Warning: Mentions of sexual assault and rape

Lights glared. A mass of dazzling colors, all beaming down on her, twirling and fading.

Music blasted, but it sounded distant like it wasn't vibrating in the humid, hot air around her...

There was a continual forceful jostling of her body, and she was being moved or shoved...but she was floating...yes, traveling somewhere?

She hissed out a whine, a harsh pain ripping through the skin and muscle on her waist. Someone was holding her there, pushing her, digging their fingers painfully into her ribs.

Time flashed.

It warped, disorienting images of dancing bodies mingling with the light, cream walls and dark spots flashing through her vision.

A skip of time. Now she was still, layed on her back. On a bed?

It was pitch black, the only light she could see was dismal. She was scared, petrified...she couldn't move.

There was someone there, standing by the side of the bed...was there? She thought she could feel someone next to her, but she couldn't even twitch a muscle to check. Her brain instructed her arms to move, her legs to wiggle, her head to turn.

Nothing.

Another flicker through time.

There was someone on the bed, holding her down. It hurt...she couldn't breathe.

Their weight was pushing down on her shoulders. Their hands...why were they pulling off her dress?

No...

No! She didn't want that, why was he touching her like that?

She tried, hell did she try to move or roll away, her hands finally obeying her to come up and push weakly at the dark mass leaning over her.

There was a chuckle...an evil one that was too dark to belong to a person...and a hand wrapped around her neck, her underwear now ripped down her thighs and yanked from her body. Tears tracked down her blotched cheeks leaving white, streaked lines.

Gasping...she was trying to breathe, huffs of air dragging down her throat into her lungs. It was so manual, she could barely think...

She was naked, completely–her clothes torn from her. It was undignifying, humiliating...why was it doing this? What had she done to deserve this?

The mass had straddled her, crushing her body against the covers of the bed. It didn't have to worry about restraining her, because as she sobbed and cried and pushed at it, it was useless. Her touch had no strength or power behind it, she couldn't even feel her arms or remember where she was...who she was.

A scratchy, mute scream tore from her throat when its hand felt its way sickly up her thigh, and she laid still with defeat when she felt something horrifically tear through her–

"Nora!"

Cold. Cold hands were around her wrists, like shackles.

A small stir of a finger...then another. Finding her limbs able to obey her now, Nora screamed as loudly as she could in hopes to shock her assailant and tugged her arms free, wildly swinging them in front of her.

"Get off! Don't...please, don't!" Her shout echoed and her balled fists hit empty space. Scrambling back, Nora bundled herself into a protective ball and cried...sobbed, her soul attempting to release her pain. "No! No..."

She beseeched to anything that was listening that he would stop this time, that he'd cease his repulsive touches.

...Nothing. There was no unsolicited groping, nothing forcing her.

Had something, some celestial force, finally heeded her this time and intervened?

Nora allowed her confusion to engulf her feverish distress. Her crying was not ending anytime soon and she still didn't open her eyes in fear that she'd be right where she had been...trapped, doomed.

Why had he stopped? And why could she move?

She shrieked and lashed out again when a hand touched her, this time gently laying over her bare calf. She missed her target by a long shot, due to her closed eyes, but she refused to open them.

"Nora, it's alright..." That voice. It was familiar and she noticed through the panicked murkiness commanding her logic that it was feminine and high pitched.

With a slow pace, she peeled her eyes open, ducking her head away from the light that blinded her temporarily. The room that she found she was in was relatively familiar...but she couldn't for the life of her remember why. Her mind was still apprehended, filled with reservations over what the fuck was going on.

As she tearfully took in her surroundings, she snapped to attention and prepared to fight.

There was a small figure standing by the side of the bed she was on, who she had forgotten was there. For a split second, the scene terrifyingly changed to the dark room...

No light.

The man by the bed.

Bordering on the cusp of freaking out, the petite person moved slowly, she was sure they'd only done it for her for some reason. Nora saw a shock of blonde hair along with two doe eyes peering at her from behind a hood.

The red irises that primly inspected every inch of her should have terrified her in her confusion, but it only made her wake up.

"Jane?"

To some red eyes meant death, but to her it meant safety. Home. Friendship and trust.

"Are you hurt, my Queen?" Her chiming, melodic voice woke Nora up even more, and she settled–not by much, only some fear ebbing away.

She was in the hotel room. Their hotel room...Aro, Caius and Marcus...in Seattle, but she wasn't home. No. Home was far away, across the sea.

They'd been there all day, choosing to stay inside because Caius had been his classic, wary and possessive self and had claimed that the rain would make her sick. He wouldn't let her leave, much to her chagrin.

Yes, that was right. She'd forced them, as a punishment, to watch horrible Tv for her own enjoyment. She'd had a good time reading, sitting still so Caius could draw her, laughing and cuddling with Marcus, but then–

Oh fuck.

They knew.

Or maybe they didn't?

How was she to know if this was simply some dream her brain was conjuring up so she didn't have to face what was happening to her?

The mind could do powerful things to protect its host when threatened...maybe, this was all to shield her from what he was doing?

Horrid. That's what this was.

It was insufferable. It was annoying and she was crestfallen...because she didn't know what was fact or fiction, or what was happening in any sense. Her stupid, trauamatized brain, it wouldn't function. It wouldn't listen.

Frenzied panic kindled deep in her soul as she tried with her all her might to recognize her surroundings as real; she pushed her body away from the deceitful thing that was supposed to be Jane, supposed to be her friend, and curled up by the headboard, knees drawn to her chest, keeping a watchful eye on the room while tears limitlessly rolled down her face.

"Are you injured, Mistress?" Jane repeated her question, but no annoyance could be detected in it.

She was baffled, left ignorant and clueless to what had happened, only knowing Nora was upset and the kings were mad beyond reason. The deep, inflamed scratch marks on Nora's arm, however, made her come to the conclusion whatever had happened had been very bad.

She frowned when Nora distrustfully watched her as if she were a stranger.

There was an odd, maniacal glint of doubt made aware to her when Nora looked at her through narrow, irritated and pink rimmed eyes...it was a look that haunted most of their prey in their last moments, when they knew they'd reached the end of the road but they didn't want to believe it. When they knew there was no getting away from their fate.

Jane, in the distance she respectfully kept and her borderline panicky behavior that was too sincere to be just for show, had clearly passed some sort of challenge her queen had set in her mind, because Nora at least managed to bite out a question through her tears, just that little bit less leery. "W–where are they?"

Jane discerned through Nora's blind urgency, her jittery muscles and sneaking eye movements that appeared to be searching for something, that she was talking about the masters.

She didn't approach in fear of making Nora scream and flail like she had done, instead she ensured that her mindful and quiet voice carried over to Nora to try and pacify her.

"They went hunting to satiate Master Caius's fury. Things have calmed down now, Nora, fear not. Alec has already been sent to retrieve them." They were coming back. That was good, if this was all real.

Surely, if Jane was a figment of her imagination, she wouldn't be trying to help Nora as she was? Besides, when she looked past the girl she could see the room had been cleaned like the hurricane that was her impulsive and explosive Caius hadn't swept through and destroyed everything.

Maybe, things really had been sorted out.

But...no.

Even that was hard for Nora to believe. Reality and illusions, tricks, dreams...nightmares, they were all too kindred. She needed solid proof but...what?

What did she want?

She rehashed the thought in her head over and over until she came to an epiphany. She'd only feel safe, feel real and alive if they were with her, if they could hold her and show her she wasn't trapped in her own personal hell.

Nora didn't have to wait for long. Almost as though answering some silent signal of distress coming from her, the doors flew open and careened into the wall with a deafening crack.

Unable to control it, Nora screamed, disregarding how sore her throat was and the way it killed her to make any noise.

Now she was hyperventilating in fear all over again.

Her glare flirted around the room to scope out any possible danger, before stopping to fall upon the figure in the doorway. All of her mistrust frittered away and she reached for him in desperation with a strangled sob of relief. A shadowy spirit, he materialized next to Jane, pulling Nora's trembling body into an unyielding, overly protective embrace.

Finally.

"Thank you Jane, my dear. I'll take it from here." The serious, deep timbre of Aro's pleasing voice swirled like a soothing ballad through the room. Nora felt him nod to Jane as she hovered with worry before a cold rush of air swept over them.

Jane had exited.

At the rumble of him talking against her, it possessed Nora to cling to him. He was a lifeline, a beacon. She clawed at him and buried herself deep in his cold, hard chest so she wouldn't disappear into hell like she feared.

His hand that had been holding the back of her head moved down, only a fraction, to graze timidly over the hot and clammy skin of her neck.

It was short, but enough to will her to sink into him, his arms caging her to him so she didn't feel so threatened by everything around her. He was a rescue remedy to her, alike to a mug of calming camomile tea and though her thoughts still attacked and bereaved her, she knew deep in her soul, even if it didn't register in her petrified mind.

She was safe now.

Aro went completely rigid and Nora didn't mind, not that she could really even think cohesively, that he could see. All she wanted was for him to hold her and never let her go.

"Oh, sweet Nora..." He crooned lovingly, strong arms as comforting as a safety blanket when he adjusted his grip on her. "Hush now, little darling." He implored, lifting her.

He sat on the bed, back against the pillows, laying her sideways across his lap so she was kept away from harm. It brought him harmony, through his despair, to barricade himself around her.

There was nothing physically apparent in the room that could harm her, but as she whimpered and hid her face in his chest sullenly, looking so small and bested, his instincts raged and he longed to hide her away from the world. From all who had harmed her or would dare to try.

"You are safe, my angel. You are not there now, you're here. This is real. It will be alright." Nora sobbed helplessly, wishing she could believe him. She tried, she was trying, but it all felt too good to be true.

She needed more.

She moved and clambered clumsily, her limbs aggravatingly lethargic, and Aro helped her steady herself so she could straddle him, her chest pressed against his.

Nora wound her arms around his strong shoulders, tangling her fingers in his hair and nuzzled her hot face into his cool neck, her tears soaking the thin material of his shirt.

"Please..." She begged and he trembled, uttering a sharp grunt, experiencing her pain with her.

Aro snaked his arm tighter around her small waist, feeling the force of her cries and wanting her to feel seen he placed his other hand back where it had been, under the thick layers of her hair, his skin a kiss of coolness on her heated neck.

Images continuously flashed behind her closed lids, not leaving even after he had attempted to save her.

"Please, Aro...make it stop."

Through the delusions brought on by her agony, Nora couldn't understand why she was demanding such a thing from him. There was no way he could make it disappear. She was no idiot to think he could, but she wanted it to stop in any way possible. Even if it was unrealistic.

Aro understood this too. He could be there, he could feel it and he could see it all with her, but that was the extent.

He felt useless...a failure. He was meant to protect her. She was his reason to live, his purpose in life, the inspiration behind his every redundant breath.

It was illogical to think there was any chance of helping her here, in the way he wanted...he was no saint, he coveted no special ability to erase such things from her memory. Though if he could trade his gift for such a thing he would do it in a non–existent heartbeat.

Aro was aware he wasn't at fault for this, but each plea and weep and cry and clutch she threw at him had him feeling broken and defeated, emotions he hadn't felt in a very long time.

His hand on her scalding hot skin urged her even closer to him, his voice breaking with grief and sympathy when he immersed his pained face in her chestnut locks so she couldn't see how upset he was, how useless he felt. "I'm sorry, darling. I'm so sorry."

As much as both of them wished he could stop it, he couldn't...and it equally ruined each of them.

Together, they sat and they waited. She cried and shook in fear...he held her still and wiped away her tears with silken caresses.

She wanted to scream. He squeezed his arm around her to bring her back to reality and held her even more snuggly–she wasn't there, she was safe with him.

A noise would push her to the brink, about to set her off and he would whisper words of love and protection in her ear to chase her hysteria away. Each bad thought, each nasty memory and each rip to her damaged soul, he held her and he showed her she wasn't in this alone.

Not anymore.

Nora groaned in fear of her memories worsening to toy with her mind when Aro pulled her face away from his neck, instead tucking his hands under her trembling jaw. He was touching her gingerly, sensitive when he lifted her head to check her over. He didn't want to hurt her.

His expressive black–hued eyes held as much damage in them as hers and he fought to contain a snarl at the endless flow of tears still trickling down her cheeks.

His teeth ground harshly together and he touched his forehead softly against Nora's, the cold of his body sinking into her pleasantly, a respite from the heat that always came for her with these kinds of attacks.

"I swear to you Nora, I'll never let anyone touch you again. They can all burn before they even lay a finger on you. I'll tear them limb from vile limb before they could so much as dream of being near you." The bitterness, the cruelty and loathing, the hate...she might have been out of it–tired and shaky and unsettled, but it was beautiful to see someone love her so deeply. So dearly and intimately even when seeing her in such a discarded, broken condition.

The room could have been burning, falling to ruin and destruction around them and neither would have cared, neither would have noticed or paid it any mind.

The only thing they could comprehend was each other. Nora thought that maybe it was twisted, but they both felt it as her mind calmed practically at once, no longer like a raging ocean looking to swallow all in its path.

His lethal declaration had tamed those harrowing thoughts into streams of pleasant ripples like the surface of a tranquil river.

The doors banging open broke the mirage of the calm waters; Nora cowered, hiding her face in Aro's neck once more as his hand covered the back of her head to keep her blanketed in his arms, a hiss slithering past his lips.

When he dared to speak, the growl he released vibrated in a deep tenor against her, pleasant and lulling to her for reasons unfathomable but aggravated beyond belief with whoever had barged in.

"Thank you for that, Caius. Could you not wait like we agreed?"

New longing grabbed ahold of her senses and she withdrew her face from Aro to glimpse in the direction of the doors.

Both Caius and Marcus stayed back, loitering by the foot of the bed. The anxious energy rolling off of them divulged how much they wanted to approach, but it was staggering for Nora to grasp that they feared they would startle her further if they approached her.

She was confused. So confused because her body wanted her to do one thing, to be close to them, but her brain had still decided not to listen to her.

It was frustrating. Nora felt she didn't want to speak or move, not on her own...and she didn't need to, because Aro was there and he heard her nonverbal want. Effortlessly, he twisted her back around so she was in her original position like she wanted, her side pressed to his chest, legs and body curled up in his lap.

Caius flashed Aro an angry scowl but when Nora lifted her hand toward them he was by her in an instant, holding onto her intensely. It was hard for Caius to try to remember to adjust and alter his strength, so as not to hurt her, when all he wanted to do was steal her away and lavish her with care. Under his supervision she wouldn't look so sickly or petrified.

While Caius twined his and Nora's hands together, hungry for the feel of her skin against his, Marcus used the distraction to step around him.

He didn't react when he heard the possessive snarl that Caius tried to muffle when he glided a step closer to Nora, there was no point taking it personally.

Vampires, when their mates were threatened or distressed, always grew volatile. For a person like Caius, that was disastrous. They'd only just stopped him from massacring half of Seattle. All it would take was a little push for his self–discipline and judgment to crumble into a bout of crazed mania.

Marcus bent to stroke a large hand over her hair, tucking loose strands behind her ear when he kissed her forehead sweetly, suppressing his alarm at the painful sounding race of her heart. He crouched down by the side of the bed so he had easier access, soaking in her unexpectedly serene feelings avidly, for it was evident to him they wouldn't last and were only a reaction to him and Caius finally being near her.

Her lashes fluttered, tears obscuring her vision, but now they were tiny drops of relief.

Marcus swallowed thickly to rid himself of the invisible lump in his throat, his eyes glossed with misplaced burden. He looked depressed, as bleak as he had been when she'd first seen him all those months ago, sitting ruefully in his throne while the world moved on around him.

"I'm sorry, Nora." He weakly declared, sounding literally weighed down with heartbreak.

Marcus thought, simultaneously with Nora, that it was more than simple heartache. There was a sharp thorn of mourning that stayed impaled in his heart for her.

No, Nora didn't like that at all. She didn't like him sad...he looked as if he would cry, if he could.

Nora blinked her own tears away and leaned into his hand when he brought it up to put it on her cheek, his thumb continually moving in a rhythm over her cheekbone. He feared she'd suddenly disappear into thin air if he let her go.

"Why are you sorry?" A stupid question really, because he was virtually traumatized and Caius was incurably angered to the point he looked rabid, both of their red eyes swallowed by coal black. There was only one reason.

Marcus had to, in the end, spit his answer out. It was a struggle to even talk, because he was in anguish.

Anguish for her, anguish that pushed to leave him immobilized. It was akin to nothing he'd ever felt before, not even for Didyme and he was sure he'd feel nothing like it again. "I'm sorry we hadn't met you sooner, my love...if we had, we could have stopped it. We could have saved you, we could have prevented it all together. We have failed you."

"That's not fair." Nora objected quietly, her dry throat cracking.

He went to disagree but she shook her head fiercely, turning to place a kiss on his palm that left him confounded, indignance and denial dying on his lips.

"Please, don't torture yourselves. Any of you. I'm sorry for us all that you had to find out in such a way, but there are things I need you to understand. Tragedies, like this, happen in life. Tragedies that we don't deserve. At all...and I didn't, nor did any of the other poor girls." Anger was evoked inside her for all of the women, all the lives he had tried to ruin, but she pushed that feeling down and locked it away for now.

She was hellbent on wiping that sorrow from his angelic face.

"It's unfair, but I couldn't prevent it. I can't go back in time and change it so now I'm forced to live with the damage. It's not my fault that it happened or that I went to that party, or that he drugged me so I couldn't fight him. It's not your fault you weren't there to protect me, we didn't even know each other existed Marcus...the only one at fault is him and he's getting what he deserves." Marcus's eyes flooded with tears of venom and he would have doomed his vampirism if he could, that those tears wouldn't fall. That he couldn't show her in full his sadness for her.

Caius hissed, caustic and unpleasant like poison. It was so sudden that Nora jumped at the harsh noise, snapping her gaze over to him.

"It is not enough Nora! You have been wronged, destroyed and violated and I will not let him get away with it! Or that father of his who turned a blind eye. There is no punishment his captor could befall on him that would be half as deserving then the ones I have envisioned for him!" His face was enshrouded in darkness, eyes burning with fury and his body was protectively curled around their joined hands as if he feared someone would intervene to tear them apart or take her away from him.

His anger wasn't with her. It was deserved and it was just, but Nora's body still hardened, muscles stiff as stone and she pushed back slightly into Aro, anyway. An automatic reaction to such spite when so fresh from one of her nightmares.

Caius hadn't meant to, but in her vulnerable state she now viewed him as a threat.

He calmed himself when she slinked away from him deeper into Aro's arms, trying to make herself look smaller as their prey often did in the aggravated shadow of such an apex predator.

The action was like a slap to his face, clearing his mind.

She was afraid of him.

Regret punctured through him. A sensation similar to being punched in the gut.

Caius ghosted the tips of his fingers over the back of her pale hand, his face softening into a devout expression of need when she peeked at him nervously through her hair.

"I mean not to scare you sweetheart. Truly." His angry cadence was more controlled, but rage still churned underneath the calm smoothness of it. "My anger and need for repayment is ceaseless. You are the light that mends my dark soul...you are everything to me, Nora. I need you to comprehend that. You may be content to let him suffer where he is, but I will bring you justice. Demitri will be assigned to find him immediately."

His eyes were like pits of deep carmine flames, attesting all of the chilling punishments he was crafting.

Nora could have cried all over again at what he had said, at what he wanted to do for her. It was different from his everyday anger. Deadly. This was real and more than his normal need to want to wreak penance, it crackled in the air in its power and potency...he actually looked like, if she asked him now, he would rage war on the world until it was nothing but ashes.

He had left her speechless.

Caius smiled, only a hardy noticeable hitch of the corner of his lips, crouching down like Marcus had. He tugged her hand, making her body bend forward, so he could place it with her palm flat on his chest over his dead heart, his fingers wrapped around her wrist.

His did not beat, but hers was going a mile a minute.

Its rhythm was sped up by his adoration when he whispered things she thought she'd never be told, low and thoughtfully quiet.

Regardless of Aro and Marcus in the room, it was meant just for her. "My heart only hurts for you, Nora. It is only filled with love and devotion and anything in between, for you. It is what drives me to do the things I do, all to keep you safe. If I have scared you, I deeply apologize, but in its passions my heart feels as if for the first time in my immortal life...it is breaking. It will only be mended when you let me–when you let us, reap revenge. So you can be free."

Her lip trembled and a lone tear cascaded down her cheek, caught by Marcus's thumb. It felt wrong, that she was suddenly overwhelmed with the feeling that she'd put some kind of burden on them. That it was her fault he was hurting, that they all were; but the guilt was there. As infinite as his anger. Caius shook his head, seeing exactly where her thoughts had gone. It was a joyless place that he too had been accustomed with, once upon a time.

"No. No shame. I'll have none of that, do you understand?" He demanded sternly.

Tear after tear spilled from her eyes, but Nora nodded anyway. No shame, it was as simple as that. So why couldn't she stop crying? Why couldn't everything just stop?

He became gentle then, pulling her hand up and kissing each of her knuckles slowly, the frigid nip of the cold from his lips tingling against her skin before he held it close to his heart again.

"Don't cry, sweetheart. Let us help you...Please." He appealed.

Caius Volturi never begged. He never pleaded and he never asked for permission. If he wanted something, he went and got it. If he desired to do something, he did it. He was not a tender, softhearted man. Even before his change. War had raged all around him, death and pain and malaise as normal as breathing air. He had always been as callous and unforgiving as the cold, sharp steel edge of his sword that had slaughtered thousands of men and kings alike. That vast bloodlust, that brazen inability to feel remorse had carried over into his immortal life.

He wasn't used to being a diplomat over a dictator, the one without the control...but when it concerned Nora, Caius Volturi was a different man. He wasn't himself. He was someone better, with the capacity to love and to feel, to listen and understand before acting.

Caius had meant it when he had said she was his light. A twinkling little joyful spark shining through the dark of his existence, of his memories and the years of pain that followed him...and anything that attempted to dim or snuff out his light, needed to be eradicated.

But he could only do it if she wanted him to. If she so wished it, he would go against the tyrant in himself and he would leave the matter alone.

...In a similar way, Nora wasn't accustomed to the idea of anyone asking her consent or what she thought. People seemed to only wish to hurt her for their gain, with no care of the consequences on her state of mind, or the protests she made.

It had been that way all her life. Second best to Bella. Child to a mother who housed no maternal feelings for her. The daughter of a man just as broken and beaten as her thanks to the opinions and the selfishness of others. Her achievements not acknowledged, her needs pushed aside. Her friends always thought she was nothing...always the last option for everyone to pick. A victim of emotional abuse, of...rape.

She was used to decisions being out of her control, but...the kings. They were different. With them she'd always had choices, however hesitant they were to grant them and however much she had to fight for them sometimes. It scared her, because she didn't know what to do with that type of respect.

It presented itself now, that panic. It left her perplexed. It shouldn't have when there really was an easy option to pick but, how do you do so when you've never been afforded the ability to choose?

There was a choice to make now, though...Caius was letting her decide...if he lived or if he died.

It was her monster. The demon under her bed, the one that preyed upon her in her dreams every night. The one that, at one point when she couldn't take the world having the last laugh at her anymore, had made her wish that death would just hurry up and come for her to take her away from the suffering.

They were two people. Human and vampire. Both out of their comfort zone, both of their defensive shields dropped. They were exposed, vulnerable...but it was together, and that made her make up her mind. There was no saying no, not when he'd held so much respect to ask. A simple thing, an everyday normality for most people–but it meant so much to her.

"Find him." She said at last.

Caius's body straightened with greed and hope, his face just inches from hers so he could hear her tired mutterings, her hand twisting his off of her wrist so she could clasp it in hers. "You find him...and we will make him pay. All of us."

He held back from rushing towards her, almost shying away instead. It looked like it was a struggle, that he didn't want to move back but he also didn't want to scare her. Nora understood the imperceivable need and haste in his movements. She could see what he wanted, why he was trying not to move towards her too suddenly.

She gave the briefest of nods and he wasted no time, moving forward to capture her lips in a feverish kiss that struck her with awe. He never failed to amaze her, with his passion, his intensity. He kissed her like each one would be their last. It was so hard he could have bruised her lips if he hadn't remembered to be careful.

Caius was unnecessarily breathing when he pulled away and Nora realized then, how anxious he had been; how much he had dreaded that she'd say no and refuse him.

"Thank you, my sweet Nora. I won't disappoint you, gattina." Sensually wicked. The only stupid phrase repeating in her mind to describe the coarse rumble when he growled the words out. It was definitely not the moment to think about how hot he was, but how was she to help it? He was so protective, especially now when everything about him had become eclipsed with enmity.

Already in his mind he was thinking of all the things he would do to Joshua Goodman when he got his hands on him.

Nora was left stunned by the kiss, so she nodded and made a small noise that could only be described as an embarrassed squeak, inwardly scoffing when Caius cracked a smile at her like the bigheaded jackass he was. It was astounding that he still found time to be arrogant.

Aro cleared his throat, garnering all of their attention, officially ruining the moment.

Nora felt the dread that had been missing since Caius and Marcus's arrival return, because he had the exact same look on his face he'd adorned when Maverick had outed him.

He encouraged her to slide off of him, hands careful against her waist when he nudged her. In the end Marcus had to help her, grabbing her hands to ease her off Aro's lap when she couldn't stop staring at him, at that look. Why was he so frightened?

Like most instances when it came to understanding the anomaly that was Aro, Nora was mystified. There was no way to answer her own question. It should have been a good thing that they wanted to find her attacker–especially for him. He'd seen it, he'd seen firsthand what had been done to her, but contrary to what she had expected...it looked as if finding him was the worst thing in the world to Aro.

"Whatever is the matter, brother?" He expressed something that was supposed to resemble a smile when Marcus asked this, but it was more of an uptight wince in her opinion.

"I need you all to be open minded, now. I know you'll want to be mad, but you need to remember that I have done this for us all." He said, a nervous waver muffling him.

A laugh bubbled up from her chest, only just shoved back down by her reprimanding herself. It was such an inappropriate time, but he was nervous... Aro. The fearless leader of the Volturi. She never thought she'd see the day where that happened.

If vampires had the ability to sweat, he'd be dripping with it. "You...might not have to go very far to find him." Wait. What the hell did that even mean?

"What on Earth are you going on about, brother?" Nora tossed a glower at Caius for his loud exclamation that rang in her ears. Typical of him to be so brazen in a sensitive situation. "Bloody hell Aro, you are no fool. Please do not act like one. Now, pull yourself together and say your piece." Caius ordered irritably.

It wasn't at all eloquent or even what he had intended, but Caius didn't like to be left confused. Knowledge was power and power was what he sought, so he would be the one in control, the upper hand. He had no qualms giving power over to Nora, but when his brothers were the cause for his blindness, it was a different story.

For some God forsaken reason, Aro loved to be cryptic with knowledge, he loved to keep others in the dark. It was lost on Caius why he couldn't just get to the point.

Caius and Marcus were blanked by Aro as if they weren't in the room, he was solely locking eyes with Nora. It was only so she could see his sincerity in what he had done. It was her reaction he feared the most, hers that mattered most. He'd endured several hundred lifetimes of Caius and Marcus's anger, it was all about her–what she would think of him, if she would hate him for this...he'd only have to make peace with that.

"Aro? Come on, what's up?" Nora asked, her hand itching to hold his, to move towards him before she thought better of it. An unpredictable Aro wasn't someone she wanted in her head.

But still, Aro admired her kind heart. His Nora. So beautiful and caring. How could he have kept this from her? He felt awful.

It was a fool's dream, the hope he had that she would see reason. He had been inside of her pretty little head. He knew what made her sad, what made her happy. He also knew what made her tick and what made her mad.

That is why he was a fool, because Nora despised people who lied or guarded the truth...and Aro had done exactly that.

He was winning no one's favor tonight.

Like the guilty man he was, he confessed. There were not enough idioms or words in the English vocabulary to describe the storm clouds of torrent emotion that gathered in her eyes, nor for the way her face dropped into a cold, apathetic mask.

Aro had messed up. Badly.

~~~~
A/N
Hope you enjoyed this chapter! The next one is going to have some smut, a reward for you all being out through so much angst.
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