Didyme sighed. "Where do I sign up?" She asked, removing what clothing she could, before Marissa snapped her fingers, making most of his clothing disappear. Didyme gasped. "Marissa! A little warning." Marissa looked over to see Didyme staring at the wall, flushed a mottled red. She looked to Aro, to the angry red scars littering his body, particularly one that disappeared up his left leg. Didyme looked to Marissa whose face was ashen and fists were tightly clenched together. "You didn't know…"
Madame Euryale chose that moment to walk in the door. "If you two biddies aren't going to help then get out." She said brusquely. "Marissa, I know that you want to be his caretaker, but the immediate help that needs to be done, you can't stay in here for. You will intervene, and I will bind you. Go. Now!" She pushed Marissa out of the room. "Didyme, I know he's your brother but if you can't stand the sight of a naked man, I question your motives in healing." Didyme looked shaken. "But what you can do, do so. I will handle the major wounds." With that Madame Euryale removed all his clothes.
"Christ." Didyme swore. "Why?"
"Turin was a blood mage. He grew stronger off of the centaur blood within Aro." What she did was by no means quick. What Didyme thought would only take a few minutes ended up taking several hours. Each cut, each little scratch and each gaping wound was required to be cleansed and then healed, stitched up with magic, even the one on his leg, and the ones on his back required lengthy amounts of time, not to mention the earlier mage wounds which took time as well as much magic to purify and heal.
Marissa had seated herself outside Aro's room, curled up with a blanket and a hot cup of tea thanks to Abraxas, who was sitting beside her. Every time Aro screamed, Marissa just kind of sank farther into the quilt, and an occasional sniffle could be heard from within her little fortress. Finally, the mage could have been found sleeping on Abraxas' shoulder after the span of a couple of hours.
When she awoke, Aro was asleep. Didyme and Madame Euryale were cleaning up and Marissa only blinked owlishly at them before nodding off again. She was awoken in the middle of the night to Aro thrashing about in his sleep. Forgetting her blanket momentarily, she rose, resting her hands on his shoulder softly. "Ari. Wake up." He stilled at the sound of her voice, whimpering. She kissed the side of his head softly. "Wake up, love. It's just a dream. I'm here for you." He rolled over to look up at her, his eyes frightened even in the dark. She slipped between the sheets, resting her hands on his bare chest. "It's alright, Ari." He nodded, not speaking a word, but wrapped his arms around her, pulling her close to him, ignoring his body's protests of pain.
"Stay with me." He whispered, his voice parched.
"You know I will." She said softly, kissing his forehead again. He closed his eyes, nestling against her, seeking out the warmth of her skin. "Aristeo… I don't know what happened down in that base, and I won't push you for it. I trust that you will come to me in time and tell me, and if you don't that's ok too. I will always remain by your side, my love. Always. You are mine, and I am yours. Yours alone." Aro realized that she was referring to Jane, and though now he was not oblivious to it now, the damage had already been done.
"I will take care of you, Ari. If you need me, I am there. I am to remain here, at your side, always and forever. Though I may have a herd to maintain, I have a duty to my mate, and to our daughter first and foremost. If that means that I leave my herd to a more capable centaur, then so be it. If it means just temporary leave until you are of full strength again, then so be it. It's not that I just care deeply and intimately about you, Ari. I love you. I would have given everything to see you not go through the pain that you did. I was ready to give up my very magic, my entire immortality if it meant that you were to live." He nuzzled her softly, unable to speak, unable to find his voice.
"Go to sleep, my love. When you wake, I will still be here." He was strangely compliant with her orders, but she supposed that a month in torture and captivity did that to him. What she hadn't seen, she would get from Madame Euryale and Didyme in the morning. She had a feeling that once she talked to the two healers that Jane wouldn't last a lickity-split second in that Volturi dungeon cell. Abraxas said that some twenty centaurs and ten vampires were protecting that cell. Not that anything could be done. Jane was bound, hands, feet, and neck in the magical chains of Hecate, that only Hecate or the offspring of Hecate could remove. Plus she was muzzled. There was no telling what a necromancer would try to do with incantations alone.
She closed her eyes, feeling Aro's heart beating against his skin. Eight years ago, this man would have damned the nearest vampire human hybrid he had come across. He would have chased a gifted human or vampire to the ends of the earth to get what he wanted. Now, he was a vampire centaur hybrid. Now he was one of the creatures he thought might have been too dangerous to exist. Now he was kind; he was caring. And he had been hurt, and was reliant on someone else to care for him. Marissa wondered if he would ever truly be the same great man as once he was. Not that it mattered to her; she would stay with him forever and always.