1. Always.

When Adam and Charles returned from the gig, Bran called them into his study. They were tired, wanting to spend time with Mimi, but they had been working on fleas very much and getting things in proper order in there. What had gotten a little difficult was how much Murdock and Charles argued. They seemed not to get along so well, and Adam had been the referee quite many times. They had gotten now better on as Magnum was in that too. They walked tiredly into that study and sat on chairs. Damon was already there, waiting.

As they sat down, Bran said, "Damon just saw Mimi, and she's going to hunt the Sark and catch it and damage it enough to make it harmless but alive and then abandon it somewhere in an institution. But the lady, when she has no backup of any kind, no one to do with. Mimosa and Mirella, are making wings. The lady is hot-headed for Sark and takes out her rage very easily, and you both know where that leads. But I don't want to, and Damon doesn't want to be constantly denying just for the thrill of denial, so we've decided to give the lady a go. We're the support she hasn't asked for, but she's getting it anyway. If something goes wrong, we all see it and can then discuss whether it could have been done differently or where Mimi slipped up. And if there is a need to train her or even punish her if she is careless, then we have all seen it, and you do have to rely on your own eyes."

Charles said, "I get the plan, but would it be simpler just to go with her, straight up and not to ambush her? I feel like this is an ambush and we are baiting her." 

Damon said coolly, "It might be, but she told me not to get involved as this requires Sark to be alive and I know you too well Cornick too that you would kill him, no questions asked. So let's see if she can really pull this off. "

Bran nodded to Damon and said in a very calm voice, "Mimi is immortal but she is also inexperienced and sometimes you just have someone like her to make her own mistakes so she can learn from them. When it comes to punishment, you know what Charles, and Adam too, how I trained you, and how much it helped. I know you too are men in love but this is pack business and I can order this lesson or punishment if you, Charles cannot, we need to let Mimi learn and you know as well I, that sometimes lessons are bitter, painful but those are the lessons that you actually learn from. " 

The men nodded, and Damon said. " Now we will go and shadow the lady so that we are ready to fight and prevent if anything goes wrong. " 

They all went away from Bran's office and Bran knew exactly what the punishment would be. He trusted Damien on this. He had no idea that Damien used Damon's telepathy and dispelled his memories of his little manipulations in the past. Damien knew that Bran used some sort of magic on Damon to make him see Bran as a friend, so this was a lovely play with manipulation all around. A real triangle of who is manipulating who.

My plan was five minutes away from execution. Now I knew the sark routine as well as I could and had everything ready in the car. A tranquilizer, shackles, and then an anesthetic. I put my instruments on the sterilizer so they would be good to go. After this, Mr. Sark would be about as smart as a shrimp, and he wouldn't kill any more fleas.

I got into position and started waiting. When I saw Sark step out of the building, my pulse quickened, and I was freaking pleased because I would have two idiots to deliver. Sark and Krycheck. Fucking perfect. I watched as the men entered the restaurant and Sark entered the men's room. I was waiting. The fast-acting diuretic in his coffee guaranteed he'd need the toilet. I stood in ambush and let him take his need, and then I stuck a syringe in his neck and took him out the back to my car. Sark was conscious but almost out cold as I walked him to my car. Then I put him in my trunk, gave him another dose and he was out cold. Time to get my bonus, my gift to Damon.

I knew that Krycheck was arrogant and not waiting for me at his table. And he doesn't have the multiplication magic, so he's probably a much nicer guy to control if he wants to survive. I had some extra tranqs with me, so he would be under control soon enough. 

I calmly walked over to the seat opposite Krycheck, and he almost choked on his coffee. He looked around him, scared. 

I said, "Hello Alec, I guess you weren't expecting me, fine. Now, what happens next depends on how nice you can be because I have no problem ending your life in this place if you give me one little reason. But if you can behave, you can live as long as you assure me that you'll never attack the fleas, me, or my pack. Well, maybe I could let you play with Bran. I still have no good feelings for him, but what would you know? So how about it, Krycheck, are you a good boy or not? You could become an ally for me, but that would require you to really show your loyalty to me and just for me. I could give you so many good victims to play and torture. I know you don't have many demons, for example, to play with. "

Krycheck nodded and looked at me suspiciously. He was trying to survive and maybe get something out of this. I was not gonna let him be part of the fleas. I was not Damon. I had no problem lying in his face.

I said. "just get up and walk nicely to the front door so I don't have to shove this poisoned stick in you. That's it ." I showed a stick in my hand. 

I guided Krychek to the side of my car and jabbed him, too. He was out cold as ever. Then, I happily drove back to the house with my victims. I took Sark and then Krycheck when I got to the house.

Both were still unconscious, and I tied Sark first to the operating chair, where he would be in just the right position so I could do a little damage to his brain. I could have just about stuck a stick in there and twirled it around, but I wanted to do very precise damage, and best of all, Sark would be awake the whole time I was destroying him, so I could see exactly when I'd done enough, as far as the Krycheck was concerned, Damon would have to deal with him.

I went and put on my gown, and my gloves ready, and took my instruments ready too. I would love to see how long Damon can make Krycheck last. Or even Damien, if he is real. Krycheck was free to kill and I knew that Damon would make him suffer the maximum amount. 

I can't help it if I always want to use my husband's abilities to my advantage. Yeah, Krycheck would probably appreciate the shed treatment. Kycheck was unconscious; I had given him an even stronger anesthetic and put him on a gas anesthetic and monitor so it wouldn't get too bad. Then I'd got Sark tied in place so he couldn't move, and I'd already exposed his brain.

I had my instruments ready. This won't take too much time, a few little cuts, excision of tissue, putting my dental stuff that causes scarring so no hope of repairing, and putting his noggin back together. My dental also would nullify any attempts to mend his brain with vampire blood too. Good stuff. 

Men were ready outside of the house. Damon had shown them from the window the whole place. They watched as Mimi put Sark in place, opened his skull, and then just waited.

Charles muttered under his breath, "What the hell she is waiting for.."

Damon hissed, "Well, she is careless. She wants Sark to be awake as she cuts him and I am not sure if Sark has a suicide pill on him. I know that if I had that kind of magic, I would have one too."

Charles moved to the door and went inside. Silently, hearing Mimi speaking softly to Sark, he moved closer.

Now, I just waited for him to wake up... He started to move, and I gave him time to detect where he was and with whom.

I said, "Good morning, you're about to have brain surgery and don't worry, you'll get out of it alive, but you won't be the same. I'm going to give you very specific brain damage. I'm going to make sure you don't kill yourself, and you'll live a long time but in an institution and you won't be able to communicate with anyone. You'll be about as smart as a shrimp. You'll never kill another flea again. Not much of your little resurrection spells if you are an idiot living in the asylum for decades. "

Sark was silent and said, "An interesting plan, but flawed. Well, you made the same mistake as all the bad guys in some movies; you should have just cut and not talked well soon. I'm coming after you, and I've got a crew with me, and we're going to take you down and see what you think of then, my flea when I get into your brain. "

Suddenly, Sark started to convulse, and foam came out of his mouth. Oh no, a suicide pill. Oh fuck. Oh, fuck fuck. I quickly removed Sark and started CPR. If I kept his body alive, the next Sark mightn't wake up.

Charles strode to Mimi. She had to get to safety. God damn, Adam was there too. Looking around. Damon was nowhere to be seen. 

I didn't even notice when Charles came and pulled me up with a glare of anger in his eyes and said, "You fucking idiot. Sark was right. Why did you have to wake him up? Come on now, there's no time to waste unless you want to go to the medical facility."

He dragged me into the car and slammed me into the front seat. And he came and drove the car himself. He was driving fast and swearing all the time.

I'd never seen Charles so agitated, and I said, " Sark had to be awake, so I know where to cut to do the damage; where the fuck was I supposed to find out he had a suicide pill with him?"

Charles grunted and said, "Back up, Mimi. Don't fucking solo. I would have made sure he had no way of killing himself first because that would have been the logical thing to do. Because of that magic. You know yourself; if you get caught and are in danger of being questioned, then what... "

I was silent. Yes, I knew. I'd had to kill fleas myself to keep them out of the hands of the Krycek. Krycheck!

I said, "What about krycheck? "

Charles said, "Salvatore was there too. I don't know if he took him, and I don't know if he's going to kill him, but Mimi, you're going to have to learn a little bit more about this stuff. You should take a friend with you and one who's experienced because he can see things that you idiot didn't even think about. You should have told me about this. We could have done this together. And we could make it work, but no, you just have to get to do everything by yourself. Goddamn you!!"

He was actually shouting at me, was very furious with me. I was silent now. I didn't know what to make of this because Charles was furious too well; next time, I'd know better.

Damon's voice in my head said in an infinitely soft, pleasurable way, and I knew this was a Damien, "No, there will not be next time, Mimi, now you've shown your hand to Sark, if there's an opportunity like that, baby, you can be sure it's a trap. Sorry, I didn't get Krycheck. Heh, Sark saved him. Maybe I let them. You are, after all much better victim for me. And when it comes to my promise that no human survives from my shed, well, that was not my shed, so I let him go, and live another day. Oh yeah, Mimi, when I get to train you for this, I can guarantee you'll be taking another sick day. I knew this would happen. You see that Sark in the shed, the original one, had one pill in his mouth too, but I took it out. I just did not tell you that little fact. We will have such a good time ahead of us, baby, and this time it is not about breeding."

Oh fuck, what a lovely shed session is coming my way. My plan had just blown up in my face. Satan Damien let krycheck go. Charles was way too furious with me even to try to convince him and he was not loving at all. His expression was tight, his hands gripped that wheel tightly and something in me knew that this was not the thing to have him in this state, but I was pretty helpless to do anything, as there was not much to say. I knew that god damn Bran was in that house where we were driving, another one of his little small dwellings. Let's see how good a session this will tune out to be. There is not much good in my life, not at all. It felt that no one in this pack was ever on my side, but all they were doing was baiting me, waiting for to me fail, only so they could punish me. Well, let's take this then too.