AN: Happy Easter :)
DEMETRI - 600, NOVEMBER
Basileus' storytelling had gone down a storm and everyone was feeling a little nostalgic. Even Felix was thinking back to his early days. He hadn't realised at the time what a big deal it was that Aro had taken him into his chambers. He certainly hadn't known how close he had come to being dispatched ... or to becoming Caius' plaything.
Felix had been a little worried before Baslieus started that his version, being the truth, would be more embarrassing. The boy was pleased his grandfather had stopped when he did. After his first few days in the coven, Felix, the real Felix that is started to come out as he grew in confidence. He had taken his fair share – more than – of punishments during his time in Volterra and he'd rather not have such things recounted in glorious detail in front of such mixed company. Or any company, he thought, horrified by the potential humiliation.
Aro and Caius were uncomfortable, however. So much talk of their earlier ways with submission hadn't been expected. Aro was glad, for once, that his dungeon blood recklessness had been included – it was how he had explained away many of his sexual encounters to his mate, so at least Sulpicia wouldn't be on his case. She had looked thoroughly disappointed in him whilst Basileus was talking. That stung, but Aro knew he deserved it. His mother's gratuitous tutting through the tale had been annoying more than anything else.
Caius felt he had come off worse than Aro. At least everyone knows Aro stopped using submission then … they probably all think I still do! Fuck. Yes, Caius definitely came off worse. He pretended to be engrossed in his card game with Demetri, but really all he could think about was his hideous reputation. Is there any point in trying to be anything else, he wondered? He wanted to be better than his past, on a good day he felt that he was, but all anyone would ever know of him was the man that was.
The glasses were topped up with whiskey and wine. With Aro feeling particularly loving towards his eldest at that moment, he gave his boy a glass, too. Wine, not whiskey ... Aro wasn't crazy.
Irina took a whiskey for herself. She didn't even like the stuff but it was about self-preservation. If Felix isn't allowed whiskey because he's too young, then that's what I will drink! She had grown frustrated with the kid by that point. Felix wasn't responding to her teasing, as the boy concentrated on pretending she didn't exist. She soon moved on to Demetri.
Sulpicia watched as the wanna-be temptress moved from Felix's side to join Demetri and Caius. You are sitting far too close to my fourteen-year-old! Sully thought. Caius caught the queen's eye and Sulpicia gestured to Irina, hoping he would intervene.
Is it not enough that I'm playing cards with the kid without having to chaperone his next conquest? Still, Caius made a point of stretching his legs out, conveniently separating the pair before Irina could get her talons in. Sulpicia mouthed a very grateful 'thank you' to Caius. That felt nice. He wasn't exactly used to doing the sorts of things for which people would have cause to thank him. Maybe I can change?
"What about when Demetri was a little vampire?" Irina asked, fluttering long lashes at the boy.
"I think you mean a younger vampire," Alec was quick to say. "He's still little now."
"Bigger than you, runt!" Demetri snapped back.
"Aro, my love," Sulpicia called, sounding exhausted by her children's bickering. "Your sons need your attention."
Aro placed a hand on each of the arm rests of his chair and made to stand with his eyes fixed on Demetri. His backside hadn't left the seat before Demetri backed down.
"No, Dad, no I don't!"
Aro watched him for a moment to make sure he was contrite. Satisfied, he turned to Alec. "Anything to say for yourself?"
"It was a joke," Alec said quietly, cuddling his mother.
"At some point," Aro told his youngest, who still had far too much cheek, "she won't be there, and I will."
Caius brought Demetri close to him, to move him further from Irina and so he could offer a word of advice. "You don't have to answer every time someone yanks your chain."
"Sounds familiar," Magnus commented, leaning into the short conversation. "Good to know you actually understand that piece of advice."
Caius rolled his eyes to Demetri and they continued their card game. Caius had started winning since Magnus had stopped cheating for the boy, but he threw the next game to give the kid a boost.
Getting nowhere with Demetri, Irina decided she wasn't siting on the floor for nothing, so she started 'lounging out' most inappropriately alongside Caius. He saw what she was doing, of course. He felt it too, when she started stroking his leg. So long as she didn't go any further, he decided to let her carry on. Dora wouldn't care anyway, that was the sort of relationships they had, so she would only be shaming herself, in Caius' mind.
"So," Kate pushed, looking for another tale. "What happened when you brought Demetri home?"
Irina frowned at her sister. Even though she had been the one to bring up the boy's early life, she didn't like that Kate was actually interested. Both Kate and Tanya were keen to hear more stories. They wanted to know where they were living, who they were living with. Despite what Irina thought, they were both upset about losing their mother – of course they were! But Sasha had committed a grievous crime, one she knew would lead to her death. Worse than that, it could have cost her daughters their lives, too, and Kate and Tanya were grateful to have been spared.
They saw a brighter future living with Eleazar and Carmen. A happier home with more stability than Sasha was capable of offering. It was an adventure, as they saw it. The Volturi family seemed like a real family, complete with all the normal family relationships they remembered form their human days. Good and bad, better or worse, they were a family and they both wanted to be part of it.
"Demetri's arrival was a little different," Aro admitted, glaring at his firstborn.
"What?!" Felix scoffed. "I was just protecting my place."
"You nearly lost your head, let alone your place," Aro reminded him.
Felix shook his head. "You're exaggerating. I wasn't that bad."
No one believed him. Poor lamb.
Basileus rattle his empty glass. "If you want another story I'll need another drink."
Felix obliged the creator, but only so he could ask him, "Will you leave out the cringy bits, please?"
Aro laughed at his boy's attempts to have an altered tale. "That wouldn't make for much of a story, Felix."
Demetri - 600, November
"You are over code, Amun," Aro drawled to the defeated leader of the Egyptian coven.
Basileus held the man to the floor and had forced him to watch as his coven was destroyed. After the war with the Romanian coven eighteen months before where the Volturi had, naturally, emerged victorious, Basileus had instructed his son and co-masters to start controlling the vampiric world. No longer would vampiric covens set their own rules on important matters, and no longer would they risk another coven gathering enough members for them to become a strong enough force to offer any resistance to the Volturi control.
The Egyptian coven had seemed to follow the new edict without complaint. That was until Aro had discovered the coven had actually broken into six covens, all directed by Amun.
The Volturi had been reasonable at first. Marcus visited the Egyptian leader and had been sympathetic to his complaints, but still he had left the man in no uncertain terms that the next time the Volturi visited, it would be with a fighting force and should Amun have continued to maintain his umbrella coven operation, they would be taken out. Amun didn't heed the Volturi master's advice and had maintained his operation, even adding in number to his own major coven ... taking his force up to ten members.
When Basileus read through the leader's thoughts, he soon apprehended that they had no choice, and they had to eradicate the problem. On Marcus' advice, they chose to leave Amun his wife and two members to form a new coven. With the six under covens obliterated, and five from Amun's personal coven killed, that left a coven of five including Amun … one too many.
"Just kill one, Aro!" Caius called out. He had enjoyed the battle but now he was keen to get home and return to his mate and a hot bath!
Aro walked around the four standing members, leaving the leader under his father. "I think we should take one," he said to his co-master.
"Get on with it, then!" Basileus called over.
Like Caius, he was bored now, and looking to Felix he wondered how much longer the boy could stay awake. He gestured to the young guard before fixing his son with a look that conveyed all he felt.
"I'll allow you to keep your mate, Amun, as I am feeling so generous."
Amun called out his thanks as he struggled beneath Basileus' foot pinning him down. Above all, he wanted his mate. He could live without the rest but not his mate. As Amun continued to witter his pleas, Basileus moved his foot from the man's back and stood on his head instead, pushing the man's face into the dirt.
"Is that really necessary, my lord?" Marcus asked. He didn't have a cruel bone in his body and the act seemed unkind, even to an enemy.
Basileus shrugged. He was far more concerned about the flagging young guard at his side than the enemy coven leader beneath his feet. "Aro! Now!" he commanded. "I'm done with your games!"
Aro sighed and took hold of the youngest member of Amun's coven. He had already decided he was taking the child home when he found out about the kid's gift. "What's your name, boy?"
"Demetri." The child was barely audible in response, but Aro heard through his contact.
"Well, Demetri, you are being promoted," Aro said kindly. "Welcome to the Volturi."
"Another fucking kid?!" Caius complained.
"He's a good tracker," Aro explained, dragging the boy along with him. He delivered the boy to his father's safekeeping and ignored Caius' complaints.
"Are you sure about this?" Basileus asked, taking hold of Demetri so Aro could say some final words to the Egyptian leader.
Aro shrugged and looked the new kid up and down. He had a good feeling about this Demetri and his gift would be invaluable, he was sure of it. "I was right about Felix, wasn't I?"
Caius baulked at that one. "Depends who you're asking, Aro."
Amun heaved himself out of the dirt and stood, dejected and defeated in front of the vampire king. That's what Aro was now. He held dominion over all of vampiric kind. Amun's coven had been the last to fall under his rule, but there was no doubt in anyone's mind, not least Amun's, that that was exactly what had happened.
Aro took the man's hand and scanned his thoughts. He couldn't have cared less for what Amun was thinking about him, or the destruction of his coven, all Aro was searching for was information about the boy he was taking home with him.
You have been a cruel bastard to the kid, Aro thought, seeing how Amun handled the child. Aro, in his time, had been just as harsh with his own guards and would continue to be, but he believed only in such cases where a harsh response was warranted. He didn't beat his coven members with wanton malice just because he could. None of the Volturi masters did that. He had never beaten Felix with iron bars, either, nor threatened submission on the boy to bring him into line. At least you didn't actually do it to him, Aro thought, looking to the frightened child. You will have a better life with me, boy, Aro thought to the scared youth.
Caius stormed away, taking his guards with him. There was no point in him hanging around if Aro wasn't even going to pay lip service to their agreement about making such decisions in consultation with one another. Only Marcus hung back, wanting to ensure relations with Amun were left on a good note. Or as good as they could hope to be after destroying his coven.
"I'll close things up here, Aro. Go home," he told his co-master.
By the look on his father's face, Aro thought he might have been better off staying in company. When Basileus slung the new kid over his shoulder and started heading down the path leading away from the burning coven, Aro followed taking Felix, who seemed to be in an even worse mood that the creator, with him.
"What's up with your face?" Aro asked.
Felix huffed. "Nothing Master," he said, snottily.
If Aro wasn't so exhausted from the battle he might have landed the cocky whelp there and then for spitting 'master' as he had. "I will assume you are tiring, boy, or your attitude will see you whipped when we return to Volterra."
That shut Felix up, but he continued to scowl as they walked at a human pace together, behind the creator.
When Marcus caught up with them, which didn't take long, he was greeted by four sullen looking vampires.
"Have you explained the state of play going forward?" Basileus asked his old friend as he adjusted the boy over his shoulder with a slap to his ass when he tried to break free.
Aro's eyes snapped to his father and it was not a pleasant look he gave him. Basileus noticed and raised one eyebrow in his son's direction. As the boy continued to struggle, Basileus tested out an idea he had brewing and slapped Demetri again, much harder.
"Don't!" Aro snapped. "Just give to me if you are only going to be a bastard to him!"
Basileus reared up, which was a little harder than usual with a child hanging over his shoulder. "Do you want to say that again?!" he roared at his son.
"Give him to me," Aro repeated. He wasn't backing down. The boy was his, just like Felix was his. He expected a round of hell for the way he was speaking to Basileus, but that wasn't going to stop him.
Rather than attack, though, Basileus simply smiled and delivered the crying child to his son. "Here you go then," he said, still smiling.
That threw Aro off guard! "What's that grin for?!" he asked, growing even more concerned when Marcus joined in the gurning. The smiling quickly turned to laughter between the creator and his old friend and Marcus congratulated him on a job well done.
"What the fuck are you talking about?!" Aro demanded.
He wasn't privy to all the conversations his father held with Marcus and the two had been discussing Aro's change in demeanour over the last hundred years since Felix had joined the coven. Basileus had said Aro would take another, and more than that, he wanted him to. But he hadn't expected the opportunity to present itself whilst taking out the Egyptian coven.
"Nothing, son," Basileus said, getting himself under control. "Nothing at all." He slapped a hand on Marcus' shoulder and asked him to catch up with Caius. "We may take a little longer," he explained, gesturing to the two sullen boys in their party.
"So how do you want to play this?" he asked Aro once Marcus was out of the way.
"Play what?" Aro asked snottily. He was still pissed off with being left out of the joke.
Basileus threw an arm around Felix and held up his face for Aro to get a good look at him. The moonlight lit up the boy's exhausted features, his eyes were black and barely open. "These two are knackered, I think we can agree."
Aro nodded. Taking a good look at Demetri for the first time, he could see the Egyptian child was in a similar state. Running at full speed would take a couple of days to get back to the castle. If they stopped for the boys to sleep that time would easily double. The only option they had to get home any sooner was to carry them whilst they slept.
"I don't suppose you fancy carrying them both?" Aro asked cheekily.
Basileus frowned. "I do not."
"I don't need carrying by anyone!" Felix muttered. This new brat might be a little kid but I'm not!
Basileus heard the young guard's thoughts and shook his head, silently cursing the child's abrasion. He won't come easily, he thought looking at Felix puffing out his teenage chest trying to prove he was a man. And neither will the new one, he thought, as Aro had to keep a tight hold on Demetri to keep him with them. The boy cried softly as he fruitlessly struggled to break free.
Sighing, but feeling he had no choice, Basileus grabbed hold of Demetri by the back of his head and held him tight. "I'm going to feed you, understood?" he asked the boy.
His calm soothing tone didn't match the harsh hold he had of the child, but Demetri, fearing for his life in the hands of this hostile coven, agreed. Basileus bit into his wrist and forced the spurting blood into the boy's mouth. After only a few gulps the greying to Demetri's face disappeared. A few more gulps and the child released his latch as he fell dreamily into Aro's arms.
I cannot believe you fed him! Felix thought in horror. He knew such a gift as Basileus' blood was reserved for only a few choice coven members, Felix being one of the few. It had made Felix feel so special when he'd discovered the hidden meaning behind Basileus offering him his blood and now that special feeling was being overtaken with bitterness. Feeding waifs and fucking strays, he raged inside his mind. He knew Basileus could hear him, but he just couldn't stop thinking! Feeding our enemies, he thought hatefully, watching Aro hoist the boy over his shoulder into a comfortable position. Rather than staying there thinking himself into a furry, Felix turned and stalked away.
"Get back here, now!" Aro roared after him.
He stopped for a moment, but feeling his rage building up inside Felix thought he was better off taking a whipping for insolence than being killed for attacking them all. He started off again, not making it more than two steps before Basileus had clamped a hand heavily down on him, screwing his fist into a ball at his back, pulling the boy's tunic tight round his throat.
Without saying a word, Basileus reopened the holes in his wrist and forced his wound onto Felix's mouth. Petulantly, Felix refused to take the feed he was offered. Keeping his lips clamped shut, he shook his head.
"Felix don't be a prat! Just drink it and sleep," Basileus instructed gruffly.
So I get miserable Basileus and the stray gets soft and fluffy Basileus. Prick, Felix thought loudly, still refusing. Felix was lucky the creator was in a good mood from blasting their enemy or he may have lost his head for that snide remark.
"Oh?!" Aro exclaimed. "Tough guy, are we?" he said, cuffing the back of Felix's head.
Basileus sighed to himself knowing the young guard had just entered into a power play with Aro. It had happened a few times already in Felix's short life in the coven and every time had ended badly for the boy.
Looking to the tired and miserable youth, he said, "if you have any semblance of sense, you will apologise quickly and take the blood."
"No, no, no, Dad." Aro pulled Felix free of his father's hold. "He didn't accept your offer gratefully, so now he can do without."
Basileus toyed with just forcing Felix to feed and sleep so they could get moving. Aro and Felix were making life difficult for themselves with these infantile games they played with each other, he had discussed as much with Marcus only days before they had left for Egypt. Marcus said I should let them get on with it, so long as Aro wasn't being cruel … maybe I should?
"We're going to have fun swimming across the Med with him," he said to Aro, jabbing a finger in Felix's direction.
"I don't have to walk with you," Felix offered sullenly. "Just let me catch up with the others."
Aro shook his head slowly. No chance! He wasn't having Felix expose himself and his need to sleep in front of Caius, Marcus and all the guards!
Basileus heard his son's thought and agreed. Taking Felix childishly by the hand to remind him just how young he was, he pulled him to his side and started walking. "You're staying right here with miserable old me, Felix."
They reached the shore by sunrise, just as Demetri was waking from his forced nap. Felix was seriously floundering. He had never been so tired in his life! The boy had managed with only very short cat naps on the way to Egypt, mainly on the buzz of adrenaline for the coming fight. He had performed valiantly in battle, staying between Basileus and Aro at all times he had torn his enemies to pieces on sight! But now … four days after they had left home, and he had last slept, now he was regretting refusing Basileus' blood.
Just ask me again, he begged through his mind. Please just ask me again! I'll take it! I'll drink, I'll sleep!
Basileus heard him of course, but what could he do about it now?! "We are at the shore, Felix!" he shot back to the exhausted boy. "You had all night to feed and sleep!"
"I'm so sorry," Felix whined, dog tired. "Please!"
"Please, what, Felix?" Aro asked. Setting Demetri on his feet. "We aren't dragging you across the fucking sea!"
Felix felt tears of frustration building behind his eyes. He wasn't one for crying usually. Even those times he had been punished, he had managed to get away without too many tears (lots of cursing, gasping, even the odd scream, but few tears). Now he was stood on the beach feeling himself well up whilst the stray looked on, bright eyed and eager to see what would happen.
"I'm going to sink to the bottom of the ocean and die!" Felix announced, flopping into the sand and bawling with sheer exhaustion.
"I knew this would happen!" Basileus growled. "I fucking knew it!"
"Hold him," Aro said to his father, shoving Demetri in his general direction, feeling the boy was still a flight risk, and sat on the sand with his young guard.
"I'm sorry," Felix said to his master, getting his tears under control. He could hardly keep his eyes open and the growing sunlight flooding the area was only adding to the effect.
Aro took hold of Felix by his chin, turning his head left to right to get an idea of much he was suffering. His sallow skin and the heavy black bags under his eyes told him the boy was pretty bad.
"You're going to have to feed him, Dad," Aro said to his father. "He won't make it across otherwise."
Basileus looked askance to his son. "I'm not dragging his ass across the ocean whilst he sleeps off the feed, Aro!" I'm the creator of vampire kind, son of Zeus! Not a fucking cargo ship!
"What else do you suggest?" Aro asked. "Look at him."
"It's his own bloody fault," Basileus growled. "His and yours."
Aro bristled at that. It was a fair point, but he didn't want to hear it. "How about you feed him now and we walk the coast until he wakes?" Aro offered.
"It's daylight, Aro," Basileus reminded his son. "These shores will be teaming with humans any moment." He was right, they could already see a good many humans milling about. The small vampiric troupe were out of their eyeline, but they wouldn't be for long. "We need to get in the sea, now. You can drag him across."
"I know you forget this from time to time, Dad, but I am just a normal vampire, not a demi-god like you." Aro huffed from the sand where Felix had started to doze into his shoulder. "I'm knackered, too!"
Basileus could feel his frustrations growing and soon enough those frustrations emitted as a ferocious roar! Flinging Demetri to his son on the ground for safekeeping, he stormed away.
Aro caught hold of Demetri's wrist as the boy followed the creator with his eyes until he disappeared, wondering where he was going.
"To find a solution," Aro told him, answering the boy's thoughts.
He knew his father well enough to guess Basileus was off to find them a boat. Aro heard the boy wondering if he should try and make a break for it now, or when they were in the water.
I'm fast, Demetri said to himself. They'd never catch me on land … but I could hide under water …
"You are aware that I can hear your thoughts as loudly as if you spoke them to me, yes?" Aro asked, flexing his grip on the child.
Demetri flushed with panic.
Aro continued to talk calmly to the boy. "Basileus, my father, is the creator of our kind and I can assure you whatever your great speed, he is faster."
Why do you even want me?! Demetri screamed. It was a silent scream with his thoughts doing the work of voicing his concerns to the vampiric king.
"I want you because you're special, Demetri," Aro explained, pulling the boy closer.
Demetri had been called special before … that's what Amun used to say, he remembered, when he had first taken the child from the banks of the Nile. The other vampires under Amun disliked the child and would torment him cruelly for being so 'special'. Special was not a good thing to be in Demetri's book. One of Amun's number, a particularly cruel son of a bitch, had once told Demetri how special he was as he'd tried to bed the boy. Aro was assaulted with the images of the child desperately fighting the goon off before Amun arrived and saved him.
"No!" he called out, stopping the boy's thoughts with immediacy. "Not special like that!" He went on to explain to the boy that his gift made him special and he could put such a talent to good use under the Volturi's direction.
"But aside from that," Aro said softly, "you deserve a better life than the one Amun offered you, and I can give you that."
"Because you're the king?" Demetri asked. It was the first sentence he had spoken to Aro.
Aro laughed. "Because I'm not an evil cunt," he said, laughing again.
Demetri smiled to himself, feeling for the first time in his vampiric life that perhaps he hadn't ended up in hell after all.
They didn't have long to wait for Basileus to return dragging a small rowing boat across the sand.
"Is that the best you could do?" Aro asked, wondering how they would all fit.
Basileus eyed his son dangerously for a moment. "Would you rather swim?"
Aro altered his reply. "It's a fine vessel, my lord," he said, smirking cheekily.
Basileus rolled his eyes and took the boat to the shore, wading in to his waist and calling his son and the young ones over.
"Can I trust you?" Aro asked Demetri, glancing to the grip he had on the boy's arm.
Demetri looked back across the landscape he was about to leave behind. The brief conversation he had had with the king seemed more hopeful, more purposeful than anything Amun had offered. When he thought about the way Felix had acted on the beach he knew had that been him and Amun he would be buried under the sand by now in bits and pieces. Yet Felix had been allowed to doze into the king's shoulder and the creator had fetched him a boat.
"Yes, master," Demetri said respectfully, mimicking the words he had heard Felix use.
Aro kept eye contact with the boy as he slowly released his grip on him. "Go to the boat," he said, shooing him away.
Heaving himself to his feet, Aro bent back down to scoop Felix from the floor. The young guard was so tired that he barely flinched as Aro carried him through the water. Even when Aro dunked him, accidentally on purpose, he didn't stir.
Demetri was already seated in the small vessel and once Aro added Felix to the load there was little room for both Aro and Basileus. "So …" Aro said, looking to his father. "How do you want to do this?"
"Get in," Basileus said jutting his head at the boat. "I'll push you."
"Seriously?" Aro didn't wait for the response before jumping on board himself.
"Never let it be said that I don't look after the weaker members of my creation," Basileus said slyly, splashing Aro before they set off.
With Basileus swimming at full speed the small boat skipped along the water at an enormous speed with the front end suspended high in the air. Demetri felt like they were flying! They made good time and could see the boot of Italy emerging in the distance in no time at all.
"How are you holding up?" Aro shouted, grinning like a loon at his old man.
Transparent little sod! Basileus thought. "Yes, I'll take us around," he said, ignoring Aro's actual question and answering the reason he was asking in the first place - to know whether Basileus would continue to propel the boat around the coast until they were at the port near their castle home on the other side of the country.
Aro hooked his hand behind his head and sunk into the boat, soaking up the soothing rays of the sun.
"He's done it again, Sully," Basileus called out over his son's head the moment Aro opened the door to his chambers. "He's brought you another one!"
Sulpicia sat sewing at the fireplace, accompanied by Didyme and Athenodora, all of whom looked up just in time to see the four soggy vampires come into the top floor suite.
"Oh, brother," Didyme exclaimed. "More pets for the coven?"
"Dora," Aro said, bowing his head lightly to his co-master's wife, and ignoring his sister. Or rather he tried to ignore her.
Didyme, ever the annoying little sister she had been in his human life, flung her arms around Aro's neck, refusing to let go until he returned her embrace. Aro acted annoyed, but he fooled no one - he loved her playful ways.
Gesturing to the tunic Sulpicia was busy repairing, Aro said to his mate, "You might want to start sewing something for this one, Sul." Aro pulled the new boy into view.
"He's a raggedy looking thing, isn't he?" Athenodora said to her covenmates. It wasn't said unkindly, Demetri did look a state. Soaking wet from the sea and dressed in his old coven's uniform, which wasn't dissimilar to the Volturi's except for its sandy colouring, was fraying and dogeared.
"Black?" Sulpicia checked. The answer would tell her everything she needed to know about the new addition. If Aro answered grey, she would know the boy was to be thrown in with the guard, or perhaps to another master, but either way would not be her concern. If he answered black, the boy was hers, just like Felix.
"Naturally," Aro said, returning his mate's small smile without saying further word on it.
Sulpicia set down her work and greeted the boy properly now she knew he was staying. "Welcome to the coven …" she looked over her shoulder to her mate. "What's his name?"
"Demetri, my lady," the boy answered on his own.
"My lady?" Sulpicia repeated, glowing. "It took three months for Felix to remember to say that!"
Everyone laughed but Felix. Feeling he was about to explode, he stormed out of the main chamber and headed for his bedroom. He might have got away with flouncing from the room had he not slammed the door on his way. Cursing himself for being so stupid, he watched the door like a hawk and desperately listened to hear anyone approaching. Sitting at the furthest point away from the door on his bed wasn't helping, but he was too scared to move any closer. Why does silence sound so fucking loud? he wondered as he waited nervously.
After awhile, when no one came, Felix started to relax. He was still shattered, still sopping wet, and still bruised from the battle. He was also bloody freezing! Flopping from his bed to his knees and crawling over to the fireplace, he huddled his shoulders and concentrated on the fire.
Felix may have looked a mess on the outside but all that paled into insignificance compared to the mess he felt on the inside. Why did he have to bring him back, anyway?! Felix thought, scowling at the flames. The 'he', of course, was Aro and the 'him', Demetri. As the boy sunk into his miserable thoughts, which were mainly concerned with where he was going to end up now a replacement had been found, his bedroom door creaked open.
"Care to explain what that was about?" Aro breezed in his usual forced calm tone.
A siren went off in Felix's mind hearing that tone, screaming 'danger, danger'. Flashing to his feet, Felix kept well back from the coven king. "I apologise for slamming the door, master," he said softly with his head down.
He didn't mind so much that Aro would punish him, but the idea that one of the elite ladies would hear ripped a hole through his guts. It was amazing that it hadn't already happened. In the hundred years since Felix had joined the coven, Aro had slapped the boy more times than Felix could count, but he'd only whipped him a handful of times for inciting fights with the other newborns, for which other newborns were also whipped at the same time. Caius had done so once, too, after Felix had repeatedly fucked about in training. None of those occasions were in front of the Volturi ladies. Sulpicia had seen him get a good few slaps from both Aro and Basileus, but nothing more. With Aro having left the door open, Felix could hear the voices of the women in their chambers floating through to his room.
"I didn't ask for an apology, Felix," Aro said carefully, trying to work out what was going on with the boy. "I asked you to explain what that was about."
Felix wanted to tell him he was worried what adding Demetri to their quarters would mean for him and his place in the coven, he wanted to tell Aro he was scared, he needed reassurance and comfort. But he couldn't. He did his level best to keep the thoughts from his head in case Aro checked whilst he slept.
Instead, he went with, "I think I am overcome with tiredness, master." It wasn't a bare faced lie, as Felix felt like he could have slept for a week.
Aro sighed. He had hoped for a little more honesty from the kid, but he wasn't going to be pandering to his temper tantrums. "It's nearly dusk," Aro thought out loud, glancing out the window over the boy's shoulder. "Take a bath and go to bed."
Felix couldn't believe his luck! He had been a complete jerk on the way back from the mission and he'd rudely stormed out the main chamber and slammed his door, and Aro was only giving him an early night … what crazy world is this?!
He didn't get very far before Aro stopped him, however. "I hope for your sake your attitude is much improved when you wake."
"Yes, Master," Felix agreed. He hoped that, too.
When Felix emerged from the bathroom, he stuck his head around the door to see who was in the top floor suite. Only Aro, Sulpicia and Basileus remained. Dora and Didyme had gone - Felix felt a little better about that. The brat was still there, though. Chatting his head off about the Egyptian coven and everything he knew of the other vampires in the area of his old lands. Aro and Basileus hung onto his every word, lapping up the information. Suckers! Felix thought.
"Join us, Felix," Sulpicia called over, seeing the boy in the doorway. He wore only a pair of shorts, as they were what he wore to sleep in and Aro had told him he was going to bed after his bath.
"He needs to sleep, Sul," Aro said, barely breaking away from Demetri.
Felix suppressed the mild growl he felt brewing. "I'm not tired anymore," he said softly, hoping to be allowed to join the three of them.
Or maybe not, as he didn't want to sit with the stray. But he did want to sit with the other three. Or maybe not Aro and Basileus - he knew he was on their bad side - but definitely Sulpicia, he thought. Maybe.
Basileus looked down his nose to the young guard. "Look how it ended the last time you said that." He was clearly referring to the end of the Egyptian battle two nights before.
"Oh Basileus, let him join us!" Sulpicia spoke up on the boy's behalf. "He will be in bed soon enough."
Aro and Basileus shared a look which said they knew better, but both relented eventually.
Felix slipped into the seat next to Sulpicia, siting closer than he usually would. He felt even more shit when Aro and Basileus decided to fill the woman in on just how disgracefully he had behaved after the battle was won.
"What on earth has got into you?" she hissed at Felix when they had finished.
Felix declined to answer, choosing instead to glare at Demetri.
"So, Felix, you have a playmate in the coven," Basileus said, sipping his wine. "That should make things more interesting for you around here, don't you think?"
Felix make a sort of non-committal, though negative noise in response, bringing him to the attention of all three adults and the stray.
Basileus had had just about enough of the boy's sullen attitude and he wasn't prepared to sit through any more of it. "It's been a long few days, son," he said to Aro, looking pointedly at Felix, "I think I will retire now."
"Why don't you show Demetri where everything is in the bathroom, my love?" Sulpicia suggested to her mate, similarly looking to their moody young guard as she spoke.
Aro considered sending the young guard to bed before he left but he foolishly hoped his mate could talk some sense into the boy.
"Come on," he called to Demetri, leading the way to the grand bathroom where a fire roared. "It's like a bloody oven in here!" Aro said, speaking to himself. Water bubbled in the cauldron above the fireplace and Aro used it to fill the tub for the boy, topping it up with more water from the pump.
"Are you particularly shy or can we talk?" Aro asked. "It's just that this is about as private as we can get in this castle and I need to run through some things with you."
Demetri pulled his tunic off and shrugged, "I'm not shy," he said.
He was used to swimming naked in the rivers back in Egypt. Taking a bath wasn't a particularly private thing in Demetri's mind.
Once he was in the water and settled, Aro started to explain coven rules to the boy. Most of them were fairly standard - the usual about not fucking another man's mate, be respectful to other coven members, particularly the coven masters and their wives, and the like. Some were a little more unexpected. "Don't let anyone know that you or Felix sleep," Aro said, telling him that it was to protect his status, even his life.
"On the point of protecting your life," Aro said, "do yourself a favour and do as you are told." He didn't want another Felix. Felix isn't so bad, he reminded himself, though he isn't so good, either.
Demetri nodded. He was, he thought, pretty good at doing as he was told. Not that it had made a difference living under Amun and his volatile nature. The violent rages that saw Amun lashing his coven members always appeared to Demetri to occur completely at random. It hadn't been, actually. Amun was firm, and though not entirely fair he wasn't a complete bastard either. But unlike in the Volturi coven where, Aro explained, he aimed for transparency and would take the time to explain why discipline was due. Amun didn't do that. He just delivered what he felt necessary and left the other coven members to fill each other in. As no one ever filled Demetri in he was left to make up his own reasons. The main reason being, in the boy's mind, that Amun was a cunt!
Demetri looked younger with each layer of grime he shredded in the soapy water, which reminded Aro of another thing he had to say to him. "You won't be like the other guards, Demetri," Aro said, breaking into the kid's thoughts. "I'm not saying you are above them, exactly …"
It sounded exactly like he was saying Demetri was above them, to Demetri.
"… more that you sit outside of the wider guard body. You report to me."
"I understand, master," Demetri said, dunking his head into the warm water, enjoying how it relaxed his aching body. Even with Basileus' blood and the forced sleep, the boy had been awake for days preparing for the fight between the covens and he was, quite frankly, exhausted.
Seeing the boy was tiring quickly, Aro took over cleaning him up and washing his hair. With that careful, kind touch, Demetri banished even the tiniest notion of leaving the Volturi to get back to the Egyptians. I'm staying right here.
"You aren't," Aro replied to him, "you're going to bed."
"An actual bed?" Demetri asked.
Aro sighed. Jesus Christ, Amun. Was there any need to treat the kid so badly?!
Back in the main chamber, Sulpicia was desperately trying to coax conversation out of Felix. "You can take Demetri to the guard hall tomorrow, Felix," Sulpicia suggested gently to the scowling boy. "Introduce him to everyone."
Felix spun and faced Sulpicia in disbelief. "How come he can go to the guard hall?" he asked, voice dripping with attitude. "He's only just arrived!" he complained. "I had to wait a whole year before I could go to the guard hall!"
"Demetri isn't a newborn like you were, Felix. He can go to the guard hall and you will look out for him in there." Sulpicia thought that would be exciting for Felix, to have someone his own age to hang out with.
Felix rolled his tongue around his cheek as he psyched himself up. "Oh, will I?"
He would never have dared to speak that way to Aro, but Sulpicia often took the brunt of his teenaged petulance. She rarely told Aro of their young guard's behaviour when he was out of ear shot, but she wasn't above using the fact that she could to her advantage when she needed him in line quickly.
"Would you like to say that again, Felix?" she asked the boy sweetly. "Just so I can make sure to pass the message on to the king."
He was about to say it again, being the cocky little sod he could be at times, when Sulpicia took the wind out of his sails completely.
"And the creator, of course."
Felix visibly deflated, shoulders sinking in defeat. "No, my lady."
Aro flashed through the room one way, disappearing into Felix's room, and then he flashed back into the bathroom without saying a word. Felix could see that his master had taken something with him from his bedroom, but he had no idea what.
Demetri soon emerged from the bathroom wearing a pair of braise that swallowed his slight form.
"Are they mine?" Felix asked, looking the new kid up and down in utter disgust.
Aro raised an eyebrow in warning, hoping he wouldn't have to do anything else.
"Now, Felix," Sulpicia tried to placate the boy. "You will need to share what you have for now until we can buy Demetri his own things."
Felix tutted and crossed his arms angrily.
"On that note," Aro said, hauling the young guard to his feet, "you can get your ass to bed. Both of you."
"Where's he sleeping?" Felix asked, spitting 'he' like a dirty word.
"With you for now." Aro dared Felix to object.
On a good day, Felix wouldn't have. But that day was not a good day - the tiredness, feeling threatened by Aro taking a new kid in, the pressure of knowing he had fucked up and seemingly gotten away with it … it was all too much and Felix exploded.
Flying into attack mode, Felix launched at Demetri, bringing Aro down in the crossfire. He didn't get too far before Aro had grappled him to the floor. The coven king had to punch the boy in the guts to get him to quit his attempts to attack physically. "Stay down," Aro bellowed, giving his young guard a good boot in the kidneys. "That's your final warning."
Felix may have stopped but Demetri had promised no such thing. He wasn't so brave to attempt a physical assault, but he was sure enough of himself to attack verbally. He had been a quiet boy in the Egyptian coven, through fear of the very many ways Amun's controlled his coven, but the pent-up emotions contained in the young vampire came rushing to the surface with vigour. The vitriol spewing from his mouth surprised no one more than Demetri! Felix, never one to back down in conflict, returned Demetri's attack. Aro maintained his hold on Felix and Sulpicia kept Demetri out of the way with his arms pinned behind his back.
"STOP!" Aro roared, freezing the whole room.
He pried himself off Felix and flashed to the door of his chambers.
"Where are you going, Aro?" Sulpicia called out. "You can't leave them like this!"
"I need a moment, my queen," Aro replied breathlessly. "I will be back."
"They are fighting," Aro announced, bursting into his father's suite.
"They, who?" Basileus asked in return, showing no reaction to his son's outburst.
"Felix and Demetri," Aro said, flopping into the spare seat at his father's desk. "What do I do with them?"
Basileus put down his quill and set aside the inkwell. "You wish to keep them both, I assume?" Basileus asked.
"I do," he agreed, "and I don't want to whip Demetri ... or Felix for that matter. Not for fighting between themselves."
"Why not?" Basileus asked, eagerly awaiting the answer.
Aro shrugged his shoulders slightly. "Demetri has been through enough at the hands of Amun … anything too harsh will see him running off." Aro didn't want that, he definitely didn't want that. "Aside from that," Aro continued, "they will be living together for eternity, Dad. They are going to fight now and again, surely?"
Basileus had to agree with that. All vampires kept in close quarters were prone to fighting, teenagers were even more likely to take to battering each other. "They are kids, Aro, I'd rather you treated them as such."
"So what do you suggest I do?" Aro asked.
He felt clueless. If it were a guard he might have ripped off a hand, or an arm, or maybe snapped an appendage. He didn't want to do that with a couple of kids. He could whip them, but that felt too 'adult' too. He had only done so a few times with Felix to date, preferring instead to threaten him into submission with a hefty slap here and there. He needed something in his arsenal that would come way below a whipping and above a clip around the ear.
Basileus had listened in on his boy's thoughts as they came and slowly started nodded to himself, thinking of the perfect implement to bring the boys into line. Disappearing into his bathroom, he soon remerged holding a short, think brown leather razor strap.
"Here," he offered the implement to Aro, "use this."
Aro turned the strap over in his hand before bringing it down onto his own palm. It stung a little, but the pain immediately dissipated.
"No, no, no!" Basileus said, taking the strap back.
Grabbing hold of Aro with a tight hold on his left bicep, he drew his arm up high above his head before wrapping the leather across the coven king's backside. Aro squeaked in surprise at the pain that engulfed his rear end and stood on his tip toes trying to escape the device. It had appeared a fairly innocuous item when he held it, but in his father's hand it wielded great power.
"It will wield great power in your hands, too, son," Basileus said knowingly, handing the strap back over. "Go back up there and give them what for before they think its permissible to kill each other."
Before Aro had made it to the door, Basileus called him back. "Aro, you know why Felix erupted, don't you?"
"Because he has to share his room …" Aro trailed off. He could see by the look on his father's face that he had missed something pinnacle.
"Oh, son." Basileus laughed a little before he continued. "Felix thinks you are replacing him. Make sure he knows you aren't and adding Demetri into your home will be easier," he explained. "And one other thing." Basileus felt a little guilty about what he was going to say next, but he wouldn't have said it if it wasn't true. "You are too soft on Felix. You need to take a tougher line with him. And for the love of the gods, stop letting him get away with things. It's making him worse."
Walking a little stiffer than he had when he came in, Aro left and headed back upstairs.
The moment he opened the door to his chambers, Aro was assaulted with a wall of noise - Felix growling at Demetri, Demetri gobbing off at Felix, Sulpicia screeching for their compliance above the din … Great! Aro thought. Looking to the strap in his hand, he decided it was time to put the thing to good use. The burning stripe across his ass told him it would be just what those boys needed to focus their attentions.
He swaggered over to the boy's bedroom and leaned against the door frame where he waited for the three of them to notice him. Sulpicia saw him first, having been facing her mate, so hers was the first voice to cease. Aro was glad of that. Though he would never have told her, the screeching she added to the boy's argument was far more annoying than just listening to the pair of kids tear a strip off each other.
Neither Felix or Demetri noticed the coven king as he stood there. They didn't notice him counting softly to himself either. He got all the way up to 53 before Felix caught the guy out the corner of his eye. Seeing the bruin come to a halt in his verbal tirade, Demetri congratulated himself for a moment before he realised why.
"Oh, no, please do continue," Aro cajoled, spreading his hands emphatically. "The floor is yours."
Neither boy moved. Neither did Sulpicia for that matter, wondering where her mate was going.
Aro waited for a moment, just long enough to make Felix and Demetri feel painfully uncomfortable with the silence before he spoke again. "May I assume from your silence that your argument is over?"
"Yes, Master!" Both boys tripped over themselves in an effort to reply first.
"Have you got it out of your system now?" Aro asked. It was an open question really, but Felix knew damn well that it was directed at him. Which is probably why he neglected to reply aloud.
No. There's a fucking cuckoo in the nest and I don't want him here! Felix screamed at Aro through his thoughts. He doesn't have your venom, he has no right to be here. Felix had made damn sure to tell the stray that in their argument.
Aro could see the young guard feeling perplexed and flashed to the boy's side, clamping a hand on his forehead to read his mind. When he was sure he had come to the crux of the matter, that Felix felt pushed aside, or rather, that he worried he would at some point be pushed aside, Aro let go.
When Aro spoke again, his whole tone had calmed. "Do you have any idea how many humans I have bitten and allowed to transform into vampires, Felix?"
"No master," Felix answered honestly. He assumed a lot, but had no figure to place on it.
"Hundreds, maybe thousands," Aro told him. "Some of them are dead, some of them are at out posts, some of them are in this castle." He circled Felix slowly, unnerving the boy every time he disappeared from view. "They might be Volturi guards, but they aren't MY guards. You are my guard because I say you are my guard, got it?"
Felix nodded his head so rapidly that it caused a blur at the top of his shoulders.
Aro put his hand on Demetri's young shoulder and pulled him in close. "The same way that Demetri is mine because I say he is mine, understood?"
Again Felix nodded at an accelerated rate. He was doing his level best to keep the tears from escaping his eyes.
Aro saw the boy's efforts, he wanted him to cry. "If you EVER throw my venom in his face again I will fucking crucify you, you ungrateful cunt!"
He growled nose to nose with the young guard. It worked. Felix burst into tears, much to his shame.
"Good!" Aro announced, pleased with the result knowing he had broken through the boy's pride. "The sun set long ago," he commented, only Felix knowing the reference. He was supposed to be in bed by now. Without being asked, Felix went to his bed and was ready to slip between the sheets, until Aro called him back.
"We have something to deal with first," Aro said to the boys. "I'll join you in a while, my queen," he called over his shoulder.
When he heard the door close behind her he turned, took hold of Demetri's small left bicep, just as Basileus had done to him, and spun the boy to the side. Lifting the strap high above his head, Aro landed a solid strike. Demetri wailed with the burn than ignited across his ass and threw his free hand back in self-defence.
"Move your hand and stand still!" Aro commanded.
Demetri did as he was told and moved his hand, but he couldn't stand still.
Aro landed another strike in the exact same spot. Demetri's cries spiked into another wail of pain. Aro kept going until he reached a count of ten, then he let the boy go. He had half expected the kid to jump out the window, but instead he merely hopped on the spot rubbing the scorching pain from his hide. Aro wasn't sure what to do. He needed to talk to the boy, he knew that. But do I wait until he's shut up? he wondered. Will he ever shut up?! Deciding to get on with Felix instead, hoping for a more measured response, Aro clicked his fingers to his young guard and pointed at the spot in front of him on the floor.
I am sixteen! Felix thought, outraged. I am not suffering the tragic indignity of a strapping at my age!
"Here. Now." Aro stated flatly, pointing at the floor with the strap in his hand and glaring at the boy.
"But …" Felix began, only to be cut off by Aro's frosty glare.
"Come to me or I come to you and double your load," Aro explained calmly. He wanted to take a long hot bath and fuck his mate. Strapping a pair of vampiric teenagers was way down on his to do list so he wanted the unpleasant task over and done with sharpish.
Mortified, Felix moved around the bed and joined his master where he tried to plead for a reprieve. "Master, please just whip me instead," he begged.
Aro tutted to the child's display and just as he had with Demetri, he turned Felix to the side and got a good grip on him. Felix had much larger biceps than Demetri but Aro made sure he could hold the boy steady before he began.
Felix hadn't been sure what to expect. Yeah, he'd seen Demetri throwing a fit over what he'd received from Aro, but the new kid was clearly a total pussy so that response was only to be expected. He wasn't prepared to react in an almost identical way, that was for damn sure! The first strike took him totally by surprise and damn near knocked him off his feet. It was only Aro's tight hold that kept Felix from running off!
"OW!" he yelled, cursing his own emotional outburst.
Aro kept going, paying little attention to Felix's yelps and begs. When Felix got to ten, or there about, he believed his punishment was over. Oh, how wrong he was. Aro kept going for another ten strikes and by the finish, Felix, too, was a sobbing mess to join his partner in crime.
Whipping the bed clothes back, Aro ordered them both to get in. It took some serious effort on their part to settle into a comfortable position and a little longer to calm down enough to be spoken to without Aro having to raise his voice above the row they were making.
"That was for fighting between yourselves," he explained. "I won't have my days interrupted by your squabbling." Turning to Felix, he added, "And, I'm sure I don't need to explain why you got more with how you have been behaving!"
Felix grunted something about understanding and knowing he deserved it, wearing his shame on his face.
Aro rolled his tongue around his cheek wondering how much he should explain to the young vampires. "You only have each other in this coven," he said carefully. "I will back you up, but out there, amongst the guards, I won't always be there."
Demetri looked far more bothered about that than Felix did.
"I need to know I can rely on you to have each other's backs."
Felix knew that was another question directed solely at him. "I'll have his back."
"I'll have your back, too," Demetri said looking to the older boy.
Felix burst out laughing. "I feel much more secure now, thanks!" he mocked the new kid, nudging him playfully with his elbow. But unlike all the other jibes he had thrown at the younger boy, he didn't mean that one nastily.
Aro nodded to himself. "You will have your own bed and your own clothes as soon as I can arrange them," he told Demetri, "but I am sure Felix will share his things with you in the meantime, yes?" he looked expectantly to Felix for an answer.
"Yeah," Felix said, "I mean, yes, master."
Whilst Aro wondered if the boy would ever acquire the ability to refer to him properly, he had a bright idea. "You keep bugging me for a job in the coven, Felix," he said, smiling to himself, "this is your job." He gestured to Demetri and offered his confused guards a broad grin.
Felix screwed his face up, unsure of how to turn the new kid into a job of any sort. "What do you want me to do with him?"
"Look after him," Aro said simply. "Think of him as your brother, like I have Caius."
Felix looked pensive for a moment before he agreed.
Seeing that neither one could keep still, and still feeling the burn from the one strike Basileus had offered him with the strap, Aro did something he swore he would never do before or again, and joined the two of them in their bed, offering a wrist to each for them to feed.
"It won't heal you completely," he explained, "but it will take the sting away."
"Seriously?!" Felix checked before he bit into the king's wrist. Aro hadn't fed him since his newborn year. Demetri, too, just held Aro's hand, waiting for confirmation.
Aro encourage them both to take what they needed. "I won't be making a habit of this, lads, so make the most of it."
Each young guard only took a few gulps before their latch broke and they drifted off into peaceful sleep. Rather than leaving them to it and joining his mate, or even taking a long-awaited bath after his time away from home, Aro stayed put, watching the boys as they slept.
…
"Why are you still here?!"
"Huh?" Felix barely moved from his seat at the table where he sat with Demetri but Aro's stern glare had him sitting up straight at least.
"You should be on guard, shouldn't you?"
Aro was sure Felix was supposed to be on patrol that morning but as Caius was on rota duty he assumed he must be wrong. Felix knew better than to skip duties.
"You said he was my job now," Felix explained jabbing a finger in Demetri's direction. "I can't do patrol and look after the stray."
Aro flashed forward, nose to nose with Felix. He heard the boy gulp and then he growled, "Do you want to rephrase that?"
"I meant Demetri ... not stray ... erm ... sorry?"
"Master," Aro added for him, pointedly.
"Yeah, Master … sorry Master." Felix breathed a sigh of relief when Aro backed up a step.
Cocky brat, Aro thought to himself. He had hoped he'd knocked that out of Felix the night before, though in the last hundred years of having Felix he had long since learnt that various messages needed repeating.
"I want you to show Demetri around the coven, take him to the guard hall," Aro said. The queer look Demetri wore gave him cause for concern. "What's wrong, boy?"
Demetri stalled, finding it hard to find his voice at first. "You're going to let me out? Into the coven, I mean?"
Aro smirked to himself. You think you're a prisoner, he correctly surmised. "There are no bars on the windows, Demetri," Aro explained. "We have high walls and solid gates around the castle, but no guard here would refuse your exit if you asked them."
"I don't want to leave, Master," Demetri said quietly, he had simply been surprised to be offered freedom so soon.
"Good, glad that's sorted."
"How many guards do you have, master?" Demetri asked.
He was so polite that Aro couldn't fail to like the kid. It also showed Felix up for how disrespectful he could be. But then Aro wasn't willing to scare the boy to death to ensure he was deferential. Part of Aro didn't even want Felix to be that way - he quite enjoyed the battle of wills he had with the boy. He always won, of course, but it was good sport nonetheless.
"We have around twenty guards here at the moment," Aro explained. "Marcus and Caius, their mates, me and Sulpicia, and Basileus of course."
"What about me?!" Felix shot, feeling disgruntled to be missed out.
"I was getting to you!" Aro snapped. He turned back to Demetri and jabbed a thumb in Felix's direction. "And the village idiot."
"And the village idiot!" Felix repeated Aro's words with a petulant expression.
"About half our guards are women," Aro explained to the new kid, hoping that might inspire some interest in the boy.
"He wouldn't know what to do with one of them," Felix chipped in, laughing to himself.
Aro was about to reply on Demetri's behalf but it was clear from the look on the young boy's face that Felix had, in fact, been right. He pulled Demetri to his feet and gently pushed him in Felix's direction.
"Take him to find an insecure girl to practice on, and then he will know what he's was doing when the right girl comes along."
Aro called time on his father's storytelling. "You just had to slip that last bit in, didn't you?"
Atia had commented on Aro's advice to his son before, not that it stopped her from doing so again. "It's repulsive that you made the suggestion in the first place, Aro."
Atia flashed to her feet and the coven king jumped back in his chair, much to the amusement of those watching.
"I was trying to help him feel comfortable in the coven, Mom," he implored, to the heckling of Carlisle and Caius.
"And it's been biting you in the ass ever since," Eleazar added, knowing just how much his brother regretted the free rein his sons' had enjoyed now he was trying to have them act their ages in that department … and mostly failing.
Aro started chuntering to himself. "It no longer applies now," he directed to Demetri.
"Because he's had enough practice?" Carlisle asked, feigning sweetness and light just to annoy his brother.
"Can we talk about someone else now, please?!" Demetri begged. This storytelling lark was painful for the one on show.
"That might be best," Basileus agreed, looking around the room for his next victim.