Warning: This chapter contains scenes of violence. If you're not comfortable with this, feel free to skip to the next chapter.
My eyes opened again but I just wanted them to close, as if nothing could hurt me with my eyes shut, as if my problems would leave if I simply couldn't see them. I'd lost track of time, but the state my body was in made it feel like years had passed. I was hungry, thirsty, dying. At this point, it would be a miracle if I ever made it out of here alive.
Keeping my eyes tightly closed like a child, I could faintly hear two pairs of footsteps becoming clearer as they approached. I already knew what this meant, as I did every time, and remained frozen in fear of whatever fucked up plan they had next.
One of them suddenly grabbed me by my arm and began roughly assessing my body. Once his hand made contact with the raw burns across my torso, I grimaced in pain but refused to let a sound leave my lips, a lonely teardrop trailing down my dirtied cheek.
"I do believe our work here is done, frate," he sounded pleased as he placed his cold hand across the burns once again. I whimpered at the contact and it was almost as if I could hear his grin.
This couldn't be over. That sentence only sent a greater shock wave of fear through my system as I tried to comprehend what that could mean for me. They said they wouldn't let me leave these walls, at least not alive.
"Just one last finishing touch, the cherry on the cake," the other one spoke.
I faintly opened my eyes to see him standing leant over me. In his hand was a long, sharpened dagger which he held up and observed in the sunlight. It glistened and reflected the light across the room.
"N-n-no, please," I whispered, my throat to parched to talk.
"This, little blood-bag, is one of my most prized possessions," he gestured to the blade with a smug grin, "and I plan to truly test out its capabilities on a worthy cause."
He suddenly lunged forward, sending the tip of the blade piercing through the soft flesh of my side. I screamed in agony as I felt the cold metal inside me and grimaced as he pulled it back out again, but it wasn't long before he thrusted it back into my skin just below my rib. My screams tore me apart as he stabbed through my flesh relentlessly again, and again, and again.
Each time, my hate for them grew and my longing for my mates increased. With each blow, I could only dream of being safe again, out of this cruel world. Death felt like a blessing.
Just as my body became limp while my crimson blood poured out onto the bleak floors, I felt one final stab at my neck, another identical one at my chest. Though this was different, this wasn't from the blade, this was…teeth.
"Long live the Romanian coven."
A burning sensation began to course through my veins, at first a pleasant warm temperature, but increasing to a boiling sensation within my own blood, ripping through my limbs and tearing my body apart. No pain I'd ever felt before had come close to this, not the stabbings or the burnings, nothing. My heart felt like it was on fire, it felt like I was on fire, like my body was simply evaporating into a pile of steaming embers. Death sounded so peaceful. I wanted it to be over, to be over.
The Volturi and their guard eventually arrived outside some kind of derelict building which vaguely resembled a warehouse along the outskirts of Sinaia, Romania. Dark green ivy curled elegantly up the stained beige walls and most of the windows were shattered which left broken glass littered across the ground. So the Romanians couldn't even afford a proper building, the low-life scum.
Afton leant over to Santiago and whispered over his shoulder, so silently that he would've been the only vampire to hear. "This be some horror movie shit."
"I know dude, I'm already creeped the fuck out and we haven't even gone in yet," Santiago whispered back.
Caius quickly spun around on his heel to face his guard with the most terrifying scowl to date. "Destroy them, find Eliana," he ordered.
Without any further ado, the guards stormed into the building, instantly met by the members of the Romanian coven. It seemed they had rebuilt their numbers from scratch as 13 newborns leapt at the guards, but their limited fighting experience, low numbers, and lack of gifts made their destruction much simpler.
Afton instantly went for a tiny blonde boy, looking maybe fifteen years old, who was about to attack Aro to stop him from finding the location of Eli. He grabbed the boy by his shoulders and hurled him around so that he flew horizontally towards an already smashed wall where the brickwork was showing through. Pacing back over to his crumpled form with a snarl, he didn't even hesitate to tear off the boy's head and add it to the growing death toll in the room.
The scene was a mess of Romanian limbs flying in all directions but, to their surprise, the only two absent were the leaders, Vladimir and Stefan. Now that their shield was dead, whoever it may have been, the guard were able to use their gifts on the newborns left over.
Santiago was suddenly completely blind-sided by two of the few remaining Romanians as they both made a leap for his head. He fell backwards to the ground and managed to grab one of them by the throat, sending them flying to Chelsea who cleanly ripped the head from their shoulders, but the other one had managed to pin Santiago to the ground face down with one arm behind his back.
Santiago's arm was suddenly tore away from its socket, just as the word "pain" was muttered from somewhere in the room. That final Romanian keeled over onto his knees, which allowed Alec to place a foot on his shoulder and wrench his head off of his body.
Afton quickly ran over to Santiago, seeing the pain he'd been left in as his arm laid discarded on the side. With the assistance of Chelsea, they managed to create a makeshift sling out of her scarf to hold his severed arm in place so that it at least had a chance to heal properly while he sat on an old plush armchair on the side, being tended to by Jane, surprisingly.
Meanwhile, the kings, accompanied by Felix, Demetri, and Renata, had left the battle at the front of the building in search for Eliana. Her scent was finally traceable, although it had now become worryingly stale. They sprinted through the deserted halls and corridors as they glanced around confusedly at the building they were in. It must've been some kind of run-down mental institution with many beds with restraints, wheelchairs, and pieces of rusted equipment littering every inch of the floor.
Her scent eventually led to a darkened corridor where, at the end, they finally set their sights on her, although the state she was in internally tore them apart.
Caius was the first one to get to her, ripping her out of the black leather restraints and cradling her limp, frail body to his chest. But something was off. Her blood didn't smell how it was supposed to, it smelt…contaminated, it smelt of venom.
Aro came and stood on the other side and ran a hand through her hair, although he noticed it too. Her skin was already becoming paler than before, and about an inch of her bleached hair had already re-grown as her natural brunette colour. Glancing down at her beaten figure, it seemed the scum had dared to torture her, leaving stab wounds, handprint-shaped bruises, and burns littering her delicate skin and rips across her clothing. Though now, the scars were beginning to fade while the gashes in her torso slowly sealed up, leaving paper-white, marble-like skin in their wake. Her heart was still beating steadily, but now it was only a matter of time.
Aro's eyes widened in panic as he began to ramble hysterically. "No, no, no, we can just remove their venom, or we can-"
"It is too late now," Marcus murmured gravely, stroking her smooth forehead with the pad of his thumb, "It has been done, removing the venom is no longer an option."
"Look who has finally arrived," the voice of Stefan exclaimed as he stepped through the shadows with two other mysterious figures beside him.
Without bothering to find out who they were, Marcus wasted no time in leaping for the figure on the right, his height difference meaning that he could easily wrap an arm around his neck and tear his head off his shoulders with a high-pitched screeching sound. As the severed head rolled into the pale moonlight, Aro and Caius both gasped as they realised the head was of Rafael. Aro picked up the head with a snarl and handed it to Renata.
"Destroy this scum," he spat at his face.
With a very hasty, nervous bow, Renata grabbed Rafael's head by his hair and sneered at him before carrying him back up to the front of the building where a fire had already been started. It was hard to ignore Afton's proud smirk as Renata approached the fire with the head held under her arm before Afton stopped her by her wrist.
"Allow me," he smiled contently.
Taking the head from Renata and briefly studying Rafael's stupid ass face, he tossed it up in the air before kicking it into the flames like some kind of football, yelling "Kelly Clarkson hater" into the fire tauntingly.
Santiago clapped his thigh enthusiastically with his useable arm, a joyous grin on his face. "Hells yeah dude, burn you little rat!"
Back in the torture chamber, Felix and Demetri quickly came for Stefan and Vladimir, but they weren't fast enough. The remaining pair of Romanians managed to agilely swing themselves out of the shattered overhead window and disappear completely out of sight.
"Go after them!" Aro yelled, and he hadn't even finished his sentence before Felix and Demetri had disappeared as well, hunting those bastard Romanians back so they could receive the punishments they deserved.
This just left the three of them with their mate in the now empty room (well, empty except from Rafael's headless body). On the one hand, Aro so desperately wanted to read Eliana's thoughts, it was simply instinct to him at this point. However, his gift had some limits, including the fact that thoughts were always somehow shielded from him during the transformation process. Besides, if he were to see what she had just been through, he knew he wouldn't be able to forgive himself for not being by her side sooner, definitely sending him on a warpath.
Marcus instantly summoned Renata and Chelsea who dragged Rafael's remaining body away to be destroyed, which he was certain Afton would enjoy seeing as he hated him the most. Caius sat himself up on top of the metal bed his mate been strapped to previously and cradled her perfect form in his arms. She was already a little colder than usual and weighed slightly more, although it wasn't a completely drastic difference just yet.
Aro stood up straight and adjusted the lapels of his overcoat. "We must take Eliana back to Volterra, immediately."
Marcus nodded in agreement and led the way back up the abandoned corridors. The stench of mould in the building was disgusting, making all three of them turn up their noses and frown at it. Caius carried Eliana horizontally while Aro stood just behind, on alert in case those scumbags had any other ideas.
Once they made it back up, there was a fire already blazing in the middle of the room at the front. The guards were disposing of any remaining limbs and tossing them into the flames one by one with a gleeful cheer each time, one of them even singing 'Ding Dong The Witch Is Dead'. Just to add on to it, Afton and Santiago seemed to be having a ball destroying Rafael, taking each limb apart individually and hurling them into the blazing heat like some kind of morbid game of 'who's better at throwing Rafael into the fire?'.
The room was plunged into silence once the guards took in the sight of Eli's limp figure in Caius' arms, the smell of the Romanians' venom in her blood reaching their noses.
"Dear ones," Aro began with his hands together in front of him, "once you have finished disposing of the scum, return back to Volterra immediately. Santiago," he turned to the only injured guard with a very faint look of sympathy on his face, "you will return with us now. Continue."
Stepping back out into the pale moonlight, Caius carefully handed Eliana to Marcus as he was the fastest so would be least held back by her increasing weight. Marcus held his little mate delicately to his chest with an arm underneath her knees, leading the sprint back to Volterra with Aro and Caius either side of him. Santiago stayed a few metres back but still sprinted with them despite his rather uncomfortable injury.
During the course of the sprint, she only became heavier and her skin only became paler. The transformation process had definitely begun.
Eliana's mortal life was over.
⊱ ────── {.⋅ ✯ ⋅.} ────── ⊰
Author's note: This chapter took a dark turn, holy moly, but yay the Volturi saved the day!
Basically I needed Eli to become a vampire sooner than the three year limit the kings gave her and I needed a reason to turn her, so this kinda served as it.
Also, I'm still not done with the Romanians, don't you worry. They'll make a reappearance sooner or later and cause more problems as per usual, so…look forward to that.
And Rafael's death, I know, you're welcome. I tried to make it as pleasing as possible, and honestly I couldn't stop smiling while writing his execution. I wanted it to be Marcus who killed him because he's usually so reserved from that kind of thing so in a weird way I thought this made more sense. Afton and Santiago's over-enthusiasm for Rafael's destruction though is such a mood haha.
Anyway, thank you so much for reading, be sure to leave some feedback because I love to hear your thoughts, stay safe, and ily lots!