In Bloom - Felix Volturi

41. Loyalty

The following seemed to happen both in an instant and in slow motion:

1) The female vampire lunged at me as the man stood there in disbelief as his life work was being torn to shreds outside. The screaming had continued to escalate and had reached a blood curdling decibel. The smell of smoke began to creep into the room.

2) Just at the woman was about to touch me Felix came barrelling into the room, his eyes immediately snapping towards the woman and me. The woman shoved me into the wall behind me and Felix ran over to yank her off of me. He was successful, and thankfully it was before she was able to get a grip on me.

3) Demetri and Santiago entered the room, quickly detaining the male vampire by each grabbing him by an arm. The vampire was still dumbstruck by his revelation that I wasn't lying after all, and he didn't even attempt to make a run for it. Aro, Marcus, and Caius drifted into the room immediately after the man was secured.

4) Felix, with the women safely off of me, literally tore her to shreds; chunks of her stone-like body rained down on me like soot and dust. Her screams of agony didn't last long; Felix tore her head in half at the jaw. What a fucking sight.

5) Aro, Marcus, and Caius surrounded the man in a semi circle as Demetri and Santiago held him still, locking his arms behind his back.

6) Felix knelt down and wrapped his arm around my waist and hoisted me up to my feet. Even after I was standing steady, though, he kept his arm around me in a protective embrace, as if he were shielding me from the chaos unfolding around us.

The sounds of shrill screaming and roaring flames permeated the room from outside as the Volturi kings stood and stared at the perpetrator. He was done for and, based on his facial expression, he seemed to be well aware that he was at the end of the line.

"You've caused quite a bit of trouble today, Ferdinand," Aro said, cutting straight to the point for once.

"Please, your highness, allow me to explain," the man replied.

I was curious about how he planned on defending himself but Aro approached him with a hand extended instead, intending to save all of us some time of having to listen to this guy's lies and read his mind instead.

"Your pleads fall of deaf ears," Caius said before Aro was finished reading Ferdinand's mind.

"The severity of your stunt here cannot be over looked," Marcus said.

"Nor tolerated," Caius added.

"Yes," Aro said, letting go of Ferdinand and rejoining the other kings. "Your actions have been far too dangerous. Mercy would be unthinkable."

"End him already," Caius barked. "I would like to return home." Marcus nodded in silent agreement.

"Felix?" Aro said, looking over in our direction. "Would you like to have the honor?"

Without hesitation, Felix strode across the room and tore off Ferdinand's head in one swift motion. The guy didn't even have the chance to scream.

"Demetri. Felix. Clean this up," Caius barked, ignoring the fact that Santiago was perfectly able to help instead of Felix. Oh, the kings and their little power moves. I resisted the urge to give Caius a hard look as Felix, of course, complied immediately.

"It's nice to see your face again, Lucy," Aro said, drifting closer to me.
"Uh, thanks," I said. I'm pretty sure that wasn't the right thing to say but I didn't care.

"It was beginning to look like  you were avoiding me," he said.

"Maybe I was. You were being an asshole back in Italy," I said bluntly.