I left Mimosa and Mirella at the hotel when I went to do one of my rush gigs in Romania. I had done these too when I had time and we were busy in Fleas. I was not even going to ask for Adam or Pack if they stopped their partying. I could survive on my own, too. There was another Sark's facility, and I was ready. We were off to rescue victims again—me Jake, Ruben, Gloria, Daisy, Dash, Finley, Calum, Christy, John. We were A- team again. Jake had insisted on being part of this and Magnum had been doing jobs in America with Murdock, so they were busy as hell too.
Jake, John, and Dash were now my trusty henchmen. And the gig was going well because I had a really good team with me. We'd have to clear out an 18-story facility. Me, Daisy, Gloria, and Christy were the saviors. Dash, Finley, Jake, and John were the destroyers, and the rest were the movers.
I was just getting my gear on when Jake came to me. He looked at me as I was dressing and said, "You are not in any shape to be on your own. After this gig, I will accompany you the rest of the gig and I won't listen to any objections. You need some serious treatment and a little of good old-fashioned TLC and I will be the one who gives you that, Mimi."
He rarely called me Mimi and I could see from his face that he was not going to budge on this, so maybe this was a good thing, to have someone who actually cared for me. I had still many problems with being touched, so good luck with that one.
But one thing that Jake knew was how to feed me. He had been drinking my blood for quite a long time, so he might be able to take a few of the fight clubs if it comes to that. The only problem was that he might be telling Magnum or Murdock or Colin of my condition and then it would not be a good thing, as I got pretty violent if someone tried to touch me in the wrong way.
I had used my aversion to touch to my advantage in fight clubs. It gave me excellent motivation to rip everyone apart if they touched me even. I just looked like I was fighting, but it was all a reaction to that touching. I did not tell Jake anything about what had happened to me, not at first.
I was not sure if I would tell him. I had a bad habit of confessing to him my problems, and I did not want to burden him too much. He was a fresh father, and he was very proud of his children, too. They had had a wonderful cruise, and he was truly happy with his family.
He watched me sharply as I dressed and got my gear on. No exceptions, not for me. The only problem was once again, bad guys had gotten new kinds of armor-piercing bullets and our gear was not strong enough to yet withstand it. Magnum had his testing on, as he tried to come up with yet another armor that would keep us safe.
Jake would be back up as soon as we got inside, and the perimeter would be secured. Another thing again where he was not giving up. So I, the leader, had no choice but to let him be my backup. We went to the cars. We had transport vehicles coming next to us. As soon as we would give the green light that we had victims to be saved, they would be ready. One could never know that there were living victims, too.
So if the facility were empty or everyone was dead, then there would not be needing transportation and those cars could return to base, but as soon as we got confirmation on live ones, they would be ready to receive in minutes. We had our own thing going on. I steeled myself for the upcoming gig as always and focused on again only this. Not thinking about fight clubs or anything else. My superpower, hyper-focus, helped too.
We went on site and I got the drones in the air and looked at the roof. I dropped the bombs; the gig was on. It was time to act.
We had a team of snipers again ready to take all the bad guys off the roof and then move the victims to safety. And there was another crew there. We got everyone on the roof killed, and we were off. I put my drone back in my backpack, slung it on my back, and got ready to work. This was an enormous facility.
I got my guns ready and everyone ready, too. Drones had shown heat signature in bed and some movement so we got transporters ready too. There would be a lot of victims to get out and this would not be an easy or short gig but this could few hours or more even.
The exterminators made sure we had good access, and I went into the facility. I started on the top floor and started waking up the victims. I moved into the hallway with purpose. I was fast and efficient and movers had already put the escape tube ready so victims could be sent to transport vehicles.
These were werewolves and shapeshifters. There were a few vampires in there, too. I unhooked the tubes, squeezed the ear, and then reassured them. Wake the victim up, and I give them my blood if it's not a vampire. Because if you give a vampire my own blood, they might fall asleep to it. My blood was narcotic for most of the normal vampires who drank human blood. And then they were passed on to the transporters.
There would be plenty of blood in vehicles and on base, too. We had Dash here. He was a medic and several more medics were in transport cars to wait for the victims. Some of these had stitches, wounds, and dressings. I had no time to start to even guess their injuries. My job was to get them up and running, so to speak.
We went at a good pace, or I did. Jake had come up as soon as he was free and he walked behind me, keeping me safe. We just got all the victims awakened and moved. It had taken two hours, and we were fast and efficient. At least four cars were in the base already and victims were being treated and evaluated. At least if Colin was around, he would be busy.
And the exterminators were destroying the facility when the guards started coming again. I heard from the mic when Dash cursed.
He said, "We have hostiles and a lot, beware, there was some kind of hidden door or something and this is flooding with guards."
I acknowledged it. I was just down the hallway with Jake towards the exit. Jake was walking behind me, looking around everywhere, keeping an eye on things. I heard footsteps.
Jake cursed under his breath and said, "Move, move, we have hostiles coming."
I picked my pace, heard him behind me, and then a shot rang in the air. I turned around to see that someone had just shot Jake in the chest. I spun around very quickly, grabbed him, pulled him in cover, and bit my wrist open, putting it in Jake's mouth. He drank my blood, and the wound healed. My heart was beating so fast that it felt like it was coming out of my chest. I panted almost. Adrenaline flooded into my system and my hands almost shook.
We were there in the moment after I had shot the guard.
Jake sighed, and I said, "That was close. It was damn close. Mimi. I have to tell you one thing. I really need to."
I smiled and said, " Later, you still have surgery ahead of you. I will operate you on myself. I have time. That bullet will be out of you as soon as we get to the base."
He got up to sit and said, "Listen to me, I love you. I really do. I love you more than my wife or my children. I have always loved you and I don't expect you to love me, but I need to say this."
He stood up. I was quiet.
That was some confession, and I said in a small voice. " I am in this shape because Bran raped me. Many times, I got several miscarriages."
Jake was silent. I could see that he was furious. I said to him, " And because of that. I don't want anyone to touch me. You are my friend, my confidant, my best people, what I can even hope for. So don't worry about me. "
He said to me softly, "You want to win always, Mimi. But if I help you, you will be fine."
I looked at him and said, "You are the most important person in my life. I love you, not the same way as Damon, but I love you, and that was too close. I never want to lose you."
He smiled and did not touch me as we continued to walk out of the floor. We kept our guards up, and no one alerted anything to my comm, so I assumed that everyone had gotten to safety or there would not be anything wrong.
We walked for a while, and suddenly I heard him gasp. I turned around to look, and he looked at me for a while, and there was a stream of blood coming out of his mouth.
I said, "Jake, what's wrong?"
He said nothing as he fell. I grabbed him and lowered him to the ground. He coughed weakly. His lips were bloody.
He said to me, "No regrets, never, I love you."
One more cough and that was it. His eyes glazed over, and he was not breathing. I tried to pour my blood into his mouth, but there was no heartbeat, no breathing, and he was utterly dead.
I looked at my friend, my confidant, and the pain almost tore me apart. He lay slumped on the ground, pale, his eyes open. The blood that had tricked from his mouth, started to dry. My friend was utterly dead.
I focused and put that pain, this agony, in a deep place in my mind, where it would not feel ever. I would never take it out. I would never deal with this loss. This was just acceptance, nothing more. I felt my soul losing something in the process, but I kept my rage on, and let it come more on the surface as I stood up.
I heard voices, and I turned around.
One room had a transparent door. It was apparently somehow adjustable so that the door was completely transparent or completely opaque. Sark was standing on the other side of the door, and he had Christy in his arms. Christy was dazed or confused because she didn't put up much of a fight. Sark looked at me momentarily, pulled Christy's head back by the hair, exposing her throat, and slit her throat with a long knife. He kept her in his grip until Christy was dead.
Fuck. My rage was on full display.
Sark opened some kind of microphone, and I heard him say, "Look flea. We're using novelty explosive bullets here. They're so fucking cool. They have this remote control. All the bullets that have been fired today have exploded, and I think they've hit every member of your team except you. Wasn't it a pleasant feeling when you thought you were saving your teammate, and there he was, lying dead?"
He dumped Christy's body onto the ground, as I took out my gun and aimed at him. I shot and that damn glass was bulletproof.
He sneered," By the way, Mimi, all your friends are already dead. Those bullets have poison in them. There's nothing you can do about it. And wouldn't it be great if this worked like a TV show? All your little friends died with your blood in their system, but they don't become vampires. What I do know is that making a vampire actually takes a lot of time."
Then Sark disappeared somewhere, and I knew I couldn't go hunting, and I couldn't, I couldn't save anyone. I informed the casualties and there were no hostiles, so the sniper team had the bodies in their cars by the time I got out. I killed all the guards I could find, but the fucking European job was still going on. Again, I didn't tell anybody about this, and I never will.
I would tell no one about Jake's confession. I would never take out that feeling of loss and grief that came when he died. It is better this way, not to feel too much. As Damon had done something in my mind that I could never shut my humanity off, I had come up with an alternative, by taking those feelings, and experiences that I didn't want to deal with, and putting them away. In the depths of my mind, in a very secure place, that Damon would never find. It was just my coping mechanism.
All I knew was that after this gig, this world-saving, and once I would be fine, there would be a trip to Lake Lanier, one damn trip I wish that I would not have to do, but then again. I owed it to those I lost. I just dreaded facing Jake's family, and everyone else's families, too.
I haven't dealt with this loss to this day; I feel right now Damon drilling more or less in mind, trying to find that memory but I have learned in my years to modify them a bit, to not think whole memory, not let whole memory come out and I know that I will get some serious telepathic mind work over these happenings. I did not describe every single detail what happened just because remember this is still way too painful for me. He was my truest soulmate. I am thankful for him for so much and our connection went beyond death; he is one of ghosts looking after me, if he needs to.