The Volturi

For Her Protection...

Footfalls, some long and confident, and the other set short and swift bounced off the marble walls. Violet, the other human that came with the Cullen rescue party, walked in front of her two "bodyguards" as Aro liked to call them. She kept her attention on Alec, who acted as her makeshift tour guide as Demetri and Felix walked behind her.

"Do I really need to know where the dungeon is?" Violet asked while she looked at the locked door, "It's not like I'm stupid enough to go down there with hungry vampires await their trials."

Alec looked at the mortal. "You were stupid enough to walk into a vampire's castle," he pointed out.

Violet threw a heated look at the forever teen. She could hear Felix chuckling behind her. "In my defense, I didn't know vampires existed." She shrugged. "At least not real ones anyways..."

Now it was Demetri's turn to laugh. "What did you think the stories were based on then?" asked the tracker.

Once more the girl shrugged. "Man's insatiable appetite for power, youth, and sexual desire?" She threw a look over her shoulder to the tracker, "Or should we say our fear of the dark?"

Demetri's lip twitched as he tried not to smile. No, he was on strict orders to keep an eye on the girl, seeing how he couldn't exactly track her thanks to her mental shields, not befriend her. But with each passing day, it was getting harder to keep those lines from bending.

Violet was likable and kind, but most of all, she was a breath of fresh air in this stale castle. She didn't shy away from them, even though she was technically their food source, no, the girl had welcomed the guards and masters with open arms and embraced their lifestyle. In the three months she had been residing with the Volturi she had not tried to run or raise a fuss when something didn't go her away. No, she typically stuck to the rules Aro had given her when she was forced to stay.

Be seen but not heard.

"Let's move along shall we?" Alec motioned down the hall and once more the small group was moving.

Violet and her group turned a corner when she collided with a hard structure. "Oh I'm sor-" Violet stopped when she saw who she had run into.

The masters never truly paraded around the castle. They were typically found in one of three places so to see Caius in the middle of the hall, his piercing red eyes staring daggers at Violet, and what would be considered a handsome face but was a mask of blind fury and rage making the moment all the worse, Violet couldn't help but back into Felix. She felt his cold hand on her back, a reminder that he was there if anything went wrong.

Caius gazed at his robes as if Violet running into him had left a visible stain. "Is there a problem with your eyes?" the king questioned.

"Huh?"

Caius's head snapped up to Violet, he saw her visibly recoil, bumping into Felix once more. Something inside him swirled an emotional reaction to her fear. He should've been thrilled to see her terror but no, he couldn't enjoy the fact she was scared of what he could do.

He knew Violet had no idea why Aro had selected her to stay behind while her sister and friends were given the choice to leave, but Caius and every other vampire in the castle knew the truth. Violet Swan, the young adult with bright blue hair and even brighter brown eyes, was Caius's long-awaited mate. Aro understood the threat that now loomed over Violet's head if she were to leave the castle, the enemies that would hunt her down as soon as they heard the fearsome Caius had found his human mate. She had to be protected, she had no defense on her own and the Cullens couldn't be her only layer of protection if someone was to go looking for her.

The Volturi tried their best to keep the secret hidden but rumors already swirled throughout the vampiric world, that Caius had found his other half. There were even more whispers of enemies trying to figure out which human in the castle was Caius's mate. So it was within the first week of Violet coming to the castle, that Caius had devised the plan to keep her safer.

As much as it pained him and hurt her, he'd have to treat her like any other human.

"You may need an optometrist," Caius said slowly, as if he spoke to a child, "since you didn't see me!"

Violet flinched at the sound of Caius's elevated voice. She didn't fully understand why Caius hated her, let alone went out of his way to purposely be rude to her but he never failed to pull some type of reaction out of her.

"I was listening to Alec-"

"-So you blame my guard for your inability to pay attention to your surroundings?" Caius sneered, "Perhaps it's Alec who deserves to be thrown into the dungeon!"

Violet shook her head. She could feel the tears already coming. "No!"

"Do not raise your voice to me, child!" Caius came closer, towering over Violet.

Violet looked to her guards only to see them looking anywhere but at her. The tears were now clouding her vision. "Don't look at them for help!" Caius snapped, "What makes you think they would go against their king for some blood bag like you?"

"I'm sorry..." was all she could say before Caius turned his attention to his employees.

"Take the baby to her room," he ordered as Violet tried to keep her composure, "No one needs to see the pathetic excuse of a human cry."

Caius watched as Demetri grabbed Violet's arm and dragged her the way they came, his heart breaking as Violet finally began to cry.

"Felix," the king sighed once she was out of earshot.

The guard turned and bowed to his king. "How may I be of assistance, Master?"

"See to it Violet receives her favorite foods tonight. As a form of comfort."

Felix bowed once more. "I will deliver them to her personally, Master."

Caius nodded and turned, his heart breaking as images of Violet's tear-stained face came to the forefront of his mind.

May she forgive me in time, he thought.