DPOV

Lifting a hand, I ran a finger over my cheek, wiping the wetness that dripped on me from above as my eyes roamed the room. There was carnage, then there was the state of the Training Chamber. Looking at my fingers, I ran my thumb over the smear of crimson that stained my skin before casting my eyes to the ceiling, lifting a brow at what appeared to be a hind leg of one of the wolves that decided to include himself in a vampire fight. The fur was so matted in blood, even with my eyesight, it was impossible to tell which one it was.

My shoulder twitched from a new bite that was very close to taking my head, and had it not been for my mate, I wouldn't be standing. Seemed the seer and mind reader were in fact keeping far more secrets than thought, even from their own. How it was missed by the rest of their coven, I had no idea, but it also didn't matter. The whole coven laid strewn across the floor, waiting for reassembly so Aro got his chance with them.

Win-win in my book.

However, they weren't the only bodies that were dismembered, just only ones that would be put back together. Any guards that fell would simply be burned and forgotten.

Hearing a series of grunts to my left, I turned my head and saw the massive body of a wolf seem to pop off the ground a few times before it was kicked hard enough to get enough height for Bella to roll out from under it. Her clothing was shredded, her skin covered in blood and fur, and there were more than a few bite and slash scars that would now forever mare her flesh. I heard whimpers slip past her lips as she pushed herself to her knees to sit on her heels, a hand coming up and grabbing the worst of her injuries, which was a set of gaping claw marks around her bicep.

In a second I was beside her, crouching down and looking in her pink eyes. She had lost her mask at some point, but any pain from her gift was overshadowed by the pain in her arm. She looked back at me, her face drawn and voice full of pain when she spoke. "Are you okay?"

I reached out and plucked a tuft of fur from her hair, smiling at her when I dropped it. "Thanks to you." Lightly taking the elbow of her injured arm in my palm, I removed her hand for a better look and hummed, my eyes flicking back to hers. "This will hurt for a while, but they should start to close once you feed. They'll scar, though."

Licking my free palm, I did burn away the raised skin from the vampire teeth marks she received from the seer when she pulled the bitch off my back. Bella herself was responsible for the dismemberment of the seer and the death of the rust colored wolf that was dead set on killing her. Though she whined, she didn't pull away when I ran my palm over the fresh wounds like I had already done to mine. It wasn't really necessary, they would still be seen. It was more so they didn't pop off the skin anymore and instead kept it smooth. There wasn't anything I could do about the claw marks. Shifter claws were designed to tear us apart. She just got very lucky she was able to twist out of the way before it took her arm completely off, because there would have been no way to reattach it had that happened.

I felt Felix come up behind me, but I didn't turn my head as I focused on tending to my girl. I did speak to him though. "Told you none of them were worth a fuck."

There was a grunt, and I could picture him crossing his arms. "Right as always, Master Demetri."

I froze in place, eyes closing and letting out a hard sigh from my nose and growl from my throat. Clicking my tongue twice, I glanced behind me, brow cocked and voice flat. "Why the Hell are you calling me that? You kn...ow be...tter?"

It takes quite a bit to catch me off guard these days. After two thousand years, I've nearly seen it all, but him holding up the head of Aro was not at all what I was expecting as an answer to that question.

Slowly standing, I turned to face him fully, catching the head when it was tossed to me, turning it upside down and wrinkling my nose. "Oh... oh he's not coming back from this." His head was removed by the claws of a shifter, and we cannot reattach what was severed by those claws. Flicking my eyes from the bottom of Aro's neck to Felix's, I grunted. "What the fuck was he even doing in here?"

It was then Felix crossed his arms. "Your guess is as good as mine. It was something to see though. When it came to choosing between helping you or saving him, everyone cut off the wolves' path to you."

Wrinkling my nose so much my teeth showed, I made a noise in the back of my throat as I tossed the head over my shoulder, twisted back around, and crotched back in front of my mate. She had returned to holding her arm, but she was looking behind her where Aro's head came to a stop. "We'll sort it out later. For now, I have a mate to tend to."

"Demetri."

I ignored him completely as I scooped my mate into my arms and stood. Glancing back at Felix, I sniffed. "Get this shit cleaned up and burn the lot of them." I just wanted to feed my mate and get her a bath because she smelled to high heaven, but no. My path was blocked and all it did was piss me off. Glaring at the son of a bitch, I bared my teeth. "What?"

He pointed behind me and I looked back, seeing a sea of red looking at me, searching for answers about what the fuck they were supposed to do. Being more than a little sure I already answered that, I growled. "This room fucking reeks. Clean it." When another drop of blood fell from a above, landing on my arm, I glanced up before turning to leave again. "And get that fucking wolf down."

I was able to leave after that, but not make it all the way back to my chambers before my path was blocked by Caius and Marcus. I stared at them, they at me, and none of us said a word. Caius looked a little ruffled, telling me he was also at some point in the scuffle he also had no business getting involved in. Why any of them thought that after centuries of sitting on the sidelines while others did their bidding they thought they stood a chance against anyone was a mystifying question.

A whimper from Bella pulled me from the staring contest and down to her. She really needed to feed, and I wasn't exactly in the mood to entertain them. Not looking up from her, I continued toward my chambers, dipping my head with a 'Masters', as I passed between them. I was stopped, though, by Marcus asking me what I would have them do.

Pausing, I turned half way back, looking at them again as my head tilted to the side in thought. After a moment, I hummed. "Let the world think Aro is still alive. The only ones that know otherwise are dead or under my command. Nothing here changes." Turning my back on them, I continued down the hall. "I have no desire to be a king."

It was then Caius spoke up. "The guard's ties were to Aro."

I chuckled deep in my throat, but didn't turn back. "Keep telling yourself that."

Rounding the corner that led to the Elite wing, I glanced down at Bella, who was looking up at me with a drawn expression. "You have responsibilities to see to, Demetri."

I nodded once. "I certainly do, My Love." When her eyes lowered, I raised my arms, lifting her up so she as level with my and set my forehead against hers, lowering my voice. "And the most important of all of them is taking care of you."

Entering our room, I kicked the door shut behind me, and carried my mate straight to the bathroom. Setting her down on the counter, I left her there and went to the tub, turning on the hot water only and began running her a bath. Putting the plug in place, I stood and turned back, cocking my head to the side as I made my way back to her. "I have a question for you."

Setting my hands on the counter to either side of her hips, I bent at the waist until I was eye level with her. She drew her bottom lip between her teeth, and nodded to my statement, so running the tip of my tongue over my teeth, I tised. "You were handed a way out. You could have let that pint sized bitch kill me, setting you free, allowing you to walk away. Yet, you stopped her and saved my life. Why?"

BPOV

Looking into Demetri's eyes, I bit my lip harder at the question. I wasn't sure how to answer it. There were so many different reasons I didn't listen to him yet again and stayed out of it. I wasn't sure if he would like the answer, but I gave him the best one of the bunch.

"I knew what would have happened if I didn't. They would have taken me back to Washington. They would have put me in front of my dad." I could feel my eyes itch, but I knew I couldn't actually cry. "They would have presented me to my dad, and I would have killed him. I would have killed him without a second thought and they knew it. They would have made me kill my dad so he would stop looking into them, so they would no longer be in trouble."

It was then I shook my head, breaking eye contact and leaning back, look down at my ripped up jeans. "I was gone for a week before they came. They knew what they would find when they got here, they had to." Closing my eyes, I whined in my throat. "I was wrong about everything, Demetri. I'm so sorry." Looking at him through my lashes, I swallowed hard. "You were never the monster; it was always them."

To my utter shock, he grinned at me, amusement in his eyes as he chuckled low in his throat. "Well, I wouldn't go as far as all that, because I certainly am. I am every bad thing you ever thought I was. I do believe I told you that no more than a hour ago"

I licked my lips and let out a breath. "But would you put me in the position to kill my own father just to save your own ass?"

I wasn't surprised when he shook his head. "No, that I can say I wouldn't have done. But so we're clear, even your father's death would not have saved them. He was never really a threat. He was little more than an excuse on their part. It was about control for them, it always has been. Carlisle lost control of his coven a long time ago, and when you hand over the control of a coven to someone that will never mature enough to handle it, narcissism becomes an issue. A lack of consequences becomes an issue. Because that mind reader was never taught how to accept responsibility for his actions, and just take his licks like a man, I'm now in a really fucked up situation."

I grinned slightly, and he leveled me with a look of annoyance. "Head of Coven now, right?" He growled low in his throat, and I cleared my throat. "It was going to happen eventually, wasn't it?"

He just growled again as he looked up at the ceiling for a moment before looking back at me. "Without doubt, but that's not the point. When you put so little care into the domino effect... when you think so little about how your actions affect the lives of others, especially the lives of me and mine, I get very angry and for all I can do? I cannot kill the same person twice."

I couldn't help it. He looked so annoyed over the fact that he couldn't bring Edward back to kill him again, I laughed in his face. Not only did I laugh, but I laughed hard. I had so much tension in my body, an entire week of emotions I didn't know how to dispel, that once I started, I couldn't stop. I was in physical pain, I was hungry, I was tired, I was wired for sound, I was angry, I was elated, I was everything at once and currently I'm sure I looked quite deranged, but I was starting to feel better.

And Demetri just stood there, a look of nothing short of indulgence on his face. It was such a condescending look, too. It wasn't meant to be one, I knew that, but it just made me laugh harder. He rolled his eyes at me, and shook his head. "So glad I amuse you, Gatáki."

I tried to gasp out an apology, but all it turned into was 'sorry', and 'I'm sorry' over and over as I tried everything I could think of to settle down. I couldn't move my arm that had the claw marks, so I just buried my face in Demetri's chest. "I'm so sorry... I don't know what's wrong with me."

With a chuckle of his own, he ran his fingers through my hair. "Oh, I know exactly what's wrong with you, My Love. You're a newborn." There was a pause, then a growl. "Oh, Goddamnit."

I pulled back slightly and immediately wished I hadn't. He forgot he was filling the tub, and it ended up overflowing. That did nothing to stop my laughter. All it did was make me snort so hard, that were I human, I would have shot him with a snot rocket. At this point, I was laughing without sound. Thank God I didn't need to breathe anymore, or I probably would have suffocated.

As he pulled away to turn off the water, I was finally able to get my voice to work, but it was shaded in my amusement. "Kinda pointless to have saved you now." He glanced over at me with a cocked brow, and I grinned wide. "Luna is going to kill you."

He cocked his head, his eyes roaming around the flooded bathroom, before he hummed and shrugged a shoulder. "Ah, well, I've had a good run."

That just made me laugh again.

I watched as he set about gathering towels and dropping them across the floor, and once I could talk without laughing, I smiled. "You make me happy. I'm happy here. You make me happy to be here." He was crouched down, but looked up at me, and bit my lip as I wrapped the arm I could move around my belly. "You were right before, when we were on the catwalk, about me and happily killing humans. I enjoy it. I enjoy all of it. The screams, the blood, the feeling of power I hold over their lives. It's... I enjoy it immensely. Life with them was never... right. There were so many rules and so many things that just... never seemed entertaining. Never ending high school? Always being watched and told what to do or what not to? Could you imagine what that would have been like had Edward changed me and I was still like this? Still enjoying the kill like I do? It would be miserable. There isn't any judgement here. There is a lot of other shit, but I'm not judged for just being what I am. It's waved off as unimportant, or laughed off as natural for what I am. I was degraded for being human and stubbing my toe, and abandoned for getting a papercut."

Demetri said nothing, just propped his elbow on his thigh and pinched his chin between his thumb and forefinger, looking up at me with soft eyes, letting me say whatever I wanted to say or felt I needed to get out, and I took the clear invitation to continue.

I licked my lips and shifted so I was leaning back against the mirror. "I know a part of me saved you to save my dad, but I think... I think it was mostly done from a selfish place. When Edward came back, he actually disabled my truck so I couldn't go see a friend of mine. He would stop me from talking to different guys at school because they had dirty thoughts, never mind they never once even tried to act on them. They just thought I was pretty. I didn't want to go back to that. I couldn't go back to that."

He remained silent for another moment, the side of his middle finger gliding over his lips as he thought. "So, you're not cross with me over the manipulation of your memories?"

Looking at him, I hummed. "I don't think that's what you did. You didn't change any of the actual details. All you did was change how I saw those details; changed my perspective, so to speak. Besides, it wasn't like I gave you much choice, did I? I don't have a lot of human memories anymore. They're... dim and fuzzy, but I know the facts of what happened, and I did make it very difficult for you. I won't say I'm sorry for it. I didn't know any better at the time. I know better now, and I think... I think that's what's important."

I paused before jumping tracks. "You know, I killed a childhood friend today; someone I've known almost all my life. There isn't a single molecule of my being that feels bad about that. There isn't even a tiny part of me that wishes I could take it back, that wishes I could change it. It was... fun. I actually wish I could do it again. I should despise myself for this, and I don't. I don't care. There isn't any part of that that's normal. There isn't any part of that that's okay. Every part of that tells me I'm exactly where I need to be." Then I snorted. "Christ, could you even imagine what Edward would have thought of me if he could have read my thoughts from the start? Honestly, he used to think I never thought bad things or dirty things, or this guy was cute, or what I would do to another if given the chance. If he could have read my thoughts from the start, he would probably still be alive."

"Very doubtful. He and the rest ran out of chances long before you. It was only a matter of time, really." It was then he stood, coming back over to me and retaking the position he had before the tub overflowed. "As far as him reading your thoughts, the only reason he couldn't was because you had a metal plate in your head."

Reaching up, I rubbed my forehead, a small smile on my lips. "My mother had this thing with new activities, and one of them was horseback riding. I was never the most coordinated human, and I was bucked off the back of one as a kid. Put a crack in my skull and that's where the plate came from."

His lips pressed together and he chuckled in his throat. "Well, it's not there anymore. There was a very good possibility he was able to earlier, he just didn't know they were yours."

Even knowing he was laughing at me, I ignored it and instead looked in him the eyes. "I never knew fear before. I thought I did. There was a lot that happened in the last year that terrified me. With what happened today, I learned what fear was, and I know one thing for sure now."

I watched his eyes turn to liquid, the small amount of red that was left after the fight dancing in the black ink. His voice was like velvet it was so soft. "And, what's that?"

Sitting up, I unwrapped my arm from my middle, the other just kind of dangling at my side as I locked my eyes on his. "When I saw Alice on your back, in that moment, I realized I am more afraid of losing you than I am of actually dying."

His face morphed, but I couldn't place the emotion. He clicked his tongue before he leaned in, his forehead pressing against mine, and his voice lowering to the point I had to strain to hear him. "You could have started with that one."

I had a witty retort at the ready, something to the effect of 'but where is the fun in that', but it died on my tongue when his lips pressed against mine.