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?

135. The Twins - 800, August

AN: I'm going to be a smidge late with the next update, major computer malfunctions and I've lost the whole chapter :( So sorry, please bear with me!
This one is a chunky chapter, grab a brew and the biscuit barrel before you start :)

---

THE TWINS - 800, AUGUST

As he scanned the room for his next victim, Basileus saw something most unsuitable from the corner of his eye - Irina working her hand up Caius' britches! The coven master appeared to be quite enjoying the attention, though it wasn't enough for him to break away from his game with Demetri.

"AHEM!"

Everyone stopped, except Irina.

Magnus followed Basileus' eyeline to the Denali girl, and then to Caius. Luckily, Caius' britches fitted too tightly at the knee for Irina to work her hand up them too far. It was already far enough for Magnus. He nodded to Basileus to say he would deal with it, being closest, and lifted Caius from the floor by the back of his dress coat, thereby breaking Irina's contact.

"What's wrong with you?" Magnus hissed into Caius' ear.

Caius couldn't reply, what with being strangled by his own clothes.

Aro eyed his father as Magnus verbally berated Caius for his lack of decorum. He feared momentarily that Caius would fight back, an explosion, something! Aro's head buzzed with 'what ifs' - getting Demetri out of the crossfire, how the Denali girls would react, whether anyone else would join the fray, who Aro would back, who everyone else would back … but nothing came.

Magnus set Caius back down with a thud and though it was clear Caius was pissed off by the manhandling and the verbal rebuke, he did nothing more than adjust his neckline and rub out his throat.

Aro couldn't help the thoughts forming in his mind. Caius must have had some sort of brain transplant! There's no way on this earth I am letting Magnus treat me that way.

Basileus heard him alright. "You had better take care to give no cause."

It was just cryptic enough for the rest of their gathering to be unsure to what, or to whom, Basileus was replying. Aro did a decent job of acting like nothing had happened, so no one would think it was him.

Under the unmoving glare of the creator and the juggernaut - Aro was right, they made a formidable friendship - Irina shuffled back across the rug and to the other side of the seating area. Now sat with Dora and Carlisle, Basileus had a sense of doom fall over himself. It was an occasional gift, as he called it, not so much a premonition of the future, but a sense of something coming. He felt the oppressive weight of darkness as he looked at the three of them together. I have no good reason to separate them. Where do I want Irina anyway? Where would be a suitable seat for her? Basileus wondered. In another bloody coven!

"Tell them about the twins, my lord," Marcus suggested, breaking the tension that had befallen them all. "Their story makes me smile."

Aro looked incredulously to his co-master. "Only because of the near-death experience I suffered as a result!"

"You and me both!" Caius huffed from the floor. "I always get dragged in on your idiocy," he added, frowning to Aro.

"You could have refused, Caius," Marcus pointed out. Having been with them both when the twins were found, and turned, Marcus knew Caius had options.

"Hardly!" That was the same thing Basileus had told him when they had returned to Volterra, right before he laid a whip across his back. "I had no choice with him throwing his status around." The him, of course, was Aro, who at least at the decency to offer his brother-in-arms an apologetic smile.

"One would think, as the rulers of our race, that you would stick to the laws."

Basileus regretted his word choice instantly upon seeing he had piqued Irina's interest.

"We didn't have an age limit then," Aro proffered quickly, he, too, noting Irina's curiosity.

"I believe we used that argument at the time," Caius reminded him, giving a shudder for good measure.

"Yes, you did," Basileus smiled down to Caius. "And how did that work out for you both?"

Caius returned the creator's smile, though his had a nervous tinge to it. "Painfully," he admitted.

Aro shook the memories from his head. He had no desire to revisit such pain. "If you're telling the twins' story, could you at least leave out our part?"

Felix tutted. "That wouldn't make for much of a story, Dad," he told his father, in much the same way Aro had told him when he asked for the same with Demetri's tale.

Having all and sundry listening so intently to him receiving a strapping was bad enough. Alec had damn near bounced in glee as his brothers hung their heads through the indignity. Felix was well up for a story where Aro had his ass handed to him. Demetri was keen, too!

"I would really like to hear the twins' story. I only saw the aftermath …" Felix burst out laughing at his father and threw Caius a goofy grin for good measure knowing he had been left in a similar state. Felix had been sent to the old middle floor suite by Sulpicia to check on them both. Best day, ever!

"Can't you slap him or something?" Caius grumbled to Aro.

He didn't particularly want everyone hearing a rehash of his own punishment. It was a private affair, in his mind. Or it had been! Basileus looks intent on hanging everyone out to dry if that cocky smile on his face is anything to go by.

"He could," Atia agreed. "If he wanted to receive one in return."

With everyone, EVERYONE, hoping to see the coven king suffer such disgrace, Carlisle tried to encourage his brother into forcing their mother's hand.

"Do it, Aro!" he said, eyes gesturing to Felix. "Slap him."

Felix was gob-smacked. "Carlisle! You turncoat!"

"Take one for the team, Felix!"

They all burst out laughing hearing Sulpicia, of all people, joining the repartee!

Aro turned to his father, "Start your story before this turns into a blood bath."

The Twins - 800, August

"Are you sure this is where he said?"

Caius hated these random trips to cold climates just to seek out 'witches' unknown'. All based on a hunch from the creator, of course, which was worth its weight in horse shit to Caius.

"You were there when Basileus gave us the order, Caius," Marcus reminded him. "He said it was the village of Lanyon, between Morvah and Madron …"

"They don't even sound like real place names!" Caius complained.

"They're Cornish place names," Marcus replied through gritted teeth. "The Cornish folk would say Volterra sounds odd, I am sure."

"Cornish?" Caius asked. "Where the fuck is Cornish?! I thought we were in England. Have you lied to me …"

"For fuck sake, Caius, shut up!"

Aro shoved his covenmate hard, and as the three of them were running at full vampiric speed through the pitch black of night, it doesn't take a genius to work out what happened - Caius reached out to Aro to steady himself, the two collided into Marcus and all three ended up in the dirt.

Sitting in the mud, because of course the ground was sodden (even in summer) - Fucking England, Caius thought - the three of them scowled at one another until the eventual laughter broke through their misery.

"We need to check it out," Aro explained more calmly. "Basileus is convinced we will find Apatouria through the humans calling out witches."

"But we won't!" Caius insisted. "If Basileus thought his precious sister was here, he wouldn't send us - he'd come himself."

"I don't disagree, Caius," Marcus said quickly before Caius and Aro could break into a fresh row. "But nevertheless, he sent us. The creator. You had the chance to voice your complaints to Basileus before we left."

Caius huffed to himself, but he said no more. What more could he say anyway? Marcus is right, I should have spoken up before we left. As if he would have dared!

Aro stood first, offering a hand to Caius and Marcus to help them from the dirt. "Let's get on, we should make it to Cape Tor before dawn."

Cape Tor, named so for being both surrounded by water and atop a rocky cliff, was a stronghold on the very tip of England's southernmost point. Compared to the grandness of their home in Volterra, Cape Tor Castle was little more than a wooden shack with a deep ditch to demarcate the land. Aro couldn't see the point in the place, but he had grudgingly set up an outpost there when Basileus bought the land a few years before. He had said at the time that Cape Tor would play a pivotal part in their lives at some point - so far, it had been somewhere to crash when vampires found themselves in that corner of the world, which had only happened once in its short history.

"We're closer to the village than we are Cape Tor, Aro," Marcus pointed out. "We should pass through on the way."

"What will we learn in the dead of night with no one to speak to?" Caius asked.

He wanted a hot bath to warm his frozen bones. Italy wasn't warm enough for Caius, let alone England - he was going to be the first vampire to freeze to death, he was sure of it.

Simply because Caius had objected, Aro agreed with Marcus and the choice was made. When they arrived in the sleepy village of Lanyon, they were hit by an overwhelming stench, one they knew well - humans burning. Following their noses, they soon came across the source.

"Humans are sick fuckers," Caius derided, seeing the smouldering remains of what was no doubt the village 'witch'. Caius spent much of his time torturing Volturi enemies, but even he wouldn't turn his tools on a complete innocent - as those unfortunates so often were.

"Shush!" Aro called out, asking his co-masters to freeze.

He heard it again - sobbing, children crying softly, without hope, he felt. Two children, of that he was sure, and they seemed to be calling to him. Aro followed the quiet cries to the edge of a crudely constructed hut. He peered inside but found only an old woman who slept soundly.

Walking the circumference of the hut with his lightest step, he came to an odd structure. Many sticks dug deep into the ground in a circle, fastened at the top with rope to create a pen ... and inside there were the children. Two young and scrawny scraps of humans huddling together for warmth and comfort in the cool night air.

Aro quickly removed his heavy cloak and fed it through the bars. The children, a boy and a girl, twins he soon discovered through his brief contact, should have feared him. Aro's eyes glowed brilliant red and as a foreigner to their lands, let alone their village, Aro would have expected such young children to recoil. Instead, they were so grateful for his kindness that they clung to his arm through the branches of their holding cell.

"Why are you here?" Aro asked, plucking information from their minds as he held the girl's hand.

"They took our mother," she explained. "They burnt her."

Fuck. Aro wasn't sure what else to say to that. "What are they planning with you two?"

"God is angry with us," the boy answered. "We must burn for our sins."

"What are your sins?"

The children looked to each other in confusion. They really didn't know. No one had told them.

"Aro!"

Aro couldn't ignore Caius for long without alerting the whole village to his presence. Looking back to the children clinging to him through the stick-bars, he said, "I will be back for you, little ones." With that, he left them and returned to his covenmates.

It took only fifteen minutes for the three of them to reach Cape Tor. The guards at the outpost hadn't been expecting visitors, but like all Volturi outposts, the guards had an action plan should the Royal House arrive and within the hour Marcus, Aro and Caius had been brought humans to dine on and mead to drink through the night. They had been given the great hall for their own and Caius had instructed them to not only light the central fire, but to fetch double the wood necessary to keep the thing going all night long.

"It really isn't that cold, Caius," Marcus sighed, fanning his face.

Caius looked around incredulously to his co-masters, both sitting well away from the flames whereas Caius was damn near in them! And you call yourselves Greeks?! Caius had set a bowl of water above the fire, heating it up to near scalding before he would be willing to wash with it.

"Let's hear it then," he called to Aro. "You're plotting something."

Aro barely said a word all the way back to Cape Tor, his head whirling with thoughts of those two children in their makeshift pen to be burnt for unidentified crimes. He knew it wouldn't go down well, but he told his co-masters what little he knew of them, and then he dropped the bombshell.

Marcus was dumbfounded, but Caius had plenty to say. "Why would you want more fucking kids in the coven?!" he spat. "Felix and Demetri are bad enough!"

"What do they do that's so bad?!" Aro shot back, cursing the question as he knew Caius kept a running tally of all the guards fuck-ups.

"They are mouthy, they forget orders, they fail at guard duty, they fuck everything that passes them …"

Yeah, yeah, Aro thought, thoroughly disinterested. Keep going, whatever.

"… And that's before we start on the blood lust sprees Felix used to go on."

Aro wasn't having that. "Twice, Caius. And I cleaned up his mess ... I never ask you to do anything with him."

"You don't have to, Aro," Marcus told him sternly. "His existence affects all of us."

Damn it! Aro had hoped for Marcus' support. Still, he wasn't leaving those kids behind, regardless of how his co-masters felt. They argued back and forth for the rest of the night, sometimes Aro even gained Marcus' support, only for Caius to remind them all of one of Felix or Demetri's fuck-ups and he would lose it again.

Aro had had enough. "I'm going back to that fucking village and I'm taking those kids. You're either with me …"

"Or?!" Caius asked, unmoving.

"Or I tell Basileus you abandoned his only son."

Caius rolled his eyes to his supposed king. "You are such a prick."

"Maybe, but I'm still your king, Caius."

That was it, Caius launched for Aro, Aro retaliated. Marcus let them get a few punches in before he separated them

"Let's not start such foolishness now." Marcus shoved Aro back and forced Caius to sit down with a hand on his shoulder. "We will all go so Aro can meet these children properly," Marcus paused for a moment as he fixed Aro with his eye. "But, I will have nothing to do with you taking them back to Volterra."

"Neither will I!" Caius added.

"I'm not asking you to," Aro sighed. "Just come with me."

The sun was high in the sky by the time the agreement was reached. It would be difficult reaching the village and staying out of the sun's rays - as Caius pointed out multiple times on their short journey - but they managed it by sticking to the woodland, though it undoubtedly took longer.

Nearing their destination, they saw a plume of smoke rising in the sky and the unmistakable smell of burning flesh.

"We're too late," Caius said without emotion. "We'll find you some new brats from somewhere else."

Aro pushed them to move faster. "It's not just about new kids, you prick! It's those kids. I need them!"

Marcus and Caius reached the village just a step behind Aro. They expected Aro to stay in the shadows of the trees, what with the sun bouncing off their diamond skin being a revealing trait of the vampire and therefore absolutely against their laws. Aro only planned on staying put whilst he worked out what to do.

One pyre, the one they saw the smoke for, the one they smelt, held an old woman. It was the old woman Aro had seen sleeping the night before. Her shrill shrieks were only heard for a second or two before her heart gave out in shock to the unimaginable pain.

Where are they?! Aro search the crowd for the children he had met, but he couldn't find them. He was so lost in his search of the villagers that he missed the second pyre. It wasn't until the crowd moved over to get a good look and the fire was lit that Aro notice the twins at the top of the wooded heap.

"It's over Aro," Marcus said with a hand on his co-master's shoulder.

"No," Aro insisted, searching for a path free from sunlight. "There is always another way."

"If anyone can find it, it's you," Caius agreed. "But you have run out of time, brother."

Time. It slowed right own and sped up all at once. The flames that had only just sparked with the wood were now up to the children's waists, yet Aro's vampiric speed felt achingly slow as he flashed to retrieve them.

"He's lost his fucking mind!" Caius roared, following Aro and killing every human he reached.

Marcus did the same, the object being to leave no witnesses to their co-master's idiocy which was sure to reveal them all.

It took only a few moments and the whole gathering was dead. A few more and Aro had freed the children and brought them to safety. Seconds for Marcus to put out the flames on Aro's left leg and then a few more for him to move to the twins, blotting out the flames with his cloak. And in a single second, they realised it was all for nought - there was no way those children could make it through their ordeal. They lay silent and still in the grass, their bodies charred from the waist down.

Aro wasted no time, slim chance or none. He dragged the girl closer to him and bit deep into her neck. Job done, he tried to stand to get to the boy, but he dropped to the floor before he'd made it even a single step - the flesh on his leg, the one Marcus had thankfully put out so quickly, was mangled, melted. He couldn't walk.

Aro roared out his frustrations, the pain he ignored. All his efforts were concentrated on those children. "I am commanding you to bite him NOW!"

Marcus outright refused. It was left to Caius.

Caius sighed to himself. Marcus could get away with refusing when he wanted to because he had Basileus' ear. Caius wasn't so fortunate. Basileus already blamed him for a good many things Aro fucked up outside of Caius' control. If he denied Aro's order, Basileus would wring his neck. Caius went to the boy, sure he was already dead, but he bit him anyway, just to shut Aro up.

Chuntering about the absolute idiot that was his king, Marcus started rounding up the dead humans, dragging them to Aro for him to feed from. "Drink until you cannot drink anymore," Marcus instructed. "It's the only hope you have for saving that leg."

Caius worked on throwing the remainder onto the fire. He felt a cool satisfaction that he was feeding the demented human mob to the pyre they had built for others. He enjoyed such a happy coincidence. Once Aro had drained more humans than he could stomach, Caius added those to the fire, too.

The children, much to everyone's surprise, started moaning. Their eyes were closed and they barely moved, but the venom was doing its job - they were entering the transformation. Aro had never been a religious man, not even in his human days when it was expected, but he prayed to every deity he had ever heard of to bring the twins through alive … or dead, depending on how you view vampiric living status.

Marcus stomped off, fuming. He wished the children no ill will, of course - they were innocent. But he was having nothing to do with taking a couple of minors back to Volterra. When he came to the hut Aro had found the night before, and found it vacant, he thought it an excellent hovel for his co-masters to hide out in until the children could be moved. Going back to the clearing, without word he slung Aro over his shoulder and clicked at the kids for Caius to bring.

Caius dumped the pair of them on the floor awkwardly, but Marcus soon lay them out straight. Aro felt a glimmer of hope for a moment, thinking Marcus had softened his stance on the twins. When Marcus stood and issued some instructions to Caius, such as to find Aro more blood for his leg to heal, to find something to bandage him with, to have a feed ready for the children even if it were only animal … well, Aro started to wonder.

"Are you not staying, brother?" Aro asked. The pain had hit him, and it could be heard in his tone.

Marcus puffed the air out of his cheeks. He did wonder how they would get back to Volterra without his help … or without killing each other, he corrected himself. But he was done. There was only so much of the 'Aro and Caius' parade that he could stomach and adding in a couple of immortal children … he'd done all he was willing.

"I'll see you when I come back to Italy."

With that he was gone, leaving Caius and Aro catching flies as he left. They didn't stay that way for long. Marcus was sure he heard the two of them arguing before he was out of hearing range.

He didn't have a direction in mind. All Marcus heard was the cool ocean waves calling his name and he headed straight for the coast. Lanyon's closest coast was north to the Celtic sea. I haven't been to Ireland in a very long time, Marcus thought, thinking that was a good enough reason to detour his journey home. Walking out to his waist and then diving into the water was just what he needed to indulge in to wash away the stress of what awaited him in Volterra. He swam slowly, taking his time and enjoying the cooling ocean. Marcus went at such a leisurely pace that a human could have swam side by side without tiring. So slowly in fact, that it was dusk by the time he came to land.

What a treat, Marcus thought happily. A skirmish on the beach. It is my lucky day.

Unsure who was right or wrong, Marcus simply picked the side with less humans on it and joined their fray. It soon became apparent that he fought with a husband and wife team and perhaps their son. And a girl … her bond wasn't that of a daughter, but they were certainly fond of each other. They were doing well against so many adversaries before Marcus had joined in the fracas. Once he had, however, the fight was over. Marcus only realised he may have gone too far when the woman and younger pair retreated, leaving her giant sized husband to face him alone.

The Viking looked the mysterious man up and down in his finery. He didn't look like much of a warrior, too slightly built. Solid though, and he couldn't deny what his eyes had seen - whoever this guy is, he knows how to handle himself.

"You're not from round these parts, friend."

That's a bit rich, Marcus thought, knowing the man was a Viking and therefore not from Ireland, either. Marcus considered the man in his presence, wondering if he had seen too much. Seen too much, or I showed too much? Marcus berated his foolishness at ripping apart humans in front of, well, humans! Hmmm, he watched the man carefully. You aren't giving much away, my friend. He could tell from their dress and their fighting style that three of them, at least, were Vikings. If he'd had to place a bet, he would say they were from Norway. Not the girl, though, he noted. Marcus looked over his shoulder to the vessel he had passed in the sea, bobbing about in the distance, anchored and awaiting passengers.

"Neither are you," Marcus answered, pointing to the boat. "Norse men?"

"Aye."

Marcus smiled gently to the giant man. "Raiders or traders?"

You're almost as tall as the creator, as old as me, too. It would be nice to have some adult company in the coven … assuming you could survive the transformation.

"Neither," the man replied, with a hint of sadness. "My wife and I," he gestured behind him where the woman stood with her two younger charges. "We are searching for our sons."

Marcus nodded, though it was mainly to himself as he wondered whether he could take them all back to Volterra.

"Magnus," the Viking introduced himself. He wasn't sure why, but he trusted the man from the sea who had come to their aid. "Freyr, bring them," he called back to his wife.

Freyr approached, keeping the younger pair behind her.

"You have nothing to fear from me, my dear," Marcus encourage. "My name is Marcus, I hail from Italy."

He considered the youngsters momentarily. He wasn't sure on their age. Anything under thirty was 'young' in his mind. He wasn't willing to take children back to Volterra - he didn't want to be stuck managing them for eternity as Aro was doing. But he could feel, through his gift, that the four of them were bonded together. Magnus and his wife held a bond so strong, so fierce, that it affected Marcus' senses. Only vampires mate with such ferocity, he thought.

"Are these your children?" he asked, looking to the woman.

"Sort of," Freyr admitted carefully, still sussing out whether Marcus was a threat to them. She held the pair by their shoulders, one in each arm. "Odi is our son, or as good as. Corin we met on our travels."

"They aren't our blood," Magnus explained. "But we will protect them as such." He wasn't saying so to offer a fight, but Magnus wanted to be sure the man, Marcus, he said Marcus, he wanted to be sure Marcus understood his allegiances.

"I offer no threat to them, my friend," Marcus explained quickly. "How old are you?" he asked the youths.

"I'm in my twentieth year," Odi explained. "We both are."

"That will do," Marcus thought out loud.

The humans looked to each other questionably. "What will do?" Magnus asked.

"I have a proposition for you all." Marcus again pointed to the boat bobbing about in the sea. "I have need for your vessel, and I am willing to reward you handsomely for its use."

"How so?" Magnus asked.

Marcus considered telling them the truth, but he couldn't risk that on the coast, not with sunrise due in a few hours. He also didn't want to risk them fleeing - then he would have to kill them all and he had a good feeling about the Viking pair, at least. The younger two he only hoped would be old enough to be considered adult vampires.

"Come with me to my castle home, and you will never have to think on your human life again."

"What does that even mean?" Odi hissed to Magnus, who soon hushed his belligerence.

Never have to think on your human life again …

Freyr and Magnus simultaneously replayed those words over and over in their minds. It had been ten years since their only daughter had died in her bed. Three since their teenage sons had left their lands, and two since they had followed to find them. They knew their journey was full of false hope, but it was all the hope they had. The years had worn heavily on the pair of them. To begin, each day held new hope, but after two years of fruitless hunting, each day held misery. Neither one was willing to say so, but they both knew their sons were dead, long dead at that.

Never have to think on your human life again …

"Aye," Magnus replied for them all. "We'd like that."

"We would?!" Odi asked, still none-the-wiser to what it was they were being offered. Magnus and Freyr weren't sure, either, but it had to be better than the life they had.

Magnus looked to Odi, wondering what to do with the boy. He's not a boy anymore, he reminded himself. Twenty. We've had him since he was ten, or little more. His sons had brought their friend home to stay when they found him wandering the fields, alone. He had no family to speak of, was wafer thin and alone in the world. Magnus and Freyr hadn't thought twice about taking him in. He showed me more respect than my own two lads did, Magnus thought, remembering the bitter argument between himself and his boys about leaving their lands. Magnus had told them not to go. Odi was the only one who had listened to him and stayed put, the other two disappearing into the oceans, never to be seen again.

And then there was Corin. They'd only met a few months before, further around the Irish coastline. The young woman had been desperate to leave her village and had seemingly been on the lookout for Viking marauders to take her far away from her home lands. It wasn't completely unheard of to find Irish girls willing to leave with the warriors that invaded their country. Rare, but not unheard of. Corin had been sensible when she'd selected the Magnus and Freyr. By choosing a clearly married and older couple, she had hoped to become their servant, of some kind. As they couldn't understand each other, not speaking the same language, they had never shared a conversation, but Magnus and Freyr had shown her kindness, kindness she had never known in her own home. They allowed the girl to follow them when they left, and Corin had stayed at their side since.

Magnus turned Odi by his shoulders to face him. "You aren't obliged to come with us if you don't want."

"You're leaving me here?!" Odi had to catch his breath, panic setting in.

"No," Freyr insisted. "Just giving you the choice to make you own way in the world."

"I don't want to!"

Odi was a follower, not a leader - he didn't want to make his own way in anything. Magnus and Freyr were the only family he had memory of and he wasn't ready to leave them. He doubted he ever would.

Marcus spoke to Corin in her own tongue, explaining the offer Magnus and Freyr had made to Odi, and offering her the same. She answered by coiling her hand around Freyr's arm, clinging on for surety that they would keep her, too.

Magnus turned to Marcus and gestured to the sea. "It would seem that we are all with you, my friend." It was the first time he had felt a hope for the future in many, many months. "After you."

Basileus paused his tale seeing the effect it was having on Freyr. The shield maiden had tears rolling down her face and an ache in her heart that she hadn't felt for many years.

"My apologies, my dear," Basileus offered quietly. "I got caught up …"

"Not at all." Freyr smiled brightly to the creator and dabbed at her cheeks. "I can remember my children and be sad occasionally. It is far more often that I remember them happily." Regaining her composure, Freyr shook out her blonde locks and reassured the creator again, and her mate, that all was well.

Marcus raised his glass to the woman. "It is preferable to remember than forget, is it not, my dear?"

Freyr nodded, "It is indeed."

"I forgot you came with Odi and Corin," Felix mused aloud, breaking the awkward silence. "Is that why you're always on Odi's case?"

Magnus tutted. "I'm not always on Odi's case!"

"He is always with you in the guard hall," Caius said looking up at the juggernaut from the floor.

He suddenly felt threatened as the pieces pulled into place in his mind. He'd never thought about the fact that Odi followed Magnus around like a lost puppy. Caius had assumed it was because he was so young, certainly the youngest guard in the coven.

Magnus could feel Caius had gone from relaxed and calm to curious and then jealous in a matter of seconds. This does not bode well, he thought sadly.

"He can't breathe in this coven without you two knowing about it," Felix continued, with Demetri offering his opinion on the matter, concurring with his brother.

"You would think he might keep his nose clean, if that were the case."

Magnus was neither confirming or denying Felix's claim. He could feel Caius boring holes into the side of his face with the sharpness of his eyes. Fuck, fuck, fuck! He had done well, he thought, to manage Caius without it affecting his relationship with the Odi. Similarly, he was pleased with himself for managing the guards without involving Caius, or anyone else from the elite table, for that matter. Basileus had just blown a massive hole in his boat, so to speak.

"Corin keeps her nose clean," Freyr pointed out. "But then girls have more sense." She couldn't help but look to Atia, and then they both looked to Irina before turning back to each other.

"Usually," Atia added.

"Odi is a guard," Magnus pointed out. "It's my job to know what he's up to." He was desperately trying to downplay the relationship he had with Odi for Caius' sake. It was a shame, then, that Freyr didn't catch his drift and sold him down the river.

"We do keep a closer eye on the younger guards, love," she said to her mate. "But that's not what it is with Odi. He's our link home, he's special, he's our son."

Caius dropped the hand of cards he was playing and looked directly at Magnus. With his elbow digging into the juggernaut's thigh, Caius made damn sure he had Magnus' attention. "I didn't realise you and Odi were so close," he sneered.

Magnus grimaced and removed Caius' elbow as he tried to explain himself. "I suppose I feel … I don't know. Odi's only here because we took him away from his home in the first place."

"He had no home to speak of, Magnus, his home had been with us for many years before we left our lands."

Freyr, you aren't helping!

Freyr may not have understood Magnus' issue, but Marcus realised and tried to move the conversation forwards.

"I am just glad they were both adult vampires," he said quickly.

Basileus damn near choked on his whiskey. "Odi's as much trouble as Felix," he said. Turning to Marcus and jabbing a thumb over his shoulder in Magnus' direction, he continued, "Magnus just keeps him off the radar - he has done so since they arrived."

It was then that Basileus finally caught up with the thoughts in the room - with both Magnus and now Marcus screaming at him to shut the fuck up and fucking help, he twigged what he had done. Caius had no idea that Magnus looked out for Odi at all, or that they were particularly close. How, Basileus couldn't fathom, but somehow Magnus managed to play many parts in his coven without any of those parts crossing over. And I always thought Aro was the one who wore so many hats so easily. Damn it. Basileus mouthed silent apologies to his friend.

Caius had only ever involved himself with the guards for missions and training. Odi wasn't a warrior and rarely attended missions so he wasn't on Caius' radar. Aro had dealt with guard discipline before Magnus had stepped up, but with Magnus keeping the lad undercover and dealing with him himself, Aro and Odi had rarely crossed paths.

Aro picked up on one thing his father had said, "Magnus covered for Odi … is that so?"

"What if it is?" Magnus asked the coven king. "I'm master of the guards, I can do what I like with them."

"You're master of the guards now, but you weren't always," Aro pointed out.

Caius was hot on his tail. "It is a very recent appointment, relatively speaking."

"It sounds like they wish to challenge your authority, my friend." Basileus wasn't having that. He thought Aro understood his position after their talk that morning, but if he didn't, he was happy to have that conversation again.

"Not his current authority." Aro wasn't stupid. "But his previous conduct is free territory, surely?"

"Yes, previous conduct," Caius was ready to pounce. "Let's get him for that."

Magnus looked first to Aro and then to Caius. "And what do you two think you can do to me?"

Aro and Caius were clearly running through many options in their minds before Aro called out, "Coven discipline?"

"Go ahead," Basileus offered. "Aro's still above Magnus in coven matters, for now. But you should both think of the times he has helped you out of trouble before you act."

The 'for now' caught the attention of many, although no one commented on it out loud. It felt to Basileus as though Atia was screaming at him about his slip up. 'It wasn't a slip up', he thought back to her.

Atia closed her eyes and shook her head. Thinking of the Denali girls who had just joined their ranks, and the situation with Magnus and Caius, she had to wonder what her mate was playing at. 'Could we deal with one drama at a time, my dear?!'

Caius and Aro watched each other - Caius thinking of his recent bout on dungeon blood, Aro thinking of how Magnus gained his position in the first place by taking out Antonio for Felix … neither knew what the other was thinking, but they both relented, quickly. Although they were now wondering what secrets the other held.

"Sorry, Magnus," Aro said shyly, slinking back into his seat and playing with the rings he wore, as he so often did on the rare occasions he felt nervous.

Magnus gave him the nod and turned to Caius expecting to receive the same from him. Instead all he got was a huff and the cold shoulder as Caius sought to retake his scattered cards.

"What makes Odi so grown up anyway?" Felix asked, breaking the tension, again. "Using sleep to define 'child vampires' is a bit of a blunt tool, don't you think?"

Aro's heart really sank then. He looked up to the heavens. I know I was a knob for trying to knock Magnus down a notch, but must you curse me with this boy's arguments as a punishment?

"I could use many other tools, you would still be defined a child, son," he answered, hoping to put an end to whatever hare-brained nonsense Felix had thought up.

"Like what?" Carlisle asked.

It would be you who takes up the gauntlet, Aro thought to his brother before responding with, "Maturity. The ability to foresee the consequences of your actions. Rationality, impulsivity …"

"What about things like growth," Felix cut in. "I'm huge." He offered Kate a wink as he spoke, much to Eleazar's annoyance.

"You are huge for a child, yes," Aro agreed. "For a man, you would be a normal, even average height."

"Hair then?" Felix asked, dragging his shirt over and off his head. "How many kids look like this?!" he asked, tugging at the rug on his chest.

"Put your shirt back on," Aro told his boy sternly. "Or I'll be removing your britches to match."

"Dad!"

Any hope Felix had with the Denali girls, and there was only a little hope to begin with, had just been snatched away. Hearing the taunts and laughter of those around him burned at the boy's fraying pride.

"You are an adolescent, Felix." Basileus was bored of the boy's interruptions. "You look like one. You could pass as an adult on occasion, but you are not now, nor will you ever be, a grownup."

His unremitting tone had Felix retaking his seat at his father's feet as he muttered about the unfairness of the vampiric world.

"Thank the gods Odi and Corin sleep," Marcus thought aloud. "Didyme would not have been pleased if I'd had cause to move them in with us."

Caius looked opened mouthed to Marcus for moment before he caught up with himself. "I like how that would be your only concern, Marcus! We had to face him!"

Basileus bristled as Caius jabbed a finger in his direction. Magnus was doing a sterling job of keeping everyone from tipping over the edge, but it wasn't enough to keep everyone truly calm.

"Marcus brought home a set of adult vampires who have been a pleasurable addition to our coven," Basileus reminded the young coven leader. "You pair brought the twins!"

Jane became a furious little imp from where she sat with Tanya. Alec, was the opposite, upset in his mother's lap.

"Not that you aren't also a pleasurable addition, my dear ones," Atia told them quickly. "Your grandfather is just making his point rather badly."

Realising his mistake, Basileus dropped to his knees and took his grandchildren's hands in his own. It was way over the top, but their giggles to his efforts made it worthwhile.

Kate and Tanya looked on, watching the creator's interaction with the twins and wondering where the beast was of whom their sister warned them. Basileus had been nothing but nice to them so far. None of the Volturi presented as Irina had told them they would. Aro had let his children's cheek go with verbal rebukes. Only Magnus and Basileus had responded to anyone physically and that was only towards Aro and Caius - which was really funny, Kate thought, reminding herself that everyone else had found it funny, too.

Sasha hadn't looked to them once in the throne room before they were forced to leave. Not that her final treatment whitewashed their lives together. Sasha had been a loving and indulging mother, Kate and Tanya loved her very much. They loved Irina, too, but they just didn't feel the bitterness towards the Volturi that Irina did.

Irina wants us to run first chance we get, Kate thought, looking to her twisted sister. I don't want to leave. She had a feeling Tanya wouldn't want to either, not with the way she had snuggled into Eleazar's side. Kate knew she would have to negotiate between her sisters. That had always been her role. Irina being the eldest and somewhat bossy, and Tanya being the youngest with a fiery temper. Kate was the mediator and she had a feeling that if they were to stay in the safety and luxury of Volterra, she would have to use every trick in the book.

Whilst Basileus proffered his absolute assurances to the twins that they were very much wanted and pleasurable company, he missed Caius hissing from the other side of the fireplace. "Aro brought the twins, not me."

Magnus couldn't believe Caius. He had been worried about Dora before they arrived, but Caius had pushed and pushed that morning. "You have a death wish today, don't you?" he whispered to the younger man.

Caius pulled away. "You already have Odi to fuss over, leave me to my death wish."

Magnus flopped back into his chair. Oh for fuck sake, he cursed, wishing he could boot Basileus in the balls for the trouble he had caused him.

Tanya looked up from Eleazar's side. "What happened next?" she asked once the creator had settled back into his chair. "How did you get the twins back here?"

Irina started chuntering to herself about her disloyal sisters. First Kate and now you?!

"Did you keep your leg?" Kate asked Aro. "Or have you got a wooden one, or something?"

Aro rolled down the hose on his left leg revealing a heavily scarred leg. The fire had burned deep furrows into his flesh and the skin remained grey and sallow, but it was still attached, and it still worked.

"It's much better than it was," Basileus explained to the girl. "Vampires continue healing for as long as they continue living. With scars so deep, it will take a thousand more years to look fully repaired."

Aro refastened his hose and looked to his baby vampires. "Totally worth it," he told them both. "The whipping I took, however," he added, glaring at his father.

"You're getting ahead of yourself, Aro." Basileus took a swig of his whiskey and was soon back in storytelling mode.

"Marcus said you need to keep feeding," Caius called out over the screams.

The children were turning, they were close to the end from what Aro and Caius could tell. It wasn't an exact science and they both knew the kids could still wake as zombies. Their burns had all healed, though, which was a good sign. Still, the screaming was horrific!

Caius had brought Aro a stag to feed from, but Aro was reticent. Feeding from animals was a poor man's game.

"Find me a human," he ordered. Aro's leg was still thumping beneath his bandages and he needed blood, yes, but proper blood. Human blood.

"I've already tramped around this godforsaken hell hole of a village to find you bandages and clothes," Caius pointed out. "I've even fetched clothes for your brats and dressed them!" Caius didn't even want to take the damn things back to Volterra, so Aro could forget it if he thought Caius would be going further afield to find humans for a feed.

Aro attempted to stand, but his leg hurt too damn much. He was soon back to sitting in the only seat the hovel offered.

Great! Caius thought as he watched his co-master's failed effort. "How am I supposed to get us all back to Volterra with you in this state?!"

"You need to find a horse and cart, get us to the coast, find a boat …"

"All this shit I am finding because you have no impulse control and just had to add a couple more kids to your household." Caius stormed out. Utter prick!

It had been some hours since Caius had left, by Aro's reckoning, when the twins started to wake. Aro shuffled himself off the chair so he could be close to them, bundling them up into his arms. They opened their eyes at the exact same time as though they had synced it somehow. As they came around, panic started setting in. The children clung to Aro with frightened eyes darting around the single room dwelling.

"Do you remember me, little ones?" Aro asked softly.

The boy covered his ears, even the quiet tone of Aro's voice was deafening to his supersensitive hearing.

Aro went through their thoughts to find their names. It took longer than usual for him to work it out. Neither child spoke much in their human life, and when they did, it was only to each other. Even their mother didn't speak to them unless she had to, clearly blaming the children for the scorn she suffered from the villagers.

"Jane?" Aro asked, looking to the girl.

She only answered with her eyes. They flickered towards Aro on hearing the familiar name.

Aro nodded to himself. "And Alec?" He turned to the boy.

Alec smiled just a little. From what he could remember, only his sister had ever said his name so pleasantly. To hear his name called without a snide remark or ending in 'the witch' was a nice surprise.

"I am Aro," he told them both. "I will take care of you now."

The twins looked to each other, clearly puzzled. Aro wondered if he'd used the wrong words, but he was pretty sure he had a good handle on the English tongue. He even knew the various dialectical differences thanks to Marcus dogmatic belief that the Volturi should be able to converse with anyone they would ever meet.

"You can't take care of us," Jane explained. "We are evil."

Fuck! Aro pushed his hands into the pit of his stomach to quell the sickness that hit him. He was surprised by the strength of his emotional reaction to the girl's words. Aro was no stranger to the myriad of ways children suffered at the hands of their parents - he had himself, severely so - but it never failed to affect him. Still, with the twins explaining they were evil and undue of care, he felt different. Perhaps it was the way Jane put it as a simple statement of fact? She doesn't even seem bothered, Aro thought, considering the girl. Then he realised … it is a statement of fact! They aren't bothered because they believe what she said - they think they are evil and unworthy of care.

If their mother hadn't already be burnt at the stake, Aro would have killed her. Useless leg or not, he would have killed her. If the villagers weren't dead he would have killed them, too. Feeling the temper rising within him and knowing it would do those kids no good to see him blow, he pushed the thoughts aside. I have an eternity to convince them they are worth more than those barbarians told them. But first they need to feed.

He disentangled himself from the twins, assuring them he wouldn't leave them and shuffled across the floor to the dead stag Caius had brought him. Calling the children to him - they flew towards him with all the force of newborn vampires, if little ones - he explained what they needed to do to take a feed. They weren't impressed with the idea of drinking blood from the dead beast, but they did trust the man instructing them.

Aro knew how to get the show on the road. He dragged the beast across his good leg by its antlers and exposed the neck. Then he clawed it open. The stag had been dead for hours, so the blood wasn't ideal, but it hadn't been long enough for it to have spoilt. Unfortunately, it had congealed already so it wouldn't be anywhere near as satisfying as a fresh feed. It will have to do until Caius gets back.

"Take the blood," Aro instructed. "You must drink it."

Watching them feed, Aro was impressed. They hadn't liked what Aro had told them about drinking blood, he could tell that from their faces, but they did as they were told without argument. That wasn't the only thing to please him, however. The fact that the twins, as two newborn vampires, were sharing their feed -their very first feed - without a fight, or even an argument … Aro had never seen such a thing before. Felix and Demetri argue over who breathed first that morning! I would never trust them to share a feed and they have two hundred years on these pair! Felix has three! Yes, Aro was impressed.

Caius returned to the hovel shivering and soaked to the bone. "It's fucking August!" he complained. "Is this wretched country ever warm?! Or dry?!"

Caius couldn't remember a single visit to England that hadn't pissed him off to his very core. He stopped dead in his tracks when he noticed the twins were awake.

"They look better for transforming," he commented.

He'd never turned a child before and he hadn't expected either of the twins to make it through the transformation alive, let alone to look so good on it. They were still tiny things, but the venom had done its job and toned up their small muscles. They no longer looked like the emaciated beings they had bitten.

"Look at this," Aro said, lifting the skirt Jane wore to show Caius her legs. "No scarring."

"I don't think you will be as lucky, brother," Caius noted, seeing Aro's bandage seeping blood still.

Jane was quick to re-cover, wrapping her arms tightly around her legs. She didn't know who the new guy was, and she didn't want him looking at her.

Caius noticed and found her funny. "Who do you think dressed you, kid?" Still laughing, Caius crouched down on his knees to get a close look at the two children who would bring his doom. "Names?"

They answered for themselves at the same time.

"Jane."

"Alec."

But they said no more.

At least they're quiet, he thought. "Caius," the master told them with a slight bow to his head. That's when he spotted the bloodied-up stag. We need to get them a proper feed. "I've got us a horse and cart. It's getting dark out, we should get moving." Caius clicked his fingers at the kids to follow him outside. They did, dutifully.

Aro's fears were melting away. There's no way Basileus won't like these two, they are the exact opposite of the boys. But there was no way he could get back to Volterra on land. "We need a boat, Caius, I can't run."

"One problem at a time, Aro," Caius called through the cloth door.

He soon returned to the hovel, dragged Aro to his feet, and helped his brother-in-arms to the cart.

Aro needn't have worried, Caius had everything in hand. They made their way to the coast on the well beaten dirt tracks. Restricted to the speed of the gnarly old nag Caius had found, it took until the midnight to reach the same beach from which Marcus had departed. The only boat about was a two-man rower. Small, and certainly not designed for proper sea travel, so they would have to follow the coast closely. But it would do. Caius was so excited to be heading home to the warm that he didn't stop to get opinions on his plans, he merely dumped them all in the vessel whilst it was still on dry land and pushed them out to sea.

The twins were petrified once they were bobbing about in the water. The skies were pitch black, the sea even darker. With them clinging to Aro for dear life, Caius huffed and took up the oars.

"You owe me for this," he said, before he settled into rowing.

He rowed all night. The short time they spent in the Celtic sea went fine, crossing the English Channel was a little dicey in such a small and overmanned boat. Following Spain's northern coast through the Bay of Biscay wasn't much better. It confirmed to Caius that any place associated with the word 'north' was to be avoided. Before they had made it around the peak of Spain, the sun was rising. Looking over his shoulder, Caius spotted fishing boats leaving the ports of Portugal.

"We're going to have to go further out," he said, gesturing to the boats.

Aro search the beaches. The few boats in the sea were the tip of the iceberg compared to all the fishermen readying their boats. This sea would be swarming with fishermen soon, on that he agreed. But they couldn't go further out in two-man rowing boat already overstocked with four people. They couldn't risk the Atlantic Ocean!

"They are already scared of the water, Caius," Aro said, careful to keep his voice light so as not to frighten the twins further. "If we capsize, you'll be dragging the four of us to land - I can't use my leg and they can't swim."

Oh will I? Caius thought wickedly. It was only a fleeting consideration, but drowning the kids didn't seem like such a bad idea. They wouldn't drown though, he realised. I'd end up having to retrieve them from the sea bed! Something else Caius realised as he assessed the people in his boat - they all need to feed.

Caius started rowing again, propelling the boat through the water at great speed - too great a speed considering there were humans in the area, humans they were fast approaching.

"Erm … brother," Aro called. "What are you planning?"

"An upgrade and a feed for you lot."

Aro smiled to himself. Caius always came through for him. Sure, he whined like a bitch over having to do anything for anyone else, but he still did it. For all his faults, Caius was solidly reliable.

Aiming for the smaller of the fishing boats, one driven by a single sail and manned by three men, from what they could see, Caius stopped rowing and allowed the small boat to decelerate. The fishermen were clearly perturbed by their approach, leaning overboard to shout obscenities and wave them away from their fishing lines.

The excitement danced in Caius' eyes. He lived for such conflicts. The only conflicts he didn't enjoy involved the creator of their kind - any other and he was right in there from the get-go. Aro might have been more eager himself if he'd had use of his leg.

"I'll go first," Caius announced, and dived deep into the clear waters.

Jane and Alec didn't say a word, but their eyes spoke for them. Bright red and filled with wonder as Caius emerged near the fishing boat and used their own lines to pull himself up and aboard. They could just about make out Caius headbutting the three fishermen, knocking them unconscious before he threw a rope overboard.

Aro rowed them close and caught the rope. "Can you climb?" he asked the children.

Alec looked apprehensive, but Jane was keen to try. Her new strength pleased her greatly as she easily pulled herself up the rope and to the top.

"Very good," Caius told her, clearly impressed as he brought the girl onto the deck.

Aro assumed Alec would want to go next, having seen his sister accomplish the task so easily. He was used to Felix and Demetri in constant competition with each other - if one could do something, the other wanted to prove they could do it better. That wasn't how Alec and Jane worked. From their birth they had been a subject of scorn in their village. With no father to speak of, their mother had raised them alone and struggled to do so. She suffered for bringing two children into the world without a man at her side and the twins suffered similarly. The accusations of witch craft weren't new. They had been hearing such taunts since they could remember. The three of them were ostracised with the only social interaction they had being that of accusations or discourtesy. The village children weren't allowed to play with the twins, so Jane and Alec were exceptionally close as a result. There was no competition between them at all.

"Your turn," Aro pushed the boy. "Well?"

Alec shook his head and turned fearful eyes on the vampiric king.

"Caius!" Aro shouted up. "Come and get him."

Caius hung over the side, "Fuck off! Just throw him up!"

"No!" Alec gasped. Throw me up, he thought in horror, sure he would die somehow.

Aro could have thrown him, if he could have stood to do it. I doubt I can throw him from a seated position!

Alec caught the wondering in Aro's eyes and felt a panic come over him.

Caius leaned back over the side to see what was taking so long. "Aro?" he called down, seeing his co-master lying awkwardly in the boat.

With his vampiric sight he could just about make out a haze around the man, a mist of some kind, like a very faint fog. No human would have been able to detect it, but there was definitely something there.

"ARO!" he roared, diving off the boat and back into the water.

When he came to the surface, he was just in time to see the mist, or whatever it was, absorbing into the boy's hands and Aro coming around.

"What the fuck was that?" Caius was speaking to himself, not expecting the child to have an answer.

Aro looked bewildered. "What happened?"

Caius answered him, telling him what he had seen, but he kept his eyes on Alec. The boy shook in his seat, proffering apologies for whatever he had done, quietly begging for his young life to be spared.

Aro hushed the boy gently and took him into his arms, using his touch to see what the boy had done. "We have a gifted one, Caius," he said, excitement clear in his voice. "I knew these two were special."

"Let's hope they're special enough to impress the creator." Caius heaved himself into the little rower and nudged Aro with his foot. "If you aren't dead you can haul your ass up there, I'll take the kid."

It took some coaxing, but Alec was eventually convinced to mount Caius' back. The little sod damn near strangled his pack horse, but Caius had them aboard the boat in seconds. Aro quickly followed, flopping over the side and cursing his fucked-up leg for being such little use.

Caius simply stepped over him and got into action. First, he ripped the fishing lines from the boat and threw them to the seas, next he pulled the anchor and set the sails. This is much better, he thought as the wind carried them off.

Jane and Alec stayed together, although they were inching their way towards the forgotten humans on board. Aro caught them from the corner of his eye and slid himself across the deck.

"Come," he called to them, lifting the larger of the unconscious men into his lap.

Aro bit into the guy's neck and drank his blood thirstily, though he made sure he didn't take too much. Having already seen that Jane was the more adventurous of the pair, he offered the human to the girl.

"Just like with the stag," Aro encouraged.

He didn't need to say anything else. Jane's senses took over at the sight of the blood dribbling around the wounds Aro had made. It looked quite absurd to both Aro and Caius to see the child feeding - they had never witnessed such a thing with one so young, or at least, not with one so small. Jane had all the strength of a vampire, if a little one, and easily manipulated the man into a better position as she sucked down on his throat. By the finish, she had pulled him clean off Aro and into her own lap as she devoured every last mouthful of blood he had to offer. When she pulled away, not only had she left the wound clean - no chewing, no mess - but Jane herself was also immaculate with only a little blood gracing her top lip which she quickly licked away with a swish of the tongue.

"Very good!" Aro congratulated. He couldn't help but compare Jane's efforts to Felix's first feeds where bloody corpses were left in disarray from the boy taking his nourishment. "Very good indeed!" He turned to Caius, pointing out how well the girl had done. "It took Felix years to get that good."

"I can well believe it," Caius said, utterly disinterested.

He was enjoying sailing as it wasn't something he got to do on a regular basis. Having his co-master turn into a mother hen at the sight of new brats was enough, he didn't have to hear about it, too.

Alec was a little more reticent than Jane, again, but the call of the blood pumping through the humans drew him in, just as Aro knew it would. The nearest man looked as though he was coming around from Caius' smack in the face, and Aro didn't want a screaming human to put the boy off his first proper feed so he slammed his elbow into the guy's forehead. Aro saw his eyes roll around before they closed. He was out of it again. Perfect, Aro thought.

The boy edged closer and with the gentlest of touches grazed his fangs against the man's skin. He hadn't expected his teeth to be so sharp, but that gentle touch was enough to pierce human flesh. Blood filled his mouth and Alec crumpled into a satisfied heap atop the sailor.

Aro was content. They had both had a proper feed, the boy, at least, had a gift to speak of and he expected the girl would have, too. She just needs a little time, he thought. Vampiric gifts sometimes took a few days to show themselves, it wasn't unusual. All he could do now was hope his father agreed they were worth bringing into the coven.

"You should take the other one, Aro," Caius called as he adjusted the sail to the wind. "Your old man is going to flip if you can't walk by the time we get back." He couldn't help but laugh knowing Aro had little chance of walking, regardless, after Basileus had got hold of him.

You're right, Aro agreed, but you don't have to be so happy about it! With a shudder Aro pushed thoughts of Basileus out of his head, took the last human for his feed, and then he concentrated on the kids. He ran through their new life in coven leader fashion, ticking off the rules they needed to know one by one in his head as he went. He planned to soften up a little once he had them safely in the south tower, but for the moment they had to know the rules were to be strictly obeyed, always.

Caius burst out laughing every time Aro reached an expectation that Felix had failed to meet … which gave him quite a few laughs, one would imagine.

"You've left out a few rules, brother," Caius said, passing the three of them lounging out on the deck as he worked. He didn't mind being the only one doing anything - the idea of 'lounging' had never appealed to Caius - he was on the go at all times, just as he liked it.

Aro ran through his checklist. There was nothing he hadn't covered. He'd even gone so far as to tell the twins all about the Volturi's relations with other covens and that had nothing to do with them at all. Aro could think of nothing he'd missed.

"What about staying away from mated vampires?" Caius asked, knowing not only that the twins were far too young for such a thing to be an issue, but also that it would wind Aro up to even think of it. He nearly played the coven king, but Caius' own chuckles brought him down before Aro could react.

Cocky cunt, Aro thought to his mocking laughter. "You're lucky I can't walk."

It didn't take long for Caius to bring them through the Strait of Gibraltar and they entered the Med. Aro, now certain he had covered everything of importance, moved into softer territory.

"Were in the Mediterranean, the cradle of civilisation," he explained.

The Mediterranean was his sea. The lands it licked, his lands. Every vampire that lived in those lands were under his rule, one way or another. He started by regaling the pair with tales of mythology, but the stories seemed to scare the boy a tad, so he moved to more tangible things. The potted history he offered appeared to please them both. The Greeks, Romans, Carthaginians, Moors, the crusades. All of it their human history but it might as well have been another world for the twins.

As the children cuddled into him, Aro noticed how sleepy they were becoming. No, no, no, he said to himself, jolting the pair to keep them awake. You can't sleep yet, Caius can't know. Fortunately for Aro, he could make out the port through the night sky. You will be home and in beds soon enough, little ones.

…

Caius pulled Renata out of the guard hall and directed her to the castle entrance. "You are needed at the gates," was the only instruction he offered the woman.

Renata bowed politely to Caius and headed out of the castle. Caius had refused to be part of bringing the twins through the doors, hoping that might save him some grief with the creator. It was a slim hope. He'd brought his co-master and the new kids to the gate house, and he'd made Aro a makeshift walking aid from a short oar off the fishing boat they had commandeered. Caius was done. He wanted a hot bath to warm his frozen bones - dramatic much?! - before he was called to face Basileus, as he knew he would be.

Renata met Aro at the front gate and had to employ all her Volturi training to keep her face passive considering the children at her master's side. Aro explained that he needed use of her gift to keep their presence hidden from the creator, just so he could get the twins to his chambers. Renata obliged, naturally. She was dying to ask Aro why he was bandaged and limping, but knew better than to query a coven master.

Luckily for them all, Basileus was taken up with Marcus' new recruits in the dungeons. Basileus was as keen as his old friend to have some more mature vampires in the coven and he was watching over their transformation willing them to fully turn. He'd never bothered doing that with any other potential guard before, but he had high hopes for what the married pair could do in his coven. He wasn't so keen on the other two.

The girl - Corin - Marcus had told him and Odi, the young lad … they had better be adults, Basileus said to himself. Even if they aren't, they would only be just shy of it. But if they sleep … can I make Marcus take them into his chambers? That was a conversation he wanted to avoid.

He had made it a rule since he'd met the man never to give him orders - they were friends, friends don't order their friends to their bidding. In their entire history, as yet, there had been no need as Marcus had a way about him that pre-empted Basileus' requirements and made sure to offer before he was asked. Basileus checked in on the younger pair writhing in their newborn cell. Marcus would take them, if he had to, but Didyme? His head filled with awkward 'what ifs' as he watched over the turning humans.

Aro managed to make it up the stairs with the twins following behind. Renata had been dismissed as soon as they had reached the south tower once they had made sure Basileus wasn't near. I've skipped the dragon, Aro thought. Now to face the wife!

It was the dead of night. If his young guards valued their lives they would be sleeping, so Aro could deal with introducing Felix and Demetri in the morning. Aro couldn't have planned his timing better, he was starting to feel like luck really was on his side.

"My queen," Aro called, opening the door to his chambers and keeping the twins from view. "I have a gift for you."

Sulpicia had been out on the terrace enjoying the cool night air, but hearing her mate's voice, soon came.

"My love, I …" she stalled in the archway seeing the state of him. Shock befell her soft features. She had never, in all their days, seen her mate return from battle in such a bloody mess. And he hadn't even been in battle, just a reconnaissance mission. "Wh … what happened?!"

"I am well," Aro assure her. "Just a flesh wound."

"But Aro …" She was still struggling, recent feed rising in her throat.

"Hush," Aro called. "Not now, I have a gift."

Sulpicia nodded, though her mouth still hung open and she remained in the archway.

Aro pushed the children from behind him and brought them front and centre. If Sully had been shocked to see the state of her mate, she was stunned to see vampiric children in her home. Of course, she had Felix and Demetri already and they were young, but they trod the boundary between child and adult, like all teens. They are children. Actual children. Immortal children.

The coven king felt pretty good about himself, sure his mate would be overjoyed to receive the urchins into their home. It came as a surprise to him to hear her reaction.

"WHAT THE FUCK HAVE YOU DONE?!"

"Erm …"

It was Aro's turn to stumble. His mate didn't shout, she didn't really curse, she certainly never did either of those things towards him! He wasn't the most forgiving of mates. She was damn lucky those kids were between them or he might have reminded her why she didn't talk to him that way!

"They need to rest, my queen …"

"Your father will kill you, Aro!"

My leg's burning like a bitch, the twins are getting nervous, and you doing your very best impression of a damn fish wife isn't helping! Still, Aro understood his mate's concern for his life - he had the same concern.

"Listen to me, my queen," he went on with a softer tone. "I talked him around with Felix and Demetri, I'll do the same with these two. Renata tells me Basileus is fussing over the newborns Marcus created, so we have the night at least."

He hobbled over to his wife, clunking his oar into the floor as he went, and took her hand. Sulpicia didn't particularly want to take his with how filthy he was, but she didn't say so.

"Trust me," Aro crooned, going in for a kiss.

Sulpicia held her hand to his mouth, but she relaxed her stance and smiled. "I do, my love." She screwed her nose up as she rejected his advances. "But you stink."

At least it broke the tension in the room.

Aro relaxed, too. He couldn't disagree. "Run a bath for these two so we can get them cleaned up and into a bed. They are exhausted."

Sulpicia hung in the archway, her eyes fixed on the children. "Are we really going to keep them, my love?" she asked as quietly as she could. "I wouldn't want to get attached if we might lose them."

"On my honour," Aro said, hand on heart. "They are ours."

Sulpicia floated to the bathroom, her head a daze. Tiny vampires, she thought happily. Baby vampires! It wasn't long before she returned for the girl. Aro had flopped into his chair by then and the twins on the rug, huddling together.

Jane looked to Alec and then to Aro. She didn't know who this woman was. Aro had talked about his wife, and that she would take care of them, but Jane didn't know her. She didn't want to leave her brother, either.

"Jane," Aro clicked his fingers to snap the girl's attention. "Go."

Dutifully, if reluctantly, Jane disentangled herself from her brother. Alec watched wide eyed as she left. Aro caught the kid's expression. It was as if he feared he would never see his sister again. He called the boy to him with a flick of his fingers. Once Alec was close enough, Aro reached out and pulled him into his lap.

"Remember what I told you?" Aro asked. "You are safe here."

Reading the boy's thoughts, Aro knew Alec believed he was anything but safe, but he would still be compliant so Aro was happy with that, for the time being. Alec did feel comforted, however, which was an entirely new experience for the boy. Soon enough he had slumped into Aro and fallen asleep. Aro quite liked it, even the pain in his leg seemed to dissipate slightly as he cradled the boy. With his eyes half closed and tracking Alec's thoughts, Aro didn't even notice when Sulpicia brought Jane through the main living chamber wrapped in a towel and on into their bedchamber.

"My love," she whispered into her mate's ear. "He needs a bath before he's getting into our bed."

Aro's eyes shot open. "Our bed?!"

Sully stood up straight and shrugged. "Where else will they sleep?"

Okay, first major hiccough in the plan, Aro realised. Aro wasn't one to object to sharing his bed if only his queen would allow - but a couple of kids wasn't what he had in mind!

Sulpicia flashed in and out of bed chambers collecting various items of clothing. Aro didn't ask what the growing pile of outfits slung on the werewolf rug was for, though he did ask her to 'stand bloody still' so they could talk about the bed situation.

Sully huffed at being distracted when she had things to do. "They will have to take our room until we have remodelled our chambers."

Remodelled? What the hell?! Aro hadn't considered where he would put them. He hadn't thought much at all beyond the fact that he had to have them.

"They can't go in with the lads?" he asked, unsure whether that were a reasonable suggestion or not.

"That wouldn't be appropriate," Sulpicia replied. "There isn't room for another two beds in there, my love. I was thinking we could …"

As Sully started telling him her plans, Aro zoned out. He was just happy to be home. He had in his chambers the children for whom he had risked his life. Another two across the hall who he would give his life for, and his mate. What more could he wish for? A working leg would be nice, he supposed, feeling the sting. Having Alec in his lap wasn't helping anymore and his calf ached under the boy's weight.

"You're right," he agreed. Aro wasn't exactly sure what he was agreeing to, but he would check again when it came time to reorganise their living space. "Take him," he said, offering the boy to his mate.

"He's a little boy, Aro," Sulpicia moved Alec's blond, filthy hair from his face but she didn't take him. "I'm sure he would be more comfortable with you."

"He's only young," Aro offered in reply. "I doubt he'll care."

Sully shook her head. "That's for him to decide, and I think he might care." She may have been speaking to her mate, but her eyes hadn't left the child in his lap.

"He's only had a mother before now, he'll be fine with you."

Aro couldn't remember what age boys developed issues with females in close quarters. Felix had no shame to speak of, neither did Demetri, for that matter. But their attitudes were born of excessive confidence more than anything else. That said, Aro wasn't moving for shit! His leg hurt, he was travel weary, and he had yet to face his old man who would be nothing but a cunt about the kids. Damn it! It suddenly hit Aro what he had said about the boy's mother.

"They are not your children, my queen," he reminded his mate, as he had done a thousand times with Felix and Demetri. "They are our guards."

Sulpicia smiled to herself. You can call them what you like, but I know what I feel.

"Alec," she called, giving the boy a gentle shake.

His eyes opened briefly but he was clearly shattered. Aro leaned him up to stand, which he did, with his eyes still halfway closed.

Sulpicia took his hand. "Come with me, sweetheart."

Aro leaned back in his seat. He told himself he was stretching out, but really, he was trying to see Jane through his open bedchamber door. He couldn't, not quite. He could make out a single foot protruding from beneath the blanket Sully had wrapped her in, that was enough. Satisfied that Jane was safe, warm, comfortable, Aro settled back into his chair though he kept one eye on the bed chamber door.

"They just need to rest," Sulpicia assured him when she came back through with a hazy Alec. The boy sleepwalked along with her, hand in hand, now clean! "They will be absolutely fine." She was talking to herself more than her mate by that point as she ushered Alec through their chambers.

"No, they won't," Aro said to himself. "They will be amazing."

How he wished he could stay with them for the night, or better still, join them and sleep himself. If only! But no, he had to make the first move with his father. The main thing was that Aro didn't want Basileus in his quarters until he'd had chance to talk him around. That meant cutting the creator off on the lower floor in his own chambers. Explaining his plan to his mate, Aro left. He was sure he heard Sulpicia bolt the door behind him.

She had, of course. Sulpicia trusted her mate to put in his best effort in convincing Basileus they should keep the twins, but just in case, that door would stay locked. She set to work on the clothes she had collected. The various items, 'donated' from each member of their household, would do for the twins until she could arrange the tailor to fit them out properly. Sulpicia spent the rest of the night with needle and thread running up clothes for the twins to wear the next day.

Aro hobbled down to his father's suite with use of the oar Caius had given him. He hoped by looking suitably pathetic that his father might take pity on him. Opening the doors to the castle floor and his father's chambers, Aro sat in direct line of sight so Basileus couldn't hope not to see him. Then he waited.

Aro alternated between looking behind him out the window to assess the time of night and staring ahead through the open doorways ready to catch Basileus before he passed the ground floor suite. He didn't have to wait too long. Whether that was good or bad, Aro couldn't decide.

"My lord," Aro croaked when his father came into view.

Basileus stood in the castle hallway, eyeing his son with curiosity. He looked a mess, though that was to be expected after being away. The bloodied bandage on his left leg gave cause for concern.

"What the hell happened to you?!" Basileus asked, rushing forward. "Did you find my sister? Did Apatouria do this to you?!"

He began undressing Aro's war wound but stopped when he saw the pain it caused his son. Aro leaned forward with his head in his hands as Basileus flashed around the large main chamber, collecting cups and mead as he went.

"Drink this," he ordered, bringing a brimming cup to his son's lips.

Aro felt horrendously guilty. Don't be caring, don't be nice, he thought. I've gone against your rules, you're going to regret this kindness. For once in his life, Aro wished Basileus was tracking his thoughts so he wouldn't have to admit his failings.

As it was, Basileus was far more interested in working out what the hell had befallen his son. He made short work of detaching the bandage Caius had applied, though the cloth took some skin with it.

"Your flesh is melted Aro!" Basileus felt the sickness rising in his gullet.

Without waiting for an explanation, Basileus rushed off again, collecting a bowl of water, some rags, and fresh linen to redress his son's wounds. As he got going on the task, he asked Aro what had happen.

"Explain, now!"

Oh fuck. Aro shrank into his seat and knocked back the whole cup of mead. "There was a

fire …"

"A fire?!"

"Yes …" Aro had to take a deep breath so he could explain in one rush. "There was a fire, two children at the top, I saved them, burnt my leg, bit the children, brought them home."

There, he thought, it's done.

Basileus didn't say anything at first. He was processing what Aro had told him, but also trying to work out what the hell to do with his son's damaged appendage. The skin would heal over, he was sure of that, and it mostly had already ... just the odd raw patch that had come away with the bandage. The flesh had melted, from what he could see, grey and sallow beneath the new skin with a purple tinge from the venom in his body working to repair the damage. Basileus knew vampires healed, they continued to heal, always. Even scars grew less with time. These are going to take a hell of a lot of time!

Rinsing away the dirt and debris, Basileus wiped down his son's war wound and bound his calf tightly, pulling together the flayed muscles so they would knit back together in the healing process. Job done, Basileus sat on the floor reading through his boy's mind to what on earth had happened in England.

"You aren't saying anything," Aro pointed out, looking down to his father at his feet.

"Can you stand?"

Okay, that wasn't what I was expecting. Aro nodded to his father's question. "I can't put much weight on it, though."

Basileus hadn't looked his son in the eye since he'd explained what had happened. It was making Aro nervous, but right then he didn't care. He was trying to work out what to do.

"I can feed you, I don't know what good it will do, but it will be a start."

"No," Aro replied, though he was desperate for the blood. He quite fancied being knocked out for a few hours. "We need to talk about the children I brought home first."

"Let's hear it then." Basileus was quite relaxed under the circumstances, but then he didn't know their ages, yet.

They are amazing, or they will be …"

Aro, through all his pain, became animated as he told his father about 'the twins'. Basileus smiled and nodded. He thought his son mad to want more after all the drama Felix and Demetri caused him, but he had to be honest, he liked the effect children had on Aro. They softened him. And you risked your life for these two. Basileus was impressed. They must mean an awful lot to you.

Basileus took a trip down memory lane himself, back to how he felt when he first met Aro. He was so engrossed in his own memories that he very nearly missed Aro slip in the twins' ages, very nearly …

"Fucking twelve?!" The roar erupting from the creator filled the room. "For the love of the gods!" Basileus was across the room in a blink.

"Don't go crazy. I had a feeling about these two and …" Aro shut up and ducked to avoid the wooden cup being launched at his head. "Dad, listen …"

"They are immortal children, Aro!"

"They aren't, they really aren't," Aro insisted.

Basileus flashed to the window and threw the wooden shutters wide open. He needed air. We have two laws - no revealing ourselves to humans, and no immortal children. How hard is that to follow?!

"They aren't immortal children, Dad," Aro continued. "They follow orders already, from me and Caius, even when they didn't want to." He scooted around in his chair to get a better look at his father, mainly to assess his progress. "I hadn't planned on turning them right away, but they were already close to death when we went back to take them."

Basileus shot his boy an incredulous look over his shoulder. "Then you should have let them die!"

Aro felt his stomach flip. "I couldn't do that, Dad. I had to have them."

Tutting into the air about his son, the supposed king of their kind having such little impulse control that he had to break one of their two only laws. Basileus went back to his window, sucking in the early morning like a drug.

"Four kids in your quarters?"

Basileus was merely thinking out loud but Aro clung to his words and the slither of hope they offered.

"I was thinking I could move Felix and Demetri into the middle floor suit. Maybe all four of them in time …"

"You can think again, son," Basileus told him. He didn't turn to face his boy, he was too damn angry with him to risk looking at him. "Vampiric children need closer supervision than that. I told you that when you took Felix in, and again with Demetri. I'm telling you now - you want them, you will suffer them."

He couldn't decide what to do. Kill the kids and get it over with? Should I try and suss them out first, see if they could be tamed? Immortal children were illegal for a good reason in the creator's mind and breaking that rule because Aro had felt the warm and fuzzies was as abominable to Basileus as what Aro had done in the first place. But still … he ran through a burning pyre to save their lives… he's either stupendously well bonded to them already - can that even happen on first sight?! - or he's plain stupid. At that moment Basileus wasn't sure which. He was sure of one thing, however. He needed to get Aro out of the way if he were to have hope of meeting the apparent wonder kids without his son's interference.

"Caius was in on this too," he said, tone crisp, giving nothing away regarding the children. "Fetch him."

Aro gulped. He didn't fancy facing his father alone, but he didn't want to bring Caius in on his doom, either. "Dad, listen …"

Basileus spun on the spot and growled out his frustrations. "You tell me to listen one more fucking time and I'll rip your fucking ears off!"

Aro knew Caius would be skulking in the dungeons. It wasn't only Caius' place of work, it was his refuge whenever coven life was too much. The dungeons were where he felt reassured. Aro found the Great Hall similarly comforting; Marcus, the library. As soon as Caius heard Aro hobbling down the stairs with his wooden prop clomping on the flagstones, his refuge fell to pieces. He was waiting for Aro when he reached the bottom step.

"Basileus wants to see me?" Please say no, please say no.

"How did you guess?"

Aro at least had the decency to flash an apologetic smile. Not that it helped Caius' feeling on the matter.

"I will fucking murder you for this, Aro!"

He was sorely tempted to disable the fucker's good leg for dragging him in on a round of fucks from the creator. Thinking it wouldn't help his case with Basileus, Caius went for the next best thing - a shot or two of dungeon blood. At least it will dull the senses a little, he thought.

Aro thought the same. "Give me a shot, brother. We're going to need it."

Walking at Aro's crippled pace through the halls didn't help either of them, the apprehension rising with each painfully slow step, in vampiric terms. Funnily enough, arriving at Basileus' chambers didn't feel much better either.

Aro took a look at his co-master before he knocked. "Are you shaking?"

"No!" Caius shot back in disgust. Of course, he was. His hands were sweating, as well. Oh how he wished he had followed Marcus into good sense rather than Aro into lunacy.

"GET IN HERE!"

Basileus' bellowing through the closed door had the pair of them moving. It damn near had the pair of them throwing up their last feed, too!

Aro scanned his father's chambers as soon as he entered the room. He was looking for a clue to his demise. Shit. He spotted the whip in his father's hand. We really are fucked this time. Aro was used to Basileus at least giving a lead up to the punishment, it seemed the format would be different that day.

Basileus glowered at the pair of them, the fearless rulers of the greatest coven in the world. They stood before him as recalcitrant young men who didn't know their boundaries, as far as Basileus was concerned. That was okay, he would be reminding them of those boundaries soon enough. He was done with them breaking orders, crossing lines, fucking about in his fucking coven … the longer he stood there glowering at them the more reasons he thought of to condemn them. They have been too cocky for too long, he thought. I should have done this a while ago. Let's put things straight.

"I've been to see the children." Basileus started to pace. Aro and Caius were just glad his piercing glare was being redirected to his path. "You can keep them," he told Aro, quickly adding, "for now."

Aro had joined Caius in the hand sweating stakes. 'For now,' wasn't exactly good, but he would take it.

Basileus wanted to make that state of play crystal clear for his son. "If we get even a hint that they are immortal children, I will kill them."

It was a punch in the guts. Aro had to hold on tight to his oar to stay upright. Thing was, he couldn't disagree - Aro had executed countless immortal children in his role, they were illegal beings. It was that simple with the justice he meted out to others. Having the law turned on himself … it reminded him of the only other time he had broken vampiric law, back when they only had one law. Basileus' punitive measures on that occasion had been barbaric. One look to Caius and it was clear his covenmate was remembering the same event. Basileus had never been that harsh since. Not that it meant he couldn't be.

Basileus, for his part, had no intention of being quite that brutal, but he was glad they were both thinking back to when Sulpicia joined the coven and that he had their full attention.

"We are in a precarious position in the vampiric world …" Basileus stopped mid-sentence seeing the slightest of smirks ghost Caius' lips. "Something I say amuses you, Caius?"

"No, my lord," Caius quickly replied, cursing his reaction.

He just didn't believe they were in a precarious position. Neither did Aro. They were untouchable … outside of the coven. Inside was a different matter, as their current situation proved. Basileus knew what they thought, and it served to confirm to him that they were both too big for their britches.

"I know we have pushed our way to the top of the tree," he agreed. "Most vampires submit to our authority, but we can't claim to have control. Not yet. Now is not the time to get complacent."

Cocky brats! Neither one made a move to concede to his point, less agree with him. Basileus wasn't standing for that.

"You hear me?!" he roared.

They both flinched at the roar, and they both professed that they had heard, but still neither expressed any agreement.

Basileus was done. "Lose the tunics. Get up that wall."

"But you're letting me keep the twins," Aro hissed. "There's no need for …"

"I am," Basileus agreed, uncurling his whip. "Think yourself lucky I haven't slaughtered them in their sleep. You still turned those children knowing damn well I would be against it."

"I was against it!" Caius shot out quickly before his nerve left him. "Aro ordered me to bite the boy." It was such a weak defence.

"You had options, Caius, don't give me that guff. Marcus engaged his brain and refused - you could have, too." The creator sneered at the young master's attempt to avoid blame. "You know damn well that there were very few matters where I expect you to defer to Aro's authority. Breaking our rules is not on the list."

Caius started pulling his tunic over his head. 'The list', he thought. He had long wondered what the fuck was on that bloody list. Caius was working completely from guesswork when it came to 'the list'.

As Caius had submitted to his fate, Aro could hardly hang about. Unfortunately, it proved a little difficult to undress standing on one leg. Basileus was only too happy to help, ripping the clothing from his son's upper body and …

"Alright, Dad!" Aro called out, ending his father's storytelling right there. "I think that enough for young ears, don't you?"

Atia was quick to agree. Though the little darlings were all eager to hear the gory re-telling of the coven masters taking a severe lashing, she didn't feel it appropriate to indulge them.

"I think you should skip ahead, my dear," she told him, stern expression telling the man he had better agree with his mate.

Basileus looked to his audience, particularly his grandchildren. "I'm sure they want to hear it," he replied playfully.

Aro looked ready to crawl up his own ass. Caius had suddenly forgot his quarrel with Magnus and was using the juggernaut's over-sized legs to hide himself from view.

Despite the very many requests to hear the full smackdown, Basileus eventually agreed with Atia. He was pleased to have embarrassed the coven masters a little. "Okay, okay, I'll skip ahead …"

Basileus threw the whip to the floor. It landed between Aro and Caius but neither of them even flinched. They didn't have the strength.

"I'm telling the pair of you now, you bring any more kids into this coven and I will kill them ... and you. Both of you. I don't even care which one of you brings them, got it?!"

Between them they coughed up a shaky reply, telling the creator that they understood and agreed. Caius wondered briefly if Aro's apparent penchant for bringing young ones into the coven would see them both losing their heads!

"And I want a new law. These new two are twelve, yes?"

"Yes, my lord." Aro's voice hitched embarrassingly high. Inhaling hurt! It split the slash lines in his back.

"I want none younger than that. Anyone who turns an under twelve will die. No question. No trial. No special circumstances. They die."

With both Aro and Caius feeling sorry for themselves, they had zoned out as Basileus continued with his lecture. Basileus growled to get their attention back - he soon had it!

"Got it?!" he barked.

A quiet ''Yes, my lord," came from them both.

"I'm going to check on the newborns Marcus brought back here, the adult newborns. God knows I am in desperate need of such company!" He collected the discarded tunics from his floor and threw them to the coven masters.

Aro looked back to his father incredulously. What good will they do? he thought, looking to the rest of his tattered clothing. His britches lay in rags around his melted leg! The creator had made his point clear, their cocky petulance was to be put to rest.

"If I find you here when I return I will assume you need a second round."

With that, Basileus was gone, the resounding echo of the door slamming filled the space he left in his chambers.

Caius tried to stand but his legs buckled. He eventually made it onto all fours, but the whip wounds screamed at him to stop moving.

"How the fuck am I going to get across the castle like this?!"

The north tower was the furthest point away from the south tower, the dungeons only marginally closer. Caius wasn't going to risk a guard seeing him in this state. His pride would never allow it!

Between them, they made their way to the spare suite on the second floor where they collapsed to the floor. Climbing a spiral staircase in their condition was almost as bad as the punishment Basileus had delivered. Almost.

Aro and Caius only suffered until sunrise. Marcus worked his magic with the creator and insisted that his co-masters both needed the use of their bodies if they were to run the coven. Basileus couldn't, in good conscience, disagree, but it wasn't enough for him to do much about it. When Marcus pointed out that there were newborns unattended, Caius' job, and two new children in the coven, Aro's job, Basileus finally went and gave the pair of them some of his blood to heal their torn-up flesh. The blood offering did wonders for Aro's leg, too, of course.

By the time the coven king emerged from the second-floor chambers, his high guard had already woken and Sulpicia, not believing the sweet children to be any danger, sent the twins with Felix and Demetri to the guard hall.

"To fucking mingle?!" Aro was honestly dumbfounded. "They are fucking newborns, Sul!"

Aro still walked with a limp, and he sported a rather impressive war would, but he still got to the guard hall in record time. It came as a surprise to Felix and Demetri who had been teasing the twins over coven hierarchy. They shut their mouths quick when they saw Aro barrel into the hall, but it was too late, he had seen what the lads were up to. Aro was mainly worried about the twins retaliating - he didn't want to give his father any reason to deem the young vampires immortal children.

"Until you all learn to get along," Aro hissed into Felix's ear, "pretend to get along. I expect civility and respect, or I will bring the gods down on you all."

The twins paled before him. "Which god?" Jane asked.

Alec visibly shook. "God doesn't like us."

"No," Aro tried to placate the pair. "Not a real god, it's just a saying."

"I'm scared, Jane," Alec told his sister, reaching out with his arm to take her hand, neither one of them prepared to take their eyes off Aro in case he called for God to smite them.

"You don't need to be scared," Aro said carefully.

"They should probably be a bit scared."

Aro clouted Felix across the back of his bullish head. "Felix, knock it off."

Felix saw the smile tugging at Jane's lips. He wasn't standing for that. "Should I round up the gods for you, Master?" he asked, smirking at his new sister.

Aro tutted at his eldest guard. "You know damn well that I'm not talking about any actual god."

"The false gods are the worst gods!" Felix crowed, whistling into the air to signify just how fucked the little witches were.

"Our own God doesn't even like us," Alec whispered, tears pricking his eyes.

"I said it for effect," Aro insisted. "Forget the fucking gods!"

"Aro, be careful, brother," Caius warned, joining the scene. "You're scaring the boy."

"You're pissing the girl off." Felix looked Jane up and down, the tiny imp a ball of fury, her eyes turning jet black. "She's going to blow."

"Felix, just stop!" Aro roared, pushing the hulking young guard away.

Felix kept his eyes on Jane and she watched him right back. "What do you think you're going to do to me?!"

Whatever happened next, no one was quite sure at first, but they all saw Felix drop to the floor, screaming in pain.

"Hey, little one." Out of nowhere, a guard the size the creator bustled through the crowd, wrapping Jane in his huge arms. "Calm. Calm," he cooed, cuddling the girl until Felix stopped screaming. "Take some deep breaths, young one."

Once the child had calmed, Magnus stood to his feet and tried to fall back into the crowd. He didn't get very far. "I'm not sure who was more impressive, there," Aro said, smiling broadly.

"You're impressed?!" Felix hissed, soon adding another hiss of a different kind when Aro whipped the back of his hand across his mouth.

"That was your fault," Aro told the boy. "Go back to the tower and stay there. If the gods are on your side I may have calmed down by the time I get back." Aro immediately regretted his word choice. "Not the gods," he insisted to the twins. "Nothing to do with any gods."

When three of his high guard scuttled back to the south tower, it didn't take long for Aro to realise Felix was still lingering. "Why are you still stood in my presence?!"

"Do you want me to take him down to the dungeons?" Caius offered with a menacing smile.

"Maybe that's what he needs?" Aro mused, both men playing with the youth.

"No Master!" Felix started backing up. "I'm going, I'm going."

"You!" Aro called to the man who had helped calm Jane. "Marcus brought you back, yes?"

"Both of us, Master," he replied, pulling his mate forwards. "My name is Magnus, this is my wife, Freyr."

Aro shook the man's hand and scanned his mind as he did so. "Caius, neither of these need to be in the dungeons with the other newborns."

"Thank fuck for that, have you seen the size of him?!" Caius' eyes bulged. There was no way he would be using any of his usual tricks on those two. "What about them?" Caius asked, pointing out the other pair of newborns in the guard hall.

"You came together?" Aro asked. "A family?"

"Sort of, my lord," Magnus replied. "Odi was my ward before we were turned. My son, of sorts."

"You can control them both?" Aro asked, looking the young newborns up and down as he spoke. I reckon Felix could control those two, they look so fragile.

"Can and will," Magnus confirmed.

Aro clapped his hands together happily. "Then they can stay with you so long as you can keep them out of trouble."

"I doubt he'll struggle with that," Caius scoffed. "He's at least as strong as Felix."

"Yes, I can see," Aro mused. "But that's not your gift, is it? You feel things, you took the girl's anger away."

"I suppose I did … I don't know how …" Magnus had followed his instinct, nothing more or less than that.

"We will help you understand, and we will help you harness your gift." Aro offered his hand to the man again. He had a good feeling about Magnus and his mate. "Welcome to the Volturi, my friends. May your career with us be long and fruitful."

Caius tutted so loudly it was theatrical. It was also loud enough to end the twins' tale.

"It was definitely fruitful," Caius muttered, thinking on what Aro had wished the Viking newcomers at the time. "They shot right to the top."

Magnus rolled his eyes and looked to the creator. 'You've landed me in it up to my neck, my friend'.

Basileus knew he had, however unintentionally. He turned a stern eye on Caius. After his pride, jealousy seemed to be Caius' second failing. Basileus knew Magnus and Caius' relationship was in the early days, and he truly hoped Caius wouldn't throw away the bond they had built now he realised he was sharing some of the juggernaut's time. Is it time, Basileus wondered. Or attention? Perhaps it's sharing affection?

Whatever was at the root of Caius' issue with Magnus and Odi, he wasn't sitting by while the young master disrespected the man in front of him.

"You, above everyone, should be the most grateful that they are in the position they're in right now."

Caius' eyes flew wide open for just a second before he got control of himself. That second was enough for the more astute to pick up his reaction.

"Why," Felix asked, his eyes dancing with excitement. "What's happened?"

As the blood rushed to his face, Caius privately thanked the fucker who'd turned him as he knew the venom in his body was the only thing paling the rush of blood to his face and he would otherwise have been beet red! It wasn't shame, though. It was far worse than shame. It was horror. He turned beseeching eyes on Basileus and begged him for a bailout.

Telling the twins' story and remembering just how cocky Aro and Caius could be left unchecked, Basileus decided to ignore his plea. If anything, he shone a bright torch on Caius' secret.

"Nothing for you to know about," he said to his grandson, even adding a wink for full effect.

Felix damn near bounced from the floor. "Is Caius in trouble with Magnus?"

"Shut up, Felix," Caius spat. "You don't know what you are talking about."

Taking shit from the creator was one thing, he wasn't suffering the boy disrespecting him. The irony being that it was Caius doing just that to Magnus that had caused Basileus to speak out in the first place.

"What did you do, Caius?"

Caius wasn't even sure who had asked, it felt like everyone in the room was calling out the same question. His eyes darted from one to the other. He couldn't answer any of them. Seeing Felix and Carlisle team up with their goading pushed him to the edge.

"Someone sort them out, or I will!"

Aro chuckled. He knew Caius had no hope of sorting anyone out in such a crowded room, he knew Caius knew it, too. "I'm quite interested in the answer to their questions."

You would be, Caius thought. Nosey prick. "It's time for me to leave."

"Lads, leave it," Magnus told them all, employing his gift to settle Felix and Carlisle in particular. He kept a heavy hand on Caius' shoulder to keep him seated. "You all already know. Caius smashed up my quarters a few years ago and I didn't charge him for the damages. That's all Basileus meant."

Relief! Though, of course, Caius wasn't about to thank Magnus at that moment, oh no. The chip on his shoulder over Odi weighed him down as heavily as Magnus' hand did.

"Are we done with the storytelling now?" he asked. "Or is there any more humiliation on the agenda for today?"

Caius wasn't even sure why he had to be at the Volturi family get together - his presence had never been required before. Rather than feeling included, he simply felt awkward. Dora was right, we should have stayed home. That was when Caius looked for Dora. It had been the first time he'd really sought out his mate in the room and he realised, after promising her he would stay at her side, that he hadn't said two words to her since they arrived. At least she seems to be enjoying herself, he thought, seeing Dora gossiping with Irina.

Atia started searching through her mate's mind, vetting his potential stories. "Do you have any tales that are suitable for all audiences?" she asked, gesturing to her grandchildren.

Basileus held his hands together pleadingly. "I only speak the truth, my dear."

"You were quite brutal in that one," Atia replied. She had seen through his mind exactly how harsh Basileus had been with Caius and Aro, and she was glad their son had stopped his re-telling before the twins had heard it fully. Not to mention the new girls.

"It was a different time," Basileus shrugged. "Humans still treat each other that way."

Atia was quick to reply, "Let's not pretend we are humans, Basileus."

"You're right there," Basileus agreed. "We're vampires." He flashed a wicked grin to his son and Caius. "Neither of you were in any real danger. It had to be brutal to get the message across. And let's not forget that I restored you both to full health within a few hours."

"Only thanks to Marcus," Aro huffed. "You decided we could keep Felix and the twins … why did I have to take a whipping for them?"

"You?!" Caius scoffed. "I didn't want to turn the twins and I still took a whipping for them. Explain that one?"

Basileus ignored Aro's question. It was one he had answered a thousand times before. Instead, he went for Caius again. "You turned Alec, did you not?" he asked simply, keeping his cool.

Caius nodded though it pained him to do so.

"That's why you took the whipping." Basileus would have let it go there if he hadn't heard Caius' vicious thoughts towards him. Even still he might have let it go had he not caught the look the young master was offering. "Get those sly eyes off me, Caius, it's bad for your health."

"We hadn't even set an age when we turned Jane and Alec."

Caius was so glad Aro mentioned that because he was dying to!

"Are you two still complaining?" Basileus was getting bored and his glass was empty - not a good combination for a stressed-out creator. "Because if you really need me to explain what you knowingly did wrong, we will give the whole room a damn good show."

Carlisle and Felix started again. "Please keep complaining, please!" Carlisle all but begged.

Aro jabbed the toe end of his boot into his brother's thigh - "Shut it, runt" - and swiftly received a clout from his father for his efforts, which the younger vampires found hysterical.

"I called him a runt not a cunt!" Aro only just avoided a second swipe for his mouth.

"Then you got it wrong, Aro," Caius called across the floor. "He's a …"

Basileus broke in before Caius could finish his sentence. "Magnus, please slap him for me."

"Couldn't do that," Magnus said sadly. "It will mess up his pretty hair."

Caius retorted with a muttered, but clear enough ''Prick'', stunning the room as it was so undeserved.

"Drag him over your knee, then," Basileus suggested. "That will shut him up." Any humour that there had been vanished with immediate effect.

Magnus looked down his nose to see Caius' tell-tale expression. He was calling him every name in the book in his mind. Magnus didn't need a telepathic gift to know that. He could feel Caius' internal annoyance as It burnt him up from the inside out. And the jealousy, he could feel that, oh my, could he feel the jealousy! Magnus couldn't do much about it in the king's chambers. Any rectification would have to wait until they were all back in the north tower. With Caius doing his best to set Magnus on fire using only the whites of his eyes, the juggernaut made the decision to join Basileus in putting the little sod in his place.

"Oh that is very tempting, my friend. Maybe after another drink?"

Caius baulked!

"I think it's time to put the whiskey away now," Freyr suggested, wondering what the hell her mate was playing at.

Atia was quick to agree, already halfway around the room collecting glasses. "Something with more substance, I think."

Before anyone had time to resist, the vampiric witch and the shield maiden had removed every shred of alcohol from their grasp and set to herding them all to the bloodwine barrels. Aro only kept the weakest bloodwine in his quarters so his children couldn't hope to get drunk 'mistakenly' drinking from the wrong barrel. Felix only got away with that once, much to his pity.

Caius caught hold of Magnus before he could leave. "What were your sons names?" he asked.

It was an unexpected question, but Magnus answered anyway. "Ivar and Sven. Why?"

"You told me you had three sons," Caius replied.

"Did I?" Magnus knew where this conversation was heading.

"He told me the same," Aro added in, sliding up to Caius to join forces.

"So, what?" Caius pushed. "Did you miscount?" He didn't leave time for Magnus to draw breath before adding, "Or do you mean Odi's the third?"

Aro was just in it for the fun of winding up Magnus, but Caius seemed genuinely pissed off. Not that Aro would waste time thinking on why, not when he could poke the bear a little more.

"One would have to wonder why we didn't know about this," he said to Caius, eyeing Magnus like an errant guard.

Magnus wasn't happy with that. In his entire Volturi career he had never been seen as an errant guard by anyone. He had a perfect record.

Caius agreed with Aro, naturally. "It's an odd thing to keep under wraps, if you ask me."

"No one was asking you, either of you."

Magnus didn't want to pull rank on either of them, truly, he didn't feel he had the right, certainly not in coven affairs. But this isn't the coven, this is home. That's what Basileus had told him when he'd explained how he wanted Magnus to deal with such petty behaviour. Still, he felt uncomfortable doing it.

"I haven't kept anything from you, perhaps you need to pay more attention to the bonds in your coven."

"We are out of bloodwine." Sulpicia didn't directly ask Magnus to fetch a fresh barrel, but the sickly-sweet smile she turned on him was a clear request, if not the mother of all hints.

"That will be me schlepping down to the dungeons, then, will it?" As it was, Magnus was only too happy to get away from the pair of bitter co-masters blighting his day.

Basileus waited for Magnus to leave the main chambers before he clicked his fingers at Aro and Caius. "A word."

Such a simple call but it shot like a lightning bolt through the two men in question as they followed the creator up the stairs for their round of fucks.