Kapitel 191: 30. Sitting Down Here.
The jungle. Each jungle took a month. I got another good selection of snakebites, bugs, and who knows what. Mimosa always knew what herb we were looking for, and we went through the jungle swearing and raving. We had to wander. Mimosa knew the direction, and she would give me a picture or a scent.
Not all the plants were on the ground, some herbs you had to climb a tree quite a long way up to get without any kind of safety equipment and there might be poisonous snakes or scorpions, spiders, centipedes, and other bugs in the trees that didn't help matters along.
Time didn't matter, and we caught what we could catch. Whether it was a lizard, a monkey, a rodent, or even a fish, I couldn't go along with the feeding guide and think about how many fucking stars I could get for a meal. But I learned from my body how incredibly resilient I am.
I could and I would pull this through and what comes next. I have no idea. Long recovery at least. Maybe some good time. Nothing is certain here or in my life.
Luckily, the forest or jungle was pretty full of fruits and berries, so I could stuff something in my stomach now and then, but then I had to remember to drink because my shit hardened up too much otherwise. Too much fiber, not enough hydration, and no fat. Once I got over the crisis of finally shitting out the boa constrictor thick stuff, I understood to drink.
And as for my bloodlust, I had to suck as much blood as I could during a couple of days I was out of the jungle because animal blood didn't work so well for me or Mimosa anymore, so we always had a bit of bloodlust when we got out of the jungle. Bit of bloodlust meant in my case that I was in pretty intense mood and dangerous creature.
I had asked the fleas to deliver some supernatural blood to me wherever I landed and there was quite a selection, so I poured it into a big jug and drank the mixture as much as I could. I didn't even look at what was in those bags. I just dumped them in and drank as fast as I could.
Being a vampire, well, I did learn that feeding from the vein is the most natural way, and even though this method helped from the worst of the bloodlust, the need to hunt and feed was still there. My vampiric self was not so impressed about this drinking from the jug thing at all.
But it was just another little boost that gave me the strength to carry on while I was trudging in the jungle of Borneo or in Madagascar. Let's just say that it was not David Attenborough's voice narrating the little nature show that we went through in those goddamn places. No, it was my own, fucked up, sarcastic, tired voice in my mind cursing and swearing most of the time.
There was the rainy season, then I learned how fucking hypersensitive I am to so many plants and after lying on a Borneo for a week on the ground unable to breathe with a very wheezy whine after I'd given myself an emergency tracheostomy after a bad allergic reaction, I started to get pretty ripe. I had quite nasty rash also all over me and I was swollen all over in my face.
My rage was well worn out, and I couldn't push all the time with its power. It wouldn't have been enough. It was good that it was hot in the jungles because I didn't keep my heat anymore. I already knew that, after every jungle, I had to deliver the herbs to Dresden, Constantine, or Colin. I had to pack them in a certain way.
And some of the plants we would take along for fun. At least I would pick up orchid seeds or small plants. I always put them in the house where we would end up for a day or two when we came out of the jungles. Amazon was the last of them, but I wasn't going to stay in America. I had to have souvenirs from my very first world saving mission.
I was now fed up with men, and even though Mimosa had told me how she reported to the men, I didn't need them. They'd probably start fucking again when they heard the job was over and the world was saved; when I finally got off Amazon, I already knew what to do. I had learn to cope on my own. I did not need anyone.
I had got a proper headquarters for my fleas, and Monaco was where I was going to nest. It had a lovely anonymity and lovely big houses, a few options I was spinning around in my head. I left the herbs and plants where I was and took the orchids to a Pennsylvania mansion where I had one greenhouse made, and Bridgette had made a spell to keep the plants in order.
I also collected a wonderful variety of plants for Bridgette, just randomly, as I didn't even know if all the plants were rare or not, but I just had to have them collected. Bridgette was very impressed and promised to take good care of every plant. She was a plant freak, a real Mother Nature.
I left some of the plants to be left with Colin on his staff after dressing up a bit disguised, so I wasn't a walking skeleton, which I actually was. Now the long and slow recovery would begin, but I had time. I was fucking immortal, and I had just saved Satan's world. Now it would be my time. I had rage, but I didn't have any more power to use it; my rage grew with every thought that came to mind about men's little fuckfest.
I flew back to Europe and bought myself a really grand house in Monaco. This was going to be my headquarters. I'd start my rehabilitation there; I was about 28 kilos, full of nasty-looking sores and wounds, rashes, bites and poisons, and toxins of all sorts.
Mirella had woken up again briefly, and she was happy about those because they would supercharge my molecular stocks, and I could then do pretty miracle teeth stuff when they would have broken down. She assured me that my body would handle them in time, and that was it. I arrived at the house in Paris after I bought the Mansion in Monaco.
I didn't know that when Mimosa had been telling Damon, Adam, and Samuel the whole time we were doing the job. They had stopped partying after 12 weeks, and Mimosa had not let them come along anymore; she had only told them about my injuries, my weight, and my condition, and she also told them about the Monaco house. She did not share my view of my independence so much, and she was also very pissed off at the men and their partying.
She hadn't shown me how carefully she had listed my injuries or showed my injuries while I was trying to treat my wounds. I had no idea how my wolf had tormented part of the pack over several months already.
My wolf could be very cruel when she wanted to, and she had wanted to be extra cruel because she was teaching them a lesson. A bitter, painful lesson in the hope that they would learn, but it was also a test. Would they crumble and start to fuck and drink again, or will they get their act together and start to do something when that was possible?
My mansion in Monaco was on six floors and it was white on the outside with pink ornamental railings, it had lovely plantings and it was quite central. The tall stairs led to the ornate entrance, and the house was pristine from the outside.
Conifer planters were on both sides of the stairs leading upwards to the entrance, and planting was easily maintained, mostly conifers and other heat and drought-tolerant plants. Still, I also saw opportunities there because that was not my style of planting.
In my mind, I envisioned big pots of colorful flowers and huge flowerbeds, and Bridgette might be the right person to help me with, but I could do it myself, too. Well, Monaco is a terribly small place, so there wasn't really any seclusion there. There were other houses nearby, but my house had very good security and all the peace that I needed.
It was not looking like the headquarters of the resistance leader, what I had planned for it, and that was my main point. It had huge wall-sized windows with sea views; those could be opened, and the breeze from the sea would flood into the house. It would my place workplace, my very own sanctuary.
A back porch with a sea view lovely columns and lovely sunken outdoor sofas; the house was just not terribly furnished so that I could order and buy everything. There were wood floors throughout downstairs, shiny parquet, and upstairs, there were vinyl cork floors, which were almost more comfortable underfoot than slick parquet.
I had the money, and I already knew downstairs where I was going to put my study. There was room for that, too. The rooms were huge and could be divided up with no worries. It would be a good place to recuperate. The kitchen had a large walk-in freezer and fridge, so I'd be ordering refills as soon as I could.
I saw myself sitting wrapped up in a lovely soft blanket and drinking a luxury coffee on that outdoor sofa as I looked at pictures of my house. The walls and ceilings were white, but Reddington had given me bank vaults, and art objects from all over Europe, and when I told him about the house in Monaco, he promised to deliver stuff there too.
He'd done a pretty good job now of getting the shady financiers of the medical institutions under control, and there were treasures in their caches that had no owners, and I wasn't human, so I didn't have to pay taxes either. That was the fantastic part, and no one could look at how rich I was and order me to pay taxes when animals, what I was classed as, didn't pay taxes, so some fucking benefit from that law too.
Mimosa said in everybody's mind, " The fact of the matter now is that our gig is over. Our weight is 28 kilos, and our strength and our rage or our ability to use it are pretty much gone. Now Mimi wants to retire to be by herself because we had to be almost by ourselves for the whole fucking gig. Mimi doesn't feel that she doesn't need anyone because it was more important to you to have a three-month fuckfest than to save the world, or you just have enormous confidence in Mimi that she really could save the world. Oh no, it was just that you knew Mimi wasn't up to it, so you needed one more party before the world came crashing down. Isn't that something like that?"
Mimosa's voice was now clearly grumpy. She was stating her opinion bluntly.
"Mimi lay for a week in Borneo, in the jungle, unable to do anything except concentrate on breathing and having keeping open an emergency tracheostomy in which she slit her trachea open after having such a bad allergic reaction. You can imagine what it must have felt like. The helplessness, the pain, the despair, the powerlessness. And I won't give you that feeling. You don't deserve it. Now I have a terrible urge to just invite Colin to help Mimi. Because Colin didn't let us down. Colin didn't leave us to our own devices. We have supplied Colin with herbs from all three jungles, but Mimi always did it without Colin being there. Why? Because we are in such a fucking bad way. And we had no one to help us when our pack decided to fuck before saving the world."
Men paled when Wolf continued its merciless report about their biggest failure so far. They knew how goddamn badly they had screwed up, and it got even worse with every word that the wolf told them.
"But what we learned from this was that we really don't need anyone. We don't need anyone to come and tell us about rage management or watch us eat because we are immortal, the toughest creatures in the universe, and we can survive a month without blood. We can eat little animals with bones and furs even; those would give us about a kilo worth of meat a month, and the rest of the time, we're going to fill our stomachs with fruit and water."
Damon knew Mimi was in the worst shape that she had ever been, and all because of them. Because of him, the protector had failed so miserably.
"So we now require a convalescent leave, and it would do Mimi good to have someone look through her. But I wonder if Colin has the antibodies for all those snakes' venom. I'm sure he does. The thing is, I didn't always see what snake, spider, centipede, or other bugs were biting us, so I might not always be able to help. Though Mirella told us, we would get some pretty nice molecules from those poisons and toxins, they have to be chopped first, and as our healing is slower than human, it is not happening anytime soon."
Adam felt like he was about to throw up. He was physically sick. Samuel's eyes were wet. He was crying, and Damon was completely emotionless. Adam watched this for a moment and wondered if Damon was going to turn off the switch again or disappear somewhere. Mimosa's voice showed no mercy.
" Well, soon you'll be able to have another party, and Damon, you'll have no problem being a free, single man, even if you do get remarried. We're going to be in our gorgeous new house in Monaco that's going to be the headquarters of the fleas. When Mimi gets in shape now, she'll really start to put the fleas to rights—and doing and directing gigs to the medical facilities and everywhere else. We will take time to recover and we don't have to make money. Even though this mansion cost 15 million or so we have money, now we can concentrate on what we want to do, not on what we have to do. Now, we, especially Mimi, can be selfish, just like you were, and we paid for it."
Adam was silent for a moment. He couldn't get a word out. He was really terrified, and the most horrible horror images were running through his head.
Samuel said wearily to Damon, "Stop that. It's not going to help us. We've got imagination, all right."
Adam realized when the horror images stopped, that they had come from Damon. He, too, was on the verge of a breakdown. Damon was sighing, still sitting in the corner, not drinking, not eating. He was physically fit and fine, but quiet. His soul was not singing but being torn apart by helplessness and rage that consumed him for himself and his stupidity.
Mimosa sighed. I realized what Mimosa had done when she'd let me hear it this time. I was fucking pissed off and wanted some time to myself, but she'd had the sense to leave the men alone and not tell them everything. I saw how incredibly furious Mimosa was, had been the whole time, and even Adam was not now worth worshipping. Mimosa had thought that men could do better, but she had been let down by them, and she had given her lessons for men over the months.
I asked my wolf, "Was that outburst really necessary? We don't even need Colin. The snake venom will break down on its own and once I get the fleas in place, I'm going to go to America and see if I can become a trauma surgeon. Now I'm going to do the thing while I first get better, but now I have time and peace."
I'd done my job and saved the world, and so what if I was in really rough shape? This was the only way up, right?
Wöchentlicher Energiestatus
-- Power-
Rangliste 
-- Power-
Stein