35. Murheelisten laulujen maa. ( Country Of Sorrowful songs.)

I woke up in the morning with my head all drugged up. Oh, my God. I looked at myself. There were at least ten places on me where Damon had bitten. I got up, and the dizziness was pretty bad. I had to prop myself up for quite a while to get to the shower.

Every place was cramping and aching. I felt a vicious satisfaction come through our bonds when fucking Salvatore discovered I was awake. There was only passionfruit-scented body wash in the shower. When I turned on the water, it smelled of passionfruit, too.

Fine, I washed myself and put on my clothes. The entire house was empty. Adam's car was gone. There was a note on the kitchen table.

It was from Damon. "Baby, Adam, and his crew left. And they're not coming right back. Don't worry, Adam's fine, he just went to celebrate at Bran's. When I told him to. Adam's group got their orders, too, and left for the next gig. Now you're on your own again. What do you think of the little escapade? A little tender, aren't you? Those substances take time. I just couldn't stand to watch you sleeping happily on top of someone else when you belong to me. Damon, your husband."

 Oh, fuck me. Fine, this girl's going on a road trip. Not so easy to catch. I felt so fucking chased again and desperate, almost. I wanted to escape. 

A voice in my head said: "Oh yeah, I just filed a police report about my missing wife. I had my wallet with me, so I gave them your picture. I also told them how unpredictable you can be. Your bloodlust can make you wild. They'll tell me where you are right away. You're not going anywhere. In jail at the most, if you get caught properly. And then your husband will come and pick you up for a lesson. But, baby, don't take my word for it. Look online. You're on Amber Alert. Enjoy your road trip if you can be bothered to go."

Oh, you fucking asshole. I called Magnum and explained the whole thing. I tried to be businesslike and not let the panic set in. Luckily, I was pretty pissed off, so that helped a lot.

Magnum listened, grunted when I told him what had happened, and he said: "You should have told me earlier that it was going to get that bad. Dresden is ready and already making the potion base, too. I'll be there as soon as I can. I'll check that the Hauptmann is OK first."

I said, "Yeah, that's good. I don't know what the fuck I'm supposed to do."

Magnum said: "Do nothing. Wait, stay awake, barricade yourself in the room. I'll call you when I get there."

He promised to come and bring some equipment with him. He cursed harshly and said he would now check on Adam first.

Magnum called later to confirm what I already knew. Adam was celebrating hard. He now had one little pussy to spend time with. Oh, how Damon can isolate me from the pack when he doesn't have to?

I called Samuel and warned him. I got him to swear, too, and he said Charles was out partying and wouldn't be available. Charles had been eager to celebrate. Of course, Salvatore wants to get my assistant out. Colin had been forced to return to Ireland earlier, and he wouldn't be much use either. I would not involve my new friends in this at all because I didn't want Damon to take a shot at them.

Samuel started to drive towards me. But then he called to say he was going to a party, too, since he couldn't babysit.

The voice in my head said: "I'll give you Magnum, at least for a little while. Let's see if the human helps you, and I don't even have to compel him to women. He does it himself. He's good at finding them. He'll give you protection, but no one else, really. Soon, baby, soon I'll have my fill again."

His voice was creepily cold, emotionless. I was in one room and didn't move from there until Magnum called. He was at the front door; I gathered myself and went to open the door. Magnum's expression was downright scowling, but he wasn't angry with me, he too had confirmed the Amber Alert and knew that if he tried to transport me to another location, Salvatore would sabotage it and in the worst case, put him in jail for kidnapping.

Magnum arrived and came in, dragging a flight bag behind him. He lifted it onto the couch and opened it. He showed me my suit.

He was a real Q when it came to all the little pieces of protective gear, and he had already made a lot of my network of gear whenever we came back from a job with the loot. He went through it, always looking for materials he could use.

My armor or my protective suit was partly made of metal and partly made of some kind of plastic. It came up to my ears at the neck, but it was a pliable material. My hands were covered up to the fingers, as were my legs. He showed me how to put the armor on and then helped me into it.

It was black, matte, and surprisingly comfortable to wear, and he made me bite into it myself. No teeth went through, and I knew Damon didn't have that much more bite of power. Going to the bathroom wouldn't be a problem because the armor could be divided into a pants section and a shirt section. Damon would have a very hard time getting this off of me without waking me up.

Magnum also fitted my bedroom with a few more accessories. Among other things, I had taser gloves, meaning they had a built-in taser and would be easy to activate. I had motion detectors in the bedroom, a special mesh for the window, and screens for the air ducts.

We also had walkie-talkies, and he promised to put the mansion in order, finding the weak spots first and then moving on from there. He had also informed Dresden, who promised to make a potion base already if need be. I might not shower so diligently, but the security the armor provided was worth its weight in gold. The voice in my head had now gone quiet. I wondered in my mind if Mr. Salvatore had a minor problem.

 No black roses appeared. Magnum patrolled, tidied up the rooms, and went out to eat now and then. Cursing like hell because there were so many gaps that Salvatore could have easily slipped through, and he was only on the first floor. But apparently, just Magnum's fiddling and my armor made Salvatore back off and reconsider, perhaps.

I cooked and tinkered in the kitchen while it was downstairs, and Magnum told me the next time I bought a house to either take Adam or him with me so they could make sure the house was safe. I promised to do that if I remembered.

Magnum said, though, that he, too, now learned the lesson and would be there the next time he told me to buy a house, or better yet, that I should retreat to one of our own safe houses. They made the safe houses very secure so Salvatore wouldn't be able to get in there.

I had been with Magnum for four days now when I went to breakfast again, and Magnum was making coffee and swearing. He showed me his arms, which were covered with teeth marks. Magnum was also noticeably pale, and I told him to drink some of my blood, and that would help. I could hear his heart rate was elevated, and he was remarkably thirsty.

Damon said in my head: "That was hard to stop drinking, baby. A few sips and Magnum would have had a much more difficult to treat anemia, even fatal."

Oh fuck, that he had the nerve to admit that he had come close to killing Magnum. Then I saw no choice but to tell Magnum to get out because that was close. Magnum was a human being, and if Damon had had a little more to drink, well... I didn't even want to think.

I had my armor. He'd damn near confessed he'd been willing to kill. Rage raised its head.

Before Magnum left, he said: "Don't make that mistake; remember, rage will make you sloppy, and now is not the time to be sloppy at all; now is the time to be very careful and cautious."

I nodded and watched as Magnum left. Now, I was alone again, but in armor.

I baked that day, I cooked, and I ate, Salvatore's creepy voice echoing in my head. I attempted to remain calm, aware of my safety inside my armor, and the taser gloves would deliver a significant blow if Damon attacked directly. As a contingency, Magnum had already prepared a sturdy cage in the basement in case they or I apprehended Damon.

I worked all day and night and saved the shower in the morning. I felt satisfied after showering happily in the morning, using something other than passionfruit to wash myself. I got out of the shower, my hair now blonde as I had decided it would be, and wrapped a towel around me as I went to dry. I was very shocked when I came out of the bathroom.

On my bed was my armor, torn into little pieces, and I had heard nothing. The door had been closed, and the trickling water had masked the sound. Oh shit. The panic was creeping in once again.

Damon said: "When you know chemistry, armor like that is easy to break. All it takes is a few chemical reactions, and there's your protection. Fun, baby."

Creepy fucking guy. I barricaded myself in my room and sat on the bed, looking at the pieces of armor, and the plastic or whatever it was had partially melted. I got dressed, and then Adam called.

He was on his way back after Nick had broken Damon's compulsion. He'd also given Adam his own blood, which would prevent Damon from getting into Adam's head for a couple of days at least. He'd given his blood to go with it. I breathed a sigh of relief. He said he'd be there in eight hours.

Damon was ready, the shed was set, Mimi was isolated, and Adam coming back would be no obstacle. He sat in the attic in peace, biding his time. He couldn't help himself when all these weeks he'd had constant thoughts of Mimi doing whatever and whenever and how she'd slept on top of Adam or resorted to Magnum.

No, no, it was time for his wife to learn a few things again, and maybe when she got her point across crushingly enough, Mimi would learn, but he had an eternity to teach her this. Mimi was immortal, and he was immortal, but after enough lessons of his time, Mimi would learn and learn well.

The rage and manipulation of evil, and the evil spirit that this had once again provoked to torment the core that had escaped from its prison, prevented him from seeing reality and understanding the consequences of his actions. His mind was filled with nothing but rage, bitterness, and jealousy, and he couldn't even remember what had happened after the previous lesson. 

Evil was ready. He was strong enough now that he could always surface from time to time, watch the invincible suffer, be weak, and he would be strong. How could he feel his own power over the invincible? How would he feel, hear, and notice the pain, the confusion of this weakness? And then, when and if someone caught them, that wizard's potion would put the core neatly back in the cage, and he wouldn't have to do anything.

Sure, the potion always got to him, but he was stronger now and better at manipulating the good even more. He was looking forward to this, too. He would enjoy himself, and he could become one day if he could take over the body, a wizard, a black wizard, and then he would be unstoppable. And that was his birthright. Someday, he would be the one who would just be in this body with nothing left, no one else. 

I heard a car pull up. Adam called from the yard, and I went to open the door. I rushed into Adam's arms when he came and told him everything. The Magnum armor, the Amber Alert, everything. I showed him the black roses and the medicine jars again, everything.

Adam calmed me down, looked at me for a moment, and said, " Now you need some stress relief again. Now we're going to go to bed, not the master bedroom but somewhere, and fuck until you get yourself a little more under control. This will help.

So, we ended up going to bed again to relieve the tension. Adam was relentless and fucked me hard; he didn't restrain my hands now but flattened me down and took me hard, so hard that I came several times; in the end, I was completely limp and calmer, and Adam was drenched in sweat, tired but happy. The smell of our sex floated around the room, and the pear combined with the strawberry champagne was not an unpleasant smell at all. Once again, I climbed on top of Adam to sleep.

I woke up to someone tickling my nose. I opened my eyes and was startled. It was Damon. I tried to move so that Adam would wake up. Adam was still under me, but deeply asleep. Damon held his hand over my mouth. I felt a prick in my neck as he whispered, "Sleepy time, baby."