Authors Note: Sexual activity occurs between two consenting adults in this chapter. Remember this story is rated MA 18+! So if you don't like it – don't read!

Thank you again to my lovely beta for the proofread!

Thank you so much to everyone in Reveri's Twilight/Multi Fandom discord (because it'll take me a year to type out all of your names) for continuing to be an endless source of encouragement to keep me going on this story. You guys are the (still) best.

Chapter 27 - Explanations

The bunkroom was completely silent. Jane stood still as a statue beside her bunkmate Recruit Five and didn't even dare to breathe so she didn't draw attention to herself. She was focusing all of her mind and energy on blending in with the other recruits.

She hadn't had many conversations with her bunkmate after the day she had nearly been torn apart over disobeying orders with those letters, and those she did have were brief. One thing that came from those brief talks, was Jane deciding to extend the smallest morsel of trust to the other girl, and to try to listen to and copy what she was doing so it would be easier to live with the conditions she was in.

She had to accept she wouldn't be going home anytime soon. And if she kept refusing to participate with the others and to do what she was told… well she just might never be allowed to go back to the Volturi.

No one looked at each other and everyone stared straight ahead as they heard Raphael and a couple of his men coming down to the bunkroom. The door had never been replaced after Raphael had kicked it in.

When Raphael finally made it to the room and stood in the doorway, his expression was blank even though he was internally pleased to see each recruit had their trunks placed neatly on the floor a foot from the toes of each of their boots.

"Trunk check." Raphael said stoically, remaining where he was as the two men that had come down with him each went to opposite sides of the room and began stooping down to open each recruits container of belongings.

Jane had to really try not to flinch when they opened her trunk even though the man didn't pause as he continued down the line. Part of her even would have sworn she felt Recruit Five shift toward her in her moment of stress.

No. She had only imagined that.

Raphael began to slowly walk down the center of the room once all the trunks were open, pausing and looking to the left and right to visually inspect the first set of trunks. He didn't actually touch anyones case or rummage through it - as long as everything looked in order and there were no weird scents coming from the trunks there was no reason for him to personally go through all of a recruits belongings.

He saw nothing wrong with the first two sets of neatly organized trunks to his left and right, or the next two sets, but by the time he got to the center of the room and looked to the left to visually inspect the trunk at Recruit Five's and Jane's feet before checking to his right to inspect Recruit Thirteen and Fourteen's cases he noticed the abnormality.

Recruit Five had taped some photos to the lid of her case, and Jane seemed to have mimicked her and taped some sketches she had drawn to the top of her own as well.

This was not exactly against the rules, but Raphael still had half a mind to say something about it. He usually gave Jane a hard time because she needed a much, much firmer handling than most physically young vampires. So he certainly might have said something if his eyes didn't drift back to the trunk besides hers to see her bunkmate had a roll of tape tucked in the side of her case next to one of her boots.

The picture thing must have been Recruit Five's idea.

Recruit Five noticed Raphael's hesitation, and saw the expression he had given Jane's trunk. Five began to open her mouth, intending to take responsibility and say the whole thing was her idea - because it was - but she paused when Raphael's expression changed.

He was still staring at the inner lid of Jane's case, and his eyes had gone a little wider as he noticed something in one of the sketches Jane had taped up months ago.

Raphael was stunned for the first time in a very long while. There among the sketches Jane had drawn was one she made of the inner Volturi family. Marcus, Aro, and Caius all sitting regally in their thrones, Sulpicia and Athenadora standing elegantly beside each of their husbands. He could have sworn he had seen this sketch weeks and weeks ago when he had dumped Jane's trunk in search of the missing letters.

Yes, he was sure he'd seen it before but the drawing was different now, because there perched on the armrest of Marcus' throne was a delicately drawn image of what could only be a pencil sketch of Castiel with those messy curls.

Jane had erased parts of the pencil sketch of Marcus, as Raphael could see the slight imperfections in the paper, and made it so he was no longer sitting alone staring blankly forward. Now Marcus' profile was turned slightly to look at his mortal companion, his expression amused.

This was a very new development.

Without a word Raphael continued down the room, checking the rest of the trunks while he thought hard about other things. Still none of the recruits moved, and Jane did not even dare to breathe.

If she was a human she would have been sweating bullets.

Raphael did an about face after checking the last sets of trunks and doing a quick visual inspection of the small writing desk against the far wall. He didn't say a word as he made his way to the room's exit with the two guards moving to follow him out.

For a moment Jane was hopeful she just might make it out of all this today without an incident - which was rare for her whenever she was in Raphael's vicinity - when the man spoke.

Her stomach felt like it had balled up as she tensed, not daring to look over at the door.

"Recruits Five and Six," Raphael said, his back to them as he paused in the doorway on his way out. "Be sure that all of your assigned tasks for the week are completed within three days and your trunks remain neat and packed. You will both be accompanying me and some of your superior officers to Volterra on Sunday evening."

Jane's head whipped around to look at him, finally breaking her perfect stillness.

And she wasn't the only one. Recruit Five's head turned too, and she glanced from Raphael to Jane with an expression that was so comically shocked that Jane had the strangest feeling in her chest.

It really was a good thing Raphael wasn't looking at the two of them, because usually they'd be in trouble for breaking protocol.

Though… perhaps that was the reason he wasn't turning to face them. Perhaps he was giving them that grace of an unrestrained reaction this one time.

If either of the two girls had seen the small smirk on his face they would have known it to be true.

"Y-Yes Sir." Recruit Five was able to force out and Jane was relieved she had spoken because she wasn't quite sure she was going to be able to speak ever again she was so startled.

Raphael grunted his acknowledgement of her words and left, the two men had brought with him disappearing as well.

There was a sound like a soft rustle of wings as all the recruits relaxed out of their still stances. The sound of everyone quietly breathing again was almost as loud as a scream to Jane.

And then Recruit Five squealed.

Jane actually jumped at the sound, her expression a little terrified and shocked as her brain tried to register what that squeal meant before she felt the other girl throw her arms around her.

Recruit Five literally lifted Jane off the floor as she swept her up into a hug, squealing with excitement again as Jane spluttered in shock.

Laughter came from the other recruits at Five's enthusiasm and the completely bewildered terror on Jane's face over being hugged.

And then Jane made a sound too, a sound that seemed to relieve that strange feeling in her chest and allowed her to finally put a name to it.

Joy.

Jane's laughter chimed in with the other recruits, and she was so overcome with feeling that she didn't even realize she was embracing her bunkmate back. She didn't acknowledge that her eyes felt like they were burning with unshed tears. And she didn't notice that for the first time all of her fellow recruits were not looking at her with clear distaste.

They all looked at her like she was one of them, and they were happy for her.

She was going home, and even if it was only for a short while Jane would not trade it, or this feeling she was having right now, for the entire world.


Castiel had her laptop open on the bed with the volume turned all the way up as it played through a random hit songs playlist on Spotify. She didn't know most of the songs, as she hadn't listened to the radio since before she was brought to Volterra, but the main reason she was listening to the music at all was for background noise.

She had been obsessively cleaning Marcus' rooms all day, simply because she needed something to keep her busy while Trent and Bella packed.

They'd be heading back to Seattle in the morning, and Bella would go back to her dad in Forks while Trent would go back to Leah in LaPush. Aro told her yesterday that they had already made arrangements for Trent to have his own apartment about 20 minutes from LaPush; meaning the Volturi was not only paying for Trent's housing, but they had sent some guards to Washington a couple weeks ago to completely furnish and decorate the apartment for her friend.

Trent didn't really know how to react to the news when Aro so simply stated that once arriving in Seattle he'd be set up with a new car and the keys to his new fully-furnished and probably expensive apartment if it was up to the Volturi's standard.

Her friend had backpedaled at the news at first, insisting to Aro that he couldn't afford the apartment nor payments for a new car without a job.

Aro looked at him like he was missing the point and said that everything was already paid for; they would be paying the rent and setting up a new bank account for Trent that money would be deposited in each month for any living expenses.

Trent's pale face had turned to Castiel at this, thoroughly confused as he tried to process this information that basically told him he'd be living a simple, worry free life from now on. Castiel had just shrugged at him. This was just what the brothers did for those they were connected to. They saw no reason not to support Trent financially for the rest of his life - he was the best friend and chosen brother of one of their family so by extension he was family too.

And the Volturi stood by their family.

Castiel and Trent still had yet to have the hard conversation they both knew was coming. Castiel was sure she'd get to talk to Trent again so she had been putting it off. They didn't want this brief goodbye to be tainted by the emotional stuff.

Like the fact that in just over a year Castiel would stop aging, and due to Trent's relationship with Leah he would continue to age just like any human should.

Trent was destined to go on and have a full human life. He was destined to have a career, children, and a lovely wife he would grow old with.

Castiel was destined to remain as she was - to become immortal and stand with Marcus through endless years, and help rule and protect their world with her mate and her family.

Her eyes burned a little, and Castiel set down the bottle of wood furniture polish she had been using to make the tables in the main room all shiny. She'd been polishing them so long she could see her reflection, and figured she might as well work on the desk in Marcus' office.

She'd already cleaned every room in their quarters. The rugs were vacuumed, the shelves were dusted, the furniture was wiped down, all linens had been replaced with clean ones - she would have to go switch the laundry shortly and it was a bit of a walk to the laundry room from here - and the bathroom smelled strongly of cleaner as she took out her anxiety on every water spot she could find.

All that was left was their closets and Marcus' private office. Castiel knew his office would be the room that needed the most cleaning because he never allowed the maids in there, so she decided on hitting the closets first before the office since they would be quicker.

The obsessive cleaning was her only outlet right now. She needed to keep busy and make sure she was adequately distracted so she didn't keep thinking. Marcus would undoubtedly be confused why she was doing the cleaning and not just having the hired help do it.

Because Trent leaving was gonna suck, but Bella leaving too was making it so that it was going to double-suck.

Much to Castiel's disappointment, there really wasn't that much to be done in her closet. She was naturally pretty organized, so aside from vacuuming the little area rug and lint rolling parts of the cushy chairs all there was to do was dust some shelves. It took less than twenty minutes, and she sincerely hoped Marcus' closet would be a mess.

It was not.

His closet was just as spotless as hers. She let out a frustrated huff before giving it the same cleaning treatment she did on her own, only stopping at the end to grab some of the suits Marcus had on a hook by the door that were meant to go out for dry cleaning.

Automatically she checked the pockets of each suit jacket and each pair of pants, wanting to make sure they were empty.

In the pocket of the third suit jacket her fingers encountered something soft, and her expression was perplexed as she pulled out one of her scrunchies.

Castiel had a large collection of hair ties - a whole third of the top drawer in the shelving unit in her closet was taken up by the things. She had regular bands, thicker spiral looking ones, bands made of a stretchy material that were meant to not pull hairs out but usually lost their elasticity very quickly, and then a bunch of pretty strong handmade scrunchies courtesy of Renata.

Apparently Renata's scrunchies were favorites amongst the female guards, because she made them well and they worked for thicker hair - and one thing's for certain Castiel sure had a lot of hair.

Renata had gotten so overwhelmed with requests for scrunchies at one point that she told everyone she would only make scrunchies as gifts and not to ask anymore. Renata had personally made Castiel nearly thirty of them as a kind of "welcome to the coven please don't be intimidated by me" gift, and some of the guards had gotten a little jealous since they only had a couple from Renata.

All of the scrunchies had different patterns, and even the solid ones were pretty feminine looking so Castiel was really confused as to why Marcus had one of hers in his pocket. He usually used standard black bands like both of his brothers.

The one she had just gotten from his pocket was one of her favorites and she thought she lost it because she couldn't find it when she went looking for it the other day.

It was light blue with this little pattern of yellow ducks.

Childish? Sure. But it made her smile when she looked at it so therefore it was one of her favorites.

With a small shrug Castiel put the scrunchie in her own pocket. She probably would have pulled her hair back with it if she didn't only have one usable arm because of her stupid sling. She grabbed the suits in her good hand and used her foot to nudge the vacuum out in front of her as she left Marcus' closet.

She went to the door to get Afton who was standing guard outside Marcus' rooms, and he took the suits and came in to grab the vacuum to hand off to another guard who'd take care of them. Since Marcus' office was all hard floor she imagined all she'd need to do was dust the shelves and polish the shit out of his desk.

It turned out she was both correct and incorrect at the same time. Yes the shelves needed to be dusted and the desk could use a polish, but the curtains and chairs could also use some fabric cleaning, and the leather of his chair would probably appreciate some gentle leather polish.

Three hours. It took Castiel three whole hours to dust and clean the curtains and chairs. Afton was currently searching for some leather furniture polish, and Castiel was lightheaded from the fumes of all the cleaner she had been using today. It was only when the room spun for a second that she finally had the common sense to crack open the windows to get some fresh air.

Deciding she needed a break from the polish, Castiel got down on the floor after pushing the desk chair aside to inspect the computer tower under his desk.

She figured she might need to get some compressed air and blow out the fans and any clogged ports, but one look at this tower showed her that Marcus definitely didn't know how to take care of it.

For one thing, the tower was tucked in the back right corner under his desk right up against the wood. The thing must overheat constantly! She vaguely remembered hearing Marcus complaining about the fan sounds sometimes, and here was the cause. He was suffocating the damn thing and giving it nowhere to release the heat.

Castiel pulled the tower toward her, rotating it to see if it had a clear panel on the side not facing her, and sighing when it didn't.

And even though she probably shouldn't have, Castiel stood and started rifling through Marcus' desk drawers as she searched for a screwdriver or something similar so she could get a good look at the hardware inside the computer.

"Bingo!" Castiel said cheerfully as she found a small plastic container with some simple tools in it buried in one of the bottom drawers. She was instantly on the floor again and awkwardly unscrewing the side panel.

This only using one arm thing was getting really old.

It was clear to her very quickly once she got a good look at the hardware inside the computer that the thing was in a desperate need of an upgrade. Marcus was apparently just waiting for when he could add his computer to the collection of archaic tools of the past the Volturi kept for "historical" purposes.

At least that was what Aro said, Castiel still firmly believed he was just a hoarder who was sentimentally attached to his early 19th century hair curlers.

Castiel had laughed herself silly when Sulpicia had told her about that phase.

So now she had a new project that would keep her busy for a few hours, good thing too because she had officially run out of things she could clean and had some thoughts that it was probably time to throw in the towel and get a shower to try to scrub some of the chemical cleaner smell off of her arms and hands.

But if she wanted to work on upgrading Marcus' computer, she'd need parts, and if she needed parts, she'd need to talk to IT.

With a sigh Castiel put her head in her hands and closed her eyes, her small form stilling under Marcus' desk as she looked ahead, searching for the information she needed by predicting the outcome of a future conversation she'd just now decided to have with Aro about this issue.

After a minute Castiel lifted her head, pulling out her phone and dialing a number she didn't have already programmed into her contact list, the future where she'd seen herself obtaining this number disappearing as she pressed the call button.

"Ciao?" A smooth, unfamiliar voice echoed from the other end of the line. The line crackled in her ear, showing that however they managed to run phone lines down dozens of levels underground might have been effective, but it certainly wasn't perfect.

"Hiya! Is this Evan?"

"Si. Who is this?"

"It's Castiel. I need your help in Marcus' private office when you have a moment." Castiel said cheerfully, not even sounding slightly uncomfortable at the prospect of requesting assistance from a total stranger.

There was a long pause before the vampire on the other end said "Okay. I will come up." and ended the call abruptly.

Castiel pulled the phone away from her ear and looked at the dark screen, smirking as she realized he hung up. It was so refreshing to see that just like in her college tech classes, socially awkward tech nerds were always gonna be socially awkward tech nerds, even a transition into a beautiful immortal wouldn't change that.

Before her college education was abruptly ended by her er… trial in Volterra, Castiel had been taking all engineering and technology classes. Her classmates were mostly boys, and it was true that most of them were awkward, but they were brilliant too and they just had a totally different vibe. They had all kinds of erratic hobbies and were usually very good natured and friendly once they realized Castiel was a dork deep down too.

She knew Marcus found her ability to get overly excited about technology funny, but the state of his computer showed her that it was a good thing that she was tech savvy. Clearly she'd need to be the one keeping her sisters and Marcus and his brothers up to date over the coming years.

It took nearly ten minutes for Evan to make it to Marcus' rooms, and when he was finally standing in the doorway to Marcus' office with a bemused Afton at his shoulder, it was to find Castiel sitting in Marcus' chair, kicking her feet lazily as she waited as patiently as she could.

Which was apparently not very patiently at all.

"Oh hey Afton, did you find the leather polish?" Castiel said brightly and not acknowledging that she had summoned Evan up, causing Afton to blink at her while looking a little confused as they stepped into the room.

"Not yet, I can't leave my post at the door for an extended period so another guard is looking." Afton looked significantly at Evan and then back at her. "Why did you need Evan up here?"

She shrugged with her good shoulder, "When Evan catches one look at the monstrosity under Marcus' desk that he calls a computer, he'll know why. Marcus is a dinosaur so apparently his computer has to be from the prehistoric era too. "

Castiel grinned and Afton sighed.

"Does Marcus know you're touching his stuff?"

"I can touch Marcus wherever I want."

Evan made a choking noise.

"Oh you meant his belongings." Castiel said playfully, and ducked when Afton deftly snatched a sheet of scrap paper off Marcus' desk before making it into a ball at lightning speed and chucking it at her head.

"Why are you such an idiot?"

"Hey I'm only being honest-"

"I'm going to sit on the couch," Afton interrupted, rolling his eyes. "Try not to break anything, and if you do break something I'm telling him it's all your fault and I tried to talk you out of it."

"Okay, that's fair." Castiel said as solemnly and seriously as she could.

Afton rolled his eyes once more before exiting the office, being sure to make sure the door was left open behind him.

Once he was gone she turned to Evan, who looked extremely awkward and like he was trying to figure out what to do with his hands and opted for awkwardly picking up a paperweight that had been on Marcus' desk and just standing there with it.

Cas winked at him and motioned with her chin to the area under the desk.

If it were possible Evan would have blushed. He had never been within a hundred feet of her and he couldn't pretend he didn't find her distracting.

Already he wished he was back at the lowest level and working on the new programming language he'd been developing for the last few years in his free time. He was trying to create some information hoarding bots to send out over the web that could be useful to his coven.

He liked numbers, and computers, and his job which allowed him access to any technological advances he wanted to tinker with all in the safety and privacy of the lower floors of the castle he had found to be his proper home.

Evan wasn't good with people. He had two friends, and his hobbies, and a very specific way he liked his days to go.

"Okay." Evan said slowly, looking down at the paperweight in his hand and - rather than setting it back on the desk - he bent down to just set it on the floor before coming around to crouch near the computer tower.

Castiel decided not to comment.

"Dannazione. This thing is a dinosaur." Evan whispered after only looking at the thing for a few seconds, causing Castiel to laugh, which in turn caused him to jump.

Jeez a skittish vampire - who would have thought?

"That's what I was thinking, can we get him an upgrade?"

"Honestly, we should probably just do an entirely new build for him. I'm not even sure this monstrosity is worth saving." Evan said, standing once more. "We will have to call Master Marcus up. He needs to unlock his computer so I can start backing it up-,"

"Do you not just have an admin account you can do that from?" Castiel said with her eyebrows raised.

Evan raised his right back. "I do, but I would rather not go snooping on his computer without his-"

"I'll do it then," Castiel said brightly with a one armed shrug, ignoring the stunned look on Evan's face as she planted her butt in Marcus' chair and scooted forward toward the keyboard. "I'll snoop through his stuff any day."

"He gave you his password?"

"No, but just give me a minute and I'll find it." Castiel smiled at him again, and Evan felt like he didn't know what to do with his hands again. She shut her eyes, and he watched as her fingertips grazed along the keys on the keyboard, not pressing down but moving like a pianist would as they thought over new lines to add to a piece.

"Huh." Castiel made a small noise after just under a minute and opened her eyes. Evan watched as her pupils went from being extremely dilated to a more natural size.

Her fingers drifted across the keys again, this time pressing down as she typed in the password, the clicking of the keys the only sounds in the quiet room. Evan's eyebrows rose so high they nearly disappeared into his messy sandy hair when she hit enter and the computer accepted the password, loading for a few seconds before presenting the home screen.

Castiel looked up at him from the chair and grinned.

"You are a security risk," Evan sighed and Castiel laughed.

"I don't think you'll find many psychic humans guessing the Volturi's passwords or trying to gain access to the encrypted servers." She said reassuringly, though seeming very pleased with herself.

"Usually I'd agree, but the fact that you just logged on to one of the only computers in this castle that should be even more protected than the others, gives me a certain level of anxiety pertaining to gifted mortals."

"You're giving me too much credit." Castiel raised her eyebrows back at him. "Maybe you should scold Marcus on his choice of passwords. It wasn't a very good one."

"What was it?"

"I've heard Caius insult a lot of people in various dead languages, Marcus' password is one of Caius' favorite lines."

Evan groaned, "You mean the old Grecian equivalent of calling someone an uneducated... blank... head?"

"Blank head? Evan you can say fuck head-,"

"I will not swear in front of you miss." And just like that he was back to being all professional, and Castiel sighed in disappointment.

"You're all so proper, it's annoying-"

"It's called having manners. Do we need to have another conversation about the language dearest?" Marcus' deep voice sounded from the doorway, making both Castiel and Evan jump a little.

Castiel was sure she flushed about ten shades of red, but still quipped, "I'm not really sure you can call what happened last time we brought up my tendency to curse a conversation-,"

Marcus raised an eyebrow at her, his mouth taking on a slight smirk, "Watch it."

She gave him a toothy smile, if only to draw a little less attention to the fact that her ears were very hot.

"Now does anyone want to explain why one of our highest salaried coven members is inspecting the computer in my office?" Marcus said dryly, glancing from Castiel, to Afton who was out of her line of sight because he was standing behind Marcus in the small hallway.

Oh. Right. It hadn't occurred to Castiel that the person she had effectively summoned was easily one of the highest paid guards here. Secrecy and security was one of the Volturi's core priorities so of course the tech guards who spent most of their free time storing data, encrypting files, and scouring the internet to get rid of things they might deem risky in the sense of secrecy would be the most well compensated.

This was probably like asking the CEO of a company to help save a file as a pdf - there were most likely more appropriate, and not quite so high paid, people to go to first.

Though, one thing her father always said to her is that no matter how successful you become in life, never think that anyone else's job is beneath you. You should be willing to take out the trash on your way out of the office even if the janitor will get to it before they leave.

So yeah she had no regrets calling Evan up here.

Besides, it wasn't hard to see that he probably spent way too much of his life in those lowest floors. When was the last time this guy was outside?

"Your computer is almost as old and dusty as you." Castiel winked, "So we're getting you an upgrade."

Evan made a choking noise again, and without looking up at him Castiel reached out to pat his arm.

Marcus thought Evan looked like he would faint if he could. The young man was a total hermit for the most part. Evan didn't really like to come above ground level, and also didn't really like to talk and socialize with people.

It was understandable that his extroverted little human mate might be a bit much for him. Best keep the two around each other in small doses to start with. He had no doubt that over time the two of them might grow to like each other a lot due to their shared hobbies.

"Since Castiel has obviously unlocked my computer," Marcus sighed, "You may take any information you need from it Evan. How much time do you need here?"

"Non tanto." Evan answered, slipping into Italian automatically. "Ho solo bisogno di dare un'occhiata a un paio di file di sistema in modo da poter vedere con cosa sta lavorando il computer ora e cosa dovremmo guardare in termini di aggiornamento. Probabilmente dovrò ordinare alcune parti-"

Evan was interrupted by Marcus holding up a hand, his expression stern. "English please Evan. It is rude to speak in another language with someone in the room who cannot understand."

"Oh, no Marcus it's okay I think I caught the gist of it!" Castiel said, a quick glance at Evan showing her he looked very embarrassed.

"My apologies," Evan said quietly, giving a small bow in her direction. "I said I just need to take a look at a couple system files so I can see what the computer is working with now and what we should look at in terms of an upgrade. I'll probably have to order some parts."

"Thank you," Marcus said gruffly, his gaze switching back to Castiel before he raised a hand and crooked a finger at her. "Now stop bothering Evan and come with me."

Castiel stuck her tongue out at him in response, but still stood and headed out of the office, her sling lightly brushing Marcus' chest as he stepped aside so she could pass him.

He didn't follow right away, staying back to talk with Evan about the computer while Castiel went back to the main room with Afton.

By the time Marcus did come to find her five minutes or so later - with Evan leaving so quickly Castiel wouldn't have caught the movement even if she had been looking - Afton was once more standing in the hall guarding the door while Castiel was at the desk Marcus usually worked at when she slept and he wanted to be close to her.

She was unashamedly snooping through the desk, and he stepped up behind where she was sitting on the floor as she went through one of the lower doors and touched the top of her head with a soft sigh.

"You're just buzzing with energy dearest. You've been keyed up for hours and I was starting to worry."

Striking blue eyes looked up at him, and she put the notebook she had just taken out of the drawer back, looking a little confused.

"Sorry. I am pretty keyed up aren't I?" she asked as Marcus reached down to scoop her up off the floor before sitting in the chair and placing her sideways on his lap.

"By the smell of your hands and clothes you were keyed up enough to deep clean every inch of these rooms while also somehow having enough time to bother IT and hack into my computer-"

"I did not hack into your computer I used the password-"

"That you obtained through a vision, am I right?"

Castiel pressed her lips together and he chuckled, kissing her softly on the temple before proceeding to rub her back soothingly. "I'm glad we finished trials early today. It's obvious I've not been spending enough time with you."

"What?" She scowled at him, her brows pinching together and her shoulders hunching a little in distress. "No you haven't been too busy, I just… I'm…"

Castiel paused, trying to sort out her muddled feelings. She had been in a perfectly playful mood just a few moments ago, but the second her distractions were taken away she was back to feeling anxious. "Ugh."

"You aren't always going to realize when you're dealing with bond strain my love," Marcus said soothingly, "especially when you're upset that your friends are leaving tomorrow."

The look she gave him now was a little surprised, and he leaned forward to kiss her on the nose. "I've been worried about how their leaving would affect you, and so has Aro. I believe Athenadora and Sulpicia want us all to get together as a family to play some board games or something to help get your mind off things."

And here Castiel was thinking she had bottled up how her only two human friends leaving was making her feel, but apparently she wasn't doing a good job of it.

Castiel sighed and she slumped a little bit in his arms, her expression sad as she tried to think of what to say. Marcus was a safe person to talk to, he was always someone she could confide in, so why was it that sometimes she just found it so hard to talk about what she was feeling?

But she knew why. She didn't know what to say to him because the part that was upsetting her the most was the fact that she didn't know when - or if - she'd see Bella or Trent again. Marcus very realistically might never let her leave the castle again after what happened with the werewolf.

At least not as a human that is.

And it wasn't even unreasonable that he might feel that way after what had happened to Didyme and how he had been alone for so many years.

If she was never let out of the castle while human, and Trent and Bella didn't come back to visit, she'd never see Trent again and most likely wouldn't see Bella for years because they'd have to wait until they both weren't newborns anymore.

The life Trent was set to have with Leah would never allow him to see her once she was immortal like Marcus. She'd never be allowed to visit La Push, to go to his wedding, to meet his children…

To attend his funeral.

That thought caused such a frisson of pain to run through her chest that she felt Marcus' breath catch as he felt it too.

He touched her hair, and she knew he was about to speak so she spoke first.

"I don't know if I'll ever see Trent again… or how long it'll be before I can see Bella." Castiel almost whispered, pulling the scrunchie with the ducks on it out of her pocket so she could play with it in her free hand and avoid looking up at her partner.

Marcus didn't turn her head to make her look at him when he responded, and she was grateful for that.

"Why would you never see Trent again? And why would you assume it would be a long time before you could visit Isabella?"

Castiel shrugged that weird one armed shrug, trying not to make a face at how her bad shoulder felt as it tried to complete the movement. "The shifters won't want Trent to come back here again. They might actually stop him if he tried. And it's not like they'd ever allow me to go there."

"Why wouldn't they?"

"Because they hate vampires." Castiel said irritably, as if she were stating the obvious. Her slightly fed up tone didn't match her expression though. Marcus could see on her face that this defensive emotion was only trying to hide how upset she was. "They'd never let me on the reservation."

"I still do not see what them hating vampires has to do with you."

"They won't let Trent anywhere near me. I'm sure they'd stop him from leaving the reservation even if I waited in Forks or something, and even then that's years-"

"Last time I checked." Marcus interrupted, one of his hands coming up to cover her mouth for a second to stop her tirade before he tapped her chin to make her look at him. "You were not a vampire, so I see no reason for the shifters to bar you from seeing your friends."

"I-" Castiel was rendered momentarily speechless, trying and failing to see anything but absolute sincerity in Marcus' dark red eyes.

Marcus pursed his lips for a moment when she didn't speak before raising an eyebrow at her.

"Ah. You were worried that I wouldn't allow it, weren't you?" Marcus said lightly, not sounding upset or offended. His expression was as kind as ever.

"I… I mean…" Castiel really didn't want to say something that might offend him, and Marcus was very aware of how still she was sitting on his lap.

He rubbed her back with his right hand, his left coming to rest over the hand she had settled in her lap that was gripping the scrunchie rather tightly. "I know that I can be borderline unreasonable when it comes to your safety dearest, but I'm not going to make you miserable by never allowing you to see your friends again."

"But…" Fuck was it hard for Castiel to articulate her thoughts, "But I thought after I got hurt…"

Marcus sighed, and she could tell by his expression that he was trying very hard not to think about it. "My concern for your safety does tend to cloud my judgement, so I'm trying not to think in those terms. Aro does not believe the shifters will harm you, and with their protectiveness over human life I also don't believe they'd hurt you. Not to mention the fact that I don't believe Trent's shifter would be able to stand upsetting him by letting something happen to you."

"So what you're saying is-,"

"That once I calm down a little bit, and once you've spent a little more time healthy and upright, we can discuss you visiting your friends in Washington and what our coven will need to do to ensure your safety there." Marcus clarified, leaning down to press his face into her hair, a soft pleased growl coming from his chest as he did so.

"...Oh," Castiel was actually speechless. His words were completely contradicting every way she had imagined this scenario to go in her head.

Just the other day she had even seen a vision of this conversation and Marcus had not been this understanding. She had seen him blatantly refusing to have her out of his sight. So what changed?

As if he could read her mind Marcus said, "You've been so anxious, and I've had all day to think over what your friends leaving meant to you. I really do not want to be an overbearing asshole. I want to be a good mate to you. Your obvious reluctance to start this conversation with me shows that I must not have been very receptive to your concerns in other… scenarios you might have seen."

"Can you read my mind?" Castiel blurted out, actually a little perturbed by how he'd answered her unspoken thoughts.

He laughed, and the way his body shook against her made her have inappropriate thoughts for a brief second.

Only for a second.

"It's your emotions I'm reading, love." Marcus said soothingly, his lips at her temple. She had to suppress a shiver as his arms wrapped around her, pulling her body closer to his and lifting her slightly so it was easier for his mouth to travel along her throat.

Fuck that was so distracting.

"I like to think that I'm getting a lot better at reading them."

"That's an understatement," Castiel laughed shakily, biting her lip as Marcus's tongue gently touched the pulse point at the base of her throat. "I'm not that good at it."

"You will be with time." Marcus hummed, "Once you're immortal I'll help you learn."

Castiel swallowed audibly, shifting a little against him and feeling his smirk against her neck. She yearned to touch him, if only to give herself an anchor as her hormone riddled brain became hyper focused on Marcus' body.

Then she remembered the scrunchie in her hand.

"Marcus…" Castiel said his name slowly, genuinely curious about why the hair tie had been in one of his jacket pockets.

"I was collecting your suits earlier for dry cleaning," She explained, "And I found this scrunchie in one of your pockets. Can I ask why?"

"Hm?" Marcus seemed to only be paying a little bit of attention to her words. His eyes were closed as he lazily trailed kisses up and down her throat again, making her arms erupt in goosebumps.

There was no doubt that he noticed.

"Yes. I liked carrying one of them around with me when you were unconscious. They smell like your hair and holding them calmed me down when I would get overly… upset." He chose the word upset rather than violent so as to not alarm her over how he might have been acting while she was ill and he didn't know what would happen to her.

His words were open, honest, and Castiel felt like her heart was being squeezed at how emotionally vulnerable he was being with her.

Oh, Marcus.

She knew her illness had tormented him, but this little piece of evidence as to just how much he needed her… well it made her feel a lot of emotion that was just too complicated to put into words.

"I love you." Castiel whispered, and Marcus' only response was to kiss her.

His mouth held that same desperate urgency as it moved against hers that it always had when he was upset, or worried. His hands were all over her, touching, gripping, sliding up the skirt of her dress so he could clutch at her behind - it felt like he was everywhere at once and there wasn't much more she could do to touch him than hold onto his arm with her good hand.

Marcus' mouth traveled back to her throat, but this time the gentle kisses were interspersed with sharp nips that she was sure were going to leave marks. Her breathing was heavy, and she was very frustrated as he adjusted her so her legs were on either side of his and she still couldn't properly touch him.

"I hate this stupid sling." Castiel complained, feeling Marcus chuckle against her as his hands grabbed her ass. He held her against him as he ground his covered erection into her aching heat, smirking at the small moan she let out at the movement.

"It doesn't get in the way of anything important." He teased, and as if to emphasize his point he expertly shredded her panties with one hand and discarded them on the floor.

"I want to touch you," She whined, not caring in the slightest how needy her voice sounded. Both of Marcus' hands came to thread in her hair and his mouth was on hers again, his teeth nipping her lower lip once to make her gasp so his tongue could move with hers. He kissed her until she felt absolutely lightheaded, and his hands moved back to her ass so he could grind his erection into her again. He was being perfectly clear about what he wanted.

She groaned into his mouth and felt Marcus lift her as he stood to set her on the edge of his desk, and her attention was once again called to her arm between them.

"Fuck this sling." Castiel grumbled, pulling back from the kiss to cast a dirty look down at her arm.

"Language." Marcus purred, nuzzling his face into her hair, his hands stroking up her sides-

"I can't ignore it." She complained, and Marcus could finally feel her frustrations getting the better of her.

"Hm." Marcus mused aloud, and Castiel barely had time to cast a curious glance up at him before he changed her position.

She didn't think she was ever going to get used to just how simple it was for Marcus to pick her up and move her around as if it was nothing. Maybe once she was changed and her brain was faster it wouldn't seem so disorienting; but the shock from being moved so she was no longer sitting on the desk, but was now bent over it with her right forearm and palm braced against it so her left wasn't pressed into the hard wood took a second to adjust to.

Marcus bent her over so her feet didn't even touch the floor! Castiel ended up bracing her right foot against Marcus' shin so all of her weight wasn't resting on where her hips touched the edge of the desk.

"Jesus- Marcus," Castiel huffed, feeling the cool air on her behind as he lifted her dress up and out of his way. She would have looked over her shoulder to see him if one of his hands hadn't moved to grab a fistful of her hair as he wrapped it around his wrist to hold her head still.

"Is your sling still in the way?"

Castiel didn't think she had ever heard Marcus' voice go so deep and hot before, and the slightly patronizing way he said it made her feel like she was about to spontaneously combust.

She didn't see his nostrils flare, or how much darker his eyes had gotten as the smell of her arousal increased. Fuck he loved how receptive she was to him. He loved how well matched they were.

"No." Castiel squeaked, and Marcus gently patted her behind with his free hand.

"Good." He grinned when she squirmed against the desk, his gaze locked on the absolutely perfect view of her cunt from behind. The thigh high stockings she had on were just about driving him mad. "And what word do you use if you start to feel uncomfortable?"

They'd been over this recently. Marcus wanted to make sure that as long as her mouth wasn't… occupied… she used her words to communicate if she needed to stop. It was especially important with her shoulder injury and how it wasn't healing as fast as they would like due to her inconsistency with wearing her sling previously.

They hadn't had any accidents yet, but that didn't mean they couldn't happen.

"Yellow."

"Good girl," Marcus praised, smirking when he saw her tremble slightly. He touched her inner thigh, allowing his fingertips to lightly graze her skin as they traveled toward her waiting heat. Her pussy was so wet and soft when he gently pressed a finger inside her that I took all of his focus to speak again.

"And if you need to stop?" He asked slowly, pressing his finger in as deep as it would go before curling it against that spot inside her that he knew would make her come apart from him with only a little more attention.

"Ah," Castiel moaned, pushing back into his hand and completely unaware of what he just asked, "Please-"

"What's the safeword, baby?"

"Yellow," Castiel repeated, missing the absolutely primal grin Marcus made at her wrong answer.

He inserted another finger, feeling her body stretch around him as she let out a small cry. He thrusted them a few times, relishing in the sounds she made and feeling like his cock couldn't possibly get any harder as she cried out his name with another soft plea as he gently stroked her g-spot.

"What do we say if we need to stop Castiel?"

She didn't answer, and Marcus stilled his hand, causing her to whimper.

"R-Red." Castiel gasped, her brain finally coming up with the answer. Fuck it was hot as hell when he got all bossy and patronizing like this.

Marcus growled, and Castiel could literally feel herself getting wetter as she heard the telltale sound of his zipper being undone. Her brain was hazy with desire, and she realized this was another position that worked relatively well with their height difference as she felt Marcus press the head of his cock against her opening.

The sounds of Marcus' groan as he slowly slid home inside her was enough to show her that even though she felt needy as hell, he wasn't nearly as unaffected by her as he may seem during that dirty talk.

"You are so soft and tight," Marcus sighed, and Castiel could only moan in reply as she felt him pressing against every possible space inside of her. His hand tightened in her hair a little bit, and she couldn't suppress her whimper as she felt him finally bottom out.

He didn't give her more than five seconds to adjust to him before he began to move, and when he did he was hitting a spot so deep inside of her that made her think of nothing but the mind numbing pleasure that was coming from his cock pounding into her. Castiel was sure there was no way she would last, and she was also sure she'd have bruises on her hips from where they were against the desk, but that hardly mattered because it just felt so good.

The sound of skin against skin, the pleased cries of his little mate as he pounded into her from behind… Marcus wished she had the stamina to do this all day. She felt so fucking soft and hot around his cock that he knew he'd come the moment her pussy tighened around him with her release.

And she was getting close too, he could feel it by the way her body was starting to grip him back as he moved.

"Feels… so good." Castiel gasped, he loosened his grip on her hair so she could turn her head slightly and he could see the mindless pleasure on her face. "Fuck, that feels so nice–,"

Marcus snarled. He moved his left hand off her hip and bent over her, his arm snaking around her and pressing her back to his chest, making sure she was braced against him so he didn't accidentally force her bad arm into the desk if her right gave out as he began to really give it to her.

It was good he did, because the second he began to really fuck her hard, her right hand moved to lock on his wrist at her sternum. He let go of her hair so he could brace his hand against the desk instead.

He loved it when she got this loud. She begged in the form of his name over and over, and she pressed her rear into him as he thrust into her, eager as ever regardless of how rough he was being.

She came suddenly, and Marcus swore loudly in Italian as he felt her body spasm around him. He came hard too, knowing he had no hope of holding back when this session had been so primal and hot. He buried himself as deeply as her little body would allow, relief and content the only things he could feel now as his cock twitched inside of her.

It took both of them a solid minute to calm down, and Marcus told her to let him know when she was ready for him to pull out as their breathing slowed.

"Mm' good." Castiel mumbled tiredly, bracing her right arm against the desk again so she wouldn't fall forward when Marcus changed his grip so his hands were on her hips as he slowly pulled out.

"Oof," was the most articulate thing she could say when he slid her off the desk and placed her on her feet, her insides feeling like they had been turned to jelly because wow.

"Do you need anything?" Marcus pulled his pants back up and fastened them before wrapping his arms around her waist from behind, wanting to hold her simply because at this moment in time he couldn't bear the thought of not touching her.

He sincerely wished he could take her to bed, but the boneless way she leaned into him told him that she'd had enough for now.

"I'm good." Castiel leaned her head back to look up at him, smiling softly. "I'm completely fine. Really."

"Okay." Marcus kissed the top of her head. "Arm is okay too?"

"Feels no different than it did when we started." Castiel sighed.

"Well, then I think it's time for shoulder therapy." Marcus said, grinning at her theatrical groan in response. "If you're feeling well enough, Arkos really does suggest we try some exercises in the pool."

She made a face at this, clearly not on board with the idea. "I'm already tired enough as it is-"

"They're exercises completely meant for your arm." Marcus explained, "Thus I will be holding you the entire time."

He could tell when she bit her lip that the idea of an activity that would mean they remained touching was very appealing.

"I think the bond strain has made us suffer enough for one day, so we should try to stick together." Marcus teased, letting her go and taking her hand instead. "Now let's get on our bathing suits."

"But Trent and Bella-,"

"Are both completely occupied getting ready to leave tomorrow." Marcus cut her off. "They most likely won't even be free until morning. You can spend time with them then. Now come."

Castiel let out one more overly theatrical groan of annoyance, but followed Marcus over to the closets regardless.


Bryon stared out across the snowy landscape of his new home, the bright sunlight reflecting harshly on the powdery white snow not bothering him in the slightest. If he was still human, he would have been squinting so severely his eyes would have essentially been closed.

But his eyes were no longer blue and sensitive to light. Now they were strong, his vision was sharp enough to watch a snowflake's path through the air as a breeze carried it from over a hundred feet away if he focused on it, and his irises were a vivid red.

It had been long enough now that he'd gotten used to the changes in his sight. He barely even spared a glance at the rainbow pattern that was thrown across the ground around him as his diamond like skin glinted in the sun.

It didn't matter that he shone like a beacon right now, because he was utterly alone in this vast snowy field as he sat on a boulder in nothing but jeans and a t-shirt and tried to think through what to do next.

His new family - his new coven - knew he was out here. He could hear them worrying aloud about him as they lazed around the house about a mile away.

He should just make the phone call. He should just suck up his pride and call his daughter.

No matter how much he wanted to reach for the phone in his front pocket he just couldn't bring himself to do it.

There was so much he wanted to say… and also so much he didn't want to say. He had not had a real conversation with his daughter since the week she had been kidnapped-

No. Bryon shook his head hard, as if trying to dispel an irksome thought. Arrested. Since she had been arrested.

God, it was still so hard to get used to that explanation.

Anyway, he hadn't had a proper conversation with his daughter since before she was taken to Italy. The day he spoke to her in that circular room and could hardly control his thirst didn't count.

And he had so many opportunities after that to speak with her. To talk to her safely through a webcam where they could catch up and really come to terms with everything that had happened… everything that had nearly ripped apart their family.

How could he possibly face her though? What could he say to her now after dodging her calls for weeks because he was too much of a coward to confront her? What could he say to her to make up for the fact that he had been avoiding her calls because he didn't know how to tell her…

Well, how to tell her quite a few things actually.

And then she got hurt when she was out in Volterra spending time with her new friend Bella and was truly abducted.

How she almost died. And how she almost suffered a much more cruel fate than death by becoming a child of the moon.

How the Volturi had saved her.

And he hadn't been there for even a moment of it. The pain at knowing the first feeling he had when he called the Volturi leader Aro and demanded permission to come see his daughter only to be promptly denied, was relief… Well it nearly made him sick to think of it.

Because he was afraid he'd hurt her. Bryon was afraid that, even though he wanted nothing more in the world than to be near her side when his only child was dying, he would be the thing that would kill her. That getting too close would make him snap.

It was getting better now though; he wasn't so ravenous when Eleazar brought him the bodies to feed on. At first he just thought it was because the blood was never fresh - as Eleazar would travel hundreds of miles and search through the night looking for thieves and killers to bring back for Bryon to eat - so that meant it was easier to resist. But in the last few weeks he had been given warmed, bagged, human blood by one of his other coven mates while Eleazar was back in Italy and he hadn't been insane with thirst when it was presented to him.

Bryon couldn't wait for the end of his newborn phase, but he also dreaded it because the Volturi order that he be fed human blood until he learned control would end at that time, and he knew how badly his coven mates wanted him to convert to animal blood.

He did not want to drink animal blood. It smelled horrible and he had no idea how any of them had been sticking to it for so many years without issue.

Growling lowly under his breath, Bryon shook his head once more. He needed to get his brain off the subject of blood.

And just like that, his mind was focused on his daughter again - and how Eleazar had called him to warn him that Master Marcus would not speak to him about Castiel anymore. If he wanted information about how Castiel was doing he needed to call Marcus directly.

Bryon had the number in his phone, he couldn't bring himself to dial it.

How would he start a conversation with the man who had - and Bryon wasn't about to pretend it wasn't justified - punched him in the face when he insinuated that he had gotten his belated wife killed? How would he talk to this vampire who was proving through both his refusal to cooperate with Eleazar anymore and - from what he had heard - the very brutal killing of the men who had been responsible for Castiel's recent abduction, that he was incredibly protective of her?

Castiel. His daughter. And Marcus Volturi's mate.

Fuck, he didn't even want to think about Castiel having a boyfriend. His daughter hadn't been even slightly interested in dating her whole life and he took it as a blessing for as long as he possibly could. Then Marcus Volturi sets his eyes on her, and bada-bing-bada-boom she's basically married by immortal standards.

Bryon let out a string of curses under his breath, bringing the heels of his hands up to dig into his eyes. This was all so fucking complicated, and it only became so much worse now that he could actually relate to Marcus.

Now that he knew how it felt to find a mate.

What time was it in Italy right now anyway? They were 10 hours ahead there Bryon knew, and a quick glance down at his watch told him that in Italy it was nearly 2am.

He couldn't really depend on Castiel having a real sleep schedule since she currently resided in a place where the majority of the inhabitants never slept, but this was his best chance to call and speak to Marcus without Castiel knowing. It would be the first time he spoke to the man since their… err… disagreement, and if they were going to start arguing on the phone Bryon didn't want Castiel to have to hear it.

He didn't know if she ever found out about their fight, and he wasn't quite sure whose side she'd take if she did.

Bryon sighed in a very loud exaggerated way as a means of letting out some of his emotions over what he was about to do, and removed his phone from his front pocket. It only took him a moment to unlock it and scroll to the contact he had added when Eleazar had called last.

He clicked Marcus' name, and was grateful he didn't have to pay the phone bill when he finally got himself to press "call" after staring at his phone for another two minutes.

It rang once, and then when it was only halfway through the second ring the sound cut for half a second as Marcus answered.

"Ciao." Marcus' voice was low and his tone was clipped, brusk even, as he waited for Bryon to answer.

Bryon realized that he had been holding on to a tiny bit of hope that Marcus would not answer because he didn't recognize the number - which was a totally normal thing to do. But he guessed that Marcus probably always answered his phone when it was called. He was sure the Volturi had some means of filtering out spam callers.

He heard a shift at the other end of the line, and knew that if he took much longer to answer Marcus' greeting the other man would just hang up.

"Eleazar gave me this number and told me to call you."

Straight to the point. Bryon thought. There was no point in pussyfooting around this discussion.

"Ah, Bryon." Marcus acknowledged, his voice still quiet as he automatically switched to English, "I was wondering if you'd call-."

"Where's my daughter?" He was doing his best to control his tone, really he was, but he still sounded as frustrated as he suddenly felt.

God he hated how intense and sensitive his emotions always were now. How quick he was to go from calm, to angry, to anxious, and back again before he even took a full breath. Everyone said it would get better once he had ended the newborn phase, but he felt like that was years and years away, not months.

Marcus let out a soft sigh at the other end of the line, and Bryon listened to the sound of movement before hearing a door open and close. "She's sleeping," his voice was at a much more reasonable volume now, and Bryon realized he must have been near Castiel. "I am trying not to wake her."

Breathe, Bryon.

"That didn't come out right. What I meant to ask was; how is my daughter?" He was relieved when the words came out politely. He really needed to chill out.

"She's well. Better than she has been in a long while." Marcus hesitated for a moment. "What has Eleazar told you about the incident? What do you know about the attack?"

Bryon let out a deep breath at the word attack, trying to control the sharp pang of anxiety that cut through his chest at the word when referring to his child.

But at least Marcus' words showed him that they were on the same page and not about to waste each other's time with pleasantries.

"What Trent and Eleazar told me." Bryon clarified. "They said she was abducted by other vampires and werewolves and that… that she had to fight one and your coven found her and got her back. They said she was really ill and that she almost-"

Bryon couldn't finish, hating how ill informed he sounded and feeling like there was a nasty taste in his mouth as he mentioned his little girl nearly-

No. He shook his head hard again, squeezing his eyes shut. He was only dimly aware of the sound of rock crumbling as he dug the hand that wasn't holding the phone into the boulder he was seated on. Don't think like that.

He could hear as Marcus sat down before the other man replied. "That is certainly the shortened version of it."

"What's the full version then?" Bryon snapped.

It was silent on the other end of the line for a couple seconds, which was a long time for a vampire.

Bryon could practically see the other man's raised eyebrows.

"I'm… sorry." Bryon said slowly, taking a deep breath. "Really I am. I'm not trying to be such a confrontational asshole but I just… I just can't…"

"You just can't help it." Marcus finished for him, and for the first time he sounded… understanding. Sincere. "I know. All of our kind go through it in the beginning. It will pass."

"It doesn't feel like it will."

"I know." Marcus sounded a little amused, but his words were portraying a level of understanding that quite frankly Bryon was shocked was being extended to him of all people. "I've had a lot of refresher courses on patience in recent months, not to mention I already have a lot of experience dealing with an overly confrontational vampire as one of my brothers is Caius… I just do not want to aggravate you further."

"I want to know." Bryon said quietly, before revising. "I need to know."

Thankfully Marcus responded right away.

"Castiel was abducted by a vampire and a group of werewolves who went out with the main objective of finding more people to make werewolves. They abducted human beings from all across Europe, but Volterra was a target specifically because it is our city. The fact they grabbed my partner was, in the end, a huge coincidence." Marcus' words came out with a heaviness that Bryon could feel thousands of miles away. It was like a lead weight had settled in his stomach.

"She went through… so much torment and pain that night. She saved a young child's life, and one of the men she was abducted with sacrificed himself to give her time that ended up being essential to her survival."

Bryon felt like his jaw was stuck shut. He hadn't known any of this.

"I am still trying to find out that man's name." Marcus nearly whispered the words, and Bryon was sure that if he were in the room with him, Marcus' expression would have been that of someone who seemed to be looking at something very far away. "I want to find a way to repay him for what he did. I want to try to help his family. But right now all I have is a keychain to remind me of a debt I can never ever repay."

A plastic ratcheting sound could be heard on the other end of the line, and what he couldn't see was that many miles away in Italy, Marcus Volturi was staring down at the little LED in the mouth of the plastic dinosaur keychain that was covered in dried blood.

Bryon decided not to comment on the keychain thing. He didn't know what it was about, but the haunting way Marcus spoke told him that perhaps this was not the right moment to ask about that.

"How did she get hurt?" Bryon asked, because he needed to know. "Was she… was she bitten?"

"No." Marcus' response was immediate. "She turned to fight the beast. She had no other choice. She hit it in the face with an old crowbar she found on the ground when it came for her, and did a lot of damage to her shoulder when doing so."

"Did she swing badly?"

"No. From what I know she hit the dog directly in the face. But werewolves are much more sturdy than humans. It would have been very close to how it would have damaged her if she hit one of us." Marcus let out a breath. "Castiel must have put all her strength into that blow. You should be very proud."

At that same moment, though neither could see the other's face, each man had the same frisson of pain flash through their expression.

"She was so brave." Marcus continued without pause. "Of course the werewolf recovered too quickly for her. Her wounds showed she must have thrown the same arm up to protect her face when it made to claw her."

"It was already covered in its own vile blood, and the blood of the other werewolves it had killed. When it cut her it transferred some of that infection into her."

"And she got sick." Bryon said quietly.

"And she got sick." Marcus repeated his words solemnly. "My coven did some rather risky procedures that we normally would not have if we had any other choice. We're fortunate that the treatments Arkos and Kemar came up with prevented the change and that she was able to heal."

"Couldn't you have just…" Bryon trailed off, the unexpected picture in his head of his daughter, pale and strong with vibrant red eyes like his interrupting his thought process.

"If it bit her while the werewolf gene was trying to change her, she definitely would have died." Marcus sounded like he really wished this hadn't been the case.

"But now she's better?" Bryon's tone was incredulous, "She's just… completely fine now?"

"I never claimed she was completely fine." Marcus clarified and for the first time he sounded a little fed up. "She's not physically ill anymore, but her shoulder is recovering slower than expected. It's really not that surprising since getting her to keep her sling on has been like pulling teeth, and Arkos will probably have to do more imaging of her shoulder to make sure it's healing properly and she doesn't need another procedure… But she's not aware of that just yet. We're waiting another week to see if the soreness and pain improves."

"Pair that with the fact that we've all realized she hasn't really come to terms with what happened that night because of how she can't bear to have the scars on her arm visible. She's rationalized the facts of what has happened, but she's still not acknowledging how remembering that night makes her feel. Her brother and her friend leaving Volterra tomorrow certainly isn't helping anything either."

Marcus sounded frustrated, but the frustration was nothing compared to how incredibly concerned he sounded. Bryon was opening his mouth to speak when Marcus said, "I think it might really help her if she could speak to you. We know about what happened so Castiel sees no reason to bring up the attack with us, but with you she might actually be willing to explain, and maybe she'll be able to face some of the emotion that comes with it."

Marcus hesitated for a moment before sighing. "I'm just trying to figure out the best way to help her, without pushing her."

"I need to speak with her." Bryon said, more as a statement to himself than a request. All of his personal issues… all of his concerns over the things he couldn't figure out how to talk to Castiel about seemed so insignificant now.

"Can't you wait until she wakes up?"

Bryon stilled. He hadn't been expecting that response.

"You're going to let me talk to her?"

There was a pause. "Why would I not let you talk to your daughter?" Marcus' voice on the other end was genuinely confused.

"Well, you told Eleazar I had to go through you-,"

"Only because it seemed as though you wanted to get information from anyone but Castiel, and because I didn't want you to verbally attack her over her dating choices. I wanted to intercept you in some way to find out what your reasoning was for avoiding her. I hated seeing how hurt she looked every time she'd hear someone else beside her received a call from you. I'm tired of seeing her hurt. I'll do anything to prevent it. Surely this conversation has conveyed that much to you?"

Bryon winced.

Marcus scoffed at his silence. "Do you really believe I care so little for her?"

"No." This time Bryon responded instantly. "I didn't say that. I… I understand a little better now. I wish I didn't, but I do."

Without meaning to, Bryon let out a low growl of frustration. "I haven't been avoiding her calls because I don't want to talk to her. I haven't been short in my responses because I'm angry. There are so many things I need to speak with her about, and some things that I can only assume would really upset her, and…"

He trailed off, not sure if he should tell Marcus what was probably the biggest factor in him avoiding his daughter in fear the other man would repeat it to her.

"Does this have to do with her…" Marcus said when Bryon didn't continue, "Excuse my terminology because I'm not really sure of a better way to phrase this but - her mommy issues?"

That was the first time in Bryon's life that he ever heard the phrase daddy issues reused as mommy issues, and it certainly was shocking to know it came from the mouth of a royal immortal. But the surprise at the term didn't override the significance of what Marcus even using that phrase meant.

"...Eleazar said he didn't tell anyone." His voice was completely toneless but he was sure Marcus could sense the anger underneath the words.

"He didn't." Marcus let out a sarcastic laugh. "It was pretty obvious what the reasoning was behind your silence once I put all the pieces together."

"...What do you know?" Bryon asked bluntly, staring at the far off distance of the field before him but not seeing it in his state of shock.

"You're mated to Tanya Denali."

"And what about-"

"About her mother?" Marcus finished dryly. "Only what she's told me."

"And what has she told you?"

Bryon heard as Marcus took a controlled breath through his nose. "Enough."

The word was a growl. And it said everything.

"...Castiel told you." Bryon was stunned.

"Yes." Marcus sounded annoyed at his stunned disbelief. "Considering I've been teaching her how to swim, the subject was bound to come up eventually."

"Castiel doesn't know how to swim." It was an immediate response to the other man's statement, an automatic thing Bryon would always say when anyone brought up swimming or pools and Castiel in the same sentence.

"... I'm aware. She does know how to tread water now though, and at least that's a start."

He couldn't speak. Bryon felt like his brain just would not process what Marcus was telling him right now. Like it couldn't even begin to contemplate just what it meant that Castiel told Marcus about her mother, or that she was finally for the first time in her life learning how to swim even though he knew the very idea of getting in any body of water that - by her words - was large enough to drown in was an absolute impossibility for her.

"You might not like it, Bryon," Marcus finally said after it became very clear Castiel's father wasn't going to speak, "but Castiel loves me. She trusts me. I don't give a shit what your feelings about me are because at the end of the day she is my imprint, and my mate, and she is with me by her choice."

Oh he was angry now. Bryon could hear the frustration plainly in his voice.

Damnit.

Why could his daughter not just find a partner in someone he could intimidate? He had always assumed that the day Castiel found a boyfriend it would be a decently smart young man who he would keep respectful toward his little girl through stern glares and off-putting statements about knowing how to kill a man with his bare hands. He never imagined she'd be with someone who was so… He didn't even know what words to use to describe what he thought of Marcus Volturi.

Unyielding? Overbearing? Violent?

It was about time the two of them got this all sorted out. Bryon knew they couldn't go on having these verbal showdowns with each other. They had to get their dislikes out on the table so they could address them and move on, or all this would do is drive a wedge between each of them and Castiel.

"I would have never imagined my daughter with someone like you." Bryon let out a deep breath, willing the words to not come out overly aggressive, but they still came out pretty badly. "I think you're too… mature for her… And I worry what could happen to her…"

He trailed off, the implication that he believed Marcus would be violent toward Castiel tainting the air around him.

Marcus snarled. "You know nothing about me. And it disgusts me that you think I'd ever put my hands on her."

Bryon did not respond to that. Marcus' fury over what he insinuated was evidence enough that he wouldn't physically hurt Castiel, but the reassurance he wouldn't get physical with her wasn't all Bryon wanted.

"Is it so impossible to understand that I worry what your motivations are? You are way too old for her, and you've never exactly settled down in thousands of years. Can't you see why I'd be concerned that she's being used?"

Marcus barked a humorless, bitter laugh on the other end of the line. "Oh, I do hope you tell Castiel that you think I'm too old for her. I'm sure she'll side with you considering your mate is only… oh… twelve hundred years older than you? Not to mention that she and her sisters are the reason the succubus legend exists."

"This isn't about me." Bryon growled. "Leave Tanya out of this."

"You're here worried about my age, and how many casual partners I've had… but what? That judgment only applies to me? Do you not see how hypocritical you are? I am a faithful man, and I would never cheat on my partner. Do you believe Tanya would cheat on you?"

"No." Bryon answered automatically, "But that's different-"

"HOW!?" Marcus shouted this time, and Bryon moved the phone away from his ear. "How on Earth is it different? Do explain, because the person I'm talking to right now certainly isn't the brilliant, kind man Castiel has told me so much about. The person I'm speaking to right now is clearly an imbecile."

Bryon flinched.

"Castiel's a little gir-"

"Don't you dare call her a little girl." Marcus' voice had returned to a normal volume now, but he was clearly still seething. "She's not a fucking infant anymore. She is your daughter, but she is not a baby. She's a woman. She makes her own choices. Just because you cannot come to terms with the fact that she has her own life now, and a partner, and a new family, does not change what is."

"You cannot dictate things as unacceptable however you choose. My age, my number of partners, my dietary choices… you can't judge me for the same exact things you turn a blind eye toward for your mate. Castiel told me that her father is an honorable, decent man… and I must say I have yet to see any of that."

Fuck. Bryon had to take a deep breath. He hadn't been reamed out like this since he had been in the service.

There was a long moment of silence and the only thing Bryon could hear on the other end of the line was Marcus trying to calm his breathing. He hadn't heard the sound of Castiel letting out a quiet whimper in her sleep, or how Marcus' head had snapped toward the door to his office at the noise. His rising temper had obviously been affecting her even in unconsciousness.

Marcus really wanted to say something biting to Bryon. The really petty, nasty side of him that this newborn had brought out wanted to goad him on by saying something like "Yeah, I guess I'd be upset to if you were fucking my daughter," but he refrained. Saying that would be incredibly disrespectful to Castiel, even if it would make him feel a little better.

"You're right." Bryon finally said, and for the first time his voice was calm. Rational. "I'm being a hypocrite. I'm treating her like a baby… I keep seeing her as the infant child I raised alone and she's not that anymore."

Castiel's father really didn't want to admit it, but he actually was beginning to feel very bad over how he had been acting. He was the kind of person who believed respect was earned, not given… but that didn't mean that Marcus Volturi didn't at least deserve to be treated with some shred of decency. It was true that Bryon had never intended to give him a chance.

When he and Ajmer made it to Volterra and he found out his daughter was still alive, Bryon had been shaken when he realized she was still human. She was still human and he was not.

He had never imagined things proceeding the way they had. He believed Castiel would be changed and leave with him and Ajmer… he thought he and his daughter could start anew as a unit and maybe one day they would find Trent and let him make the choice.

But then he heard all sorts of rumors in the guest wing in the castle. Then he heard that one of the ancients - one of the Volturi kings - was romantically involved with his daughter... and he saw red.

There had been no reasoning with him after that.

"Look Marcus what I said… a couple months back… about your wife." The words were so hard to say because Bryon just felt so ashamed when he thought back to them. "I didn't mean them."

The pause Marcus took before answering this time was significantly longer than any thus far. Bryon actually pulled his phone away from his ear at one point to make sure the call didn't drop.

"Okay."

Bryon figured that was the closest he'd get to an "I forgive you" for many, many years.

"I would say…" Marcus said dryly, "I didn't mean it when I punched you. But that would be a lie."

And for the first time during this entire conversation, Bryon grinned. "I know."

Another pause. Bryon watched shadows begin to creep across the field as the sun went down. "...does Castiel know? That we fought, I mean."

"She's aware we disagreed." Marcus' voice took on a new tone, what Bryon couldn't see was the sardonic half grin on his face. "I think she'd kill us both if she knew the finer details."

"Right." Bryon agreed

Silence again. But this time the silence was very awkward for him. He had no idea what to say now that all of the nastiness had been brought up and worked out - well maybe not worked out but at least it was left to settle for what it was.

"Will you call her tomorrow?" Marcus asked, finally breaking the silence and putting Bryon out of his misery. "I'd like to know how much longer I need to keep Castiel positive that you will talk to her soon."

Christ, the man was not going to let him out of this conversation without making sure he knew full well just how poorly he had been behaving.

"No… I'll call her this week though. I still need to speak to Tanya. I need to explain why… why Castiel might not be very uh, receptive of her."

Bryon couldn't see Marcus raise his eyebrows, but he was still sure the other man had.

"...Tanya is excited about having a daughter."

"Ah." Marcus said tonelessly, obviously noting the problem. "I see. Well I'd say-,"

Marcus suddenly stopped speaking, and Bryon was left hanging as he wondered just what he had been about to suggest. Would it be useful information? Or would it be a simple "well good luck with that"? He didn't get the chance to ask, because only a couple seconds later Bryon heard what had made Marcus go quiet in the first place and realized the other vampire hadn't been pausing for dramatic effect.

"Marcus?" Castiel's sleepy voice came just after the sound of a door slowly creaking open. "Is everything okay?"

"Everything is fine dearest." Bryon heard Marcus reply, his voice incredibly gentle all of the sudden - a complete 180 from the gruff annoyance that had colored his tone during their conversation. "You didn't need to get up."

"I couldn't sleep." Castiel's words were a little sluggish, it was how she always sounded when she was very, very tired and it made Bryon finally relax out of his stiff posture a little bit. The familiarity of it was comforting to him. "You were upset. I could feel it. The bond woke me up."

Her words were the slightest bit defensive, as if daring Marcus to deny it.

Bryon knew he should really hang up. He wasn't meant to be part of this conversation and it was rude to eavesdrop.

But it was so comforting to hear his daughter's voice.

"You're right." Marcus said quietly, and Bryon could hear as he stood; presumably to move closer to Castiel. "I was upset. I'm sorry I woke you up."

Eleazar had told Bryon about this. Eleazar had explained that imprinting was a deeper mate bond than what most vampires experienced, and that it was completely normal for imprinted vampire mates to feel one another's emotions like empaths.

And Marcus had apparently gotten so upset that it interrupted her sleep, and by the sound of his daughter's concern this was not normal for Marcus.

He felt like such a shit. He wished Tanya would get back from hunting soon so he could talk to her… so she could maybe help him feel less lousy.

"I was worried," Castiel's voice just sounded so drained. This wasn't abnormal to Bryon though because Castiel was easily overwhelmed when she was tired. He remembered a couple of times trying to ask her questions right after she woke up in the morning and seeing how anxious it would make her to try to sort out her thoughts when her brain was still waking up. "And my shoulder hurting only makes it feel worse when I can't find you."

-worse when I can't find you. The words repeated in his head and Bryon felt like there was something lodged in his throat. He'd never heard his daughter be so… vulnerable with her feelings before. She was so open with Marcus Volturi that it genuinely shocked him. And the way she talked to him, talked to him like she needed him, well it spoke volumes when it came to how she felt about him.

"Can you come to bed?"

"Of course." Marcus responded quietly, his tone soothing.

And then, very abruptly, the line cut dead as Marcus hung up the phone at last.

Okay. Yeah. He definitely shouldn't have been eavesdropping, and hearing his daughter ask the man that he really didn't like all that much to come to bed - when he knew that said man didn't even sleep - well, it was exactly what he deserved.

With a grumble he laid back on the boulder, covering his face with his arms and trying to just listen to the sounds around him.

He heard the far off sound of a car, and he hoped it was Tanya returning from her day trip into town to pick up some random odds and ends. He had no idea how long he laid there, listening to the wind and the animals and that car, until he knew for a fact it was Tanya.

A mile away he heard her park the vehicle in the gravel driveway, the sounds of the small stones rubbing together as the snow packed them down under the weight of the car was an interesting and new thing for him to listen to. This supersonic hearing was really very cool; he could even tell by the distinct pattern in her footsteps that she was moving hurriedly to get back into the house.

The muffled words she said to the rest of her - their - coven was not the easiest to decipher at this distance, but some of what he could pick out was her asking about his location.

Kate answered her, and no more than a minute later he was greeted with the sound of Tanya running in his direction. Bryon had made no effort to hide his trail, and he hadn't wandered far. All he had wanted today was some privacy so he could think, but he never intended to hide from his partner. He made sure that when she did make it home he would be easy to locate.

"B?" Tanya called when she entered the field, concern evident in her tone as she saw him laying back with his arms over his face. "B, is everything okay?"

There was a soft woosh of air as she leapt the remaining hundred or so feet between them, and landed with a very soft thump on the balls of her feet right next to his hip on the boulder.

He still didn't move his arms, and she sighed before pulling them away from his face herself.

The sky above her was dark, the stars a truly magnificent backdrop to her beautiful face and her strawberry blonde curls. If only she were smiling, it would have made the perfect picture.

"I'm good, Tanya." He sighed. "Better now that you're here."

Her face softened for a brief second before she rolled her eyes, lightly smacking him on the chest. "You're always so charming. Now how about you tell me what's bothering you enough that you've been sitting on this boulder all day?"

Another sigh. "Well considering I just heard my daughter ask a man I really don't feel too fondly for to come to bed with her, I might feel better if I can rip my brain out and boil it so I don't have to remember."

Tanya blinked at him, "I'm sorry… what?"

"I called Marcus Volturi." He explained. "It didn't go all that well… and I'm a prick… and I shouldn't eavesdrop."

She raised one perfect blonde brow at him, finally sitting back on her butt and drawing her legs up, wrapping her arms around them before she set her chin on her knees to gaze at him in speculation. "You should really start from the beginning, because I'm very confused. Carmen and Irina have been worrying about you all day. Kate was getting ready to come out here and find you when I got back. She said they thought they could hear you arguing with someone a little while ago but it wasn't very clear and they didn't want to pry."

Bryon sat up too, pulling his legs towards him slightly and resting his elbows on his knees after rubbing both hands over his face. "I have a lot of explaining to do. To you, to Castiel… Everything's been such a mess and it's been so hard to make sense of anything when I can't even think straight through my extra sensitive emotions."

"It'll get better, B." Tanya said gently, her expression sincere. "I promise it will. You've been doing so much better than you were when you first came here. I know you can't tell but you have. We've been thinking… when Eleazar gets back… Maybe we can all go into town. We think you're ready to have your first day out with the human populus."

Bryon's head whipped back and forth so fast it was a blur. "No. I can't."

"Bryon." Tanya used his full name now to get him to take her seriously. "Yes, you can. You are giving yourself no credit. Kate said you barely reacted each time she bought you blood this week - two days ago you even told her you didn't want any! I was doing laundry downstairs and I heard you say no thank you… do you not see what an accomplishment that is?"

"I'm not ready Tanya."

"But you are!" She argued, and he swore he could see fire in her eyes. "We aren't saying you'd be with humans all day, we know we need to walk before we can run, but we do think - no we know - you can make it an hour or so behaving like a normal human. You don't need to seclude yourself forever."

"You don't get it Tanya!" Bryon gasped, feeling a hot flash of anger down his spine, and as soon as the words were out of his mouth it was gone, and in its place was a feeling like a ball of lead in his stomach.

The beautiful strawberry blonde vampire might have continued arguing, if it weren't for the new expression that was dominating her partner's face.

Pain.

"B…" She whispered. "Why don't you think you can do it?"

He let out a deep breath, looking forward instead of over at her. "Because the last time I was around a living human being, it was my daughter and I would have-"

He couldn't even say it, vividly remembering being thrown to the ground and the feeling of the two vampires pinning him down. Listening as they took Castiel out of the room because of the danger he posed to her.

"Oh, Bryon." Tanya moved so she was sitting properly beside him, her left arm coming out to wrap around his back, her head resting on his shoulder. "I know you don't believe me but it's different now. You're different now. You won't hurt anyone."

"There's only one person in the world who can know that, and she can't even see me anymore… not to mention I've been too much of a coward to call her so I can't really pick up the phone and have her reassure me even if I wasn't invisible now."

Bryon felt like his eyes were burning and like there was something tight wrapped around his chest. It was really uncomfortable. "I miss my humanity… and I miss my daughter."

"I know." Tanya whispered, and he could feel as she began to purr gently against his side in an effort to sooth him.

And it did help. It made him feel like the burning behind his eyes stopped at the very least, though the tightness in his chest that he recognized as the urge to sob did not go away. "The worst part of all this though? I really think I'd feel a heck of a lot better if I could just hug her, but I can't without killing her… and that feels really, really shitty."

He let out one broken sob, and both of Tanya's arms were suddenly around him. She squeezed him hard, so hard that it nearly hurt, but he was glad she did because it felt like she was holding him together.

The sorrow he felt right now was so intense he thought he could die with the pain of it. And it only felt so much worse because he was used to being the one doing the holding together. He wasn't used to being the one who was falling apart. All his life he was the person everyone could lean on. He was the rock, the protector - he even had a gift in this life to back that up. Eleazar told him he was the most powerful shield he had ever seen, so why did he feel so useless and weak?

"You've made so much progress, but you just can't see it right now." Tanya said gently, her words so comforting and reassuring that it only made his emotions feel even more unstable. "You've literally managed to make a physical shield along with your mental one. If you really want to Bryon, you can put up a shield that keeps people away from you. If we go out, and you don't think you can handle it, just throw up that shield and keep them back. You can do it. We all know you can. We'd never take you out if we thought you weren't ready."

Oh Tanya, Bryon thought, brave, strong, beautiful Tanya. You have no idea how lovely you are. And you deserve so much better.

He said nothing, and there was a long silence before Tanya sighed. "But that's not what we should be talking about right now. Why don't you explain… well whatever it is you said you needed to explain? And please don't leave out the reason you want to boil your brain because I'm very interested."

He laughed, he couldn't help it. He saw out of the corner of his eye that Tanya brightened at the sound.

"So what happened when you called Marcus Volturi?" Tanya said seriously, but her voice held a lighthearted, teasing edge. She always seemed to know exactly how to talk to help take the edge off of conversations. It was no wonder that she had always been the leader of this small vegetarian coven. "And I already know you're a prick sometimes but I'm just wondering why you had to say it out loud-,"

He playfully moved to nudge her in the ribs with his elbow - which she neatly dodged with a giggle - while really wishing he could get the big, stupid smile off his face and failing miserably.

"He told me a little more of… of what happened to Castiel." Bryon said, really trying to keep his voice even and calm, his smile fading. "And I feel terrible that I wasn't there for any of it. My dodging her calls… god do I regret it so much. I wasn't there for her before she got hurt, and I couldn't face her after either. That other leader Aro literally called my son back to Volterra because they thought that-"

He coughed once, finding it necessary in order to clear his thoughts so he could say it and face just how close it had been. "They called Trent to Volterra because they thought she might die. And when I demanded to go too you know they said no and I was - I was relieved. How sick is that?"

"It isn't." Tanya defended, "I know how scared you are to hurt her. It's not sick of you to try to keep her safe in whatever way your brain is telling you is best."

"Marcus Volturi was calling me out on my poor behavior. He didn't downplay how much I've been hurting her."

"He shouldn't be trying to stop you from calling her now and making you go through him instead," Tanya said loyally. "If you were trying to call her today and he was stopping you then it's his-,"

"I only called because I planned to speak to him." Bryon interrupted. "I know what Castiel's number is Tanya. Trent gave it to me. But I was still being an idiot and not manning up to speak with her."

Tanya said nothing to this, a glance over at her showed him that she had pursed her lips. "Oh."

"He called me out on my shit. He showed me that I've been here worrying about things that I know Castiel and I can work out, and that I was almost left with a whole lot of regret if something horrible did happen to her because I didn't want to start an uncomfortable conversation." Bryon let out a deep breath once again. "And I know that I haven't exactly been… open minded… with him."

Tanya raised an eyebrow, waiting for him to continue and he groaned.

Gosh, she was gonna hate this part.

"Everyone here knows what I said to him the day I found out he was involved with my daughter. Everyone agrees it was fucked up. And today I might have implied he's too old for her and that she's a little girl, and his… not settling down over the years has me concerned."

And exactly as Bryon knew she would, Tanya folded her arms across her chest and her expression when they finally locked eyes was very unimpressed.

"You don't have to say it, Tanya." Bryon put his hands up by his shoulders defensively. "He called me out on my shit. There's nothing wrong with sexual freedom for anyone, and there's nothing wrong with an age gap as long as both people are consenting adults."

Tanya smirked, though her arms stayed crossed. "I see we've finally gotten through to you on that."

It was true, living with the Denali sisters really was an experience. They had some very enlightening debates about freedom and personal rights and morals. One thing the sisters were very passionate about was a woman's right to her own body, and they had certainly never taken his side when he had brought up before that Castiel was too young to know what she was doing. They'd given him some slack at first because he was an angry newborn and a concerned father, but the second they realized Castiel was old enough to drink legally in the US his arguments about his daughter being too young were out the window.

"Somehow he was the first person to successfully make me see that I was treating Castiel like she's a toddler still, and my ignorance of the fact that she's grown up is no excuse for how I'm trying to butt into her life."

Tanya paused before answering, taking a moment to digest what he was saying. "You said the conversation went badly… but you seem very enlightened now as you explain it to me."

"It sounds rational now, but trust me we were both really angry with each other." Bryon sighed, before letting out a frustrated laugh, "I don't like even thinking she has a boyfriend, and it's really hard for me to just accept that this much-" he didn't dare say older because Tanya might just kill him, "-more experienced vampire, who I've heard is very dangerous, is her… mate."

To his absolute surprise, Tanya laughed. "Oh, you sound like every father since the history of time who was unhappy his daughter started dating. She's not property, darling - and trust me I've always felt that women aren't property even though I lived through times where daughters absolutely were. You're allowed to have your concerns but you still have to have actual reasons for that concern. You can't just be mad that she having se-"

"I know." Bryon cut her off. "I know."

He took a minute to think, and thankfully Tanya remained silent beside him as he organized his thoughts.

"He's protective of her. Eleazar told us what happened to the two vampires who abducted her. Marcus told me that he wants me to speak with her because he's concerned that she hasn't come to terms with the incident, but he doesn't want to push her and feels that I'm the one person that might be able to get it out of her without a fight. He's shown that he… loves her. You should have heard him when I was eavesdropping, it was like he was an entirely different person from the furious vampire I'd been on the phone with, but it doesn't mean I'm not still…"

"I'm so worried." He finally finished, looking over at Tanya so she could see the concern on his face.

"Vampirism is a violent life." Tanya said delicately. "And when you are part of the Volturi, the coven who makes our laws so that there can be peace and coexistence in this world, it's definitely bound to be much more violent. You know Marcus is one of the most deadly fighters our kind has seen, and I can see how it's scary to think of him with your mortal daughter when you're still trying to learn to control your thirst and emotions."

"You need to give him some credit, and trust that he's not going to hurt her accidentally. Bad things can happen… and they can be so much worse because humans are not built to be able to handle this life. We can only pray things work out and that the guards keep her protected."

Bryon nodded, glad that Tanya was here to put everything into words and make him see things like she did.

"...But you still haven't explained the eavesdropping." Tanya said quickly after a short pause, completely throwing him off for a second.

He groaned, loudly. Tanya just loved finding things she could poke fun at him for, and she clearly had not forgotten about the brain boiling comment. "Yup. Definitely need to find out how to erase memories."

"What did you dooooo," she said in a singsong voice. "What did you hear? I need to know."

"After arguing with Marcus, Castiel woke up." He sighed, "I'd riled him up enough that she was able to feel it and she went looking for him. I didn't hang up even though I knew I should have because I liked finally being able to hear her voice and know she was okay… and I heard her ask Marcus to come to bed with her. We don't sleep."

Tanya started to giggle so hard that she rocked backwards so she was lying on her back on the boulder beside him. He could feel the subtle vibrations through the stone as she covered her mouth with her hands.

"Aw, poor you." Tanya teased, still laughing at him. "That's what you get! That'll teach you to mind your own business!"

"Thanks for the support, my beautiful mate." Bryon said sarcastically, only making Tanya's giggling fit that much worse. He wished he could stay here with her all night and continue to make her laugh, but he knew that more than anything he needed to talk to her about… well, about Castiel. He needed to tell her about the real reason for his divorce and adequately explain just why he had been so anxious about telling Castiel that he found a mate.

Because part of it was certainly because he knew that telling Castiel he had a partner made it so that he had absolutely no leg to stand on if he wanted to argue with his daughter about Marcus not being right for her, but the other part was because he just didn't know how to break it to Tanya that Castiel might push her away.

And it wouldn't be all that unreasonable for Castiel to reject mother figures considering what happened. It was the whole reason Bryon never seriously dated the entire time Castiel was growing up.

"Tanya," he said heavily after a long moment of willing himself to speak as her laughter subsided, "you've been so understanding… and you've never asked even once why I was so reluctant to tell Castiel about you, or why that reluctance was so severe I've been avoiding her over it."

"I thought my partnership was only part of the reason-" Tanya began, but Bryon interrupted her, sensing where she was going with her thoughts.

"There was more than one reason. Others being that I was feeling really weird about my inhumanity and her… well humanity. And that I felt like I've been going crazy with how hyperactive my thoughts and feelings are." He explained, "But the biggest was that I'm - well not dating again but committed to someone romantically - and I'm not really sure how she'd react because I've never…"

"Because you never brought another woman around after you and her mother divorced." Tanya finished for him. "You already explained that the dates you've gone on were all one time things that you kept from her. It's reasonable that you feel nervous about bringing this up with her and I'm sure the newborn emotions only make it that much more stressful."

"It's not the newborn emotions." Bryon breathed. "I can't blame it on me being a newborn. Not this time."

Castiel told Marcus Volturi about what happened, Bryon rationalized, you're allowed to tell your partner the same story. She's your daughter and you don't have to like her boyfriend, and she doesn't have to like your girlfriend for you all to be family. And family doesn't keep secrets.

Tanya didn't interrupt his thoughts, seeming to know that he needed some time to think. He'd never stop being grateful for how patient she was.

"Castiel's mother didn't just walk out on us Tanya." Bryon took a deep breath, avoiding looking over at her and choosing to look across the empty field instead. "It's not that simple."

"I thought…" Tanya bit her lip, "I'm sorry I thought you said that you and her mother separated because of differentiating views… I assumed the issue with you dating again came from abandonment-"

"I lied." Bryon's voice was toneless, and it was a good thing he wasn't looking at Tanya because he wouldn't have been able to bear seeing the look of hurt on her lovely face.

"...Then what is it?" Tanya's voice was calm, but he didn't miss the underlying tremble.

God, when was he going to stop upsetting the people he cared about.

"The memory of the very worst day of my entire life." The words came out so simply, but his expression was full of pain too now. "Even worse than the moment I came home to all those cop cars outside my house and the news Castiel was missing and there were signs of a struggle."

She didn't say anything to that, but only because she couldn't imagine what memory Bryon could possibly have in his life that was worse than that. Well other than some memories of his brief deployments where he saw some awful things while in the military, but that wasn't what they were talking about here.

"It's one of the only memories in my human life that I can remember like it was yesterday because it's been branded into my brain forever. It's been nearly twenty years and I still think about it."

"...Was it an affair?" Tanya said gently, trying to guess. "Did you come home to find her in bed with someone else?"

After all, from what she knew that scenario wouldn't be that far off from the usual scandals of military marriages.

"Ha! I wish!" Bryon let out a humorless laugh, "I wish that was all it was. It would be so much easier to deal with if the worst memory of my life was just my ex wife fucking another man in our bed."

The words were so bitter he swore he could taste them.

"B…" Tanya trailed off, her hand resting on his arm again and finally causing him to look over at her.

She wished he didn't, because his expression was just so wounded that Tanya wanted to end this conversation right then and there and take his mind off of everything. She didn't need to know the specifics if it hurt him this much, all she needed to do was whatever she could to help him be happy again.

Tanya probably would have jumped on him if it wasn't for the fact he turned his face away from hers again.

"The worst day of my life was when some of my buddies stopped over the house to shoot the shit with me, and I allowed my wife to take my daughter upstairs to have a bath."

If he had been looking at her, Bryon would have seen that Tanya's expression was suddenly very confused.

"I told you my daughter has always been special. I told you that from the moment she could say a few choice words I knew she could see things. My wife knew too… but she didn't see it quite like I did."

"She took our toddler upstairs, and Castiel kept saying daddy over and over and I knew something was wrong because my wife never wanted anything to do with her only months after her birth. I chalked it up to postpartum depression and I didn't even think to stop her and-"

Both of his hands came up to grab fistfuls of his hair, his eyes squeezing shut as he tried to control the urge he had to run, or break the boulder he was sitting on, or scream, or find something to fight-

Tanya's gentle hand on his knee made him flinch, and next thing he knew he was standing beside the boulder rather than sitting on it, his hands up in a don't touch me kind of way.

"Sorry!" She said gently, her strawberry blonde curls shifting a little in the small breeze passing through the field. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have touched you-"

"It's fine," Bryon shook his head, "it's fine. I need to get this out. I need to say it."

She waited, and he took a moment to get his body to still and calm so he could finish this story without incident.

"And she took our daughter upstairs and tried to drown her in the bathtub."

Tanya gasped, covering her mouth with her hands in an effort to stop herself from making another sound.

And so Bryon told her the whole awful story. He told her about the trauma it had caused him, how it left such a mark on Castiel's psyche that she had fragmented memories of the incident even though she was literally a toddler when it happened, and how much it tortured him to have to learn how to teach a toddler to take showers and never baths because his baby was just so horribly traumatized…

The court proceedings, the sentencing of Castiel's mother and how she was still institutionalized to this day for severe schizophrenia.

How it shaped Castiel as a person. How Castiel, never ever under any circumstances wanted to have children. How when she was only sixteen and had taken her first sex ed classes and asked her dad if she'd be allowed to get her tubes tied because she was just so terrified.

Terrified that if she had children she'd mentally snap and do the same thing her mother tried to do to her. He had told her he'd support any choice she wanted to make, but she never did make the appointment to get the procedure done… probably because she was waiting until she was sexually active to do so.

At least vampires were infertile.

"But… but Castiel can't think that'd happen." Tanya said gently. "That's not how mental illness works-"

"I know." Bryon whispered, finally moving to sit beside Tanya on the rock again. "I'm just explaining so that you understand how much what happened hurt her… and it's a pretty big deal that she's apparently told Marcus about it."

"Well that's good." Tanya said, eyebrows raised. "It's good that she told her partner about that, it's a pretty serious thing-"

"She was brave enough to tell him before I told you."

She scoffed. "People are ready at different times, Bryon. You're telling me now. That's what matters."

"The only people who know are those who were involved that day, Trent, Marcus, and yourself." Bryon paused, "and probably the mind reading king, Aro, too… I just need you to understand first, so if I tell her and she doesn't take it well…"

It damn near broke his heart to say the next words. "I know how excited you were when you realize we were mates and I had a daughter so therefore you did too, and fuck I didn't want to think about how much it would hurt you if Castiel pushed back…"

Mommy issues.

God, he was never going to be able to forget that phrase, and it was actually really unfortunate that the words did fit when it came to describing Castiel's issue with mother figures.

"B. It's okay. Really. I'm glad I know. At least now I'm prepared for how I should… ease into it with her. I don't want to make anything harder than it needs to be." She paused briefly, pursing her lips before saying, "and, well, we can't even be sure she won't be completely fine with it. You said before you never dated and she's an adult now. She'll probably be able to compartmentalize all this pretty easily, but it's good I know not to come on too strong nonetheless."

Sweet, understanding Tanya. Bryon felt like he could hardly breathe again. Here she was finding out he had been keeping secrets, and calmly stating what she would do to help make everything easier.

He didn't deserve her.

"You deserve… so much better than me." Bryon's voice was pained. "You're sitting here and you're just so unbelievably understanding about everything. Even though I've lied, and kept secrets, and behaved like an asshole constantly. I've said shitty things to people who didn't deserve it, I've pushed back on everyone… I still can't let my old life go."

"I've spent so much time worrying and trying to figure out how to make sure my daughter doesn't get upset over this, and it's not fair to you. You should be the only thing that matters to me now, that's how every nomad I spoke to in that castle described mates and… and you deserve someone who puts you above all else."

The guilt in his voice was palpable, and Tanya blinked at him in stunned awareness. He had always been so kind and attentive to her. He was a lovely partner and very receptive to her advances, it had been as easy as breathing for them when he first made it here. They barely made it two days before they were both fully aware of what they were to each other.

She hadn't wanted to get her hopes up when she scented him the first time and her brain had hyper fixated on him in a way it never had with anyone in a thousand plus years. And Bryon was too new to this life and still struggling so much with sorting his thoughts and instincts that he hadn't noticed anything right away. But there hadn't been anything amiss about their mating. Everything had been normal. Easy. It was like they had known each other for years.

But sometimes when he talked to her, and would tell her about his life and the circumstances that brought them together, she would sense some sadness, a hesitation she couldn't understand or place.

"Bryon, have you been feeling this way… have you been harboring this guilt all this time? You feel as though you should punish yourself because someone you don't even know made you think you don't love me the right way?"

"Everyone says mates are the most important person to us; that they are instantly above everyone else and I-"

"Feel as though you have betrayed me because you love your daughter just as much as you love me and would never be able to choose between us?" Tanya asked incredulously.

"I feel like I have failed you as a mate. You deserve someone who loves you above all else and I-"

"Love your daughter exactly as much as a father should? Oh, Bryon, the world needs more men and fathers like you. Part of love is never asking the person you love to choose, and I would never dream of making you choose between me and your daughter. Whatever issues may arise we will work them out. Thank you for confiding in me. I'm glad I understand now."

"I love you, Tanya." And for the first time since his change he sounded out of breath. "I do love you as much as I possibly can - I can't imagine feeling for someone else the way I feel for you. Not even-"

He paused, not able to bring up Castiel's mother again.

"You love me and your daughter equally, just in different ways." Tanya said gently, resting a hand on his arm. "And that's a beautiful thing. Do not let others' opinions that you somehow do not love me enough because you won't abandon your child make you feel this way, because quite frankly that's completely ridiculous. Would you expect, after what you know now, for Castiel to choose between you and Marcus? Do you expect your daughter not to care about her biological family because she is an imprintee? Or for your adoptive son, Trent?"

Bryon didn't respond, and Tanya thought for just a second that if Marcus and Bryon could set aside their differences one day, his advice over what bonds were and how they actually worked would be soothing to Bryon.

"You are the most loving man I know." Tanya continued, smiling kindly at him. "You gave up your humanity… your life. You gave everything for your family. I know that you aren't proud of some things you've said recently, or how you might or might not have been handling things wrongly… but that doesn't make you a bad person and I think that's what's been troubling you so much. Just give it time, and a little bit of faith, and I promise you'll be back to exactly how you were."


Castiel was sitting quietly at the kitchen island, pushing the cheerios in her bowl around with her spoon instead of eating them because it felt like her appetite had vanished. Her shoulder ached a lot, and Trent and Bella were both supposed to be leaving to head to the airport in only a couple hours but neither had come down for breakfast yet. She really wished she could be more positive, but honestly she was feeling incredibly down at the prospect of being the only human around again.

Of course she still had Emmanuel, and the secretaries, but it just wasn't the same as having her friends with her.

When she first came to Volterra it had taken her long enough to adjust, and in the grand scheme of things it was probably worse for her to have had other humans to make friends with because it totally threw her off. She'd take ten steps forward adjusting to being the only human around, but Trent joining them and then her easy friendship with Bella had caused her to take nine steps back.

The heavy metal door to the kitchen opened and Castiel looked up from her bowl to see Kemar enter, his sharp eyes taking in her expression before flashing down to the food she wasn't eating.

She looked back down at her bowl, not really in the mood for conversation as Kemar took a seat beside her instead of giving her distance and sitting at the small table a few feet away.

"Rough night?" Kemar said, a hint of teasing in his voice as he took in the red marks down her neck to where they were hidden by her t-shirt.

Castiel shrugged. Marcus' little love nips were down the right side of her neck and across part of her collarbone and shoulder. Usually no one said anything about them, so Castiel didn't really get irritated with Marcus anymore when he left marks like these - it wasn't like they hurt or anything.

It was silent for a long moment where Kemar just watched her play with her food instead of eating it, before he sighed.

"Are we alright, Castiel?"

She looked up at him this time, and Kemar wouldn't want to admit it but he was a little relieved to see she looked confused.

"What?"

He gave her a speculative look. "Aro's had me alternating with Heidi all week. I haven't seen much of you since that day in the office."

She scrunched her nose a little as she understood what he was referring to, but she didn't seem to notice.

"You went to Aro personally after that situation with the recording. I made you uncomfortable enough that you felt like you had to report it."

Castiel just shrugged, and he took note of the fact that she was being very careful to make sure her left shoulder remained still. He'd address that in a second.

"Aro was right. I went way too far, and I absolutely should not have recorded you and Marcus, even if it was just to teach you a lesson." Kemar was growing a little frustrated with how she just wouldn't speak. "He wasn't lying either when he said I never would embarrass you with it. I wouldn't have sent anything to your father no matter how annoying you are."

"I didn't tell Aro to keep you away from me." Castiel said a bit defensively, "I was just as confused as you were when I didn't see you around."

"Then he was probably just trying to give us some distance from each other to make sure we cooled off." Kemar sighed. "But Castiel, I want you to realize you can talk to me if you think I'm out of line."

"You told off Jane. You told off Edward Cullen. Hell, you go toe to toe with Caius whenever you disagree and damn do your arguments get personal." Kemar chuckled, but his expression was incredibly serious. "What I'm trying to say is, you have it in you to stand up for yourself and you should know that you can do the same with me. If I go too far, you have every right to tell me to go fuck myself."

A small part of Kemar expected a laugh, or at least a little bit of a grin from Castiel, but she did neither and this time when she looked back at her food he thought she looked a little green.

"If you're not upset with me, why are you so quiet?" He asked suspiciously, his gaze automatically traveling to her sling.

She confirmed his suspicions by mumbling, "shoulder."

"It hurts?"

A nod. "A lot. More and more every day. It's usually a little tender after shoulder therapy but it's not getting better this time."

Kemar stood so he could get closer to her, automatically reaching for her sling and frowning when she flinched away from his hands.

"Does it hurt that badly?" Kemar asked sharply, watching her expression to make sure she didn't lie to him. "Is it bothering you enough that you won't let me touch it?"

Castiel's lower lip trembled and she nodded.

"Fucking hell. Little bird you can't wait until the pain is this bad to tell us. Come with me, we need to get some imaging done of your shoulder-"

"No!" Castiel said sharply, her expression pained but fierce at the same time. "I'm going to see off my friends before they leave for god knows how long, and then you guys can look at my shoulder and knock me out so you can fix it. I already know how this is going to go, and two hours with my friends won't change anything."

He blinked at her, a little surprised and trying to place all the different emotions that he just heard in her voice. Frustration, anger, pain, sadness… It was a complicated cocktail that he was sure wasn't made any better by the physical pain she was experiencing in her shoulder.

"...Your friends leaving only feels that much worse with your shoulder hurting you like this. Am I right?"

She pushed her bowl of uneaten cheerios away from her, not saying a word and refusing to look at him. If she'd already seen that she was going to need another shoulder procedure done there was no reason to rush her down for tests before imaging. He could simply inform Arkos of the situation and make sure he had time to get everything prepared so after her human friends departed they could take care of her.

Kemar really didn't see the harm in letting it wait for a couple more hours.

"I'll go get you something for pain so your last couple of hours with your friends aren't so miserable." He said lightly. "And I'll inform Arkos and Marcus about your arm… I'm imagining Trent will be here in a few minutes, I passed him on my way down before."

This caused her to look over at him, confusion clear on her face. "I thought Trent wasn't up yet. Last time I checked he was sound asleep."

"He certainly looked as though he just woke up." Kemar shrugged. "But he was sidetracked as he headed in this direction. He saw Renata and wanted a word with her."

Castiel's eyebrows shot up. "Renata? Why?"

Kemar's lips pulled up for a second in a small grin before he contained his expression and sighed. "I think he's finally listening to the advice you and Aro gave him and talking to his lady friends instead of avoiding them when he has an issue. From what I heard he was… letting Renata down easy about his relationship status."

"Was Renata okay?"

Kemar shrugged. "She seemed fine. Renata is the kind of girl that appreciates straightforwardness. She knows what it feels like to be played with and I think Trent being honest with her will make things a lot easier for her in the long run."

Castiel looked at him like she really wanted to ask what he knew about Renata, but she kept the line of curious questioning to herself after a moment's pause.

It was one of the things Kemar respected about her. She knew when to stay in her lane.

"I'm going to go get you the medication. Afton is outside the door if you need anything before I get back."


Trent had Castiel pulled into an awkward half normal, half side hug. His arm around her back was a little low on her waist, but Marcus kept his mouth shut because he knew that Trent was just trying to be careful of her sling and that Castiel would probably go off at him if he got all - as she said - jealous and growly.

"Take it easy, Cas. I'll call you the moment I'm settled in the new place." Trent gave her a soft squeeze before pulling away, stepping back so Bella could take his place.

They were all in the garage. Edward and Carlisle were the only two Cullens here; the rest of the family had traveled back to Forks a while ago when Bella said she wasn't leaving until Castiel was better, mainly because they had to maintain appearances in Forks so Charlie didn't get suspicious. Marcus, Kemar, Afton, and a few other random guards were hanging around to see them off with Castiel.

But Bella had finally ended the whole looking at schools in Italy charade and was heading home to Charlie. And she hadn't told anyone yet, but Bella was really considering seeing if she'd be allowed to come to Italy in the fall instead of attending a real fall semester at a university in America. She was sure if she talked to Cas about it sometime soon they could arrange something; after all Charlie thought she was here for months checking out school options, would it be so weird for her to say she'd found something she liked and wanted to try more long term?

She wasn't quite sure how she'd break that idea to Edward though.

Bella wasn't sure of a lot of things when it came to Edward anymore.

Man she really wished she didn't have to leave right now. She really, really needed some girl talk with Cas. Bella gave her friend a quick hug around the waist too, being extra careful because she was a natural klutz and didn't want to hurt her.

When she got back to Forks the first thing Bella was doing was using the measly funds in her bank account to buy a laptop with a webcam so she could call Castiel.

"I'll call soon too." Bella promised, trying to look optimistic as she drew back from Cas, but the way her friends brows pinched a little at her expression she was sure she didn't buy it. "Really really soon. You'll hear from me in less than twenty-four hours."

Castiel smiled, though Bella could tell by something in her eyes that she was a little concerned about her. If she'd been paying more attention, Bella also would have noticed Kemar on Marcus' other side tilting his head curiously as he studied her.

"Sounds good." Castiel said before sighing softly. "Might want to give me an extra day though. Probably gonna be knocked out because of my shoulder."

This was very true. Kemar already warned the three humans when they'd been socializing in the kitchen an hour ago, and Castiel finally seemed to be in a better mood since the painkiller he gave her was taking her mind off her shoulder, that she was most likely gonna be out of it tomorrow so to not plan any immediate calls once they got back to America.

"Right." Bella nearly forgot. "Good luck with your arm, and when you're recovering make sure to take care of yourself and have a big slice of vanilla cake, because we both know it's the best flavor."

Castiel and Trent snorted.

"Oh yeah about that," Castiel said angelically, and the sickly sweet tone of her voice caused Bella to narrow her eyes in suspicion. "We took a poll of all the human staff and the few vampires who can still recall tasting foods cake preferences."

Bella didn't like where she was going with this. "And?"

"Afton?" Castiel turned to her boyish guard, giving him a big toothy smile as he pulled his phone out of his back pocket and began tapping away looking for something.

"The results were 117 votes for chocolate cake with various icings, and 32 votes for vanilla cake with various icings." Afton said matter of factly.

Bella's expression, and her resounding scoff was indignant. "No way! You guys totally cheated!"

"Nope." Trent popped the 'P' as he said it. "We all just have superior taste buds."

A few of the vampires in the garage chuckled at that, Marcus being one of them. Kemar was debating about making a joke about Bella's apparent terrible taste being an exact opposite of her sweet smelling blood, but decided to keep his mouth shut so Edward - who was standing quietly and a little impatiently by the open back door of the car they were supposed to be leaving in as he waited for Bella to say her goodbyes - didn't get all pissy.

"Well, so what?" Bella said once it was evident she'd lost. "Why do you all look so…"

Bella wanted to say sketchy, but figured the word mischievous would fit better when it came to Castiel and Trent's expression.

"Well we had a bet, and since I don't have the time or ability to back an entire chocolate cake for you to eat, Trent's gonna do it for me when you guys get back to Forks." Cas had the biggest, shit eating grin on her face and Bella didn't like it one bit.

"And you have to webcam with Cas while you eat it." Trent smirked and Bella had a really bad feeling.

"Should I be scared?"

"Oh yes, very scared," Trent said cheerfully. "I'm a terrible baker. Most of what I make is inedible."

Everyone in the garage laughed at this except for Edward - even Carlisle was chuckling from where he was in the driver's seat of the car.

"Oh, god." Bella groaned. "I guess we'll have to invite Carlisle to your place when we do this, Trent… so he can resuscitate me if I die."

Kemar laughed, and Bella visibly brightened at the sound, pleased he thought she was funny and completely missing the weird look Edward gave her turned back.

"Probably a good idea." Trent laughed. "Now let's go before we end up missing our plane."

"Can't wait to see you hurl Bells," Cas said cheerfully as Trent climbed into the car, Bella trailing behind him and stopping at the open door to look back at her.

"That's fair," Bella said lightly, before smirking right back. "But don't worry, I'm such a good friend that even if Trent's cooking does nearly kill me I'll still come back here if you need someone to spoon feed you."

The reference to Castiel spectacularly missing her mouth when eating the soup the day she and Bella argued about cake made Kemar laugh loudly, and Trent chuckled before muttering "wasted" in the car too low for either Bella or Castiel to hear.

"Okay, I deserved that." Cas blew a kiss at Bella, winking at Edward who looked absolutely shocked. "Have a safe trip, and don't let your bad luck bring down the plane."

Bella stuck her tongue out at her curly haired friend before finally ducking into the car after Trent.

She made sure not to look back even once as they left the garage and traveled into the sloping tunnel, sure that she might cry if she did.


Posted December 24th, 2021

(50 Pages 23,560 Words)

A/N: Merry Christmas everyone! Please don't hate me too much for taking so long to get this chapter out. I moved into a new home and suffered a couple of injuries in the past year so I haven't been able to write much.

But I am back now, and I know this chapter might seem rather filler-y but it was necessary. I already have 31 pages of Chapter 28 done and I'm honestly a lot more into it than I was with this chapter, if all goes as planned you'll be getting another update in January ;)

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