.I woke up, or rather, I came to my senses. I was incredibly tender all over, and even breathing hurt, stabbing sharply into my lungs and broken ribs. I recalled the night's activities, and it didn't surprise me at all. I was intact, though, so Damon must have healed me with his blood. My head was confused and fuzzy, and I realized that some kind of sedative was already working there.
Damon came up to me and said, "Morning darling, time to get dressed. Let me help you. That's it."
Damon dressed me. A dress, an animal-like, leopard-print, full-length dress that was like a second skin. He put my hair up and bit the substance on my neck, and the makeup was done with that. Then again, high heels so I'd be at the level for medication, and then we went downstairs.
Damon had his arm around me, and he drugged me before the elevator arrived. After a short walk, it was my liver's turn, and oh my god, it hurt; my entire stomach was still so tender from the night's stabbing, and Damon could feel my muscles tensing as he rubbed my liver. We finally got to the dining room and walked side by side again to eat.
Damon was still feeding me. "A husband has to feed his wife when she always complains that I take all the food, so now, darling, it's my turn to feed you."
And everyone was completely taken in, as their hangovers allowed them to react now. And again, the same thing all day. We were socializing. I mean, Damon was talking, and I was curling up or under his arm. He was a sort of protecting me, or that's how some people saw it.
We had lunch at the vice president's table, and oh my god, I got to serve myself. I was almost unconscious of everything he hit me with during that lunch. The vice president, an older, friendly man, was a shadow member, and he would have wanted to be active.
Still, Adam had talked him into staying a shadow member even though I had rescued his poor grandchildren from one of the Sark's institutions right out of the enzyme place. We had destroyed all the results, and he had then arranged for security guards for his children and got some changes made to the schools so the young people wouldn't be so easily kidnapped.
He had talked about the incident to the press but had not said how the children were rescued or who the children or teens themselves remembered nothing about. I had spoken to the vice president before, and we had agreed that he would not yet bring publicity to my organization; too much risk, so the person who rescued the children was not known. There were rumors.
I didn't know if Damon knew anything about the entire case. This had happened during our divorce. After lunch, we went out again, and the day was already pretty damn warm. But when the flankers kept coming, or shots in the liver, pancreas, spleen, and abdominal cavity got their own medicine when we were talking to someone, the threat of maybe a syringe flashed so that I was about to offer my flank where he could stick it.
Adam and Bran, Samuel even Charles were surrounded by women, and they must have had wild nights. Bran even said something about the party going on after the wedding, but Damon just looked coldly, emotionlessly at Bran.
We were sitting in the shade. It was well into the afternoon, and the worst of the heat had hit, so there weren't many people outside, but they were inside, in our air-conditioned castle. Damon watched the people go by for a while and then looked at me.
He said to me, "Darling, Now you can be sure that I will not easily abandon you, not even after the honeymoon. Now you will learn to live with me all the time. If I can help it, I have made it clear to everyone that I am not available for anything. The honeymoon, well, it will be different, but you find everything has a purpose. We have so many things to discuss, darling, so many things, including whether to continue the gigs in the same way. I'm of the opinion that you should specialize in sniping and leave the street killing to others. As for the Flea business, I'll teach you how to delegate. You don't have to be the one who's always pulling the strings. I won't let you. The gigs and the rescues, well, they're still a bit of a thing if you don't have someone to keep you safe all the time. And the other thing. Fight clubs. On those, I'm not sure what my opinion actually is yet because, darling, I know your rage, I really do. No one ever takes it seriously, except me. A rage like yours. It's an asset, but it can also be a kind of weakness that consumes you. That's why maybe fight clubs and an absolute no to chasing Sark. Sark is your blind spot, and when you see him, all your judgment goes out the window."
During that speech, I got a flanker again, and in my liver, I got something, so I was a good girl and listened. If I hadn't been so medicated and threatened, oh fuck that, I would have had a couple of friendly comments to share. I was so tempted to make statements when this guy always brought out that side of me.
I felt like saying try to take the flea strings off me, and I'll hang you with them. I also felt like commenting on our life together and his freedom. And oh, how I felt like telling him what I thought about our honeymoon if he kept stabbing me.
Damon looked at me sharply and quickly gave my stomach cavity the new substance while saying in a velvety soft voice, " Darling, telepathic and strong, meaning if you continue in this manner, you will face your own consequences. And you know what you're talking about? Jarod is sitting there all alone. I wonder how Miss. Parker would learn to live as a widow?"
I stopped thinking like that and concentrated on thinking about the clothes of strangers in my head. I let the opinions come in, and since not everyone here knew how to dress, I criticized the hairstyles and makeup.
Damon laughed and said, "Much better, darling. I didn't know you had such strong opinions about people's clothes and everything else. This is actually fun to listen to your thoughts. I actually got to know you better, and I do agree with you on some things."
He continued to spy on my thoughts, and now we were having a conversation, or he was telling me his opinions on clothes and whatever else he had. Somehow, I felt safe, even though I was carefully sedated and threatened all the time. I realized somehow that part of this was Damon's jealousy. This was the way he made me completely himself, how I only listened to him, I was only with him, and he was a sort of my whole life.
The night activities were the same. At the end of the evening, we'd have a proper drink and go up in the lift. I'd get a cannula and some fucking medicine, take my clothes off and go to bed, where I'd always pass out for a moment to be woken up by Damon taking me in his arms and stabbing me, fear and terror. Then again, standing up on his lap, the stabbing continued now also on his back.
And finally, now he did. When I was almost lucid, slit my carotid artery open and drained me dry. I felt my bloodlust even stronger, and that didn't help matters, either. Now he slit my throat several times. It was scary, distressing, horrible. No amount of reassurance in my head would help, nothing. I felt like I was going to die for sure, or something terrible was going to happen until the darkness took over.
Until finally I woke up again with my stomach intact. If possible, even more tender than the morning before.
But today, today I would be ready. It was the last day, and some guests would leave after lunch, like the Vice President just now. Today I would look for someone, someone to whom I could say, hint, show. Adam might be one suitable target, but I wonder how I would do it, which would be so subtle but clearly identifiable—a method.
There had to be someone because the night was already much rougher than Damon would have been excited about what could be done to me and. My control gives him power, or some sense of power, at least. It's nothing but the way he had talked about our honeymoon.
It was going to be the same. I don't know who he was going to threaten or keep me drugged, but the stabbings and the neck slashings were going to continue. My bloodlust had me a little more on edge, ready to act, maybe, but so much would depend on whether I could say or expose the whole fucking thing somehow.
I didn't feel the mating bond between Adam and me; I didn't know if Damon was guarding it or if the drugs were doing their job then. I also felt my vampire side was more on the surface, and I didn't really appreciate it, as it always made me feel unpredictable.
My dress was pink, a pink satin dress, again body-hugging. Everyone realized my underwear comprised nothing but panties, nothing else. I tried to be calm as we were back at breakfast, and Damon lazily stroked his fingernail across my neck. Some part of me didn't like it at all and downright loathed it.
Damon leaned into me and whispered, "I love how your vampire side has come out. She doesn't like it one bit that I'm doing stuff near your jugular. No, no, Mirella. Mirella is not the same as your vampire side, not even close. Think of it this way. Mirella lived and died, but her essence remained in storage. Now and then, a vampire is born who can take on such an essence to be a counselor, to help. A symbiosis. To have such an advisor, you have to be a vampire yourself. Mirella can be taken away from you or even destroyed, but it won't take your vampire side anywhere. You've drunk blood but you haven't been a vampire properly yet, you haven't felt the proper bloodlust. But, darling, don't worry, I'll teach. I'll show you everything. Where have you been getting your blood from? I guess you haven't been eating only from Adam if you drink from demons in fight clubs. We'll look into it after the honeymoon, darling. And we'll look into some things on the honeymoon."
I was rewarded with a flank, and my pancreas got a good dose, too.
I knew my vampire side and had used it in a way at fight clubs, but I demanded quite a little blood so far. The stronger the blood was, the longer I could be without having bloodlust.
Well, let's just say my organization had then done a few tricks to secure me some really strong supernatural blood. We had blood farms, but they were few, and the job was to capture naughty supernaturals, hold them captive, and milk them for all the blood they could produce for me; I would then get bagged blood now and then a shipment.
I hadn't even told Adam or Magnum about this, let alone Damon. I didn't know their reaction to this stuff. There weren't even ten blood farms yet, and I didn't have blood available in nearly every place.
We continued with the day's activities, and indeed, afternoon, the guests left. Adam Bran, Charles Samuel, and Magnum were very hungover, exhausted, and not interested in getting terribly close.
Jarod left it that way, and I was grateful for that because this part of Damon doesn't like Jarod at all and sees him as a downright threat, even though Jarod is married. He knew that my friendship with Jarod was a threat to our relationship and I would not then depend so on his security and companionship when I could confide in Jarod.
As the day progressed, the options diminished, but the drugs did not. I thought this could be tricky, but I saw my chance. Now, it would just be a matter of whether the recipient could receive my transmission. Nick and Elias. I knew it was a risk to ask these two to help, given Damon and their relationship, and then if there had been a ruse in those paintings.
My desperation didn't really give me much choice as I knew myself and knew it would be a disaster if my vampire side came out anymore, as this nutcase kept stabbing me. Adam had taught me the Morse code, but I did not know if Nick knew it. I kept tapping my fingers to keep them ready so that, no matter how drugged I was, I would get my message across.
That message was simple. SOS Damon off Dresden. Dresden had said that if this side came out more, it could be controlled. Dresden's theory was also that this darling side is actually Damon's vampire side. He had already made a potion for that. But I wasn't sure about that because it wasn't the same side that had been present in our vampire wars, not even in the beginning.
It was already six o'clock in the evening when the brothers came to say goodbye. Damon was in a good mood and actually told Elias about some naughty vampire women who were working with some black witches, and Elias was very interested in this information.
After Elias shook Damon's hand and they talked for a while longer about what to do with them, I took Nick's hand in mine and put my index finger in his palm and tapped it probably three times, Nick winked, subtly and I hoped he got the idea.
I just thanked Nick out loud for being at our wedding, and he apologized for the whole painting mess, and the next thing I knew, he was checking with my husband first to see if I could be a model.
Then Damon was already leading me on and watched contentedly as the brothers left. My stomach got an extra big dose, and I was really drugged; now, I didn't have to keep such a careful balance as the castle was almost empty.
He said to me, "Come on darling, we'll go to the suite to change and spend the night there. In the morning, we'll be on our way. "
He drugged me, now already unconscious on the way, and carried me to my destination. I was again in pain, in agony, in terror and fear. And that night was wild. By now, a machete was in use, and my neck was slit open several times.
He wrapped himself around me from behind, trapping my wrists in one hand, and then he took one of his vampire claws and slashed my entire neck open. Or just a vein or an artery. He held his nail there so the vein wouldn't clot and soothed me.
Always a fucking heartbeat. They were no longer soothing and safe; they were like bells of fate. I didn't want to listen to them anymore. Morning came, and I was sore. Besides the slitting to my throat, I was introduced to my spinal column, which was a delight to crack, especially the occipital ribs and ribs, another enduring favorite.
He didn't stab so hard now as he teased and teased my vampire side, sending fear and terror, keeping me panicked all the time and helpless to act; let me observe, though, how he enjoyed it.