MY HEAD BURNED WITH EMBERS THAT COULD SURELY KILL ME IF THEY WERE EXTERNAL AND TRUE.

That didn't stop me from staying in with Caius, who was happily snuggling with me, groaning at the growing pain in his temple. He couldn't bother getting up but still changed position plenty of times, rolling over on me.

No complaints came from him, he knew that he was responsible for what he'd done, what neck he'd fed from during the night. The sun was still down when he sighed, slowing his movements down and deciding that the best place to nurse his hangover was on my chest, nose close to my bare breasts.

Caius mumbled something incoherent as I gripped the edge of a pillow, forcing it towards me. My head throbbed and in that moment, the only relief I would get is by having at least one pillow under my head.

Not that it worked, I was never that lucky.

The remembrance of my unlucky nature came forth as the door to Caius' room was swung open. Despite my horrible growing hangover, I rushed to cover myself in the silky green sheets, not wanting one of my new Covenmates to see me topless. None of us were that close yet.

It wasn't one of the Guards who had opened the door to ruin my boyfriend and I's evening together, though, it had been Marcus.

Tall, long-haired, well-mannered Marcus had walked into the room with the angriest look I'd ever seen on him.

"What the fuck!" He was near to yelling, staying in the doorframe to scold his brother. "So that was how you did it, brother?"

The blonde vampire groaned at the noise, grabbing at his head and trying to cover his ears, Marcus' upset too loud for his sensitive ears. His brother must not have liked that, letting out a fuming sigh as he walked towards Caius.

"Did what?" Caius eventually asked, so confused and trying to stop the hangover that came from drinking from such an intoxicated woman. "I didn't do anything you fucking cow."

I didn't know what to do, what to think. What did Marcus think happened? Did he think that we had sex while drunk and stumbling, leaving him to rot? We didn't go the full way, and Marcus was not my date to this event. I wanted to spend more time with Caius, his brother had given me so much attention that I needed to bond with another.

"What kind of person fucks their mate when she's drunk?" Marcus asked, tapping his foot against the ground, holding back bitter words. "Too in love with her body that you couldn't resist for just one night?"

Oh God, it wasn't like that. Through my pain I remembered how it happened, how Caius begged for it, how we promised we wouldn't fuck while drunk.

"It wasn't fucking," I whispered, knowing that my voice would make my pain much worse then it had to be. I grabbed around, feeling exhausted and fuzzy. I wished vampires couldn't feel like this, so human from just a taste of alcohol ridden blood.

"River," Marcus softened his voice when speaking with me, "Aro will be upset that you started doing this with Caius when he comes back. Damn the party, he will take all of this as an attempt to exclude him."

That made me mad. Through the headache I felt a pang of pent up rage, a feeling I tried to push away every time it came back up. My one chance at being in control of my actions, of the way I behaved and my sexual desires.

"He let me do whatever the Hell I wanted to do to him," I seethed, accidentally grabbing Caius' waist in my attempt at getting a good angle while not flashing Marcus. "My choices, my night, my date. You're projecting and I fucking hate it. Get. Out."

Hands white against the furniture, Marcus scoffed at me.

"You have some audacity," I said between a pained groan and a sigh, "coming here and being so jealous."

"I'm not-"

I cut him off angrily, raising my voice despite not wanting or meaning to, "Caius is naked, I'm topless." I pointed to Caius, who was trying to get up, failing to keep any blankets over himself as he wriggled away from my body. "Don't get it twisted, I fucked him, not the other way around. Got on top and made myself finish so perfectly that everyone knew. You came in here because you wanted me and didn't have the strength to come in here and ask nicely like he did."

My offending boyfriend was left speechless at my blunt reaction to his ruining of a nice almost-morning. I knew what guys like Marcus did when they were mad, he was projecting to the moon.

He wasn't going to get away with this again.

Treating me with respect was a must, and Caius had done that, but not him. He was the last out of the three that I'd expect it from, but jealousy is a hard drug, and it makes you act out. No matter how lovely a person is, envy can consume you.

But God, I hated being angry with him.

Caius was the one to stand up and quickly close the door. I prayed nobody had walked past his room, seen him naked and fighting with Marcus. Hearing was one thing, but I had shame left in me and a pang of protectiveness to not want them around here.

"We can discuss this later," Caius said with a sigh, grabbing a pair of boxers from his drawer and putting them on. When he was done he walked over to where his brother stood. "Get out of my room."

End of discussion.

---

ARO'S TIME IN FORKS HAD BEEN AWKWARD AND SLIGHTLY DISTURBING.

Carlisle's boy, Edward, the one who wanted to die- he had been preaching to his brothers and sisters more often about God and Christ, something Aro did not believe in. He had decided years back when Carlisle brought up the Bible that he was born a pagan and would die one, damn what anyone else thought.

This, however, was not the only uncomfortable situation he'd been put into. On more than one occasion he'd been asked about Wren and Jasper, if they had met and if he'd received any updates.

He hadn't.

That was weird, but he truly didn't want to bother his 'girlfriend' with these things. He'd received a text from his blonde soul-brother that explained how their dynamic would work, dictated by River herself. Sure, this would take getting used to, but Aro had prided himself on being an adaptable man willing to take on any real challenge that faced him, social or otherwise.

But for the love of his pride, why did he have to use modern terms?

Ridiculous.

Marcus had called once while he and Esme were discussing ancient artifacts, but he'd declined the call. Shortly thereafter he'd put his phone away, knowing that they'd message Carlisle if anything utterly tragic happened at home or abroad.

What perturbed Aro was not the whispers between Alice and Edward, but by the constant stare of Isabella Swan. The old king knew he himself often had a look about him, one that even in his youth scared people away, but Isabella's face was one of revulsion.

"Bella, are you planning on eating your dinner?" Esme asked, pointing at the barely touched plate of pasta on the bar.

"Uh.... no." She shied away from the plate of food, staring at me the whole time.

"You have no reason to fear me, Isabella," Aro tried to reason with her, knowing that the stare was indeed from a personal fear of him turning her into dinner. "Your blood is not appealing to me."

This was the wrong thing to say, clearly, as Isabella quickly fled up the stairs of the house and into Edward's room, telling him that Aro had told her that her blood wasn't appealing to him.

Quite fed up with the dramatics, Aro sighed, hands on his cheeks as if he were a child, perched up and ready to complain.

Esme also sighed, for obviously different reasons. Aro did believe that with the stress of the incoming attack and Carlisle's inability to properly satiate the Coven's worries, Esme was left to do most of the emotional labor in the family. Jasper was off in Volterra, happily visiting with River, Aro hoped, but that meant that Esme felt quite alone in this house.

"I do not see how this is my fault," Aro admitted as he stood up, deciding that complaining thoroughly was not worth the time.

The younger vampire held the dish in her hand as she spoke, "She is only a teenager, she sees things differently."

Aro couldn't read her mind, see her memories that could help him understand her better, so he couldn't know how she saw things. This in and of itself was infuriating, since the minds of others... that was how he lead properly. To have a member of a Coven (or future member, Edward had not yet turned Isabella, which was slowly becoming more and more illegal) who was unknowable in such a way... it had never happened before.

"How does she see things?" Aro inquired.

"In black and white. The vampires who drink human blood hunt after her for revenge, the vampires who care about her drink from animals." Esme shook her head. "I wish she'd open up her mind a bit."

"Oh?" Aro responded with.

Esme was not a woman who ever spoke poorly about anyone. Her family, she'd defend them until her death. Edward was her son, she'd acted as his mother for so long. Isabella is to be her daughter-in-law.

"Yes, I should admit it now rather than later." Esme put the dish down before coming back to face Aro. "You are not a bad person."

He knew she thought well of him. Her mate had spent many years as his friends, a few as his lover, there were no issues between them. Aro had spent lavishly on their wedding many years ago. Their relationship as king/vampire had been going well.

The bumps in that road came with her son, Edward, and his desire to die for his... lover? It was best to call them lovers, Aro thought, that would do the least harm.

"I hope you do not blame me for St. Marcus Day," he said it so quietly that nobody but her could hear it.

"I don't," she whispered back. The king was glad to hear it, the news meaning that the relationship between him and her was not beyond repair.

Esme looked down on the ground, walking a bit closer.

"Aro," Esme started with, scanning the room and presumably the house for people. Once she'd confirmed nobody was downstairs she confessed something to him that both delighted and scared him:

"Jasper wants to leave."

Leaving a Coven was uncommon, rare. The people you live with as a vampire decides your place in the odd vampire hierarchy that exists. Your mate stays with you, if you decide to leave. Friendships that last hundreds of years die when one leaves a Coven, purely because of the nature of vampires. Your Coven is your life, and while making friends with people outside your Coven is encouraged, seeing others is rare.

Once every decade, perhaps, friends will meet up from across the globe. In modern times, this happens more often. Planes make friendships across borders available. Yet, the nature of a vampire is to stick to the status quo. Stay in your Coven, play your games with your Coven. Have visitors, but you are the closest of all.

When Carlisle left, Aro wrote him letters once a month, but sometimes did not receive responses for over half a year. That was the way of even a close bond. Emmett and Rosalie have friends in his Coven, but they do not communicate regularly.

Vampires are solitary outside of their dens. It was that way three thousand years ago, it is today. The hunt is taken together, the blood spills within a Coven, granting them eternal life.

One doesn't leave their den on a whim.

Esme was afraid, Aro knew it by the look in her eye. This was more than a mere confession, but a deep cry for help.

"Where does he want to go? Or has he simply expressed wanting to leave?" Aro asked, making sure to remain close to the Coven Master's wife for comfort and secrecy.

"To Volterra." Esme held her head in her hands. "Edward and Alice have not made River's transformation easy for him. I think he's grown tired of arguing with the two of them."

"They are not mates." She nodded her head just as Aro let out a sigh. "The bonds are breaking down between them?"

"I believe so, but I can't see them." No, only Marcus could see that, and he was taking care of things back home.

Esme had tears in her eyes as she whispered, "He sent Emmett a text."

Oh, so he had communicated with at least one of his Coven members. Aro was pleased to hear that.

"What was the contents of it?"

"I must paraphrase, as I'd rather not use such foul language as he did." Aro nodded, letting her speak, "He said that he was sick of the cruel things said about River, about Caius and Marcus, and that he did not want to come back to Forks."

So, it's was a real threat of leaving for Jasper. He'd floated around for years in his youth, having been manipulated by that terrible woman with the Newborn Army. The name of her was lost on Aro at the moment, but now it seemed to click within him.

"You have been moving a lot."

"I know." She was so sad to admit it out loud. "He needs something stable, and this isn't that right now."

"He was to help with the army?" Jasper was not one to back out of his promises, but if pushed too far, Aro couldn't blame him if he had decided that staying in Volterra was better than coming back to the mess that was Forks right now.

"Carlisle... he isn't really listening to me about them." Alice put her face back into her hands and tried not to raise her voice. She was hurting and Aro hated to see her like this. "I have tried to get Alice to stop, she won't. Carlisle isn't here when she says things."

"Does he question your credibility?" That would be a horrible thing, if it were the case. "Carlisle is an honest man."

"He is very forgiving and empathetic." Esme held her head up and carefully grabbed Aro's hands. "Do not see, but do understand: I love my family, but something is breaking us apart. I can't bare to lose Jasper, he's my sweet boy. Rosalie is my darling girl and Emmett, what a wonderful young man."

She made no mention of Alice, Isabella, or Edward, despite her acting as their mother.

Aro wouldn't say what he wanted to say. Bitter thoughts crossed his mind, of how he honestly felt. The resentment towards them for disobeying him, the annoyance from their constant snark about almost anything he did.

He was their king, yet they treated him like he were some joke.

Petulant children, the three of them.

"I will have someone speak with Jasper," Aro said, knowing that it was a promise he would keep.

"I fear this has gone too far," Esme doubted.

Aro knew it had, but he was there to mend the broken people this would leave in its wake.