WHERE DO (VAMPIRE) BABIES COME FROM?
"Why are you down here?" Caius called, seeing Aro arriving in his dungeons.
Basileus had sent Caius down to the lower levels after he'd given the master a severe round of fucks for taking dungeon blood at the guard hall party.
Aro huffed, not too pleased to be down there. "Basileus told me to meet you both in the dungeons … I assumed you would know why?"
He took a moment to instruct Renata to wait at the entrance to the dungeons and be ready to extend her guard to him should anyone, (meaning Lucius), come down the stairs.
Caius looked none the wiser. Basileus hadn't told him anything other than to 'get down and stay down' when he'd left Caius at the dungeon stairway.
Aro caught Caius' limped step as he followed his co-master into the torture room. As Caius moved around the room, holding onto the walls, Aro wondered if the guy was still drunk. "Are you sober now?" he asked, sounding a little jealous.
Caius stopped and glared at his co-master. "I have been forcibly sobered up," he complained. "I had to go to your father's chambers when the party finished."
Aro smirked, enjoying someone else being in his father's bad books. "How did he sober you up, brother?" he asked, eyes dancing with amusement.
Caius exhaled loudly. "You know how," he replied, giving Aro a withering look.
Aro caught hold of Caius' wrist so he could invade the man's private memories.
He saw Basileus whip his hand across Caius' face the moment he had walked through the door, before dragging him into his own bed chamber where he set in on Caius, verbally, about his inappropriate use of the coven drug. Caius was left under no illusions that acceptable use of dungeon blood was restricted to work and medicinal purposes. IF Caius was in any doubt, the good five strikes from Basileus' cane to the back of his legs had cleared it up for him.
Aro pulled back out of Caius' thoughts. "Ouch!" he said, wincing.
Caius rolled his eyes. "Yeah, ouch." Understatement! "He's removed Heidi from my quarters, too!" Caius was most pissed off about that, even above having to do a walk of shame out of Basileus' bedchamber past Atia and Lucius. "He thinks she is a bad influence on me," he added when Aro looked confused by his pronouncement.
Aro nearly choked on his own venom. "She's a bad influence on you?!" he asked in disbelief.
Caius nodded. "Heidi quite likes dungeon blood."
Aro hadn't spent much time in Caius' playroom since his last bout on the dirty drug and his stirring desires for dungeon blood took him by surprise. He was okay, though. There was no way he would risk revisiting submission with Basileus. No more dungeon blood, ever! he thought.
"Who doesn't like dungeon blood?" Aro quipped, eyeing the barrels at the back of the room.
"Your old man, evidently," Caius replied, tossing vampiric limbs into the fire where they imploded, billowing purple smoke into the chimney above. "That's why Heidi's the bad influence."
Caius stopped and turned to Aro, repeating Basileus' words in the best impression of the creator he could manage. "If you are taking that dirty drug at a simple guard party, I can only assume Heidi holds sufficient influence over you to convince you to so, otherwise, you have done so willingly knowing I would be against it. Which is it, Caius?"
"I could hardly object, could I?" Caius shot out, hands thrown in the air.
Aro burst out laughing at Caius' plight. He wanted to respond properly but he couldn't manage the words through his chuckles.
"You are a lot of help," Caius complained, shoving Aro as he walked past to collect another limb. "It's medicinal purposes only from now on. Battles, pain relief, or toxic work - nothing else for anyone."
Aro scoffed. "Not even that for me. Think yourself lucky brother."
"I feel really fucking lucky." Caius took the dismembered head along with the torso and threw them into the flames. "He even questioned my morality having Heidi living with me and my mate."
Aro's eyebrows knitted together. "I can think of many reasons to question your morality, brother, but why Heidi?"
Caius put on his 'Basileus voice' again and repeated the creator's words: "Three is an untenable number for a marriage," he said, tutting to himself. "Why is it?" he asked, seeing no good reason to end his relationship with the coven siren if only the morality of the situation was in question. "Basileus said it can't work. I think it can work, Dora thinks it can work!"
Throwing the remaining parts of his latest victim into the fire, Caius spun around to face Aro. "Your old man even started going on about the example I set to the kids in the coven - I don't have any kids!"
Aro had to turn away to hide how amused he was by Caius' predicament. He took a moment or two to school his features seriously before turning back to his co-master. "Well you might have kids one day … " he started, deciding to change tack quickly seeing Caius' expression. "I'm not surprised Basileus won't allow it, brother. He is far too conservative."
That was something Caius could get on board with. "That's the real problem, brother. I have always had three people in my marriage - me, my mate, and your father," he said, stomping around the torture room. "And here's some news for you, Aro - you have three people in your marriage, too."
Caius really was going on a rant now, with Aro nodding along as he went on. "It's only this retrograde western society that believes monogamy is the only format for a relationship."
"I agree with you there," Aro spoke up when Caius took a breath. "Marriage and fidelity is very much a social construct, as is the morality of it." Good god how I wish Sulpicia could be as open as Athenodora! he thought wistfully.
"Exactly!" Caius shot back. "For me, wanting to fuck other people is the natural consequence of trying to be being monogamous!"
"I will let you hash it out with the creator, see who wins," Aro offered, taking a seat on the ring wall of the fire.
"Fuck that," Caius said shaking his head. "I'm already limping!"
"You will be crawling if you keep up your mouth!" Basileus boomed strolling through the door.
Caius nearly jumped out of his skin! He took a few steps backwards with his eyes focusing on the floor submissively. Basileus had put the fear of god into Caius during his dressing down. Fear of god, with Basileus being said god.
The creator only played with Caius for a moment before he flashed to the master's side, throwing an arm around him comfortingly. "I have a gift for you Caius. And its arrived at the perfect time," he said, presenting the small wooden chest he had concealed within his cloak. "A microscope."
Caius had heard about microscopes and was quite excited to have one of his own. Rushing to the workbench where wall torches flooded the area with light, Caius set the box down and started to unpack his new toy.
Aro swaggered over behind Caius, picking up whatever Caius put down and generally being annoying.
"You are like a damn child!" Caius snapped, snatching the delicate glass lenses away from his co-master.
"I didn't get a gift the last time I was on dungeon blood," he complained with sly eyes on his father.
Basileus smirked in return. "I gave you something memorable, didn't I?" He watched Aro's reaction and was quite amused to see his boy couldn't form a sentence in reply.
Thankfully for Aro, Caius assumed Basileus was ribbing him about the hiding he'd given his son, not that he had slammed Aro into the floor, crushing his bones whilst violently fucking him into submission.
Aro concentrated on watching Caius set up his new toy whilst he got himself together. "What's the point of a microscope?" He asked when he had use of his tongue again. "It's hardly necessary with our eyesight, is it?"
"I think it will help you to see what I can see," Basileus said. "I'll show you what it can do." He bit into his wrist and allowed his blood to drip onto a glass slide. "Look at my blood through the eye piece."
Caius looked curiously to the slide, but took it and did as he was bid. "It's moving!" he exclaimed, amazed by what he saw through the magical apparatus.
"That's the venom," Basileus confirmed. "With humans, the heart pushes the blood around their veins, for us, venom is alive and active inside the blood and it moves it around our bodies."
"Wow!" Caius was truly amazed. "You can see that without this?" he asked handing the wooden instrument to Aro for him to see for himself.
Basileus smiled "My eyesight is much stronger than yours," he said a little patronisingly.
"I feel an experiment coming on," Caius said, knowing full well that would be the only reason Basileus would be buying him a gift of any kind. "What would you like me to do, my lord?"
"I want to know how Lucius was created," Basileus declared.
Aro bristled, he had a really bad feeling about that kid. Basileus' interest in the boy only served to fuel that feeling. "What do we know so far?" he asked, trying to hide his true feelings. Basileus would think him jealous of the boy.
Basileus smirked. Aro's poker face wasn't much good with his father. "Atia was called on to deliver a baby from a dying woman. The woman died before he was born, and Atia attempted to cut the child free but her blades proved useless once inside the woman."
Aro scoffed. That didn't happen! No way! he thought. "So how did Atia get the baby out?" he asked, not believing such a thing occurred in the first place.
"She didn't," Basileus replied. "Atia said Lucius burst through the womb on his own. She bundled him up, and he must have bitten her then because she can't remember anything else. When she awoke from the transformation, Lucius was still feeding on the blood of his dead mother."
He stopped talking when Caius started looking green around the edges. "I thought you had a strong stomach for this sort of thing," he said, giving the master a nudge to get his attention.
Caius cleared his thought and got himself together. "Vampire babies bursting out of women's wombs has never come up before, funnily enough, my lord." His reaction was partly fuelled by his hangover.
Aro may have been equally unnerved if he had believed the tall tale. "Atia is sure about all of this?" he asked, placing the bloodied slide and microscope on the work bench. "It is unheard of, my lord."
Basileus turned stern eyes on his boy for questioning him. "She is sure, and I have seen it myself through her memories."
Aro scoffed. "And he just grew up, did he?"
"Clearly," Basileus snapped, stepping into Aro's personal space.
Aro stepped back. "So, he isn't an immortal child?"
"No," Basileus said forcefully, sounding oddly protective of the teenager he had known for only an evening. "He grew very quickly. Atia said it took only a few years for him to reach his current state. And he has stayed that way since. He looks no different to when she last saw him and that was hundreds of years ago."
Caius could see Aro was about to enter into an argument with his father, and having only just got through a bollocking from Basileus, he didn't want to see another one played out in his torture room. "What sort of experiment do you want me to conduct, my lord?" he asked, trying to bring the creator back to task.
Caius' distraction was enough. "I want to know where vampire babies come from," Basileus replied, smiling.
"This is absurd," Aro declared, though he had the sense to step away from his father as he did so. "IF that's how Lucius began, IF, it was a freak accident of some kind."
Basileus bristled at Aro's attitude. "It may be an accident," he agreed, "but I would still rather we had the information at hand."
Caius was lost to the two of them, formulating plans to test out Lucius' arrival in the world. "I suppose there are only two real options - either a pregnant woman was bitten by a vampire, or, a vampire fucked a human woman and she became pregnant."
Aro burst out laughing, so absurd were the options Caius presented. "I couldn't count the number of humans we have fucked between the three of us - none of them have brought a child to our doors."
He looked to the heavens, believing both his father and Caius to have lost their minds to even consider any truth in Atia's claims. "Don't you think there would be more vampiric teenagers knocking about if this were a possibility."
Basileus shoved Aro hard in his chest. "It happened somehow, Aro," he growled. "We need to know how. To protect humans, if nothing else. Our race could be very easily exposed this way … so we need to know."
Caius pulled Aro back before he could respond to the creator and cause them both a round of shit. "I will run some tests, my lord," he breezed, smiling awkwardly.
"Thank you, Caius," Basileus said pointedly, scowling at Aro for a moment before he left.
Both Caius and Aro breathed a sigh of relief when the creator slammed the door behind him.
Caius sighed, wondering what kind of tests he was going to run to service Basileus' request for knowledge. This is what he wanted, work that involved less torture, something more valuable, but that didn't necessarily mean he knew how to do it! "I think I preferred it when your old man refused to give me the time of day," he said, scratching his head and looking to his new toy.
"It's your own fault, brother," Aro chucked in reply. "You stopped being a complete cunt and he thought you worthy of his time."
"I can be a cunt again!" Caius exclaimed. "It's easier than the work he's setting me."
Caius was being less of a cunt, it was true, but added to that, Atia had made Basileus see that Aro's failings weren't Caius fault, and it wasn't fair that Basileus blamed Caius, in the way he had been doing for centuries before she came along.
The recent episode of Aro's dungeon blood binge had helped seal the deal there. Caius had taken a serious hiding from the creator for letting it go on so long, but Basileus did accept Caius had been under severe pressure from his son. He was now trying to show more interest in Caius, generally, in the hope that the master would find him more approachable should new issues with Aro arise.
Aro watched as Caius tidied up his tools, but his mind was elsewhere. "What did you make of Lucius?" he wondered out loud.
"I like him, he's a nice kid."
That snapped Aro from his wanderings. "What?!" he exclaimed. "You don't like anyone and you never think kids are nice. Why would you like Lucius?!" It was one thing his father falling for Atia's long lost love child, quite another for Caius' head to have been turned by the boy!
Caius looked confused for a moment. "I don't know, really," he answered honestly. "I hardly spoke to him. He's less annoying than your brats though."
Aro threw his covenmate a withering look at the insult to his children.
Caius smiled. "See, I'm back to being a cunt already."
Caius didn't waste long thinking about the new kid, he was set on finding a way to accomplish the task Basileus had set him. For all his bitching, he wanted to show the creator he could be more than the coven executioner. Then, a brainwave struck him.
"Here," he said, thrusting a goblet at his co-master.
Aro looked into the cup, half hoping for dungeon blood to be inside. "It's empty," he said, disappointedly.
"I know," Caius returned, "you need to fill it."
Aro was none the wiser. "With what, exactly?"
Caius rolled his eyes. "What do you think. genius?" he said, gesturing down Aro's body. "I need to see if you are fertile?" Caius didn't know much about human baby making, but he knew cum was the key.
Aro gasped, both offended and disgusted. "Fuck off!" he said, thrusting the cup back. "Do it yourself."
Caius gave it back to Aro. "You're older than me, Aro. If you are fertile then it will show that vampiric age has no bearing on fertility." It was a weak argument, Caius was only very slightly younger than Aro in vampiric terms, and the exact same age in human terms. But Aro so often used the argument that he was the oldest and Caius was going to use that against him now!
Aro scowled. "Vampire kings do not fuck cups," he said, trying to sound regal, but he snatched the cup back.
Caius smirked knowing he'd already won. "You aren't usually so shy."
Aro rolled his tongue around his cheek. "There's usually a woman or two between us," he said coyly.
Caius laughed. "I'd fetch you one but your wife will cut my balls off. And yours. And then I can't do my experiment."
Aro still waived, looking at his empty cup.
Caius shoved him out the torture room door towards the newborn cells. "Just go in a cell and get it done."
"How has my life come to fucking cups in a prison cell?" Aro continued to grumble but found himself an empty cell to use. He caught Renata giggling to herself from the bottom of the stairwell and considered for a moment asking for her assistance before thinking better of it. Not worth the aggro, he thought.
When Aro emerged, Caius was witting for him at his work bench, his station cleared of all clutter with glass plates ready to receive Aro's offering. "Took your time!" Caius called out, mockingly.
Aro rolled his eyes disparagingly. "I drank a lot last night," he said with a shrug.
"You're getting old, more like." Caius laughed as he took the cup and dripped the contents onto the glass plate. He was slightly perturbed when he realised he was looking at his coven mates jizz through his new toy. Of all the things I could use this for, he thought of his microscope, I am looking at HIS cum!
Aro scowled. "I've never had any complaints, thank you very much!" he said, barging his shoulder into Caius. "Well?" he asked, seeking his co-master was now lost to his experiment.
Caius always lost himself in his work. Whether that was beating the life out of a rogue, or running guard training, or anything else, he became absorbed in it entirely.
Caius was amazed by what he saw. "Wow!"
"Wow what?" Aro asked, snatching the microscope from Caius' hands. "Let me look!"
Caius passed him the plate of cum, tutting. "You are such an impatient child!"
Aro, too, was quite amazed to see his own produce through the glass. It was moving! "What's that wiggly stuff? Is that venom?"
"I expect some of it is venom, but it's not all venom shape, unless … " Caius trailed off and collected a silver knife from he bench which he stabbed into Aro's hand.
Aro nearly dropped both the microscope and the glass! "OW. You fucker!"
Caius smiled menacingly and collected Aro's blood onto a clean slide. "I need some blood," he said simply, as though that were a good reason for stabbing his covenmate.
Aro licked his wound to seal it quickly. "You could have asked!" he complained, though he was soon more interested in what was going on beneath the microscope as Caius', once again, became absorbed.
"The venom in your blood is the same as your father's. Mine is the same … so we can say you have venom in your cum but there is something else there … I wonder if they are the seeds for fertility?" Caius explained, switching back and forth between glass slides. "You could be fertile… very, very, slightly fertile."
Aro had never considered the idea that a vampire could impregnate a human before. Ever! Could Lucius' story be legitimate? he wondered, worried by the consequences if such a thing truly were possible. "You don't know for sure?"
Caius stopped switching for a moment to look at his co-master. "This is the first time I have had to inspect cum, Aro. If you have any prior experience I don't know about, feel free to take the lead."
Aro ignored his tone. "I could have vampire babies?" he questioned, mainly to himself.
"I doubt it, Aro," Caius relied, going back to the plate of cum. "Besides, haven't the four young vampires you already have put you off?"
That sent a shiver down Aro's spine. "Good point," he said, shaking off the idea of more children. "What's it doing now?"
"It's like the venom is attacking the seeds," Caius explained, thought he wasn't honestly sure of what he was explaining, having pulled the idea out of the air.
He knew Aro would want more of an explanation than that. "My guess would be that wherever the seeds are produced, they are protected from the venom in your body. Otherwise there would be none, as the venom would have destroyed it already. But there's a short amount of time where the seed is viable and could, in theory, impregnate a human woman."
Aro leaned into the desk and folded his arms across his chest. He still wasn't convinced. "The thing is Caius, we have both had a few regular human lovers back in the day. We would know if they had become pregnant."
Caius checked the clock. "The window of time is very short - it only took, what, ten minutes before the venom started to attack the seeds."
"How long after sex does it take for women to become pregnant?"
Aro's questioning was really pissing Caius off. "No idea," he admitted, cursing his lack of knowledge on human anatomy. "Though judging by the lack of vampiric babies in our society, I would guess longer than ten minutes."
Caius went back to his microscope, intermittently checking the time as he watched the venom destroy the seed. "It might be your age … " he wondered aloud. "Who's our youngest vampire?"
"Alec … " Aro answered, without thinking before realising what Caius would want with him. "You're not asking Alec to do this!"
"Vampiric age, you idiot," Caius returned. "I doubt Alec's capable anyway is he?"
Aro shuddered again. "I'd rather not think about it, Caius."
"He doesn't have sex with anyone, does he?" Caius asked, missing how uncomfortable Aro was with the conversation as he had his head stuck to his new toy.
"Fucking hell, Caius!" Aro exclaimed. "He's twelve!"
Caius shrugged, that was hardly an answer in his mind. "Some twelve-year-olds have sex."
Aro shook his head, refusing to even consider the idea that Alec had sex, or could have sex, because that would mean that Jane could, too, and there was no way he was going down that road! "Maybe in our time," he replied.
"In ALL times, and you know it," Caius said, looking up to Aro. They had both started having sex at such an age and Aro couldn't deny it. It was then that he realised Aro was literally squirming in front of him. "I have never seen you so squeamish about sex before!"
Aro had to turn away. "I haven't had to discuss my youngest's activities before, or non-activities, as the case may be," he said gruffly. "Make that, as the case definitely is!"
Caius chuckled to himself before returning to his slide. "Well you might have to ask him."
"Ask who, what?" Aro asked, hoping Caius wasn't suggesting what he thought he was suggesting.
Caius turned a sly eye on his covenmate, enjoying how awkward he was making him. "Ask Alec if he has ever had sex. Or at least it if produces anything of use."
Aro raised a single eyebrow and looked down his nose to Caius. "No," he stated flatly.
Caius nodded. "Human age might be a factor, if it is, I need to test the youngest viable male we have." Seeing Aro wasn't budging, he continued. "I'll ask him, then."
"That would be even worse!" Aro shot out. "IF we need to go down that road, you can use Demetri."
Caius scowled. "Yeah, that one definitely does 'produce'," adding, "as my own bedsheets lay testament to," as he remembered finding the boy in his bed with Lucy.
"So, who's our youngest vampire?" Caius asked, checking the clock again. It had been fifteen minutes and though there were still some 'seeds', as Caius had decided to name them, the venom was still attacking them, rounding on them until they lay lifeless in the sticky liquid.
Aro thought about it, running through their coven members in his mind. "Carlisle, I suppose … we have only had one set of newborns since he arrived and, other than Carmen, they have all been sent to outposts.
"Go and fetch him."
Aro didn't budge. "I'm not your assistant, Caius."
"I know, I don't have one, do I!" It was a sore point. Caius had asked for an assistant many times but he needed someone strong - both body and mind - to help with his work. Felix would have been the ideal candidate if he wasn't such a mouthy little sod. He didn't really have the stomach for being a regular in Caius' work, though.
Aro cursed his word choice. "The next batch of newborns, I told you," he promised.
Caius nodded. Yeah, yeah, he thought, heard that before! "Until then I will need Carlisle down here, and Heidi … "
Aro cut him off. "So, you get Heidi to help and I had to fly solo?"
Caius shook his head. "Heidi will need to fetch a few humans so I can compare the results," he explained. I'm not jizzing into cups, who do you think I am?! he thought, sensibly keeping it to himself after making Aro do it. "If I have to go you will need to give me another sample when I get back."
Aro jumped into action. "I'm going, I'm going." Wanking in prison cells was going to be a one-time affair!
He returned half an hour later with Carlisle in tow. "Heidi has gone to fetch you some men, lover boy," he announced, strolling into the torture room.
"You're a prick," Caius replied to his jibe, handing Carlisle a fresh cup.
"Why does it have to be me?" Carlisle complained. "Carmen was turned after me."
Aro had only explained briefly what they were doing but seeing both Aro and Caius bursting out laughing he cursed saying anything at all. "What's so funny?"
Caius got himself under control before Aro did. "I need to see how fertile vampires are … I don't think Carmen will be much help when it's cum samples I need, do you?"
"I knew that," Carlisle lied, as he allowed himself to be directed into the first newborn cell.
"Have you ever turned a pregnant woman?" Caius asked once he and Aro were alone. It was an option they had to consider and Caius never had.
"No … it always seemed wrong somehow," Aro admitted. He'd never fed from one either - again, it felt wrong.
Caius nodded, even he agreed with that. "We are going to have to try it," he said, though he really didn't want to.
Aro nodded curtly, agreeing that they had to, but secretly wanting no part in it. "I think we should keep that experiment quiet, Caius."
"I will go out tonight, alone, and find someone suitable for the test, someone close to birth, I suppose." Caius hadn't had much to do with pregnant women since his human days. The idea of sneaking one into his dungeons presented a problem for him. I doubt she will come quietly! he thought.
Aro wondered over to Carlisle's cell. "What's taking you so long?" he asked from outside the bars.
Carlisle jumped, but kept his back to the doorway. "Don't come in here!" he shouted. The cell gave precious little privacy as it was!
"You aren't our type, little brother," Aro replied, laughing with Caius, both knowing they were making the task at hand impossible for Carlisle.
"I know you're there - its putting me off!"
"It isn't a complicated task," Caius said through his barely suppressed giggles. "You do know what to do, Carlisle, yes?"
"Yes." Cheeky bastards! Carlisle thought.
Aro was in hysterics and continued to goad him. "Are you sure, little brother?" he asked in mock sympathy.
"Fuck off, Aro!"
Caius pulled Aro away from Carlisle's door. "Just hurry up."
"Stop talking to me, then!" Carlisle growled.
"Heidi, wonderful," Aro called out seeing the coven siren pass Renata with five men willingly following her to their doom. "Put them in the first cell and give my brother a hand in this one."
"Aro!" Carlisle ground out from his cell, thoroughly embarrassed.
Caius couldn't talk for laughing, but Aro continued winding up Carlisle. "Heidi is a professional, don't worry, Carlisle."
Heidi reached the masters and peered into the newborn cell. "What would you like me to do, master?"
Aro smiled sweetly. "We need him to fill a cup with cum and I don't think the poor lamb knows how to get it out of his cock."
Carlisle was incensed! "Aro, you are a complete prick!" He would normally have threatened Aro with telling their mother he was picking on him, but this was hardly something he could share with Atia.
Caius went back to his work bench to check on Aro's cum. "The venom is still alive." He said, musing on what than could mean. "Perhaps it never dies?"
Handing Aro the lens to look through, Caius started searching through his desk. "I'm going to check the inks, they are made with vampiric blood so there could be some venom in there."
Aro poked at the cum as he watched it through the microscope. "I can't feel it moving … "
Caius looked over just in time to see Aro smearing the liquid across the glass with his fingers. "You do know you are playing with your own cum, brother?"
"Eugh!" Aro wiped his hands on his britches. That was enough science for him!
Caius took the microscope from him and used it to look at the ink in the bottle he'd found. "The ink is pulsating! I don't really keep track of how old the inks are, but, Felix and Carlisle emptied my stores three, maybe four years ago so the blood in this ink can only be that old."
Aro, ever the inquisitive child, snatched the lens back to get a look for himself. "Even if it's only three years old, that's pretty amazing."
Noticing the time was nearly six in the morning, Aro knew he had to get back home soon. He needed to talk to his daughter after how they had left things the night before. "How many humans do you need?" he asked, going to the cell holding Heidi's captives. "There's five, can I take one?"
Once Caius had agreed, Aro dragged the closest human from the cell and brought him into the torture room. "Carlisle will you hurry up in there!" he called as he passed his brothers cell.
"This is obscene," Carlisle replied. He still hadn't finished.
Aro slit the humans throat, draining the spewing blood into a clean bucket. "I'll send a guard to collect the body," he said to Caius, who looked pretty annoyed to have the human corpse dumped on his floor.
Carlisle emerged shortly after, slamming the cup on Caius' work bench and tucking his shirt in with his free hand.
Caius ignored Carlisle and got straight to work.
"Don't pretend you didn't enjoy it," Aro said, slapping his back before turning to Caius. "Well?" he asked.
"Far more active than yours." Caius said, again switching between the clock and the microscope. "The venom is starting to attack … I make that the same time as yours, Aro."
"So, younger vampires are no more likely to produce vampire babies?" Aro asked. He really didn't want to involve Alec in these tests.
Caius disagreed. "More seeds, more likely," he said, "but still highly unlikely I would say, with the venom attacking the seeds from ten minutes of ejaculation."
Carlisle felt beyond uncomfortable. Having to rack-off with Caius and Aro so close was bad enough. Heidi 'helping' wasn't entirely bad, but having his cum discussed in such a way was an affront to his sensibilities. "Am I done now?" he snapped.
"Why are you being so pissy?" Caius asked with raised eyebrows.
Aro patted his brother's shoulder. "Yeah, you've learnt a valuable skill today, brother."
Carlisle shoved him off. "I knew what to do!" he snapped, offended.
"Of course you did," Aro patronised, smiling sadly and pissing off his little brother even more. "We won't tell anyone otherwise, will we Caius?"
"Secret's safe with us, Carlisle," Caius announced, joining Aro in ribbing Carlisle.
Carlisle was ready to blow, but he couldn't face the hiding from Basileus if he were the one to throw the first punch. "If you start any rumours about me, I am telling Atia!" he said before fleeing his brothers torturing.
Aro and Caius' laughter followed him out the door.
"He sounds like such a child," Aro said, completely missing how immature he himself had been.
Caius passed a fresh goblet to Heidi. "I need some from one of the humans, my dear," he explained, feeling a little guilty over what he was asking her to do.
"Eugh," Heidi sighed. "Of course, master."
Aro wouldn't have minded a go with Heidi himself, but he needed to get home. "I should go, I need to see Jane," he said, collecting his bucket of blood. "Let me know the results of all this, Caius." Aro hung back in the doorway for a moment. "And, write them down!" he called.
Caius scowled. Oh, how he hated writing anything down. He made the parchment the coven used, and he made the inks, too. That was as close to books as Caius liked to get. "Will do," he agreed, resenting bitterly that he didn't have an assistant to do the job.
…
"Jane?" Aro called softly, seeing his girl was still in her bed.
Jane rolled over to face the wall. "What?" she asked, sounding cold.
Had one of the boys replied to him like that, Aro would have said something about their attitude, but not Jane. "I have some blood for you," he offered, waving the goblet in her direction.
"I don't want it." She did. She could smell it and good god she wanted it. Half a small deer from the day before was not enough.
Aro took a seat on his daughter's bed. "You are hungry," he said, pulling her shoulder and forcing her to face him.
Jane looked him dead in the eye. She had a look that could make a grown man quiver, and that's the one she turned on Aro. "I can wait."
"Don't be like this," Aro said, sounding like he was begging her to be nice to him. If you were one of your brothers … his thoughts trailed off.
He had belted his girl the night before and he felt dreadful for doing it. And you are going to make me pay, aren't you, my dear one. "Its human blood." He hoped that might tempt Jane, if nothing else.
Jane scoffed. "Give it to Alec, you starved him as well, didn't you?"
Aro sighed and set the goblet down on Jane's bedside table. "Last night," he started, "you know I didn't have a choice, Jane. You lied to my face."
"I. Did. Not!" Jane ground out. Springing from her bed and going to her dressing table.
Aro got to his feet. "Are you seriously going to start this again?" he asked, hands on hips.
Jane looked back at her father through the reflection in her mirror. "I'm not starting anything - you are the one bringing it up!"
Aro could feel his anger from the night before rising to the surface again. "Jane, I'm not playing with you. We all know I treat you with a softer hand than your brothers, but that because you are so well behaved, usually."
"Pft!" Jane scoffed, interrupting Aro's flow.
Aro flinched, annoyance growing in time with his girl's attitude. "But, I will punish you if I have to," he finished.
"Yes," Jane said, slamming her brush into the table. "You proved that last night."
"I have had enough of your attitude, young lady," Aro declared. His hand had moved unconsciously to his belt buckle. Aro didn't seem to notice what he was doing, but Jane caught the gesture.
"Why won't you believe me?" she asked, sounding wounded. She may not back down in the face of punishment but she was cleaver enough to circumvent it when she could.
This going to end badly. Don't be such a pessimist.
Aro tapped his temple. "Because I can see for myself that you are lying!"
Jane shook her head, soft blond hair falling into her face. "Why would I lie?" she questioned.
Aro threw his hands into the air. "So I don't punish you, obviously."
"But that doesn't make sense either - Alec just said sorry and walked away with a slap on the wrists. If I wanted to avoid punishment I could just say sorry, couldn't I?"
"Yes … so do it then!"
Aro was pissed off, Jane could see it, but she wasn't backing down on this. "No!" she shouted, standing up and stamping her foot into the floor. "I am telling you the truth, Dad! I have never lied to you, ever!"
Aro slammed the door as he stalked out of his daughter's room. He was tempted for a moment to go back and fetch the blood he'd brought her. But he wouldn't do that. Not to Jane.
Felix had heard the whole exchange from his room and came bounding out the door to meet Aro. "If that was me playing you in a battle of wills you would have dragged me in front of the coven for a dressing down by now."
Aro raised his eyebrows to his son and walked away. "Don't exaggerate," he said, knowing there was some truth in Felix's words.
"I certainly wouldn't be getting breakfast in bed!" Felix continued, following his father to their living chamber.
Aro took a cup of blood for himself from the bucket and invited Renata to do the same. "I hardly think you can compare the stunts you pull with Jane's small act of defiance."
Felix nearly choked on his venom. "Small act of defiance?" he repeated, audaciously. "I would be picking my jaw up off the floor for shouting at you liked she did."
"Felix enough!" Aro ground out. He was pissed off with Jane, and he didn't like being against his daughter … his son, though … he had no qualms about being against Felix. "You're pissing me off!"
"Playing favourites again, Dad?" Felix hadn't done anything wrong, and he knew how much it wound Aro up to be called out on the favouritism he showed his only daughter.
Aro sighed deeply and started walking his son to the door. "This is your last chance, Felix, leave now whilst you still have use of your legs."
Had Renata not been there, Felix might have stayed for the row, but he wasn't about to give Aro an excuse to punish him with an audience.
Felix didn't get very far before he bumped into the new kid coming out of Eleazar's chambers. "Lucius, what happened yesterday?" he asked. "Jane and Alec were told to come straight back after they fed. It isn't like them to go against an order, any order!"
"Nothing happened, we just got chatting, that's all," Lucius replied. "Lost track of time."
Felix shook his head. "That doesn't sound like the twins," he said, wondering if Aro could be right about there being something off with the boy.
"Where are my little friends anyway?" Lucius asked, peering around Felix to look up to Aro's chamber door.
Felix shrugged. "Alec's about somewhere, I don't think Jane will be coming out today."
"It was Jane I really wanted to see."
There was something perverted about the way Lucius said that. Felix immediately sprang into big brother mode.
"Hey," he said forcefully, shoving Lucius in the chest. "That's my sister you dick, and she's only twelve!"
Lucius smiled slyly. "Twelve, huh?" he asked, flicking his tongue across his lower lip. "She looked ready to me."
…
"Aro!" Basileus bellowed coming up the stairs.
"Renata?" Aro called to his guard to make sure she was using her block. She was, Aro was safe.
Basileus threw Felix through the door when Aro opened it, leaving his grandson to splatter into the floor, before presenting Lucius to his son. "Look at the state of his face!" he shouted.
Lucius's nose was definitely broken, and he wore a bib of blood from the obvious attack.
Aro looked down to his son at his feet. "Did you do that, Felix?!"
Felix looked from Lucius to Aro to Basileus and back again. "I don't think so … " he said, sounding confused.
Lucius looked askance to Basileus. "He punched me in the face!" he announced. "Repeatedly!"
"Why?" Aro asked, watching for the boy's reaction.
Basileus scoffed. "I couldn't care less why!"
"I bumped into him in the stairwell and he punched me," Lucius explained, though it wasn't much of an explanation.
Basileus growled in Felix's direction. "You had better sort him out, Aro!"
"I will, Dad, I will," Aro said placating, pulling Felix to his feet.
As quickly as Basileus had arrived, he was gone. And Lucius with him.
Aro turned on Felix immediately. "What happened?" he ground out.
Felix held his head with one hand. It hurt. He wasn't sure why, vampires don't get headaches! But it thumped like he had been hit in the head. "I, I don't know," he answered honestly.
That wasn't good enough for Aro. "What do you mean you don't know?" he shot back.
"I can't remember, okay?!" Felix answered, trying to walk away.
Aro wasn't having that. "No, not okay," he said forcefully, taking Felix by the wrist so he could see for himself what had happened.
Nothing happened. Aro saw through Felix's eyes that his boy had left their chambers, bumped into Lucius outside Eleazar's chambers and punched him, repeatedly, in the face. Eleazar broke them up hearing the commotion outside his door and Basileus arrived seconds later.
"You walked up to the kid and broke his nose, Felix," Aro announced. He had a bad feeling about the new boy but he didn't deserve that!
"I wouldn't do that, Dad!" Felix replied, pulling his wrist free.
Aro breathed in and out, slowly. It was only dawn and he was ready to murder two of his kids! "I can see for myself that you did, son."
"Dad, I wouldn't, it doesn't make any sense," Felix implored. "I wouldn't do that!"
It was true, wanton violence wasn't Felix's style outside of the battle field. He was like Aro in that respect. Both preferring to torture their victims verbally. "Go to your room, I need to think about this."
No, no, no! Felix thought. He knew what being sent to his room would mean - Aro would be following him soon enough to whip him! "But dad!" Felix gestured to their house guest. "Renata …"
Aro laughed without a shred of humour. "What about Renata?" he asked. "Feeling embarrassed, are we? You think I care?"
"I care!" Felix shouted in reply, cursing himself for stamping his foot so childishly as Jane had done.
Aro threw his hands in the air. "What do you want me to say Felix? I can see you punched Lucius in the face, and you can't explain why!" He shook his head sadly. "I have to punish you for fighting."
Felix scowled, feeling a flood of embarrassment having Renata hear that. "You're losing it," he said under his breath.
Naturally, Aro heard. "What did you say to me?" he growled. He was already pissed off, that comment pushed him over the edge.
Felix looked to Renata. Thankfully she was doing her best to ignore the scene going on only a few feet away, but that didn't matter to Felix, she was still there and he knew Aro was going to thrash him any second now.
"Nothing," he answered quietly.
Aro shoved his boy hard in the chest. "Yes you did, you think I'm losing it. Losing what exactly?" he asked, luring Felix in. "You have a damn good hiding coming for fighting, are you really going to add lying to your check sheet?"
Felix bit his lip. You bastard! he thought, again looking to Renata.
Aro may have already gone over the edge, but having his punishment announced to the guard sent Felix barrelling over it with his father.
"Jane was right - your gift is broken!" he screamed in his father's face. "You are seeing things that aren't there!"
"My gift is broken, is it?!" Aro repeated. "How very convenient for the two of you who are on my bad side."
Felix scoffed. "Do you even have a fucking good side?"
He saw Aro flinch to his choice of words and raise a hand to slap him for it. Felix fled to the privacy of his room before Aro had chance to humiliate him further.
"Get your ass back here now!" Aro roared after him. After a second or two he realised Felix wouldn't return of his own free will and he stormed into his son's bedroom.
"You really are getting brave, boy," he announced, door swinging on its hinges from the force with which it had been thrown open.
"I'm sorry, please, I'm sorry," Felix said quietly, cowering on his bed.
The fairly placid response put Aro on the back foot. "Why are you whispering?" he asked curiously.
"You know why," Felix said, jerking his head in the direction of their living room where Aro's personal guard waited. "I'm really sorry. I will stay in my room," he offered.
Aro's whole demeanour changed. Embarrassment always works wonders with you, my boy. "You are never usually this apologetic before I have tanned your hide," he said, loudly. Certainly loud enough for Renata to hear.
"Shush! Please!" Felix begged. "Dad, I'm sorry for what I said, please close the door!"
"No, I think I'll leave it," Aro said, throwing a cushion to the base of the door to hold it wide open.
Felix started to sweat. "Are you going to …" He couldn't finish his sentence. Even speaking as quietly as he was, he feared Renata would hear somehow. It was bad enough having Jane across the hall.
"What?" Aro asked. "Am I going to what?"
Felix had his eyes shut tight. "Belt me," he whispered as quietly as he could.
Aro laughed. "I'm considering putting you over my knee and spanking you," he declared.
Oh my god just kill me now! "Daaaad!" Felix whined. "You're embarrassing me."
Aro closed the space between them and hooked a finger under his boy's chin, pulling his face up so they were eye to eye. "I find my child defying me embarrassing - I'm just passing the humiliation on, son," he explained. Aro actually had no intention of whipping the boy with Renata so close by, but Felix didn't need to know that.
"Please don't. Please," Felix begged tearfully.
"The next time you curse at me I will bare your ass and deal with you where you stand and I don't care who's around to hear it. Or see it." Felix tried to pull away but Aro held him fast. "Understood?" he asked sternly.
"Yes," Felix replied, nodding vigorously.
Aro watched his boy carefully for a moment. He couldn't hear anything in Felix's thoughts that suggested he was going to try for a comeback. "I'll talk to you later about Lucius," he said, mainly because Aro wanted to think about what had happened, and talk to Eleazar about what he might have seen.
Returning to the living room, Aro retook his half cup of blood and flopped into the sofa.
"It appears his mouth is running away from him but now he wishes to hide. He is feeling a little shy with you around, my dear," he explained to Renata.
Felix heard from his bedroom. "DAD!" he bellowed, feeling most aggrieved.
Aro smirked to Renata before calling to his son, "Unless you want to come out here and face me, I suggest you shut your damn mouth."
Renata sipped slowly from her cup, stifling her laughter as she knew it wasn't professional. "No more vampiric babies for you, Master?"
Aro laughed. "By all the gods, NO!"
…
"I require the services of one of your sons," Caius said when Aro came out of his bedchamber to greet him.
"Which son?" Aro asked warily.
"In the interest of science, the youngest possible," Caius replied, eyeing Alec on the sofa quietly reading. "And to sweeten the deal, Magnus will have to offer his services as the oldest guy we have."
Aro smiled broadly. "Oh that is one hell of a sweetener, brother!" he said. "Alec …" Am I really going to have this conversation with him? "I need to ask you something."
Aro led them to Alec's room, kicked Jane out and closed the door.
"Am I in trouble?" Alec asked in trepidation. He wondered briefly if Aro was going to have something more to say about him staying out with Lucius and Jane the day before.
"No, not at all," Aro replied, pulling his youngest to sit with him on the bed. "You know how Lucius was created?"
"He was born," Alec said simply. As though it were a totally normal thing for a vampire to be born.
"Yes, well, about that." Fuck me, this is awkward! "It could be quite problematic for the Volturi if Lucius wasn't a one off. Caius is running some tests to see how fertile vampires are and he needs a broad range of subjects."
Aro stopped. How do I ask you this?! he thought, looking at his boy. Alec looked so young, so small. What if he doesn't wank?! Am I giving him the idea to do it?! Will that make him want to have sex?! How the fuck will that work?!
"Do you want me to be a subject?" Alec asked, having no idea what a 'subject' would be required to do.
Aro nodded. "You are the youngest vampire we have in the coven. In the world, possibly. So, if you are able …"
Alec looked back to Aro with wide, innocent eyes. "What do I have to do?"
Are you serious?! Aro thought. You have to rack-off into a cup in the dungeons. That was all he had to say, but he just couldn't say it to Alec!
Aro flung open the door and called for reinforcements. "Caius, get in here."
Caius laughed to himself but joined Aro and Alec in the boy's bedroom. "Why are you being so weird about this?!" he asked, seeing Aro squirm. Caius had no hang ups about sex, none at all. But then Caius wasn't a dad, and he wasn't talking to his young child, either.
"Alec, have you ever had sex?" he asked the boy outright.
Alec suddenly wore the same awkward expression as his father. "Is that what you want me to do?" he asked, looking between the two men in his room. "With Caius?!"
"No!" Caius blurted, backing away. "But have you?"
Alec looked nervously to his father, wondering if this was some sort of a trap. Aro knew what his boy was thinking. "You won't be in trouble, Alec, we just need to know if you have."
"I haven't," Alec admitted, unsure if that was a good thing or not. Either way it wasn't something he wanted to talk about.
"Not ever?" Caius asked.
Alec shook his head, looking to his lap.
"Do you masturbate?" Caius asked. He made it sound so innocuous, but both Aro and Alec balked at the question.
Alec kept his head down. "Umm … not really."
"You either do or you don't, Alec," Caius pushed.
Alec stood and tried to flash from the room. "I don't want to talk about this anymore."
"Not so fast, son," Aro said, catching his boy before he could escape. He held Alec still and wrapped a hand around his forehead, searching for an answer to Caius' question.
Shaking his head to Caius, Aro said, "We will need to ask Demetri."
Caius nodded his understanding. "At least that's one we won't have to worry about impregnating anyone."
Returning to the living room, Aro tried to avoid Alec's eye. The kid looks mortified! he thought. "Demetri, you need to find Magnus and bring him to the dungeons."
Demetri's head shot up. "I need to go to the dungeons, too?!" he asked. He didn't like that idea at all.
"You do," Aro answered. "I will meet you down there."
…
"You want me to jack off in a cell?" Magnus asked, taking the cup from Caius. "I know you pair get your kicks together, but I am not that way inclined."
Aro couldn't talk for laughing. Talking to Alec was definitely worth it! he thought, enjoying seeing the juggernaut repulsed.
"Where does the boy fit into all of this?" Magnus asked. There were some things he would never do, a child being one of them!
"He has his own cup to fill," Caius said, handing Demetri a fresh goblet.
Magnus blustered. "That is obscene - he's just a kid."
"He's perfectly capable," Caius said, tutting as he once again remembered the bedsheets he'd had to dispose of.
Demetri turned to his father. "You said it would make me blind."
Magnus and Caius fell about laughing.
Aro smirked to himself. "You would have told him the same if he lived in your quarters."
Demetri bounced into the closest newborn cell. "I don't mind doing it," he called. He needed no excuse.
"Well I do," Magnus said forcefully. "Do it yourself, Caius."
"There's no point me doing it. Aro's already done it and we are the same age," Caius explained, pushing Magnus towards a cell.
"How many people have you had wanking in these cells?!" Magnus asked. "Are they clean?"
Caius wasn't getting very far pushing Magnus. The guy's made of lead, he thought. "We have the oldest vampire, Aro, and the youngest vampire, Carlisle. You two are the oldest and youngest in human age."
"Marcus is older than me, isn't he?" Magnus asked. Magnus was forty … forty, something. He wasn't sure on his exact age. But Marcus was definitely forty. "And Basileus," he added. Though Basileus didn't have a human age, he and Magnus could have been twins, they looked so similar.
"Basileus doesn't have an actual age, he was just created. And I felt it would be insensitive to ask Marcus," Caius said. He hadn't felt it would be insensitive, Caius didn't consider sensitivity in any of his work, he knew Magnus would feel aggrieved having to wank into a cup for his experiment and that was all the reason Caius needed to ask Magnus.
Before Magnus had entered a cell, Demetri was leaving his!
"That was quick!" Aro said, taking his cup and giving it to Caius.
"Fine art, Dad," Demetri crowed proudly. "Alec's younger than me, why didn't you ask him?"
"He isn't capable," Caius replied, getting to work with Demetri's specimen.
Aro hung his head hearing Caius' comment, knowing exactly how Demetri would react to such news. "Go home, and don't say a word to Alec," he told his boy.
Demetri was already grinning ear to ear.
"Hey!" Aro said, giving his son a lazy slap. "I mean it."
Magnus emerged shortly after Demetri had gone.
"How long did you make that, Caius?" Aro asked, checking the clock.
"You're like a couple of bloody kids!" Magnus complained, slamming his cup on the work bench in much the same way Carlisle had.
Caius switched between Demetri's glass slide and Magnus', clock watching as he went. "Hardly viable at all," he declared about Magnus'.
"What does that mean?" Magnus asked, feeling most affronted.
Aro smiled to his co-master. "You are just less of a man than me, Carlisle, Demetri, or any of the humans."
"Fuck off." Magnus shoved Aro, hard. "How's that for 'less of a man'?!"
"It's your age," Caius explained, pulling Magnus back.
"I am loads younger than that old fucker!" Magnus exclaimed, jabbing a finger in Aro's direction.
"Human age," Caius qualified. "Something must happen in the transformation. The older the human before transformation the less fertile they are afterwards."
"So Demetri can have babies?" Magnus mused. "He could end up as a grandfather?!"
"I hadn't thought about it like that before!" Caius said, looking to his brother-in-arms with a growing smile.
"It's not happening," Aro said gruffly, shaking his head. "I'll kill him first."
Caius went back to his work, scribbling notes down as he went from clock to cum. "Just from the few results we have here, I would say that though you are more likely to get struck by lightning picking a four-leaf clover, vampiric babies are possible. And the younger the vampire, the more possible it is."
"Well that's it then, I'm going to have to ban sex with humans," Aro said, sighing over the shit such a law would cause. "For our male population at least."
"I can see that going down well!" Magnus would have to deal with the guard who broke such a law. That will be every guy in the guard!
Aro knew it was going to be a pain in the ass to govern such a law, but he was intent on making it. "There's is something very, very off with Lucius. I will do anything to make sure we create no more like him."