Chapter Nineteen

Collection of secrets

Samir didn’t get up, not for a couple of minutes. He felt quite winded and disorientated. Usually, he wasn’t the sort of man to back down without a fight, but when he came too and looked down the street, the way Alice looked at him from the protection of her mother’s arms caused him to admit defeat. He’d upset her, frightened her even, and that cut him. His foolishness dawned on him and was joined by a wave of shame.

Quite came, and peace was restored until a voice shattered the silence again,

“What the fuck?” Cassandra demanded to know, buzzing around Warren. He instantly noticed her dilated pupils and assumed the rest considering her overexcited mood. “Holy shit, I did not know you could do that!”

“He’s aero-kinetic, Cass,” Alice explained with a sigh as she pulled away from Karou and stood from the steps they’d been perched upon.

“Yeah, no shit.” Cassandra shook her head with a sarcastic look of surprise on her face; her sister’s almost flippant tone was annoying.

“You’ve never done anything like that before,” Karou remarked on her way to Warren’s side. Tucked under his arm, she peered up at him through her lashes and thought; it was kinda hot, though.

He grinned down at Karou humbly, having heard her thought too. “It seemed necessary,” was all he said to explain, though he didn’t need to, Karou was already thankful that he’d stepped in a calmed the situation so that she didn’t have to.

“Ah! That’s how you broke the window!” Cassandra exclaimed suddenly, casting her hands into the; she’d had an epiphany.

“What?” Karou asked, confused, looking between Warren and Cassandra.

“He broke the window in the guest room that one time,” Cassandra thrust her hands out in front of her as if she were demonstrating how he’d flung the air at the window pane.

“I did tell you,” Warren defended himself.

“Hmm, I think I remember you saying something about it.” Karou mused. “Y’know you haven’t been here long at all, and yet it feels like you’ve been here ages.” She chuckled lightly and nuzzled into the side of his chest with a sleepy smile.

“Yes, I suppose we have slipped back into an almost forgotten but familiar rhythm.” Warren stroked his hand down the back of her head before he tore his gaze away. He looked first at Cassandra, who was cussing over the rips in her outfit and carrying on a conversation with herself in her doped state.

Meanwhile, he saw Alessandra had gone to Samir’s aid. The nephilim had gotten himself up off the floor, though he’d heeded Warren and was keeping his distance. Warren interrupted their quiet discussion to inform them, “If everything is in hand, we’ll be going back now.”

“Everything is fine here,” Alice assured. “Thank you for coming to put a stop to the ridiculousness.” She continued while glaring at Samir, who sheepishly looked down at their interlocked fingers.

“I think we should all be heading to bed,” Karou chimed in, looking at her daughters. “Especially you, Alice. What are you doing out in the first place?”

“It’s- It’s my fault. I made her come out with me.” Cassandra lied before Alice had the chance to say anything, which earned her a questioning look from her sister.

“You should both know better. I’m disappointed, Alice. You shouldn’t be pushing yourself too hard.”

“I know, mother. I’m sorry.” Alice bowed her head obediently, only for Samir to lean to her ear and whisper a request,

“Can I stay with you tonight?” He nuzzled her ear, and she could imagine the puppy dog eyes he had just then.

“No. Not tonight. My Mom’s right; I need some rest.” Alice combed his hair back over his ear tenderly, she didn’t want to be mean, but his turbulent emotions took something out of her.

“But I won’t see you for a few days, remember? I’m on the patrol rota, shadowing Therrin.” He whined and grasped onto her hands a little tighter; he didn’t want to let her go just yet.

“Yeah, well, absence makes the heart grow fonder,” Cassandra butted in with a stern comment. She had come to take Alice back home and grabbed her hands from his.

“Goodnight, Samir. I’ll see you Wednesday night, okay?” Alice called back to him as she followed Cassandra, who was following Warren, and Karou - they’d walked off in front.

When Warren and Karou had bid the sisters good night and wandered off in the direction of Karou’s chambers, Alice let go of Cassandra’s hand, pressed her lips to her cheek and turned as if she were about to part ways.

“Goodnight, Cass,” She chirped quickly.

“Hey, hey, wait a minute! Where’d you think you’re going?” Cassandra grabbed hold of Alice’s wrist with a brow raised. Unimpressed by her sister’s sneaky behaviour, she asked, “Why did I find you sneaking back through THE ROCK this late at night?”

“You’re the one who lied to Mom about it.”

“You’ve always got my back; I was returning the favour. Thanks for being so ungrateful!”

“I- I’m not ungrateful-”

“Just not actually thankful enough to tell me the truth, huh?” Cassandra folded her arms over her chest. She was slowly coming down off of whatever drugs she’d taken and being honest, she had a headache coming on, but she’d be damned if she let Alice get away without giving her an explanation. “C’mon, you owe me an explanation, Alice. It’s not like you to keep secrets.”

“I- I can’t explain it, Cass… Sometimes I just need some time on my own.” Alice was torn. Cassandra was right, she didn’t keep secrets, least of all from her best friend and sister, but she wasn’t sure she could tell her where she’d been earlier that evening. Telling Cassandra the truth could betray their mutual trust and do more damage than keeping this one thing to herself.

“So I go and make a fool of myself for beating Samir’s ass for being an overbearing jerk and taking your consent for granted when all along you’re sneaking around with someone behind his back, is that it?!”

“No! No, Cass, that’s not it! What do you take me for?” Alice exclaimed. “Besides, I’m not sure I’m even with Samir.”

“He thinks you are.” She scoffed.

“I promise I’m not running off to fool around with anyone, Cassandra,” Alice’s expression and tone was contrite. She wasn’t really lying; all she and her ‘friend’ did was talk.

“Alright. I believe you, but it won’t look good, Alice, if you’re caught.”

“I don’t plan on getting caught.” Alice took hold of her sister's hand once more. “Besides, you’ve got my back, and I’ve got your back, right?”

“Yeah, you’re right.” Cassandra yielded. She couldn’t stay mad at Alice for very long. “Together, we’ll rule the world!” She whisper-shouted into the hall and hoisted their interlocked hands into the air.

“Shh, you dummy, you’ll wake up the whole Palace! We’re out past curfew…”

Together, the Morgan sisters giggled through the Palace corridors that led to Alice’s bedroom. An impromptu sleepover was afoot.

Elsewhere in the Morningstar Palace, Warren and Karou had made it back to her bedroom unnoticed by any guards who wandered around the halls at night keeping watch.

“I’m sorry we got interrupted earlier,” Karou said as she shut the door behind them. She made sure to lock it now that she didn’t intend on leaving again until morning.

Lounging back against the arm of the couch, Warren pattered the space between his legs as they stretched out down the length of the upholstery.

“It’s fine. It was dealt with easily enough.” Warren assured her.

Happily, Karou made her way over to him and set herself down in the place he had made for her. Perched in his lap for the second time in a few days, she felt right at home and right at ease. “Uh-huh, you were really impressive back there.” She said and swooned into his arms dramatically.

“Oh, yeah? That does it for you, huh?” Warren mocked, wiggling his eyebrows and smirking down at her. With his hands in her hair, he twitched his fingers to blow air through the dark strands.

Giggling and grabbing hold of his hand, Karou looked at his fingertips as if she were trying to work out how he did it before she gave up and asked, “How does it work exactly?”

“I don’t really know… I suppose I can just feel the air around us, not that it has texture, but I just will it to come to me or leave me, and it does.”

“So what you do with your hands doesn’t mean anything then?” Karou asked, still tracing her fingers over his and examining the lines in his palms and fingers where his knuckles creased.

“No, it’s just a physical flourish. It helps me get into the right frame of mind.”

“That makes-” she yawned, “-sense,”

“Am I boring you? Or is it just late?” Warren chuckled.

“It’s late, and I’m tired, but… I kinda don’t want to sleep yet.” Karou glanced up at him from over her shoulder. “Can we sit here and talk for a while?

“Sure.” Warren obliged. “What would you like to talk about?”

“How about we start from the last we saw each other and go from there to here?”

“I’ll have you know I haven’t been sitting moping around without you.” He smiled, mildly proud of himself for having at least tried to move on. “Magnus wouldn’t let me.”

Despite the jovial nature of Warren’s first statement, his latter caused her head to droop. “Magnus,” Karou repeated his name quietly. “I wish we had made it to Blue Ash in time to save him.”

“So do I.” Warren squeezed her hand. He wasn’t sure he wanted to start grieving the loss of his mentor just yet. “Karou… I’m not ready to talk about it yet.” He was holding back a flood of tears behind his façade. If he dropped it just even a moment, he wasn’t sure he’d be able to stop.

“Alright… Tell me what you have been doing for the last fifty years, then? I want to hear everything. Even the boring stuff,” Karou yielded, understanding that right now perhaps wasn’t the time to dissect and unpack his grief. Smiling, she stroked her head over the side of his face lovingly.

“Hmm, perhaps not everything,”

He hesitated a moment while her head tipped to the side in that bird-like fashion of hers.

“Why?”

“Women - you want to know about the women I’ve been with in the time between, do you?” He asked, rhetorically and simply because she’d told him about her husbands. Although it wasn’t exactly pleasant to imagine other men had loved her, he supposed he was happy that she hadn’t been all alone. Karou, on the other hand, was a more jealous creature. He didn’t assume she would handle knowing that sort of thing with much grace.

“Well, no, but I wouldn’t mind if you had to mention them to tell me the story,” She supposed. “Okay, okay, just tell me how many real quick so then it’s all over and done with.” She nodded, deciding that she could be emotionally well adjusted for just a moment.

“Sexually or romantically?”

“The number is different?” Karou’s head cocked to her other shoulder

“Very,” Warren answered simply, but Karou continued to look confused. “Upward and twenty, and three.”

Karou swallowed. Now she understood what he’d meant. She decided to focus on the last piece of data he’d given her. “So, you’ve had three girlfriends in the last fifty years?”

“Yes, if that’s what you want to call them,”

“What would you have called them?” Karou asked, but Warren merely shrugged. “Did any of those relationships last very long?”

“What do you think?” He smirked.

“Hm, that’s a no then, but I don’t understand why.”

“Because women never seem to stick around for long. I’ve never really changed, Karou. I’m still the jerk you used to get angry at.”

“But I’ve loved you for all of this time, and it’s never faded.” Karou turned her head to meet his eyes. “I’ve never questioned why I fell for you or why I’m still crazy about you. You make up for all the bad stuff one way or another.”

He stared at her intensely when he said, “It never mattered how much they loved me, Karou; they never compared to you.”

“Are you trying to romance me into bed, Mr Howard?” She giggled, though she appreciated the sentiment of what he’d said.

“You’d like that wouldn’t you?” Warren chuckled back and pressed his lips to her forehead.

“Right, you wanted to know what I’ve been up to, so here goes, but it starts with a confession. After seeing you in Florence, I saw you one more time.” He paused for effect, “I was in the city for the coronation. I watched the parade, and after your float passed through the street, I left.”

“You were there?”

“Yes. I couldn’t miss your big day. I went back to Florence and stayed there for a little while. I met Vanessa, and that lasted for a couple of years until it ended badly. I decided to leave Italy and stay with some friends in Norway while I sulked. Afterwards, though, I went back to business as usual. REDford was doing quite well since I’d procured a new contract with the lesser-known Norwegian Coven my friend is associated with. I was holding interviews for a new branch secretary, and one day, Madelyn showed up.”

“Madelyn?” Karou recognised this as a female name and tipped her head sideways, wondering if this Madelyn was girlfriend number two. She raised both her eyebrows with piqued interest, eager to hear more about this person.

“Yes. She’s a Sired vampire, like me. She was sired in 1954 and never knew her Sire. He turned her and left her for dead. So we had something in common straight away.” Referring to Elis, Warren sunk further down into the couch as though the topic of his Sire made him slightly miserable. A sigh relieved him; his arms found their way around Karou, and all seemed to be back on track.

Despite being comfortable in his arms, Karou was sulking privately over the fact that he was right in that she wasn’t enjoying hearing about the women that had been in his life.

Still, he quickly put her mind at rest, over Madelyn at least, when he said, “Magnus liked her, but then again, he liked most women...” Here, he rolled his eyes, though, in a bittersweet manner. “They were together until the end.”

In fact, I’m not sure how I’m going to break it to her that he didn’t make it out of Blue Ash with me. He thought sorrowfully, whether Karou heard or not.

He cleared his throat and continued, “Maddy proved to be very good at scouting for willing donators. People found her voice alluring and friendly. She had been a telephone operator so go figure. She was very motherly and had always wanted kids. Luckily, she found Garth...”

“Who’s Garth, then? Her partner? I thought she was with Magnus…”

“Oh no. No, he was the mortal boy she found wandering the streets of Milan. The world had fallen apart, and everyone left alive, herded toward the Italian border. So there was a flood of people at the Como Gate. Thousands of people were displaced, but he’d made it there alone. He’d lost his parents on the road from Germany; I think they’d probably died, so we took him in. Magnus wanted to Sire him, but he was far too young, only nine or ten. It was strange and hard having a human child around. Watching him grow and teaching him about the race they planned for him to become difficult for me.”

Karou smiled. She was glad that Warren had had children in his life to some degree, but having children herself meant she knew what it was like to watch them grow and make their own choices regardless of whether you agreed with them or not. Regarding vamperic siring, though, Warren’s opinion was crystal clear - he’d taken some convincing and ultimately some manipulating on her part to Sire Karou. She knew beyond doubt that Warren wouldn’t have advocated for Garth’s siring.

“I mean can you imagine being a kid and being told you never have to fear getting old? It did him a lot of damage and made him reckless, amongst other things, but Magnus and Maddy just didn’t see that. They became like some sort of vamperic parents to him. Credit where it is due, though; Maddy is a great mother, and Magnus has always been paternal. Magnus was the one who eventually Sired him. His fledgelinghood was rocky, to say the least. He had his share of darker days. I chose to leave at one point because there were things going on, some I just couldn’t stand for. I ended up moving to London, England, for a while. They wanted a change of scenery and eventually ended up in York where there was still a substantial mortal community.”

“I think that’s incredibly sweet,” she said sincerely. “Especially since you all probably saved the boy’s life, and I can just picture Magnus trying to scold a rebellious teenager...” She smirked at the image, her eyes brightening up. “What about you - did you enjoy looking after him despite all the ups and downs?”

“Me? Yes, his childhood fulfilled me in a way that I didn’t know I was missing out on. I guess I just filled in the gaps as an ‘Uncle’ type figure.” Warren shrugged.

“I think you would’ve made a wonderful father,” Karou said sentimentally and reached up to touch the side of his face. I wish we could have had children together. She thought bittersweetly - given their topic, it was impossible not to jump on that train of thought.

“If I could have ever been one, I would never have let you go.” Now Warren’s eyes threatened to tear again. “But I’m very glad that you have your daughters.”

“And I think they really like you, so that’s all good.” Karou smiled again, which caused him to smile too.

“I’ve become very fond of your girls, very quickly.”

Karou took a moment to think, to come up with a thoughtful answer. “Family is important these days, I think,” she said softly, pushing his hair back with her fingertips. “So many people just take it for granted, but when we’re stripped of everything else - our homes, our possessions - it’s all we have, isn’t it?”

She took another moment to think and spoke again before Warren could respond, “I think I’d like to meet these people someday,” she said wistfully.

“I guess you are right. You’re my only real family, though.” Warren took hold of her hand and kissed her palm. “Maybe you’ll meet Garth one day; he’s turned out all right, considering his questionable upbringing.”

Karou rolled over and laid her chest down onto his. “What about me? How’d you think I turned out?”

“What a question… You can’t tarnish such perfection.”

“Oh, you smooth talker, you.” Karou giggled and nuzzled her head into his chest.

“I practise my lines in the mirror every morning,” Warren joked, which earned him another sleepy chuckle from his fledgeling. “That’s pretty much the story. Life continued until I was arrested on a trip back into Europe, like Magnus. I’m sure my custody was planned to end like his. Just in time, you came and seized the castle. Tell me about you...”

Now, propped up onto her elbows so that she could see him better in the dimness of her room, her head tipped to the side as she thought, tapping her index finger against the corner of her mouth. “Everything feels like a blur, to be honest. Upon returning home from our vacation, everything happened very quickly, and then it all starts to slow until the present...”

She sighed, and her wings twitched once behind her. “After Italy, Eamon and I couldn’t pretend to be a happy couple anymore,” she began. “But he wouldn’t let me just leave him because he thought that would make him look bad. So one night we were fighting, and Alice came in to see what was happening - she had only just turned five, tiny thing - and when he told her to go, she wouldn’t because she was scared. I went to pick her up, and he moved to hit me for undermining him, but he struck her instead. It might’ve been an accident, but in the moment…” Karou shrugged, “Well, naturally, my instinctual response was to drain every drop of blood from his body, dismember the remains and be done with him.” Karou spoke quickly at this part since Warren had not seen her more violent, aggressive side before. It was all in the name of protection, but still, it wasn’t pretty. “Uh, they had me coroneted a year after that, and then everything with Remus happened. The rest is actually pretty boring - bringing up the girls, keeping Enoch safe, stuff like that.”

“Doesn’t sound boring. It sounds like what you always wanted. To be a somebody but still have a relatively normal life; a career, children, social life…” Warren’s voice fell into a sleepy whisper as he lounged, eyes closed and underneath her on the comfy cushions of the couch. Running his hands up and down her upper arms gently, as she used them for support, Warren hummed, thinking. “I regret having missed so much.”

“We’ve got plenty of time to make new memories. Promise we won’t let go of each other again?”

“What if I make you want to let go?”

“You’ll say sorry. I’ll forgive you - like I always did, and we’ll carry on.”

“Alright.” Warren kissed her lips lightly, “I promise I won’t part from you again.”

In the dead of night, Warren and Karou had shared their secrets and made their vows to each other. All seemed to be well with the world, and Karou could feel herself drifting toward sleep. Warren, too, his head fell to one side against the crown of Karou’s head and nuzzling her hair, he held on a little tighter to her waist. Just like that, they fell into a peaceful sleep on a couch, as if time had somehow turned back.