The days leading up to the end of September were ticking by. Frankly both Caius and Emily were itching for time to go faster, desperate for an excuse to confront the Cullens.

Heidi's late night tour group had already come and gone, the pile of bodies pushed off to the side to let the remaining blood go down the drain for the others to enjoy. Those people had paid extra for the night tour, meaning they also got to see the lower catacombs. Instead of dungeons, the group was met with three men seated on large, dark thrones, one woman sat on the armrest of the one furthest to the right.

All the thrones scattered around the castle used to look the same, but after a little... incident causing Caius' to somehow break, the catacomb thrones were changed, now providing more structural stability. Of course, all three had to be replaced even if only one broke to satiate Aro's need for uniformity. Emily liked the new ones better, franky. They felt more imposing and were better supported.

Having just fed, the three kings plus Emily watched the leftovers ooze out. Sulpicia had joined them for dinner that time, but she had since returned to her quarters after an extended period of time away. She was doing better lately about being out of her tower. They were trying to wean her off of her dependency upon Corin now that she had a new companion in Emily who spent a lot of time doing various activities best spent away from a tower.

Frankly Emily refused to spend too long with Corin. Once in a while maybe, but the drug like effects of her gift uneased Emily. She hated things that scrambled her brain. Caius had admitted that before Emily came along he would spend a lot of time with Corin when he was feeling his grief over Athenodora hard or simply just bored. The addictive contentment made everything easier, and Sulpicia was the only one who still used it.

They weren't making her go cold turkey, but at this point they didn't let her be within Corin's influence for more than an hour and only after a week had passed.

It happened to be that hour right then when the doors opened and Valentina, their latest secretary, walked in with a tray holding a note.

"Ah, Valentina has brought us something!" Aro said excitedly as the girl approached.

"She should not have interrupted." Caius said lowly. Emily snorted. They hadn't really been doing anything anyways.

"She's new."

"Aren't they all?" Marcus asked, bored. Aro took the envelope from the tray and tore it open to pull out a purple colored card written with gold lettering.

"Oh! Edward and Bella are getting married!" Aro showed them the card. Emily could see it was a wedding invitation... invitation? Did the Cullens seriously invite them to the wedding? Emily's lips twisted.

"Is this the Cullen's way of announcing her transformation? They mock us with their delays." Caius said harshly. Emily had to agree with him. In what world would they get a wedding invitation if not to be mocking?

"I'm still baffled that they sent an invitation. Do they expect us to show up?" She spoke up. "I mean, it would be an interesting way to remind them of their promise."

"You do have a point..." Aro said, though he wasn't looking at Emily. Rather, his gaze was fixed on Valentina. "The human did interrupt."

Valentina's face dropped as Emily's lit up. If a secretary messed up, they rotated between who would get to feed from her. After a decent lobbying, Emily convinced Aro to let her have Valentina if and when that happened, jumping ahead of Felix in the rotation. Honestly, when she told him it was the name of her abusive childhood orphanage, the sheer dramatic irony was what convinced Aro to let her.

So, Aro gestured for his brothers to follow him out of the room to let Emily do her thing. Caius kissed her forehead as he left while Aro whistfully pressed the card to his chest and mentioned his love of weddings. Emily paid it no mind, circling Valentina with a wicked grin. The girl tried to run away, but she ended up being backed right into Caius' throne.

The backs of her knees met the seat and Valentina fell onto it, feeling ever so small as she tried to sink further into the dark wood. Emily leaned over her, gripping the armrests to trap the frightened secretary and prevent her escape. She leaned down close to Valentina's ear, smelling sweat and hearing her rapid heartbeat

"You know, fear makes it taste better." She whispered before sinking her teeth into Valentina's neck.

***

Emily had only said it half seriously. Yes, showing up to Bella and Edward's wedding would be a great way to intimidate the coven, and yes Aro did have a certain affection for weddings.

She was still taken aback when she was told they would indeed be attending.

The cognitive dissonance came when Emily's seething hatred for weddings clashed with her excessive desire to cause as much chaos and discomfort as possible.

The latter half of her psyche was like her crutch the more she put herself through for this whole display. Having spent time with Heidi, Emily had gotten more comfortable with feminine things... provided that there was a healthy balance between that and giving off a clear aura of intimidation. So as such she rarely left her red and black color palate in her clothes.

She nearly flipped a table when Sulpicia had to be the one to tell her that Bella and Edward's wedding clearly had a purple theme to it and none of their usual outfits would be... appropriate. After a fair amount of bargaining, Emily finally agreed to go shopping in town with her sister-in-law for a new dress. They rarely left the castle for leisurely reasons, so at least that would be a nice change of pace.

They had two weeks and unfortunately since it was the end of summer creeping into early autumn, it was always sunny. Emily tried to use that as an excuse to avoid going out. That worked for a few days, but eventually Sulpicia showed up at her chamber door one morning with a sunhat, a parasol, and two pairs of sunglasses, all of them black. Emily groaned but snatched the hat and a pair of sunglasses. She put on the most inconspicuous clothing she had (a simple short dress colored dark red with black Juliette sleeves, sheer black stockings, and knee high boots) and said several swears in multiple dialects before marching out of her room.

She and Sulpicia still wore their crest pendants.

Emily bitched and moaned the entire way about this and that. Volterra wasn't a very large city but it had a few botique options scattered around. After two shops where Emily had aggressively shut down every option, Sulpicia finally put on her Stern Wife Voice, usually reserved for Aro and the shenanigans he attempted that she had to curtail, and told Emily she wasn't getting out of this so she should suck it up and find something tolerable.

She also promised Emily they would go hunting for food together after they finished, so Emily eventually caved. She did end up finding a dress she didn't hate, a dark purple one with long open sleeves and a low neckline. The needlessly difficult task finished, the two women found a hiking couple at the base of a mountain to feed on before returning home before the sun had even set.

Emily did enjoy Sulpicia's company, truly, but not under circumstances like that.

A week later, the group of five found themselves on a flight to Washington after a very... odd experience with security, to put it mildly. Fake passports and IDs, bag checks that felt entirely too invasive, and being stuck in a slim cabin with entirely too many people. Emily hadn't ever been on a plane before despite being the youngest and closest to the modern era. It was claustrophobic and a human child spent most of the flight loudly complaining about this and that.

The drive from the airport had been easier, although the problem didn't lie in others that time. Emily's companions were over a thousand years old and seeing the way the world had evolved gave them a slight culture shock. Bianca, their latest secretary, had made the reservations for hotels, a rental car with room to hold five people total, all the amenities. Emily had to thank goodness for her because otherwise she'd likely be stuck doing it while herding three overly-curious adults and one homicidal teenager when she herself barely understood what world she had emerged into.

She did however end up having to be the designated driver given no one else could even begin to understand a car.

Though in the end, all of that hastle seemed like it had been worth it just to see Carlisle's expression when he opened the door and saw them on the stoop like it was completely normal. Alice ended up being the one most put off by their arrival, having meticulously arranged seating arrangements both for the ceremony and the reception operating under the assumption that there was no way they would actually show up. Unfortunately there hadn't been much she could do about it, so, with a fair bit of quiet complaints, Alice bumped the Denalis back a row.

Emily also felt a measure of satisfaction after hearing Alice inform Bella of their arrival and the panicked swears the bride-to-be unleashed.

Part of Emily had been worried they would look a little out of place, and as a result violate their own rules just for a grand display of pettiness. In reality most of the groom's side of the aisle consisted of a few other covens. Unfortunately they didn't have Heidi stashed away to make them look more human, but Sulpicia filled in the gaps as best she could. The main issue ended up being contact lenses. She only had four brown pairs on hand that would blend in with their red eyes easier, leaving one pair of blue contacts that Caius begrudingly accepted. It ended up giving his eyes a more violet tint than they would have wanted.

Jane complained a fair bit about her eyes feeling irritated. She originally wasn't going to come but Aro had insisted that making Marcus go to a day about celebrating love would be "too cruel" and Jane wanted an excuse to go out again. Plus it was best, if at all possible, to keep one of the kings at home to see to business. So, naturally the most believable story they could come up with was that she was Emily and Caius' daughter of thirteen, so please don't mind her mood swings.

The irony didn't fail to miss Emily. Once again she was stuck with a daugher named Jane with a man who looked like... well, that.

She played the part well, to her credit. The five of them had this air of importance around them already, so Jane had to act as well-behaved as possible. Before they had been seated, two people they came to realize were Bella's mother and step-father approached them to talk. Well, it seemed like Renée was the more social of the couple. So, the vampires fed them their lies and they were none the wiser. Jane put on her best 'I'm a happy child in a wealthy family' smile and answered every question with a "yes, Mrs. Dwyer" or "no, Mrs. Dwyer."

The ceremony was held under the canopy of multiple white wisteria trees, an admittedly clever location. The sun had a hard time getting through the blooms and as such there was no risk of their skin sparkling. Honestly the sheer stupidity of the reaction made it Emily's least favorite part of her vampiric biology. She'd been told it had to do with the crystaline structure of their cells. Emily had just snarkily called it body glitter and flipped up a very shiny middle finger to punctuate it.

The more people that filed into their seats, the more uncomfortable Emily began to feel. She hated weddings and everything they stood for, why would someone go this far for a ceremony binding two people together like some arbitrary, unseen contract? Modern weddings didn't even come with human sacrifices like the ones Caius had described from his homeland. He'd said weddings without three deaths were considered dull. Emily knew this one would consist of no deaths... that is unless she got hangry enough. Nobody would know, though.

She became uncomfortably aware of the amount of humans around her upon thinking such a thing. She glanced around at the growing crowd around her, pretending to take interest in the different people she hadn't ever seen before. In reality she was scanning for the best emergency meal. Her eyes landed on a dark haired woman in the back area of the bride's side of the aisle wearing a magenta dress littered with white dots and a crystaline string necklace. Something about her excited expression struck out to Emily, almost as if this wedding had been something she'd been waiting to see for a very long time.

She might already know too much. Worst case scenario I'll just kill her.

Caius put a hand on top of hers as if reading her mind and reminding her to be careful. He could probably see her darkening eyes through the colored contacts and saw her staring at the woman. Jane squirmed in her seat, growing impatient. Emily tried not thinking about how they had let Jane wear one of her black dresses for various bullshit reasons. "It's harder to get her to cooperate with dress shopping." "She's posing as a teenager, they have phases so it's believable if she shows up dressed like it's a funeral."

"Okay but Sulpicia knows I'm not a fun shopping partner. That, and we all know this is going to turn into a funeral of sorts later. The main reason we're here is to remind the Cullens of that agreement."

Edward took his place at the altar and he caught their gaze and grew clearly uncomfortable, tugging at his collar that suddenly felt too tight around his neck. Carlisle, standing next to him, closed his eyes with a completely unecessary sigh, probably praying to whoever that this wouldn't turn into a disaster.

Finally, after what felt like eons even to Emily, the minister finally told everyone to stand up to watch Bella come down the aisle with her father. If they weren't immune from aches and pains, Emily would have surely felt relief at standing up after so long. Light music began to play and she could hear Bella's rapid heart rate even from far away. Much like her fiance, Bella made eye contact with the five of them as she passed by. They all simply stared back at her with smiles that clearly seemed forced.

Bella's heart rate sped up before she looked away to Edward.

As soon as Charlie Swan let his daughter go and he stepped back to his seat, the minister let everyone sit back down again. Emily was looking at the altar from behind Jasper Hale's head, another member of the Cullen clan she knew little about. That mostly was due to apathy on her part and she didn't intend to start asking questions.

She chose to zone out the second the minister started talking. Emily tried to look interested, but her eyes were clearly vacant. Each word seemed to last for two minutes and she puffed air from between pursed lips, causing Jasper's hair to bluster lightly. He chose to ignore it. Emily looked at Jane, the girl clearly also bored, fidgeting with the black lace hem of her dress.

"Jane, if you Pain the minister I'll let you pick someone to have for dinner." She whispered quietly enough so only her companions could possibly hear. Jane perked up for a moment, but slouched back down seeing Aro lean forward to look at them with a smile that clearly said "don't even think about it." Emily grumbled but complied.

"Irughagon yel gierion lanta." Caius whispered to her. Emily stiffled a laugh just as the minister finished his speech.

"By the power vested in me, I now pronounce you husband and wife. You may kiss your bride." he said. As if lost in their own world, Bella and Edward connected their lips as the crowd stood up and erupted in cheers. The newlyweds walked back down the aisle as flower petals began to fall around them. Emily clapped along with the others, her eyes burning holes in the back of Bella's head she hoped the girl could feel.

***

"He... Aro does know what a Bloody Mary is, right?" Emily asked, gesturing to her brother in law downing his third red colored drink from across the floor. "He's going to have to cough that up later."

"I must admit, I appreciate the double entendre." Caius replied, downing his own ruby drink to Emily's chagrin. "Not as good as I remember the wines from back home being. Ancient Greek wines were a sight to behold."

"Don't complain to me when you have to throw that back up in the hotel later." Emily said, her arms folded.

"You're usually not so uptight, agapé." Caius noted. Emily sighed.

"You know I hate weddings. And people. Currently we're in the midst of both... and I don't drink alcohol, never have. I hated the idea of my brain being scrambled and being disconnected from my powers. I should have ate before we got here."

"I'll take you out hunting after this is over. In the meantime, you no longer have a dependency upon your mind being clear. That, and alcohol has no effect on us." Caius offered Emily a martini glass full of the red liquid. She sighed, grabbing the drink and throwing it back in one gulp. Her lips contorted at the strong tastes, savory sauces mixed with a zing of what she could only assume was vodka.

"Can we leave soon?" Jane asked, holding a mostly untouched slice of cake on a plate. Someone had passed it to her a while ago, assuming that as a child she would want the sweet. Emily knew Jane would have to at least eat some of it, else it would look out of place. The girl hated coughing food up, though.

"Aro said we have to stay until Bella and Edward leave for their honeymoon. It's rude otherwise." Emily replied, sympathy lacing her tone.

"Since when do we care about being rude or not? People are usually concerned about being rude to us." Jane pouted, batting her eyelashes innocently. "I'm just a teenage girl who has a strict sleep schedule to abide by, otherwise I don't do as well in school, something you and Father care very deeply about."

Emily smiled, silently thankful for the out Jane was giving them. "Well played. Perhaps we can drive back to the hotel and Aro and Sulpicia can call a cab to--"

"I admit, I didn't expect to meet you for a while yet, Miss Emily." A calm voice interjected. Emily looked up from Jane to be met with Carlisle and his wife (Esme, Aro had said her name was). They wore kind smiles, though clearly Carlisle was hiding a certain anxiety. Putting on her own acting talents, Emily returned the smile while looping her arm around Caius'.

"Carlisle and Esme Cullen. I've heard so much about you." She said politely, if ingenuinely. "Jane, why don't you go and ask Aro about us leaving a little early?"

Relieved to be excused from the conversation, Jane put the paper plate down on a table and disappeared into the crowd.

"Early? Why, you've hardly spent any time celebrating." Esme questioned.

"Forgive me, Mrs. Cullen, I'm not someone who enjoys weddings or large crowds of people. Too... suffocating, if you'll excuse the turn of phrase."

"At least stay for the toasts. It's an open microphone to wish Bella and Edward well."

That got Emily's attention. A chance to say whatever she pleased to some of her least favorite people? Maybe Jane could be patient a little longer.

"I was surprised to hear of you after my children came back from Volterra." Carlisle switched the topic. "I feel like I should apologize for Edward's behavior, little good may it do. He's always been a bit... moody."

"They shouldn't be teaching Romeo and Juliet to young and impressionable teenagers. There are plenty of other Shakespeare shows with infinetly more interesting stories."

"Oh? Pray tell." Esme pressed. Emily shrugged.

"Take your pick. Hamlet, The Scottish Play... Coriolanus."

Caius snorted.

"You don't seem to be too fond of romantic stories." Esme noted.

"I like romantic stories between competent people. Not teenagers screwing everything up because they're blinded by their romance to the outside world." Emily grinned. "The Scottish Lady's always been a favorite character of mine, even as a little girl. Ambitious and confident with herself. Shame she had to lose her nerve and go mad at the end."

"Alice said you were young. Do you remember much of your youth?" Carlisle asked her.

"Unfortunately. I wasn't exactly... happy growing up. But it worked out. Fate led me to Caius and I've never been happier. Though, my previous life certainly left it's... impacts. Sometimes when I look at Caius I'm reminded of where I used to be in life. Mostly the positives of it, but memories are tied together, aren't they?"

The literal way that statement could be translated was a secret Emily and Caius wouldn't be sharing with the Cullen parents.

"I'm sorry to hear that. I'm glad you've been able to find some semblance of happiness with the Volturi" Carlisle replied.

"'Some semblance?' What's that supposed to mean?" Caius spoke up, offended.

"Apologies, that came out wrong."

"Are you trying to suggest that my agapé doesn't know her own happiness? Or that we haven't been good to her? Or, maybe, you're suggesting that we're not good for her?" Caius' voice was in a low yet angry hiss so as to not draw too much attention. "Forcing your coven into an unnatural lifestyle and thinking us barbaric for not following it."

"Caius, please, I'm not going to have this arguement with you again." Carlisle continued to speak calmly. "I can't help my aversion to human blood. I merely wish you would have more respect for humans and their lives."

"Humans don't respect the lives of their prey, why should we? You're starving yourselves just so you feel better about an unavoidable situation. It's in our nature to want human blood."

"There are humans who only eat plants because they feel bad for eating animals."

Emily suppressed a gag at the thought.

"Boys, please, this is neither the time nor place to have this debate." Esme cut in. "Apologies if you took Carlisle's words as offensive. You do seem happy with your place in life, Miss Emily. Please, enjoy the night."

She led her husband away at that point, leaving Emily and Caius staring after them, struck slightly dumb.

"Did... did she apologize for us misinterpreting Carlisle's words?" Emily asked.

"Now you understand my grievances with that man. Frankly, I didn't realize how perfect Esme was for him." Caius spat.

"He wishes we'd be more 'respectful' of our food? What kind of behavior is he trying to pedal? Going against our nature? His coven is a cult!"

"They didn't even address you properly. You're not a 'miss,' my agapé is their lady." Caius tucked a stray lock of Emily's hair back into the braided bun she was wearing it in. Frankly the address was the least of Emily's gripes with the Cullen patriarch and matriarch.

"They're just... they're..." she stuttered.

"Prudes." Caius finished her thought. Emily turned to look at him, her expression telling him she finally truly understood what he'd been on about all these years. Caius smiled at her and shrugged. Emily cracked a smile before laughing.

"I'm going to go have my dinner, then we'll grab Jane and go." She said. Caius inclined his head to tell her to have at it. Most people had started to sit down as Emmett Cullen tried to get the microphone to work. Emily spotted that woman she pinpointed sitting at the back of the deck by herself with a contented smile. She asked the woman for assistance, having lost her purse in the trees after a... moment of relief.

The woman seemed eager to help, climbing over the fence around the porch and following Emily into the woods. When they were out of sight, Emily finally put the front down and fed from the woman. Admittedly she had a bit of a dry taste, no traces of alcohol or even coffee in her blood. Still, Emily drained her and carried the body away deep into the woods away from prying eyes, burying it.

Emily checked her reflection in a river, wiping away a few stains around her mouth before running back to the party. Just in time, too. Renée seemed to be finishing some horribly off key lullaby she sang as part of her toast, giving Emily the chance to say something after. She raised her hand when the crowd was asked who else had a word to put in for the newlyweds. Her demeanor having improved after feeding (something Aro and Sulpicia could clearly see despite not knowing she ate a wedding guest prior to that), she put on her best warm smile at the mic.

"I only met Bella and Edward a few months ago after a chance run in abroad. Our families were close a while ago, so it was nice to meet some of Carlisle's family members. It was clear to me the second I saw them that they were destined to end up together. I knew they just had to stay together forever. My family shared my sentiments. We said Bella is going to be a Cullen someday... in every sense of the word. Honestly we were surprised it didn't happen sooner. They seemed so quick to skip right 'till death do them part. Oh, but... go hence, to have more talk of these sad things. Some shall be pardoned, and some punishd. For never was a story of more woe than this of Bella and her Romeo."

Emily stepped back from the microphone, accepting the sparse claps from the crowd. Really, her reward was the uncomfortable looks the Cullens shared amongst each other. She stared at them sweetly, though her eyes clearly hammered the message home to them.

You're running out of time and we're just about of chances to give.

Emily found the table her companions were seated at with an impish grin. Aro honestly looked like he was about to burst with laughter while Caius offered Emily a very proud smirk.

"I couldn't have said it better myself, Emily dear." Aro finally said, composing himself. "Sulpicia and I will be back later. You may take Jane and Caius back to the hotel."

"Thank you, dear brother." Emily replied, taking Jane's hand having already lept out of her chair at the dismissal. Caius looped his arm gracefully around Emily's as he led her and Jane away from the party and to the car.

"Should we pick something up to-go?" Caius asked her, a smirk slipping out as they climbed in.

"Unfortunately I don't have any leftovers. Once we get far enough away from the La Push territory, we can pull over." Emily backed out of the Cullen's driveway and sped down the road. "Just remember to get rid of the stuff in your system first."

***

It was like deja vu.

After weeks of radio silence from the Cullens, Caius was already planning a full scale raiding party to deliver justice having just about passed the deadline for Bella.

Then, as if the Fates themselves were intervening, Bianca came into the catacombs with a tray holding a note. Caius knew what it was and Emily could feel the disappointment radiating off of him. The exact day of the deadline was when the note arrived, meaning it's message was already delayed given the time it takes for information to cross the Atlantic.

"It's from Carlisle." Aro said, reading the note. Emily almost spat at him to just say what they all knew the note said. "Which is spelled with an 'S,' dear Bianca."

Oh good, I was feeling parched anyways.

"He's added a new member to his coven." Aro continued. He then took a pause before gesturing for Felix and Demitri to drag Bianca out to be killed. He passed the note over to Marcus dismissively. "First it was the spelling... then the grammar."

"I could have had a nice lunch." Emily said, looking at Bianca fighting to break free.

"Emily, remember your agreement with Valentina. It's Felix's turn." Aro reminded her.

"I was gonna share with Sulpicia." She defended lamely, taking the note out of Marcus' hands to read it for herself. Her eyebrows furrowed. It really was a poorly written note.

"At least our dispute with the Cullens is over." Marcus said, sounding exhausted. Emily shared the sentiment. She was sick of the Cullens and their drama. She walked back over to Caius to show him the note. He, too, raised an eyebrow at it.

"Over?" Aro asked. "Goodness no! Our dispute goes far beyond the fate of a mere human."

"And what might that be, brother?" Caius asked cautiously. Emily also had a bad feeling this was going in a direction she didn't want to go down.

"Why, brother, I thought you understood. They have something that I want." Aro replied. Emily saw Marcus let out a great sigh. She looked at Caius and he looked at her, both of them indeed realizing where this was going. At first annoyed that the matter wasn't being put to bed so they could move on with their lives, that sentiment changed when they realized this was their chance to decimate the Cullens they had thought they had missed out on. They shared a sinister smirk.

All they had to do was wait for the perfect opportunity, which likely wouldn't take long. This wasn't the first time this had happened.

One way or another, they would get Alice Cullen.