Following the kings silently to the throne room, Saphira was silently raging and she was able to keep her expression very calm despite what she was feeling. Marcus was holding her hand and squeezing gently to reassure her that everything would be okay, but that did not stop the wrath she was feeling. If she was a vampire, she probably would not be able to contain herself once the rat was found out. Saphira did know if the new recruits weren't familiar with Vladimir, then they were likely to have been duped into allowing him passed them. But they were not free of the consequence of it either. She knew very well that the kings would likely kill whoever let Vladimir passed, and she was not in the mood to be merciful about it today. She glanced up slightly as the throne room doors were pushed open roughly, the line up of the new recruits were already waiting for them. Most of them appeared to be confused, but a couple were extremely nervous as they might know why they were here.

"I suppose you are all wondering why you have been gathered here today," Aro said in a firm, cold tone, stalking towards them slowly. There was a dangerous aura coming off of him right now, and none of them wanted to get on his bad side. "Are you aware of what happened within the last hour?"

A shoulder length, blonde, female vampire nodded. "Yes sir, an old enemy of yours slipped passed our guards somewhere and attacked our queen," She said calmly. "I assume someone here must have let him passed, otherwise we would not be here."

"You are correct," Aro said, walking to her and grabbing her hand. "And we will find whoever did it, if it is not any of you, we will be checking everybody who is in this castle."

"We understand," Several of the vampires say in unison.

Saphira was watching them carefully, she could see most of the new recruits were not guilty and Aro left the blonde vampire rather quickly as she was not responsible. However, at the end of the line, a brunette, dreadlock male vampire was clenching his knuckles nervously. He had guilt written all over his face, especially when it was revealed she had been attacked. Saphira hummed for a second and walked over to him, Caius glanced at Saphira curiously to see what she was doing. Saphira stared at the vampire with a cold stare, making him even more nervous and glancing away from her eyes.

"If you are not guilty, looking me in the eye would be easy for you," She said bluntly. "If you did not know who Vladimir is, you are free to admit it. But you are making it worse for yourself if you say nothing, and Aro finds out through his means."

The vampire glanced at Saphira, only to be startled as Aro moved in front of him and took his hand. "I am…sorry, you are right," He said nervously, glancing down at the floor. "I had no idea who that blonde vampire was. He told me he was here to meet with the kings and queen, I did not feel there was no reason he lied."

"He certainly made it seem he was being honest," Aro said, tilting his head and glaring at the vampire. "However, you know the rules as a new recruit, any vampire you do not recognize requires you to call one of the guard or someone who has been here longer than you. You failed to do so, and you could have had our queen killed because of your stupidity."

The vampire nodded solemnly, knowing the full extent of his actions. "I am truly sorry, allow me to make it up to you. If I had known, I would have tried to…"

"Save it," Aro growled, raising his hand to silence him. "You would not have been able to kill Vladimir, he is too old and smart to allow that to happen to himself so easily. And save the excuses, you will face consequences for this."

"Please!" The vampire begged, glancing at Saphira for mercy. "Have mercy! You are not that hurt anyway, so it should be all good right?"

Saphira was stunned at the audacity. She breathed deeply and glared at him. "You really are a poor excuse of a vampire to be recruited here. Who recruited you?"

"Um, I did," Jane said, raising her hand slowly.

"It seems you need to really pick the right vampire for this job," Saphira said, glancing at Jane. "Please, I think he needs to feel some pain."

She smiled deviously and the vampire was quickly on his knees, screaming and begging in pain. "Please! I am begging you! You are alive and I just want to…"

He was cut off as Caius rushed forward and snapped his head clean off his shoulders. "I had enough of his babbling!"

"I was about to do that too," Aro said, kicking the body like it was a piece of trash. "I cannot believe he said that you were not that hurt Saphira."

"I know," She said with a sigh, rubbing her arm gently. "In a way, he is right, it is only a dislocated shoulder. But it could have been worse if you did not catch me, and he obviously was not fully aware and was just stupid. I could have let him have a second chance if he simply said he did not know Vladimir and made a simple mistake."

"I agree il mio amore," Aro said, walking over to Saphira and kissing her forehead. "Now I think you should go and relax, I can feel you need to punch something, but wait until you're not in pain."

Saphira smiled at him. "Will you come with me?"

"I am afraid we need to discuss the next plan of action," Caius said gently, walking over to her to take her uninjured arm gently. "However, we will come and stay with you when you go to bed."

Saphira felt disappointed, but she understood. With Vladimir being here, they needed a plan to dispose of him and their old lovers. Plus, Saphira would be able to have a shower to wash off his scent and feel better for it.

"I am sorry il mio amore," Aro purred gently, kissing Saphira lips gently. He brushed a strand of her hair away from her face and could see she wanted their company right now. "This will not take long and we will ask for you input later."

Marcus rubbed his chin and sighed deeply. "How about I go with you il mio amore? After all, we all don't need to be in the throne room."

Saphira beamed at the idea, she was happy Marcus had decided to go with her, but the other kings were a bit surprised by his suggestion. "We do need you to stay Marcus," Aro said softly. "I want to go with Saphira too."

"At least one of us should be with her right now Aro. She wants us to be by her side right now, and honestly, I just want to comfort and pamper her right now because she is pain and she is feeling uncomfortable since he almost kissed her. I want to make a plan too…but it can wait." Marcus winked at Saphira who was smiling at him.

Aro sighed deeply. "We still need to discuss right now Marcus. But, I think we can allow ten minutes of our time and then one of us to go and comfort her."

"That's a good compromise," Saphira said softly. "And then ten minute after, someone else comes in and then another ten is the last one of you. I wouldn't mind a few minutes alone as well, but the rest of the day I could use your company."

Aro smiled and pecks Saphira's lips sweetly, making her giggle. "Good, now luckily that cast is waterproof so you won't have to worry too much about that. Try and not hit it on anything."

"I promise I won't il mio amore, or I would probably be cursing at myself for it. It's not too different to kicking my toe on something." Saphira shrugged a bit and turned to head back to her room.

"It's a bit different, but the analogy I guess is the same," Marcus chuckled. "I will be there soon Saphira."

Saphira smiled and left the throne room quickly. She desperately wanted to get into the shower. She jogged to her room and quickly got undressed, dumping her clothes into the hamper to be washed so Vladimir's scent was not on them. She made sure to grab an exfoliating loofah, body lotion and a scrub brush before getting into the shower and turning it on. She glanced at the cast, definitely glad that it was water proof, but she would make sure not to get soap on it. She poured the body lotion onto the scrub my first to scrub her back, and she found herself scrubbing a bit harder than she normally would, but it was as if she was scrubbing off mud from her body. She actually lathered her back several times with the lotion until she felt satisfied and moved onto the loofah to scrub the rest of her body, she did not realize she was leaving red marks over her body from her furious scrubbing. However, she wanted to feel clean and it took a long while to actually feel clean. She did not even hear the door open as Marcus came in due to her focus.

"Relax il mio amore, you look like you have scratches over your body," Marcus purred in her ear, making Saphira shudder and turn around.

Saphira was a bit put off when she realized he was naked, but she glanced at her body and noticed the marks. "I just needed to feel clean."

"For the record, his scent did not last long on you," He reassures her gently. "Ours covered it very quickly."

"I still felt the need to scrub it off," She said with a deep sigh. She felt the rush of emotions again and looked at him with a sad face. "I am sorry…"

He cuts her off by kissing her passionately. "Do not apologize for his actions towards you. We will kill him before he ever tries to kiss you again."

Saphira smiled and felt tears in her eyes, but she could not tell if she was crying due to the shower. Marcus kissed her neck gently and was about to lift her up when she winced and gasped at the pain in her shoulder. He sighed and pulled away with a smile, Saphira rubbed her shoulder gently knowing it would interfere with any intimacy for a short while.

"I guess we have to go back to being patient," Marcus joked.

Saphira smiled widely and laughed gently, it made Marcus feel glad he was able to make his mate laugh after the experience today. "And this time, it should only be a couple weeks."

"I agree," He said, nodding. "Tu sei bellissimo amore mio."

Saphira felt herself blush, glancing away at his compliment. "Mi fai sentire bella," She whispers sweetly. "You all do."

"Well…until your skin starts to wrinkle from being in the shower for too long," Marcus said playfully.

Gasping, she elbows him playfully. "Oh? And your skin doesn't?"

"I hate to tell you, but we never wrinkle even in hot water. But don't take that personally, it just happens." He shrugs, glancing away for a moment before glancing back with a smirk.

"I am so going to wrestle you when this shoulder is healed," Saphira threatened seductively. "And you will regret saying that."

"Oh, I am so nervous!" He giggled loudly, making Saphira laugh and hug him tightly. Marcus turned the shower off. "But I am not joking, your fingers are starting to wrinkle."

Looking at her hands, he was not wrong. "Alright, I'll get out now. I guess it's better then being sorry for myself all the time."

"Exactly, now get a towel missy," He teased, smacking her butt as she walked out of the shower.

Saphira giggled as she grabbed a towel from the rack and clumsily wrapped it around her, Marcus quickly fixed it for her and helped her to get dry before drying himself. He helps her into a light dress as Caius enters the room.

"Seems I have missed some action huh?" He asked, smiling at Saphira.

"You could say that," Saphira said with a shrug. "I am hungry though."

"I have already sent Jane to the kitchen to have food brought for you, and you'll be able to take your painkillers while you eat," The blonde vampire said as he walked over to the bedroom vanity to grab a brush. "Allow me to brush your hair though. You must be feeling much better, I was worried when I felt your emotions rushing earlier."

"I am feeling better, but I still feel like I could cry," Saphira admits, sitting on the bed with Marcus next to her. "It feels silly, but I know it is better then to bottle it up inside. It would be worse if I did that."

"Agreed," Marcus said, kissing Saphira's cheek gently. "And you have three lots of shoulders to cry on when you do."
"Thank you, I hope it doesn't make you feel strange as you cannot cry yourselves." Saphira glanced between Marcus and Caius.

She winced a little as Caius moved her to sit on his lap and he began to brush her hair. "It makes us sad when you cry tears of pain or sadness Saphira, we may not be able to cry ourselves, but your tears make up for when we feel sad or terribly hurt." He paused for a moment. "Hang on, that sounds weird."

"Yeah, it does, but it is also kind of understandable," She said with a shrug. "I'll definitely need the shoulders tonight I think. I don't know how I am going to sleep."

"That's why the doctor prescribed some sleeping pills," Caius said gently. "I would feel terrible if you don't sleep. And I know that a tired woman is a force to be reckoned with."

"That's true, especially when she's on her period. In any case, I'll ask what you have discussed in the throne room tomorrow, I do not feel like knowing right now." Caius and Marcus were surprised as Saphira normally wanted to know straight away.

They both guessed that Saphira was feeling a bit too upset to really want to know what they planned and it was good at times as Saphira would need the break from her duty as a queen while she is human. Caius hoped Saphira would make that decision soon, Marcus would be happy to have Saphira remain human if she chooses. Marcus felt Saphira would be more in danger should become a vampire as then their enemies would hit harder then if she is a human. They may not have dangers like they were facing now in the future, but it was good to think on them. Aro joined them soon and he brought Saphira's lunch and painkiller tablets to her. He and the two kings would spend the rest of the day comforting Saphira. She would break out into sobs a couple times during the afternoon and several more times at night before bed. She would struggle to sleep over the next week even with the sleeping pills, but Caius had managed to lull her to sleep by playing a lullaby with his violin. During the week the kings pampered her dearly, they massaged her body with some Elemis products that made her feel utterly relaxed and spoiled, they played video games with her after she expressed desire to play with them, the kings would serenade her with their music and dance with her and simply made her feel special. She had forgotten about asking about what they had discussed to do with Vladimir, Stephan, Athenodora and Sulpicia, but she did not forget the vampire furnace at the bottom of the castle. The kings had put that as a priority and it was almost finished by the end of the week. Saphira's shoulder was healing very well and would be able to have the cast removed soon and would need to exercise it and have it massaged, something the kings were happy to help with when she does get to remove the cast. Saphira was extremely happy and the events with Vladimir started to seem like a bad, distant memory to her. At least for now.

Translation:

il mio amore: My love

Tu sei bellissimo amore mio: You are so beautiful my love

Mi fai sentire bella: You make me feel beautiful