"What were you thinking brother!?"

Marcus watched from his throne, an empty look within his eyes as Aro stood with his hands wrapped around Caius' throat. A futile gesture for a vampire if Aro intended to throttle the fair haired king, but deadly at the same time as Aro seemed to be fighting the urge to rip his head from his shoulders for the offense he had committed.

"I merely wished to see her! Felicity has been avoiding our every attempt at reconcile because she now believes that everything we ever did was a lie, a trick to lure her into our beds. I wanted nothing more than to reverse the catastrophe you have caused with your manipulative actions!"

Marcus could only sigh at the mention of their beloved's name, the grief he felt sparking at the memory of the last time he had seen her, the pain and mistrust in her eyes unbearable to him. She had always worn her mask so well and to see it shatter and fall to reveal such emotions, knowing full well that it had been their own actions to cause it was the bitterest of pills to take.

The castle was no longer the same without her. The black cloud had returned to haunt their days as the ghost of a child's laughter, Felicity's laughter, began to fade and leave nothing behind but a hollow feeling. Aro and Caius fought like cat and dog again, like they had done before her arrival, the higher guard often having to pull the pair apart for fear that they would actually rip each other to shreds. Marcus had returned to his old lethargic state, eyes gazing through his gift upon the tattered remains of the bond they shared to her. It gave him little hope, watching as the ribbon occasionally flickered and flared before falling limp once more. The bond was still there but too weak to truly believe that it could be saved.

"All you have succeeded in doing is driving her further away! If given time to think and come to terms with herself, she would probably have come back to us. But now we have no hope at all!"

"Do not try to pass the blame brother. We are all to blame for this. Yourself for ever thinking you could successfully manipulate her heart, myself and Caius for being sucked into your folly and believing for a moment that your plan would work... We are all to blame and now we must all suffer equally without her."

Marcus stood from his throne, moving towards the door without a second look towards his brothers as their own pain hits them fully. They knew he was right, they were all to blame and now had to suffer. Even Roxanne had taken to locking herself away in the office that she had once shared with Felicity, unwilling to face the kings or their coven as she tried, and failed, to manage all the tasks that Felicity had once borne upon her shoulders so easily.

He no longer had the energy to deal with his brothers, to watch as Roxanne was slowly driven to her own despair at the grief of her actions, so he simply chose to spend his days locked away within his quarters staring out of the window and down at the village in hopes of catching even the smallest glimpse of the woman they all loved. A futile hope, when he knew she had fled, but it kept him going with the ideal that perhaps she would one day return home.

5 Months later:

She struggled to hold back the lump in her throat as she sat at the piano, her eyes casting quick glances around the living room as she avoided the eyes of the pair that sat behind her on the sofa. Julian had insisted that she meet his mother, Irene Travelli, a withered old woman with a stern face and miserable eyes, her voice like nails scraping down a chalkboard from years of smoking.

The house was large and pretentious, a way for Irene to flaunt the money that her deceased husband had left to her. Felicity hated it, she had nothing against large houses having grown up around a coven of vampires with excessive back accounts and too much time on their hands than they knew what to do with, but this house was garish and overly done. The woman clearly had too higher opinion of herself and Felicity was certain that the woman had not truly earned such an opinion.

"I thought you said that your friend could play Julian? As of yet, I see very little evidence of talent within the girl in the fine art of piano music"

Felicity had to bite her tongue to retort as she once would have done when with the three kings, keeping her gaze upon the piano rather than the old hag that tried to rattle her cage. The piano was clearly old and had never truly been used, if the dust was anything to go by, but it was tuned showing that Irene clearly liked to think she could play it if she felt the desire too. Felicity got the feeling it wasn't herself that was showing little evidence of talent in that moment.

She looked to the side slightly as Julian moved from his mother's side and came to her own, looking at her with false concern as he spoke, an irritated gleam within his eyes that gave away his true feelings. It seemed that the mummy's boy didn't like it when someone disappointed or upset his mother, especially when he had vouched for them himself.

"Are you alright sweetness? I thought that you said that you could play this instrument?"

"I can play, along with the violin and the cello, I was taught as a young child by... By an old friend"

Marcus had taught her when she had been nine, just as Aro had taught her how to play chess and slow dance, but the memory of the songs he taught her now brought only pain as she fought to ignore the feeling of longing within her heart. She missed all three dearly, but found that her pride would not let her forget the wrongs they had committed against her.

"I miss him dearly, he and his brothers, but... let us simply say that his actions and the actions of his brothers have ended our friendship... The songs I know remind me of him and the family I once knew... It just makes playing a little difficult now without feeling sad"

The reassuring smile on Julian's face was still false and did nothing to ease the sadness within her heart as he spoke, words laced with poisoned honey that she had little care for but pretended to listen too. After all, he was only the means by which to continue her lie of being ordinary.

"You don't need to think of them now. I'm your family now, and you will one day be mine I hope"

She didn't miss the slight look he sent towards his mother, the displeased look on the woman's face before giving a vague nod before speaking and making Felicity realise just what he had meant by his comment as he pulled a small box from his pocket and held it out towards her.

"Well, she is a pretty young thing and I am certain that she will produce healthy, beautiful children to carry on our families line... Though I believe she may need to wear more make up if she is to be seen out in public more often with you Julien as your wife, she has a sickly pale colour to her skin that reminds me of a reanimated corpse"

She vaguely heard him utter the words 'will you marry me', vaguely noticed the expectant look within his eye at his mother's comment about her make-up. She had always been pale, it was her natural look but clearly not to this old witch. the three kings had always said her skin was like the fresh snow of early winter, beautiful in it's purity.

She stared for a moment, mind running frantic as it screamed for her to run and never look back, to return to kings where she was safe of men and their mother's who wanted to change her features, her dress sense and anything else that disagreed with their own ideals, back to the safety of her three kings. She didn't love Julian and she never would, saw him merely as a way to appear more normal.

But sadly, combined with the panic and shock beneath the icy glare of Irene, Felicity's mouth moved of its own accord.

"Yes"