The Vampire’s Servant novel Chapter 149

[Valor]

The house was buzzing with excitement. Echo announced to each of us outside of the office that there would be no talk of the ward breaking around Fenton. She set me, Harmony, and Sean to learning how to break wards. She was training at different times with Preston.

The only one who didn’t seem to be getting caught up in the excitement around us was Gray. He’d been getting increasingly sulky over the last few days. I kind of felt bad.

Gray was a good guy, but I kind of went into overprotective mode when I moved into the house. After Echo told me off a few times, Harmony did the same. She was pissed that I barged in on her making out with Cam and told him to get off her.

It was like my mind couldn’t wrap around my sisters being able to make these decisions for themselves. They were so small and Echo had only just started coming out of her shell when this curse stuff made her all cold again.

I hadn’t even realized how cold Echo had always been before. Not until she started opening up. I never realized how closed off her smiles were, how quick and light her hugs were, how her smiles never seemed to reach her eyes.

Now that I knew the difference, I think it hurt more to see her turning into the girl she’d been before Victor saved her. She was never light-hearted until after she started living with him. He gave her the security and safety to be truly happy.

That made me feel worse for Gray. If Echo was growing cold again, then he was losing out on the amazing girl she was turning into. I knew how much he cherished her, but she was already opening up when I first met Victor. She wouldn’t have cried in front of me like she did that night.

I wanted to try and help them, but it was even harder since he was so against the torture thing. I was betting Fenton would start talking shortly after it began. It was one thing to be told you’re going to be tortured and another entirely to actually be tortured.

Sean’s parents, Brian and Hope, were coming over for dinner tonight, so there would be no talk of the torture. We were entirely focused on getting Brian to agree to help with the wards. Echo wanted to wait to talk to him until the witches arrived.

Preston and Brian were getting along great. Echo had told Brian our relationship to him when he got there and introduced them. Hope looked very happy. She started telling us we could call her Aunt Hope.

She was worrying over Sean. Like Echo, Hope had noticed the differences. Sean told us when he came home from his parents’ house, that he didn’t want to tell them so close to losing his great uncle. I could understand that. He wanted to protect his family from even bigger changes after losing someone.

We were all in the living room, except Samuel, Dillon, Jean-Claude, and Gray. They were off somewhere probably talking about wolfy things. Samuel had been very keen on getting to know me and Harmony, but he only ever watched Echo. I guessed he was feeling left out with the whole curse situation, but he never made a stink about it.

“Valor, pay attention.” Preston said.

I turned my attention back to Brian. He was showing us an original spell he’d created when he was my age. I thought it was pretty cool. Preston said witches without affinities were innovators.

The air in front of Brian shimmered and shuddered while he waved his arms and chanted. Suddenly, a Twinkie appeared out of nowhere. I laughed.

“You need to have a stash you pull from. I would hide snacks in the garage and make them appear when and where I wanted one. It’s like an item summoning spell, but with fewer steps. It took a lot of work to figure out where I could cut corners.” Brian chuckled. “Once you are comfortable with the spell, you don’t even need to do the chant.”

He waved his hands and the air shimmered before another Twinkie dropped onto the coffee table. That was so cool. Being a witch could be a lot of work with remembering all the spells, the chanting, the conditions, and the repercussions of each spell.

Witches with affinities tended to rely on their affinities and potions. Spells were kept in spell books and were accessed only rarely. Some witches kept particularly useful ones memorized. This looked like one I would want to memorize.

The buzzer in the hall went off at the same time as Echo’s phone. I stood when she did and she gave me a look. I smiled at her.

“I’ll get the gate and the door. You go take care of the vampires.” I said.

“Are you sure? I can just let them in and run up.” Echo offered.

“I’ll let them in and get the door. Take your time. You don’t have to do everything. Go on.” I shooed her away.

Right as I got to the intercom, it buzzed again. They certainly were impatient. I sighed and hit the button.

“Hello?” I asked.

“This is Amelia Grove. We’re the witches from the Eaten Heart Collective.” A friendly voice chirped.

“I’m opening the gate. Park next to the other cars and come to the door.” I told her.

“Got it!”

I pressed the button for the gate to open and went to look out the peephole. I saw a car in the distance roll past. I felt something poke me in the ribs and I jumped.

Echo laughed at me. “What are you doing?”

“Watching to see when they get here so I can open the door.” I explained.

“There’s a board in the porch that makes a slight clicking sound.” She smiled.

She raised a finger and, after a few moments, I heard a click. Echo reached in front of me and opened the door as a pretty, blonde, girl was reaching up to knock. She looked startled before she smiled.

“Hi, I’m Amelia. This is my sister, Emmalyn. We’re here to meet Mistress Nightshade.” The girl said.

“I’m Echo Nightshade. Thank you so much for coming. I’ll show you to your rooms. Dinner will be served in a few minutes if you’re hungry.” Echo replied.

“Starved. We didn’t really have lunch because we were meeting with Queen Bellamy’s assistant and going through the vetting process to be able to see her without an appointment.” Amelia explained.

“Great. Please follow me.” Echo directed with a brief nod.

I watched the girls head up the stairs. I wondered what their affinities were. This evened the numbers in the house a little more. Four witches, three vampires, two fae, one true dhampyr, and six werewolves. I wasn’t counting the six other werewolves who lived on the property, though.

Victor didn’t really count, since he was locked up in the basement. I wondered how he was doing. Echo came home with blood for him on Monday night. She said only Victor was to have that blood, so it must be special.

When I wandered back into the living room, Uncle Preston was showing off some of his fire magic. Brian looked amazed. Not living with witches would probably have kept that wonder in him.

Cam was in a corner of the room with Harmony. He had his arms around her and was whispering something in her ear. I felt my spine stiffen.

He was being dirty with my little sister. I started over there, when Harmony caught my eye and glared. She shook her head at me.

I turned and left the room. Even though Gray was sleeping with Echo, he was at least respectful enough not to slobber all over her right in front of me. Cam didn’t even care who saw him. He just repeated that Harmony was his mate and he wasn’t doing anything wrong by wolf standards.

Standing in the entryway, I tried to get myself under control. They kept arguing that they never told me what I was and wasn’t allowed to do with the girls I dated, but they didn’t understand. It was because I was a guy that I knew what those boys were after. They shouldn’t be touching my sisters until they were married and I knew they would take care of Echo and Harmony forever.

“That looks like some heavy thinking.” The blonde girl said as she stood on the stairs above me.

“Some thoughts take a little extra effort.” I chuckled.

“You looked like you were trying to make someone’s head explode.” She giggled as she made her way down to where I was.

“I’m a light witch. That sounds like something a dark witch would do.” I replied.

“I didn’t meet you properly. I’m Amelia Grove.” She grinned and stuck out her hand.

I took her hand and shook it. Normally, I would have done something like kiss the back of her hand and flirt a bit, but if she was here then she was related to me. It didn’t matter how distantly, that was gross.

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