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?

133. Felix, - 500, May

AN: Okay, we're still all sat in the south tower having the most awkward family time in history, and now we are going to convince Basileus to recount the origin stories of some of our vamps. They are hefty chapters so grab yourself a brew and settle in :D

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FELIX - 500, MAY

"Mom," Alec called softly. "He's using my cup."

Felix swigged from the small goblet and exhaled triumphantly. "It's just a cup," he said, smirking at his baby brother, knowing how much he hated sharing the damn thing. Precious brat.

"It's MY cup," Alec insisted, stamping his foot.

Aro felt on edge after Irina stepped up to him and he wasn't in the mood for any more bratty behaviour. "No, it's just A cup," he said through gritted teeth. "Let it go, Alec."

Felix grinned at his baby brother, mouthing 'loser' when no one was looking.

"But he's only using it because it's mine!" Alec was getting louder, interrupting the other conversations going on around him.

"Sul," Aro called to his mate, making eyes at her to say, 'deal with him or I will'.

Sensing his father was close to losing it with Alec, Felix went in for the kill and slathered his tongue all around the rim of Alec's goblet. "Here you go," he said sweetly.

"Mom!" Alec implored. "Tell him!"

Sulpicia snatched the cup from Felix and disappeared upstairs to wash the damn thing. Alec continued to complain in her absence.

I'm going to snap in a minute, Aro thought. "Stop whinging about a bloody cup!"

Alec flopped into his mother's vacated seat and folded his arms. "I'm not whinging," he said, complete with his bottom lip protruding.

"Your lips are moving, and you are complaining about something," Aro explained. "That's whinging."

"So anytime you complain about something that's whinging too, is it?" Alec was just loud enough for everyone to hear him, but some, Magnus' tribe in particular, questioned whether he was really being so foolish as to talk back to his father that way. It was unlike the Alec they knew in the wider coven.

"No, because I am a grown up and you are child." It is so NOT a good time to be back chatting me, boy. "Stop being cheeky."

"So am I whinging or am I cheeky?"

Just before Aro could launch from his chair to take his boy in hand, Sulpicia returned and gave her baby vampire back his special, and clean, cup. "Now he's happy," she said to her mate with an arm around her child. "Was that really so hard?"

"I prefer the Spartan method of child rearing," Aro explained. "Keep belting the little bastards until the grow up or die."

"Vampiric kids don't grow up," Alec pointed out, feeling extra confident in his mother's lap, even adding Dickhead to his father in his thoughts, which at least gave the boy a giggle.

"I know, it's a lifetime supply of fun." Aro watched his youngest for a moment with narrowed eyes. I know what you're doing, he thought. "Come and sit with me, I want to know what you're thinking."

"No!" Alec pulled his mother's arm around his waist.

Carlisle was surprised by his nephew. He was used to hearing the twins' minor squabbles, but not to hearing Alec being outright defiant. "He's got quite a mouth on him today, hasn't he?"

Aro looked down his nose at his boy and nodded to Carlisle's comment. To be fair to Alec, he was mostly well-behaved in Aro's presence, but on those occasions when he wasn't quite so angelic, once he started he tended to throw away the halo for the rest of the day.

"I'll be knocking that mouth right off his face if he keeps it up."

"You will leave my grandchildren be," Atia told her son sternly.

Aro, believing his father was clear across the room having yet another private conversation with Magnus and Marcus was set to reply, until Basileus grabbed the back of his chair, making him jump out of his skin!

"Unless you'd like me to employ the Spartan method with you?" Basileus said with a mocking growl.

Aro recovered quickly from his shock. "I'm fully grown already, Dad," he said, cool as ice.

"Physically maybe," Basileus agreed, then he wrapped his arm around Aro's neck and knocked his knuckles against his head. "But you're nothing but a overgrown child in here." While everyone else laughed, Basileus leaned in close to Aro's ears. "I know they're getting on your last nerve today," he said softly, referring to the kids, "but try and relax a little, or you're going to scare the new kids."

Aro nodded his agreement. He knew he was being overbearing but he found his children's disrespect not only frustrating, but embarrassing, too. Basileus heard his boy's concerns.

"They are always like this, you just aren't used to having witnesses."

There was some truth in that, Aro had to agree. Not that it helped his feelings on the matter. Basileus had said all he could at that point and retook his seat next to Magnus.

"I'm struggling to keep a hold of everyone's emotions anyway," he said, for Basileus' ears only. "Would you rather I concentrated on Aro for a while?" Magnus knew what was going on with Aro because he and Basileus had only just finished talking about it.

Basileus shook his head. "Aro's place has always been the epicentre of family life," Basileus explained. "He's going to have to get used to that centre containing more people, that's all."

"And the kids?" Magnus asked, seeing Alec still pouting and Felix still teasing him.

Basileus sighed. "They are going to have to get used to it, too." He knew it wouldn't be quite that simple, but at the end of the day, it was tough, and they would all get used to it. Basileus only hoped that it wouldn't take too long or cause too many explosions in the meantime. He accepted and expected there would be a few.

It wasn't long before Aro was tested again, again with Alec, though the boy was only reacting to his brother's taunts. Aro took Felix clear of everyone else to have a 'chat' with him about calming his exuberance. That 'chat' consisted of an absolute final warning for the boy.

Felix knew how far he could push his old man, and by the look in Aro's eye, he knew he had reached the endzone. When he retook his place in their happy little gathering, Felix offered his little brother a mealy-mouthed apology. If Aro hadn't known how excruciating his son found making a public apology of any kind he might have snatched Felix up right then and given him the hiding he seemed so desperate to receive! As it was, trying to remain calm, Aro shrugged and took up his drink. I'm going to need to invest in more whiskey if this is to be a regular event, he thought.

Caius had never felt so blessed to be footloose and fancy free. "Do you even remember what our lives were like before you got yourself saddled with a load of kids?"

Aro couldn't honestly say that he did!

Caius grimaced. They look more effort than worth, he thought.

Basileus heard his thoughts and called him on them. "Says he who has been playing cards with a fourteen-year-old for over an hour."

"And losing," Magnus pointed out, winking to Demetri. The boy was playing remarkably well - mainly because Magnus could see Caius' hand every time he checked his cards and had been mouthing them out to Demetri.

"A lot of things were different then," Sulpicia said, thinking back to their pre-children life. "Felix definitely marked a change in our relationship."

"Being broody for a family will do that."

Eleazar hadn't meant to sound so sharp, and he quickly took up Carmen's hands to express his apologies. He really didn't want to upset her, and he had an inkling that they were both going to go through the mill with Denali girls in their lives. Better to do it together, he thought.

Atia had only managed a brief chat with her eldest but she was pleased to see he had taken her advice on board. Now if only we could find a way to have Aro and Sulpicia receive such advice so gratefully?

"Aro was the broody one, Eleazar," Sulpicia said, smiling lovingly at her mate. "Not me."

Aro scoffed. "You started clucking like a mother hen the moment you set eyes on him!"

Sulpicia returned said scoff. "You have a short memory, my love."

"You both do!" Basileus said in no uncertain terms. "The pair of you were goggle-eyed over the boy."

Felix turned to his father. "What colour were my eyes?"

"Your father won't remember that, Felix," Sulpicia told her son, quite dismissively. "He wasn't interested in you until he realised how strong you were."

"I did break out of the cell in the dungeons," he told the group, proud as punch. "Only one to ever have done that. Even as a newborn."

Magnus scoffed to the boy's bravado. "I bet I could do it now, let alone as a newborn."

Caius shot around on the floor and looked up to the juggernaut. "Don't you dare even try it!"

"I shouldn't dare?!" Magnus repeated, opened mouthed! "Do you want to try rephrasing that, Caius?"

"Yeah, dream on, Magnus," Felix joined in. "It's not just about strength, you have to have the balls, too … "

"Felix!" Atia was sick to the back teeth of the language she was hearing, particularly when such vulgarity was uttered by one of the children. Though to be fair to the others, it was only Felix who was daft enough to say anything out loud.

"That's a sensitive subject for Magnus," Caius started chuckling. "Freyr keeps his in a jar … "

Magnus flicked Caius' head to get his attention. "Keep it up, I dare you." He made a show of cracking his knuckles. "I'll take the pair of you down."

"Blue," Aro blurted out. He didn't want Caius to give Magnus a reason to prove he was higher in the pecking order, even if Basileus had assured him it was only in family/friendship matters rather than coven politics.

"You had blue eyes," he told Felix. "Ice blue, like crystals. I remember thinking what a shame it would be that you would lose those beautiful eyes when I turned you. But I'm a selfish man, and I had to turn you anyway."

"Wow!"

Aro's face scrunched up. "What am I getting the 'wow' treatment for?!" He'd never had a wow from his mate that she meant with goodwill.

"It was a real wow, my love," Sulpicia said, smiling to him lovingly. "Even after all this time you still surprise me."

"I'd like to hear about little Felix," Irina piped up.

Felix sneered in her direction. She had blown all chances with him ... not that it bothered her.

"He was never 'little' Irina," Aro answered for his boy. "But I can tell you about his arrival if you wish." He was trying so hard to be calm and nice to the little bitch.

"Basileus," Sulpicia called. "You should tell the story."

"Why him?" Aro asked. "I can tell it!"

"It's my story!" Felix exclaimed. If anyone was going to tell his story, it should be him!

Sulpicia laughed at her mate and son. "You both lie, we'd rather hear it from Basileus. Besides, he knows it from all angles."

"I'll start when there's a drink in my hand," Basileus said, looking to his mate.

"You're a lazy old goat," Atia told him playfully before releasing his cup.

Felix - 500, May

What the hell … "Aro!" Caius yelled. "We've got a live one!"

"Already?" Aro called from inside a dark cell. "That was quick."

They had only started biting the humans the night before and they'd only managed three before Aro had opened the cask of dungeon blood. It was game over for the rest of the night as he and Caius enjoyed the delights of not only the coven drug but also a couple of fresh human girls they had brought back to be enjoyed and then devoured.

The stocky young man Aro had taken a liking to in Greece had been the most difficult to contain on their way back to Volterra, so the coven king had bitten him first before tossing him in a cell for the night. It was a remarkably fast transformation and the newborn stood in the middle of the dungeon rooms, eyes rampant with mix of fear, anger and blood lust.

"Why have you let him out?!" Aro boomed to his co-master. "He was difficult enough to get in the bloody cell in the first place!"

"I didn't let him out!" Caius shot back.

Ignoring the newborn growling between them, as both Aro and Caius were adept in taking newborns down when they needed to, Caius inspected the bars on the cell door.

"He's bent the bars!" he called out, partly in awe, partly in annoyance. No one has ever got out of these cells, he thought. But the damage was there for all to see.

"He's going to be useful if he makes it through the newborn year, Aro," Caius said, thinking of the strength contained in the newborn. Newborns were strong, they were made that way for self-preservation, but this strength was far more than Caius had ever seen before. Aro, too, for that matter.

Aro finished injecting his venom into the last of their human haul and locked the cell door behind him. Tossing Caius the keys, he approached the newborn. The guy was a few inches shorter than Aro, but broad, very broad. Aro had watched the young man performing in a strong man competition and he was glad to see that his intuition about the guy's strength had paid off. He was filthy - having been quite literally dragged through the mud all the way from Greece back to Italy, and then thrown into the pits of a dungeon cell. His dark hair, matted, long and also full of mud had crusted to the his beard. As the newborn vibrated with his new-found emotions, Aro wondered for a moment if he might be too much to handle. Not that it would be his problem - newborns were Caius' domain.

"I can't see you having this one submit, brother," he called over his shoulder, keeping one eye on the newborn.

Caius scoffed. "They all go down eventually."

"Still …" Aro wasn't so sure.

He watched the newborn and the newborn watched him right back. He wasn't scared. Not even slightly. That was unusual. The transformation was a harrowing experience and newborns, even filled with their haste for blood and a fighting spirit, even then they were still scared. Not you though, Aro realised as he circled the young man. He flicked a piece of his long, straggling, mud cladded hair and the newborn turned on him, growling, ready to launch. Aro could see behind his angry eyes, the newborn was already trying to work out how much of a threat Aro posed and whether he could take him out.

"You can try, if you like," Aro said quietly.

He was still a little high from the dungeon blood the night before and a good scrap was always a great reliever of the residual effects. Often, he and Caius would end up wrestling each other into a bloody mess, just for fun, at the end of their drug binge. Aro quite fancied a volatile newborn to take out his frustrations.

"Don't fight with it, Aro," Caius called out, kicking the legs of a fitting human going through the transformation back into the cell so he could lock the door. He'd kicked a little too hard and shattered the femur, but it would heal. He didn't even consider the additional pain he had inflicted on the poor wretch. "He'll be useful once I've got him under control."

"You have your fun, brother," Aro replied slyly, knowing just how Caius would be bringing the newborn under control. "And I'll have mine."

Aro launched at the newborn, grappling him to the ground. Any other vampire would have been dead already going in against a fresh newborn like that. Not Aro, not a vampire of the Volturi. One of the things that made the Volturi so strong was that Basileus had been having his coven members practice their fighting skills on newborns since he had first turned Aro all those years ago. Whilst Aro rolled around the floor with the newborn, intent on ripping out his throat, he used his gift to get a sense of the new coven member.

Aro froze for a moment. Fuck! His head screamed, berating his own stupidity. Coming out of his momentary daze, he slammed the younger vampire into the floor and held him down.

"Get me some blood!" he roared to his covenmate.

"Are you giving up already?" Caius asked in surprise. He was used to Aro going at the newborns for hours when he had the chance.

"Just fetch me a body," Aro called back, maintaining his grip on the newborn at the back of his neck.

Caius dragged a human, one they weren't turning, out of the newborn hall and took it to his co-master. He had to wedge the man, an old guy they had only brought back for feeding purposes, under the flailing newborn as Aro daren't release him in his volatile state. Once the throat of the old man was offered to the newborn, instinct took over and he plunged his new fangs into the neck and instantly settled, feeding like baby, slurping as he went.

Aro sat on the newborn's back, though he kept a tight grip at the scruff of his neck. "I'm taking this one," he told Caius.

"Taking him where?" Caius asked casually. He wasn't really paying attention, more interested in fetching himself another feed. It was the best bit about turning new stock in Caius' opinion - gorging on the blood of those they rejected for the transformation.

"Home."

Caius spun on his heel. "You want to take a newborn to your quarters?!" he asked. "Are you fucking crazy?!" A normal newborn wreaked havoc and the one Aro was using as a chair looked set to be anything but normal. "He will kill Sulpicia, Aro. She won't be able to control that!"

He spat 'that' like their new coven member was a thing. He was, of course, for the time being. All Volturi newborns were just things they picked up from the streets until they moulded them into guards proper. Only a half of those they turned ever survived to receive the Volturi Insignia and there was no way of knowing if this one would survive.

"I'll control him," Aro stated flatly. "I'll keep him with me."

"If you want a pet there are easier ones to go for, brother," Caius remarked. Then something else occurred to Caius. "What have you seen in his head?" he asked. He knew Aro well enough. You've seen something useful and you want to keep the goods to yourself.

Aro toyed with not telling Caius, but he knew his co-master would badger him until he did. If I'm right he needs to know anyway, he thought. "He's too young, Caius."

Caius looked to the hulking vampire feeding beneath Aro. "What are you talking about? He's fucking huge. He's got to be our age, at least!"

Aro shook his head. "He's a teenager, fifteen, maybe sixteen."

This newborn looked to be the strongest they had ever encountered, and he would be useful, really useful once they had trained him up - they both knew that. They also both knew that Basileus would go fucking nuts about having kids in the coven.

Caius whistled into the dark dungeons and walked away laughing. "I'm glad you turned him!" he said, mocking Aro.

Aro grimaced.

"Your old man is going to fucking skin you when he finds out you have brought a kid into the coven."

Aro growled in return. "Thanks, brother. I don't need it spelled out!"

"We could just kill him now? Add him to our dungeon blood barrels?" Caius offered, brandishing a sliver blade to do the job.

Aro shook his head. "Look how strong he is, Caius," he said, drawing in his co-master. "We have been looking to build the strength in our coven. We need him."

There was something more than that, though. Aro had felt drawn to the human the moment he'd seen him. The only thing he could liken it to was the way he felt when he'd first met his mate. Now, he didn't feel the same drive towards the youth as he had Sulpicia - that was entirely sexual, at least to start with, and he felt nothing like that for the vampire beneath him. But he wanted him. Somehow. He wanted him in his life. He had to keep him. It felt primal and it was something Aro had never felt before with the thousands of humans or vampires that had passed through his immortal days.

"If you're keeping him, you can tell Basileus," he offered with a shrug. Caius didn't really care either way. "It's your head on the block, not mine."

Aro released a shaky breath, trying to play it cool. It was futile, however, as Aro knew Caius was right. His head most definitely was on the block. And so is my hide when my father finds out I've turned a fucking teenager!

"He's going to batter you," Caius sang out happily.

They had both taken their share of battering's from the creator and Caius knew it was no laughing matter. But, just as Aro did when Caius was in for a round with the creator, Caius made sure to pour salt in the wounds.

"I'm taking him," Aro said, trying to sound more resolute than he really felt. "I'll talk Basileus around."

Caius burst out laughing at the very idea of 'talking' Basileus around. "Yeah, you do that!" he called after Aro as he exited the dungeons with his new pet.

Aro didn't speak to the newborn as he directed him towards the south tower. He was relieved to have passed no guards in that short journey, and positively ecstatic when he found his father's ground floor suit empty. Thank fuck he isn't home!

The second floor remained empty and Aro toyed with putting the newborn in there for a moment ... before thinking better of it. He will smash the place up unattended, he reasoned. That wasn't the only reason. Aro wanted him close. He wished to the gods that he knew why he felt compelled to risk his neck for a stray newborn, but he couldn't help the feelings as they came, even if he didn't understand them.

"What is that?!" Sulpicia stood in shock looking at the filthy wretch her mate had brought home. Aro wasn't looking much better having rolled around the floor with the newborn in the dungeons.

"Our new pet," Aro replied. He wore a smile, but it didn't reach his eyes – they were full of concern.

"I believe dogs are the animal of choice for pets, my love," Sulpicia said, her voice hitching as the pair of vampires at her door dripped mud on the floor.

"We're keeping this one, my queen." Aro gave the newborn a good shake to get him to quit his growls. "He's too young to go in with the other newborns," he explained. "Too strong, too," he added as he firmed up his grip.

"How young?" Sulpicia asked, approaching them.

Aro held his hand up to stop her getting too close but Sulpicia was near enough to look into the boy's eyes. And he was a boy, she could see that. Not by his clothes, or his height or his brawn, but his eyes. They were young, so very young.

"Aro, how old is he?"

"Fifteen? Sixteen?" Aro offered. "I need to go through his head properly, but there about."

"He's big!" Sulpicia said, taking a half step back. Very big for fifteen or sixteen, and he almost has full beard! "Are you sure?"

"I just said I wasn't, didn't I?!" Aro snapped. "Just help me get him cleaned up." The tiredness from the dungeon blood binge was setting in and Aro was getting pissed off keeping a hold on the newborn.

Sulpicia went to the bathroom, a new installation in their chambers and one she would have rather not sullied with a newborn pet Aro had brought home, but she lit the fire and started to heat some water anyway.

The round wooden tub was short and deep in the Eastern style in which the bather sits up. Aro had brought the idea home from his travels in Japan with his father. It was just about the only successful thing about their trip as they had found the country, make that, the entire Eastern side of the globe to be overpopulated by vampiric rogues. After slaughtering all but one of each coven they could find, Basileus had decreed they were to never set foot out of their lands or they would face harsh penalties. Aro and Caius wanted to push on and slaughter them all, but Basileus wouldn't hear of it. He only had to threaten them once before they quit their complaining.

Aro brought the boy through and started to rip away his torn and tattered clothes. When he started to struggle again, Aro held him at arm's length face on and whipped the back of his hand across his cheek, hard. He kept doing so until the newborn relented and stilled, though his eyes still flickered with a rage that concerned Aro. Can I contain him?

"What's his name?" Sulpicia asked, paying little attention to her mate's actions. She had seen him handling newborns for centuries and she knew there was to be a certain amount of rough handling with their underlings.

Aro hadn't thought to find out his name. "Can you speak?" he asked the newborn in his hold.

Nothing.

"He's only just transformed," Aro explained to his mate, "he'll speak soon enough."

Through his grip on the boy's throat, Aro went into the boy's mind again and sought his answer. "Felix?" he asked.

The boy's eyes flickered hearing the name. Aro nodded to himself, that was all the confirmation he needed. "His name is Felix," he told his mate with certainty.

Sulpicia half-filled the bath tub with hot water and was waiting expectantly for Aro to bring the boy over. "Should I fetch him some clothes?" she asked, averting her eyes as her mate directed the over-grown child into the bath.

"Mine will fit him," Aro replied. "Find him something suitable."

Sulpicia hung in the doorway for a moment considering her mates words. Yours? Aro wasn't one for sharing. He didn't play nicely with others. He had always been loving towards her and friendly towards Caius and Marcus, but that was about it aside from his father and sister. To see her mate, the fearsome Vampire King, bathing a newborn boy and offering his home, and the shirt off his back … wow! Nothing more loquacious would come. Just, wow!

"I need some scissors, too, Sul," Aro called, holding up a matted length of hair. "And a razor," he added, looking to the youth's unkempt facial hair.

The boy, or make that Felix, sat in the warm water and had started to relax. He wasn't sure what was going on, but the assault to his senses kept him still enough. Everything was so damn loud! He couldn't understand why the guy bathing him had to shout every single word. At least she's quiet, he thought, watching the woman searching the bathroom drawers for the implements her mate had requested. She's pretty hot, too, he thought.

"Hey?!"

Felix snapped his attention back to the guy and received a fresh clout to the back of his head. What the fuck was that for?! he thought. He was still without words. Every time he tried to speak it came out as humming growl.

"That," Aro told him with another slap, "was for thinking about my wife."

Felix gulped. 'How do you know what I'm thinking?' he tried to ask, again, only a growl emerged from his lips.

"Why is he growling like that, Aro?" Sulpicia asked, sounding concerned.

"He's trying to talk," Aro explained. "They do this sometimes," he said about newborns. "They talk too quickly and it comes out as a growl. Don't worry."

Sulpicia nodded along, but she kept one eye on the newborn as she went back to the drawers, just in case.

"Felix," Aro clicked his fingers in the boy's face. "Do you understand what's happened to you?"

Sulpicia had seen her mate around the newborns many times. Maybe not this fresh, she thought, but I've never seen him act this way with them. The best a newborn could hope to receive from Aro, or Caius for that matter, was indifference. As she listened to Aro take the time to explain to the boy all about his new life, what he was feeling, how his senses were working at an accelerated rate, she was drawn in. Sulpicia sat on the edge of the tub and took the boy's face in her hands, waiting for him to acclimatise to her touch before she soaped his face.

"Do you want it all off?" she asked her mate, referring to the boy's half-grown beard.

Aro shrugged. "Just tidy him up." He took the scissors and started hacking chunks from the boy's hair. It was easier than trying to wash it.

Felix, for his part, just sat there. He still wasn't scared, even with the slaps he had received from the guy. Aro. He said his name was Aro, Felix reminded himself.

"You will call me Master," Aro interjected, reading along with Felix's thoughts. "Sulpicia is my mate, my wife. You can call her 'my queen'."

Sulpicia laughed out loud. "Caius and Dora won't like that, my love," she said. "Didyme might have something to say on the matter, too."

Felix wasn't sure why they were both laughing, but he made an attempt to join them.

"No!" Aro snapped. "It's not for you to laugh."

"Aro, he's just a boy," Sulpicia said, smiling at the youth. "Be softer with him."

"Softer?" Aro scoffed. He was being pretty 'soft' under the circumstances already and he had a round of hell coming from his father for not dispatching the kid as soon as he'd discovered his age. "He may be a boy, Sully, but he's still a newborn. You didn't see what he did to the bars on his cell!"

As Aro filled Sulpicia in on finding the boy, who he thought was a man, and bringing him back to Volterra, Felix listened. He couldn't remember anything Aro was talking about. The last thing he remembered was winning in the strong man competition. There was nothing else in his memory except for the unimaginable pain of his transformation. Whatever that means ... he said to himself, thinking of what Aro had briefly explained.

Aro stopped talking when he saw Sulpicia had finished shaving the boy. He moved around the tub to get a good look at his face. It's not enough, he thought. "Shave it off."

Felix put his hands to his cheeks. He didn't want a bare face. For a boy of his years, he was proud that he could grow a beard at all. 'Why?!' he tried to say, but again it came out as a strangled growl. It sounded more word-like, but it was still a growl. Aro read the word in his mind.

"I want the guards to know you are younger than they are," Aro explained. "I want you to know you are younger than they are," he added more sharply, remembering how volatile teenagers could be at the best of times, let alone newborn vampiric teenagers. "Most importantly, I said it was to be shaved off." Aro gave the rug on Felix's face a good tug, making sure he had every ounce of his attention. "If I tell you to rip off your own fucking arm you had better do it, do you understand me?!"

There was something about the tone of Aro's voice that finally unnerved Felix. It was like he was reaching inside the boy, deep into his soul, and talking to the essence of his new vampiric being.

"You say, 'Yes, Master'," Aro instructed.

Felix attempted to say the words but soon gave up in favour of thinking them to his new lord.

"Your survival in this coven," Aro corrected himself, "make that, in this life, relies on your ability to follow my commands."

'Yes, master,' Felix thought again.

Aro and Sulpicia went back to their conversation, catching up with all Aro had been up to whilst he was away rounding up humans for the transformation to refill their guard. Well, not quite all. He missed out the night on dungeon blood fucking humans in the dungeons. But the rest they chatted about.

Felix allowed himself to be manipulated as Sulpicia shaved his face and Aro cut his hair and talked about him rather than to him. When he attempted to object to the conversation as Aro explained that he may not make it through the newborn year and Sulpicia shouldn't get too attached to him, Aro grabbed a fistful of his newly cropped hair and pulled his head back uncomfortably.

"If the only noise you can make is a growl, I suggest you make no noise at all."

That didn't sound anything like a suggestion, Felix thought, rubbing out the ache in his neck. The bucket of water dumped over his head came as a shock, but Felix quickly got his growl under control when Aro took him by the scuff of his neck again.

Sulpicia willed her mate to relax a little and he eventually did.

"Out," Aro instructed simply. Felix obeyed, but being unused to his new vampiric speed, and slippery wet, he crashed into the far wall. Felix stayed where he was in a crumpled heap on the floor as Aro laughed at his uselessness.

Sulpicia left the boy to Aro for dressing, feeling her prolonged presence was inappropriate. There's nothing appropriate about a vampiric child, she thought, wondering what her father-in-law would have to say on the matter. Actually, she knew exactly what her father-in-law would have to say, and what he'll do to my poor Aro.

Aro took the up the clothes Sulpicia had brought in and shook out the black woollen tunic, sizing Felix with one eye. "It will be a bit big for you, but my cast-offs will have to do until I can get you your own." He was speaking to himself more than to Felix.

"Get up," Aro instructed, "and get dressed." With that he left the boy to his own devises, though he left the door open, so he could hear if he tried to bolt out the window or something.

Aro joined his mate in the main chamber of their quarters where she sat eagerly waiting for him.

"Do you think he's still hungry?" she asked, offering to fetch the boy some blood from Caius.

"No," Aro shook his head. "He's having my blood."

"Your blood?!" Sulpicia shot back in surprise. "Won't that weaken you, my love?"

Aro bit his lower lip and thought about the risk of being weak around a newborn. Particularly the dangers of being weakened around one as strong as Felix. It was the only way, though. "It will help him bond to me," Aro explained. "It will help me control him." Aro could see his mate still looked less than convinced. "It's better than the other way, my queen," he added.

"Yes," Sulpicia agreed, knowing the other way was submission. "Of course, okay."

"You should feed him, too," Aro announced. He really was thinking on his feet with this newborn.

"Me?" Sulpicia and Aro often shared blood in the throes of their love making but to feed a child, a guard, a boy, a coven member … whatever Felix was … it just didn't seem right.

"He's going to have to stay in our quarters, Sul," Aro explained. If we are able to keep him at all, he thought to himself. "I won't leave him with you alone, but you need to be able to control him."

"I won't be able to control him, Aro. He's huge!" Sulpicia was visibly shaken by the idea of having to manage a newborn under her own steam. "Newborns are strong, and volatile … "

Aro held up his hand to silence his mate. He wasn't in the mood for frivolous wittering from the woman. "He'll settle. They all settle." Of that much he was sure. Felix would settle down. But we need to get him through the newborn year first, he thought with a shudder.

Something more pressing was playing on Sulpicia's mind. "When are you going to tell Basileus?" she asked quietly, as though the creator might hear their torrid conversation.

"He'll find out soon enough, I expect." Aro heaved himself out of his chair, sighing dramatically. "Felix!" he called out in the general direction of the bathroom. "Get in here, boy!"

Felix barrelled into the living chamber like a lion released into the gladiator ring. He crashed to the floor again, this time at Aro's feet.

"You will get the hang of it," Aro said, pulling Felix to his feet.

As vampires had no need for undertunics, as they didn't perspire as a rule, the Volturi coven wore only the outer sleeved tunic. The guards wore fabric belts with theirs, but nothing else, and like their human soldier counterparts, kept their tunic above the knee to give greater dexterity in battle. The masters all wore tight trousers and their tunic a little longer in length. The clasps to the cloaks they wore were also highly decorated with gold work and jewels, unlike the guards' plainer adornments. Still, they were the only coven that provided anything for their underlings, so the guards were relatively pleased with their lot. How they would feel seeing Felix in masters' dress would be another matter entirely, and it was something Aro briefly considered before he decided to stick it out.

"He needs a belt," Aro called to Sulpicia, who dutifully fetched one of his for the boy.

The boy held his trousers to him, scrunched at the waist. He didn't have enough control over his hands to do the fastenings himself. You really are a clumsy oaf, Aro thought watching the boy attempt to make the ties. Aro took over and then rearranged the shoulders to the black tunic he wore and finally fastened the belt around his middle.

"There," Aro proclaimed. "He looks alright."

Sulpicia looked over the boy. Now he was dressed, clean shaven and shorn haired, he looked young. Still big for his age, but he truly did look like a child. The years had been washed away along with the dirt and grim.

Aro could see his mate becoming misty eyed. Oh no, he thought, he isn't for you to cluck over! "Sulpicia, you need to understand this boy is a guard," he said softly to his mate. "He might even become our personal guard. But he's still a guard."

"I understand, my love," Sulpicia replied. But do you? she wondered as her mate continued to fuss over the boy, talking him into taking a chair.

Aro towered over Felix, who instinctively shrank into his seat. "Your eyes are blackening," he said, mainly to himself. He didn't expect Felix to understand the relevance of black eyes.

A vampire should have red eyes, as a rule, unless they were hungry or particularly emotional. Anger was the usual emotion to bring about such a change. In either of those circumstances, the eyes could turn black as coal. There was that odd orangey hue animal blood gave to their eyes, but Aro mostly thought such a colour represented the oppressed, or the desperate of their kind. He had been known to execute such poor creatures, believing he was putting them out of their misery by ending their immortal suffering.

Placing a hand on the boy's head, Aro delved into Felix's mind to get a feel for his emotional state. You don't sound angry, he surmised, finding only confused thoughts inside Felix's head. Hungry, then?

"You need more blood," Aro told the boy, waiting for some sort of response from Felix to show he understood. "Food, remember?"

Food? Felix thought. Aro had explained blood was to be his food now. He didn't like that idea.

Aro bit into his wrist and winced momentarily as his fangs broke the skin. "You are going to feed from me, understood? Only me or the blood I give you." He brought his wrist to the boy's mouth and any disgusted thoughts Felix had merely melted away when the sweet nectar hit his burning throat. The relief was instantaneous.

Aro focussed on the fire as the boy fed. It wasn't so much that feeding someone hurt. After the initial bite there was no pain to it, as such. The problem for Aro was that it went against everything he had ever done before. He had never fed a newborn. Nor a guard for that matter. He and Sully blood-shared during sex, he'd even done the same with other sexual partners, but he'd never just fed someone for feeding sake. He'd drank his father's blood countless times but then that was to make use of the magical healing powers of Basileus' blood.

"Aro!" Sulpicia hissed, gaining her mate's attention. "Is he sleeping?" she whispered, watching the suckling boy.

"No?" Aro spun to face the newborn sitting in his chair. "Surely no?"

Felix's eyes were closed, and he murmured softly as Aro pulled his wrist away and licked the wound quickly to heal the skin.

Crouching on his knees, Aro clicked his fingers in Felix's face and watched the boy intently for a reaction. "He is!" Aro exclaimed. "He's out of it."

"Perhaps he hasn't finished transforming?" Sulpicia suggested.

It sounded plausible to Aro. "He did wake up very quickly." Whilst Aro was thinking about possible reasons for the newborn to be sleeping like a, well, a newborn, he supposed, but of the human variety, Sulpicia had already gone into their bed chamber and was returning with an armful of bedding.

"Where are you going?" Aro asked, over his shoulder.

Sully lifted the bedding in her arms. "He needs somewhere to sleep," she explained. "I'm making up a bed in your study, my love. Bring him through, just give me a minute."

"Bring him through?!" Aro repeated. "Like … carry him?"

"Yes!" Sulpicia called out, disappearing into the study.

Aro cocked his head to the side, again sizing up the boy in his quarters. How the hell am I supposed to carry that?! The weight wasn't an issue for a vampire, even Sulpicia could lift the weight. It was the size of the kid. Felix was just about the biggest child he had ever seen. His boyish looks appeared mismatched to his hulking body. Settling for flopping the youth over his shoulder, Aro lugged the boy into his study.

Sulpicia had laid out blankets covering the large bench seat where Aro laid the boy. Not once did he wake, though the soft murmuring continued.

"Is he thinking?" Sulpicia asked, wondering if the boy was failing to fully transform. "I didn't know the newborns slept sometimes."

"They don't," Aro said in concern.

He didn't want the boy to die. He'd never really cared about losing the odd newborn before. Suddenly it mattered very much if this one died. With a hand on his forehead, Aro checked on the boy from inside his head and soon smiled to his mate.

"He's dreaming," he said. "About a farm … maybe where he was raised …" Aro followed the boy's dreams and told Sulpicia all he saw. The sat on the floor together, Aro with one hand on Felix to maintain access to his thoughts and ran through the boy's entire life history as he recalled it.

"ARO!"

Basileus' bellowing voice broke through their shared moment.

"Fuck," Aro said softly. He sounded utterly dejected. "Stay with the boy," he instructed his mate, "but if he wakes, fetch me immediately."

Aro slipped out of his study, leaving the door ajar, and joined his raging father in the main chamber.

"What the hell were you thinking?!" Basileus roared the moment Aro came into view. He flashed forward, the force nearly took Aro off his feet.

"Dad, listen … " Aro tried, backing away when he saw the man's nostrils flare.

"Listen?!" Basileus repeated incredulously. "You dare to tell me to listen?!" He snatched Aro up from the floor with a hand around his throat.

Aro desperately tried to suck in some air so he could speak but the iron fist around his neck was too damn tight. 'I didn't realise he was so young when we took him!' he thought to his father.

"You should have finished him off in the bloody dungeons, then!" Basileus boomed, inches from his son's face and shaking him like a rag doll. "Not brought him home to play happy fucking families!"

The him, of course, was Felix.

'Please, my lord!' Aro begged through his mind. 'There was just something about him …'

Basileus' eyes widened for a moment and Aro wondered if he might actually die for bringing the child into the coven. Basileus wondered that, too. Sensing he was about to go somewhere he really didn't want to go, the creator threw his son across the room to put some distance between them. Aro tucked and rolled until he hit the wall where he sprang into a defensive stance. He had no intentions of attacking his father, but he was ready to defend himself if he had to.

"If this is another of your fucking fetishes you can get him out of your chambers, now!" Basileus yelled, jabbing an angry finger at the door. "Show some respect to your wife!"

Aro felt sickened. It wasn't that he hadn't had fetishes through the years, some weirder than others, but the idea that he would have taken the boy into his quarters for that was abhorrent.

"It's nothing like that!" Aro shot back in disgust.

Basileus wasn't so sure. At least that would be a reason, he thought, a poor excuse but a reason nonetheless. "Then what is it?! What was so important that made you bring a vampiric child into our coven, Aro?!"

"I don't know," Aro admitted.

It was the truth. He couldn't put a finger on why he wanted to turn Felix. There was his strength, of course, but it would have been disingenuous to claim that was the only reason, or even the main reason.

"I hope for your sake that you can come up with a better excuse than that, son."

Aro watched his father carefully. Basileus paced at human speed on one side of the room, Aro stuck to his side. Deciding he was far enough away to risk it, Aro went with the truth, as he felt it.

"I don't know why I wanted him … I assume it's the same way you wanted me."

That stopped Basileus in his tracks.

"He's staying, Dad," Aro braved. "I'm taking responsibility for him. I'm keeping him in my quarters. I'm training him myself. It's no one else's concern."

"Are you daring to say the members of my coven are none of my concern?" Basileus asked, annoyed that Aro would dare to suggest such a thing.

"That's not what I'm saying … " Aro spoke softly, calmly, "please …" he implored his father to take his side. "Just let me keep him."

Basileus dived inside Aro's mind and sought out his son's motivations for taking the child from Greece. He was sure his son was hiding something. When he found Aro was being truthful - that he hadn't realised how young Felix was until he'd already turned, that he had been instantly drawn to the boy - he relented and took a seat at the window.

"What are you playing at?" he asked curiously. "Are you starting a family or something?"

"No!" Aro snapped back.

He most definitely wasn't doing that. Basileus was the only vampire either of them knew of who had turned a vampire purposely to be part of a familial relationship structure. Aro didn't want that.

"Nothing like that."

"Because if you are," Basileus continued, "the rules still apply - I want no children in this coven, Aro."

"You haven't even seen him yet, my lord," Aro said as he carefully approached his father, trying to incite some interest in the child. "He can be easily taken for an adult. He's big and strong, and he will be useful."

Basileus narrowed his eyes at his son, still trying to suss him out. He was used to Aro's games and usually knew when he was being played by his son, but occasionally a misdirection would work and Basileus would curse himself for missing any such events. Still finding nothing but honesty in Aro's words, he bobbed his head and invited Aro to sit.

"Where is he?" he asked once his son was settled.

"Is he awake, Sul?" Aro called out, peering through the gap in the door where he could just about make out his mate.

Sulpicia came out first, closely followed by a fearful overgrown child. Now the initial self-protective anger was subsiding, Felix was feeling the tension of his precarious situation. Hearing the creator of vampire kind roaring and growling in a primordial fashion through the open door had helped to bring those feelings to the fore.

"Felix, come here, boy," Aro called, standing and reaching out an arm to welcome him over.

With an encouraging nudge from Sulpicia, Felix went and joined his new master at his side.

"Master?" he croaked in question.

"Aha!" Aro exclaimed. "Wonderful. He speaks!" He slapped a firm hand on the boy's shoulder intending it to look supportive, natural even, but he was fooling no one. Basileus knew full well that Aro was making sure the boy stayed in place whilst he inspected him.

Taking to his feet again, Basileus circled the boy slowly.

"How are you controlling him?" he asked Aro. "I don't like the idea of you using submission with a child." Squeezing the boy's bicep, he added, "Even a large child."

Aro shook his head. "I'm not, Dad."

"Caius?"

Basileus assumed the other master would be, as he had general control over newborns and he knew how Caius controlled those newborns. He wasn't against it as such - it was an unusual practice in large covens to keep subordinates under control. He couldn't honestly say he entirely approved, either, mind you.

"No," Aro admitted. "That's why I pulled him out of the cells."

Basileus stopped circling and stood in front of Aro. "So, what are you doing?"

"Feeding him," Aro admitted under his breath.

Basileus made him repeat his answer three times until he was properly audible. Aro looked submissively to the floor, hoping it would open and swallow him up.

"Are you going to say anything?" he eventually asked when nothing was forthcoming from his father.

"You are making yourself weaker in an already dangerous situation." Basileus hooked his finger under his boy's chin and lifted Aro's face until they were eye to eye. "So I assume this child is important to you," he added softly.

Aro released a shaky breath. He hadn't even realised he'd been holding it in, but it came rushing forth along with thanks to his father.

"I still don't like this," Basileus said sternly, cutting off his son's adoration. "You and I need to have a long conversation about what happens when you dare to flout my commands."

Aro swallowed down the venom pooling in his mouth. He had been expecting as much. "How do you want this to work?" Aro asked, jutting his chin towards the newborn between them in an effort to distract himself from his coming 'conversation'.

Basileus took a moment to go through the boy's thoughts and got a feel for the vampire he was, or maybe, would be. Seeing the boy brake out of the dungeon cells piqued his interest. He took the child's hand and placed Felix's palms flat against his own chest.

"Push," he instructed the newborn.

Felix did as he was bid. He hadn't intended to push hard but his strength was overwhelming. Basileus stood firm, however.

"Harder," the creator called out. "Push into me as hard as you can."

Felix braced his bare feet against the marble floor and pushed for all he was worth. After a minute of exertion he felt beads of sweat forming on the back of his neck, but he still hadn't moved the creator.

"Very good," Basileus said, smiling at the youth.

Aro started to relax a little. Great, he thought, thinking his father could see some use in the keeping the child.

But you didn't even move?! Felix thought in annoyance.

Basileus' smile grew even wider hearing Felix's thoughts. "I didn't, no, but you are still the strongest vampire I have met," he answered honestly.

Felix's eyes widened in surprise.

"I can read your mind," Basileus explained, "and I have just told you that you are the strongest vampire I have met, yet you couldn't even move me." Placing a strong hand on the youth's shoulder, Basileus told him, "if you DARE to break a single order, you will face me, and the consequences will be severe."

Felix released a very shaky breath and his eyes shot down to the floor at his feet. Don't fuck about, he thought, translating the threat into his own words.

"Indeed," Basileus said sternly before leaving the boy to his fear and turning to his son. "This one has a lot of energy," he surmised. "You will have to help him burn it off."

Aro and Sulpicia both agreed and fired off the multitude of ways they had already run through to do just that.

"Don't let anyone find out that he sleeps, either," Basileus advised.

"So that wasn't a one-time thing?" Aro asked.

They had never had children in the coven before and it was something that was frowned on outside of their coven, too. Basileus had seen enough vampiric children in the early days, before everyone realised what a pain in the ass they could be, and he knew the traits the younger members of their race exhibited.

"Children sleep, Aro," Basileus said firmly. "He will sleep every day, or night if you prefer." Scratching his chin, Basileus wondered about the implications that could have coven-wide. "I'd suggest you keep it from everyone if you want him to be seen as a Volturi guard." He stressed everyone to ensure Aro understood his fellow masters would be included in that.

Aro understood.

"And you keep him with you at all times."

Aro agreed. He wanted to keep Felix with him anyway, even if he wasn't sure why.

…

"You stay with me, got it?" Aro whispered to the boy at his side as they moved through the castle. "Keep your eyes down and your mouth shut."

Felix replied with a respectful, "Yes, master" as he had been instructed to do and continued to walk at Aro's pace, which was hard with his new-found energy and speed.

"Only speak when you are spoken to," Aro continued, "and for the love of the gods don't do anything to make me regret your existence."

Felix felt a sickening feeling overcome his body. He wasn't entirely sure what he was, what had happened to him, or who the fuck this king guy was meant to be, but it all sounded so very precarious, very dangerous, very regimented. Felix didn't do well with regimented anything. He was, from what he could remember, a freewheeling kind of kid.

Aro threw open the doors to the throne room and strolled in with Felix at his side. When he took his throne, with both Marcus and Caius eyeing him strangely, he remembered the boy at his side.

"Go down there," he hissed to the youth, who dutifully joined the rest of the guard and the other newborns.

It was the first time the newborns were meeting the rest of the coven and Aro, as was the tradition, gave a short address, running through coven rules and expected behaviour. As he talked, he focussed heavily on the boy he had brought with him and was pleased to see Felix focused on the floor for his entire speech.

Once the speech was through in Greek, Aro started speaking again in a different language, one Felix didn't understand ... which could be just about every other language. It seemed to go on for hours and the agitation Felix felt was rising like ball of fire inside his core. He had to move, do something, but he daren't with Aro's instructions ringing in his ears.

By the finish, Felix felt like his head would explode with rules, and codes of conduct, and lists of duties … Fuck me, I am never going to remember all of this! He would of course, but Felix wasn't aware of just how perfect his memory would be from then on.

Felix only noticed that the address had ended when drinks started to be passed around. He was still stood in the middle of the guard hall as the old Volturi guard introduced themselves to the new members of their flock. No one spoke to him. He didn't speak to them either. Am I supposed to be talking to them, he wondered, trying to make eye contact with someone, anyone, whilst also keeping his gaze low.

It seemed the other Volturi members were already aware that he was different. Aro said I'm different, he reminded himself. Younger than everyone else by at the very least a good five years, he thought, looking around. What the hell do I do now?

As if sensing the boy's awkwardness, Aro joined the youth and handed him a very large cup of wine. It's almost a jug, Felix thought, though he happily took it from the man and gulped the liquid down greedily.

"Is he wearing your clothes?" Marcus asked, appraising the boy with his eyes.

Vampires didn't need clothes to protect themselves from the weather in the way that humans did and the Volturi favoured simple tunics as their main dress, in the style of the Roman military before their fall. The only real difference was the colour. The masters all wore jet black tunics which were both laundered and replaced often, the old items being fed down to the guards. The guards, therefore, wore tunics of varying degrees of grey.

In a sea of grey tunics, Felix stood in an oversized (on him) jet black tunic and trousers to match the masters.

"What if he is?" Aro shrugged, chinking his cup against Marcus' before he drained its contents.

"I'm sure there are some clothes in the guard closet that would fit him, Aro," Marcus suggested. He saw no reason for the boy to be borrowing from his co-master's wardrobe.

"He's fine as he is," Aro insisted with finality.

Naturally such finality was lost on Caius. "They're a bit baggy."

"Maybe," Aro muttered, rearranging the shoulders to the boy's new threads to pull the tunic up his body a little. "But he's fit for purpose."

Caius scoffed and looked to the boy with derision. "You really are separating this one out, aren't you?"

"He's young," Aro said. "He needs to be separate from the other guards. They will eat him alive."

Felix raged internally at the idea of being eaten alive by anyone. He had heard how Aro and Sulpicia and even the creator had all been amazed by his strength and he felt pretty self-assured that he could handle himself if he had to.

"He doesn't look that young to me," Marcus said, squinting as he looked at the youth stood by his co-masters.

Marcus was a good twelve years older than Aro and Caius, at least, and he often couldn't tell the difference between the guards ages below thirty - they all looked the same to him. One thing that stood out to Marcus about the young newborn was Aro's affinity to him. He could sense, through his gift, that his co-master had bonded with the boy already, and quite intensely.

Aro stretched out his back and winced. "I've taken the whipping that proves he's young, my friend," he said, bringing Marcus back to their conversation.

Marcus nodded to himself. He knew Basileus well enough to know how he would react to a child being one of their number, particularly if Aro had refused to dispatch the boy, as Marcus correctly assumed that he had.

"You will have to let him play with the others for training," Caius announced, clicking his fingers to a guard for more wine to be brought to them. "I'm not coming up with a separate regime just for your pet."

"I'm training him, Caius," Aro said, taking his refill.

"You?" Caius spat the wine back into his cup before he choked on it. "Yourself," he checked, "one on one?" We never train newborns one on one. Why does this one deserve personal attention?

Aro looked his co-master dead in the eye. "Yes," he said. There was no room for Caius to ask more questions to such a final tone.

"He will still need to be socialised with the other guards, Aro," Marcus reminded his younger covenmate. "It's how our coven works."

The Volturi coven owed its success, in the masters' minds, and Basileus' too, to the bonds between coven members. A part of fostering such bonds had been to tap into the vampiric nature which craved socialisation. Sadly for vampires, their naturally competitive nature at odds with this desire for socialisation, along with the bonds it built, was something that required strict structure and expert direction to achieve. If Felix was removed from the guard he would miss that vital part of his Volturi education.

"I'll have him involved where I can, Marcus," Aro relented, before asking his fellow master to get the boy up to speed with his languages.

Marcus always had to go through languages with every new influx of guards. They took humans from far and wide so as not to drain local resources or cause suspicion. The new vampires came with a myriad of languages and few crossovers. First point of call, after feeding, was getting everyone on board so they could speak one tongue in the coven. Aro had made his announcement in many different languages that day, which came as a surprise to Felix as he was sure he only heard two – the one he knew, and the one he didn't.

"And will you be accompanying him to the library?" Marcus asked.

Caius was responsible for newborns, so whenever they were out of the cells, Caius was with them and he kept them under control at all times. If Felix wasn't falling under Caius, then Aro had to be present, in his mind.

Aro huffed and complained until Marcus told him to teach the boy languages himself. That was enough for Aro to agree to attend with the boy.

"STOP!" Caius roared, breaking their quiet conversation.

Every single vampire in the room froze, other than Marcus and Aro, of course.

Caius flashed to the pair of bickering newborns and took them by the throat in one hand a piece. He easily slammed them into the floor. "Should I kill them off for their insolence now, Aro?" he called over his shoulder.

Felix watched the display being carried out in front of him from slightly behind Aro. Still, he could see how Caius' eyes danced with excitement as he listened to the fearful newborns struggling under his grip.

"It's their first day, brother," Marcus replied before Aro could. "I think we can forgive their trespasses today, can we not?" He waited expectantly for Aro to agree with him. When Aro merely nodded, Caius stood back up to full height.

Felix noticed that the newborns stayed down, cowering from the coven master. Rather than leaving them be, as Felix had expected, Caius slammed his hobnailed shoe into the left knee on each of the newborns who wailed in pain at the surprise assault. "Any more arguing and I will be feeding you to the guards," he warned before strolling back to his co-masters.

The older guards looked to each other with quiet smiles. Caius always made sure to make an example of the odd newborn publicly. It helped to get the rest on board with meeting the strict coven expectations.

Felix remained fixed to the spot watching the newborns on the floor. As everyone went back to their conversations, no one paid them the slightest bit of attention. No one helped them up or made any effort to fix their busted legs. The poor things just stayed on the floor clutching their shattered knee caps in agony.

"The boy looks scared, Aro," Marcus said, catching the youth's expression. "I assume you have told him how our coven works?"

"I have," Aro answered honestly. "He's more brawn than brain."

"Then our classes will be interesting, won't they?" Marcus commented, with a roll of the eyes. He wasn't in the mood for tempering a vampiric child when all he really wanted to do was run through the basics and get back to his mate. He drifted out of the throne room in his usual way, heading to the library.

Aro threw the last of his wine down his throat. "Let's get started then, shall we?"

Clicking his fingers to the guards, Caius had them following him like lost sheep and took his newborns to the library. A couple of longstanding guards took the newborns with broken legs along, bringing up the rear. Aro hung back, keeping Felix with him.

"You sit down, you listen, you learn," Aro said simply to his new charge.

Felix nodded. "Yes, Master," he added seeing Aro's eyes turn momentarily frosty.

By the time Aro and Felix arrived in the library, Marcus was ready to begin. They needed no materials for the session, as this was to be a purely spoken exercise. Aro shoved his charge to the front and sat him next to Marcus before taking seat with Caius right at the back of the room. They could still hear everything perfectly from where they sat and would be ready to intervene if necessary. Caius knew he would have to, he was already making silent bets with himself on who and when. Aro though, he felt a cocky confidence that the boy would do as he'd been told.

Felix only lasted five minutes before Marcus was complaining about him.

"He's just a little young, Marcus," Aro breezed. "Give him a break."

"I'll give him a break, if you like?" Caius offered. He had only been with the fresh batch of newborns for a day, but he had made them all submit to him already.

"You won't touch him!" Aro announced loudly for all to hear.

Felix was completely clueless as to what Caius had proposed, he assumed broken knee caps like his fellow pair of newborns were suffering. Regardless, he was grateful Aro had issued an embargo on touching him.

"Calm down!" Caius shot back at his co-master, shoving him half off the chair. "What's your problem anyway?"

Marcus, too, was surprised by Aro's outburst. Through his gift he read the ties in the room and he considered Aro's odd alignment to the boy he had brought back from Greece. Generally speaking, no one made ties with the newborns. It was a futile exercise in practice as they only ever kept half of them and they wouldn't know which half until towards the end of the newborns' first year in the coven. Even after that, few of the elite members had bonds with the guards. There was, of course, the odd one that Caius and Aro chose to continue using submission with, which often turned to just freely fucking, but other than that … Marcus made a mental note to discuss his findings with Basileus as soon as he could.

"I don't have a problem," Aro eventually replied to Caius. "I'm just laying it out for you now so there are no misunderstandings going forward." Puffing his chest out a little, he continued, "you don't use any of your usual tricks on Felix, either. He's too young."

"And your usual tricks?" Caius hissed back in question, knowing full well Aro was referring to submission. "How about those? Seeing as they are the same tricks as mine and you will have him living with you."

Aro didn't answer. He was still working out how he was going to manage Felix on a daily basis. Or how he was going to run the coven with a child in tow. Or how he was going to maintain his relationship with his mate with the boy in his quarters … lots of 'what ifs' floated through Aro's mind, but luckily, the effect of answering them to himself helped to calm him down.

Aro turned to his co-master. "I need you to take these newborns on your own, brother." It wasn't a question.

"I guessed that when you bolted out of the dungeons yesterday," Caius bristled. He didn't like the idea of having all nine to himself. Too much like hard work. "Lazy bastard," he said, but as he hadn't openly objected, Aro took his insult as agreement.

Caius waited for Marcus to have everyone's full attention before he unleashed his curiosity on Aro. "So are you going to tell me why you want that kid so badly?" he asked, with sly eyes on his co-master. "You bored of Sully, or something?"

"Fuck off!" Aro half shouted in return, drawing the attention of all the newborns and a scathing look from Marcus. Aro waved them away and went back to Caius. "I don't know what it is, it's not THAT, but I need him."

"You've picked up the gift of prophesy, then?" Caius asked, dripping with sarcasm. "And Basileus is just letting you keep him, is he?"

"I wouldn't say 'just letting' me, Caius," Aro replied, feeling the welts on his back pulsating as the venom in his blood stream attempted to fix the slashes in his skin. "He whipped me bloody last night for breaking his command," Aro admitted quietly.

"You're lucky that's all he did, brother."

Caius' eyebrows were raised high, he knew he didn't have to say anymore. It hadn't been too long ago since Basileus had threatened the pair of them with submission over their conduct.

Aro scoffed. "Basileus has been threatening us with that for centuries. It's not on the cards, Caius." He sounded sure, much surer than he really felt.

"And are you really not going there with the kid?" Caius asked.

He and Aro had both used submission with their underlings to keep them under control, but Aro was leaving this bunch in Caius' hands alone. He did wonder what that meant for the kid living in his co-master's quarters. Even in Caius' mind it wasn't a good idea to focus all that dominance over just one vampire.

Aro shook his head. "No," he said flatly. "Like I said, he's too young for that." Before Caius could ask what he planned for controlling the youth, Aro said, "I'll find another way." He didn't want to tell Caius he was feeding Felix. He felt embarrassed about it, in a way, like he would be showing a weakness.

"It's like having a bloody toddler in here, Aro!" Marcus called out, dragging Felix across the floor by the scruff of his neck.

Caius burst out laughing. "You only have one to control, Aro," he said through his amusement, "let's see how well your untested 'other ways' work with a volatile teenager."

Aro merely smiled sardonically in response and ordered Felix to sit at his feet. He could still hear Marcus' lesson from there. Felix didn't sit, though. Well, he tried. But he couldn't stay still. First one leg started bopping up and down. Then the other. Then he was up on his knees. Aro watched the boy, wondering what the hell was wrong with him! He was used to seeing newborns with excessive energy, but they could usually contain themselves until it was an appropriate time to release it.

"Sit still!" Aro growled into the boy's ear.

The growl shocked Felix, having been completely taken up with trying to do just what Aro had ordered. He thought he was doing pretty well. Clearly not, he scolded himself.

He didn't want to piss Aro off, not with all the threats of death ringing in his ears. Between Aro and Basileus, Felix felt like he was quite close to death already and he didn't want to push either of them to make good on their promises of 'severe consequences'. He wasn't entirely sure what severe consequences would be. He thought death sounded pretty severe, but the way the king and creator had spoken to him it sounded like death was an entirely separate threat.

Maybe it's the whip? Felix thought. He had heard the punishment Aro had taken from the creator for bringing him into the coven. It sounded much more brutal than anything he had received in his human life, that he could remember. Yet afterwards, Sulpicia had bandaged up her husband and he had redressed and continued with his day. How did he manage that? Felix wondered. He didn't think he could be so stoic if occasion called for it.

Aro had surreptitiously placed his hand on the boy's exposed neck and followed his thoughts. He was pleased the boy was scared ... that will make things easier, he reasoned. When he growled at the boy again, Felix spun around to face his master. It was then that Aro noticed the boy's eyes.

"He's hungry, Aro," Caius said knowingly. "There are a few humans left in the dungeons, if you want one."

Newborns in the Volturi coven, unlike most other covens, were kept well fed. It was an easy way of maintaining order. Hungry newborns were angry newborns. It baffled the Volturi elite why other covens, particularly the Romanian coven with whom they were currently having major issues, all kept their newborns at the point of starvation. The idea was not to waste resources on coven members they might not keep, and also to control them. Submission was easier, Caius and Aro had reasoned, and keeping them well fed kept down the level of violence in the newborn hall.

Caius had offered Aro the perfect get out clause. He didn't want Felix flouting his authority in the library in front of everyone, and he didn't want to have to batter the kid publicly, either. But in the dungeons, Aro thought, I can batter him down there.

"Come!" Aro ordered to the boy, taking Caius' keys as he stood.

Felix followed his master out of the library silently, looking over his shoulder to see the other newborns all scowling at his preferential treatment. From the little they had learned of coven life so far, newborns weren't to be treated so well, so why was this random boy who had been brought back to the castle with them suddenly teacher's pet. Well, not teachers pet, as Marcus appeared to be the teacher and he hadn't stood for his insolence, but the king's pet! Which was infinitely better, they had reasoned.

"Ma, Master, I'm s, s, sorry," Felix stuttered as he followed Aro through the halls. "I can't stay still."

Aro stopped and turned on the boy. He had been intent of just whipping him or something to focus his attention on following orders ... increase the fear, he had thought. But looking at the nervous youth in front of him he just couldn't do it.

"You need a full feed," he said softly to the boy. "And then you need some activity or something." He was thinking out loud more than anything else.

Aro toyed momentarily with giving Felix another newborn to fuck. That would get rid of some pent-up frustrations, he thought, before thinking better of it. No, he would annihilate whomever I gave him until he has his strength under control.

"Feed first," he said resolutely, guiding the boy down to the dungeons.

On opening the newborn hall, the few humans that were left scattered to the edges of the room. Aro was about to turn and explain to Felix what he had to do to feed, as they occasionally had to with newborns, but before he did Felix had flashed past him and devoured his first victim.

He's a messy feeder, Aro thought, watching the boy create a mangled mess of the neck of his human blood host. Aro didn't like mess. Not many vampires did. When the boy finished and turned to Aro shyly, wondering if he had committed another error by feeding before he was allowed, he caught the look of disgust on his master's face and panicked.

"I'm sorry!" he called out, fearing reprisals.

Aro simply walked over to the nearest human and snapped its neck. Less flailing on the human's part would make it easier to teach Felix to feed properly.

"Come here," he called to the boy.

Felix approached, keeping himself half bent to the floor. He didn't know it, but it was Aro's venom and Aro's blood that was making him hold the submissive stance. Aro knew what was going on, and he was pleased to see his bodily fluids were having some control over the boy if not the full control submission would have given. I can work with some, Aro thought.

"You don't have to chew at them," he said to Felix, holding the dead human up by its hair. "Go slowly, just pierce the skin with your fangs," he instructed, and then gave the boy a demonstration making two holes in the human's neck. "Then just let the blood flow."

Felix clamped his mouth over the holes Aro had made and sunk to the floor with the dead body in his arms. At first, he went slow, but as the heart had already stopped pumping, the blood didn't just spill into his mouth and he was soon frustrated.

"Suck gently," Aro said, holding Felix by the scruff of his neck and pinching a little to control his tempo. "Much better," Aro said happily when the boy had finished. He had still made a mess of the neck, but he hadn't smashed the whole body to pieces like he had with the first one.

"More!" Felix demanded, giddy with the blood he had drank down so greedily.

"That's enough for now," Aro said, pulling the boy to his feet. He knew how prone to gluttony newborns were and Felix had already filled his stomach with the blood of two humans.

Felix wasn't to be perturbed so easily. "More!" he demanded again.

Aro took a step forward and glowered down at the boy. "No."

That was all he said. Aro was testing Felix to see how far he would go in his desire for blood. It was the strongest impulse newborns had, the desire for blood, and Aro knew he had to be able to control that part of the boy if he were to live.

Fortunately for them both, Felix eventually relented and cast his gaze to the floor. Very good, Aro said to himself. Now to get rid of some of that energy, he thought looking at the boy who visibly vibrated before him.

Aro removed his cape and flung it to the floor. "Let's wrestle," he said, eyes twinkling with excitement. Aro loved wrestling with the newborns and he often went in for the kill, or at least with intentions of causing bodily harm. Not this one though, he thought. He wanted to try an entirely different game with the boy. He wanted to try putting him down without hurting him. Oh how Aro loved to test himself.

Felix panicked. In the long drawn out list of rules Aro and Basileus had gone through with the boy, they had both made it very clear that he was not to put his hands on anyone outside of training. Basileus had made it patently clear that he would crush him if he ever attacked Aro or Sulpicia, in particularly.

"The creator said …" Felix began, only to be cut off by his new master.

"I know what he said." Aro shook his head thinking of what his father would have to say about this little exercise. "You answer to me, not him, got it?" I answer to him, Aro added to himself, shaking that particular thought from his head as well.

Felix nodded with a curt, "Yes, Master", but still wasn't enamoured with the idea of attacking Aro with all those threats ringing in his ears.

"You can't hurt me, Felix," Aro said, scoffing at the very idea. "But go ahead and give it your best shot."

When Felix continued to stand staring at the floor, Aro took matters into his own hands. First, he cuffed the boy's head.

"Come on," he encouraged.

Nothing, so he gave the boy a good shove. Felix stepped back with the force, but he still didn't attack. Aro didn't mind, he was busy psyching himself up. He knew the boy would retaliate eventually and then he could test out his new ideas for bringing down a newborn without harming it. Him, he corrected his own thoughts. This one's not an 'it'.

…

"What on earth happened to you two?" Sulpicia asked when for the second time in two days Aro arrived at their door looking worse for wear with his new pet. Rather than mud, this time, their black tunics were grey with dungeon floor dust and both had their share of visible scrapes to their arms, and even a few on their faces.

"We've been playing," Aro said excitedly, exuberant from his brawl with the boy. "It was fun!"

Sulpicia smiled at her mate's happy disposition. It's not often you come back from your day so … well … bouncy!

"And what about you, Felix?" Sully asked the boy. "Did you have fun?"

Sulpicia had no idea what sort of activity Aro would have come up with to do with the child that could be termed fun, but she was keen to find out.

Felix had left that morning with sunken shoulders and a look of fear in his eyes, but now, he, like Aro, seemed animated. He really does look like a boy, Sulpicia thought, as he excitedly told her about the feeding, the wrestling, more feeding, more wrestling. He was a buzz of joy.

"Okay," Aro said, pulling the boy away from his mate. After getting the sense for how strong the child was, quite literally at some points with Felix using every ounce of strength to keep Aro down, he didn't want the boy too close to his delicate wife. "Go and clean up." He pushed Felix towards the bathroom.

Aro went to his bedchamber with Sulpicia following and he filled her in on all he had learned of the child whilst they'd played in the dungeons.

"I had to rile him up to get him going," Aro explained, removing his torn tunic and handing it to Sulpicia. He didn't say so, but it was clear he expected her to work her magic and repair the item. "Once he got into the swing of things, he was great to wrestle with!"

"I'm glad you enjoyed your games, my love," Sulpicia said softly, trying to calm her mate's exuberance with her tone. "Because I have something to show you."

Aro collected a fresh tunic and his belt from the bed. Sulpicia took Aro's hand and guided him to his own study, where the boy had slept the night before. It looked a little different now. Sulpicia had spent the day reorganising the room for their new guest. Now all of Aro's books and the trinkets of his immortal life that he liked to surround himself with had been stacked high on his writing desk, which had also been shoved into the very corner of the room. Now a great deal of the space had been given over to a large bed, that Aro recognised from the middle floor suite, and a wardrobe, from the same quarters.

"How did you get all of this up here?" he asked his mate. He wasn't too sure how he felt about actually losing his study to the child. We have to put him somewhere, he reasoned, especially if he is going to be sleeping every night.

"Your father helped me," Sulpicia said smiling.

"Oh!" Aro exclaimed, wrapping his arms around his mate's waist and nuzzling into her neck. "So I get a whipping for the boy, and you get help?!" he said, pretending to be wounded by the injustice.

"Basileus likes me more than you, my love," Sulpicia replied, "you know that."

"Don't I just!"

Aro stretched out his back. He had enjoyed play fighting with his new pet, but the activity had opened up all the wounds on his back that were only barely healed in the first place.

Sulpicia saw the bandage, which had been clean when Aro had left that morning, was now bloody across her mate's back. It was soon covered by the clean tunic Aro pulled on. She was pleased that her mate wasn't too bothered by his punishment, doubly so that he hadn't taken it out on the boy.

Aro strolled around his study, or rather Felix's new room, until he got to the wardrobe. On opening the door, he discovered half of his own outfits contained within. "Care to explain?" he asked his mate, thumbing through the items.

"He needs more than one set of clothes, Aro," Sulpicia replied. "Especially if you are to be wrestling with him, tearing the ones he wears." She joined her mate to show him many of the items she had donated to the boy were not the ones Aro wore with any regularity anyway. "I'll take them in for him, so they fit properly."

Aro watched his mate as she went to the bed and fixed the sheets, not that there was anything wrong with them. Clucking like a mother hen again, Aro thought. He didn't want her getting any ideas. The kid is a guard still, she has to know that.

Sulpicia may not have had her mate's gift for reading minds, but she could read her mate like a book, regardless. "I know what you are thinking, my love. I know he's a guard."

She had said the right words, but Aro had a feeling her heart would read different to her head if he had access to its feelings.

"He needs something to sleep in of course, Sulpicia continued. "You obviously don't have anything he can use."

"Hmmm," Aro wasn't sure what to do about that.

He couldn't send a guard out to fetch something suitable without alerting them to the fact the boy slept. And he wasn't about to go out into the human world to steal nightclothes for the boy himself, that was beneath him. Not that he could go without taking Felix with him anyway. He's not ready to be around humans, yet, he thought. He'd kill every one we come across.

Felix cleared his throat in the doorway, wearing only a pair of braies and holding his filthy black tunic.

"He can sleep like that!" Aro announced happily, solving his own problem.

"Come on in, Felix," Sulpicia called over. "This is your room now."

Aro frowned at that. He supposed he would be moving his things out entirely then. He put the boy's strength to use by having him lug the writing desk out to the main chamber and sat back with a glass of wine whilst Felix moved everything else, too.

"He needs to use up his energy," Aro had offered as an excuse for using the boy for all the heavy lifting.

As the evening drew in on Felix's second night as a vampire, his tiredness was beginning to show. Though he had come home happy and chatty, he was now starting to grunt in response to the questions Sulpicia asked. Aro wasn't having that. With a resounding crack across the boy's head, he left him in no uncertain terms that respect was to be maintained under any circumstance.

"Watch your mouth or you will be picking it up off the floor!"

Felix stepped back, offering his apologies at just the moment Basileus had decided to pay them all a visit. Basileus didn't knock. He saw no reason to in his own coven and just let himself into the top floor suite to be greeted with an annoyed Aro and a repentant child.

"What's going on?" he asked sternly, glaring at the boy.

"Nothing," Aro breezed in response. He didn't want to give his father a reason to go trailing through his mind to find the wrestling games in the dungeons. "Just a little mouthy."

Basileus took a moment to read the boy's emotional state. Holding his wrist in one hand, he got a handle on how Felix felt. He wasn't angry, or even frustrated. He was exhausted!

"I'm not surprised he's mouthy at this hour!" Basileus said, turning on Aro. "I told you he will need to sleep, Aro."

Aro's eyebrows knitted together. "But he's still awake," he thought out loud, looking at the boy.

"What do you think is going to happen?" Basileus mocked his son's lack of foresight. "He isn't just going to fall asleep standing up," he said, shaking his head. "He will sleep like a human," Basileus explained. "So that's what?" He scanned his memory bank for human sleeping habits. "Let's say ten hours a night."

"I need him in the castle grounds by dawn for training!" Aro exclaimed, wondering how late it must be already. It had been dark for hours, he was sure. Damn it!

"Then he is going to have to miss tomorrow's session, isn't he?" Basileus said, talking down to his son. "If you want to keep him, Aro, you need to start thinking about these things."

Aro grimaced, knowing he had screwed up so soon. And you don't even know about the wresting, yet, he thought. The moment the words had formed in his mind, Aro regretted them. He saw the tell-tale expression on his father's face that told Aro his mind was being invaded.

"Fucking idiot!" Basileus bellowed, having seen only the beginnings of the brawl.

Sulpicia flashed forwards and stood protectively in front of her mate and new guard, facing off the creator. "My lord," she crooned, carefully. "Please be sure you have seen everything before you react. They came home so happy," she explained.

Basileus never could refuse anything his daughter-in-law requested of him. He wouldn't call it a gift, as such, but Sulpicia certainly had the ability to wrap him around her little finger.

Softening his approach, he again went through Aro's mind and saw exactly what his son had been up to. When he realised Aro had used the exercise to find ways to take Felix down without hurting him, he stopped.

Why would you even care about hurting him? Basileus wondered. That isn't something Aro usually cares about with the newborns. Or any of the guard, for that matter. This kid has done something to your head, he thought, wondering where this new boy would lead the coven king.

Seeing his son enjoying the brawl, and Felix, too for that matter, Basileus changed tact. Sulpicia had been right. He had no reason to react as he had initially done.

Relenting, he said to Aro, "If you want to do it again, make sure I am there."

Aro quickly agreed. That was easier than expected!

Felix had remained as still as possible since Basileus had arrived. He didn't want to annoy the man, not after everything Aro had told him about the guy. He knew Basileus was the creator of vampiric kind - though he was still working out exactly what that meant in real terms - and he knew the man was Aro's father … but he wasn't too sure how that worked either. Regardless, he understood, fully, that getting on the wrong side of the giant man would end badly for him, one way or another.

"Come here, boy," Basileus called over, with a hand outstretched towards him. Felix nervously made the torturously long five-step journey to the creator.

Basileus hooked a finger under the boy's chin and tilted his head up to get a look at his eyes. It was then that he noticed the scrapes to his face. With Basileus' sight he could see other, shallower scratches had already healed, but there was a nasty gouge in his arm that could do with some help.

"You were rough with him, Aro," he said turning to his son. "You should have fed him after your fight."

Aro tutted, noticing his father hadn't shown the same concern over his mild wounds. "He's fed plenty today, Dad."

Basileus ignored him, of course. "Go to bed, Felix," he told the boy.

Felix was only too happy to leave the creator's presence and flashed from the room, knocking into the door frame with his excessive, unrestrained speed as he went. He had no intention of going to bed though. I'm not even tired, he thought, lying to himself. Instead, he hung around behind the closed door, listening in on the conversation in the main room.

"Let him sleep until he wakes, tonight," Basileus instructed his son. "And from tomorrow, have him in bed at dusk. He'll be up long before dawn but that will be for the best, I think." I think, I don't fucking know though, do I?! Basileus didn't like kids in covens. He had a good many reasons, but the simplest of those was because they worked to a different clock than adult vampires.

Felix was incensed! There's no fucking way I am suffering the indignity of a bedtime at my age! Dusk?! Dream on, he thought bravely. Oddly enough, it was only his temper flaring from being so tired that allowed him to be so brave (or rather, foolish) in the first place.

Aro agreed, but tried to stop his father when he saw the man turn towards the boy's bedroom. "What are you doing?" he asked nervously, feeling protective.

Basileus shook his son off. "I'm going to let him know him that he has no choice in this," he explained, having heard Felix's thoughts on the matter already. "And I'll feed him to get rid of those scrapes you have inflicted on the poor kid." What did you think I was going to do to him?! Basileus wondered as he closed the door behind him.

"What is that about?" Sulpicia whispered to her mate, joining him at the boy's door where Aro was listening intently to the goings on inside.

Basileus' blood could restore a vampire to full health despite any ills or ailments they might have suffered. He rarely did so, however - even after battles he expected his coven members to heal themselves with a little time. He would happily feed the masters and their wives, should they require it, but that was it. Not guards. Never guards. It was quite a personal, intimate thing to offer your blood to someone.

"He's accepting the kid as ours, Sully," Aro explained, congratulating himself on sealing the deal. "Felix isn't going anywhere now, my queen. He's our guard, our personal guard."

Aro wasn't aware of it at the time, but Basileus was accepting Felix as far more than just a guard. And in time, so would Aro.