Colin went ahead as Charles carried the now unconscious and limp woman inside. Colin was enraged. Once again, Mimi's pack had betrayed this, and her husband tortured her. While Colin believed in Damien's existence, he also knew that Damon was reckless. If he knew how Damien gets to the surface by hurting Mimi and because his insecurities cause him to doubt himself, why in God's name would he do something that could set Damien free?
Sure, Damien could manipulate him to do so, but if that was true, Damon was weak-natured. Love was supposed to be the strongest force in the universe. That should have been enough for Damon to believe in Mimi, to help her, not attack her. Colin focused once again on being the one who helped Mimi, no matter what.
He could not think of a time when he would hurt her. He idolized Mimi, and he and his leprechaun had learned to love her in their own way over the years. His leprechaun was not asking for anything, only a chance to help and save Mimi. That was very rare since leprechauns are notoriously demanding and greedy, but he could feel his leprechaun's true love for Mimi.
His Leprechaun was not after romance but something deeper. To him, it was an honor that he, a mere leprechaun, could help this goddess before them. He set Mimi down on the examination table on which Colin had earlier stocked supplies while Charles tried to describe the damage to Mimi he had seen in the cage. Mimi had less than 50 straps, and they had taken a hell of a beating, too. Colin worked quickly and efficiently, but as gently as possible.
He kept his expression focused as he sensed Charles's rage too. No need to make him explode and properly too.
A bright light showed the whole situation. Mimi's arms and legs were covered in bone fragments, some of which were partially ossified, as was her back. The rib bones could not be felt, and the deformity of the chest indicated it had been crushed in some way. She had been crushed, pressed, and beaten to a pulp many times. Colin worked silently. Charles stood near him, asking him if he asked of anything but tried not to be in the way.
Her skin was peeled in places, and metallic paint was still clearly visible in some places. It had ripped off when Colin had gotten the last of those awful moldy blankets out of around her. Colin knew that sometimes that kind of brushed metal was used in interrogations, but usually, an area the size of a credit card ensured the victim would start talking. And the whole of Mimi was painted with it. It was clear Damon worked as an interrogator for the government, as that was only given by the government.
Colin said to Charles, "She has less than 50 straps, and those are very stressed too, so this is not an easy fix. My leprechaun has a plan of his own, and let's see how much we can strengthen her straps. She weighs less than 25 kilos and hasn't eaten in months, so I am not sure about her internal organs. I think they are all goner. First, let's try to get as much of this metallic paint out of her as possible, using cooking oil and warm water. I will prepare a solution that we will use to soothe and protect the skin so that we can get clean. Her heart is beating, but where does her blood go? I do not know because she is so mangled up. How much she has veins and arteries left in her body."
Colin knew about metals, and they were his number one priority. First, they washed all the metal off Mimi's skin. They use cooking oil, warm water, and a solution that Colin had prepared to minimize the loss of any more skin. Some of it slouched off still. Colin cannulated Mimi's heart and put fluids and painkillers in there because he was not a telepath, so he tried to keep Mimi in as deep a painless state as possible.
Colin applied a thick herbal ointment and bound those places where there was no skin left, only muscle mass, as much as he could before the surgery. Washing and cleaning took a day. At the same time, Colin got Mimi in a little more stable condition, too. He strengthened her straps and added 15 more straps for her. That told him that Mimi was in deep enough so she could rest, recover, and be fully pain-free, too. Painless state where Salvatore could not reach was now best for her while he would fix her body.
The next day, Magnum came to see Mimi's condition and was very upset. Colin and Charles told him what had happened. Colin had made a make-shift operation room in one of Charles's rooms, and it was time to operate. Mimi had a severe infection, but Colin tried to protect himself and Charles as well as Magnum too when he enlisted both of them to help him in the operation.
During the operation, he opened up Mimi from chest to pelvis and began to scoop out the mass of metal and visceral debris from inside Mimi. Magnum got to be medic as well, and he was so damn angry about the pack and Salvatore.
Colin was leading this operation. He had a suction machine. He suctioned as Charles and Magnum scooped the mass out of Mimi. He had made a solution to flush out Mimi's body cavity, so men poured it inside her, and Colin used it as he suctioned and cleaned her up. They eventually got all the thick mass out of Mimi, but the flashes of metal here and there on the abdominal cavity walls told them that not all the metal was anywhere near gone. But that would help.
The smell had been awful, and after all the thick mass had been scooped out, Magnum took the container of that smelly mass, went outside, and burned it while Colin and Charles still worked on Mimi. Colin had made jelly full of leprechaun stuff, nutrition, and anesthetic that he filled Mimi's abdominal cavity with. He stitched and glued the wound close. He put a thick bandage on that. Next was the second stage of the operation.
He kept very strict hygiene and also state of Mimi so not to stress her very fragile body too much. She needed rest, time and care. Love too. Colin's leprechaun told him that Mimi was creature of love, when Damon was creature of blood and lust. Mimi needed someone to love her. They had also put collectors to her fangs, and there had been quite collection of poisons that Colin took safekeeping, his leprechaun as was even more impressed by his goddess.
First, the men ate, showered, and rested for a few hours. Cleaning and tending to Mimi had taken three days, so they needed to rest a bit before continuing, and Mimi's straps needed time, too. The operation had taken a lot out of her, and this gave Colin's jelly time to work its magic inside Mimi, too.
After eight hours of rest and recovery, men continued their work. Colin was going to take blood tests to determine what metal was still in Mimi. But that's when he'd get the most damage repaired. He had noticed that there were little organs growing inside her; his jelly worked, and that was good. Now, it was time to mend the bone crush that was most of Mimi's bones. He had taken her ribs and sternum out when they had operated on her earlier, and she had external support on her chest. She was taken again to the operating room; first, they turned Mimi on her stomach and started to put her spine back together as best they could.
Colin, Charles, and Magnum worked around the clock. Colin cleared most of the too-small pieces out. His leprechaun had once again made thick paste, a kind of cement that was used to put most of the bigger pieces back together. It was long and slow, like a living puzzle, and it took concentration and stamina. Magnum and Charles noticed quite soon that Colin was not tolerating any mishaps; his voice snapped, irritated if either didn't perform as he had told them to.
After grueling another three-day operation, men rested again. Colin had put Mimi on various chelation therapies that she could handle in her very fragile state. Yet, Charles made a very sarcastic phone call to his stepbrother, Samuel, describing Mimi's condition. Now she would sleep. For a long time, too.
Colin had gotten chelating agents for the metals. And several strong antibiotics, too, as it had been apparent that several nasty germs were causing multiple infections in Mimi. They might cause her internal organ failure, but the good thing was Mimi was slowly but surely increasing her bones. Colin's leprechaun did his work daily, and Colin always used his knowledge of Mimi's unique physiology when working together.
Charles also said that now he didn't think any Dresden potion would suddenly return Damon to normal, and even if it did, he wouldn't let Mimi anywhere near anyone. He suspected Damien had retreated already, Damon had been manipulated into partying, and it had been Damon who had gone to the cellar to kick and drug her and send her fear, terror, and nightmares.
Samuel sighed. It wasn't supposed to go like this again. He was very upset. Firstly, that was not the plan, not at all. Then Damien was frighteningly strong if he could manipulate Damon to the extent that he beat, kicked Mimi, drugged her, and did not care for her. He knew that punishment had been for nothing and once again; he saw the influence of Bran in this nightmare, too.
These lessons or punishments to Mimi would get out of hand every time. Now, she lay bruised, metalized, unconscious from a shed session in Charles and Colin's care. Mimi was in very serious condition, and it was all their fault. First, they fall under the spell of black witches, and the Original Brothers of Satan rescue Mimi. Then there's the European job and then this punishment. Samuel blamed himself, too. He was too weak to see behind his father's not-so-innocent claim Mimi had to be punished, and for what, doing her work?
Oh fuck. Then again, you just know Mimi's not going to be around the house much when the lady starts doing the missions and being the leader of her organization, immersing herself in work again and keeping to herself. So much for good pack time and seeing Mimi laughing and having fun. It was probably time for Ice Queen to come out again.
Samuel stopped drinking and went to help take care of Mimi. He had brought some metal binders Damon had made, but Mimi was having a bad allergic reaction. Of course. The lady has such a fucking powerful will, and now she's so pissed at Damon that none of his stuff works. Samuel also brought a centrifugated bump and Damon's blood, but the same reaction. That was not good, not good at all. He had just to give them nutrition concentrates that his team had developed, and those weren't best for Mimi. He gave Colin a recipe for viscera mush if he wanted to feed Mimi with that.
Samuel decided to let Mimi stay here for now because if he moved Mimi into the house and no matter how much Damon regretted it, it's possible that even Damon's touch would cause Mimi to have an allergic reaction. There was little for him to do. Colin, Magnum, and Charles were protective of Mimi, so Samuel returned to the clinics to continue helping those he could at the moment.
When Dresden found out what had been done to Mimi, he went and captured Damon, gave him another potion, and tried to make a few spells to probe Damien. Is that a whole different being, or part of Damon? He was not yet fully sure. He had tried to study and find some old spells, some examples of which were that two could live in the same body and that it was not demonic possession, but so far, he had had no luck.
When Damon had sobered up and started to remember how he, himself, had gone into the cellar and kicked Mimi, he was crushed. But then came a phase that Dresden couldn't bear to endure. Remorse, self-loathing, and general wallowing in self-pity. He sent Damon away. Damon had heard about Mimi's allergic reaction; again, he'd gone overboard.
His actions, not Damien's, had led to that allergic reaction, that he had kicked her, drugged her. Damon tried to remember why he had done it, but his memory was a blur; he got glimpses of that shed session, too, and it was almost too much for him to bear. Was there some evil creature inside him, but how come he could then remember and feel this pleasure that had been apparent when Mimi was beaten, sick, barely alive?
The idea had been that when he could get the fear reaction to sink in Mimi so that he could use his telepathy to find it, he would stop and then take her to the Azores as a reward and compensation. But no, he had another episode of weakness, allowing Damien to come forth, and that had done the worst shed session to date, taking Mimi to the cage. He had been the one who hid her and kicked her and sent fear and terror all the way. Oh fuck. And they were quite recently married and hadn't even had a proper honeymoon yet. What would their marriage have left if this would continue?
Even if Damien was a real separate being, he was too strong and manipulative, turning him into a monster. How could he swear to Mimi that he loved and kept her safe if the evil inside him was too strong? Would it be better to let Mimi have her distance until he could find and control Damien, the volcano, or whatever he had in his mind? If as powerful a wizard as Dresden was, he could not find irrefutable evidence that Damien was real, how could he be sure? So many ugly questions and weak answers that Damon took a bottle of bourbon and continued to drink. Not fuck, but just drink.
Colin and Charles, Magnum continued to care for Mimi. Colin was adamant that the young lady would sleep. He remembered all too well how incredibly hard patient this had been when awake. Her condition was improving, but slowly. Charles sat by her, sometimes talked to her, touched her and Colin watched as this old werewolf let himself start to feel something else than the bitterness and regret that had burned Charles's soul so badly. Maybe there was hope for Charles still.
Mimi was asleep for ten weeks. Infection after another ravaged her frail body, and Colin did his best to get Mimi in some sort of shape. He took on one infection at a time, giving Mimi everything that he could while sending snarky updates to pack members. He would also record everything in Mimi's medical records and spare nothing. He gave Mimi visceral puree in an amount that her body could handle, and after four weeks, they had to operate again when the infection had destroyed most of her internal organs, so she had to grow new ones then. And after that, feeding and caring for her continued.
Charles was amazed at how poor the condition Mimi ended up with after Colin had gotten every single infection out of her. When Mimi woke up, she weighed only 36 kilos, but Magnum was ready. Much would depend on Mimi's, too. Charles and Colin found the rage blocker in Mimi's blood, but it diminished a lot when Colin's leprechaun made his magic and gave Mimi partial resistance to that substance. All of them knew that Mimi's rage would come out in some form, and it was important for the pack to hear Mimi's reaction, too.
I finally woke up when the sun shone in my eyes, and I looked around momentarily. I was in a strange place, and it took me a moment to rewind and wonder where I was. I was probably at Charles's house. Yeah, I was probably there. The door opened, Charles came in with a tray, and I smelled the coffee. For some reason, the coffee hit me.
I stretched. I had a nightgown on me; it was actually one of my own. I felt like I had been asleep for quite a while, and the autumnal scene that I saw from the windows made it quite clear. But to be honest, I had been in pretty damn rough shape to begin with, so this was not so big of a surprise.
I was thankful to feeling as well as I did.
Charles brought the tray to my lap after I got in a better position and said, "You have been here a little over ten weeks; let's just say that Colin had his work cut out in you. You were, or your body was, pissed off to Damon, so his blood caused an allergic reaction and anything that he might have done from his fangs, so this is all Colin's work to get you in this good of shape. I have Magnum here for you ready, too, but I guess you want to tell your pack your opinion on the whole punishment system."
I ate already. I was not so surprised at my allergy; it was an excellent lesson for Salvatore, and oh yes, I had something to say to pack. I had lot to be said, and I would not be kind little Mimi or even forgiving wife right now.
I said, "Yes, my pack will hear a few truths in time. Thank you for saving me. I was pretty nasty shape. And where is Colin?"
He said, "Colin had to go back to Ireland, and you are welcome. I can save you anytime, honey. "
I thanked him for breakfast and went back to eat. I didn't even notice that Charles had gone nowhere, but watched with interest as I quickly destroyed the entire tray.
Charles asked, " Do you want some more? You are eating like you have ever seen food. Magnum has been here too, almost all the time, and he brought clothes and stuff for you. I have room, so there is no hurry for you to leave. You are still quite skeletal, honey."
I nodded. There was still room for me, even if I wasn't hungry. I ate three more portions and was just getting into the shower. 36, not bad, considering what I went through. I spent a week or so with Charles as he and Magnum wanted to feed me first, so I was at least 40 kilos. Again, I had men feeding me and caring for me as well. I could see from both of them they were shocked more or less what shape I had been and how hard it had been to get me in this shape. I was doctor.
I did some flea work with Magnum and cursed heavily as it became apparent that I had to go to Lake Lanier, all because of the pack. Well, more for me to tell them. Time to get my message across. I prepared for my little teaching session for the pack and printed out a few papers. I was furious. This time they would learn and properly too. Time to let them know just who this lesson hit and properly.
I called Colin, thanked him too, and asked him a few statements. He sent those statements to me so I could print my teaching material out. Then I was ready. I thanked Charles, and he took me to join the pack in Connecticut. I went to the house. And I took a deep breath. This was gonna be a real blast. Mimosa was furious as I was, yet I knew I had no time to unleash my rage yet.
The men were sitting in the living room when I came in. I looked at them all murderously, and every one of them stood still. I took a deep breath, and I started. I had a stack of papers with me.
"You four idiots, you four fools, you pussy-licking lazy worms. Now I'm wondering if I want to be in this pack anymore. This is now time for some lessons for all of you. Now, you don't get to say anything; I will do the talking and have some educational material with me. First, I get tricked into a party where there are witches, and I get made into a fertility statue. Put me in a cage with a uterine infection and forget about me. Luckily, Nick and Elias helped. And oh, did we talk? I was Nick's therapist half the time, so I got to model again."
My voice was venomous, angry, and bitter, and all the men looked at me a little uncertainly, too, even Bran. I did not control my facial expressions or my body language, let it show. Let them feel my rage, my emotions.
"Then, when I've recovered enough to buy an island, I get a gig in Europe. Saving the world. I do it all alone when you had to get to fuck and drink for being so damn weak. Not come to be with me, but, again, choose other women before me. That told me clearly where I stand. That gig was brutal; fleas were very busy, so it was up to me, mimosa, and Mirella to get things done because, even though I was in the pack, the pack was not my backup. And I get to be a fucking Marrok for months on top of that. Then, when the gig is over. The pack's doctor comes to put me right and leaves me in Monaco. The pack doctor. "
I stressed the word doctor because that's what Damon had been—the doctor. I continued. I was on a roll. I looked at him, straight in the eyes as well as Adam and my contempt was evident as I looked at Bran. He was something I would find bottom of my shoe.
"When I woke up, I got to work. I'm a flea, and I'm doing gigs. You all know that. I had an impromptu gig, and I knew none of you would understand the importance of this gig. Instead, Damon, you were supposed to be my husband and my partner, and you would have been my backup. You were a tongue twister. No, the wife's got her neck snapped, and we're showing off to the bunch. Help, this one is doing missions. Haven't I even been fucking doing missions for 20 years! This was all for thanks to Bran, right? You have serious issue with me and I can tell you that you are lazy, old creature who is not do his job. I do know it, I was marrok for freaking seven months so I know how much trouble wolves are. You are letting them down. You are nothing more fucking machine trying to find pussy for yourself. You want to come at me, use Damon as your weapon."
I was getting on a roll here. This was going to blow things out. Bran paled. Damon glanced him at very sharply, oh did Mr. Salvatore guessed this? Bo hoo. Too late to do something to Bran. He does not learn.
"Now, let's talk about actions and consequences. The little stunt you prevented me from doing my job led to a tragic outcome for so many. First of all, I lost 14 fleas, all because now that facility was top secret and so were other Sark facilities, so I have to go to carve some names again; I did not do my job, and people b got killed."
I took brief pause, before continuing.
"Then let me ask you, Damon, are you a sadist or masochist? Does it give you freedom when you do your little stunts to get Damien on the surface? He is not you, I can tell, but he is strong, and he manipulates you. Does it feel free to let him destroy me? No need to answer. Adam, you are not my second in command anymore; that stays, no matter what you stay, because I need my second in command to have his priorities lying elsewhere than being Bran's lap poodle. "
I took out my prints. First, I approached Bran. "For you, Bran, I give you a list. These are all dead werewolves, a direct result of that because that facility was not destroyed. There is an address where loved ones can collect these bodies. Now you get to call each of these families and tell them the death of a loved one. This other list is from that facility too, our hackers got it. There are some more wolves. And what they did for them before they were burned. You get to inform families too that they don't get have funeral, or if they do, it is empty coffin. And there will be no justice for them, not yet."
I looked Bran in the eye, letting my vampire side come out. So this was a compulsion.
I said, " And you tell them when they ask why you did not fleas save them, you will tell them you prevented flea from doing her job. That these deaths are the result of your actions. You tell them that you know Flea but you have problems with me doing my job, if they ask more, you tell them honestly."
Bran nodded. He took the list and looked at it; there was genuine regret in his eyes as he saw who had lost their lives because he prevented me from doing my job. He also saw just how many had already been killed before, burned, and what they had suffered. But I was relentless.
I gave Bran another stack of papers. "Here is Colin's report on my state when Charles saved me. He wrote it so you can understand. It is a long report, so read it carefully. There is also telling what jellying does to me and that cage of yours, the one that sprays silver and herbs. He wrote his opinion on that, too. I am now sterile, yet I have very little womb and very insignificant ovaries, so no heat is coming in anytime soon. "
I moved up to Damon and gave him a stack of papers too, and a list. "For you, husband of mine, here are dead vampires. They are not in ashes, Sark's invention keeps them intact. There are quite long descriptions of what that facility enabled Sark to do. "
He looked at me, not showing emotions, but i knew that few of them at least were his. He had been their sire. My voice was quite poisonous as I carried on.
"And for your information. I was going to blow up that facility, not going in, but you had to silence me so I couldn't say the truth, because Bran had by that time, gotten your rage out. You are as sloppy as I am and even more uncontrollable when you blow out your rage; you see nothing else than what you want. You don't see it when Bran uses you, you don't bother to read his mind. Not really. You somehow trust him, you must have some pretty damn big problem with me doing my job."
I gave him next stack of papers. I felt no mercy.
"Here are Colin's official records on my care, operations, and drugs; they are all in my files, too, but I printed them for you to read now. Did you know that instead of a honeymoon, I have gotten nothing else than torture for you? I have no idea what idea Damien put in your head when you had to come in my cage, put more drugs, and kick me as long as I vomited in that cage; that was you."
Damon was silent. He looked at the list as 45 vampires, too.
I moved up to Adam and gave him a list, too.
"I am sure you recognized these dead fleas. These are dead because, once again. You went along. You were not my second in command, not my mate, but Bran's lapdog. You know how freaking hard it is for me to lose my people, and thanks to your guys, I lost again my friends. You get to read my medical records too. You can think how you fucked and drank for a week when Damon returned after nine weeks of absence. And you did not even think of me." I gave him a stack, too.
I walked up to Samuel and gave him a few stacks. "Here is for you; you disappointed me. You went along, not trusting me, not remembering how freaking long I have done my work. Here are a few medical records and autopsy reports on what the facility does to people. That facility was in its early stages; there were no victims there yet, but now there are."
I looked at him in the eye, i was not going sparing anyone of these idiots, not at all.
"We got those victims' corpses when my people raided cold storage vans that were left at that facility. Here are my medical records, too. You see, my enemies are like Sark; they evolve as well as we do. Now, they are not putting up crematoriums in the facility, but they have a different place for burning bodies, thus cold storage vans. There are also few intelligence reports on just how many body transports there have been sighted."
He took the papers, his hands shook slightly. I was still furious as I continued.
"And my people are busy. We don't have time to raid each van and get those corpses to their family. So, once again, I have to make a hard decision to let bad guys burn their evidence when I am trying to save lives here. Let's just see what you come up next. How many lives will be lost? "
Oh, I got a good kick out of it. They just don't get it. They weren't part of my organization, part of my life, not at all.
The men were ashamed, regretting even Damon, when they started to read my papers about everything. I gave them a lesson about what stuck for a while.
I continued still. "The punishment for trying to save the world. Oh, yeah. I think Magnum and Higgins told you pretty much exactly how I feel, jellying. Not good, so terrible that I'd rather be unconscious. Then Mr. Salvatore trains me, first cursing me with witches' stuff, but as I'm quite a unique case, they were quite stronger than you thought. Wasn't that the case?" My voice was as furious as it had been, I was reacting here and it was not so nice when I let it all out.
"As you can read from my little notes that I have included there, it was over eight weeks in the shed when Damien dipped my tortured, mangled body in salt water, and it still bubbled; he dipped me eight times. Until curses were broken, I remember you, Damon, telling me that those curses were in small doses and the duration would be a maximum of two weeks. In my case, it is not like that. "
I was silent and finally said, " No excuses, no nothing. You have no excuse, no one. Just have another party or take rescue girls for me again. Don't think I've got the rage just under the surface coming out. Damien blocked my rage. I have now just gotten it out properly. So I am not in so a tender loving mood for now. Learn your goddamn lesson; think of lives that are lost because I did not get that damn facility blown up when I had the chance. Damien warned about Sark, what I had almost done, so there went a lot of gigs. "
I walked away upstairs. I went to sit on the bed and sighed. I put my rage down. Now would not be the time for this. I would not run away from here. I'd just watch the men leave for sure, and fast. They can't stand the way women feel, especially when they know they're guilty. I sat up for a couple of hours, and now I went into an empty kitchen and an empty house to eat, as I said—cowardly bastards. I had reacted.
I went to one bedroom and called Jarod, told him everything, my reaction as well, he was impressed, telling to me keep on reacting, letting my emotions feel. Not becoming robot with no feeling. We talked about things about four hours and it helped as always. He got me. He saw things same way as I did.
I wouldn't go to work now. The first on my list was a trip to Lake Lanier. That was the must thing to do. I was so pissed off at how this whole deal made the world worse than it was before. Now, it was hard to be a leader. It was hard to be the Flea, so I didn't yet want to be.
Despite our wins and big ones, these damn losses were way too heavy burden for me to carry and no lesson given to men would make it anymore lighter. My choice, my organization, my burden. Always and forever.
After Lake Lanier, it would be time to do something that I could enjoy. Now, I'd go to a local farmers' market, empty my safe deposit boxes, and go to our Texas castle. We had a wedding there, but it's a big place, and you can get aquariums there. I'm thinking of going all the way to the pet store to buy fish. As I was eating my homemade food there because there wasn't any made for me in the fridge, I wondered when I would have those good times again that made my soul sing.
Oh, that I could use some of those too. After eating, I left to drive to Texas Castle once again by myself. Oh, that my life is fucked up sometimes, but I decided to start enjoying every little thing again and not tie my happiness to men because the fools didn't appreciate it, not one bit.
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