The Vampire’s Servant
Chapter 171

[Victor]

Once Echo and Grayson were asleep, I headed down to the office. Talia and I had decided to wait until everyone was in bed before giving me back the title. Marius called to confirm that Daniel Darknight was out of the thrall of the curse and had been stripped of the title of Master. Talia was waiting for me in my office. She was curled up on the couch, reading a book. It reminded me of the first few evenings she was here.

"Did everyone get off to sleep?" Talia asked.

"Yes. Echo seems more relaxed than she has in the entire time I've known her. Valor and Harmony are already talking about their next moves. Harmony wants to head back to the pack lands with Cameron." I said.

"Yes, Emmalyn and Amelia are making plans with Finn right now. The girls will leave first, and Finn will follow them once the hunter threat is taken care of. He wants them safe and this gives Amelia time to get the windows in her house tinted like yours." She chuckled. "All of my children have found their mates. This is amazing."

"You must be eagerly awaiting grandchildren, then." I smiled.

"I truly am. I love Bellamy's babies. I know I'll love yours as well." She replied. "Are you ready to be Master of this territory again, Victor?"

"Yes. More than anything." I sighed.

"It has certainly been a trial, but nothing worth having comes easy." Talia stood and took my hand. "I, Talia the Traveler, name you, Victor Nightshade, as the Master of this territory from now until the end of your life. All vampires here are your burden and responsibility. All humans your chattel. Grow strong and prosperous."

"I accept this title and vow to honor the vampire council with every thought and action pertaining to it." I answered.

I felt the connection to the territory come back to me. The support of my people was still strong. I knew we needed to deal with these hunters to feel truly connected. They would see this as me taking responsibility for the territory and all the people in it. The office felt a little empty without the cat's cage in it. Grayson had moved around all the items in the cage and designated one of the drawers in the kitchen as the cat treat drawer. I suspected this animal would start taking over larger parts of my home. It already acted as if it owned the house. It really wanted attention and would rub up on everyone. Unlike most cats, it didn't have a problem with werewolves or vampires. When Sean and Rosario had returned from dinner with their parents, Fenton stalked them and would try to pounce on Sean.

Rosario explained that cats were seen as the enemy of smaller pixies and nearly every cat had the memory of the scent of pixie just as they did birds and mice. It also explained Sean's aversion to the cat ever since he was brought home. It wasn't just that the witch resided in him.

I squeezed Talia's hands before releasing her and going to my desk. I needed to contact Talon and Silence about the hunter issue. We needed to deal with them before they made a move on us or our allies.

I put them on a conference call and we worked on the issues in the territory. Both were happy to have me in charge again. Silence commended Echo on her handling of the territory when she took over for me, but asked that I not leave it to her again until she had more life experience.

We worked together for a couple of hours. Talia made a surprised sound. I looked up to see that Fenton had decided to lay on her while she sat reading.

Cautiously, she petted him. I could hear him purring happily. She giggled and scratched under his chin.

It was good that he was so comfortable with vampires. There would be a lot in his life. He was going to have to get used to every type of supernatural if I was going to run my territory as successfully as possible.

We wrapped up our call an hour later. I had them spreading the word about the hunters and that I was looking for volunteers to fight by my side. It was a chance for people to show they were truly my subordinates. Those who could fight would volunteer, the others would make offers and pay a tribute I would spread among those who fought with me.

I sat back in my chair and closed my eyes for a moment. They flew open again when I felt a tapping on my leg. I looked down.

The cat let out a tiny meow and tapped again. I reached down and scratched behind his ears. He stood and turned so I was scratching the base of his tail. I chuckled. I hadn't had a pet since I was alive.

"You're a good cat, aren't you?" I asked.

He meowed at me and turned again to bump my hand with his head. I scratched him a little longer then turned back to my work. There were several vampires who had requested audiences with me and I needed to look over the progress reports for the daylight servant agency.

I was fully occupied until I heard the sound of running paws coming down the hall. Fenton ran into the office, around the desk, then around the coffee table, then right back out the door. I looked over at Talia. She was laughing on the couch with her phone in her hand.

"They call that the zoomies. Cats often do it in the middle of the night, according to the websites I've been looking at." She giggled. "Why?" I asked.

"Because he has excess energy to burn off. He'll probably go find a place to sleep once he's run himself out." Talia said.

"It may take a while to get used to this." I chuckled.

"I'm sure it will. I'm going to head to the library, unless you need me."

"I wanted to talk to you about the traveling I did recently, actually. It seemed like I was in an alternate reality. Is that possible?" I asked.

"Yes. You'll find the easiest travels are into your own body in alternate realities. Did you have full control of your body, or were you just watching?" Talia questioned.

"I thought I had control, but maybe I just wanted the same things the other me did." I replied.

"That's possible. The first few times I did it, I went into realities that were very similar to my own. They were realities where the situations that were happening were very similar." She said. "You said Echo was there in both realities. It must have been an urge you had in both realities that merged and pulled you into the other."

"We made love for the first time. She was so much more confident there than she was with me. When I kissed her afterward, she ran away. She thought she influenced me to do that." I told her.

"It was back when you first started having feelings for her that were more than friendship. Later, you told me you thought she was your Solus Amor. That mate connection would have been obscured by the curse." Talia said.

"Yes. I could feel it more after I drank her blood from her neck. The connection got stronger. It was what made me cling to her more as I lost my mind. She was letting me feed on her and her sanity was countering the insanity." I explained. "Have you traveled since?"

"No. I haven't exactly had a chance to try and I haven't managed it on accident. It couldn't just be a one-time thing, right?" I asked.

"Like any other ability, it will get stronger the more you use it. One day, you may even be able to travel to realms outside of alternate realities. Like I do. You will not lose it if you don't use it. Deal with your other issues before you try to work with it. You have higher priorities right now." She implored.

"You're right. We're just in the phase where we have to wait for so much, and I'm frustrated. I want this all to be over so we can relax a little. Echo deserves it."

"You all deserve it. Are you doing your binding ceremony after they come home from their honeymoon?" Talia asked.

"I haven't really planned it."

"Maybe you should. It might distract you from the waiting. You should see if there are any tailors among your people. You'll want a nice suit for it." She suggested.

I smiled. "That's a great idea. Thank you, Talia. Have fun."

When she left, I started digging though the computer files and calling the three tailors on file. One had an opening and was happy to come for measurements immediately. I was thrilled to get a suit and I told him I would want to order a few other things, but the suit was the most important. Tonight was ending up luckier than I'd expected.

-

[Crazy Derrick]

-

I sat in the bar the hunters frequented. They would come in around ten most nights. I nursed a beer in a quiet corner.

They came in right on time. There had to have been about ten or eleven of them. They went to the other side of the bar and pushed some tables together before ordering some beers and a couple bottles of whiskey. Reaching in my bag, I pulled out my collection of silver rings. I'd taken them off hunters we'd killed. I found one that fit my finger and slipped it on. It burned so good.

Making my way over, I figured on my plan of action. I walked up to the waitress and ordered another round of beers for the table. They looked up at me. "We haven't finished our first one, buddy." A big guy smirked as he stood.

He was the biggest one there, not as big as me. They looked me over and I could tell a few had already gotten me pegged as a werewolf. I looked like one.

I was a first gen rogue born, like our queen. Unlike her, I took after my pack born parents and was bigger and bulkier than most rogues. My dark skin made me stand out more in the white bread town.

"No reason not to have another. I haven't seen a hunting party this big since the Bloody Claw attack." I chuckled.

"Bloody Claw, back in 2010? You're not old enough to have been in that hunt." The guy said.

"You know what they say. Black don't crack, man. It was one of my first hunts." I grinned. "I'm Derrick. Everyone just calls me." I unbuttoned my shirt and bared my chest. "Crazy Derrick."

My tattoo shown out from my dark skin. It was the perk of using silver laced ink. I flexed my muscles and winked at one of the female hunters.

"Is that silver ink?" One of the guys asked.

"Yeah. One of those wolfy bastards bites me and he's gonna get an immediate punishment for ruining my ink. Check this out." I told him and whipped my shirt off, turning so they could see my body count. It was a bit of a mural and I was proud as hell of it. I added to it pretty regularly.

"The fangs are vampires. The claws are bears. The wolf skulls are self-explanatory." I said proudly.

"What are the bullets?" The big guy asked.

"Brothers lost in battle against the beasts. Each of those is for a hunter." I replied solemnly.

"Lost a lot of men." One of the others piped up.

I put my shirt back on and turned back to them while buttoning it up. I wanted to give them a little anticipation builder.

"Lost a lot of boys and girls who couldn't follow a plan, or got too caught up in the fight to watch their backs. I mostly fight alone now, because of it. Unless I get wind of something particularly fun." "I'm Luke. Have a seat, Crazy Derrick. You on the job?" Big boy asked.

I grabbed a chair from the table next to us and sat with them. Luke poured me a shot and pulled out a bottle with a dropper. He wasn't even gonna hide that he was testing me. Dumb ass cracker.

He put two drops of colloidal silver into the shot glass and set it in front of me. I raised an eyebrow at him. With how much silver I had on and in me, I couldn't believe he was still going to test me.

With a smirk, I downed the shot. "You know the brand of colloidal you're using actually has a little scent." I reached in my bag and pulled out a bottle. "This shit is way better. Wolfy bastards never even see it coming. And, yeah, I'm on the job. Just got off from info gathering. What about you?"

Luke took the bottle and opened it. He sniffed, then opened his bottle and sniffed. His nose scrunched a little. He closed my bottle and tried to hand it back, but I put my hand up.

"Keep it, brother. You need all the help you can get in this world." I said.

"Yeah. We're putting together something big. What're you after?"

"A Master vampire is shacking up with a witch in the area. I'm here to kill them." I grinned.

"We're after a Master who's shacking up with a witch too. Only ours has werewolves on staff." He intimated.

"Not my bloodsucker, then. Mine doesn't use servants. I'm hunting Death." I smiled smugly.

"The Death? The ancient vampire?" One of the other guys asked, leaning in.

Some of the women looked even more interested in me than before. Too bad they were hunters. Some looked like prime pieces of ass. I might bag one or two before we take them out, though.

I winked at the hottest female. "Yup. Which one you after?"

"His name is Nightshade. He's the Master of the territory. Then, we're going to go after the pack here and all the other vampires and witches. We're cleansing the town." She told me, nibbling her lip and giving me bedroom eyes.

"You're hunting a vampire called the Hunter. I've heard of him. He tracked one of his children down, found the guy, killed him and all his friends. Pretty apt that you're going after the vampire that did our job for us." I chuckled. "You've heard of him?" Luke asked.

"Man, you don't live in this job unless you do all your research. I know all the supes here we need to look out for."

"You want to help us with our hunts and we'll help you with yours?" Flirty hunter girl asked.

"Can you all follow plans? Hunting Death means following directions to a T. He's not called Death for no reason. And his witch is a dark witch. That makes this doubly deadly. I'm not taking responsibility for people I can't count on." I scoffed. "We've got even more than this. Forty in total, once everyone gets here. All ages, all abilities. The prestige of killing Death would get you all of the best from the group. You could take your pick of companions." Luke said.

"Sure. I'll help you. Let's get another round of shots to celebrate." I grinned.

Luke filled everyone's glasses. I raised mine up, getting the attention of the whole group.

"To the hunt!" I announced.

"The hunt!" They chorused and we downed our shots.

I crooked my finger at the hunter girl and she strutted around the table and settled her sweet little ass in my lap. I wrapped an arm around her waist, flashing my silver ring to the table. From there, I went about getting more information about the hunters, their mission, and what they knew.