The Vampire’s Servant novel Chapter 115

[Sean]

Dinner and game night went perfectly. Rosario got along well with my parents. My dad really liked him and my mom was half in love with him. He even volunteered us to do the clean up afterward. I didn’t mind, it meant more time just being with him without his glamour on.

My game group was made up of Terry, Elle, Mel, and Keith. Mel went to a private school now and Keith had moved across town and went to the other high school. They both remembered Rosario and were impressed that we were dating.

I had to remember to address him as a girl through the night. He played a male human sorcerer, which actually made it easier if I slipped up. Everyone loved the adventure and Rosario really got into it. He told me fae were huge on rules, so he’d read the entire rule book at the game shop today. I shouldn’t have been surprised.

At the end of the night, we saw everyone off. My parents were always in bed by the time game night was over. I’d worried tonight would be different, but it wasn’t. Rosario stayed behind because I wanted to talk more.

We finished putting everything away and sat on the couch in the basement. He dropped his glamour and laced his fingers through mine. I loved how his hands felt. They were calloused in some spots from his training with weapons and soft in others. The muscles in them were strong and I felt really good when he held my hand in his.

“What did you want to talk about, babe?” He asked.

“I still haven’t decided about helping with the curse. My dad says it could make people angry at me, especially if we fail. I really want to help, though. I want to try and save everyone.” I said.

“You want to be the hero in this story.” Rosario chuckled.

“A little. But it’s only a small part they want me to play. They just need me to get them into Uncle Fenton’s room.” I sighed.

“You can be more. We need all sorts of minds working on the curse. I’ve been working on this puzzle on my own for a while. I wanted to formally approach them about becoming official. We can do it together.” He smiled.

I leaned against him. He smelled like the forest. It reminded me of when my dad would take me to the family property.

Since no one was cultivating it, the surrounding woods had encroached on the land. I never knew why we would go there, but dad told me earlier today that he had been taking samples from the burned out house to try and figure out the curse.

He’d been working on it since he was a teen. He wanted to break it and restore our family’s good name in the region. That was what he was always working on in his workshop. I honestly thought he was just hanging out and watching TV in there or something.

“Tell me everything. The curse, the Master of the territory, Echo, the fae, all of it.” I insisted.

“It could take a pretty long time to go over all of that.” Rosario said.

“We have all night… unless you have to get home.” I murmured.

“Let me text my mom so she doesn’t worry. I’d love to stay with you all night. Maybe we could even fool around a bit.” He winked.

I laughed a little. I was really happy he wasn’t upset with me about how everything went down last night. He pulled out his phone and send a message. It wasn’t even a minute later that the response came through and he snorted.

“She says to have a good time… but not too good.” Rosario told me.

Shaking my head, I chuckled. I didn’t know how cool with it my parents would be, but I’d deal with that later. For now, I was just eager to know what was going on.

“I’ll start with the curse, what we didn’t cover in the brief talk we had with you, then we can move on to your other questions.” He said.

Quietly, I listened to everything he knew about the curse. The effect it had on the supernaturals in each area, the cause, my family’s involvement, and what the first Master of the territory had done to try and relieve it. When he was done, I nodded silently for a moment.

“My dad says that it was several curses combined and rooted into one. He’s been working to untangle them. He said he was pretty close to naming at least one of them. I talked to him about giving the information he has to Echo. He wants to meet her first.” I told him.

“That would be great. Everyone loves Echo as soon as they meet her. I’m sure your dad will give everything he has over.”

“Tell me about Echo. Why is she living with the Master of the territory? What really happened to her parents? How is this whole thing connected to her relationship with Gray?” I asked.

“I can only tell you what my mother told me. She has people everywhere and Echo has told me a few things over the last couple weeks. The first thing you have to know is that Val and Harmony aren’t her cousins. They’re her sister and brother. They’re triplets.” Rosario explained.

“Wow. That explains why the girls look so much alike. Are they dhampyrs too?”

“They’re hybrids. So yes, and no. Echo is more vampire than they are. Harmony is half werewolf and Valor is half witch. They all have some characteristic of all three species, but Echo is the most valuable. At least, to the vampires. To the witches, Val is the most valuable, and to the werewolves, it’s Harmony.” He said.

“Oh. That sounds complicated.” I hissed.

“All three are most important together. That’s why a vampire killed their family when they were little. He gave them to two people to raise and those people ran off and hid here from him. We believe that the husband was a witch without an affinity.”

“Like me.” I noted.

“Not like you! This bastard was nothing like you. He let vampires feed on Echo for money. He treated her like a servant and beat her horribly when she was little. Not nearly as badly as his wife did. Echo heals like a vampire. There aren’t any scars from what they did, except the ones on her soul. The witch got someone to help him create a spell to suppress their abilities and make them untraceable. They were raised together until about a month ago.” Rosario told me.

“What happened a month ago?” I asked.

“Victor came to town. He was looking for a vampire who stole money from him and ran off. Victor doesn’t like being insulted. This was a pretty big insult to him. He’d been hunting that vampire for fifteen years. When he found him, he found out the guy had been feeding on a child. On Echo. Victor hunted down every vampire who fed on her and killed them all, then he went to her house and bought her from her fake parents.” He explained.

“Bought her? They sold her?”

I was angry for my sweet friend. I had no idea her life had been like that. She seemed so happy and excited for everything, I thought she’d had a peaceful, sheltered, life.

“Yeah. He intended for her to be his daylight servant until she was eighteen. I guess the kidnappers got the date of birth wrong when they made fake documents for the kids, though. Echo was already eighteen. It didn’t really matter, I guess, because once he knew she was his Solus Amor, he would keep her forever. She met Gray a while after and he started pursuing her, he sensed she was his mate. Echo didn’t even want him in the beginning.” Rosario chuckled.

“What changed?” I asked.

VERIFYCAPTCHA_LABELVerify