The Vampire’s Servant
Chapter 144

[Echo]

I woke from the most terrible nightmare. Fenton had broken free and turned back into a witch. He killed Harmony, Val, and Gray while they slept. When I finally found him, he was throwing a fireball that engulfed Victor in flames. Tears were flowing down my face as I startled awake. I was alone in my cold bed. No one was there to comfort me. My heart ached.

Fenton wouldn't be happy until he'd destroyed everything. I couldn't let him win. I had to keep my family safe.

Quickly, I dressed and checked my phone. It was lunch time. Though I didn't feel fully rested, I wasn't feeling as sluggish as I had been. That was good.

I headed downstairs. I could hear everyone in the dining room getting settled. Before I could go in, I needed to be sure Fenton was still safely locked in his cage.

The office door was open a crack and I could hear Gray in there. He was talking to someone. It took me a moment to realize it was Fenton he was talking to.

"Please, just tell them what they want to know. They may think they're alright with t*****e, but they aren't. Not really. They will hate themselves for hurting you. All of you just got off on the wrong foot. Echo is a good and sweet girl. Valor lives up to his name at all times. Harmony is a friend to everyone with a kind heart and a loving spirit. You've known Sean his entire life. He's a smart guy with a lot of strength. Please. Don't make them do this." Gray pled.

My poor mate. He was really a soft and sweet boy. So different from my cool, commanding Victor.

"You're weak. At least I can have some pride in the first three. They are strong supernaturals who don't bow to weak emotions like sympathy when it comes to their enemies." Fenton answered. "Unlike the fae faggot. He may act strong, but the fact that he couldn't accept his fate as a witch with no affinity shows his weakness. Falling for the fae prince like some woman."

"That didn't sound like you were agreeing." Gray sighed. "Just tell them about the spell you cast on Grigori. You don't have to tell them how to break it, just the name. Please."

"You're an idiot if you think I would give away one of the few bargaining chips I have. This is futile. I should just pretend like I'm agreeable so you'll be embarrassed when they come back in here and I tell them nothing." Fenton scoffed.

I leaned against the wall by the door. I wanted to go in there and yell at him for insulting Gray like that. But I knew that would just make Gray more upset with me.

"None of them will ever figure out what spell I used and, soon, the vampire girl will start going mad. I control the descent. My sights are set fully on her, now." Fenton growled.

There was no fear in me at hearing that. I knew the curse had turned its focus on me. I'd already heard the whispers Victor had told me about. They were poking around in my head trying to find my weakness.

They wouldn't, though. I kept shutting them down. Victor didn't know what he was fighting. I did. That would be the difference in how it affected us.

His loves were me and his territory. He thought about both of us a lot. My focus was mostly on resolving the curse. It couldn't make me crazy passionate about destroying it. I knew that.

Something Fenton said was resonating with me. The descent. I had seen spells in the spellbook I was reading that had names like that. Maybe that was the name of the spell he'd used.

“Come on, Fenton. I really don't want you to get hurt. You need to give up on this revenge. Echo, Victor, and I are going to live a very long time. We can take care of you." Gray offered.

"None of you will outlive this curse. I'll destroy all of you. I don't care that she's my descendant. She's just some vampire whore, like Grace would've been if I'd let her go with the vampire. Can you imagine giving up the sort of power she had just to become a filthy bloodsucker?! It's indecent. It's against the goddess. It's against nature. And how they talked about her having his children. Disgusting. Vampires are dead. They just aren't smart enough to know to stop moving." Fenton replied with a hiss.

"I won't stop asking. I'm going to wear you down, Fenton." Gray muttered.

"Over my dead body, you flea-bitten mongrel. Don't you have a tree to piss on? Get out of my face. You stink."

I pushed the door open and entered the room. Gray was sitting in front of the cage. Books were piled on the coffee table. The room was empty, aside from him and the cat.

Gray didn't move as I crossed the room. He had to have smelled me and heard the door open. I ached for him. My poor sweet mate. He really wanted to save the jerk who kept calling him terrible things.

I draped my arms over his chest and kissed him on the cheek. Gray stiffened. I knew he was still mad at me.

"My sweet Gray. Please don't be mad at me." I gently kissed down his neck to his mark.

"Tell me you won't t*****e him, angel."

"I'm not planning to torture him." I replied. "That's why I called in Marius."

"You know what I mean, Echo. Don't let anyone t*****e him." Gray whispered.

I sucked on his mark, making him groan. Gray moved his head to the side, giving me better access to his neck. I pulled back and extended my fangs. I was so hungry.

My fangs pierced his neck and retracted. I started sucking at his sweet blood. My hands slid up and down his muscular stomach as I fed.

Glancing up at Fenton, he was watching with wide eyes. He had probably never seen a vampire feed in his unnaturally long life. I licked over the bite, sealing the wound.

Moving quickly, I settled in Gray's lap with my legs around his waist. I caressed his face while looking into his heavy lidded eyes. His arms went around me and he held me close. I rested my head on his chest.

"I love you, Gray, but I can't give up on doing what I need to do to save Victor and all the supernaturals in the territory. This goes beyond our home. If Victor ever gets out of the basement, he won't stop killing until he thinks this territory is safe and secured. You will be one of the people he kills first. I can't let that happen." I murmured.

"You'll be the one killing. You'll slip into madness just like every other bloodsucker who's taken up the mantle of Master. You're exactly the monster I thought you were. How disgusting that you're putting your lover in your husband's place while he's suffering. What kind of whore are you that you would flaunt your affairs in your own husband's house? This is what I was protecting Grace from when I forbade her from being with that vampire." Fenton muttered.

I wrapped my arms around Gray's chest and snuggled into him. I was going to take Rosario's stance on this. I didn't care what he said. He wasn't important for anything except the curse.

"What's he saying?" Gray asked, hopefully.

"That I'm a whore for replacing my husband with my lover. The same sort of stuff Fenton always says." I shrugged.

Gray growled. "You aren't going to tell him I'm your husband too?"

"I don't think he would actually care." I replied.

"Of course I care. Obviously, vampires are lacking and can't keep a woman satisfied. Especially if you had to go out to the pound to pick out a dog to rut with. If Grace had realized this, I'm sure she would have thanked me." Fenton laughed.

"So you just wanted to make sure your daughter was sexually satisfied? Was that what you wanted, Fenton? Did you secretly want to fuck your daughter? Is that why you rubbed up on me when we first met? Because you saw the object of your desire in front of you again? Did you check the witch you sent her off with to ensure he had the type of equipment to satisfy a woman?" I answered in a vicious tone.

"That's gross." Gray shuddered.

"I know, right? Let's go to lunch. You tasted a little low on vitamins and proteins." I said, climbing off Gray's lap and helping him stand.

"Twist my words and run away like a child. Go on. Giggle and snicker like you've won. In the end, I'm going to be the only winner." Fenton scoffed.

"In the end, there will be no winner, because this isn't a contest. I will end this curse and send you off to live with some old cat lady or something. Somewhere in town, so you can see the supernaturals thrive without your curse keeping them down." I replied and led Gray out to the hallway.

He closed the door to the office and pulled me into his arms. I looked up at him confused. Why did he stop?

"Echo. That wasn't like you, angel. I've never heard you say something like that before. Are you alright?" Gray asked.

"I'm not sure what you mean, Gray. I'm fine. I just want to get you fed before we get back to work." I said.

"You don't talk like that, Echo. Are you sure the curse isn't having an effect on you?" He asked.

Squeezing him tightly, I thought about it. Was that unlike me? It was just the explanation that made the most sense and I knew it would put Fenton in his place after all the nasty things he'd been saying.

"You're colder. Not just your personality, but your body. I'm worried about you, angel. I don't want to lose you like we lost Victor." Gray murmured and kissed the top of my head.

"Let's get you fed. I'll do my best to fight the curse, Gray. I don't want to worry about your health while I'm trying to keep it from digging into my head.

I took him to the dining room and settled him in the seat next to me, then had Wendell bring a plate in for him. She asked about me and I told her I'd already eaten. Sean and Rosario were sitting close to each other. Val seemed to be more relaxed with Cam and was talking to him in a friendly way.

Everyone seemed to be eyeing Gray and me. I imagined that he had kept on with this anti-torture talk. Seeing us being so close when we were on different sides of such an important subject must have thrown them.

No one was really talking now that we'd appeared. I played with the silverware that was set in my place while I waited for the meal to be over. I was so distracted that I didn't really notice the conversation had started up.

"I just want you all to keep an eye out." Gray was saying.

"Just because you disagree with Echo, doesn't mean the curse is taking her over." Val sighed.

"It's not just the disagreement. Forget about the torture stuff altogether. She's really not acting like herself. Last night, she barely ate anything at dinner. She's been drinking blood tea, which she never did before, and today, instead of having lunch, she drank my blood. Her temperature is lower than it's been in weeks." Gray replied in an exasperated tone.

"Echo? You've been having more blood than normal?" Harmony asked.

“།

I get sleepy when I eat normal food. I need to be awake this afternoon. If you don't want to feed me, Gray, I can just have blood from the bag." I scoffed.

"It wasn't that I didn't like feeding you or didn't want to. You know I love feeding you, Echo. I don't know why you're not more worried. You're changing." He insisted.

"We'll keep an eye out. If she does something uncharacteristic of what we know of her, we'll talk to you and Talia." Preston said. "It's a small concession."

Everyone around the table agreed. I didn't like it, but it would give me one less thing to think about. I could just do what I wanted and they would let me know when I was acting weird.

"I want all of you to focus on finding a spell with a name like 'The Descent. I think that's what the name of this spell is. I heard what Fenton was saying while Gray was trying to convince him to just tell us what we want to know. He said he controls the descent. The way he said it though, it was like he was naming something." I told them.

"Like the descent into madness?" Dillon asked.

"I think so. That's what all of the accounts from the other Masters seemed to be. They all go crazy in different ways. I think it plays on your desires and the things you hold dearest in your heart. From what I saw of Victor's descent. He started becoming more possessive of me and his territory. At first it was little things, then it grew larger until... until he was gone and all that was left was the madness." I said softly.

Gray's hand moved to cover mine. He was very warm and it made me feel better when the heat of his body seeped into mine. I grasped his hand and smiled at him.

"Please don't be mad at me anymore. I don't want anything to tempt the curse." I murmured.

"I can't condone t*****e, Echo. I just can't." He sighed.

"Then work on convincing him until Marius is finished making his plan. I'll give you that long to get him to agree. Just, stay with me, by my side, until I actually do the thing you don't want me to do. Please, Gray. My Grayson." I pled gently with tears in my eyes. Gray looked at me like he was trying to decipher something. In the end he nodded and squeezed my hand. I grinned. With luck, I could get more out of Fenton if he thought he was speaking to someone who couldn't understand him.

I was sure Gray would understand if he ever found out. For now, it was best to keep him in the dark. The last thing I wanted was him accusing me of using him. I really did want Gray to forgive me, but I also wanted all the information I could get from Fenton. "We'll make sure the room is cleared when you're trying to convince him. That way he doesn't feel compelled to just insult everyone. I can stand outside the door and I'll link you when he accepts. He'll get suspicious if we all don't go in and study the magic books. We'll hammer out times. Probably after dinner. We can say you finished early so you could try to talk to him. I want you to have every chance possible to block his torture, Gray. This is the only way I can think to do it. You know I won't give up on saving Victor. I need Fenton to talk." I said.

He grinned and nodded. I was so happy that he liked my plan. I would keep everyone safe. No one else would be taken from me.