[Echo]In the hallway, I wrapped my arms around Victor’s waist and he hugged me tightly. It had to be my vampire hypnosis stuff that made him tell us that. It was a very painful memory for him. But he wasn’t the only one hurting.“Victor, are you okay? You had to remember all that stuff….” My poor husband. He looked so distressed as Spencer was talking about his family. It had definitely stirred up memories of his own.“I’m fine, Echo,” he replied softly. “Tell me if you’re hurting too much. I never want you to be in pain,” I murmured into Victor’s chest. “I didn’t mean to hurt him, either.”“Of course you didn’t, Echo. Something very hard happened to him. I am as much to blame as you are. I understand Talia’s urge to save me a little better now. Still, it wasn’t our place. There’s something about his story though….” Pulling away, I looked up into his eyes. Victor seemed to be thinking really hard about it. I didn’t know what bothered him about Spencer’s story. I’d felt the pain of it as he talked. He really lost his family. Doctor Hastings and Neil came closer. Lisa was on her way up the stairs with a tray of food for Spencer. Neil stopped her from entering the room. I looked at all of the werewolves as they gathered around us.“I want to speak to him one more time when I wake up. Even if he insists, don’t let him leave. Do everything in your power, Neil. If all else fails, I want you to go get Harmony, Echo. Something isn’t adding up for me,” Victor said. “Harmony is heavily pregnant and that man is trained to kill,” Neil replied. “He won’t kill a pregnant woman who is just trying to talk to him. He lost his family. I don’t think he’s the type to destroy someone else’s. Plus, her vampire ability should stop him before he ever considers it,” Victor seemed very sure of that, but Neil didn’t agree. He frowned and took the tray from Lisa. “I don’t want you in there,” he told her before returning to the room with the food. Lisa sighed and headed back downstairs. I understood having protective mates. The fact that Victor hadn’t banned me from going into the room as well didn’t escape my notice. “From here, he should just need some food and water. I’ve done everything I can. His blood pressure is better, his color is better, and he is able to remain conscious for longer periods of time. I’ll gather my things and head back to the pack lands.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out his wallet. “This is my card. If you have any other medical emergencies, call me, not Alpha Trent. Time of day doesn’t matter.”“Will your Alpha be alright with that?” Victor asked.“That man was near death when I got here. Based on how much blood he needed, he should have been dead. I’ll have my secretary talk with the Alpha whenever you need me to leave and I can’t pass it by him.” Victor nodded and put the card in his own wallet. I knew he would put it into his computer later. Doctor Hastings shook Victor’s hand and went into the room to get his things. We headed down to Victor’s office. I knew he would want to write everything down before he went to sleep. He told me once that things could change a lot more drastically over the course of a day than over the course of a night. Victor never wanted to lose some vital piece of information because he decided not to do something important before resting. I kissed him before he went into the office and went to the kitchen for breakfast. Wendell set a plate down for me on the table and I sat gratefully. She and Lisa went back to cleaning up. While I ate, I thought about what Victor said. There had to be a way I could figure out the truth about Spencer’s story. Then I remembered Carmen was a seer. She could see the truth that we couldn’t. With a smile, I made my plan. I would help Victor and he would be happy. If Spencer could lie without smelling as if he was lying, we needed to get the truth. He could have something to do with the cult or he could be a hunter. If he was a hunter, then knowing that Victor was the Master of the territory was really bad. Even if he left, he could take information to other hunters about our guards, the people in our house, and when and where Victor slept. If he were a hunter, I would kill him myself. No one would hurt my Victor.The thought of it made me shiver. It was very vampire-ish, in my opinion, to consider murder so easily. It was just like something Marius would suggest. He would be proud of me for it, but some part of me told me there was another answer. I attributed that part to my witch side. My werewolf side wouldn’t care. Grayson was a werewolf and didn’t condone torture, but was usually okay with killing people if it meant keeping our family safe. After I finished breakfast, I washed my dishes and put them in the drying rack. Lisa and Wendell had gone off to work on their other chores. No one was around to stop me from doing whatever I wanted.Before I could start anything, though, I went upstairs to check on Victor. Our bedroom door was locked again, so I popped in on the other side of it. He was just climbing into our bed. “I thought you would be starting your chores or whatever you decided to do today,” Victor said. “You need me more than I need to do whatever I’m doing today,” I replied.I went to my side of the bed and crawled in. Scooting close to him, I sat up a little against the headboard. I pulled Victor to me and had him rest his head on my chest. His arms wrapped around my waist and he held me tightly, then gasped and loosened his grip before putting a hand on my stomach. “This is usually how you cuddle with me,” he whispered gently. “It makes me feel a little vulnerable.”“It always makes me feel safe. I’m here for you,” I murmured, putting my hand over his. Cuddling with Victor was always different from cuddling with Gray. Vampires don’t like to be touched and held as much as werewolves. His body wasn’t as warm, either. But when I could get a cuddle from him, I loved every moment of it. “You’re still in pain, aren’t you?” “I lost them all and now you’re pregnant and I’m frightened of losing you and the baby,” he admitted. “I’m not going anywhere. I’ll do everything in my power to protect our family. It’s not just on you. Give some of the burden of protecting our family to Gray and me. We’re stronger together,” I told him as I stroked his hair. “I didn’t like you turning me away this morning,” Victor mumbled into my breast. “Sorry. I wanted to make you happy about how much I was helping and I didn’t think. I’ll talk to Gray about giving us some space tonight before bedtime. It can just be you and me,” I offered. “Yesssss,” he whispered, then went limp. When he was sleeping, Victor’s breathing became almost imperceptible, as did his heartbeat. A lot of people thought vampires died during the day, but they didn’t. I kissed him gently on top of his head, but he didn’t stir. He almost looked innocent. The thought of that made me smile to myself. Carefully, I pulled him off of me and wrapped his arms around my pillow. I knew he didn’t dream now that we weren’t bonded in the dream realm anymore, but I wanted my scent to be there for him while he slept. Now that I knew he was safely asleep, I grabbed my phone off the nightstand and searched for the address of Rock’s company. I had never been to the office before, but Gray said it was pretty close to the house. By now, he wouldn’t be at the office anymore, anyway. I found the company and tapped on the map to go to the street view. There were some pictures online of the lobby of the office, as well. This was perfect. I was working on teleporting to a place with just a picture. It would mean not having to give someone warning that I was about to show up and not having to have the phone number of someone in that place. Focusing on the pictures, I centered myself and let my magic make the connections. It was a struggle. I had never done this before and it was a lot harder than having the connection I got through the phone or through having been there before. It took a while, but I was pretty sure I felt the connection. I slipped the phone into my pants pocket and closed my eyes, focusing on the fragile connection I felt to the place. When I opened my eyes, I saw a very large, stunned man standing in the corner of the office lobby. “Echo?” he said. His voice sounded familiar, but I didn’t know him. “Have we met?” I asked. “Yeah, I’m Forrest. Forrest Montblanc. We met a couple times. How the hell did you do that?” “You have a good memory,” I chuckled. “It’s one of the abilities I gained from my sire. I need to talk to Carmen. Can I see her?” Forrest looked at me, then at the closed door near me. I took a few good-sized steps away from the door, giving him space to move. He crossed to the door and opened it. “Echo’s here to see you, Carmen. You want me to let her in?” “Send her in, Forrest,” she replied from the other room. He stepped back and I nodded my thanks as I made my way into the room. It was a fairly standard office. There were three desks. One that was larger than the others and sat directly across from the door. That must be Rock’s desk. To my right was a smaller desk with a woman sitting behind it, looking up at me. She seemed to be busy with something on her computer before I entered. The woman looked small, but sturdily built. Gray told me that Viola worked in the office and she was a warrior as well as their design person. Carmen sat behind a desk that had no papers on it and was the cleanest desk in the office. Only a phone and a computer sat on the desktop. Carmen smiled in my direction. Her dark brown hair was tied back in a ponytail. As she stood up, I saw that she was wearing a cute white tank top with a dark blue skirt that seemed to go to the tops of her knees. She stuck out her hand to me and I accepted it, clasping it tightly for a moment, then releasing it. Carmen indicated the seats across from her desk and sat down. “How can I help you today, Echo? Was there some other work you were wanting to get done on your house?” Carmen asked. I shook my head. “No, nothing like that. I actually wanted to see you about something else. Have you heard of the creature that’s feeding on homeless humans?” A pained look shimmered across her face before she got it under control and nodded solemnly. Then I remembered that Victor said Carmen and Rock were the ones who found the first victim we were notified about. They took care of her until she died. “I’m sorry, I forgot,” I said. “Don’t worry about it. I can’t expect people to have perfect memories. Especially since I’m sure you’ve been busy with that very subject. I got the sense that you felt seeing me was very important. Is it to do with the creature?” “Not really and kind of. The night before last, Dennis and Sybil caught the creature feeding on a man. They stopped it before it could kill him and we have been taking care of him. Unfortunately, it got away.” She lit up. “He survived?” “Yes, he lost a lot of blood and Doctor Hastings, from the pack, said that he should’ve died from that blood loss. Victor feels guilty about not being able to stop the creature sooner. He wants to take care of the man as an apology. But the man doesn’t want it.” “Then it sounds like all Victor can offer is to let him heal and leave. Why do you need me?” Carmen asked. “Well, Victor said there was something about his story that bothered him. He didn’t tell me what it was. I’m sure he would if I had asked, but he didn’t have a lot of awake time left for the day and I wanted to make sure he had time to work it out. But I got to thinking if he is dangerous, then I don’t want to be caught off-guard. “Neil said the man was trained to kill. If he’s a hunter or something like it, then he knows the location of my husband’s daytime resting place. I don’t know that saving his life will make him any less inclined to take the life of the Master of the territory,” I explained.Carmen nodded as I talked. “Why did you come to me?” “You have the gift of true sight. It makes you like a seer. I can’t get fae or witches to agree to come to the house. They all think we’re going to do something bad to them if they do. I want you to come to the house and meet him. I would like if you could try to get a vision about who he truly is.” She was quiet. Carmen looked apprehensive and tapped her finger against the desk as her eyes darted back and forth, as if she was watching a tennis match. I wondered if she knew she did that. Probably not. Would it be rude to tell her? Was that really important right now?