The Vampire’s Servant
Chapter 178

It was near dawn when we'd finally dealt with all the bodies and the survivors. Vampires were taken to Dennis' club to recover for the day, unless they could get themselves home to their servants. Werewolves, fae, and witches were taken care of by their people. In the end, we had the bodies of about forty-four hunters. That was right about what our figures said. Some we really had to guess at because there were pieces instead of a whole body. Our casualties were pretty light. Three vampires, five werewolves, two witches, one troll, and about four goblins died in the fight. We were such an overwhelming force, that some of the hunters died before they even realized they were being attacked. I walked over to Victor as he was sending off the last of the vampires. Marius had returned and given us an update on Echo when she was out of surgery. If not for the fact that we were in charge of the whole thing, I would have been right there waiting for her. Victor and I were considered the leaders of this attack, even though I had less to do with the planning than my brother. I wasn't going to abandon everyone. I even found an injured witch after I'd sent my whole party back with other injured people. He might not have been saved if not for me. It was a huge area to cover.

"Did your final count of vampires come out even?" I asked him.

"Yes. We have everyone. Marius is taking me home. Finn already left. Talia will head home after a cursory daylight search for the last few people who are missing." Victor answered.

"Marius said Echo's alive and in recovery at the hospital." I told him.

"Thank the Goddess." He sighed.

I laughed. "I've never heard you mention the Goddess before."

"Honestly, I failed to recognize any deity after losing my family and being turned into a vampire. The Goddess gave me a new family. I have a new found appreciation for her." Victor smiled slightly. "Had you ever heard of Situs Inversus before?" I asked.

"Never. Thank goodness she had it, though. That must have been why she wasn't as scared. I thought she was just confident in starting her second life and knew we'd be there for her." He replied.

I nodded. "I was scared enough for all three of us. I didn't want to lose her. Even if it was to being a vampire. I was going to have you turn me if she turned."

"You want to be a vampire instead of a servant?" Victor asked.

"I don't know. I just hated the idea of you both being dead all day and only having a few hours with her every night that I'd have to share with you." I answered. "You'd still have to share her if you were a vampire." He chuckled.

"I never said I was thinking clearly."

I patted him on the back and we headed toward the cars. I'd brought my truck with us, because of all the things we needed to pack up, and was instantly grateful. I could head straight to the pack lands. "Drive safely and take care of our Echo. I'll come as soon as it's dark enough for me to leave the house." Victor told me.

"Like she won't decide she doesn't need the hospital and come home on her own." I laughed.

"You better work hard to convince her she does need it. Make sure she knows I'm coming to see her there. I expect her to be there when I arrive." He said.

"I'll make sure. This is the end of this, right? No more bad guys lurking, no more curses, no more things that want to kill us." I asked.

"As far as I'm aware, this is it. The only task we have left to deal with, is your marriage to Echo." Victor smiled.

"I had an idea about that, come talk with me in my truck, I don't want anyone else to hear." I said and led him to my truck.

In the end, he liked my idea. We would keep it a secret from Echo, so she could be surprised. I drove off, after watching Marius disappear with Victor, and headed for the pack hospital.

Once at the hospital, I found a parking spot and went in. I saw the admitting nurse and she sent me up to Echo's room. I was nervous about going in.

What if she was awake and upset? No... I would have felt that. All I'd felt since we sent her off was Victor's emotions and a brief confusion from Echo. Probably from when she first woke up. It felt like she was sleeping now.

I went into the room. Echo was in the bed, asleep. Harmony sat next to the bed, holding Echo's hand. She looked up at me as I entered.

Giving her a slight smile, I pulled another chair up on the other side of Echo and held her other hand. I kissed her little fingers and rubbed the back of her hand against my cheek. I'd missed her while she'd been away.

I must have fallen asleep, because, the next thing I knew, someone was gently nudging me aside. I opened my eyes and saw a nurse adjusting the blood pressure cuff on Echo's arm. Harmony was gone and Val had taken her place. "Sorry, I just need to fix this. The doctor will be in shortly to give you an update." The nurse said.

"Thank you." I mumbled.

She squeezed my shoulder and left the room. Val looked about as tired as I felt. I was betting he hadn't slept yet. "Where's Harmony?" I asked.

"I sent her to get a room in the pack house and sleep. She'll be back in a couple hours."

"Then you'll sleep?" I asked.

"No. Not until Echo's awake. I napped a little while you were out with the search party. I should be fine." He replied.

I nodded and straightened up. I checked the clock on the wall. It was about eleven in the morning. That was around five hours of sleep for me.

The door to the room opened and Dr. Foster came in. I knew him from my rough and tumble pup days. I was pretty much a regular in the pack hospital.

"Grayson, good to see you as a visitor and not a patient." He chuckled.

"Dr. Foster. This is Valor Gale. He's Echo's brother. I'm her mate." I told him.

"Congratulations are in order on finding your mate. She's a tough little thing. If twins weren't a common occurrence in wolves, I wouldn't have had much experience with Situs Inversus. Did either of you have any questions?" Dr. Foster asked. "Is this something that will affect her health in any other way?" I asked.

"No. She can live a normal and healthy life with this condition. It's pretty rare, but she doesn't have any of the comorbidities that can come with it. Everything should be completely normal." He answered. "As we do with any young women who need surgery, we did a pregnancy test for Echo. It came up negative so this injury and the surgery we did didn't affect any growing pups."

I was a little relieved. I knew there wasn't a chance that she'd be pregnant, because Talia said she wouldn't be able to have babies until she was closer to nineteen, but it was good to know there hadn't been a fluke. Val cringed a little.

"Once Echo's awake, we'll check her wound again. Once we got the slivers out of her chest, though, she started healing just like a vampire or werewolf should. I expect that she'll be ready to head home tonight. No strenuous activity for at least three days, and that does include mating." Dr. Foster continued.

"That shouldn't be a problem." Val replied. "My sister's mates are good men and they wouldn't do anything like that until they knew she was healthy again."

A small smile crept across my face. Normally, Val would have threatened something if he thought we might do something with Echo. Now he was acting pretty chill about it.

There was hope that he'd calm down even more in the coming days or weeks. I really hoped so. Echo was getting tired of scolding him for threatening us.

"Mates? Dear Goddess. I've never heard of such a thing. I'm sorry you have to share your mate with someone else, Grayson." Dr. Foster said.

"I'm good friends with her other mate. It's not as bad as it might seem. We both love and care for her in our own way and we are companions, not competitors, for her love." I smiled.

He nodded. "It sounds like you have it all well in hand. I'll head out to my next patient. Thank you both for your hard work last night. I know a lot of lives were saved thanks to you and your efforts."

"We were just doing what needed to be done. I'm glad our casualty list was small. The biggest positive of this action, was Derrick, one of our men, getting the location of the hunter training camp. Queen Bellamy is talking with the Association about an attack on the training camp. It will strike a serious blow to the hunters. With luck, we could get the location of other hunter families in the states and start ensuring the safety of all supernaturals." I told him.

"That's wonderful news. That will mean fewer hunter attacks. We may actually see growth in the population of werewolves." Dr. Foster grinned.

With a small wave, he left the room. I was proud of what we'd done. We managed an attack unlike any the world had ever seen and, now, we were gearing up to take down a bigger threat.

Val and I spent the next few hours talking about everything. Our plans. The wedding. The honeymoon trip. When he would do his soulmate search. Anything that popped into our heads, we talked about. I knew our relationship was doing much better. I even convinced him to nap on the couch later.

When Harmony arrived, Val went to the couch near the wall and laid down. One of the nurses who was checking on Echo saw him and brought in a pillow and blanket for him. She flirted a little with him before leaving.

He drifted off to sleep. Light snores filled the room as I talked with Harmony more. She filled me in on other things I might not know about Echo. Things Echo never thought were important enough to mention. It was about five o'clock in the evening when Echo started stirring. I squeezed her hand and she squeezed back. I kissed it and rubbed my face against it.

Echo chuckled breathily. "You need to shave. You're all prickly."

"It's your punishment for scaring me like that." I whispered. "Don't you ever do anything like that again."

"Were you scared, my sweet wolf? I didn't mean to frighten you. I had such a hard time breathing." She murmured.

"Victor and I have been so worried about you. We promised to always protect you and we weren't there when you needed us most." I replied with a stifled sob. "You can't throw yourself in front of danger like that." "I had to save Victor. I would have done the same if it were you." Echo said softly.

"Echo. Don't ever do that again. Val and I would be lost without you." Harmony whimpered, drawing Echo's attention away from me.

"I love you, Harmony." She mumbled and started to drift off again.

"I love you, too, Echo." Harmony sniffled.

"She's sleeping again." I said.

"I want her to be awake. I want her to be sitting up and fine. I want her ready to go home." She cried softly.

"She will be. We just have to wait. She's healing a lot of damage." I told her.

There were a few more wake ups, they each ended in Echo drifting off again shortly after. I talked to Dr. Foster before he handed us off to Dr. Johnson. He had no clue why Echo wasn't awake yet. Everything seemed healed. Victor walked in a little after eight. He greeted Dr. Johnson and was filled in on the situation. Victor sighed.

"It sounds like she's reacting like a vampire who's suffered blood loss. She needs the energy that comes from drinking blood." Victor explained.

He crossed to the bed and bit his wrist while opening Echo's mouth. Victor put his bleeding wrist up to her lips and let the blood flow in. After a few moments, Echo's hands gripped his arms and she pressed her mouth to his wrist. She moaned lightly as she drank. Victor tried to pull away, but she held him tight. I grew our one of my claws and drew a small cut in my own wrist before waving it near her nose.

Echo released Victor and grabbed at my wrist, bringing it to her lips and sucking. She whimpered a little and her tongue teased the cut making me hiss. The sound seemed to actually reach her and her eyes opened. With a gentle lick over the cut, Echo sealed the wound and released me. She sat up in the bed and looked around.

"Where am I?" She asked.

"In the pack hospital, angel. Don't you remember?"

"I remember being shot by Melissa and telling you I love you before I fell asleep. I couldn't breathe. It hurt." She sniffled. "I couldn't tell you that it didn't hit my heart."

"Harmony told us. You should have, though. You should have told us much earlier." Victor scolded. "I thought you were going to move to your second life. Neither of us was ready for that."

"I didn't know when I should have told you. I thought you would have figured it out at some point. You never put your head on my chest like I do on yours, though. I'm sorry. Please don't be mad." Echo pled. "We're not mad, angel." I promised. "We were just scared. None of us were ready to give up our living, breathing, Echo."

Harmony and Val were standing at the end of the bed. They hugged each other and reached down to pat Echo's legs. She smiled at them.

"Did everyone make it out alive?" She asked.

"We lost a few people, but no one you knew. Melissa's dead, so you don't have to worry about her again." I told her.

Echo looked relieved. I knew she would worry about Melissa being alive to try again. I still didn't know who killed her, but I prayed to the Goddess that they would have good things happen for making sure that bitch was gone. "Now that Echo is up and alert, you can take her home. I'm sure Dr. Foster told you, but I'll repeat it, three days of rest and no strenuous activities, including sex, during that time." Dr. Johnson said.

"Thank you, doctor. We'll heed your advice." Victor replied.

The nurse came in to unhook Echo and we helped her dress in scrubs they provided. Her dress and bra were ruined by the stake. Victor lifted her and carried her to my truck.

Val and Harmony said they'd follow us to the house in Val's car. Victor put Echo in the cab of my truck and slid in next to her. He buckled her seatbelt before his own and took her hand in his. "Let's go home, princess. Our enemies are gone and our friends are waiting to see you." He smiled.

"Soon we can send everyone away and have our life together. Just the three of us." Echo sighed.

"I can't wait." I grinned and pulled out of the parking spot. "This is when our lives really get fun. Now we don't have to be afraid anymore, angel, I can't wait to marry you and take you on an adventure." We drove back to the house. In a few weeks, we would be married, I knew Echo was excited for the trip more than the wedding, but she'd love the ceremony. I knew it.