The sun was only just beginning to subtly lighten up the sky. Not so much to the point where we sparkled, but the streetlights were blanking out gradually, one by one. A few people began to brush past since it was technically a working day, but fortunately we were all wearing our contacts so that Caius' eyes were a deep shade of emerald, mine and Aro's were ocean blue, and Marcus' were a warm chocolate colour.
Aro tapped his foot impatiently on the pavement outside London Victoria train station with his phone held to his ear. "Finally. I have been waiting for my cars for 20 minutes now. I will never understand how your business stays open." There was a short pause. "I am Aro Volturi," he stated irritatedly. In fairness, he had been left on hold for a long while. "Yes, I have pre-booked…yes, I am a registered member, as I have been for many years."
Marcus laughed at Aro and kissed the top of my head. "Are you excited to go home?"
"I'm so over travelling," I groaned, leaning into his side.
Aro placed his phone back in his pocket. "Humans, their delays do not go unnoticed," he muttered to himself. "I have been promised that the cars will be here in 3 minutes."
Caius rolled his eyes, holding my hand in his. "Brother, it would be much faster if we ran to the airport-"
"No!" I cut in, causing everyone to turn and stare at me. "No more running, I swear to God, do not make me run anymore."
"See, brother?" Aro gestured to me. "Our dear Eliana does not want to run, and we will never force her to do so against her will."
"Our dear Eliana is going to have an issue when the sun emerges from the horizon and we all light up like disco balls," Caius hissed.
"Relax, blondie, we have plenty of time." I waved my hand nonchalantly and tugged him further into me to wrap an arm around his torso.
"We do not have 'plenty of time'. There are exactly 3 minutes before sunrise. Aro, we are cutting this much too short. This is a too great a risk to be taking, especially in the middle of a highly populated city like London."
"Just buy an umbrella from that stand over there if that makes you feel better. I still have some coins left over, I'll give you money." I pointed to a stand selling novelty souvenirs with the UK flag to tourists.
"I will not be seen with a novelty umbrella," he snapped.
I scoffed. "You're no fun. You should buy a hat or a postcard or something, or maybe a keychain, or a t-shirt. Ooh, buy one of those cardboard cut-outs of the royal family, then you can have the Queen with you everywhere you go."
"I am not buying that."
"Oh, fine," I sighed defeatedly. "But look, they even have one of young Prince William from back when he was hot, before he had that whole hair loss thing. Go buy that."
"And how is that going to help with sheltering us from the sun?" he asked exasperatedly.
I paused for a moment. "Hide behind it when the sun comes up."
Just before Caius had the chance to argue with my logic, two identical black BMWs with dark tinted windows rolled into the currently empty bus stop. Aro opened the front passenger seat door, while Marcus held one of the backdoors open for me. I climbed in and shuffled up to the middle seat so that I was wedged between Caius and Marcus.
"Where are the guards?" I asked Marcus quietly.
He pointed backwards with his thumb, and I turned around in my seat to the car directly behind us where Alec was sat in the passenger seat and poor Jane was squished between Demetri and Felix.
I pulled my seatbelt down but couldn't fit it past the nonexistent gap between mine and Caius' thighs. "Uh, Caius?"
"Mhm?" He turned around to me and then back down to my seatbelt.
"Can you just, you know…" I motioned for him to shuffle along.
He rolled his eyes and moved so that he was completely pressed against the door. As soon as I was strapped in, he strapped himself in and sat back normally. It wasn't like we needed seatbelts in any way, but having a human driver in the car meant we had to continue with our human façade.
The car quickly began to drive off into the distance, which prompted a slightly awkward passive-aggressive conversation between Aro and the driver.
"Ah, so you finally arrived after that 20 minute delay." Aro's smile looked as false as it always did around people who'd disappointed him.
"My bad, sir. Busy time of day, y'know?" the driver responded.
"Of course. Everyone knows that five o'clock in the morning is the busiest time of day for your services."
I reached out to Aro in the passenger seat and placed my hand over his. 'Stop harassing the poor driver, he's trying,' I thought to him. With a shake of his head, he turned to face the front and remained silent for the remainder of the journey.
Throughout the time we were in the car, it seemed that both Caius and Marcus couldn't help sneaking little touches here and there, each of them with a hand on the inside of my thighs. I bit my lip in an attempt to stay quiet, but Aro could clearly see what was happening and the jealously coming off of him was intense.
The car finally rolled in around the back of the airport towards a private stretch of runway where the familiar white and gold Volturi jet was parked. The sun was completely beating down overhead, so we all pulled up our hoods and placed our black leather gloves on before leaving the car. The driver looked at us strangely, but Caius simply handed him a wad of cash to stay quiet, doing the same to the driver of the other car.
"Caius, you can't just throw money at our problems," I rebuked once we were climbing up the stairs into the cabin.
"Carissima, I have done so for many millennia and not once has it caused any further issues at all. It is difficult not to think of humans as pets when they roll over obediently whenever handed a treat," he laughed quietly.
When we were inside the plane, Caius sat down first in a seat by the window and quickly pulled me onto his lap. Marcus took up the seat beside us, which left Aro sitting just opposite us.
Marcus didn't hesitate to pull my feet onto his lap and take off my boots, haphazardly tossing them across the aisle. I leant sideways against Caius' chest while he pulled his cloak around me possessively.
"How was your trip, tesoro?" Marcus asked.
I snuggled into Caius' cloak and moved it away from my face so that I could see him. "It was fun, we met the Hamamatsus and the Ukrainians."
"How are they doing then?"
"They are all still lovely, and Sofia is still ginger," Aro sighed his reply.
"Aro, are you okay?" I asked him. I knew Aro had a history of not taking any form of rejection well in the slightest, even if it was just by me sitting on the opposite side of the section of the plane to him.
He nodded in response and weakly smiled in my direction. I blew a kiss at him and curled up further into Caius' chest.
"I assume we did not miss much," Caius commented.
I thought for a moment. "I guess Aro did do that whole messing with my emotions thing in Ukraine, but apart from that, nothing out of the ordinary."
"You used the bond?" Marcus questioned, his expression verging on mortified.
"Why—is that such a big deal?" I asked.
He huffed. "We mutually agreed not to manipulate your emotions in that way without consent. It is a very invasive ability that comes with the bond, one we would never use to our advantage."
"I mean…that's reassuring that you wouldn't take advantage of me with it, but don't worry about using it to calm my anxieties or whatever, honestly. It's better that than me having an absolute mental breakdown there and then," I insisted.
"We could never live with ourselves if we took advantage of you in any way," Caius murmured, nuzzled into my hair.
"Can I do the whole emotion thingy?" I asked.
Marcus paused for a moment. "Potentially. Usually, only the most dominant in the relationship is able to utilise and manipulate the bond so easily, but there have been a few recorded cases of the…" I could see that he wanted to say submissive but was avoiding offending me, "…less dominant doing so as well. Would you like to try?"
"Eh, why not? What have I got to lose?"
"Us?" Aro suggested.
I scrunched my nose up at him and turned to Marcus to listen to his explanation.
"Focus on one bond," Marcus began, "take yours with Aro for example."
Aro threw his arms up in the air exasperatedly. "I am the test subject, brother? Why not you?"
"Because I am teaching her," Marcus countered.
"Did you teach those two how to as well?" I asked.
He drew in a deep breath. "Yes, I did, but we did so while you were asleep so you would not have been bothered by it, tesoro. You were probably completely unaware, but the calming emotions emitting back off your bond indicated that it worked."
"Go on then, teach me." I adjusted myself to sit up straight a little.
"Focus on your bond with Aro, even if it is not visible to you. With enough concentration you should be able to feel it within you, stretching across connecting your heart to his."
I closed my eyes and tried to pay attention to every sensation within my chest and surely enough, now that he had mentioned it, I could feel the slight tautness of the bonds between them, focusing solely on the one very subtly tugging me in Aro's direction.
I nodded for him to continue.
"This part is difficult to explain, bellissima, but you need to manifest whichever emotion you are attempting to take effect across the bond. I am afraid there is no better explanation I can provide you. You just need to try for yourself." I felt his hand encouragingly rubbing my shin.
After deciding on what emotion for a few moments, I remembered that Aro was feeling rejected as he always was when he was the one furthest from me. I attempted to push across every reassuring and comforting emotion possible, with as much mental force as I could, to the point where I was grimacing ever so slightly.
I suddenly opened my eyes and glanced over between Marcus and Aro. "Did it work?"
Aro, who seemed visibly much calmer already, nodded his head with a proud smile. Even Marcus seemed surprised yet content with the development, lightly squeezing my leg.
I myself felt a sudden wave of some kind of emotion from Aro's end of the bond. At closer inspection, I realised it was adoration, and I found myself subconsciously purring at it. I curled up into Caius and smiled contentedly.
The rest of the journey back had been relatively uneventful. Caius and Marcus and I were pretty much inseparable, you would've thought we were stuck together with superglue or something. I could see that Aro was still feeling a little down, so I made sure that I didn't reject my perfect little brat too much by giving him near constant access to my thoughts.
Later on that day, the four of us were all sat in Caius' quarters in front of the TV. I was crouched in front of the DVD cabinet in only an oversized sweatshirt, sifting through all of our movie options.
"Happy Feet?" I tossed the DVD over.
Marcus leant over and picked it up off the floor. "What on earth is Happy Feet?"
"The one with the animated tap-dancing penguin, obviously," I giggled. "Ooh, Madagascar."
"Madagascar? There is a film about Madagascar?" Aro questioned.
"Oh yeah, it's a classic. There's, like, this lion, zebra, giraffe, and hippo, and they all end up stranded in Madagascar in the wild when they're supposed to be in New York, and then there's a lemur called King Julian, and the penguins!" I squealed. "And then the lion goes all weird and rabid and tries to eat his lil' zebra friend. Let's watch it," I gushed.
"I do not see how it is factually accurate in any way," Aro added sceptically.
"Eh, that's the beauty of it," I responded.
Caius sighed. "If that is what you want."
I turned around and grinned before crawling back over to the DVD player and putting the disk in. "Yes. Yes it is."
It wasn't like we paid any attention to the movie in anyway. Once I crawled back across the floor and climbed onto Marcus' lap with my legs across Aro and Caius, my attention instead was solely on the three of them. Caius had even leant over so that his head was on my stomach as he pressed gentle kisses on my exposed skin there while Aro ran his hands across my legs. Marcus was cuddling me as closely to him as possible, occasionally kissing my face softly.
"You seem anxious," Caius noted.
I took a deep breath. "Hadn't noticed," I replied sarcastically.
Marcus took my face in his hands and gently kissed my forehead. "Why, tesoro?"
"I don't know, just this whole thing with the trial, and the fact that the odds are I'm going to execute my family, and the Cullens all rejecting me completely. Sure, I'm pissed off at them right now, but they are one of few people I'm close to, I don't want to lose them," I told them.
Aro nodded his head in understanding. "I know this is not ideal, not in any way, but it is the only solution there is. If we are seen to make exceptions to those closest to us and abuse our power, it will not take long for a revolution to occur. We do not want this any more than you do, but I also share the opinion that this information may be incorrect."
Caius sat up with his hand still on the inside of my thigh. "How so, brother?"
"I find it difficult to truly believe that Carlisle would do such a thing. He is a wise man, he knows his place in our society. Furthermore, the child has a startling likeness to both Isabella Swan and Edward Cullen, which I highly doubt is a coincidence. I believe there is more to this than meets the eye—the pieces do not add up."
"Could it be something else entirely?"
They all turned to me in question, so I continued.
"Like, I wonder if there actually is a way to breed humans with vampires. Carlisle's a doctor, right? What if he managed to figure out a way to do it or something like that?"
Caius tilted his head in thought. "The child would still be an immortal regardless. That we cannot allow."
I sighed. "That's true I guess. I just…I don't want them to get hurt."
"I know, cara mia," Aro sympathised, "and we will do everything in our power to see this through fairly. I fear this will not be a simple trial after all."
⊱ ────── {.⋅ ✯ ⋅.} ────── ⊰
Author's note: This chapter is just a shit ton of fluff, but honestly I'm here for it. Maybe it was because I was writing this so late last night, but I was cackling with laughter at the thought of Caius hiding from the sun behind a giant cardboard cut-out of Prince William-
We're getting closer and closer to the end now :( After this chapter, there'll be only 9 chapters left before Euphoria comes to a close. Not to worry though, not announcing it for certain but there will be a total of three books in this series, and I've already outlined the plan for the third one.
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!