The Vampire’s Servant
Chapter 172

[Victor]

It had been nearly a week since we broke the spell. That didn't mean we'd just relaxed, though. Almost immediately, the tension about the hunters started running through our little group.

No one could leave the house, in case hunters were following. Finn's plan to send Amelia and Emmalyn away until it was safe had been quashed by the realization they could lead the hunters to a much larger supernatural community. We wouldn't risk our friends. Echo offered to take them to the pack land of Lune Rouge, but they refused. They didn't want to leave Emmalyn's car behind and Amelia said she changed her mind and couldn't leave Finn. The chance that she would never see him again was too high. I understood. Echo offered to take anyone to wherever they wanted. She said she could take Sean and Rosario to Maeve's house, but they also refused. Everyone was intent on seeing it out with us.

In the interim, I had over forty vampires who had responded that they would fight by our side. With the addition of Trent's warriors and Bellamy's warriors, it would be enough. In the spirit of friendship, I had informed the coven leader and Maeve about the hunter threat.

Though the coven leader didn't have many, there were a few witches who volunteered to join. Maeve put it out to her people and three families of trolls and ogres volunteered. She even got us some goblins from the fae village in the forest. Goblins loved a battle and were not only ruthless, but also carrion eaters who would take care of the bodies.

With all the support we'd found, I was certain we could be successful. We just needed to know the weapons and makeup of the hunters. Bellamy said Derrick was working on it.

Every morning, our little group was training. We'd pushed the training times to be earlier so Finn and I could safely join before the sun came up. It was refreshing to see Echo training so hard. She was beautiful and her movements were as fluid as any vampire. The earlier training times meant we had less chance of our training being witnessed, depending on the equipment the hunters had. Preston was teaching Valor offensive attacks he could do with his powers. Amelia and Emmalyn worked on protection spells. Rosario taught Sean how to fight with a sword. Pixies had an innate ability with sword fighting.

Cam and Grayson were teaching Harmony how to fight in a partially shifted form. She was taking to it well. One could see she was truly meant to be the Beta of her pack. I wondered how things would go for her without taking a ranked position. Though, I supposed I would find out.

"Victor. I know you're doing some important daydreaming, but I need you present for this call." Talia chuckled.

"Sorry. I was just thinking of how far everyone has come. I'm so proud of Echo and Grayson. They have both made great strides... but...." I sighed.

"You don't want either of them anywhere near this fight, do you?" She asked.

"It's not that I doubt their abilities. I just think they have a chance at a life together if something happens to me."

"Of course they do. And you have a chance at a life with Echo if you and she stay out of it. But, would you want to go through that life thinking you should have been there? You would feel extreme guilt over letting your friend fight this battle alone. Gray would feel the same. Echo would always miss you and Gray wouldn't be able to fill that hole in her life. So, fight together, watch each other's backs, and come out the other side as strong as you've ever been. It's not like it's just the three of you against the full force of these hunters." Talia chided me.

I nodded. It made a lot of sense. Echo needed both of us and we were stronger together. I would watch out for my family. I wouldn't lose them like I lost the last one.

The phone rang. It was the call we'd been waiting on. The update from Bellamy and her people. I answered and we exchanged brief pleasantries.

"Now that we're all on the line, what do you have, Troy?" Bellamy asked.

"More hunters and we've lost most contact with Derrick. He's being swarmed by hunters at all times. They haven't just accepted him. The suggestion that he say he was after Death and his witch has made him hugely popular. He hasn't been able to reveal much in his call-ins, but he wants to meet to hand off some stuff he's collected and his notes." Troy answered.

"He can't meet with anyone who looks like a supernatural. That takes vampires and pack wolves off the table. No one pale and no one imposing." Bellamy said.

"There's a club that caters to all species. If we wanted our person to seem normal, they would have to be around others who seem different. The hunters may not follow him into the club. I can get him on the list to skip the line." I offered.

"Great. Who would we send in? From the descriptions and the pictures he was able to send, they know what Gray, Val, Harmony, Cam, Echo, and Victor look like. If Derrick played it off as he was meeting a contact, then a man wouldn't make sense. They would have already observed his... charm." Bellamy chuckled.

"From the list he keeps updating, he's managed to bed most of the female hunters. His focus is always on women. He'll talk to men, but he gets most of his information from women. It's like they can't resist his crazy ass." Troy snorted.

"Women have always been drawn to enigmatic and powerful men. I've met Derrick. He's good at seeming mysterious and just looking at him, you can see that he's strong. Pair that with his confidence in the presence of women, and you have a dangerous combination. He's not really my type, but he nearly charmed me out of my panties when we did meet." Talia smirked.

I raised an eyebrow. That was high praise. Talia flirted a lot, but her type was fairly clear. She liked tall, blonde, confident men when she was looking for a man. Her type for women had little to do with physicality.

"That doesn't leave us with many options. We could have Lila do it, but someone might recognize her if we need to have a sighting of Marius and his witch." I said.

"Finn would never let Amelia do it. He's worried about her as much as you're worried about Echo, only he doesn't think like you do. He's thinking like a human and not like a vampire."

"What about Emmalyn? Echo could take her to the club and stay in the back office, watching the cameras. Once Emmalyn has the information, we can bring her back home and no one will be any the wiser." I offered.

"Do you think Emmalyn will be up for it?" Bellamy asked. "She seemed a little quiet, but very serious when she was here. I just worry she'll get nervous. Can any of our females do it?"

"No. You sent us two. The hunters know them. If a hunter followed him in, we'd be blown." Troy responded.

"Excuse me." Emmalyn called out from the door.

"Emmalyn! Why are you here?" Talia exclaimed.

"I was reading my runes and they told me to go. When I asked where, they told me here. You need me for something, the Goddess is guiding me to help." She replied.

I indicated the unoccupied chair across from me. She closed the door behind her and came to sit down. She was a good choice.

Emmalyn was too slim to be a shapeshifter, she didn't have that thicker, more athletic build. She also didn't have the sickly look some thin vampires get. She had a pink flush to her cheeks that vampires couldn't mimic even with makeup.

It would be easy to pass her for a human. I was sure Echo and Harmony could do something about her clothing, makeup, and hair to make her fit in better at a club. Talia caught my eye and nodded.

"Emmalyn, we need someone to go to a club and meet up with our contact from inside the hunter camp. We were thinking over our options, and think you would be the best fit. The hunters don't know what you look like. You can pass for human. And you won't get distracted as easily as someone else might." I said.

She stared at me for a moment, then down at her hands. The scent of her nervousness started to fill the room. She was always so cool and in control that I forgot about the fear witches have of hunters.

"I promise, we'll keep you safe. Echo with transport you there and back. You will always be in sight of someone who is on our side. The contact you're meeting is a werewolf. You shouldn't see any hunters at all." I told her.

"I'm not nervous about that." Emmalyn replied quietly. "I'm not good with large groups of people. A club is just so many people."

"You'll stay near the bar. There's an area for placing orders on one side, and a place for people to sit on the other." Talia said.

Emmalyn bit her bottom lip a little. There was nothing else I could say. I had to hope that her own assessment would make her agree. The only other option was having Echo take Finn and Amelia. There was no telling how he'd react to his Solus Amor having to accept the advances of another man.

She reached into the bag she'd brought with her and pulled out a rune. With a nod, she returned it to the bag and looked up at me.

"I'll do it. What do I need to do?" She asked.

We went over the plan, the precautions, the security, and what she could expect in each step of the process. Troy went over the code words and got a description of her. She let us know that she couldn't move around well without her glasses and didn't have contacts.

She was nervous about having to act as if she were romantically involved with Derrick, but was assured that she would only have to go along with it. She wouldn't have to make any moves on her own. He would identify himself.

With that out of the way, we went over the movements of the hunters and the outside observations of the rogues. We brought Echo in to go over what we would need to do to get the information we needed. She was intent on the plan and what we would be needing from her.

It was the most professional I'd seen her be. I could imagine that she was like this when she took over my territory. It was arousing and I found myself getting lost as I watched her take over the call.

"Have you been in contact with Trent and Maeve as well?" Echo asked.

"They have warriors waiting for our signal." I replied.

"I think I have a way to draw the hunters out. They will think it's their trap, but it will really be ours." Echo smiled wickedly.

"Do tell." I smiled and leaned forward.

"That had a very pervy tone to it." Bellamy giggled. "This must be what everyone is talking about when they say Lucien and I fight as foreplay."

"You do fight as foreplay. I've never seen two people run off a training field as quickly as the two of you do after sparring." Talia snickered.

Echo blushed and looked down at the floor. I chuckled a little. They were right. Seeing Echo in control and confident like that aroused me even more than seeing her flustered and shy.

"I'm sorry, Echo. I'll contain myself while you share your idea. Please, tell us what you were thinking." I implored.

"We have graduation coming up in a few days. What if the hunters got wind of a little graduation party? We could host it on the Aimes property. It's fairly out of the way and not near any of our home bases. The woods surround it and are a great place to hide out. There's also a barn on the property where we can hide more warriors." She suggested.

"How are we sure the hunters are going to bite rather than just going with whatever their plan was?" Troy asked.

"Easy. You said you were using Lila and Marius as a pretend hunt for the guy you sent in. We create the perfect environment for them all to get the people they're after. What better way to catch Death, than to get him when he thinks he's totally safe?" Echo smiled. "If he were to go to a party somewhere that he thought no one knew him, Marius wouldn't even think there was a risk to him. He would be caught off guard. What people don't realize is that he's even more dangerous then." Talia smirked. "This is a wonderful plan, Echo. The group is not so big that it would be seen as a threat and we can have Trent there to increase the juiciness of the target."

"We can dress up a female warrior to pretend to be his Luna. We could have a few other warriors as revelers. It would give us a powerful central force. We would depend on them being the distraction while our people get in place, the attack from behind would give a chance for the central force to move out and catch them from both directions. This could actually work. How did you think this up, Echo?" Bellamy asked.

"It was part of some revenge I got on Victor the other day. I got close to him with a pretense that he believed and caught him by surprise. I figured we could catch them by surprise if they thought we had no clue and were going to be out in the open." Echo said softly.

"It's one thing to pretend to need cuddles and steal my clothes and another to think of a mock ambush, princess. You surprised me. You're thinking like a hunter far more than we were. If they find a way to do a surprise attack, they'll jump on it. How do you think we can convince them he'll be there?" I asked.

"If Emmalyn is supposed to be Derrick's contact, then we send her with pictures showing us meeting with him and an invitation that looks like it was pulled from the garbage. We can have the time and place on it inviting Marius and Lila. He wouldn't need to keep the paper, if he has a memory like most vampires, it would only take looking at it once to memorize the important details." Echo explained.

"Great. That sounds like a wonderful plan. We'll let you go and get the information to the pertinent places. Make sure you remember the code phrase and answers, Emmalyn." Bellamy said and hung up.

Troy hung up shortly after. Talia was smirking at me and tapped Emmalyn's hand.

"Let's go start gathering clothing. I think Echo is closest to your size." She told Emmalyn and helped her up before they left.

I got up and walked around my desk, pulling Echo into my arms. I kissed her passionately. She moaned and wrapped her arms around my neck.

Pulling back, I pressed my forehead against hers. "I promise. This will all be over soon and we can be together again, my princess. Just a little longer."

"I know. I love you, Victor." Echo murmured.

"And I love you, Echo." I whispered before kissing her again.