Dean blinked her eyes open and shut again due to the pain that was splitting her skull. Every time she opened her eyes she would see flashes of bright light, and the stillhouse of Hecate as she got nearer to her. Her other senses were slow to catch up to her, but eventually, she could feel Caius' arms around her, supporting her tall frame, and the smell of his clean cologne waffled under her nose, bringing her comfort. She felt like her energy was being sapped away from her, and she could barely lift her head to look towards the noise of the fight around her.

"Caius, stop!" Arban hissed from his head-locked position on the floor. He was on his knees with Demetri holding one arm and Alec holding the other. Aro stood before him, ready to take his head, but paused when Caius' steps faltered. Slowly, Caius turned his entire body towards Arban, his grip tightening on Dean's delirious form. Dean could practically hear Caius gritting his teeth in irritation as he glowered at the older vampire.

"You made a mistake, scum. You will die for it!"

"Maybe I will," Arban relented. "But not today! She gave me her word!"

Caius made a low sound, vibrating deep in his chest. It was a sound that promoted fear and death, and Dean shook a little in his arms, trying desperately to clear her head and push the flashes away. "I don't care," he snarled back, looking at Aro and nodding his head firmly.

Aro wasn't used to taking orders from his brothers, but the animosity he was feeling himself was not discouraging him from following through. He placed his hands on either side of Arban's head, ready to rip it from his body and was internally impressed that this vampire was not quivering with fear or rage, but stared defiantly back at him. It was the quiet "wait," that brushed his ears so gently that made him pause.

Caius froze as if he really were a statue, but allowed Dean to shift so that she could look over toward Aro. "He hasn't hurt me," she argued. "He just needs help."

"Then he should have come to us," Caius hisses, while Aro raises his brows in an intrigued manner.

Dean nodded, her hands fiddling nervously with her filthy nightgown. Briefly she wondered where the others were. Where was Cassias and Marcus? What had happened to Jessica and Felix? When she realized that they were all still waiting on her answer, she was almost impressed that Aro hadn't already killed Arban. She locked eyes with him, Caius' maker, and felt for him.

She was no God, she decided. She shouldn't be in charge of someone's life or death, but she couldn't sit here and let him die. She'd like to think that maybe her parents would have fought to get her back, if she had just been taken from them. Though his methods left more than a little to be desired...she couldn't imagine the pain he'd been through. "I want to help him," she said, finally. Her hand found its way to his shoulder, and she dared to look up into his eyes.

If she had ever had a friend in a situation like hers, she would commend their bravery, but insult their intelligence. It hardly felt like she'd had any time to come to terms with her own life, and she didn't quite enjoy how docile she felt she had been. She should be kicking and screaming and rejecting the idea of vampires and witches and angels. Had there ever been a girl in such a disastrous, outrageous situation before?

She glanced down to his lips, feeling the ghost of his kiss passing over her mouth soft as flower petals. Her heart clenched with her stomach, and she felt herself give in just a little. What would be the point of going back to the convent anyway? It was clear they could not protect her. If God was real, he'd turned a blind eye to them all the night she'd been stolen from her bed. She'd promised Caius she would come back, just as she'd promised Arban to help him reach Hecate. She'd try to keep both promises.

Whatever Caius had been searching for in her eyes, he must have found it. His shoulders squared and his grip loosened on her, though he dared not release her entirely until she motioned for him to place her back on her feet. He did so, gently, as if she were a glass doll, and she looked back first at Aro, who smiled knowingly at her and stepped aside.

Arban was looking at her in a silent fury, but beneath that, he was impressed. He'd fully expected to have to use his sire bond against the blonde vampire to get him out of this situation. He beheld Dean now in a new light, amazed and surprised by her generosity and kindness. It was not something the human race was known for. Such a delicate virtue that was often sooner rather than later squashed by greed and self preservation.

"I will help you," she repeats. "But...I'll do it from Volterra."

Caius reached for her, but she pushed him away from her without looking up at him. She suddenly felt smothered, dirty, and exhausted. Her head still hurt, and she couldn't stand the look of gratitude in Arban's eyes. It didn't look natural on him, as it would another human being and it twisted her stomach. She felt like she were grasping for some sort of control over an impossible situation, and this relationship with the Volturi leader was being crammed down her throat so forcefully she felt like she were choking on it. She'd never felt so soft.

It was time that she pulled on her big girl panties and did something to make her feel like herself again.

~~\\~~

Despite the sounds that had surrounded them all, there had been minimal casualties. Bodies had been torn apart, but no fires had been lit, meaning there would be a lengthy and likely painful reassembledge process in the future for the make shift coven. Arban looked around the large cave mouth with a practiced look of indifference, but still, the corner of his lips turned down ever so slightly at the carnage around him. Jerry was still intact, his body squared off against Marcus, the only Volturi who had stayed in the entrance.

Kathryn was long gone, having fled both her surrogate father and noble Italians. The old vampire wasn't surprised. Cowardice was her way, and he had accepted that a millenia ago. It didn't stop the pang of betrayal to his heart, though.

Felix tossed aside Jessica's head like an unwanted basketball and came over to stand before his masters. "Are we done here?" He asked, his disappointment from an easy win tangible from his expression to his face.

"We are," Aro confirmed. "Let us return home."

The Volturi filed out of the cave, all ready to return home and be done with this mess. Dean walked ahead of Caius, refusing to let him touch her now that she was coming to terms with everything. She had to figure out who she was and just how much of this curse she was going to allow to run her current life. She couldn't figure out what it is she wanted with him touching her, worrying about her...loving her.

She had no doubt about what he felt. His eyes held something in them that pushed away any lingering suspicion from that fact. Even his behavior made sense to her now. She would not lead him on, though she feared she already had. But how was that kiss her fault? She'd been feeling the pull of the bond between them. It had all been the curse, not her. It felt like a bad case of identity crisis.

She could feel Arbans' incredulous eyes upon her back, but she refused to turn to meet his gaze. It was her better nature that made her want to help him, but she would not forget how he had kidnapped her and tried to force her hand. A strange part of her felt indebted to him, though she was sure was he had banked on that. If he hadn't have told her about what she could do, would anyone have told her? Gabriel had only given her the bare minimum; he hadn't even armed her to be able to defend herself if she needed to.

She realized that she was angry. If Gabriel were to come to her now, she didn't think she could look at him, either. Had anything about their friendship been real? Or had he been babysitting her because of some screwed up mission of his only?

Everything she had confided in him...everything she had expressed to him over the years. How they would cause trouble and be punished together. It all felt cheap now, like fools gold. She'd been the fool.

Her face had set into a hard stone surface by the time they crested a hill, and she hadn't even been able to feel the breeze on her face as it whipped her hair about. She stumbled as a particularly painful sting got her behind her eye, and Caius surged forward to keep her from falling, but she was paying more attention to the fleeting image of the dark haired woman who seemed to be taunting her the past few days.

The stupid witch and her stupid vial of stupid liquid. Whatever it was, she was annoyed by it. Why couldn't the woman just make it easy on her and tell her what it was she wanted? Why couldn't she just get this chapter of her life over with?

She tried to pull herself out of Caius' arms, but he surprised her by holding firm. She snapped her head up to look at him and demand he let her go, but his soft, worried expression let the words die on her lips.

"It is too far for you to walk all the way to the air strip," said Caius. He released her now that he had her attention but held his arms out to offer his help. "Allow me to carry you."

She stared at him in deliberation for a moment. Weighing the pros and cons of his offer. She couldn't feel her feet, but might that mean she would suffer later? What if it was so far that she collapsed and he had to carry her anyway?

She looked over his shoulder to see Aro and Marcus, each looking at her. Aro looked delightedly dreamy, almost as if he were watching a fairy tale come to life. Marcus looked stoic, as if nothing mattered to him at all. But when his eyes met hers, something shifted and he seemed to get softer.

Aro could read her thoughts from a mere touch so she couldn't possibly allow him to be the one. "Will you carry me?" She asked Marcus.

His lips thinned into a slight smile and he dipped his head once to indicate that he would. Caius glowered over to the brunette man, but moved aside all the same. Dean walked over and fell into Marcus' strong arms willingly, leaving Caius feeling rejected.

"Let us be off, then," said Aro quickly, eager to avoid another argument.

The plane got them back to Italy in just a couple hours, and Dean kept her eyes and mouth shut the entire time. She could hear the vampire's around her whispering quickly amongst themselves, though they weren't aware she could still hear them. They kept the dialogue to another language she did not understand, however, so she didn't try to strain her brain to figure out the context.

The sun was turning the sky a beautiful ombre of blue, purple, and pink when they finally landed. She was wedged between Marcus and Demetri in the lengthy limo, with the others strategically placed around Arban so that he wouldn't dare try anything. It was when they were pulling into the looming underground garage that Dean tilted her head up to ask Marcus a question.

"What happened to Cassias?"

Marcus looked down at her, two lines forming between his eyebrows. "Who?"

"The man who was with me?"

"There was no one with you but the woman vampire," Caius hissed testily. Dean shuffled uncomfortably, wondering if he was really holding the seating arrangement against her. She just needed space to breathe...couldn't he understand that?

No, she realized, he probably didn't. Was she being incredibly selfish? Was that bad? She sighed, wishing more than ever for Mother Superior's guidance.

Outside the world seemed to have forgotten about her. Every human out there was blissfully unaware of the world that lived parallel to their own. Why couldn't she still be one of them? The sea that she was lost in threatened to let her drown and suddenly she wasn't so fond of the water. It no longer represented freedom to her, like it used to. She used to dream of adventures aboard a boat.

Whether it had been to Neverland or to America, or Africa...she had wanted to be apart of something more than her little convent. She had never felt as caged as she did now.

"We'll take him to the cells," said Felix, roughly yanking Arban by his shoulder.

"The cells?" Sniffed Arban. "I'm no threat as long as she's doing as she promised!"

"Let's call it..." Aro trailed off, tilting his head and giggling like a maniac. "You're room. It sounds a lot better than dungeon." He waved Felix off, who disappeared with Arban within an instant.

Caius turned to address Dean again, but she interrupted him before he could. "I'd like to go to my own room, if that's okay."

The blonde scowled and scooped her up without asking, whisking her away to her room and depositing her outside the door. "That was rude!" She gasped.

"You're avoiding me," he growls. "Why?"

"I can't be caught up with this right now," she hisses back, feeling her face heat up with the admission. "I'm not a good at multitasking. Just...give me some time."

"You kissed me," he reminds her, stepping close and tilting his head so she could not evade his gaze.

"I can't be held responsible for that. I.."

Caius' scoff cut her off. He was now glaring at her heatedly. "What a human thing to say."

Shame made her face burn hotter and she swallowed thickly, feeling the air crackling between them. When she spoke next her voice was breathy but did not waver as it stabbed him in the heart. "You should go back to your wife."

She slipped through the door to her dark room, leaving Caius standing there. For the first time ever, he felt like he had been in the wrong. Athenodora was causing a problem she never had before, and he wasn't sure what to do about his own shame.

This new version of Dean was pulling all the punches. He had always felt justified in taking a wife. She had always understood before. Though he didn't love Athenodora in the same way that he loved Dean...he felt hurt by the possibility that he may have to truly do away with her, or lose Dean completely.

Was he willing to do that? What if this witch plan didn't pan out and Dean died anyway? What if, in this life, she continued to reject him? What if she never grew to love him?

But what if it did? And what if she did? What if everything lined up and fell into place and he never had to fear for her ever again? What if they could be together?

He stood outside her chambers for a long time. The one thing he knew from all his years of experience was...not making a decision was a big decision.

He turned and practically flew to his study.

A/N: sorry about this late chapter everyone! I'm not exactly happy with this one and it's more filler, but I hope it pleases you! I hope everyone is staying safe with this hurricane/tropical storm! Please leave your comments and let me know what you think! Does everything make sense? How is the flow? Feedback is always welcome!