Just a quick AN to say thanks for reviews & messages, all very much appreciated. And thank you Doccooper who is continuing to make my drivel readable!
Just in case you were wondering, I haven't messed up the dating, the Volturi household has split and I thought we should follow Basileus and Carlisle for a couple of chapters. This section is only two chapters long so I will post the next one tomorrow and after that we will be back in Volterra - it's all kicking off there!
1665, JANUARY - TRAVELS TO ENGLAND
"We don't need to do this." Carlisle tried to sound nonchalant but all Basileus heard was his son whining again.
"We do, son. We do." he replied breezily.
"You do!" Carlisle said under his breath whilst looking murderously to his vampire father. "You know, when you said we would travel by boat I imagined something more than this!" Carlisle complained whilst rowing the two-man dingy.
Basileus smirked, "I know you did."
"No wonder Aro laughed at my luggage." Carlisle remarked moodily.
"How about you concentrate on rowing and keep your sour grapes to yourself." Basileus returned from his seat opposite his son.
Carlisle decided to keep the rest of mutinous thoughts in his head. He knew Basileus could still hear him, but there wasn't much either of them could do sitting in the proximity afforded by a two-man rowing boat.
Basileus held a book in front of him and did a rather good impression of reading it leisurely. He had yet to ingest a word, he didn't even know the title. All his efforts were concentrated on his son's meandering mind and keeping an impassive face to all he heard.
Why would I want to see that evil bastard again? He used me as his personal punch bag for as long as I can remember. I have the scars for god's sake! Eleazar told me how severe a wound has to be to keep scars from a human life when you are turned into a vampire. I know Aro has some ... he never has told me what they were from, though. I know what mine are from. The good pastor whipped me until I passed out. I am haunted by Rebecca and I will be for the rest of my immortality ... and now I am supposed to break bread with the evil bastard? I'd like to break his fucking neck, not bread.
As Carlisle replayed the memory of his last horrific hiding from the good pastor, Basileus struggled to retain his composure. He felt hot, stressed and he wanted to rip that bastard to pieces for the way he'd treated his son.
My son now, you cunt, Basileus thought, as though the good pastor could hear him.
Carlisle could see his father was becoming agitated and realised just how vivid his own memories must have been to the man. "I'm sorry." he offered with a quiet voice.
"It's not for you to be sorry, son." Basileus returned kindly. "You lived in the same town your whole life ... there must be someone you would like to see? Even if you don't talk to them, just to know they are okay, that they are happy?" Basileus prompted, hoping his son could show even the slightest amount of joy in returning to his homeland.
"You aren't going to leave me there, are you?" Carlisle finally asked. The thought had been playing on his mind since Basileus told him they were going back to England. "Because, if I have displeased you I ... "
Carlisle tried to continue but Basileus gripped his shoulder tightly, gave his boy a gentle shake and tried to reassure his son.
"No. No, Carlisle. You haven't done anything wrong."
"I know I have, I must have." Carlisle replied. The closer he came to returning home the more oppressive his self-doubt became.
"Hey, you are my son and I am telling you that you haven't done anything wrong. And even if you had you would still be my son - I wouldn't return you for a newer model."
Basileus sat back and took up his own oars and started rowing.
"If such a thing were even possible, I would have traded Aro in years ago." he said with a broad smile and a wink to his distressed youngest.
"Then why are you taking me back there?" Carlisle whined, though Basileus knew he was genuinely distressed this time, not just complaining.
"Because I know you had many friends in that town and I know disease is going to tear the place apart. I want you to have the opportunity to see your old world with new eyes."
"You won't leave me?" Carlisle asked carefully, sounding more like a small child than a young man.
Basileus shook his head with a kind smile. "No. And if you decide to break the good pastor's neck I will cover your tracks." Basileus added in response to his son's earlier thoughts.
Carlisle's eyes widened and he concentrated on his feet. "I wouldn't really do that." he replied, still looking at the bottom of the boat.
Basileus smiled, he doubted Carlisle had it in him to do such a thing. "He did love you, you know. He just had a very 'confused' way of showing it. Religion can do that to a man."
Carlisle swallowed hard on the pooling venom in his throat whilst willing his tears not to overflow his eyes. The pastor had never, not once, not ever professed to love Carlisle. He had been told many times what an inconvenience he was, a disappointment, a regret ... even hearing the man loved him through a second-hand source was new. They fell into a comfortable silence as Basileus drove the small boat at such a speed that it appeared to fly across the water, barely skimming the waves as it went.
It didn't take long for Carlisle to become restless.
"Will you sit still!" Basileus boomed, shocking Carlisle from mindlessly messing in his luggage. "You are rocking the boat!" Basileus explained whilst he brought the small carrier under control. Carlisle flopped back into his seat. "When did you last see your father?" he asked. He needed some distraction.
"I cannot remember." Basileus replied shortly.
"You're a vampire, vampires don't forget anything." Carlisle breezed, only too happy to turn his father's phrase against him.
"You have some cheek, boy!" Basileus returned with a raised eyebrow. "You can row for that one!" Basileus leaned back into his seat with an arm on each side of the boat.
Carlisle took up his oars and realised, again, just how huge his father was by the gaping distance between himself and the side of the boat compared to Basileus who filled his side easily.
"He hasn't come to land for many, many years, thousands of years. Long before I turned Aro. The years were measured differently then so I cannot give you a precise date." Basileus ran a finger down the length of the scar on his face. From his forehead, over his eye lid and down his cheek. "Zeus gave me this." He said darkly.
Carlisle had never asked how he gained the faint imperfection. No one else had mentioned it and it felt disloyal, somehow, to even ask before. "How?" he asked, intrigued.
Basileus took a deep, steadying breath. "Lykaios, my wonderful werewolf brother, and I had been fighting for days, tearing each other to shreds and healing just as quickly - neither of us was going to win. Zeus had watched us for most of those days and decided that he'd had enough. We didn't listen to his call for us to cease. So he divided us with a bolt of lightning. I caught the main of the blast and it split my head in two."
Basileus told his short tale as though he were mentioning a walk through the park, Carlisle took a moment to digest the information, his arms quit rowing, his lungs quit breathing. He just stared ahead, in shock.
Basileus took over the rowing. "It's not as bad as it sounds, son."
Carlisle snapped out of his zoning. "He hit you with a lightning bolt!" he said, still in shock.
Basileus laughed. "It's not like it could kill me, nothing can kill me. Not even Zeus." Basileus breezed, though Carlisle could tell there was far more emotion hidden behind that breezy tone.
"After that, Lykaios and I went our separate ways and stupidly populated the earth with vampires and werewolves. Each in an effort to eradicate the other."
"Did you see Zeus again after that?" Carlisle asked, uneasily.
"Yes, he came to me a few centuries later, I suppose." Basileus was genuinely unsure of the time that had elapsed. "He basically told me to get my shit in order." Basileus smiled to his son. "My vampires had populated way beyond my control and they were wiping out the humans. Even Zeus didn't want the humans exterminated completely. Lykaios' werewolves are mortal, so they die out at the end of a humans natural life span. He also told me he'd created another child. That wasn't unusual for Zeus - he had many children. You have read the myths, no doubt. But this one was different. Apatouria. That's her name. Zeus hid her from Lykaios and me. Neither of us, to my knowledge at least, even know what she looks like."
Carlisle was entranced by Basileus' storytelling. It reminded him of when, as a child, his nurse read him fantastic tales … until the good pastor discovered the unsanctioned reading material and dismissed the kind woman from her post.
"Why did he tell you about Apatouria if you were never to meet her?" Carlisle asked, wanting to move on from his own dark thoughts.
"Apatouria is a witch. A real witch. Vampire gifts have nothing on Apatouria's repertoire."
Carlisle's head shot up."Witches are real?" A hundred faces went through Carlisle's mind, of all the people, mainly young women, his father had burned at the stake for being a witch. He'd never believed such a thing were real, he'd condemned his father's action. But, he was right?
"No Carlisle," Basileus answered his son's thoughts, "no, the pastor wasn't right about anything at all. He murdered those women because his deluded mind told him they were ungodly. 'Witch' was a word he used, but they were not witches."
Carlisle felt sick. "But how do you know?" He needed reassurance, quickly.
"I know because I have met enough witches to know the ones in your memories are false. A witch cannot be killed by fire, nor water, earth or air. They grow old and die, as is natural, but no other man could kill them. No vampire either, annoyingly."
"So a witch can kill a vampire?" Carlisle asked, concernedly.
"Not quite. Between the three of us, Lykaios, Apatouria and myself, I believe Apatouria would have the best chance. But that isn't why Zeus created her. She was supposed to temper Lykaios and me. Lykaios fights for his wolves, though his wolves generally defend humans. I fight for my vampires, though I am aware of how important human levels are to my vampires' mortality. Apatouria doesn't have to worry about her witches and humans separately, they are one. I have spent many years trying to find her. Lykaios has too, I believe. To my knowledge, neither of us has been successful."
Basileus' rapid rowing saw them flying through the water again. They were nearly past the east coast of Spain.
An idea occurred to Carlisle. "That's why you keep disappearing! To find Apatouria!"
It wasn't a question, Carlisle was sure that this is what Basileus' mysterious disappearances were about. He, along with Aro and Eleazar, had considered many options for why their father was so secretive of his plans.
"What are the other reasons you have come up with?" Basileus asked eagerly, whilst displaying a contented smirk.
"Eleazar's convinced you have a woman hidden somewhere." Carlisle replied with a laugh, thinking such a thing was ludicrous.
"Hidden! How exciting!" Basileus retorted, keeping his thoughts to himself.
Carlisle started to wonder if Eleazar was right. He already couldn't wait to get back to Volterra to talk with his brothers about this.
"So he only came to see you about Apatouria?" Carlisle asked, wanting as much information to take back to Eleazar and Aro.
"He who?" Basileus asked.
"Zeus!" Carlisle confirmed. Obviously, he thought.
"Not really, no. It was to tell me to lay low. To hide. There was a great battle of the gods, the Greek gods. They were at war with one another and Zeus wanted to keep Lykaios and me ... and Apatouria I suppose ... hidden from the gods so we weren't destroyed in the war."
"You said Zeus couldn't kill you?" Carlisle questioned.
"He couldn't. I was never sure just how much of a threat the other gods could be, but it was a risk Zeus wasn't willing to take." Basileus breathed deeply, he could feel his emotions rising to the surface.
"Did he die?" Carlisle asked in a very quiet voice. So quiet he wasn't sure his father had heard him. "Did he ... " Carlisle started again but stopped when Basileus looked up at him. His eyes were filled with rare tears.
"No, Zeus didn't die. He talks to me sometimes; I know he's still there. The whole body of gods were destroyed to a point where they lost their strength. They cannot come to the mortal world as they once did and walk among the people. There are signs, though. I know he's still there." Basileus wiped at his eyes and took up rowing with new enthusiasm.
Carlisle didn't ask anything else.