Soul Seer
Chapter Eleven
Aro and Caius stared at Amina in pure wonder as she sat atop Marcus, his softening arousal still buried deep inside her. She was their's, she belonged to them. They belonged to her. As well as to each other. It was all so clear now, that neither Aro nor Caius could believe they hadn't seen it before. Something had changed, something significant. However, it felt unimportant at that moment, as the two Kings watched their mates settle down from their love making.
It wasn't until Amina turned back around to face Marcus, that Aro took note of the tattoos on her back. Aro stared at the inked thrones inthralled by their accuracy in depicting each of his brothers gifts, and his own. His attention was drawn away from Amina when Caius moved up into his line of sight. The fair haired king reached out and gently touched the inked skin of their mate. Tracing the lines and shadows of his throne, as he inched ever closer. Letting his lips touch the slightly raised skin of Amina's back, sending a shiver through her as she lay atop Marcus. Aro followed his brother's lead, and laid his hands and lips on their mate's flesh. Touching and tasting her, making her squirm in response to their attentions. Marcus smirks from his position under their little seer, and says,
"Careful brothers, she is still human." Aro ran his hand from the middle of Amina's back to the curve of her buttocks, reveling in the feeling of her skin. Caius growled under his breath as she arced her back into Aro's touch, letting his tongue run along her exposed neck. Marcus purred when Amina tilted her head back even further to allow Caius better access. They were all so absorbed in the presence and feeling of each other, both physically and mentally that no one heard someone knock on the door.
It was only when Felix had called from the other side of the door that the four lovers halted their petting. Caius growled menacingly and flew from the bed in a rage nearly pulling the door off its hinges when he opened it. For his part Felix looked fairly frightened for having incurred the wrath of his master, as he stood outside still as a statue.
"You had best have a good reason for having disturbed us." Caius hissed at the guard, as Aro took Amina from Marcus so that he might dress himself. Felix looked as if he would have been sweating bullets if it had been possible. However, before he could speak Jane came running down the hall saying,
"Master's, Heidi has some information for you and is requesting to see you." Felix looked a bit peeved seeing as how Jane had sent him to inform the masters of this. Though it seems she only had done so to have him take the brunt of their anger at being interrupted. Jane shrugged at Felix and said,
"You were taking to long, besides..." She looked over Caius' shoulder and then lowered her voice, saying,
"Heidi says that what she has found is of great importance in regards to master Marcus' mate." It was at this last comment that all three kings were standing at the door.
Taken slightly aback by how enthusiastic the kings were to learn more about Amina, Jane arced a brow at her masters and simply turned back down the hall with Felix in tow. Aro turned to Marcus and then looked back at the bed, where Amina lay relaxing still completely nude. He watched her as she stretched and curled around the sheets and pillows making him wish he could spend the whole of eternity laying next to her and his brothers. Stripped bare of all shame and secrets knowing there was nothing he or the others could ever do to drive them apart. But alas, he sighed and looked once more at Marcus saying,
"We must see what Heidi has found." He then turned again to Amina as he went on,
"Forgive us for leaving you so abruptly, but..."
"Aro..." Amina interrupted, looking at each of her mates before going on.
"I may not have your impeccable hearing, but I can tell when something has to do with me." She held up her hand for silence when the brothers looked as if they would speak, and went on to explain.
"I'm connected to you now. Though I can't be certain how, or if it is a common thing with vampires and their mates. But, I can feel your uncertainty and reluctance to share what it is that you have had Heidi find for you." She looked around at each one of them, and knew she was right in her feeling and reasoning by the looks of guilt and shame on her mates' faces.
"Normally I would take that as a sign that I should let it be and not ask, but in this case I feel I need to be as close to you as I can possibly be. I have dreamt of you my whole life. There were never any secrets, or feelings of uncertainty between us, and I'm not about to allow it now. Whatever it is you want to know I will tell you, I just hope you will do me the same curtesy." The brothers looked at each other and seemed to come to a silent agreement.
Aro and Marcus moved back to the bed as Caius called for Heidi. When she arrived Caius told her they would no longer need whatever she had found for they had there own source. He looked back at Amina as he said the last bit with just a hint of adoration in his voice. Though he was known for his hot temper and brutality when it came to ruling the vampire world, in this moment he was lenient in his dealing with Heidi. And as soon as she was sent away and the door was once again closed, Amina sat up and held out her arms to him. A small smile appeared on Caius' lips as he closed the distance between them. He let her guide him into a sitting position next to Marcus, who she was leaning back against, with Aro on the other side of her. They all sat in silence for a few moments, just taking in the presence of each other. Finally Aro turned Amina to face him with his fingers on her chin.
"Forgive us, cara mia. We wished to know more about you, and until now...both Caius and myself had no real connection to you, or if we did it was hidden from us. We thought it prudent to do a background check on you to find out if you had a history with your gift, and if there was a possibility that you were a danger to us." He bowed his head is shame once more for thinking such a thing of their mate, even though he didn't know her as such at the time.
He went on,
"If you would do us the honor...the privilege of sharing your history with us in your own words..." Amina smiled and said,
"I can do better then that." She held out her hands to Aro and Caius, and leaned back even further into Marcus saying,
"You remember how when you first touched my skin, you saw your own past as if you were standing with me at a distance? As if you were just an observer as the events of your own life played before us?" All three kings nodded and she went on.
"Well I think I might be able to do it again for you. So that you may see my life from the beginning up to now." She paused and looked a bit afraid as she said,
"Though I've never attempted it conscientiously before, I feel that I could try. However, I have to warn you that the reason I haven't tried this before is because I have seen so much pain and suffering that I would never wish on anyone. So I've kept it to myself as much as I can." She took a deep breath and let it out slowly, like she was preparing to endure a great deal of pain.
"There has only ever been one time I unknowingly allowed someone to see what I've seen." Shivering at the memory she went on.
"The boy ended up in a coma for several days, from just brushing by me when my arms were exposed." Remembering how the boy had gasped for breath, as if he were suffocating from what he was seeing, made Amina cringe. The brothers placed their hands all over her and purred in her ears saying she didn't have to show them anything, but as their hands roamed over her skin they were drawn into their minds.
At first everything was dark as the brothers noted that they were standing together in this collective vision. Slowly the space was lit up and a scene of a small girl with long gloves on her hands and arms as she walked down the all of an overly crowded school. Every so often bumping into other students and seeming to be in a constant state of pain and panic. As they continued to watch the child grow and deal with her gift they saw Amina standing not far from them, watching as well. The brothers came to stand next to their mate as they continued to watch her life as she grew to except her gift. But the most fascinating thing was when she showed them her nightly visions of them. Let them feel what she felt whenever in their presence, and the inspiration for her full back tattoo. It was wondrous.
Then there came her decision to joint the L.A.P.D. and how she had proven herself time and again to be an invaluable asset to the homicide devision. Though at the sight of the suffering their mate endured to give the detectives leads to nearly impossible cases, the brothers wrapped Amina in their protective embrace. That is when they came on her last case. The case of Michael James Lemmings. They watched in horror as Amina went to nearly every crime scene suffered through the tortures as if they were happening to her. Seeing her draw each victim in gruesome detail as their own personal hells were rendered on them by a monster in the guise of a man. Continuing to look on as their mate succumbed to the effects of her gift nearly putting herself in a coma, for she had pushed herself too far in trying to find the murder. Though bedridden and forbidden from reading anything or anyone, she managed to tell her superiors about the black notebook. It was this bit of evidence that lead to Lemmings arrest and eventual conviction on five counts of first degree murder, and one attempted. When the judge's gavel fell it was like a great weight had been lifted off the group of observers, and the brothers held Amina even closer.
It was soon after her release from the hospital that they saw her forced vacation begin and how she came to be in their lovely city. They regretted that she had been overwhelmed by the lingering presence of so much suffering, and a great deal of it by their own hands. Then there came her episode by the garden gate, where Demetri had observed her in the throws of another vision. Amina seemed reluctant to show them what she had seen, but was encouraged by the soft touches and deep rumbling purrs that her mates showered upon her. So the cloudy images of the frightened child came forward. Her abduction from the main road, being pulled and tugged harshly until she was standing in front of the garden gate. The door was open and a vision of an angel lay before her in the full light of the afternoon sun. Shining as if her skin were made of millions of gems, all gleaming and shimmering that left the child certain that she had been blessed by God to witness such beauty. That thought was torn from her quit violently, however, when a guard appeared and her capture claimed that she had found lady Didyme in the company of a human. The child was in a panic as the woman told the guard to deal with Didyme quickly before more harm could be done. The brother's could tell the guard was quick to obey meaning the woman had to be of higher rank then he, if not completely above reproach. The brothers watched in barely concealed horror and sorrow as Didyme was torn apart and set aflame. It was then that the child's throat was ripped open, and she was left there in the alley to die of blood loss with a look of pure fear on her face.
There was a brief reprieve from the visions as they noted Amina's visit to the Hospital and then fetching her to the castle. Her feeling of being complete even as she slept and dreamed of her soul mates. Then there came her tour of the castle, and her compulsion to explore the throne room. Her shock and amazement at seeing the thrones she had known in her dreams, and the hope that she would soon meet the ones who sat upon those thrones. Soon she was interrupted by Sulpicia, and as the woman spat her hateful words at Amina, she soon came to a horrifying realization that she had seen this vampire before. And little flashes of the child in the alley gave the brothers all they needed to see why Amina was soon shouting of treachery. But it was the appearance of Athenodora that triggered her final vision. A vision of the two queens before their journey to become the new consorts of the Volturi kings, they were given a gift by their true master Vlad Dracula. Three rings of power to be given to each of the kings as a gift of good will that held a sinister secret and would add them in the mission. What that may be or what the ultimate goal was, Amina had no clue, but she saw these women being excepted easily into the Volturi. Then later having the scare of Didyme possibly knowing of their plans, and there in plotting and carrying out their plan for her death using the kings' own law of secrecy as their screen. It had nearly torn Amina's heart apart to see and feel the callous and cruelty from these women costing Didyme her life and tearing her mates apart with grief. She let rage take her over as she called them Dracula's Whores, hoping against hope someone would listen to her and believe what she was saying.
Everything was dark for a few moments then the four lovers awoke in a large pile of limbs, with their arms wrapped around each other which had made the visions so vivid. It was mer seconds before they all remembered what they had witnessed, and how at this very moment the cause of so much grief and suffering was living within the castle in the form of the two Volturi Queens. The brothers threw back their heads and roared to the rafters in pure unadulterated rage. All within the castle heard them and were both shocked and afraid, very afraid. But none more so then Sulpicia and Athenodora, who looked at each other and new that if they ever wanted to see another day they would need to leave immediately.