Penance ↠ Volturi Kings {2} ✓

026

I didn't step free of the shadows right away. For several seconds I simply observed them, unseen and unnoticed. The bond, which had been tugging lightly during the time I was away, was finally still.

I had to halt my breathing immediately; each had a wineglass in hand containing varied amounts of blood. The three looked immeasurably stressed and were conversing in separate languages. Caius was speaking in clipped Ancient Greek, indecipherable, but Aro and Marcus both spoke in Italian. I remembered enough from my lessons as human with Santiago to translate.

"You are being too hard on yourself, brother," Aro said, apparently agreeing with whatever statement Caius had previously made.

Marcus was morose, staring into the depths of the blood he swirled in a crystal wineglass. "We all know the fault is my own. If I had-" He cut off with a snarl, abruptly flinging his glass at the far wall.

I stepped neatly aside before the glass could hit me, shadows flowing off me as I did so, and it shattered against the wall to my right. Blood speckled against the back of my jacket.

Aro and Marcus, who had been sitting, stood at my entrance. Marcus' face was creased in a frown. "Did I almost- I'm sorry, my heart, I didn't know that you were-"

"It's okay. More my fault than anything. I was eavesdropping," I said, offering him a tiny smile that he did not return.

"Were you there very long?" Aro asked.

"No. Only caught the tail end, if that's what you're really asking," I said, taking another breath in order to respond. Even having recently fed, the blood in the air burned my throat like hot coals.

"Of course not. We have nothing to hide," Aro said. Even without his gift he read me easily. "Shall we move this conversation elsewhere? I can't imagine being around blood is comfortable for you."

"No," I agreed, mouth curling into a wry smile, "but I can manage."

"We'll move," Caius said, by my side in an instant. His scent wafted over me, clearing the smell of blood from my senses.

I didn't object, instead taking the hand he offered and allowing him to gently pull me from the room. The scent of blood still stung my nose and I pulled off my jacket, folding it and tossing it back in the room we had just left. Underneath I still wore one of Caesar's shirts, the sleeves rolled back to my elbows.

Marcus was cradling my exposed arms in his hands before I could roll down my sleeves and cover the scars that mottled them. "You did not receive these from the battle," he murmured.

"No," I agreed as his thumb brushed over one of the crescent scars. "Most are from training. Some are from scuffles outside it."

"Should we have known this was the cost of losing your fights, we would have told you to win," Caius said, pacing about the room.

"I did win," I said, rolling my sleeves down and remembering my victories with savage pleasure. "I won more than Caesar approved of. I was one of the best."

"I believe it," Aro said. "I saw you on the battlefield. Caesar taught you well."

"He says I'm a natural," I said. I didn't mind this avenue of discussion; my time spent training with Caesar was easy to talk about.

"You are," Caius agreed. "The guard could learn from you."

"Sorry for running earlier," I said, desperate to fill the silence that followed.

"Do not apologize, my heart. We overwhelmed you," Marcus said.

"You didn't know. I guess I just didn't expect things to be this difficult," I admitted. "I assumed coming home would be the easy part."