HUNDREDS OF MESSAGES LATER, ARO WAS BEGINNING TO QUESTION HOW MUCH MANPOWER WOULD BE NEEDED TO KIDNAP CARLISLE FROM WHEREVER HE WAS IN AMERICA.

Surely he was there. For the last few hundred years, Carlisle had called America his home. From the time of expansion to the current day, the vegetarian Coven Master found solace in the blossoming young nation. Aro had never seen the appeal. Born from puritans who wanted the freedom to practice their extreme religion in peace, Aro had realized over the past century that he didn't want to be there. A nation so large with so many different groups of people were bound to be divided.

It was one of the many issues that came with having Covens over there. He couldn't get to them quick enough and with the way things are structured, they had to be safe. A single redneck with a gun could scare a Coven away from an area. The cities were safe.

Why Carlisle ever wanted to be in a small town Aro didn't know. Whenever he'd brought up the issues, he was brushed off as just not being open minded enough. His mind was open. Aro saw the perspective of everyone and he still thought Carlisle was wrong. His former lover never saw anything in a different lens but rather wanted to agree to disagree while still preaching his beliefs. No matter how kind the man was, many in his Coven found it infuriating. Edward was rude about his beliefs, the only difference between the two. Gods, he had been blind before to it but everyone in that damn Coven had something wrong with them.

Jasper had been stifled for years, the anxiety and bloodlust of his former Covenmates driving him to near madness. Aro had felt it when he'd joined the Volturi and he would never wish that curse on anyone. Everyone knew that Rosalie's opinions were sidelined and she was unable to properly socialize while in the Coven due to them often living away from the major cities. Emmett was never built for a vegetarian diet and always felt a bit lethargic. Growing madness was creating a disturbance in Alice, though her time in the asylum may be what was wrong with her in the first place and therefore Aro felt a bit bad for her.

Every single member with a gift or a desire for a social life was suffering under Carlisle's leadership. None of them deserve the mess that is the Cullen Coven.

Aro preferred to stay out of leadership matters. Unless someone was being outright abusive to their Coven members, Aro usually stood back and allowed things to sort themselves out. People left if they wanted to and he would update the record to say such. It was far too difficult to tell everyone what to do with their own Covens beyond some basic rules. Don't turn children, don't fuck humans, clean up your messes. That was all the mothering they needed.

None of those rules had been followed. In theory Edward was... an adult. Seventeen years old is not an adult. I don't know what he was thinking, Aro thought to himself as he sat down on the damn hiking chair he'd brought to the outpost. Who turns a seventeen year old and then lets them make major Coven decisions?

When he thought about it more, most of the Cullens were quite young. Esme was the oldest, Edward the youngest. Rosalie was only eighteen, Emmett twenty.

Carlisle was twenty three. Twenty three.

Vampires stay the age they are turned at. Aro was young when he turned obviously, but most of the Coven was turned in their mid twenties to early thirties. All of the guards Aro personally turned had been scouted at twenty six for peak physical ability with good decision making skills. Their loyalty couldn't be turned on a dime. The exceptions were obvious. Jane and Alec had no choice. They'd have died if he didn't do something. He was waiting for them to become adults before they were turned but came upon them being fucking burned at the stake. He supposed it was similar for Rosalie, but the only scouting Carlisle did there was to see that she was pretty and may be good with Edward.

He hadn't done right by his Coven and frankly, Aro was sick of making excuses for his poor leadership. His friendship had clouded his judgement for centuries and too many lives were at stake because of that.

Drastic measures had to be taken now.

"Jane, dear?" Aro turned around to see the little vampire playing a game on her phone.

"Yes?" She did not turn away from the game.

"Can you tell your brother to meet me at the gate in twenty minutes?"

His daughter always did take her time for fun and games. He supposed it didn't matter as long as she did what she was told when she'd told to do it. Another problem with having a prepubescent vampire. They don't take much seriously and the things they take seriously.... Aro couldn't understand. What is the seriousness of keeping a streak in a video game? Jane knows and Aro will never figure it out.

"Let me text him."

Gods.

---

ARO HAD BEEN TRACKING CARLISLE WITH ALEC TO LITTLE AVAIL.

Eventually they'd bitten the bullet and forced Demetri to come on a little adventure with the two of them. The tracker had preferred his previous post, but Aro had reminded him that if Aro wanted to take away his Coven leadership, he'd have to come to Volterra for a private trial. River and Marcus were already down there, so they had the official three leaders required to remove his status as Coven Master.

Because fuck Caius, he can stay and fight while Aro finished this once and for all.

They'd found themselves in Mississippi first due to the proximity to the ocean, but Demetri immediately began to suspect that both Esme and Carlisle were nowhere near there. Hours of searching the South had left them exhausted and without many leads as to where exactly they were supposed to go.

"You'd better start pointing us in the right direction," Alec insisted as he pointed at the vast amount of land. "All we have here are cows."

"It's fucking Wyoming, Alec, what do you expect?" Demetri snapped with a short groan. "I haven't seen Carlisle recently. This is harder if I haven't seen someone in a while."

They'd get nowhere if not for Demetri. As much as human depictions indicate a good sense of smell, it's not as refined as Aro wished it was. He could smell everything and everyone, vampire, human, and animal, but he couldn't exactly pinpoint a single thing unless he focused on a heartbeat. That only worked if it had a heartbeat.

Vampires were slippery as Hell and could evade capture for years if they did things correctly. Stay in the mountains or deep into the inner parts of the city where there were so many heartbeats and scents that a single vampire's scent was completely drowned out by everything else. Now that things are cleaner this is different, but with the introduction of pollutants there is a new layer of difficulty in their tracking of the undead.

Aro himself hadn't gone out to track for around a thousand years. He wasn't in practice at all, rather turning to Demetri or Alec who had refined their noses or who had powers that aided in finding a target.

He would have to spend more time on actually retaining the skills that made him a good ruler. Kings couldn't only be wise. They needed strength within themselves. Vampires who can't be tracked by their leader are less likely to follow the laws, as seen with Andrei. Though with Carlisle, Aro is sure that half of his reluctance to be found is from shame. It was always shame that controlled that man. Shame of eating humans, shame to be in a Coven where they eat humans, shame in acknowledging that his son may have been doing something wrong. All of his permissive rule was because of his internal shame.

There should be no shame in ruling. In order to rule properly, he had to know when to step in and how hard to push. If he allowed his vampires to run wild, they'd be fucking extinct. Freedom only exists in a perfect world and their world was anything but.

Yet in Wyoming, there was no sign of any vampires. No sign of many humans either. Just a sense of peace amongst all of the damn smelly but calm cows.

"We aren't getting anywhere here," Aro admitted as he paced under the tree they were sheltering under. The last thing they needed was a rancher snapping a picture of shiny alien people near their cows. "Where else could Carlisle and Esme go?"

What place would have animals for them to eat and had enough cover? Nowhere that wasn't already populated or at least filled with camera happy tourists. They aren't stupid enough to head to any of the National Parks.

"Do we have any idea about the Canadian and Alaskan Covens?" Demetri posed. "I know most of them have already relocated to France but do we have any idea about the Denali Coven? They're the only people I can see sheltering Carlisle and Esme."

"They're vegetarians," Alec reminded them, "and already have a food source."

Thousands of miles of land belonged to the Denali Coven, who preferred to be in the wilderness. They only went into society when they required new furniture or clothing. That wasn't often. They also didn't interact much with the other Covens, who really just... don't interact much with the vegetarians. It was sad, but an ideological split was beginning to overtake them all. To eat humans or to eat endangered animals.

How much land would they have to search for that house? They'd taken down their old house around a hundred years ago and while they were supposed to update to a new address in the system, they'd let it go purely because it would have had to be coordinate points and Aro did not want to mess with them at the time. He trusted Tanya enough to know that she would put it in at some point or when they decided on a permanent place within their allocated lands.

Too many of his allies were taking advantage of the leeway he'd given them. It was supposed to be a gesture of mercy and good faith but had clearly been used for duplicitous reasons the second the need arrived. Aro never would have taken advantage of this, but that was always the case, wasn't it? He didn't want to game the system and rebel in silly and petty ways, so he didn't need to be deceitful and treasonous.

Aro didn't want to think about it anymore. It pissed him the hell off.

"We'll traverse the wilds of Alaska for the Denali Coven," Aro decided after standing up. "The second you find a whiff of Carlisle or Esme, do not allow them to flee. Demetri, stay with Alec so you can better work together."

He wouldn't be made to look like a fool again.