[Echo] Carmen looked weak as Austin led her out of the room. Maybe that wasn’t a great idea. She was obviously not ready for whatever she experienced.Harmony sat on the bed next to Spencer and rubbed his hand while she held it. I moved over to them and sat on the edge of the bed, where Carmen had been. Spencer looked at me with sad, hollow eyes.“Your friend didn’t seem to be very strong after that. She was different. Was her ability more than what you told me?” he asked.“She might have seen some things while looking for injuries. I didn’t tell her about you losing your family. I only told Harmony. She might have felt your sadness about losing your family. We’re trying to take care of you as best we can. Will you take Carmen’s advice and stay with us for a while?”Spencer looked down at Harmony’s hand in his, then over at her. His gaze went to me and he nodded. I picked up his other hand and squeezed it.“I promise, we’re going to take good care of you. Harmony and I will let you rest. We’ll come spend time with you again after lunch. I’ll need to take Carmen and Austin back where they belong and we have a couple of other things to do.”“Echo, I’ll stay here with him. You go take care of things. Let Wendell and Lisa know I’ll have lunch in here with Spencer. I just have to be home when Cam gets there,” Harmony said.She was looking at Spencer with something like pity. If I had known we looked like his wife and that was why he kept staring at me, I might not have brought my sister. When he said Harmony looked more like his wife than I did, it made me worry.After watching them while Carmen was checking him out, I could see he wasn’t as in Harmony’s thrall as most people could be. When she really focused on people, they were slaves to her. I’d seen it when she practiced. They would do almost anything for her.Marius said our abilities would grow as we got older and learned how to use them better. Harmony’s ability and Val’s ability were going to be extra powerful. I knew they would help them in their lives, whatever paths they were destined for. They were going to be amazing when they found their places. I was just lucky I found mine so early. Now, I was learning how to do the work and be helpful.“Are you okay with that, Spencer?” I asked gently.He looked over at Harmony. “Are you sure? Won’t your husband be upset about you spending the day in bed with another man?”“Cam isn’t like that. He knows I would never cheat on him. I’m worried about you. The entire time we talked, you didn’t tell me anything about yourself. You don’t have to guard yourself with me,” Harmony said gently.“I don’t think there’s anything you really need to know. At least, not anything that will change anything else. It won’t make me heal faster. It won’t make any of this easier on anyone.”“It might make you feel better to talk to someone without guarding yourself so much. I’ll stay here until five this afternoon. You can talk to me about anything and I won’t share it with anyone, okay?”I smiled at my sister. Harmony was one of those caretaker types of people, just like me, but different. I was still learning how to take care of people entirely. Harmony seemed to have a natural sense of what they needed, but she had to realize they needed care first.Harmony would be safe. Even if Spencer wasn’t in her thrall entirely, I could tell that his ability to resist her was based on her distraction and his ability to focus on other people. Neil would probably insist on staying in the room, but Harmony could easily ignore him.“Please take care of my sister and nephew today, Spencer. They are very important to me.”“You’re having a boy? Have you decided on a name?” he asked. “Adam. After our father. He died when we were babies,” she said softly, putting one of her hands on her large belly. I did the same to my stomach. My baby didn’t show yet, but I knew they were in there. A son or a daughter for my husbands and me to love. Harmony had asked me if it was all right to use our father’s name. She didn’t want to overstep if I wanted to use it. I gladly let her. I could see it meant a lot to her and there was an entire world of names to choose from. Spencer put his hand on her stomach as if it drew him to it. He started saying something in a language I didn’t know. Harmony didn’t get upset about being touched without permission. “Is that Latin?” she asked. “I remember learning Latin roots in junior high school.”“I was saying a prayer for your son. The world of shapeshifters can be dangerous. I asked my god to watch over him alongside your goddess and keep him safe. The answer may be no, but it never hurts to ask.”Harmony put her hand over his and smiled. She liked him. It reinforced the feeling I had gotten. Spencer was a good person who was dealing with something that created a darkness in him. I was fairly certain it was from his grief. Maybe he would be a help to the territory in some way. Helping him feel accepted and comfortable might make him feel better. Watching them interact wouldn’t help me, though. I needed to go talk to Carmen. “Spencer, I know you won’t hurt my sister, but Neil is in charge of protecting everyone and he won’t want to leave her alone with you. Is that going to be okay with you?” I asked. He looked over at me, then at Neil. I could almost see an understanding pass between the men. They obviously clicked. Probably their shared past as warriors.“How do you know I won’t hurt your sister?” Spencer asked.“Because if you touched her and your intention was to harm her, her magic would kill you almost instantly. You might have time to scream, but that would be it. Harmony has a cloak of magic that can devour and dissolve anything,” I replied with a smile.The room got tense. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Neil’s face drop into a shocked expression briefly before going back to his ‘good warrior’ mask. Spencer turned to Harmony, and she smiled reassuringly.“I would make it as painless as possible, out of respect for everything you’ve gone through. Your assessment was nice, but only really works on humans. Neither one of us is human. The magic I inherited from my witch side is one of the deadliest magics in existence, and it is nearly reflexive after all the training I’ve had recently.”“You’re a witch?”“Part witch. Our mother was a witch. Our father was a werewolf/vampire hybrid. Each of us got stronger and weaker attributes from each species. Echo is a dhampyr, a living vampire. I’m a werewolf. Our brother is a witch. He has three affinities: plants, water, and fire. Echo has an affinity for plants, I have a destruction affinity. It doesn’t really exist in witches. More in fae,” Harmony told him.“My wife was a plant witch.” Spencer smiled a little. “She could ripen any fruit or vegetable. She also had the ability to make things grow out of season or in places they rarely grew. Stephanie loved her garden.”“You loved her very much, didn’t you?” I whispered.“She was my soulmate. That was how she found me. She did a soulmate search spell. It was like the whole world stood still the moment I saw her.”“If she was a plant witch, like me, then you’re family. Accept our care as a family member would. We will make sure no one hurts you while you’re here.” I smiled at him as he chuckled dryly.“I can’t believe two girls almost half my age are promising to protect me.” He shook his head and sighed.Spencer didn’t look like he was almost forty. Though I wasn’t a great judge of age on people, being surrounded by werewolves and vampires most of the time didn’t help because vampires didn’t age after they died and werewolves aged differently than humans did. Maybe he did look almost forty.Harmony caught my eye and shook her head. We both knew he wasn’t lying by his scent. Not that age was something worth lying about. It was another one of those things that wasn’t important. That was why Harmony was shaking her head at me. She knew my brain might grasp on and I would start asking more about it.“I should go. I’ll bring lunch with me when I come back.”I stood and left the room. The door to the room across the hall was mostly closed. We left empty guest room doors open so the vacuum robots could go in and out easily.Before I went to check if it was where they were, I went to Victor’s office to get a voice recorder. That way I could get all the information for him and we wouldn’t lose anything if I forgot. I didn’t know how much Carmen got from that, but I hoped it was a lot.When I opened the door to the bedroom, I found Carmen lying down on the bed with Austin holding her. She still didn’t look great.I sat on the bed next to her and turned on the recorder, setting it on the nightstand. Carmen rolled away from Austin and sat up in the bed. There was a sorrowful expression in her eyes.“What did you learn about Spencer?” I asked.“I don’t even know where to start. I saw everything. His whole life until the creature attacked him. I saw him find his wife, start his family, and lose them all. I think I forget witches are just as fragile as humans. Werewolves, even broken ones like me, can survive so much more than they can….”“Please start at the beginning,” I urged.Carmen told me all about Spencer’s childhood and the graduation. I hated the idea of a little boy not having a family to love and care for him as he grew. It reminded me of my stolen childhood. It was something I would never let happen to any of my children.“He’s not from the human military or a hunter of supernaturals, but he is a hunter. He hunts evil beings who oppose his god. Or he did until his wife died. I don’t think it’s a mistake that he’s here. Something drew him to this place.“Maybe it had something to do with the fact that her last name was Aimes. Maybe it was something else. I don’t know if it was the goddess or his god that guided him, but I think he was supposed to help us or we were supposed to help him. Maybe both….“I think the magic in him wants him healed and restored. That’s the vibe I’m getting. I don’t know why it thought bringing him here would heal him.”I knew. Her last name was Aimes. She was likely a descendant of Fenton. That meant we were family by marriage. I didn’t know exactly how I was related to Stephanie, but I now knew why. Apparently, almost all the women in our family look similar. Even Sean’s sister Brooke looked like a blonde version of us. Though, Emmalyn and Amelia didn’t really. Perhaps it was that most of us took after Guinevere, Fenton Aimes’ wife, and they were descended from his sister. “Don’t worry about that right now. We’ll figure it out. Please, tell me if there is anything else you feel is important,” I said.Carmen told me about Spencer’s time in town and what had happened with the creature who attacked him. Someone like Spencer wouldn’t have let his guard down, not even when he was sleeping. I’d have to talk to Victor, but there might be something we’re missing. I knew he would know a lot more than I did.