AFTERMATH

"Aro, my love, please ... speak to me." Sulpicia tried tentatively as she stroked her husband's arm.

Aro stared at the burning pyre of their lost guard. He didn't move. Neither did anyone else, for that matter. The entire coven surrounded the funeral pyre until the flames began to die down. As they did so, Aro was confronted with Caius standing on the opposite side of the castle court yard.

Catching each other's eye, Aro wondered what Caius would do next. This was the first executed guard that Caius had ever allowed to be given a funeral - he usually took the half dead guard to his dungeons for torture, or the dead ones for skinning.

Thinking about it, Aro realised this was actually the first time Caius had presided over a case alone – usually guards requested Aro's judgement, not Caius'. His co-master clearly felt the blood on his hands from the decree he'd issued. Caius ordered the funeral this time and Aro wondered if he had, in fact, gone too far in his manipulation of his coven to suit his own agenda.

Caius broke first. As the last of the flames licked at the scorched wooden frame of the pyre, he made to leave the castle courtyard.

As he passed, Aro held out his arm to stop his brother, "Caius, I ... "

"It's okay, Aro. We will talk tomorrow or something." Caius offered before he disappeared into the castle.

Aro's heart sank for his coven mate but he had to move things on for the rest of his coven.

"Sully, go back to the tower please, I will join you shortly. Take Freyr."

Sulpicia extricated the fragile woman from the other female guards and helped her along into the castle.

"I will join you shortly." he told them quietly again as they parted company.

He had lied, however. Aro took his time getting back to the tower. First, he had to dismiss the guards and issue directives, ensuring that Antonio's followers were well dispersed around the grounds and teamed up with guards who had preferred Felix.

Next he instructed a handful of newborns to clear the grounds - it would be easier for them than longer standing guards, Aro reasoned, as they wouldn't have known the slain vampire as well or for as long. They were also only too happy to be given duties that kept them from being locked back in the newborn hall in the dungeons.

Aro oversaw the whole procedure, keeping an eye on the newborns and their clean-up task. When they were finished, far too quickly for Aro's liking, he personally escorted them down to the newborn hall and secured them inside.

That was it, nothing else to do, nothing else to feasibly keep him from his private quarters. He considered going to Caius or even to Marcus to discuss the day's events but he knew he was stalling and he had to face his family eventually. With a heavy heart, he went home.

"Why won't you tell me what happened?!"

Aro heard Felix demanding information from someone as soon as he opened the tower door from the castle floor. He made his way up the steps to his top floor apartment quietly, so as not to alert anyone of his presence.

"Felix, Aro sent the four of you away for good reason. Telling you what happened would defeat that reason!" Sulpicia sounded exasperated.

I do hope you haven't been giving her a hard time in my absence, Felix, Aro thought as he approached.

"Please!" Felix whined again.

"I am not going against my husband, Felix! Just leave it!" She sounded pissed off.

"Sully, come on, he's not even here! Stop treating me like a fucking child!"

Aro grimaced hearing his son talking to his wife in such a way. He didn't have enough reserves of emotional energy left in him to deal with Felix being a brat right now so before the boy could dig a deeper hole for himself, Aro flashed to the doorway and allowed it to swing open with force.

"You are a 'fucking child'! An arrogant, ignorant and rude child at that!" Aro told his boy as Felix shuddered.

Shit, how long has he been listening?

"I'm going to go to my room ... " Felix backed out slowly, his wide eyes watching as Aro

mimicked his movements. As soon as he was under the archway to the inner hall, he fled to his bed chamber.

"Brat!" Aro called after him in annoyance.

"My love, you have taken forever to get back here!" Sulpicia said as she embraced her husband in relief. She had been worried there may have been an altercation with the guards, or even Caius! Aro read as much in her thoughts.

"All is well, my queen. Where are they?" he asked simply.

"They are resting on our bed; to be totally honest, I wasn't sure what else to do with them." she whispered into his ear.

Aro nodded curtly in response and led them both to their own bed chamber.

Eleazar stood from the bed as he heard his brother enter the room. Carmen did the same from the opposite side as Aro approached.

"Well played, my friend." Aro offered with a warm smile as he held out his hand.

Propping himself up and leaning on one arm, Magnus extended the other and shook Aro's hand with a broad grin extending across his face.

"Well played, indeed!" Aro repeated as he embraced the hulking guard.

Magnus hissed at the force of Aro's embrace.

"Sorry, sorry!" Aro said as he stepped back. In absolute awe he looked at Magnus and his mate who was sitting to his side. "You have both undergone more to aid this coven than any other guard that's ever walked the halls of this castle. I will see to it that you are properly recompensed for your troubles." Aro offered and couldn't help the delight showing on his face.

"Master, I have already ... " Magnus began a reply but was shushed by Aro.

"No Magnus, no. I am no longer your master. Please, call me Aro. We have been friends too long and your deeds are too great for you to go on with such formalities. I have a new position to offer you," Aro turned to Freyr, "to offer you both. Once you are recovered, of course."

Magnus looked guiltily to his mate.

"Magnus, my love, please do not fret. I am fine." Freyr told him, gently.

Sulpicia moved to the woman's side. She had been shocked and deeply saddened to see the damage to Freyr's body - the idea that the gentle and compassionate Magnus could have done such a thing was almost unimaginable. Though after witnessing the guard rip Antonio to shreds in the throne room it was a little more conceivable!

"My dear, I must express my deepest gratitude and my sorrow for all that you have been through on our behalf." she told the woman, genuinely.

"My lady, honestly, Antonio has been a blight on our coven for centuries and his quarry against Felix was reaching dangerous levels. Antonio wanted you whole high guard dead for nothing more than holding more favour then he. We did what was necessary, nothing more." Freyr replied, though she winced with even the mildest of movements required to talk.

Magnus' guilt reached new levels and the empath couldn't hold his emotional gift any longer. The whole room felt what he felt.

"Whoa, Magnus you need to calm down, my friend. The only one that should feel that level of guilt over this situation is me." Aro told him as he pushed the juggernaut of a guard back to lie on his bed. "Relax, let your body heal. That was quite a fight, after all." Aro said as he stepped out of the room.

"It certainly was! For a moment I worried you would lose." Eleazar said, still in a state of shock over the battle he'd witnessed. "It was the most horrific guard fight I have ever seen."

Magnus scoffed lightly, "Antonio put up a fair fight ... but you had no need to worry, Eleazar. I had it planned out from the start. If I had just taken Antonio down, Caius would have suspected something was amiss."

Aro returned with a table-barrel over his shoulder and a clutch of goblets in his hand. "I thought we were done for when Caius asked to see the evidence of Antonio's crimes!" he commented as he set down the barrel.

Sulpicia perked up. "So you didn't know about ... Freyr?" she struggled to say it out loud, but it was clear to everyone in the room that Sulpicia was referring to the battered and bruised state Freyr was in.

"No! I will admit I was racking my brains to come up with an explanation or something. I was expecting Caius to come back in defence of Antonio and calling Magnus out as a liar!" Aro had missed the look of relief on his wife's face as he spoke.

"I thought we should be covered for all eventualities. Though it pained me greatly to be the one to inflict such horror on my mate ... "

Magnus took the goblet Aro offered and offered it to Freyr, "Can you every forgive me?" he asked, his voice dripping with sorrow and regret.

Freyr, ignoring the bloodwine for a moment, took her mate's face in two hands, cupping his huge jawline. "We did what we had to do, and I have nothing to forgive you for ... it was my idea, after all."

"You are a genius, and I will be forever in your debt." Aro told her kindly as Magnus finally begun to accept his wife held no ill will towards him.

Eleazar set to work filling the rest of the goblets and offering them around the room.

"So Aro, what's this new position you are offering then?" Eleazar asked, trying to break a little tension in the room.

"I'm glad you ask, brother." Aro started. Turning to Magnus and Freyr he said, "I would like to offer you the apartment in the north tower, and with it, a new role. I would be honoured if you would take positon as 'Masters of the Guard'."

Magnus wore his surprise on his face. In all his years under the Volturi he had never heard of anyone rising out of the rank of guard. Aro's high guard had always been special, but other than that, a guard was a guard until they died, and that was it.

Freyr, though equally surprised, was far more animated. "Oh, my, I, erm! Our own suite? Really?" She stuttered through Aro's offer, trying to make sense of it all.

Magnus was still silent so Aro thought he had better explain a little more.

"It is no secret that Marcus has fallen from coven life since we lost my dear sister. Without Marcus to share the load, Caius and I are experiencing ever increasing demands on our time. We need help." Aro spoke genuinely. "And both of my brothers are useless!" he added, with a smirk towards Eleazar.

"My job is making sure you don't make too much of a prat of yourself, little brother!" Eleazar said pointedly as he topped up his goblet.

Aro rolled his eyes as the others in the room laughed lightly.

Magnus and Freyr had been with the coven a long time and had seen the inside of Aro's quarters plenty, but never had they enjoyed this level of informality before. It felt like family, and they both enjoyed it. Freyr took Magnus' hand in her own and squeezed gently, allowing her emotions to flow for her husband to read. It was how they privately communicated. Magnus returned the same feeling of contentedness as he'd felt from Freyr and he looked to her happily.

"So what do you say? Will you take the positon?" Aro pushed for an answer. He wanted some good new to take to Caius - easing his load seemed like the least he could offer after taking his favourite guard.

"Let them rest awhile, my love. They need to discuss this." Sulpicia told her husband as she fetched the pair another cup of bloodwine, "Drink ... it will help you heal." she said as they took the cups she offered.

"I believe I can speak for the two of us, master ... "

"Aro." Aro corrected.

"I speak for the two of us, Aro." Magnus corrected with a happy smile, "We would be honoured to take a more active role in the coven."

Aro clapped his hands together in delight before raising his glass and inviting the other four vampires in the room to toast the appointment.

"How will Caius take this news, Aro?" Eleazar asked, ending the jollity for them all.

Aro's broad smile never faltered though. "I believe he will be grateful for the help, brother. If it were anyone else, we may have an issue, but Magnus, well, everyone loves Magnus!"

It was clear as day to Aro. This was a perfect solution to all their woes.

"Yes, I agree brother, but," Eleazar turned to Magnus, "forgive me my friend, but Caius just witnessed Magnus tear his favourite guard limb from limb ... after snapping every bone in his body ... and drinking the blood that spurted from his wounds. Are you sure, Aro?" Eleazar finished, feeling a little queasy remembering the bloodied mess of a corpse that would be Antonio's legacy.

Aro held up his hand for silence and listened to the door. Brats, he thought as he heard his young vampires scuttle away.

"Yes, El, I am sure. Trust me. Now if you will all excuse me, I need to talk to my child ... guards, my guards. I need to talk to my guards." Aro left the room, cursing his slip up and wondering if he should just be honest with Magnus. Half the coven know I have nominated Felix and Demetri as my sons now anyway, but I know Caius is pissed off with it ... so it may have to be retracted yet. I can trust Magnus though, and Freyr. Aro worked through his thoughts as he sought out his children.

Standing in the hallway between his children's rooms, Aro listened closely for movement.

Aha! Shoving Demetri and Alec's door wide open he was confronted with all four of his young

vampires.

"Do you believe me to be some sort of fool?" Aro asked, irritated.

Suddenly the floor appeared to be very interesting as Demetri and the twins trained their eyes to tracing the patterns in the Persian rug. Felix looked moodily back to Aro.

"Felix, I warn you, your attitude problem had better not rear it's ugly head right now."

Felix huffed indignantly, biting his lip to keep his thoughts from spilling into words. Aro watched as his boy warred with himself.

"Who was listening at my door?" Aro asked in annoyance. No answer.

Aro watched Alec. He always gave the game away. Eventually the young boy's eyes flickered first to Felix and then to Demetri. Aro couldn't help the smile that tugged on his lips.

"It's always you two!" Aro said as he pointed out his eldest sons.

Felix bit hard enough into his lip to draw blood. Aro threw up his hands.

"Say it, whatever it is, just say it!" he demanded.

That was all Felix needed to hear. "Why did you send us away? We've been in battles against rogues, we've seen plenty of vampires meet their makers! Damn it, we have sent enough there ourselves! So why did you send us away?" Felix's thoughts rushed through his mouth before he had chance to lose his nerve.

Aro growled. "I had to send you home! Antonio announced your midnight flit to the coven. You know, the one where you killed humans in our town - against coven law!"

Felix shrugged. "So? Afton denied it, so did Chelsea and Renata. No one believed Antonio anyway."

Felix, so help me… Aro forced his internal monologue to shut up before he threatened something he would regret.

"You were lucky Afton and their mates denied all knowledge of Antonio's claim - it could very easily have gone the other way, son." Aro pointed out gruffly. "Besides that, eliminating our enemies is not remotely the same as seeing a member of our coven lose their life. Antonio was a fellow guard, and I knew Magnus wouldn't just send him on his way merrily to the afterlife. He tore the guy to shreds, blood and bone scattered to every inch of the throne room - that isn't something I wanted you to witness."

Demetri and the twins looked away. It sure sounded horrific. They weren't exactly upset at losing Antonio from the guard, but they wouldn't have wished such a grizzly end to any of their coven mates.

Felix scoffed. "After everything he put me through, I would have paid to see it! I can't even count the amount of beltings I've ended up with because of that prick!" He crossed his arms across his chest and glared at his father. Aro matched his glare and then some as he closed the space between them.

Ducking down onto his knees so he was level with his son, Aro grabbed his chin and forced Felix to look into his angry black eyes. "It was a vicious fight, and to start it looked like Antonio may have the upper hand. I didn't want you to see Magnus lose ... he has been a dear friend to us all for many years. IF Antonio had won, he would have called you out next and frankly, if he could take down Magnus you would have been easy pickings! I wasn't willing to risk that."

Aro pinched his grip on his son as Felix tried to turn away. Oh no, my boy. You wanted to know what happened, you will bloody well listen now!

"Magnus smashed every single bone in Antonio's body, he ripped him limb from limb, he tore a hole in his gut and let his innards spill out onto the floor and he licked the oozing blood from his mangled body before finally crushing his skull between his two hands so Antonio's eyeballs popped out of their sockets. Antonio may have brought you some strife, but most of your pain you caused yourself. If I really believed that seeing him come to such an end would illicit no feeling in you at all, I would throw your heartless hide to Caius myself!"

The twins huddled together, feeling disturbed by Aro's vivid, if short, retelling of Antonio's death. Demetri wiped a stray tear from his cheek and tried to suppress the others building in his eyes.

"Yeah, well," Felix started full of bravado, "you know what he said about Jane ... "

Aro's Achilles heel, a man threatening his princess of darkness - Felix knew being reminded of Antonio's threat to rape Jane would make Aro see red.

"Me? What?" Jane asked, interest piqued. No one had ever told her what Antonio planned to do to her!

In one deft movement, Aro released Felix's chin and whipped the back of his hand across his son's face, creating the perfect impression of four fingers in his cheek - complete with the outline of Aro's rings.

Felix hissed as he went to cover his face to hide his tears but Aro pushed his hands away and took the boy loosely by his throat.

"I read your thoughts. I know your stomach flipped hearing how Antonio's life was extinguished." Aro was deeply disappointed in Felix, even more so when he failed to respond. "You shame yourself staying silent when you should speak, and speaking when you should stay silent!" he growled, giving Felix a shake and gesturing towards Jane.

Felix looked at his little sister and into her questioning eyes. I can't tell her Antonio planned to rape her! I can't tell her that, he thought to himself. Of course Aro 'heard' through his grip on Felix's throat.

"Indeed!" he agreed whilst raising his eyebrows pointedly.

Felix sighed, and lied, "Antonio planned to find a way to turn you against Alec, Jane."

Jane's face scrunched up, Alec's too.

"Oh!" she exclaimed, rather disappointed.

"As if!" Alec commented with a tut.

Aro released Felix, resulting in an audible gulp from the poor boy as he swallowed his pooling venom.

"Did you hear I offered Magnus a new position as Master of the Guard?" Aro sounded much calmer now, his light singsong tone had returned.

Felix and Demetri nodded. The twins knew too, naturally, but they hadn't heard Aro say it - their big brothers had told them.

Aro nodded, "Not a word to anyone outside our tower, got it?" he asked a little more forcefully.

All agreed.

"I will be telling Magnus of our set up. It will make life a bit easier, I imagine, especially if Caius asks me to retract the whole 'Princes of Volterra' thing." he commented with a sly smile.

Demetri huffed. He really didn't want to lose that title - he'd already planned a million ways to use it to his advantage with the female guards. Aro knew what the youth was thinking without reading his mind.

"I don't want any of you talking about Antonio's death outside of our private walls, it could permanently damage relations with Caius if he heard of you gloating." Aro spoke generally but everyone knew he was really talking to Felix.

"I won't say anything!" Felix responded, pissed off that Aro felt the need to remind him how to act cordially.

Aro's eyes flew back to Felix before he had even finished speaking, "Do you want another slap or can you keep that attitude of yours under control?" Hmm, that rug is far too interesting, Aro thought as he watched his son study the intricate weaving work rather than answering his question.

Aro could hear the voices of those he had left earlier getting louder. They must have moved to the living room.

"I'm going back out there. You can come if you wish." he offered his young guards.

All were on their feet before Aro had made it off his knees. Laughing lightly to himself, he held the door open for the four of them and then followed them out. Felix didn't get very far before Aro pulled him back by his shoulder.

"You may wish to thank Magnus, and Freyr for that matter, for what they have put themselves through on your behalf. They clearly think a lot of you to go to such efforts."

Felix knew Aro's 'you may wish' translated to 'you had better, or else' - he wasn't stupid. He nodded quickly and sprung away from Aro as soon as he was released, joining his brothers and sister in the big open room of their chambers.

Taking a deep breath and steadying his nerves at the idea of letting someone else into their secret world, Aro followed.