32. Hollywood Hills.

Mariella acted fast. She found the magic house, and it was a procreation version, meaning it was more or less meant that someday they would make babies in there. Then she got from the magic house the linking crystals, ran back to the house, she made a fast spell to locate the best medbay, the third floor was the right place so she teleported there, found the good, huge room, and put the linking crystals on the doorjamb. One word and magic was activated, and soon medbay was forming there. 

When she got the medbay linked up, she teleported and went to Mimosa to get several bags of straps. Mariella tasted some of the stuff and got the formula, too. As she had those bright pink bags with little crystals in them, they tasted like cotton candy and raspberries; she knew they needed something. 

Her teeth modified the substance a bit, and Mimosa said, "That's what I've been waiting for. I knew one day, someone would come along and make it perfect. Now, you just add that kind of stuff to every bag, and it should hold the straps better and longer. "

Mariella took jars and bit dark purple stuff in that jar. One milliliter was all that was needed and now she gave the new formula for Mimosa too, so she could do the right stuff right away. She took the syringe and drew her additive, injected that into the bags, and shook them until they were more magenta colors. They were now ready. She teleported back to that house in Bolivia, put the medbay ready, and those bags on the drip rack and she had the cannula ready too.

Mariella prepared the bags and medbay. "Damon, third floor, upstairs. I'm ready. The strap material is now perfect."

Damon said, "Darling, Mimi has earth metallic compounds in it. Should you be there? She is not in good shape and other metals have been cursed into her so it is not easy to get them off."

Mariella sighed. Oh, for that, "Damon, I have the glove in case you don't remember, and I won't panic again as you take it off. Come here, and I'll see if I can get anything off, but it won't be easy if they are compounds. What comes to curses? Let's see what we can do together to break those curses or mitigate them."

Damon sighed. Mariella was always the voice of reason. She was calm and ready. He now is perhaps a little overprotective of his wife, but that's allowed. Mariella was everything to him, or at least it felt that most of the time. But as he kept his now unconscious wife, weighing so damn little against him, feeling her sickness, there were actual feelings in him for her too. He could not deny that. 

Damon held Mimi tightly in his grip and wrapped her energetically in a cocoon. He stood up and made it out of the cave, crawling first. Then, once Mimi was firmly under his control, his teeth held the straps 30. He teleported to Mariella, apparently in the medbay.

Mariella noticed Damon had arrived. She turned around to see that Damon sat on the bed with Mimi in his arms. Mimi was now apparently unconscious, as she had gone limp a minute ago, and Damon started swearing and struggling to keep the straps on. Mimi's face, what Mariella could see, was ashen grey, not an excellent color at all, and her fingers were almost bluish.

Damon said to Mariella in his head, "Unconscious, I can't hold the straps on now, no way. Can you get the cannula on that side? I think this lady just ran out of strength. This is not going well. Goddamn it. Fucking freaking ball sweaty Damien."

Mariella rolled her eyes at Damon's quite colorful choice of words. Her guardian radar as well as her saviour radar screamed at her, but she kept her composure and said. "Damon, I'm going to get into this bed, and you lay Mimi on her back so you can get the cannula in place, and I'm going to sink my teeth right into Mimi's heart and give her the new stuff. Can you get Mimi's shirt off before you lay her down so I can get my teeth in quickly? "

Damon said in his mind to her, "Fine, but she is infected, so you better keep your shields on. She is light as a feather so it should be easy access to her heart, which is not beating very well at this minute. "

Damon did as instructed and stripped Mimi naked with a spell. Mimi's skin was full of deep wounds. It was white as a sheet, burned in places, some kind of rash too.

Mariella readied her teeth, and as Damon laid Mimi down on the bed, Mariella sank her teeth into Mimi's heart. The straps were nine. They lasted 11. Mariella shot up her strap agents as fast as she could, praying in her mind that Mimi would last. She had to hold on.

Mariella could sense those metals and compounds in Mimi, and some of them were the worst threat to her straps, so once they could stabilize her, those would be her priority, no matter what Damon would want to do.

Damon decided not to look at Mimi's straps for the time being and cannulated her central line, it was not so easy as she had no measurable blood pressure but by using see-through magic and some dexterity he managed to swim the cannula deep enough into her vein and secure it with few drops of his blood. Once he got the cannula in place, he put one bag fully open to drip into the vein. He put extra bandages around that cannula as it was needed, and it had been a little tricky to get in place. 

The bag was flooding into Mimi's vein. It had an effect, thankfully. The straps were already 45. They held. Mariella removed the teeth from Mimi's heart and watched the straps hold. Luckily, they had the bags of straps, and now they just had to figure out the problem that threatened the straps the most. 

Damon had now tuned four more bags to drip more slowly. Mariella picked up her gloves and started pulling metals. And there they were—an incredible amount.

Damon got on board to help her and they started to unravel those curses same time. That enabled Mariella to also get them out in combinations. There was a horror quartet of platinum, silver, molybdenum, mercury, and earth metals. Mariella got all the earth metals, and Mimi's situation improved slightly.

They took a few hours of rest- Mimi was stable, more or less, still very weak, but they had a two-hour quickie, a good decent meal, and a hot shower. Then they were ready to work again. Mimi was too quiet. She had not woken up and something reminded Damon of something and once Mariella took her gloves again, starting to pull, reason was found. Here was beryllium, which made Damon gasp sharply as he remembered how it almost killed Mimi last time. 

They pulled still a lot of metals and they just could not get all out. It was another pause for them, to get food and drink, sex, and then they would see what was next in line. 

I woke up in medbay. I was very weak and I could still feel some metals in me. Pharmaceutical panic drugs were fully on, many of them, and I was in severe pain, too. Everywhere in my body, hurt and agony were just too much. I was way too weak to even move, and this was scary stuff because I was so damn helpless. I feared Damon and Mariella, fully at their mercy and weak as a kitten. I tried to hold on to some part of my sanity, but my rage was all gone and drugs took my reason pretty much out of the game. 

Damon and Mariella returned to medbay. Mimi was lying on her back, with her eyes closed, but Damon could smell her fear, and with a little probing, he could feel her immense fear and drug-induced panic swirling in her mind. This was not gonna be easy, but there was a solution to this. Damon knew Mimi was awake and terrified. He could sense it. What we need now is a little close-call care. Damon remembered how Mimi had slept in Charles' arms.

He would never forget that. But he had learned from that too and the ghost pain felt in his heart. Now it was his turn to help her. Make her feel safe so she would start to chop off those drugs or they would get into her bloodstream. Even the thought of asking Adam and Charles here to help made him physically nauseous.

Damon said in his mind to Mariella, "Darling. Mimi's awake but terrified. For some reason, she's afraid of both of us. Now I have to try to get that fear out of her. She's got a fear ball in her head, and it's kind of tangled. It is partially because of that shed session, and this is her trademark, so to speak. We'll have to try to get the nightmares out of her head somewhere in the meantime. Dismantling that ball is the number one thing now, and the way to do that is to go and hold Mimi against me, as long as she's not scared, and that may take some time. This is the same as last time; this helps, but now Miss is scared, so this may take time. Gotta do a little headwork in the meantime. Are you okay, darling?"

Mariella was pleased. Damon was doing now what he was supposed to be doing, and that left her free to do some exploration. She wanted to go explore the castle and its rooms, but she also knew that this was very important for some reason to Damon.

"I'm fine, Damon, but promise me you will. You will one day tell me why you must do this. I want to hear the story."

Damon nodded. He breathed in his mind, "Wait there a minute, darling. I'll let you know if I need anything. Mimi is so medicated right now. I need to get her to calm down so she can start sleeping off the meds and breaking them down on her, or at least getting them in her blood. Mimi is back on panic meds, big doses too, but these seem extra sedative and add to the confusion, and feeling of helplessness too. Let's see if Missy can get them to chop or come out on her own, as these meds love to be in the brain, not the blood, so they are a bit tricky to get in blood so my teeth could help. My teeth feel Mimi's confusion and sedation and want to help. "

Mariella said, "Fine. I will wait here for a while. She is in not good shape but this is the first thing that helps, her infections are very nasty too. "

Damon grunted just softly as he started to prepare for this. Mariella sat down in a chair to watch. Damon walked calmly to the side of the bed, his upper torso bare. He slipped his arms under Mimi as if he thought she was asleep and moved her to lie down, then climbed into bed himself and very calmly but firmly, without disturbing the cannulas, gathered Mimi into his arms and pressed her cheek against his chest.

I was frozen in fear as I felt Damon touching me, and then he lifted me, came same bed with me, and took me against him, I trembled in fear. There was no pee coming out of me, but if I had had any, I would probably pee under myself. He stroked me, kept me against his strong warm body, not letting me move at all, and I could feel him in my mind. He was using some kind of spell to make me feel less scared and calm down. Then I heard it. He was purring at me and I had no choice but to feel this incredible safety, and I was so tired that I fell asleep, feeling him purring at me, all the time. 

He stroked her back and hair. Mariella went to tuck them both in. Finally, Mariella heard it. It was muffled at first, but she crept closer and saw that Mimi had, in fact, finally fallen asleep in Damon's arms. And Damon purred. He had never once purred to Mariella before. The sound was deep, low, a purr, soothing, but it was one of Damon's contentment.

Mariella left them to be when Damon said, " Now you can go, darling, this will take a while, but I already got Mimi to sleep. We'll see how it goes when she wakes up. We must start treating these infections and sepsis at some point, but for now, let's get this horror out of the way first. She is in a very fragile state, and I need to get these tangles out of the way so she can rest."

Mariella nodded. Damon instructed her more in his mind yet.

" Come back in three hours to draw a blood tube so we can maybe see that Mimi needs help with the chopping, but if we can get the medicine to stink up the blood, then we can help. Three hours, darling."

Mariella said with amusement, "Damon, you purr like a cat. That's a lovely sound. You should make me rattle sometimes. "

Damon laughed. "Mimi taught us to purr. You should ask your protector to purr for you. Charles is like an engine. He has a loud purr. I didn't always purr for a long time because of shed episodes. Then, every once in a while, it comes up. Purring needs to be born out of need, and I felt guilty and all the shit because of shed sessions that stopped me from purring."

Mariella smiled to herself as she went off to explore the castle.

I was safe. That sound was warm and comforting; I hadn't heard it in ages. Damon purred to me. Fear began to recede. I could feel Damon in my head, unloading the fear, dispelling it just like he used to do. Decades ago. Now he used those songs, one song at a time, and brought something up, but he did not let me see or feel anything about them as he took them away.

I understood now how he had planned that whole thing, using those songs as hooks or tags in that memory, and I couldn't try to hide that memory because of those tags. I was helpless and sick. I smelled the passionfruit, and I knew I was tight against Damon, and he was still purring at me. He took whole terrible memories and fear out of my mind, gently, but firmly, not letting me have anything to say about that. He somehow installed our song, Casablanca and Eternal Flame, back where they had been and what influence they had had on me. 

I knew the panic pharmaceuticals, too. I knew they were still on. Some version or someone wouldn't let me sleep them off. I wondered for a moment. Oh, I'm too weak to suppose I go to sleep off them. It just leads to this intense infection getting worse.

I need to get rid of the infection by myself. I need to be strong and get better, so need anyone to care for me. I have to fight infections. Fine. Let's bring out the chaos power. I felt my chaos better than in a little while I had ever felt it, so I used it. Let's put it into that infection if it helps. Next up, let's bring big guns. Your own will. I pushed my will into my body, trying to get that fighting the infection. It made me feel even more powerless, but I needed more power. Next up is Rage. Rage would probably help. I pushed my rage onto the surface and tried to squirm myself free from Damon's grip.

Somehow, it felt less secure. Something in my mind told me I needed to be alone. That's the only thing that helps me. Damon, shed session. No, I need to get away. Even though I do not remember anymore that session so well, I knew it had been brutal enough for him to kill me. He had enjoyed it and now he was just trying to fix me so he could enjoy some more. 

Damon sighed. He kept Mimi tightly against him, trying to calm her down as she had awakened and tried to squirm free and use her powers, but she was too weak and Damon feared that this fussing would make sepsis even worse. 

He spoke to Mariella in his mind, "Mariella darling, come here, and let's smell the blood. The lady is awake and fighting with everything she can think of, but now I don't know if it's so wise. She is too weak and I fear she will spend herself too down."

Mariella came. Mimi was still close to Damon, but Mariella could see he was awake. Mimi's eyes were open. She tried to squirm and move. Her skinny pale body was writhing in Damon's grip, and she was grunting softy. 

Mimi tried to get out of Damon's grip and she had brought her rage, chaos, and will into play. Mariella walked to the bedside, reached out, and took her pale arm, putting a needle and collector in her most prominent vein as Damon kept her arm steady and Mariella got eventually a tube of blood from Mimi.

She let Damon sniff first.

Damon grunted and said, "Nope, there's no medicine properly digested yet. Not much is in her blood, even. There's another medicine in there. It's probably messing Mimi up pretty bad now because my teeth are suggesting extra strong velvet. My teeth liked her to go to sleep and good."

Mariella sniffed the tube and said, "Yeah, I smell that medicine, too. Let me see, haa, my radar tells me it's psychoactive, so Damien has probably given some kind of command or suggestion that's trying to come on. There could be many reasons Mimi won't let herself sleep. One way to keep her weak is not to let her rest and spare her strength. She is more or less programmed almost, but it is very light, gotten on with the help of that drug. "

Damon said, "Fine, then let's get to work and find that reason if I could just get Mimi to believe that it's safe to sleep. I can pluck out that programming easily enough if I just find it. If it is so subtle, it is difficult to find, as Mimi sees it as her own thoughts. "

Damon first put Mimi's chaos under control. He used his will to suppress it. It was difficult but Mimi was weak, next; he ate all the rage that had spilled and put the rest of it into its well. Mimi's will was not very strong. He tried next to get her to calm down and tell him what stopped her from sleeping. 

Damon talked in my mind to me, "Baby, just sleep. You're fine. Just sleep. You see, your chaos power is under control; I ate your rage back into the well. Your will, that baby, is not at its best. Can you tell me why you can't sleep?"

I sighed. I cannot sleep. My body can't shut down so much. I need to keep my body awake. I need my powers. If I go to sleep, I might not wake up and they know it, that's why they want me to sleep. This one doesn't understand but fine explained then to the pack doctor.

"Damon. There's an infection in my brain. If I go to sleep, it will take over, trust me. Damien shoved pathogens directly into my brain. If I go to sleep, I might not wake up. I have to do this alone. Otherwise, I can't do it. I need to keep my body alive, keep it awake. I'm alone. I might be contagious too, so I need to just be myself. That's good. I'm just the best person to help myself. I need to be alone. I don't get better if I'm not alone. You want me to sleep and not to wake up, same as Mariella does, too."

My voice was quiet, but determined. 

I tried to sound normal. Reasonable, "I mustn't be weak. I have to be strong. Be alone. Always. You can leave. You are free of me. Try to understand. Please don't get angry, and do a shed session."

Damon continued to stroke me. His voice was a warm whisper in my ear. 

"You're not supposed to be alone. You've been programmed in the brain that you need to be alone. I don't know when, who, or why, but, baby, it's programming. I'll help it go away, but I don't know if I can make it go away completely. "

Damon continued to stroke me, pressing my face against his neck more.

His voice rumbled softly next to my ear, " I never do a session, remember? It was for medical reasons, and I haven't helped it through it, right? Go to sleep, and I'll do a little magic in your head. We're a pack. You're mine. Remember my vampire wife, my alpha wife, baby? That's why you must sleep."

He kept me close to him. I could feel him in my mind, too.

He continued to speak to me," Your brain needs a rest now. Believe me, the infection will go away. It's gonna be okay. Just try to get some sleep. You know, that's the best way to get the meds out. "

Damon was soothing, gentle, and persuasive. Eventually, I fell asleep and fell deeply asleep. 

Damon sighed as Mimi fell asleep. He had found those suggestions not to sleep, to be active, and those he had gotten plucked very easily away. Mimi was thin as a rail. Very sick still and once she was deep enough asleep to wake up, Mariella could start to treat her. Damon kept her next to him, kept her asleep, and directed Mariella on what to do next. Slowly infections or some of them were starting to go away because they had done very strong antibiotics. Damon had collectors in his fangs too, as his antibiotic was concentrated and needed to dilute before giving it to Mimi.

Damon eventually left Mimi to sleep in the incubator. Mimi had been sleeping in his arms for two weeks, and the infection was slowly going away. He had done his work in her mind, too. He had again found the fear balloon from the shed and had managed to dislodge it. All the memories were more or less very mild what Mimi had and those should not give her nightmares at all.

The programming was old; Damon softened it what he could, but the years had also taught Mimi that lesson, time and time again. The pharmaceuticals had all been chipped when Mimi fell deeply enough to sleep; they had smelled them in Mimi's blood, and their teeth had made their substances.

Mimi was still very fragile and weak. The infection could flare up. Mimi was not maintaining her body temperature and was still in a very deep coma. Damon couldn't understand why. Her panic pharmaceuticals and the rest of the metals were gone. He couldn't smell any of the drugs. Infections were under control, not fever and her skin was intact, no more wounds or rash. Despite that, his teeth weren't doing anything.

Damon went to eat after another visit to check on Mimi. They did give Mimi an intravenous bump and other nutrients, but Mimi's weight didn't go up terribly. She weighed only 22 kilos. Mimi's metabolism was at rock bottom. It was quite obvious that Mimi was so spent, her powers, her spark was so weak that even she would not die, she would remain in this state for long time. No normal energy transfer helped. Her body could not take it. Damon knew there was one thing he could try. He once did it when Mimi was seriously injured in an incubus attack. Mimi had been dead for an entire week at first but had chosen Damon and love.

Damon knew that one day he would have to tell that story to Mariella because it was still painful to remember the emptiness inside Mimi—the energy transfer right between their hearts. This would be the only thing that could give Mimi the energy for her spark. And help her heal too.

Damon set out to explain it to Mariella. "Darling, I have to give Mimi a special energy transfer. I give it from my heart directly to her heart. Her spark is too spent. This will help. Now, I don't know how long it will take, but if we want to bring Mimi out of her coma, then this is the way to go, otherwise, it could be even a year before her spark would get strong enough and there is a danger that Adam or Charles would try this but this is something that only old vampires can do, and vampire husbands. "

Mariella nodded. That would be interesting to see. Damon finished his meal and lifted Mimi from the incubator to the bed. He stripped naked and removed Mimi's clothes. He laid Mimi down on the bed so he could lie down next to her, and then he took her against him so their hearts touched.

Mimi was still very pale, a mere skeleton, and Mariella marveled at the tenderness that Damon had when he handled her. With her, Damon was rough, and brutal in his grips, but as he pulled Mimi tight against himself, he was so gentle.

She saw how Damon concentrated and felt the first tendrils of energy leave his heart and go into hers. He felt the connection between them. Strand by strand, the connection grew stronger until Damon fell asleep. Mariella tucked them both in carefully and went back to exploring the castle.

She had so much fun as she made food, looked at so many rooms that were readily decorated, and changed stuff around too. She got some ideas about herself too, what she would like to do and she visited from time to time in medbay to see how things were going. Mimi's color had improved and Damon's energy had gotten some weight on her too, not much but some. All of this was so new to Mariella and she wanted to hear all of those stories behind these needs that Damon had. 

Damon woke up three days later after the energy transfer was complete. He left the now warm Mimi in her bed and went to shower. He washed all Mimi's strawberry scent out of his skin. Then he walked like a Terminator to Mariella and teleported her to another house where he concentrated on fucking Mariella's brains out. Now he had done his duty, and it was time to live with his Mariella. He did not want to share her, not at all. She was his, as he was hers, too.