AN: Thanks for the reviews, and the PMs checking if I'm still alive :D I am fine, snowed under between Uni and kids and gearing up for Christmas, that's all. I'm sorry this took so long to post, its a good length to make up for it :)
Midsummer Games
The coven had thoroughly enjoyed the welcomed break from the building works that Valentine's Day and the Easter celebration had provided and had been eagerly awaiting the Midsummer Games for the same reason. All current works were still concentrated on remodelling the South tower to create Aro's grad plans - a home fit for a king.
The coven masters had come up with a plan for the introduction of the Midsummer Games, something simple to kick off the first event, but something everyone could join in with. Aro was disappointed to hear that his youngest children had refused to join the day when Carmen arrived in the castle courtyard.
"What do you mean they aren't coming?" he asked.
"I tried, Aro," Carmen insisted, and she really had - telling twins how fun the day would be and that they wouldn't want to miss the very first Games, but they refused to move from their beds.
"Both Alec and Jane feel they can't compete without their gifts so they see no point in joining us today." Jane had been a little more forceful in their refusal but Carmen saw no reason to involve her parents in on that fact.
"I'll fetch them, my love," Sulpicia offered.
"No." Aro handed his mate a drink from the make shift bar they had created in the castle grounds. "Let me."
Creeping into his Eleazar's suite, Aro hoped to hear the twins at least discussing the coming event. Nothing. Absolute silence. Feeling flummoxed as he had expected they would at least be interested in the goings on in the castle that day, Aro went through to the twins' bedroom, where he found them both reading.
"Carmen tells me you are not looking forward to the games?"
Alec peaked over the top of his book to see his father. "Why would we be?" he asked moodily.
"We're not going." Jane was far more forceful.
"Why not?" Aro asked, taking a seat near his girl and removing the book from her hands. "It will be fun," he said, hoping to simply jolly them along.
"Not for us it won't," Alec said. "What can we do without our gifts?"
"We can never use our gifts anyway, Alec," Jane reminded he brother, bitterly. "They are more of a burden than a gift these days."
Before Aro could answer their complaint, Jane was adding to the list! "We can't compete against anyone here, other than each other."
"And you aren't interested in doing that?" Aro asked, cursing himself when Jane turned her frosty glare on her. Okay, that was the wrong thing to say!
"Like a special round for the little kids?" Jane spat in disgust. "No thank you."
"What she said," Alec added, just as annoyed by the idea.
Aro rested back on his daughter's bed, wondering how to fix the issue. "There are other ways you could be involved," he offered, thinking on his feet.
Jane glared at her father, she knew just what he would be thinking they could do. "I am not marking down scores or anything else like that. I have my dignity, you know!"
Forget that plan, then! Aro thought "Of course you do," he sweetly replied to his girl. "So, you would rather sit in here and sulk than join in at all?"
Jane and Alec quickly checked with each other that they were both set on staying put. "Sulk it is, then," Jane announced, happy that her brother was sticking to their agreement.
"Come on!" Aro implored.
"No." Jane shook her head and scowled, looking like an angry little imp. "It's humiliating! We're the only two in the whole coven that can't do anything."
Why does every conversation with my children end in histrionics, Aro thought, missing the irony of his own exaggerations. "What are you talking about, my darling?" he asked, wishing to calm them down.
"We can't drink," Jane began. "We can't go out. We can't use our gifts. We can't stay at the parties' past midnight. We can't have relationships. We can't even be left alone without a baby sitter!"
Aro's head whirled as a feeling of nausea took over his body. Where the hell did that come from? Relationships? Fuck no! "Listen, this is being blown way out of proportion," he said, desperately trying to placate them.
Jane was on a roll. "We wouldn't expect you to understand," she shot to her father in response.
Aro bobbed his head and got to his feet, heaving a big sigh as he did so. "You don't even know what we have planned for today," he said mysteriously, trying to incite some interest in his children. "How about if I found a way to involve you both in a way I can guarantee you would be happy with?"
"Like how?" Alec asked.
Jane hissed at her brother for being persuaded so easily.
"You will have to come with me if you want to find out," Aro told them, holding the bedroom door wide open.
After a moment or two contemplations, Alec joined his father at the door.
Aro looked to his princess of darkness, smiling kindly at his girl. "Show a little faith in your old man, Jane," he said with a playful smile. "Trust me. You will enjoy today."
Alec trotted along happily at Aro's side but Jane looked less enthusiastic. You had better have something good in mind, she thought to her father.
Aro was a little taken aback by her tone, even in thought she sounded like an angry elf, but he reasoned that the girl must not have meant for him to hear it. His sons would have complained long and loud about him excusing his only daughter like that - they would never be so lucky.
"No Marcus?" Aro asked, approaching the bar where the elite coven members were gathered.
Basileus shook his head from behind the bar. The induction of the coven festivities was partly, as Felix had termed it, to give everyone the day off and a bloodbath, so for that reason, the guard were absolved of all duties on the day of the games and Basileus had offered to play barkeep for Turk.
"Talia and Phoebe returned this morning, Aro," he told his son. "They are running through all we have learnt from the major covens about the Romanians."
Aro whistled into the wind. That explains why he looks so stressed, he thought, looking at his father. "And what have we learnt, exactly?"
"No idea." Basileus was trying to sound relaxed about it but the concern was written all over his face. "Marcus said he will meet us in the guard hall after the game today for the update."
Atia had overheard the conversation through Basileus' thoughts and she came to her mate's rescue to distract him from his torturous mind. "Do you have the dungeon blood ready, my dear?" she asked.
Just hearing those two words snapped the creator from his self-loathing. He checked around the bar set up for a bottle of the coven drug but found nothing. He shot a sideways glance to Aro but his son spoke up before Basileus could verbalise any accusations.
"I haven't touched it!" Aro stated, his voice hitching slightly at the end with being forced to announce such a thing in front of Magnus and Caius.
"I didn't bring any," Caius told the creator.
Basileus looked askance to the young master. "And why not?" he asked sternly. "I told you to bring it, did I not?"
The plans for the games that day had the propensity to be particularly brutal and whilst Basileus was willing to feed his family his own blood, and even the other masters if required, he wasn't blessing the whole bloody guard with his it!
Basileus glared at Caius when he failed to offer an answer. "Go and fetch it," he instructed, sounding annoyed.
Caius still didn't move, but his thoughts travelled immediately to his dungeon torture room where the dungeon blood was stored. I don't want to go down there. Not in there.
If Basileus heard Caius thoughts, he completely ignored them. "Caius!" he called, gaining the man's attention. "Go!"
Caius' didn't speak but his eyes flickered around the small group for help.
Thankfully, Magnus came to his aid. He flashed in front of Caius, blocking out Basileus and the wondering eyes of the closer guards. Unhooking the keys from Caius belt, he offered the younger master a small smile before disappearing to fetch the dungeon blood.
Basileus was shocked. Not so much by Caius' refusal, though that had been unexpected, and he did briefly wonder if Caius' refusal to carry out the orders he gave him were to be a regular thing, (try it, boy!) but by the master's anxious state. Caius just didn't 'do' anxious yet there he was, shiftily searching the floor with his eyes to avoid any interaction with those around him.
Aro started chatting in his usual way to his co-master and Atia set to work doing the same with Basileus to ease the tension between them all.
By the time Magnus returned, he sensed a change in the emotions of the group - Caius had returned to normality and Basileus, less annoyed, now felt curious. Magnus didn't know it then, but the creator was forming the very beginnings of a plan that would, in time, change his whole life.
Aro avoided the path of the dungeon blood as Magnus passed it over, but he still copped a growl from Basileus when he caught his son gazing longingly at the bottle. Knocking back his bloodwine, Aro set his glass on the bar. "Very well, let's get on with things, shall we?"
"The sun is up and she is shining on us all," Aro declared loudly, arms outstretched and he expertly directed the coven to his full attention. "It's going to be an interesting day, my friends. I think I have come up with something that recognises the recent changes in our coven, and also allows everyone to join in to the best of their ability."
He gave his youngest two children a happy smile. Only Alec returned it. Jane was waiting for her father to come up with the goods before she would offer him any adulation.
The excitement in Aro's voice was inspiring to everyone else and the guards followed their king to the edge of the courtyard where a wooden chest sat.
"I have here five balls, cannon balls," Aro explained, taking two from the chest. "The object of the game is find a ball and throw it at another player. If they catch the ball, they stay in play. If they are hit with the ball, they are out," he said, wincing slightly when he thought of the potential damage a cannon ball could inflict thrown at vampiric speed. "We can expect some broken bones."
Nobody seemed put off by that, except the twins who shared their concerns with their mother. She hushed them quickly, knowing that Aro's plans would keep their babies safe from harm. Sulpicia was worried about Felix and Demetri taking part in the games that day, but as the boys bounced excitedly along with the rest of the guard she knew it would be crueller to make them miss it. Basileus will feed them if they are hurt, anyway, she assumed.
Aro gestured around the grounds. "You can see the pitch marked out, anyone who steps outside of the pitch is out. You can tackle, you can jump, you can kick, you can gouge."
The vicious joy of the coven rose exponentially with Aro's offers to bring each other physical harm. It wasn't that any particular coven member disliked their coven mates. Not that at all. But they were competitive, physical beings who relished the chance to test their abilities to the maximum. Outside of battle, the opportunity rarely presented itself in a coven sanctioned way. Guard fights were dealt with severely so very few of their number went there. There hadn't been a mission for a long time and the guards were becoming fractious. This 'game' sounded to be the perfect chance to burn off the oppressed energy building up in the coven.
"Let's make this memorable!" Aro concluded, and handed over to Magnus to tell them the teams - it had been his idea.
"We will have two teams," Magnus boomed. "Men versus women."
The cries of objection from the female guards were only to be drowned out by the jeered jibes from the men.
Chelsea heard her mate crowing with his friends and growled in his face. "This is not fair!"
Afton deftly defended himself from his mate's arms as Chelsea gesticulated wildly. "You wanted to be treated equally, ladies," he said, laughing heartily.
"Yeah," Felix agreed. "We are going to wipe the floor with you!"
"How very gallant of you," Renata sneered in the boy's direction. "Have you ever heard of chivalry?"
"Forget chivalry!" Felix crowed happily.
Corin looked Felix dead in the eye. For a moment his heart constricted as he waited for her to say something to him. It had been so long since Corin had even looked at him and now she looked ready to speak to him.
"Chivalry died a long time ago, didn't it Felix?" She was quiet, and though others had heard her, no one knew what Corin had meant. Felix did, of course, and he became unusually quiet for a moment before he was swept up in the guards carolling again.
Sulpicia noticed the moment between the young guard and her son and wondered what it was about, but assumed Felix had somehow offended his one-time favourite. She didn't think on it long with the rising argument of the guards taking her attention. "There are more men than women, Aro," she reminded her mate, raising her voice above the din.
"There are, my queen," Aro agreed. "Though as our two sons are in the field, I think we should take one each."
"We'll have Demetri!" Sulpicia called back immediately, and turned to explain to the women she had gathered as her teammates. "Trust me, Demetri is a team player, Felix is not."
Atia agreed. "This will be all about team work, my dears."
"Atia…" Carmen turned to her mother in law curiously. "You aren't playing, are you?"
The lady of Volterra smiled. "You are still my team, ladies."
Felix gave his little brother a sly shove. "Off you go, Dem. Join the women."
The pair of them had been sniping at each other since the Easter ball. Demetri had good reason, as he saw it, for being the butt of Felix' joke. Felix, however, was still pissed off that he had been shamed in front of the entire coven at the Easter celebrations and he laid the blame solely at Demetri's feet for being unable to take a joke. He was more vicious in his sniping than Demetri was, too. The way he played on his brother's deepest insecurities to wind him up was so very Aro-like, which only added credence to Felix' jibes about being Aro's real son compared to Demetri and his defective venom from Amun. It was childishly cruel.
Demetri scoffed. "At least I was picked."
"They had to choose someone to join the girls," Felix replied, pretending to consider the choice his mother had made. He shook his head and laughed, "obviously it was going to be you.
"Fuck you!" Demetri hissed as he stalked away to join his mother's team, where at least he felt welcome.
Felix was set to go in for the kill with his brother, and he would have done if Magnus hadn't clamped an imposing hand on his shoulder. He squeezed ever so tightly and Felix' knees buckled for a moment before he acclimatised to the pain. "I'd shut your mouth if I were you, young one, unless you would rather sit and watch?"
Felix gulped. He hadn't expected anyone to have heard him picking on his brother. Shit, he thought, but kept his mouth shut.
"The creator will be manning the bar so Turk can play," Aro announced now the guard had calmed their arguments down to a low din.
"Can't he join the women, too?" Felix asked, cockily, already forgetting Magnus' warning. Having the Juggernaut crook a finger in his direction soon shut him up. He sulked his way over to the master who rounded him out for mouthing off at his guards.
Turk tutted at the impertinent youth and stood firm with Odi. Luckily Turk had no way of knowing that a good many of his team mates actually agreed with Felix!
Seeing Magnus' was taking care of Felix, Aro continued. "You must down at least one flagon of ale in each break."
"Everyone?" Sulpicia asked, voicing the concern of all the elite ladies combined. They didn't drink ale!
"Yes," Aro confirmed. "No exceptions, my lady." He knew the teams were unequal, and having the ladies drinking ale they weren't used to would put them at a further disadvantage, but he would be levelling up the playing field with the twins' gifts. (not that he had told them so yet.)
"You may drink more, if you wish," Aro continued. "But be warned, if it affects your play, your team mates are equally free to take their revenge."
Turk saw his chance to get his own back on the young Volturi prince. "Felix, you better stick to the minimum!"
"Ha. Ha," Felix replied sarcastically. He was annoyed that so many of the guards joined Turk in his decree and even more annoyed that Magnus let them continue. Two faced bastard!
"As you know, Atia will be blocking gifts to make this a fair fight," Aro explained. "But not all gifts."
Aro pulled his baby vampires forward and the crowd gasped. "Jane and Alec will retain theirs, and they will fight for their team."
The arguments from the guards turned on their head. "No way!" the guys complained, fearing Jane's gift. "How's that for fair, guys?" the women returned, gleefully.
Aro turned to his children who positively glowed at having the chance to use their gifts with wanton malice. "Alec, to advance your team you can concentrate your gift on only one woman a time, and only for the count of five, then you must release them. Move on to another," he explained. "Jane, you will use your gift against the men."
Hearing the jeering between his guards reaching a crescendo, Aro called order. "Those are the rules!" he roared, ending all complaints immediately. "Last man standing wins a month's wages and a full week's wages for every member of the team," he added. That cheered everyone up.
Sulpicia looked down her nose to her mate. "Make that player, my love. Not man."
"If you like," Aro replied with a wink, hinting no woman would possibly win.
Caius moved over to Aro. "And who will be paying for that prize?" he asked.
"Honestly, you must squeak when you walk you tight bastard!" Aro mocked his co-master for his known miserly ways. "Basileus will put up the prize money."
Caius smirked slyly. "It's easy to be generous when you have the creators pocket to play from!"
"I would ask you all to avoid aiming for the head," Atia told the gathering before leaving with the twins for the wall where they would stand over the playing field.
Aro waited for his mother to leave. "But other than that, throw to kill… or at least maim," he told them all with a vicious glint in his eye. "I for one won't be taking any prisoners."
Sulpicia floated passed her mate to gather the rest of her team mates. "Watch yourself, my love," she warned him. She, too, was looking forward to the coming violence.
"This is going to be a fucking blood bath," Caius huffed knowingly.
"Worried, Caius?" Magnus asked, slapping a hand on the masters back.
"You know the guards are going to be aiming doubly hard at us!" Caius complained. "Especially me."
Magnus took a look around his guards. "It's good for morale," he breezed. Though he was glad all those guards who he had whipped so often were on his team. I would be obliterated if I was against the male members of my guard! he thought. He was right too. Not that the guards were against Magnus in anyway. On the contrary, they loved their assigned Master. Magnus and Freyr were a huge improvement to answering to Caius or Aro. But still, Magnus dealt with guard disobedience with a firm hand, even if it was a fair one. There were few amongst the male members who would have missed the chance to pelt a cannon ball at him if the opportunity presented itself.
"You have ten minutes to drink as much as you can and talk strategy with your teammates," Aro announced, heading straight to his father for a drink, followed by every man on the pitch.
The women, more sensibly, went to talk tactics.
Sulpicia took her team over to the wall and called Atia and Jane to join them. She wasn't above using her mother in law and daughter to help her team win the match.
"You need a plan," Atia instructed.
Sulpicia nodded. "We stay in pairs, so if Alec clouds one who has the ball and they drop it, the other one can pick it up and throw."
"And who will you be aiming for?" Atia pushed, guiding their plans.
"They are going to start off easy on us," Sulpicia told the group. "We need to use that to our advantage."
Atia agreed along with everyone else. "Concentrated attacks on two or three at a time," She suggested. "Take the biggest ones down first."
"My poor Magnus," Freyr feigned concern for her mate. As the biggest member of the opposite team he would obviously be their first 'kill'. "I am going to clobber him," she added joyfully.
Chelsea grinned widely at her Master. "Vicious!" she offered in congratulation, vowing to do the same to her own mate.
"Aim for their backs if possible," Atia suggested. "It will give you a bigger target and it will be harder for them to catch the ball."
Carmen smiled wickedly. "If they are facing you, go for the crotch - they will be too interested in protecting their assets and it will be an easy hit."
The female guards giggled hearing the elite ladies talk in such a way.
"Jane, you must keep your eye on whoever has the ball," Atia instructed her granddaughter.
"And don't stick too rigidly to the five seconds thing," Sulpicia added.
"My lady!" Chelsea, being one of the more outspoken members of the guard was the only one to respond verbally to hearing their queen insisting her own child to cheat on their behalf.
"The men are stronger than us, they are faster than us - that's just basic physiology," Sulpicia explained her reasoning. "But Jane's gift is much harder to recover from than Alec's, and she can move her gift from one to another in the blink of an eye." She tuned to her daughter, eyes glowing with pride. "You can win this for us, my darling."
Demetri listened to the plan and he would have usually, as his mother had already told everyone, been the ultimate team player. He had to be a team player being without defensive gifts. Not today. The boy glared at his older brother downing pints with the all the other guys in the coven and he felt then, more than ever before, an outsider in his own family. I'm levelling every ball I can catch at your fat head, he thought to Felix.
The men had all downed a flagon or two a piece when Magnus remembered they were supposed to be talking strategy. "What's the plan then?" he asked his team mates.
"It's every man for themselves out there," Aro said with a shrug. "Good luck!"
Taking up the box of cannon balls, Aro rolled the balls into roughly the middle of the pitch and instructed the teams to take a side each to begin. When the women were gathered at one end, and the men at the other, he called out in question: "Are we ready?!" and then promptly dropped to his knees in agony. "Ahhh!" he roared. "JANE!"
Jane smiled sweetly down to her father. "Just warming up, daddy."
"Let the games commence!" Atia called, projecting her voice perfectly over the vampires below who descended into one blurred, homogenous mass.
…
Aro hadn't thought about how long the game would last when he came up with the idea, but he had assumed it would be longer than forty minutes! The first to fall was, as the ladies had planned, Magnus. The poor coven master was pelted with three cannon balls simultaneously, lasting only thirty seconds into play and exited the pitch with cracks to his lumbar vertebrae. The next to fall was Aro. Sulpicia had hoped to take down her own mate but was beaten to the punch by her brother's in law! It went something like this:
Aro to his brothers, neither of whom were proving to be particularly efficient on the field: "Do you pair have fucking scurvy from eating animals or something?"
At the same time, Carlisle and Eleazar captured a cannon ball a piece and levelled them both at their cocky brother's balls. Aro, naturally tried to save his manhood. In doing so the solid iron ball crashed into his hands, breaking every single finger in one go.
"Man up!" Eleazar crowed, only to suddenly crash to the floor when a Carmen took his legs out with a cannon ball.
Jane worked her gift expertly, rendering the men's play utterly futile. In fact, they only managed to get one woman out in the entire game. Some would say it was Heidi's own fault for flirting with the enemy team.
Luckily, both Magnus and Aro had recovered enough to be able to forcibly remove Felix and Demetri from play when they started brawling on the pitch.
As the game continued behind them, Aro gave his sons a round of fucks at the bar. "You were singling him out, Felix," he accused his eldest boy. "He's your brother. Your YOUNGER brother…" Aro stalled seeing Felix' face contort, ready to refute Aro's assertion that Demetri was in fact his brother. "I dare you to say otherwise!"
"But…" Felix promptly shut seeing his father's eyes widen in warning. He took a look around the castle grounds. Damn it! Too many people here, he thought, and decided not to push his father any further. Instead, he went for turning some heat on Demetri. "He was aiming at my head," Felix reminded his father, giving daggers to his brother. "That was against the rules."
"Yes, actually," Aro had to agree with Felix there. "What the hell were you playing at aiming for his face?"
Demetri folded his arms tightly across his chest. The boy was willing himself not to release the tears he felt brewing behind his eyes. The whole 'brother' thing didn't bother him. He couldn't care less whether Felix thought of him as his real brother or not. But the implication that he wasn't truly Aro's bothered him immensely. He wasn't going to admit that in front of Felix. "I didn't aim for his head on purpose. His big fat face kept getting in the way," he sneered.
Felix grinned wickedly at his little brother. "At least my big fat face belongs here."
As the pair of them descended into yet another argument, Aro flexed his hands. They still ache, he thought to himself looking at his broken knuckles. "My lord!" he called to his father. "Would you oblige?" Aro gestured to his unwitting brats.
Basileus had lined up shots of dungeon blood along the bar ready for any who required some pain relief and called Magnus over to guard the supplies before he joined Aro. Only Heidi had obliged so far - the guys, with their rampant male pride already in tatters being brought down by the women in the coven, were all trying to power through their pain.
Without saying a word, Basileus strolled over to his grandsons, neither of whom had the foresight to end their squabble before he got there. He clouted the pair of them and caught hold of Felix quickly when he looked set to launch back at Demetri. Basileus' gave the boy a shake for good measure. "Just quit Felix!"
Felix huffed sullenly at his grandfather's side. He stopped any physical attempts to get to Demetri, but his mouth just couldn't quit. "Why does the stray get away with everything?"
Whilst Basileus cuffed the boy again, Aro growled. "You had better get out of my sight, boy."
Magnus shuddered thinking of the night ahead if Felix was already in such a mood. Once he's had a few bloodwines he will be a bloody nightmare. "He isn't coming in the guard hall acting like that, Aro," he called over.
The guards all hid their laughter behind cupped hands but Felix knew well enough that they would be ribbing him over another potential banishment soon enough. Potential, in Felix' mind, as he fully expected Aro to put Magnus straight.
"The games over anyway," Basileus said, seeing the pitch empty and heading their way. "He can go straight home."
"What?!" Felix spluttered. The game was only the first part of the day and it was the second part, the getting fucked off your face on bloodwine part, that Felix was most interested in. "You can't be fucking serious?!"
Aro had refused his father offer of blood initially and suffered his broken hands healing on their own. Hearing Felix talk in such a way, particularly in such a public space had him rethinking his initial objection. "Dad, I will take that feed after all. Just so I can wail that little bastard for his insolence."
Felix gulped audibly and backed away slowly. Once he was sure he could out run his father, he turned and bolted. He didn't stop until he was safely inside the privacy of Carlisle' suite.
Aro's attention was quickly drawn to his mate floating towards him. "All hail the victor, my queen."
Sulpicia fully intended to gloat, but whatever was going on with her sons needed to be dealt with first. Though looking at Demetri's sullen expression, she wondered if she really wanted to know. With a quizzical expression to her mate, he quickly filled her in on what had occurred.
Once in he was done, Aro turned back to Demetri. "You can go, too."
"Is that wise?" Sulpicia whispered to her mate. "They will kill each other left to their own devices."
"Good point," Aro agreed. "You two, go with them," he added, smiling at the twins.
"You want us to babysit our older brothers?" they answered in unison, as they sometimes did. Alec was definitely questioning his father's idea whilst Jane's pleased tone suggested she was already plotting her brothers doom.
"Using the twins as unpaid babysitters doesn't sit right with me, my love," Sulpicia said.
Aro reached in his pocket and pulled out a handful of coins. "How about my paid babysitters?" he asked the twins, dumping the heap of gold into their small hands.
"Deal!" Jane crowed. I'd torture those two for free!
Aro pulled Alec back before he could follow his sister. "Fetch me if there's any bloodshed," he told his youngest.
Carlisle limped over wearing the same wounded hands that had taken Aro out.
Aro winced at his brother's broken fingers, knowing how that felt. "Who took you out, brother?"
"It was a dual assault from your daughter and wife," Carlisle explained. He wasn't bitter at all, on the contrary, he was feeling proud as punch.
Basileus pulled his boy aside and offered his wrist.
Carlisle shook his head. He could see Aro hadn't taken the magical cure and he wasn't going to give his big brother the ammunition to tease him later. Why he thought he had a choice was anyone's guess.
"Carlisle," Basileus spoke quietly to his son. "I don't want you drinking dungeon blood," he explained. "There's no point suffering." When Carlisle still looked unsure, even though his hands were burning like a bitch, Basileus sealed the coffin. "I'll control Aro," he offered.
Carlisle relented, but he had one eye on his brother as he fed.
Aro wasn't interested in Carlisle right then, he had his arms wrapped around his mate. "Thank you for avenging my honour, my queen," he crooned into her ear.
"Oh, I wasn't avenging your honour, my love," Sulpicia explained. "Carlisle was the last man standing."
Aro spun around just in time to see Carlisle wipe the blood from their father from the corner of his mouth. "You?!" Aro blurted. "How were you the last man standing?!"
Before Carlisle could launch into a self-aggrandising rhetoric, Sulpicia unknowingly cut him off at the knees. "We had a list to follow," she told them. "Carlisle was least likely to attack, so he was last."
"Hear that, brother?" Aro said slyly. "You were the biggest pussy on the team."
Basileus glared in Aro's direction and it was enough to have the king backing away, much the way Felix had done earlier. He resumed his chat with his wife instead. "You made a list of who to attack?"
Sulpicia nodded. "Other than you and Felix, we followed it to the letter."
"And we won," Carmen added happily. "It appears we women are better strategists than the weaker sex."
"Which is concerning when it's the men who run missions, don't you think?" Eleazar commented, backing up his mate. He took a shot of dungeon blood from the bar and knocked it back in front of everyone without Basileus uttering a single word in objection. It REALLY pissed his brothers off that Eleazar was allowed the coven drug when neither of them were.
Aro puffed the air from his cheeks. "El, will you please try to remember which team you are on?!" it was all he could say with Basileus standing right there next to him.
"Are we done out here?" Magnus called from the bar. He had convinced the guards to take a shot of dungeon blood by knocking back a shot himself and the glasses were all empty now. "Let's move to the guard hall," he suggested. Midsummer equalled drinking to Magnus and he was far too sober for his liking.
Everyone filed into the castle, passing Caius and Dora lying on the grass. "Are you coming?" Magnus asked when he walked by.
Caius shook his head. "My ankle's busted," he explained, pointing to the odd direction his foot lay in. "Your bloody wife threw a cannon ball at me."
"Well," Magnus stifled his laughter, "that was the game, Caius."
Caius smiled in reply, with no hint of humour.
Magnus held the bottle of dungeon blood and wondered for a moment about offering his co-master some. Caius rejected it before he could.
"I don't want any of that, Magnus. I'll just wait here until its healed."
That could take all night! Without asking, because Caius would have only refused, Magnus hoisted the younger master up onto his good foot. "Walk," he instructed, holding up Caius' left side for support. "Or hop?" he added with a sympathetic laugh.
Neither said so, but Magnus knew Caius was grateful for the help.
In the guard hall, the earlier jeering at one another between the guards had fallen into good natured ribbing, much to Freyr's relief. She knew her mate would be drinking his fill that night so she would be the one dealing with any fallout.
After Magnus delivered Caius to the table where the other elite were gathered, he sought out his mate. Coming up behind her and wrapping his huge frame around her body, he drawled into her ear, "I know you took me out, my dear." He tried so hard to sound threatening, but it never worked, Freyr knew her mate could never threaten her.
"You were the biggest target on the field, Magnus," Freyr explained, "you had to be the first to fall."
Magnus stretched out the ache in his back from the cannon ball assault. "I am impressed with your strategic skills, even if I fell victim to it."
Victim?! Freyr thought. The very idea that Magnus could be anyone's victim was hysterical. "Work hard, play hard," she told him. "And no one works harder than we women."
"On that note," Magnus collected a flagon of bloodwine from the bar. "I intend to play hard myself tonight." That flagon didn't last a minute as it joined the other six Magnus had drank before and during the very short game.
"I can't believe how much you have drank today!" Freyr commented before Magnus could head back to the bar. "How are you still standing?"
"It's Midsummer! It's my duty to drink as much as I can." Magnus smiled broadly. "Would you like a drink, my lady?" he asked.
Freyr threw her mate a withering look, as though he should have known the question to be absurd. "The more you drink the less I drink. One of us should be in a fit state."
Magnus nodded sagely. "I agree, my dear" he said, adding cheekily, "and I am glad it's you."
"That's okay, my dear," Freyr nodded to herself, already plotting on getting Magnus back for doubling her work load for the day. "Drunk old fool!" It wasn't often that Magnus checked out of his duties towards their flock, so she would give him the night to enjoy, but she still didn't relish the extra duties she would be picking up in his absence.
Turk served Magnus to a second flagon as he inhaled the first. "What did Vikings drink, back in the day?" he asked out of curiosity.
"The blood of our enemies," the master replied with a wink before joining his co-masters. Marcus had arrived, looking his melancholy self, stamping on Magnus' buzz a little. "Keep bringing them over, Turk!" Magnus called, taking a seat.
"Are you compos mentis enough to go over the reports?" Marcus asked as Magnus lolled in his chair.
"Today?" Magnus whined. "It's supposed to be a day off!"
Caius looked as miserable as Magnus did to hear talks of work. "It's a day off for the guards - we don't get days off," he complained to the Juggernaut.
Basileus heard them both but pressed Marcus for information anyway. He was anxious to hear how they stood with the Romanian's new knowledge of the inner workings of the Volturi. New knowledge that had been garnered through his own failings. "What do we know, Marcus?" he asked, whilst adding some of his own blood to Caius' cup to aid his healing.
"Very little, on the face of it, my friend," Marcus replied.
He went on to explain the scant information Talia and Phoebe had returned with. None of the covens in the alliance had received any suspect visitors, though word had spread of Lucius and the Romanian infiltration of the Volturi coven through passing rogues and the like. The most surprising facet of information was the rumour that the Romanian coven were all but starving to extinction in their Russian lands, forced to feed on the lowest coven members due to the lack of humans in the area. It was just a happy rumour though - no eye witness accounts from what Talia and Phoebe had said.
"Why do we call them the Romanian coven if they are in Russia?" Carlisle asked. He had always wondered about that and as everyone else was silent, considering the news Marcus had brought them, he felt it a good time to enquire.
"They started in Romania," Eleazar explained. "During our wars with their coven our side pushed them out of their lands across eastern Europe and into Russia."
"Why did you leave them there?" Carlisle asked, turning to Aro as Eleazar hadn't been with the coven at that time. It wasn't like the Volturi to let their enemies go. "Why didn't you finish them off?"
Aro sniggered, looking in his co-master's direction. "Because Caius doesn't like being cold," he said mockingly.
"Neither do you," Caius sneered in return. "It was a choice WE made at the time." He put heavy emphasis on the 'we', looking to both Aro and Marcus.
"We?!" The pair of them exclaimed.
"It was the two of you who made that decision," Marcus stated flatly. His memory wasn't so short as theirs. He was less inclined to change history the way they liked to either.
Caius wasn't having that. He wasn't taking the blame for the Romanians still being a fighting force either. "Your mouth was moving during those plans the same as ours was, Marcus - WE made the choice," he said forcefully.
Marcus shook his head and scoffed at Caius' assertions. "I said at the time we should have finished the job. Leaving Stefan and Vladimir alive was a grave mistake."
"You were happy to leave Amun alive a few centuries later," Aro interjected. "Same situation."
Marcus agreed there. "And I was right about Amun, too, was I not? Amun has never gone against our rulings again and he holds the strongest, and I believe the most supportive coven in the alliance."
Caius' shoulders fell. He never won in an argument with Marcus and had long since given up putting any real effort into it. Aro, however, was not to be perturbed.
"Supportive?" he repeated, "Amun sent Lucius to us!"
"Unknowingly," Marcus reminded the group. "Stefan and Vladimir, however…"
Aro shivered, "Russia is too bloody cold to prat about chasing down vagrants." One look at Caius and his gurning grin shut Aro up sharpish. Why the fuck did I say that?! Now it looks like it was my fault, too. It was of course Aro's fault too - both he and Caius had refused to move onto Russia to chase the Romanians down when they fled.
"They aren't vagrants now, are they?" Basileus boomed. Ending the squabble that had started between Aro and Caius. "They are a full coven at fighting force."
Marcus called order by simply raising a hand, as he often had to do with his co-masters, and even Basileus at times. "The entire alliance is on high alert and we've heard nothing of the Romanians making a move since Lucius was here. We have to take the time to cement our structures to ensure our safety."
"I'd rather attack," Magnus said, bolstered by all he'd drunk. He didn't mind the cold so much.
"We don't have the numbers for that," Aro dismissed the idea out of hand. It would be a bloody bloodbath, he thought. "I'm not losing all we have built to take out Stefan and Vladimir."
"Call on the alliance then," Caius suggested. He could do with getting out of the castle, even if it was to the depths of hell. "Isn't that the point of having them aligned to us?"
Aro wasn't going that way, either. "It's too soon to call on the alliance for such a fearsome war."
"And it would be war," Marcus stated, backing Aro up.
"We could do it ourselves," Magnus commented, mainly to himself though Caius heard and agreed.
Basileus shook his head very slowly. He wasn't risking his family in a war so far away from home without any back up. And he had lost confidence in himself to do the job justice "No, we couldn't," he said. "We have no idea of their number, their skill set, nothing. Very few escape that coven alive."
The creator had spoken, so that pretty much ruled out any idea of an aggressive attack from Magnus and Caius, much to their ire.
"If they really know everything about us, surely they could have taken us out already?" Carlisle posed. It seemed odd to him that their arch enemy supposedly knew the coven inside out yet hadn't attacked on that information.
Eleazar had lived in the coven longer than his little brother, and though he hadn't seen any of the wars, they were before his time, he had made it his business to know exactly what had happened in them. He also, unlike Carlisle, knew his father was fallible. Where Carlisle's faith in the creator told him that Lucius couldn't possibly have given away trade secrets with Basileus at his side, Eleazar believed it had happened. "If Lucius hadn't been so self-serving the Romanians would have taken us out already."
Everyone agreed with that. It was only Lucius' desire to keep the money rolling in that had made the boy release the information slowly to the Romanian envoys. Taking a year to gain all they had.
"We owe our lives to that boy's greed," Marcus said, supporting Eleazar. "Knowing Stefan and Vlad, they will be gathering resources, I'm sure of it."
"Which is exactly what we should be doing," Caius added. He didn't like being a sitting duck, waiting for the Romanian coven to descend. It was in his nature to attack, not wait.
"We are," Aro told him. "Keeping the other major covens on side is the best defence we have right now."
"We could take on a batch of newborns?" Magnus suggested between flagons. "Bump the numbers up?"
"I'm not against that," Aro mused. Not against it, but I don't want to end up with a load of newborns to worry about right now. He looked to his fellow master. "Who will have the newborns?"
"Guards are Magnus' job," Caius scoffed. He saw Basileus turn a beady eye on him and winced. Don't look at me, he begged through his mind, wishing he'd kept his mouth shut.
Basileus heard him, but he went in on Caius anyway. "And what exactly is your job right now, Caius?" he asked. He had his elbows resting on the table and his chin resting on his hands, staring at Caius expecting an answer. It was intimidating, as he had intended it to be.
"Oh, you know," Caius said, trying to think of something credible. "Training, missions…" he tailed off, having nothing else to add.
Basileus cocked his head to the side. "I do hope training our long standing, already fully trained guards isn't taking up too much of your time, Caius?" He was full of fake concern. "And are we running many missions at the moment?"
Caius floundered, desperately trying to come up with something more substantial as his current work load.
"We are working on new drills with the guards, Basileus," Magnus answered on his behalf. "To see how quickly we can have the whole castle on lock down should the need arise.
Basileus eyed Magnus for a moment. The Juggernaut had been defending Caius a heck of a lot over the last eighteen months. Caius didn't exactly have a cheering squad so Basileus had let it go when it had occurred in private, but he wasn't so inclined to let it go if Magnus was going to be taking a public stand against him. I already have Caius refusing my instructions, I'm not having Magnus go that way, too.
Magnus, sadly, wasn't privy to Basileus' thoughts, and he'd drunk too much to make use of his own gift and read the danger at the table. "We need to be prepared should there be an attack, after all the secrets Lucius sold, don't we?" he added cockily. Even in his drunken state he realised his error when a quiet gasp spread through their gathering.
"A word."
How can two such simple words cause a flood of fear in man the size of Magnus? Quite easily when they are growled by the creator of vampire kind. Basileus stood very slowly from his seat and placed both hands flat on the table, tipping himself forward so he was only a foot away from Magnus. It was an imposing sight to go with 'a word'.
Magnus shuffled from his seat and followed Basileus into the empty masters' office for what, no doubt, would be an unpleasant chat.
"We'll take on newborns in the new year," Marcus said, downing his drink and leaving Aro and Caius to it.
"Blimey," Aro whistled into the air. "Magnus is feeling brave tonight."
"He's drunk," Caius shrugged, acting like he didn't know what their fellow master was doing.
Like Aro was going to let it go! "Why is he defending you so much?"
"I don't know," Caius lied. "Leave him to it - I need all the help I can get."
Aro didn't push Caius any further. He knew only too well that occasionally, immortal lords needed a break from their duties. He wasn't worried about Caius even returning to his old work. We can just get someone else to torture our adversaries, he reasoned. The world is full of evil cunts. Aro quite preferred the new Caius. Or rather, the old Caius as he used to be. The first friend he'd made as a vampire and one who he still held most dear. Caius being less of a twisted cunt was a good thing in Aro's mind.
Magnus wasn't fairing so easily with Basileus as the inquisitor.
"Why are you facilitating Caius sitting around on his ass doing nothing?" he asked, jabbing Magnus in the chest.
Magnus grimaced. Freyr had warned him about being to mouthy with the creator. Their new-found friendship wasn't solid enough, she had told him. Almost as bad as being taken back down a few pegs by Basileus was the prospect of the earache Magnus knew he would get from his mate for fucking things up.
He attempted to look contrite, but Magnus was drunk enough to respond without tempering his answer. "Because," he huffed, "Caius is not sitting around doing nothing. He's helping with the guard again and he's doing it without reverting back to being a vicious cunt." Basileus didn't look too impressed but Magnus wasn't sure what else to say. "That's a good thing, isn't it? What can I tell you, Basileus?"
Basileus considered Magnus' explanation for a moment. He didn't object to Caius to being more reasonable, of course he didn't. But he was concerned for the young master turning his back on the work he had once taken such joy from, (even if that work was abhorrent to most). That said, Basileus also knew it was his fault. Everyone else in the coven, at least on the surface, had returned to normal after Lucius' infiltration - Caius was the only one who appeared to be suffering from some residual effect and it bothered Basileus immensely. If Caius was back on track, Basileus could rest a little easier on the great travesty he had committed against his coven.
He didn't want to deal with his own feelings on the matter, of course, his male pride wanted to push those feelings of failure deep down inside. What he really wanted to know was why Magnus had taken Caius in as some sort of surrogate son!
"I want you to tell me why you are protecting Caius," he finally answered, taking Magnus' seat at his desk and settling down for the in-depth answer he expected.
Magnus scowled. I know you are taking my seat to make a point, he thought. Magnus flopped into the opposite seat. I would usually have a guard sitting here begging my forgiveness and now I'm in the hot seat. Great!
"Fine," he huffed, trying to find the words to explain the change between him and Caius. "You pushed Caius too far that night with Lucius and he's cracked. He doesn't even want to go back down to those dungeons because of what you made him do."
No one had dared to be that straight with Basileus on the matter of what had happened to Caius. It took him a moment to regain his composure after he felt his temper flare. "He's slaughtered thousands of vampires…"
"Not kids!" Magnus bravely cut Basileus off. "Never kids. Never like that."
I need to tone it down! he told himself. Magnus was half shouting at the creator of vampire kind and all he could think about was the round of fucks he was going to get from Freyr for it.
With a more measured tone, he continued. "How much dungeon blood did Caius get through that night? More than Aro ever has in his life, I bet, and look at the effect it has on him."
Basileus took a steadying breath before he replied. He was getting pissed off, but he knew that Magnus didn't really deserve his anger. I'm the only one that deserves my anger, he thought.
"I know this already, Magnus," he said calmly, "and that isn't what I asked you."
"You were with your family after that night. You didn't see the effect it had on Caius - I did," Magnus explained.
Basileus hadn't stopped to think about that before. He had been taken up with making things right in his own house - making things right with his sons, his daughters in law, his grandchildren, his mate! Caius, nor the rest of the coven really hadn't been a concern at the time. They should have been, he castigated himself. The whole coven should have been my concern, but Caius especially. Fuck. "What happened?"
"I had to drag him from his chambers," Magnus said quietly. He didn't want anyone else to know just how vicious Caius had been towards his mate. He didn't need to say anymore on that, the look on Basileus' face told him that he was looking at the scene in Magnus' memories.
"It really wasn't his fault, Basileus. Dora was the first person he saw and he just went for her."
It was a poor explanation as to why Caius had viciously attacked his mate when she opened the door to him, especially so soon after the previous attack only a few days before - which was also precipitated by the dungeon blood Carlisle and Felix had slipped into everyone's drinks at the guard party.
That was fucking Lucius, too, Basileus reminded himself. He didn't blame Caius for attacking Dora, not that it made it right. Luckily Magnus had intercepted him before any permanent damage could be done to either Athenodora or her marriage. Both times.
"He was in a mess for weeks," Magnus continued.
Basileus followed Magnus' memories as he spoke. "You kept him in your quarters?" he asked, having seen the destruction Caius had inflicted on the middle floor suite.
"I didn't have much choice, did I?" Magnus replied. He grimaced thinking of that time. Caius was rampant on the overload of dungeon blood in his system and must have attacked Magnus at least a dozen times, really going for the kill. It was only Magnus' superior size that had kept his head on his shoulders. Most of his furniture, however, was to be lost to their brawling.
"No matter how much he purged the dungeon blood effects just wouldn't subside. He was sick, he was tormented by the darkest demons in his soul - his own psyche tortured him…"
As Basileus listened to Magnus tell him how he had at first kept Caius under control, he realised something else was there. You looked after him, he surmised. This sounds just like me and Aro… His mind went back to his thoughts at the beginning of the day when he had seen Magnus coming protectively to Caius' aid over fetching the dungeon blood. I wonder if I can use this to my advantage, he thought. He made a mental note to talking with Atia on the matter.
"So what if he isn't ripping people apart right now?" Magnus continued. "There's no one for him to rip apart, is there?"
Basileus bobbed his head, we can find someone else to do that, he thought, much the same as Aro had. He decided to test the water on how far Magnus would go for his co-master. "And what about when there is?"
Magnus let his head fall back into the chair. For such an expert warrior, Magnus didn't relish torturing anyone. He was a fairly placid vampire, all things considered, and though he was certainly capable of ripping a rogue limb from limb, even a whole pack of rogues, it wasn't something he took any kind of joy from. But thinking about all Caius had been through, how far he had come from the broken mess of a man he had been a year or so before, Magnus committed himself to the task. "Then I will take care of it," he ended resolutely.
Interesting, Basileus thought with a small smile. Very interesting. "Then we are done here." Basileus stood from his seat. "Go back to your drinking, my friend."
This whole thing is still your fault, Magnus thought loudly as he walked away.
Basileus wasn't letting that one go. "Watch it, Magnus!" he bellowed after him, just at the moment Magnus had opened the guard hall door so he knew everyone would have heard the admonishment.
Marcus took Magnus' place with the creator in the masters' office, wanting to check on his old friend. He floated in drawing a billow of smoke from his opium pipe and sat on the desk where Basileus stood.
"Would you like to talk about that?" he asked simply, opening the floor for Basileus should he need to go over anything.
"I've broken Caius," Basileus admitted quietly. It may have been a simple thing for one to say, but it was something Basileus had been hiding from since that night in the dungeons. "He's a mess and it's my fault."
Marcus nodded. I've been telling you that for a year, he thought. "So, what are you going to do about it?"
"I'm working on it," Basileus replied.
Marcus took another drag of the pipe. "We learn more from our failures than successes, my friend. Be kind to yourself."
Basileus waved the smoke away dramatically. "How does that shit make you even more reasonable?" he asked, coughing for effect.
Marcus smiled, "I would offer you some, my friend, but it makes you even more hostile."
"Touché, Marcus," Basileus laughed. "Touché."
…
The Volturi family staggered home from the guard hall. Only Atia managed to walk with any poise and even she was tipsy from the amount they had drank. Sulpicia and Carmen followed their parents in law up the stairs when Aro and Eleazar went to collect the twins from Carlisle's suite, assuming they would be asleep and need carrying to their beds. Sulpicia wouldn't normally have left her mate to such a task in the state he was in, but on this very rare occasion, Sulpicia was in no state to do the job herself.
"Look at how angelic she looks," Carlisle said about his niece, sleeping soundly on his sofa. "No one would believe the agony she can inflict at," he mused out loud, thinking of the pain Jane had inflicted on him during the game. That was way longer than five seconds, he remembered bitterly.
"And so happily," Eleazar added.
Jane had made sure to give all the guys a damn good blast of her powers in the short coven game that morning, and her family members suffered more than the guards as the child played with her gift.
Aro went to check on Felix and Demetri to be sure they hadn't ripped each other to shreds in his absence. They used to leave the four of them to their own devices quite often, but over the last few decades, an adult was always with them in the evenings.
When he opened the boys' bedroom door, he was surprised to find Felix sleeping alone. No Demetri. Too drunk to panic, Aro staggered across the hall to Carlisle's room where he found his son.
They must have placed themselves in separate rooms for a reason, Aro mused. He took a seat next to a sleeping Demetri, trying not to disturb him, and read through his memories. Felix had continued to wind him up until the twins arrived. He would have continued then, Aro had no doubt, had Jane not blasted him with her gift. Aro was usually dead against Jane using her gift in the confines of their home (it was for defence, only) but he could see that he had muddied those waters by allowing his young pair of demons to have free reign during the games.
Once Jane had warned her brothers that a single raised voice would see them both belted in the guard hall, Felix and Demetri had separated and ended their argument. Lying little witch, Aro thought of his girl. Aro had issued no such threat. It worked though.
"What are you doing in here?" Carlisle complained seeing his brother sitting on his bed. He stood awkwardly, leaning against the wardrobe. Aro could tell he was trying to hide something and his curiosity took over the alcohol in his system.
"What is that?" Aro asked. Peering around his brother to a large wooden beam, or something, behind him.
Carlisle blocked his brother's path. "I'm only letting you see it if you don't be a cock about it."
"What would I be a cock about?" Are whispered in reply, trying not to wake his son.
"Just promise me you won't be a cock!" Carlisle reiterated a little louder.
"Shush!" Aro hushed him. "I won't be a cock." He felt ridiculous for having to promise such a thing.
Carlisle moved aside and pulled out the wood between the wardrobe and the wall, standing it in front of him for Aro to see.
"You have a cross in here? Like a church cross?" Aro asked curiously as he inspected the old oak structure.
It stood as tall as the pair of them, highly polished and gilded in gold trim. It was the very most religious thing Aro had been close to in centuries.
"Why do you have this, brother?" he asked. He wasn't being his usual mocking self, having promised not to be a cock, but he couldn't hide his confusion. "Did you steal it?"
"No, I didn't steal it!" Carlisle huffed in reply. "Dad gave it to me."
Aro smirked, he couldn't help himself. "Which dad?"
"Our Dad, you jerk!" Carlisle put the cross back in place. He felt bad hiding it away in the dusty corner of his room, but he felt worse having it out on show. At the same time, owning the cross was important to him.
"Basileus went back to England with Atia and they took the cross from my old church," Carlisle explained. "It was my fathers, the pastor's, and his fathers and his… you get it."
"Did you ask for it?" Aro enquired.
Carlisle shook his head, but he wore a small, warming smile thinking that his parents had fetched it without him asking for it. "Dad gave it to me at Easter."
Oh! Aro thought. He remembered the two of them going off in secret and Carlisle refusing to tell him what he had been given. Aro had assumed it was money. He would never have guessed a cross.
"Aro, listen," Carlisle snapped his brother from his musings, "this is important to me so…"
"So don't take the piss out of you for it?" Aro finished his brother's sentence.
He looked over his shoulder to his middle boy. The pillow was still damp where he must have cried himself to sleep that night from Felix' relentless jibes. He planned on setting Felix straight in no uncertain terms, but he also recognised that he had a part to play in his son's attitude.
Deciding it was time he set a better example to his son, Aro turned back to his brother. "I'm glad you have something so special from your human life, Carlisle."
Carlisle took Aro's genuine line as sarcasm. "Prick. I knew I shouldn't have shown you."
"Carlisle!" Aro snapped. "I'm serious!" He really was. "I'm glad you have it. You have no need to hide it from anyone here. Especially me."
Carlisle watched Aro for a moment, waiting for a tell-tale smirk to appear. When nothing came he believed his brother was being genuine, for a change. "Thank you, Aro."
With that they parted and Aro carried his sleeping daughter to her bed. Eleazar had taken Alec, the slightly smaller of the two. Lazy bastard, Aro thought.
He gave Felix a serious round of fucks the next day, and he managed a whole week without goading Carlisle. Small steps.