Renata shoved John and Sherlock through the door of Sherlock's bedroom, causing them to stumble against over various bits of furniture before they caught their balance.
"Look," said John, in an attempt at being reasonable. "We're very sorry we ran off like that, but do you think you could stop roughing us up now?"
"You will stay here, where it's safe, until the masters summon you," said Renata to Sherlock, choosing to ignore John completely.
Sherlock inclined his head with ironic ceremony, and she left, shutting the door firmly behind her.
"Hey, wait," said John, hurrying after her and reaching the door just in time to hear the click of the lock. "Couldn't you at least lock me in my own bedroom?" he added.
The lock clicked again and Felix opened the door a crack. "This isn't where you sleep?" he asked with a note of honest puzzlement in his voice. "You don't share a bedroom with your mate?"
John sighed in exasperation. "We. Are. Not. A. Couple," he said fiercely.
"Yes, be sure to tell Aro that, in case he gets the wrong idea," said Sherlock smirking mischieviously as he leaned over John's shoulder.
"Well I am sorry for the inconvenience," said Felix apologetically, "but it would be best if you were in the same location tonight." He shut the door and locked it again.
John sighed again and leaned his back against the door, rubbing his hand over his forehead.
"So what now?" he asked.
"I need to think," said Sherlock, taking off his coat and tossing it over a chair. He looked less enthusiastic than he had earlier in the evening.
John folded his arms and watched with a concerned expression as Sherlock folded himself into the chair and pressed his palms together in front of his face.
"Do you want to…." began John.
"No."
"...talk?"
Sherlock closed his eyes and was silent.
There was a knock on the door and it opened just enough for Renata's hand to appear with a take-away bag. John took it cautiously and then the two take-away teas that were handed through after. The door was shut and locked again wordlessly. John examined the contents of the bag, two portions of fish and chips.
"Hey," John called through the door. "You forgot the mushy peas!" He was rewarded by a snarl from Renata and grinned to himself. His smile faded again as he turned back to the room and Sherlock's tense, still form.
Sherlock thought about terrible things all the time, but this seemed about the worst.
Moriarty's mind. Moriarty's plans. All the things John had thought they might finally be free of, and now Sherlock had to go back into all that darkness. And for what?
John thought about the family they had left in the nightclub. They had all seemed so close, so happy together. As if they were capable of human feelings, as if they were worthy of human feelings. He couldn't make himself think of them as demons, monsters. If Sherlock didn't succeed, they would die. Still more hostages in the battle of wits between Moriarty and Sherlock, a game that was still playing out despite one of the contenders being dead.
"Do you want to…"
"No."
"...eat something?"
"You eat," said Sherlock. "This could take a while."
John sat on the bed and took out a carton of food and a plastic fork.
"Oh damn," he said in alarm, a thought suddenly occurred to him. "Mrs. Hudson!"
"She's fine," said Sherlock.
"How do you know?"
"I texted her from the morgue, she's gone to stay with her sister."
"Oh." John prodded the fish and chips in a preoccupied way. "Well, I guess I'll let you…."
"Shut up John."
"...get on with it."
There was silence for a while, broken only by the sound of chewing. Outside, Felix and Renata sat side by side on the sofa, waiting, listening, for things that did not want to be heard.
The alleyway was empty when the two men turned into it. Sleek and golden Carlisle Cullen halted in the middle and held up a hand. Tousled and smudged Edward Cullen came to a halt next to him. They gazed upward at the back of number 221B Bakers Street without speaking but certainly not without thinking. Carlisle thought, carefully and precisely, of a plan, of climbing up the rough bricks, of entering silently through the window of John Watson's room, of an attack, quick and lethal, of….
Edward listened to Carlisle's thoughts and smiled, a bitter and ironic smile that didn't bode well for the human traitors currently in league with the Volturi.
Someone coughed lightly behind them and they spun around, startled.
The pale young man in slim-fitting pinstripes and black trenchcoat who had just landed in the alleyway from a nearby roof regarded them with amusement.
"Good evening Carlisle, Edward," he said with a polite and somehow mocking bow of his head
Carlisle straightened out of his defensive stance and stood tensely. "Good evening, Demetri. I trust your masters are well."
"Oh, exceedingly well," said Demetri, stepping forward a little and then stopping again at Edward's warning growl. "They send their kind regards and hope that you will join them tonight."
Carlisle and Edward exchanged glances. "We haven't broken the agreement," said Carlisle. "You have no right to bring us in."
Demetri smiled, a little too happily. "And yet here I am. We could do this the easy way…." As he spoke, two fashionably dressed young women dropped lightly down on either side of him, both tall and impossibly attractive, regarding the Cullens with the easy superiority of people who never fail to get what they came for.
"...Or we could do it the easssy way," Demetri continued, his voice turning casually sinister. "I'm sure Heidi and Chelsea would much prefer you did. They've been simply aching to use their talents recently."
Edward looked away angrily and Carlisle sighed, feeling the pull of Heidi's talent at the corners of his mind, and other parts of his anatomy. "The easy way, if you don't mind" he said.
Sunk below the Volturi Building was a subterranean city unto itself. Space came at a premium in London and building under existing structures was becoming increasingly popular, a fact that the Volturi had exploited perhaps more than was strictly civically-minded.
After a lengthy elevator ride and some stately antechambers, Heidi swung open the huge double-doors to the throne room and stepped through, catching Aro's eye and giving him a smug little smile as she approached the dais where the three coven masters sat. Her powers of attraction always worked, even if her victims felt a self-righteous disgust towards her in the process.
The three masters were seated on chairs that would not have been out of place in a Buckingham Palace drawing room, but the effect was the same as it had been when Carlisle had first made their acquaintance centuries before, when the throne room was in a castle, and the thrones had been tall and intricately carved, towering above him. The brothers sat still as statues now, acknowledging his approach with a movement of their eyes only.
When the party came to a halt before the dais, Aro turned his head towards Marcus and raised his hand in a gesture that was somewhere been a blessing and a call for silence, and which had an immediate effect on Carlisle and Edward. They knelt, Carlisle without protest, Edward awkwardly and reluctantly.
Marcus inclined his head to Aro with a faint smile, and Aro swung his head back to the Cullens with the same impersonation of a marble statue. And grinned widely. The sudden transformation of his face made Carlisle jump a little, the intended effect, no less potent for its familiarity.
"You were warned, Cullen," said Caius darkly. "There are no second chances to be found here."
"We have committed no breach of the agreement," said Carlisle. He shot a quick glance at Edward but his adopted son only shook his head.
The Volturi had many years of experience in controlling their minds. It was entirely possible for them to pay attention to the present and wall off any unnecessary thoughts, intentions, and memories.
Your talent is meaningless here, Cullen, Caius thought, directing his cold gaze to Edward.
Edward sneered and was silent, letting the more diplomatic Carlisle speak.
"We are not here to hunt, Aro," said Carlisle, opting to ignore Caius in favor of the devil he knew best.
"Then why are you here, dear Carlisle?" asked Aro, his soft voice like a silken shadow.
"We have a commission to fulfill, nothing more," said Carlisle with earnest honesty. "Aro, I have lived for three hundred years in accordance with your coven's laws. I assure you, we have no intention of breaking them now or ever."
"You have always been a truthful liar, Carlisle. You broke our agreement once, in spirit if not in the flesh," said Aro smoothly, his hands resting in apparent neutrality on the arms of his chair. "My brother is correct, we do not give second chances, and it would seem, you are here to once again violate the spirit of our agreement, or you would not hide from us now."
Carlisle swallowed hard but remained resolute. He held out his hand to Aro. "You can see for yourself, if you do not believe me."
Aro laughed, the light sound skittering through the cavernous throne room. "You want me to break one of the terms of the agreement? After which you would be free to break all the terms you desire?"
"Not at all," said Carlisle quickly.
"It would help greatly to quiet our fears, if we knew who you were fulfilling a commission for," said Aro.
"I'm afraid Edward and I have agreed to complete confidentiality in that regard," said Carlisle. He was conscious of walking along a narrow path bordered on either side by a steep precipice. One false step and either his life or his ideals would end.
"That's very inconvenient," said Aro. "But surely you can give us some shred of information to work with? Some concession in return for our generous trust in you."
Carlisle was silent, it was dangerous but less so than incautious speech.
Aro smiled encouragingly and tilted his head to one side, waiting, with all the patience of eternity.
Edward's eyes widened suddenly and he looked slightly nauseous.
Carlisle sighed. "Aro…," he said reproachfully.
"Yes?" asked Aro innocently.
Edward winced and put his hand over his eyes. Caius seemed to be trying not to laugh.
"Edward already knows you and I used to be in a relationship," said Carlisle, "could you, just please, not torture him with the intimate details?"
"Oh, I am sorry, dear Carlisle" said Aro, smiling sweetly. "It's just that when old friends meet again, it's hard not to remember the past. That delightful way you had of screaming for mercy and then with the next breath begging me not to stop. I always found it so very stimulating."
Carlisle closed his eyes briefly and then looked steadily back at Aro. He understood the implication. He had submitted to Aro once upon a time, why should he not do it again? Aro tilted his head the other way, trying to read him from a distance.
"Enough," said Caius, regaining his look of extreme annoyance. "We know you tried to make contact with the detective and the doctor. We found you outside their home tonight, for goodness sake. And you've been seen hunting them, why should we believe your pathetic lies?"
"Until we have broken the agreement, you cannot restrain our movements or read our minds," said Carlisle, speaking as though from rote memory.
"You have been seen," repeated Caius.
"Alice sees only what might be," said Carlisle evenly, "and she is sometimes wrong."
Aro stood and stepped down from the dais, slowly and carefully. He halted within an inch of Carlisle, their faces close, and regarded him with a thoughtful expression. Carlisle waited, still as death, for the light touch of Aro's fingertips on his face, but none came.
Instead Aro's expression changed gradually from gleeful enjoyment to pure, blank neutrality.
Carlisle looked sickened.
"Aro, please," he whispered, so softly that only Aro could hear.
"For years I have tolerated you and your son," said Aro very quietly in a low measured voice. "Because of the affection I still bear for you, and because the role you play in our society has not been without use to my family. But do not presume too far, dearest. I am perfectly capable of killing that which I love when necessary, never doubt it."
For a split second, Edward caught sight of something in Aro's mind before it was hidden from sight again. A sandy-haired man, human, with an open, honest face, full of humor and questioning scrutiny. He frowned to himself, puzzled at the unexpected discovery.
"I don't doubt it," replied Carlisle, almost in a whisper.
Aro drew back, returning to his seat on the dais. He settled himself again into his regal stance, his hands once more on the arms of his chair.
"You are free to leave, we will not trouble you further while you are in London," he said, with an air of easy authority.
Carlisle and Edward got to their feet cautiously, and then bowed their heads to him.
"Thank you Aro," said Carlisle.
Aro smiled benevolently down at him, and then nodded to Demetri and Heidi.
"What are you playing at, Aro?" Caius hissed as the brothers watched the Cullens and their escort depart.
"I am playing the long game, brother," said Aro, looking straight ahead.
"You do not think you might be over-estimating your human detective's mental abilities?" Marcus said, looking at Aro's set profile with a concerned expression. "Perhaps you should be relying on your own instead."
"If he fails," said Aro quietly, "then we fall. Of this I am certain."
"John, wake up, wake up dammit!"
John's eyelids flew open at last, and his screams cut off at the same time as he stared into Sherlock's face.
"What…? What's happening?"
"You were having a nightmare," said Sherlock, releasing John's shoulders and sitting back on the bed. "You kept shouting something about wanting something gotten off you, nearly broke my nose too."
"Sorry," said John, sitting up. The last thing he remembered was falling asleep on top of the covers, worn out from the day's events. He had a vague sense of the nightmare though, a creature black as night, holding him down with heavy claws, grinning at him with a cruel, beak-like mouth….
"No activity, repeat, no activity," said a deep voice from the doorway, and John looked up to see Felix talking into his mobile. "The hedgehog was having a nightmare, no change to report," Felix continued, and then ended the call with a relieved expression.
"What did you just call me?" demanded John. He was still breathing hard and his throat felt raw.
"Shouldn't you quiet him down?" Felix asked Sherlock. "Cuddle him or something?" It had been a long time since Felix had been a human but he had some latent sense that John was in a bad state and needed comforting.
"Look I'm fine," said John firmly, "don't you have some guarding to do?"
Felix backed out and locked the door, still with a concerned and somewhat helpless expression on his blocky face.
"What time is it?" asked John.
"3 in the morning," said Sherlock, he stretched out on the bed next to John and gazed abstractedly at a point somewhere between the ceiling and the opposite wall.
"Have you slept at all?"
"No."
John turned on his side and smiled coyly at Sherlock. "Would you like a cuddle, then?" he teased.
Sherlock scowled at him, and then his expression changed as he looked at his friend.
"What?" asked John.
"Be careful, John."
"I am careful, I spend all my time running after psychopaths and terrorists, don't I?"
John spoke lightly but Sherlock didn't smile. Instead he glanced around in the direction of the rest of the flat, and put his finger to his lips.
"They can hear every word we're saying, can't they?" whispered John.
Instead of replying, Sherlock took out his mobile and began typing. A moment later John's mobile rang and he took it out.
"You're texting me and I'm in the same room?"
"Just read it, John."
It's the only way to communicate. - SH
"I know it's you," said John, "you don't have to sign it. You're right here."
Shut up and listen to me, John. - SH
Ok, fine. - JW
Aro's going to ask you to become a vampire. I want you think very carefully before replying. - SH
John looked sharply at Sherlock who silently urged him to use his phone.
What? How do you know this? - JW
Alice knows. Alice sees the future based on present intention. That's why she was so excited to meet you. She's seen you and Aro together. - SH
This is crazy. - JW
Is it? You like him, or however you put it. - SH
He's a vampire! - JW
And you're a human. I was teasing you before, but the way he looks at you, I can read signs like that as well as anyone. - SH
Are you really serious? - JW
John looked up at Sherlock.
"I'm perfectly serious."
John chewed his lip in silence for a few minutes. He tried to think of what it would be like to a. be in a relationship with Aro Volturi and b. live as a vampire, but it was hard to reconcile all the gory vampire films he had ever seen with the charming, wide-eyed Aro. Would he really have to drink blood? He'd never be a doctor again, that was for sure. And what was he even thinking of? Willingly turn into a vampire, just for some stupid infatuation?
"John," said Sherlock softly.
John looked at him, forehead creased with worry.
"John, you know I don't have any friends," said Sherlock hesitantly.
"Well I wouldn't go that far…." began John.
"I only have one friend." Sherlock looked meaningfully at him.
John took this in, and then ducked his head, beaming. After all this time, it was good to hear it. He felt a lump in his throat. If he became a vampire, if he became Aro's person or whathaveyou, then it would certainly mean an end to his partnership with Sherlock, at least, as it existed presently.
"Is it confession time then?" asked John.
"No, absolutely not."
"No look, I just want to say, before I met you...I was so alone…." John choked a little with emotion, remembering how cold and hollow he had felt then. "I just want to say, thank you."
Sherlock appeared genuinely touched and then looked away quickly. After a moment, his mobile beeped.
I don't want to become a vampire. - JW
You might, when he asks you. But remember, he's a monster. - SH
I know, he's a vampire. - JW
They're all vampires. I mean he's a monster. I should know, takes one to know one. - SH
John looked over at Sherlock.
"Are you afraid of him?" he asked.
"Just be careful, John," said Sherlock, and lay back on the pillows, closing his eyes and peaking his fingertips under his chin.
John lay back and stared at a spot on the ceiling. Just then, he wouldn't have minded a cuddle.
