"Here we go again," I sighed as I threw myself into Aro's arms.

He lightly kissed my jaw before wrapping his arms around my shoulders and holding me close to him. I could feel him purring beside my ear and found myself purring in response.

"Please, always listen to Caius and stay safe, cara mia," he murmured, a slight desperation to his tone.

I nodded. "I'm so safe, I love being safe, being safe is my speciality," I giggled.

He pulled back and raised a perfect eyebrow at me. "Are you truly attempting to convince me that you are safe? Eliana, you are not only a hazard to your own health but also the health of those around you," he laughed.

I frowned. "Lies."

"Whatever you say," he chuckled, holding my face in his hands and kissing the top of my head.

I stepped over to Marcus, who had Amethyst held in his arms. She'd been fed only a few minutes earlier so she'd now taken to glancing around at her surroundings alertly and making little grunting noises.

Being mindful of not flattening the baby, I placed one arm around Marcus and hugged him on one side. "Bye Marcus," I whispered.

His lips brushed against my jaw and then up to my lips. "Take care, tesoro."

"Promise me you'll both look after Amethyst?" I glanced between both Marcus and Aro.

Marcus glanced down at the child in his arms and smiled warmly at her, lightly stroking her cheek. "We swear it."

I felt an arm surround my waist from behind and a hand on my arm, pulling me backwards towards the car. "That is quite enough of this melodramatic goodbye for one day, carissima," Caius said. "We will return tomorrow."

"But I'm not ready!" I called, unnecessarily stretching my arms out towards my other two mates as Caius dragged me to the car.

"Yes you are," he chuckled, allowing me to climb into the backseat first, followed by him.

I could hear Marcus' deep yet quiet voice from inside the car. "Brother, look after Eliana," Marcus warned.

"Obviously I will," Caius grumbled, not even turning around as he closed the car door. "Miserable old sod," he muttered.

"Isn't that you?" I teased. He glared at me, his eyes hard and unimpressed. "I'll shut up now."

As usual, Demetri was in the driver's seat. I wasn't exactly sure what his thing was with always being the chauffer, since I couldn't really recall anyone else ever driving us. Well, except Caius, but he always seems to have a little fit of road rage on every journey we went on.

At first, I wasn't sure why we weren't leaving yet, but that became apparent when Felix opened the door and enthusiastically yeeted himself into the car, making the entire vehicle wobble underneath us. It was only a matter of time before one of the tyres burst.

"Operation Rescue Eli's Cat from the Clutches of Evil Children of the Moon is a-go!" Felix hollered.

Caius narrowed his eyes. "Felix, you will refer to my mate with her correct title, is that understood?" he sneered.

Felix glanced down and his lips narrowed. "Yes, Master. My deepest apologies, Master. What I meant to say was Operation Rescue Master Eliana's Cat from the Clutches of Evil Children of the Moon is a-go."

Caius nodded in approval and turned his head to stare out of the window. This was going to be a long trip.

Once we got on one of the Volturi jets, I took my usual seat by the window while Caius sat beside me. He held his arms open for me and I leaned back into his chest comfortably.

I heard his phone buzz in his pocket and watched as he pulled it out to examine the notification. "What on earth are you doing, babe? Shouldn't you have that thing on airplane mode?" I questioned.

He moved his arm from around me so that he could text using both of his thumbs. "My aeroplane, my rules. Besides, I am simply messaging Aro in regards to preparations for the upcoming battle in Siberia.

"What preparations?" I asked.

He laughed under his breath at his screen and then flicked off his phone so that his attention was back on me. "Aro sent out several guards to gather intelligence from their fortress. It appears the mutts are advancing much faster than initially expected, meaning we must enlist help from stated allies immediately."

I frowned and opened his phone. "What were you laughing at?" He said nothing whatsoever in response. "If it's so funny, why can't I know?"

Before he had the chance to snatch the phone away from my reach, I managed to open up his messages exchanged between him and Aro. I scrolled up the previous message history and began reading through a few texts.

Aro: I assume you made it onto the aeroplane successfully without any accidents?

Caius: Fortunately, Eliana did not cause any accidents this time. Best not to jump to conclusions, there is still plenty of journey to go.

Aro: Quite right, it is only a matter of time before she crashes the aeroplane.

Caius: Or causes a vehicle pile-up on the motorway.

Aro: Or starts a house fire.

Caius: Quite possibly all three, brother.

The conversation was followed by crying of laughter emojis from Aro. I gasped, whacking him lightly across the chest.

"I'm the punch line of your joke now? Huh, rude." I pouted with my arms crossed stubbornly over my chest.

Quietly laughing, Caius tugged me onto his lap and tucked my head under his chin. "We are only teasing, carissima," he assured, gently caressing my cheek. "We would not have you any other way than your accident-prone self."

"That's what I don't get, because Bella grew out of her accident-prone phase when she became immortal, so why the hell am I still like this?" I whined.

"If it is any consolation, at least you no longer trip over your own two feet," he offered.

I sighed. "Were you clumsy when you were human? Or were you some kinda flawless god who pranced around ancient Greece without a care in the world?"

He shook his head with a humoured expression. "In no way did I 'prance' around Greece, no. In response to your question . . . clumsy is a subjective term."

"That wasn't a no," I taunted. "You were clumsy?"

"May we change the subject?" he groaned, growing bored of repeatedly teasing him.

I giggled. "I'm making a mental note of subjects to avoid around you lot. Currently, it's your clumsiness, Halloween of 1976, and your ex wives. Actually, can we talk about your ex wives?"

"Absolutely not," he snapped.

"So," I grinned teasingly at him, knowing there was absolutely no way I was leaving that topic of conversation alone, "what was it about Athenodora that you found attractive, hm? Was she hot? Smart? Both?" I gasped. "Neither? Oh my god, is she ugly? Nah, I reckon she's gorgeous. She's drop-dead gorgeous, isn't she? Was she nice though? I don't know, I reckon she'd have to be pretty damn nice to tolerate you for thousands of years."

He scowled at me menacingly. "When you are quite finished, Eliana."

"Hey," I held my hands up in mock surrender. "I'm just saying, you're not exactly everyone's cup of tea, much like the other two. Speaking of the other two, what about Sulpicia? Was she hot? How crazy was she to willingly marry Aro? Oh, she was absolutely coo-coo for coconuts, right? Yeah, she probably was. Did she like Athenodora? How close were you to her? Did you ever sleep with Sulpicia? Oh, there's got to be some juicy stories there-"

My rambling was paused when Caius firmly grabbed me by the shoulders and gave me a warning glare. ". . . I'll stop," I laughed awkwardly.

"Thank you," he sighed and loosened his grip on my shoulders. There was a pause for a moment. "In response to your questions about Athenodora, she would be considered 'smart' and 'hot', as you put it, but you are completely—what do you humans call it? Oh yes—out of her league. And no, she was not nice, but you will find out sooner or later, thanks to your invite sent out to the Thai coven. Sulpicia was power-hungry, and in no way in love with Aro like many assumed her to be. He was well aware of this, but he needed a mate thus he married her, feelings aside. Any public displays of affection between them were for show, as were mine."

"You still didn't answer one of my questions," I pointed out.

He stilled for a moment and bowed his head in . . . shame? "I did so on several occasions. It was a completely different time period, carissima, and this type of behaviour was considered acceptable as long as said husbands consented to it, and-"

"Caius, honey," I lifted his head slightly and ran my fingers through his hair as my fingernails ran along his scalp, "in no way would I be upset by that, you crazy vampire. I get that it was a different time, and that's why I'm not surprised in the slightest."

He tightened his arms around me and pressed his nose against the skin of my neck. "I do not deserve you," he muttered almost silently.

I giggled. "Babe, you're sounding like Marcus now."

The plane eventually touched down in Heathrow Airport and rolled into the private hangar which I didn't even realise we owned. Glancing out of the window, I noticed that every wall and the floor were a bright white colour, so bright that I almost considered wearing sunglasses.

"Why have I never been in here before?" I asked as I followed Caius out of the plane.

He held my hand in his as we hopped down the steps. "I am not entirely sure," he pondered.

Just a few metres away from the plane was a black Mercedes, with no one inside and the keys left on the bonnet. Demetri swiped the keys into his hand and jumped into the car, instantly starting up the engine. Caius and I climbed in second and settled in the backseat, soon followed by Felix.

Demetri started up the engine and we began the short car journey through London. The streets were almost silent, probably because it was so late at night, and it didn't take us long at all to arrive at the familiar house.

Before Demetri had even stopped the car fully, I eagerly opened the door and hopped out of the car. Caius quickly followed, placing a gentle hand on my arm to stop me from doing anything reckless.

The house was exactly how I remembered, how I'd left it all those months ago. Only one car occupied the short driveway, that being my mum's old car. All of the lights were out, the doors and windows locked tightly. I could just about get a glimpse of my old bedroom.

"How do we get in?" I asked Caius. "Fernando might be inside the house."

Without another word, he leapt over the wooden gate that divided the street with my back garden and snuck around to the back, while I trailed behind. Just as luck had it, the very narrow bathroom window had been pushed all the way open.

"Huh." I examined the climb with my hands on my hips. "Easy-peasy, we just climb up the wall and squeeze ourselves through the gap."

He took a wary step back and motioned to the window. "Ladies first."

"Chicken," I muttered, which made him chuckle.

I considered jumping to the top, but it seemed much easier and less conspicuous to just scale the brick wall. Using the little gaps and indents to grip on, I very soon made it to the windowsill of the bathroom and pushed myself up so that I was sat on the edge.

I glanced down at Caius and laughed. "Told you it was easy-peasy, you big chicken," I taunted before hurling myself through the open window feet first.

I landed in the bathroom sink, the sound of my shoes hitting the porcelain followed by a series of loud thuds and bangs as the hand soap and toothbrushes clattered to the floor. When I heard Caius crawling his way up behind me, I quickly stepped back down onto the tiled floor and gave him space to enter.

His landing was considerably quieter than mine, and he didn't hesitate to shoot a smug smirk in my direction once he'd righted himself on his feet again. Now imagining Caius as a clumsy human just seemed crazy.

Just as I made a move to pull the light switch, Caius tugged my hand away urgently. "We cannot attract attention to ourselves."

Suddenly realising what he meant, I nodded my head and we stepped out of the bathroom. The first room I thought to check was my bedroom through the adjacent door, since I knew Fernando had a habit of hiding underneath my throw blankets on my bed.

I gently pushed open the door and began to make noises I knew would lure him out. "Fernando, tsk tsk, chatterbox?"

Nothing. Not even a slight meow. Before bothering to leave the room, I took in the sights one last time. I could feel Caius' presence behind me, not that I minded at all.

I picked up a framed photo from my windowsill and giggled. "My Year 3 school photo, taken when I was 7."

In the photo, my hair was clipped back with many different multicoloured clips and I was grinning as widely as possible, baring my teeth excitedly at the camera. My parents had thought it was the funniest thing, so they'd had several copies ordered so that it could be sent out to my relatives.

Caius took the photo from me and laughed. "Such a sweet child. I will have Marcus store this along with your baby photograph album."

"That's so not fair," I groaned. "I literally have nothing to use against any of you."

He pursed his lips. "If you allow me to have this photograph, I will give you several priceless black and white photographs of Aro and Marcus taken when Felix bought his first camera in the 80s."

"I'll hold you to that," I laughed as I continued to pace around the room.

Remembering I had a few items stored under my bed, I flattened myself on my front across the carpet and scanned the area underneath. I pulled out an item I hadn't seen in the longest time and laughed as I dusted it off.

Caius raised an eyebrow. "A ukulele? A pink ukulele?"

"I used to sing and play this bad boy all the time," I giggled.

He sat on the edge of the bed. "Will you play for me?"

I shook my head and stowed the ukulele away underneath the bed where it had been before. "Maybe some other time, if you're lucky. Now, let's find Fernando."

We paced back over to the door and Caius was the first to begin checking the other rooms. After pausing at the entrance to my bedroom one last time, I closed the wooden door for good and followed after him.

Caius was standing in my parents' bedroom, calling out for my cat while checking draws, cupboards and any other potential hiding space. He got to a draw by the dresser and abruptly closed it again. "Do not look in there."

Silently, he glided back out of the room and I could see him trying to physically shake those thoughts out of his head. I didn't even want to begin to think about what he'd found in that drawer.

Once we'd checked every room in the house, we exited through the back door into the garden since that door could only be opened from the inside when locked. Demetri and Felix, who had been pacing around the perimeter, turned to us with questioning expressions.

I shrugged. "Nothing yet."

Hoping our luck would get better in the garden, I slowly made my way up to where the end of the garden met a small stretch of woodland. I knew Fernando liked to hunt in there, and it was the only other option we had.

"Carissima!"

I whipped my head around to the source of the noise and my gaze settled on Caius, who was stood in front of a perfectly healthy looking Fernando. I should've really seen that coming, since the neighbours often fed him since he was such a greedy piglet. With a giggle, I went over to join them and scooped the cat into my arms.

"Oh, I missed you," I squealed excitedly, spinning around in circles.

The cat let out a loud meow and began clawing at my clothes. Fortunately, I wouldn't have to deal with that for much longer since Felix appeared with a cat carrier in hand.

"And the filthy vermin returns," Caius grumbled and then glanced at me. "Fine, filthy cat."

"Don't listen to blondie, baby boy," I cooed at the cat who looked more than uncomfortable in that carrier. "He's just jealous because I love you more than him."

⊱ ────── {.⋅ ✯ ⋅.} ────── ⊰

Author's note: Et voila, we have Fernando back everyone! Of course, as usual, Caius is particularly opposed to the cat, but eh, he's so baby so it doesn't matter.

We had a little ex wife talk here, which I debated actually putting in. As you can see, I referenced things being quite different before, Caius having even slept (well, not slept, but fucked) Sulpicia, and Aro probably the same with Athenodora. Again, different time, different attitudes to marriage. Of course, during this, poor baby Marcus was depressed. Damn, I just wanna give depressed Marcus a hug.

Anyway, thank you so much for reading, be sure to leave some feedback because I love to hear your opinions, stay safe, and ily lots!