ARO HAD ALMOST GIVEN UP HIS CROWN YEARS AGO. It was Sulpicia who convinced him to continue on. He didn't care much for her after everything she's done, but she was the one who made sure he kept the job.

Though, had he known what would happen this year, he may have just searched for River himself. Without the nature of their open castle, would what happened, happened? Aro knew the answer was no. Everything would have been normal or at the very least normal in the ways that a vampire can be normal.

Aro had enough to deal with. He had to be responsible for every single local inquiry of the day. Two members of a coven that had fractured only a decade prior were fighting over three Facebook profiles, two of which allegedly alluded to the nature of their condition. Aro wanted to scream.

The room was drearier than he was used to. Aro wondered if he could, with respect to his sanity, walk out of there.

"Your grace, this is not enough to warrant a real punishment," the red haired vampire pleaded, "There is a community of humans who pretend to be us. That is all the account is for."

How was this what his life had thrown his way. He preferred the snake oil craze of the 1800s to... this.

"Is this account how you earn your immortal living?" Aro wondered if he could throw him a million dollars just to stop this nonsense. "Do humans really find this appealing?"

Being forced to stare at the shirtless, practically nude vampire had all but made him lose his mind.

"Y-Yes my lord, I earn a sizable income from my business. Both male and female humans purchase time to message me. They also purchase custom images," the man prattled on.

Though, Aro had to admit this was no more exposure than the vampires in centuries past who made their living and hunting off of having sex with humans. These posts and messages were no more exposure than what those Denali women used to do before they decided to be saintly like Carlisle. Would he approve of this? No, it wouldn't, it would upset his Anglican sensibilities.

Suddenly, his former covenmate hurled, "Two people from my office have contacted me about you!"

"It's not my fault you still have me friended! Maya and I's business has nothing to do with our oath to our kings," the other rebutted as he pointed a stern finger at his accuser, "This is a horrible waste of King Aro's time."

Aro could never speak his true feelings on his agreement. If the police had not contacted either of them and it was clearly a ruse to siphon money from lusty humans, it was none of his business. The Volturi had no real control over business ventures such as these. By their laws, this form of prostitution wasn't illegal. Many female vampires used this ruse to make sure they'd have a meal and coin for secure travel.

He shook his head. He'd seen the thoughts, seen the things that were done. Whatever, his mind had been ruined by the time his soul-brother married his sister.

"Have the police spoken to you, for the record?" Aro asked, sinking further into his golden throne.

"Never," the redhead answered while furiously shaking his head.

"Your mate?" Aro's voice dragged on, "Are there any signs hat show anyone could be following you outside of your profile?"

"No to both."

The accusing party shook his head and stomped his foot on the ground, seething with rage. He spat, "He wears fake teeth and a cape! He tells them directly that he is a vampire. There is no attempt at keeping it hidden."

Humans are curious and intelligent. They are also imaginative. Aro understood this well, which is why he condemned Carlisle for allowing Isabella Swan to know their secret. Her father was a sheriff, the kind of sheriff who would investigate if anything ever happened to his daughter. They'd stayed in the town, people believed that something was off with them. This man catered to people who had a fantasy. It would stay that way.

Aro had a fantasy of getting out of there.

Where was his mate, who in her infinite devotion to menial paperwork tasks, managed to contain wisdom better suited for a scholar than a secretary? She could have put her soft hand on his shoulder, whispered to him that she'd file this motion for him and to meet him by the gardens.

What a lovely thought.

"Are you not worried that they will attack him over this, if they find out he is really a vampire?" Aro was pulled out of his thoughts with the harsh question. "That they'll seek to expose us? Ruin us?"

"Half these people are lonely and have a fetish, I doubt anyone would hope to bring this to the police. The second law enforcement look at these two profiles, they're going to realize it's a fetish and wave it off," Aro dismissed his concerns with a wave of his hand. "No feeding on these victims, no killing your clients. That is what would be dangerous for us. We may not live in the century that kills vampires by burning, but anything too close could be a problem. None of the people at your workplace actually believe he is a vampire, they think he's a weirdo."

Carlisle would surely be calling him a hypocrite over this stance. The internet is such a new thing, he would say, you can't control things on there like you do in Italy. Well, he could at least allow his people to make some money giving humans what they want? He'd offered vampire protection in the past, made sure that they'd be safe in Volterra. The people never asked questions about their red eyes. Now that contacts exist, Aro supposed that didn't matter much. They could be labeled a bunch of weirdos, better than the reality that humans saw them as monsters.

The Volturi decide the rules. Who in the Hell is going to believe that an internet stranger is really a vampire?

---

CAIUS HAD BEEN RESEARCHING EVERYTHING HE COULD ABOUT ANDREI AND WHERE HE MAY BE. The man was crafty. He didn't have any documents that his connections could find and worm through. He was a ghost, a phantom that haunted them and Caius hated that he didn't have any control over the situation.

With Aro in the Throne Room handling all of the cases that aren't going to trial, everything had been handed down to Caius and Marcus, who both wanted to gather as much as they could in order to solve the mystery of Andrei.

All they had to go off of was a face unseen by Aro due to Chrissy's resistance, three women who'd escaped, a confusing religiously motivated letter by Andrei to Carlisle, and the faulty memories of Alec.

They were screwed, is what Caius wanted to say to everyone. Without Aro, there was little anyone could do to identify who this man really is. The fact of the matter remains that they were just as well off as when they started the search. Nobody wanted to bother Wren with this information due to her fragile mental health (and Caius also was uncomfortable with talking to the girl who looked exactly like his mate) and her continued connection to the Cullen Coven.

How much of a mess were those people still in? Caius had heard of the divorce, but what else?

He didn't have time to be into the drama, but everyone knew Caius had his ear against any wall he could in every century prior.

Caius had been the bull-headed one for the past three thousand years. Always jumping to eradicate some great evil. First it had been the Children of the Moon, then the growing escapades of Immortal Children, then vampires who thought it was a good idea to take humans as slaves and use them for their enjoyment. Perhaps it was because he knew he was a killer and could never escape that, or maybe having a focus kept him away from the worry of being useless away.

It didn't help that his people saw him as the one to come to whenever the going got tough. He was their battle strategist, the one who studied enough of vampire history to understand what worked and what didn't. Now he was at a loss. They'd never worked against a force they couldn't predict. A force hellbent on doing whatever it wanted despite all reason pointing against doing so. If he'd thought Bella Swan and her curious father was a threat, Andrei was a fucking nuclear weapon.

You can't fight what you can't see.

Andrei had to be sniffed out. There had to be someone other than the Swan girl who could perhaps block his power. All vampires have something that will lure them out. Marcus had been willing to leave to die to protect them. Aro had almost gotten himself killed trying to get Didyme back. Caius worried that River was the one person, the only one in the whole world, he would kill himself over. Fuck his self-preservation and strategy, he wanted her. Every day and night, she was the one.

Why did Andrei want this woman so badly?

What could compel a vampire into sheer madness over a woman who isn't their mate? Two women, maybe more if what Aro said about the house was true.

The nature of the letter had already been shared, so he supposed he could issue a worldwide request for information on Andrei. Though, in recent times, when they had to do this, they at least sent out a sketch of the person, most often drawn by Aro. They had no drawing, only a name, one common enough to be shared with a large percentage of the human population. Caius was lost on how they could best get him killed. That was the end goal, Andrei had to die so they would be safe.

Caius sighed and looked at the desk of information he'd gathered. There wasn't nearly enough to figure the mystery out. Not on their own. The three of them had already decided they wouldn't involve their mate or Wren in this. Chrissy, despite her reconnection with River, was off the table.

He was running in circles.

Maybe that's what he wanted.

---

I'D BEEN FRONT AND CENTER FOR THE PLANS REGARDING OUR BALL.

The dress had been decided and being a vampire, I could handle the final adjustments months in advance. I wasn't too concerned with that. The handwritten letters addressed to many Covens that only had mailing addresses rather than emails (which, to be fair, haven't been popular for more than 2 decades) and thus had to have 'fancy' invites. I'm piss poor at calligraphy, go figure, but my cursive is alright.

A hundred invites had been sent this way at this time. How many of them would come? Who knows, most of them have jobs. According to Aro, only a few vampires had really managed to track the stock market. Half of them were too old in their ways to give it a shot, rather believing that hoarding money they would have spent on food to be their best option.

To be fair, everyone was rich, so something worked.

Marcus held onto the hope that this would bring people together. Most of the Wolves had declined an invite due to various graduations, but Billy Black had decided that he would come as a representative for his community along with his sister and nephew. His nephew was an actual shifter, with Billy being in poorer health. He was an elder, respected within his tribe, and has a maintained friendship with Charlie Swan.

His son imprinted on Chrissy.

Jacob Black. Chrissy, in her sort of endless messages, told me all about him. How she didn't realize that people could take it slow with her and that he never yells. I was happy for her, truly, and having her father-in-law at the event would also help. I can only hope that she's put in a good word for me.

Now, I hated writing the Cullen's invites.

Seeing each of their names listed in the roster was bad enough, but the fact remained that Bella was not on it. If you're not an official member, you can't get invited to any events or make claims against another member of the vampire community. This mostly works in the favor of accounting for all vampires existing and remaining in control of the people who would go off and destroy secrecy, but it creates a lot of paperwork. Paperwork that I'm only now even close to finishing.

Nobody had filed a single one of these papers for the past two decades. What a mess.

Bella hadn't even been filed, I'd checked plenty of times. No paperwork regarding wanting to turn her, let alone having turned her. So, she was still human and running around. What a mess.

Now her supposed lover and his family would have to come to this event to save face. Everyone had heard about the issues that arose when they last came because Afton can't seem to keep his mouth shut. What a mess.

It's not the worst mess I've had to clean up. That goes to the sheer mess that was and still is Chrissy and I. Nobody tells you when you get kidnapped and released that your ex-girlfriend being your best friend is going to cause problems once you become a vampire. Someone has to write that down in a book somewhere, for the sake of clarity.

Once all of the letters had been written, I had to come to the conclusion that whatever happens when the Cullens come, I will deal with it. Aro hasn't been in the right headspace for dealing with Carlisle's endless defense of his more... annoying family members. Caius has no bandwidth for handling anyone other than me. Marcus will be too depressed and anxious looking at the bonds to be put on the spot. So, somehow, it comes down to me to put my foot down on antics.

They'll try to keep me shielded from it. That I know. They all work together to distract me whenever these topics get brought up.

It's not like most of the Volturi is known for their ability to handle bullshit and push it under the rug. Luna is fully capable of getting into a screaming match with Afton, what's stopping her from fighting Edward when he laments that his barely legal blood singer isn't allowed at the ball?

My only hope is that they don't respond yes. Chrissy has fed me enough info through Rosalie (because Alice continually blocks me on Rose's phone, go figure) to know that their family is in crisis. Mostly because of Alice and Edward. I don't want them to come.

I don't want any of them near me right now.

---

Lord it has been a long time y'all but guess what! This is on the road to being finished! Send a Rose is one of the books set to be completely finished by March. You'll be getting updates in the mean time.