Authors Note: There is sexual activity between two consenting adults in this chapter, remember this story is rated MA 18+, so if you don't like it – don't read!


Chapter 19 – Grief

Castiel's hands were busy as she carved delicately at the slab of wood before her. She was sitting at a large table at the back of a room that was full of canvases, easels, painting supplies, and tarps. It was Sulpicia's art room, and it was certainly very well used.

The parts of the stone floor that weren't covered by plastic tarps were stained with different colors of paint, and the desk Castiel was currently at was also paint stained and pockmarked with little holes from previous woodwork here.

There was an area in the front left corner designated for pottery, and on little tables were bowls and figurines made of reddish-brown clay that Athenadora had made and left for Sulpicia to paint. Sulpicia had admitted to Castiel that she wasn't very fond of, or good at, sculpting – that was a hobby Caius and Athenadora shared.

All the tools Castiel were currently using belonged to Caius. Everything on the table from the perfectly sharpened chiseling tools, to the little stand that held the printed drawing in front of her, down to all the little marks on the tabletop's surface was his.

Castiel's eyes flicked up to the drawing that was pinned to the tiny tabletop stand in front of her, her eyes zeroing in on the detailing of the left wing of the eagle she was trying to carve.

It had been four days. Four long, terribly sad days, since she found out her father had been murdered. She knew that the only reason Caius had allowed her to touch his precious wood carving tools – tools he didn't even like Athenadora to use because he was so particular about how they were cared for – was because she was in such a bad place mentally.

Castiel was pleased to find out she was fairly good at wood carving, even if the products of her most recent five failures sat on the floor under the table.

They weren't really failures either; Caius had come in the night before when Castiel went back to her rooms with his brother to check on his tools. He was worried she might have damaged them in some way – possibly nicking the fine blades in such a way that he would end up sitting for hours over a sharpening stone trying to set them right again – but his concerns ended up being unfounded.

Not only had his small human sister kept the blades of every tool in perfect condition, but she had placed each of them back exactly where she had gotten them from when she started, even going so far as to re-oil them.

He spied the little pile of wood slabs under the table when he crouched down to pick up a hair tie Castiel must have dropped and lifted them to the table for a better look.

They all knew what she was trying to carve of course. Castiel had told them all what was so important to her that they do for her father that they couldn't say no even if they wanted to.

The round logo of the United States Marine Corps was printed in fine detail on a paper attached to the small desktop easel. Castiel was painstakingly trying to make sure the logo was carved in absolute perfection onto the square slabs of wood. Once she was done with that, she planned to fully carve the design into a round piece.

When she was done making the seal, she would make a square box to mount the seal to, and once she was done the box, she would treat her projects with a waterproofing sealant, before placing her father's bloody jacket inside it. They would nail the box shut, Aro – who had the best handwriting – would carve her father's name into it, and they would bury it in the garden, in the same place where the statue of Didyme resided.

This last part was Marcus' insistence. He wanted to make that small place in the garden an area where both he and his mate could bury their grief.

Caius looked over each of the failed carvings, two of which were only half done when Castiel accidentally pressed too hard and took a chunk out of the wood where she was trying to engrave the 'M' of Marine on one, and where she has accidentally split the wood on the other when not paying attention to the grain. The other three were almost complete but showed that Castiel was obviously having trouble doing the feathering perfectly on the eagle's wings. Two of the designs had slight mishaps in the patterns which was obviously why she scrapped them.

The fifth one was scrapped for a more obvious reason than any of the other four. Castiel must have cut herself with one of the tools, because there was a red blood stain seeped into the wood at the bottom point of the anchor.

Caius remembered how she looked as though she had been crying again when he passed her and Marcus in the halls on his way here. This carving had been perfect – the eagle had also been perfect – but the stain of blood obviously would have ruined the piece to Castiel, because there was no way to rub it off once it touched the wood.

After a long moment where he stared at the small stain of blood on the carving, Caius sighed and stacked them in a neat pile again before placing them back under the table, planning to holler at the next guard he saw in the hallway to make sure there was a first aid kit in the art room before Castiel returned the next day.

Castiel went back to her carving work. She was absolutely determined not to fuck this one up. She needed to finish it, she needed to make the box, and she needed to get them treated so she could bury her father's jacket. She didn't like thinking of it sitting in an evidence locker down in the labs. Aro had to sign a form allowing Castiel to pick it up whenever she wanted; it was part of an active case after all, and apparently the guard that ran the labs – essentially the manager down there – was very against her burying evidence that might be needed down the line.

And Castiel totally lost her cool at this when Aro mentioned it to her. She remembered yelling how she didn't give a fuck what the lab manager wanted, it was just a dirty jacket covered in her father's blood with no other scents on it and obviously no fingerprints. She remembered yelling that if the guy had a problem with it, he could come fight her.

But of course, no one was going to come and try to physically fight Master Marcus' barely-100-pounds-sopping-wet human mate. Her words had been those of someone who was hurt and grieving, and so again, no one chided for her language.

Castiel felt the blade slice the side of her finger before registering the pain and kicked away from the table so fast she almost tipped the chair backward.

But the chair rolled her away from the table steadily, though the force of her kick sent her back fast enough that the chair only stopped when one of the wheels got caught on one of the tarps covering the floor. This very nearly did send the chair toppling over and her to the floor, but Afton's quick hands steadied her.

Lifting her left hand toward her face Castiel saw the inch long cut along the side of her right index finger. It wasn't extremely deep, not something that would need stitches at least, but blood did flow down her finger toward her wrist freely.

Afton handed her the handkerchief from his pocket silently, and she wrapped it around her finger before closing it in her fist to apply pressure.

"You okay?" Afton asked as she walked back over to the table, wanting to make sure she didn't ruin this carving with her blood too.

There was blood on the wood, and Castiel's stomach felt like she missed a step going down the stairs before she noticed that it wasn't on the seal at all. It was well outside of the circle of her carving, on part of the wood that she would be chipping away.

And so Castiel smiled for the first time in days. It was not a happy smile, but a relieved one. All the same Afton was still thrilled to see it on her face.

It took five more hours for her to finish the carving, but at least this time it was perfect. As Castiel chipped away at the wood around the seal so it would be the circle it was meant to be and not a circle carving on a square plank, she took her sweet time. If she weren't careful and precise about her chipping now she could accidentally split the wood, and if she split the wood she would have no control over how big the crack was or in what direction it went – meaning she could easily ruin all her hard work if she didn't work slowly.

She heard rather than saw when the smoothie was placed by her right elbow and set down her tools so she could have a small break.

When she found out what happened to her father, a lot of things in her world got turned upside down, and even the most mundane of tasks became mountains to be climbed in her state of grief. Her stomach felt as though it had been filled with lead and she hadn't eaten a single thing in four days.

She knew her inability to eat – because she really just couldn't, her stomach wouldn't hold anything down and no matter what she was given it was hard to chew and even harder to taste anything – scared the hell out of Marcus. She had heard him getting a second opinion from the doctor that first night. But Arkos just said that it was something mental, not physical that was plaguing her now, and that she'd eat when she was ready.

And so the glasses of water she had been drinking turned into juice, which turned into smoothies, and when it was clear that while she couldn't eat she was still drinking without problem, they began to add protein and vitamin mixes into the smoothies to get her some nutrition. She didn't care what was in the smoothies in all honesty; she didn't taste them when she drank anyway.

Except for this time. When she sucked the drink up through the straw she realized right away that it was strawberry banana, and it was good.

Castiel took another glance at the glass, her brows furrowing as to why it was green and not pink – there was probably kale in it or something – before she began sucking the drink down feverishly.

The sound of the straw sucking at the empty air at the bottom of the cup caused Afton to look up from his book at the opposite corner of the room, and he saw that the smoothie he had set in front of her barely a minute ago was empty. This was unexpected because it was a fairly large cup.

This was a huge change from the previous days. Emmanuel would make what was essentially an extra-large smoothie, he'd bring it to Cas, and she'd nurse it for a solid few hours before it was finished and he'd bring her another one. She never drank with any kind of speed or enjoyment.

She must have sensed him looking at her, because she turned in the chair to face him.

"Can I have another one of these?"

It took him a second to close his dropped jaw and nod, but before he could turn away from her, she grit her teeth and clapped a hand to her forehead.

He was at her side in a second, stabilizing her neck and back in the face of another muscle spasm.

"Gah! Afton I'm good, just have a brain freeze."

Afton let her go at once, smiling a bit even though she was grimacing at him due to her headache.

"You've had a pretty good day today then. Only five attacks." Afton tried to say the words encouragingly as Castiel removed her hand from her forehead, as if the low number of muscle spasms she'd had today indicated she was getting better. But they both knew that wasn't the case. She was bound to have a good day just as often as the bad ones.

"Yeah well I'm glad, I would have been really pissed if I got one of those pain attacks and messed up the design on this one like I did the second one." She sighed, motioning to the finished carving on the desk. She only had about a quarter left of the circle to finish cutting away the square, so it would only take twenty more minutes to have her nice circular piece done.

"It's nearly nine, did you want to go back to your rooms, and I can stop to get your drink on the way?"

Castiel shook her head, "No not yet, I'm almost done here. Can you go down to the kitchens now and bring Marcus on your way back? I want to show him…"

She trailed off, suddenly feeling a little embarrassed.

The embarrassment came from the fact that she was asking Marcus to come look at her finished work like a child showing their parent an art project they did in school. She wanted to show him because… because well it was important to her. She had worked very hard on it and needed it to be perfect. She wanted someone to see how hard she had tried. She wanted someone to see that she really put the effort in to make sure that her father got the best recognition she could give him for being the world's greatest dad...

Her eyes burned with tears, and she held her breath to keep the sobs in until Afton left.

She knew her guard could see she was losing it and wheeled the chair around to face the table.

Afton said something, and she felt what was unmistakably him kissing the top of her head before he left the room. It wasn't like she was alone anyway. Kemar was posted outside the door.

And if she weren't in such a bad emotional state perhaps she would have known that, while she might think that no one could see how hard she was trying without physical evidence like her finished carving, all her hard work was not going amiss by anyone. Perhaps she would have known that they could all see how much her father meant to her, and how she was doing everything she could to keep herself together… maybe she would have seen that contrary to her belief, no one thought the death of her father was her fault, and that she didn't have to make up for anything.


The pattering of the rain against the stones around her barely registered as Castiel sat on the ground, hugging her knees and staring at the dark mound of dirt adjacent to Didyme's statue in the garden. It took another three days after she finished the seal to get the box finished, and another day after that for the wood treatment to have dried enough for her to place her father's jacket inside it.

Her family had come outside with her at dusk, and Marcus had held her while Aro and Caius lowered the box into the hole Afton had dug and refilled it with dirt. Castiel had tried to dig the hole herself, she came outside at the crack of dawn to get working on it, but she could barely get the shovel into the ground and out again once before her ribs were screaming in agony.

No one had said any words to honor her father. Aro offered to as they all stood together in silence as the sun went down, but Castiel just shook her head. Aro did know her father as well as she did – he knew all her memories after all – but hearing a eulogy would have made her snap. She would have broken down and cried and never gotten up again, so for the sake of her sanity Aro let it drop.

That was hours ago. It was dark now and she was alone in the garden. They left her to her pain, hoping that perhaps some time alone to let this symbolic burial sink in would help her.

Her side ached, her hands, feet, and ears were numb, and she was soaked to the bone. Her ribs didn't feel like they were getting any better, she felt like she was in exactly as much pain today as she was a week ago. She even noticed earlier that morning that the medication she was taking for pain wasn't lowering in dose. It was still the same as a week ago.

Probably because her pain wasn't getting any better, the bruises on her ribs should have yellowed by now, but they were still as purple as ever.

Arkos' words suddenly swam somewhere in the back of her mind.

I would refrain from telling her anything that would upset her as it could greatly impact her healing process.

Castiel buried her face in her arms and sighed.

She began to shiver as a soft wind began to flow through the garden. She was so wet that the wind made her feel much colder, the rain hitting her skin beginning to feel like little ice needles poking her.

How long had she been out here? An hour? Two? It had been raining for a long time, but she just couldn't bring herself to get up. She couldn't see herself ever leaving her place here in the garden. She was sure her family thought she had gone inside and hid herself in the library when it started to rain.

Kemar's voice should have startled her, as his voice sounded very loud with nothing but the wind accompanying it in the quiet place, but she didn't move a single centimeter as he spoke.

"It's time to go inside Castiel."

She didn't say anything. She didn't acknowledge him at all. Kemar might have questioned if she even heard him if he wasn't sure he spoke plenty loud enough.

"There's nothing for you here, you need to get out of the cold."

No response.

Kemar sighed and reached down to scoop her form up off the ground.

She was very light, and her soft body didn't feel nearly as warm as it should. With his one arm around her back and the other arm under her knees she finally uncurled out of the little ball she had been in, and she didn't protest as she left her hands resting on her lap and let her head lean into his shoulder.

The run back to Marcus' rooms – her rooms too now – was quick and cold. The air rushing past them as Kemar ran made the water on her skin feel as if it had turned into ice.

Afton was guarding the door, and upon seeing Castiel's wet form in Kemar's arms the guard didn't hesitate to throw it open and step back for them to pass.

Kemar nodded to Afton once in thanks, unsmiling.

Marcus and Caius were standing by the window behind Marcus' desk, Caius with his hands in his pockets and Marcus with his arms folded across his chest. They seemed to be having a disagreement about something, but their conversation cut off abruptly as they both turned at the sound of the door opening and saw Castiel in Kemar's arms.

"Castiel!" Marcus' voice was alarmed as he crossed the room to where Kemar was standing, and the guard didn't hesitate to pass Castiel to him.

"What happened?" Caius barked, appearing on next to Marcus and reaching out to touch the top of Castiel's head.

She blinked when he touched her, but otherwise still didn't speak or do anything at all other than stare forward at nothing.

Kemar clasped his hands behind his back and bent forward slightly, giving a small bow to Caius. "She was sitting outside in the garden in the rain. I know I was instructed to leave her on her own for a while but after she didn't come inside for nearly two hours, I went to find her." Kemar turned to Marcus, his eyes training on the form of the still soaked girl in his arms.

"You'll want to get her into a warm bath. I will retrieve the doctor for you in the meantime. She's late on her pain medication by four hours and her other medications by two. Arkos might want her in the hospital wing tonight. I worry about how greatly the cold has affected her immune system."

He didn't sound worried, but he did have a point when he mentioned the cold. If there was ever a time that Castiel was at high risk for pneumonia, it was now.

Marcus nodded and disappeared with Castiel into the bathroom.

Caius and Kemar stared at each other for only a second, before the blonde king nodded, "Dismissed."

Kemar turned and left the room, Caius following how only a few moments later as he heard Marcus preparing the bath, so he could give the couple privacy.


Marcus didn't waste any time getting her into the warm water after the tub filled up. He was gentle as he undressed her, carefully maneuvering her arms so he could get her t-shirt off without putting her in too much discomfort. Her jeans had become another story though. They were slim cut jeans that molded to her legs and they seemed to have gotten tighter since she was absolutely soaked.

He opted for just shredding the jeans off her, and only grew more concerned when the action didn't startle her at all. But she still blinked and moved her head, and she still stood and sat as he needed her too – so she might be consumed in her thoughts, but she wasn't in shock.

Marcus hadn't let the water get too hot, not wanting to shock her body with the drastic change in temperature, but once she was in the water for a minute Castiel felt her hands and feet start to tingle in a slightly unpleasant way. Her eyes followed Marcus' hands as he turned back on the tap to the large tub she was in. He was holding a small bowl that he had retrieved from under the sink and filled it with water before pouring it slowly over her head.

Her scalp prickled, and the warm water on her ears made them tingle like her hands and feet had, her body reacting to the warmth in those areas that were not that far off from being frost bitten.

Marcus continued to do this; methodically filling the bowl with water and gently pouring it over her head a few more times before going to the shower and retrieving her shampoo.

She groaned when his fingers started massaging the shampoo into her scalp and he sighed in relief. It was the first sound she had made since Kemar bought her too him.

"What happened sweetheart?" Marcus asked quietly, putting more shampoo into his soapy hands and running them through the length of her hair.

"I don't know." Her voice was nearly inaudible, "I'm just… trying to understand."

"Understand what?" Marcus prodded after a moment of silence, only when it became obvious that she wasn't going to elaborate without prompting.

"Why I didn't see it." She said in a horrified whisper, "What I could have done differently, who did it and why… why him, it's-,"

She swallowed, once of her hands coming out of the water to wipe at the tears that had run down her cheeks. "It's my fault."

When Marcus heard these words, he wanted nothing more than to pull her from the bath and into his arms. He wanted to comfort her, to rid her mind of these thoughts that had obviously been plaguing her for days. Of course he knew why she hadn't told him before – in the beginning it was so hard for her to stop crying long enough to even take a full breath, and Aro came up with the idea that if they could find something she could do to keep her hands and mind busy that perhaps it would help her. That's when the art suggestion came from Sulpicia, and the next morning when she had finally cried herself into exhausted sleep, they set their plan into action.

Castiel had been consumed with her project, and none of them thought about what would happen when her father's jacket was buried, and her project was complete. Marcus had just been trying his best to be there for her. He understood grief better than the average person, and he held her every night while she cried herself into her dreams. The loss of her father was a demon she had to come to terms with on her own, nothing he said would be able to make it better, so he just never left her side unless one of his brothers pulled him away.

When she had been distracted, she wasn't happy, but she also didn't have the free time to stew over the who's and the why's of what happened. They had made a mistake when they left her alone in the garden, it had not had the effect any of them had hoped.

Slowly, Marcus grabbed the bowl again and turned on the tap, filling it with warm water.

"Tell me what has been troubling you my sweet girl. Tell me so I can dispel these thoughts." He murmured quietly to her, putting his fingers under her head so he could tilt her chin back and begin rinsing her hair. He was pleased to see that her lips – which had been blue when Kemar had carried her in – were back to their normal shade of pink.

Castiel's eyes brimmed with tears, her throat momentarily feeling so thick with emotion that she wasn't sure she could speak. Marcus being here, caring for her and speaking so kindly… that was enough to make her emotional without the weight of everything else that was on her mind.

"I just… I don't understand how I wouldn't have seen it – it happen. I see you and Caius and Aro and Dora and Sulpicia and a good handful of the guard all the time. Hundreds of flashes a day devoted to you guys…"

She bit her lip, guilt flooding through her, "And I – I haven't been watching my father's future or Trent's… I've – I've been avoiding the visions of them for a long time because it just… it just hurt too much."

She winced at some thought she hadn't vocalized, and Marcus' hands paused as he was rinsing the last of the shampoo from her hair, momentarily worried he had done something to hurt her.

"But I never thought I wouldn't see him being – either of them being a-attacked. I might not have wanted to see them anymore, but I'm still so tuned to them and I love them so much I didn't believe I wouldn't have seen at least-,"

Castiel swallowed hard, her breathing was beginning to become erratic, and she focused on trying to breathe evenly, her side twanging with pain at each expansion of her lungs

"You didn't believe that you would be able to miss something so important." Marcus concluded the thought for her, and she let out a little gasping-sob as she nodded.

Marcus' hands began to rub her shoulders gently as she shook with silent sobs, and he took steady, even breaths. She unconsciously began trying to match his breathing after a few moments when she began to calm down again.

"Castiel." He said her name slowly, softly, as he reached for the bottle of conditioner near the tap before putting some in his hands and running them through the length of her hair. "What happened is not your fault, and you are trying to find some way to hold yourself responsible. We are going to get to the bottom of this I promise you, and until then there will always be a guard present in Ivy Peak to watch over your friend. You don't have to be afraid."

Because she was afraid. She was flat out terrified as to what this all could mean. Why had her father been targeted? Why had Trent been left unharmed and why… why hadn't her father been reported missing?

Castiel bit her lip, thinking back to the short argument she had had with Caius not even a full day ago. It might not have been a long argument – but it had been a bad one. The two of them had been hollering at each other by the time Aro and Marcus rounded the corner in the quiet hallway to break it up.

Her ribs had hurt a lot after all that yelling.

Caius, being the habitually suspicious and angry person that he was, was very curious as to why Bryon Rodgers still hadn't been reported as a missing person and convinced Castiel to allow him to accompany her on one of her short and doctor ordered daily walks through the halls. These walks were simply the beginning of her rehabilitation, a small step to rebuilding her stamina, and Caius found it the perfect time to question her about her former best friend.

Castiel had yelled at him about how truly fucked-up it was for him to accuse Trent of doing something so heinous like murdering her father, and while her most volatile brother had said that he hadn't believed Trent to have personally done it that they had to explore the possibility that he was working with someone. After all she had made friends of a dozen vampires unbeknownst to her friends and family, was it not possible that her oldest friend had connections she didn't know about as well?

She had ruthlessly defended her friend – her brother for all intents and purposes – and Castiel knew she had said some unnecessarily cruel things to Caius when they had fought. Hut Caius had said some unnecessarily cruel things right back at her, and the last words they had hollered at each other was her calling him an asshole and him telling her she was a naïve, over-trusting fool.

But she knew deep down in her heart that there was no way Trent had done anything to hurt her father. She had no answers as to why her father's death hadn't been reported, but she didn't think it was due to some deeper, more sinister, plot orchestrated by her friend.

So now Caius was having a background check run on Trent, along with all the interviews the guards that had been dispatched to the east coast of America where conducting of any and every nomad they came across.

"But they won't protect him if a vampire does come to my home again." Castiel whispered, feeling Marcus' hands pause in her hair. This was the truth. If a vampire were to enter her father's home and try to hurt Trent, even if there was a guard merely feet from the house, they were not to intervene. Because humans were not supposed to know about vampires, and if the immortal who hurt her father revealed himself – or herself – to Trent, they would be left to do what had to be done.

Of course, if the vampire could be stopped before revealing themselves to Trent the guard in Ivy Peak would stop them, but only if it didn't risk exposure.

Marcus' fingers found their way under her chin again, and Castiel's blue eyes observed Marcus' upside-down profile as he tilted her head back. "If you want us to bring Trent here Castiel, we can."

Her throat felt like it closed at his words, and he could see how deeply unsure she was by the look in her eyes.

"Let me rinse your hair so we can get you into bed, Arkos is waiting."


Someone knocking at the door caused Castiel to look up from her book and her brows to pinch together in confusion. Marcus had left around 20 minutes prior to settle some issue arising with some of the guard in the training room, after being alerted to the issue by a passing guard who was patrolling the corridor, and Arkos had left nearly an hour ago after setting her up with a new IV line.

Being careful not to tug on the tube connected to her arm, Castiel shut her book and stretched to set it on the bedside table, calling a quiet "Come in!" as she did so.

It really didn't surprise her when she settled back into her pillows to see that it was Caius, and for a long moment, the two of them stared at each other, each waiting for the other to speak first.

"I'm sorry." They both said in unison after a few awkward moments of silence, surprising themselves before smiling at one another timidly.

"May I?" He asked, motioning to the edge of the bed by her feet after giving a quick, questioning glance to her IV.

She nodded, answering his unspoken question as he sat, "Arkos wanted to give me my medication intravenously since I was so late taking them today. He's supposed to be coming back tonight to set up an oxygen tank… I've been put on red alert for pneumonia since I was out in the rain so long today."

Caius nodded, not pleased with the information but understanding it, "On a more positive note I see you guessed what I was about to ask with Aro-like accuracy."

Castiel laughed, "Yeah it seems like my brain is starting to adjust to the pain meds in my system. I've started having visions again. They're kind of blurry but I can make some stuff out. It's like I'm building up a tolerance to all the medications."

"Or perhaps your ability is just adapting to the changes in environment," Caius mused, "Your talent might be getting stronger."

She shrugged, as if it didn't matter much either way. She was just happy to be back to normal.

It was silent for a few long minutes; long minutes in which Caius stared at her so continuously that Castiel began to feel self-conscious and awkward.

"Was there anything else you wanted to discuss Caius?" She asked, her head tilting to the side slightly as she waited for him to answer.

"Originally, I only came to apologize for yesterday, but I couldn't help but notice…" He paused, his eyes seeming to roam over her face in search of something, "You look like something is troubling you."

She looked away from him, down at her elbow where the IV was attached. Something was troubling her all right. The same thing had been troubling her since Marcus helped her out of the bath and into some warm clothes.

Biting her lip, Castiel glanced at Caius and away again and he noticed her ears had turned slightly pink.

"Yeah I've got a lot on my mind right now." She mumbled, her left hand coming to gently trace the tape holding the needle in.

"Is it anything I can help you with?"

Castiel began to shake her head, before sighing and looking back at him. "Yes… and no,"

Now Caius tilted his head the same way she had when she considered him only minutes before. "What do you mean?"

"I mean I don't want to argue with you again, so we should probably just end this conversation here." His youngest sister didn't sound angry when she said this though, merely very tired, as if her issues where wearing on her physically as well as mentally.

And in the state that she was in they probably were.

"How about…" Caius prompted after a quick moment of thought, "You tell me what's bothering you, and I'll only try to give you advice? I'll separate myself and my feelings the very best I can and try to see whatever it is that is bothering you as if someone I don't know is presenting the problem to me. This is unfortunately the best I can offer right now."

Castiel considered this for a long moment, and probably would have replied with a thank you, but no thank you if her thoughts hadn't been so consumed by her problem. The truth was she had been worrying for days about Trent, and right now keeping him alive had become her primary focus. It was yet another thing that she had focused her whole being on in an effort to shove her grief over her father's death to the back of her mind.

More than anything, she really wanted someone to talk to. Of course she had already bothered Marcus with her musings half a dozen times, but the problem was he was always so firmly on her side that she couldn't figure out if she was planning to do the right thing or the wrong thing because whatever path she chose Marcus would stand by her and support it as the right one.

"I…" She paused swallowing hard, "I need to know that Trent is safe."

Caius' lips tightened slightly. He could see now why she didn't want to discuss this with him right off the bat given what they had argued about yesterday. But he had sworn that he would try to separate himself and his feelings from her problem in order to help ease her mind and he had to stick to that promise.

"You're trying to decide whether you should bring your friend into this or not." Caius stated her issue so simply that Castiel stared at him for a long moment, her expression pained. There it was, simplified so plainly in one sentence that the largest thing plaguing her mind seemed as if it were a simple yes or no question. Did she want to bring Trent into the world of the supernatural or not?

"I can give you my honesty on this Castiel, but you might not like what it is I have to tell you." Caius' expression was grave as he waited for her answer, giving her the chance to decide for herself if she wanted to hear it, to hear the not so pleasant truth, before he began speaking.

"I want to hear it." She whispered, sliding down from her sitting positing so she was lying down a little more fully and trying to cover herself with the blanket the best she could since Caius was sitting on it.

"You already know, that not one of us in the family will make this decision for you because it should be entirely your choice. Your friend is not exactly safe. The most we can assume is that an unknown immortal attacked and killed your father somewhere in the woods around your home. We don't know how information about you had been leaked outside the coven; and I mean more than just the information that Marcus had a new mate. Somehow personal information about you has been leaked and someone knew where you come from and where your father lived. This is not something you should trouble yourself with because finding a mole in our coven is not your responsibility."

"Either way, we don't know who attacked your father or why. The why could be as simple as someone just wishing to hurt you, and by extension Marcus, by harming the people related to you. I'm sorry to say that since you are now part of our family, people will do things to hurt you for no other reason than that. It's just how life is."

He sighed. "There is a very real possibility that whoever killed your father will go back for your friend, and there is still the possibility that the attack was just one hell of a coincidence and that your friend might not be on anyone's hit list." He shrugged and rolled his eyes in a way that indicated he didn't believe this one bit, but that he still had to at least vocalize this possibility.

"We can protect your friend. We can bring him here and keep what happened from you father from happening to him, but-," Caius gave her a sharp look, "but – you know what that means. If we reveal ourselves to him, if we reunite the two of you, he will either have to become an immortal or die. We love you to death Castiel, you know we do, but just as we could not make the exception for you to live freely with the knowledge you hold, we cannot allow him that either. Your reunion might not be all it's cut out to be."

Caius eyes were solemn, and he reached his hand out to cover the one of hers that was not hidden under the blanket.

"You can't always predict how people will react. You won't be able to see how he will react until our plan to act is in motion and your ability isn't as fickle as Alice Cullen's. If you tell us to go retrieve him, his reaction will be exactly ass you see it, whether it's good or bad… Of course he might be relieved that you are safe and well, but he might hold a lot of anger for your keeping things from him… and if he does not want the life destined for you, and only had the option to die immediately or work for us for the rest of his life… he could resent that, and you, very much."

Castiel swallowed, feeling her eyes burn and her throat seeming to swell up. It was true. It was what she was afraid of and why she hadn't acted sooner.

"People don't like not having a choice, and the most that can be hoped for is that you just happen to make the choice he would have made… but there's always the chance that you don't. So here you are, faced with the decision that will keep him safe, but possibly put you in the very painful situation of losing someone who was once a very good friend. Or you could not act at all and lose him to death which in the long run might be less painful for you."

"It's your choice to make Castiel, because we won't come between you and your friend. The risk of us choosing not to act and your friend being killed in which case you could resent us; or the choice to act and destroying your friendship, which might honestly be worse… To give you your friend back but have him hold nothing but hostility for us and you..." Caius shook his head, "We aren't making you choose because we want to be blameless. We just don't want anything to come between us, and because it is right that it is your decision to make."

"And aside from these possibilities," Caius gave the hand he was holding a light squeeze, "There is something else that you might not have considered in your… overall innocence."

Castiel's brows rose at this, her expression nonplussed.

"If we were to bring your friend here, and miraculously everything was to turn out for the best because you made the choice he would have made… Please do not take this the wrong way, but has there ever been anything-," He waved his free hand above his head for a second, as if searching for the right word, "Romantic… between you and this boy?"

Castiel's expression was shocked as she spluttered her response, "W-what? Me – me and Trent?" She surprised him by giggling. She didn't laugh long though because she began to cough.

Her expression showed enough discomfort as she coughed unrestrainedly that Caius stood and helped her sit up, observing as her eyes watered and her right hand – the one with the IV attached at the elbow – reached across her body to cup her injured ribcage.

"Are you alright?" Caius' voice was sharper than he intended as she stopped coughing, "Do you need the doctor?"

She shook her head and turned to look at the empty water glass on the bedside table.

Taking this as a request for more water, Caius took it to the bathroom to fill it up and had it against her lips to help her drink hardly twenty seconds later.

"Thanks." Castiel breathed as he set the glass back on the table and she leaned back into her pillows again, "But no. No there's never been anything like that between Trent and I."

"Alright," Caius said, his eyes hard, "And you're sure this stands for the both of you right? You're sure that he… hasn't and or doesn't hold any of these feeling for you?"

Castiel's expression was still so shocked that Caius wasn't at all surprised that she didn't respond.

"I ask these questions because… well you've seen quite a bit of what it's like to be part of a mated pair. You aren't the dominant one of your pairing though so I'm not sure you can truly, deeply grasp how very… possessive our kind can be of our mates. Perhaps it has something to do with how testosterone and venom mix, and in same sex pairs perhaps it's just who's naturally a more possessive person but…"

Caius' expression was so serious as he turned to look her directly in the eyes at her face subconsciously began to mirror his, showing him that she was taking him very seriously.

"I really don't get into any of the scientific shit of what we are. I don't bother with the research labs on the who, what, where, when, and why's of vampire creation, but I really must impress upon you how serious of a claim Marcus has on you. I know you haven't completed your mating but…" Caius sighed. "Our kind doesn't like competition, especially competition when it comes to the one we are one hundred percent sure is our mate."

"Are you implying-," Castiel began slowly, her eyes fearful, "That Marcus would…"

She shook her head dismissively, "I can't believe that Marcus would kill my friend even if Trent was interested – which he's not – but-,"

"But it's not always about our sensibilities Castiel!" Caius laughed once, but there was no humor in the laugh or his expression. "No offense little bird but you aren't exactly the quickest to catch on when it comes to men and their affections for you."

She glared at him, "God not you with the nickname too!"

He smirked and shrugged, "You hear something enough and it sticks with you, and I think it fits. You're very delicate and free flowing, and how red your hair is makes me think of cardinals."

Castiel rolled her eyes instead of dignifying him with a response.

Caius pat her hand and stood, "Take your time to think about what I've said, and once you've thought it over, we'll all sit down and talk."

She nodded and Caius made his way to the door, pausing with his hand on the knob he turned his head to look at her.

"And no matter what you choose, we're here for you."

And with that, he was gone.


It took another three days before Castiel finally came to her decision. Three days of nothing but around and around thoughts about all the possible what if's. Marcus was aware of how consumed she was, but thankfully never interrupted the long periods of silence where she'd run her fingers through her hair a lot or drum her fingers on the coffee table while she sat on the floor against his legs and worked on one of her puzzles. It was when she was sitting on Marcus' lap at his desk watching the sky turn dark orange as the sun set that she finally decided what she wanted to do.

Automatically her right arm came across her body as if to hug herself as her hand cupped her left side. It was something she had begun doing to show stress, because even when her ribs weren't hurting due to the generous number of painkillers she was taking, they seemed to throb with each heartbeat when she was anxious.

"Are you alright?" Marcus asked, setting down his pen. He was replying to a letter from someone, and Castiel had gotten his full attention when she had moved.

"I'm not hurting." She responded, knowing this was his first concern, "But I think we need to get the family together. We need to talk."

It didn't even take a full five minutes before her sisters and Caius and Aro were all sitting on Marcus' couches. Marcus himself was standing with her by the fire, his arm around her waist and his cool hand feeling nice against her now aching ribs through her shirt.

She was watching the flames, her arms folded across her chest like she was trying to keep warm.

"You all know why I asked you to come." She sighed, leaning into Marcus for support. "I've decided that I want us to intervene and protect Trent regardless of the consequences. Perhaps it makes me a bad friend, deciding his life for him like this… but I can't risk him getting hurt."

And since she wasn't looking at them, she couldn't see the sympathetic look her family shared with one another, or the small nods of understanding they directed at her back.

"We know how hard this decision was to make sweetie." Sulpicia said sympathetically, holding one of her husband's hands in both of her own.

"And there's something else too…" Castiel glanced up at Marcus, as if nervous of his reaction, and they all could see that he looked confused. Whatever she was about to say, she hadn't mentioned it to him before now.

"I want to go back to Ivy Peak and see my father's house, and the place where the jacket was found. Usually the places where things happened work as kind of… I don't know amplifiers for me. I haven't been able to find the person who hurt my dad, at least I don't think so, I've been seeing a lot of strange vampires in my head the last few days but…"

She shook her head, turning in Marcus' arms to face them. "But I can just tell by the… the flavor of the visions that they aren't who I'm looking for. If I can go to where it happened, I think I can find out who did it."

Castiel stared at them, Marcus looking thunderstruck by her shoulder. For a very long minute, nothing was said. Her family hardly even breathed and the only sounds in the room where the crackles and pops of the fireplace.

"No." Caius was the first to speak, and his denial rang out in a tone that was stern and final.

She didn't even look at him, her eyes were on Aro who was rubbing his chin thoughtfully as he watched her.

"I vote yes." Athenadora's quiet voice came from beside her husband. Castiel's eyes flashed to her, her expression showing her gratitude toward her bubbly sister while Caius pursed his lips.

Sulpicia caught her eye next, and Castiel felt her heart sink a little at how apologetic she looked.

"I'm sorry." Sulpicia whispered, "I'm sorry but I think going there could also do you more harm than good… I say no."

Two votes no, one vote yes, two votes undecided. If the next vote was "no" her case was in the dirt. Castiel tried not to look at Marcus, who she could feel looking down at her as her eyes locked with Aro's scarlet one's again.

He sighed, leaning back in his seat, "Yes. I think it's your right to go and find out what you can… I say yes."

And now she had no choice but to look up at Marcus, whose arm was still wrapped around her.

Marcus turned her so she was facing him, pulling her forward into his arms so he could wrap them around her, lowering his face so he could rest his cheek on the top of her head.

"You need too much medical care Castiel." His voice was quiet, and he spoke as if it were just the two of them in the room, deciding to ignore the others as if they weren't even there.

"Arkos can come with us. It's really just a couple trips in the car and on a plane, I won't be very active, and I'll do whatever he says – please." She said it all rather fast but was sure Marcus could understand her.

His arms tightened around her for a moment, "It could be dangerous. Those who harmed your father could still be there and-,"

"And they'll be scared silly at the sight of you." Castiel interrupted, lifting her face so she could look at him, "They wouldn't ever expect you to show up. They would have expected a guard or two maybe, but they wouldn't have believed my human father to be important enough to warrant you coming."

Unseen by either of them, Aro's eyebrows rose acutely because, as a matter of fact, she was right in her assumption.

"But if there is danger-,"

"If there is danger we turn around and I'll come back here and never press the issue again. If Arkos thinks I'm not taking the traveling well and wants to turn back, I'll go – I won't argue with him I just want a chance to find out what happened."

Marcus' arms released her so that he could hold her face between his hands.

"And if you get there and find what you're looking for? Sulpicia is right. This could hurt you in other ways than your physical body. What you will find if you find anything will not be pleasant."

Castiel's eyes filled with tears and her voice came out higher pitched – as if she were already crying, "Yeah and seeing that little girl get her throat ripped out wasn't pleasant! Getting tortured by Jane wasn't pleasant but I'm handling it! Finding out my father's been murdered because of me being part of the Volturi wasn't pleasant either but I'm handling that too! I can handle it!"

Her tone and her outburst were not those of a person who was "handling it". Marcus' expression was pained, and Castiel shut her eyes as she choked back a sob, feeling a hot tear fall from each eye and into the palms that where holding her cheeks. Marcus moved his arms so they were wrapped around her again, one of his hands holding her head against his chest while the other rubbed her back.

"And you've been so brave." He said gently, shushing her softly as she shook against him, "And you've been trying so hard. But there is a certain point where a person can't handle it anymore… and I don't want to be the one who pushes you that last step past the line where you can't bear it any longer."

Her arms wrapped around him; her face screwed up against his chest. She wasn't crying, no sobs escaped her, but her body still shook with the force of her emotional upheaval. Marcus could feel the absence of tears against his chest, and the way her shoulders slumped slightly in defeat… but he couldn't deny how very badly she wanted this, or how important it was to her that she be able to go.

"I say yes."

The words were so unexpected that everyone's eyes popped open and their expressions were all those of comical surprise. Castiel stepped back from his arms, her arm across her chest and her hand on her side as she looked at him in disbelief.

Marcus' expression wasn't happy, but he had a strange determined look in his eye as he stared back at her.

"You'll do whatever Arkos says? You'll listen to any orders you are given? On a normal day your guards are not in charge of you, they are only in charge of your safety, but if we allow this, I'm placing Kemar as your lead." Marcus voice was stern, and Castiel nodded her assent to his words in a dazed way. She recognized this as the way they spoke to the guard when planning missions and knew that this would have been a very normal part of her life had she not been his imprint.

Castiel knew why he was treating this like a mission… it was because it was one in a strange way. She was a weak but talented guard being sent out to observe a crime scene, and other guards would be responsible to lead her and keep her safe.

"I'm going with you." Caius voice sounded from behind her, and she turned to see that he was looking at Marcus. "If you insist on taking her out of Volterra I'm coming."

Her mate nodded at him before turning his attention back to her, "Caius will scout the area with the selected guards before we arrive, and you are to stay behind me at all times. If I look back, I want to see you no further than my shadow. If something happens and I tell you to run or to hide I expect you to do it."

Castiel nodded quickly, almost completely unable to believe her ears.

"You will go with Kemar to wherever he chooses to take you. If he is fighting you are to go with the nearest free guard to safety." Marcus placed his hands on her shoulders as she nodded her assent to his words. "Hear me well. I'm telling you that above all the only thing that matters is your safety. If the woods are lit ablaze around us and you can pass through the fire – if I tell you to go and leave me and all of us behind, I expect you to do it."

Castiel froze, staring at him in disbelief.

His expression softened at the look on her face. "When you promise to do as your told, you must promise that you will put your life above mine. I do not expect this trip to be so dangerous, but you have to understand what is expected of you if you ask to go on these types of trips."

Castiel started shaking her head. "I can't."

"You have to." He said gently, his hand coming up so he could stroke his thumb across her cheek. "I need you to promise me that or I can't allow-,"

"I can't!" Her denial was loud, and she shook her head to dispel that horrible picture he had put in her mind. "I can't, I love you and I can't."

Marcus froze, Athenadora and Sulpicia's hands both came up to cover their mouths, and Aro and Caius stopped breathing. The room became absolutely still.

"I love you." Castiel was not ignorant to the change in atmosphere, but she couldn't have cared less about anyone's reactions to her words, in this moment her eyes were only for Marcus. "I love you, and if something like that were to happen, I'd never leave you behind like that."

So quickly that her eyes couldn't catch the movement, Marcus had her in his arms, his lips pressing hard against hers as his fingers knotted in her hair.

There was no question about kissing him back, of course they still spent time kissing after she was injured, but Marcus' hands had always been so hesitant and careful. The last time they had kissed like this was before the incident and she missed it.

She heard what sounded like the door opening, but before she could fully register the sound she felt as if she were falling, and then the feeling of the hard floor under the carpet against her back as Marcus' body hovered above hers.

Marcus' lips were still moving fervently with hers when she turned her face away to look toward the couch, her face getting hot at the realization that they were having this rather amorous moment between them with their entire family watching.

But there was no longer anyone in the room but the two of them. Castiel suddenly understood that the door opening was their family inconspicuously giving them privacy. They probably sensed what Marcus' reaction would be to her words and cleared out.

Marcus began kissing across her cheek and down her neck, either unaware or unbothered by her momentary distraction, and Castiel giggled as his hand slid under her shirt. The way his fingers skimmed over the skin of her stomach was tickling her.

"M-Marcus," She managed his name through her laughter, "S-stop-p ha-ha,"

His only response was to start kissing her again, his tongue running slowly across her lower lip as his hands moved down to grip her ass. He had settled himself between her legs and began rocking into her when she opened her mouth to allow his tongue to touch hers.

The way his body rubbed against hers, and the unexpected passion in their kissing made Castiel feel as if the room was suddenly getting warmer, and she missed the way his skin had felt against her the few times they had been intimate.

With no warning, Marcus wrapped his arms under her and stood, lifting her body with his and refusing to break the kiss as he carried her over to the bed, setting her down gently as he positioned himself over her again.

Grabbing the hem of her shirt he began to pull it up. They were forced to break the kiss as he pulled it up over her head and off her body, and her nipples hardened at the coolness of his skin as he pressed his suddenly bare chest against hers. He had moved so quickly she hadn't seen him remove his shirt after he rid her of hers. Marcus kissed across her jaw and down her neck, searching for the sensitive spot he had targeted in the past near the base of her throat, and when he found it he began to suck gently on the skin there, purring quietly at the soft moans she gave.

He pulled away after a moment, his eyes zeroing in on the spot where she was sure a small purplish bruise sat as a mark of their activities.

Marcus smirked, his black eyes trailing down from her neck to her naked breasts, his hand moving so that he could gently massage her right breast while running the pad of his thumb over her nipple.

"The bruising around your ribs is looking much better," He said, his voice husky as he gently brushed his fingertips over the bruised area, tracing the two scars from the incisions made in her skin with a touch that was as gentle as a feather.

He wasn't kidding either. In the last forty-eight hours her ribs had gone from the deepest purple to a collage of yellow and green as they faded. Castiel still didn't like looking at her ribs but she couldn't deny her relief when the purple began to fade away.

"Yeah." She said, her voice embarrassingly breathy, "I don't think green is any more my color than purple though…"

When Marcus smiled at her words, he showed just a little more teeth than strictly necessary, demonstrating that he wasn't about to be held off by a little bit of bruising or jokes. The feeling of warmth between her legs was only one indicator of how much the thought of him not holding back excited her.

"Mmm," Marcus made a sound of approval in his throat and Castiel felt goose bumps raise up on her skin as he ran the tips of his fingers down the center of her body to the waistband of her jeans, deftly undoing the button with only one finger. "There's something I wish to do for you, but you have to promise to lie very still."

Castiel's breath caught in her throat and her legs moved as if she longed to press them together against the sudden flood of warmth between her thighs, but she couldn't do to Marcus' current position. Marcus' nose flared for only a second a moment later, obviously scenting her arousal.

"Oh-kay?" While she wasn't entirely sure what he was planning to do, she had a pretty good idea as he kissed her once more on the lips before trailing his kisses down her body in a straight line. He only strayed from his path once to gently kiss each of the scars on her left rib cage, whispering endearments to her as he did so. This action alone was enough to make her eyes burn as if she were about to cry, before she was distracted again as he made his way down to the waistband of her jeans once more.

He was quick to undo the zipper, his hands folding over the band as he pulled them down her legs and off her body before dropping them unceremoniously on the floor. Kneeling between her legs he looked down at her in nothing but her panties and socks, and Castiel felt herself blush as she realized that she was wearing the underwear that matched the bra he had seen her in in the past that he said she must have worn to tease him.

Her heart was pounding in her chest as they locked eyes, feeling the dampness between her legs and assessing how vulnerable she was in this position lying back on the bed while he knelt above her. Yet she was completely unafraid. Castiel trusted him completely and felt no embarrassment as his eyes drank in all the aspects of her body.

Without so much as a word of warning, Marcus fingers shredded her panties, as if he couldn't handle taking the time to simply pull them down and discard them on the floor with her jeans.

Instinctively she tried to close her legs but was stopped from doing so by one of Marcus knees and his hands; so instead she squirmed despite his grip on her legs.

"Oh no. I told you you'd have to promise to be still." He tutted at her, "If you can't be still I might have to tie you up."

Castiel flushed at his words, and Marcus' head tilted as he read the new and unexpected expression on her face. It was an expression that he only understood because of the emotions he could feel coming from her.

He growled appreciatively. "This idea excites you hm? Well we might have to play with this thought a little more later… but for now I want you to hold still. How are your ribs?"

"F-fine," She answered quickly, and surprisingly enough this was the truth. Her ribs hardly hurt at all when she was lying on her back like this.

Marcus nodded appreciatively, "Good."

And then he slid down the bed so that his body was between her legs, kissing his way up her inner thigh from her knee and causing her to shiver and clutch at the sheets in an effort to calm her trembling hands. She was so entirely focused on the feeling of his mouth, that when his fingers prodded the tender folds between her legs she let out a squeak of surprise and her eyes, which had begun to shut, flew open when his teeth nipped the sensitive skin of her inner thigh; only inches from his searching fingers.

He shushed her, and she felt as his fingers gently pulled apart her folds, revealing the small bundle of nerves that he had manipulated so expertly in the past simply by rubbing against her through multiple layers of clothes. Castiel began to sit up on her elbows, watching him nervously as he got closer to his goal, and fell back on the bed with a groan that she was helpless to stop as his tongue gently passed over her clitoris, his name sounding from her lips as she moaned.

Marcus purred in response, and that feeling, the subtle vibrations coming from him along with the way he was flicking his tongue against the bundle of nerved that would inevitable bring her to an early climax, caused her to cry out so loudly she was sure someone must have heard her regardless of the soundproofed room.

"That's it baby." Marcus purred, stopping his ministrations with his tongue for only a moment to give her a break as his fingers gently stroked along her opening, one finger prodding her there – hinting what he was about to do. "Just relax and feel it,"

Her eyes were shut tight as he resumed pleasuring her with his tongue, and her legs shook from where they were over his shoulders as one of his fingers gently began to push inside her.

She was so aroused that Marcus had no trouble at all pressing his finger inside her warm, wet heat. He heard as her breath caught and her body tightened around his finger, responding to the new intrusion inside her. He stilled his finger for a few seconds, allowing her to adjust to the sensation as he pressed with his tongue a little more forcefully on her clitoris, causing her to cry out a garbled word that sounded like "oh god," and "please" mixed together.

It pleased him deeply to hear her, and to feel as her body reacted to him. But he still had to remind himself to be careful with his delicate little mate, and to remember that this was the first time she had ever been with a man this way. He had to be aware of more than her healing ribcage.

Gently he withdrew his finger before pushing it back in with a slow, languid movement.

"Oh Marcus," Castiel moaned above him, and he felt as one of her hands came to grab a fistful of his hair, "That feels so good – pleaseee-,"

He shushed her, hardly feeling as she pulled at his hair while he started to gently finger her, feeling as her body grew wetter preparing to take something much more substantial into her warmth.

But now definitely wasn't the time for that. Marcus stopped the movements of his tongue so that he could sit back between her legs, feeling as she released her grip on his hair. Castiel watched him as he crawled back over her body, removing his finger for only a moment as he readjusted himself so he was lying over her, supporting his weight on his free arm as his hand traveled back between her legs, kissing her as she moaned when he entered her again.

He noticed her hesitance in their kissing as his tongue met with hers again, tasting some of herself, stilling beneath him as his second finger joined the first. He slowly pushed them inside her and felt as her body stretched to accommodate the added girth. She let out a breath that sounded a little like a hiss as she felt the slight sting of the stretch, her heat so tight around his fingers he wondered if he would be able to pull them out at all. He thought about how good she would feel around his cock.

Once his fingers were completely inside her to the knuckle, Marcus curled them slightly, stroking a spot deep inside her that caused her brain to go fuzzy, and pleasure different than what she felt even when he was rubbing the sensitive nub between her legs shot through her body.

"Oooh-," Castiel couldn't find any coherent words to say as Marcus began to gently thrust his fingers inside her, being sure to rub against that spot that seemed to make her lose all feeling that wasn't directly related to pleasure.

"Such a good girl," Marcus purred, his lips brushing against her ear, "Such a good little mate."

She whimpered at his words, and he could smell just how much more aroused she was becoming, enjoying the praise and the feeling of touching her this way. Unexpectedly she lift her hips from the bed, beginning to thrust back against his hand as her breathing picked up.

If there were ever a time Marcus wanted to fuck quite as badly as he did now, he couldn't recall it as he felt her body against him, watching as her expression reflected each pleasurable thrust of his fingers, his name coming from her lips every after other pleased sound…

Marcus caught her lips in a kiss that he was sure would leave hers slightly swollen, and curled his fingers to stroke the spot he knew would tip her over the edge, perfectly timing the moment of her release as she cried out his name against his lips and felt as her sheath spasmed and tightened around him.

His kisses became less forceful, his lips moving at a slow unhurried pace with hers as she came down from her high, her wincing subtly as he carefully removed his hand. She could not press her legs together as Marcus was still resting between them, so she wasn't entirely sure if she was sore or not.

Castiel opened her eyes, pulling back from Marcus so she could try to pull herself into a sitting position, and watching as he sat back on his heels, his erection obvious as it strained inside his now very ruffled looking dress pants.

She didn't know how long she was staring, but it must have been a noticeable period of time because Marcus let out some sound that was both a purr and a growl, causing her startled blue eyes to flash to his onyx colored ones.

Castiel laughed, her face heating up as she blushed. "Well that just gets better every time doesn't it?"

Even though Marcus knew she hadn't meant it as an actual question, he still nodded his agreement with her words, watching as her eyes flashed back down to his erection and feeling the slight bought of nerves coming from her.

"Oh, it'll fit inside you." Marcus answered her unspoken thought huskily, his ego swelling as he saw her blush deepen, "Your body was made to adjust, and I promise that in time you'll enjoy it very much,"

Castiel was sure that was true but was still too worried about the first time to even begin thinking of all the times after that would follow. This was still too new to her, and she was still unacquainted with that part of him…

This thought caused her to pause, and Marcus felt her emotions shift in a confusing jumble that was hard for him to figure out right away. Her blush lessened on her cheeks as her eyes seemed to harden and he wondered if this was simply a reaction to stress. He would have to try to master himself again knowing that beyond anything what he wanted to do right now was very simple – he wanted to fuck. And she was not only in no shape to do so, but she was also still a virgin. How well she responded to him in these moments of intimacy almost made him want to overlook this, but the better side of him – the side of him that was more than a monster with animal instincts to fuck, fight, and feed – simply loved her too much to allow this.

His eyes had just started to shift back to their usual burgundy when Castiel slid off the bed, seeming to pause for a second to check how her ribs where feeling before walking around to where he was still kneeling at the edge of the bed and taking one of his hands.

He followed her obediently when she gave his arm a soft tug, unsure what was going on but not truly caring because of the fantastic view of her bare behind as she led him over to the couch.

When she told him to sit, it was an automatic reaction to listen. He didn't think about slowing his movement as he sat – one of the beauties of being a vampire was that one needed to merely think about doing something such as sitting or standing and they'd already be doing such without even registering the motion in between – and his speed caused her to pause and blink as her brain took a second to register what her eyes had missed.

He was sitting casually, leaning back against the couch with his legs slightly separated as per usual, and was shocked into stillness when Castiel dropped slowly to her knees in front of him, her small hands resting on his thighs.

Marcus' breathing halted, and he felt his cock twitch as her eyes moved from his face down to where his erection was visible in his slacks. She took a deep breath and her hands trembled a little bit as she reached for his belt, only pausing when Marcus placed his hand over hers when she began to unbuckle it.

"You don't have to do this." Marcus didn't truly want her to stop but seeing the nervous tremble of her hands called to the more sensible side of him.

Castiel smiled at him, and while her smile was a little shy it was mostly a look of adoration – an expression that showed her love to him. It caused him to stop breathing again.

"I want to." she promised quietly, and undid his belt under his now passive hands, her small fingers quickly unbuttoning his pants and undoing the zipper.

Marcus lifted his hips for her when she grabbed his waistband and pulled them down his thighs enough to give her access to one of the most sensitive parts of him. He was wearing dark boxer-briefs – something she was familiar with because of all the times she had done laundry living in a house with two guys – and for some reason she found herself feeling considerably less nervous. Something about how ordinary his underwear was caused her subconscious to consider that even though it was new to her, she was not the first person ever to be in a position like this, not the first person to overcome their fears of being physical with a lover.

Castiel's eyes flashed back up to Marcus' face, and he was surprised to see a little, mischievous, smile on her lips.

The breath he had been holding in came out in a shudder as one of her warm hands rest on his erection, squeezing him gently through his boxers.

Castiel was very aware of her body and her hands as she moved them to the elastic of his underwear, him lifting his hips again to allow her to pull them down as well, and when his erection was freed her face began to feel incredibly warm. She was not unaware of what a penis looked like. She had attended sex-ed classes and seen as many questionable videos online as the next person. There was even a time when Trent inadvertently flashed her after he took a shower and forgot his clothes in his room; but being so up close and personal with Marcus still made her feel a little shy. The one thing she couldn't deny about this though, was that his cock was just as perfect as the rest of him, and she didn't have to question the fact that he was undoubtedly quite large.

She adjusted her position on her heels, pressing her things together as the unwelcome thought of That's never going to work flashed across her mind as she considered the time when he would take her virginity.

Because she would definitely let him.

Marcus seemed to have read her entire thought process on her face, and he grinned at her. "Oh, don't worry. When the time comes, I'm sure you'll find the whole experience perfectly enjoyable."

Castiel felt like she must have flushed a dozen shades of red, but she smiled at him despite her embarrassment before gently grasping him, moving her hand slowly up and down his length with only a small amount of pressure.

Marcus groaned, leaning his head back and shutting his eyes. The warmth of her hands was very pleasant indeed, and when she began to gently stroke him, he moved one of his hands so that it covered hers, squeezing slightly.

"Like this," He instructed, moving her hand up and down the length of his erection while showing her the amount of pressure he preferred. Castiel didn't mind his instruction either, glad that he was remembering her relative inexperience and rather than let her flounder around trying to figure out the best thing to do was simply showing her what he liked.

Marcus' hips thrust forward involuntarily when she gently stroked her thumb over the tip of his member after he removed his hand to allow her to move on her own, and one glance at his face showed her that his eyes were still shut and his head leaned back as he enjoyed himself.

Barely a second later Marcus heard her body shift, and his breath came out in a hiss as he felt what was undoubtedly her tongue move across the head of his cock, followed by the warmth of her mouth. His eyes flashed open as he looked down at her, his cock twitching at the sight of her on her knees, eyes shut and hand gently pumping him as she began carefully taking him in her mouth, her tongue swirling against him.

Marcus thread his fingers through her hair at the back of her head, gently pressing down to get her to take him further into her mouth, the feeling so wonderful he felt his balls tightening in response. He felt as she moved voluntarily to take him deeper, and his hand didn't restrain her as she bounced back, her mouth leaving him as her gag reflex reacted when his erection bumped the back of her throat.

She blushed, "Sorry…"

He smiled kindly at her, shrugging once, "It takes practice. I promise you're doing very well."

Smiling shyly at him, Castiel moved forward and took him into her mouth again, her hands finding his member and stroking him the same as before. When she felt Marcus thread his fingers through her hair again and begin to guide her mouth, she registered the warmth between her legs, unintentionally moaning around his cock – liking him taking control.

Marcus groaned, sighing, "Oh, you are such a good mate."

Using his hand to gently guide her mouth, watching her as she stroked him with her hands and caressed him with her tongue – her eyes shut and her expression relaxed while she pleasured him this way – Marcus couldn't remember a time where he had ever felt more content. He could feel that his release was building, but held it off for the sake of enjoying her a little longer, letting out another small hiss of surprise when the hand that wasn't currently pumping him came to cradle his balls – feeling the weight of them and squeezing very gently.

He could have let her do this all day. He would have enjoying the sensation and view of her on her knees. But her knew her stamina wouldn't allowed it, because even with his mind nearly all-consumed by pleasure it didn't escape his notice when she paused for merely half a second and flexed her jaw.

Leaning his head back again and shutting his eyes, he began to guide her mouth up and down him a faster, groaning softly when her hand squeezed him a little tighter, feeling his release build steadily and involuntarily thrusting his hips toward her mouth.

"Castiel I'm going to cum, stop now if you don't want me to-," It was harder to get the words out than he had expected since he was so close to climax, but he still knew it would be wrong to not give her some type of forewarning.

Marcus loosened his hold on her hair, giving her enough freedom to move away if she wanted to, but Castiel didn't want to stop. She heard him growl low in his throat as she took him further into her mouth, this time breathing deeply and preparing herself so she didn't gag when the tip of his cock hit the back of her throat. She felt as his balls seemed to tighten, and his cock twitched in her mouth as he came.

At first, Castiel really wasn't sure if she cared much for this part. The taste of his semen was strangely sweet, almost too sweet, but one look at his face really settled her to the fact that she'd gladly do this for him again.

Sitting back on her heels Castiel smiled up at him sheepishly, watching as his pupils went from black to deep ruby as he let out a deep breath, pulling up his pants again in a move so quick she barely had time to register it.

They smiled at each other for a moment, and Castiel broke the silence by saying, "I never knew my jaw could get so tired."

Marcus threw his head back and began to laugh.


In the end, their activities were very nearly not worth it by the time Arkos came to examine her. Castiel had seen the man angry on only a few occasions, and while he didn't holler, something about listening to him tell off Marcus as she sat guiltily on the end of the bed while flushing and staring down at her feet made the situation seem a whole lot worse than it was. And Marcus took his telling off graciously enough – letting the doctor tell him how irresponsible it was to engage in those type of activities with her in her current state, and how he thought that Marcus would take her wellbeing into account before physical desire – his eyes only hardening once at the implication that he would put her at risk over something like the desire to fuck. But there was something about the way his lips seemed to remain curled at the corners, and the way smugness still seemed to radiate off him…

Marcus knew that Arkos didn't truly mean everything he was saying. The good doctor knew perfectly well that Marcus wouldn't have done anything with his fragile mate without being one hundred percent in control of the situation. And Castiel truly was fine; Arkos couldn't find a single thing to harp on about after he gave Castiel one of her multiple daily exams. So Marcus merely took his telling off with a very heavy aura of male pride because he was pleased with himself for proving that he was perfectly capable of touching his mate in any damn way he liked without harming her. Not to mention the fact that he was pretty relaxed after getting the physical release he had be craving, which his small mate so graciously helped him with.

At this thought Marcus' eyes had flickered to her, and his lips curled up a little more obviously in a wolfish grin. He purred when she blushed a deeper shade of red and glanced quickly away from him.

The doctor rolled his eyes at that and allowed Marcus to steer him into the topic of their upcoming trip. Castiel listened intently, entirely focused on their conversation. She was glad that though she knew it to be habit for most of the coven members to speak in Italian, Marcus usually only spoke in English when she was in the room knowing it would be rude to slip into a language she couldn't understand.

The plan appeared to be that they would be departing late on Friday night – Castiel had to stop and think for a minute before remembering that it was Monday – and Demetri and Felix would be leaving two days in advance to "retrieve her friend".

This made her feel a little ashamed of herself, knowing she had set in motion something that would alter Trent's life so permanently… it was only times like these that she was shown how truly selfish she could be.

She didn't notice the quiet in the room, or Marcus coming to stand beside her until he touched her hair. When she looked up into his questioning gaze, she understood why he had stopped talking, having felt with perfect clarity how ashamed she had suddenly felt.

She answered his questioning look with a small shrug, averting her eyes to stare at the floor.

Marcus gently pet her hair, understanding what had been said to upset her, and continued speaking with the doctor. Arkos didn't seem on board with the plan to take Castiel into another country, but he said in a very gruff voice that while he didn't recommend it, he couldn't say that she was truly unfit to travel. In the end he said that if they insisted on going even with the knowledge that it was against his better judgment to have Castiel out of the castle right now, that he would accompany them to tend to her.

And then Marcus said something so unexpected that Castiel felt her stomach drop into her feet, feeling suddenly so nervous she felt like she had to use the bathroom.

"We can continue this talk of the plan and go over the fine details of her care later tonight. Eleazar is waiting in Aro's study to meet Castiel."


Because of everything that had been going on over the last few weeks, Castiel had almost entirely forgot that Eleazar Denali had flown to Volterra weeks ago on Aro's request. She knew that she was meant to be examined by the gift-reader a while ago, but the incident with Jane and then the news of her father – Castiel shook her head to rid her mind of that subject for now, if she started thinking about her dad she would never be able to concentrate – had driven nearly everything that wasn't immediate and vital in her life to the back of her mind.

Marcus held her hand, and was guiding her slowly toward Aro's office, allowing her to sort out her thoughts in peace.

It wasn't until they were only feet from the door that Castiel dug her heals into the ground, pulling back on Marcus' hand silently indicating that she wanted to stop.

"What-," Marcus couldn't even finish asking what was wrong before Castiel interrupted him in a low whisper.

"What if he doesn't like me?"

The words were so unexpected and rushed that Marcus blinked at her in dumbfounded amazement for a moment, before smiling softly at her and taking her face in his hands. "He'll love you Castiel – you already know this. Why the sudden anxiety?"

Marcus whispered his reply for her benefit even though they both new that this office – the same office that Castiel thought looked like a college dean's – was not one of the few soundproofed rooms in the castle, so Eleazar was sure to be able to hear them perfectly fine.

Castiel shrugged, mumbling even more quietly, "I'm… not a very good test taker. I don't want you guys to be disappointed in me if I'm not… not as special as everyone thinks I am."

Ah, Marcus understood that this wasn't nerves that Eleazar wouldn't like her per says. This was her feeling insecure and worrying that she would disappoint him and their family.

He leaned down and kissed her softly, wrapping his arms around her before pulling away to rest his forehead against hers. "You could never disappoint me, my sweet girl, and there isn't some type of standardized testing we have arranged to determine how significant any given person's extra abilities are. Please relax. This whole thing will be over much sooner than you'd believe."

He could feel that Castiel was feeling substantially surer of herself when he pulled away, so he didn't hesitate any further before turning the knob to Aro's study and holding the door open for her to enter before him.

Eleazar was sitting patiently in one of the chairs facing Aro's desk, his ankle crossed over his knee while he bounced his foot unconsciously as he read the paper on his lap. This first glance at the gift-reader surprised Castiel, but only because he appeared so… human at first glance. Yes he was pale, his dark hair a shocking contrast to his pallor, and he was beautiful of course – Castiel assumed he must be from Spain or somewhere like it due to his features – but it was the way his foot bounced on his knee and how he adjusted his weight as he leaned back in the chair that took her aback.

Eleazar turned when Marcus shut the door, standing and setting his paper on the arm of the chair in one unbroken, fluid motion. He was about Aro's height, and his golden eyes were kind when they found hers.

He held out one pale hand to her when she approached him, and Castiel felt Marcus' hand on the small of her back when she unconsciously faltered back a step. It was not intentional, and the motion only took half a second. Castiel wasn't frightened of Eleazar at all, but Marcus knew that she would step back instinctively due to their bond and the unfamiliar male in the room with them.

Gladly Eleazar didn't comment on the movement, a movement which Castiel didn't even seem to have noticed and raised her hand to his lips to kiss it once she placed it in his own to shake.

"It's so nice to finally meet you my dear." Eleazar said as he grasped her hand between both of his own, bowing slightly, "I hope you're doing well?"

Castiel gave him a timid smile, "Yeah I'm doing okay all things considered. I'm sorry our meeting kept getting pushed back."

Eleazar dropped her hand so he could wave one of his dismissively with a shake of his head, "It's all perfectly understandable, and it gave me some time to catch up with some of my old friends." He motioned to the chair next to the one he had been sitting in, "Why don't you take a seat so we can talk?"

Castiel was relieved when she sat that Eleazar re-claimed the seat next to her rather than sitting behind Aro's desk. Maybe he did that because he knew sitting on the opposite side of the desk from her would make her nervous, or maybe he just wasn't allowed to sit in Aro's desk, Castiel couldn't really be sure.

At least he was choosing to pretend he didn't hear her conversation with Marcus outside the door.

"I've got to say, I thought I was all prepared for the golden eyes since I've been told about them a few times, but they're still freaking me out a little…" Castiel covered her mouth with one of her hands, embarrassed at her momentarily unfiltered mouth.

Eleazar laughed loudly at this and Castiel was relieved that he wasn't offended.

His eyes still glittered with his amusement as he nodded, "Yes they are viewed as quite the abnormality among our kind. Once you get used to red it's strange seeing things so outside the norm."

Marcus stood silently behind her chair as the two of them began to banter back and forth for the next ten minutes. He could see how many steps Eleazar was taking to make sure Castiel felt comfortable around him. Eleazar was used to acting human due to his lifestyle outside the coven and knew very well how to interact with humans that felt uncomfortable around him. He kept making Castiel laugh by telling her bad jokes or reminiscing about silly things that had happened when he lived with the guard centuries beforehand. He never once addressed their reason for meeting here even though Marcus could tell by the way the guards eyes constantly shifted to the air around his mate, or seemed slightly out of focus for short moments, that he was actively getting a read on Castiel.

Marcus gently brushed his hand over the top of Castiel's head, causing her to look up at him after laughing at a particularly bad joke of Eleazar's.

"Will you be alright if I go to see my brothers for a short moment? Kemar is outside the door if you need anything."

Castiel's face only fell for a fraction of a second as she considered him leaving, but she shrugged and nodded after a second's thought, determining that she was comfortable staying here with Eleazar.

Marcus leaned down to kiss the top of her head before he turned and swept from the room.


It was nearly two hours later when the door to Aro and Sulpicia's room opened, causing Caius, Marcus, Aro, Sulpicia, and Athenadora to pause mid-conversation and look toward the two entering.

It became obvious at once that Eleazar and Castiel had been getting along swimmingly, as the pair seemed to be in a perfectly comfortable and sunny mood as Marcus' small human mate towed the tall Spanish vampire in by the hand.

Eleazar looked amused as Castiel's eyes trained on Marcus, and Marcus saw that Castiel wasn't even slightly surprised to see him sitting comfortably on the couch between his sister's. Of course, with her uncanny ability to see the future, she wouldn't have missed the fact that he had purposefully ditched her with Eleazar in an effort to get her to warm up to the guard without feeling the pressure of watching eyes.

She snorted, dropping Eleazar's hand as Marcus stood and opened his arms to her, and not hesitating before going into them. "Just for future reference – no pun intended – two hours is a bit long to be considered a short moment Marcus."

Marcus smiled down at her when she rolled her eyes at him, "Ah yes I see your point. Next time I'll try to be a little more conscious of my wording,"

Castiel stuck her tongue out at him at his jest and heard Athenadora laugh.

"Well," Sulpicia prompted, pointing to one of the free armchairs for Eleazar to take a seat, "What have the two of you been up to?"

Eleazar sank into the chair indicated to him with a shrug that looked like a gesture meant to indicate "Not much", but Aro noticed as the guards eyes flashed to Castiel's back, and then to his own before giving him a significant nod.

"Nothing really, we played chess… Eleazar crushed me." Castiel shrugged her own shoulders, and everyone turned to Eleazar when he laughed.

"You can hardly call it playing chess when she watched nearly the whole game in her head before flicking her king over – I only moved one pawn."

Caius snorted, directing his words at Castiel's back as Marcus dropped his arms from around her, "He crushed you? You can predict all of his moves how on earth did you lose?"

Castiel's brows were raised as she raised her hands palms up at Caius' question, "I don't know. I guess I just really suck at chess."

This made everyone laugh.

Marcus resumed his seat still chuckling, taking both of Castiel's hands as he intended to pull her down to his lap, and pausing when he felt her pull her hands back from his own.

She shook her head at his questioning look as he glanced up at her. "I have to go eat dinner. One of Arkos' conditions for me going to Ivy Peak remember? Two meals a day at minimum."

Castiel sighed deeply at this, knowing that it would undoubtedly be a hard condition to meet due to her lack of appetite.

Marcus nodded his head in understanding at this, watching as she turned and head back out the office, Kemar reaching in once she passed into the corridor to grab the knob and shut the door.

It was silent for a few minutes, mainly so they all could be sure that Castiel was well on her way to the kitchens and not about to come back in, before Aro spoke.

"Well Eleazar? What say you of the potential of our youngest?"

It was such a straightforward question, one that sounded as though it should have a simple answer, but Eleazar almost didn't know where to begin. The last two hours with Castiel had been truly spectacular. Not once in his long life had he met someone who was just so fascinating to read!

"She is…" Eleazar paused, letting out a lungful of air in a long exhale, shaking his head with an expression that shown how much he marveled over Marcus' young mate. "Absolutely spectacular, and much too modest. She has such a strong hold of her gift and so much control over it, yet she underestimates it, and herself, so much."

"If only I could show all of you exactly what I saw around her. You know that what I see is a person's aura, and that their aura indicates their gift and the potential of their powers… oh, you should have seen hers." Eleazar was smiling at no one in particular, though his words were in answer to Aro's question, a fanatical gleam sparkling in his strange golden eyes. "It breathed, and pulsed, and flowed around her like strong wind. It only slowed when she was focusing on something she wished to see."

"Gifts in their human incarnation are never so prominent and bright… never have I seen something so vital in a mortal form before her. Yes, when a human has knowledge of the gift they possess – which we are all aware is a one in one thousand ratio of a gifted being – their aura is more active, but nothing like this. I had her predict answers to questions, tell me what card would be next in the deck I randomly shuffled, tell me the weather, play strategy games… and her answers were always flawless! She even told me the entire contents of my wallet and told me what I am going to do for Carmen on our anniversary in seven months. Let me tell you her idea was much better than what I had in mind, but she insisted I would have come up with it eventually on my own."

Eleazar shook his head admirably, and turned to look at Marcus, grinning, "And she can be quite cheeky. Is she usually so free speaking?"

Marcus smiled back, and it didn't escape his notice how Eleazar's expression became one of acute surprise for nearly a quarter of a second before the guard tamed his expression again. Most people still weren't used to seeing him genuinely happy. "Yes, when she becomes comfortable with someone, she has a tendency to speak her mind and lightheartedly tease."

Eleazar nodded, "Anyway, I am absolutely fascinated to see what her gift is like when she becomes immortal. Gifts only become stronger in their immortal form. They stop being so fluid and it'll become a lot easier to nail down the specifics of what she will be capable of-"

"And what do you think she will be capable of?" Caius interrupted Eleazar, not even thinking about his question. The mere fact that the guard was talking about what she might be capable of was interesting. Did they not already know the extent of her power?

Eleazar shrugged noncommittally and gave a small smile. "I have a few theories if you'd all like to hear them?"

Everyone nodded.

"Well something I noticed of her currently is that when she continually looks ahead, as in when she makes prediction after prediction uninterrupted, she-," The guard paused, raising his left hand to his temple and pretending to rub there, his face mimicking the slight discomfort that had all seen on Castiel's face at one point or another, "Rubs here. She's only human so her gift can most certainly tire her out. She told me of how illness and medication affect her ability to see, and how only recently her body seemed to get used to the medications she's been on and now she is beginning to see around such things – and she does not see how much of a feat this is! Her gift being able to adapt like that…" He shook his head again with that same small, admiring smile on his face.

"Well once she is no longer mortal, I doubt there will be a force on this planet that can hide from her inner sight. I even asked her at one point to search for a few acquaintances of mine because these acquaintances are all mental shields in some way, shape, or form, and I wanted to see if they could keep her out at all. She only had trouble originally because she needed me to explain more specifically the person I was speaking of before she could find them. She believes she needs the explanation of the person she is seeking in order to see them – but she does not."

This was news to the group of ancients, but no one interrupted Eleazar's monolog. "Because I could see her gift, and I saw how the moment I asked her to find my friend Eric, her aura came to circle me, and the questions she was asking were not influencing her ability to see Eric at all, it was merely a time filler while her gift combed around in my head to find details of my friend."

"Just like Demetri." Aro breathed, the heel of his hand coming to his forehead in a how-could-I-possibly-have-missed-this type of gesture.

Eleazar nodded enthusiastically, "Exactly like Demetri. But I have very little doubt that once she is no longer mortal, she won't need that mental help to find someone. When she realized I was having her look for shields she told me how she even saw Edward Cullen's human mate a handful of times – and her gift keeps you out does it not?"

Aro nodded but waved one hand dismissively, "I have no doubt Isabella Swan is a substantial shield, but even Alice Cullen can see her, so her gift is not without flaws either."

"Yes, well anyway, I doubt that Castiel will ever have an issue finding anyone after she is changed. And I don't think I'd be wrong to say she will be able to predict more than one situation at a time without difficulty or strain due to all the extra space we have in our heads once we are no longer mortal. She also shows quite a lot of potential to be able to project."

There was silence at this. It was a bit of a stunned silence and Eleazar was interested to see that Aro and Marcus alone seemed to not find this information shocking.

That was at least until he remembered what Castiel had told him of the vision of the newborn army in Mexico.

He smiled, "Yes she told me of how she pulled the two of you into her vision when she was frightened, and I asked her if she could perhaps show me how she did it."

"And did she?" Caius asked sharply, and Eleazar turned to him with raised brows.

"Yes. I almost didn't catch how she did it. You know of course she couldn't show me exactly what she showed Aro and Marcus, but she was able to show me a little bit of my walk through the city later tonight. Right before she pulled me into her vision, I saw exactly what I expected to – nearly didn't because she pulled my focus into her other sight so quickly – the glowing of her palms."

Aro smiled, nodding, "Just like me."

Eleazar smiled back as he nodded, "I believe her ability to project visions only lives in her palms. It is possible that with enough mental training as a vampire she will be able to project directly into the minds of those around her without physical contact but…"

"But she might not, just as Aro tired and couldn't." Marcus finished for him, "This will all depend on how her gift solidifies once she is changed."

The golden-eyed guard nodded, "We can't truly know until then… but I must say that in my own opinion… she should not try to project in her human form. It hurts her to do this, I could tell immediately once she dropped my hand how very badly her head hurt. Of course, I can give no real medical opinions as I am not a doctor, but from personal experience if using some aspect of a gift is painful it is best not to do it. We don't want her to have a sudden seizure or brain aneurism from overexertion. The projecting part can wait until the risks to her health are nullified with the change.

Marcus' expression darkened as he nodded his agreement with Eleazar's words with the rest of his family. He didn't like to think of serious brain trauma occurring to his fragile little mate.

No one said anything for a long time, and Marcus was about to stand up so he could meet Castiel in the kitchen… that is if she were still there as a quick glance at his watch told him that it was already well past midnight and nearing one in the morning, when Athenadora spoke up.

"Is there something else?" Athenadora asked, staring at the contemplating expression on Eleazar's face

Eleazar smiled at her, a dimple showing in his chin as he did so. "Possibly. But I can't truly see how likely it is that I'm right in my assumption and not entirely off the mark."

Sulpicia shrugged her shoulders. They all seemed to do this a lot recently, and the only reason they could think of was because they were picking up certain habits and slang terms from Castiel. It probably was a good thing too becasue she was helping them keep up with the times rather than letting them fall behind.

Eleazar took this shrug as an indicator that they wanted to hear what he thought anyway, even if he believed he was wrong.

"Castiel is a psychic. And the word psychic is a very broad term. It means clairvoyance, but it is also a classification of a type of gift. Most vampires are possessed of gifts that are psychic in nature – entirely mental that is – but the way hers moves, both due to its natural fluidity in its human form and its strength…"

He paused, trying to explain in the best way he could why he had the hunch he had, but figured that there really was no really good way to explain it. "There were moments when I was reading her that my gift would… stutter? Blank out? I don't really know the best way to describe it but… her gift was casting mild interference with mine. I saw the auras of our gifts touch, and when this usually happened the auras swirl together and never blend… but hers pushed mine aside. Not intentionally, not maliciously, her gift is not an offensive one and therefore of course it did not try to overtake mine or block it as a purely defensive gift would have, but… it's like my gift wasn't substantial enough to mingle with hers. Like oil and water.

Eleazar stopped talking, figuring that was the best job he was going to do of explaining himself, before he stood with a hand out to Aro, allowing the ancient to read his thoughts for the first time today and see more directly his meeting the human member of the inner Volturi coven.

Aro held Eleazar's hand within his own for half of a second before releasing it and leaning back in his chair with a thoughtful expression.

"You believe her gift might act as a kind of… frequency inhibitor. You think she might be able to, not block gifts around her but… set them out of tune?"

Eleazar made a motion that was both a nod and a shrug, "Possibly. She doesn't affect Marcus, or you, or Renata even – there is no situation that I can use as an example to back up this claim, and she barely affected me even but-," he sighed, "It's just a theory that later on in her life, once she is one of us I mean, she might be able to disturb mental gifts around her. Possibly in the coming months you can have her intentionally try to interfere with Demetri. Have her on one end of the castle and him on the other and see if she's capable of throwing him off. She might not be able to block him but perhaps she could make him end up in the wrong hallway. If she messes with his gift and he can't get a firm read and goes to the wrong location – even if it is only a little bit wrong – this can show us what she might be able to do."

"She might not be able to do anything like that though." Caius said before Marcus could speak, "Just because she has a handle on her visions doesn't mean she can manipulate such a specific part of her gift. It might not even be something she's capable of manipulating or feeling. It might just be a blip in her radar. As I understand it it's merely the strength of her gift that's causing this slight interference. Her aura would only naturally expand a few feet out from her at most under our current understanding of all gifts. So, it might only be something relevant to someone who is within and arms reach of her."

"Then if she wishes to explore this possibility of her gift we will try Afton," Marcus said, "He requires skin to skin contact, and we can ask him to shield her and have him tell us if anything feels off... but only if she wants to."

Aro nodded, watching as Marcus stood, "I think we're all focusing too much on a part of her gift that will most likely amount to nothing at all after her change. It is good to know of her possibilities though, all the same."

There was a murmur of agreement at this, Eleazar stood as well so he and Marcus could shake hands before both departed Aro and Sulpicia's quarters. Marcus headed to the kitchen to see his mate, and Eleazar headed the opposite way to his rooms so he could type up an official report on his reading of Castiel and submit it to the cyber division to be placed in her file and uploaded into the Gifted Genus database.


Castiel watched with increasingly mounting anxiety as the dark SUV she was in passed the sign saying Welcome to Ivy Peak. She very nearly couldn't see the sign at all due to the how black the night naturally was in what used to be her home. It was mostly forest area around Ivy Peak, and her home was on one of the many roads that were not very often traveled by those who didn't live there.

Marcus was beside her, Caius on his left as they drove toward a road that she told them would end with a slight curve and a dirt path. This was a place where they could hide the car before Marcus and the guard ran with her through the woods toward her father's house. They would emerge in the backyard and sneak into the house through the upstairs window at the back of the house that led into Trent's bedroom.

This window had a broken lock. It had never been a problem when she lived there with her dad and Trent since the back of the house was flat and there was no way for anyone to climb up to the window to break in without using a ladder.

Marcus had assured her he would have no problem scaling the side of the house with her on his back, where she would then scramble over his shoulder and through the window after he slid it open.

Her stomach tightened into a bit of a knot when she thought about Trent, remembering how Aro had called Marcus once they got off the plane in America to tell them that Demetri and Felix where only an hour away from the city with her unconscious friend. Trent had put up a fight, which was nothing short of exactly what Castiel would have expected even without the help of her visions, and Felix had ended up "choking him out" until he fell unconscious and Demetri was able to medically sedate him.

Her eyes flashed to the doctor, who was silent in the front passenger's seat. Arkos hadn't been pleased when he heard the phone conversation – disagreeing morally with what the drugs he prescribed were being used to do even though he understood logically why they were doing things this way.

The trip had been mostly uneventful. During the week the bruising on her ribs almost completely faded; there were still spots that were a little yellow looking but that was about it. One pill had disappeared from her daily meds and her painkiller had changed again. This time Castiel was sure that this one must be an ibuprofen and strong painkiller mixture, because she didn't get that slightly-foggy sedated feeling and her ribs throbbed pretty steadily.

Before they had left Volterra Marcus had given her his own sort of checkup like the one the doctor had given her that morning, and he was very acutely aware of every expression of discomfort or strange/slow movement she made. He told her how happy he was to see that she was getting better, and that if she needed anything she only had to say so.

She knew this was his way of saying, "I know that you know your painkiller is substantially weaker than what you are used to, so if you start going through withdrawal and need support, we're here for you."

The rest of the car ride, the run to her home, and Marcus scaling the back of the house in the pitch-black night all went exactly as planned. Castiel found herself perched nervously on Marcus shoulders and he gripped part of the siding and the window frame, and she pressed her palms flat against the glass of the window and started pushing up. Once it was up and inch, Marcus got his fingers under it and pushed in the rest of the way up for her.

There was only one moment where she worried she was going to fall as she tilted her body toward the window, grabbing the ledge with her hands and pulling her body toward and through the open frame. There were guards on the ground prepared to catch her though, and she felt their stares as she pulled herself painfully through the window.

It was painful because stretching her body this way was very irritating to her healing ribcage. Pulling herself through the window should have been something she was able to do quite easily with all her years of gymnastics, but the recent weeks of being injured and sedentary showed her how much of her stamina and previous flexibility she had lost.

Castiel pulled her torso through the window frame and onto Trent's desk, using her arms to support herself and turned her body so her butt would slide across the desk as she pulled her legs through rather than staying in a weird push-up position.

Once she was completely through the window she panted as she sat on her friend's desk, her hand coming to hold her aching ribs as she looked around his messy room at his unmade bed, the pile of clothes on the lounge chair in front of his small TV, and all the other random objects littering the floor.

She heard Marcus say they'd meet her at the door, which she was supposed to go open – thank god this house never had any type of alarm system – as he lowered the window and dropped out of sight.

It wasn't until she stepped off the desk that she almost fell, the first foot she set on the floor landed on a sheet of paper that she ended up sliding on once she put her full weight on it as she swung her other leg off the desk. She skidded about a foot, desperately scrambled for the back of the chair, and was able to right herself without falling.

The spasmodic was she propelled her arms to stay upright only irritated her side further, causing her to curse under her breath as she stopped down to pick up the piece of florescent pink paper she had nearly fallen on.

When she picked it up and flipped it over, her heart jumped into her throat.

It was a picture of her in black and, what would have been, white if printed on a normal sheet of paper. There was a bold black headline in all caps that read "Have you seen this girl?" and a description of her underneath, a phone number to call, and a line promising a reward.

Seeing this made her eyes burn and her heart hurt.

There was a tap on the window behind her, and she jumped before turning to see Caius giving her a look that was obviously annoyed as he clutched the frame of the now closed window.

At least he only looked annoyed until he saw her face, and her expression caused his face to slip into an expression that was completely devoid of emotion. Castiel knew this to be just as good as an expression of utmost concern coming from Caius.

"I'm going, just hold on-," Her voice cracked at the end, and she was glad she was already turned away and heading toward the door when it happened.

She ran quickly down the stairs, hopping the last step, and headed toward to door that lead into the side of the house. The front door was rarely ever used, and it was this side door that leads into the kitchen that Demetri and Felix first came through.

Undoing the deadbolt and the lock on the knob she pulled it open quickly, Castiel stepped back as Marcus, Caius, and the seven guards that had accompanied them flashed into the house too fast for her eyes to see, Renata entering last and shutting the door behind her.

Renata and Alec both came to stand with her, Renata gently grasping her left hand while Alec came to stand by her right elbow. At first Castiel had been incredibly weary of the idea of having Alec come; after all she was recovering from the attack of his currently exiled sister. She was worried that he would hold just as much dislike for her as Jane did, but Aro had assured her when he told her that his two guards would be going along to protect her along with Kemar, Afton, Chelsea, and two other guards she didn't remember the names of, that Alec did not hold any ill-will toward her and would be on his best behavior.

It was Kemar who drifted over to her before Marcus and grabbed the paper she was currently crumpling in her right hand. He looked it over for half a second and passed it behind him to Marcus.

Her mate looked at it too, understanding why she had paused in her friend's room.

"I don't want to talk about it." Castiel whispered quietly, looking down the hall toward where her bedroom was – her stomach dropping and the color leaving her face as she noticed the police tape roping her room off even through the darkness.

"I know the dark isn't too bad for you guys, but I'm going to have a lot of trouble here if I can't see." She whispered, looking around the dark kitchen in frustration as she tried to see into all the shadows. Turning the lights on was out of limits, she knew this, but couldn't someone have brought a flashlight or something?

Alec took his phone from his pocket and turned on the flashlight feature before he passed it to her, answering her silent thought.

The phone light was bright which was good for her, but Caius scowled.

"Keep the beam of light away from the windows and cover it with your hand whenever you pass one," He hissed at her as he waved his arms to the guard, indicating that they should start walking around the house and see if they could find any clues as to what had happened with her father.

Everyone dispersed except for Marcus, Renata, and Alec, who all stayed with her in the tiny kitchen, Kemar following Caius upstairs to her friend's room.

Castiel's expression hardened for only a second in irritation with Caius, angry at his insistence that Trent had some part in her father's disappearance, before she turned her attention beck on her bedroom door at the end of the hall.

Marcus lead the way, and she watched as he turned his head this way and that, his nostrils flaring as he scented out the vampire that had been in her house. Renata and Alec were doing it too.

"Whoever was here before has not returned a second time," Alec said lowly, "Luckily the boy didn't leave the windows open or anything, the scent is weak but still preserved fairly well."

Unable to help herself Castiel asked, "And you don't know who it was?"

Alec glanced at her; his expression slightly surprised. He hadn't expected her to ever want to speak with him about anything after what his sister had done to her. "No, it's not someone I've ever met…"

Marcus sniffed again, stopping as they came to her door, his hand carelessly ripping away the police tape. "It's a male's scent. That is all I can tell."

Renata and Alec both looked at Marcus' back in amazement, causing Castiel to look between them and ask in a confused way, "What, is gender not obvious in a vampire's scent?"

"To the untrained nose, no it isn't." Marcus answered, glancing down at her and the two guards, "But with practice and time it becomes easier to tell. It took me a few moments to figure it out since the scent is so weak."

With that Marcus turned the knob to her old bedroom and opened the door, standing aside so she could enter before him.

There were only two things that were different that Castiel noticed right away. One was that the lamp that had been on her dresser was gone – not really that surprising as she had kicked it onto the floor where it had shattered during her struggle with Felix – and the mirror above it was also missing. Someone had removed these two broken things and cleaned up the mess of mirror shards and ceramic after she had been arrested by the immortal law enforcement, or as far as everyone else knew, gone missing.

She shined Alec's phone light around the room slowly, her eyes scanning her bedroom and taking in how a fine layer of dust was coating everything, even the bed which she had made herself the last time she was here… it was obvious that no one had disturbed this room after cleaning it up.

Castiel remembered hearing somewhere that when people went missing – especially children – their bedrooms turned into a shrine of sorts and became frozen in time forever waiting for their occupants to return, just as the families themselves waited.

It was hard to see that this was true.

Castiel trained the phone light on the pillows to her bed, her head cocking in that way it did when she was curious about something.

"What is it?" Marcus asked, and she could feel as his chest brushed her back when he came to stand close to her. She marveled for a moment at how he was always in her personal space, and how she liked him there. She had become so used to his closeness that Castiel was sure if he suddenly started to give her space, she would feel rather lonely.

"I never asked you, what did Demetri do with my bear?"

"What do you mean?" Marcus looked like he didn't understand her question, and this only caused her brows to pull together in confusion.

"Didn't you send him here to steal it?"

Marcus' eyebrows raised, "I did, but he could not find it when he got here, granted he didn't look for it very long. The unfamiliar immortal's sent took everything else off his mind."

"What do you mean he couldn't find it? I put it right there against my pillow – look you can even see where there's an interruption in the dust where it used to sit-,"

She paused when her tiny bedroom became even more crowded as Caius and Kemar entered. Poor Alec was nearly forced into her closet in his haste to give Caius room to move when her blonde brother flashed inside.

"Is there anything else missing from your room?" Kemar's deep voice called her attention to him, and she saw in the light cast from the phone how serious his expression was.

Castiel glanced around her room quickly. "Only my laptop, but there's no interruption in the dust where it should be. I'm sure the police confiscated it after I went missing."

"Nothing else? You've looked through the entire room?"

Castiel raised her eyebrows at him, crossing her arms over her chest, "No I've been in here for all of thirty seconds – why?"

"Look more fully." Kemar ordered her, turning his focus to Marcus. "You'll want to see this Master Marcus," he motioned for Marcus to follow him back out of the room.

Marcus gently touched to top of her head as he passed by her, Caius following him and leaving her alone in her room with Alec and Renata.

"At least my room is small…" She muttered to the two guards before heading over to her dresser to get to work.

It only took ten minutes to scour her whole room, and when she went out into the living room with Renata and Alec, she saw that Marcus, Caius and Kemar were all standing near the fireplace and looking at something on the mantle.

"Well," Castiel said to the quiet room, seeing out of the corner of her eye as Afton, Chelsea, and the other two guards came down the stairs from Trent's room. "There is something else missing, but I don't really know why. A pair of my sweatpants and my favorite t-shirt to sleep in. They're usually right on top of the clothes in the top drawer of my dresser but they're definitely gone."

"Are these clothes significant to you at all?" Kemar asked, lifting a picture frame from the mantle and studying it without turning to look at her.

"Not really." She answered honestly, "They're just the two most comfortable items of clothing I had."

"Did you wear them before Felix and Demetri took you?"

She snorted, "I know what you're thinking, and I don't put dirty clothes back in my dresser. No, they were freshly washed and not heavy with my scent."

Kemar turned to look at her, and his expression caused her to pause, suddenly feeling rather startled and even more confused than before.

"You… expected that didn't you?"

"Whoever came here was not interested in your scent," Marcus said, holding one hand out to her, silently asking her to come to him.

And she did, without hesitation, and finally understood what they were all looking at on the mantle.

The mantle to the fireplace had well over a dozen picture frames on it, holding a variety of pictures of her and Trent growing up, baby pictures, school photos, senior prom in high school – she hadn't gone but Trent did, and took a pretty blond girl named Steph. Castiel's dad had loved all of the pictures on the mantle, Trent might not have been his biological son but he was as good as, and Castiel remembered always laughing at her dad when he would get another framed picture he'd want to put on the mantle and there was no room for him to put it.

In the end the mantle had been a disorganized hodge-podge of mismatched picture frames – and it still was – but the most important thing was missing from every frame.

All the pictures were gone.

She watched as Caius lifted a small frame his face. It was a cheap little thing, Castiel remembered that she got it from the dollar store when her dad had found a picture of his grandfather in an old tin and wanted to frame it, and Caius sniffed it.

She understood right away.

"The vampire that came here… took my bear and my clothes and all these pictures? But why?" Castiel really wished she didn't sound so scared when she said it, but there was no taking the words back now that they were out, and there was no way she could pretend that she wasn't trembling a little bit either since Marcus currently had an arm wrapped around her.

"What does this mean?" She whispered, and this time when Kemar answered her, his voice was just the tiniest bit softer – just a little bit gentler than before. Not enough for her to notice the change in his tone, but enough for the other vampires in the room to notice.

"It means that whoever came here isn't simply interested in tracking and killing you. Taking things that are personal to you in some way… it could be a variety of things, but nothing comes to my mind that isn't sinister I'm afraid. Are you sure these are the only things missing?"

Castiel shook her head, "I'd have to go through my dad's room and Trent's too to be sure, but pretending I know about everything they own is a bit of a stretch. I won't notice if one of my dad's t-shirts are gone or a pair of Trent's shoes."

Caius nodded, expecting this. "If you're sure there's nothing else of yours that is missing, we should go to the location Eevee found the jacket and head back to Volterra immediately. I don't like having you so exposed."

Caius expected her to confirm that there was nothing else here and that they should go to the place she wanted to be and paused, his head cocking to the side as he read the thoughtful expression on her face. "Is there something else?"

She nodded, pulling out of Marcus' arms and heading back down the hallway to her room. They all followed her at once, and Castiel didn't even bother to wonder at how they were all going to fit into her tiny room before they were already there. She pointed the flashlight on the phone down at the floor – the phone was beginning to get a little warm in her hand and she saw that she was rapidly draining Alec's battery – counting the planks on the floor in her head until she found the one she was searching for.

Castiel dropped to her knees, surprising them all, her fingers finding a seam where one of the floorboards met the others, and they were surprised she dug her nail in the crack and pulled back slightly. They heard as the wooden board slid back the smallest fraction of an inch and they understood.

She had a hiding place under the floor.

"What do you keep under there?" Afton drawled, and the implication in his tone caused Castiel to look up and glare at him.

"My massive collection of sex toys and porn," She said sarcastically, causing Afton and the two guards she didn't know the name of to snicker while Chelsea gave her husband, and Caius gave Castiel, looks that said is-this-really-the-time-for-that very clearly. "Now shut up and hand me one of the pens on my desk."

Kemar was the one who grabbed the pen, and rather than give it to her, he dropped to his knees as well and insert it into the little opening in the floor she made to use it to lift up the plank.

Down in the little hole in the floor there was an assortment of random rags but nothing else, and these rags caused two completely different reactions from the two on the floor.

Kemar muttered a quiet curse under his breath, and Castiel when very pale and sat back on her butt with a little thump.

All the immortals knew why Kemar cursed.

The scent coming from the rags was that of Castiel's immortal intruder. It was strong too. Whoever it was that broke into her father's home knew this hiding spot was here and had taken whatever it was that was in this little hole.

Caius barked at one of the guards she didn't know to go to the kitchen and get a plastic bag as Kemar reached down and wadded the rags into a ball in his hands.

The unnamed boy came back, holding a gallon-sized zip-lock bag open for Kemar to drop the rags into before sealing it.

"What was in there Castiel?" Marcus asked, crouching down beside her and placing his hands on either side of her face to draw her eyes form where she was staring at the hole in the floor.

"M-My sketchbooks." She whispered, "The sketchbooks that I drew the things I saw in. There were almost ten of them in there, they have any vision that I've ever thought was significant since I was ten doodled in them."

Her words had become fast a little panicky – which was understandable.

"How many people knew about this hiding spot?" Chelsea asked before Caius could bark it at her, seeing that the blonde king was beginning to look very cross indeed as was his natural reaction to stress.

"Just my dad… and Trent." She whispered, and Castiel could see from Caius' face that this was only furthering his assumption that her friend was responsible.

But Castiel knew he wasn't responsible, and knew that while Caius might think she had just put the final nail in Trent's coffin, that Aro would be reading Trent's mind very soon, and he would be able to prove his innocence before Caius could get to him.


The run to the spot in the forest Eevee found the jacket was a little longer than Castiel expected, and she was curled in Marcus' arms with her face hidden against his chest when he stopped and touched her hair, telling her that it was okay to look now.

It was very dark out here in the middle of the forest, and the trees around her all had branches so thick that they completely blocked out the light from the stars. Alec's phone had died, but thankfully, Kemar, Chelsea, and the small female guard with the reddish brown hair and button nose she didn't know the name of at first who turned out to be Eevee – the one who originally found her father's bloody jacket – all pulled out there phones and turned on their flashlights.

Because Castiel was stressed and nervous as Eevee pointed to the base of the tree where the jacket was found, Castiel directed her attention at Marcus, giving him a smile that didn't reach her eyes. "You really need to get me a phone you know, it's not fair that everyone has one except for me."

Marcus laughed, completely aware that she was stalling but he nodded all the same, "Of course. We'll order you one when we get back."

And then it was quiet. Castiel knew no one else would give her ad excuse to stall any further than she already had, and she came to stand in exactly the spot Eevee had stood and stepped on the jacket. She didn't know how she knew that this was the exact spot, she just did, and everyone around her watched as her pupils went wide and she stared forward between the trees at something none of them could see, her hand coming up to rest against the trunk.

No one breathed, the only sounds made where those of the forest around them. The guards all spanned out in a tight circle around Castiel and the tree, looking around importantly for anything that could be coming and Marcus, who didn't want to bring Castiel to Ivy Peak in the first place and was even more on edge now that they were out in the middle out the woods where an attack could come from any side, came to stand directly behind his small mortal mate; his chest against her back and one of his arms wrapped around her body pinning her right arm to her side.

His hand cupped her still healing ribs as he rested his chin on her head, her stillness showing how his touching her wasn't interrupting her thought process at all.

A few minutes passed, then five, then ten before Castiel moved again, removing her hand from the tree as her left hand came up to press against her temple.

Her face was one of intense concentration, the irises of her eyes almost completely gone in her deep trance like state.

After five more minutes, in which Castiel's body began to shiver from the slight crispness in the air, everyone was beginning to get antsy. Marcus removed his jacket and wrapped it around her, Afton watching this with a look of wonder as he marveled at how in her entranced state, she couldn't even tell her body was currently freezing out here.

And then, Castiel shook her head, her pupils returning to a more natural size – though still being rather wide since it was fairly dark out here and the guards had all turned out their phone lights.

"Nothing?" Caius asked, not sounding surprised but certainly sounding disappointed. He had really thought she would have been able to see something. Especially after the shining review Eleazar had given them at the beginning of the week.

"Exactly. Nothing." She whispered in answer to him, turning in Marcus' arms to look up at his face, her expression more troubled now than any of them had seen it all night.

Marcus stared down at her, and all the guards knew that he was doing more than reading the emotions there. He was feeling whatever turmoil was going on inside her just as clearly as if it were his own. The wordless, intimate, conversation between the two of them caused all but Caius and Kemar to look away.

"What do you mean by… exactly?" Kemar asked slowly, and Castiel answered him through lips that barely moved.

"Nothing… nothing at all. There's a reason I couldn't see the person who hurt my father before coming here. There's a reason I didn't see him get attacked. I understand now… how could I be so stupid?"

"You couldn't have expected this. I should have theorized this sooner too. It wasn't until we were already on the plane that the idea struck me." Marcus reassured his mate in a quiet voice, and Kemar and Caius shared a confused look before the blonde king said – in the same irritated tone of voice he usually used when people weren't expanding on whatever thoughts they should so obviously be sharing with the rest of the class, "Expected what? What is this reason you aren't sharing with the rest of us?"

Castiel turned to look at him then, her blue eyes seeming to shine in the light from the phone light Eevee had just turned on.

"They're blocking me… I didn't know it earlier because no one has ever been able to block me before. Being here is the prefect amplifier but… I'm hitting a wall. All I can see when I use my visions is a huge area of foggy white mist. Even when I push to see past it with all my might, I just get blobs of color to appear in the mist for a few seconds before I'm forced out of the vision. I can feel whatever that force is, is pushing me out, not letting me see…"

Castiel took a deep breath, relieved to see as she looked around that everyone here was now on the same page, and that all the guards, her brother, and Marcus finally understood.

Whoever killed her father is a shield… and a very good one.


Revised January 24th, 2021

(54 Pages, 24,204 Words)