Santiago stood at the side of the training room out of the way of me and Afton's combat session. I'd been consistently beaten for the past few hours, and Santiago was apparently very insistent on not letting me go until I learnt from my mistakes and kicked Afton's ass for once.

I ran at Afton, launching myself off the ground with my open hand aimed for his neck, when he managed to simply shift himself to the side and grab my waist to toss me behind him so that I landed on the ground on my back with a loud bang.

I groaned at the slight pain and stood up again to take a swing at him when he threw me onto my front and pinned me face down to the ground with just one foot.

"Terrible, carissima, absolutely appalling."

I craned my neck and managed to spot Caius' white Nike trainers as he approached me. Afton's weight was lifted from me instantly and, from the smash that came from the other side of the room, I could tell that Caius had just flung him away.

"I tried, okay?" I rolled onto my back and he extended a hand to help me up.

He was dressed similarly to how he was last time we'd trained together a few months back, in a dark t-shirt which hugged his taut muscles and sweatpants with his snowy white hair pinned back out of his face.

"Do not try, just do," he said plainly.

"What are you doing here in anyway, babe? You don't train."

"In fact, I used to run the majority of the combat sessions here. The elite guard were all trained by me, as well as Santiago who has now taken over as training instructor." Santiago waved like a dork behind Caius' back. "I came to see your progress, but everything you are doing currently, you are doing wrong, Eliana. Please do not take offence by that."

I scoffed and crossed my arms. "I'll try not to."

"These are lessons that can be learnt by all of you since I have seen you all in battle, and you seem to make the same consistent mistakes. Afton," Caius motioned him over with a single finger, "the pair of you will resume sparring and, when I call the word 'halt', you must stop whatever it is you are doing, no matter the discomfort this causes. Understood?"

We both nodded and Caius stepped out of the way beside Santiago so that Afton and I had space to fight. In an attempt to catch him out with the element of surprise, I hurriedly leapt at him and successfully managed to grab him by the shoulders. I found myself toppling backwards but not before I flung him into the wall with a loud crash.

"Halt."

I stayed lying down on the ground while Afton was still in a heap in the corner surrounded by rubble from the damaged wall, unable to move. He mouthed the words 'help me' but I just shrugged my shoulders which earned an eye roll.

"Afton, you may get up now you fool. Do not just sit and stew in the remains of the wall like some kind of garden gnome," Caius added exasperatedly.

Afton quickly dashed to stand beside me, discretely dusting himself off. I began to sit back up but Caius pushed me back down with his right foot, smirking at me from above before his expression turned serious again.

"Who saw what happened there?" he addressed Alec, Santiago, and Renata who were all casually spectating.

Renata raised a hand lazily. "He didn't duck in time."

Caius shook his head. "He did duck in time, but this cretin here did not duck correctly which resulted in his defeat. Afton, it is almost as if you did not listen to a single thing I taught you. Allow me to demonstrate."

He helped me to stand up this time and dismissed Afton to stand to the side. We stood facing each other on opposite sides of the room, subtly sizing each other up. Not that it did much—he was still 8 inches taller than me.

"Repeat the same move again, Eliana," he instructed.

With a deep breath, I ran at him with as much speed as I could and made a grab for his shoulders but, before I knew it, I'd been slammed into the floor on my back loudly with his hand on my stomach as he crouched over me.

"Are you okay, carissima?" he murmured quietly so that only I heard.

I nodded ever so slightly and he pulled me back onto my feet beside him. I did find it kinda sweet how he was extra careful to ensure he didn't injure me while he repeatedly called Afton a 'cretin' and a 'fool'.

"Did you all see that?" He turned himself to face the others who were surprisingly listening very attentively. "That is the subtle difference your form can make. Many fool themselves into believing that every failure is simply due to what they are doing, rather than how it is done. Your form can and will often be the difference between victory and defeat. As you witnessed there, just by adjusting the speed at which my shoulders rotate, I was able to successfully defeat my opponent. Now do you see the mistake you made, Afton?"

Afton glanced down at the ground and nodded. Understandably, the entire guard had a subtle fear of Caius, although they never wanted to admit it. Caius was terrifying when he wanted to be, in fairness.

"Use words Afton, you fool. I know you speak English but any language will do at this point," Caius snapped.

"Yes Master," he muttered.

"Good. Now, Eliana will stand opposite me and we will spar. Santiago, you will umpire as usual. Understood?"

"Yes Master," Santiago nodded.

Caius looked over to me, apparently waiting for a response. "Yes babe," I replied. He smiled at me smugly and positioned himself facing me a few metres away.

Santiago counted down. "3…2…1…begin!"

I attempted the same move as before and launched myself at him. Somehow, he managed to grasp my shoulders instead and spun me horizontally into the wall. I fell to the ground but it wasn't long before he lifted me up inches off the ground by my neck.

Struggling in that position, I pushed his arm away hard with my foot and used that momentum to force him backwards into the ground with my weight on top of him. His expression was definitely that of shock, and I was so certain that I'd won when Santiago began the countdown, but I was easily flipped over onto my back by him so that he had his knee pressing hard into my chest.

"1…2…3…"

"Get off me blondie," I snarled through my teeth as I writhed underneath him which only broadened his grin.

"…9…10. Caius wins the round."

A smugness to his smile, he helped me back to my feet carefully and pressed a soft kiss to my forehead. "Santiago, shockingly you have not done a terrible job of training Eliana." I assumed this was Caius' attempt at a compliment. "Approximately two more weeks and her training will be complete."

Santiago bowed his head with a pleased smile and a quick wink to me. "Thank you, Master."

"Oh, come on carissima. Just admit it; I let you win." Caius was curled up on my right, pressed into my side.

I groaned. "Okay, firstly you did not let me win. Either way, you won. Secondly, I refuse to believe you let me tackle you down. Your face said it all honestly."

"What face?"

"The shocked Pikachu expression you pulled."

"I do see the resemblance, brother," Aro chimed in, lying on top of me with his head on my chest.

"Exactly, psychopath gets it." I motioned to a slightly offended-looking Aro and ruffled his obsidian hair which earned a soft purr. "Just admit that I'm better than you give me credit for."

"You are good, but I am and will always be more skilled." Caius crossed his arms stubbornly.

Marcus shook his head with a laugh and nuzzled into my hair. "Brother, give it some time and she will beat you easily."

"We will see about that," he muttered.

I ignored him to avoid starting yet another argument which Aro would end up having to break up for us. "What did you two do all day?" I asked Aro and Marcus.

Aro sighed, absent-mindedly playing with my hand, although it didn't seem that he was reading my thoughts this time, rather just distracting himself. "Nothing of interest. Parts of my office are being renovated so I was forced to work in the library."

"Why? What happened to your office?"

"Nothing happened to it, it just needed some maintenance, and some of the wooden shelving needed to be replaced," he replied boredly.

I turned to Marcus. "What about you? Did I miss anything?"

He shook his head, his lips moving against my shoulder. "It was quiet as usual. Being with you has been the highlight of my day."

"Wow, it's been a boring day for you then," I laughed.

They all nodded in agreement and cuddled closer to me. Honestly, it was like being surrounded by a bunch of clingy housecats at this point. They even purred and everything.

Aro began to fidget his head, just to get himself comfortable, but the sensation of his hair lightly moving against my stomach made me burst into a fit of giggles.

"Please stop, it tickles," I barely gasped out.

"How ticklish are you?" Marcus chuckled.

I finally regained a little composure. "Very. Aro, if you're going to use me as a pillow, please don't fidget too much."

"Oh, but it is just so tempting, cara mia," he teased, faintly brushing his fingertips across my collarbone and down my chest. "Any word from the Cullens yet?"

I shook my head sadly. "Not even a peep. Rose even blocked me on Skype and Whatsapp, so whatever this is, it's apparently very personal."

Marcus hummed in thought. "We can send some of our guard to Forks in order to find out if-"

"No," I interrupted, "it's really not worth it. Alice will see them from a mile off and if they know we've sent guards as well, I reckon it'll only make things worse. I could schedule a trip in two weeks time instead. At least that'll be less…stalker-ish and invading their privacy."

"There is no way I am sending you there on your own," Caius said darkly.

"Come with me then. Just, don't pick a fight with the werewolves."

He shot up straight with sheer anger and panic in his eyes. "WEREWOLVES-"

"NO NO NO!" I yelled before he did anything irrational. "I meant shape-shifters. I already know that werewolves are a completely different kettle of fish. These shape-shifters won't harm us at all, they have full control and everything, they have a treaty with the Cullens, there's a whole book about it I think." I tugged Caius back down and pulled him closer to me, purring reassuringly in his ear.

"Brother, I can assure you that they will not pose any issue to safety as long as the treaty is followed," Aro assured him.

"Now I am definitely coming," Caius snarled.

"You do that," I patted his hand condescendingly, "I could do with a holiday."

Marcus laughed under his breath. "I would not regard a business trip to a place such as Forks as a holiday, tesoro."

"When was the last time you lot went on holiday then?" I asked.

Aro thought about it for a moment. "Summer of 1953, a trip to Greece. Other than that, we do not 'holiday', that is simply not what immortals do."

I rolled my eyes. "Says who? Can we go on holiday? That sounds fun."

"I suppose we do have several islands which would be suitable for such purposes," Caius mused.

"Islands," I repeated. "Islands? As in islands? You lot own islands?" I said slowly in disbelief.

Caius smirked. "Our island off the coast of Belize is a personal favourite of mine."

"Portofino Caye?" Aro asked, to which he nodded in response. In all honesty, it worried me just a little that he had to clarify which island in Belize he was talking about. "I preferred Pink Pearl Island."

"Pink Pearl Island? Where's that?" I questioned.

"It is in Nicaragua. I suppose a short 'holiday' could do no harm if that is what you would like, cara mia."

"I still can't believe you own islands," I repeated to myself, convinced I was dreaming.

"Imagine how stupid we would have to be to live for three millennia and not own any islands. We often rent them out to humans since they are rarely used, but there are over 30 to choose from," Marcus informed me.

I pinched the bridge of my nose. "30."

"Brother, you are overwhelming her," Aro spoke. "We could purchase more land but that would become rather pointless. 30 seems a decent amount in my opinion. That includes over 15 in the Caribbean."

I winced at the ridiculous amount of money they had. "30 is a decent amount to you."

"7 of them have not even been built upon yet," he added.

"What do you build on them?"

"What would you build on any island? Villas, swimming pools, marinas, the like." Caius shrugged.

"Oh my," I sighed. "Is there anything else crazily expensive you own that you haven't told me about yet?"

Aro took in a deep breath. "Several priceless historical artefacts within the castle, villas and mansions across Europe mostly, 2 private jets, a helicopter—not that we have ever needed to use it, shares in all major companies including the fortune 500, we have close connections with the human government, boats-"

"I get the picture. Either way, take me on holiday," I demanded.

"As you wish, tesoro," Marcus chuckled as they all curled further into me.

⊱ ────── {.⋅ ✯ ⋅.} ────── ⊰

Author's note: For some reason, I really can't imagine any of them on a beach holiday. Like, just them actually relaxing on a private island does not make sense in my head, but I'd honestly want to join them ha. I did actually research existing private islands for this so, on the off chance that you own any of the islands I mentioned, I'm sorry lmao.

Next chapter, everyone's least favourite Denali because she fucks up the entire thing is making a comeback, yay! Stay tuned…

Anyway, thank you so much for reading, be sure to leave some feedback because I love hearing your thoughts, stay safe, and ily lots!