I arrived in Colorado and went to our house. Adam and Samuel were there and Samuel now wanted to see the enzyme papers because if Damon gave them back to the Sark then there must be something in them. So I went and got Samuel the papers and the samples. I had taken samples of my liver to find my enzyme. I brought the microscope and the samples. Samuel was quiet and looked through the samples. He put them in his bag and said "Is this all the samples, all of them?" I nodded. Samuel said " Don't ever examine yourself again. You understand. Never. No more samples or theories. This ends here. Did I make myself clear? I can have Adam confirm this, but you never do any research on yourself. If you find any information, bring it to me or Colin. Don't store it and don't give it to Damon first. Let me look them over and then I'll decide if it's safe to give."

Samuel was furious. Again, I didn't understand why. I said "I'm not looking. I would understand, but why can't I investigate?" Samuel sighed and said " Because you don't understand yourself. You have a fucking strong will to make your body do strange things. I will not let you endanger your own health by getting some theory into your head and it comes true even though it shouldn't. " I nodded. Samuel looked at me and pulled a jar out of his bag, saying. " These are birth control capsules, one a week. That way you don't get pregnant, even if it's once a week. Keep these away from Damon. I'll give you more but that's 52 for a year." I took the capsules, walked into the kitchen and immediately took one with my Coke. Samuel had gone away by then.

I started cooking and baking. Damon was not seen for three weeks and I had been enjoying myself in the kitchen all that time. I was free to make different dishes and bake. Yes, everything went down, Samuel and Adam took good care of it. I had already been to the De La Renta shop for a fitting and I knew that the dress was going to be corset style so it would be laced up at the back, with no zipper. Damon's request, wherever the man was. I had gone to the hairdresser to order and give him the address. Then I decided to go to Monaco to deal with the fleas again. I gave Adam a pretty demanding list of gigs in America and he promised to get them right. Samuel was now studying my enzymes with his research team.

The house in Monaco was a bloody good headquarters. It just was. Even though I was on the computer or on the phone very much of the day I enjoyed it. I would sometimes have people from the fleas come by to bring some designs or satellite images and we would go through them together. It was good to concentrate on work and gigs and not think about our fight with Damon. I had been in Monaco for two weeks when a flower delivery brought me a hundred huge dark red roses with passionfruit flowers among them. It came with a note saying " Still wanna marry me? Damon " and a phone number.

I texted " Of course, my love, I wanna marry you if you wanna marry me." After a moment my phone rang "Mimi Salvatore," Damon smiled and said " Really, baby, you're not going to be a Spring Bay anymore, are you? Where are you off to, I've been organizing our wedding for several weeks now with Adam and Samuel, what are you up to?" I laughed and said " Monaco, some flea work, mostly paperwork, or at least going through it. Yeah, I'm not a Spring bloomer, I get better impressions at the Salvatore." Damon laughed out loud and said " If you don't mind the baby go ahead, I'll let you know what day the wedding is so it's all surprises for you. I want you to remember this wedding always and forever." I said " Fine by me, I'll get on with it, let me know when you need me. Love you." Damon said softly back " Love you too, darling." 'He hung up.

I thought for a moment and called Dresden. I told him about the whole week of stabbing and healing, including the fact that Darling kept popping in every now and then. I didn't necessarily want that side of him to come out too much because he was an unpredictable guy. Dresden said he was going to make another drink but he didn't think there was any harm in the guy per se. It's just Damon's vampire side that's probably more on display. I thanked Dresden and reminded him of the wedding. Yeah, he knew the date, but he wasn't allowed to tell me. He'd be there.

There were plenty of gigs, now I went to do them again and successfully. We got another enzyme plant down and I did no less than four rescue jobs. I was on a roll, I also got a lot of jobs planned and distributed. Mimosa drew up 6 different kill lists which I sent to Reddington and then also to Magnum and the other kills organizers. I didn't tease Adam now as they obviously had a wedding in mind. I knew that some shadow fleas were coming to our wedding but I didn't know who yet, I knew that the guest list was going to be long and extensive.

A three-day wedding. Well, I would soon see when a text message from Damon came to my phone saying " The wedding is on the 6th of June come to the castle on the 5th of June love Damon. " That was less than a week away. It was then that I realized that the wedding was approaching and approaching ominously. Now the dress was ready, designed and fitted, the hairdresser booked, make-up all done. and the Italian castle was being put in order. I wouldn't go until the day before, Damon and the others were probably already there.

After I'd agreed to Damon's proposal six months ago that's when the whole thing started. and that's not all but not when the Lord had to grab me almost immediately for another stabbing session and this time he also broke all my ribs and didn't give me blood right away to heal me. and the whole fucking thing over one painting, the original vampire Nick liked to paint and had painted me, there was always a little thing that I thought was funny but made Salvatore's blood boil.

In the painting, I had teeth marks on my neck that always dripped a few drops of blood. Damon would destroy the paintings, walk away, threaten me telepathically and kidnap me, stab me until I was no longer healed, bind me on my back, or drug me and stand there so that he would send fear and terror into my head at the same time, and then calm me down and start stabbing me and breaking my ribs. Usually, he would call me darling, which I had now associated with this very dangerous side of me that I didn't want to face...

And that's not all. The gentleman had given information about my enzymes back to the Sark and refused to talk about it had just looked at me like a piece of meat and threatened to hurt me hard. So I let it go. I was concentrating on the gigs myself after this job. Well, he sent me roses and everything. I was happy actually that I didn't have to do anything for the whole wedding. I got an email from Damon a week before the wedding telling me some things about the wedding.

Our wedding was going to be a three-day affair. Even the vice president is coming. A big bunch of vampires too, Elders again but now no need to do weird rituals, werewolves as much as Bran could invite. Everyone will be accommodated in the Italian castle who wants to stay, there's plenty of room, me and Damon have our own honeymoon suite reserved, I haven't seen it I'm told surprise surprise. Sometimes I think this is going to be a real surprise wedding. At least we'll be able to socialize.

Jarod is going to be at the wedding too, I hear. surprisingly enough. Jarod is a pretender just like me, so we can be anyone, pretend and very convincingly at that, as long as we get our time to observe first. I must have bumped into Jarod years ago at a gig where he actually drugged me and interrogated me. We are very good friends and sometimes talk on the phone for hours. Damon has never seen Jarod as just a friend as he has never seen other men. As far as possessiveness and jealousy go, Damon excels at it. I'll be wearing a new outfit every day, the first day we're actually getting married, but then I hear there's everything from dancing. Dancing was one thing I was nervous about but Damon said it would be fine as long as I followed him.

I left for the airport. Now it would be showtime and I had to get on the plane and fly to Italy. I had just been to a gig in Germany. Sometimes doing gigs is really enjoyable but sometimes it's actually work. but it's important to work. I didn't even know where Damon was going to take me on our honeymoon and I didn't care, I just tried to focus on our three-day once-in-a-lifetime spectacular wedding. I knew that even though we were a wedding couple, there would be a lot of negotiations and conversations that weren't actually about us, but I didn't mind.

I hoped the wedding wouldn't be terribly boring because I wasn't going to be able to hang out with some stupid bimbos for three days while curled up in Damon's arms. I hoped I could talk to friends and acquaintances, eat well, and maybe play some stupid wedding game but not make any boring introductions to men and women I didn't know. Because that's Bran's specialty. Introducing people to each other, and especially to me.

The flight went surprisingly quickly and when I stepped off the plane a limousine was reserved for me. Fine, I got on board and drank a pink strawberry champagne, someone who apparently had specific activities in mind. If I knew my future husband at all. I arrived at the castle and it had been put in order. I bought this a few years ago and it was a bit shabby a bit abandoned and I started to put it right but as often happens in our pack something comes up. Every now and then it seems like nothing else is happening when something else comes up.

Adam met me and directed me to my bridal suite. This is where I would be before the wedding and here I would be fixed up and once we were married Damon would help with the other days' clothes and stuff. The first thing I did was eat. I had to eat, I don't actually feel hungry, Mimosa does and Damon and Samuel had been studying this for a few years now. Damon said he has one surgery in mind but it will have to wait for a better time, apparently all the drug trials or some initial tests damaged my stomach nerves so I don't feel hungry. Combined with my super-zealous metabolism, well no wonder my weight is always a bit underwhelming at times. I had now learned over the last six months to set myself meal times so at least then I get to eat relatively regularly.