A/N: Immeasurable thanks to palmofafreezinghand for everything she does.

*This chapter makes reference to part 2 of this series, A Clash of Covens.

BtB 9

Marcus POV

Katherine Lee Bates was absolutely correct to describe Pike's Peak as purple mountains majesty, and I counted myself lucky to be able to view that mountain every day from the windows of the cottage I shared with Sulpicia. I stared out at them now, Sulpicia by my side, each of us indulging in a bottle of Vitality. Sulpicia and I lived here in relative anonymity; Carlisle had found us this housing, and few other vampires knew where to find us. We were more than happy with that arrangement, and we accepted shipments of Vitality by the crate once a month.

Vitality was so much easier than drinking an entire human every fortnight. Now, I could soothe even the slightest ache in my throat anytime, anywhere. It was freeing to no longer be a slave to the thirst; Carlisle had truly changed vampire lives for the better.

A knock on the door shocked Sulpicia and I away from staring at the mountains. I hadn't been bothering to breathe and apparently, neither had she, but I knew immediately who it was at first whiff. Sulpicia mouthed 'Carlisle' and I smiled at her before flashing over to the door and throwing it open.

Carlisle was indeed there, and he smiled a bit too widely. "Hello, Marcus. Long time no see."

Next to Carlisle was a hulking mammoth of a vampire wearing shades and a smart suit. A quick examination of their bond told me their relationship was familial, and there were traces of Carlisle in his scent, so he must be one of Carlisle's progeny.

Carlisle saw me evaluating the man. "Oh, this is my son, Emmett. He was there in the throne room, but you probably didn't notice considering everything that was going on at the time," he explained.

Emmett removed the shades and smiled, and I did have a faint recollection of him.

"You were the one without pants."

Emmett chuckled. "Yup, that was me."

"Come inside."

They followed me in, kicking the snow off their boots against the door frame first. How courteous.

Sulpicia's eyes lit up at the sight of him. "Oh, Carlisle, how lovely to see you."

"The same can be said about you," Carlisle answered, kissing her knuckles.

Emmett made a gagging noise which echoed exactly how I felt in that moment. Sulpicia ushered the pair over to the windows to brag about the view before offering some Vitality to our surprise guests.

"Would anyone like a bottle?" Sulpicia asked, rising from her seat. We all answered yes and she went to retrieve the bottles. She was back in a few seconds and we all took a few sips.

"So, what brings you for a visit today? I get the feeling it's not entirely social," I said looking pointedly at Emmett's get-up.

Carlisle nodded solemnly. "It's true, lovely as it is to be here with the two of you. Alas, I need your read on a former guardsman of yours. He works in our factory and we…don't know him well."

I couldn't think of any men who'd escaped death that night besides myself. The only other survivors were all female. "But…who?" I asked after puzzling over it for a minute.

"Afton."

Sulpicia erupted with hearty laughter which quickly became wild and uncontrollable. If it were possible, her face would be streaked with tears, she was laughing so hard. I could hardly blame her; we'd both completely forgotten his existence, and I was soon laughing as well. The king and his guard looked bewildered by our reaction. I tried to rein it in, telling Sulpicia, "Darling, please, they don't know."

Sulpicia pulled herself together enough to shout, "That ineffectual limpet? Oh, how Aro despised him. He annoyed everyone, honestly, aside from Chelsea. She was the only reason Aro allowed Afton to stay." Then she fell back into giggles, though not as energetically as before.

I was reading Carlisle and Emmett's connections to Afton while Sulpicia was talking. I found a relationship held at arm's length, tinged with irritation, pity, suspicion, a desire to trust that hadn't developed into more.

"You suspect him of something. You do not trust him," I told them, putting the truth out there so we weren't dancing around it.

Carlisle looked pained as Emmett gave us a breakdown of what had been happening.

"Well, someone poisoned the current supply of Vitality, and there have been murders in nearby towns that are obviously the work of a vampire. Security is strong on the compound; the poisoning had to be an inside job. And Afton has been doing shady things. He lied about where he was going once, and when I confronted him, he said he was alone in a cave crying over his lonesome fate."

"I could see that," Sulpicia broke in.

"Well," Emmett continued, "he also showed up at the loading docks, a place where no one but Jasper's team has access to. When questioned, he said he had a fascination with shipping containers."

"He's always been a rather odd fellow," she pointed out.

Emmett didn't seem convinced. "Then, my niece saw him staring down her dads in the factory, glaring daggers. Scared her a lot."

Sulpicia had nothing to say about that one.

"And, you know, there is a rumor going around that we had a hand in the death of his mate. So, yeah, seems like it could be him."

"Interesting," I mused. "But I don't see why he would seek retribution against you. No one knows for sure what happened to the party that accompanied Aro to steal your pregnant progeny."

"And truly, he is not capable of planning and executing such treachery," Sulpicia added.

"Not on his own, maybe," Carlisle commented.

I shook my head at that. "Who else is there for Afton to ally with? Who would endeavor to undermine your rule? It makes no sense. If we don't have to hunt humans, I'm sure most vampires would be happy not to."

"Most, maybe," Sulpicia said. "But in the old days, there were those who bathed in blood and enslaved the humans, acting like gods."

My voice held a sharper edge to it as we started to bicker. " Yes, but Amun is a coward, hiding in a tomb with his subservient coven."

"Not just the Egyptians, darling. The Romanians did it too."

"And they were eradicated."

"Not all of them…"

I threw my head back and laughed. "Those two? Giftless, weak cowards. I don't believe it."

Even as sure as I was that the Romanians posed no threat, I didn't miss when Carlisle and Emmett exchanged looks of trepidation.

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Vladimir POV

What a gas it had been these last few weeks. My fingers carded through Heidi's hair - she'd finally deigned to satisfy my lust, but I wasn't complaining. She was the most beautiful vampire in existence, and she was in my bed because I was providing her blood from the source, not from the bottle. I would take whatever she was willing to give me.

We fed even when we were not thirsty, draining our victims anyway and not bothering to cover up the aftermath, which had been Vampire 101 for the past thousand years. I, for one, was sick of it, and Stefan was with me one hundred percent. There was no one left to enforce this ridiculous law, the creator and most of his followers were long since dead and gone. The only thing standing in the way of Stefan and I reclaiming our former glory was tender-hearted Carlisle Cullen. It wouldn't be so hard to take down his empire, not with the strength of so much human blood and our inside man, Afton.

Afton was due to check in soon. We'd provided him with the oil to introduce into the production line, thus spoiling that large batch of Vitality. Stefan and I were excited to hear how the reactions went.

Speak of the devil, Afton materialized next to the fire, sneering at Stefan and Athenadora's excessive display of heavy petting. "Geez, get a room."

Stefan growled. "In case you haven't noticed, this is a cave."

Afton turned his gaze on me and Heidi. "You aren't bothered by this?" he asked, incredulous.

Heidi only shrugged, but I answered him. "We put on a much better show than they do."

Afton groaned with disgust. By that time, Athenadora had slipped her dress back over her head and Stefan had shoved himself back in his pants. "HA! You wish," Stefan told me. "What the hell are you here for anyway?" he groused at Afton, annoyed at being interrupted.

"Uh, to tell you the deed is done. They were outraged to discover that the batch was unusable and they'd have to begin again."

"Fantastic," I cried. "Now they will be afraid and wonder who could have gotten through their security to accomplish it." In truth, Stefan and I rather hoped they'd suspect Afton due to his invisibility, because there was no way to prove it. A perfect crime.

Afton cleared his throat unnecessarily. "Honestly, they're more upset about the murders."

"Murders?" Stefan and I echoed each other and shared a confused glance.

"Yeah, you know, your meals? You're leaving bodies everywhere and creating a lot of suspicion!" His purple eyes glared into each of our bright red eyes, eyes that practically glowed with human blood.

"Oh, I know," Stefan chuckled. "The humans are quite frightened."

"Makes the blood even sweeter when they're scared," I added, the girls humming in agreement.

Afton rolled his eyes. "No, not the humans, the compound is angry. They know these murders are the work of a vampire and they're trying to figure out who it was as we speak!"

I scoffed. "Let them try to investigate. They'll never sniff us out. Not a decent tracker in the bunch."

"They'll never find out it's us." Stefan was suddenly standing toe to toe with Afton. "That is, unless you tell them. You're not going to tell them, right, Afton?" he asked, prodding the other man's chest. "You're on our side, aren't you?"

I watched with amusement as Stefan started backing him toward the fire we'd lit for ambience. Afton's eyes went wide and he hurried to agree. "Yup, yup, on your side always…"

"Very good. Now, get back to your post, unless you have something of import to tell us?" Afton shook his head. "Just the dead humans then?" Stefan sneered, and Afton nodded again. "Then off with you...friend…" he tacked on as an afterthought. Afton was gone post haste, and Stefan flopped into the chair he'd carved from the stalagmites on the cave floor. It was really cool, looked like a throne. I would never admit it, but I was jealous.

"I can't believe we have to trust this buffoon," he said with a sigh. "How could Carlisle not care as much about his ruined product than he does about random humans?"

"Because it's Carlisle, that's why," I retorted.

"Perhaps it didn't change the formula the way we expected," Heidi put in. Such a clever girl.

"If Afton even actually went through with it," Athenadora added. Stefan pointed to her and nodded sagely.

"We need to do better than tainting one batch of Vitality then," I reasoned out. "Next time, we need to damage the equipment."

Stefan applauded my idea. "Yes, Vlad, good man. We can have Afton take photographs so we can see what we can do to destroy the machines beyond repair."

"That'll cause chaos," I said, excitement starting to build at the idea.

My love spoiled that feeling rather quickly. "Until they fix the machines and keep production going." Heidi had a point, but it was disappointing to realize it wasn't likely to be a permanent disruption.

"Let's just kill him then," Stefan said with a dismissive wave of his hand.

"Are you insane?" I choked out through laughter. "Carlisle is heavily guarded. Everybody loves the guy. We'd either be pariahs or murdered in retribution."

Stefan narrowed his eyes at me. "We're already pariahs, but fine. So, we kill someone the stregoni loves, someone whose death would break him."

We were silent for a few moments as we scanned through the members of Carlisle's core coven. I landed on a possible candidate. "Remember that male who got pregnant? The catalyst for the fall of Aro's empire? Didn't that make him weaker?"

Stefan's eyes went wide, and a grin spread across his face. He stood up and called out loudly. "AFTON!" The vampire's name echoed through the cave, bouncing off the walls over and over. In a few moments, Afton was standing before us, looking confused and a little afraid as we waited for the cacophony of his name to fade. He froze as Stefan approached him and stiffened when my friend's hand clapped him on the shoulder.

"Afton," Stefan had steel in his voice. "Edward Cullen needs to die."

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Edward POV

Jacob and I were lounging on the couch watching a Twilight Zone marathon while baby Seth napped and the big kids were out with Anthony and Leah for the day. A knock at the door revealed an exuberant Sky, practically bouncing with excitement.

"Whoa, Sky, what's got you so excited?" Jacob asked with a good-natured laugh.

"Clara and I decided to get married! Well, not actually legally married, we don't believe in marriage, but we decided to declare our love in front of our family and friends, a commitment ceremony, yeah," Sky's words tumbled from their lips as they rushed to get their happy news out.

"Wow, that's great, Sky," I congratulated. I hadn't gotten much of a chance to know her, but Clara seemed like an upbeat, cheerful girl, once she'd begun to realize none of the vampires here were going to hurt her. She accepted Sky as they truly were, which was invaluable. And she was really cute. Yes, in my opinion, they would be very happy together.

"Yeah, man, congrats," Jacob said, cringing when he realized his mistake. "Ah, geez, I'm sorry, Sky. Force of habit."

Sky just smiled their trademark sunbeam smile. "I know, thanks. You do a really good job remembering though. Some of the folks back home are having an awfully hard time accepting this new idea of me. I mean, I've always been this way, but I was viewed in a different lens for the first twenty years of my life. It took Paris and Clara for me to truly embrace who I am."

I reached across the table and patted the back of their hand. "I'm sorry you have to go through that at all."

Jacob nodded and I saw resolve in his face; he was determined not to make a mistake like that again. He loved Sky and never wanted to hurt them even by accident.

Sky smiled in acknowledgment of my sympathy, then waved their hands in front of them as if to make that conversation dissipate. "Okay, not what I came here to talk about. I want you to be my best person, along with my sister," they told Jacob before looking at me. "And I want you to underscore the occasion."

I gasped, suddenly extremely anxious. I hadn't played piano in ages, not since before moving to Boston, where our apartments never had room for a piano. And now I was basically just a human again, albeit a slowly aging one. What if I was no good at it anymore? I was afraid to find out. I hadn't played due to circumstance for years, but if I could no longer play if I wanted to, it would be a devastating blow.

Playing the piano was a definitive part of me, an ability I took as a given. I don't remember how well I played as a human, but I must have had an aptitude for it since I played so well as a vampire. Music was the only companion I had for a century until I met Jacob. Being with him brought me the love and happiness I'd been missing for all that time, but it also took away the perfection vampirism had given me - I no longer had speed or strength. My skin was soft and I could be hurt. My heart beat and I needed to breathe. My vampiric brain allowed for mastery of everything, and made me a world-class pianist and composer. Now, out of practice for years and with a sluggish brain, would I still have what it took to play well?

"It's been a long time since I've played…" I hedged.

"Aw, that's okay," Sky said. "Just have to shake the dust off, that's all."

If only it were that simple. "Um, well, I'm not a vampire anymore…I'll pale in comparison to what I once was."

"Nonsense! You're still miles ahead of the best human pianist, babe," Jacob insisted, trying to reassure me as he noticed the small signs that my anxiety was spiking.

"Listen, if you don't want to, it's totally cool, I'll get a deejay." Apparently, Sky could see my anxiety too.

"Can I give you an answer later?" I asked.

"Yeah, sure, no problem."

The rest of the evening was spent in casual conversation, but a piece of me was obsessing about what I would do if I could no longer play. I'd have to locate a piano so I could find out before I embarrassed myself in front of everyone. Perhaps Carlisle and Esme had hung on to one of my old ones; did they have a storage facility here, or are they using one as decor? I could sneak in when they were both out. Shouldn't be too hard, I'd go when Esme was driving my kids to school and Carlisle was at the office. I'd have to bring little Seth with me, but at least he wasn't going to judge me, at least, I hoped not…if he started screaming, I just might scream too.

A/N: Strange place to end, I know, but it had to stop here. I've planned fifteen chapters for this story, so it is nearing its conclusion. At this point, I'd like to remind everyone that this story is tagged as a tragedy. I'd love to hear what you think, so drop me a review or PM. Happy New Year 2022!