I woke up in medbay. Charles had picked me up in Nevada and brought me here to recover. Charles also told me the truth about Damien and Damon. It was hard for me to grasp the whole thing. I had been married to Damon for decades and there had been someone else inside all the time. Had I ever even met the real Damon?

This volcano was supposedly the Damien and Damien was probably behind all the shed sessions. Now Damien had been taken loose, it hadn't been destroyed and there was no telling if Damien would ever come after me again. Damien would not look exactly like Damon and I should be able to tell the two apart. It was all so hard to grasp and I had one thing or another going on in my head.

I had judged Damon all wrong. How I didn't react to his changes, now that I started thinking, I found dozens of examples I could have spotted. Why I never said my suspicions to anyone. Including the most recent shed session where Damon had a huge fight with himself.

Why I could never think about these out loud. Maybe I could have done something. But then again, that lesson back at the hospital. It wasn't a volcano. It was Damon. But who's the real Damon? And now I'm supposed to meet Damon, the real Damon and supposedly his one and only true soulmate. I thought "The irony of fate, well now I get to know how Damon must have felt when Charles came along."

Charles said, " You don't Mimi, honey, blame yourself for this." I thought bitterly why not.

Charles continued, "Has Damon ever told you his real age? He is over a thousand years old. If he hasn't figured it out himself, let alone anyone ever in a thousand years, then why should you, Honey be the one to discover it? You know that Damon has had a lot of affairs, good and bad, and Damien hid, adjusted."

I would bitterly reply " But there were signs, things I wondered about over the years but I have to be a fucking slacker. "

Charles said "Mimi honey, you're not a slacker, the past is good to remember and learn from but not to live in. You can't change the past."

At that moment I looked at Charles passionately and wrapped myself around him and kissed him passionately. I said, "I don't need anybody but you and Adam, let's go and meet Damon's new woman, his new wife."

I wouldn't need him. Now the circle was complete. So many decades ago I woke up in the same bed and had to face a new member of the pack. I reminisced about our entire encounter. Now it was time to let Damon go. Now that I knew he'd be okay. That I wouldn't abandon him.

I tried to steel myself for what was to come, I knew this was going to feel and feel bad. Every time Damon had married someone else I'd always fallen apart, I hoped I could handle this meeting. This time this woman wasn't evil, this wasn't the daughter of a pharmacy boss, this wasn't a vampire princess.

This was Damon's soul mate. I decided to be a good wife for as long as we were married and let Damon go, forgive him, and move on. I just knew exactly what I was losing. concentrated and took all my self-control and inner strength that has always helped me and made a shell of it around me I also used a good pile of chaos power and my own brand new will.

Even though I had suffered a lot at the hands of Damon/Damien, the eternal romantic or optimist in me had held on to all the good and wonderful moments all these years. And yet there had been plenty of those times that had made my soul sing.

But I knew and felt how my feelings for Damon had faded, diluted over the years and now that there would be no more of those good moments, I knew those feelings would fade with time. But my love for Adam and Charles had not faded at all. I myself was just recovering and now was a good time to start a new life.

A life without shed sessions, without torture, and without Damon. I thought, "Now I have to know how to let go." I got steel in my spine when I wondered if I was actually having a good time with Damon or Damien. I loved Charles and Adam more than anything they were my saviors, my nurturers, my protectors even, but Damon was my first love, my soulmate.

But then who would the real Damon be, he would no longer be mine if he even wanted to have anything to do with me at all. If we ever even existed. The implications of this revelation were so great, I couldn't imagine how Damon would feel. When I didn't know him, who was he? Damon had many sides, but was any of them real?

I went downstairs. Damon was there. There was a woman on his lap on the couch. I heard Damon call her, Darling, or this guy was the real Damon. Whoever the Damon I knew was. They were completely in love.

I'd never seen Damon with a woman like that. He was incredibly affectionate, caressing and kissing. He was so happy. I feel like I'm looking into the past, but that wasn't me in Damon's arms.

The woman was beautiful, a Vivien Leigh lookalike, and a tight grip squeezed around my heart as I knew that women like that were Damon's dream, he had told me himself once, as we lay on the couch in the same way in a Chicago house and watched the gone with the wind.

Damon stroked the woman's hair as well as kissed her passionately, let his hands wander and I could see in Damon's face that he was really happy now. I held my ground and controlled my expression completely. I concentrated on what I had, Charles and Adam.

Even if they weren't as perfect as everyone thought. I was a pretender, after all, so I could pretend to be believable. It really was time to end an era. On my terms. Now I wouldn't wait for the divorce that would inevitably come down the line.

Now I was completely ready. Myself. Only I could best help myself. Bran had been right. Emotions were a weakness and I was suffering from that weakness right now.

I coughed under Charles' arm. Damon lifted his head and the beauty in his arms rose to a better position. The woman was slender, like a gazelle and as she rose from the couch I saw that she was 10 cm taller than me, with a perfect hourglass body.

She came up to us and held out her hand first to Charles and then to me. I introduced myself. "Hi, I'm Mimi. Damon must have told you all about me, feel free to believe anything."

The woman laughed and replied, "So you are the legendary Mimi, judging by Damon's stories I would expect you to have at least a halo." The woman's voice was dark, soothing, and melodic. Damn, everything about this was perfect.

At that moment I knew Damon wasn't really mine. Damon got up off the couch too and he had an aura of his own, quite different from what I knew. Damon was looking at me, probing like he would like to see every square inch of my soul, my thoughts.

As if I were a stranger to him. Almost curious. Not in a passionate way or even in the way that he was taking me to bed. He looked at me like a stranger. I had seen this same look in medbay but hadn't paid attention to it. But he was no longer in my head.

"The halo is now being polished, I'm convalescent. I can show it off when I'm at full strength." I replied, amused.

"You look great, it's good to see you all on your own, and I don't miss the flanks. "I said to Damon and smiled.

Damon came closer to me and took my hands in both of his. "Mimi, Baby, I don't know who or what I am. And I don't even know my feelings for anyone yet except Mariella. I take my time with these things. It's probably better if you don't assume anything about me or us because frankly, I don't know if we exist anymore, Damien messed everything up between us and I don't know what's left. When I still don't know what was Damien's feelings and what was mine. You don't have to divorce me, I know it'll only complicate things. But please Baby, let me go. Don't hold this against me. I'm not doing this out of spite. I'm just being who I am. Remember the biggest difference between me and Damien is that I always tell the truth."

I replied "Damon, go, you're free, enjoy it for God's sake you deserve it. Go live that perfect life you always talked about, I know I'm not part of it, at least not yet, if ever. I'll let you go when you let me go. Don't worry about me, don't even think about me. I'm a survivor, cockroach. I'll be all right. You're meant to be together, you're each other's halves, much more than we ever were. I didn't get it either, Damon. All these years and somehow I got it, but I couldn't get it right. And I'm supposed to be the strongest being in the universe, but I couldn't save you, it wasn't my job. "

He released his grip on my hands and moved to Mariella who wrapped herself around Damon and whispered "You did all right, Damon dear, all right." I said politely "Thank you, now if you will excuse me, as I said I am just recovering and need to go and rest." My shell held up, miraculously.

I knew we were really finished. There was no sign of our vampire wedding in Damon's hand. As if they'd never been worn. I know he'd seen my mark clearly before. I walked slowly and calmly out of the room. Charles and Adam followed behind me.

My heart was in tatters, once again Damon had broken it. At that moment I decided, no more. If he ever divorced me again, I would never marry him. I decided to concentrate on other things, to go somewhere else for a while and heal myself again. Now I didn't need men, once again I would sort it out myself.

Damon went back to leaning on the couch and took Mariella in his arms. He was free he was now completely devoted to Mariella, she admittedly didn't want to vampire marry because Mariella's tradition was old-fashioned chauvinistic and he had frankly felt that somehow she didn't feel like she was supposed to do such a thing .it wouldn't be right.

So many things still confused Mariella very much and she was confused about one thing or another. But one thing was certain. Damon was hers and she was his. Always and forever. They would be each other harder and closer than Mimi had ever been. Damon felt nothing for Mimi at the moment, at least nothing he wanted to understand or explore.

Mimi was strange. She was a pretender and after Damon had spent some time thinking about it he had come to the conclusion that he could never or would never know who the real Mimi really was.

And when Mimi thought it had been her job to save Damon when she had saved the world so many times. And getting hit in the process. Because that's why Mimi had built herself a suit of armor over the years. So hard and strong that no one could get through it.

Adam and Charles refused to see it, but Damon knew because he'd done the same thing in his day. And he knew how hard it would be to get rid of that shell because the core would be so unprotected. So soft, vulnerable.

Mariella watched as Mimi walked the two men on either side of her out of the room. Somehow she felt Mimi was a threat, a threat to the love between her and Damon.

Was it the experience that shone in Mimi's eyes? The iron-fisted determination that protected a heart that had been broken so many times. Or the soul that had been through far too much in her years and was only ever betrayed. Mimi had so many responsibilities on her shoulders, and so much work to do, that she could not or could not trust anyone completely.

And for some reason, Mariella wanted to help Mimi, to teach her to trust, to believe. Mimi was also a mystery and Mariella did want to get to know Mimi somewhere in between. But perhaps the biggest threat was Mimi's vulnerability, the experiences, the shed sessions, the medical facilities, all of it reflected in Mimi's gaze.

Despite having two men to support her, Mimi hadn't even touched either of them, she had wrapped her arms around her too-frail body. Mimi wanted no one, she was alone.

Mariella remembered some remnants of the time and knew that Mimi had been through so many terrible things and had always had to fend for herself. What if Damon found out? Would he try to treat or cure Mimi, Baby? Then Mariella realized, this was the same house where Mimi had originally met Damon. Their first contact.

And now their separation, at least the end of one era and the beginning of another wonderful one. Mariella knew Damon was hers. And she was going to keep Damon as her own. She even told her wolf, Shadow that.

Mariella said to Damon "Honey, I want to teach this pack, Adam and Charles, a few things about being an energy being. I want to create an energy web and see if I can get enough power from them, I know we are eager but I need more energy. Then our network will be great."

Mariella wanted to create as great an energy network as possible. So strong that it would actually make a protective bubble around each house so that no one could get into the house she knew that Mimi had access or Mimi had been given the magic houses, so they would then come into contact with each house and they would be very useful.

Mariella was really dreaming of all the new things. But Mimi. How would Mimi be brought into the pack and what would be the relationship between her and Damon?

They went to Bran who took Mariella into the pack, but Mariella's Bran looked at her like a bitch when he was going to leap over his big desk and fuck Mariella right there. Damon had told Mariella what Bran had done over the years and one day Mariella decided she would go to Bran and ask him why. Then they went back to their house.

They stayed in their house for a couple of days and Mariella wanted to try pack living. Maybe she would get in touch with Mimi or get to know Adam and Charles. Samuel was still a question mark and Bran Mariella decided to deal with it one day. When they moved into the house, they got the master bedroom

. Damon went to the bedroom door and looked at the half-empty room and gulped. Mariella understood, even though Damon didn't know if Mimi was still in his life there were a lot of memories and wonderful ones in that room.

But now it would be time for them to start their life together. Mimi had taken her things away. She had a room elsewhere. Charles explained.

Charles was lovely and funny, and Mariella found it fascinating that so many men could be so lovely. Damon had bought her some clothes and lent her some of Mimi's unused clothes. which he had bought for her himself.

Mariella got Damon talking and reminiscing about everything, often involving Mimi, in some way. Mimi seemed to be the glue that bound the pack together. Damon said "When I came to this house, Mimi made strawberry cake for the first time in her new life and we went out to pick strawberries together. That Mimi still blushed easily at that time. You'll never guess how furious Mimi was when I started calling her baby." ' Damon almost seemed to relive the moment and Mariella went and slipped her hand under his shirt and made the reminiscences fade for a while.

At least from what everyone said Mimi was a very bad patient, Mariela showed a few tricks as they were now energy beings, and so were Adam and Charles. Mimi didn't, she had tanks but Mimi was an energy-exploiting being and Mimi had chaos power.

When Mariella released Damon, Mimi had become chaos. She had known she was chaos a long time ago, but her chaos power and willpower had now been activated.

Whatever that meant remained to be seen. What Mariella also wanted to explore if it could be exploited by collecting was Mimi's rage. It was already legendary. Mariella wanted to energize her energy grid and rage could be one good source but when Mariella talked about using Mimi's rage Damon changed the subject. He wasn't ready to face Mimi again.

Mimi didn't come up at least for the shared meals and Damon didn't intervene. As far as Mariella was concerned, Damon was the pack leader, not Charles. Charles and Adam sometimes took food to Mimi, and she reportedly came to eat every now and then. Then Mimi left.

It didn't bother Mariella or Damon because they had each other and Adam and Charles, well they had their own things to do. Mariella taught the men that they were a lust pack and sex was a very important part of it, so she coldly seduced both Charles and Adam into bed with her.

Damon was there and then she discovered that Charles was her protector, just as Damon was Mimi's. Charles and her had a different connection and Mariella understood better. Because a protector can protect and nurture, it doesn't have to love.