Damon had spent all day negotiating with the idiots again and was thinking to himself that in two more fucking weeks, he hadn't even had much time to get laid because he had to play politician. He thought he'd go out for dinner and passed one restaurant, and after a while, his forehead started to hurt, and his teeth seemed to be throbbing.
He was himself nervous and irritated and his thought of seducing Mimi and fucking with her wildly all over the ship was blocked by goddamn Bran, who seemed to almost read his mind and not give him any spare time.
He swore that after this cruise, then he would maybe take Mimi to the Azores or somewhere, just for the two of them, and not take now Adam with him. He wanted Mimi all by himself, but no. When he would not fuck with werewolf women that Bran pushed to him, Bran did not give him any free time and promised coldly to several old alphas that they can test their negotiation skills against a telepathic vampire lord who is over millennia old.
So Bran put his freaking reputation on the line and he had no choice than show these goddamn idiots. That is not wise to try to fool him in any sort of dealings. He was merciless in his negotiations.
Bran was not so pleased as he had thought that Damon would be more diplomatic. What's worse, Adam took the same attitude and his negotiations too were very strict. Marrok negotiations would not be easy, but if he could get these two on the board on that too, it would be grand, then they could maybe help him to overcome a few little laws that he was not so happy about.
Damon had snapped this little musing from Bran's mind and he was sure that neither he nor Adam would take no part of those law things. He knew Bran tried to make his life easier by lessening some of his responsibilities as Marrok by overcoming those laws, and he was not going to help him.
The pain continued to agonize him. He felt like his teeth were on fire and the throbbing dull pain between his eyes made him squint. Well, what the fuck made his teeth nervous now? Damon walked backward and looked through the restaurant. No one was familiar. Strange. He looked it very strictly through, and tried to smell the air, but next to it was a perfume shop so it was no use, too many scents and maybe his teeth had gotten confused, but he needed to empty them.
He went to his cabin, grabbed an empty bag, put the collectors in his teeth, and let it drain. The amount of substances that came in was unbelievable, and Damon didn't know who, why, or where. This was not a reaction to perfumes because bag after bag filled up and there were black thin lines in between layers of different substances, black velvet, the strong anesthetic that would work on Mimi too.
He suspected that the recipient might be Mimi because he had only reacted so strongly to her, but where had she gotten herself into now? He sighed in his mind and tried to come up with a plan of action. Why do these cruises seem to be cursed?
When I saw Damon walk past the restaurant, I ducked into the toilet and was there for about an hour before I came out. I went to my cabin and gave Mimosa some meat if she could eat. She had been out of my head for a fortnight and was strangely tired and listless, getting weaker almost daily.
I had given her meat with aioli because it seemed to perk her up, my portions usually, but not for long. My rash has gotten even nastier and a little infected too, as I just could not keep my fingers out of it. It was way too itchy. I was in my cabin when I started to feel tired. I knew it was evening, so I went to bed and fell asleep immediately.
Damon went to Mimi's cabin and was shocked. He saw the door to the cabin open and there were medical people all over Mimi. He saw Mimi being shot with implants, and then he was shocked to see Mimosa separated and completely powerless, but what the fuck for, and how had they found Mimi?
Mimi was covered in a nasty-looking rash, and Damon could smell the infection. His teeth reacted, but he controlled himself for now. He listened for twenty minutes and saw these guys take enzymes out of Mimi, and take samples of that rash too.
Damon controlled himself as Sark came into view and said to someone. "It's just as well Marrok was smart and knows his place and gave us a target, a few more weeks, and oh, I've got plans for the works. This rash is the reaction of some metal compound I have never seen in this subject's reaction so this is something we can study, she seems to have a moderate infection, and let's see how this infection will continue, can she fight it off, or not, we can have possibly new pathogen from this infection too, she is a goldmine. "
Fucking Bran had now sold Mimi to Sark. Damon retreated to consider the wisest course of action. To save Mimi. That is, once those fucking scientists had left, move Mimi to safety.
He knew it would take time, so he talked to Bran. "How the fuck can you sell Mimi to the pharmaceutical company? You know they will shoot Mimi's implants and extract the enzymes. "
Bran sighed and said, "I get it, sit down and have a drink, and I'll explain."
Damon was furious. He sat down and drank his drink. After that, Bran's explanation was again entirely believable. It would only be good for Mimi. Mimi would have good care and they would put her to sleep. She would feel no pain and they would not hurt anyone else while he had rented Mimi for them to study.
Bran convinced Damon that they could start to rent Mimi to various institutes and make rules on how to treat her and how much they could do to her. Damon could himself write instructions on what shape Mimi should be in when they would return her to pack.
Adam saw the whole thing, or Bran still had the vampire drink. Luckily, Dresden had developed an antidote to it, preventing the vampire drink from ever working as it should. Adam entered the room where the now more relaxed Damon and Bran were talking. Adam had his suspicions from the start of this cruise and he had taken this antidote with him. He did not trust Bran at all and now this. Fine. it was time for Bran to have a little conversation with Damon. Without Vampire potion.
Adam said nothing as he went and quickly took hold of Damon, stuck the syringe into his neck, and pressed the plunger. He got it injected into Damon's neck muscle so it would take a few minutes to act. It would work soon, and then Bran would see what would happen when he pissed Damon off. It took 10 minutes for Damon to stiffen and raise his eyes to Bran in a show of anger.
He said quietly and dangerously, "I have promised Bran that whoever possesses the vampire potion will die. Promised. Are you prepared to die for your little manipulation?"
Bran swallowed and said, "When it was only to help you see the greater good, the fact that these get samples of Mimi keeps them busy, and they then don't take so many other prisoners, Damon. Surely, one can be sacrificed if hundreds are saved. And we can make our demands. These will pay handsomely even just a few weeks to get to study Mimi. Surely you can see we need money, as Mimi has bought so many new houses and they are not cheap to upkeep..."
Adam said quietly, "Now, Damon, the vampire potion will never affect you like that again. It just increases the need for other activities."
Damon asked, "So what need?"
His voice was tense and dangerous, and it was obvious that Bran would have some consequence for his actions against Mimi.
Adam grunted and said, "Need to fuck. From now on, vampire potion will fuck you."
Damon smiled. He said to Bran, "I am not forgetting this. You can be sure about it, it might be that you shall find one day yourself again for the little lesson, and let's just see how good a teacher I am."
Bran paled, swallowed, and didn't say a word.
Damon thought to himself how nice it would be to realize who would have tried to spike him with a vampire potion when he would get extra horny. It would be a wonderful change of pace. He got up and headed for Mimi's cabin. Soon, it would be morning, and he would get to take care of Mimi and see what the fuck had been done to her.
I woke up exhausted again, but I had my secret weapon. This special spumante. I didn't have to take it after a glass or two first thing in the morning to get my energy up, and that pain in my head and nausea, light sensitivity, severe stomach pain on the right side of my belly, nothing would bother me. I should probably re-bandage the wounds, but I wonder if I had the supplies. It made the itch feel less, even though I would still use my nails to relieve this intense itch all over me.
I had just sat up when Damon came to my door and opened it. Oops. Well, if he doesn't notice the mess in my cabin. His expression was tense, and he was not in the mood to listen to any arguments. Adam walked in too.
Damon said curtly. " Come on, you're moving into my cabin for the rest of the time."
I wondered, "What on earth for? I have a perfectly good suit here. Your cabin is probably is lot smaller and not so nice."
I started to scrape my leg with my nails as the itch started to be a little too much.
Damon looked at me for a moment and said. "There are people from the medical department on this ship. And they've been testing you for three weeks now. Taking an enzyme or doing Lord knows what. Adam over there is carrying a Mimosa to my cabin in advance. And I'm assuming you know."
He looked at me, came at me, and took my hand away from my thigh, which was bleeding already.
" I have a bigger suite actually than yours and you stop that right now. You have already an infection. As you can see, your wolf is very sick and lacks an enzyme. Colin said this last time: he told you how Mimosa is separate from you. Now, the Mimosa needs those enzymes. She needs them very badly. And the fact that they're being robbed from you, they're being robbed from Mimosa. And that can be fatal for Mimosa. Now, Mimosa is protected. Samuel will see if he can find any of those enzymes on the entire ship. I wonder if he can find the headquarters of the drug company."
He kept his grip on my hand. I could see that he was serious, but I needed a little something to make me feel better.
"But now, miss. You're getting dental treatment. You're so full of different compounds and medicines and metals, and those metals I don't understand. You have a nasty infection all over you and that scratching is not helping at all. Because they didn't put the metals in you, I heard them wondering about it, too. Where did you get them?"
I took my bottle. It was open. There would be just enough to make me feel better. He kept a grip on my other hand and I stretched my hand to get my bottle.
He snatched my bottle out of my hand and was behaving like a bully. "And don't take that bottle of wine. You don't drink it. Do you understand? Give it to me."
He smelled my bottle, furrowed his brow, and kept the bottle out of my reach, too. I had other bottles, but I just did not get them, as this one kept his grip on me.
He muttered to himself." Oh. This bottle smells very special. There's something metal in here. You have poisoned yourself with this wine. At least partially. Come on."
I said, "No. it is drinkable gold, which is a special spumante for wives' clubs too. My friend helped me to have them. I bought them and she delivered them to my cabin, as I was still shopping."
He did not answer me at all. Damon dragged me to his cabin and made me sit on the bed. I was in pain, my skin was on fire. I was distressed because I needed my wine. Without my wine, I have to suffer these symptoms, which are no fun. I need to get out of here and run away. How could he have read my mind, which he probably did because he's a telepath?
He took some spiked handcuffs from somewhere and tied me to the bed. He pressed those spikes into my flesh so I could not move them.
Damon said, " Mimi. Now believe. You stay there. Now, I will take a blood tube from you and see what my teeth want to give you or do to you. You will probably get dental work. And we may be two weeks that way. I don't know yet, baby, but you're not okay, and now is not the time to run away. "
Adam came into the room and said, "Are you coming to see Mimosa? I think Mimosa needs your teeth on her neck more than Mimi does. So Mimi can get some of those bags you've already done. I can try to relieve that rash and clean her up, too."
Damon sighed and left. Adam sat down next to me on the bed and said, "Yes, you can. You'll find them all. You look terrible, honey, but I will help you. Those cuffs will stay on as you are influenced by those metals and whatever they have pushed into you. "
Adam got up and asked, " Has there been anything weird, like anyone you spend time with or anything? You told Damon about your friend. Who is she?"
I told Adam about the girl, and Adam's face darkened. I told him about her mother and her tragedy and all sorts of things we had talked about.
He said, " That girl, the troublemaker. Her mother was one of Damon's girlfriends, and I think Damon killed her at the fountain. I know this because the girl's father is one alpha and talked about the incident. She's trying to avenge her mother's death by killing you. I'll have to talk to Damon about this, too, but you get a cannula in your vein and some of those bags Damon made dripping; see if they help a little. Bran is an idiot, a complete idiot. Bran will get some feedback from this and a lot of it, too. When those bags are dripping, I will clean you up once you are asleep, so you will tolerate it. Damon has his Mimi bag with him and I will ask him what to do, so don't you worry about a thing. Samuel is also free if needed. "
Adam didn't give me a choice as he deftly cannulated me and hung Damon's bags to drip.
He touched my forehead, furrowed his brow, and said, "You are burning up, but let's get you resting and see then what to do."
I looked at the bags that he had hung on the rack. Yes, I saw the black stripes on them and knew what that meant, either a very calm state or total unconsciousness, I thought as I saw the thin, thin black stripes dripping and had trouble staying awake that it must be about Sleepytime.
Adam started to work. He talked Damon in his mind all the time when he worked and then when Damon went into economy mode while keeping Mimosa stable, Adam had some idea of what to do. Mimi's fever was still on and the rash was not settled at all.
Damon had been in the teeth in Mimosa for a week; Samuel had broken up the entire ship and had seen pretty soon when the helicopter rescued Sark and the medics. And took the enzymes with them. Adam had tried his best with Mimi, but she was not getting better.
Mimi had the enzymes to give to Mimosa, and they got Mimosa back to a more stable state, but Damon himself knew how close it had been. Very close. The cruise had a week left, and Damon left next to take care of those father and daughter. He made examples of them.
He was in a merciless mood. It had not been easy for him to feel an almost dying wolf under him, and he had been very lucky to get her pulled through. Mimi had had a good amount of enzymes as her liver was platinized.
On the ship's upper deck was nailed one alpha and his daughter dead, their hearts torn from their chests. And there was a banner, "If anyone is going to come to avenge their fate, you can be sure that the same will happen to you. Damon Salvatore."
The message got through.
Adam had dropped all the bags into Mimi in five days, and Mimi was feeling only a little better, but not enough. She was nauseous, not eating, sleeping with no meds on, she was cold, Adam was doing what he could, giving fluids and nutrition intravenously, but Damon was first treating Mimosa and then treating whoever did this to Mimi.
The infection had gone septic and Adam was not a teeth vampire, so he felt himself very powerless. Samuel came to help with Mimi and the ugly rash had gotten even worse. There were now boils all over Mimi's body and she was ice cold, breathing not so well, and not reacting properly.
Samuel knew Mimi needed incubator care, antibiotics, maybe even Colin's expertise too, heavy feeding, and blood tests. By the time the ship stopped in port, Damon had disappeared somewhere. So Samuel, Adam, and Bran went to Chicago, and Samuel put Mimi in an incubator, a strong feeding, and covered it up so Mimi would have a good dark hiding place to sleep.
He put on the strongest antibiotics that he could find. Colin was busy and there was no chance of him getting there. He even had some sedatives put in so Mimi could get some rest. He washed her, emptied those boils, took several samples, and tried to identify the bacteria or several strains that were ravaging Mimi's body.
The blood tests showed several more metals, the worst being beryllium, which Samuel had come across a few times in his career, and none of them had survived. He wasn't at all sure what else he could do for Mimi. While in other werewolves, beryllium caused rage, not in Mimi; it seemed to shut down Mimi's entire body, and Samuel fought every day against its effects, and he felt he might even lose this battle. Infection, on top of it, was not a good thing to have. Mimi's body was shutting down, not fighting five different strains of bacteria that were in her body, causing sepsis. The prognosis was not good at all.