"Is that all? All I have to do is spend one day a week training? And I will be allowed to leave the Building, master?" Damien was still skeptical. Aro had to have an ulterior motive. Yes, he blatantly told Damien that he wanted his forever devoted loyalty and for him to take Alec's place in the Guard. But why offer this new freedom? Wouldn't it make more sense to force him into it, maybe petty threats and little torture for shits and giggles? Was Aro playing the good cop now and then if Damien refused, and the all-powerful leader turn into bad cop?

To his relief and horror, he saw Didyme flicker on the opposite side of the room, "Have I ever told you that you are the most cynical five-month-old I have ever met?" she teased, giggling her childish-laughter. Damien tried to keep a poker face, so Aro wouldn't suspect anything odd was going on. Damien's eyes flicked to where Didyme stood, then flicked back signaling her to come closer so he could keep her in his line of sight without turning his head or moving. Aro noticed, looking to where Damien was looking. I was just a marble vase resting on a stand. What should I do? Damien asked. Didyme stood next to her elder brother waving her hand in front of his face. She smiled smugly, "Oh if only you could see me, my dear, murderous brother. I would torment you, reminding you of every sin, every drop of spilled blood and puff of vampire ash!"

Not helping. I need to answer him. The silence is getting weird, Damien fought a glare and an eye-roll. He needed to stay on Aro's good side. "Go for it. You have been dying to get out of the Building. Plus I think gaining Aro's trust is a smart move. He's desperate. I can sense it," Didyme now smiled reassuringly, leaning against the throne while sinking into it several centimetres. Ghosts are weird.

"We have a deal, master," Damien shook Aro's hand. "Marvelous. I will tell Demetri and Felix that you will be missing class Saturdays and Sundays. You are expected to make up the work though, I can't have you slacking off can I now?" Aro cooed like he was talking to a dog. Damien left with a sinking feeling in him stomach, like he had just sold his soul to the devil. Maybe he had?

Aro sat their smiling like a child who had been handed a new toy. A great weight had been lifted from his shoulders know that he hand a small grasp on being able to maintain control over the Halfling. The grip was no stronger than his pinky finger, but in time it would become an iron fist. He knew what Damien desired, all he had to do was keep the child focused on that. Being able to explore the human world was something Damien wanted not needed, like air or blood. It could be taken away and only the child would suffer the consequences if it tried to defy Aro. He would be trained to love and adore his master. Aro thought he was being rather merciful. He knew Caius would take a much more painful approach. Really Damien should be kissing his feet he didn't involve Caius.

Aro had no reason to doubt the other children's loyalty. They were sheep. All of them. Olivia, much like Chelsea, aimed to be the best and most loved. They would both do anything for a treat, even if it was something shiny. Tiago was blissfully ignorant, following orders without hesitation or second thought. Being a mindless drone was perfectly fine with Aro. It was what made a perfect soldier in Aro's opinion. Hopefully Tiago would not make the same mistake as his father.

Marina though, he paused before laughing to himself. How could that girl ever be a threat to him? Even if somehow her loyalty slipped, Aro could snap her dainty neck in half a heartbeat. Aro thought Demetri teaching her how to throw knives, fight with a dagger, and fence were a joke. Steel and iron were as powerful as tickling when it came to combat in the vampire world. It was adorable that she was trying, that a china doll of a girl could attempt to seem threatening. It was almost as cute as Jane when -.

The thought brought a sinking feeling of dread and loss. This frustrated Aro. Why should he give a damn about Jane? She was now useless in destroying the Cullens. Jane was special once, not anymore. Now Jane was dead. Now Jane was to be replaced. But with what? Damien would replace Alec. If they really needed man-power, Tiago would replace his father. That left Marina and Olivia. Olivia had no gift and was an ok fighter at best. Marina had potential. Aro smiled. Everything would fall into place and order would be restored. It would take some adjusting and dialing in, but soon the Volturi would be stronger and more powerful than ever before! He would be more powerful than ever before…

Returning to his chambers, he tried to hide his haughty pride from his wife. "Someone's frown finally turned upside down," she cackled from her lounged position on their bed. Her lips pursed in a flirtatious manner, body arched on its side displaying every womanly curve, dark hair flowing and framing her face, one of the straps of her red silk "nightgown" had fallen off her shoulder and bra-less breasts spilling out the top slightly. Aro stroked her face affectionately, he now knew that was all on purpose. "Why is there a ravishing demon in my bedchambers?" he said in a smoky voice as he laid down on the bed next to her.

"I was wondering the same thing," she purred as she slowly and torturously unbuttoned his shirt while sliding the cloak from his shoulders. It was nice for Aro to have a break and distraction from his woeful life.

The nausea seemed to build as Damien made his way to his room. Tomorrow was Saturday. He should be happy, he would be able to see Enzo and see if Aro was telling the truth for once. Then why was he so uneasy? His hand shook as he reached for the door. "Here, let me help you," Claudia beamed as she opened the door. Still no one knew how she was the only ghost able to physically touch objects in the living realm. But Damien guessed it was helpful for some things.

Damien flopped on his bed, lying on his back wit is legs dangling over the edge taking deep breathes. Everything Aro said unnerved him and screamed BAD IDEA! What scared him the most was Didyme. Normally she was warm, happy, supportive, and made him feel at ease. There was this disturbing, bloodthirsty look in her eyes when she looked at Aro. The same creepy, ambitious look he saw every day in her brother's eyes. Could he really trust her? Why couldn't he just be like his coven siblings and nod along mindlessly with everything they were told. Why was he always riddled with anxiety and fear and suspicion?

Kicking off his shoes, he climbed more onto his bed. Sitting up he reached for his sketchbook. He started with just tracing his right hand, simple, easy, safe. He slowly began filling in the detail of the joints, the creases of the knuckles, the tendons flexing. He stayed aware and conscious the entire time. He was in control. HE controlled the pencil. He CHOSE what to draw.

On the next page he drew a rectangular prism. Damien took time shading parts of the prism to make it seem like it was popping out of the paper like a building. A building? Why not? Adding windows, he decided it should be four stories. The building looked oddly boxy and gaudy. Like a warehouse. His eyes itched and skin beneath them felt tight. The line became less straight and seemed to swirl and twist. Like fire. Damien stared at the paper confused. Why would he draw a burning building? Brushing his fingers over the white paper, it felt hot to the touch like touching a stove. The grey graphite smelled of smoke and wafted from the picture. "STOP IT!", Damien screamed to himself. "IT"S NOT REAL!"

Damien threw the sketch book against the wall, paper scattering across the room, falling like snow. As the pages fell he heard the sound of children screaming, of burning. This madness needed to END! Damien desperately grabbed they soft knitted blanket he had stolen from Alec's room like a lifeline. The blanket seemed to suffocate all sound, blocking out the phantom screaming.

Carefully he piled it on top of his face and screamed. Screamed until his throat burned, until he couldn't breathe, until his face was blood red, until his lunges told him to stop. He didn't know why he was frustrated or doing this, but it felt good to just let something out, even if it was pathetically muffled. When he finally ran out of air he took a deep breath, held it for a couple seconds and released it. One. Two. Three. Breathe. One Two. Three. Breathe. The blanket still smelled of Alec. The smell of smoke was replaced with the scent of chamomile and rain. This was real. This was comforting. It wasn't until now that Damien realized how much Alec's scent calmed him down. It reminded him of the sweet, herbal teas that Joan drank to help her sleep. Calming, soothing, comfortable. He remembered burying his face into Alec's face as a small baby just before drifting off to sleep, having innocent dreams of birds and purple clouds and warm grass fields. Now every time he shut his eyes he saw the explosion in the subway station, Aro's eyes black with greed and gluttony, and other potential horrors.

But for now he pretend like he was small again. He was able to make his eyes close, only to see a dark thunderstorm. Every now and then lightning would pulse like a vein across the heavens. He heard nothing but the rhythmic sound of his heartbeat, pitter pattering like rain. The blanket smelled like everything had been cleansed by the rain. Although the blanket was cold, it felt like cool drink of water on a hot, arid day. He didn't know how long he lay like that, but he finally felt at peace for once.

"Why do you never want to play with me anymore?" Tiago asked Marina. His eyes brimmed with tears. She had been ignoring him for weeks, saying she was "busy" every day after training with Dad. In the morning before class she was "studying". In class she was "learning". "I'm sorry but my Father and I are doing something together. Maybe later," She ran down the hall way not even looking at him. This was the only response he ever got now. Maybe Dad could tell him how to get Marina to play with him? Tiago sprinted to the TV room when Felix was watching Tosh.0, snorting obnoxiously at a guy getting kicked in the balls. "Dad, how do you get a girl to like you more?"

Felix dropped the remote in shock. He didn't think he was going to have to have this conversation for a while. Tiago was three months old for fuck's sake! "Um…have you tried kissing her?" Felix was trying not to laugh. "EW! Why would I want to kiss Marina?" Tiago cringed.

Physically he looked like he was six or seven. His adoptive son was NOT ready to handle women, even if it was another three month old. Which was creepy the more he thought about it…

"She never wants to spend time with me and always says she's busy. I just want things to go back to the way they were before when we would spend all day after classes playing in the courtyard," Tiago's amber eyes filled with melancholy.

"Maybe she's cheating on you?" Felix joked. "How can she cheat in a game when we never play together" Tiago's innocent confusion made Felix laughed even harder. Wow, Demetri was right. This kid really was a dumbass. Seeing the sad, desperate, adorable face, Felix realized how much he sucked at being a parent. Here, the kid who was basically a son to him had just accidently admitted he had his first crush and Felix was laughing in his face, mocking him. "Well, uh, did you, umm, try inviting her to do something she might want to do? She likes books, maybe uh take her on a date to the library?"

"Gross? Why would I go on a date?" was Tiago's only reply. Felix had to hold back a face palm and another fit of laughter. He needed to be mature about this. "Ok, here's the battle plan. Stage 1, you are going to march downstairs to the training room and say, "Marina, we are going to explore the Building and we are going to have fun." Stage 2 you take her hand and skip, frolic, sashay, or whatever stupid girly crap girls do when they walk down a hallway and you are going to have an adventure. Stage 3, I'll tell when your older and know how to undo the buttons on a girls sweater and I'll make sure you have the correct protection for," Felix ordered going into commando mode. "Why would I need a knife or a gun? Is this idea dangerous? Should I bring protection with me on this adventure?" Tiago gasped, blissfully ignorant.

"NO! Abslotutly not! That is a not go, private!" Felix screamed waving his arms in front of him signaling that was final and to forget he even mentioned stage 3. "Do you copy, private?" Felix stood at attention. Tiago saluted him back, "Sir, yes Sir!" before running downs stairs.

Reaching the door of the training room to find Marina in fencing gear, foil in hand practice stabbing a dummy. Demetri was coaching her in Russian, which honestly scared the crap out of Tiago and shook his confidence. What did Dad say about stage two? Which came first? Why was his stomach feel like it was practice dummy? At least that was getting Marina's attention!

"Um Marina was are um going on an Adventure alone together frolicking. And somehow it will unbuttoning a girls dress. But don't worry I don't have protection, Dad told me he would give me that later. And privates," Tiago stammered. Marina dropped the foil, leaving it clattering loudly on the floor. Both slowly turned towards him faces full of shock like he had just thrown up rainbows and had unicorns popping out of his ass.

Demetri's eyes suddenly filled with rage and looked like he was about to rip Tiago limb from limb. "FFFFFFFFFFEEEEEEEEEELLLLLLLLLLIIIIIIIIXXXXXXXXXXXX!" Demetri growled so loudly the sun probably had to cover its ears

New York

The rest of the day passed in awkward silence. Donovan was still asleep somehow and slightly feverish. Jane wasn't sure if she should be worrying about that. Counting the hours since they had met, Donovan had literally not slept in six days. Plus he had his shield up the entire week. No kidding he was finally shutting down or fizzling out. Jane didn't recall ever seeing Donovan feed since they met him and who knows how long he had gone without blood altogether.

Gently she placed her hand on his forehead. A sigh escaped his lips. Her ice cold hand felt amazing against his flaming skin. But, as she watched him sleep, the dark circles under his eyes faded more, stress melted from his face, and muscles relaxed. He looked to be the same age if not younger in his sleep. He was only a kid, just like them. A kid who had saved their asses several times without question. That didn't sit well with Jane and soon realized Alec might have been right about not trusting him. Why would some kid suddenly flip his loyalty to serve them, even if they had done nothing for him? After last night, Jane was now not even sure if he had been loyal to the Dhampirs to begin with. She wished Marcus was here.

"He's still burning up," Alec noted, pulling the hood of his blood stained sweatshirt and sleeves to cover as much skin as possible. He quickly grabbed a gaudy purse that seemed almost as old at them and creaked the door open. It was midafternoon, but a couple seconds wouldn't hurt. Alec ran quickly, scooping up snow into the bag and bolted back inside. "What are you doing?" Jane raised an eyebrow. Alec silently spread a moth eaten quilt over the Halfling before dumped the snow all over Donovan. "We need to lower his temperature. Just by guessing, I'd say his temperature is around 108," Alec said calmly. The tone of voice reminded Jane of her mother whenever a villager had come in seeking medical help. She thought about him helping her after the subway explosions. Jane chased away the thoughts. Alec would have made a great doctor.

"So how are you feeling?" Jane hated how quiet the storage locker was. Alec shrugged. He was still thirsty and wished he could also curl up on the floor and sleep if possible, but it was tolerable and couldn't be fixed until sundown. It wasn't worth worrying about. Still Jane was hovering, fussing making sure he was okay. "Well, if you want me to save your new boyfriend I would like some space," Alec didn't mean for it to sound cold, but it felt like a frozen dagger to her heart. "He's not my boyfriend! I am just worried 'cause a couple hours ago I was sure I lost you! Sorry if someone gives a damn about you, even when you never give a damn about yourself," Jane was done. She wanted to escape the storage locker but the sun kept her captive. Alec felt guilty for hurting her. Turning around he wrapped his arms around his sister. "Look I'm sorry. I'm fine, really," Alec gave her shoulder a squeeze before sitting back down on the floor. Only an hour and a half before sundown.

Jane tried to spend her time re-organizing the storage locker. There was a lot of interesting items in here. Luckily she found an old New York Islanders sweatshirt that wasn't too big on Alec, a clean shirt for herself, a rather pretty pearl necklace, and a make-up counter and mirror which she made Alec use to get the dried blood of his face. Just because they were taking refuge in a storage locker didn't give him an excuse to look like a slob. He was more than willing after she initially licked her thumb and tried to "mom" him to get the rusty smudges off.

Finally dusk fell. Jane tried to shake Donovan awake, but all she got was a groan. He still looked exhausted. "Let him sleep. We aren't in a huge hurry. If sacrificing one night to avoid another crash, then that's what will do. I'm heading out hunting and will be back in half-an hour," Alec sighed. He knew Jane was getting stir crazy. Part of him wanted to ditch Donovan. It was the logical answer. But oddly the half-vampire had grown on him. Before Jane could protest he slipped through the locker like smoke.

The streets were filled with holiday shoppers. This would be an issue. Creeping into a dark alleyway he found a sleeping homeless man. It was a shame, the guy looked to be about seventy, half frozen in the snow, passed out from his only comfort: Alcohol. But in a way it was a mercy. Alec made sure he felt no pain and went quickly.

Making his way back he found a tabloid stand. Jane wasn't one for superficial Hollywood gossip. That was Chelsea and the wives' job. But he bought one anyway, along with a granola bar for Donovan. Hopefully a little sugar would help once he woke up. Walking a block down he, came to another stand. This one sold comics. Scanning the collection, he finally settle on two, trying hard not to laugh. The comics he chose were Blade and Vampire Hunter D. If Donovan didn't get a kick out of them, then maybe Damien would. He guessed he had about ten minutes left. Alec made his way back to the storage locker.

"Good your back! Did anyone follow you?" Jane hissed quickly before barricading the door. "I don't think so. Why?" Alec was now nervous. He should have been more careful. "I kept hearing voices and footsteps and heart beats, but it is probably just the human workers," Jane sighed. Alec handed her the grocery bag full of magazines before sitting against the wall. "If you want to step out to hunt you can. It's my turn to take watch anyway," Alec offered. "That actually sounds amazing," Jane sighed in relief before reaching for the door. Something wasn't right. Slowly she opened the door.

"ALEC! Wake Donovan, now!" Jane shut the door, pushing boxes across it. "What's happening?" Alec was on full alert now, fresh red eyes ready.

"There are about one hundred dhampirs standing outside the door and I highly doubt they are just caroling or trick-or-treating!"