I woke up out of bed by myself. I felt empty, but I knew some time had passed. I also felt quite velvety. But now I didn't have as bad a hangover as usual. I took a shower and went to eat.
The kitchen was empty and there was no one else in the house except me. On the kitchen table was once again Damon's phone and wallet and a note.
It was from Adam. " Thank you Mimi, that was great. Work is calling. I have to go to Washington, DC, for a month to close some deals. Salvatore had already left when I woke up. He'd velveted me too. You must have been effectively velveted because you were asleep. Oh well, I'll be in touch. Adam."
Oh, both men rejected. Sex holiday was over once again and I had finished recharging my batteries. I could do some work again and made myself breakfast, then packed my bag and called Reddington and Magnum about the gigs.
I went on to Europe doing all sorts of stuff. From sniper work to making contacts to guarding medical facilities. I had now decided to do a little bit of this and that, and I didn't bother to think or put myself in the position to do just one thing.
Instead, I did more than one job each day. In the morning I might go around, photograph possible facilities, then when the time was right I might do one sniper job. In the evening, I would start killing guys on Reddington's list.
I went from country to country, worked with the packs and people got involved in the job.
The werewolves knew many people, and there were many people in those facilities. I got quite a few rescued victims who had now recovered and wanted revenge. They, too, wanted to prevent anyone from going through what they had.
I told everyone who wanted to know about my experiences in the medical clinics, Sark and Krycheck. it wasn't easy being a leader all the time and often I felt like I did not know what I was doing but I did OK. I was faking till I was making it. Work teaches its doer, and I was learning daily.
Adam was busy, so I didn't bother to let him know as my network expanded country by country. My work phone list grew, and I met new people.
Contacts came with them, and now information and rumors of potential institutions were coming in. As there was not much other choice for me than to be the leader, started making us work even more. Meaning I had to plan all the time, our next steps.
I got us headquarters, places where we planned gigs and I had money, so I bought us enormous halls and we had 15 witches with us, quite strong ones. Some were white, some red, grey, and some blue witches were there, too.
So where the white witch is good, pure, and does nothing wrong, the red witch is the witch of love and romance. Lust, too, had their own powers and they were useful too. The blue witch controlled the weather and the elements, while the green witch was again a specialist in the forces of nature.
All the witches could work together and make potions and spells. They developed spells to hide our headquarters or to make it undetectable. But I already had pretty damn specific rules about how to keep ourselves safe, how to hide our base.
I had gotten a few ideas here and there and our security would be one most important things because when we make a fuss in big time, enemies might come after us and our bases need to be secure. One thing we decided was that we would not have headquarters but lots of bases here and there and I would travel base from base and help out. Each base would have its own leader when I was not in there.
I'd been at it for six weeks, traveling across Europe, expanding, exploring, and sharing my ideas.
We were developing into an organization and as I sat in my office, in our base in the south of France, I couldn't help but wonder how many people wanted what I wanted. How big this thing was going to get and were we going to get anything done? I mean, really get anything done. I had my own office, and it was more or less a must. My leadership role had just come to me.
It wasn't so simple that we could have found the facilities easily and got them down all the time. This actually took work. I had to decide all the time, come up with new ideas, and work very closely with Reddington, as he wanted to make sure that my army would be as strong as possible. He gave me whatever I needed and with no strings attached.
I was in my office studying satellite images when there was a knock on the door.
I just said, "Come in," as the door opened and Adam strode in.
He sat down opposite me, took his time, and said, "You've come a very long way. You're not the same wild child we had to force to sleep to get you in shape. Samuel would like to check you over one day if you're coming. "
I looked up; I was now working and trying to focus on these goddamn satellite photos.
And said, " Yeah, I'm not the same. I'm not really. Oh fuck, it's not that simple. But yeah, I'll try to make time one day for Samuel to check me over, in fact he could be a consultant while I try to make a medical space on the bases, Damon's not coming and I don't even know where he is, Colin could be another option."
I was a little irritated. Adam looked at me. I did not pay any attention and soon his patience ran pretty much out.
Adam grunted and said, " Let's see those pictures."
He took the pictures and the information, started going through them, went for a walk and I noticed he was meeting men again and he spoke flawless French when my language skills were just developing. He had come in to work; I see.
I let Adam study those pictures when Frank, one of my trusted blasters, noticed I was free. He came to me, took me to look at one of the secure sites, and drew up a plan on how we would do it. I had to be the leader, learn as I go and there was no time to question myself. Not at all.
We had stockpiles, and for every job, we got a haul. We had big trucks reserved for some sites so that we could steal as much material as possible, and we always tried to stage the site. Reddington gave some gigs. I was pretty damn selective and only did the highest-paying gigs.
I was actually doing quite a lot of the contacts now, not so much the Reddington gigs. I had cleverly directed Magnum to do them. I had money, no need for me to work all the time to get money. I left Adam to do the gigs in France and moved to Greece myself. I had to move almost all the time and see what we needed, and where my little organization would expand next.
There I bought a big old hotel and I couldn't help humming Abba's songs as I was fixing it up when I wanted to, but as soon as I got enough contacts, the gigs and the planning took over completely.
I got us a base in Greece and another thing I got was several safe houses. They were just regular tiny houses, and they made them very secure. No one could get in and they reserved quite a lot of supplies and storage so that if someone needed to barricade themselves in, they could be safe for a few weeks up to a month.
My days were busy as always. My language skills developed as I was always having to talk to people and I always knew a few words of the language that was needed. I had already made three busts in two weeks, and we were shadowing a couple of places and figuring out the best way.
There was always one guy who knew a trusted friend, and my network grew. There were always those who wanted justice, and we got to know each other. My story went on, and I was soon almost a legend, but there were so many others as well.
I was always growing as a person, as a leader, as a flea. I had to be an invincible, all-powerful leader who was always in control, always confident, and showed no weakness. It was a demanding role and I wouldn't have always wanted to wear it, but when I had no choice. I had to be an inspiration, an example. An idol almost for these people, werewolves, witches. There was no time to be uncertain of anything. Things had to be decided as soon as possible.
As more people came along, the expertise grew. I already had my hacker department. Adam had suggested it and I let them get us money. I already had explosives experts on the job. It was good to have hackers get themselves busy with Sark's or Krycheck's secret accounts and have some fun while they were on it.
I returned to America three months after waking up alone. My network had expanded tremendously. We had so many successes under our belts. Money started coming in and I put some of it in an account of my own so that we lost if someone at a gig, their family would be taken care of.
I grabbed a few things from my favorite books, the Modesty Blaise books. I was not trying to be Modesty Blaise. Those books were just an inspiration for me.
Adam had either stayed in Europe or gone back to America. I hadn't kept in touch with him. This minor project had gotten so busy that I really didn't always notice the time passing and could concentrate closely on one thing. I had my hyper-focus again, so my mind was focused on this thing.
The objective was to put together a network in America. It just had to be done differently because Bran was in charge of the werewolves, but in Europe, I had already gained a reputation and contacts started coming in. There were a surprising number of people who didn't want to work with Bran and, of course, a hell of a lot of human beings got involved.
I stayed in my mansion in Pennsylvania at first and did gigs and stuff from there. I hadn't started touring America yet, as I did not know when Adam or Samuel would want to check me out. I talked to Jarod a couple of times a week for hours on the phone. It was good to have someone to talk to, someone that could let me be me, not the leader. It was exhausting being the leader.
We had a connection or understanding. We saw certain things in the same weird way. I knew Damon had never understood nor would he because this was such a clear pretender trait. Jarod understood my problem with being a leader. He warned me that the role could grow on me and that would change me permanently, and I had no problem with that.
I could be a leader then, but Jarod said, " Remember, you are a sentient being, not a robot, and a leader role like that can drive your emotions very hidden. Remember to take a vacation and just be a Mimi, not a flea."
Jarod distinguished between me and Flea. I remembered that and kept the two separate. I didn't let them merge or take over. I decided every once in a while to take a day off, bake some food, and be Mimi before I had to be Flea again. He promised to remind me from time to time.
I had been in America for a month when it happened.
I now took a vacation from my role, once again made some money, and went on another killing spree when Damon said in my head very coldly. "So that's it, my naughty wife. You don't learn. I have to teach you again. Remember the last time"
Yes, sir, he was nervous about something and I tried to ignore him.
"Mimi, that dress doesn't fit you. You're in good shape. You'll take a little of my treatment, quite a lot, and then you'll learn again. You are my wife, not Jarod's, not Adam's, and not any of the hundreds of men you have spent months with. "
I got the feeling I was being chased again. I swallowed and remembered the last time. Would it be the same now or would something worse be in store?
Bad was satisfied. It had taken him time to get the evil spirit out of him and back into the core. Then he manipulated the good side's morbid jealousy of the invincible, whispering to him about Jarod, other men, and Adam. He gave the good side the idea of spying on Mimi's thoughts, listening to her work talks, and conversations with Jarod in which she confessed the Good would never understand her the way Jarod understood her.
He continued patiently and soon it exploded again, the rage and it wiped all self-control from Good and the core again. The evil spirit was still fuelling this and now, this time, evil was determined to be involved. He had made some torture devices and he would put them on the invincible himself. Now he too would enjoy, but first, there had to be chasing, stalking, and threatening.
Making the invincible afraid. Making it weak. To isolate it. It would get even better. Now he was strong enough that he too could surface now and then, to enjoy how the invincible was under his power, weak with fear, terror, and completely at his mercy. He didn't feel at all merciful, though.