Adam had gone over to Mimi when she had collapsed, wiped the tears from her face, and wrapped her in the soft blankets he had brought. Adam quietly carried Mimi to the car.
Samuel didn't ask or demand anything as Adam got into the back seat with Mimi in his arms. Samuel drove to the house, trying to keep a clinical attitude, but those tears were something he hadn't been able to bear. Samuel was genuinely furious with Damon, and any excuse for a fuck up wouldn't fly.
Samuel noticed in the rearview mirror that his own eyes were bright blue, and Adam looked back at him with yellow eyes. Both wolves were on the surface but not out of rage but out of a desire to help, defend, and protect.
The drive to the house was a calm one, lasting 45 minutes, with Adam holding Mimi tightly in his arms, and Samuel knew that if there was a chance that someone else had been driving, he would have been touching Mimi the whole time, too. Samuel pulled up to the car next to the door. He parked the car as close as he could to the front door.
It was spring; the trees had small leaves, and the birds were singing, but nothing seemed so wonderful when both men were thinking about Mimi and her well-being. Their new future as a pack once again, without Salvatore. They could do it.
He got out of the car, helped Adam out of the car, held Mimi tightly in his arms, and opened the front door. They went straight to the medbay downstairs. Samuel had made a special bed for Mimi.
It had strong padded metal shackles with springs, so it wasn't easy for Mimi to get off or free herself. It had a particularly soft mattress and high sides. He opened the bed, and Adam put Mimi down on the bed.
They took the blankets off her. Stripped her of her dirty clothes and put her in chains, hands, and feet. Then they went quickly to take off the outerwear, changed into scrubs, and got down to business. Samuel, like Damon earlier, was teaching or telling what he was doing to Mimi the whole time, and Adam was soaking up the information like a sponge.
Samuel took the cannula and felt this living skeleton whose breathing was rapid and shallow even now. The first thing was to get the vascular connection in place and the potent drugs dripping.
He hit the central line, got it cannulated, and waited for the cannula to grow skin-tight. His team had developed special cannulas for Mimi that had a well-tolerated biological component that the skin of Mimi grew into. When this healed so incredibly well, it secured the cannula even better in place.
Adam looked at Mimi's naked skeletal form. The scales on the bed said she weighed 24 kilos. The lowest she had ever been and in the worst shape of all. And without Damon. Adam wondered how long it would take them to get Mimi in shape. Samuel called his team and got more nutritional vitamins; they took extensive scans of Mimi first, as well as x-rays, but luckily, there was no surgical problem with her.
Then they took blood. Samuel took very extensive tests and had the latest analyzer to identify those metals. When they took the blood and smelled Mimi's blood, they both smelled silver, but it differed from normal silver. They put Mimi on a food drip. Samuel didn't put the visceral suspension in because it would have been too much for Mimi's system.
After a couple of hours, Bridgette called to say she'd be at the house in two hours, and Colin put up a message saying he'd be there in half an hour. Adam wondered if Dresden or Constantine would have been useful, but Magnum, who had stopped partying, told him that both were in Europe hunting black witches.
Before Colin arrived and the blood test results were in, Adam and Samuel washed Mimi gently. Adam cut her hair, too. Put her in a patient gown.
Samuel prepared several bags of potent cocktails, tried to keep Mimi asleep, and got her metabolism down, but until the metal test results came in, there was little they could do.
Colin arrived, he too sniffed Mimi's blood, went through this, and Adam could control himself, but only barely. He was very protective of Mimi, and Samuel thought he was even more protective than Damon had been.
Then Colin started digging bottles and jars out of his heavy bag, took some water, poured a drop of this and a drop of that into it, got a nasogastric tube in Mimi, and drained the stuff into her stomach. And rubbed it into her gums and tongue.
It was leprechaun stuff, and Colin was always doing it, or Colin's leprechaun was always doing it. And even clay. But it had to be very specific clay. Some substances would help the metals, and some would help Mimi's condition.
Colin had time on his hands, and Adam sat tightly beside Mimi as Colin dropped several cups of the broth into Mimi's stomach. Then he left small bottles of some substances and dosage instructions on how many drops and how many times. He said he would come back to see Mimi in a week. Adam said nothing. He sat close to Mimi. Stroking her.
Then Bridgette came in. She looked at Mimi and sighed in her mind. She said in her mind, "My friend, you'll get through this, and unfortunately, this is not the worst thing you'll ever experience."
She gave Samuel some more herbs again and showed him how to make a tea extract and to give it directly into the vein. When the blood test analysis machine beeped, there was soon a steady hum as the printer at the back of the room came to life and started printing out the test results.
Samuel stomped over to the printer and picked up a bundle of papers. He read them and cursed in his mind. The four metals, cobalt, vanadium, iridium, and rhodium, were in ridiculous amounts in Mimi's blood, and he had encountered serious cases of wolves in his clinic with concentrations of less than a thousandth of these readings.
This was further proof of Mimi's incredible resilience. He had binders in his sight, but the machine had identified a fifth metal, nitrogen silver.
Bridgette said, "My broth will remove the nitrogen from the silver; it will then be more easily removed from the blood, and then you can use normal silver chelation. It will start working in a couple of days yet."
Samuel said, "Well, we have time to get Mimi at least in some sort of shape."
Bridgette nodded and handed over a big bag of herbs.
Adam and Samuel went out to dinner, served Bridgette a meal and coffee, and talked about what had happened.
Bridgette said, " Damon is the victim here. If you don't believe me, there is nothing I can do about it. But until he sees it for himself, there is nothing you can do. Brianna uses a vampire potion, it makes vampire men forget their feelings, love and so on, and just focus on lust and power. Damon is not connected to his love for Mimi. It is still there. He is just not feeling it."
Adam growled and said, "Feel free; yes, Salvatore had some kind of base vibe against Mimi, not a vampire potion. I've actually come across it before, and it's not a brainwashing drug. It's a drug, and there has to be something at the bottom of Damon's head for him to do this. So there's no point in selling me Salvatore as a victim. I am not just buying that. Besides, there is nothing we can do. He has made his choice, his actions, and now it is time for him to face the consequences."
Bridgette nodded. She knew Sark made this vampire potion, and it was much stronger than normal, but she couldn't reveal that. There would be a time and place for everything, and she did what she could. She looked at Samuel for a long moment, like searching for something, sighed, and then finished his coffee and left.
She told the men before he left. "Mimi is strong, much stronger than you think. She will get through this."
Adam nodded, and Samuel just sighed lightly. Samuel watched as Bridgette drove away. Something deep inside felt that her presence disturbed it, and Samuel then paid no further attention.
They returned to the medbay. Samuel had called Colin about the metal results, and Colin had cursed, promising to see if he could find anything. Samuel dripped chelation therapy on all five metals, kept Mimi asleep as best he could, and Adam spent most of the time next to Mimi.
Mimi was awake now and then, in pain. When the nitrogen came off the silver, it was very painful, and then just the silver hurt. But when Mimi's metabolism was still so high, it took a while before Samuel could get it to go down at all.
A week had passed. Adam was still sitting next to Mimi, waiting for Samuel's cocktail to put Mimi to sleep.
She was panting in pain, saying, "Please...do something. I can't take it.."
Adam stroked Mimi and said, "It will help soon. Just hold on, honey..."
Mimi finally sighed, fell back asleep and Adam felt his own breathing calm down. These moments when Mimi was awake, conscious, and not in the grip of silver madness almost broke his heart, even though Samuel assured him that Mimi would not remember a thing.
They had got Mimi up to 28 kilos; the metals were diminishing, and Colin had just been in, bringing even more powerful binders for the four and the silver.
Samuel said to Adam, " Come on up. Salvatore called. He's bringing the papers now."
Adam stood up. He felt his blood boil. He would not mince his words, not one bit. He went upstairs. He was determined to be a terrible host and not even offer coffee—nothing but his lofty sentiments and his anger at the Salvatore.
Damon came in with his new wife, Brianna. Brianna was a busty redhead, a vampire princess. She still walked on a stoop. She was ancient and worn-looking even. Samuel sat on the couch, and Adam sat in Mimi's favorite armchair.
Damon said, "Here are these papers. Mimi's signature is just a formality. This is already in effect. "
Adam stood up. Somehow, Damon's crisp voice made his anger surface, and he walked over to Salvatore.
" Good job. Mimi's future is secure, then. No need to get caught up in shit like that. Did you know, Damon, that Mimi weighed 25 kilos? She had iridium, rhodium, vanadium, and cobalt in her in over a thousand times the lethal amount and nitrogen-silver. That's what's got her mad. You know how painful it is for Mimi when that nitrogen-silver bond breaks. She's got pure, strong silver and nitrogen in her system, the bends and silver poisoning all at the same time. And because these metals are boosting her metabolism sky-high, no medicine works; she's awake sometimes, in pain, and there's nothing I can do. She wanted to be in that silver madness because she didn't want to go back to reality without you. But I will help. I'll be there, and now you fucking vampire won't deny me anything. Mimi will be my mate, my wife."
Damon paled. He dug a pocket flask out of his pocket and took a sip. He beckoned briefly, and Brianna stepped back. This seemed to fear Damon even more.
Damon said, "I'm sorry for everything, but I'm doing this purely for political reasons. I know I'm under the influence of a vampire potion, and I'm keeping myself under it. Why? It's time for me to be the vampire king. Helping my people, my race, and Brianna is a mandatory evil. I made the choice, and I'm sticking to it. Brianna and I will learn to love each other maybe over the years, but for now it's just sex, as it always is for me. But I don't want to see Mimi. I won't help. I'm not in the pack anymore. Mimi made a mistake when she was with Magnum, and I can't forgive that. If Mimi had really loved me, she wouldn't have cheated on me."
Brianna came and gave Damon another bottle, and he drank from it, wrapped himself around her, and kissed her. He left only his papers, phone, wallet, and ring in Mimi's downstairs bedroom and went upstairs to clear out his own things. Took all the shirts he'd given her and put them in his bag. Then, the loving couple left.
Samuel was furious and said, "Oh, that guy is good at trying to lie to us then, or a political marriage. Fuck it, they were in love or whatever."
He, too, had seen through Damon's explanation. When Damon had texted a couple of days later about his stuff from the other houses, Adam had coldly said send a show or buy new ones you won't be able to get into any more houses. When Damon had tried to plead further political reasons, Adam had put out a coherent message that there was no point in lying. We saw through the lie, and we will not cooperate with you. No wolf will.
Brianna cursed in her mind. That had to go another way; she had to get the wolves to cooperate with her, and both wolves were pretty good-looking. She would have liked to get Mimi under her power, as she was a hybrid after all, and make Damon relieve his pressure sometimes in bed with Mimi.
Brianna couldn't handle Damon, and when he was still so fucking rough and raw in bed nowadays, Brianna was more than once sore in the morning. And Damon didn't care. Every drink of the vampire potion brought out his brutal, strong vampire side, and it involved rough, bloody sex.
When Brianna would have wanted to get pleasure, use Damon, and now she found out that he wasn't quite as easy to control as she thought. But when she came up to supply Damon with more women, it helped, but only a little. The vampire saw her vulnerability, and his cruel side wanted to hurt her.
When Brianna spoke to her grandfather, he simply said, "Actions and consequences. You need to learn already. You should think before you act."
So Brianna's perfect life wasn't quite as perfect as she had thought. But Damon was already addicted to vampire potion, and Brianna had no choice but to learn the consequences of her actions.
Adam, Samuel, Bridgette, and Colin continued to help Mimi. Adam never left Mimi's side. Now, he had put another bed next to Mimi's bed and was sleeping next to her. The metal levels were dropping steadily, and the levels of nitrogen and silver were almost all gone. Mimi now weighed 38 kilos. It took six weeks for Mimi to get better, and Adam prayed Mimi wouldn't remember the pain and agony of nitrogen and silver in her system.
It had been a real team effort, and Bridgette left for another city, and Colin had to go to Europe. There was no reason for Mimi to sleep anymore. Adam and Samuel knew it was time for Mimi to wake up. And face reality. But they would help, and as a pack, they would get through this.
Bran had rejected Salvatore and Brianna's attempts to build diplomacy with the wolves. Bran hated vampires. Damon didn't get crowned when the elders wouldn't give their consent, and no vampire wanted to go back to the old days of the vampire monarchy.