat has been revealed that puts gatherings of supernaturals, such as yours, in danger." The leader started. Gray and I listened quietly as he revealed what Bellamy's rogues had uncovered. I covered my mouth and started shaking. Over twenty hunters.

They were bent on destroying supernaturals. I couldn't imagine how we could fight a force so big. There weren't that many of us and we lost several strong fighters if they attacked while the vampires were sleeping.

"I want to have my men look over this area and suggest security measures. One thing we know will have to change right away, is the location of the two omega females. Alpha Trent told us they were staying in a second house on the property. In normal circumstances, this would be fine, but they could be at risk if the hunters attacked while they were traveling between structures. Is it possible to move them into the house?" Soren asked.

"Yes. Gray and I can move to sleep in a different room. If they're okay with sharing a bed, they can sleep in my room. The Master doesn't use his bedroom at night, so we can move around a little. Once we send people back to their homes, we can give them rooms in the house if they want to stay with us." I replied.

The warrior who had been staring at Lisa looked like he was struggling with something. He probably wanted her to move back to the pack lands so they could be together. I was sure she would be happy to go wherever he wanted.

"That's a start. I'm going to have my men look around and we can meet back here in an hour or two. We should have a plan for keeping this place safe. We have the reports from Grayson about what training all of you have been through and how you're training now that the wolves from Lune Rouge have left." Soren said.

"Thank you, Soren. We'll get our things moved. Can you have one of your men escort Lisa and Wendell to get their things out of the guest house?" I requested.

He chuckled. "Neil. Help your mate and her coworker get their things packed up. I want them moved into the main house within the hour."

"Yes, sir." Neil answered and left the room.

"We'll be on our way, then." Soren said with a bow and the men cleared out.

I stood up and hugged Gray. I remembered the hunters who'd come back when I couldn't defend anyone. How afraid I was of them hurting me, or hurting Victor.

He held me tightly and rocked me slightly. I felt safe in Gray's arms. I knew he would fight hard to save me. I would fight too. I wanted to help defend our home.

"Come on, angel. Let's get our things together and change the bedding for the girls. I'm sure Lisa's new mate doesn't want her smelling like another male, let alone two." Gray murmured.

I nodded and we left the office. After a stop at the linen closet, we went and changed the bedding before packing bags to take to Victor's room. This was a longer stay than the previously planned one. We needed to know the girls were safe until the hunters were really gone.

In Victor's closet, we set down our bags and started moving some of Victor's clothes around to make room for ours. At least his closet wasn't entirely full. I just needed to move a few things to make more space.

"Don't worry, Echo. We have Bellamy's team working on it and we have a team of elite warriors helping take care of the house, now. Once the vampires are up, we can tell them about the hunters." Gray said.

"I know. I just keep worrying. Did I cause this somehow? Did they figure out what we are and that we were in their den? I wasn't thinking straight when we went after the wards. What if there were cameras or something? What if someone saw me? I didn't even look around to make sure no one saw. This is all my fault, Gray." I replied tearfully.

He swept me into his arms and shushed me.

"Angel. We needed to break the wards. There was no other option. If this is anyone's fault, it would be mine. I drove straight home after work the night Melissa and her family came in. They could have followed me. Who knows what they saw?" He told me. "We're in danger, aren't we, Gray?" I whispered.

"I'm not going to lie, angel. This isn't good, but we can come through anything as long as we're together. When Victor wakes up, he'll tell you the same thing." Gray promised.

We got our things put away and headed back to the living room. We decided to wait on telling everyone until the rest of the house was awake. Until then, we helped with making copies of the spell.

A couple hours later, Soren pulled us back into the office where he revealed that his men found a few spots where it was possible we had been watched from. Some were outside of the fences, but there were some inside of the fences. That terrified me. Someone was on our land, close to our home, and we didn't realize it. He explained how hunters could get past guards, especially only two guards, like we had on the property. He assured us that this wouldn't happen in the future.

Soren worked with the existing guards to set up a rotation with four to five guards switching off every eight hours. This would keep the guards fresher than twelve hour shifts, and would make the routines a little more unpredictable.

It was something and it made me feel a little better. Wendell and Lisa were settled into my room and went back to work. We still had to meet the new witches and get the plan for the last bit of the curse worked out.

The day felt like it slowed down and dragged on. I was afraid to go out and tend my garden, so I worked on cleaning Victor's office. Anything to distract me from the fear and nervousness I felt.