I had two more days to do gigs when I became Marrok. I got a massive headache, and it felt like something was invading my mind. Then it started; the voices, the talking in my head, and the mental pressure in my head were so intense that I went to the toilet and threw up.
Adam had been to my house the day before, brought Mimosa with him, and I showed him the succubus and incubus. I showed him pictures of their farms, so they trapped people there and used them for food. Adam's eyes turned yellow, and he promised to go to America to take care of the job. He mentioned Damon had called him too and then went to Montana, to Bran.
I saw Adam looking at my neck, but he said nothing about it. He just mentioned that Colin had sent his notes and reports on my treatment to the computer Damon had read them, and so had Samuel. Fine, then they knew, but I was in work mode, and I got Adam in a pretty tight work mode, too, and Charles, too.
He had been waiting outside when he flew Adam in, but when Adam saw the pictures of the incubus human farms, he invited Charles in, too. I explained the blood farm and showed him roughly how it was done, and I laughed when two men stared at me very hard when I told them how I was looking for victims at night and seducing them.
Charles said, " Honey, don't you have people for that job? You don't have to put yourself in danger."
Oh, I was amused. This, too, one called me honey. I didn't mind.
I said, " This is my job, to save innocent people, not just be behind a desk. It's damn fun besides getting a taste of everyone, so I know how strong the blood is."
Adam scowled. But then they had to go to America and start working it out from there. Adam was my second in command, and I saw the way Charles was looking at me. He hadn't been in the flea business much when Bran didn't let him on the list. Still, when he walked around the base and saw everything, he understood the scope of my operation, and he found it a pretty damn interesting job, too—a job he'd much rather be doing than being his father's errand boy.
When I got out of the toilet, Mimosa said in my mind, " We are now a Marrok; this is a Marrok force, and we have doubled our work."
Oh fuck, why did I become a marrok? Wouldn't Samuel or Charles have been a better target? But Mimosa answered nothing when she started unloading on the werewolf problems, always asking me something.
It was a little hard to concentrate on talking on the phone with Brutus and organizing the attacks on the known incubus facilities when Mimosa could be in the middle of something and want my opinion on something. And when it wasn't a simple matter, Mimosa explained the complete story to me before I got enough context, and then I asked Brutus as well, since he was on the phone.
So I had to work in a team with almost a marrok thing. This took work. Well, Mimosa helped, but there were so many people and their problems that prioritizing took time or skill, a skill I didn't have because I did not know which problem was actually bad and which wasn't. But I had to work and learn as we solved one problem. I told Mimosa after the day. The chatter hadn't stopped in my head at all.
"I think we'll go to Monaco and take care of the fleas from there, but I can't do any jobs now anyway, so I'll have to be the leader behind the desk,"
Mimosa agreed and then presented me with another boundary dispute. Boundary disputes were turf disputes, and as fucking pointless as they could be, that is when it could be a few meters to either, and I was fucking these idiots pretty damn effectively about their problems.
We went to Monaco, Mimosa was in charge or she wanted to sort out the werewolf problems but then when these wolves found out I was in Monaco I had guests and lots of them, I didn't even know how fucking long I'd been in Marrok.
I tried to be polite and listen to all parties, and Mimosa was dealing with twenty crises in my head at the same time. I wasn't so grateful to Damon when his actions caused this, but then again, it was the right thing to do for Bran. I just hoped that he would learn once and for all, and if he got his power back, he would be a bit more responsible.
I was sitting at my desk, looking at another ungodly stack of satellite photos, reading what had been found. Could one of these buildings be an evil medical facility, a succubi lair, or an incubus lair?
Mimosa coughed in my mind; that was the cue that she had a case for me to present. Fine. Let's hear it then. Then I put the papers aside, leaned back in my perfect desk chair, and closed my eyes, listening once again as Mimosa presented the case.
It involved four packs, one pack; I called Pack A: felt that the other pack, Pack B, had violated territory boundaries and allowed full-moon some bitches in heat to mark their territory. Well, then Pack C accused Pack A of the same thing, while Pack D asked if Pack B could give them a few tens of square meters of land on their side as it had the ashes of a pack member buried there. Pack C didn't think the land should be given just for that and then tried to manipulate Pack B into selling the land to them rather than giving it to Pack D. Oh my god, what a fucking mess.
I can understand that if the bitches in heat come to mark near a foreign pack so there can also start a heat, but when I asked if the bitches have been interviewed, the most important question was asked: why? Could it be that these bitches want someone from the other pack for themselves, that it would be a case of infatuation or even a love triangle and not just a pissing off of the pack?
The packs were quite confused from this point of view as Bran said nothing like this. He had always just said that the undisciplined bitches should be caged and properly disciplined, and then they were surprised when the bitches left the pack when they could.
I rolled my eyes, said it was up to the pack to decide whether to give up their little piece of land and told the other pack pretty damn firmly that if they thought they were going to blackmail the pack on that piece of land, I could send a Salvatore after them.
What I had heard in the couple of weeks I had been in Monaco were growing rumors of Lord Salvatore and his new rules about making, distributing, or consuming vampire potions, all of which resulted in death. And I had heard that he had visited quite a few places, and there had been nothing but carcasses left.
I tried not to answer the vampires' calls when they wanted an audience with Lady Salvatore. I was already dealing with fleas and fucking half of the American werewolves, so I didn't want to deal with vampires anymore, and besides, Damon hadn't told me anything I could ever do; I knew nothing about vampire stuff, and I put everyone back to talking to Damon. I certainly didn't tell them I sent them to him.
It was a challenging time, first trying to prioritize who I was helping and to what extent, what problems Mimosa could sort out and which ones were, therefore, my responsibility, and then the fleas were constantly spilling the beans on where we were with incubus and succubus.
I had to do more work there, too; I didn't do everything myself; I was a Marrok, so Adam, Samuel, and Charles had to work really hard, and I actually got quite a lot of Bran's messes sorted out. Things ran better because, for example, Charles was more up to date with some packs that were going to be problems.
Oh, I was the one who made a fuss if anyone talked about an alpha party or a pack visiting other packs for a gene exchange. I directed them to Samuel, and he got to put the packs in check.
Then, on the flea side, I got Magnum and Jake working really hard. I tried to avoid contact with the vampires still. I even missed Damon's call three times; well, when I was talking to someone or solving a werewolf crisis, and I just didn't notice my phone had rung; well, that's okay.
I was working, and he knew I was a marrok and a really busy person. I just hoped when I heard about Lord Salvatore's reputation that he wouldn't be too upset about his own wife not answering the phone, but there was nothing I could do about it. I had to do what I was supposed to do and help half the world at the same time.
Being a Marrok wasn't all that glamorous, though. At first, I had a constant headache. My mind couldn't cope with the constant babbling in my head, and even if I got used to it, it wasn't pleasant. I had been a Marrok for a month when I had a visitor I wasn't expecting.
Bran came to visit. He had lost weight. He wore only jeans and a tee shirt, and he looked like a young boy, as always, but I could clearly see the beast inside him. Maybe the power of the Marrok helped.
I said, " Was it a nice lesson? My lesson lasted three months with recovery, so you got off lightly. I still haven't forgiven you, and only good manners will make me talk to you."
Bran sat down in a chair and said, "I don't expect you to forgive me. I'm not supposed to be forgiven, and the lesson was awful, but it was nothing compared to what I did to you."
His eyes turned to my neck. I was wearing a scarf.
I took the scarf off and said, "As you can see and smell, I no longer have pheromones, only scars, also on my body. I hope the party was worth it because you have now lost all respect from me. Me and Mimosa, Adam, Charles, and Samuel have now been cleaning up your messes for a month, so the next time I think about a party, try to remember your fucking duty before your own enjoyment; that's one lesson I learned. Did you know how much I enjoyed going to college to study to be a doctor one day, or how hilariously distressing that first dog show was? But you taught me I should just do my duty, not live the life I want."
Bran was silent and said, "As I said, no apology is enough, and if I could, I would see that you enjoyed it. But it was not in my power. But I won't bother you at all. Leave you alone, and I will not demand your contacts from you now. That's really cruel of me, and I realized I was only looking for contacts so that I could put them to work half the time. I've been unforgivably lazy."
I nodded, stood up, and held out my hand. He also took my hand, and I felt a wave leave me as the marrok power shifted back to Bran. He furrowed his brow for a moment.
As if to see where things were going and said, " Never been so calm, thank you, little girl; you have done wonders, and thank you also, Mimosa, little wolf; you must have done a great job."
I nodded, sat back down, and Bran left wherever he went. I sat for what must have been an hour, enjoying the silence in my mind. I then went back to the flea business. We had already found the next target: the demons.
Now, I wasn't talking about the demons that came from hell, but the ones that came from their own dimensions, and there was some really tasty prey there, but I had to go scout for them myself, and then I moved back to America a week later.
I didn't think about what Damon or the pack were doing now. I was getting more food or a meal for myself, and my vampire side was getting stronger, but it wasn't getting Mirella stronger; somehow, I got the impression that she was actually disappointed, but I didn't think about it that much.
Just like with incubus and succubus, I would do gigs, go to a bar, seduce, lead into an alley, and taste. Usually, they were pretty damn good meals, and my blood farm got new residents pretty well. And then I would get blood shipments into my own houses, hide them on the floor, make a few rooms, or make a trapdoor in the floor where I would store the blood, and no one would know to look for it.
As my vampire side got stronger, so did other vampire traits like blood lust. I didn't know if it was even a vampire trait, but I didn't want to share my blood, especially with my husband. The idea of darling Damon getting to drink my super blood didn't sit well with me.
I continued with the demons, while also trying to find out what the demons were up to. Just as the incubi had had human farms, the demons were running a slave trade, and that was one thing I was going to address.