✿✿✿

"Nari?"

She groaned while still captured in sleepy catatonia, her eyes flickering wildly behind her closed lids but remaining clamped shut.

"No...go away, dad."

She wanted to tell whoever it was, unaware in her sleep she had assumed it was her father, to please leave her the hell alone. Then, though, that would mean she would wake up more than she already had and that was not something she wanted. Not while having such a strange dream about handsome and criminally sexy gothic vampires with freaky sadistic tendencies and private jets.

"Nari, come along now. It's time to wake up sweetheart."

Sweetheart? Who the hell was that and why did they have the audacity to be so flirty with her?

It felt like her eyes were glued shut and when she could finally achieve the arduous and hard accomplishment of prying them open go drink in her surroundings, she was sure she was still dreaming.

She was in a fancy pants car, not the plane–and it wasn't just any car either. Like the private jet it was obnoxiously baroque. There were plush cream leather seats, one of which she had been having a long and deep sleep in, and the things surrounding her were very high tech...too high tech to belong in a normal car. It was much too elaborate to be conjured up in her sleep, too.

Resting in the other three seats were the kings, as real and solid and present as she was. Right. So not a weird, weed induced dream about some ethereally hot men then. She kept forgetting that.

Marcus was next to her with a book drooped in his hands at her awakening. Persuasion, she noted in no great deal of surprise. Marcus as a Jane Austen fan made too much sense, he was the obvious romantic type.

He watched her observe where she was in enamoured fascination, closing the book and delirious from sleep she smiled at him, her heart nearly bursting when he mirrored her small show of affection. It should actually be an arrestable offense for someone to be so exquisitely attractive.

She turned her head marginally to see who was across from Marcus. Aro sat formally there in all of his elegance, treating the seat as some kind of throne. He met her smile with an enthusiastic one, all of his teeth displayed in their pearlescent glory and it only grew concerningly larger when she giggled...he even giggled back, with a hell of a lot of mania added to it, of course.

Christ, she must have been exhausted and delirious to be so cozy with them, but sleep was leaving her and quickly she realized something. If those two were not in front of her then–oh. Oh no.

Alertly, she whipped her head in the direction of the seat directly adjacent from hers, her neck cricking and releasing the tension her sleep had caused in a series of awful sounding cracks, and felt her fluttering and betraying heart drop into her stomach.

Caius lazed across from her with a smug air about him. Mortified, Nari saw she had her feet in his lap, a blanket tucked around her so she was suffocatingly cocooned the way some kind of Egyptian mummy would be for their burial. He smirked when her mouth fell open. The jackass, he was obviously the one to do this to her in a corrupt attempt of affectionate care.

"Finally. I thought you'd died, sweetheart."

Nari quickly became indignant and struggled beneath the blanket; finally free she yanked her legs away from him, curling them up in an awkward heap in her seat. As much as her skirt would allow her. "Dude, so not cool! Don't involve me in your foot fetish! I'm not into that weird shit." Caius's eyes widened at the bizarre accusation and Nari copied his self–righteous smirk.

Never let them know your next move.

"I do not have a foot fetish." He snarled, disgusted, shooting a side squint full of vicious loathing at Aro who was laughing quite uncontrollably at her brazen assessment. His hands were pressed to his mouth in vain efforts to silence himself.

"Then why were you all up in my business like a creeper?" She accused.

"Do not slight me with such disgusting charges." He invalidated in return. A wrong move.

"Then don't feel me up in my sleep!"

"I'll have you know that I was being nice! You would have been uncomfortably crammed in there, suffering from back ache right now if it wasn't for me!" Each word had her wanting to strangle him for such warped justification.

"Oh please. You? Nice? I think you're mistaking yourself with Marcus or Aro. At least they wouldn't dare violate me while I slumbered."

"Violate you?!" He was literally screeching like a dying bat. It was aggravating as all hell.

"Yes!"

"How dare you impune my honor by disgracing such defamatory things upon me. I am a gentleman!"

"Ha! A gentleman–don't make me laugh! Do I wrongly recall you threatening how easy it would be to kill me? A poor, kidnapped woman who is no match for you as you so enjoyed reminding me earlier like some sicko!" Vitriol spewed from her with the intense liveliness of erupting lava from a volcano and Caius absolutely refused to stand for it.

"God's above, will you let that go? I apologized and apologized! What more do you want?!"

"I want the last two to three days to be a dream and I want my fucking life back you ignaramous cretin!"

"Never have I been privy to such insolence from anyone in my three thousand years on this accursed planet!" He was in hysterics at the abuse he was receiving and sat up to tower over her, even when in his seat; he was peculiarly tall and intimidation practically seeped from his every nonexistent poor. Nari didn't back down. She wouldn't. "Listen and listen well, signora. The chances of you getting your life back are scarce to none. It's not going to happen–not in your lifetime, so you may as well just accept your fate. Tu donna ingrata e fastidiosa–"

"That is enough! Both of you stop this at once!" Marcus bellowed over Caius's insult that if Nari understood she would have been aghast at.

He was raised slightly out of his seat and Nari clamped her mouth shut, her fingers digging into the armrests and her fear making her cower as far away from him as she could so she was plastered to the door with eyes as wide as saucers.

"Your bickering seeks to drive me to madness and I am completely at my wits end with this! If either of you persist in this petty and childish caterwauling, you will spend the remainder of the drive home learning the meaning of the phrase 'silent as the goddamn grave.' Do you both understand?!" He yelled. They both nodded, Nari shaken and Caius's egotistical surety mildly disrupted by being scolded, but Marcus was still displeased and barked a sharp, "Speak!"

"We understand." They chorus like naughty children and Nari is noticeably distressed, more than Caius who was used to Marcus's outbursts.

She was so fearful that Aro sent a precise kick to Marcus's shin when he snapped out of his abashed trance at the influx of aggression from all three people in the car with him, angered at the way Marcus had scared the ever loving crap out of her.

She was seconds from falling back into unconsciousness, her heart thundering in adrenaline, lungs straining to accommodate her labored breaths, pushing and pushing into the door with nowhere to go to escape. A fear response. She was petrified.

Marcus's nostrils flared as he breathed deeply, the vexed monster of irritation evaporating as he took in the state of her and the furious coil of petulance on Aro's lips.

Caius was simply watching him with an unimpressed raised brow while settling back down and folding his arms over his chest, drumming his long fingers against his bicep to drown out the thundering pattern of fear of the only working heart in the car—the gushing adrenaline filled flow of Nari's blood.

Nari avoided even looking in his general vicinity, eyes a void of defeat and mourning that focused out the blackened window. Her body was shuffled far away from him, assuming incorrectly that he would snap and hurt her.

Fuck, he had screwed up.

"Nari..." He whispered and was crestfallen when she swiveled her head a little bit towards him, but shied away from the hand he stretched towards hers clenched on her thigh.

She was already terrified, already torn from her home and...kidnapped by them. A bitter wording, distasteful even when passing through his mind. It was true, nonetheless.

He hadn't meant to scare her, but he had to put up with Aro and Caius's fights and over the millennia it had made his patience for such things nonexistent. They were children and he was fed up of playing the reasonable adult of them. It was lamentable that Nari been roped into it.

Aro kicked him again and when he snapped his head back around to lour most unpleasantly at his dark haired brother, his eye twitching in irritation at the string of assaults, he was mouthing one thing with an conspicuous hand cupping his mouth.

'Grovel.'

So that is what Marcus did.

"I have disgraced my honor for letting myself lose control as I just did. I cannot apologize enough, Nari. You are already in a situation you did not choose. You are...afraid, you most likely feel alone, trapped, distrustful. Our intentions are not onerous but that will take time to show you. The least we can all do," He and Caius shared a meaningful glance of understanding that of the three, it was they who had so far upset her. He was talking about them, Aro left out of it for now, "is to learn to be more patient. It is regretful Nari but when you are old, when you are a creature so used to being stuck as you are, it can be difficult to understand mortals or to remember what it means to be human. I am sorry."

Irresolute, she allowed herself to take a short glimpse at him from the corner of her eyes. To check his genuinity...not to remind herself how hot he was. No.

He certainly presented all the signs of being ashamed, the book in his hands nearly destroyed beyond repair by his anxious hold on it. Was he really so afraid she wouldn't forgive him?

"I suppose..." She twisted her body so she was back to facing him head on, her legs brought to her chest and her chin rested on her knees, her gaze downtrodden. It was a start. "I forgive you. I'm sorry for acting so childishly. I'll try not to be so annoying." Her voice was tremulous as she promised this, and the only reason she did so, while aware she wasn't in the wrong at all, was the fear of death.

They could change their opinions any moment...she wouldn't remain safe forever. One day they were going to understand just how expendable she really was.

"No!" Aro disagreed immediately, finally piping up instead of staying a bystander.

He could have ripped both of his idiotic brothers' heads off and clobered their bodies into dust with them. Here they were, a vow made to make her feel comfortable, to make her feel safe. Already the two had broken it like hormonal dults.

Perhaps it was the bond, or perhaps it was his compassion showing itself after years of abandonment from his innermost self, but he did not share in the same annoyance as his brothers with her behavior and he told her so to cease at once her presumably growing abhorrence for them. "No, ragazza dolce. You are not annoying and you certainly have nothing to apologize for. The only one left to do so sits across from you."

Poignantly, they each resolved their sights onto a brooding Caius at the exact same moment. He had his arms crossed to ward them off, his head turned away though he could hear them perfectly and Nari just wanted to give up already. This was going to be more trouble than it was worth and she was half tempted to tell them not to bother.

Aro gave her no choice. He reached across and very audibly thumped Caius on the back of his head as a mother would their child and hissed at him. "Apologize. Now."

Caius was sneering at him as he rubbed the assaulted area, but under both of his brothers cutting leers he deigned to listen.

His pride often got him in trouble as did his tendency to voice exactly what was going through his mind as it did. Normally he cared nothing about if he hurt someone, he did it enough of his own free will anyway but, he actually wanted to apologize. If he carried on acting like this then at this rate there would be no salvaging her opinion of him and he couldn't condone that–her disliking him or worse. Hating him...no. A life without a mate was no life at all.

Abjectly, he chose to speak to his lap rather than her and mumbled out his plea for forgiveness. It was easier not to absolve himself in the way she despised him. "I should not have said those things, nor should I have invaded your space while you slept. I hope you can forgive me for my rude behavior, Nari." He finished by perusing her reaction through his snowy lashes and brows blocking his sight with his lips pushed into an anxious, straight line.

She let him suffer purely as sordid revenge, watching him shuffle and simmer on the brink of exploding before she relaxed her aggravated mask of malcontent she was levelling him with, the now inviting expression erasing his tension immediately. "You're forgiven."

Scandalous to her discolored opinion of him since it looked so unusual, his lips peaked upwards in gratitude. His mouth opened, ready to say something but a harsh clap diverted their attention to a jovial Aro.

"How wonderful!" He said merrily with such infectious, overzealous happiness Nari was sure such a cheery disposition couldn't be faked. It seemed he really was just...creepily, terminally delightful. He sighed and with his hands clasped in front of his face, he looked between her and an annoyed Caius who was rubbing his temples as if plagued by a headache. "Isn't it all so much better when we get along?"

"Don't expect it forever," Nari warned, making the three of them frown questioningly at her.

She shrugged and focused back on the sights outside of her window; the bustling streets and hordes of people rankling around some city they were driving through. From Caius's strange words earlier, she had deduced that they had to at least be somewhere in Italy. It wasn't a language she knew but the accent was always distinguishable and his was thick.

"You haven't even told me where we're going and I'm starving. A hungry Nari is not someone you wanna be around, I'm just saying. I turn into a raging bitch. Worse than the guy from the Snickers commercial." She cautioned and Aro gasped in heightened dramatics, neglecting to acknowledge her vulgar language.

"Of course, my dear! You must be absolutely famished. Can you wait until we reach our home? It will be some time yet." Aro worried, realizing just how skinny she was.

It seemed they were going to have to feed her in excess–plump her up so he could no longer see her ribs like he could through her blouse. He couldn't have her looking so sickly and being as skinny as she was was no phenomenon that just happened overnight. He wondered if she had been taking proper care of herself at all before they had found her?

Nari's stomach responded before she could voice an opinion, whining at the simple mention of her gnawing hunger being fulfilled. With red cheeks and ears she buried her face into her knees, only being coaxed from hiding when Marcus hesitantly placed an uplifting hand on her arm.

His lips twitched and curled, only a tug. Not a full smile, but the dimples and his charm disabled any remaining odium she had held towards him after his little display of rage. "No need to be embarrassed, il mio gioiello. If anything it should be we who cower in shame at having forgotten to fulfill a basic human need for you."

"Yes, well..." An idea was sparked in her brain and she decided to push her luck. Best case scenario they say no. Worst case? The silent and watchful Caius would boot her out of the car for her 'insolence', as he called it. She sweetened them up by broadcasting her honey kissed smile, because for some reason that appeared to be the most effective way of calming or placating them. "If you're really so sorry...can we find a McDonalds?"

"A Mcdonnywhat?" Caius butchered the name, brows knitted by disgust and a crease pinched there that looked tight and painful. "What in Hades is that? It sounds repulsive."

Pleadingly, she answered him, "It's a type of restaurant chain. Fast food, we won't even have to go in."

Deep frown lines invaded the perfection of his skin and worried he was going to say no, she dialed up the sweetness and periodically switched her big eyes from each of them while doing her best puppy dog eyes at Aro, knowing from observing their dynamic that his decision was the deal breaker. "Look, I'm so hungry I feel like I'm gonna pass out. I'm not immortal like you. I don't just get to guzzle down the blood of innocents to sate my beastly hunger. Humans don't work that way, fella's. I need three meals a day or I'll be sick. Like, bedridden and fainting spells level of sick. Kind of a whole Exorcist situation. Not pretty."

Her convincing only made Aro worry further and he stretched towards her to press the back of his hand to her forehead, but pulled back at the last fraction of time even with his gloves on, thinking better of it. Perhaps it was wise not to take the chance of invading her mind yet...not while she didn't know of his talents.

"Are you feeling unwell now?"

"Yes." She nodded at him in an abundance of haste, her eyes still adorably wide and she minded with glee that it was working on him. He peered more acutely, she contemplated if he thought she was lying or something and finding his answer he settled on assessing her as she begged.

Time for the last resort. "Please? It'll make me feel better."

He considered her paling skin, the dark mauve and spruce tinted circles under her eyes, the dryness and cracked skin on her lips–she must have been thirsty, too. Decision made he lifted a balled hand to the black screen between him and Caius and wrapped a knuckle against it.

It slid open and Nari could see the front window, the edge of the wheel with a large leather gloved hand wrapped around it and the rear view mirror, a man she didn't recognize reflected in it. He had odd, protruding features and reminded her of Lurch from the Addams family movie.

"Felix. How far away is the nearest McDonalds?" This Felix person was stricken with confused astonishment, keeping his head straight toward the road but glimpsing every so often at them all through the mirror. It took him a minute to answer, muffled taps just reaching her ears and when he spoke his voice was fucking deep. Like, he sounded like Tony Todd without the sass.

"Twenty minutes, Master."

Master? Ew. Were these vampires into fetishes? She was not calling anyone 'Master.' No fucking way.

Aro spared her a second of his attention to know if she approved and when her smile broadened and became authentic, happiness making her drab appearance come to life again Aro gave the order. "Take a detour there, then continue as planned. Am I understood?"

Felix nodded with a 'yes, master,' and Caius, the aggressive little albino he was, slammed the divider shut before Felix had even uttered the last syllable. Well wasn't he just a social butterfly?

"Thank you." Nari preened at the prospect of food and her stomach groaned its own praises, just as happy and giving its own appreciation.

Caius softened completely from his annoyance, managing just in time to keep his face blank so he didn't come across as some sort of sappy, love sick fool. He'd leave the sentimental drivel to Aro and Marcus.

He inclined his head in indifference. "You are welcome."

The car settled into comfortable silence. Marcus went back to his book, fixing the crinkled pages he had basically destroyed with a disappointed click of his tongue at his callousness.

Aro was working on removing his gloves, entirely relieved when he pulled them off and Caius, to her slightly disturbed but genuine delight, had a phone in his hands. He was tapping away, the telltale tinkling noise signifying victory familiar...candy crush? A harsh, vicious ingrate like him enjoyed cutesy little games? He was just full of surprises.

At the modern piece of technology, a stone of realization was dropped on Nari's head and she suddenly cursed, sitting up to look around the car. They all stopped to appraise her and hated the growing distress on her face.

"Nari? Is everything alright?" Effectively, her wide eyes were drawn to Marcus at his worried question.

"No! I'm such a bad pet owner!"

"What?" Caius asked, distracted, almost making a new level before his lack of concentration spoiled it. Heaps of reluctance he made no effort to hide he sat up straight from his slouching, the phone clasped loosely in his limp and dejected hands.

"What do you mean?"

"Mim!" Nari was only a minor pitch away from shouting in her distraught spell while still looking for her poor cat as if that would make her pop out of thin air, feeling progressively more upset the longer there was no trace. "Where is she? Is she safe? Is she–no, y–you didn't leave her in the plane all by herself did you? Oh God, did you hurt her?" The last question was spat at Caius who inhaled a choked gasp in offense and tried to ease her fears.

"Relax, darling. I may not like the scruffy pest but I would never harm her. Humans and vampires and filthy Lycans are the only things that experience my wrath. She is with the guard in the car behind us, see?"

Lycans? Behind? Her brain omitted the first part of information.

Nari turned as best she could, which wasn't well at all in such a cramped space, to hone her sights out the back window when Caius motioned for her to do so. Yep. There was a black BMW following behind them and she could just about spy who she remembered as Demitri in the driver's seat. She chuckled–an involuntary and wobbly one full of relief that Caius hadn't lied–and calmed herself somewhat when 'the tracker' lifted a hand and wiggled his fingers at her.

Flopping back into her seat after doing the polite thing and waving back, she rightfully felt embarrassed. Giggling under her breath at an affronted Caius who cocked his head to the left, expecting an apology, she bit her thumbnail. Her lips stretched back into an awkward grimace chock full of regret for jumping to conclusions. "Um, sorry about that. She's just kind of...the only thing I have left."

Aro watched her, his sympathies paramount and though things were going much smoother than they had on the plane with her sadness and fear diminished a tad, he felt guilt stab through him at her words.

Clearing his throat to distract his mind from the self loathing thoughts trying to worm their way in, he feigned a confident vizard at her when she turned her head to him. "No harm, no foul as the mortals say. Now if my timing is correct I believe we have almost reached our destination. Still hungry?"

Her stomach growled again to answer for her but Nari felt no shame this time, even as the three men laughed freely.

✿✿✿

The oddest thing in Nari's life wasn't the discovery of vampires. It wasn't the revelation of said vampires having gifts like mind reading or future telling or pain causing or black dust...wind...stuff. It wasn't even being taken by the powerfulest among them, either.

No. The oddest thing was watching three of the most ancient of those vampires trying to order for her at a drive thru.

Nari didn't speak a fucking word of Italian so when the time came to place her order Caius had taken up the task. He wasn't the most patient of men and apparently even less so when confronted with a tired teenager just trying to get through the next few hours of their shift.

Savage gen z humor and a cranky old vampire did not a good situation make and at one point she'd been convinced he would leave them to leap out of the car and hunt the little nightmare of an adolescent down. She understood nothing of what was said, but Caius's peeved facial contortions anytime the girl spoke in an admittedly vicious tone that was on par with his painted a hilarious picture.

When he had managed to calm down and not be irritated by the unsuspecting young girl with no idea of the horrible fate she'd escaped; or by the lag and echo from the machine that kept relaying his voice back to him and sent him into outrage, he had ordered her more food than she thought she could stomach.

It was unnecessarily sweet of him and as she was finding out, her opinion of him kept changing just as much as the unpredictable weather in Portland had. When she had still called it home, that is.

One moment she despised him and all of his smug superiority, the next she was finding him so handsome it was incomprehensible and admiring the caring side to him.

Oh, and then there was the payment that left her stunned, too. You know what they used? A black card. A fucking black card. Not even she had any hope of getting one of those. She probably could have ordered the whole menu and not made a jot of difference in their mountains of money.

So now they beheld her like she was a feral, wild animal as they got ever closer to the Kings home–which she still knew nothing about or where it was. She was ravenously shoving nugget after nugget into her mouth, only stopping to take a few liberal sips of the large oasis she was hurriedly getting through. And you know what? She didn't even fucking care if she looked gross. She was starving and had already polished off two double cheeseburgers and a large fries.

"Feel better, cara?" Aro spoke up, an indulgent smile stretched across his face, his chin balanced in the palm of his hand and an elbow leaned on the arm rest while he observed her, allured by her every singular move. It was as if she were some ancient artifact he had been searching for, unearthed after years of yearning for it.

Swallowing her last mouthful, she breathed a contented sigh and blushed softly at the way they were all staring at her. Rubbing the back of her neck she coughed, no end to her awkwardness around them in sight and nodded. "Yes, thank you."

Marcus earmarked the page and tutted at her with a head tilt that had his hair spilling over his poised shoulder perfectly. He could have been in one of those cringy shampoo commercials. He looked that good. "You really should stop thanking us, Nari. You will only have the best from now on."

Trying not to sound too cocky like he had, she merely hummed while she shoved all her rubbish back into the classic brown bag. "Yeah well, I had the best before this, you know."

"Yes. Your apartment was quite luxurious. If you wouldn't mind me asking, how does someone of your age acquire such assets?" Aro asked this innocently enough but inside he was dying to discover more about her and here it was.

She had unknowingly opened the floodgates to his curiosity. If he couldn't touch her hand, he'd settle for a much more vocally aggressive form of interrogation to learn all he could. For once he was having to do things as his brothers would and he had to admit, he wasn't liking it.

Marcus put his book down, politely waiting for her to speak and Caius subtly leaned his head in her direction to indicate he was listening, but didn't tear his eyes from the window or the view beyond it. The busy city had eventually grown sparser and sparser and now they were traveling through the rustic beauty of the Italian countryside. She couldn't blame him for preferring to watch such natural splendor instead.

Was she okay with divulging her life to them in all of its gritty glory? They obviously wanted to know more about her and if she was to be stuck with them for the rest of her life, it couldn't hurt to let them in. It was all knowledge they'd learn eventually and now, a week, thirty years down the line–it didn't matter. No time like the present.

Pulling the soft gravel gray twill blanket closer around her curled up form, she rested her head on her hand and decided to stare at the immaculately clean carpeted floor rather than them to make it easier as she spoke.

"Circumstance is mainly what afforded me the opportunity to live so well."

"Circumstance?" Aro prodded when she hesitated. He wasn't trying to be pushy, he just thirsted to know all he could. Not touching her hands, not familiarizing himself with her mind and her life and who she really was, was proving to be more difficult than he could bear.

She nodded, throwing him a cursory glance before her eyes dropped back down and her fingers fiddled with a loose thread. "In the simplest of terms my, um...my parents were pretty well off. My dad was a marriage therapist, the best actually and he was paid well for it. Though my mom no longer had any need to work after meeting him, she'd been a pretty respected professional chef before becoming family oriented. As you can imagine money was no issue, but I never took that for granted, never let it make me spoiled or entitled. I knew there were people in much harsher situations than me and I never expected to be put in one myself but, things change. Inevitably. They...t–they died when I was sixteen."

The car filled with a thick atmosphere of that annoying sympathy she loathed so deeply. Not daring to look at them, she let them make the next move and picked incessantly at the thread. If she spoke now, her voice would fail her and wouldn't that be embarrassing?

"I am so sorry, Nari. That must have been very difficult at such a young age." Marcus's nerves showed when he placed his hand over hers to still her anxious tick and she let him, banishing his unsure doubt. He really did sound upset for her and peeking quickly at Caius and Aro through the dark shadow of her lashes, sympathy of varying degrees was reflected back to her from them too.

She shrugged a shoulder, allowing him to keep his hand on hers while she continued. It was strange, but his touch and the small caress of his thumb along the back of her hand felt like it was giving her strength, hardening her resolve to be able to talk about something she never, ever mentioned or spoke about. To anyone except her therapist.

"I was in the foster system for two years and luckily for me, when I turned eighteen I was able to inherit my fathers large fortunes. Not that I really cared about the money, about the awful but short years in care, about...anything. My family had been my life, all that I knew, all that I cared for and after they died I just gave up. Quit school and didn't finish. Didn't look after myself, didn't leave the apartment after I bought it, save for the few times I actually bothered to do some charity work or donate some money just to...try to feel. Everything passed me by and I-I couldn't...see the point anymore. If I had no one, why bother? Why try when no one was there to see me succeed, to be proud of me?"

Marcus felt her hand judder and simultaneously was sure his heart was breaking. He was familiar with such feelings, probably better than anyone else she could find who would understand such hopelessness. He remained a silent pillar of support. He didn't interrupt.

Caius, on the other hand, asked a difficult question that he felt no one else would and tried his damndest to be delicate about it. "How did they pass, carineria?"

Like some horrific slideshow, that night's events faltered through her mind. Her hand tightened into a fist, fingers clenched into the blanket and Marcus folded his firmly around it, hoping at least to make her feel better. They could sense her distress, her fear, her anger within themselves, absorbing it for their own as she relived the events and it was only his stability in the face of her grief that made her feel able to continue.

She didn't want to do it, didn't want to basically insert herself back there but it was out of her control now. She stared vacantly at her lap, her voice hollow. "It'd been one of the best days of my life. We'd been to visit a family friend, went out for dinner because my mom's 46th birthday was that weekend and dad wanted to do something special. It was simple, but dad worked a lot and I never really got to see him all that much so it all felt so perfect. Then night fell and it...it all changed, it all turned into a nightmare." Her throat cracked as she knew it would and each singular second of the downfall of her family played like a movie.

"We had just settled down in my parents room to watch a movie. It was what we called 'family night', you know? Pick a crappy horror or thriller or something and just dissect the crap out of it. W–we didn't even hear them, we didn't know they'd come in until they were suddenly in the room. They'd learnt the security code to our system, you see. They'd been watching. Waiting for the right moment." Her words were no better than a broken whisper, and Marcus switched his hand from holding hers to rub it along her back between her shoulder blades when her whole body was seized with trembles.

Aro's greed for knowledge of her life lessened at the quickly macabre de–escalation of events and Caius felt guilt for asking at all for his own selfish gain to pry into her life. She was completely unaware.

"There were three of them. All dressed in black from head to toe. They didn't bother to hide their faces and even at sixteen I knew what that meant. They never intended on letting any of us live to rat them out. They were so brutal and they enjoyed it all: our fear, our fighting back. Any reaction they would laugh and jeer and mock us. I remember, after it all, thinking I'd never seen evil like it–that I never would again. Um, they...started with my father." At this point she was crying. Sobbing in a posh car with ancient vampires who had kidnapped her but she'd never felt more at peace speaking about it. She'd never felt quite so heard as they respectfully let her vent and gave her silent support.

"They beat him because he tried his hardest to stop them. They did it so badly I couldn't even recognize him anymore, couldn't see the man who dedicated his life to helping others, the man who loved my mother and myself with everything he had until even his last breath. I don't know if that's what killed him or if it was the gunshot to the head, but either way I was...incensed. I went beyond the point of being afraid, I think and when they came for my mother I saw red and just went for it."

There was no struggle for Caius to swallow that bitter pill as reality. This was a sickening tale, even to three creatures who had done much worse to some. To hear she had fought back was only surprising because of how young she'd been. He knew her spirit, knew best of all of them how vivacious and brave and passionate she was. He truly admired her courage.

"For some reason I decided to try and take down the biggest one–a massive man even bigger than that Cullen guy, Emmett. He was bald, with biceps as thick as tree trunks and he was around 6'5 but...tiny, little old me managed to somehow tackle him to the ground. I think it was only the shock value that I had dared to try to live, to fight that let me take him down. Soon enough he took control."

Aro involuntarily released a garish snarl, his rare anger ignited at the mere thought of her being attacked, assaulted by some man when so young. Sixteen. Just a child.

Humans were vile, so greedy and disgusting. He killed, as did his brothers. That was a fact. He murdered and destroyed but it was for survival and for order and to subdugate chaos–to live in hardwon, lawful peace. Humans...they did what they wanted because they could and it repulsed him.

Nari didn't understand why, but she scooted herself closer to Marcus and he welcomed her tentative searching for serenity, his arm slipping completely around her shoulders in a side embrace. The only thing separating their bodies was the rest between the seats that dug into her ribs but failed to deter her. Emboldened by his acceptance and the comforting solace of home he lent to her, she carried on.

"My mother was like me. She tried...she really tried but it was an unfair fight. Two abnormally strong men against one woman? It was wrong and as they started beating her too, for information on valuable items if I remember, the man on top of me made me watch even as I screamed until my throat was raw and begged him not to. Sometimes at night...I–I still feel the bowie knife pressed to my face, the cold metal of his dog tags searing my doom into my cheek through the brief, cold touch."

She was fully submerged in the past and subconsciously lifted a finger to skim over a scar on her jaw they had only just noticed. It was faint and small, a withered silver in color that stood out on her slightly sunkissed skin. From the jaggedness of it, it was easy to tell that at the time of its infliction it had been deep. Marcus barely suppressed the snake–like hiss attempting to push past his lips. He tightened his hold on her with doubts she had even felt it at all.

"Obviously you can assume what they ended up doing. It had been hours by the time they were done torturing her and I only knew because the sun had started to rise when they decided to do what they had come to. The man on top of me had just kept me there the whole night and he..." She gulped, her throat bobbing, her spare hand rising to clasp around her throat as she fell short of breath. "He would s-strangle me if I made too much noise, if I fought too much and towards the end, he would do it just to see me turn purple trying to breathe." As she spoke of it then through panicked gasps that she managed to wrangle in and control, her mind imagined and inserted the feeling of his large, beefy fingers draining the air and the life from her.

Marcus had heard enough with that sickening knowledge, he wanted to tell her to stop. Yet, it was too late now. She was on a tangent and when he passed a sporadic glance at his brothers, they bore murderous glares and were clearly of the same mind that these perpotraters weren't going to get away with this like they had for years. Not on their watch. Especially not the man who had very specifically sought to near kill their mate for his own sick amusement.

No. Caius would have some very excruciating fun with that one, when the time came . Full body dismemberment while he was conscious would do. He'd make sure those vile hands that had defiled his mate would be the first to go.

"They just...left me there, surrounded by my dead family." Nari brought her sad tale to the beginnings of a weak close. "They didn't touch me, didn't hurt me more than they had in those hours. They took what they could and they ran. Maybe...they thought I was worthless, that I didn't matter enough to kill, I don't know. What I did know as I lay there inches from my fathers body with his cooling blood pooling around us and oozing into my pajamas, watching my mothers life fade from her eyes and her soul be snuffed out like the dying embers of a fire...was that I wasn't grateful to be alive–and I haven't been since."

The silence was stifling and somehow in its starkness, it was deafening. Her soft sobs had stopped but her tears still ran. A constant waterfall of grief. She had no intention of forcing herself to look at any of them, not even gentle Marcus who held her as close as he could to him in a protective embrace that she was unable to read too much into like she would have had she been mentally stable.

"You...would rather be dead?" Caius had trouble containing his disbelief. It sounded like a terrible ordeal, one he wished he could go back in time and save her from but, shouldn't she feel at least some faith or relief she was alive? It was miraculous and by the God's, he was certainly more than thankful she had lived.

Almost as if she was capable of picking up his thoughts, she laughed with no emotion. At all. "I can feel what you're thinking right now. That I should feel lucky, no?"

He nodded, confused and she scoffed, her eyes suddenly fierce as they captured his in a staring match of battling emotions, a lone tear spilling from her eye and tracking easily down the already wet trails on her skin. "Tell me then, would you be? If you had been forced to watch the only people you had ever had and ever loved killed? If you had to stay with their bodies for hours before the police finally came because you just couldn't move...had to smell the putrid odor of their blood, had to just close your eyes tightly to convince yourself if it was a dream when you knew the truth. When you were surrounded by it. If you had to spend the rest of your life stagnant and wondering why it wasn't you? Why it had happened? And why, in some part of your soul you would always wish they had killed you too?"

He was swept up in a hefty shroud of heavy, burdensome remorse, misery creeping over him. She watched him suffer and he could see in her eyes–windows to the deepest reaches of her soul–she believed death was the better option for her, even now.

"No." He besieged, the weight of his brothers stares and hers that was fierce with emotion making him aware of his mistake. As always, his mouth had run away from him and dropped him in it. Only now it had been at the worst time. "I would not feel lucky. I'd feel cursed. Eternally alone."

"Exactly." She breathed out and in that breath, her sadness, her tension, her fear left her because finally, here were three people who got it.

Were this any other situation, any other person, normally she would feel ashamed or embarrassed or just upset she had spoken about it. But it wasn't like that with them. There was this saccharine reassurance always with her since they had met, one that made her aware she could reveal anything and she would not be judged.

She just didn't understand these feelings she had. They were perverse, in a way. Wrong. These were men who had abducted her and while their reasons might have been honorable, it was still a horrendous act. She should hate them. Utterly despise them: the ground they walked on, the air they breathed...or didn't–anything to do with them. She should want to run. To clam up and be silent. Be guarded.

But she wasn't and it was bothersome. Exasperating. Instead in its place she found this necessity to be transparent, a demand from her very soul to bear all before them and she didn't want to fight it–or even have the strength to.

It was sick and she thought of the shame she should be experiencing for such weakness. As of right now, it was absent. She felt she needed them and it was easier not to question the 'what's' and 'why's.' She was sure to drive herself mad if she did. There were later times she could brood over this egregious turn her life had teetered down.

Marcus relinquished his embrace only to place two fingers under her chin, lifting her head so they could regard one another–one with despondent hesitancy, the other with the most genuine care any had afforded her for years.

"I am sorry you had to endure that Nari. Truly, I am. But I hope in time we may help you feel alive and happy once more. That we may help you realize you are not alone. That you have a home. You are here with us by no choice of yours but it does not have to be bad or unpleasant for anyone, least of all you. If you let us we will do all we can and all you desire to make you feel at peace...to make you feel you belong again." He said sweetly, taking the opportunity of her bewitched state to stroke his thumb against the scar on the right side of her quivering jaw that was close to chattering her teeth.

He let loose a deep grumble of displeasure at the resistance of the scar tissue under the damaged skin and Nari fought like hell within herself not to lean into the warm touch that should have been cold and close her eyes in honest content. "Despite what we seem, we are not monsters. Rest assured you will be treated with the utmost respect, kindness and care we can offer you from our entire coven. I only hope you will try to see just how different we are to the precepts you may have formed of us and how we are so unlike those men who only wanted to hurt you."

Her hand twitched and perhaps inspired by his doting words she had an urge to lift hers, to grasp his and place it on her cheek, to continue to feel the pleasant sparks and tingles of comfort he created in her. Aro dashed any of that and his devoted promises drew her gaze to lock with his while Marcus touched her with the care one would reserve for the most delicate of breakables.

"Marcus is right, cara. I understand you feel cheated and betrayed, lied to and confused but with us there will be no hardship, no pain, no coasting through life. You don't understand yet and you will not for some time, but there are reasons behind what we do and how we treat you. Simply indulge us instead of fighting this and you will find your place in the world as you so desperately seek it. You won't have to be lost anymore."

What was astonishing about these men was each time she looked into their hypnotic scarlet eyes, all was revealed to her. He was earnest, pleading almost for her to what? Let them dote on her? Pamper her? Care...for her?

Could she allow it even as she infuriatingly was left with no understanding as to why they wanted to go to such efforts for a nobody? A silly little mortal woman who'd opened a can of worms that she couldn't shut by befriending a snake that had slithered its way into her peaceful garden and corrupted its false tranquility?

All she had known for years was heartache and solitude. He was asking a lot of someone who knew nothing of the meaning of family or friendship anymore. Or of how to trust–especially so blindly. He was expecting much from her by revealing there were secrets as to why they wanted to treat her so well, secrets they were adamant not to share to let her remain cast from the truthful light in the shadow of underlying deceit.

Could she let it go and roll with the punches? The fact he was promising her the chance to feel wanted...it made her think back to Alice, her voice echoing through her head so clearly the angelic woman could have taken Caius's place, relaxed in the seat in front of her.

'I've done you a service. You'll see that, you'll see eventually how good this is. Still, I am sorry.'

Maybe the doublecrossing pixie had been onto something in spite of her transgression.

Her precognition was a gift as much as it was a curse. She had seen Nari's future and this moment was pivotal. Nari could feel it, the spectral sight of Alice watching her with trepidation from the past.

If she made the wrong choice there was a high chance that what Alice had seen benefiting her would change. Her apology implied it wasn't going to be easy for Nari, but then again what had ever been for her?

The more she thought about it the more she realized her life probably won't be that much different with them than it was in Portland. It didn't matter where she was, who she was with, she'd still be depressed and anxious and a shut in her parents would have loathed. The only difference with these three would be freedom.

Or lack thereof.

Was it better to lead that lonely but idle life in a city that contained nothing but bad memories and ghosts from her past? Where she would inevitably amount to nothing and was falling down a rabbit hole of despair she just couldn't shake day after passing day.

Or was it better to be surrounded by people who were promising with all they had, for motives still unrevealed, to treat her the way she had ached for and wanted so torturously for years? To listen to a cryptic woman who had uprooted that miserable life of hers in self satisfying efforts to try and better it? It would be more sheltered, more controlled but...would it all be so bad? Under the care they were promising, she might actually start to live.

Yet, really what was better or worse was purely speculation and conjecture. Which was the more beneficial choice for her, how was she supposed to see that for certain? But, it was those feelings she couldn't explain for the three men; the ones she knew were imminently going to drive her crazy in the future that made her choose.

She had all that was important to her. Here. Now. There was nothing left for her in this world besides Mim.

This situation was wrong, polluted by the desire for survival of the ones who had orchestrated this but she thought...what did she have to lose? If it went wrong here and someone snapped or she fucked up, she was dead. If it went wrong back in Portland like it had been starting to, she'd have been dead within the next few years thanks to her chronic depression...by her own hand.

Nari had never even expected to make it to twenty three. Her path was too empty. Too devoid of anything: no people to love, no parents, no siblings, no friends. She had struggled to imagine such a life, one so alone as hers, lasting very long. This little bump in the road that had ended up with her in the grasp of vampire royalty, in the grand scheme of things, changed nothing.

The sad truth of her existence was...no. There was nothing for her to lose if she agreed. Not anymore.

She took in a deep breath that solidified her new reality and with apprehension, she nodded at him. "I can't promise I'm going to be one hundred percent on board and alright. I appreciate your sentiment and your empathy but this is all new to me. It will take me time to adjust, to grow used to being surrounded by creatures I thought were fiction but...I can try to be happy and I can try to let you convince me my life isn't over. I only wish it hadn't happened this way, with so much fear and confusion."

"As do we, carineria, but there is still time for us all. To turn this around and show you that nightmares we do not wish for can become the most beautiful of dreams that you never aspire to wake from. You just need to be willing to try."

Jesus christ. Caius had sounded so poetic and accidentally ruining the moment, she gaped at him in slight admiration and blurted, "Damn dude. Is that Shakespeare?"

Vulnerability suitably wiped clean, Caius ran with the opportunity to change the subject to save her from further turmoil and was as biting as ever.

Rolling his now guarded eyes, the wall back in place that sealed off the gentle part of his personality, he scoffed. "No, you illiterate moron. It was purely my own genius."

Fucking hell did this guy love himself.

"Wonderful, Caius. As if we needed another dose of your unbending admiration for yourself." Marcus complained with heavy sarcasm to rebut for Nari who didn't come to her own defense, and the two naturally fell into a contest of insults like true brothers.

Snuggling under the blanket she'd pulled to her chin, much more at peace even when having unloaded and relived such scarring trauma, she noticed Aro remaining quiet. He was...watching her. A ponderous look full of secrets. She eyed him in return and found herself oddly contented...as if they were communicating in their minds through the intense eye contact full of emotions trying to suck her in and drown her. She answered his silent question she could not recall how she knew with a mouthed 'I'm okay now.'

That, as well as the fun spoiling knock on the divider, was enough to convince him of her mind now calming and with an aggressive huff most out of character for him he flung it open and stormed a trenchant "What?" through clenched teeth, downcast at having their little staring contest interrupted.

Felix was virtually sweating metaphorical bullets and told the car at large, "Forgive the intrusion, Masters. Mistress. We have arrived."

Nari's intrigue was peaked and oblivious to even her own knowledge, she elected to not pick up on the way he had called her 'mistress.'

Finally, she would get to see the Volturi's home and with the enthusiasm of a child at the zoo, she plastered her face so closely to the window her nose was squashed against the glass that fogged up from her breath.

Aro giggled at her jittery exuberance, glad to have someone almost as odd as him as his soulmate. The fun they were bound to have once she knew of and accepted their bond. He couldn't wait.

What greeted her eager inspection and sparkling eyes was...breathtaking. Absolutely stunning. Italy encapsulated entirely.

The little mountaintop city they approached and were quickly entering through a worn and aged, arched gate was made up of Etruscan inspired houses of yellow panchina brick she recalled her father had been a fan of; he had many sculptures and benches in their gardens crafted from the authentic stone. He had been a lover of ancient art and architecture and had the Volturi brothers seen her home's gardens, she was sure they'd have been hit with endless nostalgia for times lost.

The houses of this mysterious city were all closely knit and varying in sizes so the town resembled a homely little puzzle, everything slotting together. They were sticking to the back streets, a smart move considering the blaring sun blocked by their blacked out windows and the vast crowds of locals and tourists alike she could see through the sloping alleys, milling around.

"Gorgeous..." She hummed out unthinkingly, yet the three men were besotted with her adoration for their home.

Soon enough, they were driving through a throng of people, into an open plaza. In the center stood tall and proud was a pale stone fountain, and in front of it in all of its looming grandeur was a...clock tower? A castle? She didn't know, but they pulled up into a dark alley to the side of it to hide from prying eyes, their Cadillac gaining fearful and recognized scrutinizes of dread from the locals littered throughout the plaza as they passed and disappeared from sight.

Hang on...was this...

She shuffled in her seat to question them all with dubious doubt, feeling the car grind to an elegant and smooth halt next to what she could just make out was a mystical, in appearance, towering and carved oak door, a man cloaked in the same but minutely less regal black cloak as the other Volturi guards waiting to open it for them.

Her shock was ostensible and each man blustered with righteous smugness.

"Is this your h...." She found the word 'house' impossible to be spoken for its lack of justice to the building they had parked next to, the words stopping themselves in her shock from leaving her agape mouth.

Caius grinned, the most genuine and wonderfilled she'd seen on him yet and Nari swore, as it beamed at her in all of its glory, she went blind. His words were matched in their uncharacteristic joy, settling a sense of true belonging in her soul.

"Welcome home, Nari."

✿✿✿

𝑨/𝑵
𝐒𝐨....𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐠𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐰𝐚𝐢𝐭, 𝐦𝐲 𝐝𝐮𝐝𝐞𝐬! 𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐤𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐫 𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐰𝐚𝐯𝐞, 𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐨𝐦𝐧𝐢𝐚 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐚 𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐝𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐨𝐩𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐚𝐧𝐞𝐦𝐢𝐚 (𝒊𝒓𝒐𝒏 𝒅𝒆𝒇𝒊𝒄𝒊𝒆𝒏𝒄𝒚, 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒕𝒉𝒐𝒔𝒆 𝒘𝒉𝒐 𝒅𝒐𝒏'𝒕 𝒌𝒏𝒐𝒘) 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐨𝐟𝐟𝐢𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐥𝐞𝐟𝐭 𝐦𝐞 𝐜𝐥𝐨𝐬𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐛𝐚𝐬𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐢𝐧𝐜𝐚𝐩𝐚𝐜𝐢𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐝, 𝐬𝐨 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐦𝐲 𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐬 𝐢𝐭'𝐬 𝐭𝐚𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐦𝐞 𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐠𝐞𝐭 𝐞𝐦' 𝐨𝐮𝐭. 𝐖𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐈'𝐦 𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐝 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐨𝐧 𝐚 𝐬𝐞𝐭 𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐜𝐫𝐢𝐩𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐨𝐟 𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐟𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞𝐭𝐬 𝐢𝐭'𝐥𝐥 𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐠𝐨 𝐛𝐚𝐜𝐤 𝐭𝐨 𝐚 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐡𝐞𝐬𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐬𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐝𝐮𝐥𝐞, 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐦𝐢𝐬𝐞😉 𝐔𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐥 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐧, 𝐢𝐭'𝐬 𝐠𝐨𝐧𝐧𝐚 𝐛𝐞 𝐬𝐡𝐚𝐤𝐲 𝐟𝐨𝐥𝐤𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐢𝐭 𝐚𝐥𝐬𝐨 𝐦𝐞𝐚𝐧𝐬 𝐈 𝐜𝐚𝐧'𝐭 𝐛𝐞 𝐟𝐮𝐜𝐤𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐬𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐞, 𝐬𝐨 𝐈'𝐦 𝐚𝐟𝐫𝐚𝐢𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭𝐬 𝐮𝐩 𝐭𝐨 𝐲𝐨𝐮. 𝐀𝐩𝐨𝐥𝐨𝐠𝐢𝐞𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐡𝐨𝐩𝐞 𝐲𝐚 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞𝐝! 𝐗