A rock was settled low in Bella's stomach, but she wasn't sure how to describe it. She wasn't scared, she knew that much, but when she asked Demetri for help with her dress, she saw his eyes darken as a result. Since she had never been in the situation she just put herself in before, she began to second guess the request and found herself asking if she was ready for anything else besides just getting out of the slightly too tight ball gown.

Changes are, she would have been able to do it on her own just fine had Aurora believed in the wondrous invention called a zipper, but she didn't. When Bella asked her about it, there was a long, drawn out explanation about how it took away from the esthetic of the overall dress, as well as zippers being more than a little irritating to the skin. Aurora had also told her that even adult vampires had a difficult time not breaking them because the teeth never latched together tight enough, and the thread that would hold it on was too thin and brittle to hold up against a vampire's movements. So, because they were useless pieces of stupid, Aurora always opted for a lace-up back. It might have been a gorgeous addition to a dress, but it all but guaranteed the wearer couldn't take it off without help if they didn't want the dress destroyed in the process.

Aurora might have been a very mild mannered vampiress that put up with her newborn attention span when it came to getting her to stand still long enough to get what she needed to make sure Bella's dress fit properly, something she was promised would only need to happen two, maybe three more times before she would have them perfected and never need to do it again. At the same time, she was also slightly terrifying in the department of Bella not wanting to find out just how pissed off the tiny woman would get if she turned her beautiful creations into single use scraps. Something she knew would happen if she attempted to untie the laced up back herself.

So, after she and Demetri made their great escape from the ballroom, and as they were walking up the steps, Bella missed one and stumbled, leading to a very amused Demetri carrying her to their rooms. After she was set down, and before he could go to his room to change, Bella had leaned against her door and smiled at him as she slowly opened it. "Help me with my dress?"

Those five words seemed to have flipped a switch in Demetri's mind, and the smirk that pulled at his lips made her very glad she was leaning against something when her legs started to shake. All he did in that moment, though, was hold out a hand toward her room, and followed her when she entered the rest of the way, closing her door behind them.

The design of her dress and the request for his help was what led her to holding onto the post of her footboard, Demetri behind her, and slowly and gently loosening the cords that held her dress closed.

While every crisscross did its job to build up the anticipation in her gut, it didn't completely hold her focus, and the silence between them allowed her mind to take a route she would very much rather it didn't. Demetri wasn't even halfway done with his task when she finally spoke, and her voice was both soft and curious. "Can I ask you something?"

Once again cursing whoever it was that laced up his mate's dress, discovering near immediately they didn't know what the fuck they were doing when it came to a corset, Demetri tilted his head as he pulled at the thick red cord. "Of course."

Brows drawing down, Bella kept her focus on the smooth wood of her bedpost. "Is it possible to kill a vampire just by draining them of their venom?"

Eyes snapping up to lock on the back of his mate's head, Demetri froze for a moment, caught completely off guard but the unexpected question. Blinking himself back to his body, he did give it a moment's thought as he went back to what he was doing, contemplation covering his voice. "I suppose... it could be possible if enough is depleted to cease brain function, but with self-preservation for our kind being what it is, I cannot imagine the body not healing itself of whatever injury it sustained before that happened and the victim falling into something resembling suspended animation until such time as its venom replenished. I told you the day we met our bodies are masters of revival, and can overcome mind boggling injuries. We can even lose our heads and live so long as the brainstem itself isn't damaged during decapitation. So long as our brain remain intact, there is very little that can actually kill us."

Clicking his tongue and humming in his throat, he then continued. "That's not to say decapitation isn't a horrible thing to the one it happens to. I've been told that the mind is still completely aware of what happens to the body, but that's still not an immediate death. A very unpleasant one, but not immediate. The head itself will remain completely functional for an indefinite amount of time until the brain itself is destroyed; either by crushing it or burning it." Flicking his eyes up to once again look at the back of Bella's head, he took a shot in the dark. Dropping his eyes again, he lowered his voice. "Is that how you thought of killing me?"

Closing her eyes against the visions the reminder of those thoughts provoked, Bella leaned her head against her bedpost. Swallowing back the whimper, she slowly shook her head, but it was more like she was rolling her head along the curve of the wood. "No." Picking her head back up, she finally turned it to look over her shoulder, but didn't actually allow herself to look at Demetri. "Those were much worse." Dropping her head for a moment, she then returned her attention to her bedpost. "And I know they would work."

While the tone of her voice clearly said she didn't want to continue the conversation, it was her use of plurals that caught Demetri's attention. Leaning forward, Demetri looked at Bella's profile, his voice prompting. "They?"

Turning away from him, Bella cut her eyes to the wall across the room for a moment before she actually allowed herself to look Demetri in the eye. "I was really angry when you went to Rome."

Considering the fact that assignment came five hours after he sank his teeth into her neck, and he was gone for far longer than he said he would be, he could fully understand why she was so pissed off at him for it. He also knew if she possessed a vindictive bone in her body, he would have paid for that when he got back instead of playing her newborn games against the Mistresses over the color scheme of their mating ball. He didn't think repeatedly pretending to change their minds over something as stupid as what color to wear to a party was anything more than petty, and couldn't even be considered on par with something like Bella throwing a hissy fit. Bella having a hissy fit was generally pretty destructive, and since nothing irreplaceable got broken, it really wasn't that big of a deal.

Honestly, when he walked into the lounge after he returned, he fully expected to have something thrown at him, or punched in the face, or some kind of extremely negative reaction to his presence. What happened instead was him getting tackled. Not just hard enough to knock him to his back either, but with enough force to actually make him slide across the floor and halfway into in the hall before he stopped. He had been prepared for a lot of shit in that moment, but all his overly excited mate did was straddle his chest to keep him where she wanted him, and began to talk a mile a minute about how he had to help her get back at Athenodora and Suplica, who once again got under her skin. He did cut his eyes to Peter for an explanation as to what the fuck he missed, but he was given nothing but a shrug in response, prompting him to look back up at Bella with a nod and an okay. If all she wanted to do was have some fun at someone else's expense for a while and not take his head off at the shoulders, despite the fact he might have actually deserved it, he would absolutely indulge her.

However, finding out her reaction to his return was because at some point over the time he was gone the Mistresses had redirected her anger from him to them, and looking at his mate now and seeing his absence had had a very clearly devastating result to her, he hummed in his throat as he leaned back and finished unlacing the final two crisscrosses needed to be able to loosen the back enough for the dress to be removed. Cocking his head as he slipped his finger under the cord like ribbon, he plucked the remaining crisscrosses from the bottom of her shoulder blades to the top of the dress as he spoke. "Seems to me... that an extended absence from the guard might be beneficial to my overall health for the time being." Dipping his head, he whispered in his mate's ear. "What do you think, My Love?"

Shock didn't even begin to cover what shot down Bella's spine as she whipped around, her hand coming up to her chest to hold her dress up, looking at Demetri with wide eyes and parted, slightly quivering lips. There was a hard exhale of her breath, making her voice light and airy, but it did nothing to cover the emotion in it. "You can do that?"

Demetri merely shrugged a shoulder as he looked her in the eyes and set his hands on her hips. "Of course I can. You know I'm coven not guard, and I told you the day you arrived here the only reason I serve at all is out of sheer boredom, though with you around I doubt that will be a problem for the foreseeable future. Besides, while I am certainly the best at it, I am not the only tracker that has lent my talents to Aro, so he can survive without mine for awhile."

Once again jolting at the shock of his words, Bella grunted. "You're not?"

Demetri, however, snorted at the question. "Certainly not. You didn't honestly think out of 150 vampires, I was the only one that could sniff someone out of hiding, did you?" When her facial expression clearly said she did, Demetri shook his head with a quiet chuckle. "Very flattering, Neos, but even for as spectacular as I am at what I do, I cannot be everywhere at once, and do on incredibly rare occasion have some help. There are five others, though two of them are third string at best, and that is being kind because I am positive they have little more than a bag a parlor tricks that anyone is capable of doing with just a little bit of effort on their part. But, they are adamant enough in their unproven talents to keep them around on a just in case basis."

Tightening his grip on his mate's hips, Demetri pulled her closer. "All you have to do is say the word."

Bella was very quick to nod, and she did it quite fast. "Yes! Whatever word needs to be said, it's fucking said." Then, she whimpered. "Just.. don't leave me again."

A very soft sigh left Demetri's nose as he released her hip and instead cupped her cheek, looking her in the eyes. "Agapimenos, listen very carefully. I will never leave you, but what you need to understand is whether I'm gallivanting across the planet or I never leave the palace again, I am still going to be the Head of the Guard, and as such, I will still have a job to do. No one else on this Earth cares about our recent mating. They are still going to do extremely stupid shit, and there will be times, whether we like it or not, I will be the one that has to deal with it; most assuredly if a newborn slips their supervision, as they are shockingly prone to doing. Especially if they are being mistreated."

Looking up at him through her lashes, Bella licked her lips as her brows drew down. "You mean that really happens? It's not just... like, special circumstances? Like what happened with me?"

Shaking his head, Demetri's face took on a somewhat tender, though mostly irritated expression as he released her completely and crossed his arms. "What happened with you was the result of a group of idiots thinking they're something more than what they are... which is a group of idiots. What I'm talking about when it comes to mistreatment is fully intentional on the older vampire's part against a younger one. We've already discussed the fact asshole humans turn into asshole vampires, and if that asshole human intentionally mistreated those who were smaller or younger than them, they'll continue to in this life as well. Add in a sire's position over a newborn, and it's a recipe for disaster. Newborns aren't as stupid as they are made out to be, and they do know when someone is hurting them. If the abuse gets bad enough, they will run away. We do our best to intervene before it gets to that point, but we aren't always successful and are sometimes too late. When that happens, there are several decisions that need to be made very quickly, and that newborn needs to be found as fast as possible."

A small smile pulled at the corner of Bella's lips. "Which is where you come in, right?"

Nodding slowly, Demetri grinned back. "Exactly. No one can find a newborn faster than I can once I meet their sire, and while Felix deals with them, I go wrangle the newborn."

Crossing her own arms, Bella shifted slightly as an uncomfortable wave rolled over her. "That's the second time I've heard that phrase. What does it mean?"

Making a thoughtful expression, Demetri hummed as he clicked his tongue. "Do not take offence to this but, newborns... while smarter than given credit for by most, are actually quite stupid." Uncrossing an arm, he held up a finger when his mate glared at him. "What I mean by that is, they have barely an understanding of their world around them, and they run off instinct over rationality. They far surpass us older vampires in strength, but they don't know how to use it properly, and they will always do the obvious, which makes them very easy to control. However, you do not go at a newborn head on. You will lose, every single time. What it means to wrangle a newborn is, you lure them into a situation you control, take away their every advantage, and either talk them down, or force them down. That decision is made for you by how much they suffered. The younger they are, generally the easier it is, because they haven't suffered as much as someone older."

Bella's glare did not lesson as her eyes sparked. "So, that's what you did with me? Wrangled?"

Demetri didn't even mince words when he answered. "Of course it is. It's the only proven way to get an abused newborn to stop running long enough to attempt to save their life. It's not often, though the number has increased over recent years, that a newborn cannot be given a second chance to learn how to abide by the rules of our world in a much safer and healthier environment. That said, however, we take exposure risks extremely seriously and if a newborn is past the point of being able to be taught, we are given little choice in whether or not that newborn is allowed to live. If it comes down to destroying the newborn, the word severe doesn't even begin to describe the punishment for the sire.

"You, Agapi Mou, were a special case from start to finish, not the least of which reasons being at no point where we were ever dealing with your sire. We had no idea what we were walking into when we were called upon to find you. We had no idea what we were going to find because it had been days since you'd been seen. We had no idea what condition you were going to be in after we found out you were also being chased by shifters then happened upon the scene where you were attacked. We had no idea where your mind was going to be because at that point you had never been fed and were grievously injured. The truth is, Isabella, had you been anyone else, there is a very good possibility you would not have left that clearing alive, and not due to a lack of trying. All avenues are exhausted before before a newborn is killed because it is never their fault they are in the position they are in."

It was that statement that had Bella cutting in. "Even if they wanted this life?"

Demetri nodded, but cocked a brow. "Even in such an event, but answer me this, My Dearest; after you woke up, did you then ask to become a chew toy for shifter cub?"

Making a face, Bella shook her head. "No... no I didn't."

Giving a jerky nod, Demetri licked his lips. "My point is this... newborns, infants, and even yearlings to a degree, are dependant on their sire or a subsequent caretaker to survive and thrive. If that sire or caretaker abuses their position, the one that suffers is the newborn, infant, or yearling, because they do not know any better. It is usually females we deal with mostly because males will fight back far longer than a female will, but both will eventually break, and once they are broken, there is very little we can do."

Uncrossing his arms, Demetri held his weight by one hand on the bedpost above Bella's head, using his other to cup the back of her jaw, and instead of tilting her head back to look up at him, he slouched down to her eye level and lowered his voice. "You were special because, shattered as you were, from the moment I entered that clearing, even before I snapped that wolf's spine in two against that tree, I knew there was nothing I wouldn't do, no length I would not go to, to piece back together whatever fragments you had left before destroying whatever, or whoever, was necessary to make you whole again."

No one she had ever met could melt her insides quite like this man. Bella was positive there was a level of lunacy when it came to Demetri's perception of that situation, but at the same time, the way he spoke of it was enough to actually make her swoon. Even still, it didn't stop her from questioning it. "Why though? I mean, I know what you said on the catwalk the other day, but..."

Brushing his thumb along her marred cheek, Demetri's head tilted as he interrupted her. "You made me feel fear, for the first time in... I don't even know, anymore it's been so long. To be perfectly honest, I had no initial intention of harming the dog in manner I did, but when I saw you cowering from it on the forest floor, it brought out that long dormant emotion, and..." smirking wide, "oops."

Face taking on a mask of confusion, Bella leaned slightly into Demetri's palm, bringing her own hand up and setting it on top of his on her cheek. "You just looked really angry."

Nodding gently, for the first time in a lot of years, there was an uncomfortable clearing of Demetri's throat. "That's what fear looks like in a male. When we get scared, and it comes across as us being exceptionally pissed off, because we don't like it. The feeling of fear is... astronomically uncomfortable."

Unable to stop the small grin that formed on her lips, Bella turned her face slightly into Demetri's hand, her eyes shining at the revelation. "So... you're saying I make you uncomfortable?"

Face taking on a leveled expression, Demetri leaned in close, and whispered, his lips a breath away from caressing Bella's lips. "The thought of losing you makes me extremely uncomfortable, and very bad things happen to arguably good people when I get uncomfortable. I threaten you little friend the way I do because as my mate, the only thing in this life I fear, is something happening to you."

It was very hard to not notice when his fingers settled in the grooves on her face, and though it was never done really intentionally on his part, it always made her just a little depressed they were there at all. Eyes losing the spark the had a moment ago, she sighed. "Then why make such a useless vampire your mate?"

Pulling back, Demetri moved his hand from cupping Bella's jaw to holding her chin between the side of his forefinger and thumb. Finally tilting her head back, he locked their eyes, a less than impressed look on his face and a force in his voice he hadn't used when talking to her before. "I could teach you everything I know about fighting, both offensive and defensive, turning you into a merciless killing machine. I could teach you how to properly use your heightened senses, honing your tracking ability to rival my own. Should you request it, I could mold you into a female version of me, and it would very easy. I can do all of that because you possess the ability to learn it. You are not useless, Isabella, you're injured. Do not confuse the two. I won't have it, and I don't ever want to hear you say something like that again. Are we clear? Beating yourself up over and holding something like what happened to you against yourself is not only ridiculous, it's counterproductive to moving past it."

Letting a hard puff of air from her nose, Bella tried to pull her chin free, but was quick to realize Demetri wasn't going to let her. So, instead, she narrowed her eyes. "It's not something you move past, Demetri."

Once again, Demetri went straight for the bottom line. "If that's your stance then you have already halted any chance of recovery. You are allowed your anger. You are allowed your hurt, your insecurities, all of it. You are allowed to do as you wish and feel as you want, but you are not allowed to use it against me in such a manner as you're trying to. I fully understand you had a very hard couple of weeks, but no one is holding it against you, so why are you holding it against yourself? Using it to bring yourself down to the point you refer to yourself as something as... infuriating as useless? Yes, you have physical limitations, but they will lessen over time. You have mental hurdles to overcome, but again, that will happen with time. Stop with this bullshit nonsense of everything having to be immediate. Nothing in this life is immediate when it comes to learning it. What you don't understand is, you're holding yourself back from accomplishing anything by convincing yourself that because things are hard you're useless. Do you know who's useless, Isabella? Athenodora, Sulpicia, and everyone with the surname Cullen. They are useless. You are an injured infant. There's a fucking difference."

It was almost like Bella was awashed with defeat as she looked up at Demetri through her lashes. "If I'm allowed to feel however I want, then why are you yelling at me for it?"

Dipping his head, he got nose to nose with her. "Because what you are not allowed to do is degrade yourself over something you had no control over. Did you want to be a vampire prior to being bitten? I'm sure you did, but this life comes with a price, Sýntrofos. The one you had to pay was exceptionally steep, I will give you that, but to wallow in the past is live there, and if you live in the past, there is no hope for your future."

Drawing her bottom lip between her teeth, Bella did actually take what he said to heart, and did give it a decent amount of thought before she responded, and it was very tentatively. "Do you really think I can do all that? What you said a minute ago about learning that stuff?"

Eyes melting, Demetri sighed. "Of course, I do, Agapimenos. Will it take time? Yes. Will it take more than it would have if what happened to you didn't happen? Again, yes. Patience is a virtue not everyone possesses, and repeated failures do get very frustrating. I understand that. It was a very long time ago, but I was a newborn once, too. I have been where you are. I do know how shitty the start of this life is; how difficult the easiest of tasks are and how irritating it can become. More to the point, however, I have been hurt before, injured so severely I could barely move. I wasn't a newborn at the time, but I do have personal experience with what you're going through. I have said it before, and I will say as many times as needed for it to sink in. All you have to do is trust me, and I can help you. You just have to let me."

There was no part of her that doubted a word Demetri said, but what Bella was beginning to realize was, thought he did fully understand newborns and the way the vampire world worked, he held next to no understanding of how she worked. Over the course of the time she had been in his care, including the day he found her in the woods, she could count on one hand how many times he had actually spoken to her, and not down to her.

She wondered briefly if he simply hadn't noticed how much easier she was to work with following those times, or if he was just relieved she was finally listening, but dismissed the thought near immediately. She supposed it didn't really matter either way. It wasn't like she had ever told him, even though he did tell her numerous times that he didn't have the ability to read her mind, and she would actually have to tell him if something bothered her. It was her greatest flaw in her opinion of herself. She didn't like to talk about things like that, because time and time again, it was always eventually used against her.

It's not that she didn't trust him, though she was sure she didn't have as much in him as he wanted her to have, but all she could focus on was the last time she opened up to a vampire, really bad shit happened that was going to affect her for the rest of her unnatural life.

She also knew she wasn't really being fair, because she did talk to Peter. The difference between him and Demetri though, was Peter didn't hide behind a wall. He actually opened up to her, and it didn't take pissing him off to get him to do it. Maybe it was because they were closer in age, and the worst shit Peter had ever done in his entire life was damn near public record. Maybe it was because he understood age didn't automatically deserve the respect almost every single vampire in Volterra demanded. Or, maybe it was the fact he already knew most of the details of their conversations and she just had to fill in the blanks.

Whatever the case may have been, this was the most open and direct Demetri had ever been, and with a lick of her lips, she decided to see if he would actually give her a reason to trust him as he wanted her to. "What happened?"

There would be no way around coming clean and divulging the story eventually, he knew that. It wasn't something he liked to talk about it, and there were only three people that knew it happened. Well... two if the twins did what they were told.

Knowing he was the one that opened the door, he swallowed the well rehearsed response of that being a story for another day, and released his mate's chin. His movements were slower than normal as he reached up a hand to remove his tie. Shrugging out of his jacket and unbuttoning his vest, he sighed through his nose as he tossed both articles of clothing over the end of the chase and began the story of the worst thing he could ever recall happening to him.

"I spent... far more time with my sire than I should have. I was still with him until just under my century mark, soaking up everything he had to offer. As a teacher, my sire was... extraordinary, and I would return to him from time to time over the years that followed for that purpose because, as anything else, well... he was pretty much unless." Pulling his shirt from his pants, he began to unbutton, looking his mate in the eyes. "He is a coward for the mouth he can't help but run, leading to situations that don't need to happen, and others are the one to suffer for it. It's always the youngest that suffers for the misdeeds and stupid decisions of those that are supposed to know better."

Bella watched as Demetri removed his shirt, throwing it to join his jacket and vest, and her eyes widened to anime sized when she saw his back. She tried to figure out how she missed it the last time she saw him without a shirt, but was quick to remember she had been looking at the floor when he went to his closet to get her some of this clothes to wear, and then was looking at her shoulder when he went to his bathroom to retrieve the tweezers, so she never actually saw him from behind.

From his left shoulder blade, diagonally across his back, and down to the back of his hip were five scars she would recognize anywhere. Hand covering her mouth, her breath came out in a hard huff. "Those are..." They weren't laid open like hers were. They looked like surgical scars.

Looking over his shoulder, Demetri's face was expressionless, and his voice flat. "Cats." Turning back to face his mate head on, Demetri crossed his arms, though it didn't cover most of the other scars he received that day that littered his lower abdomen. "The Nile River Valley, the border of Egypt and Sudan specifically, is infested with the furballs, and where I was raised, though Amun's territory encompasses the entire valley. I was... three hundred and five, give or take. It was getting dark, so we left the den to feed, but before we reached where we were going, we had a little run in with a pride that was new to the area. It's a known fact that shifters and vampires are not, and will never be, friends. They are the counter to us, designed with the sole purpose of killing our kind.

"Male vampires are extremely territorial, and don't like to share what they see as theirs. Finding out a group of cats had just moved in a little too close to his actual den, Amun picked a fight with the cats. Now, it was four of them, and the two of us. The odd should have been relatively even, and they would have been had Amun not turned tail and ran the moment he could."

Jaw dropping, Bella actually choked on the words. "He left you to face them yourself?"

Demetri merely shrugged. "I told you, he's a coward, and a very well documented one at that. Now, prior to this night, I had only ever had one other run-in with a shifter, and nothing happened. She was pregnant and couldn't shift; though that certainly didn't stop her from running her mouth. I was still very young at the time, and still had access to my human morals. Her pregnancy, however, wasn't the only reason that didn't come to a fight. To this day I still don't relish the thought of harming a female, but I will if necessary. Back then, I wouldn't even raise my voice to one. So, the fact that feline shifters are almost exclusively female put me in a very difficult position."

Falling silent for a moment as he shifted his lips back and forth as the memory played before his mind's eyes, Demetri hummed in the back of his throat before he refocused his eyes and returned them to Bella's. "I killed two and was able to injure a third before that happened, the last of my humanity dying with them. I don't remember much following the pain, or how long I laid there, slowly being covered by sand as gentle breezes blew through the area, waiting for Amun to come back. Found out several years later he just... left, running to a different den of his in a different country entirely. That was the last time I saw him until today, my final memory of him being that of watching him leaving me to die... because of him."

Both of Bella's hands were brought up to cover her mouth, her eyes itching and glossed over. Her voice, however, held the tears her eyes wouldn't shed. "That's horrible."

Demetri, however, simply made a face of indifference as he uncrossed his arms and hooked his thumbs in the front pockets of his slacks. "That was a long time ago, though admittedly the vampire that crawled out of the sand was certainly not the same one that went under it. However, it does lend me a very unique insight into what you're going through."

Slowly lowering her hands, Bella slowly shook her head. "That's how you... why do you do that?" When her answer came in the form of a questioning expression, clearing asking she was talking about, her eyes crinkled in the corners. "When you answer my questions, it always sounds rhetorical, but it not, is it? You know a vampire can't do what amounts to bleeding to death, because you would have if we could. You know our bodies can overcome mind boggling injuries, because yours did. There isn't anything rhetorical about anything you've ever told me, is there? It's all been your actual experiences."

Shifting his eyes to the ceiling for a long moment, Demetri clicked his tongue as he looked back. "You don't live as long as I have without having a few of those."

Face hardening, Bella actually snapped at him. "Demetri."

To which, he lifted a brow. "What?"

Completely irritated, borderline angry, Bella glared. "Why won't you talk to me about it?"

"Because I don't talk to anyone about it. But, if you want to talk about scars, let's talk about yours. I can figure out the basics easily enough, but let's talk specifics on how you received yours."

Bella was quick to shake her head. "I don't want to."

Demetri merely leveled her with a look. "Then how can you hold against me not wanting to talk about mine? They're healed, and no longer a hindrance. Just a very permanent reminder of the worst day of my life."

It was nearly physically painful for Bella to bite back her response.

Demetri, on the other hand, just lifted a hand, twirling a finger to tell Bella to turn around. Stepping closer to her, he went back to loosening her dress so he could help her remove it, though he did have one last thing to say on the matter. Lowering his head, he spoke low in her ear. "I will say one last thing, though; that was the last fight I ever lost."

It was, too. He hadn't been lying when he said he didn't know how long he laid in the sand, left to die by his sire, and for dead by the cats, but the amount that had accumulated on top of him led him to believe it had been a while. Most of it, he wasn't even aware of his surroundings, knowing nothing but the fire that raged in his back as his body furiously worked to stave the loss of venom and rebuild a lot of skin. Not an easy task he would assume when one is made of stone, but regardless of that, when he was able to move again, it was another very long time before it was done without difficulty.

It had taken him far longer than it ever had in the past to return home, the trips prior merely being daunting in the distance department. That was one of the shorter lengths he needed to travel, but it took the longest time. Karpathos Island being as small as it was, there were no other vampires present, making it very easy for him to take the steps of establishing his own territory in the place he was born and raised as a human after the first time he left his sire. While it was true by the time he first returned 90 years after he went missing, his parents were long since gone, and most of his siblings as well, there was still one living in the house he was born in. His baby sister, only being five at the time, was young enough to still be alive. She was old enough when he went missing to remember him, and even at her exceptionally old age when he came back, she knew who he was because he had never changed.

This was before Aro came to power over the ever growing vampire population, so the rules and laws didn't exist, and exposure wasn't yet a crime. This being the case, he did nothing wrong when he remained at his sister's side for the handful of months she remained alive, telling her the stories of what happened to him and hearing of her life as well. While at first he was devastated to learn his parents never moved past his disappearance, refusing to believe he was dead because his mother 'would have known if he was', he did find a nearly psychopathic level of humor in being told he had a grave.

Also during the time he spent with his sister, he had gotten to know his remaining nieces and nephews, their children, and their children's children; every single of them knowing not just who he was, but what he was. This being the time of Zeus and the Gods of Mount Olympus, it was never questioned. It was merely blamed on Hades and dismissed just as quickly.

He did occasionally leave though, sometimes to return to his sire, sometimes just overtaken with wanderlust as what happens to a covenless vampire, but he always came back; watching over his family and welcoming the new generations, and them welcoming him back every time with open arms and a party befitting a God.

It was during one of his vanishing acts he sustained that life altering injury, not gone two years before it happened. His family being human, had no idea what to do when he was discovered washed ashore, but that didn't stop them from doing whatever they could to help him recover. Since they didn't know better than to blame his species on a very vengeful, not yet known to be mythological, God, they crossed so many lines to nurse him back to health, sacrificing human after human until he was able to better care for himself.

It was during this overly drawn out recovery period he finally went to his grave site for the first time, finding not just his own, but the final resting place of his entire bloodline. Looking down the mountain from the cemetery, he could see the family estate, and that was where he remained until he could move without difficulty. The the slashes on his back were painful physically, the far harder thing to do was to allow himself to fade away into nothing more than a family legend. He would hide anytime someone was brought to join the dead, leaving them to outgrown the knowledge of what they did for him. He watched from high as the world below changed, evolving a rabidness to protect them all from everything he learned lurked in the shadows. When the last one that knew he was real was gone, so was he. However, he never allowed another supernatural to move into what would always be his home.

Even now living in Italy, he never let his presence completely vanish from Karpathos, all but ensuring his human relatives lived and died without dealing with the exploded vampire population, because no one wanted to fuck with him.

No one wanted to fuck with him, because after that experience with the felines, he got very angry, and once he left the small island of his human days, he went hunting. He didn't just track down the cat that marred his back, but every last person she was related to, destroying any chance of a repeated performance or facing off with someone looking for revenge. While dancing across his territory, Demetri had considered tracking down Amun as well, but for whatever reason, decided against it. He had just slaughtered seventy beings without blinking, so perhaps it just came down to his inner demon being satisfied for the time being.

It was roughly 300 years after Demetri had what he himself would one day describe as having little more than temper tantrum that he met Aro for the first time in the south of France. It would be another 50 years and two more run-ins before he gave the man the time of day, and another decade on top of that before he agreed to aid the man in his quest for vampire domination, though at the time it was described as something far different than it would one day become.

Demetri wasn't stupid. Though it took a decent amount of time to learn what Aro was able to do when he touched someone, it took none at all for the implication to sink in, and from that moment on he was perfectly aware the asshole had used his past against him. He said all the right things to pique the tracker's interest in his cause, making promises that shockingly enough did come true, though mostly only because Demetri was the one that kept the ones that were made to him.

This being the time before Aro had the kind of fire power he has now, he had no way to keep those that didn't want to continue to follow him in line. Though he did have mostly all gifted vampires, it would still a couple of centuries before he acquired the Twins and turned Felix, making it easy to come and go as one pleased. He also didn't have the Volturi's permanent den in Italy just yet, so there was little in the way of incentive to hang around, and Demetri didn't until Felix came into the picture. At that point, Demetri was nearing his first millennia, and the back and forth between a nomadic life and being part of coven with a leader that manipulated him for his own use had a very rippling effect on the tracker. His trust in others was already fragmented by what his Sire did, then shattered completely when he discovered Aro's little secret.

Felix, however, made it to so Aro's tricks weren't a complete turn off in lending his talents to the fuckwad. The mammoth a man was, in Demetri's opinion, actually a genuinely good person, and because of that, Demetri became determined not to allow Aro to do Felix, what Amun had done to him. Plus, he was bored, honestly. He was pissed off at the world, and very, very bored; which for a vampire with his laundry list of accumulated talents, was very dangerous. And a very dangerous vampire was very attractive one to Aro.

Which brings things to more present day, where Demetri was literally allowed to do whatever the fuck he wanted without fear of punishment, because there was no one that could actually punish him. He never taught any singular person what all he was capable of doing, keeping more than a handful of unknown tricks to himself. Jane's little gift was a laughable experience to someone almost sliced in half by a shifter, and Alec had a gift anyone could see coming. Everyone else was just flat out terrified of him, because he made sure they were by selective killing.

Demetri's entire life led him to where he was now, biding his time before he settled the score he had with Aro for the stunt the fucker pulled on him all those centuries ago. It was really only a matter of time at this point before someone forced his hand because now he had something to lose he never had before.

His position within the Voltalian coven didn't mean shit to him. He knew the only reason he was offered it to begin with was to keep him around because there was nothing to tie him there if he didn't want to be there. He could leave at point of his choosing and never look back. Not a single vampire there had a venomous connection to him, and it was astronomically difficult to earn his respect. The very few that accomplished that task he would admit he would miss if he left or mourn if they died.

The bottom line, however, was the only person in the world Demetri gave any kind of a crap about was his mate, and he would be damned a second time if she was attempted to be used as a pawn in Aro's games. He wasn't talking tricks the day he brought Bella home when he 'reminded' Aro who really ran shit within the Volturi. Demetri had literally beaten the guards into his submission while Aro never so much as lifted a finger. Not only did the most feared group of vampires in the supernatural world submit to Demetri out of fear of recourse if they didn't, but the vast majority of them also owed him their lives due to him coming to their rescue, some on multiple occasions; something that, too bad for Aro, was taken very seriously.

Putting everything out of his mind and focusing on his mate in front of him, he crouched at he gently eased her gown over her hips and down her legs, moving it out of the way as she stepped out of it. Once it was clear of her feet, he stood, carrying her dress over to the mannequin that was placed in the corner between her closet and desk. Tightening the lace on the back to keep it in place, he turned back to his mate, a smirk on his lips, fire in his eyes, and rubbed his palms together.

"Now, is there anything else I can help you with?"