I sat on Aro's throne with my boots tapping rhythmically on the marble floor. While Caius and Marcus both sat on their usual thrones, Aro paced uncomfortably back and forth. Apparently, the kings had been considering getting me my own throne, but Aro didn't like the fact that the whole setup wouldn't be symmetrical anymore, so we settled on me sharing with Aro. Not that I minded too much.

I'd only been tapping my feet for a minute before Caius completely lost his cool.

"Eliana, please, I am begging you, stop tapping your feet," he growled under his breath from his seat on his throne.

"It's not even that loud," I argued.

"Yes it is, everyone can hear it!"

"When you say everyone and you decide to speak on the room's behalf, do you mean just you? Because you seem to be the only one here whining about it!"

"I am not whining!"

"Yes you are! I've heard babies whine less than you do-"

"ENOUGH! Quit it, that goes for both of you!" Aro yelled.

I groaned. "But Aro, he started it-"

"Eliana, do remind me, did I ask who started it?" I shook my head guiltily. "Then I do not care in the slightest. Please, at least pretend to act mature. You two bickering would not be a good image for the coven."

I turned around to Marcus and mouthed "help me out here" while gesturing wildly to the other two lunatics. He simply shook his head with a disapproving chuckle.

"I am not getting involved in this squabble, tesoro."

Aro snapped his gaze around to me and glared. "What did I just say?!"

"Hah!" Caius pointed his finger at me immaturely.

"Caius, this is all your fault! Why am I-"

"Eliana, do not test my patience, for my good and your own," Aro lowered his voice so that it sounded even more deadly than usual.

I scoffed and crossed my arms over my chest. "Be like that."

Aro looked like he was about to completely lose his cool as well but he was interrupted before he had the chance to do so. The large doors to the throne room finally swung wide open and the visitors we'd been waiting for entered, flanked by Santiago, Chelsea, and Jane. The four visitors glanced around confusedly, and one of them seemed just plainly angry.

"Ah, thank you dear ones," Aro nodded to Santiago, Chelsea, and Jane to step to the side. "And who is this?"

"Why should we explain ourselves to you?" the guy in the middle with an Australian accent spat. Yep, definitely coven leader.

"If you will not explain verbally and be agreeable, you will take my hand instead," Aro extended his hand out to him and seemed just a little agitated when the man refused to move. Aro took the guy's hand in anyway and he pulled away quickly in response, but not quickly enough as he had already read him thoroughly.

"Ah, so this is the Melbourne coven we have heard so much about, how delightful. We were going to send out some guards to retrieve you, but it seems your little visit to Italy made our jobs much simpler."

"Who the hell do you think you are?" the man snarled.

"Oh, of course, how rude of me, Xavier was it? Yes, I am Aro, this is Marcus, Eliana, and Caius," Aro pointed to each of us in turn. "We are the Volturi."

All of a sudden, Xavier pulled away from his coven and leapt at me. He was quite a large guy, and he had a bulky build so the odds were on him in fairness. His movement was too fast for Aro or any of the guards to stop him.

Fortunately, I was able to quickly stand up from my throne and grab him by the throat before he had the chance to attack me. I slammed him onto his back on the dais, smashing the marble steps underneath him, before ripping off his head in one clean swipe. Caius was not going to be happy about having those steps replaced, that was for sure.

With a smile, I took the head and rolled it over to the rest of their coven like a bowling ball. They stepped away from their leader's head with horror-stricken expressions on their faces.

"Does anyone else want a go at committing treason? It's a lot of fun as you can see, I'm sure Xavier would tell you. No? Fine," I shrugged and sat back down on my throne. Santiago took the remains of Xavier but not before giving me a proud wink.

Once I sat back down, Caius grinned at me and I found myself smiling back. For my first kill, that wasn't nearly as traumatising as I'd initially expected. I was planning on endless sobbing and guilt plaguing all of my thoughts, but for some reason I felt exactly the same.

"That was our coven leader!" the other guy seemed mortified as he stared at me like I was a piece of dirt on his shoe. "You killed our coven leader!"

I giggled condescendingly and stood up again to head back over to Aro with my black cloak billowing behind me, ignoring Caius and Marcus stirring defensively beside me. "Actually, I think you'll find that your so called 'coven leader' dude just tried to kill me with some kind of unprovoked attack, which is considered treason since I am your queen, so," I lifted my hand and teetered it from side to side, "I'd say that's just self defence."

Aro smirked at me as I stood beside his shoulder. "Quite right, cara mia. Now, let us finally commence with this trial-"

"Trial?! You have no right to put us on trial! You're not in charge, who gave you authority?!"

"Oh geez, I'm leaving this one with you babe," I murmured to Aro with a laugh and moved to sit back down in my spectator's seat on the middle throne.

"Clearly, young Enoch," Aro began, suppressing a chuckle, "your accomplice, Xavier, has not read up on the Volturi as he should have. We are the lawmakers, the supreme overlords of the supernatural world, if you will, and we enforce our laws for the safety of humans and vampires alike. So, now that you are vaguely up-to-date as you should have been prior, you have been brought here for trial as I have already mentioned."

"What law did we break?!"

His constantly hysterical voice was really grinding on my nerves at that point, and apparently Aro was feeling the same.

"There is no need for these loud and obnoxious hysterics. This may come as a surprise to you, but we can hear you just fine," Aro said calmly. "Your hunting activities have caused quite the issue for us to say the least. You see, we have a very specific law which condemns conspicuous killings. You have broken said law on multiple occasions, thoughtlessly feeding on large families and leaving their bodies for the human authorities to discover across Australia. Any opinions on that you would like to share? Any at all?"

"But—we didn't know!" Enoch pleaded desperately, on the brink of tears. "It was Xavier, he told us it was okay. If we would've known it was illegal, we wouldn't have even tried. We didn't mean to break the law, please."

Wow, watching a man turn into a man child in the blink of an eye is something else entirely.

"That is most likely true," Aro agreed. "Yet, you had many chances to read into our coven and the laws we set down and have upheld for centuries. Why didn't you, Enoch?"

Enoch seemed absolutely lost for words and he just stared at Aro blankly. I stifled a laugh at this crazy scene unfolding.

"H-how were we supposed to find out?"

Aro tutted. "There are many ways to find out. For instance, our laws are known to almost every single coven on the face of the earth, so you could simply ask any other immortal. I know your coven has a small handful of alliances with others who are already aware of our rule and the laws we uphold so strongly. Maybe, if Xavier here," Aro motioned to the discarded head which was still on the floor, "took more precautions, we would not be here in the first place."

"T-t-this isn't fair, we didn't know! Can't you just make an exception? For us?"

"The pillar above your head reads 'nemo est supra leges'. This translates from Latin to English as 'no one is above the law', your coven included. However, I am rather interested in something."

"Aro…" Marcus warned deeply.

Aro ignored him, as expected, and took the hand of one of the girls stood beside Enoch. They seemed to be identical twins with curly ginger hair and ruby red eyes. They both glared down at us, which probably wouldn't be so creepy if they didn't look exactly the same, holding each other's hands like some kind of horror movie.

He pulled away from them, and I could tell exactly what he was thinking simply by glancing at his conniving expression. "Ah, young Tiffany and Beatrice. Identical twins, transformed simultaneously. A rather intriguing phenomenon, I must admit. However, Tiffany, you were born with a rather fascinating gift of the manipulation of gravity itself. This is why I am willing to make a proposal."

I felt Caius and Marcus rustle beside me uncomfortably as we all knew exactly where this was going. Here we go…

"Join us, I insist, all three of you," he continued, "and I will let this negligence of our existence and our laws slide."

"So, you want her to join or die?!" Enoch shouted.

Aro, to put it simply, looked like he was absolutely fucking done with Enoch's constant yelling bullshit, and honestly so were we. It was to the point where, if he did take Aro up on this offer, Caius would definitely end up killing him before he'd been here for a week.

"I would not phrase it like in such a way, no. We do not uphold our laws through a 'join or die' policy. So, young Tiffany, have you reached your decision?" he asked politely with a forced smile.

Tiffany snarled and looked Aro up and down, disgusted. "You killed my coven leader, my father figure. I will never forgive you, let alone join you."

Beatrice and Enoch both nodded in agreement. Well, at least this would be over and done with sooner rather than later.

"I never asked for your forgiveness. Tsk, such a waste, regardless. Santiago, Afton, you know what to do."

Aro wasted no time in pushing Tiffany down to her knees, Santiago doing the same with Enoch and Afton with Beatrice.

Marcus glanced over at me with concern. "Tesoro, you may want to look away now."

"Eh, it's okay, babe. I've already killed one vamp-y, what's three more?"

All three heads were ripped from their shoulders simultaneously with a series of painfully high pitched creaks. Chelsea and Alec had already started the fire in the furnace which stood in the corner of the room behind one of the pillars. I'd always wondered how that wasn't considered a fire safety hazard in all honesty.

Each of them were torn to pieces, and every individual limb was placed into the blazing heat of the stone furnace to be destroyed. The smell of burning vampires had never been a pleasant one in my opinion, comparable maybe to burning rubber but even more rancid. At least the others all agreed that it stinks.

While the limbs were being destroyed, an arm belonging to Enoch rolled over to the bottom step of the dais in front of me. I picked it up and examined it quickly before strolling casually over to the furnace and tossing it into the flames. It disappeared in an instant, becoming nothing but a pile of grey ashen remains.

Aro held my face in his hands delicately and gave me a careful once over as he checked for any potential injuries, just out of habit at this point since I couldn't really get injured. "Are you okay, il mio amore? Are you hurt? Did Xavier harm you in any way? What about-"

"Aro, I'm fine, honestly." I placed my hands over his and brought them down from my face to hold them in front of me. "But seriously, you need to get out of the habit of offering places on the guard to every gifted vampire you come across. I swear to god, if they would've said yes and I'd have to deal with Enoch for the rest of my time here-"

"I had a feeling he would not accept my offer, cara mia. Besides, that child would have been assigned outside of Volterra. I simply do not believe I would be able to put up with his incessant whining."

"I know, right?" I giggled. "He's worse than Caius."

Caius pouted in the corner which only made me laugh harder.

⊱ ────── {.⋅ ✯ ⋅.} ────── ⊰

Author's note: Haha, Eli's officially a badass Volturi leader. I feel like the kings ruthlessness and constant don't-give-a-shit attitude is rubbing off on her and honestly I'm here for it.

I was considering giving Eli her own throne on the dais but then I thought how annoying it would be if they weren't symmetrical. I know, it sounds pathetic, but I would rather she sat on their laps or on Aro's throne rather than making everything asymmetrical like that.

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!