EPILOGUE II

Florence

Part III

Paloma was playing Eamon’s game. It was her nature to be affectionate and by now Warren had gotten so used to it that he didn’t flinch when she kissed him - it meant nothing of course and in response, Warren merely chuckled and went on to explain, “Paloma and I aren’t romantically involved. She’s the wife of the man I hire as my villa’s custodian and groundskeeper. She obliges by playing my housekeeper sometimes.”

“Si, my husband is doing another term in Hell. For two months, he’s been gone now.” Now that she stood idly by Warren’s chair with her arms folded over her torso Karou took a moment to really take in the woman’s features. Her eyes were brown, unmistakably serpentine and lined with dark kohl pencil. Equally, dark hair hung in long straight tresses from her middle parting all the way down her back to her waist. The deep red wrap-around dress she wore clung to her hourglass figure but Karou supposed that she looked to be in her forties, or perhaps just looked well to be in her fifties even...

So...She isn’t your girlfriend? Karou found herself thinking. A stray thought that Warren caught and immediately looked in her direction, curiously. His fledgling blushed; perhaps she hadn’t meant him to hear her ponderings.

No, she isn’t. Warren thought back openly. Hadn’t you noticed that she isn’t exactly my type?

Well, she’s got lovely brown hair, a curvaceous figure, dark, beautiful-... Karou began to list the things she thought would have drawn Warren to the woman. In the background of their telepathic conversation, they could hear Paloma and Eamon’s conversation.

“I had merely assumed you were vamperic, Paloma,” Eamon stated, his tone giving away that now that she had revealed she probably wasn’t he instantly thought better of her somehow.

“Ha-ha no, il signor. I am Kin, a half-demon, but my husband Carlos is a full demon. He's currently under a contract.” Paloma revealed before she patted Warren’s shoulder one more time and left them to their dinner bidding them a good night.

Yes, she is... and middle-aged, to put it bluntly. Warren thought back, cutting off Karou mid-thought.

His admission caused Karou to smirk and stifle back a chuckle. It was true that he preferred young-looking women, sometimes questionably young-looking actually. Oddly Karou had never thought any less of him for it, besides it wasn’t a crime to her mind when you looked the way Warren did and he wasn’t exactly predatory in his procurement of the females he ended up with. He’d usually wait for them to come to him, oh, and they always did.

Right then she shook her head free of the passing thought; if she was honest she didn’t enjoy picturing him with other women, even though she knew he probably had been with quite a number since she was last with him. Both annoyed and amused by her ill-placed jealousy Karou glanced to Eamon just in time to catch him eyeing Paloma as she left the dining room. Typical, she thought.

“What a shame she couldn’t stay for dinner...” Eamon muttered before turning to appreciate the food she had left for them, and with an appreciative smile tucked in, Warren had already gestured too. While Eamon tucked into a hearty meal, Warren and Karou merely picked at their serving of actual food, favouring what was in their glasses instead.

The conversation roamed here and there, all the while Warren and Eamon kept up their games, parrying witticisms off of each other’s social facades. The nephilim was trying to make it very clear as to whom Karou belonged, one way or another, but Warren wasn’t actually putting up a fight and trying to insist otherwise. Warren wondered why Eamon seemed so threatened by him at all. It was obvious that he’d let Karou go wasn’t it? At least enough for her to move on from him and find someone else...

Eventually, the topic of politics reared its ugly head and Eamon had consumed enough alcohol to loosen his tongue. Slowly, his true nature was slipping out here and there with every passing comment he made. He hoped Warren wouldn’t pick up on anything. How wrong he was... Every nuance was noticed by Warren and used to weigh up Eamon’s character. So far Warren had deducted that he was your garden variety entitled racist, a chauvinist and misogynist to boot. But he was nothing Warren hadn’t encountered before and all of those things aside it didn't necessarily mean he was a ‘bad’ person, just morally dubious, but wasn’t he also? Who was he to judge?

“The conference last year turned out to be a complete waste of time... Just like I told you it would be.” Eamon boasted as he rolled his silver eyes in Karou’s direction as if he was somehow more intelligent than her for surmising this.

“If nothing else it was a nice break from Enoch,” Karou stated. She had long finished her second glass of blood but was now drinking water she had poured from the communal jug that sat in the center of the table.

“It wasn’t meant to be some bloody vacation. It was meant to get Enoch's foot in the door, in Alabaster. We ended up having to go and clear up the mess as it was, but did we get any thanks for it? No. The ungrateful inbreds...”

Across the table, Warren merely chuckled and shot Karou a look over his glass of scotch; which he had gotten himself at some point. She chuckled back making light of her husband’s rant.

“You said that would happen too.” She chimed innocently enough.

“I know I di- Wait, what? Who did?” Eamon stopped himself, confused by her comment.

“Warren did,” Karou stated but quickly realised that she had revealed something perhaps she shouldn’t have. There would be questions...

“And when did he say that?” Already the nephilim’s eyes were accusatory as they glared down at Karou and the way she wilted beneath his gaze made Warren feel uncomfortable. There was a time when she looked at him like that and it usually meant she had realised he was about to lose his temper. Did Eamon have a temper? He hoped not.

Eamon’s temper was much more explosive than Warren’s ever had been. Karou had bore the brunt of it many times. Although he’d never been outwardly violent he could make her life feel like hell quite easily and enjoyed doing so when he felt she stepped out of line.

“At the conference,” Karou answered honestly, even if she’d pay for it. Telling lies to Eamon only to be ensnared in a web of them was never a good road to go down she had found.

“You were at the Brazilian Conference?” Eamon’s eyes now focused on Warren across the table and the vampire merely nodded. “When I asked you if he was there with the Davikov you said no.”

“I wasn’t there with the Davikov. I haven’t been affiliated with them for quite some time. I was there representing my company. My vote was requested.”

“Pft- That’s regardless!” Eamon spat through his gritted teeth. “You lied to me.”

She had been sharing a look with Warren, a desperate one, when Eamon accused her of lying. On the other end of the look Warren was hoping that it would settle down once Eamon saw reason, but he never saw reason not unless it was his idea, to begin with. It was true that she had lied to protect herself. The defence was falling apart in front of her now and she could see that it was going to get ugly soon if she didn’t calm Eamon down or get him out of there. The last thing she wanted was to have a domestic with her husband in front of Warren that was about Warren.

Warren had already found it odd that Eamon had been so direct as to ask whether he, in particular, had been at the conference. Was he truly that paranoid?

When neither of them said anything in their defence which only made Eamon's paranoia worse and gave his mind the opportunity to run wild. “I see this for exactly what it is now. You must think I am stupid Karou when you’re the lying little whore here. I’ll bet you two had yourselves a delicious little reunion at the conference!” Eamon grabbed a hold of Karou’s arm and forced to her look at him. “We’re leaving. I can’t sit here while you sit quenching you’re despicable thirst and undressing each other with your eyes, laughing at me behind my back with you’re filthy inside jokes.” Now the six-foot-tall nephilim was standing and dragging Karou away from the table by her arm. She couldn’t stop him even though she fought against his grasp.

“What?! You- You’re drunk Eamon. Calm down! Get-” Karou yelled, grasping at his hand that was about her arm; his fingers were digging in and it was painful. "Get off of me."

“You’re not even going to deny it!”

“I’m treating it with the contempt it deserves.” Karou spat. How could she deny it, they had spent some time together intimately, granted they didn’t go all the way but she had wanted to.

“I said we’re leaving!” Eamon yanked open the dining room door and pulled Karou along with him. He sneered at Warren who was still sitting at the table shaking his head at the fiasco. It wasn’t his place to step in, at least not until he was sure Karou couldn't handle it herself. She had brought him to his knees when she had needed to in the past.

“Eamon you’re hurting me.” Karou cried, her eyes had welled and her arm was now flushed beneath his grasp as though it might bruise.

That was enough to rouse Warren from his seat and within moments he was stood at Karou’s side and at her aid. “I have to insist that you let her go Eamon.” He stated calmly.

“Ha! I suggest you back off leech! You’ve had your fun, now I’m going to have to deal with the diabolical vamperic whore I have to call my wife. You- You should have been defanged the moment you got to Enoch.” Eamon’s venomous words were nothing to Karou, but she knew he meant every one of them.

Warren certainly wasn’t going to ask him again, not after what had spewed from his lips, drunk or otherwise. Eamon wasn’t sure how his hand ended up free of Karou’s arm it all happened in a blur, but the moment he came around he lunged forward to grab her again only to find her peering at him from behind Warren’s back.

Protected by a strong arm curled backwards and around her side, Karou sunk herself into the space between Warren’s shoulder blades for safety. “He’ll calm down once he’s sober,” Karou whispered. It was a lie she had to tell because at some point she had to go home to Enoch with or without her husband.

“It’s time for you to leave Eamon.” Warren’s words came from his lips in a tone that insinuated he wasn’t to be argued with on that point. So far he was doing very well at keeping his anger confined to his words; he wouldn’t get physical if he didn’t have to.

“You can fucking have her.” The nephilim’s wings puffed out at his back proudly as he wafted his hand in the vamperic pair’s direction. “I never wanted your sloppy seconds.” Eamon turned as if he was about to leave but that the last moment his lips twitched into a wicked grin and he lunged back as if he meant to grab for Karou one last time and attempt to defeat Warren.

The change of expression on Eamon’s face hadn’t gone unnoticed by Warren but he merely held out his hand before him. His hand alone wouldn’t stop Eamon’s approach but what the gesture represented might halt him. Eamon was undoubtedly confused when hit with a wall of air that sent him staggering backwards and unable to find his footing or reach either Warren or Karou, too.

Gathering his composure and straighten his stance as though his pride wouldn’t falter, even if he was intoxicated, Eamon wagged in finger in Warren and Karou direction to threaten they should ‘mark his words’. “You’re going to find yourself in a very sticky situation when your return to Enoch, Karou Morgan. I'll make sure they know their Queen's a filthy hybrid.” With that, he left and marched out of the villa and down the gravel drive back into Florence to find their rental car and return to the hotel.