Then, I returned to New York after two months in South America. Damon just looked me over clinically, and I figured if it hadn't been for this gig, his wallet and phone would have been on the table. Adam kissed me passionately in front of Damon, and he didn't care at all. I didn't smell wet dogs. I smelled passionfruit, so he wasn't even angry at me, but as I didn't have the fucking pheromones, he didn't care. He looked at me more like a colleague.
I showed him that even though he looks at me clinically; I am still his wife, and when I greet my husband, I do it properly. I knew I didn't have pheromones, so this would be mild, but still. I did it anyway. I walked over to Damon, wrapped my arms around him, and kissed him. He kissed me back eagerly as if he'd realized it was really me. His fingers touched my neck and my scar, and he looked into my eyes.
He said, " Someday, baby, I'll see what I can do. Someday..."
I said, " Yeah, maybe you never know in this life of ours."
Damon's hands roamed my body, but he looked at me like a doctor. He looked at me to see how I was doing. I didn't want to be mean, no way, but I said because we were going to town and you never know what you might hear.
"Poison works too well, then. When I hear it, I can't function for three hours afterward. It takes 24 hours to recover, just because I say it when I can't be sure if someone somewhere is playing it, and then I can't do anything."
Damon was silent and said, "I did all the programming to keep you safe, but my little reassurance was a bit much. If I'm going to feel guilty about something, I'm going to feel guilty about this baby. That wasn't my intention. But when I don't remember what a special creature you are and everything about you always works differently from others, I just never learn. But good to know. Now, I don't know if I can help you at all, and I will not try. I'm not that cruel. "
I nodded.
Damon looked at me and said, "You're in ok shape, full of muscle, and you're not exactly miserably thin. But I know nothing about your blood count yet. Come on, let's go to medbay."
I followed. We would leave the next day. We went back to Samuel in medbay, who gave Damon a tranquilizer gun.
He said. " Now, this is so strong that a single dose will knock Mimi down. And quickly. Be careful. Two doses into Mimi, and she'll be in a coma, and I don't know how easily awakened, so Salvatore, aim carefully. If you hit the lung or heart, it has an immediate effect. On the muscles, that takes 5-15 minutes. I do not know how much Mimi's rage will help against these substances; this is a large animal tranq latest version meant for elephants and tigers. A dose in one dart is enough to kill a male lion. "
Damon nodded and said, "I've been around these substances quite a bit. I wonder if I can keep my guard up. But it is good to know, especially if this is a new formula. So, no way to know what effect it has on Mimi."
Samuel said " Well we're here in the house, now if Mimi gets hit I might help. But you've got a hotel booked where you can stay because it's quite a long way from the center."
Then Samuel and Damon took a blood test and sent me to dinner while they got the results.
Adam was already cooking. I then went to eat, told Adam about the flea job, and he got some more ideas. He had done the same thing in America, and he'd set the authorities on the institutions when we got the actual evidence.
Sometimes, even on the borderline facilities, they were not necessarily evil. Yet, they weren't killing their victims yet, but they were doing some pretty brutal experiments, and this was a little wake-up call to them. They were being watched, too. Adam was very particular that I ate well, and he had a couple of gigs with Bran, so he didn't get involved yet.
We'd take Damon's big SUV, and I'd change shape on the way. Then I'd be ready. We'd walk together at first before I could find a scent. Then we'd take it from there. We would have set routes we would take and me and Damon had a great sense of smell so that we would smell a target a long way away.
We were both already more or less in work mode, and I wasn't surprised when Damon didn't come to the bedroom for the night. Not that we'd done much here in New York with just the two of us in bed, and I wasn't in the mood now, as I checked to see that the flea things were going well for half the night. My blood tests had been satisfactory. They're never fucking excellent, but what can I expect when I'm working? I don't have to eat all the time.
I went for an early breakfast and tried to eat myself properly. I remembered my satisfactory blood test results and tried to fuel up really well. The other members of the pack slurped a sandwich or an egg and bacon. I fried up four wicked thick fatty steaks and ate them pretty rare.
During the recovery period, our — well, me and Mimosa's, staple food is intestinal puree. I can't drink it, so I always have to call Mimosa to the surface if I have to sip it, but this time, Mimosa tried to get a taste of my steaks, and I wouldn't let her. Most commonly, Damon or Samuel puts a feeding tube through the wall of my stomach to fill it with intestinal mush, but I have had to drink it sometimes.
After the gig, we'll have some time off again. Mimosa could stay loose for at least 12 hours, and much longer if necessary, but when she needed her strength for something, she took it easy and came out when she wanted to.
I was almost finished eating when Damon walked into the kitchen and took the rest of the coffee and didn't make another pot. Well, that's his problem because I had already eaten. I didn't stay to make more coffee. I went to pack up my gear.
I packed a full bag of weapons because you never know what's going to come up, and since we were going in Damon's car, I couldn't take mine, which was fully equipped. I also put adrenaline shots in my bag and not the implant because I didn't want to explain to Damon if he found it, so I wanted to keep it to myself.
I had told no one much about my equipment yet. I had shown Adam sometimes, but as the equipment evolved and the lockers were pretty damn full. My idea was to go through the safety deposit boxes somewhere in between and enjoy the ride. But as long as somewhere in between, I could get through that medical school and get my dog show papers official. I'd be happy.
It is strange how the world keeps throwing me in different directions. If I wanted to do something for myself like study to be a surgeon or something like that, I couldn't. Now if only I had done what I had to do once again and could have some time to myself. Be Mimi.
An hour later, we left, and Damon was silent. I was in the back, and when we were about halfway there, so we had an hour to drive, I changed. Even though not that long a driving distance, New York was rush hour, so it took us a while to crawl through the traffic. Luckily, the car windows were blacked out.
Shapeshifting into a wolf is never easy or quick. It hurt just as much every time. My body literally rearranged itself, and I am good at feeling pain. In the middle of shapeshifting, is not a good time to take out rage just because you are in agony; it doesn't get any easier; you just maybe learn to tolerate it, and when you know what's coming, you get it done. It left me edgy; hell, it leaves every single wolf, well, not Charles because he is a kind of special case, but others are very on edge.
I lay there for a while before standing up and shaking myself. Mimosa was now unwilling to surface. We arrived and checked into the hotel first. I had the harness on, and Damon was walking me. I was a good girl. The hotel room was spacious. It wasn't a suite, or at least not the nicest possible; it was made for werewolves, so I had my little patch on my collar to open the hatch. Damon had the key.
In the hotel room, Damon was lying on the bed talking on the phone to various women. The smell of passionfruit and Mr. Fuck Machine was in a wild mood. Oh really. I started barking. So loud that the phone sex session didn't work.
Then Damon looked at me for a second and realized. "Oh, sorry baby, I guess I was out of line. And like I yell at you when you talk to Jarod, sorry."
I snorted irritably. At least he knew to be ashamed. And soon, his phone rang, and the same thing went on. I thought, oh fuck, when this gig would be quick. Fuck, this is what I had to come back for. Like I said, if it weren't for this gig, his phone and wallet would have been the only thing left of Damon in my life again for a while.
I can't watch that now, after four hours of listening to a gentleman having phone sex with a strange woman. Finally, we got to leave. I didn't say a word to Damon in my head, even though I knew him there. Ice age. This wife doesn't like that kind of behavior. I did this gig because it was important, and it was not good to have werewolves eating people.
We walked the streets and sniffed. We had a pre-arranged route, and then I started to get a slight smell; it was like something almost dead but still alive. I smelled the madness. I kept sniffing; it wasn't so easy now as New York is full of the most extraordinary smells and odors, and if the wind wasn't coming from the right direction, I almost lost the scent I was following, Damon was checking his phone, messaging women and I was cursing in my mind very talentedly.
My irritation went all the way to Adam, and he asked, " Do you have a problem?"
I said, " Nothing other than the fuck machine is just on a gig. First, he has phone sex with women for four hours in a hotel room, and now he has his face glued to his phone. "
Adam grunted and said, " Well, see if you can get anything done; Magnum is a couple of hours away; if Salvatore doesn't improve his behavior, I'll replace him with Magnum and give Bran a piece of my mind; this was Bran's idea all along."
I said nothing back as I was just thinking, "I should have fucking guessed the whole bullshit thing."
I persisted in my work. After an hour, I smelled a stink. Now I was sure I had stopped, so Damon almost tripped over me; I looked at him hard. I tried to be dog-like, but he realized I was smelling. He stroked me and muttered something.
I tried to walk one way with Damon in the lead, but surreptitiously and subtly, I led Damon down an alley. There in the garbage bin was an eaten victim that was still lukewarm. Pretty freshly eaten.
Damon said, " Careful now, baby, this is an unpredictable wolf; you don't attack when you tell me where you are; I'll try to follow you a bit if I see the contact. "
Damon let me off my harness, and I started tracking. Here, the scent was stronger, and I didn't even care if Damon was close or not. The smell got stronger, and it was almost up to my nose. I sneezed. The stink was so perverted, so overpowering that it made my eyes water even.
Then I saw it. The wolf was smaller than Mimosa, but bigger than Marrok. It was about the size of an Adam's wolf. It was matted and skinny and smelled sickly. It had a wild, fierce look in its eyes, and I saw nothing human about it. I knew the thing was going to be killed. It was not a werewolf, as there was humanity left in it—only an old beast, sick, tired, driven by instinct and madness.
The wolf turned around. It was feeding on the dog; it saw me, and it snarled its lips, exposing its old yellow dirty teeth; oh really, did it think it was a match for me?
I said to Damon in my head, "I found it. Come where I am. This one thinks he's attacking me. This is such an obvious case. There's no hope."
A moment passed, and Damon said in my head, "Try not to provoke it. I'm on my way. You don't know what diseases it has. Don't interfere. Let me handle this."
I waited for about ten minutes, and suddenly, my side hurt a lot, and I saw my legs go out from under me, Damon and a woman kissing. The strange wolf went over to the woman, and I blacked out.