A/N: - This chapter is a little more serious. As the covens gather, many things come to light xx Alexis
I am going with book description of Demetri, not the movie version, I've extended the timeline in this story and it's around 2015 now. Also breaking up this chapter, unlike the rest as it jumps around a little xx Alexis
Villa Paradiso Cont
Life in Volterra carried on regardless for everyone else, Charlotte had introduced Bella to her mates, Jasper and Peter. They took a liking to the girl right away and were happy Charlotte had now made some serious long term female friends. They were not totally blind to her occasional loneliness and were happy that she was feeling more fulfilled.
' Wow, how does Char cope with all that male hotness on a daily basis? Hell if it were me I'd never get out of bed!'
Demetri had been officially introduced to the elusive Bella and he was beyond besotted, this amused the others greatly, as he got tongue tied around her and often put his foot in his mouth, making so many double entendre's it was safer for him to keep it shut. Bella was no better, blurting out her uncensored thoughts to all and sundry.
"It will be my pleasure to have you, Miss Swan... I mean here in Volterra" was his opening gambit,
followed swiftly by her "No the pleasures been all mine so far, you didn't need to get dressed on my account!" If vampires could blush he would have.
'In fact please do take it all off! Please, Pretty Please!'
She spent so much time after that growling quietly at any woman that spoke to him, even when it was work related, her friends had eventually pulled her aside and told her to man up or shut up. Two weeks of watching the two of them circle each other cautiously was driving them all mad.
Demetri didn't want to rush her after the Heidi debacle, he certainly didn't want her to think she was just any other female in his life. But Bella wanted him to just grab her and kiss the ever loving shit out of her, so they were getting nowhere fast and it was making them both antsy.
But not all was sunshine and roses in Volterra, the outlying covens were gathering for the trials in two more weeks, these events were a cross between a wedding and a funeral in the human world, meeting up with friends and family who hadn't been seen for years, even centuries in some cases.
Demetri made a point of introducing Bella to Amun his sire, his mate Kebi and his new brother and sister Ben and Tia. Bella smiled sweetly then said,
"I'd introduce you to my sire, but I killed the fucker! Man was he a douche bag"
Amun was stunned and Kebi a little frightened of Bella and her modern language and attitude. Ben was impressed that she was the antithesis of Demetri and Tia in awe of her strength and apparent fearlessness. Everyone, he introduced her to realised immediately that she was his mate, even if they hadn't declared themselves yet.
PIWTID
In the upper holding rooms, Aro had just left the cell of the prisoner from Demetri's latest mission, he was almost forgotten in the chaos that Heidi inspired. The poor unfortunate soul didn't even know his own name, he had been just another abandoned newborn, now as a nomad he'd run amok due to lack of 'Parental Guidance' in the beginning.
They used this for want of a better term, maybe it should be called 'Sire Abuse', but having read him Aro was no further forward, he had not seen his attacker and the scent was unknown to the King, but someone might recognise it. As usual, in cases like this, they would be taken to the great hall and all the others would not only see but smell him and hopefully give them a lead.
All vampires had the underlying scent of their maker, you just had to separate the two to make a connection, sometimes it was so subtle that it only became apparent when side by side. His memories showed nothing of his past as they were lost to the burn.
This problem was getting out of hand in America, they seemed to think their deeds would go unseen, unpunished by the Volturi. Several who'd been caught in the past didn't even know they existed or that vampires had laws too. This should be addressed soon, maybe before the trial, while many other covens were here Aro thought and made a note to discuss it with his brothers. After leaving the unknown prisoner he signalled a guard to take him to the hall.
PIWTID
Aro walked past the cell door of Carlisle, he lay on his side facing away from the door curled in a ball. Aro stood quietly watching the vampire before him, having read his every thought already he was trying hard to grasp what had changed him so much. Aro remembered well, the barely twenty years Carlisle had spent here in Volterra, this was during the end of the seventeenth century and at the beginning of the eighteenth.
He was just a young vampire then, not even seventy years into this life. So really three hundred more years had passed since then and wrought this devastating change on him. His dream of a perfectly integrated into human society coven had become an obsession in its place. Aro alone knew, to what depths Carlisle had sunk since last they'd met.
How this was not the first coven he'd made, just that they had lasted the longest without being destroyed by him. So between leaving Volterra and changing Edward, two hundred and eleven years had passed and in that time he had tried three other times to make a coven.
1728 - 1753 lasting only twenty-five years, was the first. They were all women as he was at that time unsure he could control a male vampire. This coven failed because he used them all, they were more like concubines than a family and the latter two killed the first turned and then fought each other for supremacy. Carlisle killed the third himself in disgust, that they dared to ruin his experiment.
1780 - 1812 this time surviving thirty-two years, there were eventually three of them once again. The first and second were male and all was well until the third, a female was turned and then mated to the first and they wished to leave. Carlisle destroyed them for this perceived insult and their lack of respect. When he decided to kill the remaining male so he could start his experiment over again, he had fled and survived until 1920 when killed by another vampire called James.
And then finally 1830 - 1875 this experiment lasting the longest for forty-five years, not because it worked but because Carlisle refused to concede defeat and kept replacing ones he'd either killed himself or had been killed by another of his coven. He never seemed to grasp that the adults he turned would never act as the children he wanted, he was centuries too soon for that. So in a fit of pique one day he killed them all and left only to once again turn his life into a living hell.
Starting all over again in 1918 with Edward. That was a grave error, when he realised the boy was a mind reader Carlisle should have disposed of him then, at the beginning. But he was more attached to Edward than any other in the past and the boy knew all his dirty little secrets and blackmailed him with the threat of exposure, to save his own worthless skin. Especially since Carlisle had now found his own mate in Esme and would never, ever explain to her his past.
Alice was his nemesis, she knew nothing of this due to her having no memory of her human life, but she really was clinically insane and had been placed in the asylum by Carlisle himself. He had had an affair with a human woman and Mary-Alice was the result, killing her biological mother at her birth, Carlisle watched her grow and saw her insanity grow as well.
So as a doctor getting a job in the asylum and then placing Little Mary-Alice there was easy. All the strange treatments poor Mary-Alice had endured, were at the hand of her own father, whether to make her better or ensure her inability to recognise him only Carlisle could say, Aro thought maybe he didn't really know himself anymore.
Carlisle had stayed with Mary-Alice for ten years before distancing himself and assured she would never remember him or her past left the asylum to go to work in Chicago. What he never expected were two separate things. Her being a singer to the vampire known as James the tracker and Carlisle's own creation from his second coven changing her to spite Carlisle and save her from James, but sadly losing his own life in the process.
So when she turned up at his door with Jasper what could he do, once Edward knew the truth and threatened to tell either Esme or the Volturi, or both depending on how cruel he was feeling, Carlisle was trapped in a nightmarish world of his own making.
Aro turned shaking his head, he had much to discuss with his brothers, unsure for the first time whether he should reveal all or not, he needed their counsel and thoughts now, before the trial began in only two weeks time.
PIWTID
"Demetri? You're not Egyptian are you?" Bella quizzed the tracker as they walked outside in the beautiful gardens that Didyme had created and now Marcus kept up, as a reminder of his lost love.
"No gatáki, I'm Greek, from the Isle of Rhodes actually. Why?" he asked patiently,
"I just wondered, you seem nothing like the rest of Amun's coven" she offered as an explanation.
Demetri told her all about the battle between the Egyptian Coven and the Volturi in 600 AD, not to be confused with Amun's coven, this was an entirely different beast. They were more like a loosely linked coven spread across the Nile lands. How they felt themselves Gods among the peoples of the Nile and did not wish to give this up after so many centuries.
But the Volturi had recently overthrown the Romanian leaders who had a large fighting force, which the Egyptians never felt the need for, slaves yes, soldiers no. So Amun and Kebi joined the Volturi with a few other minor members and many of the others were killed, but Aro held a feeling of mistrust for Amun.
He was proved right when Amun tried to build a power base of his own starting with Demetri, who he'd helped to enhance his tracking ability, then more gifted vampires followed until the Volturi once more descended and Demetri now the best tracker in the known vampire world was taken. Amun's this time personal coven was smashed leaving him and Kebi alone once more. He maybe one of the oldest vampires in existence, but also now one of the weakest.
The Egyptians had all thrived on abject devotion and the mass slavery of the peoples of the Nile, but if they had looked to the future, not just their present day to day comforts, maybe they would have taken on the rule the vampire world. They had, had so much time before the Romanians appeared and centuries more before the Volturi to do something, but instead did nothing but live in the moment.
'There is so much I don't know about my world! It is almost incomprehensible how old some of these vampires are, does anyone know who is the oldest I wonder?'
"Do you miss Greece, you still speak the language sometimes? Would you like to return one day?" Bella inquired,
"Oh, I have gone back many times over the years, but so much has changed, then again so much has remained the same, I kardiá mou " Demetri mused.
"So if I opened a Paradise Hotel on Rhodes, what would it be called in Greek?" she asked, shocked at the thought, where had that come from.
"Ah, that would be Parádeisos Xenodocheio, is that something you would like to do Ómorfo?" He asked with baited breath, why did that excite him so?
"Yes, yes I would and also one day I'm going to insist you tell me what it is you keep calling me!" Bella said happily before bidding him farewell as she left to join Esme and Charlotte in the Citadel, Jane was away with work today, unfortunately.
She was slowly walking along the corridors, unconsciously rubbing her chest and thinking about Demetri, how she'd love to run her fingers through his silky black hair, how she wished he would let it loose, like when he was sparring, he'd looked fresh from the shower that day and so sexy.
'Lickable, no kissable, oh, I know biteable! Shit, is this what being horny, feels like? It's like a damned itch I can't reach! Arrgh!'
Often he wore it in a clubbed affair like British soldiers had to protect their necks from sabre slashes, sometimes instead of the little bag of sand, they hid valuables or money there. Was it a defence from being bitten she wondered, what was hidden in his hair to protect him?
Now she rushed on trying not to think about Demetri, what was easier said than done. Entering the great hall Bella came to a grinding halt, there chained by one ankle stood the unknown vampire and Bella scrunched up her nose, then taking a deep breath roared,
"What the fuck!" to no one in general,
Demetri who had been following her at a discreet distance, mainly because being too far from her was becoming quite painful, rushed forward taking his love in his arms as if to protect her from some unknown assailant.
"What is it? What's wrong? Ómorfo, speak to me!" he demanded.
"Who is that?" she asked pointing at the prisoner he had brought back from his last mission in America.
"The prisoner I brought back, why? Do you know him? Do you recognise his scent?" he rattled off, upset that she was upset.
"Not his scent, the other one, the undertone, it's his! That pervert who changed me it's his!" Bella whispered, lifting her shield over Demetri, "See, can you smell it now?"
Regrettably, all Demetri could smell was her for the first time, she was overwhelming him with the need to claim her there, right there, right now and he started to half purr, half growl and nuzzle her neck. Demetri was shaking with desire and Bella was slightly concerned, his eyes were black and his grip on her had tightened to an almost painful level.
'Fuck! What's wrong with him? Do I smell bad, oh wait he's purring, so do I smell good?'
"Miss Bella Ma'am? You need to lift your shield and release him, slowly, please try to keep it up so we can smell your scent too, Darlin' alright" a southern drawl informed her from the left of them. Bella nodded and slowly peeled back her shield as Jasper sent calming vibes to Demetri.
As Demetri came back to himself he felt, ashamed, embarrassed and aghast, so stuttering an apology to Bella rushed from the room leaving her feeling lost and confused. She made to follow and Jasper laid his hand on her arm,
"Give him a few minutes, he feels unworthy, thinks he was overreactin', might I suggest you try to keep your shield up, let him get used to your scent like normal couples do. You nearly got yourself in a fix there Darlin', you trapped him inside your shield and all he could smell was you, pure concentrated you" he said quietly,
letting her take in what had happened and what might have been the consequence if Demetri hadn't been such a strong willed vampire, but it had been touch and go for a minute. Charlotte rushed to her and explained how suddenly swamping Demetri like that was like throwing an alcoholic in a vat of whiskey.
"Okay, ladies, time out, now Suga' it appears you dun got the same sire as our boy here so, what's the deal there?" Peter asked looking from the chained guy to Bella.
So without further preamble, Bella told them all about her start in this life, how Laurent thought he was going to use her as a sex slave, how she got all the information out of him then torched him and then James after saving Victoria. In fact her whole story until arriving there in Volterra.
There was utter silence and then the chained prisoner said,
"Thank you thank you. Bella, is that your name? I am proud to call you my little sister" Bella rushed to his side,
"Hello my big brother, welcome to the Paradise Coven, Now what the fuck are we going to call you?" she blurted out and everyone laughed, including Demetri who stood just out of her sight in the doorway, so proud of his mate, but how did he make it up to her for nearly taking her innocence there in the great hall, in full view of everyone.
gatáki (γατάκι) - kitten (Greek)
I kardiá mou (η καρδιά μου) - my heart (Greek)
Parádeisos Xenodocheio (Παράδεισος Ξενοδοχειο) - Paradise Hotel (Greek)
Ómorfo (Όμορφο) - Beautiful one (Greek)
