Born in Flames / / C. Volturi

{16 Children of the Moon}

Caius Volturi

"The trip to Ukraine will be so boring without my love, can you not humour me? just this once" Caius teased with a honeyed voice, arms wrapping tightly around his mate's waist. There had been rumour of a coven in Ukraine that had killing openly with little regard to the human presence. But what was worrying Aro more was the size of the clan. According to the witnesses, the coven was expanding themselves rapidly and if there was anything that Aro hated was the idea that someone could outnumber the Volturi.

"As much as I would love to join you, darling, you know that the twins and I have a negotiation to make with the Romanians, they still haven't learnt their lesson after all this time" she smirked dangerously, knowing that Vladamir and Stephan were probably panicking now that the Volturi had found them yet again, trying to outrun their inevitable fate. "Besides, Neither of us will take too long and the twins and I will join you on your return home anyway" Caius revelled in the affection granted upon him by his mate, never looking forward to the time they would need to spend apart. 

His time in Ukraine, although a general waste of effort, was refreshing. Caius, as much as he enjoyed his position of power, often found himself bored sitting upon his throne for hours each day. He enjoyed trials to a degree, holding the power over life and death with nothing more than a simple decision and a few spoken words but the blonde immortal often enjoyed being outside the castle walls too. The task had been relatively simple for a vampire of Caius status. A coven verging on too large for comfort were accused of conspicuous feeding and as an enforcer of the law Caius sought out to deal with it. Although Caius wished that his mate would be with him, he knew she also had responsibilities outside the castle's walls.

Unlike the other Volturi members, Aro, Marcus and their wives had developed rather milky looking eyes over their centuries of ruling in Volterra, Aro more so than anyone else. They no longer relied on their hunting instincts to procure their food, now relying on the guard to bring them their meals. Caius found it made them weak, it dulled their senses, they were no longer the finely tuned predators that they had once been. It's why Caius found value in hunting outside Volterra with his mate and children when they weren't sent out on missions. He found the highest-ranking members of the Volturi being too complacent with their luxury, and Caius was no stranger to indulgences but he thought that they were allowing themselves to be weaker than the others of their kind.

Which is also why as Caius made his way towards the meeting point he had realised that he was being stalked. His hearing picking up the faintest of sounds coming from the forest beside him. The footsteps were wild and sporadic, yet somehow almost deathly quiet, whatever was following him was alone at least, but Caius hated unknown threats. Coming to a halt just outside the tree line the blonde immortal listened closer hoping to get a better idea of what he was up against.

It's breath was heavy and snarling, teeth occasionally clacking against each other in feral delight. It's feet were padding into the snow, crushing deeply under the weight, claws near silently scraping against the roots of the trees. Annoyingly to Caius, he couldn't pinpoint it's exact location as the sounds began to echo around the near-dead forest. Whatever wildlife used to thrive in the forest was now long gone, chased off by whatever had been prowling around the Ukrainian outskirts.

The last thing Caius heard was the snapping of a tree branch underfoot in the distance before an incredibly large mass of russet-coloured fur launched itself at him.

On immediate impact, Caius felt the muscles rippling in it's movement as he was tackled to the snowy ground, fortunate enough to not feel the subzero temperatures. Once Caius had gained his bearings he threw the creature off him, it's spine cracking against a tree before he readied himself for a fight. The creature was almost defiantly a child of the moon, most identifiable by it's bipedal stature yet horrendously wolf-like features. His face was snarling and feral, a man controlled by his base instincts and the moon, something in which Caius greatly frowned upon.

The lack of control over one's self. How pathetic of a man, to lose it all over the celestial light.

With an ear-splitting howl, the creature turned to attack again, seemingly unaffected by the blow against the tree, attempting to snap at Caius' neck with his oversized maw. But before he could decapitate the vampire, Caius grappled violently at the beast's jaw, pulling to snap his jowl in his marble hands with too much difficulty. The out of control wolf tried to bite off his hands and claw at his torso with savage rage. But Caius was not a fool, he had a greater understanding of the other supernatural creatures that existed and with preparation and time taking down a child of the moon would not have been a problem.

But Caius was alone, defenceless, with no plan, no backup and no real offence. This particular wolf was the largest that Caius had ever seen, standing at what must have been at least seven feet tall, and if the situation wasn't so dire Caius would have made a joke about it giving Felix a run for his money. But upon the vile snap that came from the bone and the pitiful whine that followed Caius knew that he had no choice but to keep up his plight if he wanted to live to see the next day.

With a renewed sense of rage, the beast launched claw first at his body, now helplessly trying to kill the blonde with what little semblance of reason it had. The pain was excruciating. Unlike a human how would have torn and bled, Caius' chest cracked and split down the path of the beasts' claws. There was no warmth that would accompany the bleeding of a fresh wound but rather stark and throbbing pain that seemed to pulse through each and every crack of his stone-like skin. In a fit of desperation, Caius ripped across the wolf's face, pulling fresh crimson blood out of the tears in it's face as it screeched pitifully. As the oversized wolf began stumbling and flailing in an attempt to see out of its now torn eyes Caius took that chance to lunge and tear into it's throat with his teeth.

Much like the shapeshifters, a vampires' venom is toxic to the children of the moon. So as more blood began to seep out of the neck and face of the creature, the sticky black venom began to burn its way through the body of the beast. Caius had no time to react as yet another blow was taken by his body as the child of the moon began to wail out in desperation. The creatures feral and broken mind began to desperately stop the burning ache that invaded it's throat, going as far as to dig its own claws into it's neck in one last final act of survival but such an act was pitiful as the creature fell to the ground in ceaseless agony.

The harrowing cries of the creatures slow and painful demise was the last thing Caius could hear before his world faded into black.

Thank you for reading~