"Hmm, I'm not sure if this is actually a dream," I muttered sleepily, lying on top of Damon.
After we had sanctified the room, trashed it, and each other, following our sanctification, or hard bout of rough sex, or something akin to it, the huge amethyst caves in the corners, brought by the Salvatores when we became more uninhibited, now gleamed with dark pink, black, and violet hues, as our energies had seeped into them.
"I won, baby. I fucked you out of your mind, just admit it," his tired voice murmured.
His skin was marked with my bites, wounds, and other injuries. He was sweaty, utterly spent, and exhausted. I wasn't sure if he was happy, but our connection blazed with such intensity that we were both somewhat energized, despite our bodies being spent.
Feelings were difficult to define at the moment. It had taken three days, seventy-two hours, for us to reach this level of intensity. First, we had fought. I had used my telekinesis, my rage, and Damon had countered with his lust, his energies, his spells, and his raw physical strength. But I, the leader, the fighter, the killer, was not easily swayed.
It had taken the first twenty-four hours for him to even get me close to a lustful state, and then to begin to dominate my vampire side, with fucking, drinking my blood, and forcing his blood into me, over and over again. Not an easy task.
I shuddered as a phantom sensation hit me, feeling his full, hot, hard cock plunging mercilessly into my pussy, railing me like a madman, gazing into my eyes, forcing our bond open. Then he knew how to hit me hard: he flooded me with love, his purest fucking love, through our bond.
As a creature of love, I of course reacted, my vampire side weakening her grip as my love for Damon pushed her down, and then, of course, a hefty dose of lust followed, turning me into an insatiable sex beast. His revelation of my pregnancy, well, let's just say it was one thing reeling in my mind as I was trying to figure out how to do this time wiser, but then again, toddlers were already quite spry.
My incredible fertility meant there was more than one life growing inside me. My hormones surged – or perhaps they had always been heightened, and my mind was finally connecting the dots. My cattiness emerged.
I lifted my head and deadpanned, "I win Mariella. You know, I have more."
Damon blinked slowly, clearly unsure what I meant.
So, I explained: "I already have five, Mariella has three, and she's carrying three more, making six. I'm so fertile that it won't just be one in my belly, so at least two or more, making my total seven. I win her."
Damon smirked and said, "Yep, and I win everyone else. Again, those at least seven are mine, and Mariella has several fathers for her fetuses. We both win here."
I wasn't sure where we stood. He might go back to Mariella after he got my vampire side under control, and I was fine with it.
However, our connection blazed open, and my thoughts seeped into his mind, causing him to furrow his brows as he stroked my cheek. "Hey, buttercup, I ain't going nowhere. I'm gonna be your burdock. Let others deal with 'Ella. I know you have deep, old trauma, but I get ya, and I want to experience it."
I was sleepy, or exhausted, and I wasn't sure what he was referring to.
He looked at me, still caressing my face, and said, "Tell me, how come Charles is better? You think you would be in a shop with him, me watching without you knowing? I wanna feel the pain, masochist here, or maybe I need to feel it."
I said, "No, you don't. You might be cruel, but you're just honest. Me, on the other hand, I'm a nasty cunt. If I were to take that kind of role, the things that would come out of my mouth would be true, not necessarily right now, but in the past... or the future. I'm not going to traumatize you. I protect you, you know?"
He shook his head and said, "Don't. Let me experience it. I need it, I realize now. And if you manage to get me to Mariella, well, you have proven your point."
I sighed, steeling myself for a tough conversation. I let my mind wander, distancing myself from the reality of the situation and instead imagining myself in a shop with Charles, utterly bored and angry with Damon.
My voice, as I spoke, was laced with genuine hurt, addressing Charles, who was only present in my mind's eye. "Charles, I love Damon, I always will, but what we have… Damon… I have to be honest, it's eighty percent lust. Sure, there's always a place for lust, and I'm no nun, but you know… something's missing. I don't know if it's me, if my mind craves more, or if he hasn't sensed it, or if he's simply unable to give it to me."
Still lost in my imagined scenario, I had distanced my senses so completely that I was unaware of Damon's reaction, if any.
I continued, "I saw him with Mariella in the kitchen one day. Mariella was baking, and he was just standing there, leaning against the counter, smirking, chatting with her. That connection… that's what Wulfe and I have, but it was also more. I saw what we were missing. He's never been that relaxed with me, maybe ever. There's always this tension when he's with me. He's ready to control me, order me, suppress me. He can't relax, and it makes me feel less like a person and more like a creature, an animal, a beast. Then I just get tired of pretending and don't even try to appear easygoing in his eyes, but usually I up my ante, making him up his game, denying him relaxation."
I took a deep breath, and then pain hit my face, jolting me from my reverie. I looked into Damon's passionate, ice-blue eyes, which seemed to burn with such intensity. I realized that as I had tapped into my past hurt and pain, our bond had been utterly opened, and he had felt it all. I could feel his love flooding into me, as well as Wulfe's influence, burning in my mind, erasing the pain and flooding me with love.
Damon said, "Oh shit, honey, my baby, I had no fucking idea. Never again. I will hopefully never hurt you that badly again, but I can't make any promises. You know, I've already given you my promise, and I have one more to give, and I will make sure the whole pack witnesses it. I've heard something about pheromones. You taught us something about them before this started, but there's more. Once we're back in pack life, you will continue, with all of us as your students, husbands, and doctors, because they are chemicals, and we can figure out how to refine them further. Non-negotiable."
I rolled my eyes and kissed him. He was still shaking and didn't want me to get hurt. Wulfe was like an inferno in my mind, searching for pain, bad memories, and something he could help me with.
"Fine, let's give them something." I thought darkly as I felt their probing.
I said to Damon. "Wanna be traumatized and fucking nasty? I bet I have a sea of rot in my mind because of this. Again, only Jake, Rob, and Hugh knew. And let me say, this will be fucking hard for me too."
Damon hugged me, pulling me close, and murmured, "Shh, show me. Wulfe is in your mind too; let us see, sense it. Wulfe can pretty much say if it is nasty enough that you are not going to talk about it."
The door opened, and to my surprise, Mariella stepped in.
She was all business and said to Damon, "It's nasty, upstairs just confirmed it. I need to use some fucking talented white power if we are going to tackle this."
Damon nodded. Mariella came near and said to me, "Thank you, really. It was amazing, but I will tell you when I am ready. You show this to Damon, and Wulfe is ready. If I can't support this enough, Wulfe will isolate it, stopping you from getting it before we can deal with it. But tell us Cliff's notes, in short what happened, just in a few sentences, when I say..."
She placed her hands on my temples; a slight buzzing hit my brain, making me wince.
She said, "Don't fight me; relax. Damon, could you?.."
My mind fuzzed up as my dear husband remotely drugged me slightly. A little while later, Mariella said, "Okay, Mimi, tell us."
I took a breath; this took a lot out of me.
As soon as the first word left my lips, sensations and memories rushed in, making me tremble. "I was captured, brainwashed, made to believe I was human, and Krycheck made me believe it. However, as it was one of our targets, Jake and Rob had no idea I was there when they raided the place. They rescued me, as well as over 400 others. It took 18 weeks for Hugh to get me back; I was convinced for six weeks that Jake and Rob were the bad guys and that I was kidnapped from the hospital."
Images flashed in my mind, sensations, Krycheck's voice, nurses—it was all one big jumble. Then, my mind got really fuzzy; I was tired and passed out as Damon sedated me utterly.
My mind, clouded by drugs, struggled to awaken. It felt bruised, yet the drugs prevented me from opening my eyes.
"Mimi's trying to wake up, Damon," Mariella's clinical voice stated nearby.
What the hell? I tried to recall what had happened, but my mind was thick with syrup—no memories, nothing clear. Someone came next to me, lifting me into their arms.
"Listen to me, baby," Damon, number one, I guessed, whispered in my ear. "Shh, now, you need to drink this. Shh, I'll explain later. Don't try to think; you can't. Just obey. Open your mouth…that's it, good girl, swallow."
A cool, slightly sweet, fruity liquid filled my mouth. I swallowed. More liquid followed, accompanied by Damon's voice, instructing me. I tried to think, but he had told me not to; I am kind of stubborn. More liquid followed, and then someone else appeared at the bed—old books, meant Wulfe.
He said, "My unicorn, now, drink up, let those fangs out, and sink them in."
He pulled me against him, pressing my head into his neck. I felt numb. Again, Damon murmured to me, and I let my fangs drop, tiredly sinking them into Wulfe's neck. Soon, hot, potent blood poured into my throat. Oh, perfect. But instead of the usual lightning-like energy, it pulled me deeper, muddying my mind even further. Blood kept dripping, but I wasn't sure if I was awake or dreaming. Finally, darkness consumed everything, pulling me under again.
As I finally began to wake, the sun streamed into my eyes, and my mind still felt clouded. Yet, I could at least form some thoughts. Utterly confused about what had happened, I tried to open my eyes and shift my position.
The door opened, and Mariella entered, her expression worried. Soon, I heard footsteps approaching, and Salvatore, as well as Wulfe, walked in—specifically, numbers one, two, four, nine, and ten. Several of them appeared haggard and pale, but Wulfe seemed tense. He approached me, took some wet wipes, and gently cleaned my eyes. Mariella spoke softly to number two, who nodded.
Wulfe then said, "Take it easy. I'll explain soon. You're still heavily drugged. Let me help you sit up."
He lifted me, and number one offered a sippy cup, allowing me to take a sip of orange juice to moisten my mouth. I struggled to recall what had occurred. Number one came to stand beside me, while Wulfe crawled to the other side. Both seemed incredibly worried, and I couldn't understand why.
Finally, Damon spoke, "Listen to me, and listen carefully. I can repeat this as many times as you need, but you will never have access to that memory. And what memory, you might ask? It's the most unpleasant and dangerous one you've ever revealed. I must admit, myself, and the others, not to mention Wulfe, are still pretty damn freaked out by it. So, there is now a super-strong prison in your mind where this memory is locked. You cannot access it, ever, in any way. We've made sure of that."
Mariella stood nearby, her arms crossed and her expression tight. She looked as drained as I felt.
"I've created a draining system," she said. "The pool or sea of rot was immense and nasty, but it will give us immense power. You've been out for five days, drugged as deeply as we could manage. Each pack member, even the girls, has put their will into that prison, and let me tell you, none of us spared any strength. If you think the girls are weak, well, they were boosted by your unloading energy before contributing. And Damon, he's your other half, is freaking out, so you have ten versions of almost two-millennia-old vampire wizard husbands in your mind. Try to overcome them. And then there's Charles, Adam, Lepard, Demon, and Wulfe, plus me, and a hefty dose of white power. My system will drain the rot away, and it also slowly drains emotional power into a very complex system that feeds the Salvatores. I can tell you that even the most positive calculations put the memory's removal at over 300 years, so that prison stays."
I managed to get my mouth working, and my voice slurred as I asked, "Fine, but why? What's so bad about that memory?"
Wulfe said, "My love, it's nasty because it could come back. I'll tell you what it's about, but you won't remember it. I've taken care of that, so this will sound like a story, but it happened to you. In short, Krycheck managed to brainwash you and give you a new identity, and you believed it. He made you think you were just human. Now, this kind of memory, with your mind, could snap back on with a 79% probability, and then, as originally Jake, and Rob, as well as Hugh, took months to get you back. You are now so much more powerful, and your willpower being what it is, well, I'm sure you can deduce yourself what might have happened."
I lifted my hand to my mouth, shocked. I had no memory, but yeah, I would. Hell, I could force my body to be human, fucking hell. I also knew I was pregnant again, and that fact remained. No wonder the whole damn pack was all over me. The big question remained: how the hell could I get some me time?
As I was pregnant, my hormones bloomed, and oh yeah, this little alpha had her own plans on how to do this. And oh, kids too; we would have so much fun soon enough. I had my plans for them too, but first, I needed to get rid of these damn worried burdocks called pack members, husbands, lovers, and soulmates.