My life had never been simple in the slightest but being a queen had to be the most complicated thing I had ever done. Two days after my transformation I was set to be witness to the first trial since my turning. Although crimes had been committed since then, my mates had decided that it would be best if they took time off to help me adjust to immortality.

"Are you ready, il mio amore?" Aro asks me. I nod, holding his hand in mine. It didn't feel as cold anymore, as I no longer had my own warm hand to compare it to. "I promise that you will be well guarded, il mio amore. None of the criminals will be able to get to you."

"Aro, baby, I'm not worried about the criminals. Even if they did get to me, which they won't with both Demetri and Felix by my side, I'm a newborn. I will be stronger than them and will likely be able to easily pull their heads right off. You three need to calm down. There is no way that I could get hurt during trial," I try and comfort my agitated mate.

With immortality, I could read his emotions much better, knowing when he was happy or annoyed. It was good for many things, but it became overwhelming sometimes, as I would read and react to all of my mates emotions. Marcus says that this is normal and that it is not a power like Jasper's if I can not read anyone else. He seemed to know everything about mates, so I just took everything he said as fact.

"I know, tesoro, it is just worrying, having you in there with those criminals. Most of the people that we find are proven guilty, as sad as that is. You are my mate and to even think of losing you is unbearable," Aro's voice grows quiet as we walk into the throne room. Caius and Marcus instantly turn their heads and smile at me.

Nobody had come in the room yet. Jane and Alec were likely dragging the man in, Lukas, who had been accused of feeding off of large families. I felt sick thinking about it. I still had morals. Feeding off of children is wrong in so many ways. Why would a person even want to drink that much blood at once anyways? I was a newborn and I would get full after the second person I ate. My hunger was supposed to be uncontrollable.

My mate sat down on his throne in the middle of the platform, looking smug as ever. Marcus laughed as I sat myself on Aro's laugh unexpectedly, causing the raven-haired male to blink in shock. I kissed Aro's cheek as the supposed criminal came in. His yellowish hair and his slightly battered clothes stood out. He was reasonable looking, not comparing to any of my mates in the slightest. He looked at me and smirked.

"I see the human queen is human no more," Lukas says in a deep Russian accent. "Ты выглядишь прекрасно. Бессмертие тебе идет. Если бы ты не была королевой, я бы сделала тебя своей," he says, not knowing that I can understand everything that he says. Marcus, the only one out of my mates that knows Russian, growls at Lukas and almost gets out of his throne.

"Если окажется, что ваши привычки в еде так же отвратительны, как и флирт, я позволю Маркусу разорвать вас на части и бросить ваши останки в огонь," I sneer. Aro and Caius just sit back, not knowing exactly what was going on. Lukas' breath hitches as Marcus laughs at him.

"What does it matter, my Queen? You will allow me to die either way, if I am innocent does not matter to you," Lukas claims. He turned when he was 19. He fed off of a family of five. He was born in West Virginia in 1956. His lover turned away from him when he turned and as a newborn he killed her. Her name was Kelly. He has killed seven blood singers. He hates the Volturi with a burning passion. He loves Kelly and wants to die. That's why he killed the family. He may hate the Volturi, but he knows that they will kill him if he slaughters a family the way that he did. He ripped them open like an animal. He enjoyed it. He hates that he enjoyed it. His killing reminds him of why Kelly had rejected him after he turned. He feels like he's a monster. In his eyes, all vampires are monsters.

"You want to be back with Kelly, don't you? That is why you killed those families, isn't it? You want to die," I ask. How I knew what I knew about him was a mystery to me. Parts of his life, those deep and dark parts of his life, had become open to me. I knew his intentions, just with a glance.

Aro looks at me, curious as to how I had somehow known things about the criminal. "Il mio amore, how did you do that?" my mate asks me, his voice low.

"What the hell kind of gift does she have? You- you can't just know that! I've never told anyone that!" Lukas cries out hysterically, venom tears forming in his eyes, never able to fall down his face.

When he was younger, he used to steal things from his brother David. When David found out, he almost beat him to death. To this day, he never steals anything, afraid that David will come back and kill him.

I didn't know what was happening. It felt like his whole life story was being whispered into my ears. It felt like some sort of tragic yet poetic audiobook.

"He's guilty. He killed them. He killed an entire family and made the police notice it. Just give him what he wants, Aro," I almost ordered my mate. Caius and Marcus looked at me, worry in their eyes as I took a deep breath.

"Cara mia, is something wrong?" Caius asked, getting out of his throne to come over to Aro's. He placed his hand in mine as I started to shake. The voice wouldn't stop telling me things about Lukas, things that I didn't want or need to know for the trial. It sounded like me, but almost had a demonic sense to it, like it was me being possessed.

Marcus came up and ripped off Lukas' head. As I felt his body being burned in the fire, the voice started to get quieter and quieter. It was when his last body part was burned that the noise ceased. I was finally at ease. I finally stopped learning things about the now destroyed vampire. His wrongdoings would no longer haunt me. I still would remember everything that I learned, that was the tragic effect of a vampire's memory. It was perfect. Sometimes it would be a blessing. Now was not one of those times.

"Tesoro," Marcus came up to me. All of the guards in the room looked to me, worried expressions on all of them. "What happened?" Marcus asked lovingly, kissing my head softly.

"I don't know," I admit. "It was this voice. It just told me everything that ever happened to Lukas. When I looked at him, it just started to speak. She sounded like me being possessed by some sort of demon. It was scary."

The three of them look at each other and then to me. "A gift. Cara mia, do not be afraid, you are just gifted," Caius tries to soothe my anxiety.

"A gift not unlike your own, Aro," Marcus comments to Aro, who just nods. "Finding your gift can be scary, tesoro. Finding out my own was quite frightening. You will learn to be able to control it with time. Everything is going to be okay."

I just looked down at the floor. Aro held my face and turned it to face him. "Il mio amore, I believe that you have a kind of psychic gift like me. Instead of seeing the memories, you hear them as a sort of voice. I understand that finding out this gift has been scary, but do not be afraid of the voice inside of your head. Your gift is just trying to help you. The voice is likely just your inner vampire self. I promise, nothing will harm you, il mio amore," Aro soothes, kissing my cheek.

"I feel bad for Caius," two other mates laugh. "He was left out of the gifted club."

"Poor Caius," Marcus teases his soul brother. "You're always left out, aren't you?"

He was left out of the snowball fight of 1784 and holds a grudge against Aro and Marcus for it.

"Well, that was completely useless information that I did not need to know," I comment. My mates turned to me and gave me a look that just said please, do tell me now. "Snowball fight of 1784."

"Oh good lord," Marcus sighs before laughing at the memory.

"That was not funny! You left me out! You know how much I love snowball fights! You left me out of the biggest snowball fight of the year! My own brothers! I will never forget the betrayal. Annalise, it was cruel and unusual punishment," Caius complains to me. I don't even think he realized that we were still in the throne room and that the guards were all hearing this conversation. Demetri couldn't hold in his laughter as Caius complained to me, his devoted mate. Alec and Jane let out small giggles as well as they remembered the big fight. Jane and Alec took down Aro. They always seem to double team him. Aro knows that they will always be the ones to get to him, even when he hides so well. Aro will shriek when he gets found as well. The twins find it hilarious.

"You always get too competitive, Caius. We wanted one fight without you. Is that so wrong?" Aro asks his brother who then looks absolutely offended.

"At least Caius doesn't run from the twins and let out a squeal when they find him," I comment. Marcus and Caius look to Aro, who just takes in a deep breath, about to defend himself. "Don't try, Aro baby, it's okay to be scared when they catch you and pummel you with snowballs."

"This gift is going to be just as invasive as mine is, if not more, isn't it?" Aro asks the room. Everyone lets out a chorus of yes, even the guards who were there for the already finished trial, wanting to stay for the jokes and for getting to see the kings interact with their mate, which they most likely found cute.

Even they were bound to be kind and generous around their mate, no matter how they seemed to the outside world. Everyone seems to be much different towards their mate or in my case, mates. The only set of mates that I knew other than myself and the kings were Chelsea and Afton, who acted like teenagers in love around each other, much to the rest of the guard's dismay. They would be making out everywhere they could. The kings would sometimes scold them, but they had stopped recently. I think I knew that if they kept on harassing them, they would point out that they were always glued to me as well, even if we weren't making out.

Aro has been in love with you since the second he laid his eyes on you. He thinks that it's ridiculous that he could be so madly in love with someone so quickly, but he wouldn't deny his feelings. I looked at Aro, of whom was still on his throne. I was still on his lap, calmed down from the whispers that told me things. When they told me that Aro was in love with me, I knew that they didn't have to be bad. The voices could be a good thing, something useful. While I didn't exactly know how the knowledge comes, I knew that it was powerful and always correct.

"Il mio amore-" Aro was about to start, but I cut him off, placing my lips against his. Our kiss was brief, Marcus and Caius flooding the bond with jealousy. I think that even Aro could feel the jealousy coming off of his brothers.

"You two, let me kiss this mate. It's fun to catch him off guard," Aro whines and Marcus and Caius let out a low rumble of sorry, cara mia and sorry, tesoro. "Things are never going to get boring around here, are they?"

"Never," my mates chorus. 

ᴛʀᴀɴꜱʟᴀᴛɪᴏɴꜱ:

Ты выглядишь прекрасно. Бессмертие тебе идет. Если бы ты не была королевой, я бы сделала тебя своей. You look beautiful. Immortality suits you. If you were not the queen, I would make you mine.

Если окажется, что ваши привычки в еде так же отвратительны, как и флирт, я позволю Маркусу разорвать вас на части и бросить ваши останки в огонь. If it turns out you're as disgusting with your eating habits as you are with your flirting, I'll let Marcus be the one to rip you apart and toss your remains in the fire.