The priest spoke long and devoutly. I wasn't wondering what religion I belonged to, and I stood next to Damon, holding his hand. His aura seemed to surround me completely, but I held my ground and showed no sign of being nervous or paying attention to his power that just about poured out of him. I was a bride, a radiant one at that, and finally, it was the turn of the wedding vows.
Damon started; he turned to face me, now holding my hand with both of his, looked deep into my eyes, and spoke. Again, he pronounced very carefully and spoke very civilly.
"Mimi, I knew you were mine from the first time I saw you. I never lie. I always tell the truth. I love you. Always and forever. I swear, darling, that our love will endure, no matter what happens, no matter who tries to come between us. I will protect you. I will guard. You will be safe from your enemies with me. I will guide you. I will care for and nurture. Uphill or downhill, in sickness and health, I am yours; I devote myself to you, tenderly, for better or worse, Mimi. You are mine, always and forever. Neither of us can die, and forever is a long time; always remember that. If I can't be with you every moment, know that we belong to each other. Always."
Then it was my turn. I was handed a card; good, so I don't have to make it up because that was a little hard to pass.
"Damon, I am yours in soul, mind, and body, just as you are mine. I swear to be yours always and forever. I love you now, from this moment to eternity and beyond. For better or for worse, I will persevere because we will persevere. There is no act, no trial that will separate us. I care for you, respect you, being faithful to you, love you more than life, and know that our souls belong together. I know, Damon, you are my true soulmate, just as you are my biological half. The universe and fate have meant for us to be together. I know it."
I added the last two sentences myself and saw that something in Damon's expression positively showed how surprised he was by my words. He smiled a deceptively dangerous smile.
The priest spoke again, asking us questions again, and thankfully, my voice carried. Then, it was time for the exchange of rings. I had received a ring box from Adam for Damon the day before and now had it with me. Damon took my hand and slipped my ring on me.
The ring was gorgeous, gold. It was made so it wouldn't burn. It had a blood-red diamond and smaller rose-red diamonds. I slipped Damon's ring on his finger and couldn't help but look a little seductively at him from under my eyebrows. He looked back at me, but he controlled himself. Now was not the time yet.
Then the priest pronounced us husband and wife. He permitted us to kiss. Damon kissed me passionately, bent me down, supporting me yes, and held me against him as we rose. It was a real Rhett Butler kiss. Looking deep into my eyes, he said silkily, " Now you, darling, are truly mine."
At the same time, I felt a sting in my left side. The needle pushed effortlessly between my ribs into the lung, where I felt the drug go; a couple of heartbeats later, my head went cloudy. The panic didn't last long as the drug took my mind into such a fog that now I didn't even know if I could walk. Fuck, what a wedding this was going to be.
Damon supported me and made sure I didn't wobble. He wrapped his arms around me, holding me against him. He whispered in my ear, "Remember, darling, behave. Now we'll go out nice and easy and get in the carriage. We're going to have a nice scenic drive."
I couldn't answer, and I was pretty sure that someone must have noticed something about my expression, but when Damon had put the veil back over my face, it had supposedly fallen off as he had lifted me so no one could see my dazed expression. He held me close to him, and we walked calmly out to where we would go for a ride before arriving at the party.
This was part of the wedding; let the caterer organize the hall for the catering, and we had some private time. Now I realize that this was a planned thing, and that this was a wedding that I would surely remember for the rest of my life; what would I remember about it?
The substance he had injected into my lungs was fucking strong, and I knew it was the Lord's dental substance, so it was as perfect for me as it could be. I didn't know why I didn't know or couldn't think of an answer to that question either. I was just too drugged.
I watched as the catering people started arranging the tables. At the same time, Damon helped me into the carriage. And came to sit close beside me. There were magnificent, sturdy horses that would be the motor of this carriage—an actual horse-drawn scenic route. I felt a new sting now on my right side. Whatever was in that syringe was fucking strong because I knew the amount had been minuscule.
I sighed, my eyes almost closing as the previous dose hadn't yet stopped working, the carriage moving and me rolling into Damon for more.
He took me better in his arms and said. "This is going to be a wonderful wedding day, darling. Now I can really get started on your lessons. Remember, I meant every single word always. I'm not lying. I may not be telling the whole truth. But I'm not lying. Now, the first thing, if you so much as peep at anyone, give any inkling of a warning or what I've done to you, I'll kill the Vice President. You understand. Or rather, it will be your fault because I've got flea bullets where there's a flea mark. Likewise, there would be flea marks if I decided to try this drug on the vice president. What do you think, darling, would the vice president survive? You know yourself how strong a dose you need to feel about anything."
I could tell he was very serious and in a very dangerous mood. He wasn't thinking of any consequences as he kept me in check.
Damon showed me a small syringe with a thin needle. There was less than a milliliter of medicine in the syringe.
And it went into my head this hard. "I'll behave myself. " I said.
Damon grunted. "I'll take care of it and remind you. Now, Darling, this dose is going into the liver. "
A sharp prick to the liver made it sting; he took something from his jacket breast pocket: more syringes. This was not Dr. Damon; this was the darling guy, and if I didn't want a week or two of stabbing or the vice president dead, then now I had to be nice and see if, at some point, there was a chance.
He continued, "There, then your pancreas's own medicine, and finally the spleen."
I was getting pretty drugged up, trying not to lie there lying roughly against Damon. He rubbed my liver contentedly, as if that would do any good. Every organ had its own medicine, apparently. We stopped at the lakeside. Couples were sitting and walking.
Damon helped me to walk and sit on one of the benches; he took the tiara and veil off me, looked at me, and said, " Oh baby, you look like you're in love, not drugged, just the way you should be. Now look, this is a brief lesson for you; hmm, who would make a good victim? Well, that man over there, young man, walking on the beach over there, you see, he's very fit and healthy, just jogged, now look and think the vice president is 40 years older than that man, in poor health, and has a blood pressure problem and whatnot."
Damon walked up to the young athlete, chatted with him, just lightly patted him on the back as a compliment, and slowly walked away. The man turned around, started walking, and fell dead on the ground before he had taken even ten steps. I took a breath and knew that Damon was serious. Now, I just had to make everyone believe that everything was all right.
Damon came and helped me back to the carriage and said, " That was just a little instruction for you, so you will remember to behave. Even a hint or a fight, and I'll greet the vice president, Magnum, and Jake; I'll leave Jarod for last."
I nodded and felt another sting in my lungs. The carriage continued on its way.
We had just turned around when Damon inserted the now longer needle deep into my abdomen, attached a 500 ml syringe, and began to push the plunger.
"This is also sedative, absorbed steadily from your abdominal cavity, and keeps the level of sedation in check. It is crucial, darling, that you are entirely under my control. Now, you will have no will of your own. I will tell you what to do. You will be constantly reminded of the actions and consequences, and I don't think you want a lesson in them at your own wedding. "
I felt the medicine seep into my body, and after a moment, I felt another layer clouding my thoughts. Yeah, I really had no will of my own; some drug took away my ability to act altogether, and Damon was guiding me with his thoughts, always telling me what we were going to do next; he kept repeating how I didn't look dazed but in love.
When we arrived back at the castle, I was deeply sedated, drugged, and doped. Damon held me under his arm, casually making sure I didn't waver or sway. He rubbed my stomach, feeling the drug there. I always responded with a thank you when people complimented me, and from time to time, Damon would turn me against him and kiss me in an entirely possessive, even demanding way. I responded as best I could.
Obviously, I looked really in love as no one noticed anything. Although Damon's drugs were clouding my thoughts and dulling my ability to function, they were not yet too stunning. I certainly didn't feel like I was about to pass out, although the amount of drug in my blood was increasing with every injection. I felt Damon in my mind. He was keeping a close eye on my level of consciousness, and I don't know when either Samuel, the damn sharp-eyed doctor, noticed anything or Colin.
Damon whispered, " Darling, telepath and strong, I can affect the minds of others as well, as you remember."
For a moment, I felt myself being chased, haunted, and it stopped; Damon calmed me down, pressed me against him so I could hear his heartbeat, and the panic completely disappeared. I didn't see much of the castle then, or if I did, I didn't understand what I was seeing, or it didn't stick in my mind. At regular intervals, I got a shot in my lung.
"Isn't this Darling a perfect invention, this intrapulmonary sedative? You might call it a flanker, because it's in the flank I'm injecting it."
Then, after a while, the liver got its own dose, followed by a good massage as we walked through the crowd. He noticed how nervous I got every time he rubbed my liver, supposedly just holding his arm around me but pressing his palm against my liver and watching to see if I started to fight back. I didn't. It strengthened him repeatedly when he irritated me, and I held myself in check and didn't react. He controlled, and I obeyed.
Eating, I did manage well despite being steadily drugged the whole time. Damon fed me and himself, and we cut the cake. I acted like a robot. Damon controlled me in my mind the entire time, and I walked beside him, grabbed the cake scoop, and cut the cake. Luckily, there were no wedding games. The time for dancing would come later.
Damon didn't let me drink terribly much because it made the drugs too effective. And besides, this side wasn't really drinking people. Now, I wasn't at all sure what would happen on the wedding night, and I had my own premonitions about them, but I couldn't overthink about it as I was just too drugged up.
It was a surprise wedding, and I didn't know if I could even tell anyone about it afterward. I didn't. Damon had syringes in his breast pocket. We had supposedly gone to the toilet, and he had apparently come to help with the dress, but we went into one room where he took syringes with him, and there were lots of them.
He drained another bag into my stomach while doing it, and then we just went back to walking outside. Damon always kept a few syringes in a pocket on his sleeve. He had shown me how he was always loaded.
Jarod came over to congratulate him, and I saw one of the syringes in Damon's palm. I wrapped my arms around Damon's front and kissed him, then curled up in the other arm and felt the needle in my lung.
Damon and Jarod talked for a long time, and I somehow got the impression that even Damon saw Jarod as some kind of threat, not necessarily a romantic threat but more of a best friend, a confidant. Damon saw Jarod was a threat to that relationship because Jarod wasn't cheating, he was ready to listen, and he wasn't fucking strangers or whatever gig Damon was at.
I also noticed he was analyzing Jarod very carefully, and I knew Damon was a damn excellent judge of character. I leaned into his armpit, drugged while he was talking to Jarod.
Jarod saw Bran approaching and said to Damon, "Excuse me, I have to go, I'm trying to avoid Bran Cornick."
Damon smiled and said, " Wise man, Bran is not as good as he lets on, so watch your back. "
Jarod quickly moved away as Bran approached.
Damon said in my head, " Well done, darling. Maybe there's hope in you yet."
We continued on our way, and I got to do the same quite a few times. When the drug went into the lungs, the pancreas, the spleen, and the liver. I always tried to get in the way. He expected it, but he never told me to do it. When the drug crippled my initiation pretty damn well, it was always an effort or maybe terror, fear of whatever emotion was holding me hostage that got me going.
My organs were already aching at this point, and the medicine hurt every time I hit it. Every hour, we always found a little more shelter to get a half liter of medicine straight into my stomach cavity. I couldn't remember half of who we'd already met and who we hadn't. My head was fuzzy, and all I could do was walk around Damon, tightly clamped down, and accept the flood of tranquilizers.
I was his hostage, and while I wasn't afraid, I was acting for others. He knew my weakness and exploited it mercilessly. At no point did I get any clearer in my head. Our show kisses were for Damon to observe my eyes and level of daziness.
"You're doing well, Darling, good girl, very well, that's it. Now you're doing well, perfect," Damon whispered in my ear as we strolled through the grassy areas, occasionally sitting on marble benches that had been washed and cleaned for the party.
I hadn't gotten to see this castle the way I had wanted to be one day. I felt a prick in my liver again, and his palm began to rub against it. Now, he used his fingers more when no one was looking and dug them under my ribs properly.
I leaned against Damon and asked, "Why?"
Damon laughed and looked at me with amusement as my question would have been absurd, "Darling, lesson, I teach. You obey. You are immortal, the toughest creature in the universe, and you have an incredible rage inside you, but I control you completely. Let's see if you try any defiance at any point. Let's see whose life is not important enough for you. It's all about that, my power over you. You can think of it as a vampire thing, but it's a bit more complex than that. But I get a great sense of power from this. Oh, the Original Brothers are coming. You see Darling. Stick from that oak tree. It would be so juicy to plunge this right into Nicholas' heart, let him burn, and drop this next to the pile of ashes."
Damon showed one of the flea signs. I'd use them to impress some pharmaceutical companies and carve styling into my flea bullets. I wanted to show my enemies who were killing them. But where Damon had gotten them, I didn't know.
I certainly didn't want the wrath of all vampires on my neck. Because this boy, this one, warns once and then acts. And I believe the warning was given a long time ago. I was entirely under control, and now I wasn't taking any chances, not one bit.
We started walking towards the vampire brothers again; now, my problem was that originally, they had smelled the drugs in me; at the time when I came to kill them, I was on drugs. Do they smell it now? How do I stop it?
Damon said coldly in my head, "Well, we'll soon see, darling, but I think my dental stuff is quite odorless. Let's see, shall we?"
I leaned into Damon and just smiled happily as the vampires exchanged veiled threats with each other. I saw the stick between Damon's fingers and once again I wrapped myself around my husband to claim his drugged kisses. The stick disappeared somewhere, and I was rewarded with a flank.
Nicholas said, "You know, Mimi, you never cease to surprise. I didn't think you were so madly in love; just try to remember that you're the center of attention, and you won't get, well, you'll know if you get that excited about each other. You just have to wait until the wedding night. It's still 4 hours away. "
Damon said, " Just because you bloodsucker think you know everything about me and just because you're distantly related to Mimi doesn't give you the right to go into her mind without asking permission and paint whatever you want. I destroyed those paintings; I know their power, and I can't trust you not to have had Freya add something to them."
The look on Nick's face for a moment was one of surprise and anger. Then he returned his expression to neutral and smiled tightly, following Elias away towards the vampire women crowding the party.
Usually, these bitches bond with Damon whether I'm around or not, but this Damon is one that even the vampire bitches know to stay away from. Damon's meds had knocked Mimosa out completely, which didn't help either. I knew it was wisest to obey and obey well, not to let anything be a problem at any point.
Only after the guests were gone, so that Damon would have no one to threaten, could action be taken, but it would have to be taken and timed carefully because this boy was going to keep me as drugged as possible. For some reason, I knew the honeymoon would not be what I had imagined. For example, I didn't want to tour Europe drugged up to my eyeballs.
I asked Damon when I realized what he had said to Nick. " What was the danger in those paintings? Weren't they just paintings?"
Damon directed me to sit down and said, " No, you see, we old vampires have abilities, as you have noticed, and Nick can see into thoughts, or he can find all sides of people, secret ones too, as you have seen. But when he didn't ask permission, he went into your mind. I have now made sure he left nothing there, but another thing, his sister Freya is a fucking powerful witch, and those drops of blood weren't made by painting; they were Nick's blood and had some magic in them, probably put there by Freya. Sometimes, those drops of blood are enough for a vampire to take over a victim. I have no proof of this other than my hunch, but I have seen him do this before; a photograph is not bad, but a painting can hide many more threats. Because it was created, it was created with a will and a vision. It's a bit ambiguous to explain it with magic and old beliefs and my experiences, but I smelled Nick's blood, and that was enough; my reaction was rage at Nick, but I also had to teach you to stay away from the originals, whether they were related to you or not."
I nodded. My drugged brain wasn't analyzing well, but I had heard his explanation, and maybe somewhere along the line, when I wasn't quite so medicated, I might have understood it better. This wedding was anything but what I had expected.