My office was the only place in the castle that I truly owned, my own little nook hidden away just a few doors down from Aro's. Caius' and Marcus' were opposite as well, but at least I could say that this room was mine and mine only.

I'd insisted on it being sleek and modern with a lot of white furniture and large windows since I wasn't the biggest fan of the dark and dingy colour schemes of the rest of the rooms. The windowsill was full of plants that I watered regularly, and I even had quite an expansive book collection on the shelves in the corner courtesy of Marcus.

It was only the next day after Irina had originally come to 'report a crime' and I was already having a complete and utter mental breakdown. There were several dents in the walls from where I'd hurled objects like books and a chair at one point, and I'd snapped harshly at my mates more times than I wanted to admit.

I sat down in the plush black chair behind my desk and curled up with my knees to my chest. Resisting the urge to rip apart every page in my colouring book until there was nothing left, I picked up a purple felt tip and began colouring a random image, I wasn't exactly sure what.

Not only had those stupid ass Cullens tried to hide this from me by childishly blocking me on their phones and refusing to pick up whenever I or any of the kings called, but they also supposedly created an immortal child, a dumb crime that I was going to have to execute them for, all because Irina came here and opened her –

A snap caught my attention, and I realised that I'd snapped the pen in half and I now had purple ink all over my hand. Fortunately, by some miracle, not a single drop had gotten onto my colouring of…a goat, apparently.

"Shit," I hissed at myself.

I hurriedly dashed to the nearest bathroom in one of the guest rooms and washed off the purple colour so that I didn't end up looking like one of the evil minions from Despicable Me 2. Yes, I made all three of my mates watch that movie with me and held them hostage on the sofa right up until the end.

I came back to the room and slammed the destroyed pen into the bin. I used a tissue to quickly mop up the remaining ink and threw that into the bin with it. Honestly, my bin was a mess of rage damaged items at this point.

In yet another effort to distract myself, I opened up one of my desk drawers and began to rearrange all of the different ballpoint pens I owned in every colour. And then, as if that's not enough, I now had to go and execute my entire family plus their new addition, all because they're such a bunch of absolute-

Again, I expected some kind of crack or snapping sound to pull me out of my internal rage fit, but instead it was my phone buzzing in the pocket of my dark red denim jacket. I pulled it out with a sigh and was unsurprised when I found out that, yet again, Bella was trying to call me. Without a second thought, I pressed decline and casually slid my phone out of the way to continue organizing my pens.

A message came through from Alice which I read, fed up of their stupid excuses.

Eli, please, just pick up your phone.
It's urgent.

I ignored it and blocked her, since I figured I owed them absolutely nothing after this moronic stunt they pulled. After placing my pens in rainbow order in my drawer and watering my plants one last time, I unhooked my red-lined cloak from behind the door. I fastened it around my neck with my crest and retied my boots before strutting out, cloak billowing behind me.

I arrived in Aro's quarters a little slower than usual with much less spring in my step. He was already stood beside the bed with a black duffel bag open. Maybe half of his wardrobe was laid out in front of him while he debated which items deserved to come with us on our trip to Japan and then Ukraine. Welcome to the life of witness-hunting.

I moved to stand beside him as he held up two identical black shirts. "Which one?"

"Which one?" I repeated. "They're exactly the same, no one will see the difference."

"You are acting like quite the…what is the modern term I have heard you use on occasion? Oh yes, buzzkill."

I groaned irritatedly and stormed into the wardrobe, reappearing with a stack of my clothing. "I am not a buzzkill," I snapped. "No one's buzzes are being killed thanks. I'm the light of the motherfucking party."

Aro pulled me into his arms while I stood there stiffly. His purring did seem to loosen me up a little as I melted back into his embrace after a moment with my face hidden in his shirt.

"Sorry," I muttered, "just, this whole stupid thing is messing with my head. I shouldn't have snapped, yada-yada-yada," I trailed off.

"I know, cara mia. But remember, no one is above the law, hm?" He tilted my chin up to look at him and stroked my hair back.

"I guess you're right," I agreed reluctantly.

He laughed under his breath. "I know that I am right, bellissima. I am always right."

He rubbed his nose against mine and pressed his lips softly to mine. Fortunately, he pulled away from me before we got…distracted, and continued to place folded items of clothing into the black duffel.

"I still don't get what the hell is with everyone and icing me out all the time. First it's you three a few months ago-"

"Cara mia, we will never-"

"Save it," I held up my finger to silence him, "and then it's the Cullens with this stupid child. Whose is it? Edward and Bella's? If anything, she should've told me before anyone else. We're pretty much sisters, and sisters don't go around making immortal babies without telling each other."

"I do not know what to tell you, Eliana. As much as I would love to give them the benefit of the doubt since they are your family and Carlisle is a close friend of mine, this is a very serious accusation to make, so we must see it through. We do not want this any more than you do, for the last thing we would want to do is eradicate your family." He cupped my cheek with his hand and gave me a sympathetic look.

"Let's just hope it doesn't come to that and the Cullens are less moronic than they seem."

He chuckled and nodded his head, pointing to a section of the duffel bag. "You may use this section, since we must fit both Felix's and Demetri's belongings in here as well."

"Why theirs?" I asked.

"It seemed illogical to bring more luggage than necessary, especially considering we are travelling by foot," he responded.

I placed a few jeans and t-shirts into the bag, considering that as all the laundry I'd need. If I ended up needing any more, I could always just buy some in whatever country we ended up in.

"I still don't get why we don't just take a plane or something," I mumbled to myself.

He answered my question in anyway. "Why not walk? We are helping the planet, it will give you a chance to view the world without being inside an enormous metal machine, we are perfectly capable of travelling long distances in short periods of time without the use of any means of human transportation, it will give us a chance to scout out further witnesses-"

I interrupted him. "Point proven."

It was silent for only a few seconds until he continued his list. "This will be the closest you will come to a nomadic lifestyle, we will be able to feed regularly-"

"Aro," he went silent instantly, "babe, I get the point."

He zipped the half-full bag closed and clapped his hands happily. "This will be fun, on a trip with just the two of us." He began to nuzzle into my neck like a cat.

"And Felix, and Demetri," I added.

"They will stay back unless needed, il mio amore," he assured, "I cannot wait to show you around, so many places to see."

"You don't suppose Marcus and Caius need a third?" I quipped jokingly.

"Tsk, and discard the chance of a lifetime to travel with me? I think not."

"Why can't we all go together?" I asked.

He sighed. "Simply too many places to be covered in too little time. You will see them again in a few days, do not fret."

"I'm not fretting," I argued indignantly.

"Of course not." There was a slightly patronising tone to his words as he began to softly kiss and suck on my neck.

I grabbed him by the shoulders and pulled the little leech away from my neck. He frowned at me and reached one hand forward to stroke the side of my face.

"You are correct, we mustn't get distracted so easily."

"See? I know what I'm doing. Where would you be without me?" I smiled lightly and led us out of the room with the duffel bag over my shoulder.

Once we got down to the garage, which happened to be on the lowest floor of the castle, the others were already gathered by the exits which led to the confusing tunnel system. Felix took the bag from me and both he and Demetri quickly filled the remaining space with a few of their belongings.

I instantly leapt into Caius' arms and hugged him as tightly as possible. My feet were far from the ground as I clung to him for dear life like a koala bear.

"Take care, carissima," he murmured.

"I'll see you soon, babe." My voice was muffled by his cloak as I pressed my face against his shoulder, inhaling his scent just one more time.

As soon as I was placed down on the ground, I was back in Marcus' arms. He lifted me off the ground with my legs around his middle and spun me around, his lips colliding with mine. His calming scent hit my nose as I ran my hands through his hair.

He finally set me down again and wrapped his arms around me in a tight bear hug. "Goodbye, tesoro."

"Bye Marcus," I murmured, reluctantly pulling away.

Caius raised an eyebrow. "Do I not deserve a kiss?"

"Didn't I kiss you?" He shook his head in response.

With a grin, I wrapped my arms around his neck and my lips quickly found his while his hands caressed my sides. I hadn't been timing us, but I assumed it must've been a minute or so since everyone was patiently waiting for us to be finished.

I pulled away and stroked the side of his face. "Stay safe, both of you."

Jane and Alec were stood just behind, Alec carrying a black duffel bag. Jane glanced over at me with wide eyes and shook her head vigorously.

"No hugs," she urged.

I rolled my eyes jokingly. "Bold of you to assume I'd hug you, Jane-y-Pain-y. Alec?"

Alec panickedly shook his head and took a few wary steps back. Winding the pair of them up with the threat of a hug was just too much fun at this point.

I noticed Irina standing by the doorway, accompanied by Santiago who I assumed was guarding her. She seemed guilty, which she should be, and looked like she wanted to say goodbye but very wisely stood away to keep her distance as I instructed. Santiago, however, winked at me with a smile and I simply waved back just as he mouthed the word 'dork'.

"We must leave now," Caius announced. "Please be careful, that goes for both of you."

I blew a kiss at them. "I'll miss you."

"I will miss you more." Caius smirked and disappeared down one of the tunnels that led outside Volterra, shortly followed by Jane and Alec.

"Aro, look after Eliana," Marcus said almost warningly.

Aro pulled me closer to him with his body pressed up against my back. "I will guard this little one with my life, always," he promised, running his fingers through my hair.

Marcus nodded in approval and then turned his gaze on me. "I will see you soon, tesoro."

"Take care of yourself and Caius, stay out of trouble boys, I love you both!" I called just as he began to make his way back down the tunnel.

That just left us, Felix and Demetri. Irina and Santiago were still standing in the doorway but decided to stay distant rather than contribute.

Aro took my hand. "Are you ready?"

"No," I sighed, "but I won't be any time soon, so let's just get this over and done with."

He encouragingly rubbed the back of my hand with his thumb and we started along the darkened tunnel hand-in-hand with Felix and Demetri both trailing a few metres behind. Destination: Hamamatsu, Japan.

⊱ ────── {.⋅ ✯ ⋅.} ────── ⊰

Author's note: This chapter I'm actually surprisingly proud of, wow. Things do be getting interesting, with quite a few new OCs on the way, which I hope you enjoy seeing as I spent a long time on their personalities etc.

I think I mentioned Hamamatsu in one of the earlier chapters very briefly, but it made sense for there to be more covens in the world than smeyer claims there to be. Like, surely the Cullens can't be the second biggest coven, surely some are bigger. It's a big big world after all.

Fun fact; when I wrote this chapter, I was listening to Bad Romance by Lady Gaga on repeat (and people think Billie Eilish's music videos are freaky, hah!), and a few times I accidentally started typing the lyrics instead of the dialogue haha.

Anyway, thank you so much for reading, be sure to leave some feedback because I love to hear your opinions on the story, stay safe, and ily lots!