Disclaimer: Stephenie Meyer is the creator of these intriguing characters. She and the filmmakers have made a fascinating and beautiful trilogy. I wish to borrow her background and add a plot twist of my own. In this chapter I made use of the site 'twilights wiki/Volturi' a fantastic site if I may say and well worth a read for twilight fans.

Chapter 27 – Slaves now and then

Bella's POV

I hadn't heard anything from Athenodora and was about to leave my room. As I opened the door and walked down the corridor I saw Edward entering the library. While walking towards him I grinned and waved at him and he did the same but all of a sudden I saw his attention focus on something behind me and his smile faded. I turned to see Caius coming towards me and increased my tempo determined to ignore him. He caught up to me and grabbed my arm pulling me towards him saying "My sweet Isabella it is time that we got to know one another a little better; don't you think?"

I turned and said "I think I know you too much already" and tried to pull my arm out of his grip.

He looked guarded but not angry as he said "I want to take a trip to Greece and I wish you to accompany me"

I looked perplexed and said "Why? What torture do you wish to expose me to there?"

"My dear" he said as he pouted "Don't be like that! I only wish to spend some time alone with you."

"I was heading towards the Cullens, I want them to leave; I do not want them exposed to the Volturi or you any longer. Let me tell them this, and then I will come with you." I said again trying to pull my arm out of his grip.

He only grinned and put his arm around my waist leading me back to our bedroom. "That is not necessary. Athenodora will take care of their needs; she seems extremely attached to them. You however have had a trying time and I wish to give you a chance to relax."

I thought to myself 'me; relax with you. I don't think that is even a possibility!' but instead I said "What do you have in mind?"

"Greece is lovely this time of year and there is a lovely villa that the Volturi use while we visit. I think you will love it. I have already told Aro of our departure as we will be using our private jet" he answered as he opened our bedroom door.

"May I at least say goodbye to Athenodora and the Cullens?" I asked.

"No need my love, Athenodora knows of my plans and will inform the Cullens" he told me taking away any further discussion.

Now I was getting anxious wondering what he had up his sleeves but I couldn't postpone the inevitable. So I walked back to our room with him and started to pack.

The flight was about an hour and a half, not strange considering Italy and Greece are neighboring countries. Because of the size of our jet we were able to go directly from the Volturi estate in Italy to their estate in Greece. Caius hadn't said much and when I asked him why we were going all he said was "You will find out soon enough, just wait until we are there."

I sometimes looked outside to see the landscape but I had to wear sunglasses and cover my face from the suns reflection. The silence between us weighed heavily on me as I asked myself 'what the hell was going on?'

Caius must have felt my anxiety because he placed his hand next to mine and rubbed his thumb softly on my hand. It was a soothing gesture and if anyone else had done it I would have calmed down, but not with Caius.

The jet slowly descended and as soon as the motors had been turned off we left the plane walking into the waiting estate. It was smaller and more modern than the Volturi estate but I didn't really care I just wanted to be on my own. One plus point was that there were no Volturi other than us and there were very few servants.

"Please Caius" I asked as we walked up a beautifully carved classical staircase "tell me what we are doing here and why all the mystery?"

He looked at me "I heard from Athenodora that you were angry with me" and my tension grew.

"Is that what this is all about? That I told Athenodora that you had blackmailed me?" I then froze.

"Hey wait!" I said turning to look at him "Anthenodora didn't come back; she was going to go discuss this with you and she didn't come back! What have you done to her?"

He grabbed my arm, pulling me up the last steps "I have done nothing to her, she is safe and sound!" he said as he dragged me beside him.

In a few strides we entered a room and I drew my arm out of his grip. I heard the door close and turned to face him, ready to pounce. "What's going on?" I said as I backed away.

"I feel it is time that we are honest to each other" he said as he looked into my eyes.

I was both wary and perplexed "About what?"

Miffed he exclaimed "About why you didn't tell me of your training for instance"

I quickly countered "I kept it to myself because Athenodora asked me to. She was only able to tell me because my mind is unreadable for Aro. Yours is not!"

"Did you do this because you want to help me?" he enquired

"No!" I said not daring to tell him it was to avoid having my powers used against the Cullens "I had a choice; you or Aro. It wasn't really much of a choice but I choose you because you are my mate" I lied.

He wasn't happy with my answer and came closer. I backed away from him looking for a possible escape route.

"Why are you so obstinate; why will you not speak to me?"

I began to laugh "You don't really want me to answer that, do you?"

He grabbed for me and I dashed out of his reach "You have taught me well Caius. I cannot trust you." While saying this I saw an escape route and went for it. Unhappily Caius must have seen it in my face and was able to grab me.

He then held me against his chest and no matter how hard I tried I couldn't escape. "Please talk to me; that is all I ask."

I saved my strength until he relaxed his hold and spoke. "Why? I do not wish to be your mate just as you do not wish to be mine. Marcus said we were mates but neither of us love or even like each other. You knew my heart already belonged to someone else and yet you took me, raped me, bullied and blackmailed me. My life was good before you took it away!"

He then turned me around and held me tight "It is true I did not want you but I do now. You belong to me and no one else"

"Oh yes, that's right just because someone else wants me you will not give me up; like a child who takes the favorite toy of another child away, just out of spite" I knew I was on dangerous ground but I was furious and couldn't stop ranting. "Well I do not want to be your toy! You had a chance to walk away but I didn't! Why did you make me?" I shouted furiously

He slapped me in the face. I knew it would happen and yet he still caught me by surprise. I laughed as I wiped the blood from the corner of my mouth. "Now you see why I do not talk!"

He was confused by his own actions and as I looked into his face I realized I had never seen this expression before. He then whispered "All I want is the love and loyalty of my mate. Is that so hard?"

"Caius, all you want is a slave!" I shouted.

"SLAVE! He roared "You know nothing of slavery!" He was angry, his eyes piercing mine "I was born son of a slave and I lived as slave for all my mortal life".

The surprise must have shown on my face but he continued his face was looking at something that no longer existed.

"Oh yes, I was a slave, I don't know exactly when I was born but I think it was around 1350 B.C. At that time slaves were a normal thing of life. A slave had no rights; they were the property of their masters to do as the wished. Their masters decided if and how they lived".

"I never realized" I said but he didn't hear me as he went on.

"My mother was a Nordic and part of the Illyrian Culture. One day her village was raided and it, as was the practice at that time, took the women as booty of war to sell as slaves. She was then sold on the Greek slave market. She had the typical Nordic complexion, blond air hair and fair skin, and was purchased as a servant for the great Mycenaean palace in Orchomenus not 10 km away from here." He smirked as he spoke "You see at that time the Nordic constituted a minority in the Illyrians Culture and the one who purchased her was trying to make a new strain of servants. Because of my mother's beauty she was used by her master as a means to breed Nordic slaves. I was born in the Mycenaean palace, her youngest sibling and therefore also born into slavery; after 9 children she died in childbirth".

I must have gasped because he paused and then looked at me, his eyes still focussed on the past.

"As child I was taught how to fight with the sword and trident for although I would follow in the footsteps of my mother, I needed to make a name for myself in the ring so that my master could ask a good price for my services. When I was fourteen my master died and all his slaves were sold and the person that bought me paid dearly. When I went with him I quickly found out that he was a collector of young boys. Need I say, I was rapidly taught the fine art of pederasty by my new master for that too was a custom of those times" he sneered.

All the fight had gone out of me after I heard this and I sat down on the edge of the bed listening to his story.

"Thankfully he also had a love for the music of that time and as I seemed to have a talent for melody. I was allowed to learn the various instruments; it gave me comfort in my life. After I had grown into a man, another boy was bought to fill my position and my master decided to it was time for me to train for the arena. One night, when I was 22 and in my second month of training I was attacked and taken away by an immortal. He too was a practitioner of sodomy but I was only his plaything for a very short time. As soon as I found his weakness I murdered him and left Greece".

He then turned to me, giving me a cruel smile as he tilted my chin. I could not avoid looking into his eyes as he sarcastically stated "And that my love, is slavery!"

The wind was taken out of my sails; I just whispered "What happened after that?"

He looked at me, surprised at my question and replied "I walked the continent and encountered Athenodora. We then traveled together and later I took her as my wife".

"I don't understand. How did you end up as part of the Volturi?" I questioned.

"We came across Aro, and Marcus. Aro was ambitious and had long-ranged plans to build an empire which immediately fascinated me. Aro himself was drawn to my ferociousness which he thought was a great potential for manipulation so he asked me to join them. We then decided to form our three headed monarchy." He then began to smile "It was not long after the forming of our realm that I heard that Orchomenus was burned to the ground and Mycenaean palace was destroyed".