Chapter Twelve

Unwelcome Interruptions

"Good evening, my love." Ellis greeted. Karou bristled, and Warren sighed. "Roman called to let me know you'd arrived; I do hope I didn't wake you." Warren could almost taste the sourness of her words; Ellis spoke with so little sincerity.

"We were sleeping." He lied about the sleeping part, not that he had company. It caused Ellis to peer past him, and sure enough, she spotted Karou sitting up in Warren's bed with the sheets pulled up to her chest. They covered her but insinuated how undressed she was beneath them.

"Here was I thinking that you only tolerated her at the Compound because you had no other place to put her. Yet here she is. Out of all the rooms in this great big castle and of all the beds she could be in, and she's still in yours."

"With Roman on the prowl, she's exactly where I want her, Ellis." Warren snarled, closed the door in her face and turned the hefty oak door's iron lock so there was no way she could barge in. Medieval doors and locks weren't made to be easily negotiated; he always liked that.

Unfortunately, just because the door muffled her voice, it didn't mean he couldn't still hear her. As he was about to march back to bed triumphantly, Ellis penetrated his mind and whispered her poison into him. Using every detail she could glean from his memories of Karou, she made a shockingly clear case and incepted an idea into his brain that even his rational mind couldn't argue against. You're falling in love with her.

So far, only Magnus had suspected the depth of his feelings but hadn't dared broach the subject. Warren was emotionally naïve enough to have never put any stock in the idea; even when Karou dared to dream it was possible. In fact, she pined for him to show some signs of reciprocation so that she could love him freely.

In the past, Ellis had only ever fed him how much of an impossibility it was for him to genuinely love someone, but seeing as that tactic hadn't worked in manipulating him to her own ends, she now tried a different approach. For what was worse than not being able to love? Loving someone you shouldn't, someone that in the near future, you were going to have to let go.

Stopped dead in his tracks halfway between the bed and the door, Karou watched Warren freeze and gaze into space as he listened to the malicious but convincing conspiracy his Sire put forward. You're still succumbing to her ploy Warren. You always were a sucker for pretty young things but be careful, my love; every rose has its thorns. Karou's manipulating you, and you're falling for it.

For a long moment, his breathing stopped; Ellis had commanded his complete attention via their telepathic connection. During their first few years as Sire and fledgeling, Magnus had taught her some tricks that she now used against her own fledgeling. Unfortunately, Ellis regularly abused her telepathic prowess. She must've been using every ounce of her strength to exude this much control over him. But it was working, and he was effectively held captive by her and forced to listen.

The words alone wouldn't have swayed him, but the things she showed him, combined, were irrefutable. Flashes of moments he'd shared with Karou, layer upon layer, made her claim very real, and it terrified him. It'd been over eighty years since he'd admitted to loving another person. The spring of 1930 had been the last time he'd told Ellis he loved her and meant it. Since then, and especially after her betrayal only two years after, which resulted in his Siring, he'd built a wall around his heart that he never let anyone close enough to touch, never mind attempt to breakthrough. Ellis had demonstrated to him just how often he allowed Karou to see the man on the other side, yet he'd never meant to. There was just something about Karou's own vulnerability and ever-flowing kindness that made him feel safe. At times he'd wanted to prove to her that she was right and that the man he showed to the world wasn't his true self.

All the colour had drained from his face, leaving his complexion deathly pale. His body had stiffened, and he didn't relax until Ellis released him from her control.

Suddenly free of the mental constraints, Warren gasped, sucking in a deep breath. When he came to his senses, his eyes focused on an almost naked but genuinely concerned Karou amidst the satin sheets of his bed. With Ellis out of sight, she wasn't hiding anymore and crawled down the bed towards him. All the while, her lips were moving, his ears were still ringing, so he couldn't make out her words. Only when she came to be stood right in front of him did he tune into her voice.

"Warren, answer me. Are you alright? Warren? What's wrong? Say something. Talk to me, please…" Karou asked over and over until she saw the glazed look in his eyes gradually disappear. Tentatively, she laid her hand onto his chest and stared up at him.

The pretty vulnerability of her steely blue eyes made his chest ache. He didn't want what Ellis had whispered to him to be true, mainly for Karou's sake. Surely, the innocent girl he'd taken in was incapable of ensnaring him like that? Even if she had previously admitted to Magnus that she'd tried, Warren was confident that he'd done nothing he hadn't wanted to. Many times, he'd sat in his office trying to loom together the stray threads of his feelings into something resembling a pattern in an attempt to gain some clarity. He wanted her body because she was beautiful. He wanted her blood because it was sweet. Nothing more, nothing less, but he couldn't resist those two things. But since he'd been shown evidence of how deep his care for her actually run, he was having a hard time dissuading himself from Ellis' truth. This feeling had materialised before he'd sired her and ran deeper than sirely protectiveness too. He was dreading having to let her go to Enoch, and now he knew why.

Moments before Ellis' surprise arrival, hadn't he felt compelled to tell her how she was the most stunning woman he had ever seen? Wasn't he about to admit how much he desired her? Wasn't that, in reality, just the superficial surface layer of what his true feelings were? That he was falling for her, or rather, already had. Something he'd told her he wouldn't do. Pulling away tonight would be so painful for the both of them, but perhaps it was more necessary now than ever.

Only seconds had passed, with Karou's hand upon his chest while he thought before he finally answered. "Yes." He said despite struggling to speak at all. In clearing his throat, he snapped out of it, if only to save face. "Everything's fine."

"You looked like you were in pain just a second ago."

"She was in my head," Warren explained. However, his voice was still quiet, being entirely distracted by Karou's face.

Karou didn't doubt that Ellis had been spewing horrid thoughts and looked up at him sympathetically. She knew Ellis' methods of torture seemed to favour planting wicked earworms, so she was desperate to be of some comfort. Hoping that what she did wasn't too forward, she reached up and set her hands on either side of his face and looked deep into his eyes. Despite the helplessness and melancholy he expressed, she was happy that he was allowing her to really look at him, at least. "Whatever she said or thought, it isn't true." Of course, Karou said that assuming what Ellis' had thought was something character destroying, given that the toxic woman's go-to spiel was usually demoralising. Karou imagined Ellis probably reminded him of his flaws, all of which Karou forgave time and time again, no matter how badly he'd battered her self-esteem.

You would want it to be true. If only I could bring myself to tell you, but I can't. It's too late. Warren thought privately to himself. "Can we go to bed now?" He asked while holding onto her slender wrists and glancing towards the bed.

"Yeah, we should. You look really tired again." Karou went back to bed, crawled back over the sheets and shuffled down into them.

Watching Karou wander around carelessly in her underwear was a tease, but his willingness to allow her to do it amused him. The rabbit hole he was falling down was never-ending, apparently. Everything about her sitting there amongst his mountains of satin pillows, with her deep blue wings framing her back, golden-hued ivory skin and rich brown hair flowing down one shoulder, was captivating. She looked exquisite and a perfect addition to the scene of luxury before him. He wandered back to bed in a trance and sunk into bed next to Karou. "It takes it out of me when she rummages around in my head." He mumbled as he got comfortable.

"Well, you can rest now. Ah shoot, the lamp is still on..." Karou exclaimed, moved as if to leave his side.

"No, leave it. Stay here," Warren whined.

Karou's eyes were focused on the flame as it happened. Before her eyes, the flame encased behind the glass of the oil lamp flickered violently until eventually, it snuffed out entirely, all of its own accord. She couldn't escape how peculiar it was; it was plain spooky. "Wha- What just happened to the oil lamp?"

In that split second, Warren had forgotten himself. Distracted by a mixture of laziness and being too heavily focused on not allowing Karou away from his side, he'd instinctively reached his hand out towards the orange flame of the oil lamp that sat across the room. Without him even having to leave his bed, he'd starved the flourishing flame of oxygenated air and killed it. Only now that Karou had asked what had happened did Warren relax his hand down onto the sheets from its outstretched position. "What do you mean?" His fist balled as she turned about to look at him with inquiring eyes. Had he been found out? Was it even a secret?

She glimpsed the retraction of his hand out the corner of her eye, which only added to how odd what had just happened was. Had he willed the lamp to snuff out? "The flame went out before I got to turn the lamp off..." Eyeing over him curiously, she found herself gnawing at her bottom lip and toying with her fingers. "I... I've noticed a few other weird things too..."

"Can we not make a big deal of this?" Warren started, though he intended to explain. It didn't have to be a secret, he figured, especially not from Karou. "Look, the thing is, I was never really mortal either. My mother was an elemental, and I inherited my gift from her. I-… I sometimes use it without realising, like just now. Despite the Black Winter training me to use it in a deadly manner, it isn't just a weapon; it can be rather useful."

"Okay. I knew you had a gift, but I didn't think you used it at all in your day-to-day life." Karou said and took his explanation at face value. "But uh- what is the gift? You never really explained that part…"

"I'm aero-kinetic."

"In layman's terms, that means?..."

"I can manipulate air molecules. Just now, I moved all the air away from the lamp, which starved the flame of oxygen."

"That's a pretty neat trick," Karou noted with a moderately impressed look on her face as she snuggled down against his side.

"You're not creeped out by it at all, are you?" He asked, just in case.

"You watched me sprout actual five-foot-something bird wings and smiled about it, so no, this doesn't freak me out. Not even a little." To prove her point, she grabbed one of his hands and began to toy with his fingers, and even went so far as to kiss his fingertips gently; his hands were certainly no threat to her. No, one of her favourite things about him were his hands.

Warren submitted to Karou's affection and closed his eyes. Relaxed, nearing a deep and overdue sleep, he reached out his mind to her to say; I haven't slept for four days. I'm sorry if tonight wasn't what you expected.

It's okay. I didn't have any expectations. You showing up without warning was enough of a surprise. I wasn't expecting to see you 'til I got back home. Karou replied in thought and yawned in reaction to how sleepy she sensed he was. Shh. Go to sleep now. We can talk tomorrow. Goodnight Warren. Lifting her head from his chest momentarily, she pressed her lips to his cheek.

She hadn't forgotten what they'd been talking about before Ellis' interruption. Still, she wasn't going to bring it up against now and spoil her night cuddled up with the more affectionate and vulnerable side of her Sire; he was letting her have access to. When his emotionless guise wasn't in play, and this Warren was around, she couldn't keep her distance, and it made sticking to her own rules a mammoth task, but she strived to so that he wouldn't pull away and deny her of himself again.

Karou got through most of her sleep dreamlessly, but just before she felt herself starting to wake up, she had a vivid dream in that strange period of consciousness between deep sleep and wakefulness. The first part was sinfully pleasant; Warren sprawled across the bed they were now in together. The scenario was sexual, and she was looking down at him as if she were astride his hips, but when the scene panned out, the persons involved altered. Warren was engaged with another woman instead, which soured Karou's dream instantly. The location of Warren's room disappeared, and in its place was a bedroom she didn't recognise. Gone was the sensual ambience; instead, the sharp contrasting sting of aggression and sexual dominance disturbed Karou. The scene became rowdy rather than serene, and what her mind showed her was beyond rough sex; it made her winch to be watching it all unfold, but her mind wouldn't let her look away or wake up. She could sense that Warren wanted it to stop. He looked uncomfortable, possibly in pain, but the dominatrix continued despite.

Next to Karou, Warren had been awake a while - he'd decided to stay in bed to hold her until she woke up. While Karou slept at his side, he thought over the notion Ellis had implanted in his brain. His rationality had taken over and formed a decision - he was going to keep it a secret. He wouldn't broach the topic with Ellis, he wouldn't give her the satisfaction, he wouldn't even confide the truth in Magnus, and most of all, he wouldn't admit it to Karou. Things would get too complicated that way. But in his moments of private thought and in the times they were intimate, he wouldn't deny it to himself. What he couldn't escape was that she would be going away to Enoch soon, where she could truly belong and be happy. There was no doubt in his mind that to be there was best for her. The Compound wasn't going to remain safe for much longer. His temporary living situation could end soon rather than later, too, so why hang on to a relationship that was so friable and impossible to maintain? Ultimately, he concluded that what she didn't know wouldn't hurt her. He was distracted from his deep thinking when it became clear that Karou wasn't having a pleasant dream. So he had nudged her until she started to wake up.

"No, stop," Karou muttered, barely audibly, as she woke up. Slowly the dream evaporated from her mind's eye, and in its place, the orange glow of the sun shining through her eyelids came into view. In flickering open her eyes, she found Warren peering at her. It wasn't warm, yellow summertime sunshine that teemed in through Warren's bedroom windows, but crisp feeling winter sunlight, clear and white, and it backlit Warren's face and shoulders as he leant over her. She was nestled back into the mounds of pillows and dreaded to think what her bedhead hair must've looked like.

"Good morning." He greeted quietly.

"Mmm, morning." Karou rubbed over her eyes and grinned, happy that she'd woken up with Warren and that her dream was just that a dream. "Did you sleep well?" She asked and peeped through her fingers.

"Did you-..." He paused and smiled along with her when they both realised they were speaking in unison. "... Sleep well?"

"Yeah, thank you for waking me up from that dream though, it was weird and horrible at the same time. And you?"

"Best night's sleep I've had in an awfully long time. Thank you for staying with me. It helped. I could tell you weren't dreaming pleasant things; you were pulling some uncomfortable looking faces. I'm sorry your dream was bad."

"Can I ask something?" Karou had wanted to ask for a while but was scared that Warren would react badly; right now, he seemed to be in a good mood, so she bit the bullet.

"Hmm, what is it?" Warren laid his head back down onto the pillow and pulled at her waist to close the small gap that'd grown between their bodies.

"When we get back home, how about I don't sleep in my room anymore?"

Warren was quiet for what seemed like minutes - he was obviously processing what she'd said because his expression looked thoughtful. "I would never stop you getting into my bed Karou." That was all he said, so she took that as permission and just smiled in reply. "I am going to get out of this bed, though, because I'm in great need of a shower."

"Mhmm, you are starting to stink." Karou joked, reaching up to ruffle her fingers through his bed head hair. The grin she giggled through disappeared from sight when she nuzzled her face into his bare chest. She shamelessly took in a deep breath, taking in his scent. He wasn't some sweet-smelling nephilim, but to Karou, Warren's natural, musky, and masculine pheromones had become a scent she found deep comfort in.

He felt her lips vibrate against his skin and radiate through the cavity of his chest as she moaned into him. Regardless of how what she did made him feel, he took it all in his stride, but when she licked her tongue up his sternum, his handle on the situation faltered. "K-Karou?" Warren shuttered her name; his tone showed how vulnerable he suddenly felt.

Closing her lips over his skin, she kissed him and gazed up at his face through her thick lashes. "Yes, Warren?" She whispered back.

I'm so easily seduced by you when you look at me like that. He swallowed down the lump in his throat and said, "I don't believe you don't know what you're doing anymore. You're doing it on purpose; you're not nearly as innocent as you'd like me to believe." Warren couldn't ignore the tightness in his hips and the hunger in his lower abdomen when she teased him.

Karou tipped her head to the side as if questioning what he'd accused her of. "I've had some idea what I've been doing for a while, but I didn't use to be like this. You shattered my innocence some time ago, but... I wanted you to." Karou's hands were caressing the sharp edge of his chiselled jaw and over the stubble that'd grown since he'd had the chance to take care of his ablutions. She always liked how his five o'clock shadow looked, and she made that evident in the way she nibbled at her lower lip.

"As I recall, you were dying for me to take it from you." Warren met her eyes with a thirsty intensity in his that had nothing to do with vampiric appetite. In fact, he was still well-fed from the evening before, and his irises were still blue that a cool fire smouldered within.

It was true that Karou had taken a huge risk in how she'd played the hand dealt to her when she found herself at the Compound as Warren's ward, but she didn't regret dying to get what she wanted. Actually, she thought it was perhaps the best choice she'd ever made. The next naughty thought that came to mind made her giggle out of nowhere. It caused Warren's brow to wrinkle curiously. "I was just thinking, I mean, I just realised that I'll always be a twenty-year-old virgin." The fact that Warren took her virginity from her after he'd sired her meant that the fragile barrier that guarded her innocence would forever regenerate and heal due to her being vampiric.

"Mhmm, I know." Warren knew what she was getting at, and if he'd been the blushing kind, he would have. "Magnus thinks I did that on purpose and that I just won't admit it to myself. The fact that he has even considered that makes me feel abhorrent."

"I don't care if that's true," Karou craned her neck to press her lips into the side of his jaw as her fingers still teased over the other side of his face and neck. Near his ear, she whispered, "Let's say that it's your reward for giving in to me and siring me, and… everything else."

Warren shuddered, aroused by what she was insinuating. How she persuaded him to submit to her so sensually meant that he didn't mind letting her have her way with him. Ellis' games were always so violent, but he didn't want to think of her at that moment, but he couldn't help comparing the only two women who'd have ever gotten him to yield. Still, he couldn't give up his ego entirely and allow Karou to think he'd always been under her thumb. "True or not, I'd really appreciate it if you'd accept that you never made me do anything I didn't want to, Karou."

Karou's giggled quietly into his skin as her soft fingertips meandered down his chest and beyond, onto his stomach and boldly secreted themselves away under the cover of his underwear. There, she wrapped them around the very part of him that'd plucked her from innocence.

When it dawned on him where she'd put her hand, it was too late. She had him exactly where she wanted him again, and even if she was manipulating him, he couldn't have cared less.

Then, out of nowhere, an annoying thought came to mind to ruin the moment - if he gave into her right then, he'd only be playing along with her theory, that she could get him to do whatever she wanted at the promise of her body or blood. It made him feel so dirty that that was probably true.

Still, it didn't dilute his urge to lay there and let her have him. After all, he was keeping a delicious secret. A secret that, if allowed to live out in the open, would probably reprieve him of his feelings of shame because there was a deeper reason for his actions. The reason he looked after her so well, the reason he cared, the reason he desired her so much, and probably the reason he hurt her so easily too was that, despite himself, he loved her.

Warren had been about to give in to his fledgeling's sexual advances, but just like the night before, their moment was intruded upon by a knock at the door. Ignore it. He demanded, and Karou eagerly obliged by not stopping her hand from working a tantalising rhythm around him. She continued to kiss his neck while Warren's hand cupped the back of her head to hold her there. His other groped and gently teased her chest, which Karou enjoyed enough to squeeze her thighs together to abate the aching there. Warren had been moaning in pleasure for some time. However, the groan that left him when another three impatient knocks echoed through the room was that of annoyance.

"Warren!" Magnus' voice boomed from the other side of the door; his impatience rang through his tone. "For God's sake, open this fucking door."

"Ugh." Warren knew that he couldn't ignore his mentor's plea. "Karou, put my shirt on and go answer the door." When he made his request, it puzzled her, but he gestured to his hips and at the impressive tent he currently made of his underwear. "It's the least you can do for me; this is all your fault after all." He shot her one of his charming lop-sided smiles that made her flush golden. Momentarily she yearned to destroy the expression with a kiss; but she didn't. Instead, with Warren sat on the edge of the bed, facing away from the door and calming down, Karou donned his buttondown over her underwear and let Magnus into the room as instructed.

"Took you long enou-" Magnus started, but upon realising it was Karou answering the door and dressed in her Sire's shirt, he instantly gauged the situation and grinned wickedly. He'd been hoping for some time that Warren and Karou were as involved with each other as he suspected. He only hoped so because he could see how having a companion was doing Warren a world of good regardless of the ardent fight he was putting up. "Bonita, good morning. Is he in?" The Spaniard chirped, suddenly his mood turned for the sunnier.

"Mhmm, Morning Magnus." Karou blushed at his expression and nodded back towards Warren, who was still gathering himself. He was waiting for the situation surrounding his nether region to deflate so that he dared face Magnus without embarrassment. Even if his mentor had caught him amid the act numerous times before, he wanted to avoid any implication that included Karou for the sake of her dignity.

"Warren, Mikhail has called a council meeting." Magnus opened as Warren stood from the bed to face him at last.

"Alright…" Warren didn't find that news of special interest. Mikhail was one of the Davikov Coven's elders; it wasn't unusual for him to arrange council meetings. "I assume my presence has been requested?"

"Si, and Karou too. But the reason why it has been arranged is why I'm here," Magnus explained.

Warren shot him a sceptical look as he wandered towards his rooms adjoining bathroom. "There is no way Karou is going to attend a Council meeting, Magnus."

"But it's about Karou."

"What? Why is it about me?" Until that moment, she'd lingered on the fringe of the conversation, watching from the sofa where she had seated herself. Now though, she stood and wandered up to Magnus' side. She sought the attention of his eyes with a look of concern.

"Lillianna, the Black Winter's psyche has detected your power Karou. At the meeting, they're going to invite you into the fold officially." Magnus did indeed find Karou's eyes and turned his attention to her completely as Warren stripped out of his underwear and hopped in a hot shower, washing away four days' worth of grime.

"That's absolutely outrageous and completely out of the question!" Warren growled from the bathroom. It gained both Magnus' and Karou's attention.

"But…" Karou couldn't quite wrap her head around all that was happening. Only a few days before, she and Magnus had had a conversation about her clairvoyance. "I barely understand anything about my… ability to see the future."

"That's exactly why they want to indoctrinate you into the Black Winter." Warren had washed at an unusually rapid pace, he usually took his time, but now he was leaving the bathroom with a towel wrapped about his waist as he explained his Coven Elder's motives. "You're still malleable."

"Weren't you in this Black Winter thing? What should I do?" Karou asked and remained unflinching even when Warren dropped his towel to get dressed. Admittedly he wasn't facing either she or Magnus until he'd put on fresh underwear, but still, the Spaniard picked up on how at ease they were around each other these days. It went some way to explain why Karou was there at all and dressed in Warren's dress shirt from the day before. It was almost too obvious to question that she'd spent the night with her Sire.

"For fucks sake, you know I can't even say 'I can't believe they've done this' because I can. They're just that brazen. Not going to the meeting isn't an option." Warren pulled on a pair of semi-formal brown dress pants; the way their slim-fit clothed his legs suited his svelte frame. The equally tight-fitting cream sweater he put on left Karou admiring his sense of style, even if she mourned not being able to ogle his toned upper body for a moment. Combing his fingers back through his damp bangs, sweeping them back from his forehead, he focused on Karou and stepped up to her as if he'd almost forgotten Magnus was present. "The decision is yours, but you're going to be leaving for Enoch soon, so I question what's the point of being affiliated with Black Winter or The Davikov at all."

"She will always be vampiric, Warren. Of course, she should have a hand in the vampiric world, just as she should also keep her options open as a celestial too. That's just a smart life choice." Magnus interjected; he thought that was to state the obvious. "And it allows her to hone her skills, and dare I say it an opportunity to sta-"

"Don't you dare!" Warren barked a warning, pointing his index finger at Magnus. The look in Warren's eyes alone disarmed him.

"To stay here and not leave for Enoch?" Karou questioned regardless, speaking the alternative route her journey could take into life.

"Haven't we had that argument already? You were so angry that I stopped you from leaving with Cambria Morningstar the moment she arrived, and now you're looking to make the contrary argument? After, you know how I feel about it all?" Warren refocused his attention on Karou, and they shared a long silent stare; he was seconds away from losing his temper.

"Well…" Magnus clapped his hands together and turned for the door. "I shall leave you two to collect your thoughts before the meeting and see you there." Magnus could feel the tension mounting between the Sire and fledgeling. He chose to quickly flee the room rather than be caught in the midst of a domestic.

With the Spaniard finally gone, Warren rose one of his brows at Karou, but before he could speak, she silenced him by pressing her fingers into his lips and said, "I think I do know how you feel about me leaving, but I don't think you do. I think you only know what you think about it."

"I assure you; you have no idea how I feel." Warren grasped her wrist and withdrew her fingers from his lips so he could speak.

"So, you won't miss the most stunning creature you've ever seen then?" Karou rose her own brows at Warren, revealing that she hadn't forgotten what he confessed the night before. She began to unbutton his dress shirt, which she was still wearing, to take it off. Due to her wings, she hadn't been able to pull it all the way up to her neck, but it covered enough of her even if it left her shoulders bare. In fact, Warren thought he liked how she had to wear it more than if she had been able to wear it functionally. This way, her shoulders and neck were accessible to both his lips and his eyes.

"I wouldn't want my feelings to sway your decision Karou. I'd rather you go to Enoch and be free than become Roman's puppet in the hopes that you could remain closer to me." Warren hoped that she could see how sincere he was by the look in his eyes, and even though she was undressing for him, he didn't look away from her blue eyes for even a second. Instead, he held her gaze and reached out to stroke his hands over the arches of her wings, hoping to remind her why she belonged in Enoch; she was nephilim first.