Mariella told Damon that, "I smelled an onion in Mimi. It's starting again."

Damon asked, " Do you have any idea what it is this time?"

Mariella said, "I don't know, it's always some bad infection. Could be triple shells."

"We need to stock up on everything again," Damon said. " I'd better go and make some tranquilizers for the store then," he added bitterly.

I had gotten myself in shape and was living in the den watching movies. For some reason, they even brought me food.

Mariella said, "Damon told me when you didn't come to eat. "

When I didn't feel hungry, hadn't I had a new implant put in yet, I didn't pay attention as there was always a program or movie at an exciting point.

My symptoms started to sneak up on me. First, there was a headache. I thought at first that my neck was stuck or something, but at the point when I felt my eyeballs were tender, I knew that this time again.

Damien had threatened to break the triple shell, but I thought it was more like a bluff. Let's see what happens now if this is one of the easier ones anyway. I'd had a few previous medical problems, what we call them now, and had survived them, so I thought it would be the same again this time.

The only problem with them was that I was isolated so that Mariella or the rest of the pack wouldn't get sick, and besides, I didn't want to be a patient until it was absolutely necessary. I just knew it was my fate.

After the headache had lasted a couple of days, the fever started. I still didn't bother to say anything to anyone and stayed in my nest, watching the programs and waiting to see if this would pass on its own like the previous two. They had been mild.

Some versions would not be so mild. Vomiting, diarrhea, and weakness they had lasted 3-8 weeks, and I had had new internal organs, but otherwise, I had recovered surprisingly quickly.

In addition to the headache and fever, I then started to have visual disturbances and a blurring of reality, so I started to have conversations with the television.

Charles walked past my room while I was having a heated argument with the Avengers about whether they should sign the deal, and because I started talking to the TV at that point, Charles went to tell Damon.

Damon sighed and said to Mariella, "Darling, I think it's time to go and see Mimi. I think she has another medical problem. Let's see how bad it is."

It was Damon, not Charles, who came to see me.

I had been waiting for Charles to return as I had just gotten myself back together to know where I was.

Damon said, "Baby, are you okay?"

I looked at Damon for a moment and said, "I don't think so."

A tremendous thirst for blood, so strong I've never had one before, hit me, and I couldn't help myself. Suddenly, I attacked Damon by the neck and started to feed wildly on the blood. Damon got me off his neck and held me tight.

Damon said to Mariella through his head, "It's starting. Bring a cocktail and strong. They are marked in black. There are ready syringes."

Mariellalla came into the room and handed Damon the syringe. I could feel Damon holding me and soothing me. Next came a sharp sting as he gave the syringe to my muscle. He rubbed the spot for a moment.

"Mimi, it's okay, you're just there, just let it work. It's an anesthetic, not a sedative. Shh...baby.."

Damon held me until the medicine took effect. I was hungry, I wanted blood, I wanted blood so badly. I was trying to feed on Damon; the blood lust was out of control, but the medicine started to work.

Damon held Mimi until she went limp in his grip. Mimi was already burning up; her pulse was pounding, and she felt somehow weak already. Damon knew that now the triple shell had broken.

He took Mimi to the medbay and cannulated her. Damon was already starting to look for all the medications ready, had the collectors in his teeth himself, and was waiting for his teeth to do something.

I finally fell asleep and woke up in a hospital bed tied up. I was lucid again, but I was cold.

"Oh, Mimi, you're awake," Damon said in his doctor's voice. "Yeah, you'll get a fever reducer and a sedative in a minute, and then you'll go back to sleep. "

Then he gave me the fever medicine in an injection, and I felt the sweat start to flow. My strength was gone. He lifted me onto the other bed on top of the towels. I was all sweaty and wet. Then he changed my bed with dry sheets and dry towels and washed me.

The washing felt good normally, but now, somehow, my skin was super sensitive, and I felt really exhausted from the whole wash. Damon looked at me very carefully as he washed and probably saw and heard my thoughts. Finally, he lifted me back to the bed, took a syringe from the table, which he pressed into my cannula, and then I blacked out again.

Mariella came to the medbay just after Mimi had fallen asleep. Damon was looking a little worried. This was going to be another big fight.

Damon said, "Mimi got tired just from the bed wash, she's sore all over, so it wasn't as enjoyable as usual, and I don't know, darling, now I can't tell how bad it's going to get."

Mariella snuggled up to Damon and said, " Mimi can't die. Remember the energy grid. There's nothing to worry about. Everything will be fine.

I knew this wasn't going to be an easy medical problem as I sat on the beach again with the chaos cat.

I said to myself, or I don't know who I said it to, "Why does everything have to be so fucking complicated. Why can't I have Adam and Charles, just be with them and enjoy? Why do I have to be a third wheel in a relationship where I don't really belong? I'm trying to be clinical and just do my job; those two don't appreciate it. I don't want Damon tearing my heart out all the time. Why can't anyone see that I'm just trying to protect myself? "

Chaos Cat was quiet and said, " Because Damon's feelings for you haven't gone anywhere, he's just hiding them. You just need to learn that your life is a live show of the beautiful and the bold."

Then I was having nightmares again, seeing the fleas being killed, how I had to put them down, the shed sessions, the medical facilities, everything, and I couldn't take it. I was just as exhausted as I could be again. Then I just realized at some point that I got to Charles' head and started to get into a racket.

Damon looked at Mimi and sighed deeply. He was tired and hungry. He hadn't fucked Mariella in almost a week. He'd held Mimi in his arms while she slept, but that hadn't helped yet, either.

He had nursed her, tried to bring her fever down, and tried to get her some nutrients, but she seemed to be burning up all the energy and nourishment he could give her, and she was still getting weaker.

None of the antibiotics he had tried so far were working. The infection was just too strong. No one's teeth did anything to help.

Opportunistic bacteria had completely taken over his first wife's body, and Damon felt like he was fighting but couldn't win. Mimi's straps dropped steadily no matter what he did. Mimi had a fever of almost 50 degrees.

The sleeping cocktail didn't keep her nearly always asleep, and Mimi was restless, even pained or panicked, and Damon could feel it. He held his trembling and restless wife in his arms and tried to get her to fall asleep for a moment at a time.

Mimi had nightmares and burned off all her medication. Damon was becoming desperate. He had even let Charles try to hold Mimi, but she had become even more restless.

He was Mimi's protector. They had a connection, and through that connection, Damon knew everything and now knew how awful it felt to be so fucking helpless, so fucking powerless.

Mariella finally became wrapped up in Damon. She could feel how overwhelmed Damon was. Damon's expression was serious and pensive; there were dark circles around his eyes, and he had lost weight, too.

Damon couldn't think of anything he could do to help Mimi. He would just have to watch Mimi's straps fall off and then try to help. Because then they could effectively treat the body without fear of hurting Mimi. Mariella knew what she had to do. She didn't want to say or do it, but she had no choice.

Mariella wrapped herself around Damon tighter and said.

"You know, Damon, what you have to do," Mariella whispered. "Do it. It's a mercy. It's the right thing to do. You know what you must do, even if it's inevitable. It will happen. Now, don't let Mimi suffer anymore."

"I don't want to kill Mimi," Damon said.

Mariella said, "It's a mercy for Mimi. Can't you see that body won't last? Mimi better come to Charles for a while now so we can get that body sorted out. It's not good for Mimi to be there. I know, Damon, you feel it. Just cut the straps and give Mimi some relief: no pain, no ache, no pain, no fever, no anxiety. Go on, cut them off. I know Mimi won't feel anything, but the bad feeling will stop."

Damon knew this was going to be tricky. He had never intentionally cut anyone's straps. Except once, Mimi and he had done it in order to save Mariella. But he had to. Mariella wrapped herself around Damon.

"Do it, darling, now."

Damon concentrated, and with a little force, Mimi's remaining delicate straps were broken, the ones he'd tried so hard to guard and make last. Charles had Mimi on his head, Charles had Mimi on his head several times over the years, and Mimi was curious. So he had made a room for her in his head where she could knit and rest and even read.

While Mimi was away from her body, Mariella and Damon dipped the body in various magic potions and disinfectants so that they could reduce the amount of bacteria. They drained Mimi completely and filled her with bumps and food liquid.

Damon's goal was to get Mimi's body down to some weight so that Mimi would not feel the need for the feeding fluid. Damon carefully burned the glands out of Mimi's palate. He had told Mariella about them, and Mariella's savior radar didn't want Mimi to use one because it would wear the men out. They emptied and refilled. They waited.

I had a lot of fun in Charles' head. I tried to escape from the room, and every couple of times, I found a way out and got to explore my husband's head a little. Although I was right back in my own room with the exit blocked up that I had found.

Damon and Mariella fucked every day. They couldn't do anything to Mimi all the time. They had to sit and wait. Finally, after two weeks, Mimi was able to get back into her body. Mimi had already had her organs transplanted, and Damon left Adam and Charles with written feeding instructions to help Mimi recover as quickly as possible. He was now to be left alone with just Mariella.

The boys gave me my feeding instructions and released me as soon as I woke up. Once again, I got myself in shape and had been on my own for a couple of days when the phone rang.

I answered. " Hey baby, have you recovered yet? There was a first for you. One of the triple shells broke—just one type. Three things were released from there and I guess you were pretty okay. Isn't it fun for the rest of your life? These weaken you enough that every now and then, I can catch you for a little session. Well, I've got to get unloaded, too. I always felt so good in a private session you wouldn't believe it. "

The phone went dead when I hung up. I didn't want to listen to it anymore.

The experience had been traumatic for the whole pack, and I didn't blame them for having a sex party.

Once I got myself back into a good weight, I started planning my road trip again. Fairs. I made a travel plan and went to Damon to get approved. He had no problem with it now as long as I was okay and he could focus directly on Mariella.

I informed the rest of the group and went for a drive. I didn't tell him I was going through my safe deposit boxes at the same time. My car had good storage compartments that were protected so that no magic or energy could get into them.

That's where I put medical samples, money, stocks, jewels, weapons—everything I could find in my lockers. I went to a few houses in the wings to hide some of my supplies and always got new ones. These were actually my possessions, not the packs. I would do with these as I saw fit.

I didn't want a relationship with Damon, the alpha couple thing. Well, that was fine because I could actually isolate it in my head in a very special place, and I knew the alpha power lived there.

I would be with Adam and Charles whenever I could. They were my support and my security. My everything. Because Damon was with Mariella and they had such a deep connection, Damon was relaxed and happy. Mariella never fucked around or made any statements. Never prioritized work over Damon.

My superpower was back in full swing, and in my time of reflection, I found so many things, so many reasons how my behavior drove us apart, not the shed sessions because it kind of started before them. The one that killed our relationship was fleas. I knew that for sure.

Before that, before the fleas. Damon had been my whole life. Even if he wasn't always there, I was totally ready when he did show up. I was his. But the fleas intervened. Then, when Damon did show up, I might be at gigs or so busy organizing something that I hadn't even realized he'd been there for a couple of days and then hadn't found a reason to stay. Our relationship had been slowly withering away long before the shed sessions.

I was such a different creature by now, so much more experienced, and I realized that Damon hadn't been a part of my life for a long time in the way he could have been. He didn't know much about my fleas, he didn't know about my gigs, he didn't know about my stash.

He didn't know anything. I had, somewhere in the beginning, imagined for a while how the fleas would have been a project between me and Damon, but that had been just a daydream, a momentary thought.

Because of Damien, I couldn't trust Damon, not in the way I should have been able to. Damon knew that himself. And that was the one thing that stood between us.

So, I didn't have time to go and build a relationship with Damon because I'd have to start all over again, and I wasn't sure if any spark was left. Damon was as gorgeous as ever, if not more so because he had lost that insecurity and tiredness and looked at the world with curiosity and freedom. I wasn't curious. I wasn't free. I was now the tired, jaded, seen-it-all party and wasn't interested in finding out or even trying things out.