Amun was not particularly happy to see Edward.
Nor was he particularly happy that Edward knew about Benjamin. He didn't say as much when Edward appeared on his doorstep, but his thoughts spoke for themselves.
In Amun's mind, the more that knew about Benjamin, had met Benjamin personally, the more likely that the Volturi would come for him and take him away as they had Demetri so many years ago.
He was not pleased that Carlisle had discussed Amun's latest find with his coven.
Edward found him disappointing.
Oh, he had already seen the former god before through Carlisle's memories, just as he had the subservient wife, Kebi, Benjamin himself, and Benjamin's wife Tia. However, Carlisle tended to give people… the benefit of the doubt, was the nicest way to put it. Really, Carlisle insisted on seeing the best in people, be it Rosalie or, in this particular case, the great god Amun that Edward had been led to believe held himself far more regally than he did now.
Edward had expected to see a man who, in some way, extolled the sort of power, of authority, that one would expect from the god Amun.
Instead he was met with this scowling, sniveling, creature whose mind circled in paranoid paths, suspicious of anything and everything the world had to offer, and who had survived for that very reason.
It was like meeting a celebrity in the after hours, when they don't care to impress the audience anymore.
Still, despite his low burning anger, Amun invited Edward inside where the five of them sat before a fire.
"So," Amun said after Edward had settled, "What is it that brings Carlisle's progeny all the way to Egypt?"
"Without Carlisle himself," Amun added darkly to himself, the idea was a disturbing one to him. Carlisle was a known quantity, an eccentric, but a friend and a man Amun could more or less trust.
He didn't know Edward.
And for all he knew, though this sort of pretense was beneath the Volturi scum, Edward could be their spy. Though Amun had to dismiss this thought as, if Edward had worked for the Volturi, he would have accompanied Chelsea to Amun's location and then there'd be nothing for him to do.
For that alone, he was willing to accept that Edward truly had been turned by Carlilse.
"I'm afraid I bring bad news," Edward said, deciding that it was best to discard pleasantries, since Amun himself didn't seem to be insisting on them.
Amun pursed his lips, and stared with consternation into the fireplace.
For a moment, he wondered if Edward was here to tell him of Carlisle's passing. A bit odd, to tell another coven this, but Carlisle had been beloved by many people so far as Amun could tell. There were many who would wish to hear of his demise and Amun supposed he should feel flattered to have made the list.
And, in truth, Amun had expected this news since the moment he met Carlisle. He had known a great many vampires in his life, and with only a few exceptions (Aro's face appeared in a flash in Amun's memory, accompanied by a red hot whiplash of anger) he had seen them fall, one by one. The brighter they burned, the sooner they burned out, and one such as Carlisle, giftless, trusting, and so very, very, unique, had seemed to Amun like a man choosing to walk down the middle of a battlefield, sure to be cut down sooner or later.
"No, no he's not dead," Edward corrected, "But I am–greatly concerned for him."
"Ah," Amun said after a moment, and looking to the others explained, "Carlisle's insane diet must be catching up with him."
This, too, was not all that surprising to Amun. If it wasn't Carlisle's naivite that would see him murdered then it would surely be that idiotic insistence on subsisting on nothing at all that would see him to an early grave. It was not surprising he was having health complications.
Of course, all graves were early in the eyes of Amun.
"Something far worse," Edward said darkly, his eyes boring into the flickering, everchanging fire.
And now, now Amun was confused.
Vampires did not, in Amun's experience, hold each other captive. Of course, he thought to himself with some acknowledgement, it could be argued that he had done this very thing with Benjamin–but it was for the boy's own good and he saw that.
Typically, if one made enemies, then one quickly died. Torture was pointless and led to far too much risk for escape.
"A few weeks ago, Aro made contact with Carlisle, asking him to come to Volterra," Edward began.
"Get out," Amun snapped quickly.
Benjamin glanced at Amun in confusion and concern, "Amun, he's come all this way–"
"I don't care. You bring trouble. Get out!" Amun barked, and got on his feet.
Edward bristled, felt himself snarl, "I was under the impression that Carlisle was your friend!"
"I have lost many friends to Aro," Amun hissed. "One more is no skin off my back!"
Edward got to his feet. "You don't even know what they've done to him!"
"Would you have them come here?" Amun asked, "To my house, with my wife, with my Benjamin?"
"You don't care for what's right? You're a coward, who won't even hear the words your guest, the son of one of your only surviving friends, has to say?"
"Yes," Amun said with no shame whatsoever, "But I am a coward who lived. I survived the fall of my coven, the fall of Egypt itself. I survived the destruction of the very gods. And I did it because I am a coward."
"At what cost?!" Edward demanded.
"A price I am rather apt at paying," Amun replied, spreading his hands out wide, something like amusement in his eyes. "Now get out, or I will kill you."
"He's being violated," Edward hissed. "Him, and his wife Esme."
Amun's eyebrow raised. "What, Aro's taking both of them? I thought it was just Carlisle he was interested in."
Edward's snarl ripped through the room, but Amun seemed to consider the situation much less dangerous now.
In Amun's mind came a slough of terrible, horrible, memories thought with such nonchalance he might as well be shrugging. While Aro slept with women and had eventually found himself a wife, it was no secret that he had a preference for beautiful men.
Carlisle, upon meeting Amun and admitting to having stayed in Volterra, had never openly confessed to having been Aro's lover but to Amun he might as well have shouted it from the rooftops.
Giftless Carlisle, with that face? There was only one thing Aro could have possibly wanted him for. And one thing he could want with him now after all this time.
Amun snorted to himself. "Why don't you stay, just a while longer. I confess, I'd be interested to hear just what excuse Aro used to lure Carlisle back. And his wife too, no less!"
Tia gave Amun a very reproachful look, her lip curling in distaste, but kept her silence even as her mind raged, "Can't he see how upset this poor boy is? If he was going to throw him out then he should have just done it already. He's just enjoying watching him squirm."
Amun was openly grinning now, chuckling to himself at this new bit of knowledge. "Let's see, let's see. I'm guessing he didn't invite the whole coven over for a visit, as is customary, but only Carlisle. And the wife, I suppose. Is she blonde?"
Edward's lip curled, "Carlisle said he did, though Carlisle advised against our coming."
Amun's eyebrows raised at that, "Interesting."
He was trying to decide whether Aro hadn't, and Carlisle had lied on his behalf to make it look like less of a booty call while simultaneously preventing his coven from coming with only to fail, or whether Aro truly had invited them all, for inexplicable reasons of his own.
Eyeing Edward now, Amun mused to himself that the boy was quite beautiful in his own right. A little younger than Aro typically preferred, but very pretty.
Edward felt himself begin to tremble with barely restrained fury. "We came with him, of course, because the story he gave–"
"Was an utterly pathetic pretense, I'm sure," Amun dismissed, not very interested in what bizarre scheme Aro had concocted to lure his old lover back to Volterra after so much time.
"Good news for us, yes, Kebi? If Aro's busy with his lover, two new lovers, then he'll have less time to go running about trying to disrupt covens."
At this, Tia's interest perked. She gave Amun an assessing look, "Then we no longer have to be as careful. He won't be searching for someone like Benjamin."
Amun hissed, eyes flashing as he bore down on Tia, "That is not the case, you stupid girl! We cannot afford to be lax in our vigilance, or have you forgotten what I told you of Demetri?"
"What is this?" Edward hissed. "I just told you- you believe that Aro is violating my father, and your response is whether or not this means you can, what, run to the market place more often? Have you no sense of loyalty?" His voice rose towards the end.
Benjamin got up to stand in front of Tia, while Kebi flitted to Amun's side. Amun, in turn, wished he had soldiers in the coven, a luxury he had had to do without in the name of remaining inconspicuous.
"Look," Amun said with a sigh, "To be honest, what lovers Aro does and does not take is not my concern. If it eases your mind, from what I know, he prefers his lovers vigorous and willing. If Carlisle is sleeping with Aro again, then it is most certainly of his own volition."
"He's sleeping with Aro's wife!" Edward cried.
"Of course he is," Amun dismissed, "Aro can't keep his woman. She's always snatching his lovers from under his nose, and he sits back and lets it happen. Likely watches, or else he's content seeing the memories after. Disgraceful, both of them."
Kebi sent a sad thought towards all the mistresses Amun had taken over the years.
Amun did as well, only his mind was colored with pride, that he lived as a great man while still keeping Kebi in line.
Tia, looking carefully away from Amun, thought to herself that she liked the sound of this Sulpicia for giving Aro what for in a way she never could Amun.
"He is not willing," Edward hissed, "You don't know this, but Aro has in his employ a vampire by the name of Chelsea–"
Amun laughed, he threw his head back and laughed wildly. Then, pointing at Benjamin, he cried, "You see, boy? Even Carlisle's progeny warns you about Chelsea!"
Seeing this window of opportunity, Amun turned to smile coldly at Tia. "And if Edward is telling the truth, and Carlisle does not wish to lie with Aro, then let that serve as a reminder to you both. Chelsea does not care what you wish, she will bend your will to her own. And then– who knows," he shrugged, a sickening grin on his lips, "you two might end up in his bed as well."
Of course, privately, Amun doubted that Chelsea had this power. Oh, she was a witch to be certain, who had gleefully led a helpless Demetri away from him, but Amun had seen no sign that she could turn an unwilling man or woman into an overzealous lover.
No, from what Amun had seen, Aro had had to struggle far too much and far too shamelessly in too many cases. If this was in Chelsea's abilities, then at the snap of his fingers any man would fall to his knees.
He then amused himself with imagery of fellatio, and an awful image of Carlisle formed.
But, the idea of it would serve him well, both before Benjamin and Tia, and to blacken Aro's name.
"You don't care," Edward said to himself in amazement.
It didn't matter to Amun whether Carlisle was willing or not. Oh, he might distantly prefer it, but mostly he just found the idea amusing and perhaps an opportunity he could exploit. Whether Carlisle was there of his own free will or not was not his concern.
He was now very pleased to have gifted Carlisle that sarcophagus, solidifying their friendship.
Yes, no matter which way he looked at it, Edward Cullen had come to Amun bearing very good news indeed.
Amun was now distinctly glad that he had not murdered Edward.
"You are despicable," Edward hissed, moving to his feet, "I see now what friend you are to Carlisle."
Amun merely hummed. "Do you have any more interesting news?"
Edward opened his mouth, closed it, then blurted, "I heard you were once an old enemy of the Volturi."
Amun scoffed, "No one is an enemy of the Volturi. They killed their enemies."
"Everyone?" Edward echoed hoarsely.
Idly, Amun let two faces flicker before his faces. Partially petrified, they were short two males, one dark and one blond, who scowled at the world around them and skulked in the shadows, the only survivors of the old guard who were more miserly than Amun himself.
He dismissed the thought, not because they had since died, but because they were so utterly irrelevant.
"Everyone," Amun said with a wry smile, "I survived, of course, but my animosity did not. As for the others who survived–well, they were deemed too pathetic to kill."
"Who else?" Edward pressed.
The two faces appeared again in Amun's mind, more clearly this time.
"What business is it of yours?" Amun asked warily, his mind starting to suspect the purpose behind Edward's business.
Edward had clearly expected this news of Carlisle to shock and offend him, to be so morally outrageous he would be prompted to action. And what action he would have Amun, have an old enemy of Volterra take, could be easily put together.
"There is someone else," Edward goaded, hoping to at the very least get Amun's thoughts to give the hints he needed about those two faces. "Someone who survived, men who refused to die even as they lost everything they had to their name."
"I am going to guess at what you're thinking," Amun said slowly, "And I will tell you now that it is foolhardy and will lead to your destruction. No one stands against Volterra, no one fights against Volterra, no one gains even the smallest amount of leverage against Volterra. They toppled every god you've ever heard of and all the ones you haven't. That is their power."
"Give me names," Edward hissed.
Amun considered Edward.
Edward could make trouble for him. Whether he knew of Benjamin's full capabilities or not, he now had that knowledge. He could make a threat of it, go to Volterra himself and meet with Demetri, who would then be able to find Benjamin anywhere on earth.
That was the last thing he wanted.
And the more Edward spoke, the more Amun didn't want him staying.
He could kill him now.
But then, he realized, Carlisle was in Volterra now. Aro already knew about Benjamin, and Demetri could already find him. That he had not done so already, could only mean that Amun's friendship with Carlisle was keeping him, for now.
Amun had a priceless opportunity through Carlisle and his wife, who both had Aro's ear. While Carlisle perhaps could not get Amun any material benefits, he could demand the execution of the old friend who had murdered his son. And he could turn Aro's eye towards Benjamin. Were Amun to kill Edward–there would be nothing to stop Aro.
But there was a third door, one that would propel Amun upwards, closer to Carlisle and making it so that Aro would perhaps think twice before crushing him.
He could warn them of what had happened here.
Yes- yes, that would do wonderfully.
He would contact Volterra, it would not be too difficult as he'd gotten his hand on that phone number a few years ago, and he would let his dear old friend Carlisle know just what his son was now up to. Carlisle would be ever so grateful, and their bonds of friendship would grow ever tighter.
"No," Edward hissed.
Amun gave him a look, surprised at Edward's outburst that, to him, had been prompted by nothing. He wondered if, perhaps, Edward was a bit mad.
Edward looked across the room.
There were four of them, one of him, and more, he had not fed. It had not occurred to him that he might get into a fight, that he might need to defend himself.
The idea that Carlisle's friends might pose a danger to him had been unthinkable.
"Give me their names, please," Edward said instead, bowing before Amun, "I'm begging you."
The sight of Edward prostrating before him amused Amun greatly. It brought to mind Ancient Egypt, the world before the Volturi, and the many human worshippers that Amun had known.
"Minato Aizawa and Shinji Matou," Amun said, purposefully choosing names with roots in a faraway country, even as his triumphant thoughts rang out with the names Stefan and Vladimir. The last of the Romanian coven.
This, he thought to himself, would send Edward running off to the far east.
Edward smiled in gratitude, and, biting back a smirk, said, "Thank you, you've been a great help."
And he had. This should buy Edward time, as Aro would expect him to turn up in Japan, and likely place sentinels there.
In the meantime, Edward would find these Romanians.