Disclaimer: I don't own it.

A Broken Promise

Sulpicia POV

"Where is he?" I snarl, throwing open the doors to the pavilion. "Where is he? Where is Aro?"

Caius sweeps to my side, his arms held out to show that he means no harm. Or to restrain me from attacking him. "Sulpicia, darling Sulpicia, what is it that has you so upset?" He smiled down at me, so sweet and kind, so ready to help me with my problems. But his eyes told a different story altogether. They were cold and heartless. He didn't care for me or Aro at all. All Caius wanted was to have us taken out of the picture. Eliminated. Killed, even.

But I didn't care for him either.

All I wanted was to know where Aro went.

I wanted to know if the rumor was true.

I relaxed from my hostile position and smiled up at him, playing along with his little game. "Caius, do you know where Aro went to? I need to ask him something important." The coldness in his eyes broke away and was replaced with confusion at my words.

"Do you not know?" he asked. I braced myself for whatever he was going to tell me and slowly shook my head. "He said that he was going to pay a visit to a young couple he knew that live in Athens." A low hiss passed through my lips at his words.

So it was true.

He went to Athens.

To take care of our daughter.

I'm going to make the rest of his life a living hell once I find him.

I turned back to Caius and watched as he shrunk away from me. Ha. My face must be a sight to behold. He's never seen me show so much emotion not once in the handful of years since we first met. "If anybody follows me," I seethed, poking him in the chest with each word, "and I mean anybody, I will kill them without a second thought. I do not care for any of you – I only care for that young couple and their daughter."

I turned my back on the gaping Caius and stormed out of the pavilion, pass the handful of vampires that Aro was able to, for lack of a better word, acquire, and out the doors that led to the streets of Delphi outside. Out of sheer reflex and ingrained habit, I wrapped my scarf around my head as I traveled amongst the humans. It took me several minutes, long enough for me to travel to the outskirts of Delphi, to realize that there wasn't a single ray of sunlight to be seen.

I looked up at the sky full of dark storm clouds, threatening rain at any moment. It was beautiful to me, but to the humans it was a bad omen. I smiled and thought to myself that the gods seemed to be with me before taking off faster than I did within the city around the humans.

I love my husband, my Aro.

I love him so much.

But there are times in our life where he does things that make me want to wring his neck.

I remember the day our granddaughter was born. Our daughter and her husband were ecstatic over the birth of their beautiful little girl. Their faces were the same as mine and Aro's when our little girl was born. The birth of new life is always beautiful, breathtaking even, but still to this day I will never understand his reaction to our granddaughter.

He refused – refused – to hold to her. Aro took one look at her when I offered her to him and shook his head no. I was stunned when he just took one more look at her little cherub's face and walked out of the room. The shock came first, then the anger. The pure rage that suddenly just overtook me made me see red. The idea that anyone could refuse to hold their newborn granddaughter was beyond me. So I handed her back to her father and went after him. We fought for days on end over everything and nothing. No matter how many times he told me he was sorry, it didn't change the fact that he refused to hold our granddaughter.

I finally forgave Aro the last night of our stay with our daughter. How could I not when he was holding her, our granddaughter, telling her that he loved her so much, as much as he loved her mother and her grandmother?

That was a year and a half before our self imposed exile, before we backed out of our family's lives and faked our deaths in fear of ever attacking them. Or worse, killing them.

But before that, many, many years before, the day that Aro and I first met, the day that I knew that I was going to spend the rest of my life with that man, we had the worst fight ever.

And I did not even know who he was yet. Let alone that I was going to fall in love with him.

I was in the market with my mother. We were walking pass each of the booths, marveling at the colorful foods and clothing that the vendors were selling. My mother stopped to haggle with the man selling the ripe figs that she so loved. I was standing a few feet behind her, still looking on at the different items being sold in the market.

And then, out of nowhere, I'm being shoved out of the way.

Onto the ground.

On my back.

Both the vendor selling the figs and my mother had seen and moved to help me up. And when they finally did I saw what, or rather who, had knocked me onto the ground. It was a young man who was about my age and he was quite handsome. He was much better looking than the other men that my mother had tried to marry me off to. He had dark, shoulder length hair and the most mesmerizing hazel eyes that I had ever seen. And he was taller than me, too, unlike the men that Mother had invited home. They were either shorter than me or just as tall.

It upset me when she did that, finding me suitors.

"I'm so sorry," he said, dropping the items in his arms. "I wasn't paying attention to where I was going, miss."

I had scowled at him and told him that it was impolite to knock a woman down and that he needed to watch where he was going. And then I questioned him about why he was running through the marketplace in the first place. Somehow everything deteriorated further and we ended up in a screaming match in the middle of the marketplace with everyone privy to our spat.

I remember wanting to hurt the handsome man that had knocked me down and I had never wanted to do that before.

I wasn't a violent person.

Mother loved him from that moment on. She thought he was perfect for me. I fought his advances toward me after that day but it was all in vain.

We fell in love and married soon after. We had a beautiful daughter and all was well except for those few instances where I want to simply hurt Aro.

This very instance was one of them.

Long after we became what we are, I made Aro promise that he would never hurt our daughter and the small family that she had made for herself. But it seems that he has broken that promise, the most important one that he had ever made me.

Venom stung my eyes with unshed tears at the unbidden thoughts of what Aro could have possible done to them. I pushed myself to go faster, thoughts of blood and death on my mind mingled with the fear of what I could possibly find when I reached Athens.

Twenty minutes later I slowed as I reached Athens. All was quiet as I walked through the city. None of the humans seemed to notice my presence making my travel to my daughter's home easier. As I approached her home I recognized the softly sweet scent of my husband surrounding the area. I stopped several yards away from the small cottage.

The scent of human blood was heavy in the air, making my throat burn with longing. I pushed the desire to feed to the back of my mind and slowly approached the door. No sounds came from within. No sounds of healthy strong heartbeats or of breaths being taken. Not even the happy sounds of laughter or voices could be heard. I pushed the door open and stared in at the horror.

Fresh blood covered every available surface within my sight, making my throat burn. Nothing was spared in the slaughter, even the ceiling was covered in blood. I stepped inside and found the shredded body of my daughter's husband at my feet, his lifeless blue eyes staring up at me. I looked away and moved to the doors on my left that led to the bedrooms.

I moved to the room that had the door open and before I stepped any further I saw the lifeless body of my daughter. My knees gave out beneath me and I found myself on the floor. A strangled gasp escaped from within me as I cradled her head in my lap, stroking her dark hair from her face.

How could he do this?

How could Aro slaughter his own family – his daughter?

He had promised me that no harm would come to them that they would die human deaths. Never in my wildest imaginings had I thought that Aro himself would come to their home and slaughter them, breaking my trust in my husband. To think that he had once revered family, claiming it to be one of the most sacred things that one could ever have.

I should have anticipated this happening.

When Didyme had disappeared, devastating Marcus, Aro hadn't batted an eyelash or given a look of shock or concern for her. She was his only sister and he had seemed pleased that she was gone, never to be seen again.

He had killed her and now he has killed his own family.

I slowly released my daughter's limp, lifeless body from my tight grip and softly laid her head on the floor again. I stood and moved to the second room, pushing the closed door open as far as it will go. The sight inside brings me to my knees again and a low whimper sounds from the back of my throat.

My granddaughter lies on her bed, her expression soft and peaceful. I would have thought that she was asleep but her chest did not rise with her breaths and her heart no longer kept a steady rhythm for it was still. Her still warm blood spilled from the bite marks on her neck and throat. The sight brought a terrible ache to my chest that only intensified with each passing moment.

She was dead like her parents and my husband's scent lingered throughout the small home.

This was his doing.

A hand came down upon my shoulder and I flung it off of me, his touch unwelcome.

"Do not touch me, Aro," I hissed, unable to tear my gaze away from my granddaughter's unmoving body.

"My dear Sulpicia, you should not be here. You do not need to see this carnage any longer," he whispered, his voice soft and loving.

A low growl came from my throat at his words. How dare he? "I needed to see this, Aro! I needed to see with my own eyes the lengths you would go to keep me with you, to remove all evidence of our lives before! First your sister! Now our daughter and her family!"

He stepped away from me as I rose and advanced toward him. "Why must you break every promise you have ever made me, Aro?" I cried out.

He looked away and slowly shook his head. "I do not know, Sulpicia. I can only hope that you can forgive me yet again."

A choked sob escaped from me as I shook my head. "I can't. Not this time." And then I fled away from him and the horror that he had created.

What he had done was unforgiveable and I don't know if I'll ever be able to speak to him again.

Review.