A/N: This website is dying. There are countless other red flags, and I don't think it's long before ffnet crumbles. I had difficulty uploading this chapter at all, which is what brings this on. I'm not even sure that this website will live long enough to see the completion of this fic (we're about to have a 3 week hiatus)

Should my fears prove correct and this website indeed dies then this is me letting you all know that you can find me and all my writing on Ao3, same username. (Same goes for my co-writer, the Muffin, she's on Ao3 as well)

The sound of Bella's endless vomiting rang in Aro's ears.

It didn't help that Aro was currently in the library and that Bella was in his personal theater. It was, alas, close enough that Aro had no problem making out the noise.

And Renata, dear as she was, was growing increasingly panicked that apparently nothing was staying down. Which, of course, had made her try all that harder to feed her something that she could keep down.

As Bella's movie watching companion, the two were growing closer by the day, making the toll on Aro's dear bodyguard all the greater as she watched Bella become so sick. Indeed, yesterday, while perhaps a little gaunter than usual, Bella had seemed fine.

This morning–she had not.

They had expected this, and yet seeing it now happen was– it was something else. Even Sulpicia and Esme, who didn't know Bella at all, had the strains of concern growing, forming bonds between them and Bella as they flinched with the sound of every retch in the neighboring room.

Carlisle, sitting across from Aro, rubbed at his face in exhaustion, "She's going to need an IV soon, by tonight if this–keeps up."

Of course, Carlisle's dark thoughts were still hyper focused on Bella's womb which had made a miraculous and terrifying metamorphosis. Where early the previous week, the ultrasound had worked perfectly well, the picture had steadily grown dimmer and dimmer. This morning, after Bella had vomited her entire breakfast and then some, the picture had gone completely dark.

Even the skin of her abdomen had changed, seemingly overnight. Instead of human skin it was something far closer to their own, unyielding marble beneath Carlisle's probing hands.

He was glad that Bella still wanted this child with a suicidal desperation because, per Carlisle's stark terror, he was no longer certain that abortion was an option. The window that he knew would close rapidly, had closed far faster than he had ever expected.

Aro was also glad they had done the suicide scheme when they had.

Of course, like all of his plans these days, this one had been…

He supposed he should be satisfied that it was even a mild success.

He'd found an appropriate trip, a trip to Cinque Terre, and of course the sun shone too brightly for him to allow Carlisle, Renata, or even Esme to be part of the tour group. No, he had to go find Francesca, and explain to her that dear Bella needs to fake her death, ask no questions (Esme had suggested a scheme where Bella, who had cancer, was faking her death so that Aro could pay her medical bills and Charlie Swan wouldn't be financially ruined, which would have been great if Aro could have thought of an organic way to give the entire "So, you see, Bella has cancer…" shpiel to Francesca), just pick her up if she falls and insist you saw her go into the water.

Francesca, of course, being in the clandestine business of working for an organization of vampires, had not asked questions and had performed perfectly well. Francesca was a very competent secretary and Aro would miss her when her employment came to a natural end.

Bella, sadly, had not performed well, and was an incompetent cliff diver.

She'd gotten the wrong spot.

She'd gotten so caught up in making her suicide realistic that she decided the designated spot wouldn't be organic for Bella Swan to jump off, as it was too plain and not dangerous looking enough, and instead jumped off a more romantic, Byronic part of the cliff surface of Cinque Terre.

(Nevermind that Bella had given her tour group the most flabbergasting and least realistic "oh cruel world" suicide speech that Aro had ever heard of. They'd been so confused that none of them had realized what was happening. A few had thought that this was a desperate cry for attention on Bella's end or else she was the world's worst street performer who had been hired by the tour company to spice up their Cinque Terre trip. Three had even clapped for her out of pity.)

Renata, who'd been supposed to jump into the water on her behalf, had had to jump from the completely wrong angle, and befuddled spectators had seen Bella's fall curve, at a harder angle than JFK's bullet at that. And Carlisle, of course, ended up having to jump into the water with Bella, because there was no leverage on that part of the cliff and the only way he could have clung to the cliff surface would have been by digging his hand into it.

And so there were two splashes.

And since Bella's performance had been so miserable, the American tour group and the native guide had all stood there, befuddled, while Francesca had to do her darndest to convince them that this was very serious, she thought that American girl had just committed suicide for real, and they should call the coast guard.

Aro had watched it all happen at a distance, and despaired.

And then the moment they met back up in the car, a soaking wet but so very proud Bella had asked if anyone got that on tape.

Yes, Aro would very much miss Francesca when her employment came to an end, if only because he empathized so very dearly with her sheer look of irritation in its purest form when Bella said that.

Alas, they couldn't keep her, not when Bella would hopefully soon be among them as a newborn. One ravenous young vampire in the midst of Volterra was already one too many. Besides, Caius had been getting increasingly vexed that Aro kept biting so many of his secretaries.

In Aro's defense, those secretaries were really wonderfully loyal, and so charming and polite too. Not a lot of vampires could say that about themselves, and in a secretary Aro had a vampire loyal to the Volturi ready to come into being, only one bite and three days away.

And a good deal of them moved on from Volterra itself fairly quickly. The way Aro saw it, it was good PR in the outside world. The girls are given a well paying job with benefits, they're turned if particularly useful and agreeable, and they go out into the world and tell everyone what wonderful people the Volturi are.

Alas, this would not be Francesca's fate.

Of course, Aro feared it would not be Bella's either.

"Morning sickness is natural," Esme piped up, "Oh, I suffered terribly from it when–"

She trailed off and looked pointedly away, unwilling to linger more on the thoughts of her child.

Sulpicia reached across the table, and squeezed Esme's hand. The two women smiled at each other.

Of all the friendships in the world, Aro would not have predicted this one.

Of course, he wouldn't have predicted Sulpicia being down in the library with all these people who weren't Corin, either. But, Carlisle's fear for Bella was growing, and he had put them all to work with researching pregnancies, demigods, nephilim, and everything in between in the hopes of finding something, anything, of use.

Sulpicia, of course, had been too kind to say no.

Athenodora and Caius had… well, Caius would have done it for Marcus, but he took one look at Carlisle, Aro, and friends walking around the library, and decided against it. "You've already read all these books," he pointed out to Aro, and that had been it.

As for Athenodora, she had grimaced apologetically, but not that apologetically, at Carlisle, and pointed out that with Sulpicia's kind offer the library was fully manned. Have fun, Sulpicia.

As for Marcus, well, Aro wasn't quite sure where he'd disappeared to. Aro had felt it was–premature to tell him bad news which was little more than speculation at this point. No, he didn't want Marcus researching all the ways this might potentially end in disaster to the symphony of Bella's vomiting.

"It's too early," Carlisle said, staring dully down at the book in front of him as if it might provide an answer, "And this is far too violent. She's keeping nothing down, and it's been several hours already."

"She could have the flu," Sulpicia hummed, "Humans do that with the flu, don't they? It doesn't have to be the pregnancy."

Carlisle grimaced, "It's–possible, but even if it were just the flu–if this keeps up we'd still be hooking her up to an IV by nightfall."

"But it could be the flu," Sulpicia said, "Which means that it could pass in a day or two."

Carlisle didn't argue against the flu theory but he didn't agree with it either. Instead, he purposefully turned the page and kept reading. Though, at this point, Carlisle doubted he'd find anything useful, it was more to give himself something to do.

Sulpicia hummed. "Isn't there– haven't humans figured out artificial conception? Or was it…"

"Almost," Carlisle nodded. "Artificial insemination."

"That does sound appropriately unromantic for such an act. The modern world is so… sterile," Sulpicia mused.

She had been even more bemused when she first heard about artificial insemination. Aro, upon learning that there was such a thing, had been so fascinated that he needed to talk to someone about it, and since he didn't feel he'd talked about it quite enough after telling Marcus, he wound up going up to the tower to tell Sulpicia as well.

She had had no idea what to make of it, although she noted that this must make it so much easier for wives who didn't want to put out.

They returned to their books before Sulpicia remembered her point. "You said that you had Marcus' sperm."

Carlisle laughed, "Yes, amazingly, they're still alive and well. Of course, they've also started eating each other, which explains why Bella is only carrying one child. When they get down to one I've decided to give him a name. And yes, I am taking suggestions."

"Oh, is that– is that good?" Esme asked uncertainly.

"It's good that Bella's only carrying one child," Carlisle said with a very tight smile.

"What I'm trying to say is," Sulpicia continued musingly, "if humans can - as I understand it - create children in a dish, using only sperm and ova, then couldn't we do the same?"

Carlisle put his book down and placed his head into his hands, "Putting the ethicalities of that aside, which is giving me a terrible headache, it–we have no eggs to work with. For obvious reasons, I am not performing that operation on Bella, nor are we stealing eggs from a fertility center, and don't you dare suggest one of your secretaries Aro!"

Aro enjoyed how Carlisle said that when Aro hadn't even opened his mouth.

"And further, a petri dish is not a womb. Artificial insemination is possible, but we have not created an artificial womb. And if the egg does survive in a petri dish, I will throw my hands in the air, and run out of this building screaming."

Sulpicia was still frowning, though a touch of her hand informed Aro that her mind had moved on from that idea, and was now wondering if a human sperm and a vampire ova could, in theory, form a child.

Sulpicia was thinking about the unchanging vampire body, and how no child would ever thrive in it. How, in theory, if Bella and Marcus could conceive, then surely Bellard and Marcina could have as well, only their child would have died in the womb, perhaps being reabsorbed or else–

She started wondering how vampire women who had sex with human men got rid of the men's ejaculate. Surely, it did not absorb like it did vampires, or did it? If so, where did it go? Where–

Aro removed his hand from hers.

He opened his mouth and closed it. Of course, he was terribly curious as well but–there were some things that even he was better off not knowing. No, there were too many demons in that particular pandora's box.

Aro had been much happier when he hadn't known that a vampire man could conceive a child with a human woman.

Sulpicia looked up at him. "I also wonder about vampire sperm and ova. If Marcus and Bella could…"

"No," Aro interrupted.

Sulpicia nodded, the trace of a grimace on her face. "I wish Corin would have agreed to come down here," she lamented.

Aro would give Corin's rank this, no one else in the guard was allowed to do whatever they wanted, even make their leader's queen do menial jobs like cleaning and pool draining while saying "I think you missed a spot, Mistress."

Esme, however, had a twisted look on her face. She'd kept her silence since having been brought into the know, and Aro's speech as well as Edward's madness had left a lasting impression, but a part of her that had lost her own child and witnessed Rosalie's endless suffering couldn't help but wonder if this was for the best.

Oh, she'd never wanted a child with Carlisle per se, and that it hadn't been possible (and still wasn't) effectively put it out of her mind.

All the same, he imagined that if she imagined they could design a machine such that a fertilized vampire's ova could be incubated, she would argue much harder against keeping this all secret.

Nevermind that most vampires would not have access to such technology and certainly would be bothered with its usage. Nevermind that the humans hadn't figured this one out either, not even for rats.

"I do not run a scientific lab," Aro said with a sigh, "I do not have the budget for it, I do not have any interest in it, and I am not spreading our operation even thinner by covertly researching how to inseminate and incubate hybrid children such that humans are not harmed in the process. Understand? It is not happening."

Esme's face fell, but she returned to her book.

The relationship that had developed between her and Aro was a very strange one.

He couldn't say he'd ever been in one quite like it before, which was unique by itself because he had had most kinds of relationship. Well, he'd never been a teacher sleeping with his student (though he supposed, if he wanted to be terrible, he could argue that Carlisle counted in this manner as Aro had had to teach him many things about the vampire world), but as he counted his lovers in the three digits, the different dynamics he'd had with each of them had in the end come to weave a rather solid fabric, one without a lot of holes.

Well, with Esme it seemed he'd filled a hole he never thought he would.

After a half-second, he frowned at his inner choice of metaphor.

Carlisle gave him a questioning look.

Yes, his relationship with Esme, which was an extension of his relationship with Carlisle, and which so neatly paralleled what Carlisle had with Sulpicia, only Esme and Aro had not reached that easy familiarity of decades-old friends that those two had… Aro had never had a relationship quite like this one.

They had continued sleeping with each other, just as Carlisle had stayed in Sulpicia's bed, though Aro would be lying if he said part of his motive wasn't to keep Alice too distracted to notice Bella.

Of course, now that he thought about that it occurred to him (not for the first time), that in a week's time, several days since Esme and Sulpicia had come up with the world's strangest solution to Carlisle and Esme's marital woes and Carlisle had decided he could, in fact, sleep with Aro again, Aro and Carlisle had still not had sex.

On that first day after, they had every intention, but, much like having every intention of seeing someone around only to never actually find a date, they… hadn't.

First, there'd been Esme and Sulpicia. No, there'd been Bella, who seemed to be rather miffed that she'd been replaced by Esme and Sulpicia as the center of Aro and Carlisle's attention.

Then, there had been Carlisle deciding to do the medical exam on Sulpicia was in order. There had been the unspoken agreement that this exam would indeed be on Sulpicia, and not Esme.

(And the exam, of course, had been a fiasco as the MRI showed Sulpicia's silhouette (and she insisted Carlisle print it, because this modernist portrait of her would make Thena ever so jealous), and the ultrasound showed nothing at all.)

Which, of course, had Sulpicia deciding that a reward was in order for her good behavior which meant that Aro didn't get to see Carlisle for the rest of the day (so Aro had decided to spend the day with Esme instead, they'd had good fun.)

Then, it had occurred to Aro that he hadn't seen Marcus in several days. Normally, while this was worrying, there was little Marcus could get up to. Now, however, whenever Aro took his eyes off him he was off having sex with Bella. So Aro had to track him down to make sure that, in the past several days, he had not had sex with Bella again.

Which ensured that Aro didn't have sex either.

Although, the look on Marcus' face when he saw the realignment of relationships had been worth it. Sadly, Carlisle missed it, something he was still upset about.

Of course, then since Marcus had apparently discovered his wit, he'd decided to use it for evil and make Aro utterly miserable. And Aro just knew that he would use it against Carlisle, since Carlisle had somehow, beyond all comprehension, earned Marcus' animosity.

And, equally beyond all comprehension, Marcus had earned Carlisle's. Carlisle, who had endured all of Caius' jibes for decades, taking it all with a smile, and who had gone on to make a friend out of just about every man on the planet that he encountered, had drawn a line in the sand with Marcus.

(It was strange, because Aro had always imagined the pair would rather like each other.

Marcus, of the three of them, had always been the one most prone to arguing for mercy and arguing for the circumstances surrounding the breaking of the law. Of course, when Marcus had…imploded, for lack of a better word, Aro had had to take up that task so that someone could balance out Caius, but of the three of them he'd arguably been the most optimistic and certainly the nicest.

Aro had often wondered if he and Didyme wouldn't have scampered off to give Carlisle's bizarre and terrible diet a try for the good of mankind. Aro tried to envision his sister and Carlisle being petty, passive aggressive not-lethal-enemies, but… no. No, he still couldn't picture it.

He supposed that–Marcus hadn't quite returned to the land of the living, he was far blunter than he used to be, was too exhausted to be offended by much of anything, and was less tolerant than he used to be if his decisions regarding Edward were anything to go by.

Still, Aro had not seen those two utterly despising each other.)

Then, lastly, there had been the fact that there was simply so much happening, all the time.

But that would only get worse. This day, with Bella's vomiting, was nothing if not a very clear message that everything was going to get a lot worse going forward. They would all be busy, and none more than Carlisle and Aro.

Which meant…

"Carlisle," Aro said, "I thought of something. Could you come with me for a moment?"

Carlisle gave him a very dull, uncomprehending, look. "Is it something in another room?"

His tone made it very clear that he hoped Aro would simply fetch it, rather than take him away from his books.

Sulpicia, as always, was much faster on the uptake than Carlisle ever was regarding these things. She, however, was not very sympathetic (she'd been doing victory laps over the fact that she had now had Carlisle for a week and Aro couldn't get the man for ten minutes. At this point, she wanted to see how long she could keep it up).

"I can get whatever it is you want, Aro," Sulpicia said with a grin, barely containing her laughter. "Easily."

Aro smiled thinly at her. "Yes, I know," he said pointedly.

Carlisle, as always, was utterly clueless. Good lord, suddenly it was three hundred years ago and Aro was leaning across the table, batting his eyes, feeling utterly absurd while Carlisle couldn't look up from his goddamn books. Or kissing him in greeting, letting it linger, linger, linger, even using tongue, while Carlisle wondered about these cultural differences.

Carlisle had later told him that he had simply thought Aro was "being Italian". He'd rather liked it, and didn't want to make it weird.

Without his looks and Aro's persistence, that man would have died a virgin.

Of course, Esme was equally clueless, which was why Aro supposed those two were married. And had never slept with each other.

(He now remembered that, in fact, the only reason those two were married was because Edward had shoved them together like dolls and screamed "Kiss damn you!" And that had somehow worked.)

"Carlisle," Aro said very pointedly, certain his eyes were flashing in barely concealed irritation, "I need you in the Roman baths."

And to Aro's everlasting amazement, Carlisle's eyes widened. "Don't tell me Marcus did something else. Bella is–" his head spun to where Bella was still in the film library, and too sick to have sex with anyone.

Aro could see the bewilderment in Carlisle's eyes.

Aro was done, he was simply done, "Yes, Carlisle, that man has done dreadful things and I won't stand for it."

Sulpicia, at this point, had given up containing her laughter. She was now lying on the table in helpless hysterics.

"Do I need to bring anything?" Carlisle asked, standing from the table immediately, undoubtedly thinking of the entire operating room that Aro now owned thanks to him.

"A doctor's uniform would be nice," Aro said, and pulled Carlisle out of the library by the arm.

Well outside the library, Aro barely bothered to close the door before he put his arms around Carlisle's neck, and covered his lips with his own.

God, it felt amazing. Just the feeling of that man's perfect, full, lips under Aro's own was enough to turn his stomach upside down and make his head spin. And, god, if he didn't get Carlisle into a room immediately, he would have him right there outside the library.

He had, of course, never forgotten the feeling but all the same it was now all coming rushing back to him.

"Wait, I'm confused, has Marcus–" Carlisle said, having the nerve to pull away and glance towards the direction of the baths.

"Who gives a damn about Marcus?!" Aro asked, not taking his lips off of Carlisle's chin, jaw, and neck.

Screw it, he'd do it right here. He did not care anymore.

"This is a terrible place," Carlisle noted, but he heard Sulpicia tell Esme to join her in the library's East wing, where of course they wouldn't hear anything, and stopped caring.

"This is not a secret," Aro said with a laugh, "If anyone overhears they'll assume it's been happening for a week."

As Caius still believed, actually, and Aro hadn't corrected him because at this point it was just embarrassing.

Carlisle nodded, seeing the logic, and an excited smile spread across his lips.

But then, the worst idea in the world occurred to him.

Why not, he asked himself inside his mind, make this a little fun? Aro had made Carlisle suffer more in the past week then Carlisle had in the past century (and that was with having formed a coven and all it entailed), wasn't he owed a little payback?

"Don't you dare," Aro hissed, but Carlisle was grinning and his thoughts were utterly amused.

"But you said I was needed in the Roman baths. Shouldn't we head there?"

"Oh you joke, but I would take you there too," Aro said, "At this point I deserve to, and if I'm to be cleaning pools I might as well be cleaning up my own mess."

And that, at least, would get Marcus to finally pick a new spot for himself. Sure, he could have sex in the baths whenever he liked, but if Aro had sex there–well, then it just felt unclean.

But Carlisle, the bastard man, only gave Aro a befuddled look, all the while crowing in delight inside. "Of course you're taking me there, though, I do know the way, so I don't see the need."

"I would kill you were you not so pretty," Aro said.

"Well, now I don't know what you're talking about," Carlisle said in mock exasperation, even as his lips twitched.

Aro only glared at him, and spun him around, attaching his lips to Carlisle's neck as his hands did away with his pants in seconds. Carlisle's thrill of surprised laughter echoed through the room.

"Aro," Carlisle said, a thread of distant mortification running through him as well as some self-awareness, "You realize that, after this, you can't be scandalized by Marcus in the baths. This is much worse."

"Good for Marcus," Aro said, very much no longer interested in how much this could be used against him or how scandalous it all was.

He pushed Carlisle down to his knees, and went to remove his own pants.

Finally.

"Master?"

Jane's childlike soprano echoed through the room, just behind the door.

Jane who of course, had never properly met Carlisle, had only ever seen him during that bizarre orientation in the library and at breakfast with Bella Swan.

Aro looked down in horror at Carlisle's pants, which were, of course, not salvageable.

Carlisle just looked back at him with raised eyebrows and the very clear thought of, "This one's your fault."

"Master, I– oh, oh my god, oh– merde de putain!" Jane spun around in the door, almost too fast for even Aro's eyes to catch the movement, though it was of course too late.

Her crystal vampire memory would never let her forget a fraction of this moment.

"Hello, Jane," Carlisle said, his eyes closed and not looking at her, as if that might make her disappear like a bad dream.

Aro held in his curse and forced his voice to be pleasant as he said, "Yes, Jane?"

He was going to assume this was very important and that neither of them would ever speak of this moment again. Though, of course, Aro imagined Jane would think of it and that it would haunt her.

Carlisle got up, touched Aro's hand briefly to say "Sex is cancelled", and then he removed Aro's cloak, putting it around himself so he'd have something to do the walk of shame in back to his room.

"That is not what that's for," Aro couldn't help but hiss.

Carlisle, of course, just gave him a look, and started walking towards his room. At human pace, not vampire pace, Aro imagined as a pointed gesture that he was not fleeing the scene in shame but departing with dignity, as one does when it's not one's fault that Aro is a dog.

"Jane?" Aro prompted with a sigh, as the girl had yet to say anything, still apparently processing.

"It's a visitor for you, Master," Jane informed him.

"Wonderful," Aro said with a laugh, what excellent timing. Not just because he'd finally been about to bed Carlisle, of course, but because the very human Bella was retching in the theater and her scent was everywhere.

Oh yes, how was he going to explain that one?

"It's Jasper Hale." Jane continued, "He claims to be part of Carlisle's coven."

Carlisle, who hadn't quite made it out of the hall, stopped in his tracks. Of all the members of his family, he had never thought it would be Jasper who would make an appearance. Neither, for that matter, had Aro himself.

Jasper, from what Aro had gathered, was a very pragmatic soul. Oh, he cared for the Cullens and gave the diet his best effort, but he also–he was honest with himself and what needed to be done. He had been in a position, too many a time, where terrible decisions had to be made.

When Carlisle had made the decision to return to Volterra, Jasper had very clearly noted that he was giving up on the man if not the coven, because he would never allow Alice to set foot there.

If Jasper was here–it meant something had happened that shifted those priorities.

Aro saw the horror dawn on Carlisle as the implications of Jasper's visit unfolded themselves before him.

And they both knew that if Jasper was here because of Edward, if something Edward had done had been of such severity that it warranted Jasper coming to Volterra, then–

Then Marcus would deliver the vote he promised that day in the tower.

And Aro could not imagine what other thing could possibly bring Jasper to Volterra.

The only solace, the ghost of reassurance in existence, was that Amun had called a few days ago, letting Carlisle, and through him Aro, know of Edward's recent visit to Egypt. It had been a thinly veiled attempt to win favor on Amun's end, but that, in turn, was why the man was still alive. He was inoffensive and useful, and he'd even pluck gifted humans off the street. Aro was ever so grateful to him for Demetri.

Aro had deemed Amun's news to be of little concern. There were reasons that Vladimir and Stefan had been kept alive. Alone, without gifts, without resources, they were nothing. After their failed invasion of Italy and the death of Vladimir's wife, they'd had no recourse and in their heart of hearts they knew it.

Now it was their mission in life to remind anyone who would listen about their glory days, their schemes for revenge and the overthrow of the Volturi, and keeping themselves alive until it was time to turn the tide.

Which, of course, meant that anyone who was looking to make trouble for the Volturi would quickly find themselves making the acquaintance of Vladimir and Stefan. Amun was too clever for such a role, too clever and too cowardly, he'd known he was beaten and kept himself alive by keeping himself out of the way, having the peculiar talent of happening upon gifted individuals like Demetri, and knowing when it was time to give Aro a nice phone call. Vladimir and Stefan though, yes, they'd proved their worth several times over already.

Better the devil you know, the humans said, but Aro preferred his devil incompetent. And the Romanians, unable to adapt as they were, had fallen because that was what they were, had always been - incompetent. Their power had only been amassed through the use of raw force, and any fool could create vampires. The Southern Wars were proof enough of that.

Now, dethroned and alone, the Romanians were the only thing that is worse than being incompetent in power, and that was incompetent and not in power.

They were toothless.

And so, when Aro learned where Edward was headed, he'd been relieved. Edward would go to the Romanians, and seek noble retribution for the violation of his parents.

Of course, Amun had apparently not known of Edward's gift, and believed he had sent him running off to Japan. Which was rather nice of him, Aro supposed, but the point remained the same.

One of two things would happen when Edward made contact with Vladimir and Stefan. Either they would, somehow, think that Edward and his gift provided them the support they needed to finally sack Volterra, and they would begin scheming Aro's downfall in earnest. Aro could then crush them at his leisure. Or, if Stefan and Vladimir deemed Edward worthless, they'd either send him packing or else kill him to maintain their fearsome reputation.

This latter would upset Carlisle, of course, but at least then it wouldn't be Aro murdering Edward for his endless stupidity.

Suddenly, Carlisle no longer seemed to care that he wasn't wearing pants. He only buttoned what had apparently become his cloak, and ran down the hall Jane had come from.

Leaving Aro with Jane, "Thank you, Jane, I'll see him shortly."