RESTLESS

Once Carlisle was sure his brother and family had left the tower, he headed straight into his nephews' room.

"Are we really going to sit in here all night?" he asked them playfully.

Felix's broad grin spread across his face. Demetri had told him Carlisle would be the 'perfect' babysitter but Felix hadn't caught on to what he'd meant at the time - he had been too focused on his anger towards his father.

"What do you have in mind?" Felix asked hopefully.

Carlisle shrugged. "I don't fancy being cooped up in the tower whilst everyone else is at the party."

Felix shook his head. "I am not going to the great hall, Carlisle. That would be certain death!"

"Well, I am!" Demetri interjected. "I have already arranged to meet Lucy. She's going to slip out the front doors to me."

Carlisle patted his nephew's shoulder. "That's my boy!" he told him with a sly grin.

"What shall we do then?" Felix asked his uncle, feeling a little nervous. If Demetri's brave enough to go the great hall then I am not sitting in here all night.

"Well, the way I see it, we have a good few hours before Sulpicia will be bringing the twins home. We can go out and be back before they even notice we have gone." Carlisle took a seat on Demetri's bed and leaned back easily onto his arms.

Demetri could see his brother wavering. It was odd to be the one who was raring to go - that was usually Felix's gig, not Demetri's - unless there was sex involved, naturally. If that was the case, Demetri usually found his balls and followed them blindly!

"Well, I am going. Now!" he declared, with one last look to Carlisle for his approval.

"Go! Just don't get caught!" he offered with a wink.

Demetri didn't need telling twice - he was gone in a flash.

"Come on Felix, get ready!"

Heaving himself off his bed, Felix went to fetch a clean uniform.

"What are you doing - you can't wear a guard uniform to a tavern!" Carlisle told him, taking the garments from his hands.

"I don't have anything else."

Carlisle scrubbed a hand down his face. "Yes, I know that. Just borrow something from Aro's wardrobe again."

Felix shook his head. "How stupid do you think I am? Do you know how pissed he was about me doing that last time?"

Carlisle chuckled. "I can imagine. BUT he won't find out this time - we are going to show them that we are mature enough to go out and enjoy ourselves responsibly. We will be home before they are."

Felix still didn't look convinced.

"Fine! I will get you something of mine to wear." Carlisle growled, leaving Felix to undress whilst he fetched some non-uniform clothing. It didn't take long for Carlisle to return.

"You know you are smaller than me, Carlisle. My arms are the size of your legs!" Felix mocked his uncle as he tried on his clothes. Just as he'd thought, they were a tight fit.

"So long as you can lift your arm to drink, I think you will manage - you overgrown oaf!" Carlisle returned a little bitterly. "Unless you fancy stealing some of Magnus' clothes? I'm sure they would fit you much more comfortably," he added slyly.

"Not a fucking chance!" Felix blustered.

Once he was dressed and checking himself out in the mirror, Felix started to replay Aro's warnings over in his mind.

"I don't know about this, Carlisle. I haven't got over the shame of yesterday yet!" Felix complained. "Let alone the pain," he added as he rubbed his ass. It still stung like a bitch but at least he could walk without a limp now.

Carlisle came up behind him in the mirror. "You don't have to come with me if you don't want to," he said, smoothing out his clothes. "You will be missing out though."

Carlisle could see his nephew's head ticking over, trying to judge if the risk was worth it.

"I have done worse and survived," Felix commented, mainly to himself.

"We won't be killing anyone," Carlisle told him cheerily.

Felix thumped his elbow into his uncle, knocking the wind out of Carlisle. "Thank you for bringing that up!" Felix shot back. He still had that whore's mangled body going round and around in his mind.

Carlisle knew his time was getting short and he didn't want to waste any more time in Felix's bedroom - he had to convince his nephew quickly! "Felix, we're young men, we don't have mates, we have plenty of money ... why are we sitting in this old castle when we could get around half the taverns in Italy in one evening?"

Felix rolled that around his head. 'Men'. Carlisle had just said the magic word.

"Okay," he agreed, his broad smile returned. "Where's the money from?" he asked as he buckled his boots.

Carlisle shrugged. "Found it."

Felix stopped buckling. It'sBasileus'. I know it. No, don't ask, and then I'm not implicated! "Oh fuck it, let's go!" he replied, happily, as the pair rushed out of his room.

The twins entered the main chamber before Felix and Carlisle had made it to the door.

"Where are you going?" Jane asked. Seeing her big brother out of guard uniform only meant one thing - they were sneaking into town again!

"You didn't see us," Felix said. He knew they wouldn't grass on him unless they absolutely had to so he had nothing to worry about.

Jane nodded her agreement but Alec burst out laughing. "You know Aro will find out, Felix," he said between giggles, not quite believing how stupid his brother could be.

Carlisle took Alec's comment as proof he was going to grass them up. Slamming his youngest nephew into the wall, he threatened the boy menacingly. "Don't you dare say a word, not a word! Do you hear me?"

Felix couldn't believe his eyes. "Hey, you don't need to be like that with him."

Carlisle looked to Felix like he'd grown an extra head. "Are you stupid?" he asked, astonished by his idiocy. "They will go straight to Daddy!" he ground out, increasing his grip on Alec's small shoulders.

Felix ripped Carlisle away from the boy and stood protectively in front of him. "I'm telling you to back the fuck off, Carlisle."

Carlisle was taken aback by Felix's strength. He knew Felix was strong but he had never felt the youth's force so intently before. Looking to his sleeve, he realised Felix had torn his coat in the process.

"Felix, I am above you. You should watch how you talk to me."

Pulling Jane to his side to keep her from harm's way, Felix fixed Carlisle with a glare. "Touch my brother again and I will rip your fucking arms off," he ground out. He meant it, too.

Carlisle could see that.

Before either Felix or Carlisle could act on the younger's threat, Carlisle dropped to his knees in agony.

"AHHHH!" he roared as Jane roasted him with her gift.

"That's enough, Jane." Felix said quietly to his sister now that their uncle was on the floor.

Carlisle took a moment to steady his breathing. "You are really going to regret that, you fucking witch!" he grunted out between deep breaths.

Aro and Demetri appeared in the doorway before Carlisle could get to his feet.

"On the contrary, brother. You will."

Carlisle sighed but he didn't resist when Aro dragged him from the floor and deposited him on the sofa.

"You set him on fire?" Aro asked his young daughter, still tucked behind her big brother.

"Dad, he attacked Alec." Felix spoke up, pushing Jane behind him a little further.

"I wasn't speaking to you!" Aro shot back with a disgusted look to his eldest son. "I assume by your attire you were about to break your word to me. AGAIN!"

Felix breathed very slowly, as though to do so too loudly was going to anger Aro further.

Aro nodded to himself, although he didn't need the confirmation from Felix's guilty face.

"You two with me!" Aro directed to the twins. "You three will stay exactly where you are!" he told his sons and brother.

Carlisle rolled his eyes. "You aren't my father, Aro, you don't get to tell me what to do!"

Aro spun on his heel and looked his little brother up and down.

"Come again, brother?" he ground out, stalking towards him.

Carlisle was on his feet and ready for a fight.

"I am not fighting you, Carlisle. I don't fight with children," Aro told him patronisingly.

"I am not a child!" Carlisle roared, feeling enraged by the very word!

CRACK! Aro slapped his brother easily, with far more force than he had ever slapped his sons.

Felix and Demetri winced in unison as Carlisle crashed to the floor from the blow.

"Stay there!" Aro told him before ushering the twins to their bedchamber.

Shooing them inside, he closed the door, leaving it open enough for him to hear if anything happened down the hall. Aro stopped Alec before he had made it too far. Taking his youngest son's hand, he quickly saw the exchange between them and Carlisle.

"Are you hurt?" he asked as he checked over his son with his eyes.

Alec shook his head but Aro didn't believe him. "Take that off," he said, helping his son out of his guard tunic.

Alec had bruising on both of his shoulders from the force of Carlisle's grip. As Aro spun his young son around and saw the bruising to his boy's back he felt his temper rising.

"Sully will be home soon, I need to take Carlisle to Basileus."

"I'm okay." Alec replied quietly, rubbing his sore shoulders.

Jane was sitting on her bed, feeling just as angry as Aro!

"You spoke out against me in the throne room and you set your uncle on fire in our home." Aro stated to his girl.

Jane continued to glare angrily at the floor, muttering indistinctly to herself.

"JANE!" Aro shouted, getting her attention.

"I'm sorry?" she replied spitefully. She wasn't sorry. In her mind she had nothing to be sorry for. Aro was unreasonable sending them home so early and Carlisle was being aggressive with her little brother!

"I do hope we aren't seeing the beginnings of a change in your attitude, young lady?" Aro asked.

"Of course not." Jane replied sweetly in the sing-song tone she'd learned from her father.

Aro knew his daughter was being disingenuous but he didn't have the time to speak to her properly. Your crimes are nowhere near that of your brothers', he thought.

"Go to bed, I will see you both in the morning."

Jane looked askance to her father ... it was barely nine o'clock!

"Or you could argue with me," Aro offered as he closed the gap between them. "I'm certainly in the mood for an argument!" he added as he loomed over his small girl.

Avoiding Aro, Jane looked past him to her brother - Alec stood behind their father shaking his head, willing his sister to see sense.

"We will go to bed." Jane spat bitterly.

Aro flinched at his girl's tone but left the two of them to settle down on their own. Before closing the door behind him, he watched as Jane started to stomp around her room, still muttering to herself.

"I think we will have that talk in the morning, my dear one. This attitude is most unbecoming."

Jane gasped and was about to defend herself but Aro slammed the door before she had the chance.

Sulpicia was already home by the time Aro returned from speaking with the twins, and she had sent their sons to bed.

"I'm going to my quarters." Carlisle told his brother as soon as he came into view.

"Oh no! You aren't skulking off to your own chambers, Carlisle. I think someone will want a word with you first!" Aro returned.

"Basileus is home. He's waiting on you to call." Sulpicia told her husband before turning to her brother-in-law. "I am so disappointed in you, Carlisle."

Carlisle tutted, showing no remorse whatsoever. "Yeah, you have said. Repeatedly!"

Aro growled as he snatched the brooding vampire from his seat. Spotting his father's money pouch sitting next to Carlisle, Aro's eyes lit up. Even better! he said to himself.

Basileus was a little surprised to see Aro throw his brother through his door.

"Here! YOUR son is on a path of destruction and I am not having him drag MY son with him."

When they had spotted Demetri at the great hall doors, Basileus had assumed that the boy had snuck out, either with ... or without ... Carlisle's knowledge. He truly hadn't expected that Carlisle would have done any more than turn a blind eye to his nephew's deceit.

"They were about to go out AGAIN." Aro roared, pacing in front of his father.

"Are you sure?" Basileus asked, praying Aro was jumping to conclusions.

Aro smiled tightly and threw him the money pouch. "I believe this is yours, too?"

Basileus exhaled deeply as the coins landed in his lap. "Thief," he stated plainly to his youngest boy, who at least looked away ashamed. Ashamed of being caught, not for stealing from me, Basileus correctly assumed.

"If he puts his hands on my children again and I will deal with him myself," Aro warned gruffly.

Basileus raised an eyebrow to his son's tone before realising the meaning behind his words. "What has he done, Aro?"

Aro shook his head. "Ask him yourself!" he spat in return, and with that he left.

Basileus immediately set to searching through his son's mind. He saw everything; Carlisle suggesting to his nephews that they have 'a little fun', approving of Demetri going to find Lucy, talking Felix into going out, roughing Alec up and Felix defending him, and finally, Jane setting him on fire. Going back a little further, he saw Carlisle steal the money from his own dresser before Basileus had sent him to babysit. So, it was all premeditated, Basileus deduced.

"Sit."

Carlisle submitted to the command but he refused to look at his father.

Basileus watched while his son struggled to sit still. He knew it was partly his agitation, but he was also sure the belting he'd given him the day before would be adding to his struggles.

"You were told you couldn't leave the castle," Basileus stated with little emotion.

"I'm not Felix. I'm not a child," Carlisle complained over the unfitting decree Basileus had made.

"I know you're not. That is why you are only restricted to the castle and not this tower."

Carlisle started chuntering under his breath over the unfairness of it all, how such a restriction was completely unnecessary. When he turned to face Basileus, his father spotted the bruise on his cheek.

"Was that your brother?" he asked, gesturing to his swollen face.

"Yes!" Carlisle spat. "I hope you are going to do something about him lording it over me!"

Basileus laughed in his face. "If you are intent on dragging his children into your quarry against me, I dare say you can expect more of the same from Aro."

Carlisle looked dumbfounded. "But you have never let any of us get away with fighting before!" he complained, voice rising exponentially in tone and tempo with his increasing anger over the injustice he felt.

"That wasn't fighting, Carlisle. You attacked his child and he slapped you for it. Frankly, you should thank him for not ripping your head off. I wouldn't be so gentle if someone attacked one of you." Basileus sounded calm, so calm. His calmness was, naturally, false, but he wanted to keep Carlisle on an even keel and bellowing at him whilst he was still so antsy would only end in an argument.

Carlisle fumed. If it were possible to blow smoke from his ears at the rate of his anger, the room would have descended into a thick smog by now.

"Jane just set me on fire - are you going to do anything about that?"

Basileus smiled sadly and shook his head. "You are lucky Felix didn't snap your neck for getting so rough with Alec."

"I want them punished!" Carlisle roared. He didn't really. He knew it was his own fault, but he was desperate to deflect the attention from himself.

"Oh, you do? I don't think you are in any position ... "

Carlisle got to his feet. "I haven't done anything wrong," he implored.

"You were about to do something very wrong," Basileus said easily, throwing his money onto the table next to him.

"So what? You are going to punish me for something I might have done?"

Smiling darkly, Basileus tapped his knee with one hand and beckoned Carlisle with the other.

"No way! Just ... no," he complained, backing into the door. You aren't putting me over your knee! You are a good ten years too late for me to even think about submitting to that! And then some!

Basileus heard his son's thoughts. "Really?" he asked with a cocky grin.

They both knew Carlisle didn't have a choice, but Basileus mocking him so openly only increased his son's attitude.

Carlisle put a hand on the door handle as he watched his father carefully.

Basileus shook his head. "Your behaviour is unbecoming of your position in this coven."

Carlisle nearly chocked on his own bitter laughter hearing that! "My position? What position? Your whipping boy?" he scoffed as he swung the door open.

"Carlisle!" Atia exclaimed, not expecting the door to open as she came in from the castle.

Before Carlisle could push his way around her, Basileus had a hold on him by the scruff of his neck.

"You are my son. That is your position," he whispered harshly into his ear.

"Would you like me to leave, my dear?" Atia asked.

"YES!" Carlisle roared as Basileus dragged him back to his seat.

Basileus sat down, still holding Carlisle by his neck.

In the awkward position in which he was held, Carlisle could only see the floor but he knew Atia was still there. "You cannot punish me in front of HER!" he complained desperately, trying to pull away.

The way he spat 'her' sealed his fate in Basileus' mind. "If you don't mind staying, my dear, I think the humility may do him some good."

Atia smiled lovingly to her husband and closed the door. Taking a seat opposite, she gestured for him to begin.

"WHAT?!" Carlisle exclaimed. "You cannot do this!"

Basileus allowed his son to continue his struggles, he wasn't getting anywhere but Basileus wasn't going to fight him.

"I can," he said simply.

"Let go of me!" Carlisle whined. "You are trying to humiliate me!"

Basileus nodded. "That's about the size of it," he agreed.

Carlisle was so startled to hear his father confirm his complaint that he stopped struggling. Basileus took the moment to bring his boy over his lap. Bending Carlisle easily over his left knee, he used his right leg to hold him in place.

"Why?!" Carlisle asked. He knew his fate was sealed now, he had no way out of the vice like grip in which Basileus had him clamped. "Because I am finding your behaviour pretty humiliating, son. What goes around ... "

If Basileus said anything else, Carlisle didn't hear him. As his father rained down one powerful smack after another, Carlisle put all his efforts into staying as quiet as possible. As silent tears ran down his face, splashing to the marble floor beneath him, he recalled the last time he'd felt so humiliated ... it was a long time ago:

"John!" Carlisle whispered outside his best friend's window. "JOHN!" he repeated, a little more forcefully. That was enough.

"Carlisle!" John exclaimed, rushing to his bedroom window and flinging it open. "What are you doing here?" he asked, looking past his friend to see if any adults were with him.

John had successfully convinced his mother he was too unwell to attend church that Sunday morning, but he knew his father had been dubious about his sudden illness and John worried the man would have come to retrieve him.

"I noticed you weren't in church so I snuck out when the pastor started his sermon," Carlisle told his friend casually. Truthfully his stomach was a ball of stress over what he had done - such rebellion was very unlike Carlisle.

"Have you lost your mind? The pastor will burn you at the stake, Carlisle!" John replied in shock.

It was an agreement between the pair of 14 year old boys that they never referred to the pastor as Carlisle's father. John had found it odd at first, but soon agreed after witnessing the way the pastor handled his son. His own father wasn't a soft touch; John had received enough straps, belts, canes, and more in his time. The pastor was on another level, though. Not only were his punishments particularly painful, they were also cruel ... and occasionally unusual.

"Not until he finds me. Perhaps he will think one of his made-up monsters has taken me," Carlisle replied cheekily. "He's going to struggle with his sermon today, anyway. I stole his pipe!" He took a short puff on the highly decorated clay pipe, keeping the tobacco smoking lightly. John's eyes bulged in response. "The pastor is never without that pipe, Carlisle! He will know you have taken it."

Carlisle laughed. "Nah, the old coot will think he's lost it."

He was doing a very good impression of 'cool and collect', and John was too kind to his friend to tell him he knew his forced demeanour was bullshit.

"Old coot! He's not even forty yet!" John replied as he fell about laughing.

"So, what shall we do?" he asked once he had settled himself, watching Carlisle trying not to cough up his guts on the small amount of smoke he'd inhaled.

"Let's go and sit in the barn, just long enough to scare the pastor into thinking I was taken." Carlisle replied.

He is on a death mission, John thought as he climbed out of his window.

The pair climbed to the barn rafters where they often sat and chatted.

Seeing Carlisle now pull easily on the smoke, John soon asked to try the pastor's pipe. One big drawn-in breath filled his boyish lungs with heat and smog and had him coughing his guts up in only moments, causing him to drop the pipe where it smashed below them on the hard barn floor.

The boys panicked.

"Fuck, John! The pastor's going to murder me now!"

All bravado forgotten, Carlisle was visibly stressed. Whilst John tried to placate his friend, neither noticed the embers of the tobacco lighting the dry hay on the floor. By the time they saw the smoke wafting up the rafters, the bales had caught light!

With a frantic look shared between them, the careless young fire starters shimmied along the rafter and back down the ladder before fleeing the barn.

"Water, John, we need water!" Carlisle called over his shoulder as he ran to the horse trough.

John appeared frozen at the sight of his father's barn ablaze. Carlisle ran back with a bucket of water and scattered its contents across the flaming floor.

"JOHN!" Carlisle roared, getting his friend's attention. "Water!" he called again.

John sprang into life that time and the pair went back and forth from the animal troughs to the barn with bucket after bucket. They managed to keep the flames subdued, but no matter how much water they fed to the hay, the fire found new avenues to continue is wreckage.

John lived fairly close to the church, and the smoke billowing out of the barn alerted those parishioners who had bored of the pastor's sermon and were staring out the window instead. It didn't take long for a good many of them, including both John's father and the pastor, to come running.

Carlisle knew his doom was imminent when he saw the town folk coming towards them. He considered running, it would be the sensible thing to do, he reasoned, but he couldn't leave his friend and John was still fighting to put out the fire.

The lads stood back when the men arrived. John's father, Robert, clouted his son around the head before pulling him roughly out of the way and then he set to saving his barn.

Carlisle grimaced as his own father drew near. Samuel didn't touch Carlisle, he didn't move his boy aside either, he just smiled to him - he looked giddy with glee.

Carlisle swallowed hard. He knew the pastor well enough to know the man was already looking forward to punishing him in his usual cruel and blindingly painful way.

It took over an hour for the fire to be sated. During that entire time, Carlisle and John stood with one eye on the barn whilst they were verbally ripped to shreds by Ann, John's mother. When she told the pair to go and cut a birch each, John felt his heart beating in his throat.

Carlisle, however, knew his father would deal with him at home. Or, so he assumed. He did the woman's bidding anyway.

When they were sure the flames were truly smothered, the men, who had worked tirelessly to help their kinsman, all collapsed into the grass and leaned into the barn to catch their breath.

All except for Samuel and Robert ... they sought out their sons, though the pastor stopped halfway to collect his ornate cane from the floor.

Robert didn't say a word to John as he ripped the birch branch from his hand.

Carlisle looked on enviously as Robert checked his son over for any harm, even if he did begin his thrashing as soon as he saw his boy was unhurt by the fire. You won't care if I am hurt will you, you cunt? Carlisle thought as the pastor made his way towards him.

He was right ... Samuel couldn't have cared less. But rather than taking the branch Carlisle offered and joining Robert in punishing his errant son, the pastor pulled Carlisle towards the group of villagers.

"No, please," Carlisle whispered when he realised what was about to happen.

Samuel simply smiled cruelly to his son as he brought him before his flock. The pastor never missed a chance to offer direction and leadership to his people, and disciplining his boy was just another opportunity to do just that in the pastor's eyes – and he knew how punishing the public humiliation was for Carlisle.

Carlisle tried to zone out whilst his father lectured him. He wasn't talking to Carlisle anyway; this wasn't for his benefit. It was for his flock, so they could all see what a wonderful father he was - how he never spared the rod and certainly never spoiled the child. Carlisle had heard this all before. There was nothing new for him to learn.

He chanced a look over his shoulder to the side of the John's house. Robert was still thrashing John, but it wasn't in full view of half the town. Lucky bastard. Carlisle thought, even as he heard his friend's wailing increase to the harsh strikes he was receiving.

Carlisle#s thoughts were so intent on distracting him from the pastor's sermon that he was taken by surprise when the man took the birch branch from his hands.

So it begins.

"Please," Carlisle whispered a final time.

All he received for his efforts were a slap to the mouth and another, thankfully short, lecture on accepting responsibility for one's actions.

Dragging his son in front of him by his arm, the pastor set to thrashing his son before his congregation. So whipped up were the town folk by Samuel's sermon that they cheered the pastor on, much to Carlisle's shame and ire.

The pastor continued to carelessly land strike after strike on his son, from high on his back to low on his legs, not caring if he caught a stray hand that Carlisle threw back to defend his battered body. Samuel continued to instruct his people on the proper way to beat the evil from a child and all that would happen to the future adult if parents failed in this holy mission to ensure children atoned for their sins.

When the branch broke and Samuel released his boy, Carlisle fell to his knees wiping angrily at his face and the tears that kept coming. He could hear the parishioners talking about him; how the pastor didn't deserve such a willfully disobedient boy, and so on.

He felt like shit.

When the pastor dragged him to his feet he assumed they would be going home. Oh, how wrong he was!

Having collected his cane from the floor, Samuel pulled his son close. "Our public want more, son," he whispered menacingly.

Carlisle tried to flee. He pulled with all his might but he was no match for the pastor and without even breaking a sweat his father managed not only to contain him, but to simultaneously cane his hide as well.

Carlisle made deep guttural noises with every strike, feeling each line creating a strip of bruising on his backside as Samuel expertly landed the cane in almost the exact same spot each time.

The pastor paid more attention to his crowd than he did his son, watching for their reaction. He was careful to end his son's punishment before they thought him cruel - that would never do.

It was, however, too late to save Carlisle any shred of dignity. Not only had he embarrassed himself for requiring such correction in public, but he had howled throughout and pissed his pants from the pain of that damn cane.

Shaking his head to rid himself of the memory of that occasion, along with the many other occasions that were floating through his head, Carlisle attempted to concentrate on ways to express deep regret to Basileus, even if that regret would be false.