What Am I?
"Will you slow down!" Basileus called out to his new vampire son.
Carlisle had been resistant when Basileus had informed him they would be swimming from the north west of England to Spain. 'No man could swim that far,' he'd said - now he's flying through the bloody water - he'll be there a week before us at this rate!
"Carlisle! STOP!" Basileus shouted, luckily his boy was just close enough to hear him!
Basileus caught up with Carlisle first, quickly followed by Aro and Eleazar. Crack! "Stop!" Crack! "Going!" Crack! "So!" Crack! "Fast!" strong slaps landed deftly across Carlisle's wet head.
The young man barely noticed, he was exhilarated, "I cannot stop! I cannot slow! This is amazing - we have swam for hours and miles and miles and I do not tire!"
Despite himself, Basileus smiled at his happy newborn, turning to his two older sons he joked, "I have a happy son at last, he will compliment 'moody' and 'angry' perfectly!"
'Moody' Eleazar huffed indignantly, 'angry' Aro splashed his father for the comment.
"Look, Carlisle, you are new to this life, and a newborn cannot be alone, ever! Until you reach vampire maturity you have to be accompanied at all time. You must stay with us, I do not want you landing in Spain alone! Do you understand?"
Carlisle back at his father in confusion.
"IF he makes it to full maturity" Aro said quietly to Eleazar, who in return rolled his eyes and thought, Why can't you just be on-side for a while brother?
Basileus shot Aro a tired look, he'd had well enough of his protestations on the way to England, he had no desire to hear them all the way back to Volterra too.
"I thought I'd made myself clear already Aro, but I am happy to remind you when we get to dry land if I must!"
That shut Aro up!
You will not punish me in front of the country bumpkin, Aro thought, shooting daggers at Carlisle, still grinning like a hapless idiot. Basileus heard his son's thoughts but decided it would be too difficult to whip Aro in water. It will keep, he thought.
"Erm, what do you mean?" Carlisle asked to the three men before him.
"Ignore Aro, you will mature, Carlisle." Basileus confirmed.
Carlisle still appeared confused. "No, I mean, a vampire? A newborn? I, well I do not understand? Vampires aren't real!"
His questions shocked Basileus and Aro, but it was Eleazar who replied. "Carlisle, I can assure you they are. We are vampires… and now, so are you."
Carlisle was so shocked he stopped treading water and began to sink! Basileus dragged his boy back to the surface.
"Let us get to dry land and then we will discuss things properly." he said to the stricken young man.
"NO! Tell me now! What have you done to me!"
Basileus looked around; it was broad daylight, the four treaded water a mile off the coast of lands-end, the very tip of England's most southern point. Seeing no boats, and therefore no people, he decided to explain a few things to Carlisle quickly so they could get on.
"Calm down my boy, I am a vampire, well, actually I am the original vampire. I was created by the highest god of the Greeks many millenniums ago. These are my two sons, they are vampires too, and now, so are you - both a vampire and my son."
Basileus waited for Carlisle's response, hoping his words would do for time being. Unfortunately, they weren't.
Carlisle whipped his head around to flick the dripping hair from his face, but when he still looked confused. "But how did you turn me into a vampire, I do not understand?"
Releasing a tired sigh Basileus turned to Aro and Eleazar, "You two go on ahead, travel back to Volterra and make sure my suite is ready for our arrival, we will be along in good time."
"Are you sure my lord, we can wait? We may be able to help." Eleazar replied, Aro looked ready to swim off, he didn't want to help.
"I appreciate your concern son, but we shall both be fine. I will be expecting BOTH of you to be on hand when we return."
Eleazar smiled to his father and nudged Aro to react - he nodded curtly in response. Without looking back Aro swam away. Eleazar shrugged to his father, "Good day Carlisle, I will see you again soon." Eleazar left, swimming at full speed to catch up with his younger brother.
"Okay Carlisle, let us swim at a leisurely pace whilst we talk." Basileus prompted.
Carlisle felt wary, he couldn't tell where it was coming from, or why, but he felt apprehensive; it was nagging in the back of his mind that this man, no this vampire was a not to be messed with. He started to swim. It was hard to go slowly, but he managed to match Basileus' steady breast stroke.
Basileus soon broke the awkward silence, "tell me son, what do you know about vampires?"
Carlisle considered his question, he didn't want to cause offense. When he failed to answer, Basileus intruded on Carlisle's thoughts.
"You have no need to concern yourself with my sensibilities, Carlisle. With my long years on this earth I find little to take offense to."
Carlisle scanned the area ahead as he tried to decide what to say. He wasn't used to his heightened senses yet - the ripples in the water sounded like tidal waves coming towards him.
"Come on," Basileus pushed his boy.
"I used to hunt vampires, but I never believed they were real." Carlisle said in a small voice.
"Ha! No Carlisle, though I do believe you thought you were. The good pastor must have had you all whipped up into hysteria if you thought hunting vampires were truly possible. No my boy, tell me, have you ever heard of anyone catching a vampire?"
Carlisle thought about that. "No, no one that I know at any rate," he replied, and added sadly, "Plenty of witches though. He was not a 'good' pastor."
"Hmm, yes, I heard your thoughts back at the castle. 'Good' may not be the correct word to describe him…" Basileus noted the look of sorrow on Carlisle's face. Deciding to move the conversation along, he prodded the newborn further. "Tell me, what tricks were you using? What did your kind know of mine?"
"We know you are strong, and fast, and evil. But that you can be killed by a stake through the heart, and you are scared of the holy cross, because you are so evil." Carlisle looked away shyly.
Basileus smirked. "The only real way to kill a vampire is to take off their head. A stake through the heart would slow us down I guess, but finding a stake hard enough to penetrate a vampire's flesh by human force would be problematic." Basileus laughed heartily before Carlisle's clear annoyance stopped him. "I'm sorry my boy, but we are not evil, strong and fast certainly, but not evil. We have no need to fear your pagan cross…"
"We are not the pagans' sir!" Carlisle interrupted, angrily. "You are from the pagan gods! You said the Greeks! That's as pagan as they come!"
"Calm yourself boy," Basileus replied sternly. "I know my god is real, he has come to land and walked with me, I was born from him, what proof is there of your god?"
Carlisle looked flustered, his temper was rising with every word Basileus spoke. That wasn't what Basileus wanted, so he put his efforts into calming the newborn.
"Carlisle listen, this is not a topic we need to discuss today, we shall come back to this at a more suitable time. If you have any questions about vampires we should clear those before we come to land…"
Basileus allowed his words to hang in the air, he had no desire to be fighting newborns in the middle of the ocean. It felt like an age had passed before Carlisle finally asked a question.
"How?" he asked simply.
"How, what son?"
Carlisle expanded a little, "How did you turn me into a vampire?"
Aha! Basileus felt comfortable answering this one. "I bit you, and injected my venom into the bite and then fed you blood. Not all humans make it through the transformation. Turning humans into vampires is tricky, it is a skill and takes time to learn. Aro has turned many vampires in his time. Eleazar. too, has joined in with turning a few when we have had a large batch of humans ready for transformation."
"Am I a monster now?"
"No Carlisle, and neither am I. Some vampires are, but in my honest opinion, so are some humans, yes?"
Carlisle certainly agreed with that. "But I must kill people now?"
Basileus thought back to the scene Carlisle had created at the castle. And the great many scenes Eleazar had created on the same topic. "You must drink blood Carlisle, you will not die if you do not, but you will go insane with the hunger. Look, vampires are nourished by blood in the same way humans are by their food. That blood can come from any host that bleeds. Human, animal, vampire - all bleed, all are sources of nourishment for us. BUT, your first year, your newborn year, I am responsible for you and you will drink human blood in this year coming Carlisle. I haven't seen enough evidence as yet to risk animal blood as the sole source of nourishment in the first year. I will teach you to feed without killing the host. It's hard to learn to feed without injecting too much venom at the same time, and even harder to be able to stop drawing blood before the host is dry. But we can try."
Carlisle nodded to Basileus statement. He understood. He also still felt the hiding the man had given him back in the castle, and that was even with the relief of the cool, comforting ocean - he wasn't ready to argue his case on, well, on anything right then.
They swam a little while longer before Carlisle had another question to ask. "You keep calling me a newborn, I am twenty-three-years-old. How old will be I when I am matured in vampire eyes?"
Basileus was pleased at how calm the boy seemed, incredibly calm for a newborn. "Well, we call the first year of a vampire life the newborn stage. That is, from the point at which the human was turned into a vampire until 12 months from that date."
Basileus paused hearing Carlisle think, 'A whole year?!' in horror. He had to stop himself from sniggering at the boy before he went on.
"This stage can be a dangerous stage for a vampire as newborns are ruled by their incredibly heightened emotions and senses, and they can be rash, very rash. Vampires 'feel' everything to a much greater degree than humans do, even after the first year, but newborns are like over grown toddlers compared to mature vampires!"
Again Basileus paused. 'Over grown toddlers?!' Carlisle thought, clearly disgusted at being thought of as such.
"Because of this," Basileus went on. "The risk of exposing us to humans is highest for newborns. We, that is the Volturi under my discretion, have instilled a number of laws to protect vampire kind, one of those is that a vampire is the responsibility of their creator until their newborn year in complete. You cannot be alone at all in this time."
Carlisle didn't like the sound of that, it sounded oppressive. He thought better than to comment on it, however. "Where are we going?" he asked instead.
"How is your geography?"
Carlisle shrugged in reply.
"Volterra," Basileus told him, knowing it would mean nothing to the boy. "It's a little north of the Rubicon and we should arrive there tomorrow evening, even at this speed."
"Why aren't we crossing on land then, surely passing through France would be far quicker?"
Basileus quietened. He wasn't ready to share that information yet. "I dislike France, I will tell you why when you are older."
"Will I get older then? You said you have been a vampire for millennia…"
Basileus smiled. "No Carlisle, you will not age in body, only in mind. You are immortal now, unless you have your head removed you will continue to live, forever."
Carlisle felt like the weight of the world had suddenly been dropped on his shoulders. Forever! Forever is a very long time. Do I want to live forever? Seeing everyone I come to know pass and die?
He needed distraction, quick! "My body won't age… but it feels human still, how can that be?"
Basileus thought a quick vampire biology lesson was needed. "You will feel the same to you, and to me you will feel the same, too. Vampires can touch and feel each other as a human would feel a human, but if a human were to feel your skin it would be hard, cold, indestructible."
Carlisle nodded along as they swam, taking in all the new information.
"Humans pose such little threat to our existence without their new tools of war," Basileus continued. "And even with them they cannot trap us to inflict these tools of war upon us. Vampires can hurt other vampires as easily as one man can hurt another. You still have blood in your veins but it is cold now. The venom running through your body makes it so."
Basileus took one look at his new son and knew what he'd said made absolutely no sense to the boy.
"Look at your arms, can you see how they sparkle?" Basileus asked. "That's the sunlight on your diamond skin, its the venom in your veins."
Carlisle stopped swimming for the moment and checked out his arms, pulling his sodden shirt sleeve up as high as they would go. How he hadn't noticed that he was shimmering in the sunlight was anyone's guess, but it came as a total, magical and mystical surprised to Carlisle.
"We cannot be seen in daylight by humans - they would recognize immediately that we are not human." Basileus stopped and pulled Carlisle around to face him. Gripping the young man's face in his hands he fixed the boy in place with his eyes. "That cannot happen Carlisle, it is our most sacred law, humans cannot know of vampiric existence."
Carlisle bobbed his head and said he understood.
No, not yet, you don't, Basileus thought before continuing with a lighter tone. "You can still cry, you can still eat human food if you wish - though only small meals that can be burned up by the venom in your guts, otherwise you have to vomit to release it from your stomach and the pain it will cause rotting inside you."
"Venom?" Carlisle repeated, mainly to himself.
"Your main source of venom is in your mouth, your saliva glands are now filled with venom and you can train these glands to release venom as and when you wish, if you so desire." Basileus could tell the boy was being bamboozled with information he couldn't quite process, but the beauty of being a vampire was that Carlisle couldn't forget what he was being told and it would make sense at a later date. "I will say," he added. "Most vampires do not but we Volturi's live very differently to other vampires."
"And what is the Volturi's? Is that your family name?"
"Sort of, yes. Aro and I had travelled the world before we built the castle at Volterra - we took our surname from the nearby village. The Volturi is so much more than that, though." Basileus cursed himself for explaining things so simply and missing the importance of the coven he had built. "To put it in human terms, the Volturi is the royal family of the vampiric world. It is the largest, and most powerful coven in existence. Coven that is a... well, it is like a family. Or it should be in my personal opinion. Aro, he is at the head of the coven…"
"Aro! Not you?" Carlisle interrupted.
"No, not me, I sit above the coven, I offer my counsel and I instruct the course. I set up the Volturi to manage the vampire world because things had gotten a little out of control and vampires needed proper governing."
A little out of control? Basileus thought, questioning his own words. Things had got wildly out of control!
"Aro heads the coven with Marcus and Caius," he said, getting back on track. "You will meet them when we arrive in Volterra, the three of them are the masters of the coven. We keep around 30 permanent guards, they live in the castle and perform various duties on the coven's behalf. There are usually another ten, to twenty newborns waiting to join the proper guard too. Aro keeps his own high guard, they live with him…"
Carlisle interrupted again, "Eleazar, he isn't a guard, no?"
Basileus laughed heartily. "No, Eleazar helps when he is needed but he doesn't feel suited to leadership. And besides, no son of mine would be a guard!" Basileus finished, he didn't want to bombard his new son with too much information, although he feared he already had.
Carlisle's next question came out quicker than he had expected, surprising himself! "Where will I live?"
Basileus noted his son sounded sad. "You will live with me, you are my son, it is my venom in your veins, you are my son now. Eleazar lives above me, and Aro above him. We fill the south wing tower but there is plenty of space for us all."
Carlisle nodded to this news. So I will be under another pastor then, he thought, resigned.
Basileus caught his sons thought and was hurt by the comparison. "No, you will not be under another pastor! I am nothing like Samuel Cullen!"
Carlisle was shocked to hear the force of Basileus' conviction.
"I'm sorry, I did not intend to offend you." Basileus was surprised, newborns rarely showed compassion, and he could tell Carlisle was genuine. So far this boy is the calmest newborn I have met. "Do you have any more questions, son?" he asked gently.
"What should I call you?"
"Whatever you feel appropriate."
Carlisle went back to his musing; he was trying to process all this new information but like his swimming, his thoughts were racing beyond his control. Basileus heard his boy's internal struggle and, deciding to help the young man through the process, nudged Carlisle to speed up swimming a little. Basileus was just as strong and fast as any newborn and kept up easily. He'd only pulled Carlisle back earlier in their swim so Aro and Eleazar wouldn't be left behind.
As the hours passed by and the evening drew closer, the late sun became dappled behind soft clouds as it travelled to its nightly rest. Basileus noted the fishing boats on Spain's north coast were already moored. That makes things easier, he thought.
"Carlisle, we are coming to land, we will cross Spain on foot, how is your thirst, you should have had you fill back in Chester but if you need more blood I can find a host for you before we run into any humans…"
"I'm fine, I do not need any more blood!"
Carlisle spoke a little more boldly than Basileus expected. He'd seemed so calmed as we talked earlier, rashness is to be expected from newborns, I must remember that. I was lucky with Eleazar, Aro was a handful though, I do hope we won't be returning to those dark days!
Basileus was contemplating just what sort of son he'd created when Carlisle spoke up again, "I apologize, I seem to be unable to control myself. I feel so irritable. I am sorry."
Basileus smiled lightly at his new boy. "I think you are doing fine Carlisle. We have a long year ahead, and I will be there to help you learn control."
Carlisle had felt some of that learning already, and his backside still stung like a bitch from it! "Hmm… sounds great," he replied solemnly.
Basileus laughed lightly understanding his son's position.
"When we reach land we will start running, I want to get back to Volterra as soon as we can. It will give us chance to test your new speed too," Basileus told Carlisle, who was grinning from ear to ear at the idea.
"Can you keep up with me? You said 'newborns' are faster than other vampires…"
Basileus laughed again. "Yes, newborns are faster than other vampires, but I am not just another vampire! I am the creator of vampires, and none of you will ever out run me, my boy."
That sounded like a challenge to Carlisle and he looked to the ever approaching land, ready to take off as soon as his foot hit the ground. And that's exactly what he did! Before Basileus could stop his son, Carlisle started running.
"NO!" he called after his newborn, "STOP!"
Carlisle didn't stop though, he thought this was all part of the race and pushed himself harder to run faster. Basileus, realizing his son wouldn't slow down ran at his own full speed, something he rarely ever did. He was in front of Carlisle within a few moments and the younger vampire crashed into the solid wall of Basileus' chest, knocking himself straight back onto his ass.
"Whoa! How did you do that?!" Carlisle was in awe of his creator.
Basileus, however, was fuming, he looked around the mooring landscape for any trace of humans. Sensing they were truly, and luckily alone, he reached down and pulled Carlisle up to his feet. The younger vampire was soon dancing from foot to foot as Basileus planted a series of vampiric strength swots to his backside.
"What did I just tell you in the water? You cannot be alone! You damn fool!" Basileus released his shocked looking charge and began pacing in front of him.
"I am sorry my lord, I thought…"
Basileus cut him off, "I know what you thought."
Basileus came to a stop and placed his hands on his hips, facing away from Carlisle he said, "Listen to me, and listen well. You cannot be alone at all, not even for a moment until you have passed your first year. Whatever else you think, whatever else anyone tells you, you must remember this." Spinning on his heel he faced his new boy. "Do you understand me?"
Carlisle nodded, dumbfounded, he'd only gone a little way ahead, why was that so bad. It sounded like this newborn year, whatever it was, was going to be stifling.
Basileus walked to his son and placed a protective arm around him as his cloak covered them both and he guided Carlisle back in the direction they had come from. Of course I had gone the wrong way, Carlisle berated himself. The silence was killing Carlisle, his mind raced erratically and he needed some distraction from it.
"Are you really the son of Zeus?" he asked tentatively. The pastor always felt one should be quiet until spoken to, which had never made any sense to Carlisle - how could anyone break the silence if everyone was quiet until spoken to?
"I am, well, I am one of them at any rate. Zeus, in the early days of the Olympians had many sons and daughters. He lost most of them in the final battle of the gods."
Carlisle clearly had zero knowledge of the Greek Gods. Great, Basileus thought sarcastically.
"There was a war between the gods, my gods. Most of the them, the demi gods, and children of the gods died in the war. Both sides were devastated in the end. I will tell you more about that at another time." Basileus stopped talking, it still pained him to remember those days. I'll tell him when I've got a few drinks inside me, he thought. He was already planning a big party to welcome his new son into the Volturi coven.
"Are there any others left? Or are you… alone?" That sounded so cold but Carlisle couldn't think of a better word.
"There is one, we haven't had much to do with each other in centuries now. Lykaios. He's my brother. Zeus created us at the same time and sent us out amongst the humans. You see, Zeus was never keen on humans, 'they make too much noise' he would say. He knew the other gods were already quite attached to them and he couldn't get rid of them all without a war in Olympus so he created Lykaios and me to keep the numbers down. I, as you now know, am a vampire - I feed on humans and in the beginning I couldn't resist the blood once I started and killed hundreds a day, just for something to do."
Basileus looked to his son to see how he was taking the news. He seemed okay, if a little perturbed. Basileus was content enough to continue.
"Lykaios is the original werewolf. He can transform into a huge wolf whenever he wishes. He is weaker than I am though. He cannot be killed, but one on one, I am stronger, faster, some would say cleverer… whatever."
Basileus didn't really like talking about it, but he knew he had to tell Carlisle. Thank the gods he has perfect memory now so I won't have to go over this again, he thought.
"In the early days we worked together, Lykaios would rip humans to pieces after I had drank them dry of their blood. I turned humans into vampires to serve me, Lykaios did the same, creating a small pack of werewolves to serve him. They were to be the end of our relationship." Basileus' voice turned dark and Carlisle flinched in the elders arm as it tightened around his shoulders.
"You see, although werewolves were created to be human killers, they have little need to do so. They do not feed from humans as we do, and some of Lykaios number were questioning the logic of them killing humans at all. Lykaios ignored their grumblings until Helena came along. She was beautiful, and he fell head over heels for her."
Carlisle looked up in time to see Basileus smile at the memory of the young lady.
"Lykaios had planned to ask our father to grant Helena immortality so they could have an eternity together. He wanted her to become a werewolf like him - he planned that the two of them could rule their wolf pack and live out their days as a family and give up killing humans altogether."
Basileus groaned remembering the argument he had had with his brother over such plans.
"I can't say I was over the moon," he admitted. "A fair few of his little wolves were already causing trouble for my vampire offspring by trying to intercept their attempts to feed from humans. Imagine that! Werewolves protecting humans?!"
Basileus shook his head at the audacity of the situation, as he saw it. His short black hair shook with him and the last of the sea water dripped to his shoulders.
"It went against the very core of who they were supposed to be!" Anyway, he thought, settling himself. "I knew of Helena, but I hadn't shared Lykaios plan with my coven of vampires. I guess you can imagine what happened can't you?"
Carlisle looked up again. "Did one of your coven kill her?" he asked, suspecting he was right.
"Bang on the nail son. A young vampire called Alexis. He had no way of knowing this woman was Lykaios'. Not that this stopped Lykaios from ripping him to shreds when he found out."
Carlisle stopped in his tracks, stopping Basileus with him. "You said vampires were stronger than werewolves?" he asked his new father in puzzlement.
"I did. And they are, but a werewolves teeth and claws are one of the few substances on earth that can pierce a vampire's skin - they are a danger to us. One, even two or three any decent vampire worth his salt could bring down. But a pack… I wouldn't fancy your average vampire against a pack."
What a pleasant thought, Carlisle mused, rubbing at the sickening feeling in his stomach.
"Lykaios blamed me for not having control of my coven," Basileus continued. "He blamed me for not preventing the attack - in the end he blamed me for everything. We fought for weeks, day and night rolled into one and though we both ripped into each other in our attacks it became obvious that our bodies would heal just as quickly as we could tear them apart. In the end Zeus came to land to tear us apart."
Basileus winced at the memory of that day, the scars, both physical and psychological were still evident even all those millennia later. Carlisle saw the elder trace the faint line on his face, starting an inch above his right eye and continuing down an inch into his cheek. Carlisle was desperate to ask what could have caused such a lasting scar in the immortals flesh. Lykaios or Zeus... or something else? he wondered, deciding to ask Eleazar when he got the chance.
"Zeus couldn't bear to kill either of us, so he ordered us to go our separate ways, permanently. We did. I got wind of Lykaios' wolves hunting my vampires and killing them in packs, so I created more and more vampires and sent them out to hunt those damn wolves right back."
Carlisle looked excited, all the action and adventure - Basileus was such an animated story teller. "And the vampires won?" Carlisle prompted.
"No, not really, neither of us 'won'." Basileus replied ominously. "I was very foolish. I am still paying the price for creating so many vampires and setting them free to pillage the human race. I had to go through the earth and kill off as many vampires as I could - they were taking over and depleting my food source. Then I heard of new covens setting up, bands of vampires grouping together and lording it over the rest - MY vampires!"
feeling himself growing agitated, Basileus took a few steadying breaths before he went on.
"And some other fools thought they could run the show. I decided to set up a coven of my own and take control of the vampiric world once and for all."
"That's when you set up the Volturi?" Carlisle assumed.
"It took a little longer than that, but yes," Basileus said. "I met Aro, first. He was human then. There was something about him. He looked like me, only younger, and smaller. He was giving prophesies near the oracle in Delphi. I knew such things were false, the gods didn't talk to men, no matter how much they worshiped them. But Aro, he was captivating, he seemed to just know what people were thinking. I decided to transform him into a vampire hoping his 'gift' as I saw it came through to the other side. I was so pleased with Aro's power when he awoke as a newborn."
Carlisle felt a pang of envy hearing Basileus boast proudly about Aro. "What is Aro's power?" he asked a little sullenly.
"Through simple contact he could read thoughts and with practice he learned to sift through the entire life of an individual to find the information we needed. He has certainly perfected the talent after all these years."
Carlisle nodded along feeling jealous of Aro's gift and relationship with Basileus. Why am I jealous of a guy I don't even know, why should I care if he's close to his father?! Carlisle's thoughts were loud and Basileus heard the envy in them - he knew he could put Carlisle's jealously to rest with time, though it was a natural enough emotion for a vampire.
"So you and Aro started the coven?" Carlisle asked, wanting to distract himself.
"Not straight away. I dragged Aro around the world with me whilst I continued to take out vampires and werewolves alike. We had a good time just the two of us." Basileus conveniently left out any details of that time. "We spent ten years traveling a ring around the globe. When we returned we met Marcus."
I'm never going to remember all this! Carlisle thought, frustrated. Theres too many names!
Basileus smirked to himself knowing how wrong his boy was. "Marcus was hanging around Aro's old family vineyard," he continued. "He'd fallen in love with Aro's sister. At first Aro was incensed with rage over the idea, but we spent time with Marcus and I could see he would be useful to us when we formed our coven. His gift had proved to be very useful, it still is today."
"What is his gift?" Carlisle asked.
"He can sense the bonds between people, so we know who to attack or to threaten, very useful!" Basileus confirmed. "Instead of killing Marcus, we turned Aro's sister, Didyme. She loved Marcus as much as he loved her and we were soon on our way to creating a coven. I didn't want to be involved in the day to day running though. Aro, even then was a fabulous leader and Marcus was truly wise beyond his years, very level headed. I needed to find another vampire to level up the leaders."
I did that alright! Basileus said to himself. Caius certainly 'levelled up' the Marcus and Aro!
"It wasn't long before we met Caius and his wife, Athenodora."
More names! Carlisle cursed.
"They were a good match, the pair of them were evil bastards even then and they impressed me with the amount of werewolves they took down together. I explained my plans to Caius, to form a coven that would govern all vampire kind, he jumped at the chance!"
I should have taken that as a sign, Basileus muttered under his breath. As far as he could see, Caius was the reason for much of his current stress and Basileus made no qualms about blaming the young man in question.
"Caius has always struggled with deferring to Aro," Basileus said with a quick in his lip. "I had instructed the build of our castle in Volterra years before and knew it would be complete soon enough so we headed there, turning humans to vampires as we travelled. It didn't take long to build up enough vampires to form a defensive coven. Once we had the first batch of newborns trained we set about getting vampiric society in order."
"So the Volterra has ruled vampires ever since?" Carlisle asked.
"No, Volterra is the place, son. The Volturi is the name of the coven. It is my name, Aro's, Eleazar's, the other masters, the guards, everyone in our coven takes the surname of Volturi. It is a great honour in my mind."
Carlisle nodded as he considered the name change, Carlisle Volturi… it is no worse than Cullen, he thought. He hated the pastor and Cullen was just a reminder of him. Basileus shook him from his thoughts as they picked up the pace, running was so easy now that Carlisle hardly noticed they were even moving!
"The Volturi eventually became the leading coven but we had a few battles to win first. The Romanian wars were first, we had to go to war with them many times before they were finally brought down. The coven leaders, Stefan and Vladimir evaded capture and they pop up now and then trying to raise new armies against us, they have yet to be successful though."
Basileus smiled broadly as he spoke, he actually liked Vladimir and Stefan and would have gladly taken them into the fold of the Volturi but the pair insisted on living an antiquated and unlawful life. Still, he had to admit, he enjoyed their regular uprisings – it added a little spice to life and gave his guards good practice in the field.
"The Egyptian coven were next," Basileus told the boy. "Amun's coven was one of the very oldest of the vampire world. He had a fairly peaceful coven but Amun reacted strongly to the new laws we put in place for vampire kind."
Before Carlisle could ask, Basileus went on to explain the particular law Amun had taken exception to.
"Covens, other than the Volturi of course, can only have a maximum of four members. Amun's coven was sitting at around fifteen permanent members. We were forced to go to war with them, Amun just couldn't be reasoned with. By the end of the battle they were down to five members. Aro took Demetri, Amun's famously talented tracker back to Volterra with him to join our coven. Demetri has proved most useful, however, he's caused no end of trouble for Aro."
Basileus laughed to himself thinking of all the drama Aro's high guard cause him, Felix and Demetri especially, he thought.
The father-son duo had covered so much ground as they flashed through northern Spain that they could see the east coast in the distance. "Why didn't we travel through France?" Carlisle asked Basileus, again.
Basileus released a sigh, Carlisle couldn't tell if it was frustrated or sad.
"Lykaios lives in France, I think. I don't like to go there. It's not safe for vampires in France," he stated simply.
Carlisle could sense there was much more to it than that, but decided against pressing his new father for more details yet.
"We are near the coast, son. We need to cross the sea again."
Carlisle looked down at his clothes, they were only just drying out and now he was going for another swim! Looking at his clothes he realized what a mess he was in - blood splatters, mud, seaweed.
Basileus caught on to his sons thoughts. "Don't worry, we will have clothes made more fitting to your new station in life when we arrive in Volterra."
Carlisle grimaced. "I have no way to pay for that my lord," he said quietly, embarrassed.
Basileus boomed in laughter and slapped his hand to his son's back. "You need not worry about money ever again my boy - those days are far behind you."
No need to worry about money? That's the most fantastical thing he's said yet, Carlisle thought with a grin.
It wasn't long before they reached the water, and with Basileus swimming along easily at Carlisle's top speed, land, in turn was soon in sight again. Basileus considered the year he had ahead - he had so many plans and Carlisle was instrumental to it all. I want Aro back to who he used to be, focusing on helping with Carlisle will draw him away from Caius and his sick influence over my son. If I am right about his relationship with his high guard that will help things along too… perhaps I should get Sulpicia in on the act…
"Are we nearly there?" Carlisle's voice brought Basileus from his thoughts.
"Can you see the castle in the distance, the one on the hill top… that's home."
Carlisle was so excited - he swam even faster! Basileus easily caught up with him and they soon reached dry land. Carlisle didn't run this time. Though Basileus could see he was dying to.
"Don't stray from my side now Carlisle. Vampires patrol these areas, most of them are Volturi but you never know who you will meet and I won't risk you being taken out before your new life has even begun. We will walk the rest of the way. Understood?"
Carlisle nodded to his father and walked at a gentle human pace alongside him.
"When we get to the castle we will need to change, then I will introduce you to the coven. I think a celebration is in order to welcome you to your new life!"