Leaning against the all of the indoor training grounds, Demetri was paying more attention to footwork than anything else, but not really because he was interested in whether or not the new fighters actually stayed on their feet. Sure, he was physically present, but mentally he was miles away. In the four days since he and Bella shared their first kiss, he had spent most of free time thinking about what he could do to help aid her healing, or at least speed it along.

He did know of one way to at least fix the bone, but as far as he was concerned, it was literally the last resort. It was exceptionally painful and if there was even the slightest movement on her part, either she would lose any future ability to regain full use of hr jaw, or he would have to rebreak it and try again. Neither one of those possibilities were options in his book, but for the moment, it was looking more and more likely he had no other choice.

Unfortunately, there wasn't a lot that could actually heal a vampire.

He knew she understood there was very little that could be done about the scars, and at least from what she said, she was find with that. It was the broken bone, the inability to open her mouth, and the hole in her cheek she was the most upset about. She told him she could live with the scars if just that could be fixed. No, he wasn't a fan of the thought of her being so incredibly unhappy for the next however long it took to heal on her own, but he really didn't want to be a reason she was hurt even more.

Brought out of his musings, Demetri grunted when Alec appeared next to him, mirroring his position on the wall; arms crossed with one foot propped behind him. "I swear, you let these little pissants have a few days to themselves, and it's like day one all over again."

Alec's nose wrinkled at the stupid mistakes being made by the younger of the bunch, but shrugged it off. "You know how children are." Cocking his head to the side, he then hummed in his throat. "Do you remember, oh God, about three hundred years ago, that trip to Siberia we had to make because of the overpopulation of shifters and the coven called on us to help thin the pack?"

Groaning in his throat, Demetri nodded. "Somethings you can never forget no matter how hard you try. What about it?"

Clearing his throat, Alec clicked his tongue. "While you were looking for the newest addition of the coven that got lost, I ran into a nomad. Nice guy... lots and lots of claw scars. According to him, around fifty years before the coven claimed what they thought was free to claim for themselves, this nomad used that area as a stopping point on this cross-continent trek he made. He never stopped there longer than it took to feed before he moved on, and it wasn't like that point in time humans were easily accounted for, especially in that particular part of the globe. Humans vanished all the time, so it wasn't really a problem.

"In that area, there was a small settlement. Not a village per-sey; it wasn't that big. Only about fifty or so humans. As it turned out, that was where these shifters were coming from."

Nodding slowly, Demetri pursed his lips. "Uh huh... well, that explains how you knew that."

Alec just lifted a shoulder. "Pretty much. Anyway, his story was pretty simple. He was passing through the area, like he always did, but that particular time, he was met with a shifter that phased for the first time."

"That'll do it. Nothing on this planet is more lethal to a nomad than a fresh shifter."

Alec snorted. "Right?" Clearing his throat, "back to the point, his story got me thinking, and I remembered reading something." Then, he swung one arm out, smacking Demetri in the chest with the book in his hand. "I brought you something."

Looking at the object he had just been assaulted with, Demetri's lip curled. "That's my book."

Not taking his eyes off one of the female trainees, Alec cocked his head to the side. "I marked the page for you."

The corner of Demetri's lip lifted higher as he took his book, looking at the top of the pages, his eyes narrowing. "You barbarian. There are literally hundreds of ways to mark a page." Opening to the dog-eared page, he smoothed it out before closing the cover and popping Alec on the nose like a misbehaving puppy. "Bad, Alec. We don't bend the pages of Demetri's books."

Rubbing his nose with a glare, Alec huffed and recrossed his arms. "Just read it, Asshole."

Slowly turning his head, Demetri cocked a brow, and his voice took on a cynical tone. "Need I say again it's my book? I've read it." Holding the book out to Alec, he returned his attention to the trainees. "Put it back where you found it."

Taking the book back, Alec clicked his tongue. "It's worth considering, Dem."

Demetri nodded once. "I have considered it. However..." Grabbing the cuff of his sleeve, he pulled it up his forearm, showing off a paper thin scar that went completely around his arm amidst the numerous bite scars he had acquired over his life. "You have absolutely no idea how bad it hurts. If you did, you wouldn't be so quick to suggest it."

Eyes wide, Alec's snapped his attention back up to Demetri's face as the tracker fixed his sleeve. "How have I never noticed that before?"

Demetri just shrugged as he settled himself back against the wall. "Unlike you, I don't make it a point to run around half naked."

Before Alec could think better of it, he opened his mouth. "I know of a certain newborn that absolutely wouldn't mind."

Face smoothing out, Demetri rolled his eyes. "That is beside the point. What is the point, is it is painful enough to make a grown man cry." Sighing, he lowered his eyes. "Isabella is loosing too much venom to heal herself, and is yet another reason to add to the mounting list of why the death of her sire is such a colossal pain in the ass."

Crossing his arm yet again, Demetri's book held against his chest, Alec grunted. "You know, Demetri, Caius had that James guy looked into, and from what I'm hearing, dead or alive, there was no possibility this dude was ever going to have anything to do with her. If he didn't just abandon her during the three days of her change, there is a very high probably she would have suffered much worse than she did. How he stayed off our radar for almost two hundred years is beyond me."

"He didn't." Looking at down at the shorter vampire, Demetri cocked his head. "I guarantee we have cleaned up quite a few of his messes over the years. However, in order for there to be a complaining witness, there must be witnesses. He didn't leave any, so we never knew who it was." When Alec blinked at him, he shrugged. "You're not the only one that has heard what those reports entail, Alec; but apparently you are the only one they don't give a sense of deja vu to."

Tapping his thumb on the cover the book in his hold, Alec frowned. There had to be something someone could do for the infant. Demetri knew her better than anyone else did, but everyone knew she wasn't healing as she should. It had been a couple of weeks, so there should have been some attempt on her body's part to begin to refuse her jaw bone, but it remained completely severed. Sure, she was over producing venom to do that, and no matter what, on her own, it would take a decent amount of time, but the hole in her face stopped any progress that should have been made.

He genuinely liked the girl, as did the others of their clique, and they were all pretty determined to come up with something to help her. The problems wasn't coming up with ideas, though. They had plenty. The problem was her extremely overprotective guardian. If they couldn't get him to agree, it was back to the drawing board. The other problem was, said overprotective guardian refused to humor anything that would cause the infant pain, and without her sire, any relatively painless option was out the window.

When Alec fell silent, Demetri went back to half paying attention to the trainees. He would give Alec credit for finding the only answer he knew of to the issue, but the younger vampire had never had to be put back together with foreign venom before. It wasn't even close to the same thing as having to reattach something at a joint, which Alec has had to have done. Sure, that's not exactly pleasant, but it's not the same as having to fuse a bone back together. To Demetri's knowledge, Alec hadn't even been bitten hard enough for the other vampire's teeth to come into contact with bone. That is a completely different level of pain, and one that once you know, you are very conservative when it comes to doing it.

When Demetri lost his arm, he was still with his own sire. Two thousand years later, he still vividly remembered having to be pinned down, told not to move, and fight against every last molecule of his body to do just that when the searing, blinding pain shot up his arm as Amun forced his forearm back together.

He couldn't do it.

He moved.

Amun had to rebreak his arm, and do it again.

Foreign venom did the same thing to bone as it did to skin; it burned it. When he moved, it misaligned the bone of his forearm, but the bone still fused together. There wasn't much of a choice but to break it in the same spot and do it again. It took three tries before the bone in his arm was connected properly, and nearly six months before the arm itself sealed completely closed. He knew how bad that shit hurt, and that was just his arm. In comparison to someone's face? He was positive the pain was little more than that of a bite.

Once again brought out of his mind when a body came to a sliding stop at his feet, Demetri made a face and shook his head. "Jesus Christ." Running his hand down his face, Demetri then scrubbed the palms of his hands together as the trainee crawled backwards away from him. "Alright, stop. Everyone... just. fucking. stop."

Pushing himself off the wall, he clasped his hands behind his back, his eyes roaming around the room. After a moment, he grinned, making everyone else gulp. "Since none of you seem to want to work today, why do we not have a little fun, instead?" Pointing one arm to the far right of the room, he directed Felix there, while having Jane take the left. Once they were in position, he addressed the room. "If your body is facing Felix, you are Team A. If you're facing Jane, you are Team B. This is a full fight simulation, and you will be expected to actually use the techniques you have been taught. Felix and Jane will not interfere, nor offer any aid whatsoever. Their only job is to keep things fair. If you lose your head, get off the floor. If you are caught cheating... well... I suggest you don't get caught. It is no different than lying, and you know perfectly well how I deal with liars. The team still standing, or has the most survivors in thirty minutes, wins. The prize is first feeding. The rules are simple. No actual decapitations. If you kill someone, you will be dealing with me. That's it. Don't kill anyone. This is a simulation, not an actual fight. A small piece of advice before you begin... Pay attention to who is on your team. If you take out your own team mate, it will still count as a kill, but you do not want to be the reason your team loses. I will make sure the others know, and you'll have twenty people very, very pissed off at you. Are we clear?"

There was a chorus of 'Aye Sir', and Demetri held his arms out to the sides. "Clear the floor and take your places." Eyes darting back and forth as the two teams separated, he gave them only enough time to get a general idea of who they were fighting with and who they were faced off against before he brought an arm down with a "begin".

*X*

On the catwalk that was above the training chamber, Bella stayed to the shadows as best she could as she looked over the safety rail and to the mass of bodies below her. She knew she wasn't really supposed to be there, but she was bored, and there was nothing else for her to do. Besides, technically, she wasn't really breaking Demetri's rule. Not only was he there, but so were the other three Elites, so she wasn't there 'alone'.

Then again, she knew she was supposed to stay with Dora and Sulpicia, so there was that.

Instead, for the last hour, she had been paying attention to the instructors, mimicking their actions and trying her best to learn the different techniques they were teaching the new guards. She didn't want to have to keep running when she was in trouble, or keep having to have someone else come to her rescue. She wanted to be able to protect herself, but it wasn't easy.

She was able to move her mutilated shoulder, but the range of motion was decreased, which made offensive maneuvers very, very difficult. It didn't stop her from trying, but quick movements hurt, and it had started getting harder and harder to keep up. One crossbody swing of her arm too many dropped her like a rock, and that's when she was discovered by Caius. It wasn't that she was found where she wasn't really supposed to be, it was how she was found. She was sitting on the metal catwalk, gripping her shoulder, her head down, and a nearly continuous whine in her throat.

She could feel his eyes on her, but she didn't move from her position. She didn't want to see the look of pity in his eyes she saw in so many others. She didn't want Demetri to be right about her being as defenceless as she was. She had always been beneath the vampires she had been around, and she didn't want to be that anymore. She wanted to at least be able to defend herself, but the more she tried, the less she actually could.

Caius, who at this point was used to tracking down the newborn that just didn't seem to want to listen when told to stay somewhere, and had gotten very good at slipping her babysitter, stood five feet from her, his arms crossed. He was beginning to see why Demetri was so adamant about her not participating in a training session; she refused to abide by her bodily limitations, and the tracker was concerned about her doing more damage than was already done.

Looking over the railing when he heard Demetri call for the trainees to stop, he hummed in his throat. Taking a page from the Head Guard's playbook, Caius decided to take a different route to the same destination. Closing the distance between him and the newborn, he took a seat next to her, and watched through the grate as the trainees separated into their assigned groups. Cocking his head to the side, he clicked his tongue. "Have you considered asking him for a private session? Something that is a little more catered to you, perhaps?"

With a sniffle, Bella licked her lips as she shifted her eyes to the vampire next to her. "No, but you know as well as I do he wouldn't."

Caius snorted with a grin on his lips. "If Demetri holds the capability of telling you no, I would be very surprised. That aside, they are being taught to do a job." Waving his fingers down to the guard below, "you never use a fraction of the tactics they are learning. They are being trained to defend not just themselves, but everyone you see, and many more you don't. They must be ready for anything that comes their way, Stella, you know that."

She did. As a matter of fact, Felix and Alec never missed an opportunity to tell her all about past fights they had been in, and who they were against. They were actually pretty fun stories to listen to, if she were honest. They always got so animated, and it always made her smile. Still, her brow drew down as she turned her head to actually look at Caius. "Demetri said it was improvisation that gave the Guard their edge over others."

Caius didn't deny that. Instead, he nodded it head. "Yes, Stella, that's true. However, all improvability does is give them the ability to adjust their tactics as necessary. They still need to know how to fight properly because the reality is, by the time we are asked to intervene, or we are forced to do so, the time for talking is long since over, and we never actually know what we are walking into. All we have to go on is what we are told, and as you found when it came to Cullen calling us about you, we hardly ever receive all the pertinent information up front. Things are left out to make the guilty party look less so, or to make the opposition look more so. They have to be ready for any eventuality, and ask anyone you'd like, the Volturi does not lose. We do not lose solely because of Demetri and his insistence of perfection before real world experience. These hopeful guards will train for ten years before they are then put through simulations where their lives depend on their ability to win. Some simulations are a recreation of actual missions the guards have been on, but mostly, they are the brainchildren of Demetri, and in those simulations, trainees can, and very often do, die."

"They weed out the morons no one wants to fight with anyway."

Head snapping to the side, Bella actually gulped at the sight of Demetri standing a few feet from her, his arms crossed and a brow high on his forehead.

He wasn't even slightly surprised when he looked up and saw his charge sitting on the catwalk, but he was positive he left her with the mistresses, so he was curious. "What are you doing here, Neos?"

Rubbing her nose with the palm of her hand, Bella cleared her throat when it was clear Caius wasn't going to be coming to her rescue this time. "You don't understand. There is only so much gossiping and rumors I can stomach, Demetri, and it's all they did, and it was horrible. Their voices literally made my teeth hurt. I didn't do drama in high school, and I sure as hell don't have the patience for it now." Then she turned and looked at Caius. "I'm so sorry, but I actually visualized killing your mate... and Aro's... and Aro... twice."

While the admission gained her a raised brow, Caius said nothing to her as he looked up at Demetri. "That didn't take nearly as long as I thought it would."

Lips pressing together, Demetri nodded as he leaned a hip on the railing of the catwalk. "Same."

With a face that clearly showed her confusion, Bella looked back and forth between the two males. When neither of them felt the need to elaborate, she cleared her throat. "What... what didn't take as long as you thought?"

Pushing himself back up, Demetri closed the distance between him and Bella, taking up a position in front of her, but leaning back against the railing, crossing his ankles as he looked down at her. "For your Sire to show himself." His charge was clearly startled at the statement, so he sighed and continued as he squatted, lacing his fingers together between his knees. "We talked about this, Agapimenos, the day I found you in the woods. I told you then we take after our sire, just as humans take after their parents. You've been so malnourished though, your actions have been more instinctual than thoughtful. Now that you're becoming healthy, your rational mind is beginning to work as it always should have. However, because you're still in your infancy, your sire is still running the show."

She absolutely recalled what he was talking about, and she was just as horrified now as she was then. Her eyes went wide, and her voice grew in volume. "But... but he was..."

When she trailed off, Demetri licked his lips and nodded slowly. "So I've heard." Dipping his head to catch her eyes, he gave her a small smile when she gave him what he wanted. "It changes nothing of significance, Psihi Mou."

She had yet to figure out why he always introduced a new name for her when there was something far more important to focus on. It wasn't the first time he called her that, but she had yet to have the time to really look into with it meant. So far, she knew he called her Young One, Kitten, Butterfly, and Sweetheart, but she hadn't found a translation for this new name that made sense, and this wasn't really the time to ask.

Her annoyance was just as much over the name as it was over James. Her eyes narrowed slightly, and her voice went cold. "But it changes something."

Smile turning into a grin, Demetri chuckled in the back of his throat. "Of course it does. Everything changes something, Neos. In this case, it changes who you're allowed to be alone with."

When Bella grunted her distaste, Caius popped in with a question. "How long have you been having these kinds of thoughts?"

Shaking her head, Bella licked her lips as she looked down. "A couple of days." Then, she turned her eyes on him. "But I didn't think anything of it because I've thought about doing shit to the Cullens ever since I woke up, so it wasn't anything really new. It's just..." lowering her eyes again, "they've gotten worse and more involved and..." Pausing as her eyes started to itch, she swallowed hard and roughly wiped away the venom that still leaked from her lips and back of her mouth. "They've gone from just burning them alive to playing these psychological games to..." Covering her face with her hands, she sniffled. "You don't want to know what they are now, or how hard it was to walk away from Dora and Sulpicia without doing anything."

Demetri's eyes cut to Caius', who had the same look in his eyes. Not only was something going to have to be done for the injury, something was absolutely going to need to be done to curb these thoughts. Neither one of them had ever personally met the man, and second hand information was only so reliable. What was completely reliable, however, was the newborn in front of them, and both of them knew they could take her at her word.

If she was having difficulty walking away and leaving someone alive, something needed to be done about it. He had known this day would arrive, and he was more or less ready for it.

Licking his own lips, Demetri reached for her, crooking a finger under her chin, and lifted her head up so he could see her eyes. It never sat well in his stomach to see her in such a state, and just like any other time she cried, he did what he could to rectify her upset.

While Caius backed off in order to allow Demetri to deal with his charge, before he left the catwalk, he turned back and watched as Demetri's expression morphed in the face of his upset female and smiled, though said nothing. He wanted to see how he handled the girl and how it evolved in the last two weeks.

Demetri looked in Bella's eyes, his voice soft and soothing. "But... you didn't do anything, did you?" She was quick to shake her head, a tear filled 'no' slipping past her quivering lips, and Demetri's lips pulled into a smile as a result. "Then what are you upset about?" When she looked away, he cleared his throat, and tilted his head when she looked back. "We don't get to pick our Sire. We don't have a say in the one that makes us. You have an aggressive sire, Neos. Aggressive sires spawn aggressive newborns; it's just the way it is. While no one expected it to happen so soon, it was only a matter of time before that aggression showed itself. We just need to redirect it, that's all. As you continue to recover, it will become harder, and there are a lot of vampires here you cannot kill; the Mistresses being at the top of that list."

Shifting his position, he leaned forward, setting his forehead against her. "Psihi Mou, listen to me. You are still learning this life and it's my job to teach you." Pulling back only slightly, he sighed. "However, in order for me to do so, you have to let me know when shit gets out of hand like that. I can do a great many things, but fixing what I do not know is wrong isn't one of them. You must understand you will never get in trouble over something you cannot control, and this issue falls fully into that category. I told you, Neos, you aren't the first vampire I've dealt with that very little is known about their sire, and you are absolutely not the only one that has an asshole for a sire. Granted, yours does seem to be slightly more demented than the average asshole, this is still something that is fully within my ability to deal with, if not fix completely."

Changing his grip from under her chin to cupping her cheek, Demetri chose his words very carefully. "I know you are still learning to trust me, and I can appreciate that. But, if you don't give me a way to prove to you you can, things in the future are going to become very difficult."

Unable to help, Bella actually scoffed as she pulled her face free.. "I trust you."

To her surprise, he gave her a sharp nod as he dropped his hand over his thigh. "Yes, to feed you and protect you, because that's all you've given me to prove I'm willing to do for you. You will not be a newborn forever, Isabella. In just about eleven months, you will become accountable for your own actions. Also, in that amount of time, I have a ridiculous amount of things to teach you. If I do my job right, there won't be any huge fuck ups to follow your first birthday. However, in order for that to happen, you have to trust me enough to know you can come to me for anything, and clearly, we aren't there yet. Currently, being fed and protected are just about the only things one your age cares about, but I assure you there are a great many things that fall under that particular umbrella, and I'm willing to do every single one. It's up to you to let me, though, which is something else we've talked about."

Looking into his eyes, Bella sighed. She couldn't dispute that. They had; in the car on the way to the airport on the side of the road. He told her all of that, but it didn't make doing it any easier. She didn't exactly have the best past when it came to explaining her problems to someone, and it didn't lend her much in the way of how to bring something up. She also didn't know what she was thinking was a product of who changed her, so she honestly didn't know it was something that even needed brought up.

Finally, after nearly a full minute of thought, she nodded slowly with a small smile on her lips. "I'll try."

Grinning at her, Demetri winked. "That's my girl." Reaching for her, he grabbed her wrists, pulling her to her feet as he himself stood. Letting go of her wrists, he then looked down at her as his hands settled on Bella's hips. There was the same tenderness in his eyes she was used to seeing, and his voice was level. "Now, this is what we're going to do about your mounting aggression towards others. Once this session is over, I'm going have Alec..."

"Master Demetri!"

Closing his eyes, Demetri growled in the back of his throat. "Son of a bitch." Opening his eyes, he looked to the ceiling. "I swear to God..." He was almost positive he knew what it was about, and if he turned out to be right, someone was getting their ass kick. Keeping one hand on Bella, he let got with the other and turned, looking down at one of the lower female trainees, his voice was completely different than it was a moment ago. "What?"

Carla, who was in her second year of training, cringed back at the tone she knew pretty damn well at this point. Licking her lips as she turned her attention to the tracker above her head, she gulped at the look on his face. "There is a fight in the female barracks."

Demetri's eyes crinkled in the corner. "Of course there is. Let me guess... the blonde." At the nod of confirmation, he growled deep in his chest. "Alec, take over for Jane. Jane, break it up and bring me that fucking Cullen." With the corresponding 'Aye Sir's, Demetri turned back to Bella while shaking his head. "Unbelievable." Looking her back in the eyes, he sighed. "Stay here. Give me twenty minutes to deal with this, and then I'm going to come back and help you, alright?"

She barely nodded her agreement before he turned and started walking away, his good mood from a moment ago clearly gone. Bella, setting her hands on the railing, glanced down to the training floor, seeing Jane already gone. Clicking her tongue, she turned her head. "Demetri?"

Turning halfway back, Demetri lifted a brow. "Yes?" He pressed his lips together to smother a smirk as she made the attempt, three times, to pronounce Psihi, before he did it for her.

She nodded at him. "Yeah, that. What does it mean? I've figured out the other names, but so far, I haven't found a translation for that one that makes sense because I'm pretty sure you don't mean your psychi."

Crossing his arms, Demetri licked his lips, pulling the bottom one between his teeth as he made his way back to his charge. "Not everything has a direct translation, Neos. Common sense should have told you that much. Every language has words that mean more than one thing. Greek is no different, and Psihi is a word that doesn't translate well."

Wrapping one hand around the railing, he used his body to force her to turn, grabbing the railing with the other hand and trapping her in place. Bending at the waist, he lowered himself so he was eyelevel with her. Running his tongue along his teeth, he hummed. "One very important thing was taken the day I was bitten. Something so unbelievably precious to me I've been lost without it. I got it back the day I found you." Leaning into her, his eyes turned to liquid. "Psihi Mou means My Soul. You will never be my life. You are far more important to me than that. I won't give you my heart. It's a useless piece of stone. What you are, and what you hold of mine, gives you and you alone, the power to destroy me."

She wasn't sure if that was the sweetest thing she had ever heard, or if it was the most fucked up thing she had ever been told, but that didn't stop Bella from giggling like a sixteen year around her first crush. Stomach tied in knots as she looked into his bloody eyes, there was no missing the swoon in her voice. "Is that why I don't feel so empty anymore?"

Demetri clicked his tongue as he glanced up for a moment before flashing her a panty soaking smirk. "Let's go with yes."

Below them, both Felix and Alec looked up at the catwalk, neither one even slightly surprised to see Demetri wrap an arm around Bella's waist, hoisting her feet off the grate as his lips pressed hard against hers.

Felix crossed his arms, a smirk on his face as he called over to Alec. "Fucking called it. You owe me a thousand bucks." At Alec's glare, Felix's smirk grew. "Don't get pissy, just pay up."

Raising his arm, Alec just gave the Enforcer the finger.