Innocence Lost

Chapter 73

Kate's POV

Slight mature content. . .

The past couple of days have been an complete nightmare. Between doing Eric's paperwork and responding to endless, nonsensical e-mails I wanted to bang by head against the wall. I was also working on Max's speech for the Choosing Ceremony in between that was taking up a lot of my time.

Checking up on Eric throughout the day made it so much worse. I came home with a massive headache by the end of the day. It was also extremely hard trying to snoop around his office with Max peeping his head in every chance he got. The only thing I had to look forward to everyday was going to lunch with Michael and Stew. Just watching those two interact was entertainment.

As I proceeded to leave Eric's office at the end of the day I heard a chime indicating he had a new e-mail. Sighing deeply, I went back to his computer to respond to whomever it was. It was blinking red and marked high importance from Erudite. This could only mean one thing, Jeanine. When I attempted to open it a icon popped up asking for a password.

"Great, of course it's password protected" I said to myself.

After eating a quick dinner I grabbed Eric a plate and ran into Four on my way out of the dining hall. His face looked like it was healing nicely.

"Hey Kate. On your way to Eric's?" He asked.

"Uugghh yesss!  I hate this sooo much" I whined.

Four laughed "How is he by the way?"

"Not healing as fast as I would like. Four, he's such a pain in the ass"

"We all know this"

Checking my watch I knew it was time for Eric to take his pain meds "It's time for his meds. I should get going"

"I'll walk you"

I hooked my arm through Four's as he walked me to Eric's apartment. On the way he told me he sent a message to Alaric and was waiting for a response back. I prayed Evelyn wasn't involved in the attack, for Fours sake.

"He better be up, I hate having to wake him" I say as we get to Eric's door.

"Good luck" he smirked.

"Yeah, thanks. Keep me posted with. . . You know what" I whispered the last part.

He saluted me before walking away. Making my way inside as quietly as possible I noticed that the lights were off. I headed toward Eric's room to find that light off as well, hearing light snoring sounds emanating from inside. Taking a deep breath, I slowly and quietly opened the door to find Eric laying on his back fast asleep. There was enough light seeping from the moon in the tiny crack of the closed curtains on the window, giving me just enough light to see inside the room.

I noticed Eric's pain medication on the bedside table and an empty glass. I went to retrieve some water from his bathroom and made my way over to Eric's bed, setting the water down on the night table. I sat as gently as possible on the bed beside his sleeping figure and swallowed.

"Eric?" I whispered, leaning closer to his ear while shaking his uninjured shoulder gently.

"Eric, wake up"