Chapter Fourteen

Intent to Kill

The month that had come to pass had been as fulfilling as it could've been given the time scale within which she had to make plans. Her four favourite books had been re-read, Warren had sat and watched only the best bits of all her favourite movies, and he'd been as creative as he could with getting her the foods she still wanted to try. Unfortunately, chocolate would always be off the cards. Karou decided at precisely the moment the dairy-free chocolate he'd managed to obtain had touched her tongue that it was abysmal. Warren had agreed, having tried it too.

They'd promised not to be morbid or talk about it anymore, and for the most part, things had carried on as 'normal'. Karou had arranged a little get-together with her friends, and they'd spent a fun night drinking at the tavern. Though, of course, they didn't know the significance of the occasion. Warren had had to carry her most of the way home and tuck her into his bed. Admittedly she'd gotten a little handsy, but he subdued her patiently until she fell to sleep. The hangover the morning after wasn't pleasant, but she supposed it might as well have been something she let herself experience at least once and take the rough with the smooth and all.

Monday night couldn't have been bleaker; it'd been raining all day, but Karou had decided to make the best of it and sat at Warren's piano, drawing the view from his bedroom windows. Raindrops on the glass, moonlight and the tree's bold silhouette created a stunning, otherworldly effect. Once she was satisfied that the drawing was complete, she closed her sketchbook, pulled one leg up, and hugged it to her chest. With her chin rested on her knee, she stared at the view a little longer.

The moment Warren exited his office, she heard him and turned her head about to watch him from where she sat. The walk he took in a straight line towards her seemed to pass in slow motion; she still thought that he was stunning, but that night he looked exhausted, and his eyes were black with thirst. It wasn't until he entered his room, tugging the tie from his neck and had begun unbuttoning his dress shirt to get changed, that he noticed Karou perched at his piano.

"Rough day at the office?" Karou asked.

"Something like that." Warren continued to get undressed by peeling his dress shirt from his back and tossing it into the laundry. When he unfastened his belt, Karou diverted her eyes and stared at Warren's baby grand - the bare piano strings were suddenly fascinating.

"I'm sat right here, y'know?"

"I'm just putting pyjama's on; besides, you're not looking..." Collecting a t-shirt from his drawer, Warren pulled it on before taking off his socks and dress pants. He sat down on the edge of his bed and grabbed his pyjama pants which he re-wore a few days in a row. Snapping the waistband audibly into place, he stepped over to Karou and lent down into her personal space when he said, "All done. Now, did you want to watch TV?"

"Uhm, not yet." Karou glanced up from the piano and pressed her index finger down on middle C. The note was crisp, and the way it bounced back off of bedroom walls spoke to the unit's excellent acoustics. "Is this piano ornamental?"

"It would be a rather obnoxiously large ornament if it were, wouldn't it?"

"It's just I've never heard you play it… You do play, don't you?"

"I do. I used to play frequently before you arrived."

"You didn't need to stop on my account… You see, I was going to ask if you'd play something for me? It's kinda on my bucket list…" Karou explained. Although she knew very little about how to play music she had always loved it.

"Well..." While she remained seated on the piano's stool, his arms stretched either side of her shoulders, his chest pressing into the back of her head, as she watched his fingers reach out to the keys with great anticipation. The closeness he'd instigated without hesitation sent a shiver down her spine. "... We tend to spend our evenings watching movies you like instead." He stated as he played her a short rendition, a commical tune, which admittedly ruined the 'moment'.

Seeing that he was about to withdraw his hands from the keyboard, Karou grabbed one of his wrists and turned her head to look up at him. "Oh, c'mon, you can't just play chopsticks… I want to hear a real song! Something... pretty."

"Fine," Warren grunted, though he supposed he didn't really mind indulging her. "I suppose I'm overdue some practice. Shuffle over."

Karou shifted to the end of the bench to allow Warren to sit down next to her, their outer thighs touched, but again, Warren didn't flinch away. She was pleased that he allowed her to touch him so freely and smiled to herself as she watched him flex his fingers and get comfortable.

"Is there anything you want to hear in particular… Other than something 'pretty'?"

"Nope, anything you like."

Warren sat a moment in thought before setting his fingers back onto the keys. The minor key inspired a mood that somewhat fit her feelings about her upcoming birthday, but the melody was delicate and pretty, just like she'd requested. Watching Warren's fingers manage the keys was entrancing. Is it possible to be attracted to someone's hands so much? She thought. She wanted to reach out and touch them, but then the song would have ended prematurely if she did. The tune fit that emotion too; it spoke to a feeling of yearning that was sorrowful, heart-wrenching even.

Glancing up at Warren's face, though he bowed his head as though he were staring at the keys, she saw that his eyes were closed. Clearly, he knew the melody so well that he was able to play blind. The way his lips and brow moved throughout informed Karou that the music made him feel something too; he wasn't as unfeeling as he would've liked her to believe. Until the song ended, she stared at his face, admiring him as well as the music he filled her ears with.

When it was over, he set his hands into his lap and opened his eyes to focus on the keyboard before he closed the lid over it with a sense of finality. "Would you like to-"

"What's it called?" Karou cut him off.

"Marriage D'Amor." He answered plainly, though he still didn't meet her eyes, despite being aware Karoud was searching the attentionn of them. She had turned to face him and was postured towards him, he knew that much.

"It doesn't bring marriage to mind for me…"

"Me neither." He expected now she would ask what it made him think of instead, but wouldn't answer if she did. It just wasn't the right time to tell her why he played it - after all, when the piece illustrated his feeling's about destroying something beautiful and spoke to the sorrow that would inevitably come with such an act and how ultimately all that came to mind because he planned to execute her before the week was out, was too sentimental to put into words. "Would you like to watch TV now?"

"Sure," Karou said and climbed down from her seat to follow Warren out of his bedroom. She needed no more prompting or for him to make obvious diversions to know that right now wasn't a good time to ask him to dissect his thoughts on the melody he'd just played for her. She was grateful enough to him for indulging her in the first place, so she let it go.

On her way to the lounge, she tossed her sketchbook onto her bed and then curled up in her habitual corner of the couch and turned on the TV; it had all become ritual. Now that winter was here, Karou wore leggings most nights instead of the sleep shorts she'd worn all summer, but with there being a particularly icy night forecast, Warren had turned up the heat in the unit, so it was comfortably cosy. Beneath the blanket she had over her, she shimmied out of the leggings and didn't mind sitting there in her underwear, seeing as she was covered up.

Warren was pouring himself a drink as she flicked through the channel menu but settled down into his adjacent corner as she picked something to watch. "Do you believe in Heaven, Warren?" Karou asked out of the blue as the movie began.

"Feeling philosophical, are we?" Warren took a sip of his drink before setting it onto the coffee table. "These days, I don't believe in God or The Devil, or Heaven and Hell traditionally, but being born in the Bible belt meant I was raised in a devout Christian household. Why'd you ask?"

"My parents were atheists, so I never really thought about what happens after that much..."

"Believe whatever helps you sleep at night. It's nobody else's business anyway."

"Hmm, I guess, that makes sense." Karou nodded, still staring ahead at the movie that played. "What helps you sleep at night?"

"A great deal less than what keeps me awake..." He replied dryly; it earned him an eye roll from Karou, which he smirked at. "My feeble attempts to live morally and if that fails, sedatives."

Nearly two hours passed silently, save for the movie that played. Karou watched it to its conclusion, but Warren had dozed in his seat between drinking scotch and watching Karou. After switching off the television and setting the remote onto the coffee table, Karou turned to Warren and announced that she would head to bed.

"Alright, I'm thirsty tonight. I think I'll feed before bed; you go on ahead."

"Tomorrow is Tuesday," Karou stated out of nowhere. Perhaps it didn't mean much but considering the plan in place regarding her fast-approaching birthday; it held great significance. She'd been staring at the blackness of the TV screen, but now she shuffled around to face Warren.

"Mhmm, I know. Sorry, I haven't talked much tonight; I'm beat. Speaking of Tuesday, though, I've got another packed day - a long conference call in the morning and delivery schedules to sort out in the afternoon. I might not make it out of my office early." Brushing his hand back through his hair, Warren slumped sideways into the corner while looking at her.

"Okay. What about the day after?" Karou was picking at the threads of the blanket she had draped over her lap. Wednesday was the 'big day', and she wondered whether he'd tell her his 'plans'.

"Your Birthday?" Warren cocked an eyebrow at her; he hadn't expected her to bring it up due to the conversation they'd had a month ago. Honestly, he'd hoped she'd forgotten about the whole thing, but apparently, he hadn't, and Karou just nodded. "I'm not working on Wednesday. There is something else I have to do that day."

"Do you have plans early or late in the day?" Karou asked, dancing around the topic as if they were talking about something perfectly mundane.

"I thought we could just play it by ear," Warren said vaguely. Sometimes the three feet between them seemed like miles, especially when depending he wanted to reach out and touch her.

Karou nodded one more time before clambering from the couch with the blanket wrapped around her. Just like that, she silently disappeared into her bedroom and got ready for bed.

As mentioned, Warren had taken himself off into his office and fed beforehand; he needed self-control in order to make the request he had in mind. On the way to his bedroom, he peered at Karou through the gap the door left when ajar. Karou had acquired a rather large cardboard box and was in the process of packing her clothes into it. When he rrealised exactly what she was doing, he pushed it open a little more so that she could see him standing there but she carried on regardless. As he glanced around her room, he saw that she'd stacked all the books she'd borrowed from numerous places onto her desk and tidied her sketching things into a neat pile. Being so organised was unlike her, but that wasn't what shocked him - it looked like she planned to move out, but Warren knew that she was packing for a much more final departure.

"It won't be long 'til I turn my lamp out. I won't keep you up." Closing the box up, Karou finished, having left herself a day's worth of clothes folded at the bottom of her bed. As she sat there now, she wasn't wearing what she had been earlier. Instead, she'd put on her favourite pair of pyjamas', though they weren't fit for the season, she wore a pair of lavender sleep shorts and a delicate cotton camisole in white to accompany it.

"Do you want to sleep in my room, tonight?" Warren asked plainly.

Karou didn't reply verbally; she just followed him to bed.

Together, they curled up under the sheets much like they had the month before. Tonight though, Warren combed back the hair from her shoulder and pressed himself into her back a little lower so that his lips lingered near the nape of her neck. In the gloomy silence he breathed her in.

"I didn't get to do all those things I was going to," Karou whispered into the dark.

"They can't have been that important," Warren whispered back.

"They were to me."

"You've accepted your fate with an admirable amount of grace."

"I can't decide if you're being deliberately calm and indifferent? Are you trying to make it easier for me?"

"You haven't considered how difficult this past month has been for me, Karou. I've never ended someone I didn't hate before." Gingerly his fingers clasped onto her hip, spreading over her skin beneath her clothes. His lips already loomed over the skin of her neck and though he wasn't in an adequate biting position, where her dark hair thinned down her neck, he pressed his lips.

"Warren..." Karou sighed his name and grasped a hold of his wrist where his hand touched her bare skin. "What're you doing?"

As Warren's lips wandered south over her shoulder, his arms held her a little tighter and he whispered between his kisses. "Did you think you were the only one with a sense of unfinished business, Karou?" His hand edged further up her waist despite her trying to disable his movements.

"So what, you figure you might as well use me before it's all over then?" Karou asked, bitterly. She knew she should have felt replused but in spite of that she was enjoying the attention he was paying her. Daring to hope that if she played her cards right, she might get a few of the things on her list after all. "You're... greedy."

"I'm much worse than greedy. I'm abhorrent." He muttered, yet still, his teasing continued. Pressed so eagerly into her body, Warren could feel blood rising to the surface of her skin as she was slowly becoming excited. He was already there, that much was made evident when his hips pressed fervently into her rear. "When are you going call this whole thing off, Karou?" Warren didn't allow Karou to answer this time. Suddenly the hand that had grasped onto her waist, clasped about her lower jaw - he made her look at him. Their blue eyes meeting briefly before their lips did too.

There came a feeling of relief when he kissed her; she'd been patiently waiting, anticipating the moment when the pressure would build, and they could both be swallowed by its implosion. Desperately she clung to him anywhere she could reach, returning the kiss he'd given her urgently.

"Mmm, Karou... How fiercely do I have to threaten your life for you just to remain here just as you are?"

"Promise that for the rest of the time I'm here, it'll be like this. That you won't forget I exist when you're busy at work. That you'll let me sleep here, that you'll hold me and kiss me, like this..." Her hand reached back, becoming entangled in his hair to keep his lips on her skin. Enthralled by Warren's touch and yearning for more as his lips trailed down her neck she said, "Tell me you'll bite me again. Hmm, Warren... I want to see your eyes turn silver again." Karou couldn't just lay there anymore, she turned over and kissed him back but she had more to say and sighed between their lips meeting and her plea. "Could you let me have more of you, more than kisses and touches...?" With her dainty hand laid over the side of his face; she sought his eyes for his answer.

"You're asking for things I can't promise." He admitted, while looking regretfully contrite.

"Then..." Karou swallowed down her disappointment and said, "Tomorrow can be my last birthday. I have nowhere and no one left to go back to after the war is over and nothing here worth existing for. It's all temporary anyway, why stretch it out indefinitely?"

"Don't you think you're being over dramatic and a little too negative about your situation?"

"Drama and negativity have a nasty habit of following me around." Wiggling free of his arms, Karou climbed out of bed. He had no idea where she was going, but as soon as she was through the bedroom door, alarmingly she took off across the unit's hardwood.

Shit, she's trying to escape again! Warren sprang from the mattress too, and at an unnatural speed, followed her. When he caught up to her, she was at the unit's front door. "Where are you going?"

She successfully unlocked the door and was in the process of opening it, when Warren's hand came down hard against the metal slab and pushed it closed with a bang. He was far too strong for her to contend with.

"Just let me go? I swear I won't tell a soul about this place! I'd never intentionally bring harm to anyone who lives here. They're good people. They don't deserve to die in this war, just like the mortals, the innocent ones, out there. Just let me leave this place! Please?" Karou begged.

"You're in your pyjamas. It's rained all day, and below thirty out there tonight. You wouldn't make it even if I let you scale the wall or let you lose out one of the gates."

"So what? You don't care how long I live out there!"

Warren growled. It was infuriating how certainly she believed he could've cared less about her. Neither could he believe she was willing to gamble her life away on a whim, or only to get her own way. You're negotiations are completely irrational. "You don't actually want to leave; you just want to live here on your terms and not mine. Did you think that I'd suddenly decide I was besotted with you if you threatened to run to your death?" Warren's demeanour was calm and cold as his words were, but inside he was truly incensed.

"I don't pretend to understand you - how could I? You constantly remind me you've lived five times longer than I have! That you're a repulsive monstrosity of a man, and you prove that to me regularly. You are abhorrent, yet I always forgive you. I put all your misgivings aside the second you're the tiniest bit nice to me." Backed up against the closed door, Karou glared up at him as her eyes spilt angry tears. "Fuck, you're such a good actor, or I'm just a silly naive girl, but all your kisses felt so real."

Warren's reflex to ravage her was proving difficult to hold at bay. Over and over again, he found himself lying for the sake of upholding his pretence, one that was becoming more fragile by the minute. It was meant to guard her against the predator he harboured but when she'd made it clear she didn't want to be protected and that she wished for all of the scenarios from his sinful daydreams to play out, how was he supposed to maintain the strength and stamina required to keep pretending? Deep down, he wanted to tell her that their kisses had been the only relief he'd had from the torment. That her blood had done things to him he'd had no idea were possible. She was never far from his mind, and his eyes were full of her too. How he kept his hands to himself, he didn't know. The tension was unbearable. She drove him crazy... But it was all for nothing because it was just lust, he was sure... How could someone as hollow as him genuinely care for someone as kind as Karou? Even if he did, she deserved better than him. Ultimately, what he said was true; "You were easy to fool... I just want to consume you."

"Why don't you stop talking about it and just do it then?" Karou dared without bothering to keep the bitter taint from her words. The tension was mounting within her too. Even his cruel and aggressive words aroused her. One way or another she would come out of this; dead or ruined. Besides, being so well-read in tragic and evocative romance novels meant that Karou had learned a thing or two from her fictional sisters. Women could always get what they wanted from the male antagonists one way or another. One of those ways being what she was trying now - she had put on the sweetest looking nightwear she owned. In late November, she wasn't wearing thin, almost sheer cotton that flattered the slender angles of her neck, shoulders and sleep shorts that showed as much leg as she dared to, for no reason; it was a lure. Now she was backed up against her only escape route and in a vulnerable position facing off against the beast that meant to pluck her from innocence. Systematically Karou tipped her head to the side inquisitively as was her way; the act incidentally exposed a little more of her neck to him.

The moments that came to pass would alter the course of both their lives forever.

Warren had won; ultimately, he'd gotten what he desired all along. The thing he'd told himself he couldn't have; he had been given more than enough permission to take.

Karou was just as much the winner, though, hadn't she also gotten exactly what she'd craved? An escape from her old life, and Warren as the facilitator of her release? Yes, she'd hunted the hunter and turned predator into prey.

Warren's movements had been too swift for Karou's mortal eyes to pick up on every nuance of how she ended up pinned back against the black leather couch. He'd pursued her with speed only a vampire was capable of. Warren had taken Karou into his arms at the door, then lifted her over the back of the couch and mounted her, intending to get at her neck. Although the initial blow of being planted there was winding, the violence he enacted next was surprisingly gentle. Karou laid back and accepted her fate and willingly arching back her neck when she felt Warren's fingers intertwine with her hair as if he were about to tug her head back himself. Unlike before when he'd loomed over her to feed, he didn't free her of his weight and elevate himself from her body. No, this time pressed down against her, his chest to her chest, and held down her forearm above her head; disarming her completely.

There was no time for kisses or teasing caresses; he needed to drink her! She'd caught sight of his fangs, but as soon as he lowered them to her neck, Karou closed her eyes. Not out of fear but to immerce herself into the physical realm with complete focus. It was the last time, so she wanted to take in how it would feel in its rawest form. The way Warren growled into her skin as his fangs sunk into the left side of her neck aroused an excited moan from her that he hadn't expected. With every impulse being followed blindly, his response to her outcry was to grind his hips into her, asserting his dominance further.

Karou managed to keep one hand free and reached to comb her fingers into his hair - not in an attempt to pull him away, not that she had the strength to keep him there either, but it just seemed necessary to touch him now that she had submitted to him. Karou hadn't noticed, but her legs had moved to the same conclusion; they'd bound about Warren's hips like she meant for him to be positioned between them. What it implied didn't matter because Warren held Karou in a way that couldn't be confused as platonic either.

Karou imagined this pleasure, of being held so possessively by Warren, was as sensual as could be. Even though they still had their clothes on, and she would die a virgin, she figured, at least she would have this experience.

Karou was right; she was dying, Warren had no intention of stopping. His ears had tuned in to her heartbeat; it was growing more laboured. Gone was the excited flutter of anticipation, passed had the steady pace of relaxation, she was tipping over the edge of a deep slumber, closer and closer towards eternal stillness. The moment her heart would run out of blood to pump was near, and Karou's limbs had relaxed pliably in his hands. Where she'd once facilitated him by craning her neck, she hadn't the stamina to do so anymore; her head lulled against Warren's temple instead. Finally, indicatively, Karou's hand fell from his hair.

Warren reluctantly pulled back from Karou's neck and lapped the remnants of her blood from his lips. He slowly opened his eyes, but Karou couldn't inform him of their silvery glow because hers remained closed this time.

It dawned on Warren that he would never have tired of the taste of her. His thirst was more satisfied than he'd ever experienced; he felt invigorated as his heart pounded away in his chest, full of life and brimming with fresh blood. The euphoria was short-lived because the energy he buzzed with had been stolen. Beneath him, Karou ebbed into her final sleep. There was no chance that she'd wake back up, so he removed the pressure of his body from hers and waited for her heart to beat its last and her final breath to escape out into the air.

The accomplishment of fulfilling his monstrous thirst wasn't enough to spare him from the immense sadness of the scene before him; just as he's suspected. A beautiful woman, still so full of youth and potential, had prematurely met her demise by his fangs. She'd been so kind, understanding, and so forgiving of his flaws.

As his fingers traced over the soft curves and edges of her face, his vision blurred, and he realised his eyes were waterlogged.

What are you doing? He thought to himself. The last beat of her heart and last breath hadn't passed yet; he still had time. Acting hastily would give him the slightest chance to save her, and so he pressed his lips to hers for good measure; if this didn't work, it would have indeed been the last time.

Easing Karou's mouth open, Warren turned his fangs on himself. Sinking them into his wrist, he bit down hard and deep in the hopes of severing veins to maintain a thick flow of blood. Bleeding profusely, Warren held his open wound over Karou's lips and by clenching his fist over and over, he milked his blood into her mouth. It would be difficult to guarantee that Karou had consumed the amount of his vamperic blood necessary to change her in her unconscious state. Still, with her mouth almost full to the brim and his wrist healing over, Warren decided the best course of action was to massage her throat to force the blood down manually.

Karou's heart rate hadn't slowed anymore, nor had it sped back up, so far all he'd accomplished was suspending her moments from death, but that sparked a little hope in him. Seeing as he'd never intended to Sire her or anyone, he'd never studied the intricacies of the Siring process. His own had been so extraordinary he had no personal reference; consequently, he had no idea how long the change was supposed to take. He didn't even know if he'd done it right. All he could do now was wait.

Taking Karou into his arms, Warren repositioned her; choosing to lay her down in her usual corner, he covered her with a blanket. With the scatter cushion she'd previously commandeered under her head, she looked to be sleeping peacefully, but would she ever wake up? Warren resigned himself to his usual spot; from there, he could keep watch over her. So, sat in the darkness, he waited what felt like the longest wait of his life.

Dawn arrived, and Tuesday came and went. At the same time, Karou remained motionless and oblivious to Warren's outbursts of hysteria and fits of regret. They left him pacing the unit over and over; demanding, praying, begging her to wake up. He'd become desperate and knelt at her side to quiet uncharacteristically promise her everything she'd wanted of him if she'd just open her eyes.

Soon the day of her birthday was ticking by. It was passing uncelebrated as Karou lay on the couch; comatose. She was still unmoving but breathing very lightly and sporadically. Her heart rate had barely altered in its speed either.

As noon neared, Warren finally got up and showered but took no time to relax under the water. Robotically he dressed in jeans and a sweater and returned to the lounge with his cell phone. He was already dialling as he paced the length of the couch behind where Karou lay, he kept an eye on her as the call connected. He needed to speak to the only person he could turn to for help.

"Magnus?" Warren's voice sounded desperate from the offset; he didn't have a handle on his emotions. His mood was somewhat erratic, flitting between helplessness and hopefulness; he wasn't his usual calm self to say the least.

"Warren? Is everything alright?" Magnus immediately identified the panic he heard in his voice.

"This can't be happening. I don't know if she's dead or if it's working." He admitted, instantly giving away his situation.

"Ah, so, you decided to sire Karou then? When did you feed her?" Magnus seemed pleasantly surprised and asked his questions with an open mind.

"Magnus, what if she's dead?"

"Warren... You know what a dead body looks, smells, sounds like. Tell me, is she dead?"

"No. But I took so much; I couldn't stop. I fed some minutes past eleven last night, and I guess I fed her at just gone midnight. She still had a heartbeat and hadn't stopped breathing." Warren was frantically combing his fingers through his damp hair; the severity of what he had done had hit him hard. Draining someone had never affected him like this before, but before, he'd never cared if his victim lived or died.

"My, my, you did savour her. She must have been delicious. Did she fight you?"

"It's a little hard to find the words, but it was... Uh- I feel alive. It- it's not helping my nerves, that's for sure. She instigated this Magnus. She seduced me. I couldn't help myself. Ah fuck, what if this is a huge mistake?"

"Hmm, you do sound a little jumpy. Relax. There is always a risk; Karou knew that. She hasn't trapped you if she doesn't make it. If she is dead, you'll simply have to bury her, Warren." Magnus spoke rationally. He was generally a more compassionate man than his statement implied, but speaking emotionally never calmed Warren down. He always aired on the side of cold, calculating logic when he had to talk Warren around. "When you fed her, did she swallow it? How much did you give her?"

"She can't die, Magnus. She doesn't deserve to die like this." Warren pulled the phone away from his face; he needed a moment to collect himself. He was struggling with self-loathing. "Uh- She wasn't conscious… I- I might've waited too long. But I filled her mouth and massaged her throat."

"And she still has a heartbeat? Is she breathing at all?"

"Her heart rate hasn't increased any, but it's still there, and she's breathing a little. Now and then, she seems to take a deeper breath."

"You're worrying needlessly then; she would have passed on by now if she were going to. Just wait; this could take days. She's not the strongest of mortals, to begin with. Patience and a little Diazepam might do you some good. Call me when she's conscious. Oh, and be prepared for some screaming. She might beg you to kill her for real this time; that'll pass, though."

Warren had done as Magnus instructed when he got off the phone; he took something to take the edge off and returned to the couch. He collected his planner and laptop from his office and diligently postponed all his meetings and put all business matters on hold. With that done, the only thing he allowed to distract him from his constant watch over Karou, was the folded newspaper in his lap and his half-completed crossword.

The long fall evening had drawn in, and Warren sat snoozing with only the lamp on to light the lounge. The rest of the unit lingered in darkness, having been untouched for the whole day. Warren hadn't moved from his vigil. Karou moaned and often twitched through the last few hours, but she still hadn't regained consciousness.

When she did, it would be sudden.