Time didn't matter, or I had no concept of time. There was just pain, pain, a wrenching feeling that tore my soul to shreds. Despair and self-pity, all of which I had gone through, and I found nothing would help me, so one day, I gave up. I just was and let the flow take me wherever it took me.
I was tired of fighting, of trying. When it was no use. I was too broken, too sick, too weak, and I kept thinking that if I got another fucking infection and banished my entire pack of creatures again, that would just be the end of it.
I thought bitterly that my weight would probably start at number three after this. I slept or was in some kind of trance or something where it wouldn't be so awful.
Damon was feeling out of Mimi's thought. He just barely found them and drove as fast as he could; it was good to be a vampire so he could make the cops forget everything they saw, or rather, his speeding.
He'd quickly gone to the nearest house, where he'd picked up some supplies, packed a duffel bag, and stocked up on collectors and materials. In his breast pocket, he had a cocktail. Mimi needed to be put out of pain. Now he did not want to even try to make it just right, but she needed to knock out.
It weighed on his soul like an invisible oppressive weight as he knew and felt his wife's distress and anguish, and he also sensed how she had given up and couldn't take any more trying.
"Just a little longer, darling..." Damon muttered half to himself.
The miles passed quickly under the car tires, but it was almost too slow even from here. Damon tapped Magnum's number on the phone.
Magnum said, "I just drove to the yard. I have a stretcher with me, easier to move Mimi if she's any worse for wear. I'll let you know when I see how she is." He kept his voice level. Not letting his anger come out.
Damon said, "Fine, it won't take me more than 20 minutes to get there."
Magnum hung up. Damon sighed, squeezed the steering wheel, so it creaked and he tried to hold on a little longer.
"I'm coming baby, I'm coming, hold on..." There was a clear desperation in his voice.
Magnum pulled into the driveway and stopped the car. He called Charles and told him he was there. Charles gave him the address of the airport, and he would land there in half an hour. Magnum put the address in the sat nav. It would take 45 minutes to get to the airport.
When Adam had called and told him what had happened, Magnum had, unusually for him, been furious. Bran didn't really make friends with anyone, and Magnum couldn't really come up with any valid explanation for Bran's actions.
So, while the whole thing was an accident, Marrok is an egotistical bastard who does not understand or empathize enough to realize his actions' consequences. Magnum didn't know what consequences this would have for Bran.
He walked the van, or this was actually an ambulance, decommissioned but fully equipped and just stripped of all its identifying marks and painted black, to the rear doors and opened them. This was one of Mimi's network purchases and was rarely used unless there was someone badly injured, as Mimi was now.
He jumped in and took thick blankets and vacuum splints for the stretcher. Knowing Damon had a bag but was also aware of Mimi's broken femurs, he was trying to make the transfer painless.
He called. "I'm in now. I've got the ramps with me so I can take the stretcher down, I've got the vacuum splints as that's a decommissioned but re-equipped ambulance by Colin, and the blankets. I'll see what I can do."
Damon replied, "Yeah, in 12 minutes, and I'll be there. Don't put the splints on yet. I'll see what I can do then. You can put them under Mimi's legs if you can, but the idea is to get her sedated as quickly as possible."
Magnum said, "Got it," He acted fast as possible.
Damon heard the basement door open and heard metallic clangs as Magnum set the ramps in place. Damon cursed at the slow car ahead of him on the narrow road leading to this fucking crappy pack house. All the while, he listened as Magnum had his phone open. He had gotten few ideas of curse words from Mimi.
Magnum opened the basement door, set the ramps to go all the way down the stairs, and heard them go all the way to the end of the stairs. Thank god this was a straight staircase.
Magnum deftly guided the stretcher down the ramp into the basement, pulled it closer to the cage, and locked it in place. In a few steps, he was at the light switch, turning it on. Bright fluorescent lights flickered once before illuminating the gloomy space, revealing the horror inside the cage.
Magnum breathed through his mouth. Vomit and piss, blood, and other vague smells filled the basement air. The thin creature lying at the bottom of the cage, motionless, looked so dead that Magnum's breath caught for a moment, and then he reminded himself that Mimi was immortal. She would come back to life if... Magnum approached the creature. He found his pulse pounding, hoping that she would move.
Damon's voice asked, "Speak Magnum, what is the situation?"
Magnum didn't answer. His voice did not work properly. He picked up his phone, selected a video call and turned the camera towards the cage.
Damon was silent and then said, "See if she's breathing. Go and see if you can get a reaction. If she's dead, then get her on the stretcher and start bringing her up. She'll wake up."
Magnum said, "Oh, she moved, she's not dead yet." His voice was shocked.
Damon snarled, "Then don't talk while you're working."
Magnum took the key from his pocket, opened the cage door, and tried to wake Mimi up.
Damon looked at the distance, a kilometer. He would be there soon. The sight he had seen on the phone screen had almost made him drive into a ditch. Mimi had looked dead, and although he had sometimes sucked Mimi dry, she had never looked like that.
I felt someone trying to talk. Someone touched me so that the pain woke me up. I moved and hoped the unconsciousness would take me again.
"Mimi, hey, come on, wake up, oh fuck, Mimi, wait a minute." Voice was gentle but insistent.
The pain didn't stop, and my consciousness returned more to where I understood something of my surroundings. The lights had come on in the basement, and I wondered dully if my doom was over, but the clock on the wall showed that only a week had passed.
The touch became more insistent, and someone repeated my name, really trying to wake me up, and I opened my eyes, exhausted. Magnum.
Magnum said to Damon, "I woke her up, but she's in terrible shape, skinny skeleton, full of blisters, face swollen shut, bruised everywhere, and really pale."
Damon said, "I've just driven out to the yard. I'll see if the car's all right, and I'll come over, see if you can get Mimi on a stretcher and bring her up."
Damon hung up the phone and got out of his car. He went to the back doors of the van, opened them, and got in, carrying his own bag. A quick inventory, so he knew what he could already do on the way to the plane. He prepared a cannula and put it in himself as the first step.
Mimi would need a blood transfusion, and he was the biological half. He would give it directly from his vein. His blood might help in some way at least. Then he jumped down from the car and left the doors open. Mimi would be on board soon. He strode to the door.
Magnum continued to distract me. And I sighed and closed my eyes as he concentrated on talking frantically on the phone. Then he hung up his phone and gently groped me through. He slid his hands under my shoulders and legs. I felt him try to lift and gasped in pain.
I said, " Please, don't move me yet. Break my neck, then you can move me with whatever you want. I have no healing ability, though, but Bran beat me, and many bones are broken. I'm really sore, or sore is a pretty mild word. "
Magnum looked at me with furrowed brows, and then I realized my speech wasn't very clear.
He removed his hand and said. " Fine. I won't pick you up just yet, but hang in there. Help is on the way, and we are all. Even Charles is furious with Bran."
The nausea hit again, and I felt my diaphragm cramp. Something oozed from my mouth.
Magnum put me down and said, " Listen, Damon is coming, but he is furious with Bran. Now I don't know if he's going to be any help to you yet. If you don't get better, I won't break your neck. Is that clear? Adam's on his way, too, but it's a long way to Utah. So, he is driving in Atlanta. There we are going. Are you nauseous?"
I nodded and felt my stomach churn, and something came out again. I had some bloody liquid coming out of my mouth.
Magnum said " Look there's a stretcher, first I'm going to wrap you up in some blankets and then move you to the stretcher, Damon's already out, he'll be here in a minute and he's got the drugs with him, so hurt no more."
I nodded. I was so cold it was painful already.
Magnum had brought some blankets to wrap me in. He took plastic that had stuck in my skin out. He first spread out a thick, soft blanket and carefully got me lifted on it. My skin screamed in pain about the time he got me on the blanket off the hard floor. The blanket felt lovely. It was soft and warm but pain was pretty much all over me. I tried to breathe, but it was pretty desperate.
He wrapped me up quite tightly and wrapped another thick fleece blanket around me. And then he brought a stretcher, which he lowered all the way down and slid me over to lie on it with one of those plates.
He put the straps on so I wouldn't fall off, and I knew I was in terrible shape, but the dark cloud in my mind, the anxiety of being alone and helpless, receded. Someone would take care of me. He pushed the stretcher up the basement stairs, and just as we were at the top, Damon rushed to me, eyes burning, shaking.
He was so angry again, that he was shaking. He looked at me for a moment, unable to speak. Then he took a deep breath, raised his hand, and brushed my hair away from my forehead. They were short because Bran had more or less cut my hair off and some always or thing had made them leave so that my scalp was showing in places. Damon took another deep breath, gathered himself, and spoke.
Damon said, "Baby, don't worry, I have a strong anesthetic with me. I'll put you to sleep for the transfer in a minute. We're going to Atlanta once we get the top medbay there. Charles will land at the airport soon. We have your team ambulance out there. I can do something for you on the way to the airport. But baby, Bran's gonna pay for this. You were three and a half weeks before Adam found you. If you hadn't contacted me, I don't know how fucking long you'd be here. That clock on the wall was a fake. Let me taste your blood first."
Damon untied the belt around my torso for a moment, dug open my wrappings, and clasped my left hand. I moaned as my wrist and elbow were crushed. He took my wrist and bit and drank. His expression darkened if possible.
He took a breath and asked, " Baby, did you eat anything Bran let you eat?"
I nodded. Damon furrowed his eyebrows.
He said to Magnum, " Go downstairs and see if you can find anything and bring it back here."
Damon took a splint from somewhere, from under the stretcher, and put my wrist into the splint and back into the blankets.
He buckled the belt and said, "You're not getting away, missy."
Magnum ran down to the basement and brought back army rations and my vomit bucket. Damon sniffed, and I heard him walk away, cursing. Magnum followed behind. They went some distance away to talk.
He said to Magnum, "Chloral hydrate poisoning, healing rate zero, that girl is also full of tomato and cilantro. Two terrible things have been made clear to Bran: never to give them to Mimi under any circumstances. There are a lot of tomatoes. I could have sworn these were made for Mimi on purpose. That rash is from coleus, color nettle, Then there is dandelion, lupine as well and this stuff is some kind of potion. Find out from Dresden or Constantine who the hell can make this stuff."
Magnum nodded. This wasn't good. Bran had planned this too well for it to be a random act of revenge. Bran had had this stuff in reserve before. Damon clearly didn't like that fact.
Magnum looked at the dangerously furious vampire, asking, " What else can I do?"
Damon said, "Nothing yet. Mimi is too weak to be cleansed by human blood. No, I'll probably have to give her this as a dental treatment, but you can do whatever you want to Bran."
Damon's voice was grim. Magnum knew he was only human and what he could do to Bran was limited but workable, he would tell the network, Mimi's resistance, about Bran's trick, guaranteeing that no one would want anything to do with Bran, everyone loved Mimi more or less.
He had taken a video snippet of how badly Mimi was, so the evidence was there. Damon saw Magnum's thoughts and grunted in satisfaction. That would hit and sink, actions and consequences, fucking marrok.
Magnum nodded and left outside already. He would drive them to the airport. He was already going to back the car up ready.
Damon sighed and prepared to help Mimi keeping his expression under control. He was more than horrified at her condition, but he tried to control himself and not show her how upset he was. Mimi was still alive and an emergency blood transfusion would help. It might neutralize some effects of the potion and give her strength.
Damon came to me and said, " Now baby, now you go to sleep and we'll see how I've got you when you wake up."
He took out my right arm, and this arm was intact, except my fingers and palm were pretty bruised. He pulled a syringe out of his breast pocket with a needle in it. He looked for a vein in my elbow and looked at me for a long time.
I could hide my veins and get them to come out. As if out of old habit, I had hidden my veins, but I realized that now was not the time to play this game. Fine, I let the vein come out, and he pulled the needle cover off with his teeth, pushed the needle into my vein, and pushed the plunger. Blissful darkness came and took the pain away.