Thank you Tattered_Ghost, for beta reading this chapter!
TW: mentions of backstory involving slavery.

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Chapter 30 - Nightmares

Castiel was leaning over the bathroom sink, her right hand resting against the marble countertop as she took a deep breath in through her nose and out through her mouth for the dozenth time.

She was pale, her eyes wild and startled when she looked up at her reflection in the mirror.

Her hair was sticking to her neck, and the straps to her sling felt almost abrasive because of how they caused the damp fabric of her shirt to rub her too-warm skin.

"You okay Castiel?" Afton's voice made her jump, and when she turned to face him standing in the doorway to the bathroom she could see the concern on his face.

That wasn't the only thing in his expression she noticed. She could tell by the set of his mouth that there was a stubborn edge to his feelings right now.

She knew exactly why he was looking at her like that.

"I'm fine Afton." She lied, "J-Just needed to use the bathroom and realized I forgot to brush my teeth."

Afton's frown deepened. "You're sweaty Castiel and you look like you've had the daylights scared out of you."

"I just slept with too many blankets."

"Castiel-,"

"Afton, I'm fine," She cut him off. "Seriously. I'm all good. I'll go back to bed in a minute."

The disapproval was clear as day on her friendliest guard's face, but he turned to leave without another word, and she was alone in the bathroom again.

She grabbed her toothbrush, ready to needlessly brush her teeth again to keep up with her lie when movement in the corner of her eye drew her attention back to the bathroom door.

It was Kemar, and he looked like he was one hundred percent prepared for a verbal throwdown.

Afton had clearly called in the reinforcements.

"I'm f-,"

"Don't spew your bullshit at me Castiel." Kemar snapped, cutting her off before she could get another word out, "You're covered in sweat and look like you've just seen a ghost. Don't treat Afton and I like fools. "

"I just slept-,"

"You fell asleep with a single blanket, and it's not the warmest in Marcus's quarters right now. We both know you've had the nightmare again." Kemar snapped, folding his arms across his chest.

She felt herself tense at his words, and an emotion she recognized right away went across Kemar's face before he tamed his expression.

At least he had the common decency to know that acting smug about being right was not the play right now.

Every single night for the last five - now six - nights she'd woken up after only a few hours of sleep to the same vivid nightmare. She'd wake up out of breath and sweaty, quickly scanning the space around her for a threat that wasn't there.

The last two nights she'd found herself reaching out blindly in the dark - searching for someone she knew would bring her comfort.

But she was still sore about the whole incident with her father and Marcus. She hadn't spoken to either of them since that day she yelled at them in the training room.

Her resolve to continue to give them both the cold shoulder until she was good and ready to let it go was wavering though. Marcus took her silence graciously enough; he was counting his blessings with the fact she still slept in his bed every night and hadn't moved back to the rooms she'd originally been given when she was first brought to the castle. Every morning before he left for trials he'd walk up behind her, rest his hand on her good shoulder, and kiss the top of her head in farewell.

He never once forgot to tell her he loved her very much.

At first, she'd remained stiff, her expression stubborn and resolved to ignore him no matter what, but in the last 48 hours that had changed.

It was a subtle change, but Marcus noticed she was just a little less tense with him, and that previous morning she'd started to turn her head as if she were planning to look up at him before she caught herself.

He'd really hurt her trust by keeping the truth from her, and he knew it was absolutely her right to be mad at him as long as she saw fit.

It was good she was still human though - he distinctly remembered the last time Sulpicia and Aro had a nasty row his sister hadn't spoken to his brother in nearly seven weeks - and he was sure that no matter how angry Castiel might be with him that she wouldn't be able to hold a grudge that long.

He was steadily growing more and more concerned with each passing day though. Ever since that first night she'd ripped himself and her father a new one, he'd get a sudden spike of anxiety and fear from their bond that was so jarring and potent that it caused him to still reflexively every time as he braced himself against the emotion.

It always happened randomly after a long period of inactivity from her side of the bond - a telltale sign she was having a nightmare.

It was getting a little worse every night it happened.

Castiel let out a sharp exhale from her nose, clearly frustrated. "Don't lecture me over my nightmares. You know the last thing I want is a replay every night of being trapped between Bal's body and a wall before he..."

She trailed off, taking another deep breath and looking away from him, back at her own stubborn expression in the mirror.

Even she couldn't deny that the fear in her eyes was obvious.

"Marcus is getting concerned. We both know you'd feel better if you just talked to him."

"Well maybe if you didn't text him every time any little thing happens with me-," She began before Kemar interrupted her.

"I don't have to text him!" Kemar very nearly growled the words, "He contacts me first every time. Maybe you've forgotten because you've been giving him the silent treatment, but he can still read your emotions. He knows every time you have a nightmare."

She didn't respond, her teeth clicking together as she gritted her teeth and glared at him.

"These nightmares probably wouldn't be happening at all if you just spent more time with your mate." Kemar's eyes were hard, his tone terse as they stared one another down. "Subconscious reassurance that you have someone who loves you and will do everything he can to protect you is exactly what the mate bond needs - especially when you're feeling threatened by another vampire."

"I'm not threatened and I'm not scared of him-,"

"Your subconscious doesn't care about logic Castiel." Kemar did growl this time. "It only cares about what happened to you. We know you aren't afraid of Bal. We've seen how strong you were the very first time you saw him after your fever. It doesn't change that suppressing your emotions caused you to have a trigger that - when finally tripped - made you drop and your body react to a past threat. It's not him you're afraid of, it's the memory of the pain and harm one of our kind caused you. Stop needlessly defending yourself. We all understand."

Silence reigned in the bathroom, and when it became clear she wasn't going to speak Kemar threw his hands up in frustration.

"This has to stop. These nightmares are only going to get worse, and the chances you'll have an episode when Bal comes back for his favor only get higher the longer you avoid the one person who brings you the most comfort." Kemar pointed out the bathroom door toward Marcus's rooms as a whole. "Go get changed. We're going to see Master Marcus."

"You're not going to make me go crawling into his lap when he doesn't think I'm worthy enough to be told the truth!" Castiel snarled at him. "I can deal with the nightmares. You aren't going to dictate my feelings and just tell me to get over it whenever it suits you."

"Stop being dramatic!" Kemar laughed once, but there was no humor in it. "Go get dressed."

"No."

His eyes flashed, and she knew he had half a mind to drag her over to her closet himself.

Afton appeared a few feet behind his shoulder, and it was the sound of him adjusting his weight that reminded Kemar that he and Castiel weren't alone.

His decision to drag Castiel from the bathroom and to the throne room wavered. Afton wouldn't let him manhandle her - even if he knew he was right and Castiel was being stubborn and stupid.

They'd been at each other's throats all week. Castiel had no idea what his deal was but Kemar seemed to be getting more and more testy by the day.

Afton did have a small idea what the other man's issue was, but it wasn't his place to say.

This time it was Kemar's teeth that clicked together in the silence as they glared at each other. "I'm not saying you have to talk to him, but I am saying you have to go sit with him at the very least. If you won't go willingly, I'll take you there by force."

Afton took a step forward - intending to interrupt him and say that he would absolutely not allow him to do any such thing - at the same moment Castiel opened her mouth to say something biting back.

Whatever it was she was going to say, she stopped short and brought her hand up to her face, wiping the single drop of blood that had started to drip from her nose away on the back of her hand.

Kemar and Afton's gaze both locked on the small red smear, and Kemar took a deep breath that very clearly showed he was about to blow a gasket when she raised her hands to her shoulders in defeat. "Fine."

---

When they entered the council room from the door behind the thrones, the room was quiet aside from the soft chatter of individual conversations guards held with one another as they waited around for the next trial.

Marcus - having been forewarned of not only his mate's but also Kemar's sour mood by a text from Afton - didn't stand or say anything when the heartbeat of his small companion joined the chatter in the room, even if he was very tempted to turn toward her when she sat on the floor behind his throne with a small, irritable "Harumph!"

He didn't need to see her to know she'd drawn her knees to her chest and leaned against the back of his chair. Afton let out a small sigh and sat beside her, his arm automatically going out around her shoulders so he could hide the two of them at a moment's notice.

Kemar stepped forward and brushed his palm with Aro's, and Marcus saw as his brother pursed his lips in apparent disapproval.

Quietly, and in a language none but himself, Caius, and Marcus knew, Aro relayed the details of Kemar and Castiel's argument, and how Castiel had almost gotten a nosebleed just as she had the night Marcus was slow about marking her.

Marcus tensed at this, and Caius sighed. "Marcus, just take her to bed and make her forget about the reason she's mad at you in the first place. You've bedded enough women. How hard can it be to seduce your own mate?"

"Fuck off Caius." He hissed under his breath, and Aro sighed.

Aro couldn't say he disagreed with Caius' logic, but he also knew Castiel was much more fiery than people gave her credit for. If Marcus wanted to have sex at any point in the next year it was best to just let her anger peter out on its own.

The guards in the room who had quieted momentarily at Castiel's entrance resumed their previous conversations as they realized she hadn't come with anything to inform the masters of.

Of course they all knew she and Master Marcus were having a tiff, but it really wasn't that interesting to observe the two as they sat quietly together. No one even knew what the argument that caused them not to speak in the first place had even been about. The rumor was that only the Denalis and a couple of the Russian guards had observed whatever made Mistress Castiel so mad she wasn't talking to her mate, but no one could get any of them to tell what it was.

Though there was a whisper in the winds that it had to do with Master Marcus fighting with her father - which would line up with the fact that she clearly wasn't talking to him either.

Over an hour passed, and Marcus could feel the bond tugging steadily at him, but not in a way that was overly painful or bothersome. It was significantly less irritating to his emotional state to have her close.

Her heartbeat was a soothing background noise to him, and the way her scent warmed the air around him was better than finally getting a first breath of fresh air after being underwater for a long time.

He hated that she still wouldn't speak to him, but he was grateful Kemar made her come stay close all the same… even if he knew she would have preferred not to at the moment.

Castiel's heart rate dropped to a steady, slow rhythm and her frustrated emotional state dulled until it was non-existent to Marcus. He listened as Afton adjusted his sitting position beside Castiel behind his throne.

Marcus would have to look back to know for sure, but he was certain she'd fallen asleep with her head on her guard's shoulder.

Glancing over at Aro he saw his raven-haired brother turning to lean haphazardly off the side of his throne to observe where Castiel was sitting, his gaze softening as he took in his mortal sister's sleeping form.

"She looks exhausted," Aro commented with a small frown that only became more pronounced as Kemar spoke from his position against the back wall.

"The nightmares have been getting worse. She sleeps less and less every night. If only she wasn't so stubborn." Kemar's frustration was obvious and Marcus could tell he was going to leave it at that so as not to tip off any of the unaware guards as to the reasons for her continued silence.

"She's coming around." Marcus sighed, though his hopeless tone didn't match his reassuring words. "She's not as stiff with me as she was in the beginning. I just need to figure out how to-"

He was interrupted as there was a knock at the grand doors of the room. The specific pattern of the raps was a warning from the guards outside that they were about to bring someone in for a meeting with them.

There were no scheduled conferences or trials for the rest of the night, so whatever this was had Marcus getting to his feet.

It was probably no big deal, but the fact that his mate was sleeping behind his throne put him on the offensive - even if her scent and heartbeat had suddenly disappeared as Afton hid her with his gift.

If they could manage to keep the volume down maybe she wouldn't even wake up.

Aro and Caius both stood as well, instinctively mirroring him so they appeared as a unit as well as making sure they were as ready for anything as he was.

Felix and Demetri entered the room with two unfamiliar nomads ushered along before them. A vampire female of average height with skin that had once been dark and tightly braided hair was holding hands with the tall man beside her.

They were clearly a mated couple, and there was nothing aggressive or otherwise noteworthy about the way they held themselves as they stopped in the center of the floor and stared up at the Volturi kings with mostly concealed anxiety.

Mostly.

Aro descended the steps to greet them.

"Now now no need to look so nervous!" Aro laughed softly, choosing his words carefully so as to not alarm the unknown couple before him. "It's clearly your first time here my friends but let me assure you there's no reason at all to be anxious."

The female's eyes were skeptical as Aro stopped a few feet away from them, her mate's posture tensing as Alec ghosted down the steps so he could stand behind Aro.

Marcus knew Aro was by far the best showman of their group; he always knew by subtle physical queues and facial expressions what the best thing to say was, but at this moment Marcus wasn't sure there was any way for this situation to seem less threatening to the nomads. All three of them had been standing at the couple's entrance, and that alone was enough to set anyone's teeth on edge.

"To what do we owe the pleasure?" Aro continued after a moment where it became obvious that neither of the newcomers were planning to speak.

The male deferred to his partner, glancing over at her as she took the tiniest step forward so she would be the center of attention.

"Hello, Aro." The woman greeted him in quiet Italian, and Aro had the grace not to correct her when she pronounced his name arrow and not ah-roe. "My name is Sukey, and this is my mate Sambo. We… encountered someone just the other day that we'd like to… absolve ourselves of any connection to. That's why we traveled here."

Aro raised an eyebrow at her, noticing how some of the guards around the room glanced at one another from the corner of his eye.

"I take it you had a run-in with someone breaking our laws?" Aro questioned lightly, before continuing, "You are American, correct? We can speak in English if that is more comfortable for you."

Her tone had a very distinct lilt that clearly indicated she must have been from the American South.

This earned him the smallest smile from Sukey, though it didn't quite reach her eyes. "Thank you." She replied in English, her southern drawl becoming more prominent as she turned to her mate, "Sambo's better with his words than I am. I'll let him explain what happened… And I think it's best that he starts with where we came from, so there's no misunderstanding of our business here."

Sambo cast a single glance at his mate, confirming with one look into her eyes that they were about to reveal all before he started to speak. Marcus realized that one of the reasons the man had been so tense upon entering was because his mate was communicating in a language he did not know. Language barriers were common in their world, and those who did not have time to learn new languages encountered this issue frequently.

This display only showed him that it would be best for Castiel if he started her language education as soon as possible once she was changed. He wouldn't want her to feel as though she was forced to stand in his shadow because she couldn't understand what people were saying. They'd all become so accustomed to speaking English around her that it was hardly ever noted that it was the only language she knew.

He'd have to discuss this with her… whenever she decided to speak to him again.

Marcus switched to his bond sight to confirm what he already knew - Sukey and Sambo shared sire, and the two were bound by a past of hardship that only very few could even begin to understand. However, the mystery behind the strands of their bonds was already being unraveled as Sambo spoke.

Sambo and Sukey were slaves from the time before the American emancipation of slaves, and they were changed before the time of the Civil War by a vampire building a rival army to fight the infamous Maria for her territory. Their leader was a white fellow who'd lived on a plantation supervising - nearly everyone in the room scowled at the knowledge of what this word actually meant when Sambo said it like a slur - slaves before he was turned; and so were his three lieutenants. All of them had been created to help control the army and they all had a thing for using the indigenous and dark-skinned people they abused as their disposable fighters. Sambo and Sukey were not treated any better at the start of their second lives than they had been in their human ones.

Sambo and Sukey admitted to the kings and the guard in attendance with a defiant pride they had every right to that they raised hell in the newborn army they were a part of, and like all the members of all newborn armies ever that's all they know at that time. They were naturally distrustful of people because they spent their human lives being abused, and they were especially distrustful of the leadership in their army because of who they were.

The newborns were all rough with each other so Sukey and Sambo were a tight, two-person unit from the start. They didn't bother getting close to any of the other newborns; their trust was only for one another. Because of their tight-knit relationship, it was obvious to them during that first year of their life that things weren't quite right, and it was far from inconspicuous when vampires in their army tended to just up and disappear around the time they turned a year old.

The couple was nearing a year old themselves at that time, and they'd begun to be rightly concerned for their own longevity.

So one night came that they were out brawling with another newborn army down in the south and the Volturi themselves showed up that very moment to clear the area. Sambo and Sukey had a chance to run off before they got killed and they did just that.

But they saw that night who the Volturi were and just what they were capable of. They didn't realize their world had a police force or governing body until they saw the Volturi guards kill enough newborns from both armies that they were good and intimidated. It didn't help that they heard the guard members referring to the Volturi leadership as "masters." They remained all too familiar with that word from their human days.

Aro, Caius, and Marcus all scowled as one at this, and Sukey gave them a smile that did reach her eyes this time.

"We understand now that the term is used as a title for your strength and age," Sukey said, "But you must understand how it reads to those of us who were not born in a time where freedom was for all."

The brothers nodded solemnly. They'd been around for thousands of years and had seen the world as a whole change hundreds of times. They were all proud to say that not one of them had ever assumed ownership of another person in all that time. Vampires were not the dominant species on the earth, and the brothers knew that if they wished to rule and maintain secrecy for their kind they needed to be just and fair to all to the best of their abilities.

A few of their current guards had been slaves themselves at one point, Felix being one of them.

Sambo paused for only the one moment so Sukey could speak, before continuing as if there had been no interruption at all.

They admitted to being kill-happy vampires in the beginning because of their upbringing in the newborn army and that it was because they didn't know any different way. After leaving the army they were angry and lost - they'd decided to go back to the plantation they were taken from and get closure for their human lives in the old way they knew how.

They were witnessed that night by a human slave while they were feeding from the corpses of the plantation owners and a folktale was spread of a benevolent cryptid that bears the face of a friend who inspired an uprising.

Caius's jaw dropped. He'd remembered this exact folktale. He'd been the one to bring a small contingent of the guard to that very plantation when the rumor reached their ears.

Sukey and Sambo were hidden but still in the area when the Volturi showed up to assess the situation at the plantation. They were terrified that they'd be found out, but even now as they retold this tale to the Volturi it was clear they were proud they could inspire such folklore.

Aro grinned at the same moment Sambo did and relayed that he remembered the folktale too, and that it had actually been a very good cover story that had humans looking the other way for decades in the South when it came to vampires and attributing it to magic and voodoo.

At that point in time the Volturi had to pick their battles, and while they knew without a doubt that the plantation owners had been killed by vampires, they also knew it was more than likely karma coming back for them in the form of two past slaves giving them exactly what they deserved. The folklore would keep the situation shrouded in mystery and magic long enough for it to become nothing more than a scary story.

So the Volturi had left, and Sambo and Sukey flew by under the radar.

The pair had been smart enough to figure out that newborns in their army "disappeared" after about a year, and they had also been smart enough back then to figure out that the Volturi showed up to places in the South where there was hell-raising and violence. They decided that day to abandon the ways they knew in the newborn army and start keeping themselves and their meal-killing hidden. They traveled north and lived as nomads from that time on.

As the years went by they'd occasionally run into others of their kind, and these others were able to fill them in on who the Volturi really were and the laws their kind followed.

"A couple of weeks back we were traveling through the Madison mountain range in Montana," Sambo's voice was quiet as he kept his gaze on Aro, seeing no need to focus on the others in the room since everyone could hear just fine, now done explaining the backstory he shared with his mate and getting to what brought them to Italy in the first place. "I felt like we were being followed for a couple of days and Sukey and I were about to make a trip inland to hunt when we were approached by a solitary nomad we'd never met."

Sukey frowned at this, her eyes flickering from Sambo to the dais where Caius and Marcus stood. Marcus could tell she was concerned by whatever Sambo was about to reveal by the look on her face in the brief moment her gaze locked with his.

"Physically he was young, only about twenty or so years old, and very skittish. It became clear real quick that we were the first vampires he'd spoken to in a long while. He told us he'd been following us and was trying to decide if it was safe to approach… You see, he found us strange because we seemed civilized." As Sambo said this it was abundantly clear that this had been a major red flag to the man. "At first we didn't know what he meant by that, but it became clear the longer we interacted."

"He didn't tell us his name right away." Sukey said gently, "Honestly, the young man really didn't seem that bad. Just on his own and maybe kind of scared, though he was trying to hide it… I felt bad for him."

"Sukey's gentle heart convinced me to humor her, and we invited him to travel with us for our hunt." Sambo sounded both irritated and affectionate as his eyes fell to her, "We had a chat, the nomad seemed fine, and told us he'd been traveling along the northern edge of the Americas for a while now. But after a stretch, I asked how long he'd been like us - it was obvious he wasn't just physically young. He didn't come off as a newborn, but he'd been solitary for so long that I couldn't be sure-,"

"Then he told us something that had us concerned." Sukey cut in. "He super casually revealed that he'd been changed while on a beach somewhere only so many months ago - he couldn't remember specifically when - and he'd woken up in a room with a bunch of other young vampires and was told he was part of their coven and they were going to take over a section of land on the west coast."

Whispers ran around the room as the guard registered what she was saying, but Sukey carried on without pause. "It was clear he had no idea that the way he was reborn was abnormal. He told us he fled from that group after a while because he didn't want to be part of that coven - it took him weeks of solitary travel to believe the sun didn't hurt us."

"He was unsure of us because he had no idea our kind usually traveled alone or in pairs, and only stayed in one place if they were an established coven." Sambo reached out and rested a hand on his partner's shoulder, silently calming her as she'd become agitated during her rushed explanation and continued on her behalf. "But it was obvious to us that he was changed to be part of a newborn army - that's what all the signs pointed to."

"Sambo got nervous," Sukey swallowed, "The nomad could see that and he got stressed too, and suddenly the two of us got super… nauseous and confused and…"

"-and then he was gone." Sambo finished calmly, absentmindedly dropping his hand from her shoulder, "He was talented, and we had no idea until he was long gone."

"...He didn't hurt us though." Sukey added almost silently after a moment's pause. "He could have if he'd wanted to, but he chose to run off instead."

It didn't miss any of the ancients notice how Sukey was trying to extend the smallest olive branch of peace to the unknown newborn.

"We know newborn armies are against law, and we knew that by coming here we could implicate ourselves because that was exactly how we came to be, but we appear before you to show you that we left that life behind us long ago," Sukey said stubbornly, "We've lived in peace and obscurity for many years now, and we want it to stay that way. We don't want any word to come forward that we associate with that young man at all-"

"We weren't sure if any of your guards were still scoping out the area, and we wanted to bring this information forward on our own to show we respect our laws and want peace." Sambo finished for her, "I don't want to be falsely implicated in this situation."

"How could a newborn travel the whole northern area of America and not attract any notice?" Caius's question came out clipped and irritated, his words meant for anyone in the room who might have an answer.

"One thing the man did tell us was that he hid his kills mainly out of fear of being followed by one of our kind." Sukey answered Caius before anyone could formulate any suspicions, "As we said, he's very skittish, and he had no idea how other vampires live until he spoke with us."

Marcus frowned, only half paying attention to the conversation as his thoughts ran in a few different directions. A newborn wandering the northern edge of the Americas who'd been created as part of a newborn army? Coincidentally not very far at all from where their coven had just been present to eliminate the newborn army Victoria had created to kill the Cullens?

He and Castiel had painstakingly gone over categorizing and naming all the members of that army. After the fight, the guards had been able to confirm the elimination of each and every newborn Castiel had seen.

But if this newborn had never been part of the fight at all…

No. It still wasn't possible. Castiel had watched the newborns as they hid in a secluded home for weeks leading up to that battle. She wouldn't have missed one.

This could only mean one thing - there just might be another newborn army on the far coast of the Americas.

He could see Aro frowning and knew his brother was thinking the same thing. Was this another group created to go after the Cullens? Were the newborn battles of the South starting again and spreading north this time?

"Thank you for bringing this news to our attention Sukey and Sambo," Aro gave both nomads a small bow. "Rest assured you won't be punished for the circumstances of your change. The past can be left in the past in this instance as we consider this information a great favor you've done us."

"Then we shall leave in peace," Sambo said solemnly, waiting for Sukey to stand beside him before they both took a small step back.

Aro nodded, "Of course. Felix and Demetri will show you out - fortunately, the night is still young so you should have time to exit the city before the sun rises."

The nomads said nothing more, just nodding their assent to Aro's words as they turned to leave with Felix as Demetri opened the doors, only pausing when Marcus spoke for the first time.

"Did the newborn ever tell you his name?" It was a key piece of information no one had thought to ask, and Sukey's eyes traveled up to him as she paused before answering.

"He said his name was Samuel," Sukey said lightly, but there was something off about her tone.

"You say that as if you're unsure."

"We think he was lying," Sambo said evenly.

Marcus pursed his lips but nodded nonetheless. There was nothing else he needed to know.

Sukey and Sambo left without incident, the doors to the room closing behind them with a quiet thud as the guards carefully closed them.

"You should have read one of them before you allowed them to leave Aro," Caius commented as he finally took his seat on his throne once more. "We shouldn't let possible new information just walk out the door."

"I didn't impose on them as a gesture of good faith." Aro sighed, turning to return to his throne as well, "I will ask Castiel to review the pair later just to be sure they won't be a problem - I doubt they will be but I'm sure it'll ease your mind."

Caius hummed in agreement at the same moment Castiel's heartbeat sounded in the room once more as Afton dropped his shield at last.

She was still sound asleep.

Over the next half hour, Aro summoned a few choice guards and tasked them with searching the web and news outlets for any suspicious activity in the northern United States and all along the west coast of America. He'd brushed hands with both Marcus and Caius and did think Marcus might be onto something when it came to a possible additional threat to the Cullens.

Though… he wasn't as convinced as Marcus was that Castiel and himself couldn't have missed something. There were some ways around Castiel's gift after all - she was only human - and if this nomad wasn't really a threat to begin with…

Well, they'd cross that bridge when they came to it.

It only took a couple more hours for the guards to return to the throne room with news from their searches. Castiel was still sound asleep, her head on Afton's shoulder as the guards confirmed that there have indeed been a lot of violent crimes in Oregon that are untraceable to any source at the present moment - many murders and disappearances included.

It was not enough of an impact to be an army, but it was definitely the work of a newborn or two.

Over the next few hours, the brothers called guards forward to make a plan for a small group to head back to Washington to meet with the Cullens and find out if they'd caught wind of anything new. Regardless of their answer the guards sent would then travel along the west coast and the Canadian border in search of the newborn Sambo and Sukey had encountered and whoever was responsible for the crimes in Oregon. Right now the brothers were playing on the suspicion that the newborn they would currently call Samuel was not conspicuously killing anyone and that the murders were someone else's doing.

Caius was making multiple phone calls and a notebook was open on his lap as he started writing down strategies to catch a newborn who had a gift strong enough to cripple two mature vampires and then run off.

Alec would need to be one of the guards sent, and Caius was going back and forth in his head trying to decide if he needed to go himself.

This would be a little tricky, but not the most complex thing they'd ever had to deal with by far. Caius had half a mind to wake Castiel and fill her in to get her opinion but knew Marcus would bite his head off for it.

Caius had just dismissed the thought of waking his human sister when Marcus sniffed noticeably, drawing Aro's and Caius's attention to him as he turned to look down toward where his mate was hidden by the back of his throne, his brow furrowing as if he'd noticed something that concerned him even though he couldn't see her through the wood.

"What is it?" Caius asked before Aro got the words out, and Marcus's head tilted for a second in thought before he elaborated on his sudden strangeness.

"Does Castiel smell off to you?"

At his question Kemar, Afton, and Alec - who were the three guards closest to the brothers - all sniffed the air as if scenting for something.

Aro took a good, deep breath along with Caius but he didn't smell anything strange.

"She smells fine to me."

Marcus's frown only deepened as everyone agreed with his brother. He took another breath and was sure something didn't smell right.

Even Afton agreed with Aro, and her head was on his shoulder so surely he would have noticed if something was off.

Kemar looked from Castiel's sleeping form to her concerned mate with clear speculation. She smelled fine to him, but Marcus was very attuned to her in a way no one else was, so it was possible he was catching onto something they couldn't detect yet.

That or it was an imprinting thing. There were still many things about their bond that were unknown to their species.

Marcus sighed, sitting back slowly in his chair and trying not to let his concern get the better of him. He was nearly certain this wasn't just a case of paranoia, but he couldn't deny he was a little more agitated than usual at the news those nomads had brought about the newborn in America and now there were a couple of hellraisers of their kind that needed to be checked out.

He glanced over his shoulder at Kemar, and he only needed to hold eye contact with the guard for a short second before Kemar gave an understanding nod in silent reply.

He'd just have to content himself for now with the fact that Kemar would keep an eye on Castiel.

And in the meantime, he'd have to figure out what he could say to make his sweet girl forgive him.

---

This time when Castiel woke up in the middle of the night feeling entirely too warm and like she needed to catch her breath it had nothing to do with a night terror.

She felt disgusting. Literally. She felt absolutely horrible as she sat up straight so she was no longer reclining on her pillows in Marcus's bed, her shoulder aching and her face feeling warm.

Her nose was clogged and she felt an ungodly pressure in her face that was only made worse by the extremely painful sore throat she had. She could feel the postnasal drip happening at that very moment.

Dragging herself out of bed and trying to swallow to see if it relieved the horrible feeling in her throat, only to wince when she realized that no, all that did was make it feel worse, Castiel stumbled toward the door with a small whimper.

She was sick. She had a nasty cold just like she had in the weeks before her arrest.

The ghost of a memory played in the back of her mind; Kemar telling her weeks and weeks ago when she was sick with the werewolf virus that there was a cold going around the human staff.

Apparently, that cold was still present somewhere because now she'd caught it.

She'd only just reached for the handle on the door to the hall when it opened as the person outside made to come in.

It was Kemar, and he must have been standing with his back to the door and heard her whimper when she got out of bed.

She knew he'd been expecting to find her waking from another nightmare, but one look down at her showed him all too clearly it was something else entirely.

Before he could speak, she whimpered again.

"Where's Marcus?"

He blinked down at her, gauging her expression and smelling the sharp scent of a newly started sickness in her blood.

This was what Marcus had smelled the previous day. The man really was so attuned to his mate that he was able to catch the sickness in her blood long before anyone else.

It was seriously impressive.

And also kind of weird.

The way Castiel was looking up at him right now, and the needy edge to her voice as she asked where the mate she'd been so stubbornly ignoring for a week now was, told him with the utmost certainty that Master Marcus just might be getting his pass out of the dog house.

"I'll go get him," Kemar said placatingly, turning his head to call down the hall to Afton who appeared at his shoulder a moment later.

Afton didn't need to be told what was going on when he got a good sniff of Castiel, and he reached out to put a hand on her shoulder as he nudged her back into the room, guiding her over to the couch so he could sit with her as Kemar left to go find Master Marcus, shutting the door behind him with a soft snap.

Afton pulled the blanket that was folded over the back of the couch so it was resting around her shoulders, his hand automatically going to her forehead to feel for a fever.

She didn't feel overly warm, and he knew that the common cold didn't usually cause fevers, but it was still the first thing he felt inclined to check for ever since her battle with the werewolf virus.

No one would tell her so, but they were all gonna be much more thorough than necessary when she got ill from now on. It was incredibly unlikely, but they still wanted to be sure that the werewolf virus wasn't affecting her months later.

Castiel was, after all, the only human being they'd ever known to recover from such a thing.

It didn't take Master Marcus more than five minutes to arrive once Kemar went searching for him, and in that time the most Afton had been able to do was get Castiel a glass of water that she was refusing to drink because of her sore throat. He only convinced her to take a sip when he'd retrieved a previously unopened box of cold medicine from their bathroom and offered it to her.

Afton didn't remember what having a cold felt like as it had been so long since he had been human, and he was fairly sure that back then common colds could kill a person, unlike today.

"Marcus," Castiel didn't even try to stop his name from coming out as a whine, she felt like absolute garbage and her dignity was the last thing she cared about.

Afton, and Kemar who was standing in the open door to the hall waiting for Afton to exit with him, both had the good grace to not comment on it as they left.

"I feel bad she's sick." Afton sighed as he and Kemar stood in the quiet hallway together, leaving Master Marcus alone so he could care for his ill mate. "But I won't lie, for Master Marcus's sake it's a good thing."

"Yeah." Kemar snorted. "It's probably his only way out of the doghouse at the moment and he knows that. He was surprised when I came for him, but I could tell by the expression on his face that he was relieved at the same time."

Chelsea entered the hall at that moment, and Afton clapped Kemar on the back. "Take off. Chelsea and I have it from here."

Not needing to be told twice, Kemar nodded his thanks to the couple before taking off the opposite way down the hall.

---

"I'm still mad at you." Castiel sniffed, wincing as she swallowed.

Marcus had removed her sling without prompting, and now he was lying back on the couch with her on his chest, his hand petting her hair once he had a blanket situated over them. "I know baby."

He absentmindedly rubbed her back as she continued to sniffle against him, lying just-so so she didn't put any pressure on her bad shoulder. She wasn't actually allowed to have the sling off, nor was she supposed to be lying on her stomach like this, but he'd been lacking the physical contact long enough and he didn't care if the doctor got mad.

Twenty minutes of holding her in a way that didn't have her sitting up wasn't going to make anything worse.

"...I'm sorry I pulled you away from work." Castiel's voice was off because of how her nose was stuffed, and her face was turned away from him, but the guilt was still clear in her tone even without him feeling exactly what she was.

"Work is not as important as you." He reassured her, soothingly petting her hair again. He'd been around her during illness before and was fully aware that his mate was a clinger when she got sick - she'd even warned him of such when they first met. How did she put it? I turn into this needy little baby who can't be left alone when I'm sick.

He was far from complaining. Getting to take care of her over the next few days would undoubtedly lead to the end of her frostiness toward him.

After about an hour of lying on the couch together, he suggested a warm bath, to which Castiel readily agreed.

Marcus was glad after he had the tub full of hot water and lavender-scented bubbles - which he realized as an afterthought was kind of pointless because he doubted Castiel could smell anything right now - that Castiel had stepped in and sat down before looking at him with the clear expectation that he would be joining her.

That's where they were now; her back was to his chest and his left arm was cradling hers so she could lie comfortably.

The silence and closeness were welcome, and Marcus knew that if he'd been human he would have been able to fall asleep.

His mate seemed significantly more comfortable here in the bath and her breathing was definitely much better now than it had been when he first came to her. Realizing it was probably the warm water and the humidity, he had Castiel sit forward for a second so he could reach out of the tub for his pants, fishing his phone out of the pocket and sending a text to Afton & Kemar to hunt down a humidifier for the night.

Without consciously meaning to he started to purr, the sound only getting louder as Castiel relaxed completely against him with a groan.

He kissed the top of her head. "I love you, my sweet girl."

"I love you too."

She couldn't see it, but he was positively beaming at the words.

Their fight was finally over.

He didn't get to dwell on that happiness for long though, because no more than a minute later the sound of the door to his rooms opening cut into his focus, and Caius called out to announce his entry.

"We're in the bath, Caius. What do you want?" Marcus asked in a quiet speaking volume, feeling Castiel stir against him. She'd undoubtedly not been able to hear Caius enter their quarters.

"...Are you decent?" His brother asked after a pause, coming to a stop outside the bathroom door but not touching the handle.

Marcus rolled his eyes, "What part of we're in the bath didn't you understand?"

Caius sighed. "May I enter? I need a word with Castiel."

Marcus made an incredulous noise in his throat to show what he thought of that idea.

"It's not like we haven't seen each other naked too many times to count in nearly four thousand years," Caius said as if it was obvious. They'd been brothers for so long nudity was a nonissue for them.

That was all fine and dandy for Marcus, but not when it came to his mate.

He was about to tell Caius to leave - he had no business bothering Castiel with requests for psychic help while she was ill anyway - but Castiel's quiet whisper stopped him.

"Marcus, it's fine." She slid down in the tub a little bit, the bubbles nearly touching her chin, "It's not like he can see anything anyway."

She had a point. Maybe the bubbles had been a good idea after all.

"Enter." Marcus sighed, not bothering to keep the disapproval off his face as Caius entered the bathroom, staying over by the door but within proper speaking distance of Castiel.

"Must you be so difficult?"

"Yes, because you obviously keep insisting on hounding my mate with unimportant matters."

"What makes you think it's not important?"

"Let me rephrase." Marcus snapped, "Of immediate importance. If it was an emergency you wouldn't have entered so calmly. And someone would have called for me long before you came strutting in."

Caius pursed his lips, and Marcus's smug expression made him decide to be petty.

"Well, I'm glad to see you two are getting along again."

Marcus growled at him. The last thing he needed right now was anyone to remind Castiel that she had any reasons to be pissed at him when she'd finally stopped giving him the cold shoulder.

Now it was Caius's turn to smirk.

"Caius, stay out of my love life," Castiel snapped. "Or I'm definitely going to stop humoring your lack of patience and make you wait before I give you any advice."

"I just like to deal with things as they're presented to me!" Caius defended, only looking more affronted when Castiel snorted and then scowled when the action hurt her throat.

"Yeah, and normal people usually embrace procrastination so they don't come off as a jerk interrupting people during their personal lives all the time-,"

"Alright, that's enough!" No matter how frustrated Marcus was with Caius, he knew he needed to play mediator between the two of them before it became nasty. "Don't get personal, just get to the point."

"Okay, the point." Castiel raised an eyebrow at Marcus's blonde brother, "What's so important you couldn't give me time to finish my bath and get dressed?"

"You talk a lot of shit for someone who gets taken out at the knee from something like the common cold-,"

"Caius!" Marcus gave his brother a look that clearly said if he insulted Castiel one more time he was fully ready to make him leave.

Pretending he didn't notice Castiel's glare, Caius let out a sigh and said, "We have information that points to a couple of newborns running amok in Oregon, and another more substantial lead that there might be a third on the run in North America bordering Canada. We have good reason to believe the one running on the border might be gifted, but we have no information about the two vampires we think are loose in Oregon other than the trail of chaos they've left behind them."

Castiel frowned, Caius's words overriding her previous frustration with him as she tried to piece together what he was saying.

"Two in Oregon? Is that a sure number you got from a 'substantial lead' as well?"

"No, that's only our suspicion when we line up a string of recent violent crimes in the general area we believe they are living in as of now. Evidence points to two newborn vampires, though it could be only one or not newborns at all…"

"Hm." Castiel was clearly thinking hard, though Caius could tell she wasn't having a vision since her pupils weren't dilated and her right hand raised out of the water to play with some of the bubbles on its surface as she thought.

It was no mystery to the brothers that Castiel was nervous about the day they'd begin to train her as another ruler; she'd been very vocal about not being sure she was cut out for it in previous conversations, but even though he was too prideful to tell her so, Caius didn't understand how she could be so unsure of her own abilities.

She'd entered this conversation with him without any hesitation or fear, and she sat lost in thought as she pieced together her own opinions and ideas as to what could be happening in Oregon based on the information she was presented.

He locked eyes with Marcus over her head and knew that his brother saw the same things he did.

"What's the most pressing issue for us right now?"

Us. Not you, us. Caius could feel himself mentally softening toward her despite their brief spat and answered in a much more calm tone than he'd used all day. "The situation in Oregon."

"Okay. It might take me a minute. I'm still not so sure how good I am at this when I'm sick." Castiel slipped into one of her visions the moment she finished speaking, not realizing that both Caius and Marcus scowled at the subtle way she put herself down before trying to help.

"I know she hasn't agreed to therapy," Caius said under his breath for only Marcus to hear, not sure if Castiel was listening as she'd gone very still. "But if she ever does we might want to be sure Aro hires Cicero. I've read all the therapists' portfolios and I think he'd be the best help with her self-worth issues."

Marcus only hummed in reply. He'd have to go over the portfolios again, but even if he did he knew he wasn't going to push Castiel to do something she didn't want to do.

Therapy usually works best when the patient wants to be there.

"He specializes in trauma." Caius prodded, mistaking Marcus's silence for disagreement. "He might be able to help with the nightmare thing she has going on because of Bal-,"

"I'll think about it, Caius," Marcus said sharply, a warning in his tone as he gestured with his chin down at his mate. "Don't be so loud."

They lapsed into silence as they waited for Castiel to come back to the present. Marcus was glad his left arm was still cradling hers because when she did finally blink and start to unintentionally straighten up, he was able to keep her still so her shoulders remained under the bubbles.

"Ugh, it's all kind of blurry but I could definitely see that there are two newborns. A male and female; both with dark hair. Don't know the ages or anything cause…again, really blurry."

Caius pursed his lips. Part of him wanted to say they'd revisit this at a later date when she was feeling better, but her confirmation that it was a pair of newborns in Oregon was enough to get the ball moving and send out some of the guard.

"And I checked for anything unusual going on near Canada but I couldn't see anything… though that's probably because I don't have enough information but…"

"But?"

"I think something is there." Castiel's brows pulled together as she stared down at the bubbles, thinking hard, "I swear I can feel something but… I don't know. It might be because I'm sick, and it might be because the person isn't a threat, I just…"

Neither Marcus nor Caius said anything when she randomly stopped talking, giving her time to sort out her thoughts so she could come to a conclusion without their interruption.

After a minute more of quiet Castiel leaned back into Marcus again with a frustrated huff. "I feel like I'm missing something. I can't explain it but my gut is telling me something is up. Right now, all I can see is that you're right about the two newborns in Oregon…and I can't confirm or deny anything about a newborn traveling along the Canadian border. Sorry."

"It's fine." Caius reassured, and he actually meant it too. "That's enough for me to work with for now. I'll leave you two alone."

True to his word, in the time it took Castiel to blink she and Marcus were alone in the bathroom once more and Caius was gone.

Castiel sighed, "I'm starting to think we're all getting just a little too comfortable around each other."

Marcus's responding chuckle vibrated against her back, and she closed her eyes to try and get some rest, hoping the pain in her throat would ease just like her sinus pressure had started to thanks to the warm steam.

---

She'd gone through nearly ten little square boxes of tissues since she'd gotten sick a few days ago, and she still had absolutely no desire to get up from the couch for more than five minutes at a time to use the bathroom because she felt like one of the walking dead.

And not the vampire kind.

Her cold was riding her hard - as was usual whenever she got sick - and she was internally moping over just how long she'd have to suffer.

Marcus was working at his desk in the main room, typing away on his laptop with only the occasional shuffling of papers to interrupt the quiet sounds coming from the TV. If she groaned more than twice in an hour he'd come to sit with her on the couch, not caring in the slightest that she was coughing and sneezing constantly, and petting her hair as she rested her head on his shoulder.

She wanted to be able to lie down with her head in his lap, but she wasn't allowed to take the stupid sling off again.

It wasn't all bad though, the sling was an excellent storage area for emergency tissues.

There was a knock at the door before Kemar entered at Marcus's prompting, and it was the sight of the small bottle with viscous red-colored liquid in it that made her scowl.

Kemar grinned at her disdain for the little bottle, holding it up to wave it at her. "New cold medicine."

"Jesus, did you have to get the liquid kind?" She could already taste the disgusting artificial cherry just looking at the bottle.

"You haven't been eating enough since you got sick, and you've probably only had two cups of water since yesterday. I understand it's because your throat hurts, so you'll be drinking your cold medicine for now since it works faster," Kemar opened the bottle to break the safety seal before reapplying the cap and shaking it. "I got the kind with menthol."

"That's even worse!"

He ignored her comment, focusing on pouring the small dosing cap full of red liquid before placing it in her unwilling hand. "Have you taken your temperature recently?"

"Yes." Castiel said, frustrated, "Every three hours like you said. No fever. I don't get fevers from a cold-,"

"We need to be sure - now take the medicine."

Kemar stood there til she drank it, downing it like a shot and shivering in disgust at the taste of fake cherry and menthol. She was unable to help gagging a little bit at the end.

He laughed.

"Thank you, Kemar," Marcus said, not looking up from his work at the desk, his tone a clear dismissal.

Her guard gave her a cheeky wink, earning him a predictable scowl, before assuring her he'd be back in a few hours to make sure she took another dose before turning and leaving the room.

No sooner had the door shut with Kemar's exit than Castiel's phone pinged, and an offhand glance at the screen showed her she had a text from Bella. She grinned without thinking and opened the message to see her friend was asking if she was free to chat in about an hour.

Castiel swiped a quick Yes! and asked Marcus without turning from her phone if it was okay if she sat in his private office to talk to her friend - and hopefully Trent too.

He said he didn't mind in the slightest in that slightly bemused tone he always had when she asked permission to do something. She didn't really need his permission to do anything around their rooms - she could paint every wall pink without warning him and he wouldn't get upset. This was her living space too.

Not that he was going to tell her that, because then she just might, and he didn't particularly want pink walls.

Waiting the next hour to talk to her friend was going to prove to be torturous in the way it always was when she had to wait to do something she was excited about. The waiting game was never fun and her thoughts were starting to run away from her as she thought over all the updates she could give Bella.

Maybe a heads-up that some guards were gonna come calling to the Cullens' area wouldn't be a bad idea, too.

A random thought occurred to her as she was thinking over what she'd say to her friend, and she spoke without thinking.

"Marcus?"

"Hm?" Her mate didn't look up from whatever he was reading as his hand passed over the paper beside him, focused on taking notes over something he'd just read as she turned to look at him over the back of the couch.

"I just… I was remembering a few months back when Afton and Edward had that fight in the hallway…"

This got his attention. Red eyes found hers as he set his pen down, obviously not expecting that to have been what she was about to say.

"Please don't take this question the wrong way or anything; I really am just curious because it just occurred to me again thinking about talking to Bella but…do you have a mating bite?"

Both of his eyebrows were raised when he responded, "No, I don't."

He said it as if it was obvious; something he'd thought she'd already known.

"Afton mentioned when he was arguing with Edward that mates can't scar their sires and I know you weren't Didyme's sire, so I was…" she trailed off not wanting to seem like she was prying. "It was something Bella asked me that day, and I said no but I…wasn't really sure?"

She sounded embarrassed, and it was the sight of her reddening cheeks that prompted Marcus to speak, taking pity on her so she didn't start to think that this question was uncomfortable for him or anything.

"Didyme." Marcus said gently, giving Castiel an encouraging smile as a reminder that she was always free to ask him questions about his late wife, because he didn't want his previous marriage to ever be a barrier for them, "Did not respond to her change into an immortal well. The process of being changed and the pain that went with it was the most difficult thing she'd ever been through. The pain was traumatic to her, and upon waking her brain dealt with it by accumulating all her pain and suffering and pinning it to a single act."

Castiel looked confused, so he elaborated. "Her brain dealt with the pain by blaming it all on the action of being bitten. For the entirety of the time I knew her, her daknophobia was always her most prominent fear."

"Daknophobia is the fear of being bitten?"

He nodded. "It did come up at one point when we acknowledged one another as mates. Didyme was very clear she could not tolerate being bitten, and if I loved her I wouldn't subject her to it. She had no desire to mark me, but we thought it was related to her daknophobia."

Marcus sighed, closing his eyes for a second as he thought before looking at her again. "I never had the desire to mark her. I always thought it was because of her fear and my duty as her mate to never bring her harm. It was a good thing to me that I didn't have that urge - I didn't want to hurt my partner. Obviously, we now know why I didn't feel the desire."

Voicing these uncomfortable truths always made him feel as though he'd been a bad partner - a bad husband - to his late wife by dismissing his previous feelings for her like this. By admitting he hadn't wanted her as thoroughly as he'd once believed.

Castiel seemed to understand exactly what he was thinking by the look on his face, and she gave him a gentle smile. "Marcus. You loved her. I can feel how conflicted you are right now. I've never heard a word to the contrary about you being a good husband to Didyme. Don't bully yourself 'cause you didn't know you'd have to wait literally thousands of years for me to be born."

"It should have been the warning that she wasn't my mate." Marcus smiled at her. "But you're right, and as always much too good to me."

Castiel would have said something smart in reply to that if she didn't start coughing, but thankfully Marcus just let her ride out the coughing fit until she quieted once more and continued as if her body hadn't so rudely interrupted their conversation.

"I wanted to mark you the very first time I was alone with you." Marcus said quietly. The look he was giving her now was far from decent - he looked like he wanted to eat her alive. "I never had a shred of doubt when it came to you."

Castiel gave him an embarrassed smile, and she probably would have egged on the flirting, but she really did feel like hot garbage.

"When you're immortal, I want my mark higher." His eyes had gone black as he leaned back in his chair, regarding her and motioning to his own neck just below his ear beneath the corner of his jaw to show her where he was referring to. "I went lower because you're human and vampire marks stand out much more - I figured you'd want to be able to go out in public at some point."

She snorted, and then coughed, totally killing the blasé vibe she was going for. "How considerate of you."

"Is that okay?"

She grinned at him, appreciating that it was still her choice and he was making sure she knew that.

"Of course Marcus."

He smiled, his eyes gradually going back to red as the sexual tension left him. He knew she was too ill to want to do anything physical with him - not to mention he'd only just gotten off her shit-list and he wasn't going to push his luck.

"And since you'll be my sire. I can't mark you right?"

Marcus tilted his head as he regarded her, gauging her expression as he replied. "No, you can't. A vampire's venom can't scar the one who sired them - we think it was a trait of our species to make sure we don't get all mangled up as we turn others and wrangle them in when they're newborns. But I assure you, the bond will see the symbolism in it when you do try to give me a mating mark - it just won't be visible physically."

"Hm." Castiel hummed her acknowledgment of his words, and he could see she was thinking it over by the slightly faraway look in her eyes.

She was feeling calm and relaxed right now, so he couldn't gauge how she felt about not being able to mark him through their imprinting connection.

"Does that bother you?" He asked after a long moment of silence, unable to help himself. "Castiel, if it is important to you that I bear your mark as you do mine, we can talk to my brothers about one of them siring you. Aro has a lot of practice with it, and you also wouldn't be in any danger with Caius."

Castiel blinked rapidly at him, clearly surprised as her brain caught up with what he was saying.

When the surprise wore off, she looked at him with nothing short of adoration.

After all, she knew how badly Marcus wanted to sire her, and she knew there were benefits to him being her mate and sire during her newborn year that would make it simply impossible to pass up.

She was touched all the same. "I admit, with how painful it's going to be, I'm not really romanticizing being bitten and needing it to be done by you, but If I get the choice and my change isn't forced by some horrible accident or injury, I'd prefer it if it was you."

"It'll be much easier during my newborn year if it was you anyway. The bond and my instincts would both recognize you as someone who can help me and guide me. I'm really nervous about the newborn thing; I'll take whatever I can get to make it easier."

Marcus's expression was sympathetic. "If you'd like to discuss this again, just let me know. But I think it's about time for your phone call."

One look down at her phone told her he was right, and she needed to get her laptop and get set up in his office now if she didn't want to be late for her call.

"Dearest." He called her attention back to him quietly as she stood, causing her to pause as she tucked her phone into her sling along with a bunch of extra tissues. "Always remember you can talk to me about Didyme. You looked nervous and I don't want my previous marriage to ever be something that gets between us."

"I know," She gave him a wink and blew him a kiss, choosing not to cross the room to him since she was sick and didn't really feel in the mood for kissing anyway, "Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go mess with everything in your office while on the computer with my friends. Toodles!"

She heard him chuckling as she turned her back to him to get her computer from the bedside table.

---

Castiel was thrilled when Bella called to see Trent sitting beside her at a kitchen table. She was so happy to see her two human friends again that she didn't mind in the slightest when the first words out of her brother's mouth were "Damn Cas you look like shit! Are you sick?"

The pair was in Trent's apartment, and they indulged Castiel with a virtual tour of his new place. It was just Trent walking around holding the laptop as Bella pretended to be a realtor trying to sell her a condo and it was very funny, but not nearly as funny as it had been when Bella originally tried to offer to be the one to hold the laptop only to get shot down by Trent as he reminded her he didn't want to have to pay for a new computer when she inevitably tripped.

Trent had a really nice place, and when she mentioned this to him he'd said "Yep, and it was all paid for with hard work, perseverance, and a lifetime of grinding to-,"

Bella snorted with laughter before saying, "Yeah yeah, hard work, perseverance, and a lifetime of grinding by the vampires paying for this place!"

"Hey, how do you know I didn't work for this?"

"Spending daddy's money doesn't count Trent!" Bella sang playfully.

Castiel could hardly stop giggling long enough to say "Vampire daddy."

Bella lost it at that, and Trent sobered immediately as he tried to steer the convo into safer territories that didn't risk the two girls making jokes about him having a vampire daddy.

It was nice to catch up with her friends. It was so refreshing to talk to two fellow human beings who didn't have their entire lives figured out and were just going with the flow. Castiel even had a solid thirty minutes where she hardly noticed her cold aside from the couple of times she desperately needed to blow her running nose.

She was doing just that when Trent's profile on the screen became distracted by someone knocking on the door to his apartment, and Bella ended up taking the computer and walking away with it - leaving her previous place at the kitchen table and waiting until she was sitting cross-legged on Trent's bed before answering Castiel's questioning look on the screen.

"Sorry," Bella sighed, "That was Leah. I was giving the two lovebirds some time alone - it wouldn't have been the first time they started making out in front of me."

Castiel laughed, and coughed, before shrugging. "Trent's always been…a fan of PDA you could say…anyway, I'm sure he'll be busy for a hot minute. So what's up with you?"

She'd meant it as a casual question, but Bella's suddenly alarmed look was prominent enough that it had her narrowing her eyes. "Bella. What's wrong?"

"Nothing!"

The word came out as a squeak, and Bella's face was so red Castiel couldn't help rolling her eyes.

"Whatever you do, do not go into acting." She advised solemnly. "You suck at lying, Bells."

"It's… It's nothing." Bella tried to be casual, and Castiel didn't believe her for a second. "Just…I'm…really not talking to Edward right now. I'm…talking to Jake."

Castiel was speechless, and she could feel how high she'd raised both of her eyebrows on her forehead because she had not in a million years been expecting that one.

Yeah, she hadn't been watching Trent and Bella extremely closely recently, but she should have seen this one, right?

It only took a quick second of thought to realize why she hadn't seen this part. She didn't really like Edward, and the few times she'd seen futures with Bella and Edward together the two were being…very cringe-y and gooey with each other as they compared themselves to Romeo and Juliet. She'd jump out of those visions like a preschooler who was afraid of catching cooties.

She'd never tell Bella she'd seen her truly spectacular romantic dramatics with Edward because she was sure it would just mortify them both.

The realization that she'd been intentionally avoiding her friend's love life, and had missed something as vital as Bella breaking up with her vampire boyfriend whose family was supposed to be changing her once she graduated high school, made her sure Caius was going to chew her out when he found out about this slip.

"As in like…you're taking a break or you took a break?" Castiel's enunciation of the question left no doubt what she was asking, and she was sure Bella knew exactly what she meant as her friend feebly tried to avoid the question.

"Enough about me! You never finished explaining what happened between your dad and Marcus-"

"Yes I did." Castiel gave her friend a pointed look. "Don't avoid the-"

"So you're not mad at him anymore for punching your dad?"

Castiel made a face.

"I'm not happy about it but he's still my best friend." Castiel grumbled, setting her chin on the arm she had folded on Marcus's desk. "It's hard to be pissed at him forever. I was already getting over it before I got sick and he swooped in to baby me without a single complaint. No matter how mad he might make me sometimes…he's still a good partner who's allowed to make mistakes. Now quit trying to distract me. What's going on with you and Edward?"

"Cas, please, please don't tell anyone!"

That response was answer enough. It wasn't just a small break Bella and Edward were taking.

"Bells!" Castiel hissed at the screen, exasperated. "First off, I'm in Marcus's office and while he's being all polite and not trying to eavesdrop it doesn't mean he can't hear what's going on inside our rooms, and second I touch Aro all the time-"

She paused, her expression pinching as her brain caught up to what she just said, "Okay, wow, that sounded way less sexual in my head."

Bella laughed; she couldn't help it.

"Aro's gonna tease me for that later." Castiel sighed, "Anyway girl, it's not like it was gonna stay private forever that you dumped Edward."

"I didn't…dump him." Bella said awkwardly, "I just…broke up with him."

"That is called dumping someone Isabella." Kemar's voice made Castiel jump, and she didn't see Bella's suddenly much more eager expression at the sound of his voice as she turned to her guard.

Kemar had strolled casually into the office without bothering to knock, the bottle of liquid cold medicine in his left hand and the small plastic dosing cap in the other. He set both down on the desk next to Castiel after giving her a pointed look as he rounded the desk to stand beside her in view of the laptop's webcam.

"So you finally dumped that self-loathing, holier-than-thou, golden child of the Cullens'," Kemar remarked dryly, watching Bella's cheeks go from pink to red as he stared at her on the screen, nudging the side of Castiel's head with his elbow before pointing offhandedly at the medicine bottle in a very obvious nonverbal command that she drink it. "Good for you Swan, but the Cullens' are about to get summoned for not reporting the change in your status with their family."

"Wait! Please don't-,"

"That is the law, Isabella." Kemar said firmly, the new seriousness of the conversation making it so he didn't even laugh when Castiel gagged as she drank her cold medicine. "The Cullens' seem to believe themselves above it yet again, so they'll need a reality check. The masters are about to send guards to the area anyway, so don't feel bad about having spilled your new relationship status now."

"But-," Bella wanted to ask why the Volturi were sending guards back to Forks - all the threats to her and the Cullens had already been handled by the Volturi, so what could this possibly mean? She was more distracted though by the very real possibility that they might now be coming for her as well as the Cullens.

Because she knew about vampires, and the terms that had been discussed the very first time she met the Volturi, and again when she was there to hide from Victoria, were clear.

Her humanity was temporary. She was to join the Cullens and be turned by them, and if they refused to do it, she was to be turned by the Volturi and released on her own once her newborn year was up.

That or die, but the death thing wasn't what she was aiming for.

"Relax Isabella," Kemar rolled his eyes at her clearly fearful expression. "If you're marrying the shifter now you're still part of a family that lives secretly within the supernatural world. I suppose you found the one loophole that would allow you to remain human."

Bella flinched. Marrying the shifter? She had absolutely no plans for marriage - she just turned 18 for crying out loud! Yeah, she was dating Jake, and he was positively thrilled to be calling her his girlfriend and to have finally won her over from Edward, but-

"Kemar, can you leave me alone with Cas please?"

Bella didn't know how she managed to make her voice as firm as it was, or how she managed to make her expression switch from mortified to mad at a moment's notice, but she did it.

Kemar raised his eyebrows at her, shrugged, and vanished.

Bella heard the door close and watched a bemused Castiel blink at her, looking around Marcus's now empty office.

"Huh, he even took the cold medicine with him and I didn't even notice." Castiel gave Bella a small, genuine smile, "Good for you telling him to get the hell out Bells. He would have ridden you 'til you were a blubbering mess if you let him."

Bella stared at her in shock for a long moment before Castiel realized what she just said.

"Jeez - okay I meant figuratively. I meant he would have been on your case - get your head out of the gutter!"

Hoping her face wasn't going to be permanently red from this conversation, Bella got right to the point without any prior explanations or sugarcoating.

"I broke up with Edward because I realized recently what I should have realized a long time ago. He doesn't…treat me like a mate you know? He doesn't look at me like Marcus looks at you-,"

Castiel opened her mouth to mention that comparing mates to imprinted mates wasn't quite fair, but Bella stopped her with a shake of the head.

"He also doesn't look at me the way Carlisle looks at Esme, or Alice looks at Jasper, or Emmet looks at Rosalie. He doesn't come close to acting like your guard Afton does with his wife Chelsea - or any of the other mated guards I saw around the castle when I was there."

Bella's eyes had filled with tears, and Castiel's expression showed her all the sympathy and acceptance in the world.

She was really, really glad she and Cas became friends.

Because Cas looked at her like she cared, like she was sorry her friend was hurting and was ready to be there for her.

There was no pity in her friend's blue gaze, just understanding and sympathy.

"I don't think I ever really recovered from what he did when he left me in the woods that day. Being in Volterra also made me see that mated pairs - truly mated pairs - always felt like they belonged together. You never once seemed out of place beside Marcus, and I don't want to go on the rest of my human life feeling like I look ugly and boring next to Edward. I felt like I was never enough when I was with him, and I don't want to be turned into a vampire just for him to keep lying to me that I'm his mate when I'm not."

"Some vampires really can't tell Bells." Castiel said softly, trying to tell her friend in the gentlest way that it was more likely that Edward really did think she was his mate and not so much that he was blatantly lying to her. "Vampires are capable of having relationships and loving people who aren't their mates. Marcus is a prime example of that! It's just…not quite the same love as what they can experience if they do find them."

"When I realized the truth, I thought maybe it was supposed to be Jake you know?" Bella said sadly, drawing her legs to her chest, wrapping her arms around her knees, and settling the laptop on the bed in front of her once more - just a little further away so Castiel could still see her. "He was my sun when Edward left, and I always felt like he was a healthier option for me - like a soulmate that would have been meant to be if I never met the Cullens'.

"Now that we're dating though?" Bella put her chin on her knees. "I feel like I'm just a trophy he stole from a rival. He likes me, sure, but…part of it is definitely tainted by him liking the idea of me and not the actual me."

"He keeps talking like now we're the forever couple. Like we're gonna grow old together and have shifter babies and make Charlie so proud."

Bella shivered in disgust. "He's ignoring the fact that I don't like, or want, children. Not to mention he just completely ignores me when I bring up the very real possibility he could imprint one day and I'll just be…nothing to him if that happens."

"Bella." Castiel said firmly, causing her friend to stop staring off into space and look at her on the screen. "You aren't nothing. If it doesn't work out between you and Jake - and by what you're saying you already seem pretty done with him - you're welcome here. Honestly… you'll be expected to come here."

"Then I'll be turned into a newborn and put out on my ass once I'm not crazy with thirst anymore." Bella said morosely, and Castiel could see her friend was pulling into herself, trying to put up walls and hide so she could wallow in her own self-pity.

Bella had never been the depressive type before Edward, and damn did Castiel ever want to kick that bronze-haired fucker in the balls for destroying Bella's self-esteem so thoroughly that she had no sense of self-worth anymore.

"Kemar!" Castiel called loudly enough that Bella jumped, knowing it was time to summon the no-bullshit guard who constantly talked her off her own emotional ledges when she got too worked up.

"Cas-," Bella let go of her legs immediately, starting to protest as Kemar ended up at Castiel's shoulder again, bending slightly at the waist so she could see him fully.

"I knew I was about to be summoned to end the pity party." Kemar sighed, "You had me all impressed a few minutes ago when you kicked me out and I will admit I was glad to hear that you're seeing your relationships for what they are, toxic bullshit and all."

Bella wished she could pass away on the spot as Kemar unabashedly admitted to his eavesdropping on the conversation, but she didn't have time to dwell on her mortification as Kemar continued.

"Now I'm disappointed though. You're better than this Swan. You and Castiel both have a tendency to wrap yourselves up in your insecurities - but you have a longer way to go to reestablish your sense of self-worth."

Castiel elbowed Kemar in the ribs, knowing she was giving herself a bruise by doing so but feeling like it was necessary all the same to give her guard some kind of reminder to not be such a blunt asshole all the time.

He seemed to have gotten the message because he paused for a short moment before saying in a clipped tone. "We wouldn't abandon you, Isabella. If you don't join the guard here, the Volturi will find you a placement so you can adjust and figure out who you really are."

Bella stared at him, and Castiel leaned forward with her good elbow on the desk so she could take the lead in the conversation once again.

"You aren't alone, Bells. I'll just speak for myself right now - but know I've always got your back. I'm not going anywhere."

Kemar watched as Isabella's eyes welled with tears at Castiel's words. When someone like Bella - whose largest issues stemmed from abandonment - was reassured by a friend that they were never going to leave them by choice, it really did make all the difference in the world.

Now all that was left to do was talk with Master Marcus, and discuss with the other brothers what the plans were for Isabella Swan.

---

Kemar smirked as Castiel left Caius's office, trailing after Afton and rubbing her temple with her free hand as he shut the blonde king's door to the hall.

"Man I knew Caius was gonna ream me out for missing the whole Bella breaking up with Edward thing," Castiel groaned, her head still pounding from her cold and the tongue lashing she just got from her angriest brother. "But did he have to raise his voice like that? My ears are ringing."

"Your ears are probably ringing because you've got a cold num-nut," Kemar said with a roll of his eyes.

"I don't blame you for missing it." Afton sided with her as the three of them made their way down the hall toward the kitchens. Marcus was currently with Aro discussing something that was probably related to any of the twenty or so trials he'd missed since she'd gotten sick, or the issues with the newborns running around in America. She hadn't asked, she just knew he had work to do, as this usually happened when he spent extra time with her. "From what you said you've seen in the past, I wouldn't want to witness two teenagers declaring their love for each other in Romeo and Juliet quotes either."

"Yeah, that's pretty embarrassing." Kemar agreed.

"Kemar, Afton, shut up," Castiel hissed. "Can you please keep that to yourself? I don't want everyone knowing embarrassing shit one of my best friends did. If you keep talking so loud it's gonna find its way around the rumor mill."

Afton hummed his ascension to her words but Kemar just laughed.

"Fine, but I'm gonna tease her about it whenever she's around again."

"Kemar! Don't you dare-,"

"Man I can't wait to see the Cullens' faces next time they're here and they realize we won't ignore their disregard for the law." Kemar ignored her, sounding smug as he unnecessarily stretched his arms out above him - a physical display portraying he was completely at ease with the current state of events. "Caius's summons will clearly state they're to arrive within ninety days. I'll bet you five thousand euros they come as late as possible Afton."

"You're on," Afton stuck his hand out for Kemar to shake, and when he did he said, "I'll bet on less than thirty. They're pretentious, sure, but they're also an anxious lot."

Any further remarks about the Cullens were interrupted by a familiar voice calling Castiel's name.

"Castiel!"

They were only two halls away from the kitchens now, and hearing Aro calling for her in this area of the castle was not common.

She and both of her guards turned at the sound.

The sight of Aro, with Marcus standing beside him wearing a very grave look on his face, made her feel like her stomach did a backflip.

She didn't need to ask what was wrong, because Aro was already talking.

"Bal is here. He's come for his favor."

"I…" She was speechless for a long minute in which every vampire around her stood as silent sentinels, giving her the time she needed for her brain to register what Aro had said and what it meant.

Nausea coiled in her stomach, and she shook her head, feeling her anxiety reflected in her face. "I - I thought we had time and we were going to plan and-,"

"He has an idea of what he wants to do," Aro said, his voice devoid of any emotion. "We're getting things in order as we speak; you need to come with us now. Dinner will have to wait."

She knew there was no need to mention she had absolutely no desire to eat right now; she was sure that fact would be obvious to everyone with how pale and sweaty she'd abruptly gone.

The next ten minutes were a surreal blur. Castiel felt like she was having another nightmare as she was escorted to a large empty room with the farthest wall taken up by a large projector screen. There was a projector mounted on the ceiling, and a row of five computers to her left all manned by vampires she'd never seen who didn't even bother to turn at her entrance. They were completely focused on what they were doing on the computers, the screens flashing and scrolling way too fast for her human eyes to track what they were working on.

There were racks of computer parts that were lit up and whirring as their fans worked to cool them down, and she recognized Evan standing by them and checking the bundles of the many many wires that led away from the racks and trailed along the walls and floors to where the other vampires were sitting.

It kind of reminded her of a less flashy version of MTAC from NCIS. Just no one had bothered with plush chairs or carpeting. This room was completely utilitarian in purpose, only made more clear by the fact her breath was visible as she exhaled.

Marcus stood behind her, both his hands on her shoulders as he positioned her in the dead center of the room. He'd taken off his heavy cloak to put around her, knowing her t-shirt and jeans would not keep her warm enough in here - especially since she was still ill.

Three new guards entered the room, their arms full of cords and jumbled shapes she couldn't make out in the relative darkness - the only light being the dim glow of the idling projector casting a Windows logo on the screen - and they went immediately to where Aro was as he stood behind the five vampires at the computers and engaged him in conversation.

Kemar appeared at her side, making her startle.

"Sorry." He didn't sound sorry as he held a full dosing cup of cold medicine out to her. "Drink this."

"I had more medicine an hour ago." She said quietly, feeling like her lips were numb as Marcus's hands tightened on her shoulders - albeit much more firmly on her good shoulder than her bad one. "It's too soon."

"Drink it," Kemar repeated much more firmly, putting the cup into her free hand. "Trust me, you'll appreciate being a little loopy from cold medicine with what's about to happen."

"I might not be as effective-," She started to object, only stopping at Kemar's derisive snort.

"So?"

That one little word had a memory echoing in her head, a memory of Kemar reminding her that regardless of stupid favors and debt repayments, she didn't actually owe the bastard who'd harmed her anything at all.

She was doing what was expected of her and giving her assistance to this… assassination plan Bal had brewing. They'd never agreed that she needed to be in tip-top shape to help him.

She was equally sure Aro and Marcus had warned Bal of her current illness when he'd come to collect, and he clearly hadn't given a fuck.

Castiel downed the dosing cup in one swallow, her face only pinching briefly as she gave it back to Kemar.

"I'll be standing by the door with Afton," Kemar said the words to Marcus, though she was sure they were meant for her as he turned and walked away.

She watched him take his place beside Afton, not missing the encouraging smile Afton gave her and wishing she could reciprocate it.

Marcus didn't say anything to her, but she felt him tense behind her as she was approached by one of the guards who'd just entered to talk to Aro - the only other female in the room besides herself - until the girl stopped only two feet away from her and bowed her head in greeting.

"I'm here to hook you up Lady Castiel." The girl said politely. Her brown hair was cut short to her chin and she tucked a strand that had fallen in her face behind her ear as she waited for Castiel's response.

"Oh-kay?" Castiel said slowly, not bothering to hide her confusion at what being hooked up meant.

It was clear Marcus knew what it meant though, because his hands moved to pull her hair back from her face, freeing her ears so the girl in front of her could press an earpiece into her left ear.

"Master Aro will be on your right," the girl explained as if Castiel had objected to her ear selection, startling Castiel slightly as she grabbed the front of her shirt without warning and started clipping something to it.

If it hadn't been for Marcus's place behind her she probably would have stepped back at least once as the vampire in front of her hooked her up with what was clearly a microphone and battery pack, securing the mic to her collar and the pack to the top of her jeans since it was heavier.

Marcus was not given any headpiece or microphone, but when Aro walked up to her she could see a cord that matched hers leading to an earpiece in his right ear and a small black mic clipped to his suit lapel.

"Am - am I going to have to instruct them?" Castiel swallowed, looking to her raven-haired brother for some - any - reassurance he could give as she felt the hand that was hidden by her sling beginning to tremble.

"No, you just hold my hand and show me everything. I'll be doing all the talking." Aro reassured her, standing at her side and taking her right hand in his left.

"What am I even -"

"Bal will relay all the details," Marcus said, squeezing her shoulders again and still being extra mindful of her injury, "You'll know when you find it."

"Then why do I have to be mic'd up?"

"Because you're the psychic one, and if you see anything that could jeopardize my men I want to save ourselves the momentary relay delay between you and Aro. A split second could make the difference between me keeping my best man at hand and spending the next few months trying to find good help." Bal's arrogant voice came from the doorway, and she turned along with Marcus and Aro to see him striding toward her as if he'd just been declared king of the universe.

She didn't say anything, though she did want to say something biting about the fact that he kept referring to his employees as objects and not people, and he smirked at her as he misinterpreted her silence.

The same guard who'd hooked her up walked silently up to Bal and started fitting him with the same wires she and Aro had.

He didn't even bother to look the girl in the eye. He was too busy staring at Castiel.

"Don't worry, I'll remind my men that I expect them to listen to anything they hear coming from a female voice during the operation. You won't have to fret about them dismissing you."

She hadn't thought about that at all, and she scowled as Bal basically rubbed in her face the fact that his men were not trained to take the words of a silly girl - and a human girl at that - seriously.

Castiel would have been really pissed right about now if it wasn't for the scathing look the guard hooking up Bal shot up at him without his notice.

At least she wasn't the only one to notice the guy was a total misogynist.

"Just tell me you hate women so we don't have to do this dance every time Bal," she muttered, knowing she sounded hella bitchy but not caring even one bit.

She turned away from him to glare at the still uninteresting projector as he laughed.

"And there's the bite. Good. You'll need that for what we're about to do."

As if his words were a cue, the screen across from them flickered and they were shown a confusing whirl of colors for a few seconds before the image settled and Castiel could tell right away that they were watching what she could only assume was a live video from a man wearing a mounted camera.

The rush of colors had been the man setting the camera in place somewhere on his body - Castiel wasn't sure if it was mounted to his chest or head but it didn't really matter - and she was too distracted to notice Bal coming to stand on Aro's other side, or her brother taking her hand in his own and holding it tightly.

Aro's firm grip and cool palm was familiar and reassuring, but she could feel her nerves resurfacing as the screen split in two, and the right half was suddenly a grid of many different rooms she didn't recognize.

Aro squeezed her hand once as Bal spoke again. "Excellent, your men got into his camera feed. It'll be nice to be able to check and see if my guys have been glimpsed in his cameras. I've never been able to crack his security system."

Aro didn't respond to Bal, and Castiel briefly wished Caius were with them to rub in his face the fact that their guards were better than his.

She felt slight pressure as Aro squeezed her hand again, and knew it was as good as a laugh in this situation.

The view on the left side of the screen - the camera that was mounted to whoever the heck Bal ordered to wear it - was showing more men filing into the room the cameraman was waiting in.

All of them were dressed in black, half of their faces were covered by dark scarves, and they all had very large guns.

The nausea was back, and she tried not to think about what they were about to do and instead focused on the fact that Bal seemed to have sent only his human employees to do this task.

Which could only mean the man they were after was also human. If that was so, why couldn't Bal get to him personally? Vampires were so much faster than humans and nearly indestructible after all. There was realistically no reason why Bal shouldn't have been able to end this one-on-one with his competitor.

Aro answered her unspoken question.

"Bal has lost many of his men by underestimating Amaldo. One of which was a friend of his who was immortal as well. We can still be killed with bombs my dear."

Castiel swallowed audibly. Of course she knew vampires could be killed with bombs, that's part of the reason for their laws mandating secrecy.

The last thing they needed was the collective human population of the earth panicking and starting a nuclear war in the hope of killing the vampires.

"We're live." A voice said from over by the computers, interrupting her brief conversation with Aro. She didn't turn to see who'd spoken since she was sure she wouldn't be able to tell anyway, and Bal hummed in acknowledgment, choosing not to comment on Aro's words.

"Raise your guns to your shoulders if you can hear me," Bal said in a calm, clear voice.

On the screen, eleven men dressed all in black raised their weapons to their right shoulders as if they were about to fire and turned away from the cameraman - who made twelve as they could see the barrel of his rifle in the corner of the view from his camera on the screen - and faced the only door visible in the room they were in.

"Good! We have assistance today to help us finally take down Amaldo. You might hear another male voice, or a female's voice relaying information to you at any moment. I expect you to obey any command you may hear without hesitation, as hesitation could be the difference between your life and death. Am I clear?"

Every man raised their weapons briefly in acknowledgment.

"Okay Castiel." Aro turned to look down at her; she could see so in her peripheral vision but she couldn't bring herself to look away from the screen. She hoped his mic was muted as he continued in a gentle voice. "You'll need to watch for the safest paths for these men to follow in this building so they can get to where Amaldo is hiding. Watch them as they move through the building and think about any warnings you'll need to give them so they can change their course if it becomes dangerous. If you make the decision to speak and warn them, then your visions will change and I'll be able to relay the new course to them. You shouldn't have to actually speak at all."

"You'll know Amaldo when you see him." Aro continued. "Big man, dark hair, tanned complexion, expensive clothing. Exactly the stereotype you'd picture when you think of a drug lord who likes to traffic people on the side for extra income."

Her stomach rolled at that and Marcus squeezed her shoulders as he felt her spike of anxiety, a silent presence behind her that she was exceedingly grateful for.

"Lead them through the safest path, one at a time, until they reach him. When they do, your favor is done."

Castiel slipped into her foresight only slightly, so that she could hear Aro's next words before he spoke them out loud.

You can turn and leave, you don't have to watch the endgame or wait for permission. I'm sorry you have to do this.

She pursed her lips to keep the bottom one from trembling as she came back to the present for one final moment before taking a deep breath.

Bal's a bad dude, Castiel thought, and this guy's an even worse dude. Don't let this shit weigh too deeply on you. You're saving lives.

Her mental pep talk sounded feeble even in her own head.

Bad guys or not, she was about to have blood on her hands.

Aro squeezed her hand and then changed his grip so his fingers were twined with hers.

Thank you. Was her last thought before she took a final calming breath and slipped into her foresight, allowing her visions to take hold of her and letting her brother and mate take care of the rest.

Her pupils went wide, Marcus's form leaned over her protectively, and Aro started to talk.

"Go straight through the door ahead of you, turn at the second hall on the right, and pause for thirteen seconds. Two men will come out of the third door in the hall. Do not use your guns to silence them. You must remain unheard."

Bal watched in utter fascination as his men heeded Aro's words, opening the door and passing through it in pairs, then traveling down the nondescript hallway in the direction Aro instructed.

His men waited completely silently until the very door Aro had foretold opened and two men exited, their backs to Bal's men and completely unaware they were not alone in the hall as four of his employees grabbed them and silenced them by slitting their throats.

His men were not visible on any of the cameras from Amaldo's security system, and as long as they did this right they would only be seen in those cams very briefly - and hopefully briefly enough that no one would be watching to warn the thorn in his side of his impending death.

For several minutes, they followed Aro's instructions with no hesitation; moving down halls quickly and waiting around corners until a set number of seconds had passed before continuing. There was one moment of tension when the coat of one of his men was visible for two seconds in the middle right grid of the video feed from the security system and Castiel caught her breath.

Aro ordered everyone to be still, and Bal was sure that someone monitoring Amaldo's security cameras was watching to see if he'd just imagined the dark coat flapping into the frame.

It was the longest wait so far at thirty-seven seconds, but eventually Aro gave the go-ahead to continue to the far left door.

Aro told Bal's men to walk quickly through the next two corridors and go down two flights of stairs.

They did as they were told, and Aro was sure Bal's assassins were starting to get antsy by how they began to fidget and startle when one of their comrades got too close to them unexpectedly.

Without being instructed to, the leader of the group opened the first door in the new hall they'd entered and ushered the men in.

It was a mistake, and there were four people in the room the twelve hitmen entered.

"STOP!" Castiel's voice was so loud in the earpiece that Aro and Bal both winced.

It was clear why she'd spoken at once.

The cameraman's chest cam showed a view of four cowering girls huddled in a corner, clutching each other as all of Bal's men pointed their guns at them.

Castiel's heart felt like it had shattered into a million pieces at the sight of them.

Girls was exactly the correct description of the four terrified children clutching each other and crying silently. Not one girl made even a peep as Bal's men surprised them. They looked freezing in the short, satin slips they wore that were no better than lingerie.

And not a single one of them looked older than thirteen.

I'm gonna throw up. Castiel thought, realizing that the girls they'd stumbled upon completely by accident were Bal's competitor's goods.

Marcus's hands were tight on her shoulders, and she might have turned to him if she hadn't caught a flash of what Bal's men wanted and were about to do.

"Hurt those girls, and I promise I'll make sure every single one of you dies," she spat, watching the two men who'd begun to reach into their pockets for their knives freeze.

"Ignore the girls," Bal said. "Malcolm, stay with them and keep them quiet. If you touch a single one of them I'll kill you myself."

Castiel wasn't sure if Bal was just saying that so she didn't blow his entire mission, or if it was because the sight of the girls disturbed him as much as it did her.

Bal was an asshole though, so she figured it was more than likely the former.

She could feel Marcus's pride and felt Aro's lips touch the top of her head as he leaned over to kiss her hair.

Of course Aro would be proud that she'd just made a death threat. He knew she was completely serious when she said she promised every single one of them would die.

He'd seen her making sure she left them to be caught by Amaldo's men if they didn't leave the children be.

If Malcolm objected at all to being left behind by the group he didn't say so, and one look up at Aro's pointed expression showed Castiel that they had to stay on track.

This brief hiccup could have cost Bal's men valuable time that they needed to remain undetected, and the last thing they needed was for this mission to fail and for Bal to demand her help again.

Castiel slipped back into her visions, missing the hungry look Bal cast over at her as Aro began instructing again.

They had to go slower this time; every decision Castiel made for them took longer than the last by many seconds. Bal's men were five levels below ground in his enemy's compound and taking so much time sneaking quietly down halls and hiding inside random rooms at Aro's prompting that they were getting very visibly nervous now. Everyone watching the screens could see it.

"Almost there," Aro said emotionlessly, trying to keep Bal's employees from losing their heads as the now eleven of them crept down a hall that had an intersection right in the middle with another hallway.

The leader of the group had just decided to head straight to the door at the end of the hall and ignore the left and right passages as Aro hissed "STOP!" loudly enough that he stumbled as the men behind him froze.

Marcus's arms were both wrapped around Castiel's torso, his left cradling hers in her sling as his lips brushed her hair.

She was usually very still when she watched the future, but the futures she was observing were so close that she fidgeted and moved a bit in the present.

His mate had gone unnaturally stiff at the same moment Aro had told Bal's men to stop.

"The door at the end of the hall is a trap. Open it and it'll explode."

"We must be close," Bal said, excitement obvious in his voice even though he was trying to sound disinterested.

He didn't seem to care at all that Aro had just mentioned a live bomb.

"Left hall, go straight, take the second exit down a set of stairs. You'll meet Amaldo's guards there. Don't hesitate." Aro gave the final set of instructions, still holding his human sister's hand tightly in his own as she saw the grand finale Bal was waiting for.

Aro didn't bother turning to Bal to see the expression of excitement on his face as he watched his men hurry to follow the instructions. He wasn't concerned that they were clearly visible in his rival's security cameras now - images of them popping up in multiple views on the grid-like video feeds - because it was a non-issue at this point.

Aro's attention was on Castiel, who'd pulled out of her visions and was now completely in the present with them, looking incredibly green as she averted her eyes from the screen.

He let go of her hand at once, allowing her the freedom to rip the earpiece from her ear and hastily grab at the wires under her shirt.

Castiel threw the equipment on the floor, not caring one bit if she damaged it as Aro told Marcus to let her go. She needed to leave before it was too late - her guards would watch over her and they could stay to deal with Bal. There was no reason for her to see the endgame twice.

She'd already watched Bal's men gun down sixteen of Amaldo's armed guards, and she'd also already seen them barge into the final room where a large man with dark hair shot to his feet behind the desk he was sitting at, looking stunned at their entrance.

Seventeen known lives on her conscience was enough. She knew if she kept watching she'd see even more as Bal's men cleaned house.

At least she could find comfort in the fact that Aro would make sure those young girls weren't harmed.

She'd never forgive him if they were.

Afton threw open the door as she jogged over to where he and Kemar were standing with their backs against it only moments before. Neither of them commented as she freed herself from Marcus's cloak so she wouldn't trip on it, discarding it on the floor right in the doorway.

Afton picked it up, and Kemar was at her back as they rushed out into the hall, not daring to touch her in her clearly fight-or-flight–driven state just in case it startled her.

As Afton turned to close the door, he saw a surprised-looking man standing behind his desk on the screen. Bal hadn't bothered to turn at Castiel's hurried escape.

He hoped it would be the last they'd see of the cocky asshole for a long while.

Castiel was almost all the way down the hall by the time Afton turned to watch her hurrying along with Kemar at her heels. The other guard didn't dare to touch her - or even try to talk to her - which he knew was probably the best play right now.

She was overwhelmed and frightened; they needed to just let her go to wherever she felt safest before dealing with the fallout.

They didn't get a chance to turn and head toward the main section of the castle before someone entered from the opposite direction.

If Castiel was surprised to see Caius standing in front of her she didn't show it, and the blonde king hardly got the words "Castiel are you okay?" out of his mouth before she was on him.

Caius cursed once in Latin, purely out of surprise, as his curly red-headed sister threw herself into his arms and started to cry.

Afton stopped next to Kemar, sharing a look with him that said, 'Should we explain what's going on?' before it became clear that it would have been unnecessary.

"Shh Castiel," Caius soothed, one hand on the top of her head while the other rubbed her back. "It's alright. I'm sorry I wasn't there."

Castiel started to cry harder, and Caius shot a pointed look at her guards over her head and mouthed Find my wife, and Sulpicia too.

Afton and Kemar both nodded and left Caius standing alone in the hallway with Castiel.

While the blonde king might act like he was incapable of it, he was getting very good at comforting other people. Caius Volturi's ability to show that he cared, and his ability to be gentle and soothing when it was called for, did not just extend to his mate.

It extended to his baby sister too.

---

Castiel had never had a hangover before, and she understood now why people complained so much about them.

Paired with her cold, the hangover she was nursing as she sat alone in Marcus's private office was probably one of the worst things she ever felt in her life health-wise.

As long as she didn't count the werewolf virus at least.

She had a glass of water, a glass of juice, and some crackers that she was ignoring as she tried to read her book in privacy.

After she'd fulfilled her favor to Bal, theoretically covering her hands with blood in the process, she went and cried to Caius like the little wimp she was until her sisters came to pry her off him.

They'd dragged her to Sulpicia and Aro's private rooms. Athenadora went to hunt down drinks, and when she returned the three of them sat in Sulpicia's reading area and got fucking wasted.

Well, she and Athenadora got wasted, Sulpicia only let herself get tipsy, citing some rule the family had that if they were going to be drinking at least one of them had to keep their wits about them.

It hadn't taken much to get Castiel drunk, and it didn't take much more on top of that to get her absolutely shitfaced. She didn't know the exact number of fancy mixed drinks she had courtesy of Sulpicia, but she knew it was only a very small fraction of what Dora had.

When she was told it took a lot of drinking to get a vampire drunk, they hadn't been exaggerating.

When their mates had come to find them hours later, Castiel and Dora had been giggling nonstop about…well nothing at all, as Sulpicia laughed at the two of them while they sat on the floor in front of her chair.

Marcus had been most unimpressed with her sisters for letting her get as drunk as she was, and she'd tried to tell him she was fine, but the second she stood up the whole mini-library went sideways, and she would have fallen right on her head if Marcus hadn't caught her.

Her sisters had argued that she deserved to get happy-drunk after the night she'd had, but Marcus reminded them that this was much more than happy-drunk, and Castiel had not only skipped dinner, but she'd also never been drunk before in her life, and after that both of her sisters sobered some and looked a little guilty.

That was pretty impressive at the time because Athenadora was smashed.

Marcus didn't have an issue with her drinking; he just wished he'd been there so he could have kept her from going too far and at least made sure she ate and drank some water too. If he had been there she wouldn't have woken up with the raging hangover she had now.

She'd already taken four ibuprofen, and could confidently say they were not working.

There was a very soft knock on the office door, and Castiel groaned in acknowledgment as Marcus came in, closing the door quietly behind him.

He was holding some papers in his right hand.

"How are you doing dearest?"

The concern in his voice only made her feel worse.

"If I said fine I'd be a liar."

He gave her a wan smile, strolling to the front of his desk and glancing down at the papers in his hands before holding them out to her.

Her skeptical look at them was enough to make him speak.

"Breaking news. It's a web article that I thought you might like to see."

Castiel had no idea what he could possibly think she wanted to see right now. Today was devoted to her being alone and feeling sorry for herself - as she'd silently decided this morning when she woke up feeling like crap.

A hangover was hardly punishment enough for what she'd done.

Marcus felt the dip in his mate's emotions, and the sharp sting of sorrow as her mind returned to what had happened last night.

She'd been too drunk after he got her to their rooms to have a genuine conversation about what she'd done for Bal. He'd spent the early hours of the morning trying to get her to keep her hands to herself and gently turning down her advances whenever her drunken state encouraged her to try to unbutton his shirt.

He'd gently reminded her no less than eight times last night that he was never going to touch her when she wasn't sober, and she'd just giggle and pout at him before trying again five minutes later.

Castiel didn't seem to remember that part though, and this morning she'd been very clear that she wanted to be alone so he didn't push her.

This was something he felt she really needed to see though.

He set the papers down in front of her. He'd translated the page to English for her but he knew that the title was not what caught her attention the moment her eyes fell on the sheets and she straightened up in his chair.

Under a bold black headline were what could only be school photos by the posed, smiling headshots of four young girls.

Four young girls she recognized at once.

Taking the papers in her trembling right hand, Castiel finally read the bold 'Four Missing Girls Found in Mall Parking Garage.' headline. Key phrases caught her eye as she scanned the article:

…abandoned vehicle in mall parking garage…parking attendant ran vehicle plates…police were called after being notified about a stolen vehicle…

…four girls were found bound and sedated in the back…all have been confirmed kidnapped… no known suspect at this time…human trafficking is suspected as all girls were from different regions…blah blah blah.

"Unfortunately there was no more hospitable option available for them," Marcus said quietly as he watched Castiel's expression fall as she read. "Bal was instructed to make sure there was no way they could be traced back to us or his operation. The girls believe they were just re-kidnapped to be sold again but were luckily found by police before that could happen."

Castiel said nothing.

"I know how you feel after what Bal made you do," Marcus said gently, "and I know, evil or not, it weighs on you to know what you helped him do. But I want you to try to see the good. Lives were lost, yes, and those girls have a long road of recovery ahead of them, but they're going home because of you."

Her eyes welled with tears and Marcus rounded his desk to lift her from his chair, taking the seat himself and reorienting her on his lap with her head tucked under his chin as he wrapped his arms around her.

"Four innocent children have been returned to their families because of you, my sweet girl. Never question your judgment, or your goodness, for ending the humans who were the real monsters in this scenario."

She started to cry, and Marcus didn't make her feel bad about it at all as he let her feel her remorse and her pride exactly as they came.

Vampires like to talk about humans as if they aren't very emotionally complex compared to them, but in this moment the confusing jumble of guilt and relief made her feel as though she was ready for a 24-hour argument with whoever tried to deny that all people were breathing, thinking creatures with flaws and triumphs that made them real.

Castiel had never felt as ashamed, or as alive as she did right now, her mate holding her in his arms and validating that she was more than allowed to feel any damn thing she wanted after what she'd just been through.

She only hoped that for the next few weeks, she could rest.

---

The weather in northern Oregon was rainy, which was so very predictable for the Pacific Northwest. It might be annoying, but the deployed guards couldn't deny that the consistently overcast skies were useful to them.

Demetri and Felix had arrived the previous day when Corin - who'd be leading the group of fifteen guards sent by Master Caius to scout the area and see if they could find the ones responsible for all the messy murders and disappearances - called them to relay that they'd most definitely found their uncontrolled newborns.

They were in Portland, standing in an empty field in a deserted park at one in the morning. Corin was beside Demetri and Felix as four of the lower guard dragged a male and a female vampire to stand in front of them, arms held behind their backs and heads held still by the fists in their hair.

"Yo, what's the deal?" The male protested as he was pushed to his knees in front of Felix. "We were here first! If you're all trying to screw us out of our city, don't think we're not going to fight you for it!"

"Yeah!" The female backed her mate up as she was pushed to a kneeling position in front of Demetri. "This is our turf. Let us go and we'll fight ya one-on-one for it."

Demetri's eyebrows were raised in disbelief as he responded to the pair. "We aren't here to fight you for your turf." He said the last two words sarcastically. "We're here because you've broken more than a dozen laws with your reckless killing of humans in this area due to your overfeeding and poorly disposed-of meals. You've both done more than enough to risk the exposure of our species to the humans, and you're going to be tried for your crimes."

Both of the newborns - though Demetri wasn't quite sure they were newborns anymore; their eyes weren't quite fiercely red enough for them to still be in their first year, and if they were they must be on the very tail end of it - looked confused at this.

"What're you talking about?" The boy snapped, squinting at Demetri and Felix in turn, "Whaddaya mean laws?"

"Ignorant or not," Felix said in a bored tone to Demetri, rolling his eyes as the female thrashed between the guards holding her and snarling when they wouldn't budge, "They've done enough damage that we are cleared to dispose of them. Let's just be done with this and head home."

"Woah woah woah!" The female sounded panicked as her head whipped between the two head guards. "What do you mean, dispose of us? You can't-"

"We are the upholders of our laws, little newborn," Corin snapped, "It doesn't matter if you don't know the laws or that your creator didn't bother to teach them to you, not when you've done as much damage as you two have and news outlets are starting to report about your screw-ups. We don't know where you came from or who you came from, but we will find out and deal with them too after we've put a stop to all the trouble you're causing."

The girl's breath caught as she registered what Corin was saying, her eyes widening in fear as she thrashed again, looking around frantically at the grouping of the rest of the guards who had come with them standing only a dozen feet away.

It was obvious they had no way out of this, and if Corin, Demetri, and Felix wanted to end them, they would.

"Hey wait, can't we like…get a plea deal or somethin'?" The male pleaded, casting a worried look at his partner. "You just said you don't know where we came from or who made us - but we can tell ya! We swear we'll tell ya whatever you wanna know just don't…"

He trailed off, his concerned gaze locked on his mate.

"Please don't hurt her."

Felix, Demetri, and Corin all looked at one another, feeling their resolve to end the pair faltering at the defeated plea in the male newborn's voice.

Yeah, their masters upheld the laws with an iron fist at times, but all the guards were taught to use their discretion with each individual case, and that being confronted with a rule breaker was never an excuse to be heartless.

"Should we call Master Aro?" Corin asked, and Felix nodded that he thought so, turning to let Demetri make the final choice.

With a sigh Demetri turned on his heel and walked fifty or so feet away before pulling out his phone.

Aro answered the call on the second ring, and after a rushed explanation and the simple phrase "The two newborns are ready to sing like canaries in return for leniency, master." Aro hummed as he thought through his final decision.

The newborns were incredibly tense as they waited to hear Aro's reply.

"I can't promise leniency, but I can promise a fair trial. Bring them in."

---

"Marcus, I'm really not sure I'm cut out for this."

Castiel had repeated this sentence over and over in the last fifteen minutes as Marcus helped her get dressed. She was wearing a sleeveless black dress that came to her mid-thighs, semi-sheer black tights, black heels with red bottoms, and her gold Volturi crest was clearly visible on her chest as Marcus stood before her and fastened her black winter cloak at the base of her throat - it was getting chilly in the castle again as the weather changed.

He'd already braided her hair to keep it out of her face, and to make sure his mark was undisputably visible at the base of her neck.

Every piece of her outfit was intentional. Everything she wore was her style, because in the end one of the most important things was that she be comfortable in what she was wearing, but her ensemble was all black in color to show her standing in the coven. Her crest was obvious against the black of her dress, and Marcus's was obviously visible as well showing that they were a mated pair. She could have left her hair down, but Marcus had been open and honest when he said he wanted no confusion at all that she was his during her first trial, and that his mark being visible should make people think twice before addressing her rudely or making a move toward her.

So for safety reasons, she'd allowed him to put her hair in a braid so it wouldn't cover her mark or her crest.

"You'll do great Castiel. Besides, I told you there's no need to fret since you'll just be observing today."

"What if I end up speaking and I say something stupid."

"I can't imagine anything you'd say that would be stupid." Marcus said with a raised brow, stepping back from her and looking her up and down before nodding his approval. "But even if you did manage to say something completely unhinged, it wouldn't be a big deal since Aro does it all the time."

"Be serious," Castiel groaned, feeling her shoulders tense as he leaned down to kiss her forehead before going to retrieve his black cloak from the back of the couch, putting it on over his suit, and fastening it.

"Oh, I am serious." Marcus gave her a smile and motioned her toward him. "This is a learning experience, Castiel. If you were to make a mistake - which you won't - it's not a big deal."

She came to his side without hesitation, fiddling with the strap of her sling and not bothering to hide the worried look on her face.

Both of his big hands came to cradle her face, and the coolness on her steadily warming cheeks was welcome.

"You are going to be a fantastic leader." Marcus said, his words low and sincere. "You are so compassionate and driven; you are a great asset to our family and our coven. Never doubt that."

Her throat felt swollen all of a sudden, and Marcus smiled at the look of absolute love in her eyes, letting his own feelings of love flow through their imprinting bond.

He knew exactly when she felt it because her eyelids fluttered slightly just before he leaned in and pressed a soft kiss to her mouth.

"We love you very much dearest. Do not worry about disappointing us as it's impossible. Just follow our lead and observe today's trial. You'll do just fine."

---

As she waited beside Marcus's throne with Afton behind her and Kemar standing at the bottom of the steps to the dais directly in front of her, Castiel busied herself with thoughts of what her dad and the Denalis were up to.

They were still in the castle, but she hadn't seen her dad since the day she yelled at him and Marcus, and there hadn't been much opportunity afterward to see him since she'd gotten sick.

But her cold had cleared up three days ago, and she knew it was only a matter of time before she'd need to pull Marcus aside and tell him she had to have a conversation with her dad.

It was still a sore spot for her, thinking about how her mate and her father disliked each other enough that it had come to physical blows, but she couldn't lie to herself and say she was still mad at Marcus for reacting passionately about a subject that had him clinically depressed and borderline suicidal for thousands of years before she had arrived.

He hadn't actually hurt her dad. Sure, she got really mad whenever she thought about Marcus hitting him, but her dad really did need to stop treating her like she was still a thirteen-year-old who was scared of disappointing the most important person in her life and always did what she was told in order to prevent that.

There was a knock at the doors to the room, and Castiel was pulled from her musings as Kemar jumped up the steps to stand beside her.

She didn't need him to tell her it was time to move back so she was standing behind the brothers - she'd still be in clear view as she was to stand in the space between Aro and Marcus's thrones - because she knew her safety as the only human being in the room would always come before the logistics of the fact she should stand almost directly beside her mate as Sulpicia and Athenadora did.

Both of whom, she might add, were not currently present because they didn't need to be.

She was the only one who had to start learning how to rule. Both of her sisters were already plenty well-versed enough to be able to take over in their husbands' occasional absences.

Go figure.

Aro and Marcus had both assured her there wouldn't be any violence. They told her it wasn't common for things to turn into hand-to-hand fighting during a trial, and that she needn't worry about anything other than watching today.

She still felt incredibly nervous as Felix and Demetri entered the room with two nomads being dragged along behind them between a pair of guards each.

The nomads didn't struggle that hard, at least not as much as they would if they hadn't come willingly, but they were definitely on edge as they were pulled to a stop in the center of the room and Aro descended the steps.

Marcus had filled her in only very briefly on the subject of today's trial. All she knew was that these were the two newborns responsible for all the murders in Oregon - she recognized them vaguely from the blurry images she'd gotten when she was sick of two vampires with dark hair flipping over a car and dragging a struggling man out from the wreckage - and that they'd come with an offer to trade information for leniency.

Castiel hadn't watched the full scenario, as there was absolutely no point to her watching another human being eaten, but she knew that these were the two she'd seen doing it.

She might have doubted they were newborns if they had not kept casting confused and slightly hopeful looks in her direction.

Afton and Kemar both tensed in response, and Marcus stood with a low rumble coming from his chest as he watched the two newcomers.

The newborns averted their eyes from her and switched their gazes to Aro at once, recognizing that she was protected by the vampires around her.

Aro stopped in front of the pair, not turning away even as he heard Caius stand and reorient himself so he was at the top of the steps ready to back him up if need be.

Marcus would be preoccupied with keeping Castiel safe - which Caius and himself one hundred percent agreed with him on - but it was still nice to know that his brother had his back as well as the guards' backs.

They had promised Castiel there wouldn't be any fighting, but when it came to newborns one could never be completely certain that things wouldn't come to blows.

"So you two are the ones with such a blatant disregard for secrecy that you risk the lives of all those like you because you can't be troubled to be discreet with your way of life." It was a statement, not a question, and the boy - Castiel supposed boy was the right description since he looked like he might still be a teen, but she couldn't be quite sure - started protesting immediately.

"Hey we didn't know there were laws about staying hidden! That's not fair-"

"You never believed in our existence as a human did you?" Caius's mockingly disbelieving tone rang from his place behind Aro. "You thought vampires weren't real until you were one, so is it really so hard to deduce that we are keeping our existence hidden for a reason?"

The boy looked between Caius and Aro frantically for a second as the words sunk in.

"Listen, suit," He said to Aro, his eyes darting between him and Caius every other second, "We don't want any trouble."

"Yeah!" The voice of the girl with him was not as bell-like as most of the female vampires Castiel knew; it was a little deeper than usual, and honestly, Castiel thought it suited her. "We're here to give you information! We don't wanna fight, dude."

Unseen by anyone other than her guards, who'd both turned to look at her briefly when they heard her shift her weight, Castiel's head perked up at the voices of the two vampires. For the first time, she didn't feel completely out of her element because they, well, sounded like her.

Both of them were obviously American, and the way they talked also made her think they had to be close to her age - physically at least. They were probably around 18.

"My name is neither 'suit' nor 'dude.' It is Master Aro," Aro said calmly, though all the guards present could tell he was frustrated by the informality of the way the newborns spoke. "I expect to be addressed as such, and in return, I'll call you…"

He trailed off, and both newborns spoke at the same time, filling in the blanks for him.

"Steve."

"Shelly!"

"And what, Steve and Shelly, did you want to tell us to plead your case?"

Steve and Shelly looked at each other, waiting to see who would start first as Aro got straight to the matter at hand.

"Can we at least get a plea bargain or something first?" Shelly asked, feeling embarrassed as the guards around the room snickered under their breath.

"We don't work the same way as the human courts, which I'd be willing to bet you two probably had some dealings with when you were still human." Caius said with a malicious smile, "If your information is good enough, and we feel as though you really aren't a threat to peace, you will walk free. If not…"

He shrugged, and Castiel could see how worried the newborns looked as their heads swiveled around the room looking like they were hoping someone would speak up for them.

She wasn't used to the brothers being so harsh, but at the same time, she knew full well that newborns had to be handled with a certain level of brutality to be kept in line.

"Let's start with where you came from." Aro suggested, seeing that the two needed some guidance, "Then we'll go from there, shall we?"

"Well, I was born in Boston," Steve mumbled, looking skeptical as he glanced over at Shelly, "Shelly was born in-"

"Maybe," Marcus's dry tone made a few of the guards around the room grin, "Not quite so far back. When we ask where you came from, we mean where were you reborn? How did you become a vampire?"

"Idiot!" Shelly hissed at Steve loudly enough that even Castiel could hear it.

She had to fight back a smile herself at that.

"We were both changed in Washington state." Steve said, quickly bringing the retelling of his past to a much more recent point in time. "And we, uh, we got information that you guys - as the cops - will probably wanna know."

"Yeah!" Shelly agreed, nodding so fast her head was a blur to Castiel, "The whole reason we're vampires now is because the one who made us created us so we could kill some rival group of vampires for control of the whole Pacific Northwest."

"We were told by the guy who greeted us when we woke up - after all the burning," Steve winced at the memory, "That our creator was in hiding from a big group that was trying to steal all the blood from us and make it so we couldn't hunt freely."

Castiel's mouth fell open, and she saw the guards stationed around the room against the walls all begin to lean toward one another and whisper.

It couldn't be! This sounded like Victoria's-

Her train of thought was interrupted as Shelly spoke. "His name was Riley! He told us we had to defeat the group called the Colons or something so we could have all the humans to ourselves…"

No one interrupted Shelly and Steve as they told the story of how they'd been changed by Victoria - not that they ever knew her name or saw her - and woke up in the basement of some random house with Riley. They were told all the usual legends about vampires, warned not to go out in the sunlight, and told that they were all going to work together to take control of the Pacific Northwest from the Colons.

They started spouting off names of their fellow newborns without hesitation when Caius asked, and Castiel recognized every single one of them from the drawings and the list she and Marcus had put together before the Volturi guard had eliminated the army.

The army that the two newborns in front of them had no idea was already destroyed.

"And finally, there was that one guy that Riley took a real shine to." Steve's tone was bitter, "Dunno his name though. Just know he thought he was some hot shit 'cause he was all tall and pretty compared to the rest of us."

Shelly giggled, completely missing Steve's unhappy look at the sound as she said. "The pretty one with curly blonde hair. I only ever caught a glimpse of him."

Vampires calling another vampire pretty was saying something. Castiel immediately wondered if this final newborn was someone with accentuated beauty like Heidi. It would explain why Steve looked so displeased as his mate giggled when thinking about him.

This… couldn't be right though. They'd already named all the vampires she and Marcus had made extensive notes about.

Castiel was one hundred percent certain she'd never drawn any exceptionally handsome newborn with curly blonde hair, and she shook her head at Aro, letting her confusion show on her face as he turned to look at her.

A really good-looking tall dude with curly blonde hair. Four of the guards in the throne room had been present during the fight with Victoria's newborns, and they all shook their heads when Aro looked at them individually, silently relaying that they didn't remember any newborns fitting that description burning in the pyre.

"Yeah, big and pretty and talented. Riley liked him a whole lot." Steve sounded like the angry teenager he most likely was at the mention of another who took priority over him in his key newborn months, not noticing Aro's distraction. "More than he liked any of the rest of us. He was proud of how he turned out when our creator made him."

Castiel was trying to keep up, and not let herself start wallowing in her own self-disgust as she realized she'd missed something very important.

There had been yet another unaccounted newborn in Victoria's army. One Riley had taken a liking to because the big newborn with the curly blonde hair was talented and none of the rest of Victoria's newborns were.

The feeling clearly wasn't mutual though, by the now scathing looks on both Steve and Shelly's faces.

Even though it was starting to make her nervous, the fact that she had never seen a talented newborn in Victoria's army, she was glad that the only talented newborn in the mix had jumped ship before the battle that had involved their guards.

Castiel never would have forgiven herself if they'd gotten hurt.

It was just so annoying because she'd looked long and hard in her vision to see everyone in Victoria's army, and she'd missed not just one, but three newborns.

She wasn't being quite fair to herself though, and she knew that. Shelly, Steve, and the unnamed talented newborn had either abandoned or were about to abandon Victoria's army. They were never part of the fight at all.

At least, she was positive that Shelly and Steve were missing from her visions because they'd already hightailed it the hell out of that house they were cooped up in with the other disposable soldiers. This last newborn though?

What if he'd been in the basement the whole time, and she missed him because he had a shielding talent like her dad?

"What's this talented newborn's name?" Aro asked dryly. Castiel could tell by the tone of his voice that he was not in the mood to listen to the couple in front of him complain. He wanted information, and his patience was wearing very thin today.

"We dunno what his name was!" The female said quickly, her eyes darting around the room and resting on Felix longer than any other due to her nerves, "We just know that Riley took a helluva liking to him 'cause he was special and none of the rest of us were. The guy didn't seem to like any of us. Like he thought he was too good for us or something."

"We couldn't set him straight though." The boy grumbled petulantly, "He made ya super nauseous and it was hard to look at him."

Aro stilled, and Castiel felt her lips part as she sucked in an audible breath when she realized what Steve had said.

Marcus told her all about the trial she'd slept right through when she was mad at him - which she now felt like kicking herself for - and the realization that not only were these two newborns from Victoria's army but so was the newborn Sukey and Sambo came across, was starting to sink in for everyone and not just her as she looked at the stunned expressions of the guards stationed around the room.

No. Fucking. Way!

Not only were these two newborns linked to Victoria, but the unknown newborn running along the northern section of America was as well!

Damn, she really had dropped the ball on this one.

"You'll wanna watch out for him," Steve said in a helpful tone. "Last time we tried to set him straight he made me and Shell feel like we were gonna vomit, and next thing we knew we were both outside standin' in the sun and we forgot all about him."

"He makes you forget a lil' when he hits you with the nausea thing." Shelly verified, shaking her dark hair out around her face. "We didn't even remember leaving the basement."

"But once we were outside in the sun, we realized Riley lied to us about the sun killin' us." Steve grumbled. "We just sparkled! I was about to go inside and tell the others but Shelly didn't want me to."

Shelly turned to glare at her partner, before turning her angry gaze to Aro. "Well I figured the jerk already knew! He brought all of us to the basement, who's to say he wasn't out during the day in all that time? He told us other members of our group got lost to the sun, but we just realized that it didn't kill us and-"

"And you did the wise thing and got the hell out of dodge." Caius sighed, sounding bored. "You're lucky you listened to your mate, boy. Riley would have killed you on the spot if you'd gone back inside to tell the others he was a dirty liar."

Steve opened his mouth - probably to argue with Caius which really wasn't a good idea - before Aro interrupted him.

"Let's stay on track shall we?" Aro said pointedly to Steve, "I'm not sure how you'll take this news, but we've already taken care of all the newborns in the army you were born into. Riley, and your sire Victoria, were both killed as well."

Steve and Shelly stared at Aro in disbelief.

"The only interesting piece of information you brought to us today is the news of this curly-haired, talented vampire Riley took a liking to." Aro raised his brows as Steve and Shelly looked frantically at each other. "Since you don't seem to know him well at all and can't help us locate him for trial, the only matter at hand we should focus on right now is all the damage you caused in Oregon."

"Wait wait wait!" Shelly sounded scared, "We can help you find him! He probably realized just like we did that the sun doesn't hurt us. If we find him we can convince him that there's no hard feelings-"

"He knows us!" Steve agreed, cutting off his partner in his hurry to add to the conversation. "If - if we can track him down I'm sure we can get him to stop and talk to us with some story about how we're surprised to see him and then you guys can get him-"

Aro stopped listening as Steve started spouting off some convoluted idea about how to catch the missing newborn that sounded like the plot to a badly written knock-off of Mission Impossible, and thought on his own about what might work to catch the talented newborn Sukey and Sambo had originally brought to their notice.

Verifying that Steve and Shelly were still being held firmly by the four guards who'd dragged them in, he spun on his heel to look at Caius and Marcus in turn, knowing by the expressions on his brothers' faces that they were also thinking along the same lines as him.

It really wasn't the most insane plan, to have Steve and Shelly try to meet up with the newborn they were looking for so their guards could capture him. They would have to plan with Caius's and Castiel's help for how to do it, but it could definitely be done.

They'd just have to be careful and have multiple plans in place depending on the potency of this mystery vampire's gift and the logistics of what it could do.

They needed to make sure that whoever this newborn was, that he wasn't a threat to their secrecy.

And that an impressionable, talented newborn didn't get picked up by the Romanians or Amun.

"Can we trust them to do as they say, Castiel?" Aro turned to her, and Steve abruptly stopped talking as he and Shelly both looked at the redheaded human on the dais in confusion as she looked at the dark-haired king for a long moment.

Castiel slipped into her foresight and went still as the room faded around her.

Marcus stood in the space between her guards and the newborns as Kemar and Afton reoriented themselves closer to her, waiting for her to come back to the present, all the while glaring at the unfamiliar vampires in a way that clearly said if they moved an inch toward her it would be the last thing they ever did.

Neither of the newborns knew what his mate could do, and when she finally came back to the present, locking eyes with Aro and giving one firm nod with no expression on her face, Steve and Shelly both shared an uncomfortable look full of uncertainty as to what they'd just gotten themselves into.

"Excellent!" Aro said, clapping his hands once and making the newborn pair jump. "Let's discuss what we'll do next then, shall we? Rest assured our guards will come along to back you up every step of the way."

Not one person in the room missed that the reassurance was also a threat.

---

"Sweet, sweet freedom!" Castiel sang happily, throwing her arms up over her head in triumph as Arkos took her sling away once and for all.

Kemar, unfortunately, didn't miss that the motion made her shoulder twinge in pain and caused her to wince.

"Careful!" He hissed at her as she leapt off the hospital bed, beaming at Marcus as he waited off to the side with Afton.

Marcus's disapproving look had her groaning out a quick "Okay, okay, I'll be more careful." before she got told off.

"You really do need to treat your shoulder gently Castiel. We have a lot of physical therapy ahead of us, and it's already clear that you might be overestimating your abilities right now."

Marcus was obviously referring to her asking the good doctor if she was allowed to do gymnastics again the second she sat down for him to examine her arm one last time and deem her worthy of being sling-free.

Arkos had said no, unsurprisingly, because she needed to build up to that kind of activity, and starting off too strong right away might end up with her shoulder giving out on a routine and her face-planting.

She had to build up her shoulder's strength, flexibility, and dexterity a little at a time. She wasn't going to be back to her old self right away, but she could accept that since she was now able to use both her arms again.

Her dad had texted her this morning, asking her to let him know what Arkos said and if she was truly ready to be out of the sling once and for all or if it needed to be on a little longer, and she made a mental note to call him later that night.

He wasn't in Volterra at the moment - she still hadn't seen him in person ever since she yelled at him several weeks back.

The Denalis were traveling right now, visiting friends all around Europe and Asia. Her dad had tagged along since he was their coven's newest member and people were eager to meet him.

She was a bit disappointed she hadn't gotten to see him much, but with how mad she had been when they last saw each other paired with the fact he still didn't feel confident being around her for even a small period of time, it really wasn't that surprising.

They'd started talking again though - purely through text at the moment - and she knew he'd be back in Italy in four days. When she'd asked her mate just the previous day, Marcus agreed that they'd find a way for her and her dad to talk face-to-face about some of the things that were bothering her.

Not only did she still want to have a - hopefully - heart-to-heart conversation with her dad about how he needed to remember she was an adult now, but she also…really wanted to talk to her dad and unpack what Bal had made her do weeks back.

She was still having nightmares on a semi-regular basis, and sometimes they involved a bunch of faceless human men who'd been gunned down.

Her dad would probably have some very comforting and insightful words for her, given his military background and the fact that he had been deployed into an active warzone before.

Man, she really wanted to talk to him.

"Your dad will be back in a few days, Castiel. I know how eager you are to talk to him. It won't be much longer."

Marcus's words surprised her enough that she gave him a look that all too clearly said what in the actual fuck, making both Afton and Kemar laugh.

"You feel homesick when you think about him," Marcus explained, holding out his arm for her to take as they walked from the hospital wing together, her guards hanging back to give the two of them more space before following. "It's a very specific emotion that's reserved almost entirely for your father, brother, and Isabella Swan. As you now talk with Isabella on the phone daily, and you had a video call with Trent last night, I figured it was your father."

It was also the fact that the flurry of emotions matched the same things he'd felt her feel when she went over all the things she wanted to talk to her dad about with him yesterday.

Marcus was privately hopeful that Bryon would be able to help Castiel come to terms with and get closure for what Bahadur had made her do.

Personally, he wouldn't have given even a moment's thought to the human- and drug-trafficking scumbags whom they'd helped Bal remove from the earth, but he knew that Castiel's struggles didn't have to do with how evil all of those men were.

It had to do with the fact that for the first time, she was directly responsible for a loss of human life, even if the lives barely had the right to be called human.

His words of reassurance, the words of his brothers and sisters, and those from her guards couldn't get through to her - not completely. Her dad's might though.

And if her dad needed help, Raphael would probably be a good backup.

Castiel hadn't opened up to Raphael about Bal's favor, but there were a couple of times she'd sat beside him as they tried to unlock Andy's power - which was still firmly locked inside her and Castiel kept saying she was still on a blade's edge and every day was a coin flip as to if it would happen - that she almost did.

Raphael had come to him earlier that week and mentioned that Castiel seemed upset about something, and Marcus sighed and told the other man that she would tell him when she was ready.

Raphael had muttered under his breath in Russian about how she should come to him if she needed support, and Marcus had watched his back as he left with thinly veiled amusement.

Even if Bryon Rodgers had never shown up in their castle as a vampire, Castiel would have had a father figure in her life ready to step up and be there for her whenever she called.

Soul bonds truly were the strangest things, and they bound people whom he never would have originally expected in irreversible and unbreakable ways.

"This mood reading is bordering on mind reading, and I'm not sure how I feel about it." Castiel was only half joking, and Marcus patted the hand she had resting on his elbow soothingly.

"You know, once you've changed and we fully bond, it might be something like mind reading."

"Wait what?" Now that was new.

"Mm." Marcus hummed, shrugging. "There's no past reports of imprinted pairs being able to read one another's thoughts, but there is something about how deep our connection goes, and about how we're both psychically gifted. Aro's theorized we might be able to exchange actual thoughts later on."

"Oh." This was just one of Aro's many theories then, not something based on absolute fact. "If you say so."

Marcus turned to look down at her, a smile on his lips at her playful tone.

"Anything's possible dearest. I've been getting very good at reading you recently, so I'm inclined to think Aro might be on to something."

"Oh really?" She beamed up at him, "What am I thinking now?"

The way she said it, and how flirty her body language was as she hugged his arm to her chest as they walked made it so clear that he didn't need to be a mind reader to pick up on what she was hinting at.

Marcus's irises went darker, and he was ready to call his mate's jest - feeling especially eager about all the possibilities now that her arm was free and she no longer had to sleep sitting up and could lay however she wanted without bothering her arm - when they were interrupted by Sulpicia entering the hall from the opposite direction from the one they were headed in.

He was about to ignore his sister, knowing that she'd be a good sport and ignore them if they were flirting, when she spoke.

"I can see I'm about to interrupt something," Sulpicia gave a small laugh. "But I was just heading down to the hospital wing to find the two of you. We need you in the throne room."

She turned to Castiel and winked. "Glad to see your arm is free. Sorry for cock blocking the great sex I'm sure you two were about to have."

Castiel blushed, and Marcus sighed as Afton and Kemar snickered behind them.

"What is it, Sulpicia?"

"I thought you'd heard!" Sulpicia quirked an eyebrow at him, "They caught the newborn running around North America a few hours ago. They should be bringing him in for trial soon. Caius, Athenadora, and Aro are all waiting for us."

"Wait really?" Castiel said, stunned as they rerouted their course to follow Sulpicia's lead back to the throne room, "How'd they manage it? I must have gone over fifty different scenarios with Aro, and it was super frustrating because I kept feeling like I would puke every time I got too close to seeing the guy in my visions."

Aro had had a field day writing down the side effects Castiel experienced while searching for that newborn, thoroughly amused and fascinated by how his gift triggered a motion-sickness–like response in her even though she was only watching his future remotely and hadn't actually associated herself with him at all.

Every time she'd caught a glimpse of curly blonde hair, or the vague outline of a tall male vampire, she felt dangerously close to hurling.

She'd probably vomit if she saw a picture of Justin Timberlake back when he had bleached curly hair at this rate; she was so messed up from her attempted visions of the newborn that she wasn't sure she'd ever be the same.

Dramatic? Yes. But the nausea really was terrible when she got hit with it repeatedly.

She'd eaten nothing but saltines for two days after they finalized their last set of possible capture plans, that's how bad it was.

"It was one of the plans involving Alec." Sulpicia shrugged, "We were right about the shield being good, but it wasn't your father's level of good. Alec was able to take him down pretty fast from what I heard."

Shield. They'd been calling the newborn a shield just like her dad ever since Aro finished classifying what they knew about the mystery vampire's power. Its defensive nature and the way it deflected and distracted an opponent were spot-on indicators of a shield-type talent.

Castiel didn't say anything for the rest of the walk to the throne room, allowing herself to be dragged along to the unexpected trial without complaint.

This was technically a continuation of her first observed trial, so she was expected to follow through with the chain of events and be ready for the next phase of the trial and all its information.

At least this meant they'd finally be able to button up Victoria's newborn army fiasco and she'd be able to tell Bella the good news.

Thirty minutes later, she was standing in the same place she had been between Aro and Marcus's thrones for the first trial of Shelly and Steve - visible to the room, but still set back enough that her guards and mate could run interference in case anyone tried anything funny with her.

Castiel's hair was down this time though, and her attire wasn't quite court-appropriate since slim-cut jeans and a long sleeved black shirt that said 'got milk?' could hardly be considered professional, but it didn't really matter since her clothes were mostly hidden by the black cloak Athenadora had loaned her when she walked in.

Her sister was dressed appropriately in all black, so she could forgo the cloak for Castiel's sake.

There was a knock on the door, and Castiel took a deep breath as the guard filed in.

Right away, Castiel noticed the anomaly.

It looked like Alec was helping to carry a large, unconscious form with the help of three other guards, but she couldn't quite manage to look directly at him. Every time she tried, she found herself suddenly looking to the left or right, a little dazed and unsure of what she'd been thinking a few seconds prior.

She had a lot of practice with this though, and she turned to look at Marcus and saw her mate staring fixedly at a point just off-center of the middle of the room.

Castiel mimicked him, letting her eyes relax as she focused most of her mind on that point, and allowed the rest of the room to move freely in her periphery.

Now she could see. She just needed to make sure she didn't look head-on and kept her main mental focus on something uninteresting and separate.

Aro and Caius were doing exactly the same thing, watching out of their peripheral vision and getting to use the extra room in their brains to observe the scene as if from two different viewpoints.

The inner family all knew that Castiel would be the one struggling the most with this tactic, as she didn't have the mental space they did, but she was only there to observe and could leave the room if the new vampire made her feel too sick.

The elite guards around the room were managing the best they could while watching the scene as the guards carrying the sedated newborn set him down on the ground, and Alec stepped back to release him from his gift's numbing hold.

Their guest jumped to his feet instantly, as if he'd never been sedated in the first place.

"Peace!" Aro called loudly, raising a hand in the hope of holding off the vampire's definitely incoming attack.

Everyone was hit with a wave of nausea, and some of the lower-order guards around the walls bent forward slightly and dry heaved at the same moment Castiel audibly gagged.

None of the kings or the wives moved. Afton and Kemar had tensed up in anticipation of the nausea, but were able to control themselves as the sensation hit them. Most of the elite guards stood strong against the assault as well.

"Now, now, no need for that!" Aro continued as if half of the occupants of the room hadn't just been made incredibly uncomfortable. "We don't want to hurt you, my friend, we just want to talk."

The newborn was not interested in talking - that much was obvious by the second and even more intense wave of nausea to hit the room. Castiel felt herself go lightheaded as she turned her head away, staring at the back wall for a long second before trying to set her gaze exactly as she had before, ignoring the way her stomach roiled and doing her best not to gag again as some of the guards around the room retched audibly.

He was scared. Castiel knew he must be and was unsure how many times she was going to get hit with the sickness shield - and if she could even bear many more hits before she'd be forced to leave - before they got anywhere with this trial.

She was sympathetic to what he was going through, knowing that being surrounded by a group of beings who you weren't entirely convinced don't want to hurt you would be terrifying for anyone.

It was as if her current train of sympathetic thoughts was a balm to the nomad's gift because suddenly she found herself able to turn and focus her gaze an inch more toward the center of the room than she had initially.

If his gift was defensive, was it possible that it wavered when it detected the person it was trained on was not a threat?

Castiel didn't waste her time dwelling on it. She took a deep breath and focused with all her might as she set her gaze directly on where the newborn should be standing, hoping to get a clear look at him if only for a moment.

That one, tiny glimpse Castiel caught of the vampire desperately trying to throw everyone's focus off of him; that one split second in which his gift faltered as he focused on more pressing targets than her, made an extremely important fact very clear.

She knew him.

"Fred?" Castiel breathed in disbelief, hardly noticing Afton's hand wrapped around her bicep as she took an unconscious step forward and he made to pull her back, or Kemar's look of surprise and suspicion as his gaze snapped to her face when she spoke.

At that one very simple word, the newborn who had spent the entire time he was conscious in the room actively trying to keep anyone from looking directly at him dropped his shield.

Because as different as it was, the blonde vampire before them was definitely classified as a shield.

And he was looking directly at her.

He was tall, exactly the same height as she remembered him, and his blonde curls were thick and perfect on his very very handsome head. He looked almost the same as the last time she'd seen him, albeit paler and a bit prettier.

His brown eyes - the warm dark chocolate brown that she'd liked very much - were gone and replaced with the signature red irises of a human-drinking vampire.

"Cas?" Fred's voice was different now, but she hardly cared.

This couldn't be happening, this shouldn't be happening.

Everyone in the room was still, and Aro's head was snapping back and forth between Fred and Castiel, his mouth opening as he realized what this newborn had been at one time to his newest sister.

Marcus was the only one who moved aside from Aro, and it was just to turn his head to look between his mate and the vampire before them, switching to his bond sight to figure out just how they knew each other.

Castiel had never mentioned having an immortal friend named Fred, and given what they knew about Fred's situation, that could only mean Castiel had known him as a human.

Being that she'd never once mentioned a Fred to him before, he was very confused as to what was going on.

That was until he saw exactly what kind of bond tied her and Fred together, and Aro began to laugh as Castiel's whole face went red.

Oh, fuck no.

---

Updated December 24th, 2023

(69 Pages, 29,089 Words)

Happy Christmas Eve everyone! I hope you all have a wonderful holiday and New Year if you celebrate it!

Please leave me a review and let me know what you think!

Authors Note:

Hi Everyone!

I'm really sorry that this year I only got out one update when I was planning on three. I'm not going to go into a lot of detail, but I had a cancer scare this year and a bunch of testing and medical issues I had to go through for ten-ish months before finding out I have a bone disease. It's nothing serious at the time being, but it's been a very stressful year and I'm SO HAPPY to be in a good place to be able to write again.

I was also formally diagnosed with an anxiety disorder, and I gotta say being on the right medication for it has absolutely changed my life and made me feel better than I've felt in years.

I'm really excited for the next chapter, and am hoping you guys are too as we find out just what the deal is between Castiel and the lovely (freaky) Fred ;)

For all you smut lovers, I promise you'll like the next chapter ;)

And I also promise I won't make you wait a whole year for it, since I'm glad to finally be back to myself.

That being said, I'm still very active in Rev's writing discord (the link for which you can find in previous author notes or my profile) and I'm always reachable there and happy to talk about this story! Come join us if you love fanfic and wanna talk with other fanfic lovers.

The roommate AU featuring Castiel and Marcus is also going to get five new chapters in the next few months, and if you wanna read a funny and way less stressful AU of our favorite couple you'll have to join the discord :) I will eventually post it on fanfiction, but that'll most likely be when I'm at least 75 percent finished with it.

Thank you all for your support and for sticking with me through the years, and don't forget that fanfiction now makes everyone opt in to email notifications from the site every six months.

Sending all the hugs to everyone who's reviewed, followed, PMd, and encouraged me to continue this story. All of you in Rev's discord, just know you keep my muse alive even when I'm feeling my worst and I love you all to death for it.

~ Fairly Average