A/N: This is a short chapter, but this is where the cut needed to be. The first part is really in no one's POV as you get a little peek into several people's heads. Enjoy

***

As soon as the door shut behind them, Aro turned back to the vampires that had accompanied his mate. He'd been utterly appalled by some of the information he'd pulled from her mind. "She hid as much of this as possible from us. Did she speak of it to you?" His question was directed to her siblings, Jasper in particular.

It was Alice that answered, however. "A bit. Mostly she talked about the three of you. We encouraged her to speak with you. It wasn't like her to do otherwise." She shrugged. "Now we know why, I guess."

"Lest you forget, brother, not all of us saw what you did. Do you mind filling in the rest of us?" Marcus' voice was far more clipped than usual.

Aro nodded. "Jasper, give him the letter if you would."

He pulled the now wrinkled paper from his back pocket and handed it to Marcus. Aro watched his brother's face while he read. With every word he looked more distraught.

"I didn't write this. I would never..."

"What?" Caius snapped and zoomed over to snatch the paper away. His eyes scanned the paper. "This is clearly your handwriting, Marcus."

"The boy said he hired someone to forge the letters," Garrett offered.

The paper crinkled in Caius' hand as he clenched it into a fist. "And she thought we wrote this? This is why she left?"

Jasper nodded once. "It is."

"What of her bonds, brother?" Aro asked.

Marcus shook his head. "None of them are as strong as they should be. They've all been damaged. Except Jasper's. Garrett's seems almost back to normal as well."

"Yeah, why is it that Jasper was never affected by the boy's gift?" Garrett asked. "That's been bugging the shit out of me."

"His name was Sebastian," Alice said in a soft voice.

Garrett lifted one brow. "I don't care."

Caius frowned. "Sebastian didn't possess a gift. Aro would have seen."

"He did. Then the guard's little girlfriend would manipulate the memories," Peter said.

"Bianca?" Marcus was truly shocked. How had he not seen their connection? Then it occurred to him that she had probably interfered with his memories as well. How much damage had those two done? "Well, at least we know why she was the target."

"Not just her," Alice corrected. "He wanted you to have to live without her. Once he saw that his manipulations were weakening the bonds, he increased his efforts. He knew what it would do to her."

Marcus straightened and his gaze narrowed. "Manipulate how?"

"He could affect the emotions of either party of the bond as long as he was in contact with one of them." Disgust laced Aro's voice.

Marcus ran a hand down his face. "This is horrific. I don't know how to even start repairing the damage he's caused."

"Once I spent some time with her and kept that fucker from touching her anymore, our bond returned to normal. Maybe that's all it will take." Garrett crossed his arms over his chest and glanced at the door they'd taken Lily through.

"That's why he had to resort to the letters," Caius said. "We always spent time with her, and when we're with her the guard don't have to be. It kept our bonds stronger."

"That's great." The irritation in Garrett's voice caught everyone's attention. "But what about Jasper? He was an ocean and a continent away. How's that work?"

Marcus' brows lifted as he looked his mate's soul brother over from top to bottom. "My guess would be the Major had something to do with that. His bond with Lily is formed by two strands instead of one. The Major is as much her brother as Jasper is. It strengthened the bond to the point he wasn't affected."

Jasper ran a hand through his hair. "I was. I mean I would feel when he tried to mess with the emotions but I could brush it aside. I didn't know what exactly was going on but I fought it."

"Your gift may have helped you pick up on the manipulation as well," Aro suggested.

"Well, if Sebastian was here, we could experiment but you lot killed him," Caius snapped.

The three soldiers turned their heads in unison to glare at the blond king. The action sent a shiver of unease up his spine though he'd never admit it. They held his gaze for a long moment and it was Jasper that spoke to break the silence. "We killed a traitor by order of our queen. Our loyalty is to her. Not you."

***

When they arrived at the door of Aro's bedroom, Demetri sat Lily on her feet. "The Master's bedroom as ordered. Is there anything else the Mistress requires?"

She ran her gaze between her two friends. "Aren't you coming in?"

"We can better fulfill our duties if we remain out here, Mistress," Jane said.

"Oh." Liliana's shoulders slumped forward a bit. Ordinarily, she'd straighten her spine and hold her head high to show that they hadn't gotten to her but she just couldn't bring herself to care. Not anymore.

When she tried to open the door, she found that she simply didn't have the strength. Demetri came to her rescue with a furrowed brow as he looked her over. He probably wanted even less to do with her now. She was a poor excuse for a vampire. An even worse excuse for a queen.

She stumbled over to the dresser, suddenly desperate to change her clothes and curl up under the blankets on Aro's bed. She frowned as she pulled open the first drawer and found it empty. The next two were as well. All of her clothes were gone. A look in the closet showed the same thing.

She reached for one of Aro's shirts before pulling away. He may not want her wearing his things. She turned and glanced around the room, noticing all of her things were missing. Wow. She hadn't even been gone that long and he'd removed every trace of her.

Tears flowed down her cheeks again and she sighed. She was so tired of crying. Tired of hurting. Just tired. She slid down the wall behind her to sit on the floor and pulled her knees up to her chest. After wrapping her arms around her legs, she closed her eyes and focused on her bonds.

She began with her mates. Anger. Sadness. Disappointment. Irritation. None of the happiness she'd been hoping to find with her return. The other bonds were just as bad. Pain flared through her as she connected with the emotions flowing on the bonds. She could feel it all. Could feel everything.

Those that had been close enough to her to form strong bonds only had to deal with the effects of one weakening bond. She had so many and she felt them all at once. And it hurt. Gods, it ached deep inside and clung to her no matter how hard she tried to shake it off. She tried to place a firmer block on the emotions, but that only seemed to weaken the bonds further.

There was no way to fix this, to repair all the damage Sebastian had done. And frankly, Lily didn't know how much longer she could last. She could only hope her mates figured something out before it was too late.