Chapter 8

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First thing Erika did as soon as she was healthy once again was go to the hair salon, and had her hair chopped to just past her chin. It was a little shorter than Caius' now, especially since it didn't want to stay straight.

"Stop moving your head," Ananias warned, holding her head in place as he tried to part her hair perfectly down the middle to create two small ponytails, one on either side.

Erika and Ananias were in her bathroom, she was sitting on the edge of the bathtub in a pair of shorts and a tank top with a towel over her shoulders. On the side of the tub was two bowls of hair dye, one bright pink, and the other a vivid purple.

Ananias started to do the left side of her hair the bright print, only dying the left side the colour while leaving the right natural for now. He would get to the right side afterwards, colouring it the vivid purple colour

Over the last week of Erika being ill, and sick, and bleeding which just made her even more moody, Ananias and she became friends quickly.

Erika didn't leave the wing without him or another guard, and usually it was him. It gave Ananias time to just read books as he loved to do while he was in the same room as she, or let him go to the gardens whenever she did or when she was with one of her mates.

The both of them got along quite well so far. They both liked to read and liked to dress however they wanted. That eventually resulted in Erika admitting that she wanted to change her hair colour again, and now it was going to be split half and half dark red and orange.

"What are you doing?" Marcus asked when they left the bedroom since Erika wanted to venture down to the kitchen to get a coffee.

She had a clingfilm over each side of her hair, keeping them apart as the colour was being set into her hair.

They were on their way back up to the Royal wing now, Erika had her coffee while Ananias just kept her company and was her guard again.

"Master Marcus," Ananias bowed his head as Marcus approached, the senior Vampire nodded at him once.

"Getting coffee," She sipped her warm coffee.

"I meant whatever you are doing to your hair?"

"Dying it?"

"Why?"

"Wanted some change."

"You dyed it a month and a half ago,"

"And?"

"Is it not bad for your hair?"

"If you bleach it, yeah," Erika mentioned with a shrug, "But this was put over my natural colour."

"I see." He gave her a leveled look which gave off no emotions, only a seamless expression of neutralness and calmness. He shook it off, letting a mask of a neutral happiness come onto his face instead. "Whenever you are finished with… dying your hair, come to the throne room. There is a small matter that needs to be discussed pertaining to Forks."

That made Erika pause.

She nodded. "I'll come as soon as I'm able."

"Thank you," He nodded to her, acknowledging it before swiftly walking away.

When she turned to Ananias, he just shrugged and led her back to her room so they could wait out the rest of the time before washing her hair.

)()()()()()(

Just to add a bit of time to whatever conversation was going to happen, Ananias helped choose an outfit for her because she had plans for tonight, and none of them involved the kings, or the castle, or Vampires in general.

There was a bar or pub or whatever they were called that sold alcohol and people could socialse and dance at the same time in the nearby town.

Erika had enough of being in the castle, enough of the same glaring faces and snide remarks from some of the Human staff while the Vampires tried their best to not offend her lest gain her mates' wraths. While she had no plans to bring anyone back with her, she knew they would be killed off before they got anywhere in the castle, she wanted to see the local town in the eyes of a local instead of a tourist.

She knew it was going to be hot tonight so she kinda already knew what outfit she was going to wear.

The halterneck top was tight and cropped to a couple inches below her bust, letting the two seperate pieces of fabric that made up the top go from under each side and over the chest to link behind her neck. Her back was on show. She went for a pair of high waisted black short shorts. She wasn't going to bother with heels, so she went for a pair of low heeled ankle boots.

Makeup was simple with a touch of brown eyeshadow that blended into dark brown eyeliner which accented her eyes while she had a dark red lip.

Surprisingly Ananias was quick to dry and style her hair, making it pin straight so each side barely touched her chin in a neatness that was hard to come by.

The colours came out beautifully. The pink was bright and colourful, and the purple came out just as great. It was almost supernatural with how clean everything was done, it looked like it could have been her natural colours if it wasn't for her tinted brown eyebrows.

Erika dressed for herself and not anyone else, as did Ananias. He wore the tightest black leather jeans known to mankind and a plain dark green t-shirt to set off his hair which was slicked back.

)()()()()()(

Erika strutted into the throne room with as much grace and confidence as a feline within the lion's den, knowing the feline belonged amongst the stronger creatures. Ducissa stayed in her room, already asleep on the bed as Erika had left her there after feeding the feisty little cat.

She strode over to her chair, sitting a little lopsided as she carried a small bowl of strawberry icecream with her. Slouching, she hooked one knee over the right arm of her chair and left it there to rest as she ate the ice cream due to the recent heatwave in Italy.

"So," Erika asked, placing the ice cream bowl on the table and linking her fingers together before resting her hands on her stomach. "Forks. What's happening?"

"What are you wearing?"

"Clothes."

"I meant to ask why are you wearing that?"

"I'm going out."

"Where?"

"Town."

"With who?"

"Ananias," She rolled her eyes. "I'm going to drink and socialise with people who aren't in your employ or Vampires. I want to relax and just talk with some locals. New place, new people. What's happening? Marcus said something about Forks and a situation?"

"What do you know of the Nomads that were there in the recent years?" Caius said.

"James, Victoria and Laurent. James had the power of tracking while Victoria had the power of enhanced self-preservation." Erika said. "I saw them just before I turned twenty on the edge of the forest."

Erika lifted a hand towards Aro, letting him take it into his hands as she let him see what she wanted.

"When Erika was younger, her mother was killed by a rogue Vampire in England." Aro said slowly, taking it in as he properly learnt what happened to her at that point of her life. "The Wellerman Coven was tracking him but he killed her mother before the Wellermans found him. They prevented him from attacking Erika by killing him. The last thing Erika remembered was red eyes before Daphne Wellerman extracted her memories of the event, but it left a void."

"A piece of me was missing for six years. I made decisions I greatly regret, I let some things happen to me that I'm not ready to talk to you about. Aro doesn't even know," Erika laughed, a sound that held very little amusement. "I spent six years with that void, I became depressed, anxious, a little suicidal at points. "I saw James' Coven and their eyes reminded me of everything, the void suddenly disappeared and I remembered everything. I somehow never linked him or them to Vampires. When I remembered what memories I lost, I got better. I am better now."

Erika forced a sad little smile onto her lips to reassure them, biting the inside of her lip for a second.

"When she remembered, she forced herself to keep whatever little control she had over what she had left," Aro tapped a finger against the arm of his chair as he talked. "Erika wants to be able to see her father for a while more. She wants her sister to be safe and not have to go through what she had with Vampires so far. She is not going to give up her control over her body and her mind for someone else to mess with her."

"When I'm being controlled in any way, I feel powerless," Erika said, sitting up properly and putting both feet on the floor before leaning towards the table more as the three men seemed to lean in too. "When I feel powerless, I get angry, and when I get too angry, I lose connection with what is right and wrong and I do whatever it takes to take control back."

"Is that why you have been avoiding me in the last few weeks?" Marcus asked softly, careful to keep his tone even as he watched her.

"You have a say in whatever happens in this castle and the one thing I can control is myself." She said, suddenly slouching back into her seat as she tapped a long nail against the wood of the table aggressively. Her lips were pulled back into a sarcastic smile that bared teeth. "What you did, whatever you did to make me do what you want made me powerless and thus I was justly angry for it. I have read up about mates and Soulmates, you do not have the right to tell me what to do!"

"But I do have the privilege of Domination,"

She hated that word with all her being.

She knew what it meant within Vampire terms. A Dominant Vampire could use a certain power that would allow them control over the Submissive one, though it was temporary and could not take away someone's will. It could only work to make one a little more suggestive to falling asleep or to whatever state a Vampire needed to be in to calm down and listen.

Erika's will was too strong to let her be influenced, so the bond decided the only way to get her to calm down would be to make her so sleepy and dreary that she couldn't move.

"You were being unruly, dear," Marcus stated. "And you were not listening to anything we said."

"So you thought it was a good idea to make me do something I didn't want to do?" Erika prompted, scoffing when he stayed silent. "I have the privilege of Subjection. Do it again and I will close my bond to you, and I will make it painful. You'll watch me interact with Caius and Aro like nothing is wrong, but you'll know the pain of a bond in the beginning states of being broken. And if I have to, I will break it like a twig underfoot."

"You will be in pain too, Erika," Aro mentioned.

Erika turned her glassy eyes to him, a numbness entering her that hid her emotions from overpowering her judgement. "I'm willing for a bit of pain to retain control over myself. And the threat of breaking the bond does not just apply to Marcus, I will do it to all of you if I have."

Caius spoke up, a tone of remorse and knowledge in his calm voice. "You felt betrayed, did you not, Erika? You hate feeling useless, hate feeling weak and that was exactly what you felt when Marcus used Domination on you. I did the same with threatening to break the bond centuries ago. They quickly learn that we are serious about it. I was close to doing it once, when they tried to control every aspect of their lives including me. I left for a decade before they could apologise enough to get me back." He said, before gesturing vaguely at the two other men. "They are controlling bastards but they do care, Erika. We all care."

"I don't want a repeat of that day ever again. It scared the shit out of me and I hated the fog it put me in," Erika stared off into the wood of the table, lowering her gaze as she muttered. "Instead of telling me what we're going to talk about, that's about my past and my person, you should give me time to get to a point where I am comfortable talking about it. I have a right to privacy, even from you."

She had a right to privacy, even from her mates. She was allowed to be selfish with her memories now; having them taken was the worst thing she had felt in her life so far. Having this control over herself was the best thing she had ever done, but having Domination allow that control to be taken away from her made her sick to her stomach.

But there was a difference between control being taken away and control being given to someone, but she had very little experience with the latter.

She exhaled, mentally shaking off the distress and paranoia she was feeling inside but refused to show or even acknowledge. "What was it about Forks and James' Coven?"

"Victoria is creating a Newborn army…"

)()()()()()(

Eleazar was tall with shoulder length black hair and an olive cast to his pale skin. His mate, Carmen, stood beside him, a couple inches shorter with wild brown hair and features that suggested she had spanish blood in her before she was turned.

They were dressed in semi formal outfits, Carmen wore a fitted coat with fur lining the hood which Erika found quite nice, while Eleazar had a long dark olive trench coat going to his knees with a pale turtleneck under it.

"Eleazar, my dear friend," Aro said as soon as the man and woman entered the throne room, waving off the lower guards that tried to follow them in. He clasped his hand with a faint smile, eyes becoming glassy as he did so. "I see the diet is treating you well. And Carmen, dear, how are you?"

"I am good," Carmen softly said, letting Aro take her hand also.

"Erika, please come and meet my old friend, Eleazar and Carmen, Soulmates,"

Erika stood from the table, casting one final look at the other two men sitting at the table before completely turning to the newcomers. She just strode over there and smiled, stopping next to Aro silently with a contained smile which didn't tell any emotions besides mild politeness.

"Eleazar, Carmen, this is our final mate, the beautiful Erika Swan," Aro said.

Erika had to keep the smile pleasant because she was almost seething inside. She hated her physical appearance being a defining point of hers, but she ran a finger along Aro's wrist for a moment. There was a flash of apology in him as he saw what she felt, he had meant it as a compliment and it calmed her down. He didn't mean to define her purely on appearance.

"That is fascinating…" Eleazar whispered as he activated his own gift. "If I may ask, can you have another person with a gift in here? Preferably a physical one, Aro."

"Ananias," Aro said, a tad louder than normal, waiting only a second before the boy came in. "Activate your gift please. And stand near Erika."

Erika gave him a strange look, almost questioning what his gift was until she saw his facial features morphed to be a little different until his eyes were a completely different shape, his skin a couple shades more tan and he looked more like Eleazar than he did himself.

She did as she usually did when near someone with a gift, seeming to take control over it for the mere moments it was near her.

She didn't want to change her facial features, instead concentrating on changing her nails as that was something she didn't care much about right now. They grew longer, into almost claw like nails before she willed them to shrink down to her fingertips before returning them to their original long coffin black.

"Ananias, you may go," Aro said.

Ananias left with a small, sarcasmistic salute.

"The gift you have is something between a copycat and an adaptor," Eleazar said. "You are not a mirror as I first thought you were when I was told what you could do. Can you do the gifts without others present?"

"The other person either has to be near me, touching me, or be using their ability on me," Erika stated. "But I can block or stop the other from using their abilities on me."

"Can you stop me from using my gift on you?"

"I don't know, let's try," Erika felt the chills of shielding herself off from all influences.

"You are completely Human now," He muttered to himself before speaking up. "If I were to guess, when you are turned, your gift would become permanent. Perhaps you will be able to retain another's gift as your own. You could probably absorb a gift and use it whenever you want afterwards."

"We'll see eventually," Erika nodded politely. "If you will excuse me, I need to go have some food before I leave for the bar."

"Bar?" Carmen asked. "Like a modern tavern, I suppose. I, myself, am a little thirsty. Would you like some company, Mistress Erika?"

"Erika is fine," She said instantly. "And, sure, I wouldn't mind company. I was just going out to just socialise with people who aren't Vampires, but a fresh face is definitely welcome."

"Erika, come here for a moment please," Marcus raised his voice a little, standing from his seat as Erika strode over. He untucked his V pendant, taking it off completely before offering it to her. "I would prefer you left the castle with one of our pendants at all times. You will have your own but it has yet to be finished so this will have to do for now. May I?"

He slipped the necklace chain over her head when she bowed it a little, watching as the pendant rested in the crevice between her breasts and the two long strips of fabric that concealed them. The royal pedants were gold instead of the normal silver that every other coven member had. Erika would have her own by the end of the week, so she needn't have to ask them to borrow one of theirs.

Hers was going to be charmed and spelled by a Witch, one that the kings knew could be trusted with such a task as protecting their Human partner.

)()()()()()(

"What diet are you planning to follow?" Carmen asked, a glass of crimson liquid disguised as wine sitting in front of her.

They sat on a rooftop bar area with the night sky dark but clear above them. Carmen sat across from Erika while Anasias sat at the bar, trying to pick up a girl.

As soon as the staff saw the V pendant on Erika and Anasias, they led the trio to a private booth that stood on the VIP side of the roof.

This wasn't the bar she wanted to go to but Erika didn't complain. This one was more like a rooftop nightclub and had good drinks so she just sat back, relaxed and spoke with Carmen.

"I don't know yet," Erika took a sip of her Red Stag and coke. "I'm already vegetarian, I don't eat meat, but I haven't decided if I should go Human or animal just yet."

"Oh, why did you turn vegetarian?"

Erika smiled. "My mum bet I couldn't do it for more than two weeks, and then she bet I wouldn't last a day. Ten years later, still don't eat meat."

"Spite is a potent spice," Carmen said. "So how is life in the castle? I would think it would be very much different from America. You're from Forks, aren't you? Our cousin Coven is the Cullen Family, they live in Forks now."

"Yeah, my dad is the chief of police in Forks. I lived in Forks for most of my life." She said, "My sister, Bella, she's involved with the Cullens, with Edward. Dating. Some shit happened and the Cullens left and I was there to pick up the pieces. Edward and my sister are Lifemates, I believe."

"Oh, so your sister became ill because the Cullens left for New York," Carmen nodded understandably. "How did you meet your mates?"

"Oh, real funny story," Erika laughed. "This was about two months ago, March Nineteenth, St Marcus' day, and Edward decides he wants to kill himself and Alice sees this. She tried taking my sister to Italy of all places and I refused to let her go, but Alice knew I was stubborn so she just suggested I decide if I wanted to join Bella and her on the trip. We came, Bella stops Edward from exposing himself in broad daylight, and then some of the guards take Alice, Bella, Edward, and I to the kings. Bella gets to go home, Human for now, and finish high school before she'll get turned in a couple months. I stayed here for like a day, got pissed because they said I would be turned and I wouldn't get a say in it, and then I ran away."

"Oh lord," Carmen laughed. "That sounds like a lovely way to meet your mates. How did they react when they found out you ran away?"

"Caius was more angry about me using the bedding as ropes than me actually escaping. He found it quite endearing actually. He didn't know how I would have escaped, and now my room has no windows."

Carmen's eyes crinkled in the corners as she sipped her glass of disguised animal blood. Ananias had suggested this place because they catered to Vampires more than other places.

"Quite a way to show you are not to be messed with," Carmen said. "Eleazar tried to get me to stay at home with our sisters but I refused. While I am the Submissive in our pairing, he knows I'm not a pushover and will do what is necessary. I thought it would be nice to meet the queen of the Vampire race."

"The Human queen of Vampires," Erika exhaled, leaning back into her chair. "Bit of a contradiction in itself."

"When do you plan to be changed?"

"I haven't decided yet. Couple years I think will be appropriate."

"Strange,"

"What?"

"Most Humans in a Soulmate bond would want to be turned straight away, almost all of them, unless they were underaged and wanted to be adults before turning." Carmen suddenly looked back at Erika. "Are you underage?"

"No, I'm twenty two, almost twenty three."

"Then why wait?"

Erika's tongue flicked out to wet her suddenly dry lips, quickly taking a large sip of liquid courage from her glass before speaking. "I don't want my appearance to be a factor in my turning. I'm beautiful, I know, but I don't want that to be the defining feature that I bring to the quartet. I was the ugly duckling as a kid and teen, but I found what I liked in myself and I became confident, and then I became more attractive after a little bit of finetuning and grooming."

Carmen laughed like there was an unsaid joke. "They don't want you for your appearance. There have been men and women who looked like they were carved by the gods and yet the Masters still didn't give any of them a second glance after finding out that they were not their final mate. They want you for you, Erika. Burlap sack or ball gown, you will always be beautiful to them because you are you and you don't pretend to be anything else."

"I know." Erika sighed, letting out a breath along with her anxiety. "I want to get to know them a little more when I'm Human. While I don't need to be married to have sex with them, unlike Bella and Edward," They both laughed at that, "I want to know what makes my mates tick. What they like, what they don't like, what they hate. If their favourite genre of books is fantasy, sci-fi or nonfiction. Favourite moments in history. Quotes from memorable books or from people they've met. Fates twineing us together means nothing if I don't even know who they are as people first, rather than just my mates or kings."

"You want to know them as they come, not as rulers or Vampires," Carmen softly sighed this time. "You want to know why you should love them instead of just how you do. The mate bond does not create emotions, so love, you have to get there yourself."

"They've only known each other as Vampires. They met by the time they were all changed, so having a Human mate must be a foreign situation for them. It's understandable."

Carmen placed a hand on Erika's in comfort. "You want them to love you for you and you want to love them for them, not because of stupid bond saying you have to."

"I questioned the bond at first," Erika accepted the gesture of comfort, squeezing the cold hand. "I will always question the bond itself, but if love comes in, I will stop resisting."

)()()()()()(

Bella accepted Edward's proposal of marriage, even if she didn't want to get married.

She had called Erika as soon as she could afterwards, resulting in the younger Swan sister babbling on for around half an hour before Erika stopped and asked her if she wanted to be married.

That shut Bella up for a moment.

The younger Swan thought out loud, speaking into the phone as Erika sat in Caius' art room. She was on a stool before a small canvas as she painted a landscape from memory and made intercrite designs she didn't know she could see in the landscape. The exact shade of every stone, every leaf, every inch of the sky.

Erika shook it off as her ability to see Aro's memories forced her own to slowly become better.

"You're still coming to my graduation, aren't you?" Bella asked.

"Of course, why wouldn't I?" Erika continued to paint a very tiny, orange fox in the distance with its tail curling upwards.

"Would you be alone?"

"Probably not, but I wouldn't know until I ask,"

"Alright," Bella said. "You're stuck coming to my wedding anyway. Alice decided she's maid of honour, and you know how she is. She's planning everything after we tell Charlie."

"You haven't told Dad?"

"Not yet, we hadn't even decided if we were going to properly get married until recently,"

"Good luck with the marriage thing,"

"Hey, Micheal has been curious about you recently," Bella said. "He keeps asking about your Imprint? Does he mean mate?"

"Yeah, I told him i found my Soulmates but he thinks it's just one,"

"How did he react?"

"He was a little sad and happy for me, he was glad I would finally be properly happy. He knew I wasn't his Imprint and that we weren't fated to be."

"He was sweet, I liked Micheal." Bella said. "He treated you right."

Erika smiled. "And now we're just good friends."

)()()()()()(