I would not work now. I was in such a damn good mood to be in, and I might as well enjoy my life. I was looking after my orchid collection, decorating what I could, and reading books in my library, anatomy books. It was a lovely place to read even though I was reading for my studies. In a way, I enjoyed the chairs and the space so much that it was a sheer pleasure to read about surgical procedures or a sterile technique.
I wasn't thinking about men; I had nothing to fuck when I remembered how I made Bran make love to me for five weeks; I don't know if Bran ever did a secret jerk-off after I'd seen him do it once, and I'd started crying about how I wasn't enough for Bran, and I was in heat. I went to the market; I bought all the foodstuffs.
The local shops were selling there, and these were old, ugly men, friendly but not eye-catching. I laughed to myself at that, too. I thought of a scenario where I would go to the local farms alone, and Damon and Adam and maybe Samuel would stalk me, and then when this older man would come out so that there would be no reason to drug me, I would want to see the men's faces when I could buy anything I wanted.
I had been at the Atlanta mansion for a week when Bridgette came to visit again. We spent the first day telling her about my rush and everything that had happened. I also told her about the couple of gigs, drank white wine and champagne, and spent a passionate night in the bedroom. We had a really intense time when the sex beast showed Bridgette what I was made of. She was surprisingly strong and not at all overwhelmed by me.
We then went for morning coffee, and she was in a wistful mood. I didn't know what for.
She said, "Let's go into town today and see if we can buy something. Let's spend some more time together when we can."
I wondered why she was kind of downcast even. She was. We ate breakfast, had coffee, and then went for a walk around town. We wandered around the shops. I bought some clothes and even one outfit for her, too. Then we went for a walk in the park.
We were on the bridge, watching the river flowing, and it was a pretty gloomy day, cloudy and chilly, making the water look almost black. The bridge is called the bridge of sorrows. I knew the river would eventually fall into the sea, as the waterways often do. It made me think of a Finnish song. I hummed it in my mind. That song was called Who Discovered Love.
Bridgette turned to look at me, smiled sadly, and sighed.
She said to me, "It's time I told you the truth, or at least part of it because I can. I'm not just a white witch; I'm some much older and stronger being, and you woke me from my long sleep when you needed help. I have to do this. One day, you will understand and know. But your destiny will not be fulfilled if I am with you. I have now done what I should have done. I have helped you as much as the balance allows. The universe is built on a balance of light and dark, good and evil. I am good or light, and my actions determine what the other side can do or may do to maintain balance. If they cross the line, the balance is on my side, and I can act. The same is the other way around. Therefore, I must do this because if I stayed in your life, it would give evil too much opportunity to act, and then nothing would go as it should."
I looked at Bridgette for a moment, furrowed my brows, and said, " What do you mean, you will not be a part of my life anymore?"
She shook her head and said, " There will come a time when you will learn who I am in reality, and you will learn my story; then you will know why I did this. You might even be angry with me for not protecting you and the things you have to go through. I would never wish on you, but that is your destiny, dear Mimi. Your path will not be easy and not pretty comfortable. There will be times when you want to give up and die off, but when you can't. I will allow you three questions, which I will answer, but unfortunately you will not get to keep the knowledge you learn from them to yourself yet. It's not time yet. It will be decades before it's all resolved."
She looked at me carefully now and smiled wistfully.
"Remember, Mimi, it starts with a piece of jewelry, a book, and a pen. The rest will follow naturally. Friend, I wish I could spend more time with you. But I've seen it—so many times. Now, ask your questions while I tell you a few things. First things first. Mimosa's ability to see the future is my gift to you. She will not see me or remember me, but then maybe you can prepare for the future somewhere in between. Then Damon is not alone in his body, and I'm not talking about his wolf—and one more thing. Bran is not who you think he is. Now, ask me three questions."
I looked for a moment and asked the first one that came to my mind:" Then who is in Damon's body too, if not him?"
Bridgette said, "His twin brother, Damien, the evil version of Damon. Damon doesn't know it himself, but Damien does. He is trying to push to the surface, and it is your stabbing and drugging that weakens Damien, as does the deep love between you and Damon. That is why you must keep on loving."
I was stunned; I mean, something has to be done about that. I have to tell Damon. he has to know. The railing of the bridge felt cold beneath my grip.
Bridgette said, "You won't remember this, and Damon won't know, not yet. Know that he will get rid of Damien in time, but it will change your whole life and your love for Damon, too, but you always are. Try to remember that."
I nodded and was sure that somehow I was pushing this information into my head. I must believe in Damon.
I then asked another question:" Then who is Bran?"
Bridgette sighed, looked far away, and said, " Amalgam, the real Bran, has been victimized by my counterpart, and he is part Bran; I don't know right now what a wizard is and what Bran is, but that, too, will be revealed in time. Unfortunately, Samuel also has an evil being inside him, but he is most himself. Bran's rage weakens him and gives the wizard a chance to act. "
Then I thought about my third question for a moment, and I don't really know where it came from, but I asked, " Will I be with Damon in the future? So, is there hope? Will we be the endgame?"
Bridgette laughed and said, "You will, will be, and you won't, and you will be again; your relationship will be a living soap opera, and divorces will come and go, your pack will grow, you will both have new relationships and problems, but you will be. Let me show you."
Bridgette touched my forehead. The vision began.
I was sitting on a chair. It was a beautiful summer day, and I was concentrating on my laptop in front of me, wondering how to start and typing, "I don't actually know why I'm writing this." I looked up. I saw Damon sitting on a sun lounger in the shade, sipping a bourbon.
I felt a stirring inside me, and I put my hand on the bulging belly, soothing my babies inside me. I saw Damon stand up and walk to the pool. There were women there, pregnant too; he touched their bellies and kissed them. Then I saw more Damon; a couple were cutting grass, and some were grilling and talking.
I saw Adam and Charles and two men I hadn't seen before, but these were so Damon-like. One was blond, and one was dark. Damon went to the woman next. Vivien Leigh kissed her for real; she was pregnant, too. Then he came to me, looked at me lovingly, tried to read what I had written, put his hand on my stomach, feeling our children there, and helped me to stand. We kissed, and I felt his love.
I was walking into the nursery; I knew somehow it was my turn to go; we had 8 babies and one of them was crying. I knew I had lost them all, my pack members, my friends too, and as I shushed our daughter, I turned around when I smelled passionfruit, seeing Damon standing at the door. Coming to us, murmuring to my ears, "Baby, we did it, this is us, always and forever, this is our happy ending."
The vision ended, and I gasped for a moment.
Bridgette said, " As you can see. You will be, and that will happen someday, but it has to happen naturally so my counterpart doesn't get too much power and tries to stop that. I must erase your memory and edit so you don't remember me because your destiny will not be fulfilled if I am in your life. That balance, my dear friend. I'm also erasing Salvatore's memories of me. They will come back in time, but if you ever have such a bad place, such despair or pain, these memories will pop up, and you will get this information: if ever I can do anything, save you, help you, all you have to do is think my whole name three times. Repeat my entire name in your head three times, and I will." She sighed.
Then she continued, " Every single thing I have given you is Damon: just Damon, no Damien. You will meet them one day. All of them are needed. And as you saw, they will be part of your life. Have you heard the story of the two brothers, good and bad? This story is about Damon, but you will not remember it."
She looked at me when she told me this story that I had heard the version from Nick and Elias, too.
"Once upon a time, there was a couple, a witch and a wizard. They were black. A black witch and a black wizard. A couple that shouldn't be because of the balance. Good and evil. There's always a balance, and you have to keep it. But this couple was a freak of nature. They had twin boys. The first one born was everything they wanted. In that child, there was already a black power to be felt. And strong. But the second born. Nature or the universe held the balance, and in the second son, there was light. A healing power. So that what evil would break, this good could always fix. Always. They were opposites in power. The good brother was the balance to prevent this evil. His ability was truly specialized, always that which his brother broke or hurt, he would fix. The parents didn't care. They saw this as a weakness. The boys were physically identical, and when one boy hurt the dog, the other, the good one, went to heal, but the boy's father saw this and snapped the dog's neck. The boy could not bring the dog back to life, no matter how hard he tried."
"But times were hard, and the evil brother contracted the plague. The doctors couldn't help, and the boy would die. The parents performed a black ritual. They transferred the bad boy's soul into the good one. The hope was that when the boys grew up, the evil side, which the parents saw as stronger, would take the body and destroy the good side, but the boys were equal in power. The evil is not stronger or weaker than the good outright. It is the actions and the consequences that matter. Remember that. Legend has it that no one knows who this boy came to be. Someone said it would be one Merlin. Another says the boy became a vampire. Some story puts a third brother in the mix."
"What Damien will break, Damon will fix. You won't remember it yet, but you must try to keep on loving. Your love, your love, is the best way to weaken Damien, and Damon is, unfortunately, a fuck machine; Damien is not. But Mimi. Damon will break your heart. He's the type. Just bear with it. Whenever you get pissed off, even if you can't remember, you can bring up one of those things and fuck it. There's Damon listening. Here are some more rocks for you. Take these in your hand when you don't want to feel. That time will come. Feelings go in these. You can go through them one day. There are also memorial stones. You'll find them, too. Every divorce will break your heart again and again, and you always feel that you can't believe in love anymore, but you will have others who will take care of you. Adam is one. He genuinely loves you. He fell in love with you back on the boat, but he is slow to catch on and trust love. "
I was quiet. Gloominess and chilly wind seemed to be even more ominous. Like evil in the world would have heard this and showed its ugly face at me.
I asked Bridgette, " Why, why do you have to do this now?"
Bridgette smiled and said, "I have to do this now so you can meet a real Damon for the first time, for real. In time, you will understand. Damien has broken Damon down over the ages, separated this core, this true core, and captured it. Now I have set it free, and you will meet the real Damon then. Damon is a part of himself, a shell he's been able to hold on to, and Damien sometimes penetrates that shell. But that's only one part of Damon, his emotional side and the real Damon. Well then, in time, you'll learn."
We talked a little about anything. I thought about all that Bridgette had revealed and hoped that I would have at least some small inkling, some hint of reality, so that I could help Damon. Now I knew that the wet dog smell was Damien, the session with the stabber was Damien, not Damon, but then again, I knew the lesson had been Damon, whether it was the real Damon who addressed me as Darling, the thought sent shivers down my spine. So that side of it was so damn scary that I didn't want the real Damon to be the guy, mostly. But I couldn't help it.
We walked back to the house, and Bridgette said, "You won't remember your island, not Paris, not Moscow, not Tokyo, not Romania, not Key West, not this house. I'll change all the memories of me, erase myself, replace them with something else. Then I'll send you to a mansion in Pennsylvania."
I said, " Fine, I'll go sit in the living room."
She nodded. I took off my clothes and went into the living room to sit down. I was still thinking about all the revelations, the future, and the fucking vision. It had been so perfect. Serene and I had felt such a deep happiness that I had never felt before or even known was possible. Bridgette went to her own room, which I had given her to use.
Then she came back to the living room with a little bottle of purple liquid with a little gold and black in it, and Bridgette handed me the bottle and said, "Drink it, you must."
I drank it; it tasted like pear, apple, and passionfruit. I was getting exhausted. I fell asleep and forgot everything, including our sex nest. The spell erased everything from my mind and left no trace. The spell spread to everyone and completely erased Bridgette from everyone's memories. My life was about to take a whole new turn.