HOW MANY DAMN TIMES DID ARO HAVE TO REMIND THE RECRUITS TO CALL HIM FIRST?

Not their buddies (idiots), not Caius (who was, thank the Gods, far away from these fools), Marcus (bless his poor brother), or River (most sympathies).

This could have been a dangerous situation that ended in death, yet half of the recruits were looking at him like he was the scary one. Why did he even agree to allow recruits at the Romanian border? What did they do to help the situation given they have no damn experience looking out for other vampires. They couldn't track an undead mouse, let alone a fully grown, nearly four thousand year old vampire.

The police in this area are often looking for bribes and they didn't need to alert locals to their presence in their territory. Most of them were highly superstitious and frankly Stefan and Vlad are not that good at disposing their bodies. The vampire legend had formulated in Romania for a damn good reason and that reason was that fucking idiot-

I have to calm down, Aro thought as he paced around the camp. He had to come back after dropping Carlisle off and having a quick chat about his status as Coven Master. The world keeps on spinning, as the humans would say. Horrible situation all around since Caius had sent the recruits that needed more supervision over to the Romanian border. Aro was sure that the only reason Caius decided that they would be more useful over there was because he didn't want to deal with their incompetent asses. He couldn't blame him as much as they pissed him the hell off.

"How many humans are in the village?" Aro asked as he looked down at the portable computer he brought with him. Checking the emails was far more important than whatever this little recruit was going to tell him.

"Only a few hundred, my King," the younger vampire admitted. "We have sent someone into the village to make sure that everything is alright."

"The invisible one?"

"Yes, my King."

"No more moving if you're visible, alright?" Aro tried to give his sweetest voice, but it just came off as passive aggressive.

"Yes, my King."

The recruit left with haste, much to the thankfulness of Aro Volturi. Too much time was spent giving basic directions to vampires who should be used to living amongst the living. Should they not already know not to go straight into a Romanian village when everyone can see you? Aro certainly wouldn't do that himself, so why were these little vampires doing it? Clearly some of them were so young that they'd never been to an open forum and seen all of the harassment Stefan and Caius threw at each other. They are not their allies with anyone. Chairs get thrown in a peaceful setting. Vampires are territorial. They'd get decapitated so fast and guess what? Aro would have to clean up that mess because he's in charge.

No wonder Caius pawned these ones off. Aro swore if he could get a headache he'd be incapacitated by their blissful idiocy. They just wanted to be good and do the right thing but Gods, it is hard leading blind people when they continue to go off track every five hours.

They had moved from their original outpost to a place right up against the border. They should have done this last week, but with all of the drama around rotations and then grabbing Carlisle, Aro was quite off track from the goal. This was by far the worst part of being in a war. Waiting for something to happen can drive a person mad with desire for things they don't really want. Action destroys the mind and soul, but boredom makes you do and say crazy things. Bored soldiers get in trouble, they do horrible things to one another. Morale eventually goes down because when a group can live forever, they tend to desire the high life.

Who was Aro kidding? He hadn't led a war in over a thousand years. Beyond the Volturi, these vampires had been given a taste of what freedom from destruction felt like. Human culture didn't touch them. They roamed around in a bubble. Peeked through windows to see what groups of humans were fighting over this time.

Now Aro was fighting a man over a girl he'd already won over by being... himself.

That part felt good.

War did not.

Maybe he could whip himself back up into shape again. Become the king he used to be. More like Caius, who everyone feared even though the man did not specialize in combat. Then again, his brother often beat him in combat millennia ago.

Aro was the sounding board for proper facilitation, a man who could be trusted with the laws and how to govern. Marcus had originally been the tiebreaker, but had grown into more of a friendly face for their allies who were put off by Aro's personality. Caius had always been and would always be abrasive, cunning, and iron-fisted.

They had to compliment each other. That was the whole point. Aro felt stupid for trying to compare himself to his brothers. Without his care for diplomacy there would have been plenty of uprisings and the Volturi never would have made it. There had to be strength in what he was already rather than what was needed of him right now.

Vampires are not flexible creatures. That much had been made clear this year. Caius was off butchering the hearts of soldiers while Aro waited here, waited for some command or lead to follow. Carlisle had been a dead end, so now he was using whatever person had the best spying power as a resource. What a boring day, boring time, in the middle of a war. They'd won over all of their allies. He'd made sure there were no traitors. Poor Marcus must be bored to tears looking for a lone vampire near Volterra. Aro's cunning moves around diplomacy over the years had secured them the best possible position for a war.

Yet he was still here.

Why was it taking so long?

"Who is that?"

Aro whipped his head around, scanning the village that they were desperately trying to get past. If only these damn Romanians in the rural parts weren't so anti-vampire, he might have been able to charm his way through the area. They fucking knew what they were. Vlad and Stefan had totally soured them against vampires with their pillaging. Post-Christianity, it was all over for them.

"That better not be who I think it is," Aro muttered under his breath with quite a bit of wonder. How many years had it been since he'd seen that dumb looking face? That fucking face that he wanted to bash in not just on principle but because Aro couldn't-

He watched in horror as Stefan, his longtime enemy, rushed through the village with a car on his tail. How had they not heard the screech of the siren sooner? The flashing of the lights was bad enough.

"You've got to be kidding me."

He was at a loss. Stefan, the man who he couldn't get a hold of for the life of him, was gaining speed as he rushed away from the cars. Why the hell he didn't just run away with his vampire speed was beyond him, but Aro prayed that he wasn't coming to them for help. That would be pitiful and strange. Pitiful and strange didn't even cover what Aro had in mind. He knew Stefan would never let him touch him, but he was desperate to know what was going on inside that stupid little pea sized brain of his.

For one, why the hell were cars after him in the first place? Second, he could evade this situation easily. Third, where the hell was Vlad? Those two travelled together to make sure that Aro wasn't spying on them. For over a thousand years, lots of travel together. Why now? Why during this war when they were extra vulnerable?

"I don't like the look of those police cars," Alec admitted from their side. "They could have cameras, and we're here illegally."

"I will destroy the cameras if needed," Aro assured him. He'd burn the whole town down and blame it on a gas leak if he had to. Whether he liked him or not, Stefan was a vampire, and his capture could have devastating consequences for their species as a whole if he decided to snitch or allowed himself to be experimented upon. "We need to get him out of there."

"I don't know if Sarah can hear us from here." Alec put his hands on his hips, which looked strange considering his youthful appearance, and shook his head. "I can try and get closer to put everyone to sleep, but we're going to have to check everywhere for cameras to destroy the footage."

Stefan really was blundering with these police cars, barely evading capture with normal speeds. Aro deduced at that point that there had to be cameras involved because no vampire would want to be so greatly humiliated otherwise. He dashed from one place to another, throwing trash cans and bottles at the cars behind him in an attempt to make them swerve into buildings.

"He's never living this one down," Alec admitted with a childish laugh. "Keep the footage just for us, won't you?"

"Tempting, but we have bigger problems right now, boy." Aro looked down and realized that another cop car had pulled up and was attempting to corner Stefan. Surely, they had bullets in the guns they carry, and Stefan's bulletproof skin would create questions for the locals who had started looking out from their homes at the man. "I'm getting him out of there. Kill the officers if need be, knock out the full town."

"The whole town?"

"The whole damn town, Alec," the king demanded as he began running down the hill full speed, hoping only that he could get Stefan away from those cop cars fast enough that they'd be so confused and stunned that his boy could take them all out without much fuss. This wasn't that large of a village, surely they'd be able to swoop Stefan up and then get him to higher ground.

Unfortunately, Stefan's scent had been hidden with the local smell of cattle and sheep. Disgusting and a good way to disguise oneself when pretending to be a part of the population. Oh, I am a simple farmer, Stefan had probably said before this stupid chase, do me no harm. Pathetic, smart, and truly Stefan.

Stefan's scream had alerted him to where he had run to, the back of a tavern, where he'd ignited a small molotov cocktail to thrown towards the cops. In his idiocy, he had nearly thrown it directly at Aro, who screamed a few obscenities before throwing the vampire over his shoulder and running off into the hills with him. He was not forgiving him for almost throwing an explosive device right on him, especially since he was sure he sensed Aro's presence in the village beforehand.

Alec had done well on his king's command and completely put to sleep the whole population of the village, including the cops, who had gotten out of their vehicles to inspect where the explosion had come from and to try and put out the flames. Thankfully, Aro could see from the distance Alec grabbing buckets of water to make sure the village didn't burn entirely to the ground. The shop was likely lost, but whatever, Aro couldn't have accounted for that damn device when he got in there.

He threw Stefan down onto the ground with a large thud the second they reached the small campsite.

"What the fuck, Aro!?" Stefan shouted as he gained his mobility back.

"Fuck you, Stefan!" The king exclaimed as he pointed an accusing finger into the man's chest. "Why the fuck are the cops after you? WHAT DID YOU DO?"

"IT WASN'T THAT SERIOUS!" Stefan insisted as he pointed at the village down below. "THEY WANTED TO TAKE ALL OF MY MONEY AND I SAID NO!"

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN 'THEY WANTED TO TAKE ALL OF MY MONEY'?" Aro grabbed the raggedy collar of the man and shook him, "YOU RISKED EXPOSURE OVER SOME FUCKING MONEY? IN THE MIDDLE OF A WAR?"

"WHO SAID THERE WAS A WAR? WE ARE NOT AT WAR!"

Aro dropped him, gave him the sourest look he'd ever given, and nearly slapped him on the spot.

"We are not at war with you, Stefan," he tried to explain, his expression slowly turning sickly sweet, "We are at war with a man who kidnapped and tried to forcibly impregnate my mate as a human and who is now trying to take my throne. HOW DID YOU NOT KNOW ABOUT THIS?"

"I've been off-the-grid," Stefan finally admitted, "The feds are onto me, Aro! CIA and FBI have been in Romania trying to tie back some of my feedings to a group of sex traffickers but you know I don't fuck with them like that and now they're trying to get me for the tax evasion and the wire fraud and the chemicals to dispose of the bodies and the artifacts they think I stole but we all know that they're really mine and... You know all of the illegal things that vampires do and get away with because we're vampires!"

Aro was infinitely more appreciative of his mate in that moment. The mate that gave him strength, the mate that did his taxes that year, who kept everything above board. Who made sure that the FBI and CIA didn't come knocking at their door. Whatever would they do without people who make sure bad things don't happen to the vampires?

He felt like he was losing his mind.

"I've warned you plenty of times to do your taxes," Aro's face turned back to sour as he lectured, "First in 987, then in 1348, then in 1890, then in 1945. You said it wouldn't be a problem, that I was controlling your money and how to use it. Your oh-so-controlling King now has to clean up your mess in the middle of a war he's fighting with a maniac. I don't even like you."

People did not listen to him. Not vampires like Stefan, who liked to think that they knew better than others. Vampires like Edward, who are self-righteous and rude. Yet here he was, having to clean up all of these messes while knowing that Stefan will still hate him afterwards when frankly, Aro wished he'd say something decent about him for once. Aro, you do well fixing these issues for your people. Maybe even a Thank you for solving this problem for me. Rather, he was left with people like Stefan, Vlad, and Edward, who got themselves into trouble all the time yet claimed that Aro was controlling when he tried to make sure others didn't make the same mistakes. Was that controlling? Or was it proper leadership?

He needed to calm down again.

These people would bring upon their own demise, he just prayed that they wouldn't bring him down with them.

"How many tapes do they have of you and Vlad?"

"None, we broke apart four months ago to make sure that they didn't hear us say anything. I burned their station completely," Stefan began to explain, "but when I was over there, Aro, I saw a man. He said he wanted me to join his Coven but I swear, I've never seen that guy before and I booked it. He followed me for two miles in the city. He left when the cops showed up but I was so distracted by his stupid fucking speech that I had to pretend to be human all the way to this village."

"You didn't know about the war," Aro repeated that part of Stefan's story and rolled his eyes. "We have all of the water guarded. No ships, no running. Andrei shouldn't be able to get in."

He went by fucking plane.

---

I HATED ALL OF THE WAYS THAT THE CASTLE WAS BEGINNING TO CHANGE. It wasn't the first time that I'd watched the blinds go up, the velvet burning to the touch from the force of the sun. No windows could be open and the castle seemingly went dark. No human would have been able to traverse the hallways, but I was no human. My eyes were perfectly attuned to this environment.

Watching all of the guards go through their routines with blank expressions was breaking me. I'd heard that plenty of vampires had been put in Romania because Caius couldn't handle them. While it wasn't exactly surprising, it was disappointing for a leader to say that they expected nothing and still ended up utterly disappointed. How many recruits had cried in the gardens during the change in rotations? Too many. Too damn many.

Things were not calm, despite the odd peace that had befallen our castle. Vampires lingered in any corner, desperate to protect not only their leaders but the relics that laid under their domain. Three thousand years of old books, statues, prized jewels thought to be lost to time. The Volturi would never be poor, even if theoretically they'd lost all their normal income streams. Marcus loved those books the most. Some of them were written histories by him about the old wars, the old travels, and his human life. I didn't want to pry on the last one, knowing that particular book was well-hidden for his own reasons.

The sun had gone down for the night, leading to more restlessness. If anyone were to come here, it would be at night, but the news was clear from my place in the office. Nobody else was being relocated and all guards were in their correct positions.

My mind was elsewhere.

It's been a week since Carlisle came and six days since he left. He'd begged for mercy for him and his mate, promised that he would join the Denali Coven and leave his leadership behind. For some reason, I can't stop thinking about it. The look on his face as he pleaded, begged for that second chance as if I'd have the heart to hurt him. The Volturi don't give second chances, but Carlisle hadn't actually done anything wrong. He'd done what he could for Edward and Bella, taken the proper steps despite his son's mishandling of his feelings, and in the end it was him being put through the ringer.

I couldn't look away from him. Even now, in the office, I keep on thinking he's still in there. I still wonder what's happening to Bella, the human girl who has barely lived any damn life yet managed to get herself involved with something dark and distasteful. Being pregnant, having Andrei near her in that state, was a horrifying thought.

Once upon a time I'd met a man who said he'd do anything for me. I loved him and wanted him to love me too. Maybe that was why I ended up trapped. I didn't know much about Bella's family, but surely there had to have been something there. Something that made her vulnerable to that kind of love. It isn't love at all. It hurts in places that don't make sense yet everything gets brushed away by a few words. Every hit was justified, every word explained away, and nothing made sense in the end.

Not thinking about it was impossible. Bella seemed to be trapped in a way I understood. Completely on her own, without any family or friends not tied back to Edward.

I wonder if she'd be willing to leave.

That's what it came down to. I left because I had to, my life was in danger. Chrissy gave me the strength to get up and get out, no fucks whether or not we were on the street or in a shelter. It was by chance that we managed to find Carlisle, that he took us in without hesitation. That he believed us.

He didn't know Andrei at all. Allegedly, he'd been turned by him, but he didn't remember that night at all, and even if he had, he had been done wrong by him. That was the fucking problem. Edward was a part of that family for years. There had to have been signs of his behavior being poor, or at least getting worse when Bella was brought into the fray. Rosalie didn't like their relationship but he had made her out to be jealous and vindictive.

"Ah, you're still in here."

My head shot up from where I was ruminating to see Marcus, my only real companion still left in the castle. I'd neglected him for sure, and I really hated myself for it. After everything that I'd put people through, the most I could do was a little nod here and there, short conversation that didn't have much meaning. I felt the distance through our bond, the one that I didn't feel so clearly defined when I was human. Things were a bit easier back then, when the three of them were just trying to woo me over without sharing the secret that they were vampires.

"I'm sorry I haven't been out today."

"What have you been doing in here?" Marcus came up to sit down at the oddly placed chair at the left side of my desk. "I don't suppose there is much to do for you, dear."

No, no there wasn't. Nothing to do yet I'd been holed up in here trying to make arrangements for Father Marco, who still wanted a meeting with Aro despite the knowledge that he was off in another country managing a war effort. Attempting to pay for the funeral expenses of a girl who had been killed without the Vatican getting too suspicious of the death and payment for her siblings, for whom I knew now there were three, that outlived her and needed college expenses paid for.

"It's tedious," I half-lied. It was better to say that than to admit that all of it was getting to me bit by bit, day by day, and there was no end in sight. "What have you been working on with the guards?"

"Just the usual trainings, none of the gifted ones are here, just the strongest and some faster ones," Marcus admitted with a heaving sigh, leaning back awkwardly. "What would I have to do to get you out of this room?"

Before I could respond I heard the alarms all go off at once. 

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So sorry for the late upload, this literally took forever to edit. I had to merge what was going to be two shorter chapters together to get this.