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I woke up to the licks of small puppies on my face. Next came the soft chuckle of one of my mates, who decided that it would be enjoyable to place Dakota and Kai up on the bed to send me their love. Of course I loved it all the same, but they were getting a bit too close to my mouth and I needed to get dressed. Even if they are puppies, I don't want them crawling all over me when I'm naked.

"C'mere babies," I mumbled. I got a few whines back as I flipped myself over onto my side. Dakota nuzzled herself into my arms, followed by her brother. Both of their wet noses found themselves pressed against my forearm. "You two are the sweetest. The best things to ever happen to me. What would I do without you?"

"Give her furry companions and she will abandon her vampires for them," Marcus snarked, rolling over on the bed. "Can we get the same love and affection that you give to the canines?"

"I don't think you want the same love as the kind I give to my sweet puppies." Marcus frowned. He wants something more than what I give to Dakota and Kai. He wants romance and lust. Not for puppies. Never for puppies. Gross. Get that outta my head. I never want to think again oh lord kill me now. "Just because you roll over doesn't make you a dog. Stand up and make use of yourself, mio re."

The other two laughed. I'm glad to see their sense of humor is still online after last night. Marcus however did not laugh, moving faster than I could comprehend in order to pick me up. I screeched at the contact, but allowed him to do so with ease. It wasn't like I could push off an ancient vampire king. Or that I'd want to. If I get to see his dashing face, all things are good in Astraea world.

But soon after he picked me up, he set me back down on the bed. I flushed a dark red and realized just how bare I was. Well this is completely awkward but I guess since they're my mates and three thousand years old they've seen it all. No getting away from this. Why are you so freaked out. Not like you didn't have sex last night with all three of them. It sounds so embarrassing when I think of it like that. Stop. Stop thinking about the sex! I can't stop. Screw my brain. Aro's going to hear this. Well, that's even worse. Don't think. Stop thinking. Now I'm thinking more! Damnit. I give up.

"Well, we have quite a few things we need to get accomplished today, my dears," Aro announced. "Some of which include paperwork." The other two kings groaned loudly at the reminder of their duties. Things have to get done, I guess. I doubt the guards are capable of keeping the ladies of the towers, the entire castle, and the region as a whole safe while simultaneously straining their minds with something as dull as paperwork. "Our mate needs to get her remaining schoolwork done so she can graduate as well. Wouldn't want our queen to be interrupted by us."

Caius grumbled and rolled himself out of the bed, heading for the bathroom to straighten out his hair like he does every morning. Marcus doesn't bother anymore, and I'm waiting for the daily reprimand from Aro and Caius about the outcry that his messy brown locks could bring to all of their images. Wasn't the rest of the vampire world supposed to see Marcus as some sort of loony anyways, sorta out of touch? Not to be mean. That idea is stupid. But we can't control what the perception is. Vampires are vain. Really, really vain.

"When will you be back from court today?" I asked. They wouldn't let me see another trial, especially since the whole castle is on lockdown. Too many visitors while I'm human could mean a fatal mistake. I don't mind staying outside. "I'm almost done. On my last course. On the last section of my last course. Somehow my cousins finished before me. Must be a vampire thing. The memories. Yeah. Anyways, I can finish it in a few hours if I focus hard enough."

"Don't tire yourself, cara mia," Caius called out from the bathroom.

"We won't let you harm yourself, amore, you know that," Aro reminded me, brushing up against my side. Come on, you know that's not what I meant by that! I thought, knowing he was listening in. "I was just teasing you, il mio amore." A kiss to my bare shoulder. "Get your clothes on." Is it distracting? "Quite."

On the edge of the table I noticed a small note. Tipping my head to the side, I see the letter is from someone I don't know about. Some weird sounding name. Vampires have odd names. Caius and Marcus are believable names for humans these days. I've known a few Marcus' throughout my life. But Aro? Or Athenodora? Sulpicia? Didyme is the oddest name. She's a sweetheart for letting me wear her clothes, though. Can't believe we're the same size in everything!

"Just something from one of our old friends," Aro explained. "He lives in America at the moment." I felt a cold silence wash over as Caius... angrily peaked his head out the bathroom door. "No, no, it's not him, amore, I promise. Just Leon. No worries. He's probably just getting back to me about the details I asked him for."

"Any notice on the killings in his area that were found to be drained of blood?" Marcus asked. Okay, so I'm clearly out of the loop with all these vampire friends of theirs. No need to warn little old Astraea about the influx of vampire politics. I'll figure it out on my own. Actually, no, because I'll be too busy. Hopefully Aro will be a darling and explain in three, two, one...

My raven-haired mate ripped open the letter, read it faster than I'd ever seen anyone read anything before, and then put it back down on the nightstand. "Ah," he sighed. "He says that he thinks he knows what's going on. He lives in Seattle, and apparently there are signs of a growing newborn vampire army there. Why someone would make one of those, I have no clue. Seattle is already a taken city for a coven of almost ten. They have a few newborns themselves, but we met them a few months ago." He paused for a second. "Lucy and Opal aren't capable of this kind of destruction. They're sweet girls. This is savagery. If you read it, you can see it."

"Good of him for putting his gift into it," Marcus muttered before taking the letter from the stand just as our mate had a few moments before. "Oh gods, that is brutal. I don't think even Caius was this ravenous in his newborn year. I surely wouldn't be. They must be trained to be like this. No vampire is killing this harshly on instinct."

"Are you sure it isn't just a lone slaughterhouse?" Caius asked, coming back into the room. "These things happen every few centuries. We intervene, find maybe one or two of these creatures with no self-control, and we kill them swiftly and effectively eradicate the entire issue. The newborn armies of years past weren't this sloppy."

"You haven't even read the letter, Caius."

"Leon has written three separate times this past month. One was addressed personally to me where he vented about the serious issues of the killings. I know what they look like. I know this pattern. Vampire armies are mostly led by elders like ourselves."

Yes, because newborns and young vampires wouldn't have coordination. Marcus was talking about that last week. Most of the time even ones under a few centuries old are too obsessed with blood to command whole armies. The archives say the youngest general was four hundred years old and even then she had her problems. Fighters, though, they can be any age. It takes no experience to tear other vampires and humans apart.

"While armies are led, this may not be just that. Newborns can't truly be an army. Armies have some semblance of control, these monsters are simply ripping into arteries and taking blood from the inside," Marcus combatted. "With the Cullen issue, what Aro said he saw when it came to Isabella Swan and that vampire woman whose family we had to destroy centuries ago for putting our secrets on the line, I don't think this is a coincidence. In years past we've taken action for things much smaller than this. But this, with the latest actions of other covens and vampires, we could be in danger, tesoro."

Caius furrowed his eyebrows and glanced over at Aro, who let out a deep sigh.

"The elite guard can be sent down to figure out what is going on in Seattle. Leon already owns that territory, and if more vampires are coming in, we will have to settle for diplomacy. But if what he must believe is true, a vampire army growing and committing mass murder, we will step in and fix the issue. We've done this hundreds of times before, yes, but every step is being watched by the world.

"And the last thing we need right now is a revolution."

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CAIN'S POV

"You know, Victoria, I don't really care much for your revenge plots. He wasn't even your mate."

Her bright red hair, stained with a darker crimson colored blood, curled at the edges so perfectly. Were she not a terror, someone might have loved her. Although, that little newborn she made to admire her beauty does that job quite well. I might've liked him if he were not such a damn thorn in everyone's spine. Such a whiner.

Now we stand here, on the edge of Seattle, herding malevolent sheep like a twisted vision of Christ. Or Moses. Could we turn the seas of our life red? We do every time we take a human into death. Dark phantoms with only one job in life; to kill.

"The only reason I put up with it is because you promised me a throne, and the Cullens play a part in that whether we like it or not. They could oppose both of us when we go against the Volturi and take down the two next to my beloved," I said with a grimace. "Vlad and Stefan are tracking the Cullens right now, and will get back with my darling's sister very soon. She acts like Volterra is a place she can hide."

Those fucking children that had the audacity to escape from me. What the hell did they expect me to do? Set them free? They'd go running back! At least I kept that bloody father in chains. Immortality didn't make him strong enough to push against me.

"You care too much about people who haven't thought about you in over a thousand years," Victoria sneered. Burning hot anger coiled in my gut. "I can do this on my own, if you want to be an ass. Riley is strong enough to command the army now."

"That army of yours is a fucking joke compared to the forces of the Cullens and the Volturi. Are any of them gifted? No. All of them are ordinary and easy to break. I bet some of them want to leave already. I've tried to train them to be killing machines, but too many of them retain their humanity. Must be this generation. Back when I was turned, men became soldiers at the age of fifteen and fought for causes with their lives. These ones miss television and their mothers. Pathetic.

"As for my love for my Caius, I have always been on his mind. In every part of his body, my original venom lays. I am his maker, his master, and he will be mine by the end of our journey. You'll do best to remember that," I warned with a sharp intake of breath.

It seems that I am the only one who can fully understand the dynamic of Caius and I. We were friends, I created him out of undying devotion of my immortal heart. He was simply scared, a newborn hungry for his first meal. I'd forgive him for anything, including breaking my heart by doing such an awful thing to me. But he won't get away from me this time. Nobody can escape me for long. Not humans, not vampires, not the wolves I hunted for him when the orders came out. I'd hunt anyone he told me to, any being on this planet. Entire species could go extinct just with an order from his beautiful mouth.

"Nevermind, take this letter. Make sure that no vampires see you send it. Not even Riley. It isn't for the eyes of anyone but my beloved. Only he will understand the scripture."

Hesitantly, Victoria took the paper from my hand and put it in her jacket pocket.

"Is there anything else you need from me, Cain?"

"No. Do whatever you want with your free time. Maybe get a new coat. That one has blood stains all over the sleeves. Vampires will scent you in a second if you keep it. Or the newborns will get clingy. They're like fucking toddlers."

---

Woah. It's been six months. I've had a huge block trying to figure out what to do with this book. In the mean time, I've gotten a ton of new readers. Hello to anyone new reading this story! I miss writing for it.

Also, I'm revamping the chapter titles and images, just so everyone knows.

Cain is a piece of shit. I love to hate him.

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