It's a long, dead life!

by BDE

We join the Volturi in 1663 when Carlisle was turned for his long, dead life and family drama. Aro, Caius, and Marcus are trying to rule the world. Felix, Demetri, Jane and Alec are creating havoc as child vampires and the Denali sisters soon join them. Mature scenes - Corporal Punishment (spanking/discipline) and offensive things, but its the Volturi, so what do you expect?

119. All Hallows Eve

AN: Thank you for taking the time to review and PMs guys, your opinions really help to shape the story lines I'm working on. I'm glad you like how Magnus and Caius are moving… their story line will grow more and more over the next few years.

Feel real guilty as I said I'd have this up sooner in PMs to readers, but it grew and grew and grew in my final checks and only just finished feeding the additions through the whole chapter. Sorry guys!

So… marriage troubles abound in this one….

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All Hallows Eve

The building works were going well, but for the Volturi family, the shared living environment was really taking its toll. In some instances, they were sick of the sight of each other! Arguments were breaking out with a disturbing regularity and such arguments weren't just confined to Felix and Demetri anymore. It had felt like an age had passed since the Midsummer Games and the coven anticipated the release that Halloween would offer them all. Though not everyone was convinced about the plans they had made for the night…

"I'm really not sure about tonight, Sully," Aro huffed, laying his longest, blackest cloak across the back of the corner chair in his father's main chamber. "I never pretend to be something other than I am."

Sulpicia added her own cloak to her mate's and looked to him with a playful expression. "Except for sober, my love. You pretend to be sober quite often."

Aro's scowl soon broke into a coy smile when he failed to come up with a retort. "Touché, my queen."

The plan for Halloween was simple, if dangerous. The entire coven would meet for drinks in the guard hall, all very sociable and above board, and then at 11 o'clock they would leave the castle, find a sleepy village, and terrorise the inhabitants. Dangerous. Very, very dangerous. The masters had all agreed to suspend their law on displaying vampiric nature to the humans for one night only to give the guards their wish.

The coven atmosphere had never been so high, so solidified as one force. After the turmoil of the previous years, Aro was pleased to see his coven reform and like a Phoenix from the ashes rise higher and stronger than ever before. He had agreed to fun and frolic on Halloween in an effort to keep morale going, particularly as the guards were in the final phase of finishing the remodel of the south tower. But he feared that loosening the reins in such a way could lead to losing control - it was a fine balancing act the coven king was playing. But then, what made Aro happier than dicing the lines?

"Tonight will be good fun, my love," Sulpicia said. "The twins are looking forward to spending some time with you."

"I spend time with them, Sul," Aro muttered, hoping she would leave it there.

"They have barely seen you since Midsummer, my love."

Yeah, you would carry it on, he thought. "I was top-dad at Midsummer. They loved using their gifts on us all," Aro breezed, adding 'the little bastards' to himself when he thought how much joy his children had taken in using their gifts on him in particular.

Before Sulpicia could respond, and she had much to say on the matter, Felix broke through their conversation.

"Is there life after death?" he asked, sounding somewhere between deep thought and deep boredom.

The boy slouched across the arm chair where his parents' cloaks had been laid; his legs hanging over one arm, head lolling back over the other. He jumped every time he heard a door opening expecting his grandmother to come and tell him off for slouching. Felix had always thought his own mother was strict for keeping a tidy home, but seeing Sulpicia anxiously tidying the immaculate chambers of the creator and his mate showed Felix that his mother's standards were no match for his grandmother's. Atia seemed to take great offence to 'impropriety' as she called it, which to Felix meant 'slouching', as that's what she seemed to most often tell him off for.

"You are a vampire after human, so I would say so, son," Aro replied as he walked by. "I thought I told you to get some sleep before tonight?"

Felix rolled his eyes, making sure his father didn't see. Aro had indeed stressed the need for his children to sleep the afternoon so they were alert for the evening. Felix had, naturally for Felix, refused. Though he was so bored now that he wished he had taken a nap.

"What about life after vampire death?" Felix mused, trying to entertain himself.

Sulpicia heaved her hulking son's legs from the end of the chair in an attempt to make him look tidier should Atia return. His heavy feet landed to the floor with a thud.

"If you don't clean your room today you will find out soon enough," Sulpicia told her boy, pulling him to his feet.

"Can't do it, Mom," Felix said, face full of fake regret. "I need to get ready for tonight!" With that he headed to the door.

Sulpicia called after her boy in annoyance, "you only need to put your cape on!"

Felix happily ignored his mother's counter argument and bounced happily from the room, passing Eleazar as he went.

"He seems happy," Eleazar commented as he surreptitiously checked the top floor suite for his parents' presence.

"He's excited for tonight," Sulpicia answered protectively before Aro could suggest something else.

"About tonight," Eleazar said taking a seat next to his brother. "We won't be coming."

Aro bobbed his head. "I didn't think you would be, brother, I understand."

He really did. Aro occasionally wished that his brothers were 'normal' vampires with the usual thirst for human blood, but he accepted their dislike for it as just part of who they were.

Eleazar breathed a sigh of relief at not having to defend his choices again. "I'm glad you do as I have just had a round of fucks from Dad for ducking out of it."

"He likes to keep us all in one place, El," Sulpicia explained. She knew her father in law well. "Basileus has no issue with your diet."

"I will still be going out for the night, though," Eleazar pushed on, "so I'm not sure what you want to do with the twins."

"You won't be back tonight?" Aro checked.

If the twins had to take his bed then the end to the night Aro had planned would have to change considerably. He wasn't going to risk fucking in the main chamber of his father's chambers again, not after the degrading admonishment he'd received from his father the last time. Basileus hadn't even allowed Aro the privilege of dressing before she'd set in on how disrespectful he was.

Sulpicia hadn't been subjected to the same treatment. Oh no, she disappeared into the bedchamber and it was all my fucking fault. Equality my ass!

"Probably not until tomorrow," Eleazar replied.

Truthfully, he wasn't too sure how long they would be, it was Carmen's tune he would be dancing to on Halloween, not his own. As though it's ever anything but! Eleazar reminded himself.

"I'd rather not leave the twins to their own devises in my quarters if it's all the same to you."

"Its fine," Aro said, looking to his brother curiously. "But I want to know why. What have they done?" he asked outright.

Eleazar bit his lower lip and wondered how far to fudge the truth. He loved his niece and nephew, and he certainly didn't want to get them in trouble with their father.

"They help themselves to my bloodwine when I'm not there," he admitted. "I don't mind them having some, it's the weaker version of the stuff so no harm done. But I wouldn't want them to over indulge knowing I wasn't going to be around all night."

Aro raised a single eyebrow. He knew his brother well enough to know that would only be a fraction of the problems he was having with the youngest Volturi members - if Eleazar was saying they were stealing his bloodwine, they were certainly doing much worse besides.

"I'm not happy with that at all, and I'm assuming there are other complaints, too?" Aro asked, pushing for details.

"No complaints, Aro," Eleazar said, standing quickly before his brother could touch him and invade his memories. "Relax. I'll see you tomorrow."

Aro turned to his mate as Eleazar left to see if Sulpicia was wondering the same as he was. "I hope you are going to do something about that?" he said, sounding disappointed.

"Aro!" Sulpicia fixed a hand to her hip and shot a look that left him cold. "You act like the twins are mine and the other two are yours."

Aro scoffed at the very idea. "I do not."

"You do!" Sulpicia insisted. "You think the twins are mine to deal with and the boys are yours."

By the gods your voice is shrill when you're pissed off! Aro thought. He watched his mate's lips move as he tried to drown out the sound of her voice, singing to himself in his mind. By the time he tuned back in, the subject of Sulpicia's rant had changed from the twins to their older sons.

"Why else would you have kept all if this from me for all this time?!"

The 'this' Sulpicia was referring to was the on-going battle between Felix and Demetri. Maybe less a battle, more Felix being relentlessly cruel to his younger brother in an effort to amuse himself. The fact that the two of them were under Carlisle's care and not their parents was exasperating the issue. Felix, in his defence, wasn't intentionally picking on his brother's deepest seated fears of being lesser in their father's eyes, he had simply found something that Demetri reacted to and in a typically teenage-sibling fashion, was using it to his advantage.

"I'm sure I told you about the two of them," Aro grumbled.

He sighed internally when Sulpicia added a second hand to her hip and growled at him. Settle yourself in for the long haul, Aro, she's been saving this argument.

"You told me at Midsummer, but this has been going on for months. Years, even!" Sulpicia continued. "Felix is following your poor example of relentlessly teasing his brother."

Aro glared at his mate. He knew that already, he had admitted that to her already. "I have recognised that, and I have worked to put it right," he replied, though with the look of disbelief from his mate he tacked on a quiet, "at least when the kids are around."

Sulpicia returned his glare. "You're such a child."

"Hang on a minute," Aro bustled taking to his feet to put a little distance between the two of them. "We were discussing the twins, how have you turned that around to me being childish?"

"How indeed?!" Sulpicia asked, dripping sarcasm. "The twins are fine, Aro. They are enjoying themselves."

"They are enjoying themselves a little too much if they are sneaking bloodwine, my queen."

Taking a seat at his father's desk, Aro shoved scrolls and loose leaves of paper aside, trying and failing to take proper care of Basileus' ordered chaos. The guards had assured him the south tower would be ready by Christmas - another two months sharing his parents' quarters seemed like an eternity.

Sulpicia followed him and stood the other side of the desk, hands still on her hips and looking irate. "Why do you think the twins are enjoying being with Eleazar and Carmen so much? Have you thought, perhaps, it's because they are getting some attention for a change."

"I would say because they are getting away with murder, but they get that with you anyway, don't they?" Aro winced the moment the words left his mouth. Think before you speak! he cursed himself.

Sulpicia wore an odd expression. It was one of triumph in having proved her point, and also one of anger… having proved her point! "Because the twins are mine and mine alone, yes?"

"I didn't say that, Sully," Aro said, with his hands up pleadingly, but it was too late. He'd damned himself with his own words and he knew it.

This had been a recurring argument between the two of them for years and it had really ramped up in the months that their family had been separated between different living quarters. It was obvious to all that Aro made much more effort to spend time with Felix and Demetri than he did the twins. Sulpicia wasn't the only one to have pointed it out - Atia was putting her two pence worth in at every available opportunity, too.

"It's like you have a secret relationship with Felix and Demetri that I have no part in."

Sulpicia willed herself to calm down. The angrier she got the more likely she was to cry. They would be tears of frustration, but she knew Aro would take it as a sign of her being overly emotional and then dismiss everything she had said as such.

"And what's worse," she continued once she was sure she could without tears. "You have constructed the same relationship for me and twins by simply absolving yourself from their lives on a day to day basis leaving me to deal with their troubles."

Aro scoffed in return, tutting and huffing whilst he came up with a response.

"You knew about Felix being a cock, Sully," Aro insisted, he was ready to go in both barrels now. "He's had an attitude with you, too. But as usual, you leave me to deal with him. The same way you don't like me to be involved with the twins. It's all down to your choosing. You're lassie faire with one set and over protective of the other."

Sulpicia's eyes widened for a moment and she considered really ripping into him. You are ridiculously attentive to one set and completely ignore the other, she thought. You find the older boys entertaining, and the twins boring! I protect the twins from your judgement because they are still scared of you after all they have witnessed in their young lives.

It was all true, but Sulpicia kept it to herself. Instead she looked him up and down in disgust and gave only one word in response. "Wow." And then she walked away.

"Oh fuck!" Aro said, though it was to himself as his mate had already left, slamming the door behind her.

Aro had been a married man for a very long time, he knew well enough that when a woman said 'wow' it was not to be taken as a compliment.

He didn't have long to think on just how stupid his mate thought him as Basileus and Atia stormed into the top floor suite.

"Out!" Basileus ordered his son, whilst receiving an earful from his mate. He didn't want a witness to whatever verbal smack-down Atia had planned, and he could tell from her thoughts it was going to be a good one.

"People don't become useless just because they don't do what you had intended them to do!" Atia stated in the same shrill tone Sulpicia had been using.

Aro stifled his laughter as he walked passed his father to collect the cloaks from the chair, but Basileus still cuffed the back of his head when he was close. He considered complaining to his mother for a moment to gain some support - you would have bollocked the miserable old bastard if it had been Carlisle he slapped without reason, he thought - but the fire in her eyes had him fleeing the top floor chambers and even feeling a little sorry for his father as he went.

"I never said Caius had become useless, my dear," Basileus crooned, trying his very best to placate his mate with his soothing tone.

Like such a thing would work on Atia?! She threw her mate a look that said, 'nice try', before continuing with her complaint. "Then I'm not entirely sure what you are saying, Basileus," she said. "I know you are worried Caius' refusal to work reflects your minor blip allowing Lucius into the coven."

"Minor blip?" Basileus repeated, mainly to himself.

He still harboured massive guilt from that time even though the coven had repaired itself spectacularly. Caius though… he was still the loose cannon in it all, and his continued inactivity was a constant reminder of everything Basileus had allowed to happen under Lucius' direction.

"I'm trying to be kind, my dear," Atia said softly, stalling for a moment before continuing in an entirely different, stern tone. "It is a reflection, Basileus. What else could it be? I think the way Caius is rejecting your orders is simply because your orders are trying to force him into something he isn't comfortable with - like going to the torture room."

"Pft!" Basileus tutted. "So he should only follow the orders he likes?!" he asked in disbelief. That's not how any order works that I know of!

"Obviously not," Atia said, shaking her head. She didn't like sarcasm, she found it insulting. "But you wouldn't make one of your sons do something they felt so opposed to, would you?"

"That's different," Basileus thought out loud. "They are my sons."

"I realise that. Caius isn't anyones son, is he? He is alone in this coven."

Atia felt sorry for Caius. He, and Athenodora too, had made great pains to turn his life over. He accepted that his legends would haunt him for many years to come, but since he had come off the coven drug Caius was really making steps to becoming a better person, a better member of the coven. Atia felt he should be supported in such efforts and the creator of all people should show the most support.

Collecting their cloaks so they could head to the guard hall, Atia continued, "you are supposed to watch over the whole coven, are you not."

Finally something Basileus could respond to without inciting an argument, he thought. "Well that's something I wanted to talk to you about, actually," he said, trying to sound intriguing as he followed his mate down the stairs.

It took all Atia's efforts not to laugh. She knew other women fawned over her mate, she knew he could direct their attentions and even the very thoughts in their heads by a simple change of tone. That shit didn't work with Atia.

It was one of the reasons Basileus had fallen for her so deeply - to her he was a man, no better or worse than any other man and if he wanted her he had to be more than the myth that other women fell to his feet for. It made him better in many ways, and he appreciated the effect she had on him… but there were times, like just then, that he wished she would be a little more susceptible to his charms.

"If this is about Magnus I have heard you thinking it for months already," Atia breezed.

Basileus' planned to 'give' Caius to Magnus. That way, he thought, he could order Magnus to get Caius back to work, and Magnus, because Magnus followed orders, would see it done.

"Why didn't you say anything?!" Basileus asked, annoyed. If Atia had heard it in his thoughts, then she sure as hell knew he was struggling to bring the topic up.

"You would have brought it up properly if you thought you had a workable idea," Atia explained, like she was talking to a small child.

Basileus pulled a face behind him mates make, repeating her word in his mind with a whiney tone. Naturally, Atia was making use of Basileus' gift and 'heard' him. Stopping in her tracks at the bottom of the west tower she spun on her heel and looked her mate up and down.

"You are the creator!" she said, admonishing his childish response.

Basileus suddenly appreciated Aro's complaints about the woman. The way Atia could shame a man into good behaviour with merely a few words or a look was a talent not to be sniffed at.

Dragging his hand down his face and offering a look of contrition to his mate, Basileus stated his plan, as he saw it. "I want to give Caius to Magnus so I don't have to manage him anymore."

"No, my dear," Atia said, and then corrected him. "You wish to give Caius away because it makes you uncomfortable to see the repercussion of your actions and Caius' current instability reminds you of your failure."

With that Atia took off again as they walked to the guard hall at human speed.

Get right to the point, why don't you?! Basileus thought, feeling shamed again for the second time in as many minutes. Fuck me!

"By your own admission, Caius isn't yours," Atia explained. "So how will you give him to someone else? And Magnus is his equal… how will that work?"

"So you think it's a bad idea?" Basileus asked quietly, hoping no guards were milling about.

"I didn't say that, my dear," Atia answered, barely above a whisper for the same reason. "I asked you how it would work."

"So you think it's a good idea?" Basileus questioned. It was definitely a question… he felt like Atia was leading him down the garden path.

"I didn't say that either, Basileus," Atia replied, rolling her eyes at her mates confused expression.

"You need to work out all the knots in your plan before you can put it into action. Though if you only intend on executing this idea because of your own shame… well… I thought you were a better man than that, Basileus."

More shame! Basileus thought dejectedly. Any need?!

Basileus pulled his mate to a standstill outside the guard hall. "What other reason would there be?" he asked.

"Because it would be good for Caius!" Atia all but shouted in her annoyance. You great fool!

Basileus caught the insult. "I heard that," he said, trying to invoke his mate's disapproving tone.

It fell on deaf ear. "I should hope you did, my dear," Atia replied, stalking into the guard hall.

Normally when the creator and his mate arrived at a party they would be surrounded by coven members wishing to talk to them. They always made the effort to greet each and every vampire they passed. Not this time. It was clear the immortal god was in the bad books with his vampiric witch.

Hoping to save himself some blushes, Basileus took Atia's hand and thought his words to her. 'Are you saying it would be good for Caius to have Magnus… not over him, as such, but what? Looking out for him or something?'

"How on earth did you ever make decisions before I came along?" Atia responded aloud. 'You will know whether it would be good for Caius when you have given the matter more thought. Do not suggest anything until you can envisage the outcome,' she told him through her mind.

When Atia took notice of the growing audience, and heard Basileus thinking something she would rather not repeat, she threw her hands in the air. "Or if you would like to turn the coven upside down on a whim, go ahead!" With that she made a beeline for Freyr who would allow her the chance to decompress after another frustrating conversation with her all powerful, but decidedly stupid mate.

"Oh dear, you got the 'go ahead'," Magnus laughed sidling up to the creator.

"What's the 'go ahead'?" Carlisle asked, joining the pair of them with his brothers. "Doesn't that mean just do it?"

"Are you simple?!" Aro asked.

Carlisle was about to object until he realised all the other men were shaking their heads and laughing to themselves over his comment, too.

"Go ahead from a woman is like a dare, not permission," Eleazar explained, taking pity on his naive baby brother. "They are testing out how stupid you are. If a woman tells you to go ahead, don't! Don't do anything."

Carlisle wasn't sure whether he was being made the butt of the joke so turned to check with his father. "Is that right?"

"Oh yes," Basileus sighed, wincing at being given the 'go ahead' from his mate. Particularly so publicly. Any mated man in the room knew he was in shitty street now.

"Give me some more!" Carlisle called out. He felt like he should be taking notes.

"Another one?" Basileus mused, smiling at his youngest son. "Fine."

Carlisle looked on expectantly. "Well?" he finally asked when nothing more was forthcoming.

"No, that's the next one," Basileus explained. "Fine," he repeated in an exasperated tone so very reminiscent of Atia. It clearly applied equally to Freyr, Carmen, Athenodora, and Sulpicia by the looks on their mates faces as he said it.

"That's the word women use to end an argument when she knows she is right and you need to shut the hell up," Eleazar explained to Carlisle.

"My favourite is 'nothing'," Caius offered. "Nothing is always something."

"Nothing means something alright," Aro agreed. "And you need to work out what it is and fix it quick."

"I'm still trying to work out why I keep getting 'nothing' when its clearly something," Caius said, chuntering under his breath about his 'bloody mate' and 'fucking women'. "Why won't she just tell me what's wrong?!"

Magnus knew what Dora's 'nothing' was and he was amazed the Caius didn't know! You may have had a good run, Caius but it wasn't that long ago that I had to drag your ass off your mate while you were trying to kill her. You think she could just forget that?!

"Freyr pulls the 'that's okay' card and I know I'm screwed." Magnus winced. "THAT'S OKAY!" he called out in his best impression of Freyr. "She's thinking long and hard on how and when I will pay for my mistake. Whatever my mistake was."

"I will offer you my bonus word, Carlisle," Aro said theatrically. "Wow!" he said looking the gathering up and down just as Sulpicia had done to him earlier that day. He looked so very camp doing it and had them all in stitches. "I got a 'wow' today. Now that's not a complement. If a woman says wow to you she is simply amazed by your stupidity."

Whilst the younger guys all agreed with each other and continued to insult their women under the guise of giving Carlisle more tips, Magnus and Basileus moved to the side. They had both caught their mates in consultation with each other and they were old enough to know they needed to put some space between themselves and the younger guys before they were called out.

"So what did you get the 'go ahead' for?" Magnus asked quietly.

Basileus looked the Juggernaut in the eye, for a moment ignoring his question and thinking instead of all the questions circling his mind, mainly those put there by Atia. Would you be good for Caius? A positive influence, perhaps? Could you cope with him? Would you want to?!

"Well?" Magnus pushed, offering the creator a drink.

"A foolish plan, no doubt," Basileus replied, though even he wasn't sure if he was replying to Magnus or his own questions about Magnus. "Let's drink!"

Soon enough they all dispersed and tensions between the mated members of the elite started to relax as the alcoholic intake increased.

Carmen brought the Volturi children to the party when they woke. The twins went to their grandmother's side, but Felix and Demetri joined their parents. Between Atia and Carmen Sulpicia really felt like she was losing her baby vampires.

"Carmen, I asked you to ensure they were wearing their capes tonight," Sulpicia commented to her sister in law as the twins came into the guard hall. She was a little terser than she would normally have been, but aggravations with Aro had hardened her tone.

"I tried, Sully!" Carmen exclaimed, sounding exasperated.

"They objected?" Aro asked - he was speaking to Carmen, but his eyes were on his mate after their conversation earlier that evening.

"Alec did, yes," Carmen explained. "Jane saw me carrying her brother's cape and dumped hers with me, too."

Thinking he should step up to the plate and take some action with the twins, if only to prove his mate wrong, Aro took his children's capes from his sister in law. "I will take those, my dear," he said with an overly smiley smile to Sulpicia. "Are you sure you won't come tonight?"

"Very sure," Carmen said, hiding the plans she and Eleazar had for the night behind a tight smile. "But I hope you all have fun."

"I think its abhorrent," Carlisle muttered into his glass. The very idea of feeding on humans was bad enough, but to purposely terrorise them first was beyond the pale.

"I'm sure you do, brother," Aro patronised his brother. "But it really is just a bit of fun around the regular feed."

"You are going out there to terrorise people. Do you feel no shame?!" Carlisle spat in question.

Aro rolled his eyes. "There's no shame in pleasure."

"Leave him be, my love," Sulpicia said to her mate, making eyes at their young sons watching the display. "You know Carlisle finds human blood distasteful."

Aro stopped his spiteful reply just in time to catch Sulpicia's drift. He glanced at Felix and Demetri and changed his response immediately.

"I understand that you dislike our usual diet, Carlisle, and I have never forced you to subscribe to it, have I?" Aro asked, with an arm casually around his brother's shoulders.

"No, I suppose not," Carlisle replied, though it was clear he was desperately trying to come up with a counter. "You don't make it easy, though," he settled on. It was weak, he knew it.

"I make it as easy for you as I am able to, brother, you know I do." Aro squeezed Carlisle's shoulder lovingly. "Obstacles are put in our way to see if what you want is really worth fighting for. I implore you to see the odd human blood event as an obstacle, but one I am sure you can overcome."

Carlisle eyed his brother nervously for a moment whilst he figured out whether Aro was being sincere or not. Deciding he was, (because Aro really was), Carlisle bobbed his head. "You're right, Aro. Thank you."

Eleazar and Carmen called Carlisle over, ready to start their secret evening out. Aro watched them leave, sure he was missing something. He had assumed Eleazar and Carmen were taking the chance for some couple time so taking Carlisle with them seemed an odd choice. But then he thought much was odd about his brothers.

"What the was that about?" Felix asked, getting his father's attention. "You're never that nice to Carlisle!"

"I am frequently that nice to my brother, just not in ways you usually see." Aro went between his sons and enveloped them both in his arms. "Carlisle's diet is important to him, I'm not going to take the piss out of my own brother for that, am I?" he asked them, pulling Demetri in close and looking meaningfully to Felix.

"You aren't?" Felix asked, clearly considering the idea of some things being off topic as though it was an alien concept.

"No!" Aro shot out, cuffing Felix' head and getting the 'I told you it was your fault' look off his wife. "It's one thing teasing each other when its stuff that doesn't matter, but the stuff that does, you just don't go there," he explained pointedly.

"Doesn't his religion matter?" Felix asked thinking of all the times he had seen his father bring his uncle down to his knees with his relentless teasing on the subject. "You're always mocking him for that."

Aro looked to the floor, knowing if he dared to look up Sulpicia would be over flowing with righteousness. "You're right, Felix," Aro agreed, nodding to himself. "I will make sure to take more consideration over such things."

Seeing the twins leave the protection of their grandmother gave Aro a get-out from his mates every judgemental gaze. "Excuse me," he said to his boys and followed his young demons.

Felix and Demetri watched their father leave them, both wondering what the hell that was about.

"What's wrong with him?" Demetri asked his older brother.

"I don't know," Felix said, but he was pretty sure that was yet another lesson in be nice to your brother. "Friendly-Aro makes me nervous."

Aro accosted the twins and thrust their capes to their chests with a small thud on impact. "Your aunt is not your servant," he stated sternly.

"Carmen doesn't mind," Alec said, smiling, still refusing to take his cape.

Aro smiled for just long enough for Alec to think he had won, and then he dropped the smile and growled. "I do."

Jane didn't need any more incentive and quickly threw her cape around her small shoulder. The heavy material engulfed her tiny frame.

"Alec," Aro said, pushing a little harder into the boy's chest for him to take his cape.

"I don't want to wear it," Alec whined. "It gets in the way when I'm trying to feed."

"It's not optional, son." Aro explained, swinging the heavy cloak around Alec's back and fastening it at the neck. "I may have lost my mind agreeing to go out there and show ourselves to humans. But I am not yet completely deranged. Cloaks and hoods to cover Volturi uniforms or you stay behind."

Just as Aro had turned his back to leave the pair of them be, he heard Alec ever so quietly whisper to his sister, "I'm taking it off when he's out of sight."

Aro spun back around and glowered at the boy for his insolence. Alec gulped. Leaning in close to his young son so their faces were only an inch apart, Aro smirked. If he hadn't heard Alec's brave retort the he would know the boy guilty anyway - it was plastered over his face.

"Guess who's going to be holding daddy's hand when he goes out to play?"

Aro had expected the child to be… he wasn't sure. Annoyed? Upset, even? He hadn't expected a smirk to ghost Alec's face. To Alec, the idea that Aro would stay with him long enough to enforce such a threat was laughable.

"I'm not a casual drinker," Felix explained to the guards near the bar. "More a drink-until-you're-fucked-up-or-don't-drink-at-all drinker."

Magnus' gigantic arm reach over the boy and took the ale tankard from his hands. "I guess that means you won't be drinking at all then, young one?"

Afton and Odi laughed the loudest, but most of the guards joined in mocking poor Felix and his damaged pride.

"Aww Magnus, don't be cruel to the boy." Freyr took the tankard from her mate and gave it back to Felix.

Looking at his mate and wondering if she had a screw loose, Magnus huffed. "We are going out there in the pitch black to reveal ourselves to humans. The last thing we need is a drunk teenager trailing behind getting caught."

"I'm sure you can keep an eye on Felix, Magnus," Freyr suggested helpfully.

Magnus narrowed his eyes at wife, particularly as she had made the helpful suggestion rather loudly and now Aro and Caius were hanging onto the conversation for all their worth. If Magnus looked after Felix, Aro could get hammered with Caius.

"And why exactly would I be doing that?" Magnus asked, giving his co-masters a look that perfectly conveyed they had no chance in hell.

Freyr smiled sweetly, taking a tankard of ale from the bar herself and downing it in one at a speed to match her mate's. "I worked doubly hard at Midsummer to make up for your debauchery."

Magnus thought back to the Midsummer games when it hit him that he had got the 'that's okay' that day from Freyr. Damn it, he cursed himself, he really should have known better for a man of his years that the 'that's okay' would come back to haunt him.

Sighing, because he knew he'd lost already, Magnus put down his own drink which was promptly collected by Demetri. "It sounds like you want me to suffer, love?"

"Does it?" Freyr asked, pretending to consider the premise for all its worth. "Aro," she called, "Magnus has offered to keep an eye on Felix and Demetri tonight."

Aro and Caius boomed from their table, chinking their glasses and planning the night ahead. It had been a long time since they'd shared a kill.

"The lady has spoken, my friend," Aro said mournfully, without an ounce of sincerity.

"Aye, she has." Sneaky shield maiden. "Don't blame me if I return them less an appendage or two." Magnus took the tankards back from the lads. "And you can both stop drinking right now."

Sulpicia pursed her lips and waited for Aro to speak. She knew he would, she even knew what he would say.

"You will have to keep Alec close, my queen," Aro told his mate. "He has made it clear he will be taking that cloak off once my back is turned."

Before Aro could return to his drink with Caius, he caught the look of complete disdain from Sulpicia. "What's that look for?"

Yup. That's exactly what she had expected. You spent all of five minutes with the twins and as soon as you realised you were free of the burden of the older two you dump Jane and Alec with me and go for a play-date with Caius. Fucking typical. She didn't say any of that, however. What would be the point, she thought.

"Fine," Sulpicia all but growled in return. "I'll keep Alec with me," she said walking away shaking her head at her mate's unwillingness to parent their younger two as soon as a better offer came along.

"Shit!" Aro cursed. He didn't need to be a mind reader to work out what he'd got the 'fine' for that time. "I've done it again." He turned to Caius and shook his head. They wouldn't be having any fun tonight, he explained and went to join his mate for some family fun killing people instead.

"Rules!" Basileus called out over the din.

As Aro looked to be making up with his mate, Basileus thought he should step up and cover the ground rules.

"Let us not be greedy. Only take what you need. If you want to play with your gifts in front of the humans, you may." He couldn't help the involuntary sigh that came hearing the plans his coven members were making. "But, if the humans work out what you are, you are to kill them."

With that, the coven started to make their way out of the guard hall and through the castle corridors.

"I can't believe we are actually doing this!" Demetri crowed, buzzing!

Felix was in a similar state. "Let's carpe some fucking diem!"

"He's far too excited," Magnus complained to his mate, who merrily walked by to join the group of lone female guards who would be her company for the evening.

"You need to walk with me, Alec," Sulpicia said, trying to encourage the twins to hold back a little and let the rest of the coven go ahead.

Alec shook his head and carried on regardless. "I don't want to," he shrugged, assuming his father was far away at the head of the crowd by then.

It came a shock to have Aro flash in front him. "You either walk with your mom or you walk with me?" he offered full of his usual faux calm.

When Alec refused to move, partly in surprise, cementing his feet into the ground, Aro took the boys hand forcibly. "Right, you walk with me."

"I don't want to walk with you, either," Alec moaned, digging his heels into the floor.

Having his father breathing down his neck would mean he had to keep that stupid cloak on and the damn thing drowned the boy. It was too big, too heavy, and too much in his way when he wanted to feed.

"I wasn't asking if you wanted to, son," Aro breezed, giving Alec's arm a good tug to get him moving.

Sulpicia breathed a sigh of relief. It wasn't so much relief that Aro was taking over with Alec, (she could handle the boy herself), it was relief that Aro would be spending any time with his younger children after months of being busy with directing the guard in the completion of their new home. She would have preferred Alec to enjoy that time, but if he was insistent on behaving like a brat that was his own business.

Aro and Sulpicia walked along, talking about the coolness of the air and how much they loved all seasons, but especially Autumn, 'there is a crackle of magic in the air', Sulpicia had said. All the while Alec made a theatrical display of running one step in every three or four to keep up with his father. As Jane managed to walk perfectly normally with her mother, all Alec achieved was demonstrating that he was trying to take Aro for a fool.

When the coven picked up the pace to get to the village they had planned to torment, Alec literally dropped to his knees.

"You're hurting me!" he exclaimed, as Aro dragged him along without breaking his stride.

"I think he's tired, my love," Sulpicia said, interjecting on her baby's behalf. "He said he had struggled to sleep earlier."

Jane looked to her mother quizzically - Alec had said no such thing. Sulpicia was simply excusing the boy's behaviour. As she always does, Jane thought, with no recognition for the times Sulpicia did the same on her behalf.

"I am walking at a reasonable speed holding his wrist - Alec is hurting himself trying to break my hold," Aro explained. "You know, if you didn't let him get away with so much, he wouldn't be like this."

Sulpicia rolled her eyes, "because your over zealous efforts with Felix and Demetri have had such fantastic results?"

"Feel free to try your methods with the two of them. Let me know how you get on." Aro wasn't all out laughing at the idea, but he was clearly amused by that Sulpicia could have either of their older boys dancing to her tune using her softly, softly approach. "You let Alec get away with far too much," he added, "he should know I won't stand for it."

Aro's tone pissed Alec off. Speaking about my like I'm not even here, like I'm a little kid.

"You are a little kid," Aro replied, having heard his boy through his thoughts.

That was enough to piss Alec off into a state of lunacy and he snatched his hand from his father hold. "LET ME GO!" he roared.

The whole coven stopped hearing the boy call out in such a way, and they watched as Alec tumbled to the floor.

"This is why I don't tell you when the twins play up," Sulpicia hissed to her mate under her breath. "Everything has to turn into a battle of wills with you."

Aro ignored his mate, true or not he wasn't having Alec behave that way with him just because she found the boy's defiance endearing or something. Particularly not in public. He loomed over his child, looking furious.

"You are acting like a spoilt brat, Alec," Aro told his son, hoisting him to his feet by one arm. "Keep it up and I will treat you like one."

The crack that Aro landed on his son's backside was heard by every member of the coven, even those that didn't see it winced.

"Here was me thinking how nice it would be for the twins to have your attention for a few hours," Sulpicia said wistfully.

Without a second glance to her mate, nor Alec, as she was a annoyed with him also for his part in ruining their evening, Sulpicia took her daughter by the hand and walked away to join the rest of the coven.

Aro almost felt bad for over reacting, not that he thought he had, but clearly Sully did and that was enough to have Aro question his actions. Almost. But then he heard Alec say, 'Didn't hurt anyway', and he felt his hackles rising again.

Crack!

"I bet your attitude finishes before I do," Aro warned the sobbing boy sternly. Didn't hurt, huh? "Are you going to carry on?"

Alec didn't reply, instead he took his father's hand just so he couldn't smack him again and they walked on to join everyone else.

When the Volturi crew reached the sleepy village, (they didn't know its name, and no one had thought it important to find out) the vampires separated. The plan was to hit the villagers at the same time. That way they could all enjoy the element of surprise and they wouldn't lose any potential victims trying to flee.

"Are you ready?" Aro asked his youngest pair.

Jane smiled delightedly as they approached the first house, Alec merely scowled. Sulpicia didn't look much more impressed with her mate, either.

Damage limitation! Aro thought. He didn't want to spend the whole night arguing with Sully - arguing the day away had been quite enough.

"Come on, son," Aro said pulling Alec in close. "Let's draw a line under the unpleasantness, I don't get to do much with you and your sister - I want to enjoy tonight, don't you?"

Alec might have continued to scowl and carry a grudge had he not caught Jane's pleading expression first. Jane was the only person in the world that could change Alec's mind on such matters.

"Aro," Sulpicia prompted her mate to continue trying with their baby vampire.

Aro sighed. "How about a peace offering?" he said sweetly. "I'll hold your cloak when you feed. Only when you feed, mind. You have to wear it while we play with the humans."

"Okay," Alec eventually replied.

Jane and Alec bounded up to the door of the house they were near and started knocking frantically. It didn't take long for a kindly looking older lady to answer. The oldest people the twins had any dealings with on a daily basis were Magnus and Freyr, or Basileus and Atia, so the doddering little woman came as a surprise to the pair.

"Are you lost, child?" the woman asked when neither of them spoke to her.

"No," Jane answered with an enchanting smile, "we're not lost."

"What do you want?" An old man joined the woman at the door. He didn't seem nearly so kind as his wife. "What business do you have disturbing honest people at this time of night?!"

"We're here to show you our tricks," Jane replied sweetly.

Aro and Sulpicia watched their children 'play' with the human pair, both fixating their gifts on the old man to see whose was stronger.

It didn't take long for Jane to rise victorious. It wasn't so much that Jane's gift was stronger, as she claimed, more that Alec's dispersed around its victims whereas Jane's focused inside. On a larger subject, like a group, Alec always won. Claiming her kill, Jane set to work blasting the old man with her power, enjoying the practice.

"Do you think we should be worried about her?" Sulpicia asked her mate quietly as she watched her daughter taking great delight from using her menacing gift on the poor unsuspecting human she had ensnared. "She's like a cat playing with a mouse."

"Jane's the only one I don't worry about," Aro muttered, trying to see if he could spot Felix or Demetri in the crowd.

"Go ahead, run," Alec told the old lady as she attempted to flee the demonic children, hobbling away from her home and into the darkness. "It's more fun for us."

"Alec," Aro admonished his boy lightly. "Don't play with your food," he said with a playful smile.

"Bring that cape here, Alec!" Sulpicia called, but it was too late, Alec had thrown his cape to the muddied ground and dive bombed the old lady for his midnight feast. "I'll never get that clean now!"

Magnus wasn't enjoying the night as much as he'd hoped he would. Demetri was being good as gold, but Felix was in danger of tripping over his lip his mouth was that big! Gobbing off at the guards was bad enough, but Magnus had warned the boy that the moment he turned that acidic tongue on him would be home time.

Deciding to take a break from the screaming humans, Magnus had made himself a seat on a water trough a little away from the action. Or so he had thought, until Caius and Dora came tumbling out of a small homestead a few meters from him. Magnus didn't think it was sexual, but there was something about the way their entwined bodies with the human host between them as they drank their fill that made him feel uncomfortable as an observer.

"They always used to feed like that," Basileus said as he joined Magnus in observing the younger couple. "At least they aren't fucking the poor thing to death."

The creator had witnessed Caius and Dora just doing just that with their kills back in the early days of the Volturi. As he watched the pair feed and laugh playfully with one another, Basileus couldn't help the feeling of nostalgia that came over him. It's like the clock has been reset, he thought, wondering for the first time if Caius and Dora truly were capable of real change. Not by becoming new versions of themselves, but my going back to a previous version instead. They are still a pair of vicious bastards, but the cruelty has gone. That's how they were when we met them.

"So…" Magnus breezed, "are you going to get off his back about work?"

He had heard from Freyr, who had been told by Atia, that Basileus was still uncomfortable with the non-working Caius situation.

"I've hardly been on his back, Magnus," Basileus replied, coming back from his trip down memory lane. "But I want him back to work. We're doing well at the moment; the coven is stable. I won't risk a 'bored Caius' destabilising things."

"He's not bored. You worry too much," Magnus said dismissively. He might not have been so bold if he didn't already know Atia thought exactly the same.

Basileus cast a sideways glance in the Juggernauts direction, but he didn't comment on what he had said. He knew it was true, at least partly. "Why are you so concerned, Magnus?" Basileus asked. "Why are you supporting Caius so much?"

"He reminds me of someone I used to know," Magnus said cryptically. "Someone I should have supported but I failed them."

Before Basileus could snoop inside Magnus' head, Magnus changed direction. "The real question is why aren't you supporting Caius? You know how hard he's trying to make big changes and you seem intent on sending him back to his old way."

Okay, you are pushing it now, my friend! Basileus thought, though Magnus' distraction certainly worked. "I have my own sons to support," Basileus replied, cursing himself for how weak it sounded.

"I'm sure you could pull back with them and add Caius into the fold," Magnus suggested. "You know you baby Carlisle, we've talked about it before."

They had, many times. Magnus was one of the few who mostly agreed with the way Basileus considered his youngest son of needing more attention than a typical man of his age. But he also said Carlisle would never progress until Basileus gave Carlisle room to grow.

"Caius and I don't have the relationship… he wouldn't take support from me…" Basileus trailed off. What he said was true, but the real reason he was still so reticent with approaching Caius was because of the emotional hangover he was in after Lucius.

Magnus didn't push any further, he could feel Basileus felt regretful, and he knew how much of his life he devoted to his sons - the creator didn't really have time for supporting Caius, too. Magnus understood that. At the same time, Magnus had put in a lot of work with the younger master, Athenodora too, and he wasn't going to let that work go to waste, not even for Basileus' sensibilities.

"You could find something else for Caius to do, Basileus. Some other type of work. Keep him off the dungeon blood?"

Basileus noticed the emotional shift in Magnus as he spoke. His emphatic gift was no match for the Juggernaut's, but the shift was so sharp that Basileus felt it. When Magnus mentioned the dungeon blood he became concerned, but also a little angry. Angry concern, Basileus mused. That's protective, he surmised.

"I assume by the look on your face that you have an idea?" Basileus replied, opening the floor for Magnus to proceed.

"Before Lucius," Magnus said gently, he didn't want to piss the creator off before he had tried to help Caius. "Caius had been doing some experiments for you, hadn't he?"

"One or two, yes," Basileus said, nodding thoughtfully. "You think he would like to continue in that direction?"

When Magnus merely nodded in reply, Basileus pushed for details - he wanted to know whether it was Caius' idea or Magnus'. "Has he said as such?"

Magnus shrugged. "Call it intuition."

Definitely your idea, Basileus thought correctly, not that it gave the idea less validity. If anything it gave Basileus a little more hope. If you are suggesting this, my friend, he thought, you can be the one to police it should Caius fail.

An ear-piercing wail broke Basileus' train of though. "What is that row?!"

Felix drunkenly staggered through the town, dragging behind him the poor wretch of a human who had foolishly tried to fight the boy. With his fore and middle finger gripped tightly into the eye sockets, and a thumb hooked around the top teeth, like he was holding a bowling ball, Felix pulled the flailing body along the main path through the small village like a cave man with his kill. Only the human wasn't his kill as the poor sod was still very much alive. Alive, in agonising pain, and attracting a lot of attention with his anguished cries.

"I believe you're up, my friend," Basileus said, slapping a hand on the Juggernaut's shoulder.

Magnus offered the creator a sideways glance. "He's your grandson," he pointed out.

"True, true," Basileus agreed. "But your mate decided you were to look after him and I would never argue with the shield maiden."

Heaving himself to his feet, Magnus started stalking towards Felix. "Felix!" he bellowed across the green. "Kill the damn thing and have done with it!"

Felix looked up hearing Magnus call him, but rather than killing his blood host, he simply fell over the poor creature instead, and then threw up the congealed mix of blood and alcohol from the pit of his stomach.

"How much have you drunk?" Magnus asked, still a good way away from the boy.

"I have no idea - I am a drunk, not a fucking accountant."

Felix found himself hysterical and was laughing so hard that he stopped breathing and ended up doing a sort of noiseless contortion over his own joke. Felix was most definitely his father's son.

"Aye, you went too far, young one," Magnus said to himself as he started clomping through the mud to get to the boy. "Game over!" he announced to one and all.

Before Magnus could make it to Felix, Felix disappeared into the undergrowth chasing a young human woman attempting to flee the doomed village. Magnus could well imagine what Felix would be up to under the cover of darkness with the poor woman and took his time getting to him. He rounded up guards as he went bringing an end to the Volturi Halloween festival.

…

Eleazar, Carmen, and Carlisle had run at full speed from the moment they left the ball and they didn't stop until they arrived at the grounds of a large manor house in the southern state of Savoy. Carlisle had been insistent that they were in fact in France, which Carmen agreed with - she should know, they felt, as the manor house they stood before was the one she had been taken from by the Volturi ten years or so earlier. Eleazar's geography was better than theirs, however, or rather, more up to date and he knew where they were.

"Does it matter?!" he blustered, bored of arguing, particularly with Carlisle. "I know where we are," he said, "and if you are insistent I am wrong, feel free to ask Dad when we get back."

Yeah, that shut Carlisle up. He wasn't one hundred percent sure he should be in France, or Savoy, or anywhere other than Volterra really.

Happy that he had ended the argument, Eleazar turned to his mate and cupped her soft face with his hands "Are you sure you want to do this?" he asked.

He had checked at least a dozen times during their journey, and countless times over the last few months since Carmen had spoken of her desire to visit her former home. Visit may be misleading actually - this was not a social call.

Carmen's eyes glisten in the moon light as she looked up to her mate. She wasn't excited, as such, more alive with anticipation. This night had been ten years in the making and yes, she was sure.

"More than anything," she told him.

Kissing the top of her head, Eleazar enveloped his mate in his arms and breathed in the scent of her hair.

"I wish you'd let me come in there with you," he whispered, making the moment as private as it could be with Carlisle stood nearby.

Eleazar knew Carmen's plans - in, out, kill her former human master and free any current slaves. It was beautiful in its simplicity. He wasn't worried about Carmen's capabilities to fight her way out of trouble. At least not with humans. But it felt so very wrong to Eleazar to let his mate go off into the unknown without him. Though anyone who knew the pair would know he had little say in the matter.

"I'll call if I need your assistance, my love," Carmen told him whilst she tried to untangle herself from Eleazar's hold.

Carlisle huffed at their giggling and Carmen's half-hearted fight for freedom. "Don't worry about me playing third wheel."

"You have the bags of money to give the slaves we free," Carmen said, jabbing the bag of coin her brother in law held. "You're an integral part of the plan, Carlisle."

It was a bullshit job and Carlisle knew it but before he could say so Carmen was already scaling the manor house wall and heading to the master suite.

Eleazar gave his sulking brother a nudge to get his attention. "Quit complaining," he told Carlisle. "You had nothing better to do."

It was true, Carlisle didn't have anything better to do. He had planned on staying home for Halloween, getting some reading done, maybe even tidy his quarters. When Eleazar had offered an illicit trip to aid Carmen's revenge, Carlisle had jumped at the chance. It sounded far more interesting than the plans he had made. Although, now he was stood there in the cold with mud seeping into his boots, Carlisle wasn't sure he'd made the right choice after all.

"I'm just hoping we don't get in any trouble for this, that's all," Carlisle said, shivering.

Vampire's may not be at risk of death, or even ill health in freezing conditions, but they felt temperatures the same as any human would and Carlisle was freezing his bollocks off!

"What do you mean?" Eleazar asked with his head cocked to one side. "Get in trouble?" he repeated, as though such a premise it made no sense to him.

Carlisle returned the same confused expression, for to him the premise not only made sense, but it bit him on the ass with a disturbing regularity. "For leaving the castle," he said, adding a sullen, 'obviously', to himself.

"Carlisle, I leave the castle whenever I want," Eleazar explained, throwing an arm around his brother's shoulders. "It's a coven, not a prison."

Leaning into Eleazar for warmth, Carlisle looked up to his big brother and raised an eyebrow to his comment. "Some of us don't get to live such freedoms, brother."

Eleazar chuckled, his laughter shaking them both a little. "That's because you choose to leave the castle with Felix, who is a child, to do childish things."

"So you think it will be okay with Dad that I am out with you?"

That was new. Carlisle had never considered that he could get a free pass down to the company he kept. Not that he was pleased by the idea - he should be trusted on his own merit, not by the merit of whoever he was out with.

Eleazar didn't need his father's gift to know what Carlisle would be thinking. His brother's thoughts, he correctly assumed, were fixated on how unfair their father was in the differentiated way he treated his sons.

"Stop hanging around with our nephews and grow up and he will treat you like an adult," Eleazar said quietly. "It's quite simple. Basileus is a reasonable man."

"I'm trying!" Carlisle complained.

"Yes, you try for a while, don't get instant results with our father, and fling yourself off the rails and back to square one."

Oh how Carlisle wished he could object. He wished it with every fibre of his being, but his brother was right. Although, standing there in the dark, the cold, the boredom of waiting for his sister in law to get through doing… whatever she was doing, all he could focus on was how much more fun it was hanging out with Felix. Staring up at the top floor window where his sister in law had disappeared, Carlisle thought bitterly: even Carmen will be having more fun than me!

Carmen took her time looking around her old master's bed chamber. She had been there many times as a human, but she felt as though she were seeing the room for the very first time. Of course, as a human, Carmen's visit to the master's suite had been brutish and the preoccupation then had been lessening her suffering, not taking in the surroundings. As she silently moved around, comparing the squalidness of the human high life compared to the opulent home she had in Volterra, Carmen was struck mostly by the smell. Humans really stink!

The source of that stench was there in the bed - Carmen's old master, the man of the manor. The fat, ugly, sweating pestilence of a man snored like a wild boar, as though the very effort of breathing was too much for a man of his standing to have to lower himself to do. Indeed, were it possible for the master to have someone else do his breathing, no doubt he would have shunted the duty to some poor slave in his manor.

After a vampire had turned, human memories may remain, but they often lose their vividness. Something is always missing from the memory; like looking into a room through a murky pane of glass, or a dream state, there was always something not quite visible, something out of reach.

Carmen knew her master had made her pregnant many times, though she knew not the exact number. She knew she had birthed live children, but knew neither how many or what happened to them. She could remember the wretched, grieving pain that tortured her human life with far more veracity than any physical pain that grunting cretin of a man could have inflicted on her.

Only a single candle lit the room. It was enough for Carmen to see perfectly but it wouldn't be enough for a humans vision. Taking the flame, she gave light to every candle she could find, and then went to sit by the human in the bed.

I could just kill him now, Carmen mused. No, I want you to know it was me.

It took some shaking to rouse the man. He had fallen to his slumber with the help of a few bottles of wine so when he did wake, his vision was doubled. Carmen waited, she had time.

Finally focusing his sight, the master looked Carmen up and down. At first, he thought her to be the whore he had gone to bed with, but no whore he had knowledge of possessed such beauty. There was something familiar about the woman, though.

"Do I know you?" If she was a woman he had known he would want to know her again, and soon!

"Think about it," Carmen breezed, shaking out her raven hair.

When the master continued to squint his piggy eyes at her, Carmen couldn't help but laugh. It was a hollow chuckle, without a fraction of humour behind it. In all the years I served you in this bed, you have never spent so long looking at my face, she thought.

"It will come to you," she encouraged him. "I can see why you might find it hard to place me. For you and your friends I was just something to play with. It's a little harder for me to forget, but then you gave me so much more to remember."

Her voice broke as she spoke, and she cursed her damn emotions. She didn't want to give him the pleasure of her pain. Not that the master had noticed anyway. It wasn't that he was particularly unobservant, more that he couldn't have cared less for a woman's pain, or otherwise.

"You were one of my slaves, make that, one of my runaways."

The master had no idea of the danger he was in. His sneering tone, the way he spat 'runaway' as though it were even less than a slave, the lowest one could be… Carmen was already going to kill him, there was no doubt about that, but that sneer sealed the masters fate and now he would certainly suffer in death. Not that any suffering Carmen could offer the contemptuous man would come close to the pain she had suffered at his hands, but she would give it her best shot.

"I didn't run," Carmen explained simply. "I was taken and delivered into a better life."

"Taken or not you are my property!" the master said as he made to stand from his bed.

He attempted to push Carmen aside like the worthless scum he thought her to be. When Carmen didn't move, nor even flinch at his forceful gesture, the master's face screwed up in pure fury. "What in damnation are you?!"

Carmen smiled at the master. It was like a spell had been cast over him and he melted with her charms. As she moved forward he lay down onto his back. When she straddled his crotch, the master's erection was already solid and begging for release.

"I died," she told him, still smiling that enchanting smile. "I recovered pretty well from it."

Had the master been concentrating on her words, he might have caught the danger he was in, but again, he rarely listened to the waffling of women. There was only one good use for a woman's mouth that he knew of and it had nothing to do with talking.

Carmen searched the masters clothes for entrance. Once he realised what she was doing, the master ripped his own clothes from his body. The sweat that laced his body stung Carmen's nose and she very nearly quit her plan and ripped his throat out instead. No, you need to feel this, she thought.

Taking his throbbing hard-on in one hand, and his clammy balls in another, Carmen made sure she had a good grip - she didn't want to mess this up.

The master writhed beneath her, desperate for release. "Get on with it woman!" he called. That was to be the final nail in the master's coffin.

Without warning, Carmen tore the appendage free from its owner.

Time seemed to slow right down. For a moment, there was silence. No reaction at all as though time had stopped completely. And then came the fountain of blood. It erupted from the site of the wound, covering Carmen and the master indiscriminately. And then came the noise. The guttural roar, followed by the anguished wail.

"I don't think you will recover from that," Carmen said happily, soaking up the roar of his pain. Even the call of human blood held no power over Carmen at that moment. Justice! she thought. Finally.

…

Aro stood at the foot of Felix' bed for the fourth time that day. The whole room stank to the high heavens of stale ale and blood. The bed sheets, complete with crusted vomit clung to the boy. It was a sorry sight. He pulled open the wooden shutters and flung open the window, flooding the room with light and a cool breeze that would carry away some of the stagnant air.

Felix rolled over and buried his face in his pillow. "Morning," he grunted in greeting, knowing only his father could be so cruel as to wake him at the crack of dawn after a session.

"Try, afternoon," Aro corrected. "Late afternoon." He stripped the sheets from his son's bed and dumped them on the floor. "You need to bathe, now."

Felix wasn't sure whether that was friendly advice or an order. Aro sounded way to calm, but he looked furious. Bad combination, Felix thought.

"What happened last night, Dad?" he asked. "Why do you look so pissed off with me?"

"Aha," Aro bobbed his head to himself. "Memory impairment. The free prize for all at the bottom of every bottle of stolen whiskey."

Stolen whiskey?! Felix winced. Even his internal dialogue was too loud for the boys aching head. Worse than that, the night's antics were all coming back to him now and Felix knew he was well and truly fucked.

Chancing a brief backwards glance to his father, Felix gulped and headed straight for the bathroom. A bit of space between him and his dad wouldn't be a bad idea.

He took his sweet ass time cleaning himself up, and in the end his stalling only pissed Aro of further when he had to fetch Felix from the bathroom himself. They bypassed Felix' bedroom, the lingering stale air still offended Aro, and headed for the main living chamber instead. It was a large, open room, well-lit by the windows lining opposite walls.

Aro wasn't sure where to direct his boy. Although Carlisle had been in his own chambers for eight months, they were still Spartan in appearance. He had preferred to spend the allowance his father gave him on fine clothes and alcohol rather than furniture. There were a couple of chairs, and a sofa or two crowded around the fire place, but they didn't look sturdy enough to take the weight of Felix thrashing about.

Basileus had brought Carlisle a solid desk, much like his own. That will have to do, Aro thought, steering Felix towards the site of his coming doom.

As soon as Felix realised what was going on, he started to resist. Not that Aro cared, he sat on the desk and watched as Felix tried to talk him out of the inevitable. After a few too many 'it wasn't my fault's', Aro held up a hand for silence and pointed at the spot in front of him for Felix to stand.

"I do believe Magnus told you not to drink last night, which you translated to stealing a bottle of his whiskey from his personal stores in the guard hall."

Felix folded his arms across his bare chest, having only had time to put on a pair of shorts before Aro had ordered him out of the bathroom. "What's it got to do with Magnus?" he asked sullenly.

That was his first mistake.

"Well, for one," Aro replied through gritted teeth, clouting Felix as he spoke…

"Ow!"

"Magnus is a master of this coven and he gave you an order - you have to follow those orders. For another," he clouted the boy again.

"OW!"

Even Aro had to admit that one came sharp. "The whole event had to be cut short because of your actions, Felix."

Felix rubbed at his aching head. "I wasn't that bad," he grumbled.

"Oh yes you were!" Aro nearly choked on his words they came so quickly in reply. Astonished by his son's lack of accountability, he summarised for the boy: "Last night was supposed to be a bit of fun and you have ruined it for everyone. Basileus has decreed we won't be doing it again. The guards are furious. Your mother is ashamed of you. Need I go on?"

"No, but I bet you fucking will."

Okay, so it was a stupid thing to say under the circumstances, but Felix, being Felix, didn't think that until after he'd spoken the words aloud.

Aro flew to his feet with a thunderous roar that had Felix drop to the floor, cowering.

"Do you want to say that again?!" he bellowed to the boy at his feet.

Felix scrubbed a hand across his tired eyes. "No, sir," he eventually replied.

His head was killing already and all he could think about was his own self-pity, there was no remorse to his tone whatsoever. Aro had to hold himself back from just battering the little fucker and having done with it.

"Explain to me…" Aro stopped himself and inhaled deeply, allowing the unneeded air to calm his core before starting again. "Explain to me where your head was at when you decided that after drawing attention to our whole group with that wailing human, you thought it was a good time to find another human to go and fuck in a bush?!"

Felix stayed on the floor. He had his legs crossed and his head in his hands wishing his old man would shut the fuck up so he could go back to bed and sleep of the awful hang over. When he realised Aro was waiting on him for a response, Felix, foolishly, decided to try comedy to diffuse the situation.

"One might as well be hanged for a sheep as a lamb," he said, smirking. "You can't kill me twice."

"You had better have a damn good follow up to that line, boy!" Aro roared.

Okay, you don't find it funny! Felix thought. If he were a sensible boy, he might have demonstrated some contrition, as it was he wasn't, and he felt none.

"What did you expect, dad?!" Felix snapped back. "You banned me from the first event, you chucked me out at half time on the third one. So I went a little crazy last night, what's the big deal?"

"That's what you're going with?" Aro checked, rolling his tongue around his cheek and wishing he'd let Magnus whip the little sod the night before to have saved himself the job.

Felix glared back petulantly, still believing he hadn't been that bad, under the circumstances.

"Get up."

It was a simple instruction; one Felix would certainly have complied with if he hadn't heard the tell-tale sound of a metal buckle being un-clasped.

"What are you going to do?" Felix asked, not daring to move, eyes focused on his father's hands as they played with that buckle.

Aro sighed. He was a little hung over himself and he would much rather be doing just about anything than thrashing his son, again.

"What do you think?" he said, sighing again. "You haven't left me much choice, have you?"

"But you aren't angry," Felix said, his nerves betraying his voice.

"You honestly think I'm not angry at the way you behaved last night?" Aro asked, flabbergasted. "Are you kidding me?!"

Felix wasn't afraid of Aro, not really. There were times he truly feared his father's vengeance, but in his heart, he knew Aro would never hurt him. Punish him, yes, and that hurt, but he knew Aro wouldn't do anything irreparable.

There were a few things, however, that Felix found excruciatingly painful that had nothing to do with any physical pain, and he struggled to come to terms with those things happenings to him. One was the dreaded childish punishment Aro inflicted on his boy occasionally to cut Felix down to size. He couldn't say the word, not even to himself, not even in thought, but being s-p-a-n-k-e-d was a hideous punishment even though it was certainly less painful than the belt Aro was offering. The other thing was, 'calm Aro'… Felix didn't cope well when it was calm Aro punishing him rather than 'crazily angry Aro'.

Crazily angry Aro was easier to deal with in Felix' mind - he didn't feel like he was backing down or losing face because just about anyone in their world would submit to crazy angry Aro - he's the vampire king, for fuck's sake! But when faced with calm Aro, one not offering threats of weird and wonderful repercussions, one not dragging him about or manhandling him into position - that required Felix to submit himself for punishment and it was something he just couldn't do willingly. It ate him up inside.

"You aren't raging though…" Felix didn't want to explain how he really felt on the matter. He knew Aro too well after all their years together and it would just become something else his father would use against him. "Do we really have to do this? I'm sorry, Dad. Isn't that enough?"

Aro looked set to repeat Felix' list of offences and Felix knew that would do him no good at all. "Ground me then!" he threw out as a compromise.

"You are grounded," Aro stated, whipping the belt from around his waist and doubling in over in his hand. "Get up now and save yourself some pain."

Aro stood there with his belt in his hand, waiting for his son to comply, and Felix was done. His throat felt tight and it was hard to swallow. Had he not been so hungover, he would have argued until crazily angry Aro came out to play and then they would have got on with the show. But he was just too damn tired to even try. Rising to his feet, he met his Dad's eye with a final beseeching look, but it didn't help. Aro just nodded to the end of the desk.

…

Aro fixed his belt back in position and watched his boy closely. Felix appeared to be disgusted in himself. "Was that angry enough for you?" Aro asked, as Felix resisted rubbing his stinging behind.

"No," Felix grunted, keeping his eyes on the floor, such was his shame over submitting so easily. "And it WAS weird."

Aro really wasn't sure what Felix meant. "What are you taking about?" he asked, clamping a hand on his boy's neck before Felix had chance to escape.

Reading through his son's thoughts, Aro hit upon an absolute gem of information that he planned to use against his son at every available opportunity. "Very interesting," he said gleefully realising for the first time just how uncomfortable Felix found calm and reasoned punishment.

The methodical and deliberate strikes Aro had offered his son had affected Felix' psyche far more than the usual dance they performed around punishments. Aro was pissed off with his son, pissed off enough to make each strike count, but it wasn't the usual white-hot anger he usually displayed. A calm disappointment. I wonder if I could manage that every time, he thought. He planned to certainly try.

Felix, for his part, knew exactly what Aro would be planning and he wanted to rid himself of the thought a quickly as possible. "Am I really grounded?" he asked, to which Aro simply smiled. "For how long?"

Aro released his son and thought about it for a moment. He didn't want to give the boy a time limit - mainly because he knew the idea of 'indefinite' pissed Felix off more and he wanted him to be pissed off after he ruined his Halloween.

"If you are lucky you will be allowed out for Christmas."

"Dad!" Felix shot out.

"Careful, son." Aro clasped a hand back to his belt buckle. "I'm really calm now, think how awkward that would be."

Felix felt his empty stomach churn, fucking horrendous, he thought.

Aro clapped his sons shoulder. "I'm serious, son. You were a nightmare last night. You are grounded."

"I was supposed to be a nightmare," Felix muttered. "It was Halloween and I'm a vampire."

"Getting cocky with me is not advisable."

Aro felt a stir of anger over Felix' comment but one look at Felix' face and Aro realised that would be just what he wanted. Yes, you may have submitted but a row with me will wash that shame away for you, won't it, son? No chance.

"I do believe your mother told you to clean your room yesterday," Aro sang out. He knew the only way to keep the upper hand with Felix was to keep the hold of the power. That meant he couldn't let his anger flare now.

"If she wants it clean so badly," Felix mumbled, "she can clean it herself."

Aro didn't respond verbally, he didn't trust himself not to break the calm that was bothering Felix so much. Instead he plastered on that forced happy smile and led his son back to his bedroom.

"Half that mess is Demetri's," Felix complained as he stalled at the door when he saw the shit tip that was their shared bedroom.

"Do I look interested in your excuses?" Aro shoved Felix hard in his back to get the boy into the room. "You've been vile to your brother for months, years! I think tidying up for him would be a good start in making amends."

Slipping that dig in really didn't help Felix' feelings on either cleaning his bedroom or his little brother.

Chuntering about making sure Demetri paid him back one way or another, Felix woodenly got on with the task at hand, rubbing his stinging ass as he went. When he looked back and spotted Aro still standing at the door he jumped, having fully expected his father to have gone by then.

"Are you just going to stand and watch?" Felix snapped.

"Pretty much," Aro smirked.

Truthfully, Aro didn't really have a choice. He and Sulpicia had spent the morning bickering about their children - each blaming the other for the problems that were arising with the four of them. Aro had thought he should give his mate a wide berth for a while when she had ended their argument with 'fine'. (So he was learning.)

When Felix continued to mutter, and Aro caught drift of what he was saying about Demetri, Aro decided to light a fire under his son's ass.

"By the way, that hiding was for ruining Halloween, you can expect another one when I think you're over it for your attitude."

"What?!" Felix shot out, hurting his own aching head with the force of his reply. "That's not fair! You can't do that! You never did that before and I have been way worse than I was last night."

Carlisle, just arriving home from his night away with Eleazar and Carmen, followed the sound of Felix' outrage to the boys' room.

"What's going on?" he asked, having stumbled upon the stand-off between father and son.

"Your nephew made an absolute cock of himself last night and earned himself a hiding," Aro explained. "Now he's going to clean the cesspit of a bedroom he's confined to."

Carlisle bit into his bottom lip, wishing he hadn't asked and looked apologetically to Felix.

Felix scowled at his father. "Is anything private?!"

"I'd get cleaning if I were you in the hope that you can change my mind with good behaviour," Aro crooned.

He knew Felix could go either way at that point, he could back down and get on with cleaning his room as instructed, or he could blow up for a row to make himself feel better… Carlisle being there would push Felix into going for the row, Aro knew that, so he added a final threat to keep Felix down.

"Especially considering as you have yet to face Magnus."

"I faced Magnus last night!" Felix whined. Mean old bastard nearly took my head off my shoulders when I came out the woods. And everyone laughed, he remembered bitterly.

"Not for stealing his whiskey you didn't," Aro happily reminded his boy. "We only found out about that after you had thrown up the contents of your stomach and passed out."

Aro waited, watching Felix having an internal war with himself. It didn't last long. Felix was sore from Aro's belt already, let alone the prospect of facing him again. Add to that the idea of Magnus taking a turn and Felix was done. Silently he turned and started to collect the discarded clothes that littered the floor, he didn't even comment on the fact that most of them were his brothers.

Once he was sure Felix had backed down, Aro pulled Carlisle aside. "How can you stand their room to look like that?"

Carlisle shrugged, he didn't see what business it was of his how the boys kept their room. "It's their room, why would it bother me?"

Aro cast his eyes to the heavens. "It's in your apartment - it's a reflection on you, too," Aro told him,

Carlisle shrugged again, he didn't feel it reflected on him at all, actually. "I assumed they would tidy it up when it bothered them."

Aro had to laugh. "Teenagers are perfectly happy to live in complete squalor, and giving them free rein over if they tidy or not generally means they just won't bother."

Just as Carlisle was thinking how very much like their mother Aro sounded, with his unreasonable demands for a clean and tidy home, (particularly when it wasn't even his bloody home!) Aro threw another curve ball at him.

"Felix is confined to your quarters for the time being."

"Why are you saying it like that?" Carlisle asked, assuming Aro was trying to make a point though he was missing it entirely.

"Because," Aro drawled, as though he were speaking to Alec. "He is living with you, so I expect you to supervise him when he's here."

"Me?" I can't control Felix! He thought, though chose to verbalise that thought as a question to make him sound less weak. "How am I supposed to keep him here?"

"I tell him to stay," Aro said simply. "Should he leave, and you find out, you tell me, and I will deal with him."

Carlisle's face screwed up, that sounded decidedly like grassing on his nephew to Carlisle, and no way was he going down that road. "I'm not doing that. I'm not a grass."

"Not a grass?" Aro spat. You are spending far too much time with my sons. "Yes, Carlisle, you are doing that," Aro returned. "You wanted my sons to stay with you - this is part of the package."

Aro walked away, leaving his bewildered brother behind him.

"Well there's some fine print!" Carlisle eventually replied, having failed to come up with an argument in defence.

Aro bobbed his head. "And here's some more - if you fuck it up, Basileus will be pissed with you. I'll make sure he is."

As if on cue, the creator's booming voice arrived in Carlisle's suite quickly followed by the man himself. "Where the hell have you been?!"

"Aha," Aro said, smiling wickedly to his baby brother. "You have pissed him off all on your own, again."

"I popped to France," Carlisle explained quietly. I knew I would get in trouble for this! he thought. Fucking Eleazar!

Basileus thought he must have misheard. "You popped to France?!" he repeated with an odd expression. "How do you pop to another damn country?!" before Carlisle could answer, he realised his father's questioning was rhetorical when the man carried on. "You didn't think to ask me?"

That one requires an answer, Carlisle thought. "Why should I have to ask? Eleazar and Carmen went, too, and they didn't ask."

Basileus' eyes widened, and he backed up to the open doorway. "ELEAZAR!" he roared up the stairwell to the higher floor.

It took only moments for the eldest Volturi brother join them, looking vaguely confused as to what the problem could be.

"What the hell do you think you are playing at?!" Basileus asked him as soon as he was in sight.

Eleazar looked to his brothers and wondered for a moment if they had plotted something to bring him strife with their father. When Carlisle and Aro weren't forthcoming, Eleazar turned back to Basileus. "What did I do?!"

"You," Basileus said, jabbing a finger in his eldest son's chest, "took him to France and didn't think to tell me your plans?!" The him was of course Carlisle.

"So I have to ask, and he just has to tell?" Carlisle muttered, feeling most put out.

"I'll get to you, Carlisle," Basileus told him sharply.

Carlisle took a step backwards into the wall. "No rush."

We didn't go to France, we went to Savoy… it's not quite as far as France." Eleazar smiled softly to his father, hoping to diffuse the situation. "Since when do I need permission to leave the castle?"

"You don't," Basileus agreed. "He does." Again, the he was Carlisle.

"Why does he, Dad?" Eleazar asked. There was a calmness to Eleazar that radiated around the room. It reached everyone except Carlisle.

"Yeah," Carlisle said, jutting his chin with a sense of bravado. "Why does I?" repeated Eleazar's phrasing.

"Do I, brother," Aro corrected Carlisle with a playful shove.

"I know," Carlisle shoved him back. "Shut up, Aro."

"He's twenty-three, Dad," Eleazar told his father. "Stop treating him like an infant."

"Oh, El," Aro shook his head, laughing lightly to himself. "It was so nice knowing you, brother."

"Shut up, Aro!" Eleazar snapped. "I'm serious, Dad. You treat Carlisle like a teenager and you are surprised when he acts like one. If you treated him like the adult he is he would act like one."

"Eleazar, I have no issue with you going about your business as you see fit," Basileus explained. He really didn't have an issue with what his eldest did - Eleazar was sensible to a fault, in his eyes. "But if you want to take your brother with you then you check with me first, got it!?"

"Totally fucking ridiculous," Carlisle muttered.

Basileus caught his words and, by return, Carlisle caught the back of Basileus' hand across his errant mouth.

Magnus arrived just in time to see the resounded crack and Carlisle's following hiss. "Bad time?" he asked, ducking as he came through the open doorway.

Aro could barely keep his giggles stifled. This is brilliant! he thought. In typical sibling fashion, even adult sibling fashion, Aro found it funny as fuck when his brothers were coping their father's wrath, and Magnus being present for it only compounded his glee.

"It was something Carmen had to do, and I had to be with her. I didn't want to leave Carlisle here alone…" Eleazar explained, stopping when he saw his brother's face drop.

So you were babysitting me?! Carlisle thought dejectedly.

"Dad," Eleazar said carefully, pulling his father away the small gathering. "Just look, will you?" Eleazar tapped his temple and Basileus understood.

The creator wore his surprise on his face as he relived the night before through Eleazar's eyes. He had to admit, he was impressed with Carmen. Basileus knew his daughter in law had fire in her belly but to take out the head of her previous household, and to insist on doing it alone… yes, he was impressed. There was something else, though. Concern. Carmen had been with them for years and never had she expressed a wish for such revenge, not that Basileus knew of anyway. I wonder if Atia knew? He was sorely tempted to ask his mate about the matter but decided against it knowing the grief it would lead to from Atia about how little involvement he had with his daughters in law.

"Why didn't you talk to me about it, El?"

"Some things are between a man and his mate, Dad," Eleazar explained. That was all that needed to be said to close the case - any married man knew that. "Carlisle was with me, I didn't think it was such a big deal…"

Basileus looked back to his youngest son. Felix had joined him at some point, and the two of them looked more of an age than Carlisle did to Aro on his other side. "I'll decide if it's a big deal."

Magnus conspicuously shook his head to the creator. "You have got to give him space to grow, Basileus," he said quietly. "It's what we talked about…"

"You've been talking about me?!" Carlisle interrupted, feeling a flush of shame that his private dealing with his father were up for discussion.

"Yes," Basileus replied. "About, not to." Turning back to Eleazar, he heaved a heavy breath. His sons were home and they were safe, that's all that really mattered.

"I ask that you tell me next time something like this comes up, Eleazar. Coming back to an empty tower was… We're done here." Basileus didn't say what he really felt, what had really sent him into a rage in the first place. Instead he turned to Magnus. "You need me?" he asked.

"Nope," Magnus breezed, eyes locked on Felix hiding behind Carlisle.

"Halloween sucks," Felix whispered to his uncle.

Carlisle huffed loudly. "You're telling me!" he said, though he did wait until Basileus had taken his leave.

Aro joined Magnus and Eleazar, both brothers hoping to get some information from the Juggernaut. "You seem to know what that was really about, Magnus," Aro said. "Are you going to enlighten us at all?"

Magnus glanced over his shoulder to check Basileus was really gone. "Your old man thought the three of you had done a bunk," he told Eleazar. "Or Carlisle, at least, assuming you and Carmen had gone to track him down."

Eleazar knew his father feared losing any of them, but all that emotion over a night away from the castle? "Why would he think that?"

"Actually, it's not that he thought that…" Magnus wasn't sure how to phrase it. "'He 'worried that' would be more appropriate."

"Maybe, but it would be terrible syntax," Aro mocked.

Eleazar, however, considered the meaning behind Magnus' words. He thought it best to speak to his father about it. Behind his public face, Eleazar knew Basileus was still struggling and Eleazar felt that he owed it to the man to be there for him in any way possible.

"On that note," Magnus said, taking Eleazar's leave as a good moment to press on. "I would like a word with the young one."

"Go right ahead," Aro said happily, extending his arm to point out Felix hiding behind Carlisle.

"Dad!" Felix complained. "You are seriously going to let Magnus… you know?!"

Aro simply smiled. He knew Magnus better than Felix did and Magnus wouldn't actually punish the boy if Aro already had. Not that he felt the need to share such information with Felix, leaving the boy to stew was far more fun.

"But Dad! I feel so ill," Felix whined for all his worth.

"Those eyes only work on your mother, son," Aro said dismissing the wounded puppy expression Felix was trying to pull. "You aren't ill, you're hungover."

"Dad, please!"

"I wasn't asking his permission, young one," Magnus said. "This is between me and you."

He'd watched the boy squirm long enough and he had a few of his own things to say to the lad. Barely breaking his stride to collect Felix as went, he dragged the miserable youth back to his now clean and tidy bedroom.

Carlisle scowled at Aro's smile. Aro wasn't cruel, but Felix had been a bloody nightmare the night before and he needed bringing back in line. He didn't care who did it - and the more who had an input the better in his mind.

"When they are done in there, you keep him here, understood?" he told his younger brother.

"I'm not one of your guards, Aro," Carlisle said, pushing passed his brother to take a seat by the fire. "You don't get to tell me what to do."

"Oh don't I?" Aro crooned, dripping with sarcasm and following Carlisle.

"Shall we ask Dad about whether you should support me on this or would you like to avoid another slap?" Aro flicked Carlisle's cheek, right in the spot that still wore Basileus' hand print. "Eleazar just got through sticking his neck out for you claiming you should be treated your age. Can you be an adult about this please?!"

"Fine," Carlisle huffed. He didn't like it, but what else could he do? "I'll keep him here."

Aro watched his brother for a moment. He wished he could just believe Carlisle would do as he had said, but he just couldn't see his brother standing up to Felix. It would be a real test for them both.

"Good choice," he settled on saying. Aro left his brother's chambers to the sound of Magnus giving his eldest son a biblical bollocking.

…

Carlisle waited until Magnus was gone before he ventured into Felix' bedchamber. "You okay?" he called out to the youth, spread eagle on the bed with his head beneath a pillow.

"Did you hear that round of fucks I just got?!" Felix said. His voice was muffled by the pillow, but Carlisle heard him well enough. "No, I'm not okay."

Felix was quite glad Aro had got him to strip and change the bed sheets. It would be nice to die of his hangover and shame in a clean bed, he reasoned.

Carlisle lay down next to Felix, kicking at the boy's legs to free up some space, and pulled the pillow away. "At least Magnus didn't wallop you," he offered helpfully.

"Carlisle, seriously," Felix looked to his uncle with a raised eyebrow. "You are pissing on my misery by being so fucking positive. The only reason he didn't wallop me is because Aro already did a good enough job." Not that he believed me until he saw the state of my ass, bastard! Felix thought, burying his shame with annoyance instead. "Lucky me, eh?! I have to pay Magnus for the whiskey."

"Surely you have enough cash to pay him, what's the problem?"

"I don't have any cash," Felix muttered. "Aro only gave me that allowance to take it off me when I fuck up. And I fuck up a lot. So I hardly ever get it, and when I do I blow it."

Carlisle bounced the pillow off Felix' head. "I'll give you the money to give to Magnus, stop whining."

Felix beamed at his uncle. It was the first nice thing to happen to him that whole day. "You're my favourite uncle, you know?"

Carlisle rolled his eyes. "Yeah, until it's a party and only Eleazar can get you drinks, then he's wonder uncle, isn't he?"

Felix didn't deny it, his cheeky grin conveyed everything Carlisle needed to know.

"Fancy coming out tonight?" Felix asked. "I remember talking to few smoking hot human girls and I want to see if they're still alive."

"Sick!" Carlisle spat.

He thought the idea of terrorising the human population was disgusting but as Aro had said, it was only going to be once a year. Hearing Felix talk so casually about the people they had killed offended him. It was just enough to seal Carlisle's resolve and find a way to prove his adulthood to his father and brothers.

"And no, we aren't going out. You're grounded."

Felix scoffed. "Aro isn't going to check in the middle of the night. It will be fine."

"He will," Carlisle answered quickly. "He's told me he will," he lied.

Carlisle knew it was a coward's way out to blame Aro rather than to stand up to Felix, but he figured that everyone expected him to roll over and let Felix do as he liked anyway, so even taking the cowards way out would be an improvement, surely?

"That bastard!" Felix called out, thinking of his deceitful father. "He doesn't trust me?!"

"You were already making plans to go out," Carlisle pointed out.

"He didn't know that though. He just assumed he couldn't trust me."

Because he can't trust you! Carlisle thought, though he thought better of voicing it. "Be here when he checks and prove him wrong."

"I will!" Felix said resolutely. "I'll show him!"

Carlisle lay back on the bed and cupped his hands behind his head. Thank god for that. Thank you God.

…

Sulpicia let herself into Felix' bedroom and took a seat on the boy's bed. "I need to talk to you, Felix," she said, sounding very much as though her heart would shatter at any moment.

In the intervening hours between Carlisle convincing Felix to stay home, and Sulpicia arriving, Demetri had returned to his temporary home only to have his brother set in on him in a particularly horrid fashion. It was, for Felix' part, deserved as Felix had had to clean up Demetri's shit for him. On Demetri's part, it had been the straw that broke the camel's back and the boy had sought out his father to tell him to sort Felix out or he was going back to Egypt.

Luckily for everyone involved, Demetri had run into his mother before he'd found his father and Sulpicia had convinced her boy to let her try and diffuse the situation before he made any rash decisions. Not that it was really Demetri's decision - she would never let him leave. Sulpicia didn't tell him that at the time.

"What have I done?" Felix asked. "Whatever it is, Demetri started it."

Hearing her son's name brought tears rushing from Sulpicia's eyes. Felix might have thought himself to be a bit of a lady's man, but he had no idea what to do with a sobbing female he couldn't offer a kiss to.

"Mom, what's wrong?!" he asked, desperately wrapping his arms around her shoulders.

"I don't understand what I did wrong with you," she told him through her sobs. "All this fighting with your brother, I just don't understand it."

Felix sighed. Demetri you fucking snake, he thought. "We're just messing around, Mom."

"Are you?" Sulpicia asked, wiping tears from her cheeks.

"Of course we are!" Felix insisted. "He's my little brother, I'm supposed to wind him up."

"You aren't winding him up you are upsetting him. You are upsetting me, too."

"Okay, I'll leave him alone." For fuck's sake, he thought. There's no need for this!

Sulpicia took her boy's face in both hands. He was such a handsome boy, a man, nearly, but still so childlike. His eyes were young. Even after all he had seen, all he had done, he was still the boy Aro had brought home all those centuries ago. Just as lost, just as likely to screw up the next chance he got.

Sometimes she yearned for a human life where the young would grow and mature, but in her heart, she loved that their vampire babies would be young forever. What she was about to say would upset her boy, but it needed to be done, it was the only way to end this vile back and forth between her sons. And, Sulpicia thought, it will show Aro my way works, too.

"Felix, you do realise what you are saying when you tell Demetri he isn't Aro's, don't you?"

Felix thought he was just winding Demetri up, sometimes as payback, others for fun. He could see Sulpicia thought more to it though. "Not really…" he answered honestly.

"You are saying that none of you are mine," Sulpicia explained, her voice cracking emotionally for effect. "None of you are my children. I love the four of you so much but none of you have my venom and apparently, to you at least, that means you aren't mine. Even after centuries together… you aren't my son."

Felix' eye grew wide whilst Sulpicia spoke, and when she said he wasn't her son, they damn near popped out of his head.

"I never meant that!" he rushed to say, taking his mother's hands in his own. "That's not what I meant at all!"

Sulpicia pulled her hands away. "But that's what you are saying, son. I mean, Felix."

The quick correction in term from son to his name punched Felix in the guts. "No, no, no," Felix insisted.

Nodding, Sulpicia continued. "The way you have treated me whilst we've been living apart only confirms it to me - you don't think I'm your mother and you aren't my son."

Tears formed in the boy's eyes to match those of his mother. He didn't want to hurt Sulpicia, not ever, not even on those very rare occasions that she had somehow pissed him off, he still worshipped her. Okay, he thought, so I have been a bit of a dick to my mom lately, he remembered. I didn't mean that either! Fuck!

"That's not what I'm saying, Mom," he implored. "I love you, you're my mom!"

"Then what are you saying, sweetheart?" Sulpicia asked. She wanted to hear her boy say this business of venom was nonsense.

"I know venom doesn't matter, I do!" Felix insisted. "We're vampires. We choose who is important. Who cares about venom?! I don't care, you're my mom!"

Sulpicia stroked a comforting hand down her son's cheek, wiping away the tears only for fresh ones to replace them. "Are you sure about that, Felix?"

"Yes!" he sobbed. "I'll never use venom against Demetri again, I swear."

"Okay, baby," Sulpicia said, standing from the bed. "And you do love your brother, don't you?"

"I do!" Felix confirmed. "Demetri's my brother, but he's more than that, he's my best friend, too. Of course I love him!"

With one last look to her boy, mainly to check that she had broken through that thick skull of his, Sulpicia left and closed the door behind her.

Demetri, as his mother had instructed, had been waiting in the hall.

"Did you hear that?" Sulpicia asked quietly.

Demetri smiled a little and nodded. He wasn't gleeful over Felix crying or anything, but hearing his brother admit he was talking bollocks meant so much to Demetri's self-worth.

"Stop letting Felix get to you, he doesn't even believe what he says so you definitely shouldn't," Sulpicia told him. She kissed her boy's head gently and left for the night. The sooner we are all under one roof, the better!