THE AMOUNT OF TIME AND MONEY IT TAKES TO MOVE AN ENTIRE COVEN CANNOT BE UNDERSTATED. I was going over the records, finding the accounts that could be drained a bit in order to flush money to our allies so they could move and help us, and doing what I had to do. Turns out my boyfriends did add me to the accounts so that I could be the one to do it. Marcus was now completely regulated to my previous secretarial work. I can't do both and he seemed to understand.

I had another meeting in less than ten minutes with the Korean Coven. They weren't able to get their jobs to let them move to Italy, so Aro was pulling every string he could in order to get people in where they needed to be. Nobody had remote work, turns out half of them were working in meteorology, and I wondered just how they were doing that job when sun could expose them.

Na-rae Ha is the Coven Master for the South Korean Coven she was well-respected and a hard worker or so Aro and Caius said. She wasn't the kind of woman you wanted to be on the bad side of and she ran her Coven better than most.

It made sense that she needed money, but she had issues with who she could bring along. Her new daughter, Min-seo, was only turned five months ago and therefore needed to be under supervision in order to make sure she kept the secret safe. She was an orphan, had no money of her own after a car accident, but she had a few human friends who would raise alarms if she left the country with her new vampire family. Someone had to either 'take care' of any friends who said anything about her disappearance and risk social media exposure, or keep her there until she'd alienated any friends she had left in South Korea.

I might have been in the same position had I not been taken in by vampires and had my best friend not bonded to Shifters. It was only by luck that I was one, alive, and two, not a complete exposure risk.

Min-seo and I had talked on the phone before Na-rae got to Italy. She was apologizing over and over again for her friends being an issue and I had to tell her over and over again that it was good she had good friends and that the complication was not a fault of her own but rather circumstance. I don't think she really got it but I hope she doesn't put this on herself for much longer. Eternity seems like a long time to feel bad about something you can't control.

When I heard the knock at the door, I felt my anxiety spike.

"Come in," I beckoned before seeing the face pop through the door, "It's good to see you, Na-rae."

She gave a small nod before sitting down in one of the chairs in front of my desk. Her hair was long, the kind of black-blue that only a vampire could possess, and put up into a messy bun. Her clothes were worth a lot and I suspected were what she also wore to work. Everything about her was perfect and she was clearly turned in her prime.

"Yes, it is good to see you too, your grace," she responded with when she was more comfortable in her seat. "I am worried about how we will get my daughter to Italy under the circumstances. My sons and my husband will have no trouble joining your armies. If she goes under the guise of work, it will be more believable, but her friends are very troublesome and may contact your people personally. They already believe we are a cult and that her mate is bad for her."

"And you have tried speaking with them?" I led with. Maybe if some communication could happen, things could be put to rest. Maybe that was just wishful thinking, though. Humans are too curious and that was how I got into the situation I did.

Na-rae nodded. "They do not listen well to us. Two of them have tried to call the police on her mate. We have done everything to show them they are happy. They post on social media all the time. Photos of dates even when they can't eat the food. We all wear contacts everywhere, especially her. They say she has lost too much weight. This is not true, she was always thin, but immortality makes it look different. More elegant."

It had done the same to me. Places in my face where fat once was had left and joined new places. It was like I'd gotten sculpted into a new person. It was jarring at first, but couldn't that just be blamed on something else? Who was I kidding, it probably was. People who knew something was wrong would stop at nothing to get to the bottom of it, no matter what they might find. That's the whole reason why Aro is so insistent on someone turning Bella. Nobody wants to deal with the consequences of Charlie Swan checking out the people who have gone missing and the Shifters who were now shadier than ever in Forks.

"Continue with the social media posts," I recommended, "and bring your daughter here on a private jet under the assumption that this is not moving, but rather a vacation. Make lots of posts to social media about it. You can even play with the idea that she meets some new people in Italy and later wants to move closer to them. We can work later getting some more jobs for you, some may pay higher. I know Venice is in need of some meteorologists and we need some people watching the area."

Tourists could also go missing there without much issue. Have someone pick up a creepy guy for Min-seo to eat. Plenty of them in those big cities. We had been getting some of those able to come down here because Americans don't believe anything in Italy is too far away if they can get up to disgusting things.

The rest of the family were salary people working somewhat menial jobs because Na-rae required them to work or go to school and getting into universities in South Korea is much harder when you're over the age of 200. Perhaps this could be a chance for them to get their education in another country and build up their resume.

"My mate and I do not have the education required to get the jobs now," Na-rae admitted, "It was only possible before because Aro bribed the hiring manager to hire our family."

Ah, yes, that was where a lot of money from the Volturi went. We made people give us jobs because... they do need jobs. Easier to get people jobs than to fully financially support the whole community. That was one of the perks of being allies with us, they had access to our money and influence. Marcus was well known in the church who were well known with literally everyone.

"Perhaps you and your husband can get jobs from Aro and your children can work on furthering their education," I finally suggested the idea. "In Italy it is much easier for us to get your information transferred and forged. We have more control and people here than anywhere else. They can go to the university here and it will transfer to a job either in South Korea or elsewhere if anything happens over there."

They also had the chance to broaden their horizons, something most vampires had trouble doing unless they had access to the visa farm that is Aro Volturi.

Being an ally of ours had not meant war for so long. It was likely that our allies thought they'd just... never have to do this. To be fair, even after Athenodora attacked me, I thought we wouldn't have to go to war.

Now they have to change everything because of this man.

---

SO FAR, INTEGRATION HAS BEEN A SUCCESS. All of my meetings with various Coven Masters had ended well. Most are able to make a complete transition over to Italy or at least Europe. The few who couldn't were much larger Covens and were mainly businessmen who travel so often that they would never be able to stay in one country for too long. That was easy to understand, so they just sent their best fighters and strategists and moved on.

It was better to have everyone close together. Even if it made hunting way more difficult, at least they could coordinate who they were eating and when in order to know what sort of diversions we had to create to make it work.

Now I had to meet with Caius to discuss everything else that had to do with his plans for these people. As much as I was making the schedules, he was the one who had to train them. I have no skills in battle. I was a lab assistant, an intern.

Caius was well into his books when I showed up in his office. Despite being on time, he was busy, so I gave him a moment to look up. He didn't smile and if he were human I'm sure he'd have bags under his eyes. When was the last time he took a break?

"So far we have multiple countries covered," Caius explained as he began pushing, "We are almost covered coast to coast, even in the Nordic countries. No body of water will be left untouched. So far we have been unable to find a passport from him, so it will be impossible for him to travel internationally unless he begins forging his documents well enough that they left him in."

Legally, he doesn't exist, which works to our advantage if he were to come over. Easy to get into detention, then Aro can notify the church, who would pull strings to get him to us. That doesn't mean he couldn't escape on the way over. Caius knows that.

"What are you doing to prepare the younger ones?" I asked. "More than half of the people we have so far have never seen war. Or battle."

"I have reason to believe that he won't get many full grown vampires on his side," Caius admits as he lets out a sigh. "We are popular enough that few aged vampires would go towards him. I am worried about the Cullens who do not like us, but with the risk of death it would be stupid for them to join. No, it would be easiest for him to turn more people like Victoria did in Seattle."

Newborn Army. I saw the vision right there in my mind. They are hard to control, though, and he loved that aspect of being a leader. Being in control was more important than anything else. He got off on the power, on the ability to be your whole world. That's what made him so intoxicating and suffocating.

"We have to prepare for traitors." There's no way that someone won't be seduced by his honeyed words. He can be convincing when he wants to be. "Those who are lost will find themselves gravitated towards him."

"Then they will find themselves lost in Hell," Caius muttered as he brought out a piece of paper. "I have plans for those on the Volterran coast. We need enough guards who have seen battle. I have a list here for you to work with so each cohort has at least one person who have seen battle. I know you already made the schedules, but things are changing. I need you safe here."

I sighed. More work. Always more work. Do I ever get to stop working? No, no I don't. I think if you have three boyfriends you never stop toiling for whatever price you have to pay to get that.

"It won't take more than a day," I admit despite knowing I'll be rushing things a bit. I still have to go over the way things work around here with the people who got inside in the morning. "I'll give it to you when it's finished."

"Perfect."