Midnight Solstice

Chapter 10

Photo: Brynn (left) Adeline (right)
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   By the time I got to the castle, my head was swarming with pain. Every couple of seconds I would pop out of my head again and my sight would be gone. It was almost as if my body shut down temporarily. I think I remember Jane walking me into Afton's office once I arrived. Everything was so fuzzy then.
   Afton is Chelsea's mate, the person who binds all of the new recruits to the Volturi so that they don't leave. Afton has the ability to make himself invisible to other vampires, but that wasn't good enough to earn him a spot on the guard. Chelsea demanded that Aro let him stay. Since she is the glue that holds the Volturi together, Afton gets to stay, regardless of the uselessness of his gift.
     Afton has proved himself useful by becoming the Volturi's doctor. He has just recently received his degree, so he is up to date with modern doctor technology stuff. (I have no clue what to call it, this stuff is too new to me.)
  Anyway, Felix came and carried Katerina into his office while Jane supported most of my weight as we stumbled in. His eyes went wide.
   "Get her on the bed." He ordered Felix as he came over and helped Jane sit me down in one of the chairs. "What happened Alec?" He asked me.
  "Afton, I have no freaking clue. As soon as she passed out, I started feeling weird, at first it was like I was just watching everything happen, but then my head started hurting, and I would black out for a moment. Just tend to her, we can worry about me later." I told him weakly.
   "Jane, there's some bags of blood in the fridge over in the corner. Give some to him." He turned his back to us and started towards Katerina. He got to work instantly and began putting needles in Katerina's arms as he held his equipment up to her heart.
     Soon three bags of blood were shoved at me. I downed them all within seconds. Jane sat in the chair next to me and dabbed a napkin at my face, cleaning up and blood that had dribbled down my chin. She grabbed my hand and began running her thumb in a circle on the top of it.
    "Do you feel any better now?" She asked me, her voice was filled to the brim with worry.
   "No. I feel like I want to rip my own head off." I told her as another wave of pain rippled through my brain. And then I blacked out again.
  "Alec!" I heard Jane scream. "Alec! Snap out of it! Alec!" She was shaking me now I think. I couldn't really feel anything. All I could see was a veil of black, like a thick blindfold over my eyes. This must be what my gift feels like; minus the pain that continues to worsen as time goes on.
   "I think Alec's getting worse." Afton told her. Well, no shit Sherlock! My sight came back gradually and my pain slowly crawled away but my whole body felt sluggish. I rubbed my head and closed my eyes tight, giving myself a moment to adjust to the bright lights that clouded my vision. I opened my eyes and took a couple of deep breaths before speaking.
   "I think I'm good now." I told him. "The pain is mostly gone."
    "What the hell was that?!" Felix asked.
    "I don't know. If I didn't know better I would say that their brains are in sync with each other. Felix, can you go get the masters as well as Chelsea and the newborn you have that can get inside people's heads?"
   "Andi..." I told him. "Her name is Andi."
    "Okay, go get them and Andi as well. I need to test something."
    "What are you doing?" Jane asked as Felix quickly exited.
     "You'll see."
      "I don't want to see, I want to know what's going on with my brother right now!" Afton jumped back a step when she screeched.
   "I'm trying to see if there is some sort of bond between the two of them. Everything happened so quickly, but I don't think it's a coincidence that both of them are suffering like this at the same time."
   "What if it is a bond?" I asked him, my voice barely raised above a whisper. "What happens then?"
   "I believe that's up to you and her." I narrowed my eyes at him. "Who am I to tell you what to do with the potential bond you have with a very beautiful girl." He wiggled his eyebrow at me and I rolled my eyes.
   "Just get to the point Afton." He sighed.
    "This isn't a definite thing Alec, which is why I'm bringing in people who can tell us." As if on cue, Chelsea followed by the masters and Andi, with Felix trailing close behind, entered the room.
   "Afton, what's going on?" She asked him. And then she glanced between Katerina and I. "Geez, these Morgynsteins can not get anymore complicated can they?"
   "I'm afraid not, love." He put his hand on Chelsea's shoulder before turning back to Katerina. I felt someone grab my hand. It was probably Aro, but right now I didn't have enough energy to care. He chuckled.
   "Well, I'm glad we got something good out of this mission." Aro said after he read my thoughts. He must have been talking about the address book that I left in the car. When this is over I'll have to go get it before it gets into the wrong hands. Aro walked towards Katerina.
   "What the hell did you do to her?" Andi asked me angrily.
   "I didn't do anything. I have no idea what's going on so if you don't mind, I'm going to try to recover from my recent brain injury or whatever the hell you want to call it." I informed her as I stood up out of the chair and walked towards Katerina as well. Jane walked next to me and wrapped her arm around my waist to keep me from falling.
   "Andi, do you think you can get inside of her head and see what's going on?" Marcus asked. She nodded and placed both hands on either side of Katerina's head.
   She closed her eyes and focused all of her energy on Katerina. Her eyes twitched every couple of seconds, which meant she was responding to Andi's gift. That's a good thing. But of course I thought that too soon.
   I fell to the ground screaming in pain. It was almost as if my head was on fire. My screams echoed throughout the room. Jane was on the floor next to me in an instant, saying soothing words to me while simultaneously screaming at Andi to stop. She took both hand off of her head and the pain went away. I sighed and let my body collapse in my sister's arms. She smoothed my hair and kept murmuring quiet words.
"It's over now, you're alright..."
"Do it again." Aro told Andi. She raised an eyebrow at him.
"Don't you dare Andi!" Jane ordered.
"I agree with Jane, please don't..." I slurred. My eyes were nearly shut and I was breathing rather harshly.
"Just for a moment, my dear." Aro ordered. Her eyes were wide but placed both hands on her head once more. The pain was even worse this time. She stopped once I started screaming.
"Don't ask me to do that again!" Andi exclaimed as she took a step back.
"What did you find?" Caius asked.
"I couldn't get anywhere. It was like an outside force was pushing me out. Everything was dark and she was definitely in a lot of pain."
"Do you want me to try binding her to see if that does anything?" Chelsea asked Aro. He nodded.
"Go ahead." Aw shit, this was going to suck. If Andi's gift hurt that bad, Chelsea's was going to be worse.
"No, don't. Please...I'm begging you don't..." I begged but it was no use. Chelsea copied Andi's stance and as soon as her hands made contact with Katerina's head...need I say more? Screaming screaming...bla, bla, bla...More pain and screaming....etc.
     She finally stopped and growled. "I can't do anything! Nothing shows up! Just this dark black void!"
"Hey! That's my friend's brain you're talking about!" Andi stood in front of Katerina. "And on her behalf, I'm saying we are going stop this now before we permanently damage both of their minds for good!" I'm going to have to thank her for that after. Finally, someone has their head on straight.
"Good point." Aro told her. "Marcus, do you sense a bond?"
"Yes. It's even stronger than the bond that I sensed when Katerina first got here." I stood up.
"I knew it! I knew you sensed a bond!" I exclaimed as I began to fall back down again. Felix and Jane caught me and stood me back up.
"So what type of bond is it?" Jane asked.
"From what I can tell, it appears to be a mate bond, however I haven't seen anything this strong before. It's like they are almost one person."
"The true definition of soul mates..." Aro said, staring off into the distance as his thoughts consumed him. He came back to his original cheery state soon after and smiled. "Congratulations Alec, it appears you've found your mate." I nearly choked on my own venom.
"Wait, we just went through all of that so that Marcus could tell me that she's my mate?!" I walked over to the chair I was sitting in before and sat down. I pinched the bridge of my nose.
"Holy shit...this is crazy...I...I...I just met her. There's no way that the bond is this strong!"
"Well it is. Are you going to tell her?" Marcus asked me. I shook my head.
"No, she can't know. If this is real, I don't want to force her into anything. Besides, we have too many enemies...if someone found out about her she'd be dead in an instant. This can't leave the room." I pointed at Andi. "You aren't going to say anything to her."
"Hey, my lips are sealed as long as you don't give me a reason to unseal them." She told me, putting her hands up and taking a couple of steps back.
"Alec, does Katerina need to sleep?" Afton asked, changing the subject. I nodded. "Does she need to eat as well?"
"Yeah but what does that have to do with anything."
"How long has it been since she's done any of those things?"
"A couple of days at least." Andi answered.
"I think she's just over tired and hungry."
"I think she would have said something if she needed to sleep and eat." Felix told him in disbelief.
"I don't think she trusts you enough to tell you anything, even something simple like that. I don't blame her. After her own father basically betrayed her when he did his tests on her, I don't think she truly knows what trust is anymore. I mean would you trust anyone if you went through that?"
"I know I wouldn't. Hell, I've lived a pretty shit life and I don't trust people but that's nothing compared to her."
"Thanks for the input but how are we supposed to get anything out of Katerina of she doesn't trust us?" Felix told Andi who flipped him off and turned her attention back to Afton.
"Alright doc, what do we have to do?"
"Andi there is no we in this." Jane told her.
"Well there is now since I think she'll trust me more than you any day of the week." Jane barred her teeth at her and hissed. Andi did the same.
"Settle down...arguing isn't necessary." Aro told them. He smiled at Afton. " Please continue."
"As long as someone makes sure she eats and sleeps regularly from now on, she should be fine." Felix sighed and began to pace.
"Let me get this straight. Alec just went through a shit load of pain because she's sleep deprived and hungry?" Felix exclaimed. "That doesn't even begin to make sense!"
"I have a theory that since Katerina and Alec are bonded so strongly, when things such as this happen, they are both going to be affected by it." Marcus said. "So when Alec felt pain, it's was really the pain Katerina was feeling." Felix bit his lip and nodded, still pacing. 
    "I'll buy that for now." The door soon opened and Demetri walked in. He didn't look happy.
"What is it Demetri?" Caius asked.
"Well I just called Lorne like you told me to, and he is not a happy man right now. He's on his way here. He is also bringing his little one along." Aro's face lit up.
"Demetri, find Jayden and bring him down here immediately. I'm sure he would like a new friend." Caius and Marcus both groaned at this.
"Who's Jayden?" Andi asked. Oh here we go...
"He's my son; we found the poor boy abandoned on the street as an infant. My wife, Sulpicia and I have raised him as our own ever since. He's been here all of his twelve years, he'll be thirteen soon. I believe Katerina's cousin Gracie-Lynn appears to be this age as well since her vampire side causes her to grow faster, even though she is realistically ten years of age. Jayden needs friends...he's very lonely here." Aro explained. Wow, that was the shortest version of the story we have ever gotten.
   Normally Aro goes into detail about how Sulpicia always wanted to be a mother and this was the perfect opportunity for her. He then goes and talks about Jayden's hobbies and such. Even though Jayden is what you could call socially awkward, he is very talented. For example, he is very graceful for a human, and pretty good at art as well. Jayden will come paint with me sometimes. We don't talk much, but it's nice to have the company every once and a while.
    But Aro is very proud of him for being so strong even though he lives in a place that is definitely not suitable for children. He keeps his head held high and minds his own business. That's what worries Aro. He thinks that Jayden should be getting into all sorts of trouble at this age. Jayden is one of the most well behaved kids I've ever met though. I don't think he has any problems; I think that's just his way of living. I'm the same way.
"That boy is more than lonely; he is antisocial." Caius told Aro.
"Well maybe if he had friends he wouldn't be."
"Anyway, I will go get him." Demetri said as he quickly left the room. I don't blame the man for trying to leave as soon as possible. I wish I could leave the room too, and crawl under the nice warm blankets of my bed and never leave it. But that's not going to happen anytime soon.
"Katerina should be waking up any minute now." Afton told us.
"And we are going to act as if the whole conversation with our bond never happened." I said.
"I'm going to tell you this right now, you will live to regret that." Felix responded.
"And when I do, you'll be the first person I call, Felix."
"Please Alec, call me the love doctor." He told me giving me a thumbs up.
"Yeah okay, when pigs fly."
"You know, with Michael Morgynstein's experiments, I wouldn't be surprised if that happened."
"You know you are probably right."
"And that's why I'm the love doctor."
"Felix what do pigs have to do with love?" Jane asked.
"Nothing. I just wanted to call myself the lover doctor again. It has a nice ring to it, don't you think?" I rolled my eyes as Afton let out a big shushing sound.
"Be quiet would you? She's waking up."
Those few moments felt like the longest in my life. Her eyes slowly opened and her hands flew to her head as she let out a big shriek that broke all of the glass doors of the cabinets that lined the walls. Well if things weren't interesting before, they are now. Everyone who was close to her moved back, except for me. I walked closer and grabbed her hand. She stopped screaming and looked up at me with her big blue eyes. For a moment, it was just us in the room. The broken glass and the pain that we just felt didn't matter, it was over now. That was until Jane screamed.
   "What the hell was that Katerina! If you ever do anything like that again, I will kill you myself and trust me it will be worse than any pain you could ever imagine and..." Aro held his hand up to silence her. The room grew silent once again. Just as I was about to ask Katerina if she was alright, the door slammed open.
   "What the hell did you people do to my niece?!" Lorne Morgynstein shouted as he walked in. You know what's worse than pissing off Michael Morgynstein? Pissing off Lorne Morgynstein. Well, this is going to be fun to explain, now isn't it?