33. Bridge Over Troubled Water.

I sat in the dim light with a blood bag next to me and counted the seconds. First, I had to set a pace for the time I could eat, then lengthen it and the amount. I also had to watch it. I knew that when I changed the form, I wouldn't need any more blood, but stopping every time wasn't so simple. I needed those bags. They were Reyes Farrow's blood.

He had busted out of hell from those shackles and I had been alert, not fallen into his trap. I had gotten Wulfe to trap him with the potent spell that he could not be undone, and with his blood, I could get myself under control. He was still trapped in the castle's cellar in the deepest part of Siberia, my huge Russian castle, and he was not going anywhere. We had collected his blood for years now and collected his powers. I had it all around in my little stashes in case of an emergency like this. But with those two bags, I would be okay. Side effects would not be so bad. 

It would make the difference. Then my rage would be next to deal with but I could do it in the gym, no need Magnum this time. Self control was the key word. 

Damon and Wulfe walked up to that room.

Wulfe said. "I can't tell you who that blood is from. But you might be able to deduct it if you taste it and ask me some questions. The lady was fully in her powers, wide open, just like now when she compelled me. But I found out this blood would put her vampire side down. There are side effects, like irritation, and rage out, and a few physical symptoms, like rash, headache, and not wanting to eat, but it takes a few weeks for those to clear up. I had worked on her three months before I got this to my hands. So she ain't easy and she will attack. There is no stopping her, so be careful."

Damon grunted, took one of the bags, and sipped it. It was super strong, very bitter, and it almost burned his mouth. This was a supernatural and strong one, but not a demon. Like an incubus, but only so much stronger. He could feel power flooding in his veins like no other.

Damon thought for a moment about what to ask of Wulfe and he asked, "Is this the blood of someone that Mimi had met before? Have I met this creature?" 

He was thinking about that damn incubus king whose head he had severed a long time ago when Mimi had died. It should not be possible for him to wake up but, the world was a crazy place. He had been awakened a few times after that, though. 

Wulfe said, "Yes, you have met him, Mimi had met him too. He is only one of his kind."

Damon frowned, not an incubus king because those were plentiful. He was the top interrogator, so he knew what questions to ask.

He tried to think next question. "Had this creature attacked Mimi or the pack?"

Wulfe looked at him and said, "Both questions, my answer is yes."

Damon asked, "Is this creature still alive and in custody? Can it be killed?"

Wulfe smirked. Now he could give him a clue. He wanted Damon to know this, about Reyes Farrow because even with his spell there was always a risk of him getting free and coming after Mimi. Or her children. Those would be able to carry his spawn, too. 

Wulfe said, "It can not be killed, you know this from experience. Time has gone by, enough is to get free. Mimi is too trusting of my spell, but I can't make any promises, and if this gets free. Mimi or her daughters will be his targets." 

Damon paled, swallowed, and said, "Reys Farrow, you say that Mimi has kept Reyes fucking Farrow as her private meal for years? "

Wulfe nodded. Damon told this to the entire pack and now everyone, including Mariella, and the pack started to come up with the spell that would bind him into hell forever. They had power now. It was good to have a decent challenge and now this time there would not escape for him. But first, Damon had to deal with his wife. He was not gonna let her drink that blood and he teleported those bags to Mariella to be used on that spell. He needed to face Mimi and see how strong she was. His right hand felt almost burning, somehow, but he did not pay so much attention to it.

The door opened, and Damon stepped in. Wulfe was in the corridor. 

I said," Now leave quickly so you don't get hurt. I'll try—I mean really try."

Meal had just opened the door and stepped inside. Fine. Bloodlust burned in my veins with a force that really riled me up. 

Damon took a few steps forward, always disappearing into the shadows so I couldn't see him.

He said, "First of all, you are not gonna get any more Farrow blood. We will deal with this crisis in different ways. Second, that bastard will be soon trapped in hell for good. I am not gonna talk about what made you keep him prisoner. I'm here to strengthen my vampire side. You're quite something, aren't you, baby?"

Damon walked into the room and saw a figure sitting in the corner. Next to it were a couple of empty blood bags and Damon heard Mimi counting the seconds until she could drink the blood again. She oozed vampire pheromones, her bloodlust smelled in the air. She was trying to control herself, pace herself, how to drink controlled manner.

That won't help, not for long. He strolled forward, and Mimi stood up. He saw her long silver hair, black poison nails, and black dress. He could smell her pheromones and see her bloodred lips. Oh, she was strong, wasn't she?

This is something to watch out for. But then again, Damon liked a challenge, and this lady was just screaming for a challenge. Damon took a few steps closer and tilted his head as if to see if he bothered. Wulfe stayed in the corridor. He tried to warn but Salvatore was stubborn and he just had to get in there. He would learn and properly. He could see Mimi getting ready. She was fast.

I prepared myself. In this state, I don't warn at all, and this gentleman is about to get a lesson that will be felt and felt well. He took a few steps forward and tilted his head. I attacked. We fought, I mean fought. He fought off my attempt to get at his neck. Fine, I'll get blood from the other places, too. I snarled, not making any human noises as I was a vampire freaking strong one with fully out-blasted bloodlust. And my blood bag had just walked in, fine by me. 

I sank my teeth into his arm and maimed, destroyed, and drank so fucking greedily, and I didn't care if my teeth scraped the bone occasionally. Damon cursed and tried to get me off him. Then, finally, he grabbed my neck and twisted it once.

When Mimi attacked and then mauled, Damon had his work cut out to get this wild beast off of him. She was fast, brutal, merciless, and cruel. He had no choice but to snap her neck, even though he knew it would only make things worse.

Wulfe said to him, quite laconically," I told you so, now we have quite a work on ahead of us. Those bags would have helped."

Damon grunted and said, "We have suitable space in the basement. Let's take her there and think this through." 

He teleported the lady to the basement and tied her to a chair firmly so that there was no way she could get off. His hand was throbbing, more or less almost.

Wulfe said, "It is no use to try to weaken her, it will make her only stronger and more feral. You need to find another way."

Damon said, "Let's see. I have done this before."

Wulfe rolled his eyes. Either Salvatore was dumb, or way too arrogant, or just did not believe him. He would not repeat himself. This idiot needed to learn and properly.

Damon was ready. Then, the fun part would begin. He'd already set the strong vervain drip dripping after he'd first drained her ten times, put their magic symbols against each other, and sucked the strength out of that too.

She woke up, and her vampire side was still on full display. Damon knew he couldn't draw any more power from Mimi until that power equalized a little inside him. He could already feel how much his vampire side was getting stronger, but that was enough for many times over. Her blood was brutally strong, and he really did not have any bloodlust left as he had fed and properly.

Wulfe said," Holy water in no use, I used it on her and she screamed for an hour. I had never heard a scream like the one she screamed when I put holy water in her vein; the poor girl screamed for an hour; despite that, the vampire side wasn't much weakened; on the contrary, it almost strengthened when it was chaos at first."

Damon said, "Fine. I have some holy water to help things along too. We just have to be cruel in order to get her under control. "

Wulfe rolled his eyes. This did not just get it, not at all. He sighed. 

Damon figured the bloodlust would get under control once Mimi's pathos unraveled, but first, that vampire side had to be brought down. That wouldn't be helped by drinking blood, just a brutal weakening with the vervain first, Damon had some holy water in his stash, but he didn't want to weaken her too much, just enough to get her to unblock, that would help, and a lot.

I was tied to a chair, and blood had been drained from me, and a lot. My vampire powers had been drawn, but when they were this strong, I was so a loose cannon that I would not weaken right away. I was strong, getting stronger by this whole treatment. 

I heard men talking about the use of holy water. A mere memory of that made me shudder. I remember that the pain had been unbelievably intense, and I screamed outright for probably an hour. I had never felt such intense pain. It seemed to tear me apart and went everywhere. I had not helped at all and Wulfe had been pretty impressed by me. Only the blood of Farrow had made my vampire side fall asleep. Those side effects had not been fun, but tolerable.

I had evolved as a vampire, and this satanic arrogant bastard looked at me with a critical eye and said, " Baby, the name of the game is that side goes into hiding, and then we unblock, and that helps, but come on, get control of yourself, put that side in hiding and we can enjoy."

Oh, for fuck's sake, he didn't get it, not at first. He walked near me and touched me with his right hand. I hissed and moved away as far as I could. I did not want him to touch me. It was something I did not want at all.

I said, " It's not that fucking simple. Believe me, I'm not doing this on purpose. You should have let me keep my discipline. The last time this happened was about three years ago, and don't even ask me why it happened, it took me four fucking months to get back into shape, and I had to be so fucking careful to drink just the right amount every day. Wulfe can vouch for that."

My voice was an angry snarl. Wulfe looked at me, tilting his head and I knew that expression. He had just gotten an idea. Wulfe looked at Damon and made a gesture that he would wait outside and Damon would have to talk with him about something. 

I said to Damon, "My life was about a few things like, Control yourself completely, and then you come and smash the dam open, stab me, bleed me dry, almost fucking a month. I'll tell you, Salvatore, you'll be fucking off before you get me under control. And I think I'll take Adam, Charles, and the boys to unload. "

Damon said calmly. " You didn't have me, believe me. This will work. That's fucking strong vervain, for starters, as you can see, and if it doesn't seem to work, there's always these."

He picked up the little syringes and hissed as if I knew there was holy water in them. Somehow, it was now an unbearable thought. Damon took one syringe, came closer, and dropped a few drops in my hand. It burned so satanically hard, but my vampire claws retreated into hiding. But soon, they came back now dark green, more poisonous.

Damon grunted and said, " Look at that baby. Pretty good stuff, isn't it? Now let's see if the vervain helps. I will not weaken you too much. It won't do any good, but just enough."

He went to turn the fucking drip up faster, then came to look at me closer than he thought he would, his right hand brushing now almost my right hand. I snarled like a wild beast. My eyes were bloodred and my fangs were out fully. Damon walked out to talk to Wulfe, leaving that vervain to drip into my vein, making me all the time stronger, and angrier. 

Wulfe said in his mind to Damon when he noticed Mimi's reaction to his touch, "Damon, touch her right hand with your right. This is the first that I have seen this, but that creature is your vampire wife, trying to make forget that you are her vampire husband. She does not want your vampire marriage mark touching her. Because that will be the key. You have made your wedding vow. Those are still valid. I was at your vampire wedding, by the way. "

 Fucking vervain made nothing else than pissed me off as much as possible. My wounds still hurt. I had a metallic feeling; my blood lust tripled, and I started to really struggle in the restraints to get out. Fucking torturer. I really did not want him to touch me, and I have no idea why. It just was. 

Damon and Wulfe walked back inside the room. Damon came to me and took my right hand, turned it, so that my vampire marriage mark showed, and Damon lifted his own hand, bringing it close to mine. I went berserk. I tried to move my hand away, and he gripped it, gluing our marks together, and I could feel him trying to control me and my vampire side. Soon there were red stripes in my hair just after a few minutes, but my vampire side still fought back. 

Fine, then keep doing it a little differently. He saw he held her down, and got her vampire side a little weaker, but she was also chaos. Damon thought for a while and then had a flash of insight. He was Mimi's vampire husband and had given her his blood. He remembered how that scar had gotten into his palm.

Same thing, he would connect their bloodstreams so it would help, and he would control and help the bloodlust. That's why the vampire side did not want her husband near her, because it knew this on some level. He could feel the throbbing in his palm. His vampire side knew it, too.

He said to Wulfe, "Fine, I will connect to our bloodstream, stop her heart, and use my abilities to push that vampire side down, help her, heal her too, as she is not well, so you can go."

Wulfe smirked and said, "I like to actually see this. I have never seen this in my over 2500 years."

 Damon lifted his eyes. This was even older than he had, though. Wulfe was a true enigma and one day he would want to talk to this ancient creature one on one.

Damon was thinking ahead. First, he would get her well. Then, somewhere in between, you could start to unload this creature and it would be so long project. Those pathoses would pour out probably years and it would be a pretty regular thing. But what a power boost they would get. Damon went to Medbay to find the equipment and got cannulas, tubes, and everything else he could.

When Damon came back and said to me, " Well, excuse me, the vervain didn't quite work the way it was supposed to, but now I've got the hang of it. I'm connecting our blood flow, and it will help."

Wulfe was standing in the doorway, looking at us curiously. He was getting on better with Damon. But my question was, how long?

Oh fine, we'll contain ourselves and just quickly put that one experience out of sight. That doesn't need to know that I was imprisoned 16 times. My vampire side was struggling, still getting power as Damon's handholding had pushed its way back, but it was not yet done. 

Damon looked at me sharply and said, " Prisoner of what? What are you talking about or thinking, baby? "

I wasn't thinking about it at all. I completely changed the direction of my thoughts and continued to suffer. He put the cannula in his neck first and then in mine. I was thinking about other things, but I knew I had to deal with it once I got this fucking vampire side of me under control. 

Damon put a hose between us, and then he took and energetically shocked my heart so that it stopped the flow of blood. I knew how much that thing could do to his blood, so I didn't know what was going to happen. He took my hand in his too. Keeping our scars against each other, my mark was almost burning as his influence was in there, too.

Slowly, I felt the power inside me level out. My blood lust receded, and Damon sat with his eyes closed. Keeping his grip on my hand, controlling me with his blood flow. He was completely focused on whatever he was doing. I shifted my form and sighed. Damon opened his eyes, letting go of my hand, disconnected the tube, and took the cannulas out.

He released me and said, " Let's see you decompress sometime, okay? Just enjoy the pack life for now."

Then he walked away.