AN: I do not own the Twi-world, thanks SM for sharing.
I am having the odd request come through for scenes you'd like to see. I will try and accommodate anything that I can work into this current story, but I don't want to start a new story, yet. I just don't have the time at the moment. Thanks
TRY AGAIN
"Aro! ARO, STOP!" Sulpicia screamed out at the scene with which she was confronted when she returned home.
Felix was curled up on the floor trying to defend himself with his flailing arms whilst Aro rained down strike after strike, wielding his belt as whip against their son.
Sulpicia suspected her husband had flown into a blind rage and was unaware of his actions. She didn't dare go near him.
"Fetch Eleazar, quickly!" she whispered to the twins, who both darted from the entranceway.
Aro wasn't in a blind rage though, he knew what he was doing. Spinning to face his wife and Demetri she could see his eyes, though black, were still Aro. They weren't the eyes of the animalistic vampire within - that just made what she'd witnessed even more horrific.
"What the hell are you doing, Aro!" she ordered as she flew to Felix's side. "Aro, what have you done?" she screamed as she helped her boy to stand. He doesn't seem as damaged as I thought he would be actually, she considered as Felix easily pounced to his feet.
"ME?" Aro replied in shock.
"What's going on?" Eleazar boomed as he strode through the door, straight past Demetri who still clung to the door frame.
"I, I'm not entirely sure, Eleazar." Sulpicia answered, looking from Aro to Felix.
"Why are you covered in blood?" Eleazar asked slowly, wondering what the hell his little brother had done now. "Is that his blood?" he asked Aro while pointing to Felix.
"No! It's mine!" Aro answered in annoyance.
"YOURS?!" everyone in the room responded with the same word in the same shocked tone.
"Yes, that little bastard has bit a chunk out of my back," Aro lifted his blood soaked shirt and spun around to show them the wound Felix had inflicted, "and my fucking arm!" he continued, offering his right arm to show them the deep impressions of Felix's teeth, oozing blood from the ragged edges. "He's damn lucky I haven't ripped his bloody teeth out!"
"I'm surprised you haven't." Eleazar said genuinely as he walked over to Aro to inspect his brother's gaping wounds.
"I still might!" Aro growled through gritted teeth as his brother turned his arm to take a better look.
Wincing, as he knew it must be incredibly painful, Eleazar started pulling Aro towards the door, "Aro we need to get this bandaged, Felix can wait."
Felix had tucked himself behind Sulpicia but now she turned on her boy, "You can get this mess cleaned up. Now."
Felix nodded as he backed up. Sulpicia was rarely angry, but right now her jet-black eyes told him she was ready to tear him a new asshole.
"I want my living room put back together and free from the stench of your drunken vomit!" She continued to growl out her orders as Felix agreed and apologised over and over again. But he had yet to move. "NOW, FELIX!"
Shit, Sully never shouts, Felix thought as he jumped into action.
"Demetri, can you take the twins with you to the guard hall." Demetri agreed, happily. "I suggest you don't cause any trouble." she said sternly.
They all agreed before fleeing from their chambers. The twins were relieved to be out of the firing line and Demetri was stoked to be allowed out at all, especially to the guard hall!
"All hormone and adrenalin, he's a fucking liability!" Aro complained loudly about Felix to Carmen as she dressed his arm.
"Does vampire flesh grow back, Aro?" she asked with a grimace. "Your arm is in a bit of a state!"
Aro winced feeling another stitch go through his wound. Eleazar was impressed with his brother's restraint, he wasn't sure he could be quite as stoic with the amount of pain Aro must be in.
"No, it doesn't grow back, but it will heal over in time." Eleazar answered for his brother as he passed him a glass of bloodwine. "It's first thing in the morning, Aro - medicinal amounts only!" Eleazar commented, seeing his brother gulp at the ruby liquid.
"What are these needles made from, anyway? They look like bone!" Carmen continued, desperate to make conversation to break some of the tension.
"Claw, not bone." Aro ground out through his pain. "Werewolf claw, my lady. The only thing that can penetrate a vampire's skin."
Carmen stopped stitching Aro and took a good look at the needle Eleazar had given her. "Really?" she said to herself.
"Silver cuts vampire hair, that's why we use it for shaving, though it takes great effort to keep the blade sharp." Eleazar told his mate. "I expect, with enough force, silver could give us a decent paper cut!"
Eleazar ripped Aro's shirt from his back to look again at his wound. "Felix has actually bitten a chunk out of you Aro ... he didn't swallow it, did he?"
Carmen looked repulsed at the question.
"I don't know, El. I was a little preoccupied at the time!"
Eleazar slapped his shoulder lightly, "I will see if I can find it, then."
Carmen looked ready to throw up. "As in a 'chunk of flesh' … and you want me to do what with it? Sew it back in?"
Aro nodded, "Be grateful you are doing the sewing rather than being sewn, my lady!"
Carmen had to take a good few deep breaths to dispel the nausea. "What is going on with Felix? He's not usually so ... grotesque." she commented as she added a final stitch to Aro's arm.
"Honestly, I don't know. I'm not even sure he knows. Damn teenagers! Irrational, volatile beings!" Aro winced as Carmen pulled tightly on the thread before tying it off.
"What are you going to do with him, then?" Carmen pressed.
Aro shook his head, "I could happily beat him senseless - which wouldn't take very long! Damn idiot!"
Carmen laughed lightly as she wound a bandage around Aro's arm.
"Don't make it too thick, my dear. The guards can't know about this. Or Caius. Especially Caius! He has had guards killed for pushing him before! To be fair to Caius, so have I."
Carmen gulped, but she felt a sense of pride in Aro knowing that he would protect Felix - even when he didn't deserve it.
"Would you like to hear what I think, Aro?" she asked tentatively. She knew Aro wasn't exactly accustomed to taking advice from women.
"You usually make more sense than my brother, Carmen. Go ahead." he remarked with a small smile.
"I think Felix is bored. And he's stifled. You have pulled him out of guard life completely and he's going crazy with nothing to do."
Aro nodded along. That sounded like a piss poor excuse for the way Felix had behaved recently, but it also sounded so very Felix-like.
"Hmm, I only pulled him out of guard life because I couldn't trust him out of my sight. For many reasons ... you know some of them, at least." Aro replied.
Carmen agreed. She knew Felix first broke coven ... and then vampire law and Eleazar had told her of the many minor infractions Aro's eldest boys had committed. "Yes he has caused a lot of distress, and I understand your reasons for removing him from the guards ... but now Magnus is running the guard hall and Antonio is gone. Perhaps now would be a good time to reintroduce him to his old life. With new rules, obviously."
Aro considered Carmen's comments. "I would love to let him free in the castle again, but how can I be sure he won't just go out and start a whole new reign of hell for me to deal with - he isn't exactly rational at the moment." Aro gestured to the arm Carmen had just bandaged.
She laughed, "No, he isn't rational right now. But keeping him cooped up is just making him act out more, Aro. Don't you think?" she proffered gently.
"So what ... I just send him out to play after biting chunks out of me?" Aro asked, exasperated, though he was genuinely taking Carmen's comments on board.
"Well, no. I assume you plan to punish him, to talk with him?" Carmen asked.
"And then some!" Aro stated darkly.
"After that then. Send him out with new rules. Give him a way to earn your trust again. Caius has his head down for a while so Felix can't cause trouble with him. Magnus will be managing that guard hall with an iron fist - if he screws up in there Magnus will deal with him. Now would be the perfect time to let him out again."
Carmen makes it sound so simple. Could it really be that easy? Aro questioned.
"Oh my, I wouldn't want to be Felix right now. Sully is giving him a round of fucks Basileus would be proud of." Eleazar said whilst sniggering as he came back into his chambers.
"He isn't giving her any trouble, is he?" Aro asked. If Felix was, then Aro was ready to go back up there and set his boy straight.
"No, brother. Sully has him scrubbing the whole suite and now that the adrenalin from fighting with you has died down he's back to sobbing through his hangover!"
Eleazar found the whole thing quite funny, really. Even Aro laughed lightly at his brother's amusement.
"Did you find it?" Aro asked, regarding the missing piece of his back. Eleazar held out a bowl.
"Washed in bloodwine and ready to be stitched back in."
Carmen looked ill again. "You can do that, my love. I will throw up over him if I have to!" she said as she handed over the needle and cord and moved from her chair. "Don't even show me, just don't!" she averted her eyes and left her chambers to give Sulpicia some moral support.
"Turn around, little brother." Eleazar said menacingly as he waggled the needle at Aro.
Aro sighed, "This is really going to hurt, isn't it?" He sounded exhausted but he turned anyway and straddled the dining chair, resting his arms on the back and bracing himself for the pain. Reattaching vampire body parts stung like a bitch. It didn't matter if it was a finger or an arm, it burned on contact as venom coursed through the body to heal itself.
Eleazar sized up the mouthful of flesh he had recovered from Aro's apartment, ensuring it was the right way up.
"Get it right the first time, El ... I'm not going through this twice!" Aro told his brother.
"You know this goes right down to the bone, brother ... how are you still standing?" Eleazar asked, slightly in awe, before adding with amusement, "How Felix is still standing is the real puzzle!"
Aro laughed, "He's still standing because you interrupted me belting him, and I am sitting."
"Ready?" Eleazar asked.
Aro nodded. "Ahhhh!" he released his pain through gritted teeth with eyes shut tight. "Fuck! I'm going to kill that little cunt!" Aro raged, though somehow he stayed still.
Eleazar set to work stitching the loose piece of flesh back in, blood dripping down his wrist as he worked. "You could really do with a proper feed, Aro. You've lost a lot of blood." Eleazar commented, seeing how Aro looked pale ... even for a vampire.
"I think I will go to the woods when you've finished. I'll take Felix."
Eleazar stopped his sewing, "If you kill him in the woods Sulpicia will still kill you, you know?"
Aro laughed, "I think he could do with a proper feed, too, after how much he drank last night."
Eleazar started stitching again. "So you aren't going to kill him, then?" he asked, still a little unsure of Felix's fate.
"No. But as our dear father has told us many times, you will be amazed at what a vampire can live through!" Aro winced again as Eleazar pulled through another stitch. "You know your mate is much better at this than you!" Aro told his brother, wishing he could punch something to divert his pain.
Eleazar laughed, "She's much better than I at many things, brother. Much like Sully and you."
That's it, I'm punching Eleazar, Aro thought wickedly.
Eleazar may have been heavy handed, but he was certainly quicker at stitching his brother back together. "All done." Eleazar pronounced, proudly looking at his handiwork.
"Finally!" Aro complained as he stretched out his arms. "Now, to deal with Felix." He tried to stand up but his legs buckled beneath him and he fell back into his chair.
"You are in no fit state to deal with anyone. Stay here. I will fetch Felix and I will punish him." Eleazar announced firmly.
Aro shook his head. "No, brother. I cannot ask that of you; I know how uncomfortable you are with discipline. I will be fine."
"I am quite uncomfortable with having to stitch you back together but I managed that well enough." Eleazar replied kindly. "I'm not asking for your permission, Aro. You are not up to thrashing his insolent hide and it needs doing – now. I am your big brother, so I will do it."
There was a determination to Eleazar's voice that reminded Aro so very much of their father, and he couldn't argue with the sentiment either.
"Bring Felix down here so he can see the damage he's done." Aro replied, leaning his chest tiredly into the back of the chair, allowing it to support his weight.
"Where is he?" Eleazar asked gruffly as he entered Aro's quarters.
"Felix is in his room, El ... " Sulpicia didn't get to say anything else before Eleazar disappeared from the room, seeking out his nephew.
He could hear the boy sobbing softly before he'd even made it to the bedchamber.
"Is Aro okay?" he asked as Eleazar appeared in the doorway. The look of disgust his uncle shot him froze Felix's insides.
Crossing the room and closing the distance between them, Eleazar dragged a reluctant Felix to his feet. "Someone wants a word with you!" he told the boy through gritted teeth.
Felix whimpered under Eleazar's grasp but he didn't resist as he was directed out of his room and then out of the top floor suite altogether. He didn't dare chance a look to his mother or Carmen as he passed through the large main chamber.
When Eleazar shoved him inside the middle floor suite, his breath hitched in his throat as he was confronted with the sight of his father. Oh my god, did I really do that, he asked himself, seeing the weeping flesh wound in Aro's back.
BANG! Eleazar slammed the door closed, the sound of which startled Felix from his thoughts.
"Take a good look, you vicious little shit!" Eleazar told him harshly as he shoved the boy over to his father.
Felix tried to maintain a safe distance from Aro but Eleazar soon had hold of the scruff of his neck, dragging him into reaching distance. Aro didn't reach out though, he simply turned his arm so Felix could see the blood emerging through his bandage. Of course, the mouthful of flesh that had been sewn into his back was on full display already.
"Anything to say?" Aro asked.
Felix gulped. "I am so sorry."
Aro laughed and shook his head, "You will be." he said, mainly to himself, though it sent a shiver through Felix's core!
"Sorry?" Eleazar repeated as he started rolling up his sleeves.
Felix caught onto what was about to happen. "You?!" he questioned his uncle in shock, though he was a little relieved, too. Eleazar is soft as shit, he thought, careful not to allow his relief to show on his face.
Eleazar merely smiled and took a tight hold of his nephew's chin, pinching a little as he turned the lad's face to look at his swollen cheek. Two deep grey stripes could be seen. Aro's belt, no doubt, Eleazar correctly assumed. Caught your eye, too, he noticed as the left socket wore a hairline crack – a sign of his skin still healing from a split.
Felix winced at the tight grip of Eleazar's hold and started to wonder if his initial relief at facing his uncle instead of his father was perhaps a little premature.
"I have had to sew my brother back together because of you. You may think yourself lucky your father has lost too much blood to deal with you himself, but you would be wrong, very wrong."
Felix gulped again and tried to look at Aro, or anywhere that wasn't Eleazar! Aro returned his look, with onyx eyes. No help from you, then, Felix thought.
Eleazar released Felix and shoved him closer to the table where Aro sat before turning on his heel and leaving the room.
"Dad ... I am sorry. I really am." Felix tried. He had spent most of the morning sobbing or in a vicious rage and between the two he felt not only exhausted but emotionally drained, too. His hangover was still raging, no doubt adding to the effect.
"Like I said, son, you will be." Aro returned, laying his arm on the table for Felix to see again.
Felix felt disgusted in himself and genuinely shocked by his own behaviour. Not that it made facing his punishment any easier to bear.
Eleazar rarely wore a belt around his dress coat, but he had in his grasp something even more fearsome when he returned from his bed chamber.
"What's that?" Felix asked, backing away from his uncle, gesturing to the thick piece of worn, brown leather in his hand.
Eleazar flipped the implement over in his right hand, slapping it against his left.
"A razor strap." Aro answered on his brother's behalf, grimacing to his son. He looks scared to death, should I put a stop to this? he wondered, though as the stinging increased in his back when he tried to move again, he thought better of it.
Felix started to cry softly, though he kept a hand across his face to hide his ever increasing shame.
"Bend over." Eleazar ordered, paying no attention to his tears.
"Please! I am sorry!" Felix wailed in a final attempt to evade punishment.
Eleazar ignored his cries as he slammed the youth over his table. Felix tried to turn away from Aro but Eleazar held him down fast with his left hand by the back of his tunic.
"Dad?" Felix asked, begging with his eyes for help.
Eleazar was intent on bringing his nephew to justice, but he wouldn't overstep Aro if his brother didn't want him to go ahead. He looked to his brother for guidance.
"Get on with it, El. I need to get these wounds bandaged before I lose any more blood." Aro answered his brother's questioning eye whilst watching his boy's reaction.
Hearing Aro wasn't coming to his aid, Felix started sobbing harder – he knew he didn't deserve a reprieve, but that didn't make him want one any less.
First gathering Felix's guard tunic up to his neck, exposing his lower back, Eleazar next ripped every shred of clothing from his behind.
Felix felt a fresh flood of shame being so uncovered and vulnerable in front of his father and uncle. He didn't have long to think on his embarrassment before Eleazar began his assault.
"Ahhhh! FUCK!" Felix roared as his uncle delivered the first strike with his razor strap. Eleazar had punished Felix enough times in his life at the castle, but NEVER with such force.
"Watch your mouth." Aro warned plainly. He was surprised by the harshness of that first strike, but he didn't want to undermine his brother in front of Felix and frankly, he was in no fit state to take over. Aro instructed Eleazar to continue.
Bringing the strap up high above his head, Eleazar delivered the second strike with even more power than the first!
"Ahhhh!" Felix called out again, a shrillness to his voice in reaction to the pain as he rose onto his tiptoes. He desperately tried to break free of his uncle's grasp.
Aro grimaced, for fuck sake El! he thought, though as Felix was still begging him for help with his eyes Aro kept his feelings from his face.
"Again." Aro ordered.
"No, no, no!" Felix called out ... not that it stopped Eleazar from releasing another punishing strike.
"FUCK!" Felix roared as his legs buckled beneath him, his full weight dropping onto the table.
Aro whipped his hand across his boy's face, "I told you to mind your mouth." he sang out, hiding his true thoughts expertly as usual. With an uncertain nod to his brother, Eleazar went again.
Felix gasped for breath. You have never whipped me this hard! he thought to his father. Even Basileus goes easier on me than this!
Both the oak table and Felix's backside cracked with the force of the next blow.
Eleazar appraised the damage. The table can hold for more, he thought, but Felix won't last much longer. Aro must have been thinking the same.
"Once more, El." he ordered.
Felix squeezed his eyes tightly shut and bit into his bottom lip, bracing himself.
Truthfully, Eleazar felt the boy deserved more, but he would concede to Aro. "I had better make this one count then, eh brother?" he sang out cheerily.
Aro sniggered at the look of horror on his boy's face whilst his stomach simultaneously twisted over the harshness of his brothers technique.
CRACK!
Felix didn't make a sound at first. The pain that engulfed his entire body was so sharp, so severe, that instead he bit through his own lip in shock and only gasped for breath, gulping down the air greedily like a fish out of water.
Eleazar and Aro waited ... they knew that sort of pain only too well.
"AHHHH!" he finally roared.
"There it is." Aro commented to his brother with a wink. Eleazar released his hold on the boy and Felix collapsed to the floor, paying no attention to his semi-naked form splayed out on the marble.
Eleazar dropped his razor strap on the table with a pleasing thud and took off his dress coat.
"Here." he offered his nephew.
Felix looked up from the floor, though he refused to meet Eleazar's eye.
"Pft! Take it and go back to your room before I give you another round!"
Felix scrambled to his feet, crying and hissing as he did so.
Aro caught sight of his boy's bruised and welted behind. He'll be feeling that for a few days, he thought. Though, so will I, he added, thinking of his crudely sewn wounds.
Kicking off the last of his ragged britches, Felix dressed himself in Eleazar's coat. He turned to Aro, hoping for some kind of comfort, but he knew he deserved none.
"What are you waiting for?!" Eleazar asked as he shoved the boy towards the door. Felix left, sobs hitching in his throat and increasing with every step.
"I must confess, I didn't think you had it in you, brother!" Aro admitted when he was sure Felix was gone.
"I have had enough hidings from our father to know how to deliver one when required."
Aro sighed, "Yes, that was very Basileus-like." He wasn't entirely sure how he felt about what he'd just witnessed. It had to happen, he reasoned. But your full strength, brother - was that really necessary?
"Stand up, I'll wrap a bandage around you." Aro obliged and held his arms high out of the way. "I could come to the woods with you and Felix, if you like?" he mentioned nonchalantly, not wanting Aro to pick up on his concern for Felix if left alone with Aro.
"I won't kill your nephew, brother. I am quite fond of him myself, you know?! Besides, I think Felix will fear you far more than me for awhile." Aro replied. He knew what Eleazar was doing. "I have decided to take Carmen's advice anyway, so all I need to do is talk to him." Aro announced. "I have no idea if it will work, but I can't come up with anything better than beating the living daylights out of him ... and you've taken care of that ... " Aro trailed off, not knowing what else to say.
"So you are going to lift his restriction, then?" Eleazar asked, adding sarcastically when Aro's brow furrowed questioningly, "Carmen and I talk ... shocking, I know!"
Aro shoved him away now that he had tied off the bandage. "I'm not totally sold on sending my children to the guard hall again - Felix isn't Magnus' problem to deal with." Aro said, sounding frustrated.
Eleazar sighed. You are as bull headed as your son! "He would be happy to help you, brother. Magnus doesn't see Felix as a problem, and neither should you."
Aro nodded. He would have liked to dispute Eleazar's assumption, but it was true - for a while now he had viewed Felix as a problem that needed fixing rather than his son who needed understanding. Aro turned to his brother, "Come on, let us check on my delinquent."
"It's very quiet in here." Eleazar noted as he followed Aro into his chambers.
Sulpicia and Carmen sat playing chess at the grand marble table and Felix was nowhere to be seen.
"Where's the boy?" Aro asked.
Sulpicia smiled. He didn't sound so furious as he had when he left their suite. "How are your wounds, my love?" she asked, adding, "The culprit is changing, he's done a good job cleaning in here, though." She gestured to their large living space - now free of vomit, Aro's blood, and every possible speck of dust.
"You are clearly a hard task master, my queen. I'm going for a hunt; I need some none alcoholic blood, according to my new physician here." Aro pointed his thumb over his shoulder to his big brother.
"I would have to agree with him, my love." Sulpicia said as she made another move.
"Be careful Sully, she cheats!" Eleazar said cheekily as he kissed his mate, sizing up her game.
"You are just a sore loser." Carmen retorted as she played her piece.
Aro took to inspecting his living quarters, wanting to be sure Felix had indeed properly cleaned up the mess he'd caused.
"Where is Demetri? And the twins?" Aro asked casually.
"Jane is in her room, reading. She left Alec and Demetri in the guard hall. Apparently, Demetri had a new interest." Sully said suggestively.
"Not another bloody newborn! Surely Magnus hasn't let them up to the guard hall, too?" Aro asked, exasperated.
"Apparently NOT a newborn." Carmen interjected, surprising both her mate and brother-in-law.
Aro wasn't sure how he felt about that. Truthfully he would rather his sons had no interest in the opposite sex. Or any sex, he thought. But he didn't have a good reason to keep Demetri from seeking his pleasure if it was with someone who posed no threat to him.
Sulpicia and Carmen filled their husbands in on the very few, and rather vague details Jane had offered on her return.
Their quiet conversation was disturbed by Felix screaming in pain.
Both Aro and Sulpicia flew from their seats to their son ... with Eleazar and Carmen close behind. A thousand adversaries flashed through Aro's mind, horrified that one of them had gotten into his children's room and attacked his son.
The door crashed to the floor with the force Aro used to thrust it open. Nothing, no one was there, just Jane and Felix.
"That fucking witch set me on fire!" Felix accused.
Jane sat on her bed looking murderously to her big brother. Eleazar pulled Carmen away from the scene and back to the living room.
"Jane?" Aro questioned sternly.
"He's making me crazy!" Jane defended, knowing that wouldn't wash with Aro.
"What?! You used your gift on him because he's annoying you?" Sulpicia questioned in astonishment.
"He's picking on me! He won't shut up! I just want to read my book but he's stomping around talking to himself and crying!"
"I wasn't crying!" Felix spat back, feeling embarrassed.
Jane was bubbling with anger, which seemed to be quite intense given her explanation of
Felix's relatively minor actions.
"You can't use your gifts in this tower. You know that, yes?" Aro asked as he approached his princess of darkness.
Jane gulped. She well remembered the only time Aro had ever really punished her properly after not only setting Felix on fire, but both of her parents, as well.
Aro was thinking of the same event – it was even more painful for him than it had been for Jane after Basileus had whipped him in the throne room for executing her punishment too harshly.
"Yes, but he won't shut up! He's making me crazy!" Jane eventually replied as she tried to excuse her behaviour.
"You're already crazy, you fucking witch!" Felix interjected.
"Ahhhh!" Jane squealed out in a frustrated rage before setting him on fire again.
"AHHHH" Felix howled again as he dropped to the floor. The pain from Jane's blaze was only superseded by the agony of his ass hitting the deck after Eleazar's unusually punitive punishment. It was short lived, in any case.
Aro snatched Jane from her bed, breaking her scorching hold over her brother as he planted a flurry of swots to her behind. Jane cried from the first one, though it was partly from shame. Aro knew he hadn't been hard on her, but it still hurt him to bring her to tears.
Felix was incensed! "Is that it?!" he complained with tears streaming down his face as Aro deposited Jane back on her bed. "If that was me you'd have killed me! And that's all she gets! Clear who the favourites are around here!"
Aro rounded on Felix. "You kept your head after biting chunks out of me - you are not in any position to complain about my treatment of others!" Aro ground out, trying to contain his anger.
Felix glanced over Aro's bandages, one around his left arm, the other around his chest. "Dad, I am so, so sorry, I will never do anything like that again, ever!" Felix rushed, proffering his apologies to Aro whilst backing up to his bed. He managed to stop himself from falling back onto it, he knew the pain from Eleazar's short, sharp hiding would be more than he could cope with if he made contact with the bed.
"Do you mean that?" Aro calmly asked.
Felix nodded with gusto.
"Because if you do, if you really understand just how awfully you are behaving, we can move forward. You need to know that if anyone outside of this tower bit me, I would kill them. Not figuratively speaking, Felix. I would actually kill them." Aro handed Felix a clean tunic, ignoring Jane's dramatic whimpering.
"I know that, I really do, I don't know what I was thinking, but I am sorry."
The boy looked so dejected as he spoke. Aro knew Felix well enough to know that he was being truthful. As frustrating as it was that Felix had no answer for his actions, at least he was being honest about it.
Aro sighed. "We need to talk." Aro told him sadly. All his earlier rage had now fully dissipated.
"Yeah, I guessed that much." Felix replied whilst pulling on his clean clothes. Please, just talk though, please. I can't take any more after Eleazar – the bastard.
"I'm going out - you're coming with me."
Felix wasn't expecting that! Out? Out where? Is he taking me to the guard hall? I don't want to face Magnus yet - I was such a dick last night ... and this morning. Fuck.
"Where are we going?" Felix asked, trying to sound as casual as possible. He failed.
"The woods!" Aro called over his shoulder as he went to collect his own clothes.
The woods?! Fuck, he is going to kill me! Felix thought, depressed.
Sulpicia stopped tending to Jane and approached Felix, taking his whole face in her slight hands. "Don't cause him any trouble, Felix. I mean it." she told her boy sternly whilst lightly tapping his face with her palm to punctuate each syllable.
"Of course not." Felix replied, wincing as Sully tapped the particularly painful stripes on his cheek where Aro had caught him with his belt that morning.
They took down a large stag each. Aro watched as his son sucked his meal dry, causing the dead flesh near his mouth to become ragged with his feeding. They had yet to speak beyond Aro issuing Felix with the odd order to 'follow' and 'kill something'.
"Are we taking the carcasses back to the townspeople?" Felix asked as he allowed his dead stag to fall from his shoulders near to his father's.
Aro was lying on the woodland ground, leaning back into his drained beast with his hands behind his head. "We will, later. We need to talk first." Aro instructed, "Sit."
"I'd rather stand ... " Felix whined. It had been hard enough catching the stag with the rubbing of material on his welted ass without going ahead and sitting on it!
"SIT!" Aro ordered forcefully.
Felix felt a sense of foreboding as he took a seat at Aro's feet. His positioning was purposeful - the furthest point away from Aro should he decide to try and slap his son.
Aro looked down his nose and watched Felix struggling to find a position that wouldn't bring tears to his eyes. He eventually settled, supporting most of his weight on his hands and lifting his ass clear from the floor. Aro couldn't help but smile.
All too soon he could feel the pressure building where his head rested on his torn-up arm.
Felix heard his father wince as he changed positions. "Is that hurting?" he asked, pointing to Aro's arm.
"Would you like it to be?" Aro asked as his eyes bore into his son's, watching for his reaction.
Felix visibly shook at the harshness of his master's tone. "No, of course not. I am so sorry." he implored honestly.
Aro rolled up his shirt sleeve, exposing the bandage around his arm. Untying the knot, he began to unwind the fabric.
"The last time you were acting this irrationally was, well, when you were guarding Didyme. So, I assume something big is going on? This," Aro gestured to the now exposed and stitched wound on his left arm, "all this, can't just be that you are jealous of Magnus? Or because of Antonio? Or ... I don't know what else. Thing is Felix, I have been through your thoughts and I can't see anything that could make sense of your current behaviour." Aro spoke evenly, he didn't want to rile his boy up into another showdown, and frankly he had lost too much blood to fight the lad again.
Felix felt like a bit of a prick. The truth was, nothing. Just nothing. Nothing had happened, nothing was going on. He wasn't jealous of Magnus, he wasn't upset over Antonio - either his death or the fact that he wasn't the one to kill him. There was nothing. He was just sick and tired of being treated like a child. Felix shrugged.
"Oh no, not a chance! We are not leaving these woods until I know we are moving forward from all this." Aro stated plainly, successfully keeping the annoyance he felt far from his tone.
Felix sighed, he didn't know what to say. I know I've been a cock but I have no good reason… I am just a cock, he thought, depressed with his own self-image.
Aro glanced over his wound. It was very rare for a Master of the Coven to even have a wound, let alone one inflicted by a member of the guard! Thinking back, Aro couldn't remember a single time since the last major wars with the Romanians that he had been left bleeding, excluding the odd nip from his mate... but he liked that.
"Honestly Felix, you seem so damn pissed off. I haven't seen you so angry since your newborn year." Aro commented as he re-wound his bandage.
"I know!" he exclaimed in frustration. "I don't know what's wrong with me, okay?! I don't know why I am getting so pissed off, I don't know why I am being such a jerk! I'm just sick of being treated like a fucking child!"
"I will excuse your language, as you seem incapable of pleasant conversation at the moment." Aro commented pointedly.
Felix looked coyly over to apologise but Aro silenced him with a raised hand. "I am sorry you feel that you are being treated as a child, though I must say with the rather frequent temper tantrums you are throwing, I don't know how else you expect to be treated." Aro was calm, and he hoped Felix could reel his emotions in and actually talk to him.
"I know. I do know that. I just can't cope with being cooped up in the tower all the time." Aro was pleased to hear his son at least recognising that he was being difficult to live with.
Felix repositioned himself, laying out on his side to face Aro, "You know, I've always caused a bit of drama ... you just didn't notice before. So, it's not totally my fault ... "
Oh, you're lucky I am in a forgiving mood, you cocky little shit! Aro thought as he watched a sly smile form on his son's face.
"Now, I'm not saying I will cause trouble for you if you let me spend time with the other guards again, just that I won't have all this pent-up frustration when I'm home. That's all."
Aro narrowed his eyes and glared at his son. "You think you can steal my father's bloodwine, run off in the middle of the night, attack my friend, throw up all over my chambers, BITE chunks out of me and THEN be sent on your merry way to create havoc with the guards ... are you on opium or something?" Perfect Felix-logic, again! Aro thought.
"No, no I know I messed up ... "
"You did far more than mess up, boy!" Aro corrected him.
"I know I did, I know. But it's just that I don't think ... "
"You don't think it's your fault, you think it's my fault. Yes, I got that, too!" Aro interrupted his son again, feeling his own frustration rising once more.
Felix dropped his eyes to the woodland floor. This wasn't going how either of them had hoped. Felix had expected to talk himself out of another hiding one way or another ... his 'reasoning' was just offering him up to the slaughter! Aro wanted a way to end his son's foolishness, and most importantly, a way to move forward. Felix sat berating himself mentally as Aro looked on, desperately trying to quell his own agitation.
Leaning back on his hands, Aro looked to the skies, as if they held an answer to his problem child. Shaking his head at what he was about to do, he decided to take Carmen's advice. But he needed to hear a few things from his boy first.
"Answer me this, do you have a problem with Magnus?"
Felix leaned up on one arm and looked back at Aro with huge puppy dog eyes, "No, I really don't. I don't know what I was thinking ... "
Aro held up a hand for silence. "Because if you do, and you take trouble to his door, I will happily allow Magnus to discipline you. You know that, yes?"
"I don't, I won't!" Felix rushed, not wishing to ever piss Magnus off again.
"And you know that the guard hall is under his command - if you go there you need to really understand that. If Magnus tells you to do something, you listen to him."
Felix felt a ray of hope. This sounds like he's going to let me out! He's lifting my restriction!
Aro saw his boy start to smile. He's clearly caught on to where this is heading, he thought. "Don't get ahead of yourself, answer me!"
"I understand, I do. I won't cause trouble for Magnus. None at all!" Felix beamed. He tried, but he couldn't keep the smile from his face.
"Magnus won't care if you are a Prince of Volterra, Felix. I am warning you now, he will punish you if he has to and then he will bring you home for me to punish you - and I will!"
Felix winced, but agreed. "I know. But I won't cause him ... or you ... any trouble! I swear!"
Wondering if he was doing the right thing, Aro released the deep breath he'd been holding. He is bored, and he has been relatively good, well, good for Felix, over the last few months. Eleazar recons Magnus will be happy to help keep my young ones in line in the guard hall and he invited them in himself. If only he realised what he was letting himself in for!
"Then your restriction is lifted, you can go to the guard hall." Aro told his rather pleased young guard.
"Now?" Felix questioned eagerly, already on his feet.
"Let's take the stags to the townspeople first, yes. And then you can go." Aro replied as he got himself to his feet and started picking up his bloodless carcass.
"Come on, then!" Aro ordered, seeing his son standing uselessly near his charge.
"Are you still going to, well, you know?"
Aro looked confused for a moment, then realisation dawned. "No, I'm not going to belt you. I honestly don't have the energy and Eleazar did a good enough job of it."
Felix grimaced, "He said he'd do it again if I gave you any trouble out here." Felix replied sulkily.
Aro smiled thinking of his protective big brother. "I suggest you keep the whole fiasco to yourself - if the guards knew you had taken a chunk out of me they would be calling for your head - AGAIN!" Aro's raised voice had Felix ducking for cover. "I expect there to never be a repeat, or I swear I will ... "
"No, no, no, you don't need to say it. I will NEVER do anything this stupid again!" Felix confirmed as he picked up his stag.
"Of course not, son. I expect you will find something to surpass this level of recklessness, no doubt!" Aro said as he led the way back to the castle, with a quick divert to lay the dead animals at the rear of the church.