Australia was wonderful, first I did a long road trip driving around this fascinating continent. Magnum was with me as I recounted once again what the Pack put me through. Magnum was good in bed. We had dabbled over the years, but now I wasn't interested. I wanted my freedom. I didn't care if the men were with the witches or not and Magnum simply announced that Dresden and Constantine had killed all the witches and the men were now back to partying and drowning their stupidity in booze and women.

I bought a castle in Australia and another island, mine. Magnum was furious half the trip when I told him little details about the cage or my recovery or other times the pack had put me through. Mimosa was furious too, and at full moon, the kangaroos got their comeuppance. Mimosa was saving his strength because all this was draining her strength too and she had to see the kill lists and possible Europe gigs, so she wasn't always so much out of it for me. But that didn't bother me.

It's not easy to catch a kangaroo if you don't know what you're doing and Mimosa and I did. Magnum did always clean up after us though and packed all the meat he always cleaned up. In Australia when kangaroos are a bit too plentiful a little stock management doesn't hurt. Then we went to the island. I had told Magnum what had happened to my island and I hadn't even renovated it yet. Magnum promised to take care of it and I gave him the location and a couple of contacts at the fleas. My island was lovely, a paradise, there were waterfalls behind which were caves and jungle. Orchids. I figured I could live here for a couple of years without a care in this world. I'd wander around and relax. This was really paradise, for me, maybe one day I'd come here to Adam and this would be the place for the two of us.

At night God, once again in cat form, came into my dream " Sorry Mimi but Europe is calling, a long and demanding job, you wanted to be away from the pack, well you got what you wanted. You've got a week to get the information in your head." I woke up cursing, why is it always me? why can't I spend time in paradise? Fine incoming Fight clubs, lots of them and bad, assassinations, tricky to execute, and tight schedules, pretty much those kinds of one-chance hits. Then some sabotage, mysteries, and herb hunting in three different jungles, Amazon, Madagascar, and Borneo. Oh, how I loved going to the jungle to fight after a good fight club tour when I'd be in such good shape again.

Some of the jobs I could direct the fleas to but again I couldn't mess them up too much as we always had our own things going on. It was going to be quite a year again. Magnum promised to keep an eye on flea problems unless something came up that was big enough to require my attention. I made my schedule and took a plane to Portugal, where the bullfighting fight clubs would begin again. Trying to dodge the bull while fighting an opponent who is usually dressed in red and annoying the bull at the same time.

Not easy, and not much fun either. Now there were black witches and wizards again. Damage was done but luckily the healing ability still worked. After Portugal there was Spain, France, Germany, and its 17 worst clubs, which got worse and worse, Italy, Austria, Switzerland, Greece, Turkey, Poland, Hungary, Ukraine, Belarus, Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia.

Then I just kept going. No relief and no flexibility in the schedule, but I was in work mode. Denmark, Belgium, Luxembourg, Netherlands. Every country had a fight club and often these were very demanding kills, so I had to be super focused. And it didn't help matters that once again after the Europe gig I'd been attending for 8 months something happened to Bran and I became Marrok once again.

Try to finish the fight clubs, go to the jungle, and take care of Marrok's business and possibly flea business at the same time. When the European gig finally ended after 15 months Bran was just recovering and the marrok power was gone from my head. I had been Marrok for a record 7 months and it had been a crazy job, but I had pretty fucking well put everything in order, I just knew Bran wouldn't keep it in order, but now I didn't care.

I went to Monaco to recuperate and get the Flea business sorted out at the same time. Damon called to apologize and ask how I was doing, but I had focused on, I don't mind being 28 kilos as long as I get things in order. I just said the gig was over and I was at work. Then sometimes we can look at some time together unless he's got someone else in mind again.

I was pissed off, my rage on full blast because otherwise I wouldn't have got anything done. Adam also called with the same thing, and my response was the same, again I'm busy with the fleas demanding my attention. Eventually, they enlisted Magnum to come and take a look at the situation. I had a big list of gigs for Magnum, good tips on Sark's new facility, and lots of plans. When Magnum came over for a surprise visit so I didn't have time to disguise my condition, he took one look me over and said "Shouldn't you weigh a bit more?"

I looked at Magnum and said sharply "I should weigh a lot more, but work comes first. Don't worry, I'll get myself in shape. " Magnum called Damon " Mimi weighs less than 30 kg, she's just working. The rage is on full display. I didn't dare push too hard. Maybe it's time for a little doctor's house call?" Damon grunted in reply "Maybe it would be, I'll see what I can do. Stay there, if possible I'll get back to you soon." Damon cursed to himself. Less than 30 kg. Rage on display, fine. His wife is crazy though, but hey, never mind let's get the supplies and go get the young lady in shape once again.

Damon arrived the next day. He just marched into my office and said " You, medbay, right now. Or..." And showed me the syringe. I sighed irritably. It's not easy going through satellite images and trying to find a pharmaceutical company. I got up and walked to the medbay. "First the scales, right there." Fine, this was in a commanding mood. I went to the scales at 25 kilos, oh well I'll have to take some feeding fluid and I'll get it out of there.

"Over there on the bed, put your robe on. I'm going to do a thorough health check, on all sides. Remember, we always have a peaceful alternative. " Damon's voice was tight as if he was irritated about something. Fine to be patient then. I changed into my gown and went to sit down, blood first. I let him take a dozen tubes of blood, measure my blood pressure my pulse, listen to every point and palpate, do an internal examination, a gastrostomy. Finally, he sighed, and looking through all my scans and blood work he came to sit on the stool next to my bed. I was already sitting up and looking for my clothes to put on

Damon started sighing " You are severely dehydrated, morbidly underweight, you have countless vitamin, trace mineral deficiencies, your vampire blood levels are in the basement, you are severely vampire anemic, you have an incredible amount of metal objects inside you, half your organs won't last a week. Unless you pass out from sheer exhaustion before then. Your blood sugar is at rock bottom, you're cold. The question now is whether you are really competent to make decisions about your own health, and I can tell you quite frankly that you are not. What we're going to do is you're going to sleep and you're going to have an IV. I don't know the duration yet but, baby, you're not going to do any more work in that condition."

With that said, Damon stood up and jabbed an injection into my arm. "That works fast cause you're so weak, your rage isn't much at all and I think I ate the rest of it, go to lie down, go ahead, well don't worry everyone will be here when you wake up, Magnum will get the fleas with Adam has taken care of, don't fight it baby you won't win anyway." I fell asleep to the feeling of Damon holding me while I lay down and stroking me. It's not a bad feeling to fall asleep at all.

Samuel came the next day. Damon had put Mimi into a deep sleep and started hydrating and feeding her directly into the vein. They would operate on Mimi today after Damon had gotten her a little more stable. All the organs went again, the body cavity flushed and infused with Damon's blood to soothe and heal. All the wounds and bruises caused by the metal blades began to heal.

With the new organs, Adam was now a donor. Then Mimi would be kept asleep until her blood counts improved. She would gain a lot more weight. Then she could be allowed to wake up when her condition had improved considerably. Damon didn't put Mimi in the incubator because it would lazy Mimi's own thermoregulation. They could keep Mimi warm in other ways. Mimi was kept asleep for 5 weeks and now weighed 42 kilos. Then Damon left his wife in Monaco to sleep and went to America himself.

I woke up in Monaco and they kept me under for five weeks, fine. I went back to work in Monaco and a couple of weeks later I got a fucking clue as to where Sark's facility was. Now it would go down. I went to America to Maryland and there was a facility there. When I got to Maryland, I went to one of the Flea warehouses and picked up supplies of explosives, guns, and ammunition.

The Flea was busy on the other side of America there was a big conglomeration of medical facilities that required a lot of people. Magnum was busy. This facility wasn't that big, I could blow this one up myself, I'd done a lot of jobs. Now I just didn't have time to plan this thing from many directions, because I knew how slippery the sark was. Over the years, every time I've found a facility and I'm making a plan so when we hit it, the facility is empty, I don't know where the fuck he always finds out I'm coming from.

But not now because this is an impromptu, surprise attack and this time sark, you're going down. I drove a good distance from the facility. I got out of the car and went to the boot to pick up my stuff when a hoarse voice behind me said "What the fuck Mimi do you think you're doing?" I had no time to react when hands grabbed my head and twisted hard enough to break my neck.

I woke up in the Delaware house in Bran's study. All my supplies had been brought to the floor. Four very angry men were looking at me I was pissed. The whole pack was pissed at me. I'd gone after Sark again and hadn't bothered to tell anyone. I had just recovered from a long European gig and then it was just such a good opportunity when the fleas told me about Sark's new plant. Damon grabbed me out of the car by breaking my neck. Now the evidence was back in front of Adam, Damon, Bran, and Samuel.

"Mimi, if I hadn't grabbed you, you would have gone inside, right?" Damon asked silkily, I nodded. Sure as hell I would have. That's why I had the explosives. "And did you, Baby, have any backup?" I shook my head. improvisation. Carpe diem, take a chance. "and were you honestly in the best possible shape for the job?" I shrugged. Now that depends on who defines my gig fitness.

Bran said " Once again endangering the pack. We should have been trying to bail you out, fine, tranquilizer gel, for four weeks. Symptoms Damon, you get to give. I know you're furious. And then the hormones. I want the lady to have an extra long extra strong heat after her punishment "Bran looked at me triumphantly.

Damon had found symptom potions in the witches' caves to give the victim various symptoms. E.g. malaria, asthma, COPD, whatever, the duration would supposedly be 2-4 weeks and Bran had given a free hand to Salvatore. This was going to be nasty. Damon had treated me thoroughly in the shed, so it took some time to get my treatment fit and if I interpreted the look on Damon's face at all, the heat period would not be right after 4 weeks.

Bran was obsessed with the heat. The whole pack was in my heat. It was watched and watched and pondered and yet it always did its own thing. The same kind of heat as the keeper. Oh, I hated fucking jelly. I hadn't been officially punished more than once or twice and the other ended in a proper inflammatory abortion when Bran decided to put a reproductive heat on me when I was helpless.

I could tell by the look on Damon's face that now no one but him would get to me and sure enough we weren't lying on the couch with our arms around each other. Bran looked at me from head to toe for a moment longer and said to Adam "Hold Mimi still Damon, please sedate Mimi before you take her to be gelled. Adam will make sure Mimi doesn't run away. And Damon gives her a shot in the muscle. I want to see it take effect slowly. Make it strong, but not too strong."

Adam took an iron grip on my arm. I decided to be quiet as Damon got up from his chair lazily, and walked away. Fine, go ahead, do what you want. I do not care. I decided to put on the ice queen mold. Damon came back with a couple of medicine bottles and a syringe and needles. Oh, right, the show.

He started by opening the syringe packet and the needle and connecting them together. Then he removed the needle cover with his teeth and picked up the first glass jar. The rubber stopper popped easily and he pulled the medicine into the syringe, left the needle in the bottle, and just removed the syringe, then the next one. Pulled some more into the same syringe again and a third medicine. The cocktail was ready.

Damon tapped the air bubbles out and inserted a clean needle into the syringe. "There are three different sedatives here, pretty fair doses, but if I know the lady at all, she'll be out of these well before the jelly kicks in. If I give her more now, she'll pass out, but we'll see if the three-drug combination works." Bran nodded and Adami tightened his grip.

Damon stepped closer and pulled the needle cover off this too, carefully feeling my arm before inserting the needle into the muscle and pressing the plunger into the base. He then put the needle cover back in place and threw the empty syringe into Bran's bin. He then pulled out another syringe in the same way loaded the needle into it and put it in his pocket. Minutes passed. " Just in case, Baby, just in case." I slowly began to feel everything slowing down and it was suddenly very difficult to stand. Bran stood up and came over to look " Mmm hmm Mimi starting to feel a bit confused. Hmm? Is it? I think this one is ready to jelly."