Mariella had been negotiating with God all night; she had argued and sought other ways, but God was merciless. He had given Mariella the ability to see into the past and had shown her the phone call Mimi had received at the beginning of her recovery.

Mariella knew that Mimi had also known about her triple shells from the start but had not wanted to tell anyone. Mariella knew that this was going to be a test by fire for Damon and would affect the pack for a long time to come, but if they wanted Mimi not to be weak for the next 15-50 years, unable to do anything and most importantly a victim of repeated Damien shed sessions, this had to be done. Mariella sighed deeply and wondered how she was going to explain this to Damon and, more importantly, whether Damon would be able to do it.

Mariella hadn't been in the pack for long, and Damon was himself for the first time in a millennium. Mimi's medical problems so far had been mild at first, but this latest one had gotten Mimi in such bad shape that Damon had been forced to cut Mimi's straps.

Mariella knew there would be other problems in the future, and again Damon would be forced to cut the straps. Mimi had recovered well and was attending a trade show and road trip, so Mimi wasn't there all the time, which would be an advantage in preparation.

Mariella turned to Damon and sighed. She admired Damon's perfect facial features, cruel mouth, and long lashes. At that moment, Damon was asleep and looked young and innocent. Mariella found it hard to believe that behind this boy, this young and innocent man's exterior, this was a vampire over 1000 years old.

Damon became aware that Mariella was staring intently at him. She was looking at him in that way of wanting to know all his secrets. Mariella's gaze had a heavy dose of sheer lust in it, too.

"'Mmmm, good morning darling," Damon said lazily.

"Morning to yourself, I have one thing to talk to you about, and before you say anything back, listen to me first, okay?"

"Why so serious, wife dear?"

Damon asked and rolled onto his side and began to caress his wife, the intention being to seduce her and spend another day in bed.

Mariella said, "Seriously, now you listen and hear me out, and believe me when I say there is no other choice. I have been talking upstairs all night about it, this has to be done."

Damon furrowed his brows and raised himself into a better position, apparently, it wouldn't be time for seduction just yet.

"Well then start telling me before I lose my nerve and seduce you right here and now," Damon said in his velvety voice.

Mariella looked at Damon for a moment and began.

" First of all, this has to be done, and you have to do this, and it has to be believable. Well, you know I like to talk, but I'll get straight to the point. You're going to have to give Mimi a shed session and a bad one at that."

Damon furrowed his eyebrows and said, "You must have a damn good reason for that ridiculous suggestion. I told you that the shed sessions were always almost Damien. I haven't really done any from start to finish, and bad ones at that."

Mariella continued. " If you don't want Mimi to be sick for the next 15-50 years and constantly suffering from a shed session with Damien then you make your own shed session and make it bloody bad. Very believable."

"May I ask why?" Damon asked.

Mariella replied." Remember when I had my first heat? We got into heat and do you remember when you killed Mimi at the end? That shit broke the shells Damien had put in me. It's the same thing here. Now there's no way we're going to get all of Mimi's shells off, but if your session is the real thing, 80% of the shells are gone, you know 80%. The more real and the worse, the more brutal the session is, the stronger the reaction between Mimi's powers that we're looking for. You can't get it any other way. It's the only way. Then, the chaos, the will of Mimi and the alpha force almost make, after the nuclear reaction that breaks those shells. Understand. You'll know as soon as you're headed in the right direction. But you have to make it real. Mimi has to believe you're doing it for the pleasure of hating Mimi. Only then will it work. The other 20% is easier to control and may not even come on at the same time, so there is a chance that medical problems will only come up rarely, and even those may be mild. Mimi has triple shells. That last infection was Damon when one shell broke and released three things. One single shell. Mimi knows her own shells, Damien originally told her. See for yourself."

"Fine sounds logical, but there's one small, but I can't do such horrible things to Mimi and still be believable." Damon chimed in.

"You have to, Damon, you really have to. I know you have the stuff that will help. Use it, and do what you have to, but it has to be believable right from the start. Now we have a gala coming up where Mimi is going to give a speech. You're going to take Mimi there and threaten Mimosa, you're probably going to have to hurt Mimosa a little bit to make it real, but you just have to do it. I'll erase this memory of myself even knowing the whole thing because of the fact that my reaction is genuine and neither Charles nor Adam suspects anything. This memory will come back, don't worry, but you'll probably have to kill Mimi. It has to be that long. I know Damien knew how to do it slowly, you don't have to. You can do it so efficiently and brutally that Mimi's suffering won't be endless, but remember to be as creepy as you can be. "

Mariella continued. " Now, here is an ability for you so you can sense the shells in Mimi; you will feel when the shells break, you must continue until the shells break no more. This will get rid of those delicate shells too. Damon, this is worth it. just believe it. Both of you are immortal and forever is a long time."

Damon looked deep into Mariella's eyes. "I don't know, damn it, I have to try, but I don't know how my head can take this. It could be, my dear, that after this, I will be in a very bad place, and I may not want to be around anyone. When you know how I've been treating Mimi now and she's my alpha and everything. The fact that I will probably in all likelihood lose Mimi because of this or at least something between us will change, is fucking hard. Even though we haven't had a relationship here yet, it's taking away hope, and it's a bad place to be because without hope. What´s the point? I'm just saying this as a heads-up. If I could somehow justify this as a lesson, but it's sheer brutality. .."

Damon added quietly as Mariella said,

"I got you. Remember always and forever. I'll get you fixed. Now that the gala is the day after tomorrow. Here's some motivation. The road trip of a woman so graciously accepted. Miss empties her safe deposit boxes and hides things in her wings. And then move on. Everything is the lady's own property, not the pack's, and she does with it exactly as she pleases whether it's a rare ruby or an experimental new explosive. If it would motivate you anymore. Go, I'll have this conversation and the information about that session out of my head in five minutes, so go get ready."

Damon got out of bed got dressed, and started to prepare the plan, make the materials, and get the place ready. That helped what Mariella had shown him.

Once again, the lady had slightly twisted the truth, there would be one he could use. He directed Mariella to work with Adam and Charles, perhaps decorating an aquarium or learning to cook. Damon already had the place mapped out and set off to get everything ready. How it would all work out in the end, Damon wasn't sure.

I was on a good road trip with the fair when Charles called to remind me that the gala was tomorrow. Fortunately, I had a pretty good pile of safe deposit boxes to empty. I knew that at some point, I would have to go through all my bank vaults.

Reddington had left me over 20 of them in his will. Murdock killed Reddington at the same time we got into heat, and I don't know why. Murdock is a hitman, but he's been working for Reddington for a long time.

I found out about the will, and that was one of the reasons I went on the trip. Charles was covering the gala and my speech at it.

"Fine," I said curtly, gathered my gear, and started driving towards the house.

Luckily, I had taken a nearby fair, so there weren't such ridiculously long distances to travel.

I was thinking on the way there that these must be coming to an end because Damon has been talking for a while about how one day I won't be running the fleas, and someone else will be. Damon has also been giving out killing shots to everyone else, and he's been happy that I don't go to gigs as often anymore.

I still do other flea work, but I don't really go except for the sniper gigs. Damon didn't want me to spend all his time flitting around by myself at a fair. And on top of that, with Damien being loose and in his own body and not knowing the bastard's plans, I'm told to be careful. Oh, if Damon knew about my bank vaults.

I arrived at the house at dusk. The New Jersey mansion was one of my favorite places, having bought and mostly decorated it myself. It wasn't as sheltered as some of our houses are because they have a girls' wing.

I never saw Mariella living in the wing, though, and I knew it was only a matter of time before the wings were opened up to the whole pack. Damon had invaded the wings, but it hadn't been made so official yet that the wings had to be open. I had lots of clothes and went inside the house, upstairs to one of the bedrooms where I had a huge wardrobe full of unused dresses and party dresses.

I ran a hot bath and dipped into the warm water to relax and rest. I soaked in the bath for almost an hour. The tub was heated, so the water never got cold. Sitting in the car is hard on the muscles. I lazily thought that every now and then, I could do a few snipes. They were fun to do in themselves.

I got up in the tub, wrapped myself in a luxuriously soft bathrobe, and grabbed a nightgown from the dresser. After my time drying off, I slipped into my nightgown, pulled on my dressing gown, and staggered upstairs to the kitchen for something to eat.

Charles, Mariella, and Adam were cooking or baking, but judging by the fervent looks on the men's faces, it wasn't going to be just cooking. I figured tomorrow was going to be a long day. The opening ceremony is already at noon, and the rest of the day, pretty much until evening, is socializing, eating small plates of food, and sipping champagne or wine.

Boring! I'm supposed to give a short presentation, open the new wing of our hospital, and praise potential donors, so ass-kissing day. Not that our hospital isn't successful. In fact, it doesn't need donors, but when it's good PR, it's good. However, it's a bit of a drive to the hospital, and I could be on the road by 9 a.m. I decided to find one dress I could wear all day. The good thing about this was that Mariella would be with Damon, and I wouldn't have to worry about flank injuries.

I ate my evening meal in good spirits and remembered to wake up early enough to fuel myself for the day because no amount of food on such an occasion would fill my stomach.

There would be a buffet table, but I didn't want to risk eating there with my diet being what it is and other herb sensitivities. I wonder who in the pack will actually come to the gala. I was in my own head when Charles elbowed me.

"Hey, where were you on the other side of the galaxy?" he asked playfully.

" No, I was just thinking about the gala tomorrow, thinking about the dress and all that," I replied.

Charles looked at me hotly. I smiled as Mariella began to nibble on Charles' ear.

Mariella said," This is almost my first party; I'm looking forward to it."

I looked at Mariella and thought in my mind that at least someone was excited about them.

"it's going to be great. There will be so many people to talk to." Mariella continued excitedly.

I thought a little sourly that as long as you're not terribly confused all the time, you'll be fine. For me, they would be so fucking boring, but I'd have to choose a dress if I took Charles inside me every now and then so I wouldn't be hungry.

Mariella was hanging on Charles like a tick and nibbling and nipping. Then she looked at me and said with a sweet smile,

" One more thing: Damon wants us both to be redheads tomorrow, so be sure to get Mimi's hair color right."

"Of course," I said. I hadn't decided which red hair I would wear, but it was no surprise that Lord and Master would dictate the hair color, too. I was a little surprised that Damon wasn't always hanging onto Mariella. Where's the whole Salvatore lurking?

I finished my evening meal and retired to my lair for a while to read and then to bed. I have to wake up at 6 am. I thought in boredom as I listed in my mind all the things I had to do in the morning. First thing before I went to bed, I would try to choose a dress.

Oh yeah, red hair... I don't wear green, though it doesn't suit me for some reason. I ended up with a dark crimson silk dress with a bit of a fuller hem and a good slit. The dress reached over my knees and would be comfortable to move around in.

Also, when hot, silk is cool, and cold is warm, so temperature shouldn't be an issue either. I ended up with this dress because it wasn't so skin-tight, so I could cram my belly full, and it wouldn't show in the dress.

The hem would be easy to lift if I needed a little stuffing. And then the slit would allow for maybe a little bit of feeling. I'm wondering if I'm coming into heat because I'm in a pretty wild mood.

I was happy with my choice and went to read a risqué sex story for a while before I realized I was beating myself in the nose with a book, at which point I decided to give up and resignedly set my phone alarm for 6 a.m., put the book on the table and turned off the lights.

It didn't take me more than a minute to fall asleep, and I could have sworn I hadn't been asleep for more than five minutes when the damn alarm was on.

I dragged myself into the morning shower and changed my hair color to red, almost just red, not orangey but almost violet. Blood Red was probably pretty close. After the shower, I put on my nightgown and dressing gown and dragged myself back into the kitchen to make myself some coffee and food.

Damon was there, as chipper as a finch at breakfast. "Oh, good morning, Mimi," he said.

I looked at my husband for a while and said a very sour " Morning,"

Then concentrated on making my coffee and heating my food in the pressure cooker. It's nice to be such a special case, to be able to have meat for breakfast, I mused as I passed by.

I'd love to eat eggs, bacon, hash browns, whatever but when they come right through. I had a pretty expensive taste, the best thing I absorbed was Wagyu steak, so the morning started with almost a couple of kilos of very fatty beef, Coca-Cola, and coffee with a bit of other meat. My stomach was tuned to hold almost 10 liters, so I was able to cram quite a bit of food in there. I didn't even notice when Mr. Cheerful Salvatore disappeared from the table and didn't even care.

I finally managed to eat my fill and thought thank goodness I had a drive ahead of me, so there was time to sink in a bit. There would be coffee at the gala though, so with the power of caffeine, I'd be fine even if the digestion might otherwise tire me out.

Then I went back to my room and put on my dress, and did my hair, make-up, and nails. I would drive to the party place alone and the others would follow. I got in my car and started driving towards the party venue.

My car was well equipped and as I was planning to drive straight from the gala to the rest of the venue, I had my spare clothes with me. Neither Mimosa nor Shadow would attend the gala, now that they are completely free and don't have to be inside us anymore, they wanted to hunt and scavenge, not perform at the party. We agreed that they wouldn't have to.