Nick left the party, and on the way, called Adam and told him about Mimi's message. They had a chat with Elias on the way home, wondering what on earth Damon had done to Mimi, but knowing that his little plan had gone awry and Salvatore had seen through his ruse, Nick decided that he couldn't be upset. Instead, they would go and investigate the vampire women and show them what they thought about messing with black witches.
Nick hated black witches, and he would always remember how he killed his own child, a miracle that shouldn't have been possible, a child that had made him feel unconditional love. Sometimes, he had felt he could have died for her, but power and black magic and Freya corrupted Hope, and he was left with only one option: to kill his own child and kill it good.
He had bitten this one. His hybrid poison had worked for this as well, and when he had stabbed her in the chest with a dagger, keeping her powerless until his poison had done its work. Sometimes, it seemed to him that he had no soul at all and that all those with whom he was corrupted into evil for his sake.
But then Mimi came into his life, and it was a very big surprise when he found out that she was his relative. He tried to stay out of her life so as not to corrupt the one good thing that shared his blood, but the paintings; well, he couldn't resist using his ability to see all that she was, and she was an incredibly beautiful creature, like a unicorn.
He'd put his own blood in those paintings and asked Freya to link it to him so that they would be a safety net for Mimi. He'd know if she had a problem. He'd felt the link form when Mimi had touched a drop of blood, and he'd also felt the link break when Salvatore destroyed them.
Salvatore was a jealous playboy who fucked women left and right when it suited him, but when it also interfered with Nick's little plans and prevented his coup or other plans how he was trying to continue his line.
When Adam heard Nick's call, he cursed and informed Samuel and Charles about this. Magnum had gone off with Higgins somewhere, and they decided to stop Damon from taking Mimi on her honeymoon. Adam was upset. This was supposed to be the perfect wedding for Mimi, and they all had worked so hard to make everything perfect, and now it came to light that Salvatore had had his own not-so-nice plan after all.
At night, Adam went to siphon most of the petrol out of Damon's tank and cut the electricity so the car's battery wouldn't charge fully. It wouldn't be strange, as he had mentioned it to Damon when they had arranged the wedding. Even though the castle had been put in order, the electricity could go off now and then. Then he just booked a tranquilizer rifle and a car to get ready. Jake was free so that he could help Adam with that, but Adam said he could manage on his own. He wanted to keep this to the pack, so to speak. He was also thinking of taking or asking if Charles would want to join their pack, too.
Adam knew what the nights had probably been like for Mimi, and now he realized that her dreamy expression didn't mean she was in love but drugged up to her eyeballs; Adam didn't say anything to Bran, but they worked out a plan with Samuel and Charles.
The hungover Dresden wasn't too impressed as he had just got the woman into bed when Adam called and she left. He didn't have time to get laid. Just work. He wasn't quite sure what the darling side was, but he took one potion and hoped it would calm things down.
Adam knew all he had to do now was wait for Damon and Mimi to move out and find a good place to strike. It would depend on which way they were going. Adam had done the math on how much fuel Damon would have, and there were three places he could stop to refuel so Adam would be ready to drive to the spot.
He didn't want to hear any explanation from Salvatore when he knew it wasn't what he wanted to hear. And what he wanted to hear at the wedding, well, he didn't know what the hell he was going to give permission to drug his own wife at the wedding.
In the morning, my stomach was open, and my neck was healed. I was already firmly sedated. Now, he didn't heal my belly but put a dry bandage on it so my clothes wouldn't get all bloody. Stretch velvet dress. Purple was my travel outfit to hell, I thought when I could. Now, the cannula was not removed but covered with a scarf. He said that it would be easier to medicate in the car, as we have quite a long drive here in Italy, too, darling.
Oh, how I wanted to shove that darling down his throat, but the slightest doubt or something flashed in my eyes, and I got a mega flank. This morning, everything was mega. Every single dose of sedation. Damon was pretty fucking wired and the night had been really brutal. I was pretty fucking bloodthirsty, and for a moment, I was considering attacking him, and then I got a flank that stunned me for about ten minutes.
We went downstairs, and now I wasn't wearing such high heels; we went to the car, and Damon put me in the back seat, took a 500ml syringe from his pocket, which was full, and attached it to my cannula and started to push the plunger slowly.
"Now, darling, this is going to knock you out; I just need to make sure you are properly sedated and anesthetized before we get moving. This is a combination of various medications, a proper travel cocktail, and most of my teeth. Isn't it, darling, perfect how precise and functional the medications my teeth make, especially for you—the right precision medicines? Work in moderate doses, long enough, and most importantly, you don't take them off lightly. Help you endure the journey when that bloodlust is already pretty bad, so you're not quite so wild."
Yeah, I wasn't wild at all. I was almost nauseous. My eyes were starting to roll pretty badly as Damon pushed the plunger slowly but surely. He would occasionally grab my chin and look into my eyes. He felt my stomach and was pleased to see that it hadn't healed yet. Eventually, my vision blurred completely. I heard Damon talking to me and shaking me. I felt him lay me down on the bench, cover me with a blanket, and then nothing.
Mimi was sound asleep, and Damon went to the driver's seat and started driving with her. He had the route all set, but after an hour of driving, he realized he was running low on fuel. Damon furrowed his brow and thought. Didn't he fill up his car before the wedding, but then again, as it was a sort of pack car, someone else could have used it, no worries?
The trip would last if they went to Switzerland, where first there would be stabbing and vampire training, and then when he got the sire bond right, they'd go to a canary island for a wild sex holiday when it would spice up the sex when the vampires got to each other.
Mimi was very deeply medicated in a medically induced coma. She wouldn't wake up for a long time. It would keep Mimi under control, and as he said, Mimi would feel better and wouldn't have to suffer the bloodlust for so long. His cocktail was very effective and safe.
Damon's dentifrices were accurate and had very few side effects. For example, all the common animal anesthetics and large animal tranquilizers that still worked on Mimi lowered and messed with Mimi's thermoregulation, she cooled down and easily. But not with dental products. These allowed Mimi to maintain her body temperature, even though she was indeed in a coma.
Adam was ready; he had driven past Damon and Mimi, already ready for the gas station, when he noticed where they were going. Adam went into the woods surrounding the gas station. Climbed a tree and activated the protection amulet given by Dresden, which would keep him completely safe and hidden from Salvatore's keen senses and even his telepathy. He cocked his rifle, armed with a strong tranquilizer dart, got into a good weapons stance and waited.
Damon checked the navigator for the nearest gas station, which would be here in a few minutes. A quick refuel and the journey would continue. Damon drove to the gas station and filled up his car. He loved Mimi, he really did, and he knew she was very fucked up about the whole wedding; he could feel her white-hot rage steadily increasing all the time.
But when he would have their sirebond, their complete sex holiday, for several months in the Canary Islands, then Mimi's soul would sing once again. He thought to himself, "'That's what love does for you." Then he went inside to pay. When he had paid, he came out and felt a pain in his thigh. A red tranquilizer dart. Really. Who the fuck dares? Damon looked around and saw no one. Behind the gas station was a forest. He couldn't feel anything, even with his telepathy.
Adam waited. The first dart had sunk, and he was ready to fire another if the Salvatore didn't buckle. Poor Mimi. Three days, wondering what Damon had actually done to him. If Nick hadn't guessed Mimi's distress signal, what would have been Mimi's fate? On his honeymoon.
Adam remembered how Damon had previously grabbed Mimi and stabbed her for two weeks, chasing her first and calling her darling. And now Adam clearly remembered that he, too, had actually heard Damon call Mimi darling. Salvatore faltered. Adam decided to play it safe and fired another shot—a direct hit.
Five minutes later, Damon collapsed on the ground and lay there. A dark van pulled into the gas station yard, and Dresden stepped out of it. Dresden went over to Damon and moved him with his foot, no reaction. Meanwhile, Charles and Samuel had picked up Mimi, who was in a deep coma, from Samuel's car.
Samuel examined Mimi for a moment and then left her in the back and got into the driver's seat himself. Adam helped Dresden lift Damon into the van and tie him up.
Adam went to talk to Samuel. "What's the situation with Mimi? "
Samuel sighed. "Stomach full of stab wounds or something, deeply anesthetized into a coma. I can smell Damon's dental products. Mimi doesn't try to go to hibernation, though. I gave her an inhibitor, just in case. We are now driving to the airport and from there to Chicago. I will check on Mimi a bit on the flight, but I doubt I can do anything about those meds. The dentals, miraculously, Mimi is not underheated at all, so that's a bonus. Are you coming to Chicago on the same ride?"
Adam nodded as he left the pack car at the gas station and jumped in with Samuel, Charles was in the back watching Mimi. Dresden would fix Damon up and then let him go. Adam just wasn't sure where or where Damon would end up.
They drove to the airport, Charles now flying the plane himself. The trip took 12 hours. Mimi was pale, and Adam cursed when I remembered Mimi telling him about the German job.
He said, " Mimi was at a gig before the wedding, a difficult gig, and she had to give a lot of blood; now I don't think Salvatore has given her any blood, so..."
Samuel grunted and said, "She's still sleeping. I'll see if I can find a match for her in Chicago. "
Finally, Samuel and Adam arrived in Chicago. Samuel hadn't been able to do anything about the dental, and Mimi herself was fine, so they decided to keep Mimi in the feeding and upstairs medbay to sleep. They checked in every day, and after five days, Mimi started to show signs of waking up, but it was another two days before she opened her eyes properly.
Samuel had healed all the wounds, but Mimi's vampire side was, for some reason, fully awakened, and so was Mirella. Samuel was no expert on vampirism, and he knew Mimi did not drink human blood. He had his own and Adam's blood in stock as soon as Mimi would ask.
But then Bran came by just before Mimi woke up, and Samuel told him about Mimi's vampire blood. Bran gave Marrok orders not to give Mimi any stock blood, other than human blood. Bran also said that Samuel should actively seek a way to put Mimi's vampire side down.
Adam yelled at Bran. He explained the whole German gig, the whole satanic wedding, but Bran was adamant. He couldn't stand vampires, and now he wanted to be in Chicago so Mimi had better behave.
Damon woke up in Dresden's house, and he'd been given some potion that didn't do anything. He had a long and intense conversation with Dresden and tried to explain, and Dresden gave him another potion, which he felt would weaken the volcano even more, and he was very pleased. Dresden warned him that it might not work for long, and he couldn't guarantee that it would always work he couldn't say what volcano was actually inside Damon.
He had never encountered one, but he could sense that it was bad, very bad. Damon walked away from Dresden, knowing that he didn't dare go back to the pack just yet. He'd just have to lie and say he remembered nothing. They agree with Dresden that way.
His perfect honeymoon was ruined, and he canceled his reservation on Paradise Island. It wasn't long before his work phone rang. He spoke for a moment, his expression serious when he heard another one had been found. He knew that only he could handle it, even though it seemed to eat something inside him.
The next morning, after a week had passed since the wedding, he left for work, remembering only his wonderful dream. He had been on the most beautiful sandy beach in the world. He didn't know where. There, in the background, it had sparkled like crystals. He was lying on the beach, madly in love with a woman who looked like Vivien Leigh, and he had never felt with Mimi the way he felt with this woman.
She had said, "Sweetheart, our time will come; Mistress will take care of you.."
He kissed her and said, " Darling, do you want me to make you beg again?"
The rest of the night had been a pretty fucking wild sex dream, and Damon sighed. He was cheating on Mimi in the dream, but he couldn't help the way he felt, and with that feeling, he went off to do another really heavy job.
I woke up in Chicago, still drugged up but fucking happy to see Adam and Samuel. Damon had apparently recovered, and then the restless winds had taken my husband away. He hadn't remembered the whole wedding and had been irritated about it for some reason when Samuel had called soon after being told Damon was ok. He didn't know what kind of dentifrices he had even used.
Samuel said, "Damon is Damon, and whatever that was seems to have passed. But don't worry, he'll be back. He always does."
The stabbing and the neck slashing made my vampire side go all fucking glorious. As well as Mirella's. Mirella had set up a molecular stockpile for me back in the day, which meant I'd collected various molecules in my system for dental work. The bigger the stockpile, the better the dentals. I had a pretty damn unbridled bloodlust, and they had a Marrok order on me not to be given anything but human blood.
After suffering fever and sweating for two days after drinking some human blood, I was feeling restless all the time. A real bloodlust was setting in, and I hadn't really had one before because I'd always eaten.
I tried to remember where the nearest blood farm was, and it would be 24 hours before I could get anything from there. It was a small one, a few weak donors, and Mirella said we had to go out to find food. To hunt. My teeth were bigger, too; they were still pink.
Mirella said that now, not enough weak succubus like the ones they had at the farm would do, and Adam wouldn't let me go to the fight club. After Samuel had blocked the replication enzyme that had been about to kick in when I was asleep, it was time for me to learn how to hunt, and now Damon wasn't there to help.
I remembered his vague hints about vampire stuff. I was so damn frustrated because everything had to be done in a roundabout way, and then nothing worked, and here I was, my bloodlust was stronger than ever, and for some reason, I knew that even if I got blood now, it wasn't going to stop right away.