AN: I would like to apologise to 'guest 1', I am afraid it did happen… but it isn't Basileus' fault, (not that that makes it any better!) I am purposely not writing the 'submission scenes' in an attempt to tone down the distressing elements, though I appreciate ones own imagination can be worse in many ways. The topic will come up repeatedly as we go through, though no plans for it to actually happen again. Either way, we will never 'see' it, if that helps at all?
And to 'guest 2', really glad you like the story so far. I have to agree that everything is a little more violent than I am comfortable with, but I am going on the basis that we are in the 1600s and our characters are hard as nails vampires… I have sketched out this story right through to modern day and the violence lessens massively as we go through, though its a fairly slow transition through thousands of chapters as the characters and relationships progress and develop.
The Lucius issue will be resolved soonish, by chapter 113 we can all breathe again :) For anyone who wants to skip the rest of these chapters, come back in chapter 114 when we move onto new topics :)
Anyhoo, back to the story… Basileus is off the fucking scale!
THEIR OWN MINDS?
"You want me to brand you?"
Alec held the small metal Volturi crest in his hand. He knew the item well, it was from the belt buckles the masters wore.
"You do me, and I'll do you," Lucius said eagerly.
The pair of them sat in front of the fireplace in the guard hall. It was odd for the fire to be lit, being August, but Mikhail had jumped to the task willingly when Lucius asked. It was also odd that in the vast space the guard hall offered, every single guard in there huddled at one end of the room - the opposite end to Lucius and Alec.
"How am I supposed to hold it when it's hot? It will burn me."
Lucius smiled calmingly to his partner in crime. "It won't burn you, only fire can burn you. You're a vampire, Alec, you won't melt from being hot." He took the belt buckle from Alec and threw it into the heart of the fire.
"It will still hurt!" Alec didn't want to do it. He didn't want to brand Lucius and he didn't fancy being branded himself much, either! "And, Aro will be really mad," he added with a gulp.
Lucius looked into Alec's eyes, mesmerising the boy. "It won't hurt. You are going to brand me and I will brand you. You don't care what Aro will do."
Alec started nodding. Slowly at first, but soon enough he was nodding with vigour, repeating Lucius' words for himself. "It won't hurt. I am going to brand you and you are going to brand me. I don't care what Aro will do."
Lucius smiled contentedly to himself and fished the Volturi buckles from the flames with a fire pick. It wasn't quite hot enough for branding, but it would still seal the outline of the Volturi crest into their skin.
Shuffling out of their shirts, the boys crawled closer together. Alec took the buckle in hand. It should have hurt, he reasoned, his fingers glowed purple! But there was no pain, just as Lucius had said. It was as if a spell had been cast over Alec. He plunged the metal piece into Lucius' arm and held it still. Unlike Alec, Lucius reacted!
"Ahhh!"
No sooner had Lucius reacted, so, too, did Alec. Whatever spell had prevented him from feeling the burning hot metal had dissipated and Alec was left with severely scorched fingers.
Basileus, who had been out of view in the masters' office flashed to the boys as Alec threw the buckle to their feet. Coming to his senses and seeing Lucius holding his arm in pain, he feared the repercussions of his actions. That fear multiplied many times over when he saw the thunderous face of Basileus glaring at him as he tended to Lucius.
He showed no concern for his grandson's burned hand at all, most unlike Basileus … or rather, most unlike old Basileus.
"WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU DOING?" he raged, all anger directed at the twelve-year-old child.
Alec, crying in pain over his own burn, could barely form a sentence. "I don't know … I don't know why I did it … I don't know …" His head felt foggy, confused, like something was missing.
Basileus' raging caught the attention of the guards. Moving as a singular group they edged forwards, closer to the action to find out what was going on.
Basileus sensed their movements and growled ferociously at the intrusion. They were soon pressed back against the far wall, fearful of making any movement or sound.
Basileus fed Lucius back to health, his blood curing the scarring incurred by the buckle.
Alec stood, gripping his damaged hand and offering it to his grandfather, fully expecting to receive the same treatment as Lucius. He was wrong.
Basileus slapped the child's hand away hard, causing an eruption in pain in the damaged appendage.
Alec was shocked. He had never received more than a stern word from the man and he had always treated him kindly, always. When he looked into his grandfather's eyes he didn't see the man he knew, he was hollow, like there was no one behind those glaring orbs. When Basileus made the move to grab hold of Alec, the boy threw out his fog, clouding both Lucius and Basileus in one hit and rendering them both immobile.
It was Monday, so the masters were all gathered in the throne room receiving visitors. Magnus, however, was taking a break from the boring duty to check on his guards when he heard Basileus' roaring. Flashing at full speed, he arrived in time to see Alec cast his smog across the creator.
"Alec …" he called softly, careful on his approach. "Are you sure you want to go down this road, young one?"
Alec kept hold over his victims, sobbing softly with the pain in his hand. It had healed a little but he would need blood to fully recover.
Magnus looked around his guard hall, unsure what had occurred. One thing was for sure, his guards looked terrified and so did Alec. "I want this hall empty, now!" he called to his wards.
They didn't need telling twice. Some went to their dorms, others out through the main door into the castle. One or two went through the open window!
Magnus wrapped his arms around Alec and used his gift to calm the child. "Alec, talk to me."
"He's going to kill me!" the boy cried into the master's shoulder.
"Basileus?" Magnus questioned. "He loves you, Alec."
"He fed Lucius," Alec whined, showing Magnus his hand, "but not me."
Magnus looked between the child in his arms and the one in the fog … and then to Basileus. You cruel bastard! he thought.
Aro had been bending everyone's ear about how Lucius was manipulating his father. Magnus hadn't believed Aro's complaints to be any more than jealousy but now he was starting think his co-master could be onto something.
Magnus offered his own wrist to the child, his blood would cure the burn, though the pain would take a while to subside.
Alec gratefully received the blood offering and once he settled, he told Magnus what had happened. As best he could with his foggy memory.
Magnus released a shaky breath, taking on a little more of the boy's fear. "You can't hold him under that fog forever, Alec," he said gesturing to Basileus. "You shouldn't have tried to brand Lucius but Basileus is a reasonable man." He couldn't have foreseen what was to come, as it was just so very, very unlike Basileus.
Still in Magnus' hold, and at his suggestion, Alec withdrew his fog. Lucius stayed on the floor but Basileus sprang to his feet, venom releasing through his gritted teeth.
Magnus was shocked by the creator's rage and pushed Alec behind him. "Basileus …"
Basileus threw the master across the room in his efforts to get to Alec. "Shut up and move!" he roared.
Magnus rolled across the guard hall before he recovered from the creator's full force and managed to gain some traction on the wooden floor. For a moment he was dumbstuck when he saw Basileus laying into Alec with that damn cane. He knew how that cane felt and Magnus was pretty sure Basileus hadn't wielded it so violently against him as he was against Alec.
Trying to intervene didn't work out too well for Magnus either. Every time he got close to Basileus, he received a hefty swipe for his efforts. With the child's anguished screams assaulting his ears, Magnus couldn't stand by and do nothing, so he summoned his emphatic gift to change Basileus' emotions instead. It took all his efforts, like he was fighting something more than the creator, but eventually, the strikes lessened and Alec was released. The boy crumpled to the floor with Magnus going straight to his aid.
"Don't you think you have been a little hard on a twelve-year-old?!" he asked, disgusted with Basileus' actions. "He's the youngest vampire in the world!" Magnus could tell the boy's leg was broken at least once. It could be more than once, under his clothes, he reasoned.
"No!" Basileus returned, straightening out his clothes, showing no compassion at all. "And that's exactly the problem with him. Alec thinks because he's the youngest he can do whatever he likes without facing repercussions!"
Magnus was dumbfounded. "Since when has there been a problem with Alec?!"
"Since he melted a 'V' into Lucius' shoulder!"
Magnus had forgotten the boy was even there until Basileus brought him into conversation. The young vampire watched the argument happening in front of him with an amused expression matching Magnus' reading of him. You are enjoying this you sick little fuck! he thought.
As if he could read Magnus' thoughts, Lucius' head snapped around and he set his sights on Magnus.
"Are you questioning my judgement?" Basileus asked the master. "With my own grandson?" There was a clear threat carried through his tone.
Magnus left Alec on the floor and squared up to the creator. "I am, Basileus. This isn't like you," he implored, hoping to encourage some semblance of the man he knew.
Basileus sneered at Magnus' efforts. "Go to your quarters."
"Me?!" Magnus exclaimed. You can't send me to my quarters! I am a master of this coven! Though he didn't dare say it, he assumed Basileus would have heard his thoughts.
If he did, Basileus didn't react to them. "Yes. You," he ground out, dragging Alec from the floor and throwing him over his shoulder. He paid no attention to the child's cries, as though his heart were made of stone.
Alec's trembling breaths wore heavily on Magnus as the empath soaked up more of Alec's pain. "My lord …" he tried, only to be cut off abruptly with the cane brought down hard against his shoulder.
"I had been pleased with your efforts to assert some authority around here, Magnus, but don't get confused. I am the creator, you will always answer to me. Now go to your chambers!"
Magnus absentmindedly rubbed at his shoulder as he watched the creator walk away. "As you wish, my lord," he sneered to the man's back.
Basileus spun around on his heel. "I think I will pay you a visit after I have dropped the brat to his mother."
…
"Basileus!" Sulpicia called out in surprise at having her chamber door flung open. Her surprise quickly turned to concern seeing Alec slung over the creator's shoulder, wailing in pain. "What's happened to him?!"
Basileus didn't bother to answer his daughter-in-law, instead he strode through the top floor suite to deposit Alec on his bed, with Lucius and Sulpicia trailing behind him.
Sully went to her boy the moment Basileus was clear of him. "Oh, my darling boy!"
"Ha! Darling?!" Basileus repeated with a sneer. "Your darling boy branded Lucius with a red-hot metal buckle!"
Sulpicia took a swift look at Lucius - the boy seemed fine, unlike her own child. "Alec branded Lucius?" she questioned. "He wouldn't, he just wouldn't."
Alec cried in her arms. I don't care what he did, she thought of her boy before turning on Basileus. "And what have you done to him? Why is he crying like this? He's hysterical!"
Basileus pulled Sulpicia from the bed. Alec didn't deserve her comfort, in his opinion. "I have brought the boy back into line and I expect Aro to follow it up on his return."
It was then that Sulpicia noticed the odd lie of Alec's left leg, contorted awkwardly. "What have you done to his leg?! You animal! You beast!"
When Basileus kept her away from the child she began to pummel her fists against his chest. "Aro said Lucius is turning your head - he must be right. You have lost your mind, Basileus!"
CRACK!
Basileus slapped her, hard.
Sulpicia went down to the floor cupping her thumping cheek, lip split and a trail of blood running from her nose. "You have no right to do that to me!" she growled.
"I should stop you there, Sully," Basileus said with his hand raised again. "You have clearly mistaken me for someone who gives a shit. You wanted equality, that's what it feels like."
It took a good few steadying breaths for Sulpicia to regain her composure. Dabbing the back of her hand to her swollen lip, she saw the blood. "I will wear this like a badge of honour."
Basileus scoffed. "Wear it quietly unless you would like to be honoured again. Do you know what your problem is?"
"I wasn't aware I had a problem."
Basileus knelt down to fix his daughter-in-law in his sights. "You crow for equality but you don't want it. Not really. When all is said and done you are still that weak, limpet riding through life on my coattails."
Sulpicia was scared. She had never truly feared Basileus before. Never. Right then, yes, she was scared. Too scared to respond, that was for sure.
If Basileus noticed her fear, it didn't affect him, he continued his rant, regardless. "You sit right next to that egotistical, philandering husband of yours. How can you expect any respect from the vampires in this coven when you see your own mate walk the halls with his latest fuck piece following behind him?!"
"Renata is our trusted guard." Sulpicia said quietly. Of all the things she could comment on, that was the only thing that came to mind.
Basileus laughed. "I can see the party line works well on you, my dear," he said cruelly, playing on her deepest concerns. "You are pathetic. Useless and pathetic."
He took Sulpicia's face in one hand, twisting her awkwardly to get a good look at her. "Too bad your personality doesn't match your pretty little face," he said, before aiming her swollen cheek and split lip to the sunlight. "Though now, perhaps it does."
Basileus left Sulpicia on the floor and Alec on the bad. Both reeling from his uncharacteristically cruel actions. Lucius stayed, though. He watched the pair with a twisted smile.
Sulpicia began to scold the intruder … but … it went away. The floor seemed to move beneath her, swaying to such a degree that she was forced to lie down, as if to do otherwise would cause her to fall. But she was already sitting to start with. Her head ached, pounded, so confused.
And then it passed.
When she came around, Sulpicia saw her son sleeping soundly and she had no idea what she was doing on the floor in his room.
…
After a long day in the throne room, made worse by Magnus doing a disappearing act at midday never to return, Aro looked forward to a quiet evening with his mate and children.
"You need to speak with your son," Sulpicia ordered the moment he walked through the door.
Aro rolled his eyes to the heavens. Of course I do, fucking wonderful! he thought bitterly.
"Which one?" he sighed. Felix had been with him all day, as had Jane - she was, and had been since Lucius arrived, staying under Renata's protection.
Felix, however, didn't have a choice. The masters had kept his brutal beating of Turk quiet, and everyone believed the guard to have been sent on a covert mission, but they had all demanded that the boy remained supervised, permanently! Which meant Aro had been dragging the boy around the castle with him for the last four days.
Demetri, Aro assumed. Though the boy had been on a winning streak behaviour wise, Aro would never have guessed Alec could be the culprit of a crime great enough to cause Sulpicia to tell on him. No one told Aro when Alec was in trouble. It annoyed him sometimes, as though he couldn't be trusted to deal with his own child.
"Alec," Sulpicia said forcefully.
Aro laughed. "Alec?!" Yeah right!
"Basileus brought him back here earlier … Alec has branded Lucius." When Aro continued to laugh in disbelief, Sulpicia marched to her mate's side. "I'm serious Aro!"
Aro looked at his wife properly and noticed the damage to her cheek. "What happened to your face?!" he asked, eyes narrowed, full of concern.
"My face?" Sulpicia asked. "Nothing. What are you talking about?"
"Sully, your face is black!" Aro stated as he touched his fingers to her damaged features. Sulpicia winced in response but she still had no idea what he was talking about.
"What the hell happened, Sul?!" he asked, guiding her towards a mirror.
Sulpicia ran her fingers over her cheek and wiped dry blood from her nose. "I … I don't know."
It didn't make sense that she wouldn't remember something forceful enough to damage her vampiric flesh. Something told her not to think of it, that it wasn't important. "It doesn't matter anyway. You need to talk to Alec," she said, pushing Aro towards the children's bed chambers.
"Did Alec do that to you?" Aro asked in confusion. He wouldn't have. He couldn't have! But you never tell me when he's trouble.
Aro watched his mate for a reaction, to see if she was hiding some freak burst of anger from their son. But no. She looked bewildered if anything.
"I don't think so …" Sulpicia didn't sound sure at all.
"Okay," Aro agreed a little warily. "I'll talk with him."
"You should do more than just talk with him, your father expects action."
What the hell is going on with you?! You never turn Alec over to me. Aro was truly concerned about his mate, one minute too confused to converse, the next calling for punishment on their youngest, and arguably most innocent child.
"My actions are up to me," he said.
"Basileus will be disappointed," Sulpicia said, her tone stopping Aro in his tracks. She sounded hollow and stern at the same time.
Aro nodded to himself. "He will have to live with the disappointment then, won't he?"
Sulpicia zoned in on Renata, sitting with Felix chatting about the day, both trying to distract themselves. "Is there a reason that woman is still following you around?" she asked her mate. Sully wasn't too quiet about it, either.
"You know why, my queen," Aro said simply. He wasn't having an argument with Sulpicia about Renata - he was taking enough flak from the rest of his family, not to mention the masters.
"Oh I know, alright. Everyone knows," Sulpicia sneered.
"What's that?" Aro asked, "Your tone. 'Of course I do' - the tone!"
Sulpicia rounded on her mate. "Don't treat me as a fool, I know why you have her following you around all the time."
"To protect me from that suspect little bastard, that's why! Aro returned forcefully. "I am the vampire king; whatever Lucius is doing to everyone else I need to be protected from it until I have enough proof to finish him here."
"There's nothing wrong with Lucius! I like him, he's a good kid."
There was that phrase again. Hearing it made Aro twitch. "You liked Renata when I left this morning!"
"I do like Renata!" Sulpicia insisted, doing a complete three sixty.
Aro looked askance to his mate. Her emotional instability was giving him whiplash! "Then what the fuck are you complaining about?"
"You are fucking her, I know it!" Sulpicia didn't speak that way. Those weren't her words. Especially not in front of her children.
Jane took it as her cue to leave and she sought the safety of her bedchamber.
Aro waited for his princess of darkness to be out of the way before he replied. "I have Jane and Felix with me all bloody day, every bloody day! When exactly do you believe I am carrying out this affair?!"
Sulpicia knew that. She did. The floor swayed again and Aro had to catch her before she fell.
"Sully, where is this coming from?" he asked.
"I, I don't know." Her worries felt so real, but impossible at the same time.
Renata had never felt more uncomfortable in her position as Aro's personal guard. "My lady," she called softly. "You don't have to worry about that with me - I prefer my men … manly."
Aro tutted at the guard, and Felix for daring to agree through his laughter. "Am I not manly?" he asked, fully expecting a chorus of 'of course you are'.
Renata and Sulpicia shared a smile. "If you have to ask …" Renata said with a shrug. Sulpicia and Felix burst out laughing at Aro's offended expression.
"I knew there was a reason I liked her," Sully said, feeling like the cloud over her thoughts was lifting.
"You would," Aro complied, feeling most put out. "Can she stay?" he asked, gesturing to his somewhat less favourite guard.
"Of course she can stay," Sulpicia responded, looking at Aro like he was crazy to suggest otherwise.
He didn't know how, but Aro was certain Lucius was at the heart of this, using his persuasion somehow. The sooner that little bastard is out of my coven, the better!
"DAD!" Jane's scream shattered the room and all four fled to the twins' bed chamber.
Aro arrived first, going straight to Alec's bed where his young boy lay in pain, with a broken bone healing unset in its proper position. He was horrified.
"What the hell is the matter with you?" he asked his mate. "You saw the state Alec came home in and you did nothing?"
Instructing Felix to start feeding his brother, Aro began to carefully rip the clothes away from Alec's broken leg.
Sulpicia and Renata stayed at the door, the vampire queen frozen by what she saw. My baby! Was all she could think, over and over, but she couldn't go to Alec, she felt too ashamed for having left him there in the first place.
"Hold him down," Aro whispered to Felix.
Sadly, Alec heard, and he knew what was coming. He fought wildly under his brother's impenetrable hold as Aro, with a heavy heart, snapped his son's leg again. The ear splitting screams the boy released cut through Sulpicia's heart and she forgot her shame for a moment, which allowed her to go to his side.
Hands covered in his own son's blood, and tearing the bed sheets apart to wrap around Alec's leg, Aro felt a wave of nausea course through his body.
"If I'd have put him in that state you would have strung me up by my balls!" he shot to his mate. Whatever had happened to Sully, and he was sure something had happened, he couldn't help but feel pure rage towards her for leaving their son in such pain.
"I was angry with Basileus, I was …" Sulpicia sobbed, her hand going to her bruised and battered face. "But it went away …"
Aro tied off his crudely made bandages and headed out the door.
"Where are you going?" Sulpicia called after him.
"To talk to my father!" Aro growled.
"I'm supposed to come with you, Dad." Felix said quietly, feeling embarrassed.
"You are ALL to stay in our chambers and when Demetri comes home, he's to stay put, too," Aro instructed. "Keep feeding Alec!"
"Who the hell do you think you are?!" Aro roared entering his father's chambers.
Both Eleazar and Carlisle looked to their brother in shock as he burst into the room, vying for a fight with their father.
"Excuse me?!" Basileus roared back, matching Aro's stance.
Eleazar slammed Aro into the wall and held him there, hoping to prevent Aro from actually attacking Basileus.
Aro struggled around his brother's hold but he wasn't getting far. "You have beaten my 12-year-old because of that little cunt!"
Basileus threw Aro a patronising smile and retook his seat. "If you mean Lucius …" he started.
"Yes, I mean Lucius!"
Eleazar forced Aro to look into his eyes. "Aro calm down," he implored. "You know where this will end if you try and fight him."
He didn't have to say submission, as soon as he thought it, Aro heard through their contact.
"Carlisle is here!" That was enough from Eleazar to have Aro settle enough to desist in his physical attack.
Basileus sighed. "You weren't there, Aro. Alec had branded Lucius against his will."
"Alec?" Carlisle questioned in disbelief.
"See that?" Aro said pointing to Carlisle's expression. "That look of confusion? That's what you should have looked like when you found the pair of them. You shouldn't have caned Alec until he couldn't stand, and in the guard hall of all places!"
Eleazar stood with Aro. "Dad, you didn't?!"
"He broke his fucking leg, El!" Aro told him. "He's losing his fucking mind!"
Basileus twitched hearing Aro's accusations. "You are losing your damn mind thinking you can come in here talking to me like this!" he said, flashing to Aro and jabbing him in the chest.
"You have just beaten my son!"
Images of Alec flashed through Basileus' mind. They were scattered and disjointed, but he saw himself canning the boy rather forcefully. "It needed to be done," Basileus said, though with far less conviction than he would have liked.
"If it needed doing I would have done it," Aro growled. "He's mine!"
Basileus scoffed at that. "Then I suggest you get your son under control - Alec's in danger of going the same way as Felix and Demetri."
"What are you trying to say about Felix and Demetri?" Carlisle asked.
They caused a little trouble in the coven but nothing more than you could expect from teenage vampires. He felt quite defensive of his nephews … partly because he was so often embroiled in their mishaps.
"I hardly think it needs saying after what Felix did to Turk. I fed him again this morning and he still hasn't healed yet!" Basileus smiled to himself triumphantly.
Aro wasn't having that. "Funnily enough, Dad, Lucius was there for that unlikely episode, too!"
"Unlikely episode?!" Basileus returned. "Your depraved son ripped Turk's guts out in a totally unprovoked attack!"
Eleazar could see Aro was readying himself for an attack and pulled his brother back sharpish. "Felix has never done anything like that before Lucius turned up at our door, Dad," he implored carefully.
"Alec was fine until that little shit turned up, too!" Aro added, decidedly less carefully.
"Lucius saved your children when they ran off because of your lack of foresight," Basileus returned, jabbing at Aro's chest again. The jabbing was really pissing him off!
"Ran off?" Aro repeated, laughing mirthlessly. "Where the hell are you getting this stuff?" He was convinced Basileus had finally lost it, totally lost it! "It's funny how neither Jane nor Alec have ever needed such protection before, don't you think? Not to mention, Jane still vehemently denies what happened that night."
"Here we go again," Basileus said to himself, shaking his head as he walked away. "You don't like the boy, Aro, we all get it."
His son's complaints about Lucius had been wearing, but to bring them up now when you own son is going so rapidly off the rails. It's laughable, Aro.
"It's not that I don't like him, I don't trust him!" Aro countered.
"Atia trusts him, they lived together for years she knows the boy," Basileus replied. He wasn't having this argument again.
"She isn't always the best judge of character," Aro sneered.
Basileus fixed his boy with a dangerous glare. "What is that supposed to mean?" he spat.
Eleazar covered Aro from his father's view to break the stare-off. "Aro just leave it," he begged. He didn't want to see their father take Aro down in front of him and Carlisle.
"No, El." Basileus ripped his eldest son aside and threw him to the other side of the room in much the way he had done with Magnus. "He has started now, he'll bloody well finish!"
"She trusted Carlisle," Aro said simply.
"Hey!" Carlisle exclaimed. "Why bring me into this?"
"I'm serious!" Aro said, though he did feel a little guilty using Carlisle as proof of Atia's lack of judgement. "Look what happened with Carlisle - she gave him all the ammunition he needed to emotionally blackmail you for two fucking years!"
"Hold your tongue!" Basileus growled. "Carlisle's deceit was of his own making, Atia did not incite it."
"Cheers, brother!" Carlisle huffed.
Both Aro and Basileus ignored his complaint. "Lucius doesn't have a malicious bone in his body, he's a good kid," Basileus insisted.
"You don't know that," Eleazar spoke up from the floor. It bothered Eleazar that Basileus couldn't get inside the boy's head.
"Atia does!" Basileus insisted again. It was a weak argument but he held onto it vehemently.
Aro scoffed. "Atia is not infallible!"
Basileus willed himself to calm down. He could feel the vampire within rising to the surface and neither he nor Aro could take that again so soon. It had only been four days since the last submission. Aro should, Basileus reasoned, be far more compliant than he was. He certainly shouldn't have the will to argue against him so openly.
Aro's love for Alec, and fear over what else could happen to his children was far more powerful than the submission's magical power.
Basileus, wanting to circumvent another occurrence with his son, tried reason instead. "Have you not noticed that you are the only one in this family who has an issue with Lucius?" He didn't really feel it, but he made sure he sounded calmer as he spoke.
"Jane doesn't trust him either, she won't go anywhere near Lucius," Aro returned.
"Jane follows you blindly," Basileus replied.
"No she really does not," Aro scoffed.
"She does, brother," Carlisle agreed. "If you said you liked Lucius, Jane would at least spend time with the boy."
"I don't want her to spend time with him!" Aro threw back, and immediately cursed himself for saying so.
"Well, yeah …" Carlisle nodded slowly. "That's kind of the point, isn't it? You don't want Jane to be around him, so she's sticking to your side like glue."
Aro huffed in annoyance. "El, you said Lucius is powerful."
"He is, very!" Eleazar agreed.
"But his only gift is persuasion … gentle persuasion at that … it doesn't add up, does it?" Aro pushed.
"It is strange," Eleazar agreed again.
"Oh, not you, too!" Basileus glowered at his eldest son.
"I didn't say anything!" Eleazar complained, backing up on the floor.
"I'm not listening to any more of this." Basileus fetched his cloak. "Pull yourself together, Aro, you sound like a jealous child." Shoving Aro roughly away from the door, he opened it wide. Renata stood outside the door, moving quickly from the creator's path.
Basileus ran a hand through his hair. His head ached and he felt confused. It was happening more and more often. He worried briefly if Aro was right? Am I losing my mind? No man can live forever, he thought, thinking of his many millennia on the earth. Shaking the idea from his mind he made to leave. "I don't want any trouble from you over this. Lucius is as much my son and any of you are and he's staying."
"Keep your new brat away from my children and we won't have any trouble," Aro said daringly. He didn't believe Basileus' story that he had impregnated Lucius' human host, particularly as he had failed to prove the possibility by giving Caius a sperm sample. He wasn't going to open that argument up again, though. The last time saw him receiving a hefty round of fucks for his efforts.
Basileus spun around. "Funnily enough, son, you said the same about Carlisle and Felix - at some point you will have to face the reality that your children have their own minds and they act on them!"
A broad smile spread across Aro's face. "Except Jane, right?" he asked with a smirk. "She doesn't have her own mind; her actions are all my orchestrating."
Basileus twitched again for a moment before flashing from his quarters, leaving the round-about argument behind him.
Eleazar got up and closed the door for his father. "You know the next time you complain about Felix squaring up to you and not knowing when to back down …" He drifted off seeing Aro catch onto his thoughts. "That's all I'm saying, brother."
"Their own minds …" Aro repeated to himself. "He said they have their own minds …"
"What are you thinking?" Eleazar asked.
"I don't really know yet."
Aro's head was going ten to the dozen trying to put all the pieces together. Magnus had been in the guard hall when Alec was punished. He had seen that through his contact with Alec as he'd bandaged him up. Why didn't Magnus stop Basileus? Reason with him? Anything?
"What do you think of Lucius?" he asked Eleazar.
"I like him," Eleazar replied. "He's a good kid." Even as he spoke he looked confused by his own answer.
Aro threw his hands in the air. "That's exactly what everyone says, exactly that, every time." He went to his little brother. "Carlisle … what do you think about Lucius?"
"Yeah, I like him, he's a good kid." The words spewed forth from Carlisle's mouth before he could stop them.
Aro bobbed his head and headed straight for the door. "I'm going to talk with Magnus." Whatever that little bastard is doing to my coven, it ends now!