FATHERS AND SONS
When they arrived in their quarters Sulpicia changed into her night wear, a long thin silk gown she wore in the evenings whilst reading in front of the fire. The twins went to do the same and without waiting for instruction, so did Felix and Demetri. Aro stood in the main room of their quarters and lit the fire for his wife. She didn't need the heat, but found having the fire lit and roaring gave her comfort.
Sulpicia returned to the living room with her book in hand and the large wolf skin throw from their bed. Setting both on the plush leather love seat in front of the fireplace, she went to wish her children good night, and in the case of Felix, who was still to face her husband, good luck!
Aro followed his wife and kissed Jane sweetly as she got into her bed. She was asleep as soon as her head touched the pillow. Swapping children with Sulpicia, he ruffled Alec's hair and took the book from his hands.
"Can I not read for a while?" he whined lightly.
"You can sleep for a while first." Aro said pointedly, though with a soft smile. Alec didn't complain. He rarely did.
Aro waited for his wife in the corridor between their children's rooms. When she had seen to Felix and Demetri, he scooped her up into his arms and kissed her deeply.
"I love you, my queen!" he crooned into her ear as he kissed he neck seductively. She felt her whole body tingle, she really wanted him right now. The alcohol and opium they'd both been consuming all evening no doubt adding to their lust.
Sulpicia's mind kept flitting back to the scared boy in the room behind her. "Will you be very hard on him, Aro?" she questioned sadly.
"I need to make an impression, my queen. They are threatening to bring down this coven, and our family with it. Caius is vying for their venom, and now he has quite a few of the guards on his side ... and it's all down to their deplorable behaviour. If I fail to bring them into line soon I believe Basileus will be bringing me into line!"
Sulpicia gulped at this news and slowly nodded her agreement that Aro must do something with their sons to prevent the coven from fracturing.
"Okay my love, I will be sitting by the fire if you should need me." With that they disentangled their embrace and she left him alone outside their sons' door.
"YOU INSOLENT BRATS!" Aro raged as soon as he entered the boys' bed chamber, slamming the heavy door behind him.
Both Felix and Demetri were startled. Though they'd been expecting Aro any moment, the force with which he came through the door and the strength of his emotions floored them. Felix had only just finished changing, Demetri was already sitting in bed, choosing to get between his sheets for what little protection they could offer.
Aro scanned the room. Felix watched him intently, he seemed to be looking for something. He moved to Demetri's side table, "Where is it?" he asked his scared son.
"W, w, what sir?"
"You know full well what!" Aro spat back, "I left the strap on this table, Demetri, your table, where the hell is it?!"
"I don't know, really, I haven't touched it!" Demetri was telling the truth, Aro could tell.
He spun around to face Felix. "What have you done with it?!" Aro asked him.
His tone of voice scared the shit out of Felix! "I haven't seen it!" He lied.
"Listen to me, boy, either you find it and hand it over, NOW, or I drag you down to Basileus' suite, he has one, but I will be using it down there in front of him, and your uncles ... and Caius! Now, WHERE IS IT?!"
Felix considered his options. He could give Aro his strap ... and show he'd outright lied to him, or he could save himself the extra punishment for the lie and take his hiding downstairs with an audience. An Audience! I'd rather die in here, in private! Well, he looked over to his brother, in private-ish. Felix reached under his bed and retrieved the strap Aro had been looking for. Walking the few paces to his father, he handed over the dreaded implement.
Aro looked at his son, his rage increasing more and more. Without turning to face him, Aro addressed his younger son, "Demetri, do I need to go over with you exactly how you fucked up this evening?"
"No sir!" came the very quiet reply.
"You understand I have had it with you, that you have run out of chances at turning your own behaviour around, that you will now be on such a short leash that your life will be stifling for the foreseeable future?" Aro declared through gritted teeth.
Demetri hadn't understood all of that actually, but of course he had no intention of telling Aro.
"I, I understand sir." He replied softly, astonished by the harshness of Aro's decree. Was I really that bad? He asked himself.
"Then go to your mother and stay there until I have dealt with your brother."
Demetri scarped from the room. Aro was scaring the shit out of him right now and he had no desire to hang around any longer than necessary. He hung in the doorway just long enough to throw Felix a sympathetic look.
When Aro heard the door click closed again he started circling his son, flipping the strap over in his hand as he did so.
"So, you have been fornicating with mated members of this coven ... " Aro spoke in that fake, calm, sing-song voice he used just before he killed a defecting guard or a rogue vampire. Felix wanted to crawl inside himself and die! "Antonio has every right to demand your head! Quite simply, you have crossed a line one should not ever cross. Having that idiot fucking newborns is bad enough, but that's just a coven rule really ... YOU have crossed vampire law, for god sake!
One of you will die for this Felix!"
Aro grabbed his son's chin to lift his face and look into his eyes. Squeezing painfully tightly he told him, "Do you get that, you will, at some point, no doubt soon, fight Antonio to the death over this. Do you realize what you have done?"
Venom pricked at Felix eyes.
Aro roughly shook his son before releasing his chin, "And you can save your crocodile tears for someone senseless enough to fall for them!" Aro considered how to make Felix see the seriousness of his crimes.
"Antonio ... and anyone who follows him ... will be baying for your blood, son. I, of course, will not risk losing you. Caius, I expect, will happily back Antonio as will the rest of the guards that see you and Demetri swanning about the halls as if you own the place. You are not untouchable, but some guards think you are! You are not untouchable! But for some reason, you and Demetri think you are. I have, until tonight, refrained from punishing you in the ways Caius does with the guards he is responsible for ... would you prefer to have your arms ripped off, like Antonio?"
Felix looked like he was going to be sick! "No!" he replied with disgust.
"Hmm, I would prefer not to either. Perhaps I should whip you bloody in the throne room then? That seems to work for Caius!"
Felix brought up his last goblet of bloodwine hearing that.
Aro saw him and glared at his son until he had swallowed it back down, gaging as he did so. "I will take that as a no?"
Felix nodded, "Please, I am sorry!"
Aro shook his head. "Then what should I do, Felix? What would be enough of a punishment to keep you on the fucking straight and narrow, you fucking ingrate?!" Aro was raging, he rarely swore so harshly at his children, around them, sure, but not at them. "Perhaps I should revisit submission with you?" He threw the strap on Felix's bed and started unbuttoning his shirt until it hung loosely from his shoulders.
Felix began backing up, "No, not that, you don't need to do that!"
Aro placed his hands on the fastenings of his britches, "Are you sure?" he asked, coolly.
Felix nodded vigorously in terror. He didn't even threaten me with submission when we lost Didyme ... when I lost Didyme. Fuck! Felix's head was swimming with possibilities for how this was going to end with Aro and none of them were pleasant.
Noting the boy's fear, and enjoying it a little too much, Aro started rolling his sleeves up, slowly. As he took off his rings and placed them carefully on Felix's bedside table he saw his son shake.
"Please, Dad ... "
CRACK! Aro whipped the back of his hand across the young vampire's face. "How dare you play that card now! I was a 'fucking prick' when we were in the throne room!"
Felix hissed and cradled his face. Aro had caught him right on the cheek bone that had so recently been thumped by Antonio. He could feel his face swelling in his hands from the repeated assault.
Aro stalked around the room. I am too drunk for this, I can hardly feel my own strength! What is the point of belting him again, it doesn't change anything! He's remorseful for five minutes before he starts on a new harebrained scheme to fuck up some more! This has got to change. I am handing my own ass in a sling to Basileus if it doesn't! What the hell am I going to do with him? I KNOW submission would work, but Sully will cut my cock off if I went there. I would be just as disgusted in myself if I did anyway. Then Aro had an idea ... Felix and Demetri both bitch and whine about being shown up in front of the guard, I largely protect them from such shame but maybe ...
Aro walked back over to Felix and retrieved the strap from his bed. Felix eyed him cautiously, as if he could pounce at any moment and Felix really wasn't sure what he was going to do.
"The embargo on punishing you in public has been lifted. From this moment. I will be instructing Caius in ways I will permit him to punish you and I can tell you now, Caius WILL punish you any chance he gets. He will take great delight in it, in fact. Right now, so will I for that matter."
Felix looked white as a ghost. This is fucking horrendous! No way do I deserve this! Damn it!
Aro noticed his boy's stricken features. "You look fearful, son. Do you have any questions?" Aro's concerned tone couldn't have been more fake.
"No sir, no." Felix replied, he didn't want to hear any more, so he certainly didn't want to ask questions and prolong the torture.
"Hmm, okay, you will be making a public apology to Antonio, and to Afton actually." Aro waited for Felix to respond, he knew how easily the boy zoned out when he was lecturing him.
Felix knew what Aro wanted. "Yes, I will, of course I will. I will go to the guard hall tomorrow ... "
Aro cut him off with laughter.
Why the fuck is he laughing! Felix thought angrily.
"No, no, no, you are not allowed in the guard hall, remember. You will have to do your groveling in the throne room. There may well be an audience, if there isn't I will arrange one." Aro watched as his boy's mouth hung open upon hearing how very public his apology would be.
"But, why?" Felix asked in horror.
Aro smiled, "They were both punished because of your inability to behave, and publicly too. I think it's only fair you apologize to them both for the predicament you placed them in. You may well have broken their relationships. I doubt that Renata and Chelsea's friendship will recover to what it was. You have caused a lot of damage. Your actions are fracturing this coven, Felix! I want everyone in this coven to know your behaviour will not be tolerated by anyone!"
Felix hung his head in shame. He really had fucked up tonight. His head was starting to hurt now though. Can the hangover be setting in already? Shit! You really need to stop talking now, Aro, and let me get some sleep, man!
"Do you have anything to say?" Aro shook his boy from his thoughts.
"Erm, sorry?" Felix replied, tiredly.
Aro's red eyes turned black!
Fuck, wrong answer!
Aro grabbed hold of Felix by the scruff of his neck and threw him over his bed. "ERM, SORRY!" Aro repeated, mocking Felix' tone, "Erm. Fucking. Sorry!" Aro ripped the clothes from Felix's backside and with his strap he began raining down a shower of hell on the boy's rear-end. He continued ranting at his son about just how badly he'd fucked up, going over and over all the damage he'd caused, repeating the crimes committed and the punishments to come as he brought the strap down again and again.
Felix begged for forgiveness to begin with, then his begging turned to pleading for mercy and finally the boy was limp, resigned to his punishment and enduring the pain - which felt like a fire Jane would be proud of.
Aro had to catch his breath once he'd finished, quite an achievement of exertion for a vampire! He waited for Felix's sobs to quiet before speaking to him, "Get dressed."
Felix nodded, assuming Aro meant for him to dress for bed and go to sleep.
"No!" Aro said as he snatched the night clothes away from his son, "I cannot trust you or Demetri out of my sight, so you will no longer BE out of my sight!" Collecting Felix's day clothes from his wardrobe he threw them at his son, "You will get dressed and come with me to Basileus' where you can stand in the corner or something while I talk with the grownups!" Aro was being so condescending, it wasn't his usual way, but he was still so pissed off with his sons.
"But, but I can't walk, dad, please, I'm so tired!"
Aro narrowed his eyes to his boy's whining.
Felix looked away sheepishly while pulling on his tunic, gasping at the movement it took and the pain it sent rushing through his body.
"You will be swapping bedrooms when the twins wake, you will be sharing with Jane from now on, Alec with Demetri."
Felix almost forgot his very recent hiding hearing that. "What! I'm not sharing with Jane! Why do we even need to swap? Don't you think that's an overreaction?!"
Aro walked back to his eldest son, staring him down as he approached. "Are you seriously questioning me?"
Felix backed up and fell on his ass onto the bed, the fire that had hardly dulled reigniting on contact. He grimaced and hissed in response.
"I intend to keep you two separate for the foreseeable future. You will be supervised at all times. You and Demetri seem to be struggling with your position in this coven, so the elders of this coven, ALL OF THEM, will work to remind you."
Aro motioned to the rest of the boy's clothes, "Get dressed or I will take you as you are!"
Felix pushed his pain to one side. There is no fucking way I am going down there half dressed, he thought as he clothed himself at vampire speed. What does he mean by 'all' of the elders? Is he seriously going to go through with letting Caius beat us! Sully won't allow that, no way will she go for it. Eleazar may have tanned me a couple of times but he won't be breathing down my neck, totally not his style. And Carlisle ... Carlisle is a fucking pussy cat. He won't do anything to me. Felix continued ticking off the elders of the coven, working out how much of a threat to his hide Aro's verdict really was.
Pulling Felix to his feet and putting an arm around his shoulders, Aro directed them to the door. With a few fingers placed above his collar, Aro read through Felix's thoughts, first seeing his terror, then his pain, then working out if Aro was serious about getting the other elders of the coven on board to change his errant ways. Aro smiled cunningly, "I hope for your sake you are a quick learner, son." He laughed as Felix shuddered.
"Are you taking Felix with you, Aro?"
Aro walked to his wife and bent low enough to kiss her forehead, "Yes my queen, I will explain to you when I return the changes that we are making. Will you keep Demetri in sight at all times please?"
"Of course, my love. He seems happily asleep there on our bed. I won't wake him."
Aro looked at their son through the open doorway. How could such a beautiful young being be the cause of so much stress in my life? He wondered as he guided his eldest out the door.
"What is he doing here?" Caius asked spitefully when he saw Felix.
"Well brother, I have decided keeping him within my sight will prevent him causing any more strife," Aro replied calmly.
"And what about his partner in crime?" Eleazar asked his brother.
"He is within Sulpicia's sight," Aro answered with a smile.
Caius shook his head at Aro, clearly disagreeing with his brother's idea of handling his high guard. "So do we need to watch what we say in front of him, or may we talk plainly?" Caius asked.
Basileus rolled his eyes to Aro from behind Caius' head.
Aro smiled to his father. "No Caius, you are free to speak as you find."
Caius nodded curtly to that.
As everyone was already assembled around Basileus' meeting table, Aro asked his father where he should put Felix. The layout in this private suite was similar to Aro's own, and also Eleazar and Carmen's above, except their bed chambers were larger - Aro had remodelled his bed chambers to make an extra room for the twins. The second bed chamber was Carlisle's.
"He looks drowsy, he must have drank too much." Basileus commented. Everyone but Caius knew it was because Felix was young and needed to sleep, unlike adult vampires.
"I will take him to my bed, I don't want him throwing up in here!"
Basileus' chair scrapped loudly on the floor as he made to stand. The noise went through Felix and his head pounded. He waited for his grandfather to reach him before he moved towards the bed chamber.
Aro took up his father's seat as Carlisle passed him a full goblet of the opium induced bloodwine.
Basileus reached his room, and guided Felix inside, closing the door behind them.
"Are you okay?"
Felix kept face eyes downcast, embarrassed by the tears that still spilled from his eyes. "Yes my lord," he replied with a very small voice.
Basileus hooked a finger under the boy's chin and pulled upwards so he could see his face. "Has Aro given you a good hiding?"
Felix nodded, he wanted to hide his face again but Basileus held him fast - Felix could swear he was blushing! Basileus wasn't done yet though.
"You've been very foolish, Felix. You know this cannot go on, yes?"
"Yes sir, I know. Thank you for standing up for me with Afton," Felix said genuinely.
"Hmm, I hardly had a choice, did I?!"
Felix shook his head.
Basileus released Felix's chin and sat down on the bed.
"Sit."
Felix eyed the bed like it was made of nails. This is going to hurt! He sat as he was commanded but hissed in pain, shifting and fidgeting to find a comfortable ... no ... less painful position.
"I have half a mind to tan your hide myself, you know. Though looking at you I think Aro has done a decent job of it. I suggest you get into my bed and sleep while you can. It's midnight now and we are calling a meeting of all the coven at sunrise. Your attendance will be expected."
Basileus rose and watched the boy as he climbed to the middle of his four poster bed. He fetched a heavy woolen blanket to cover Felix and placed it carefully over the youth who was lying on his front No doubt to lessen the pain in your backside, eh, Basileus thought.
Just before he'd made it to the door, a small voice stopped him.
"Basileus?"
"Yes?"
"Will I be thrown out the coven for how much troubled I've caused? Or worse? I've seen Aro kill guards for less than the way I've behaved and ... "
"Felix!" Basileus stopped him, and went back to his side, ducking low so their heads were almost level, "We love you, Aro adores you, I don't think you could ever do anything that would mean your ejection from this coven. And no, Aro wouldn't dispatch you, and he wouldn't allow anyone else to either. Neither would I, for that matter."
Ruffling the boys cropped black hair Basileus stood again. "Besides, you would be amazed what a vampire can live through!" He planted a hard swot to the youth's already stinging backside eliciting a high pitched yelp from Felix. Basileus left the room laughing.
Basileus heard the raised voices of his sons and Caius as soon as he entered the marbled hallway. I'm too drunk for this shit ... and definitely too god damn old, he thought to himself, getting more and more pissed off as the night went on.
As he entered the room silence fell. Standing in the archway, he assessed the scene. No one appears to have been fighting.That's something, I suppose. God, I wish Marcus had come down here with us.He acts as a great buffer, and well, an adult! Eleazar is being as much of a fool as the rest of them ... very unlike him ...
"So, are you going to make me read your minds, or will you just tell me what's going on?"
All four sets of eyes shifted nervously.
"El!"
Hearing his name, Eleazar shot his eyes back to his father. He always asks me!
"My lord, we were just discussing the celebrations, that is all."
"No, you were arguing about something. I want to know what!"
Eleazar looked to his brothers. No help there. He looked to Caius. Caius usually speaks up for himself, no, bastard won't even look at me. Great, I'm on my own then!
"Well, were discussing what should happen between Felix and Antonio ... Felix has been having sex with Antonio's mate, my lord. Caius is understandably angry about it and is responsible for Antonio ... Aro, of course, has sided with Felix."
Eleazar stopped as Aro interrupted. Caius just looked murderously at everyone.
"I am not siding with Felix! I am doing the right thing for the coven! If I let Antonio go up against Felix he'd be killed and the guy is useful in a fight ... though not as useful as Felix."
Aro smiled coyly at Caius, knowing how much it pissed him off having the weaker of the two.
"So what? Antonio deserves no chance at retribution because Felix might be slightly stronger? That's bullshit, Aro, and you know it. You will bring down our coven protecting you damn high guard ... it's fracturing before your eyes and you do nothing!"
Aro threw his chair backward as he stood up in a rage. It crashed into the far wall and splintered to smithereens. Paying no attention to the chair he'd destroyed, he argued back at Caius.
"Might be slightly! Have you heard yourself? Caius you are a fool! Felix would wipe the floor with Antonio, and then we would likely lose Renata too! What would be the point of that! I will talk to them all and come to an agreement. At the end of the day, Felix is a free agent, Renata is the one who sought him out and she's the one who was already mated. Felix has done nothing wrong!"
Aro knew he'd just lost the argument saying that. Vampires were incredibly emotional beings who mated for life. The Volturi enacted a popular law at the beginning of the reign ... any vampire caught fornicating with a mated vampire could face execution. Aro was clinging onto that 'could'! He couldn't use Felix's age as an excuse because the reason immortal children were banned is because they couldn't be held responsible for their own actions so Aro set the age at 12 when he found the twins. If Aro argued Felix was too young to see sense he could stand to lose all four of them. That isn't happening.
Aro steeled himself for Caius' reply. The cocky cunt was already grinning seeing Aro caught in his own defence.
"Well, brother, I do believe we have BOTH executed a good many vampires on exactly these terms! If we don't uphold the popular laws, how on earth can we expect vampires everywhere to uphold the less popular ones? You will bring down this coven!"
Aro racked his brain for a defence. Basileus watched from the archway, leaning casually into the masonry with his arms folded loosely across his broad chest. He would come to his son's aid if he felt he had to, but like Aro, Basileus was a curious being, and he wanted to see where this was going first.
"THIS COVEN!" Aro screamed his reply. "This coven is MY god damn coven, Caius, and YOU are just part of the fucking staff!"
Basileus scrubbed a heavy hand down his face. There goes your medal in diplomacy, son, he thought as he reached forward, grabbing Aro just in time to prevent him from lunging.
Eleazar and Carlisle did the same with Caius. Basileus motioned to his two sons to keep hold of Caius whilst he had a firm hold of a snarling Aro. The two confined vampires seemed to realize at the same time they weren't getting anywhere fast as they gained enough composure to become still.
"Okay, my turn." Basileus spoke with purpose.
The insides of all four other vampires in the room twisted as he threw his son to the far corner of the room. Approaching Caius, Basileus saw the younger vampire cower. He liked that. Grabbing Caius by his throat, he threw him to the opposite corner, "STAY THERE!" his voice was so loud it resounded off the walls, everyone became statue still ... even Eleazar and Carlisle and they hadn't done anything wrong.
"This coven is my coven. I created this coven, and I still govern this coven. I may do it through you two and Marcus, but, IT IS STILL MINE. Do you both understand that?" he asked to Caius and Aro.
They nodded like little boys. You are so very much like Felix and Demetri when they get caught out, Basileus thought.
"I want to hear you both say it!"
"Your coven, my lord," Aro replied quickly.
Caius stumbled over his words, not as used to Basileus' round of fucks as Aro was.
"My lord, of course it is your coven. I apologize for my insolence ... "
"That's enough, Caius!" Basileus cut him off,m.
Caius was mortified. I'm picking fights with Basileus' son, where the hell did I think this was going to end?He's going to kill me.
"I am not going to kill you, Caius. Not yet anyway!" Basileus answered his thoughts.
Caius stooped down even lower, feeling humiliated at the intrusion and wondering just how often Basileus did that?
"Now that we have established whose coven it is, let us make a few more things understood. This coven will fall, you are right Caius."
Aro's head shot up and he threw his father a murderous glare. How can you side with him, he wants to kill Felix! he thought purposefully to his father.
Basileus caught it and nodded curtly at his son, "I appreciate your annoyance, Aro, but I will wipe that look off your face if you don't do it now!"
Caius couldn't help the corners of his mouth turning up. Eleazar and Carlisle were having a similar struggle.
Basileus continued, "This coven will fail. But it will not be because of a couple of young guards! It will be because you two no longer work together to make this coven all it could be. YOU TWO are at war, and that war is feeding through the ranks - Caius, Aro has a high guard because I instructed him to take one. It is his and his alone. He. Deals. With. His. Guard! It that clear to you?!"
Caius wanted to object, but he knew it was pointless. He now realized how close to the end of the line he'd reached and it scared him. "Very clear, my lord."
"Aro ... "
Aro looked up again, a little calmer now.
"You must get those two under control. They are believing the bollocks that's being spread through the guards about them ... they believe they are untouchable. You must set that straight!"
"I am! But every time I set them straight they hear new gossip from the guards about Caius complaining of their princely status! They are just chil ... well, they are young, they are impressionable, more so that some of the older guards and ... "
Basileus cut him off again, Aro was getting pissed off with this.
"I agree son. And this is exactly what I am talking about. Caius, you complain too loudly about Aro's high guard but you haven't bothered to create one for yourself. You are acting like a spoiled child. So, to remedy this, I want you to take two guards from the wider pool ... any you like. They will live in your quarters and you will keep them as your high guard."
Caius looked sheepishly at Basileus, "I do not think I can do that my lord. Athenodora refuses to have guards living in our quarters."
That had Eleazar and Carlisle chuckling from the table.
Basileus had been pacing lightly as he lectured the two vampires in the corners of his living room. Hearing this had him stop dead in his tracks.
"Caius! Are you being serious? I'm not asking your opinion on this, I am telling you to take two guards and to bring them into your quarters. You will do it. I could care less what your wife thinks on the matter!"
Caius bowed his head. "Understood my lord," he replied politely.
"And you two can shut your mouths!" Basileus directed at his two seated sons who were taking far too much enjoyment from something causing their father so much stress.
Eleazar and Carlisle looked to each other, first in concern, though they were soon stifling their laughter again.
"Now to something less pleasant ... I am no longer happy with the workings of this coven. If it is to continue something needs to be very clear between the two of you. Aro, you are my son, and I expect you to lead my coven as I instruct you. Caius, you are his second in command, and I expect you to support his ruling of this coven, knowing it is on my orders. Do you both understand me? If either of you have a complaint about how things are being run around here you bring your complaint to ME."
Both vampires nodded vigorously.
Carlisle was really enjoying this. Aro had ribbed him mercilessly over the opium thrashing he'd received last week so he was going to milk this for all it was worth when Basileus had finished!
"Aro, you MUST make those two respect Caius, and if that means Caius has to punish them, and in public, then so be it."
Caius preened at that. All he'd wanted for a long while now was to knock that pair down to earth.
"But Caius, if you rip so much as a finger from either of them I will take your head!"
That was all the reminder Caius needed not to overstep Basileus' very clear mark with Felix or Demetri.
Eleazar and Carlisle snickered a little too loudly at the terrified face Caius was now sporting.
"I suggest you both take your leave. I will see you both in the throne room at dawn."
Shit! The brothers thought in unison as they gathered their few belongings and the half cask of bloodwine.
"You can leave that where it is, El!"
"Yes, my lord," Eleazar replied, cursing himself for picking it up in the first place.
Basileus waited for the door to close before moving closer to Aro and Caius.
"Then there were three ... what should I do with the two of you, hmm?"
Caius looked frantically to Aro, hoping for an idea of how this might play out. Aro seemed resigned to his fate, whatever that should be.
Caius was panicking now, "My lord, please, I, this was, well it's a mistake, I understand now, I will not let you down again!"
Basileus took a seat on the plush leather sofa in front of the fireplace. He hadn't lit a fire ... he rarely did. He sat back and stretched his arms wide at either side.
Caius and Aro looked at the giant of a man who held their fate in his giant man hands.
"I need the two of you working at your peak and quite simply you haven't been doing that for a good while."
Aro started to sweat venom. You can't punish me in front of him! Please, father, don't do this, you can't, Aro thought to his father, knowing he would hear his words.
"Oh can't I?" Basileus replied audibly to his son.
This only increased Caius' fear. "Can't what?" he asked as Basileus laughed at the younger vampires.
"You see, we are in an awkward predicament here, boys."
Neither appreciated being referred to as 'boys'.
"Caius, you have seen me punish guards before in the throne room ... I don't rip arms off ... "
The realization slowly dawned on Caius where Aro's childish technique of dealing with his high guard had come from.
"Aha!" he said with a small smile. He was relieved, he thought he was going to lose a leg for a few days or something. This was far more preferable.
"Aha!" Basileus replied with a smile to match. Oh, Caius, you will so regret this.
"Come," Basileus stood and moved back to the meeting table where their little disagreement began.
Caius rose and followed him, looking to Aro with relief. Aro shook his head at his coven mate eyes wide with warning. Caius scoffed. He knew he was stronger than Aro and this confirmed it for him.
Basileus slipped into his bed chamber where Felix was happily sleeping. Poor boy must have been exhausted to have slept through all of that noise, Basileus thought. Retrieving from his bed side dresser a similar strap to Aro's own, he returned to a now nervously waiting Caius.
"You are no longer smiling," he said to the younger vampire with fake concern, and turning
to his son, "What did you tell him?"
"Nothing, my lord." Aro threw his hands up defensively.
"Liar!" Basileus said back with a faint smile.
"My lord, you really don't have to do this. I understand everything you have said, I will act on it all, I understand. Honestly."
Basileus gripped Caius' wrist and read the man's emotions through his contact.
"Hmm, it appears you are being truthful." Basileus then searched his thoughts, he heard Aro explaining exactly why Caius shouldn't be smiling,
"You remember when I was off duty for a month last year, when I'd been looking after Carlisle whilst Basileus was away ... "
"Yes." replied Caius.
"Well, he'd just returned and found out I'd tried to put his precious new son in the dungeons ... "
"So?" Caius couldn't see where this was going.
"Caius, I couldn't walk! I am a vampire, you know how quickly we heal ... and I couldn't walk for a week! He's indestructible, and he's so much stronger than we are ... a week, Caius! And we have to address the guards in the morning!"
Caius looked stricken as Basileus walked back into the room.
Basileus looked deeply into Caius' eyes.
"If you fail me again after our conversation today, I can assure you, it will be much longer than a week."
Caius nodded so hard his head looked detached from his body. Aro would have laughed his ass off under any other circumstances.
"Aro!"
Aro got to his feet and brushed himself down on his way over to his father.
Crack!
"Fuck!" Basileus hit Aro so hard across the face that he couldn't help the expletive slipping as he tried desperately to control the pain in his now fractured jaw.
"Liar." Basileus said simply.
"Okay, I'm sorry! You've broken my jaw!" Aro backed up.
Caius actually felt guilty. Aro must have known Basileus would check his thoughts. He offered his brother in arms a small smile.
"I'm done with the two of you for now. I will see you in the throne room at dawn!" Basileus began to shoo them out of his quarters.
"What about Felix?" Aro asked.
"I will bring him with me." At that Basileus closed the door on the two shell shocked vampires.
"Aro, you didn't have to do that." Caius said to his brother, gratefully wincing at his out of line jaw.
Aro shrugged and pulled at his mouth until he felt it click.
"Ahhh! Fuck!"
Caius winced again. Aro looked far too used to doing that.
"You would have done the same for me, Caius. We may argue like cats and dogs, but we're masters of this coven ... if we don't look out for each other, who the hell will?!"
Caius nodded at that. It was true. They needed each other, if only to avoid Basileus' wrath in the future.
"Dawn?" Caius questioned.
"Dawn!" Aro replied and retired to his quarters as Caius left their tower and headed to his own.