As Maya leapt from one stone to another that made up the edge of the tower wall that surrounded her family's garden she looked out at the view with a grin on her face. Why she had never thought to come up here before was beyond her, but the view was amazing.
She jumped to the next stone and her heart skipped a beat as her foot slipped on the moss-covered rock and she fell off the wall. Watching the ground fly up to meet her she didn't even have time to scream before she hit the ground and felt pain unlike any she had known before. Her vision whited out at the pain and when she tried to open her eyes, she couldn't see anything through the stream of tears that filled her eyes.
"Maya!" a voice called, sounding terrified and panicked.
She tried to lift her head to see who was calling her but even just moving it a little to the side caused her to let out a whimper of pain.
Then cool hands were on her face, wiping away her tears as the voice of her mom gently spoke to her. "Shh, my darling gattina, mamma's here. We'll make you all better soon I promise."
Maya could feel herself being gently picked up as everything began to fade to black and her mama's voice became distant. She tried to cling to her mom, to hold her close so she wouldn't be alone but no matter how hard she tried she just couldn't fight the darkness that engulfed her.
The last thing she heard before everything faded out completely was her mamma screaming for someone to fetch a doctor.
After that Maya didn't see or hear anything besides the odd voice of her family either reassuring her or demanding answers and an unknown voice stuttering about complicated things like concussions and Oblique fractures that she didn't understand. Every time she heard the voices they were always accompanied by the feeling of pain in her head and down one side of her body so as much as she wanted to ask her family to turn on the lights so she could see them she was always grateful when the world went away again and she could just float without the pain.
~~~~~~~~~~~
Ushering the doctor out of the room, Aro turned on the man the moment the door had closed. "Why is she still in pain?!" He demanded.
"W-well i-it's her-her body. S-s-somehow her body k-keeps burn-burning th-through it f-faster than-than I can a-administer it."
Rage in his eyes, Caius reached forward to grab the doctor as he continued to babble excuses.
*CRACK*
"Caius!" Marcus shouted in reprimand, watching as the doctor's lifeless body fell to the ground, his head bent at an awkward angle.
"What? The man was completely useless and he's seen too much anyways" Caius said as anger continued to make his crimson eyes appear to glow in the candle light.
Marcus sighed in annoyance as he pinched the bridge of his nose. "Clean this up" he told the guard closest as he gestured at the corpse. Then he turned to their elite guard. "See if you can track down a shifter doctor. Or even just someone that knows a lot about shifters."
The four bowed and quickly sped out of the room glad to have some task that would not only help their little sister but also distract them from their worry.
"We should have hunted one down the moment she got here and had them on hand" Caius snarled as they sped to their offices.
"Indeed" Aro agreed absently from where he was now standing by his desk. He riffled through the papers on top of it, moving them faster than any human could follow.
"What are you doing?" Caius growled looking for a distraction from his worry and inability to help.
Aro glanced up at him. "We have a list of every gifted vampire we have ever come across, surely one of them will have a gift that can help us now." Stopping at a page, he smiled as he pulled it out of the stack. "Ah yes, he will be most suitable."
"Who will?" Marcus questioned, moving over to get a look at who his brother meant.
"Lawrence, his gift allows him to take pain from someone and transfer it to others. He will ensure that Maya feels no pain while we find someone more qualified to treat her."
Caius snatched the sheet from his brother's hand and scanned it. "How do you know can we trust him with her safety?"
Aro grinned, looking a touch insane. "My dear brother, haven't you heard the dreadful rumours? Apparently dear Lawrence has been causing trouble recently. Turning people left and right and feeding without a care for our laws." Aro tsked and shook his head in mock sadness. "Truly we are going to have to do something about it."
Now Caius grinned as well. "Has he? Well then, I'll send some guards to his area to ensure that that really has been happening. After all it wouldn't do for others to accuse us of punishing someone without even so much as a single body of his victims as proof of his crimes."
Marcus glanced at both his brothers, who were sharing matching looks of sadistic glee, and shook his head. Truly he hated the power plays and politics that Aro engaged in and Caius' penchant for stirring up trouble just to entertain himself. But as he glanced over at the small framed drawing of their family that Maya had done for him last year that had his mate front and center, he had to admit that in this case he would not mind participating in his brothers' schemes if it was for her benefit.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
As she rolled over, Maya let out a groan as her stiff muscles protested at being forced to move.
"Princessa, are you in pain?"
Blinking her eyes open, she looked up to see her Zio Marcus staring down at her. "Zio? What happened?" She asked as she rubbed at her eyes.
"You fell from the wall piantagrane" Aro said from where he was standing just behind his brother.
"A wall you will never ever be climbing again, do I make myself clear Piccolo?" Caius told her from the other side of the bed.
"Enough of that" Athenodora scolded from her seat beside her husband. "Gattina, how are you feeling?"
"Sore" Maya grumbled and Sulpicia poured her a glass of water and moved the straw up to her lips so Maya could drink.
"You've been asleep for a week Cara. You broke quite a few bones and we wanted to make sure that they were all healed properly before we woke you so that you wouldn't have to be in as much pain" Sulpicia explained to her daughter once she was done drinking
"Oh" Maya said as she blinked up at her family. The she gasped in shock, "wait! That means I've missed ..." she counted on her fingers, "I've missed eight bedtime stories!"
Sulpicia gave a gentle laugh as she brushed a strand of hair back from her daughter's face. "Close dear one, but there are only seven days in a week."
Maya pouted and crossed her arms. "I get two on Sunday" she told them.
"Indeed" Marcus confirmed, easily ignoring the glares of his brothers. "But you know what? You'll probably have to stay in bed for another day just to ensure that your all better and I think if you're really good we can manage to sneak in eight stories so that we're all caught up."
"You promise?" Maya asked as she held out her pinky for him to seal the promise with.
Marcus reached out and wrapped his own pinky around hers. "I promise" he vowed solemnly.