GUARD HALL DUTIES
Aro headed straight to his chamber to dress for the guard hall. Not that he wasn't already dressed, but he wanted more than some shirt and britches if he was going to be on guard watch. He changed slowly. Very slowly. To give himself time to think.
"Lucius, welcome," Sulpicia said loudly on opening her door. She wanted Aro to hear. "Would you like to come in?"
"My lady." Lucius bowed to the coven queen and entered the upper suite. "Actually, Basileus sent me. He said your children would be able to show me around the castle."
"I am sure they would be pleased to. Wait here, I will fetch them," Sulpicia replied and she disappeared beneath the archway to her children's rooms.
Felix stayed where he was sat, watching the boy curiously.
"Hasn't my father already shown you around?" Aro asked as he strolled out of his bed chamber.
Lucius didn't say anything, he simply fixed Aro in his sights and concentrated.
Aro stopped doing up his dress coat and looked the boy up and down. "What is he trying to do?" he asked Renata, ignoring Lucius for the moment. "Is he trying to use his persuasion on me?"
Lucius spun around to face Renata. He hadn't noticed her on his way in, but the women stood watching him and smiled menacingly.
"Have you met Renata?" Aro asked.
"It's a pleasure to meet you, my lady," Lucius said, bowing. He hadn't been formally introduced, but he knew who she was.
"Not a lady, just a guard," Renata replied.
"And who are you guarding?" Lucius asked.
"The king, of course," Felix answered on Renata's behalf. "It's a relatively new appointment."
"In his own chambers?" Lucius asked, turning back to Renata. "Forgive me but I don't understand how you can guard Aro?"
"Well," Renata said, sounding like she was explaining the creation of the universe to a small child, "do you know how you are trying to use your gift on him, and it won't work? That would be me guarding the king."
Lucius took a step backward. "I don't know what you are talking about," he bristled, walking straight into Aro.
"Oh I think you do," Aro ground out while looking down at the boy.
Alec and Demetri came into the room with their mother close behind.
"No Jane?" Lucius asked, sounding disappointed.
Felix felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end hearing Lucius talk of his sister. He wasn't sure why, but it unnerved him. He could have happily planted his fist squarely in the kid's face, again!
"No Felix, either," Aro announced. "He is will be spending the day with me."
Felix didn't complain … he didn't want to go and play with Lucius. He caught hold of Alec's wrist as he passed the sofas and pulled him in close. "You don't have to go with him," he told his baby brother.
Alec rolled his eyes. "You sound as bad as Jane."
"Stay out of trouble," Aro warned his boys, watching them leave with the miniature beast of burden that was Lucius.
"I don't like sending them out there unprotected," he moaned, closing the door behind his middle boys.
"Aro, you need to give Lucius a chance. He hasn't done anything wrong yet," Sulpicia said, sitting at the table with a mountain of paperwork to go through. She would be buried under guard detailing for most of the day.
"Yet," Aro repeated Sulpicia's last word. It was an important qualifier in his mind. "He hasn't don't anything wrong, yet."
"He was trying to use his gift, Master." Renata spoke up. "I could feel it."
"But you blocked him?" Aro asked nervously.
"I believe so," Renata nodded. "But he was very forceful … it felt like trying to block you, or the creator."
"He's using his persuasion on my father, I guarantee it." Aro stalked around his living room at the same speed as his thoughts. Surely Basileus wouldn't allow him to, he said to himself. "He might not know it's happening. I can't confront him about it without some proof - he is quite taken with the little fucker already."
"It's not like you to be so discourteous, my love," Sulpicia said, wondering if her mate was unravelling at the seems.
"I don't trust him, Sully," Aro said, coming to a halt. "I need to see the damage in the guard hall, my queen. I expect the guards all know their master is away from the helm now. Traitorous bastard."
"Aro!" Sulpicia exclaimed.
"What?!" Aro asked. "He is."
"You shouldn't have crossed Magnus, you should have talked to him," Sulpicia told him sternly.
"Last time I checked I was still the king. I don't have to confer before I make a decision."
That's something else that will be changing around here! Sulpicia thought. She decided not to tell her mate her plans for creating a council for decision making going forward. He already looks stressed.
"You're coming with me to the guard hall," Aro told his son, pulling the boy to his feet.
"Why?" Felix whined. "I don't want to go with you!"
"Because I said so," Aro returned. As if there could be a better reason than that?!
"Can I come?" Jane's small voice emerged from the archway.
"I thought you weren't talking to me?" Aro said, looking lovingly to his girl. Even though Jane had eventually drunk the blood her father had brought to her as a peace offering, she had still refused to talk to him all day.
"I'm not," Jane replied sweetly. "I want to stay with Renata. For protection."
Aro looked to Renata and raised his eyebrows. "Don't I have such charming children!"
Silence fell around the room when Aro appeared in the guard hall.
"Lev, I do not know why you have Turk by the throat, and I do not want to know why, but unless you want to spend a week in the dungeons, you will release him now!"
Lev did as instructed, but he continued to glare at Turk.
Aro strolled around the guard hall, walking through the guards as he went until they all stood alone. "I assume from the raucous I heard from the hallway that you know Magnus has taken some leave?"
Aro calm to a halt hearing someone snigger. "Something amuses you, Afton?" Aro asked the guard having worked out it was Afton who laughed.
"No, Master," Afton replied, looking to the floor.
"I find nothing funny here. My guards, my Volturi guards, cannot conduct themselves appropriately without constant supervision." Aro used his faux calm voice as he spoke, the one that left his coven in no doubt as to how pissed off he was. "You had one night without Magnus in here and you have descended into a rabble of rogues."
Aro walked over to the bar and drew a goblet of the good bloodwine from the barrel. Not the weak stuff they drank in their private quarters, the strong stuff with opium infused into it.
"The bar is closed," he announced, knocking his drink down in one. "You now have a new guard hall master, albeit on a temporary basis."
The entire body of guards groaned hearing Aro was talking over.
"Not me," Aro said, shaking his head. "Jane, my dear," Aro pulled his girl forward to stand at his side, "if anyone so much as raises their voice, burn them," he told his princess of darkness.
"I don't want to do that," Jane said, looking around the gathered guards. She would, of course, but she didn't want to.
"Do you all hear that?" Aro asked. "Jane doesn't want to burn you … anyone who forces my daughter to do something she doesn't want to do will be answering to me, so let's keep things nice and quiet in here whilst I am working," he explained. "If anyone has any complaints they are capable of discussing reasonably, form an orderly queue at my desk."
With that, Aro headed into the office and took his seat at his elaborately carved oak desk. He liked his new desk so much that he had another made identical to it ready for his new chambers once the tower was remodelled.
Looking up from his paperwork, Aro saw his whole guard lined up ready to complain to him. "For fuck sake," he said to himself, throwing his quill down. "Are these complaints all about the same thing?"
Chelsea, heading the line, shrugged.
"Chelsea, my dear, could you put your group complaint forward respectfully, please?"
"The BOYS in here are against the changes our QUEEN has decided."
A fresh row erupted from the guards. "I am not cleaning the castle," Afton complained.
"But you think it's okay for me to do it?" Chelsea shot back to her mate.
"I didn't say that, my love," Afton corrected quickly. "It should be the gift-less doing the scrubbing."
"I am not gift-less!" Bard barrelled in. "We are musicians!" he declared proudly, gesturing to his mate Isolde and Talia and Phoebe.
"That isn't a gift!" Corin said, hands thrown in the air.
Aro looked to his young daughter. "Jane, if you wouldn't mind." He asked, gesturing to the guards.
Jane immediately deployed her gift, roasting every single guard with a short blast of fire.
Once they had all settled down, Aro schooled his features to match his feelings - angry and done. Totally done! He rose very slowly, resting his hands on the fine wooden desk and tipping forward slightly to eyeball his cohort.
"I explained to you all that we will be taking on new guards AFTER the building works are complete. Until then, you will do the duties assigned to you or you can find another coven to join." Aro scoffed at the very idea. "Good luck finding one that will provide for you the way the Volturi does and put up with shit I put up with from you all!" He stopped and took a look around the group. "Anyone handing in their insignia today?" he asked. Aro waited a moment or two for a response. When none was forthcoming he roared, "Then SHUT UP!"
Aro retook his seat, satisfied that the guards looked suitably shamefaced.
Lucius, Demetri, and Alec strolled in just as Aro had finished yelling and the guards had returned to their hall.
"Can we go in?" Demetri asked his father.
Aro nodded, looking quickly to Renata to ensure she was using her gift.
Renata quite fancied going in the guard hall, too. Though she was treated well by the Volturi family, she missed her friends. Still, she stood dutifully at Aro's side whilst everyone else socialised in the hall.
Aro had only ten minutes of peace before a fresh war of words broke out. Slamming his hands into his desk, Aro stood and went back into the guard hall. "Jane," Aro called. She knew what to do.
"AHHH!" the whole room, other than Aro, Renata, and Jane, roared in unison from the power of Jane's gift.
Aro waited for them all to settle down. "That is your last warning! Next argument, from ANYONE, will see the whole guard in the dungeons!"
When Aro returned to his desk, his father was already there. "You seem to have pissed everyone off, Aro. Are you being your charming self or is there a problem?"
"This is ridiculous, my lord," Aro complained. "You need to talk to Magnus!"
"Oh I do, do I?" Eyebrows knitted together, Basileus replied. "If I remember correctly, it was you who caused an issue there, not me."
"It was only a joke," Aro huffed. I'm not apologising to Magnus, no way! And I'm not sitting here all day, either.
Aro was relieved when Freyr joined the fray. "You are a sight for sore eyes, my dear," Aro said, looking to his co-master gratefully for appearing right when he needed her.
"I have just left my mate, bitching and whining like a teenager over this row he's having with you," Freyr said sounding exasperated.
"I'm not having a row with him!" Aro exclaimed. "He's the one with his arse in his hands over this whole equality thing."
"Aro, you don't know how stubborn Magnus can be. He won't come back here until you apologise to him," Freyr explained. "I won't be covering all the hours he did in the guard hall whilst he's away, either."
With that she left her co-master and sought out her guards. She was accosted the moment she stepped through the door with complaint after complaint.
"You had better get in there, Aro," Basileus said to his boy. "Either that or apologise to Magnus."
Aro went. He would rather face the guards than Magnus!
"How about if I buy a round for you all?" Aro offered, half shouting to make sure everyone heard.
As if by magic, the guards forgot their complaints and started shouting orders out to Turk. Aro noticed those orders mainly consisted of whiskey, which few of the guards would buy for themselves, but he chose not to say anything about it, instead he told Turk to write up a bar bill for him and promised to pay whatever it came to.
Aro sat with Felix at the very end of the guard hall. The opposite end to Lucius with Demetri and Alec. The pair of them watched the new boy intently. He was a captivating story teller. Whatever it was that Lucius was telling his boys, Aro was sure it couldn't have been half as interesting as Lucius was making it seem.
"Dad," Felix said, bringing Aro from his thoughts. "You never did anything about me punching Lucius."
"I know," Aro replied. He felt bad about that. If it had been anyone else that Felix had punched for no reason, Aro would have flayed him. The only reason he hadn't was because it was Lucius. It wasn't right. He knew it.
"Why?" Felix asked.
"Don't get any ideas, son," Aro said, "you won't get away with it again."
"So I have got away with it then?" Felix asked hopefully.
Aro sighed. "You don't know why you did it, and your memory of the event doesn't make any sense. Eleazar said you were rambling about Lucius' intentions towards Jane when he broke you up, but you have no memory of that, either."
"What did you say about me?!" Jane asked, earwigging on her father and brother's conversation.
"Well that's just it. I don't know what was said, Jane," Aro explained before turning back to his son. "I won't punish you for something no that one can explain, Felix. What would be the point?"
"MASTER!" Chelsea called out from across the hall.
Afton held Demetri back with an arm around his waist whilst the boy's arms and legs flailed wildly in his attempts to attack. Mikhail did the same with Alec, also desperately searching for a way to attack his brother.
Aro flashed to his sons. "What the hell are you playing at?!" he shouted. As if magically coming to their senses, both Demetri and Alec stopped fighting their captors. "You are coming home with me!" Aro announced, snatching the two of them by their wrists and storming out of the guard hall with Renata, Felix and Jane trailing along behind.
All the way back their quarters, Aro was inside his children's thoughts. This makes no sense at all, he thought, seeing his boys go from happily listening to tales of Rome in bygone yore from Lucius, to wanting to rip each other's throats out. There was no reason. None at all.
"Get in there!" Aro demanded, shoving Alec and Demetri into his bedchamber. He joined them and slammed the door.
"I don't know what happened, Dad," Demetri said quietly, rubbing his sore wrist from where Aro had gripped him tightly.
"Nor do I!" Alec added. He was still in his father's bad books from staying out too long in the woods. The last thing he needed was adding fighting with his brother to his recent offences.
Aro paced back and forth. He had only just told Felix he wouldn't punish him for a crime he could neither explain nor understand. He couldn't whip Demetri and Alec for fighting a fight they had no reason for engaging in, could he? Shaking the thoughts from his head, he quickly removed his belt and doubled it over.
"I won't have you fighting each other. I don't care what's going on, or gone on, or hasn't …" Aro trailed off. He couldn't make sense of what had happened, but he wasn't having them fighting between themselves, that was for damn sure.
"You!" he called to Demetri. "Here," he said, pointing at the spot in front of him.
Demetri closed the space between them and stood in front of his father. "I don't know what happened though, Dad!" he whined, tears pooling in his eyes already.
Aro ignored his boy's excuse and landed his belt across his ass before he could change his mind. He only gave the boy one strike, but it was hard enough to have Demetri up on his toes and bawling in response.
"Alec," Aro called, pushing Demetri aside.
Alec didn't go to his father the way Demetri had. Aro scared Alec. He always had and likely always would. Even though he knew that Aro would never seriously harm him, Alec still feared him.
Aro blamed everyone else for that. No one told Aro when one of the twins was in the wrong. Either the adult they were with dealt with them quietly themselves, (usually their mother, though occasionally Marcus, Eleazar or their grandparents) or they chose to let it go. But they rarely, if ever, told Aro.
Alec should have been grateful for that - it meant he suffered far fewer punishments than he deserved, but it also meant that any punishments he did receive came at a much higher price to his psyche and he felt he suffered doubly for them.
"ALEC!" Aro shouted, getting his boy's attention.
When Alec still refused to move, Aro stalked to his side and manhandled him roughly into position before releasing two strikes to his youngest.
Alec reacted in much the same way Demetri had, shrieking and hoping on the spot.
"The pair of you are on restriction for a week," Aro announced. "Don't even think about leaving this tower!" With that he opened the door for the boys to escape.
It was then that Aro caught Felix's eye. Oh, damn it, he thought, I have to wallop him, too, he reasoned. It wasn't right that Felix should get away with breaking someone's nose. And his earlier argument had fallen flat now he'd belted Alec and Demetri for their altercation.
"Felix, get in here."
"No way, Dad!" Felix answered, fixing himself in his chair. "You already said that …"
"I know what I said, Felix," Aro ground out. "And now I am saying otherwise."
Felix still refused to go in that bedchamber of doom.
"Get in here or I will belt you where you are sat," Aro warned him, eyes flickering to Renata hoping her presence would see the boy comply so Aro could get this over with.
"You can't belt me whilst I'm sitting," Felix replied cockily.
Aro closed his eyes for a moment, trying to calm himself down. "Fine," he said. "You win."
Felix smiled happily to his mother who merely looked away, shaking her head. Foolish boy, she thought.
Aro dragged Felix from his chair.
That was when Felix realised he had 'won' being belted in the living room, not being let off punishment at all. Oh bollocks! He thought, trying to fight his father off.
"No, Dad!" he exclaimed, dancing a circle around Aro so he couldn't get a good aim on him.
"Renata, my dear," Aro called out, standing still with a tight hold on Felix's collar. "What looks worse - the boy taking a few licks in front of you calmly, or him prating about like this and ending up bare-arsed over my knee for his insolence?"
Felix immediately stilled. He didn't need Renata to answer that question and thankfully the guard kept her mouth shut, saving some of his shame.
"We do not hit," Aro said simply, before ironically, wrapping his belt across his boy's backside five times.
Felix bit into his cheek to keep quiet but traitorous tears pricked at his eyes from the pain that engulfed his rear end. Aro had been quite light, for Aro, Felix thought. Certainly not his usual force. But that begged the question of why Aro did it in the first place if he clearly didn't feel it actually necessary.
"That was uncalled for, Dad," Felix said, once he could trust his voice not to betray him.
Aro ruffled his boy's hair and took a seat with his mate, leaving his belt on the floor. "Now no one can say I'm not fair," he explained. "And on that note, you are restricted to the tower for a week, too."
"So that's all four of them on restriction?!" Sulpicia asked, to which Aro nodded curtly. "Then you can keep them with you, my love," Sulpicia told him. "I have far too much to do."
"Fucking equality!"
…
Aro didn't go back to the guard hall that day. Instead he stayed in his chambers, growing increasingly pissed off with his young tribe. By the time they went to bed, Aro felt like he could have slept for a week - and he didn't sleep at all!
By the next morning, Felix and Jane were so busy sniping at each other that Aro decided to punish them further by lifting Demetri and Alec's restriction. Felix was furious that Aro let the pair of them go out and he was stuck in with Jane. By that night, Aro was only too happy to attend Caius' chambers when Corin came to collect him.
"We have never really had an issue with stealing in the coven before," Aro replied to Freyr with her news of thefts occurring in the guard dorms.
"That's probably because no one had anything worth stealing before," Caius said, accepting a drink from his mate. "What sort of things are going missing?"
Freyr checked her notes. "Money, jewels, books, watches, weapons …"
"Weapons?" Aro asked. It was news to him that guard had weapons.
"Some of the guards have started to collect certain human weapons. Swords, guns, shields," Freyr explained. "Nothing of particular note. But still, it belongs to them and now it's missing."
Almost every member of the guard had privately confided in Freyr that something had gone missing from their private dorm room.
"What are you planning, Freyr?" Aro asked. He wished Magnus was there, he would have been able to ask who had stolen the missing items and sensed who was lying with his gift.
"I will be tossing the dorms tomorrow morning," Freyr explained. "I could do with some back up from you two."
Neither Aro nor Caius looked entirely enamoured with the idea. Caius had every right to be pissed off, of course. Aro was the one who had annoyed Magnus, not Caius, but now Caius was facing Aro's consequences with his covenmate. As it ever was, as it ever will be! he thought, bitterly.
Freyr continued. "I will work through the dorms alone if I have to, but I want everyone else under supervision whilst its going on."
Aro agreed. He didn't have a choice really. He could have apologised to Magnus, but that wasn't going to happen.
"You could go through their memories whilst you supervise," Athenodora suggested.
"I could. It would be a good excuse to delve into a few minds," Aro nodded to himself. Magnus' gift would be much more bloody useful here, he thought, still refusing to apologise.
"Do you have any idea who the thief could be?" Caius asked Freyr.
"I really don't," Freyr admitted sadly. "If we had any newbies in the coven I would have said it was them. I just cannot imagine one of our trusted long-standing members will have done this to their covenmates."
"We do have a newbie," Aro interjected. "Lucius."
All three, Caius, Athenodora, and Freyr burst out laughing. "Lucius is just a boy, Aro," Freyr exclaimed. "And he's only been here a couple of days."
That didn't make a difference to Aro.
"I'll be in the guard hall at dawn," he told them all, leaving the three of the cackling like witches.
…
Caius stood guard on the stairwell so no one could try to infiltrate Freyr's inspection whilst Aro had one guard at a time sit with him so he could read their thoughts.
He actually felt guilty doing it to long standing Volturi members. It was proving an entirely pointless activity anyway - the only thing Aro had learned so far was that the guards blamed him for the thefts as Magnus had been removed from the guard hall. No one seemed to care that Magnus had taken himself out of the hall - they all blamed Aro!
"You are out and about rather early, my lord," Aro commented when his father walked into the guard hall with Carlisle and Eleazar.
"I had a feeling I should be here," Basileus replied, eyeing the guards sternly. "Stealing from your own kin!" he exclaimed, watching for a reaction.
"How did you know about it?" Aro asked. He hadn't told his father and he was pretty sure no one else had either.
"I know everything, son," Basileus said, tapping his temple.
Carlisle and Eleazar took a seat with their brother whilst Basileus took over mind exploration with the guards.
"What is actually going on?!" Carlisle asked. He wasn't sure why he had been dragged to the guard hall at dawn, and Basileus hadn't offered much by way of explanation.
"There have been a number of thefts in the guard dorms," Aro explained. "Freyr is tossing the rooms now."
Basileus searched through each and every mind in the room, aside from Aro and Renata. Nothing. Absolutely nothing. "They are all entirely innocent, Aro," Basileus declared.
It wasn't long before Freyr joined them, having exhausted every nook and cranny of the guard dorms without finding a single missing item.
After a little more confused chatter, the guards dispersed to their dorms to tidy up and Basileus and his sons went back to the south tower. Carmen greeted them all at the door to the castle floor with a look of concern on her face.
"What is wrong, my love?" Eleazar asked, rushing ahead to reach his mate.
"You should come and see for yourselves," she said, smiling sadly to Carlisle.
Carlisle wasn't sure what that sad smile meant but he found an anxious knot forming in his stomach as he climbed the stairs behind his father and brothers. When they reached Eleazar's apartment and went straight through to his bedroom, Carlisle really started to panic.
There on his freshly made bed, lay all of the guards' missing items.
"EXPLAIN!" Basileus bellowed, grabbing hold of Carlisle before he could flee.
"I, I, I …"
Carlisle couldn't form a single sentence. He hadn't taken those things. Not the watches, not the jewels, not the coins, nothing. He hadn't! At least, he didn't remember taking them. He could see himself putting the loot under his bed … but he didn't remember taking them from the guards. He couldn't even place when he had stashed the goods under his bed. It must have been in the last two days as that's how long he had been back in Eleazar's quarters, but exactly when … he wasn't sure.
"CARLISLE!" Basileus growled, giving his son a shake for good measure. "I expect an answer, boy!"
"Dad, I don't know what to say!" Carlisle rushed, desperately pulling back out of his father's hold. It was no good, of course, he couldn't hope to resist Basileus' strength.
"I can't believe you would do this Carlisle!" Eleazar sounded so disappointed. Completely, and utterly disappointed.
Aro, however, was furious! "How could you steal from my guards, you deceitful little shit?!"
Eleazar and Carmen pulled Aro clear of their spare room, Carlisle's room, and into the living chamber.
"Let Dad deal with him, brother," Eleazar implored.
"How am I supposed to hand that over to the guards and tell them my own brother stole form them, El?" Aro asked, attempting to get back to Carlisle.
Eleazar shoved him clear of the doorway. "Aro, you won't have to. Carlisle can make that walk of shame himself. Just let Dad deal with him."
The thunderous crack they heard coming from the bedrooms gave both Aro and Eleazar pause for concern.
"I will string you up for this, you damn idiot!" Basileus roared, dragging Carlisle inside his bedroom and slamming the door.
Carlisle cupped his face, sure his jaw had fractured if only for a moment from that one slap. Basileus started to remove his rings. A little late for that! Carlisle thought, rubbing out his cheek from the back hander.
"Dad, I didn't steal this stuff! You have to believe me!" Carlisle implored.
"I want to trust you, Carlisle, but you're making it difficult. Can you see that?" Basileus asked, gesturing to the swag pile on his boy's bed.
"Why would I do that?!" Carlisle asked. "Why would I steal from the guards?"
"Do you think I care why?!" Basileus returned, taking off his coat. "I care that this stuff is in your room and judging by your memories, you stashed this stuff last night!"
Carlisle watched in absolute dread as Basileus threw his coat on the bed next to the stolen items and started rolling up his sleeves, revealing great hulking, powerful arms beneath.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" Carlisle rushed when Basileus picked up his cane.
"Why would you be sorry if you haven't done anything wrong?!"
Carlisle didn't have an answer for that. It had seemed to him that the most sensible thing to do when you were about to have a cane wrapped around your ass was to say sorry, to apologise to lessen the blows. He couldn't say that to Basileus though, not without looking like he was trying to manipulate him.
"You know son, you tell me I can trust you, you tell me you have matured and you are past these childish ways, and then you pull something like this!"
"I don't know how this happened, Dad." That was the truth. Carlisle didn't have a clue what was going on.
"Did you or did you not put these stolen items under your bed?" Basileus asked.
Carlisle looked from the guards' things to his father and back again. "Yes," he squeaked, sounding more like a small boy than the young man he was. "But I don't remember stealing them!" he added.
It was too late. His fate was sealed in Basileus' mind. There was only one thing to do now. "Drop your britches and get your hands on the wall, son."
Carlisle's heart jumped into his mouth. "Please dad …" he started, but soon trailed off seeing how resigned his father was to punishing him. He didn't have a defence anyway. What else can I say? he wondered, removing his coat and undoing his britches. Carlisle went to the wall where his father had pointed and dropped his them to his knees.
Basileus moved behind him, kicking at his son's feet to move them apart and spread his legs a little. Standing back, Basileus shook his head. Carlisle's shirt reached halfway down his thighs, as they were worn then.
"Lift your shirt, son," Basileus told his boy sadly.
Carlisle did as he was told. One hand held his shirt to his chest and the other braced the wall where he rested his forehead.
"Dad, please …" he begged one last time before Basileus unleashed hell on him.
Carmen had fled to her sister-in-law's, but Aro and Eleazar listened to the whole event play out only a room away. They heard the swish the cane made as Basileus ripped it through the air, and the resounding crack it made against Carlisle's vampiric flesh. And then the howl. Carlisle wailed in pain and anguish to each biting strike.
When they got to five, Eleazar said that would be it. Five strikes like that, from that cane delivered by their father, yeah, that would be it. He was wrong. They counted another five and Aro was sure that would be it. Sure. He was wrong, too.
Twenty strikes Carlisle suffered with Basileus lecturing him as he went.
Renata cried to herself softly from the door. She wasn't too sure what was going on in the Volturi family, but from what she knew of Carlisle, he would never have gone to the guards' private dorms and stolen from them. Never. It all just seemed such a mess.
When Basileus emerged, he carried the guards' goods bundled in Carlisle's bedsheets. "I will be returning these," he announced. "It was fortunate that I found them on my travels around the castle grounds," he added pointedly, looking to Renata in particular.
"Understood, my lord," she whispered in reply, clear from her croaky voice that she had been crying and was still feeling emotional.
Eleazar and Aro waited until they were sure their father had left before flashing to Carlisle's aid.
"Aro, please, no more," Carlisle called from the floor where their father had left him.
Placing a hand on his brother's neck, Aro dived into Carlisle's memories. He could see as clear as day that his brother had indeed stashed the guards' missing items under his bed, but like Basileus, he couldn't find Carlisle committing the crime of stealing them.
"This is Lucius …"
"For fuck sake, Aro!" Eleazar growled. "Not now!" he said, shoving his middle brother aside to hoist his youngest brother to his feet.
Carlisle was still half dressed but he didn't care. He allowed his big brother to carry him to his bed and lay him out on his front. The pressure slits in his skin were already healing over, but the bruising was deep and angry looking.
Eleazar offered his wrist to his brother. "Drink, Carlisle," he said softly.
"No, El. You know what he will say." The 'he' being Basileus.
Eleazar scoffed, "he can say what he likes." With that he bit into his wrist himself and once again offered Carlisle his blood. It wouldn't have the same instant healing affects that Basileus' would, but it would take the edge off, at least.
Carlisle thanked Eleazar gratefully when he pulled away. "At least he took the stuff back to the guards for me," he said, hugging his pillow. "I don't think I could have faced that."
Eleazar caught Aro's eye and sternly shook his head. He could see his little brother felt conflicted. On one hand, he understood that Aro would want to rip into Carlisle for his crimes, on the other, their father had just delivered a serious canning and he knew Carlisle couldn't take anymore.
Aro relented and joined Eleazar with Carlisle on his bed. No one really knew what to say. Yes, Basileus had been harsh, but then Carlisle had, from what they could tell, stolen a great deal of goods from the guards. None of it made sense, but they all felt very uneasy about what the future held in the Volturi coven.