All around them, the tension in the air was palpable, it was so dense one could almost touch it. Aro though seemed to take no notice of this. Behind him, Caius grinned pleasantly for the first time since the whole mess started; he sat expectantly on his throne, almost eager. Finally something was going favorably in his eyes.

Carlisle's face was passive but his hand was still extended towards his entrapped son in a silent plea. Demetri and another guard held Edward, positioned just so to end his immortal life at the first sign their Master gave.

"I am sorry, my friend. But he broke the rules. He was seen. I cannot let such a blatant act of disrespect go unpunished," Aro told the fair haired, a hint of genuine regret in his voice. After all, he cared much for Carlisle and knew how soft hearted he tended to be.

"A child Aro. A child saw. They have such fickle memories. I deal with them all the time. A year will have gone by and she'll have forgotten it already," Carlisle tried to explain, the oppressive desperation in his chest shoved down and away where it wouldn't distract him from pleading his case.

The raven haired vampire looked at him full of pity, as if Carlisle were a child himself, unable to understand the reality around him and accept that it was sometimes harsh and unfair.

"Aro, I'm begging you, please," the Doctor pleaded, his anguish bleeding into his voice as he walked forward.

The dark haired man raised his thin, translucent hand to stop his approaching guards, unconcerned of any perceived threat.

"Let me pay for this punishment for him, I'll do anything you may desire of me. I-" Carlisle looked into the red eyes of his long ago friend as he thought of what to say. "I could stay here," he offered a smile, "here in Volterra. I know you've long wished for that."

His words gave Aro pause. Red wine eyes widening a fraction, for once taken aback.

"You would do that? You would stay?" He asked, confused, "we did not part in the best of terms and…" he frowned, "you vowed never to return here."

"Yes, I'd stay. If that's what you wished for, I'd stay forever Aro." There was such earnestness in the blond's voice it almost threw the other off. Eyes filled with such wonder and surprise they seemed almost scarlet.

"You are really fond of him?" It was not really a question.

"Yes. I care for him deeply." Carlisle looked back at Bella, held between his daughter's immobile arms, "for all of them."

"You never cease to amaze me," Aro breathed out.

Silence reigned for a moment, the only sound Bella's barely contained, panicked gasps and Edward's quiet struggling. Red eyes kept themselves trained on the English, studying him, considering, motionless as a statue.

"I will not deny I have longed for this for… a very long time," Aro confessed, pondering, "you offer me a great temptation, old friend." He smiled, thin lips almost disappearing with the act.

The Volturi said nothing, they knew how strict Aro's rule was, but when it came to Carlisle? Laws bent and gravity shifted. Such was the fascination the Doctor brought out of their master. After a long while passed, the vampire finally spoke.

"I find myself at a crossroads I believe, but… as much as it would delight me to have you stay, there is something else that I've always wished for."

Carlisle smiled slightly, hopeful that his children and the human would be okay now,

"anything Aro, whatever you wish for."

"I would not take you away from your coven, dear Carlisle. No, but I would have you dine with us, just this once."

In an instant the whole demeanor of the Doctor fell, his golden eyes losing their light like a blown out candle.

"What are you saying?" the fair headed asked, dumbfounded, uncomprehending but full of a knowledge he didn't wish to acknowledge.

"Feed with us, my friend," Aro took a step closer and took the other's shoulders with a bright grin, "feast with us as you have always meant to have done."

The Doctor froze, unbalanced by the situation, which seemed to be derailing more than it had already been. He had not thought that would be possible. Comprehension struck him. He shook his head.

"Don't make me do this," Carlisle whispered thinly "Aro-"

"You said-" The leader of the Vulture stopped him, "that you'd give me anything I desired, whatever whim. Anything I desire of you. Those were your words, were they not?"

"Yes," the Doctor exhaled, not moving an inch.

"Well, this is what I want. You will not deny me now, will you?" There was something dangerous lurking underneath his friendly face, his hands, for as comforting as they looked upon the other's shoulders, pressed, in reality, with unnecessary force.

Carlisle turned slightly to look at his copper haired son, whose eyes locked on his own, despair and guilt plainly displayed on his perfect features. He returned his eyes to Aro.

He felt a hole in his chest where his heart used to beat.

"Don't let them see," he whispered so quietly only the raven haired would hear. But it was of no use, as soon as the decision was made in his mind, Edward began struggling with renewed fervor, and a confused voice reached him from behind.

"Carlisle?" Alice asked, confusion in her eyes, and a tremor in her voice.

The Doctor grabbed at Aro's forearms and looked directly into him.

"Please, don't let them see," he begged quietly again, yet his words were uncharacteristically forceful.

Aro smiled, benevolent.

"Take them away," he ordered flippantly, "it was a delight having you all here today. Please, do not hesitate to come and visit us again, next time with greater discretion if you may. And…" He looked at Bella hungrily, "we'll be in touch. I look forward to your transformation."

"No, no!" Edward screamed in the hold of the guards, "Carlisle do not do this! Please!"

The golden haired man dropped his eyes to the floor, ashamed and pained. He tried his best to block out the screaming and the uncomprehending confusion of his children. Instead, he focused on the quiet relief of a beating heart, Bella. He could smell her sadness being slowly soothed by overwhelming relief. Carlisle took comfort in it and made it his own as best as he could.

"Come now, dear friend," Aro took the other's hands and pulled him up a few steps to the throne platform. The Doctor was lethargic in his movements like a placid doll, yet still graceful, "it'll be wonderful, you'll see. Oh, how my waking dreams have been filled with this."

"I am… glad it pleases you, Aro." Carlisle's voice lacked emotion, but not for want of trying. He felt as if he were drifting, unable to comprehend the decision he had just made.

A group of humans were closing in, his children and Bella going far away from him where they would be safe.

Aro chuckled softly at him, perpetually amused by his behaviors. Carlisle's thoughts were exposed by the contact of their hands, his mind no longer a safe space he could seek comfort in.

"Dinn-er," he sing-songs to the room. There was a quiet ruffling about, anticipation in the still, composed bodies. An almost inaudible purr coloring the air.

The doors to the court of the Volturi opened, smiling and wonder filled faces greeting them, enchanted by what they thought was a well put on spectacle, but in actuality was the alluring scent of a room full of vampires.

The sentiment was quite reciprocated. The aroma of the humans was just as appetizing to them.

Aro smiled, slightly. At the sign, everybody in the room pounced on the group. The young, the old, the children, there was not one spared. Everyone rushed to feed. All except for one.

Carlisle was frozen on the spot, locking his body in place so he wouldn't do something stupid like try to stop any of the coven from their endeavors. It was not like he hadn't seen others feed before, of course he had, but… it had been so long ago. He'd become soft and comfortable in the pretense of his human life that he so adored. And he wondered how he'd ever been able to endure this, for nowadays couldn't even bear to lose a patient on the table. This, truly was, hell on earth.

The smell of blood permeated the room, he was drowning in it. It filled every crevice, every crack in the wall, and every pour of the Doctor's body.

He noticed Aro then, he didn't know how he hadn't seen it before, holding onto a teen, sparing her. The raven haired held her arm like it was nothing, like he had just placed his hand there, gently. Still, the girl trashed, panicked, unable to free herself.

"No! No! Please don't!" Distantly Carlisle noted her voice was high pitched as they began approaching him.

"I know it is hard for you, old friend. I will help you, do not worry." Aro said kindly to him, taking one of his hands and pulling him down the couple of steps until he stood by the head of the Volturi and the terrified teen.

"No, no, no, no, no, don't hurt me, don't hurt me please. I don't want to die, I- I don't want to die please," the girl sobbed, her flowery dress already covered with blood of her lifeless companions. Her long hair was faintly copper and quite wavy. The sight of it twisted his insides. 'Just like Edward's.' he thought.

"Aro-" his voice cracked, he doesn't want to do this.

"Now," the words were harsh and Carlisle had to do his best to stay still and not flinch away from them "Hold your end of the deal, my Stregoni Benefici."

Golden eyes crossed the other's deep pools of red. It was a name of old, given to him by the people of Italy for his kindness, now twisted and tainted in the bloody lips of one he had thought a friend. Still did. The feelings churned inside him in an unpleasant mixture.

He raised his hands and took hold of the girl's forearms as gently as he could.

"I'm sorry," Carlisle's words broke with the effort of saying them, "I'm so sorry."

The girl trembled in his hold, shaking her head side to side, a pleading and incomprehensible mantra of 'nos' and 'pleases' and jumbled begging. 'I don't want to die,' she repeated. This close, he could perfectly see that in the brown of her eyes, there were speaks of green; they were lovely.

There was barely any venom in his mouth and he had to stop himself from swallowing it. He was too used to the smell of human blood for the scent to make his mouth fill up with venom in anticipation. Blood had slowly lost some of its appeal to him through the centuries and with it, his body's natural response of secreting venom. But he needed it now, to make it less painful for the girl, less horrifying; what happened to her and what was about to happen.

"Sshh, shh," Carlisle tried comforting her as he circled one arm around her shoulders and grabbed the back of her head with his other hand. Her hair is soft to the touch. The blond knew it was futile though, he could not bring her any sort of real peace or relief.

Smiling placidly, though his eyes gleamed with eagerness, Aro waited patiently behind the teen, watching them intently.

"I'm sorry," the blond whispered one last time, drawing in close to the sun tanned skin. He opened his mouth, subtle fangs making gentle contact with the skin of her neck. If Carlisle had thought she couldn't get more desperate, he was about to find out how wrong he was. The girl shrieked at the top of her lungs in terror with such force it almost hurt his sensitive ears.

He trembled there in place with the girl, beginning to close his jaw. He stopped then, lips closing in quiet despair against her skin. He closed his eyes with a grimace, "I can't- I can't do it." But he found that he could not pull away from the teen.

Aro was there in a blink, arm raised and grabbing tightly at the other's blond locks, his other arm circling around him incapacitating any movement Carlisle could try to make. He was trapped in the arms of the other, as was the girl between them.

The leader of the Voultri looked at him coolly, unsmiling now. The noises around them quieted at the dangerous aura exuding from their Master.

"Aro, please," the doctor begged again, "I can't do it, I can't."

"It seems to me you are doing an awful lot of begging today. What is it going to be then? The life of your vampire or your integrity?" And how funny he said it, like it was such a silly concept to even think of.

Carlisle tried stepping away but Aro's hands were unbudging.

"This is my desire and you agreed to it willingly," the grip on his hair tightened and the blond had to wince as the strands threatened to tear from his scalp. "Now. Drink."

The girl cried in his arms, sobbing inconsolably, Carlisle braced himself and forced his mouth open with effort.

The skin broke easily under the sharpness of his teeth. The teen shrieked like a wailing animal. At the first drop, venom finally began coating the insides of his mouth, he choked on the blood as it began dripping over his tongue. The ginger trashed in his grip, twisting with new pain as the initial contact of the venom burned her.

"Carlise," Aro's voice was authoritative. Pale golden eyes lifted from copper strands of hair to look at the red in the other's eyes. He was smiling again, soft and comforting, teeth stained red. But the grip on his hair was anything but; the doctor was a prey here, just as much as the girl. "Drink."

And Carlisle did.

Aro's other hand rose up to the back of his neck, there he traced gentle circles with his thumb, but his sharp nails were a warning all on their own. Blood pooled in his mouth and slid down his throat like honey. It was good, it was wonderful, it was so very intoxicating. He could barely stomach it, he choked on the thick substance, forcing himself to swallow down.

Carlisle Cullen was a man of faith, but he did not pray. He did not deserve to ask for any sort of forgiveness. And never again after today would he be granted such a thing.

He began sucking as fast as he could; urgent in his need to end this girl's suffering. Somehow, he didn't think Aro would let him snap the teen's neck to spare her the pain. He didn't know if he was fast enough, or if there would be consequences if he did manage to do it before being stopped. The nails scratched deeply at his nape, that was answer enough.

Carlisle did not notice the moment Aro's grip began letting up, instead of being forceful and oppressing, it was soft; cold fingers brushing through his pale locks. 'Why?' Carlisle despaired.

"There you go, it's okay, my friend," Aro crooned softly.

The patriarch of the Olympic coven realized then, he was crying. Well, not crying of course, that was a privilege reserved for mortals, but the intent of the sounds he made were just the same. A little wailing. He felt no shame in it, only greater grief.

He absorbed as quickly as he was able, not with the frenzy of feeding most vampires went through though. He could not bring himself to be like that, despite how utterly wonderful the taste of blood in his mouth was; a delightful temptation he had denied himself since his first day as a creature of the night. No, it was not frenzy, but a desperation to push himself, to get it over with, for the poor girl, for himself.

God, he would never be able to look his family in the eye again. Carlisle the compassionate. Carlisle the hypocrite.

Aro's eyes were on him as he fed, exploring every bit of him. The blood on his lips, the swallowing of his throat, the gold of his eyes steadily darkened by the taint of red. Drop by little drop. Carlisle wanted nothing more than to disappear from this place and from Aro's intrusive gaze. He wanted, as he had not wanted for some centuries now, to be able to lie in a coffin and sleep with the dead or be trapped there forever, away from the brightness of the sun and people untainted by his curse. Alone forever. As it should have always been.

He wanted, above all else, for Aro to stop touching him and relishing in the power he held over him. He wanted Aro to stop feeling as he felt and scraping from his mind his pained thoughts and torment. He remembers not caring what anyone saw in his mind, once, he had never been secretive in the least, not when he lived in Volterra, and much less once Edward came to be. At least, he had tried not to be, he had his guilt of course, and that would never leave him.

Carlisle had never felt as full as he did in that moment, even though he knew the blood from a person was not all that much more than that of a deer. He felt like throwing up, like he was going to burst, and also stronger than he'd ever felt in his vampiric life since the days of his second birth.

In his despair, he lost the meaning of time and almost his sense of self.

"You can stop now, my friend." The sweet dulcet tones of Aro's words pierced through the barrier of his dark thoughts.

He kept sucking for blood but there was no more. It was quiet all around them, he felt observed. With some difficulty he pried his jaw open and looked down carefully. The body in his arms, and it really was just that, was limp and dead. The girl was dead. Her corpse was warm still, but rapidly cooling. She was dead.

Locked in place, the teen hugged to his body, Carlisle remained as a statue; immobile, still. He could hardly comprehend what had just transpired. He wondered, with the knowledge he had now gathered through the centuries of his second life, if he couldn't now make death possible for himself. If he dared.

Absently he observed, like an out-of-body experience, as Aro commanded one of his guards to take the body away. His arms would not give though, and the raven haired eased them open with a forceful grip that feigned gentleness. Aro was smiling kindly at him, Carlisle felt dizzy.

The copper in the girl's hair gave him pause though, he thought 'Edward,' and held on just a little tighter before Aro gripped at his hands with such force it made him let go. One moment he held her in his arms, the next, he could not tell where she had gone, just that his arms were empty.

"I told you, you would love the taste of it, dear Carlisle. Having this experience with you has been…" Aro took a moment to contemplate his words, eyes bright and pleased, "so very wonderful. Almost like tasting blood for the first time again. You have given me a great honor. Ah! And to experience your very first feeding with you! I could not have asked for more."

"I'm-" Carlisle cleared his throat, he could feel the blood still clinging to the walls of his throat. "I'm glad it pleases you, Aro," he said meekly.

A moment later, not knowing how he ended up there, Carlisle blinked from where he had fallen to the floor. He noted the ceiling, it was beautifully crafted and kept, he could feel the wet in the ground beneath him soaking into his clothes.

The leader of the Volturi looked down at him and tsked softly. Aro gathered the blond in his arms, benevolent to do the work of his lessers, and sat them both on the steps to the throne platform, Carlisle's back to the other's chest.

"There, there, my dear friend. It gets easier with time, you will see. Do not worry," the raven haired cooed softly, taking his thoughts straight from his mind, like a thief in the night, as he caressed his flaxen hair.

Carlisle trembled, his thoughts scattered and confused. The girl's soft copper hair flashed in his mind, he could almost feel the strands between his fingers. His son's once beautiful green eyes flit into his thoughts.

"Ah, isn't that curious? You are quite right; their hairs are very similar," Aro smiled placidly, content, "small coincidences, eh?" he said softly, something gleaming in his eyes, they looked mischievous.

The blond trembled harder, unable to bear what he had just done. The eyes of everyone in the room were on them. Somewhere in the back of his mind he had enough awareness to feel humiliated at being observed like a creature in a zoo or a failed experiment in a lab. He felt watched and vulnerable, unclean and the most unholy he had ever felt before. And suddenly, the arms around him didn't feel so terrible at all, in his still heart he yearned for comfort and unconditional care. He wished not to be judged, he was already doing enough of that on his own, he would never stop doing so.

Taking the thoughts from his mind, Aro gathered his arms more securely around him, still brushing his hair like a beloved pet. And Carlisle let him, for he yearned to be comforted, and no one in this wretched place loved him a drop, none but Aro himself, in his own twisted way.

"It will be alright, dear Carlisle, you'll see. It will all be alright." Aro comforted him, just like the fair haired wanted.

Carlisle knew though, that it would never again be okay.

Abril: Dear readers, despite the topic of this story, it is a work of love I can assure you hehe. I will not get into the details of the story, but this one-shot has been a PAIN to finish. The short of it is that I lost the first version of it (which I loved deeply and was very proud of) and I almost couldn't bring myself to write it again. But here we are, like 4 years later sweet god, finally done.

Thanks so much to the wonderful Phoenyx-Fyre-Writer for being beta for this story, their help was so wonderful to have. And also, thanks to them, I now think maybe there might be a following one-shot that details the continuation of this adventure. Carlisle (not) dealing with his emotions and his family there to support him; much more comfort there than whatever Aro is trying to offer here hehe.

If you enjoyed this story, please leave a comment! It feeds us writers and gives us nourishing for writing EVEN MORE. Haha, hope everyone has a good day!