Chapter 123 - 2. The Riddle.

We went to Chicago because it is the safest place to be. I was so incredibly fucked up. So it was maybe two months ago when Damon worked 28 hours to get the fear out, and now he's threatening again. Oh, fuck fuck fuck I'm just saying.

The drive would take ten hours and we stopped, but limited. Because now there was no pressure in my mind, and I didn't know what that meant. Whether he was going to grab me right away, or what the fuck? Our marriage was what I had envisioned in my mind. 

Yes, he was following us for some fucking reason, because every time we went to the petrol station to eat and go to the toilet and back to the car, there was a black rose on the seat, Adam was swearing, I was swearing. Adam couldn't get any of his subordinates to accompany us, and once we were in Kentucky, there was a slight change of plans.

 I then got a message from one of my contacts. This was too good to be true, and I had to see it for myself. But since it was quite personal, I decided not to take Adam along. I had no idea what this was about but something almost forced me to go in there.

 I said to Adam, " I have to go to Europe, maybe Asia, but I'll be in Chicago as soon as this is done. The contact sent me a message, and I have to do it. I can't take you on when it's just me. I'll be safe. Frank will escort me to the airfield then, so Damon can't get to me."

Adam grunted unhappily, but he saw something in my expression and said, "Fine, then you need to go wherever you're going, but leave a message as soon as you get back to Chicago. I'll pick you up at the airport."

I nodded, and Adam drove to the nearest airport.

Frank met me. Frank was my first contact in America. He was a cross between Robert Downey Jr. and Benedict Cumberbatch. He was not bad-looking at all, but he had a husband, so I wasn't in any danger. 

Frank was a former FBI profiler, and when I told him about Damon, he said, "Jealousy drives Damon apparently, and when he knows you can't die, he just takes it out on you and then regrets it very much afterward. Now I don't know. I don't think there's any way to solve it except to catch Damon and give him the potion again. It would seem a bit like his rage is throwing off his humanity, sort of giving him permission to do whatever he wants."

I nodded. Frank was escorting me to a private plane. I had bought that too, before. I just had said nothing to the pack about it. It wasn't a luxury jet, but it was a private plane and only in my name. It was good to have my plane in case there was another misunderstanding with the pack, and I couldn't use the pack's plane. Something made me keep this as my own and not tell this as I did not want Bran to know about this. 

I boarded the plane. The pilot was a flea, and he knew where I was going. The journey would take time, and I had time to think about the future. That's why the journey took so long when I flew to Bhutan. I just by passing bought palace from there and from Nepal as well I had time and money.

The journey would take 24 hours, and I had time to sleep in between. Miraculously, I didn't have any nightmares, and I suspected that the distance was too much even for Salvatore. I focused my mind what I was doing not thinking what he had planned to do to me.

Frank had already chosen warm clothes for me for the plane, and as we approached the destination, I got dressed properly. The destination would be in a cold part of the country, almost on top of a mountain, and the plane would land relatively close, and the transport would be ready.

But the journey would take time to get there, so I had to be properly equipped. Bhutan had very carefully protected animals, and they didn't look kindly on stranger werewolves in wolf form, so even if the smart thing to do was to turn into a Mimosa, her thick fur would stand up to the weather. It just wasn't possible.

 When the plane landed, well, it was almost a field. I walked out of the plane, and there was an old pickup waiting for me. Really old and driven by a monk.

I got in the car, introduced myself. "hello, I'm..."

I didn't have time to say a word when the monk smiled—revealing his vampire fangs. Oh, vampire monk, interesting.

He said, " Child, name doesn't matter, deeds do. You are exactly what you are—the savior of the world. I'm brother Po-Loo, sit down, buckle up, it'll take a while, the roads aren't in good shape and we want to keep it that way. We don't need visitors much."

I nodded and smiled, fastened my seat belt, and the car took off with a rumble. This was old car as hell and drive, well it was one that I had ever had. He certainly wasn't exaggerating about the condition of the roads. I kept myself very well restrained from pulling tightly on the air between my teeth when it felt like we were sliding down a mountainside or when we were driving along a snowy path. I kept wondering in my mind how the fuck this car was just going to keep going. You'd think it would get stuck.

After three hours, We had climbed up the mountain and there was quite thick fog there, slowly something starting to come out of the fog. We came to a magnificent monastery. It was old, red and gold with black trim. And some purple. This was a monastery with vampire monks. Fog seemed surround it and it had slight feeling of magic. They wanted to hide.

We went inside; the interiors were just as elaborately decorated, and the doors were adorned with inscriptions in pure gold. I had no idea what those inscriptions meant. There was always something the same, and the decorations were on all the doors.

The monks showed me in. Some spoke a little English, some none, but others translated. I was someone that they had been waiting. I was given bag of blood. They saw my pink fangs. It was strong blood as hell and I had no idea what kind of creature it was from. I sat onto floor in soft pillows. I drank the ceremonial tea there. Now, I couldn't afford to be denied, and Po-Loo assured me it was quite safe for me. It tasted sweet, had a little kick, and was as if it was almost carbonated; after the tea, one monk picked up the scroll and read slowly as he translated his mind into English. 

"And behold, when the moon is full, the world's savior will come to the holy place, and there will be a companion who will be with her forever and ever. The companion will come to help the world's savior for her purpose, and they will have a unique bond. The protector will also help the companion if he has been saved, but if evil has won, there will be no protector, only a destroyer, and then the world will be doomed. Then the mission of the world savior will fail, but the universe will collapse in horror."

He kept a brief pause as he translated on. " If protector is saved, he is free fulfill his duty for the universe. Companion will have new purpose as well. Saviour will lead her pack with love as protector rules over pack by lust. Together they elevated the universe, give a start of healing of the worlds. Heart must be used, love must be acknowledged in order future to unfold."

They didn't explain any of this, and I noticed that Mimosa had been listening carefully. I was very unsure what the hell was my pack. Fleas? Women can't be pack leaders. Somehow, I got the impression that Mimosa understood more about that than I did, but something prevented her from telling me. It was a frustrating feeling, but then again, I knew it was useless for me to pressure Mimosa to tell me anything.

One monk got up and left the room. He came back a moment later. Showed me what I had come here to get. They showed me my companion.

They had a 7-month-old snow leopard for me, a magical cat named Lady. Lady didn't speak yet, but the monks told me that Lady will live forever, as long as I have and she has a purpose too. Apparently, Lady was then this companion of mine. Some day it will possible for me to understand Lady fully.

Lady was harnessed. She was almost full-size. Her fur was gorgeous and thick and had a slight silvery tinge to it, telling me that this was a supernatural magic cat. When I didn't even know magic cats existed. Her fur sparkled like there would had been diamonds in it.

The lady sniffed my hand, pushed me a little, and sat right at my feet so I couldn't stand up right away. She licked my face, her tongue was quite damn rough, I got good peeling. She was really beautiful, and I was already wondering where I was going to put her and then what Adam's reaction would be when I brought a big cat into the house. Is Adam such a wolf that it's going to be a problem? Well, that remains to be seen.

I have my own houses thankfully and I could find suitable place for her. I would love to see Magnum's expression as he had been afraid of me, would he be scared of lady. Or Jarod. 

Brother Po-Loo took me and Lady back to the plane. He gave me a pendant and put it around my neck. It was a feline pendant, and I couldn't quite figure out what feline it was because the animal had so many felines on it. There were features of so many animals and it seemed almost changing depending on what angle I was looking at it.

He put the pendant right against my skin, smiled, and said, " You can take it off when you get home if you want. It's protection." It felt very warm, and I thought it was probably some magic but as I was resistant to magic, would it have any effect on me?

I said thank you as we got out of the car and trudged to the plane.

 Lady was timid and scared but calmed down. I noticed I could pretty well read her body language, and I had instinct here. I talked to her in a low voice, stroked her, and made her trust me. She calmed down, looking at me, pushing herself against me.

The pilot watched for a moment as I walked Lady in her harness onto the plane. He smiled. He had known this, too. I hadn't told Adam yet any of this. I would not tell him on the phone but I would just have to see when he would see her, what his reaction was.

All he knew I had to go to Europe. I had not told him I was getting something. Of course, I had to go and get whatever it was, and it had been my very own snow leopard. She would also be a good security against Damon. However, a snow leopard is a big cat and can be quite feisty. Lady was sweet and, although a little shy of sudden movements. As soon as we could get to know each other, bonded correctly, she might be very protective of me. I was thinking all kinds funny scenarios where we would have big cat stopping me and Damon from fucking all the time. 

I let Mimosa come and have a look, and Mimosa didn't have her usual " pyh!" attitude on. Mimosa and Lady got on beautifully. I didn't change form, but let Mimosa emerge through my human form. She had no problems. Lady was lying on the benches of the plane, and I didn't even bother to tie a seatbelt around her. I was sitting next to her, stroking her, her fur was wonderful.

I was just wondering how Adam was going to take this. And I was prepared in my head for every horror scenario. That he would throw me out, or demand lady to put in zoo or something or attack lady straight away. The amulet around my neck still felt warm. 

 We finally landed in Chicago, and I had texted Adam from the plane that I was coming. So I wasn't surprised when Adam's car was already at the side of the airport and Adam was leaning against the hangar door. Adam was very alert, and I spotted six black vans nearby, so he had got his team together and was determined to keep me safe. Again, somehow I knew Damon was not only one after me. 

I held Lady's leash in my hand, and we strolled towards the door. As soon she smelled air outside, see open door Lady put on the brakes and I had to stroke and pet her for quite a while to get her out and then it took me a while to get her down the stairs. But we had bonded quite well in plane. I had gotten her to purr already. We would take this easily. 

Adam was already striding towards us at a fast pace, and I didn't have to watch his expression as I was so focused on Lady. I lifted my eyes when Adam was close. 

 He had a good look on his face as I walked Lady forward from the plane towards the car. It was expression of amazement. He was smiling, calmly. 

Lady almost panicked, and I tried to calm her down. She sat with her ears pinned back and crouched on the ground. Chicago is so different from Bhutan, which was deserted, snowy, and peaceful. Although this was a private airport, there were cars, there was chatter, and it was still summer, or almost autumn, warm obviously. She was starting calm down, a bit at least. She was very timid creature still. I crouched down next to Lady and stroked her as Adam came closer; I could feel his alpha power. His aura, for some reason, was very clear. I thought he was showing lady to her place. 

Adam came up to us and said to me in a calm voice: "Mimi, let me take over. Give me the leash and get in the car. Remember, I am the Alpha, and this young lady is very special. I will help you. Magic cat. Wow! The last time I saw one of these, it was a witch's house cat, not a snow leopard. Had you said so, I would have happily gone for such a treasure. What's her name? She will heart of our pack and I will take care of my treasure."

 I said, "Lady. When I didn't know about this either, I just got a message that something very important is in Bhutan for me, and it is absolutely essential that I go and get it myself. She was in a monastery, and there were vampire monks there. She is quite timid and this take time for her to accept this life."

I explained to Adam. I was still stroking her. Adam nodded, reached out his hand, and took the leash from my hand.

He said in a calm but authoritative voice. "Mimi, get in the car. Wait there. Just walk away calmly. stop stroking her and move away. Do not look behind." 

His voice left nothing to argue about. So I obeyed. I gave or handed the leash to Adam, who started pulling it out of my hand already. He gestured in his hand and I saw three men close by making sure that I would get to a car. I walked to the car. Adam had brought one of the sturdy SUVs, and I got in the car. I could see Adam's staff watching everywhere.

Mimosa said in my mind, "Pretty cool that we have such a gorgeous alpha. See how he already just about loves the Lady. Adam is a protector, just like Damon, and he just got a new protégé."

I chuckled in response. I could just see in the car's window how Adam was crouched down in front of Lady and stroking her. Lady was pushing Adam's hand. Adam was stroking Lady from all sides, and soon, the cat was standing, standing up against Adam and pushing him eagerly. It seemed that Adam had made a new conquest. 

I must have sat in the car for 15 minutes. Then, Lady was walking much more confidently, but she was all over Adam. They walked calmly back to the car. Lady was now calmed down, but her tail was still twitching nervously, but the touch of Adam's fingers on Lady's head made the twitching stop. She had truly bonded with her alpha.

Adam opened the back door, and Lady jumped into the seat and lay down. Adam came to the driver's seat without saying a word and started driving. His alpha aura was still very much on display and seemed to calm Lady down. And keeping me quiet in my own thoughts. He rarely used this aura in this much.

I touched the talisman around my neck. It felt important somehow, and I did not know what it was actually doing to me. I wouldn't realize it until decades later. It was part of my destiny, my role, role that I would have difficulties to accept from time to time.

Adam was driving calmly, and I could see that there were two groups of Adam's people ahead of us and two groups of Adam's staff behind us. This was not just because of Damon. But I was not going to ask why. I trusted Adam. 

On the way to the house, he had one of the trusted firm's men make a fenced area behind the house where the Lady could be at the start. It would be an outdoor enclosure, but not too big so that Lady would not feel unsafe. Then somewhere in between, it could be enlarged if necessary.

Adam was concerned about Damon's behavior and didn't want to risk Lady's health. He also ordered a lot of meat for her. Apparently, Salvatore had been hiding or had announced his intentions even while I was picking up the lady.

We would be at the house soon, and then I could take a breather; the Chicago house was my sanctuary, and Adam had blocked Damon from access and changed the codes, too.