Ban Together Chapter 30

The three queens sat perched on their thrones, purposefully ensuring only their most trusted and high ranked guards were in the throne room. It wasn’t an easy task to accomplish but with who was about to walk through their doors, it was the safest. There were so many people that wanted to do him harm, the queens were concerned with so many emotions running high someone may not be able to help themselves. They all wanted a piece of Edward but the queens wanted to see what exactly his part in the Cullen family tortures were. How much was Edward involved with what Carlisle had planned?

Athenodora had to physically fight herself to keep from rushing forward to drive her arm through Edward’s chest as he confidently walked through their doors. Sulpicia grinned a smile that made her seem just slightly out of her mind; it was a smile she had taken centuries to master that always instilled fear towards those she aimed it at. Didyme sat with a serene smile on her face, completely content to just watch things unfold and to use her gift to try and keep the calm. Her sisters wouldn’t cause as much harm or act too hastily if they were happy, preferring to draw things out to keep their happiness.

Edward walked in with Demetri and Felix on either side and Heidi just behind him. Jane, Alec and Corrin stood behind the queens ready to act if needed. Sulpicia stood from her seat, resisting the urge to run forward and grab the information too soon. She wanted to draw everything out, she tended to enjoy it more if she did.

“Welcome Edward.” Sulpicia greeted, “I must say, it is quite the surprise to have you come straight to our home.”

“I’m here to help Bella.” Edward said as he tried to his to listen to the thoughts of the vampires in the room and the vampires he knew that were just waiting outside the walls, listening to what was happening. He wasn’t sure if his beloved was there but as long as he was careful, he could certainly figure out if she was. He was confident their love would lead him towards his soulmate.

“What help does she need exactly?” Sulpicia asked, the smile wiped off her face at the insinuation that her daughter needed rescuing from her very home. She was insulted he would even have the audacity to say such a thing after hearing her thoughts.

Edward sneered at her as he straightened his posture, waiting for the fight to start any second. He would take down any and all vampires that stood in his way. He knew the Volturi were better trained than he was and had years more of fighting experience, but all he had to do was pay attention to their thoughts. Their thoughts would give away what they were going to do and he would be able to use it to his advantage.

“She belongs to me. Her happiness is with me and I will do everything I can to re-unite.” Edward swore to everyone present. Everyone would hear his conviction and it would only help to prove he meant his words and would stop at nothing to save his mate. He just had to play it right and listen to as many of the thoughts as he could to do his best to win.

“That still doesn’t explain the danger she is in.” Athenodora drawled, just waiting for her mate to give her the go ahead to rip Edward’s head off his body. She knew her mate would want to play with him a little first but Athenodora would have the killing blow. If the Cullen boy had learned to work with his gift, to strengthen it like others have, like Kate Denali did to grow her gift from just her palms to her entire body, he would likely be able to hear all their thoughts. As it was, his gift was too weak to give him any real aid and his mate loved to toy with her prisoners too much.

Edward bit back a growl as he sneered at the woman. What a foolish question. There was no way they didn’t know of their reputation when it came to humans and those who knew about their kind. Bella was in the most danger being around these vile creatures. Bella would be the safest with him and his family. Yes, his family was separated at the moment but he was sure once they knew Bella was with them again, they would all come home and they would finally all be together. He would have his happy ending.

He just needed to get his mate out of the lion’s den. Once his mate was safe, once Bella was with him, everything would be okay again.

“She needs to go home to be with those that love her. Where she is safe. Not someplace where any second she could be attacked and killed just for being human and having blood in her veins.” Edward passionately declared.

Athenodora couldn’t help but chuckle at the boy. “You call your coven a family? Where are they now then? Should they not be here with you, to help ‘save’ a family member?” She asked with a bored look on her face to cover the fact she was studying every move Edward made. She was already making plans on how to torture him. It was harder than she cared to admit to keep those thoughts hidden beneath the surface and only allow thoughts of her many weapons and how to clean them on the surface.

“I came here alone because I love my family too much to put them in danger.” Edward said with a sneer, “That’s something you would know nothing about.”

“Because we’re a bunch of human drinking, murdering fiends?” Didyme asked with a smile on her face as if she was asking about the weather and not vampire mannerisms.

Edward wanted to retort, to say something back, but he knew no matter what he said it would be taken the wrong way and only cause his mate to be in even worse danger. Edward was no fool. No matter how upset they made him, he would be careful and protect his mate at all cost. Edward needed to keep his composure or risk Bella getting harmed.

“Can I see Bella, to make sure she is okay?” Edward silently cursed his ability not able to work on his mate. He was sure she was just beyond the wall and likely within his hearing range, likely to flaunt her in front of him to torture him. As soon as he had eyes on her, he would be able to save her and bring her home with him; a new home of course, someplace the Volturi couldn’t find them.

“You will never see her again.” Athenodora said a sneer. As long as she lived, she would never let this spoiled child ever see her daughter again. After everything that had happened, there would never be a reason good enough for Edward and Bella to meet face to face in the future.

Edward gritted his teeth, not entirely expecting the queen to so outright deny him. He had thought she would have at least humored him to show good faith. Weren’t females all about showing good faith and taking the least aggressive path? That should have meant they would take Bella and get her in this room, so show good faith and help make sure he doesn’t try to do anything to hurt them. While Edward knew he was outmatched with all their guards, he was sure he would have been able to at least do some damage before they could stop him, especially with his gift.

“Does that mean you’ve already killed her?” Edward asked. While he wanted no harm to come to Bella and he would forever be haunted by her loss, he wouldn’t be surprised they couldn’t manage to keep a human alive longer than a day. He shouldn’t have expected anything less. But he had to be sure before he did anything too drastic.

“Don’t be so dramatic.” Athenodora drawled, fighting her annoyance at the child and not let her vampire-self attack the boy for his offensive words.

“I’m not being dramatic, I’m being realistic.” Edward quickly defended, “It would be of no surprise if Bella hadn’t lasted a day in this castle.” Edward said with a growl, the mere thought of how much danger his mate was in was enough to set off his instincts, never mind what may happen if it’s confirmed Bella is no longer alive.

Athenodora angrily stood from her throne and within a blink, she had her hand around Edward’s neck and pressed so hard into a wall there were cracks on both Edward and the wall. Her eyes were pitch black, her other hand was tensed and ready to start to rip Edward’s head off from his body.

“Don’t you dare continue to entrain that line of thought.” Athenodora hissed. She was done listening to Edward spew his lies and insults about what she and her mate and fellow queen would allow to happen to her daughter. Her daughter was the safest she had been in her life while in the castle.

Edward gripped the queen’s wrist in an attempt to get her to let go. Edward should have been able to get her to let go since she was a female and males were always automatically stronger than males. He knew the queen was older and therefore a little stronger, but Edward had assumed being a male would have equaled their strength. He felt himself start to panic as he wasn’t able to get her to let go of him.

“You’re very existence is insulting.” Athenodora said, making sure to keep a tight grip to make sure she wouldn’t hear him try to say anything. Without wasting anymore time and without any warning, Athenodora used all her strength and ripped Edward’s head from his shoulders. Thankfully he wasn’t that old and clearly had no knowledge on self-defensive skills as he couldn’t even slow her down with pulling his head off. “Burn him.” She said as she tossed the body and head away from her, confidant her order would be completed without her having to supervise. She wanted to go see her daughter and make sure she was indeed safe. While she knew Edward was wrong and she truly knew her daughter was safe, hearing someone so confident about how in danger her daughter was, she just wanted to physically make sure what she mentally knew to be true.

“Wait.” Sulpicia said, intercepting her mate before she could leave the room. “Let’s not kill him.” She was fully expecting the angry look directed towards, even the hiss her mate had no qualms about giving. Thankfully, her mate was either too upset to talk or was affected by Didyme’s gift enough to keep her mouth shut from saying something stupidly offensive to her mate before Sulpicia could explain. “His gift. He can still hear thoughts since he’s not alive, if I keep contact with him and go on a hunt with you, perhaps we can easily find the rest of the Cullen’s and be rid of them. It would make for an easier hunt and you can play with them to get your frustrations out.”

Sulpicia was all for killing Edward and just be done with him. But his gift, Sulpicia wasn’t lead queen for just her looks, she knew his gift was much too valuable to completely get rid of it. Keeping his head removed from his body would just make sure they wouldn’t have to physically deal with him except once every few months when they allowed him to feed to make sure his gift remained working instead of his body stopping the gift out of starvation.

Athenodora thought over the proposition and while she would prefer to burn him as she wanted nothing more than his existence to be wiped from their world, her mate did have a good point. She grunted her approval with a scowl and continued on her way out.

“As long as I don’t have to hear his voice again, do as you wish.” Athenodora said as she threw open the doors to find her daughter, the vampires that were waiting by the doors to intervene if they needed to, immediately created a path for the queen.

“Take him to the dungeons, keep his head and body in separate rooms. In fact, keep his head in a safe, I want to make sure to keep his gift well protected.” Sulpicia ordered as Didyme moved to stand by her.

“Well, that went a lot better than I thought it would.” Didyme said with a smirk.

“I agree, I truly thought she would have killed him the second he walked in the door.” Sulpicia said with a small smile, absolutely charmed over her mate’s violent tendencies. “Well, at least I got a new toy out of this. No, I’m going to go find my mate and daughter and see if Dora is able to use her words properly to ask to cuddle with our daughter or see if perhaps she’ll just continue to grunt like a cavewoman and accomplish nothing.” She said as she started to walk off.

“Then I’ll go find my own mate and see if she has any further knowledge about how his gift works. Alec, Felix please ensure Edward is properly kept as directed.” Didyme commanded as she ran out of the room herself to find her mate.

They were finally one big step closer to ending all this drama and moving on with their lives. Didyme was done with all the drama Carlisle Cullen had brought upon her court since the day they first met decades ago. Now all they needed was to figure out when exactly to turn Bella and then everything would all but be resolved.