Adult-FanFiction.org : Books

Complexity
By : TwilightScribe
Category: Twilight Series > Slash
Views: 3825 -:- Recommendations : 1 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight or make any money from this story.
Chapter List
- 14
- 15
- 16
Title: Complexity

 Fandom: Twilight series 

Pairing: eventual Marcus/Seth

Part: XV. A Time of Violence, Part 1

Prompt: 032. attack

Words: 4186 words

Summary: Volterra was his prison, an entire city, but it didn't make up for the fact that he was alone and tortured. There had to be something to make this death sentence worthwhile. 

Disclaimer: I don't own the Twilight series, and I don't claim to own it either. It belongs to Stephanie Meyer, and I only write these things to satisfy the muses and make nothing from it.

XV. A Time of Violence, Part 1
Aro was starting to make Marcus a little suspicious.
It wasn’t just that the vampire was being so silent when he was usually overflowing with chatter – whether or not it was useful was up for debate – but he was someone who favoured the silky power of words to manipulate. Aro relied on conflicting actions and sweet words to win over people he deemed ‘worthy’ or interesting to his cause, and then manipulate their loyalty. It was what made the silence and the lack of action from the ancient vampire a little unnerving.
Obviously Aro had to be planning something.
Marcus had known Aro long enough to know that his inaction over the murders – which were now obviously caused by a vampire or a group of vampires – was completely out of character for him. Resistance like this to the laws wasn’t stood for, and the punishment was swift and brutal; whoever was responsible for this would be made of an example of.
Vampires had long memories; most of the covens had learned early on that the Volturi wasn’t a coven to trifle with. That was something Aro had made sure to do, he’d made sure to instil fear in the minds and very being of almost all of their kind. And if he couldn’t inspire fear, then he would inspire respect.
So the lack of any sort of preventative measure to keep the citizens of Volterra from falling prey to the vampires was very unusual.
Jane and Demetri had brought back the intelligence that already seemed to mesh with what Marcus already suspected. The murders weren’t the work of newborns – they were too calculated, too methodical for fresh vampires to be the perpetrators. All aspects of them were designed for the shock value; to instil fear in the hearts and minds of people while sending a message to the Volturi.
‘We are coming.’
It was something Vladimir would do. He would be the sort to use the very same strategy against Aro that had been used against him; it was a petty thing to do, but it carried a powerful message to Aro. And Marcus could still remember the words that Vladimir had spoken before he’d disappeared after his coven had been devastated.
“You will not be free of me so easily, little one.”
He shuddered unconsciously just a little at the memory of the nickname that he’d earned from the ancient vampire. Vladimir had always seemed to find some perverse pleasure in reminding Marcus of just how many more years he had seen pass then he.
But Vladimir was perhaps more dangerous then even Aro, and that meant that whatever Aro was planning had to be playing with fire. The Volturi had the advantage of numbers on their side, but Vladimir had the experience, the time, and the element of surprise on his. No matter how well prepared they were, there was no way to even out the playing field – they were at a disadvantage.
The ‘preparations’ over the next few days meant that Marcus couldn’t spend as much time as he would have liked with Seth – and there was so much that he wanted to work through with the young man – but he thought better of complaining about it, even to himself. Once this threat had been dealt with, than he would have plenty of time without a pendulum hanging over his head to work out just what it was that he felt for Seth.

.:-o-:. .:-o-:. .:-o-:.
Seth had gotten somewhat used to the idea that he had his own bodyguards now. He still thought that it was a bit of an overreaction on Marcus’ part, but just Alec and Heidi’s presence decreased the more unpleasant run-ins that he’d been plagued with from the other members of the Volturi. But Alec’s presence seemed to be the most important, because Jane would instead avoid Seth instead of the other way around.
Even though she was avoiding Seth now, that didn’t mean that she’d gotten over her hatred of him. The few times that Seth had seen the tiny vampire, her face had been glowing with malice and her hands had been trembling in fists at her side from her suppressed urge to attack.
“I would tear his head from his shoulders and drain him of blood if it weren’t for the fact that he’s enchanted Marcus.”
She made him sound like a complete slut, and normally Seth wouldn’t have really cared – he might have even laughed – but he really didn’t know exactly where he stood with Marcus, and that made him insecure. While he knew that there was something between them, he really couldn’t figure out a way to put it into words.
It seemed that since Jane couldn’t get to Seth physically, she was going about attacking him mentally and emotionally. She’d been spreading all sorts of malicious rumours about him throughout the Volturi – the more colourful and entertaining of which Heidi would sometimes bring back and share with him. Though, she would deny it to hell and high water when Marcus had confronted her over it; she was obviously petrified of him, but her loathing rage that she felt for Seth was overriding her common sense.
But Alec was thoroughly disgusted with his sister’s behaviour, and Seth had gotten the strangely entertaining – and informative – opportunity to learn a little bit more about him.
“This is what got her into this situation in the first place,” Alec said practically out of the blue after hearing a particularly nasty rumour. “She gets jealous far too easily and then lashes out with words – it was what made her so many enemies.”
The two of them had been in the library for the evening, with Seth lying on the carpet in front of the fire with a book on Italian that Marcus had picked out for him. Learning a new language was difficult.
“Huh?” Seth looked up, broken out of the quiet atmosphere that had surrounded them before – he hadn’t heard Alec sound so annoyed before. “She was turned for spreading stupid rumours?”
Seth liked to pretend that the rumours didn’t hurt, but he knew that his friends knew him well enough. All of them had raced to reassure him.
That made Alec smile a little, and he sighed, running his hand over his face, “Not exactly. It’s more her letting her petty emotions get the better of her; she doesn’t think things through very often. It’s mostly our parents’ fault for how they raised her.”
Well that’s new, Seth thought. He hadn’t heard Alec talk about his parents at all, and since he couldn’t really picture either twin in a family, he’d always just assumed that they were orphans. It would have been easy for Aro to have cleaned up whatever mess had led to them becoming vampires.
The shifter blinked at the vampire, not completely comprehending.
“Oh right, I’d forgotten.”
A long silence, Seth continued to look at Alec expectantly.
Alec blinked, confused, “What?”
“You can’t just say something like that and leave me hanging!” Seth pointed at Alec, frowning and feeling a bit irritated. “That’s just not fair!”
“What are you talking about Seth?” Alec still had the blank look of confusion on his face as he waited for the young wolf to explain himself.
“You said that it’s your parents’ fault for how Jane turned out and imply that’s the reason why she was turned – and then you give me nothing else but just say that you’d forgotten. Now I’m going to have to fill in the blanks myself!”
Oh. Oh now that was embarrassing, Alec thought. Seth had one of the most vivid imaginations that he’d come across.
“I would rather that you didn’t.” Alec frowned and crossed his arms. “I just meant that it’s because of them that she’s so self-centered. They wanted to make it farther in the world, so they were pushing her to marry as high as she could and that meant stepping on quite a few toes.” He shrugged, “She was put on trial for witchcraft, and it was once her sentence had been handed down that Aro stepped in – he’d had eyes for her, and me, for a while.”
“Oh.” Seth blinked, “You don’t seem very upset about it.”
“It happened centuries ago, I’ve largely gotten over my animosity.” Although, I could never respect Aro after what he’s done.
“But you’re still pretty angry with Aro,” Seth noted. “Whenever he’s mentioned, you always get this dark look on your face like you’d really like to kill him.”
“Aro is good at making enemies; but he’s equally good at keeping those enemies loyal to him. He’s a contradiction. I may hate him, but I’m not stupid enough to leave. I know that he’d come after me and just bring me back – I’m too important to this coven for him to just let me walk away.”
Seth didn’t know how to respond to that.
“It’s something he’s done before; most of the Volturi were either tricked or in some way blackmailed into joining. Caius is the only one who joined of his own free will – Marcus only stayed because he had nowhere else to go at the time.”
“You’re very talkative today Alec,” Heidi remarked with a smirk and amused tone. She’d entered the library during Alec’s little speech, but hadn’t done much to announce her presence.
When the female vampire spoke, Alec looked almost embarrassed and he barked out, “What do you want Heidi?”
“Oh calm down will you?” She held up her hands in a placating gesture. “I came to visit with my best friend.”
At that, Alec raised an eyebrow.
“And don’t give me that look either.”
Seth snorted at their antics. The two of them tended to act a bit like little kids whenever they were in the same room; Heidi had a way of getting under Alec’s skin far too easily, and he always gave her the reaction that she was looking for. It was funny to watch.
Both of them looked over at him when they heard the noise; Alec looked almost murderously embarrassed, whereas Heidi just had an amused smirk painted across her face – Seth had to clap his hand over his mouth to keep himself from bursting out into laughter.
Finally Alec couldn’t take it anymore, and he snapped at Heidi, “Just answer the question.”
“Oh, you don’t have to be so snappy with me Alec; I thought we had something.” Heidi pretended to look affronted before she wilted under Alec’s angry glare and crossed arms; so instead she pouted, “Oh, you’re no fun.”
“Get on with it.” Alec tapped his foot on the floor a little impatiently.
“Anyway Alec,” Heidi continued, finally sounding serious. She imitated the younger vampire’s posture by crossing her own arms, “I came to visit because I have to leave in the morning with the rest of the guard to Volterra.”
The entire atmosphere changed. Suddenly it was oppressive, and Seth felt as though his stomach had just dropped through his feet. Whatever was happening was serious if the entire Volturi guard was being sent into the city; it seemed as though Aro had finally decided to tackle this growing murder spree head on. And since Volterra was projected to be where the vampires would strike next…
“He’s finally making a move,” Alec murmured. “I take it he’s not going himself.”
Heidi shrugged, “Beats me. He probably isn’t; you know how protective he is of the city – he isn’t going to be letting the ones responsible for this just waltz out of here. Even if he were to find them interesting.”
“True.” Alec was frowning. “Is he dispatching the entire guard? That seems a little like overkill to me.”
“He said he wanted you to go too,” Heidi added. “But Marcus was downright scary in how he was explicit about his orders regarding you. So your orders are to stay here and guard Seth.” She smiled at Seth, “So don't worry dear, you don't have to worry about anything happening to you.”
“What about you Heidi?” Seth asked, the worry in his voice shining through. “Will you be okay? Will... Marcus?”
“I just told you not to worry,” Heidi replied with a roll of her eyes. “So don't worry about it. We'll all be fine, and I will make sure that Marcus comes back to you in one piece.” At that, she winked.
Cheeks flushing, Seth mumbled out, “Shut up... just be careful, alright?”
“Of course!” Heidi chirped. The female vampire was grinning to beat all hell and ruffled Seth's hair before cheerfully bidding the two males farewell. “Take good care of Seth while I'm gone Alec!”
When Seth turned to look at Alec, he noticed that there was a look of consternation on the male vampire's face. His arms were cross and he was glaring at the floor of the library.
“Is something wrong Alec?”
“It's... I'm sure that it's nothing,” Alec replied, dismissing the question. While the troubled look disappeared from his face, but there was still that lingering look in his eyes that hadn't faded away. It was obvious that something was eating at him, but Alec wasn't about to share it – the vampire wasn't exactly the most talkative or forthcoming individual Seth had long since gotten used to it.
Aro can't have given up this easily, Seth thought. He has to be planning something... but what?

.:-o-:. .:-o-:. .:-o-:.
Several hours later and Alec was still no closer to figuring out whatever it was that Aro had planned. He knew that Aro didn't particularly care to abide by anyone's wishes but his own – even if that would mean driving a wedge between him and Marcus. Aro would always count on Marcus' loyalty and how he had nowhere else to go in keeping the ancient vampire with the Volturi. But he always underestimated the strength of others' loyalty.
And Alec had no doubt that if anything were to happen to Seth that the rift between Marcus and Aro would be irreparable.
Though, Seth had come to be rather important to Alec too. Maybe not to the same extent as Marcus, but the young wolf had been the first one who completely understood Alec and didn't push him to be someone he wasn't. It was a relief, and Alec considered the young man to be a very dear friend to him.
He might never find a mate, but he was glad to have met Seth. Very, very glad.
It was one of many reasons for why he would follow Marcus' orders so well – he respected Marcus and he cared about Seth – it wasn't just a matter of who was older or more powerful. It was what put a crucial difference between Marcus and Aro.
And from what little he knew of the Romanian coven – who were most likely behind this – they wouldn't put all of their eggs into one basket, so to speak. Vladimir probably had something planned too.
The one advantage that they had over Vladimir, was that he was blissfully unaware of Seth's existence. At least for the time being. He wasn't too sure how long they would be able to keep that a secret, but Alec was hoping very fiercely that he wouldn't discover it. He wasn't aware of Marcus' full history with the Romanians, but he was well aware that Vladimir had some 'unfinished business' with the older vampire.
He needed to keep Seth safe – that was all that was important at that moment.
Seth was browsing through one of the aisles that was solely dedicated to English tomes; a number of which Alec had brought over from his human life. His father had been a librarian, and once Aro had been through with the family, it wasn't too surprising that his life's work had been added into their vast collection. Of course, Marcus had had his usual apathetic reaction to the whole thing.
But Seth seemed happy. He was pulling down books from the shelves and flipping them open to read a bit of their content before he either re-shelved them or added them to the growing pile in his arms.
“Is there anything you're looking for in particular?” Alec asked, coming up behind the younger wolf.
Seth jumped a little in response, and several of the books that he held in his arms clattered to the ground. Sheepishly, Seth bent down to pick them back up, but Alec beat him to it, bending down in a flash and then handing them back to Seth in a neat pile.
“Thanks,” Seth murmured, his cheeks turning pink again.
“It's nothing,” Alec replied. He looked over the books that Seth held in his hands, before casting his eyes over the shelf in front of them. “I know that I may not look it, but I am a highly accomplished scholar on English literature.”
“Wow, that's pretty impressive,” Seth replied, accepting the books from Alec. “But then again, I guess that you have a lot of time on your hands.”
Alec pondered that for a few moments – he'd never really counted the years, but he did some quick addition in his head, “I'm about three-hundred and sixty years old; give or take a year or two. So yes, that is a fair amount of time. Although, my speciality has always been horticulture.”
Chuckling at Seth's blank look, Alec explained, “It's the art of garden cultivation and management; basically it means that I enjoy gardening.”
“Seriously? That doesn't sound like a very vampiric interest,” Seth joked. He was having a little trouble with balancing the rather thick books in his arms; he gratefully accepted Alec's help as the two of them proceeded back down the aisle towards the sitting area.
“Well, someone needed to bring a little life back to these gardens,” Alec replied with a bit of a haughty sniff. “Aro has no idea of what looks good – or what is what – and you know that Sulpicia would never deign to even plan something she views as so dirty. Athenodora would probably enjoy it, but Caius would never let her engage in it. And as for Heidi, she gets bored far too easily.”
“She mentioned something about your never-ending lectures on the subject, I think. It was when I first got here.”
“Oh, she exaggerates things far too much,” Alec waved if off. “She just doesn't like having to sit still for so long listening to anyone talk. Heidi prefers to be the one doing the talking.”
“I've noticed.” Seth grimaced.
“Did Marcus assign you reading or something?” Alec asked as they set down the books on one of the end tables and the floor around it. Even if Marcus would get on their case for potentially not taking such good care of his books, it didn't really matter since there was a distinct lack of large enough tables to put all of the tomes on.
He glanced over the books he'd taken from Seth: Chaucer, Boccaccio, Cervantes. Well, Marcus had always been a fan of the classics.
“In a way, I guess,” Seth replied absently, setting down the rather large book entitledShakespearean Sonnets. “He made a list of a bunch of books that he thinks I should read since he said something about my education lacking somewhat. I'm just glad that he doesn't quiz me on each of the books that I read.”
“Well, Marcus did offer English tutoring back in the day,” Alec remarked. “During older times, it was just a way for us to mingle a little more with the people and gather intelligence. Of course, we had to be very careful so as not to arouse any suspicion.”
“He'd make one hell of an English lit professor,” Seth remarked.
“Did you ever think of going to university Seth?” Alec had flipped open one of the books, eyes flicking over the lines of text that marked each page.
“I thought about it, but given the fact that I had a responsibility as a member of the pack, I couldn't,” Seth shrugged. He hadn't really given much thought to education beyond high school, but he knew that his mother would have loved it but the money wasn't exactly flowing freely. “And we couldn't really afford to send me to school – Leah was already enrolled in community college at the time, and it was really a stretch for her because she had responsibilities too.”
“Well, I'm sure that it wouldn't be too hard to recruit the necessary tutors for you from within the Volturi guard,” Alec remarked. “If it's something that you'd like.”
“I'll think about it,” Seth replied. “But right now, I've got my hands full with what Marcus has been giving me.” He grinned, “He's a bit of a slave driver.”
“Yes, Marcus is definitely intense when it comes to his studies. I suppose that he gave you some rather good lectures while you were in Volterra on the history of various landmarks and just the city itself, right?”
“Oh yeah. It was really nice. He knows just what to tell you without it seeming like he's trying to cram in a full recitation of a history book. I think it would be really nice to go with him to a museum or something.”
“Marcus loves history; he's lived it, he knows it, he breathes it,” Alec remarked. “Though, I think that if it was for you, he would make sure that he was an expert on whatever it was that you were going to go and see – he wouldn't want to feed you any false information.”
“He was telling me about the fascist occupation last night, along with Mussolini's regime and how things were then.”
Alec brightened up at that just a little, “Ah yes, he would have mentioned that. Marcus always has loved history – his were the first few accounts published on Mussolini's new – at the time – political philosophy. He did some remarkable translations of his speeches and several of his writings.
“I know that several English authors – not just the British ones – used Marcus' translations for their own biographies of Mussolini and their studies of the time,” Alec continued. “I did a few translations myself just to stay on top of my English – it is my first language – and also because I thought it was fascinating.”
“Aro admired Hitler,” Seth mumbled, “no surprises there.”
Alec laughed, “Oh, Aro can be predictable sometimes. I'm sure that Freud would have had a field day psychoanalysing him.”
And at that, Seth nearly slammed his face into the pages of the book he was holding. He was pretty sure that what Alec was saying was supposed to be an attempt at humour, but the references to people were going over his head just a little. Sometimes Alec had the weirdest sense of humour – it would take someone of a like mind to get a lot of his jokes. Sadly, Seth wasn't much of a history buff.
“Never mind that if you didn't understand, that's fine.” Alec closed the book he'd opened. “I think, though, that we still have Marcus' hand written notes on the translations of those speeches, if you're ever interested in seeing them.”
“Maybe another time; I have to finish these first.”
“Of course.”
Seth went back to his place on the carpet, setting down his book and flipping it open to the first page. He lay down in front of the fireplace as Alec threw another log on, making sure that he wasn't in danger of catching on fire himself. And then the slighter vampire settled back onto one of the armchairs, watching the flames flicker in the fireplace, drifting off just a little bit into a daze.
A loud crashing noise drew both of their attentions.
Alec was out of his chair in an instant, senses on alert and assumed as defensive posture. He could hear footsteps, light and fleeting – but there was also the noises of doors being roughly opened and then slamming into walls.
Someone was in the palace – someone who shouldn't be there.
“Seth, take the back entrance, get to the passage behind the mirror in Marcus' study. Go now.”
- 14
- 15
- 16
You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.
Report Story

Complexity	By : TwilightScribe Category: Twilight Series > Slash Views: 3825 -:- Recommendations : 1 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight or make any money from this story.

Complexity