It had been three weeks of removing the straps when Damon let Mimi stay awake for a while, but the addiction was still there. He kept going. He had lightened Mimi's medication. Samuel had taken more blood tests on Mimi to watch for tomato poisons and others and there were plenty of them. Damon had made the binders, and they were dropped after each test, then a couple of days before the new tests.
And all the while, he worked. There were fewer tendrils, and they were more subtle, but they still had an effect. At the same time, he was still coldly removing all the emotions from Mimi's memories with Reyes, and now that Mimi was exposed, he was fading those memories. He was fading all the bad things he found in Mimi's head, but destroying the tendrils was the main thing.
I knew I was in Chicago, in Damon's arms. I missed Reyes, but that was fading by the day. It was like an addiction. I was angry at myself for being so fucking weak and falling into that trap.
Damon said, " Welcome back. If Adam hadn't done what he did, I would have lost you completely. But missy, we still have work to do."
I said, as I got to talking, " My fault, I'm not supposed to be like that. Those feelings don't belong to me, and I just need to learn that."
Then I fell asleep as he jabbed my liver with an injection and rubbed it.
I woke up in between, but now I had rage on display, and as normal, my vampire side reacted to my rage, igniting my bloodlust to the max. Damon was holding me.
Damon said, " Do you have a bloodlust? Wait a minute, here, my blood, drink up."
He handed me a bag, and I clawed at it, downing it. It wasn't until he'd given me 15 bags of his own blood that I calmed down a little.
Damon said, " Fine, or we'll have to do some vampire stuff again at some point. I'll have to see if I can get that link between your vampire side and your emotions under control. But that's not the point."
I sighed; Damon had told me that Mimosa was in Adam's head and had already fully recovered from Reyes and how Adam saved Mimosa. I was very pleased, and then again, I sank into self-loathing that Damon couldn't stand, and it always turned into a flank, most commonly to the liver, with a good massage, just as he would have taught me he couldn't stand my self-loathing.
Then, when I was awake, I started talking about what we had done with Reyes, and Damon made no comment. Sometimes, he was shaking. I knew then that he was losing himself in his rage. So was I. There's no such thing as the perfect man. Never again. I don't know why I said what I experienced out loud. When Damon explained that this was the creator of incubus, I knew who I was going to go after next.
I smiled wearily and said, "I'm stupid, lazy, and weak. But not anymore. Now I'm not going to be trapped by men anymore."
Damon smiled and said, "You couldn't help it. You were the target from the start. Don't you darling worry about a thing, it'll all work out. The entire pack was the target. Who do you think got us to party and be with those women? But Farrow is now buried in hell, so he won't get off that easy. Let's say 60 years at least. And then I'll be ready to push him right back in."
I sighed and said, " Like I said, there's no such thing as the perfect man."
Damon laughed, and I said, " You're not perfect. Don't even think it, you're just as perfectly imperfect as you can be and might be." Then again, at some point, I fell asleep.
Adam and Samuel had still brought Damon food, and put him to bed once a week for three hours, during which time they washed Mimi, filled her stomach with viscera puree, and took blood tests. Damon had now been unstrapping Mimi for over seven weeks, almost eight, and had brought Mimi downstairs to the sofa, still holding her, stroking her, talking to her.
Damon said to Adam, "I'm about to get every fucking strap off. I've given her a good dose of blood, and this is one bloodthirsty bitch. But the rage she's got, even though I've been eating it all the time. Just because of what Mimi told me, I've got the rage. "
Adam nodded. He handed Damon a cup of coffee, and he drank gratefully, continuing to work even though he was getting really exhausted. He had vowed to get every fucking strap off and destroyed, not that they even mattered much anymore. He kept Mimi drugged so she wouldn't fight back and take her rage out any further.
We were on the couch, I realized, and I was lying on Damon's lap with my clothes on, and he was just stroking me as he removed the last of the straps from my head. "See baby, this isn't bad at all, not at all."
I smiled because it wasn't. It's not that I don't like being held, but I don't really know how to go there myself, at least not yet.
I said, " It's not that, but I don't know how to get into the lap myself. I'm not built that way."
Damon grunted and said, "I'll train you to do it one day."
I looked at Damon. He had lost weight; he had black shadows under his eyes, and his hair was quite long, and I brushed it away from his eyes.
I said, " Maybe these should be cut, and you are really exhausted. "
Damon smiled wearily and said, " Maybe, but you're free now. Just need to force-feed my lady for a while."
I didn't have time to say anything as I fell asleep, feeling the flank sink into my lungs again as he finally got the straps off my head.
Damon sighed. Adam came and picked up the now sleeping Mimi, quite thin at only 32 kilos in his arms, and carried her downstairs as Damon got up from the couch and wearily headed for the upstairs bedroom. Still, Samuel came and directed Damon to the upstairs medbay, put him in bed, and he didn't even need anything as he fell asleep right away.
Samuel took blood tests on this one, too, put the food on the drip, and knew Damon was going to sleep for quite a while. Two months of fighting so hard mentally was a real strain, even for this extremely strong telepath, and now he should recover and rest.
Once he had Damon in place, he went to the basement or downstairs medbay where Adam and Colin had undressed Mimi, taken the tests, and she was already in the incubator feeding and sleeping for a few weeks to put some weight on herself. Although Damon had kept Mimi asleep, he had said that Mimi's mind then needed to recover, so now it too would recover as they fed and strengthened her body.
Mimosa had also almost recovered from her destruction and was extremely furious. Samuel knew that Mim had her own rage, and with Mimosa's rage on top, this girl would act, violently and brutally and quickly. Damon was asleep. He would sleep for a few more weeks at least, as Samuel had always been there to assess the situation.
Mimi had been fed for three weeks, then they had gotten her up to 45 kilos, she kept her temperature and all the blood tests were fine. Samuel still remembered how Mimi's uterus had been grotesquely distended and full of some greenish mass, Reyes' semen. Damon had burned all the tissue that had been removed from Mimi and especially every speck of Reyes' spunk. It would have been too much of a risk to even give them to Samuel's team for examination when no one wanted Lucifer to have grandchildren.
Samuel carried the still sleeping Mimi into the downstairs bedroom, which had been completely reupholstered, a new bed and all after her infection, but was still familiar and safe. Adam had spent the whole eight weeks putting the fleas right; he had worked hard, and still, there were problems.
Bran didn't bother them when, during the four months, the werewolves had developed all sorts of problems while he was with the woman. Charles was busy with this, too. Colin had left when Mimi had been well and he went back to Ireland to put things in order there.
I woke up in the bedroom downstairs, and I was fine. I remembered Damon had got the straps off me. I sat up. I was myself for the first time in over seven months. Mimosa was already on my mind, and she was furious, remembering how friendly and lovely Reyes had been to Mimosa when she had come out. Mimosa's rage was very recognizable, and I wasn't surprised at all. She had been very nearly killed and that's how you get a magical fight vampire wolf in a rage.
For a moment there, remembering how fucking easy a victim I was, I felt my own rage starting to come out. And bloodlust, too. But I suppressed it. I was still not hungry, but it was just an automatic thing to eat all the time. I remembered how fat I'd been and sarcastically thought I'd never get back to that level.
I ended up in the kitchen, and Adam and Samuel were in there doing the cooking, and I realized they were just waiting for me to wake up so they could start feeding me.
I said, " Yes, it's now been proven that a stupid head really does damage the whole body."
Adam said, " You were a victim like we were all victims, and if I hadn't had that dream, I wouldn't have acted either. Someone upstairs will take care of you."
I said, " Yeah, that may be so, but this was a lesson that was well and truly learned."
I then went to sit down and started noticing minor changes around the house.
Adam said, "Colin put the cleaners in here when I took you to the base the other day. They were stripping some materials that were contaminated."
I nodded and started to eat.
When Samuel explained Damon needed to recover and he needed time to recover, I decided the gentleman could recover, but I would do some unloading.
I said, " By all means, I'll go this time. But I'm not leaving my phone and my wallet. Not at all. I've got to get my act together, and this whole thing just pushed my rage to a pretty damn high point, so I'm going to make things happen."
Adam told me what he'd done and what he'd achieved in the fleas. I just thought to myself that, yes, I was fucking stupid, weak, and lazy. I let my emotions take over, and here I am. Well, all's well that ends well, all's well I guess so I shouldn't complain per se but, but... lesson learned and now it's time to act, show, and use my rage to the fullest.
I finished my meal, then went to shower. I knew I still didn't have the pheromones, and now that was an advantage; I had managed to keep my expression neutral, just talking the usual business, and with the pheromones now not revealing my rage to the men, I was free to carry out my plans.
Now, I didn't care about the song and didn't let it be an obstacle. I washed myself and my scarred body; the scars were still there, and no one had commented on them. I remembered how Reyes had made me forget about them and just enjoy being wanted and loved, but now there was no need to be that way, not even close.
Now I was ready, and my rage was ready. I got dressed as I got clean, changed into bright pink hair, and was ready to go. I went to the smaller medbay to see Damon. He was still asleep, looking very tired, and I didn't blame him. He'd been working furiously for eight weeks to save me, but now he could rest as long as he needed.
Samuel explained Damon had nearly burnt out his telepathy, and it would take time, and now he was sort of in a coma until his mind recovered. It would take as long as it would take, and there was no rushing it.
I then went out. Adam had already retired to his study now to attend to his own business with his own company, and likewise, if Bran had a problem, Adam was now free to help with that, too.
I got in the car, the pink Ferrari, and drove to the airport. I would fly to South America and start destroying incubi and succubi there. My trusty team and Jake and Magnum were coming along, so I knew I had to be good at this, so these watchdogs wouldn't notice my rage so much because there was a lot of it.
South America was going to be a busy place not only for incubus succubus, but I was going to make blood farms there too as they would make good residents, and I didn't have so many houses there yet that I couldn't buy some more of them.
I had the money, and I also booked myself on a list of the highest-paying sniper jobs in all of South America so I could get some more money, too. This was going to be a great deal. So damn perfect you wouldn't believe it.