John let out a shuddering sigh of relief when light and sound and physical sensation flooded back to him. After enduring what had seemed to be an endless dark silence, without any idea when it might end or even if it might end, he felt as though a blindfold had been pulled from his entire body. It took him a moment to take in enough sensory input to understand where he was or what he was doing.
"What?" he gasped, feeling the hard concrete of the floor and the surface of the wall behind his back. He got an impression of a dimly-lit basement of some kind before Aro came into focus, sitting next to him, beautiful solid Aro, his dark hair and pale features like a lighthouse in a storm.
"Try not to move suddenly," Aro murmured without looking at John. "Not while you're in their line of sight."
John looked in the direction of Aro's gaze and a chill ran through him. The two children stood silent and watchful before them, eerily out of place in their school uniforms. The boy tall, dark, and disdainful. The girl shorter, blond, with a frighteningly intense expression in her large, mascara-rimmed eyes.
"Who are they?" whispered John.
"The Romanii Twins," said Aro, he smiled affectionately, still watching them. "Jane and Alec. They're much older than they appear. When they were human, their village thought they were witch children and tried to burn them at the stake. The Romanii masters had been monitoring them and were able to prevent this by turning them in time. They are the most talented of the Romanii coven." He tilted his head to one side and regarded the children with honest admiration.
"We've been knocked out…how?" said John, nervously glancing back at their captors. He didn't see weapons of any kind.
"That was Alec," said Aro. "His talent is to block the senses. And Jane's talent…well Jane is really quite extraordinary…." Aro drew out the syllables of this last word is a caressing hiss. John could see Jane react to it, a flicker of emotion running over her face before she caught herself and her expression returned to its mask-like appearance.
"Our masters will be here soon," said Alec coldly. "Save your breath, old man."
Aro smiled fondly at him and then back at the girl.
"Did you know I wanted to turn you and your brother, Jane?" said Aro.
John shivered a little, sensing the change in Aro's voice. The man was like a magnet, using his voice and his body to draw his prey in. He had used his attractive powers on John a fair bit already, enough for John to recognize it when he saw it. Now Aro was going to charm his way past a couple of psychotic Children of the Damned as though even they could fall at his feet. He really was a manipulative bastard.
"He's lying, Jane, don't listen to him," said the boy. The girl only stared at Aro like a deer in headlights.
"It wasn't just the Romanii masters who took an interest in you. We were watching you both for years, your talent was apparent even while you were human. We waited because I wanted you to get a chance to grow up, but circumstances were against us, and the Romanii got to you first. There has not been a day since that I do not regret the lost opportunity of making you mine."
"Shut up, or I'll make you," Alec snarled. John watched Aro tensely, wishing he wasn't antagonizing the boy quite so much. Did he have to divide them? Was the girl that much more powerful than her brother that it was worth it to lure her in first?
Aro's expression was one of complete and total sincerity, his wide, mesmerizing eyes fixed on Jane. "I would have loved you, you know, as my own daughter," he said, his voice soft and warmly insinuating. "You would never have felt alone again. You would have had a true family to protect and comfort you."
Jane took a faltering step toward Aro and for a moment whatever he was planning seemed to be working.
"Jane!" snapped her brother, and the sound seemed to bring her back to reality.
She stopped and her eyes turned hard. It was far easier to hurt the object of her love than to admit the possibility of being loved in return, and she did know how to hurt so well.
"Pain," she said, in a clear, bell-like voice.
Aro jerked a little, and shut his eyes tightly, gritting his teeth. John reached out to him instinctively but stopped himself from touching him, he didn't know what would happen if he did, if it would make it worse or if whatever was emanating from the girl would reach him as well.
Aro's entire body was tense and straining, his fists clenched against the concrete floor. John watched in horror as hair-line cracks spidered out over Aro's skin and the skin itself was turning slightly greyish.
John looked back at Jane, her intense gaze fixed on Aro. He didn't know what she was doing to Aro, but it was clear she had no intention of stopping until Aro was well and truly wrecked.
Aro began to choke softly, struggling to repress his cries of agony and succeeding only in producing an intolerable strangling sound, the cracks in his skin spreading wider.
"Stop it!" shouted John, "can't you see you're killing him?!"
Jane smiled cruelly and kept her eyes fixed on Aro.
John made a calculated decision, Aro had warned about being in their line of sight. Both twins seemed to need to look directly at their victims. He rose stiffly to his feet and before Alec could react, stepped between the vampire girl and Aro, blocking Aro from her sight.
The pain hit him immediately. It was like nothing he had ever experienced, not even when he had been wounded in Afghanistan. It was like being plunged into fire, a fire that consumed until all was destroyed, and then consumed the nothingness that was left. He screamed and went on screaming until he passed out. A second darkness, this one mercifully without awareness.
"Another miscalculation on the part of your masters?" Sherlock inquired casually, smoothing down his dark curls after the wild run over London's rooftops with his two bodyguards.
Renata and Felix choose not to respond directly to the provocation, although Renata made a low growling noise under her breath.
Sherlock looked curiously around as they moved through the dimly-lit corridor. There was some feeling of antiquity to the space the guards were leading him down, but the construction was recent. Despite the blurring speed of their arrival in this place, he knew they were underground, most likely a passageway between safe houses, a subterranean network that would allow the vampires free movement underneath the city even in daylight.
He wasn't very surprised then when Felix pushed open a set of double-doors and they entered a high-ceilinged room filled with desks, computer screens, and conference tables, all the trappings of a prosperous organization's command center, and populated by a large number of well-dressed vampires, all of whom paused in their work and looked sharply towards the new arrivals, or rather at Sherlock specifically, some of them flaring their nostrils and covering their mouths.
Sherlock straightened his coat with a smug smile. "Like what you see?" he inquired.
"Mr. Holmes." The massively tall form and rasping voice of Aro's brother Marcus loomed over Sherlock. Instantly the other vampires in the room returned to their various activities with an attention that was far too intense to be true.
"Mr. Volturi," said Sherlock, losing his smugness as his eyes darted over the vampire and then took in several monitor screens behind him. "I take it your friends the Romanii have John and Aro."
Marcus looked behind him to the screens and then back to Sherlock. "It is unfortunate," he said. "We do not believe the Romanii intend to escalate matters so far as to destroy Aro. But they have ways of gaining information that they will want to try anyway, given the chance."
"Ways they would have tried on me tonight if their plan of attack had succeeded, now they must make do with the lesser prize" said Sherlock. He started moving around the room and peering at various seemingly unconnected things. Marcus and his bodyguards trailed him, Marcus silencing the protests of the vampires who suddenly found Sherlock underfoot with a inclination of his head or motion of his hand, effortlessly controlling the pit of blood-thirsty vipers that Sherlock was unconcernedly poking around in.
"Aro can withstand their torture," said Marcus dryly. "We are worried about your colleague however. I'm afraid it is against this possibility that my brother Caius counseled killing both of you."
"And that simply shows how little three thousand years of experience can remedy an essential stupidity of the mind," said Sherlock, wheeling on Marcus, his hands clasped behind his back. He came closer, his face barely inches from the vampire's. "You as well, with your talent, I would have expected better." He snapped off the word better in Marcus's face and waited, unmoving, for the response.
The other vampires reacted to Sherlock's open defiance of the Volturi master with unmasked shock, a few hissing in surprise.
Marcus gazed evenly back at Sherlock for a long moment. Then he folded his arms and nodded slowly. "Their bond," he said, his voice even deeper and rasping than before. "And yours. Doctor Watson is indeed very loyal in his loves."
Sherlock said nothing, only turned away, keeping eye contact with Marcus as he did so, until he was facing the woman who had arrived noiselessly and was standing behind him.
The woman was very young, a mass of dark hair, thick dark eyebrows, a pretty face and small figure. She looked like a nice person, not in the least threatening or even that important.
"How interesting," breathed Sherlock. "You really are a fascinating enigma, aren't you?"
The woman tilted her head to one side, a gesture she shared with her brother, although the quirked, amused eyebrow was all her own. "I'm not sure what you're talking about," said Didyme Volturi.
"Oh you know exactly what I mean," said Sherlock, getting close to her and looking smugly down at her upturned face. "At first I thought Alice was Aro's secret weapon, but I see now I was completely mistaken."
"I'm afraid my wife is not a weapon, secret or otherwise," growled Marcus, putting a hand on Sherlock's shoulder and smoothly drawing him back.
"Damn," muttered Sherlock, "I knew I was missing something. You're not actually all related, are you?"
"Aro is my true brother," said Didyme, "Marcus and Caius were our foster brothers."
Sherlock leaned forward, getting his face close to Didyme again despite Marcus's restraining hand. "Aro is your brother, so tell me, why does he think he should kill you?"
Didyme's mild expression faltered.
"No," Sherlock continued. "Not kill, contain. What does an innocent child like you have for a talent that would make Aro even contemplate tearing your head off?"
Didyme leaned forward, her large eyes locking with Sherlock's in an expression that was definitely not that of an innocent child.
"Shut. The. Hell. Up," she said, over-articulating each syllable.
John woke more slowly this time. His eyelids hurt when he tried to open his eyes and for a few moments he could only lie there, his head against the soothingly cool surface (the floor?) that he was lying on. As more awareness of his body seeped in, the oddness of this surface increased, it seemed to be everywhere around him, supporting and pressing against him. Moving was going to be a problem, everything hurt for one thing. Also he didn't want to disturb whatever he was lying against. He felt protected, and warm despite the coolness.
Consciousness set in completely and John's eyelids fluttered open. He saw something black, different shades, cloth, and…hair? He struggled a little to sit up and the same coolness restrained him.
"Shhh," said Aro gently. "Stay still."
Aro's face, paler than usual in the dim light, looked down at him anxiously. And John realized finally where he was, still in the basement their captors had brought them to, and lying on the floor cradled in Aro's arms, his head against the vampire's chest.
"Touching," said a man's voice mockingly. "What kind of message would it send to your coven, do you think, if we drained him and left him on his own doorstep? No place is safe, perhaps?"
"Your quarrel is not with humans," said Aro, his voice soft. His arms tightened possessively around John.
"No, you're right, however since our quarrel is with you, anything and everything of yours is fair game, is it not?" A different voice this time. Both sounded somewhat foreign, some undefinable European accent.
John struggled again, his limbs working better this time, and managed to lever himself up enough to see who they were talking to. Stefan and Vladimir, the fake Interpol agents, standing in front of them with the twins waiting deferentially behind. The two men definitely looked more sinister in this context, particularly since their eyes were now a deep, rich red. Was that what all their eyes looked like? Even Aro's? It was enough to scare the daylights out of anyone, the eyes of demons and predators.
"What do you hope to gain here?" asked Aro, continuing in the same soft tone. "We both know your victory cannot be assured simply by killing me."
"It would certainly advance it," said the first one, the younger albino.
"It would mean open warfare and the involvement of other covens," returned Aro.
"How about if we crack your brain open and make you tell us all your secrets?" said the second one, older and dark. "That would most certainly advance our cause."
"I respect Jane's abilities with all my heart," said Aro, "but surely you don't expect me to break under torture?"
"We might torture your human pet," said the albino.
"John doesn't know anything of real importance."
John involuntarily shifted a little in panic. He wasn't sure if he'd survive Jane's talent a second time. He sincerely hoped Aro had a plan, and that it involved everyone getting out alive.
"John doesn't need to know anything," said the second one in a sing-songy voice. He came closer and leaned close to Aro. "John just needs to suffer while you watch until you break down and tell us what we want to know."
John sucked in his breath sharply as the Romanii master seized his shirt sleeve in his fist. Aro's hands moved in a blur and closed around the back of John's head and his jaw, poised to twist.
"I won't let him be tortured to death," said Aro slowly and evenly. "And I will not tell you what you want to know."
The Romanii's hand remained twisted in the material of John's shirt and Aro's hands remained around his head. John's breath came in short gasps. He closed his eyes tightly, bracing himself for the quick jerk of Aro's hands, the crack, the nothingness, irreparable this time.
Then suddenly there was a rush of movement in the room, dark shadows blurred, struck, crashed into the walls. There was a high-pitched scream as Jane's talent hit someone and then a sound like a metallic shrieking that surely couldn't be a voice. Aro's hands shifted and he pulled John to his feet, backing him away from the action and up against the nearest wall, trying to shield him with his body. John's heart was beating fast and he had to hold onto Aro for support as his body felt weak and shaky. For an improbable moment, their faces were close, close enough to kiss if they wanted to, if they weren't in the middle of a battle.
The sounds of fighting died down, Aro stepped away and surveyed the remains of the fight. The Romanii masters had disappeared, along with the boy, but the girl remained, or what was left of her. Three people stood, waiting respectfully for Aro. The pinstriped young man John remembered from the Volturi Building, and two shockingly beautiful women. At their feet were various parts of Jane, still twitching. John had seen similar sights in Afghanistan, people torn apart by bombs, but this was different, there was a surprising lack of blood for one thing.
Aro bent down and lifted one of the pieces gently. Jane's blond head. He held it carefully, stroking the disarranged hair.
John looked at it sharply, surprised to see that Jane's eyes were open and aware, even though her face seemed to be paralyzed.
"Is she…is she still alive?" he asked.
"Oh yes," said Aro. He smiled reassuringly at John. "We can put her back together. She'll be good as new in a few days." He handed the head to the nearest woman. "Pack her up," he said, "and let my brothers know I am well." He motioned to John and started heading for the door.
"We can just walk out of here?" John said disbelievingly. "They're not waiting for us?"
"My guard have this place surrounded, we're perfectly safe now," said Aro. "Come, we should get you to my family. Your flat is a little more open to attack than we anticipated so you'll have to stay with us for a while."
They exited the basement through a circuitous series of steps and hallways, emerging at last into the night, a wide alleyway with the street beyond. John took a deep breath, it was a relief to be above ground again, in the light of streetlamps, among human habitation.
Aro was watching him with a thoughtful expression. "That was very brave of you, protecting me from Jane," he said.
John smiled. "And now you say 'but it was also very stupid'."
"No," said Aro, still thoughtful. "Just brave."
He looked at John for a moment more and then turned and started to walk in the direction of the street, but John had really had enough.
"Aro…" he said, grabbing at Aro's sleeve and stopping him.
John wasn't sure what he was going to say after that but Aro seemed to understand anyway. He wheeled back on John and seizing his face in his hands, kissed him, a fully realized kiss, their lips fitting effortlessly together and John's hands slipping upwards into Aro's thick hair.
They might be in terrible danger still, and no place was truly safe, but that could all go to hell as far as John was concerned.