I had all of my files next to me, my tablet, and my bag of poison sticks, too. There were so many types of poison and quite a few had come originally from my teeth. These were ready to go. I took one file, read it through, and then decided on what poison to use, what implication would be in this victim's death, cause of death. I was in one of my work bedrooms fixing the poison sticks, and I didn't notice at all that Adam was at the door. Adam watched what I was doing for a while.
He walked into the room calmly and said. "Really Mimi. Do you have a job there on the cruise too or what? I mean, on the pack cruise. What's the name of this whole thing? I've never come across this before. And now, Mimi, don't lie. Now I do not want to hear any lies."
I sat down and looked Adam in the eye. I was not going to lie.
I said, " Fine, I'll work on that cruise. On the cruise, that is. This is a political cruise. There is no such thing as a pack cruise. On this cruise, I have looked it up, is full of alphas and their spouses, but what I am doing in there, I do not know yet, except my work. These. This pile of files, that these are all assassinations. These are terrible men. This pile here next to me, this bigger pile. These I have a personal grudge against. These have all tortured me at one time or another. All of them. I have 50 victims on that ship and in total I have here 180 victims. This is my job, only my job to decide what poison to use on which victim. No one else. Once I got all of these done, I put info on fleas so they get to on with those 130 victims and I take care of these 50 if I can do it on that cruise."
Adam looked for a moment. Then I explained to him how this method works. I showed him the sticks. And I showed how these poisons work.
I said, "Most of the poisons are from my teeth originally. I have a few mad scientists in fleas who have finessed my poisons a little more. So I have here a magnificent collection of my poisons and now I just have to find the right poison for each of these 180 victims, and I need to be a flea. No emotions, no personal grudge. I need to kill these painlessly, efficiently, and naturally as possible. But it is not painless every time, not with certain symptoms."
Adam sat down next to me and said. "Who? How did these people torture you? Which one of these did what? Tell me what you can. No need to traumatize yourself, but something. I know Bran was behind this whole thing and I am surprised that you are not screaming at him and refusing this cruise, but then again, these victims are quite a prize, aren't they?"
I nodded, and I took folder after folder in my lap, opened it, and showed Adam the whole time. I told him who this guy, or that guy, was and I told him what he did to me. Or what did this guy do to me? Each one had done something to me, and I remembered it clearly. I hadn't got halfway through the files when Adam's eyes were yellow. I had told him who had blown me up, or done dissections, who had tried to make me grow new organs, and who had taken out my organs to see if I was alive without them, some of them had killed me very many times.
He said. "I'm in. I want to kill some of them, just with those sticks. But I have to get to kill them. And you know where I belong in a flea, just like you. And I'm your alpha, your pack leader. Your not so good second in command, but this is something that has my name written all over it. I'm your protector, at least when you let me. But I want to participate. Do we have a problem with that?"
I said, "No, no problem. There are 50 victims. We have five weeks, victims won't die instantly but in a few days, a few hours, and naturally of course, some of them will suffer but only briefly and most of them are dying instantly, so this is not revenge, this is just a job to be done."
I kept my inner killer under control, not letting Adam to see glimpse of it. No need for him to witness this side of me.
There was a voice at the door. A silky soft voice with steel in it spoke to us, "Oh, really, baby? So you're going on a cruise? And you have victims."
Oh, Mr. Salvatore is back. So that was when it had been over a month since he left.
Damon calmly walked into the room and looked at the files. He glimpsed few of them just by passing.
He sat down on the other side of me, and said, " Baby, I'm so damn sorry. I am. I've got everything straightened out in me now, and I'm ready to go on a cruise in a couple of days. Bran was responsible for bringing Damien out after our wonderful heat, and I was just not strong enough to press him straight back. I went to Dresden, and he gave me a few other potions, so Damien is now asleep and under control. But I, I want to kill these too. And I can use those sticks. What you said about every one of these deserves two weeks in the shed with me, every one of them. And baby, if you find any victims like these, these that have hurt you so bad. Please give one victim to me in the shed. Let me have my revenge. Let me show them what I do when my wife gets hurt. "
I looked at Damon for a while and said. "Welcome back. I have 180 victims, to be dealt with. 50 of them are on this cruise, but I have to decide which poison goes for everyone. This is one of my must-do works. No one else in fleas does this. But then I have my own business on the cruise, just like you do. Because I've been looking at that file, Bran gave me. And I was marked for the wives' appointments. I mean, the wives had their club on the boat. They would meet on the upper deck, where I would go for wine and conversation."
Damon looked at me for a moment and said, "Really, baby? You're not going to put up with brainless women every day."
I said," It is not for all day, a few hours and that's it, I have my work to do and put these poisons in order, sent info back to base so that these 130 will get what is coming for them too. "
Bran had said to me a few days earlier. "Little girl. I am sorry for all the trouble that I caused you by bringing Damien out and now he is nowhere to be found and I ruined your and Damon's lovely time. I was petty, jealous, and vindictive. I do not even expect you to forgive me. But I need you on this cruise, too."
His voice was true, what my pretender instinct said to me, but he could repent, and soon he would have done something like this again. He stippled his fingers and continued.
"Remember that behind every powerful man is an even stronger woman, and you must get to know these women. Because we men can't connect with them the way you, a woman, can. Gather that information. Hey, do what you do best. I don't want you spying on them or telling me everything. But get to know them. Look, a couple of weeks into the cruise, I thought I'd start the very first marrok negotiations if you don't mind, I'd do them at the Texas castle, and then it would be good to get a feel for the different alpha's home conditions or whatever."
His explanation got a little more carried on as he tried to convince me to be a spy for him.
"I mean to understand why an alpha would want even the women's lusts to be public in some horny establishment. If I could offer such twisters something else they would settle for, then the negotiations would move forward. Just for the sake of it, but there is no compulsion or pressure. If nothing comes of it, then no. Everything is fine. "
After that, he dismissed me as I had taken the file and said I would take part in this wives' club, but I made no promises.
I explained this to Damon, and he just rolled his eyes.
He said, "I've got negotiating and socializing. I have to be able to discuss and negotiate as an alpha male and Bran talked to me about those negotiations and how he wanted me to be able to spend time there. I don't know, baby, whether I'm all that political."
I smiled and put the files away. I said, "Let's get out of here; let's have dinner. I'm still not hungry, but I think it might be about time to eat."
Damon looked at me for a while and said. "Let's see, Mimi, if I can make a little implant in your stomach. But it will require surgery, and I still need to talk to Colin about it. The idea was to find a live nerve in your stomach. And put a little implant in it, which would be connected to your blood sugar. When your blood sugar drops below a certain level, the implant would give a small stimulus to this nerve. And it would possibly make your stomach react, and somehow, you'd get a sensation of it. And then I could teach you that this is a sensation. It's a new hunger. It's not like a formal hunger; you would get a sensation."
He explained it very simply; I was a doctor, but this was his way of telling me his plan. Because there were no guarantees that this would work yet.
"This sensation would remind you that when you do have to eat? Colin is developing an implant because I've talked about it. It's not an easy implant to develop, and it takes time. But it's coming, baby, don't worry, it's coming. The only problem with it is that it stays in a pretty vulnerable place, there's no bone and no protection, so if you were to get into a lot of fight clubs, European gigs, or any kind of fight, the implant could fall out. You have only live nerves in the front part of your stomach, not in the back, so like I said, dangerous place to put it."
He looked at me deeply in my eyes as he continued, "And that's why Colin wants to make a couple of them for stock. That's one reason why I've disassembled those medical devices, because there's one little screw for those implants and one little plate. I've made torture devices, too. Oh, I admit it, but really, baby, I don't do them for you. But for these guys, these guys. That's what they're made for. You'll tell me if you find any more of them one day."
He was getting pretty excited when he thought about those baddies and torturing them.
"Do you understand? I've got to get one or two of those torturers killed, torture them slowly to death. Tell them what happens when my wife is attacked. I'm not gonna let them live, so don't be afraid. Never be afraid of it. If it is a human, whoever gets into my shed will not come out alive. I'm in whatever mood I'm in, because the instinct, the need, whatever it is, is so strong that it always falls into place. You can count on that. You see, baby, this is one thing that I can feel that Damien agrees with me. You are not the only victim he likes to torture, so please, give us victims. I know that those 130 probably will be gone by the cruise is over, but I see from your expression that there are a lot more of them. I need to have a few of them. I will leave their bodies on display, as the message for Sark and others, is what happens when someone tortures my wife. I will make them confess on videotape first all of their sins and I will use my telepathy to get every last bit of information out of them."
He took my hands in his and said to me.
"And that's where I make a promise to you. I promise that the victim I took to the shed. If it's human, it won't come out alive. That's a promise, and you know me and promises. But yeah, now we're going to eat. And then we can see at some point, when it's a couple of days away, if there's even one naughty little bitch around here somewhere. And that naughty little bitch needs some training." Now his voice was a lot more seductive than dangerous and there was promise in his eyes, too.