The Vampire’s Servant
Chapter 170

A few minutes later, Gray returned with the cage containing Fenton. I didn't know how he managed to get it through the office door, but I was glad he did. He was careful as he walked it to the center of the room.

Terry and Elle looked at Fenton curiously. I knew they were aware of what we were doing, but seeing the cat and hearing about the cat were two different things. Gray settled the cage down carefully and Fenton looked around the room.

Preston came in with containers of salt and had everyone get into their positions before he began carefully pouring the circle. I closed the doors to the living room, to keep my vacuum robot from destroying the circle. I went back and stood between Gray and Victor. "I have to remove my glamour to do magic." Sean said. "I can't do both."

"Go for it, Sean. I want to see what you look like now." Brooke grinned.

His glamour faded and the lovely green of his skin appeared. His hair turned the more vibrant golden color and he looked a little thinner than he was in his glamour.

"Oh, Sean. You look so good." Hope gasped.

She grabbed him and hugged him tight.

"Are you okay, Mom?" He asked.

"You smell like melons." She chuckled tearfully. "I love you, Sean. I will always love you."

"Thanks, Mom. You should get out of the circle before it's sealed. We can talk more once this is all over. I'm glad you're not mad at me."

"I was never mad. I was just disappointed that you couldn't talk to me and scared that you were in danger. I'm so glad you're happy and you feel like yourself more now. Good luck, sweet boy." Hope kissed his cheek and gave him another quick hug. Hope went to where Marius, Talia, Rosario, Cam, and Finn were all standing against the wall. They insisted on watching, but needed to be far enough from the protection circle to not risk smudging it. Rosario reached out and grasped Hope's hand. "What's this? Three more witches and Lila? Adding a vampire and a werewolf to your spell? You just can't accept that nothing will work and you're stuck with me?" Fenton snorted.

"We're feeling pretty good about this." Val replied.

"Oh, I'm sure that will make all the difference." Fenton scoffed.

We all joined hands. I could feel power flowing already. Even before we started the spell, the power was immense.

"I've never felt anything quite like this." Victor murmured.

"It's amazing." Gray grinned.

"This is definitely more power than a normal coven. I can feel the other magics swirling around with our magic. I never knew what vampire, werewolf, and fae magic felt like until now. It's so different from that of just witches." Preston said. "We could cast so many powerful spells with this group." Lila sighed. "It's a shame we're only doing this to get rid of Fenton."

Fenton started pacing around his cage. If I had to describe it, I would say he looked nervous. It seemed he had finally decided to take us seriously. Maybe he could feel the power too.

Preston started up the chant and everyone joined in. I squeezed Gray and Victor's hands as the power increased. I noticed that pretty much everyone was holding on a little tighter.

We watched as Fenton started rolling around and yowling. He was fighting the spell. I felt so bad for the kitty who was suffering as Fenton was actually fighting to stay in him. Why would he fight like that? I thought he said he wanted to be dead. Was it just because he wanted it to be on his terms and no one else's?

The spell was almost complete. We would keep our connection to each other after the chanting was done. Preston had told everyone it could take a little while to work.

We were all prepared to go for as long as possible to get Fenton out of the cat. I wondered how long it could take. I really hoped it would work.

When the chanting part was over, Fenton stopped writhing and yowling. He stood and laughed.

"I can't believe you thought that would work. You can't get rid of me." He insisted. "I'm stuck here and you're stuck with me. You can never remove me from this cat!" "Fenton? Fen? Is that you?" A sweet voice asked.

"Guinevere?" He whispered.

A woman appeared next to the cage. She was small and fragile looking with dark brown hair and a sweet expression on her face. She had the same nose as me and Harmony. This was our great great-grandmother. I felt tears prick my eyes. "Oh, Fen. What have you done?" She sighed. "Is this why I've had to wait so long for you?"

"You were waiting for me? Why? I wasn't a good husband. I let you die." Fenton replied.

"Of course I waited for you. I've always loved you Fenton. From the first moment I saw you. I refused two other proposals in favor of keeping my arrangement with you." Guinevere smiled.

"We were just children when we first met. You never told me that."

"Why would I? You already knew I doted on you endlessly and gave you whatever you requested. You had a big head from it, too." She giggled. "Why are you a cat? Why did the children tell me you went dark? You promised me when I died that you'd take care of them. Grace told me what you did to her."

"I gave her the life she deserved. She was an ungrateful child."

"She was in love, Fen. She told me you took her from her soulmate. I only saw her briefly before she was swept away by a man she called Grigori." Guinevere scowled.

"Grace and Grigori are together again?" I asked, feeling my heart in my throat.

"Yes. They were meant to be together and now they can be, forever." She turned to me and covered her mouth with her hand. "Oh, you look just like my Grace did when she saw him. She went from being a battered looking old woman to being a sweet young thing. Are you one of her children?"

"I'm her great granddaughter. My name is Echo." I told her.

Guinevere looked around the room and everyone introduced themselves and their relationship. When she saw Lila, she frowned.

"Lila."

"Gwen."

"Don't call me that." She hissed.

"I'm just here to help. I tried to help your daughter, but your husband wouldn't listen to me." Lila insisted.

"Thank you for trying to stand up for my daughter, but Fenton has never listened to anyone but himself. And he does love to listen to himself." Guinevere chuckled.

"He certainly loved hearing himself speak." Lila snorted.

"Guinevere, Lila, I can hear you, you know." Fenton growled.

She turned to him. "All these people have come together against you. And you're being stubborn. You must be tired by now. Isn't being so angry all the time exhausting, my love?"

"I did it for you, my dove. I wanted to bring you back and give you the life you deserved." He said softly.

"You didn't do it for me, Fen. You did it for you. If it were for me, you would've cared for the children and given them all the love they deserved. You would've let Grace be with her soulmate. This was always for you. Do you think I would have come back to life and been happy that you killed people? That you forced our daughter into a life she didn't want? That you cursed all our friends and all supernaturals? Really think of who I was, Fen." Guinevere implored.

He was quiet for a while and I watched him process everything. Guinevere folded her hands in front of her and looked at him with a sad expression. Fenton shook his head.

"Maybe I was going dark before you ever died." He scoffed.

"No. You were just an opinionated man who believed he always knew what was right. Your madness made going dark seem like the best option for getting what you wanted. And you always made sure to get what you wanted, no matter who you had to cross. You weren't dark, but you weren't the lightest witch to exist." She said.

"It sounds like it was a good thing you got away from me, then." Fenton replied.

"Never. You were my soulmate, Fen. I found that out when I passed. I loved you so deeply and so truly, even when you were difficult. I never wanted to lose you, Fenton. I waited for you. I waited so long. Our family and all these other beings have called me to come and bring you home to the Goddess." Guinevere told him.

"Will I be allowed to stay with you? I've done so many bad things, my dove. I'm afraid she'll punish me." He admitted.

"You didn't think being forced to live as a cat was punishment enough, Fenton? You were stripped of your magic and forced to live an undying life as a creature that was only threatening to field mice. You were being punished. The Goddess made your spells backfire like this. When you come home with me, you'll stay by my side for eternity." She explained.

"Go on, Fenton. You can be back with the woman you love and you have a chance to actually apologize to your daughter. Release the cat and move on to the next realm." Lila urged.

Fenton chuckled mirthlessly. "The power of the triad gave me back my lost love. Just like the fire witch said they would. I'll go with you. First, I want to apologize for the pain I caused everyone. I was overcome with so many feelings of anger and hate. They never really faded. Seeing all of you being so happy even in the face of what I created, made the pain of it worse. I am sorry. Echo, when I saw you and you looked so much like Grace, I was reminded of what I had lost and what I had thrown away. I wish you all the greatest happiness in the rest of your lives. Don't let anger turn you like I did."

"We'll remember that, Fenton. Go, be with your family and the Goddess." I told him.

"Take care of the cat. He's a good mouser and he likes the wolf." Fenton said.

"We will. Gray likes the cat, too." I smiled.

Guinevere held out her hand and Fenton laid down. Light rose up from his body and soon I saw the form of a man. It solidified.

He looked a lot like Val, but with black hair like I had. He took Guinevere's hand and kissed it gently before pulling her into his arms and burying his face in the curve of her neck. She wrapped her arms around his shoulders and held him.

They started to fade into glowing orbs that danced around each other and shoot up into the ceiling before they disappeared. I looked to the cat.

It was breathing heavily and seemed weak. We sealed the magic and let go of each other's hands. Gray rushed over to the cage and pulled the cat out.

Victor wrapped an arm around me as Gray petted and cooed to the cat. The cat rubbed his face against Gray's and meowed. It was just that, a meow. No words. No mockery. It was just a kitty cat meowing.

I was relieved that the spell had worked. The last spell would break once Fenton crossed over. Victor could have his territory back.

Preston broke the protection ring and it was like fresh air poured into the circle. I hadn't even realized how thick the air had become with our magic. He went to open the doors and Wendell came in with a broom to sweep up the salt.

Everyone went up to give the cat a congratulatory scratch behind his ears. Gray started trying to think of names for him, but decades of being called Fenton seemed to sear the name into the cat's head. Whenever someone said 'Fenton' he would meow. "I'm sorry, Gray, it seems like your kitty has to be called Fenton." I told him.

"I guess that's fine. It will be a reminder to never let our anger get away from us like he did. Plus, I won't accidentally call him the wrong name."

"Does this mean we can move the cat out of my office?" Victor asked with a chuckle.

"Yeah. He's going to be a free roaming cat. I want to get a cat door installed for him, so he can go adventure out in the yard. We need to get a vet and get him his shots. I hate to do it to another dude, but we might want to get him neutered too, so he doesn't spray all over the place. I've been looking up a whole bunch about cats. We need some cat trees and a nice dark place for him to hide when he wants to be alone." Gray grinned.

"A wolf that likes cats." Lila snorted. "That's kind of cute."

"How many people are staying for dinner?" Wendell asked.

"Elle? Terry?" I asked.

"We need to go actually. Can we take a raincheck? Terry and I are moving our things to our apartment this weekend." Elle blushed.

"You're moving in together?!" I grinned.

"When the curse stopping soulmate spells from working ended, we did one. Turns out Terry and I found our soulmate all on our own." She smiled.

"I'm so happy for you. Once we deal with some of the other issues in Victor's territory, you should come over for dinner. We would love to have you... and not in the actual have you for dinner way, but have you over for dinner." I added quickly. They laughed. "We understand. See you later."

With that, they left. Brian and Hope asked Rosario and Sean to come out to dinner with them and Brooke. They accepted, gratefully. I knew that it would be a good step forward in their relationship. Hope suggested they call Maeve and invite her as well. Marius said he would stay, but he promised Lila dinner in Hawaii and breakfast in Paris. She had never been there. He hugged me, Val, and Harmony before taking Lila in his arms and disappearing.

"I'll take you to see the ocean soon, angel." Gray promised.

"That sounds amazing, Gray. I can't wait to go." I smiled.

"I will take you to places with a more active night life, of course." Victor said as he took me in his arms. "We can dance all night."

"That will certainly make me sleep all day." I giggled.

"That's the plan." He winked and twirled me into Gray's waiting arms.

"We can dance too. I'll take you to aquariums, museums, amusement parks. All the things you need to do in the daylight." Gray whispered into my ear as he danced me around.

We celebrated into the night and I was exhausted when it was finally bedtime. I fell asleep in Gray and Victor's arms as Fenton curled up and started purring at the foot of the bed. It felt right. This was our family now.