21. Why It Did Had To Be Me?

Colin called Magnum after receiving a message from Mimi. He hadn't checked his messages for a few days and it had surprised Colin because he hadn't been in touch with Mimi much. Colin might have checked on Mimi for any severe issues if Samuel wasn't thereafter a couple of Reddington gigs. He had twice tried to see Mimi, but she always escaped or downplayed her injuries, preventing him from meeting her properly.

He punched in the Magnum's number. Magnum, he had patched up several times and with his own blood even when he was only human and didn't want to get sick or recover, but to get well as fast as he could.

The voice on the phone was a little surprised. " Thomas Magnum, what do you want? "

Colin tried to be businesslike and not think the worst, but the way Mimi had described her condition and Damon's behavior made him wary.

"Hey, it's Colin Farrell. Wanted to tell you that Mimi Salvatore left me a voice message a few days ago, informing me about Damon's behavior. Turns out, he was stalking her at Ohio's house. Could you call her? She didn't leave her number and my machine is not recording them."

Magnum grunted and said, " OK. I'll call and ask. I don't know how to solve that problem and since Damon is a vampire, I haven't bothered to talk to him. "

Colin replied, " Next time it happens again, let me know. I'm not afraid of vampires and I can tell him my opinion about stalking women about the words I chose for Salvatore."

He seemed to be nervous. Magnum hung up the phone, dialed Mimi's number, and made no contact. The phone was off the hook. Mimi never hung up her phone and Magnum felt his palms sweat. He had to act, but he knew he would not cause any trouble for Adam and that's why he called him. 

But after a round of calls that had included Bran and Samuel, Magnum slammed his fist into the wall. Magnum had called Adam and was still getting the same reception that Salvatores settled their dispute with each other. Samuel and Bran had been in the same boat.

Then he phoned Reddington, and Reddington's reaction was one of astonishment, but he honestly admitted that it was not within his jurisdiction to interfere. He mentioned that if Mimi had asked for protection herself, he could have arranged something, but not now.

But Reddington had three contracts for Magnum that he had to do. They were directly under Sark, his confidants, and Magnum knew it would take a week. But what could he do, he informed Colin and went on the job.

Colin acted and wondered who would be a good guy to help, as he was going to treat another werewolf who had taken a silver bullet in the side.

He went into the patient room and Charles Cornick looked at him, grinned, and said, "I was sloppy again. "

Colin rolled his eyes, went to the cabinet, and took his bullet removal kit again. Charles was one of his regular clients and he didn't always go to his brother for treatment, but often ended up at Colin's clinic.

He would anesthetize the area around Charles' bullet wound with his leprechaun substances. His leprechaun side was its own creature, a bit like Charles had a wolf, a brother wolf, who spoke to him. This leprechaun was a very skilled healer but unfortunately greedy, and Colin was always having to come up with many bribes to get his leprechaun to work.

 He had the silver bullet out and packed the wound cavity with a substance that he injected deep down to the bottom. Charles's healing ability would help, and the wound would heal quickly.

As Colin said in passing, " Did you know Mimi is missing? Mimi Salvatore? Damon was stalking her, you must have heard and Adam, Samuel, or Bran didn't want to help and told the couple to settle their differences amongst themselves, but Damon's behavior was so vicious that I don't quite trust that the matter would be settled by talking. "

Charles snarled, yes Samuel and Bran had told him what Mimi had done.

He had looked them both in the eye and said, " Good, then I didn't have to do it. A very snappy girl and you three are idiots. "

This statement didn't receive a warm reception, causing Bran and Samuel to be quiet and stalk off. He'd had some free time when Bran wasn't shoving him all over the place to kill or outright torture some guy which had gotten on Bran's nerves badly enough.

Noticing Colin's nervous demeanor, Charles suggested, "Why don't we go over to Ohio's house and see what we can uncover?"

Colin said, " Yeah, that's fine. We've got a drive there, but let's see what's happened. Damon's behavior sounds a bit like a stalker, and that's not good. Mimi is immortal, but she feels pain. She had rough enough already. No need to get vampire torture.." 

They were in Utah, and the drive would take 27 hours. Colin got off work in five hours, so then he and Charles would be already driving to Ohio. Magnum promised to be there when the job was over.

 Colin thought it was strange that Adam, Samuel, and Bran still hated Mimi, but Charles didn't. Charles saw it for what it was and didn't let his ego speak for him, but despite his wild reputation, he was a man in his place. He knew Adam had felt Ben's death, but he had worked with Ben in the past and knew that Ben did not want Adam to see him in that state.

As they drove off, both were silent, and they hoped but knew it was a pretty fucking slim chance that Mimi was okay and there was some innocent explanation for shutting off the phone.

Charles was already thinking of all the possibilities of what could have happened. He had come to help, and when they finally arrived after over 30 hours of eating and stopping, one had slept while the other had driven.

 They went through the house carefully. There was no sign of Mimi and Mimi's phone was on one table, battery dead. They found black roses and notes written by Damon, and by then it was clear that the couple were barely discussing things in private.

They found Damon's prints and a needle cover on the floor, and Colin smelled a very strong sedative, a large animal substance. This was looking more and more like a kidnapping. They found Damon's shoe prints in the yard, as this wasn't a paved yard, but they ended up on the tire tracks.

The shoe prints were deeper and ended up in the car than the ones Charles had seen going into the house. Damon had clearly been carrying something. Charles reported things to Magnum and Mimi had now been missing for over a week. They now didn't really know where to look or even what to look for. 

When Magnum had arrived at the house and the three of them had tried to figure out what to do next, Charles had looked at the CCTV footage to see where Damon had taken Mimi. They knew they had rescued her. 

Magnum knew Damon's car and license plate number, so Charles started looking and had the computer go through all the traffic cameras and other cameras, and every time he got a hit on Damon's car, he knew which cameras to look at next.

The pictures showed Damon had kidnapped the unconscious Mimi. They saw in one recording how Damon opened the trunk and gave Mimi an injection. So Damon had kidnapped Mimi.

The trail ended on the east side of Ohio. It showed Damon turning onto a forest road and it was long and there were roads with forks and houses and stuff and there was no camera anywhere.

They had to go down and try to locate where Damon had taken Mimi, Charles would be the quickest of all as he could change shape quickly and easily, Colin would take at least 20 minutes to change shape as he wasn't in the pack and wasn't under Bran either.

Colin took his medical kit with him while Magnum and Charles stocked up on blankets and other supplies, as they had strong doubts that Mimi was going to be OK.

Colin wondered in his mind what medicines might work for Mimi, but now they had to work with what they had, then when they found Mimi, they could plan again. 

Colin had reserved a tranquilizer gun for the vampires. It should make Salvatore subdued, or at least weakened properly. They set off down the same road that Damon had been driving on, but there were no tire tracks because of the recent rains.

They drove on until they came to the first junction. This was a remote area, and Damon could be anywhere. But Charles took off in pursuit. Charles had the advantage of being able to change shape instantly and painlessly. Mimi had been missing for two weeks.

The men sat in the car, looking at the big matte black wolf that seemed to disappear into the dark woods completely. The sun set. Neither of them could see Charles that well. It wasn't until dawn that Charles would howl. He had caught the scent.

When Charles turned into a wolf and went looking for the scent of Damon or Mimi, also the smell of a car, something in his mind kept digging, but he didn't pay that much attention to it. He took a wide route, looking for the scent on the ground. He walked along both roads and tried to look. For hours, he found nothing and felt the brother wolf getting nervous. He kept his wolf calm.

It was already dawn, and the wind was changing direction, blowing a little harder. Then Charles got a very fleeting whiff of a chill that the wind brought from somewhere far away. But he knew the direction. He howled and set off toward the smell.

But the wind was fickle, and often he would lose the scent completely, and he had to be patient, always searching and then finding the scent again, and trying to move on. To let the men know where he was going. Colin and Magnum followed in the car behind. 

The search was slow and the closer he got to the target, the stronger the smell became, and the need to find Mimi grew inside Charles all the time; he had not yet told the men anything about what he had actually smelt and it drove him to search and find Mimi as quickly as possible.

The smell of fear. That was what he followed and to have Mimi, the immortal, scared so badly that he could smell it in the air was a pretty damn hard feat and Damon had done whatever to Mimi. It took a lot of hard work to get to that point. 

 It took Charles three days to find the source of the smell. Dirty sheets were lying in the woods. There was blood, urine, shit, sweat. Everything from Mimi. What struck Charles's nose the most was the smell of fear trapped in the sheets.

He had just smelled this fear and now when he smelled the raw terror; it was almost too much, and he had to concentrate and get himself properly controlled. He knew something was still on his mind, but when it didn't surface so suddenly.

Mimi was terrified wherever she was. The men got out of the car, and Colin's eyes flashed bright green. He was a green-eyed wolf. He could smell Mimi's terror too and Magnum only had to look at the dirty sheets, the two werewolves in extreme agitation to realize that Mimi was not in a good place.

 Damon had to bring the sheets by foot in the middle of the woods because there was no car path and he couldn't leave Mimi alone for the time it would take to drive here. This also supported the theory because there was no sign of a car anywhere. Soon Charles found the trail. He went to follow it.

 Damon's trail was easy to follow as there were several bed sheet mounds. The path was becoming quite clear and the men's SUV was driving almost silently over the terrain. As Charles scouted ahead.

 They found a small cabin in the woods, almost coming out of a large shed. Charles cursed. Now he remembered. He had been in this cabin when Bran had once turned 85 people and he had been there to help and see how many survived.

12 survived and Charles remembered the graves he dug. He saw the gravesites even though it had been almost a hundred years since the event. This was one of Bran's huts where he turned humans into werewolves.

 He had these cabins all over the place and Charles and maybe six other men besides Bran knew the locations. Magnum and Colin came along. They drove the car pretty close. There was a road you could drive on. It was getting late at night and the men were ready to go.

They had a plan: go, stun Damon, and rescue Mimi. Colin had a tranquilizer gun with him, which would knock Salvatore unconscious because it had Vervaine darts in it. Now they would not give the Salvatore any chance to explain things as they were doing now. Charles went near the windows. He looked in.

The light was on in the cottage, and Charles saw Damon with his back to him. Drawing some medicine into a syringe and putting it into an IV bag. Magnum crept up next to the enormous wolf and watched as Damon hung the bag to drip full and Mimi's terror increased. 

Mimi was naked and tied to the table in terror. She didn't know where she was. Charles and Magnum could see it clearly. Magnum picked up his phone and recorded a moment of Damon talking to Mimi in a steady voice. 

 " See now, baby, the lesson must be learned. Now you are afraid of me. Your heart has already stopped from terror six times, you have died from sheer fear of me six times already. This dental stuff will help you remember this feeling and the next time you have to choose. You know what to do. Remember Mimi, pant, just about superficially, listen, I broke three of your ribs off. You're now in what's called a flail chest. Your chest isn't working as it should. Painful, isn't it, baby?"

 Magnum taped the whole damn scene. He was so furious when he knew he could have stopped this. But when Adam's pride wouldn't give in. He watched as Damon continued to abuse Mimi. Clearly enjoying himself.

 In between, Damon went to Mimi again and put his hand around her chest, squeezing hard. There was a series of cracking sounds, and Mimi almost did not breathe. Damon laughed as he watched Mimi. He made the drip bags drip.

 Magnum sent the video to Adam and just put up a short, cranky message about what Mimi had been through for two weeks, wondering if Mimi had had enough or if Adam still wanted the couple to work things out between them. 

 Adam's shock was obvious, as he did not know it would escalate to that extent. He did not know it would go that far. He sat back in his armchair and watched the video clip repeatedly, cursing his own pride. He remembered how Mimi protected him. Jumped in front of a bullet for him, and he, the alpha, abandoned his own pack member, causing this to happen to her. Adam was as ashamed as he could be and didn't know how he understood how to apologize to Mimi.

Colin was ready. He fired a vervain dart. Damon winced and turned around, but had no time to react when Charles jumped through the window at the same time and pinned Damon to the ground.

With a single snap, he snapped Damon's neck. Salvatore went limp. Charles turned into a human and went to open the door, letting Colin and the Magnum inside. 

 Magnum called Dresden and told him about Damon's behavior. He also sent a video clip. Dresden suspected Damon had at some point taken off his switch himself. He would make a magic potion to turn it back on. Good thing he just was in Ohio. Colin gave Damon a very strong sedative and lots of vervains. Damon would be weak.

Magnum promised to take Damon to Dresden to be fixed. They carried Damon to his car and Magnum took the keys and drove to the address given by Dresden. Colin had assured him that Salvatore would not be a problem and Charles had even tied him up effectively. They returned to Mimi's.

 Charles and Colin would stay behind to look after Mimi. Colin went through Mimi gently. She was bruised and battered but so messed up that he did not know where Mimi was hurting. When she said nothing, didn't speak or react, she just shook uncontrollably.

Colin cursed, as he didn't have any drug that would work on Mimi. He would have preferred to put Mimi under deep anaesthetic but Mimi being Mimi, her panic was almost too much and he shuddered with disgust when he saw the defibrillator on the table and the burns on Mimi's chest showing that Damon had restarted her heart after scaring her to death.

 Colin called Samuel and explained the situation. Samuel was also silent and sorry, but he helped where he could as Colin listed the drugs he had with him. Thiopental was the only one that would work for Mimi.

 He said that Mimi probably wouldn't sleep long on it. Mimi's resistance to thiopental had been steadily increasing and Samuel knew it would tire her out and if she was so exhausted, she might not fight the drug so hard.

Colin took all the help he could get. He found the medicine and took an even bigger dose than Samuel said.

 I was just in a state of terror and fear, and I didn't understand these new creatures at all. One was a big dog, enormous, but it didn't smell bad. Then it mutated into a human. Somehow it was safe, but when I wasn't really in my right mind and I understood nothing, I just got sensations.

One smelt of clover and it made me think of a leprechaun. One smelled of gunpowder and sweat and even women. That took away the evil that scared me.

 Charles took a couple of blankets from the car, wrapped a naked Mimi in them, and carried her into the car, holding her in his arms while Colin arranged his medicine in the trunk.

He had told Charles to take Mimi into the car, away from the awful place, so that she would calm down, at least a little, a little. The drug might work better.

 I felt myself being picked up and carried somewhere. Even though I was still scared, the subject of my fear was no longer present. I couldn't breathe because my lung was still punctured. I was tired, but I didn't dare to sleep with fear and terror waiting just below the surface.

I was shaking, and I didn't know why. Whether I was cold or afraid, I couldn't decide what was the main cause of my shivering. Someone took hold of me, but gently, and he didn't let go.

Charles held the shivering Mimi in his arms and when Colin came in with the ready syringe, he opened the wrapper a little to get Mimi's upper arm out.

Colin pushed the needle gently into the flesh, pressed the plunger, and rubbed it for a moment. He heard Mimi's ragged breathing and saw her bluish lips.

Charles again felt the shaking and fear of this non-existent mound in his lap. He rocked Mimi in his lap, waiting for the drug to take effect. Only then would Colin drive.

I was safe, though. Someone was rubbing my shoulder. I tried to stay still and not shake so much. I felt really drowsy and I couldn't feel anything as I blacked out and luckily, neither fear nor terror got through...

The medicine would take effect in about ten minutes, if not sooner, considering how skinny Mimi was once again. When you have to be held captive for two weeks without food on Mimi's metabolism, no wonder Colin thought in his mind.

Six minutes later, Mimi was already leaning heavily against Charles and asleep. They wrapped Mimi in warm blankets and put her in the back of the car.

Charles had trouble getting Mimi off his lap, but Colin had taken the warm blankets and made a nest for Mimi where she would be safe during the drive.

 Colin took Mimi to the Ohio house with Charles. There they put Mimi on intravenous nutrition and more powerful drugs so that Mimi could sleep and rest. He repaired the ribs and Samuel told him the medicines worked, but he was busy with Bran's werewolf infections. The evil medical scientists had picked up some pretty nasty germs, and he told her to keep Mimi safe so she wouldn't catch the germs.

Colin didn't put Mimi in an incubator, but just in the bed. Mimi was skinny but not in such a terrible shape that she couldn't keep her temperature with help. Colin sat and watched the sleeping creature. The physical damage would heal in a few days, but the mental damage, he didn't know and only time would tell.