14. What Is Love?

We then moved to Iowa, and that's where my gun training continued. Damon had decided to find another pistol to replace the Walther PPK and had now got Adam to see it too, so my days passed not now drugged but me learning new firearms. For some reason my fighting exercises were very strict and not so often. No chance of me get heated during them.

One favorite was the Browning BDA.380, which was the right size, big enough for Damon's standards. He wanted me to have a gun with power, not a pea shooter like the Beretta, which he said was a woman's gun, too small to be a proper gun. But we also went through SIG P230, SIG P232, and Makarov. I learned to shoot all of them.

 The Iowa house was a big red brick house; it had five floors and lots of rooms, and most of it was some kind of guest room because Bran could sometimes have visiting packs coming in and visiting, so it was good to have space in the house. Bran was also in the house part of the time, but he had to investigate these medical facilities and naughty scientists.

He already had targets to kill, but Charles was busy with werewolf crises. Damon refused to be just a hitman now, as he was my shooting instructor, boyfriend, protector, and general watchdog. 

The house's interior was quite massive furniture, and from what Adam was saying, you got the impression that this was mainly a house that Bran had bought and liked. I did remember Bran's Montana house, and I agreed that this had a similar feeling. 

Damon had done our bedroom again with Adam. It was darker now, more vampiric. It had heavy dark red velvet curtains, almost black; the bed was a waterbed, and the bedspread was black with gold embroidery; the carpets were blood red, short but soft, and some of the rugs were black. The bathroom had a giant bathtub that fit two and an oversized marble shower that also fit two.

We had a bedroom we shared. I wasn't used to it, and this one also had many of Damon's clothes and things; no sports bags were ready now, but he clearly lived here.

 We ate; he watched carefully what I ate and ensured I ate enough. He had got me up to 55 kilos and also took blood tests on me once a week, no mercy. Samuel wasn't in the house so often; he was at his clinics and could come and visit, go with Damon to medbay to talk about me, probably.

Meanwhile, Adam would often take me to the gym to practice fighting as well as rage management at the same time. He instilled in me stronger and stronger self-control. My willpower literally grew as I learned to control the white-hot rage in my mind, not that I did sometimes slip up on my self-control and rage and scream when I got frustrated practicing a kick or a punch. He did not let me fight with Damon, not yet. He kept me in tight leash during fighting.

But Adam quickly put me under him and kept me flattened against the ground for so long, until I got my rage under control. Growling voice next to my ear told me lose it unless I wanted another shot and nap for three days. Let's just say I learned to try to control myself. Neither Adam nor Damon nor even Bran talked to me about my future or their plans for me, but somehow, I knew I shouldn't just read and laze around; they had something in mind for me, but they hadn't revealed it yet.

Damon said one sentence to me that threw me off balance once again after a few weeks had passed. We had been here for a month, and I was on a tight rein. I hadn't been shopping, and if I had looked something up online, Salvatore was right behind me, and he was giving his opinion, or as was often the case, he took the whole laptop and placed the order in front of me.

"Baby, you know what? I don't ever want you to run away from me. You're going to be my wife someday. Believe that, baby. We're going to get married, and it will be great. You're going to be mine officially."

After that statement, I was completely silent and couldn't get a word out of my mouth as Damon walked away. Oh, wife... That man could throw me off balance like that. 

Damon said to Adam and Samuel. " I told Mimi that she will be my wife, and I already think that time will be somewhere in between. I hope it is in the near future, but we need to get the lady's skills to the point now that she can see if she is up to what we have planned for her. She has it in her, her darkness, that I can sense. Whether she will be a killer, like I said, it would help her rage when she may act, do something physically to her enemies and Adam; where do we go with the lady's rage control?"

Adam said, "In progress; Mimi has progressed a lot but is still slipping, so we will continue. She is getting herself back under control a lot better than she was in the beginning, so this is working. How are the lady's shooting skills now?"

Damon grunted and said, "I've got her learning the SIG Sauer and Browning, Walther PPK instead, but as she just wants to keep the Beretta with her, let her keep it then as long as she uses these guns for the gig then." 

They had planned and decided to teach Mimi how to shoot, control herself, and become a killer because Bran had found so many targets that they literally already had a pretty big kill list, but Bran couldn't have his own wolves, and Charles would kill these guys. It required a different tactic.

Damon had devised a tactic, and he didn't like it, but it would be effective. Mimi was supposed to lure the victim into the alley and kill him there quickly and efficiently, but Damon found himself very jealous, and the thought of Mimi talking to strange men was almost too much to bear. 

He had gotten to know Mimi, and their relationship had deepened significantly. He now saw Mimi in a somewhat different light already, and he was jealous. He had warned Adam and Samuel not to interfere with Mimi and no kissing.

Every night before going to bed, he kissed and touched Mimi to teach her to relax a little. Those legs still stayed together, but Mimi was already enjoying herself very much when he touched, stroked, kissed, and then she curled up against him to sleep without any medicine.

He was her security, and soon, he would be involved in her fighting lessons again and then anger management, too. He hoped that he would be able to coax that killer side out and put some borders around it but it might take time for her to be in that point to except that part of her. He wished he didn't have to go anywhere. For a long time, he would be with her. But he never knew what the future held. 

 We were on our way to Opera with Adam, Damon Bran, and Samuel so that Damon couldn't be quite so wild in the car with Samuel in the back seat with us. I sat on the side, and Damon sat next to me; Samuel sat on the other side, and Salvatore was very jealous and possessive of me, too.

Adam was back to being his caring self, so I can say that I was well looked after and watched over. Adam, Damon, Bran, and Samuel had an alpha meeting later, and I would go home alone after the opera. Adam assured me they would come later but would come home, eventually. 

The alpha meeting would be held at one hotel, and there were alphas from every state and more. Adam wouldn't let me have anything to do with Bran, and that kind of alpha meeting was not my place, according to Damon or Adam, although Bran would have wanted to introduce me. 

But Adam and Damon were adamant so that I would go straight to the house, and they would come home in the evening, late but still. Opera's performance was in the afternoon, and Adam suspected they wouldn't come until after midnight and probably Bran wouldn't come. 

The performance was Carmen, and like operas in general, the opera was theatrical, impressive, and boring. I prefer a good musical, but the opera was the spice of the evening when all the alphas and their spouses would gather once a year to watch Carmen, and then the alphas would discuss the affairs of the pack and the women among themselves.

Adam and Damon didn't even want me to be with the women, so after the opera finished, I called myself a taxi and hopped in, gave the address, and thought my own thoughts the whole way. I paid no attention to the entire journey or to the driver.

For some reason, I was exhausted when we arrived at the house. I paid for the taxi and went inside. I turned on the security system and rushed upstairs. I changed out of my dress, put on one of my nightgowns, and collapsed wearily into bed.

Wulfe waited patiently. His mask had worked brilliantly, and this target hadn't noticed a thing. The fatigue spell and the gas that Wulfe had pushed into the back seat would ensure that the treat was ready to eat. Ever since Wulfe had gotten out of the drug company's control, he'd been on the hunt.

 This creature was his unicorn, and he wanted to enjoy it, but like all wild and free, this one should also be allowed to be free, without bossy men in her life, and something about Salvatore put Wulfe on guard.

He was strong and old, partly naughty, but he had a very unique outlook on life and habits. He was not evil per se, but he was ruthless and would not hesitate to hurt many if called upon. He was good at sensing evil in others and sensed something nasty in Salvatore and Bran. What it was, he didn't know. And he didn't think about it now as he geared up to feast on his unicorn. And this was going to be so tasty.

He would enjoy drinking this blood when he finally finished it. He would consume all of its blood, and he knew the creature would not die from it, but he knew the creature would have to be his prey, feel helpless, and weaken as the blood diminished.

Wulfe watched as the lights came on upstairs, and he saw from the silhouette how the victim changed clothes. Then the lights went out. Now it was time to strike. He slipped inside, used his magic to reset Dresden's shields, and walked silently into the bedroom. He had a crystal glass with him and other supplies.

He went to sit on the edge of the bed, looked at his unicorn up close, and smelled her blood. All 50 liters of it. At least. This was going to be so perfect.

I had just fallen asleep when I awoke to the feeling that there was something else in the room. I opened my eyes to find a teenage vampire wizard sitting on the edge of my bed. He stroked my cheek, and his fingers were ice cold, giving me goosebumps.

" Don't fight it and don't even try to scream; you can't," he said in an icy voice.

Then he lifted my wrist to his lips and bit. I felt the painful bite, and it flashed up to my elbow. He drank greedily. The wound didn't heal when he stopped, and he slashed it open more with his claw.

"Mm mm mmmm," he said, " Oh, so tasty."

He looked at me coldly, like a predator at his prey, and I couldn't move; his spell held me still. I was still groggy and exhausted and didn't seem to have the energy to act.

He put my hand down and put a container under my wrist, where my blood dripped. He did the same with my other wrist. Both my hands were on the bowls. On top of big bowls. I could feel my blood dripping down my wrists into the bowls.

I could hear it dripping, gushing, almost as if he'd got my artery open, but I knew it would take time because I had a hell of a lot of blood. But this made me feel helpless in a whole new way.

Then he sat down next to me, lying down, and said, "Shhh... my prey, you can't do anything, you're powerless, helpless, and I can play with you all I want."

He brushed my neck, and with lightning speed, he sank his teeth into my jugular and started drinking. For a minute, he drank hard, fervently, and got pretty damn much drunk, then he pulled his teeth out and licked my neck until the wounds closed.

Occasionally, he would take my wrist and sip or pour from a vessel into a crystal glass and drink my blood from it. I was utterly helpless and couldn't do anything. Sure, I was making blood, but he was drinking much faster than I could. Then again, he could make a sudden attack on my neck.

I wondered when Damon, Adam, and Bran would be back. I didn't have a sense of time, and I knew it had been hours anyway, so maybe they'd be here soon if I was conscious enough to get there.

Wulfe got out of bed and gestured; my legs went vertically. I could feel the gravity draining the blood from my legs into my body. My legs started to feel cold pretty quickly.

He looked at me. "I want to drink every drop of your blood, every drop. You are my unicorn. You will not die. You can never die. But you should be free, free from the men who rule you. You should be like an untamed force of nature, not a tame lap cat."

I was frozen with horror. I couldn't let go of the spell. I was somewhat tired, and I felt my heart working hard. 

Fear and terror somehow took over my tired mind, and I felt nothing but that I was prey; it was somehow so helpless, powerless, and weak; I had never felt quite like this before. At the mercy of someone, weakening all the time,

Wulfe announced in his chilling voice how much blood I had left in me.

"I'd say a liter, no, wait a minute,"

He took my wrist in his hand again and ate greedily. The blood wasn't coming so fiercely anymore.

"I'll make it up to about eight deciliters." He looked at me coldly. "I know you can't die. "

Then he sank his teeth again into my neck, which was already very bruised. It seemed that the more he drank my blood, the more greedy his hunger became. "Half a liter or less," he murmured in my ear.

The front door opened. Salvation was coming. I was barely conscious anymore, and only the pain that hit my neck every time he gnawed on my neck kept me more or less awake. He sank his teeth again, now on the other side of my neck, and drank.

I felt my heart slow down and slow down. Darkness took over my mind, and I fought to stay awake.

He heard voices and said, " I didn't quite finish you off, but almost, my unicorn, I won't forget you, I never will, and I'll see you again."

He pressed his cold, bloody lips to my forehead and then stood up and listened; he said, "Your heart has almost stopped; it won't be long now..."

Finally, he left, opened the window, and jumped down.

Adam came up. Damon had received a call, and he should leave. Adam had some drugs with him in case Mimi was asleep, and he could guarantee her a better night's sleep.

 "Are you still awake, Mimi?" he asked slightly louder. He heard the glass shatter as if in answer, and suddenly, some instinct made him dart quickly to Mimi. Mimi was almost white in bed, and Adam had to work to hear her heart beating.

I had dropped the glass from the bedside table, and Adam rushed into the room. "Oh my God, what happened to you? Samuel, come up here and quick."

Adam came over to me and took my wrists, squeezing them so the rest of the blood wouldn't drain out of me. 

 Mimi was white as a sheet, and Adam could barely hear a heartbeat. Mimi's neck and wrists were torn open, and there was blood on the bedding. On the bedside table, Mimi had dropped a crystal glass, which was bloody.

I whispered, " Wulfe, Wulfe did this. He had a kind of crush on me and called me his unicorn. "

Damon rushed into the room when he heard Adam scream. He heard the word Wulfe as Mimi barely whispered it. He knew he had to go, and he had to leave Mimi like this.

Now, he wasn't a doctor; he was a boyfriend, and he could feel his vampire side reacting to all this blood and making his eyes turn black and his fangs descend. 

Damon rushed to my side. "Baby, baby, you've got to stay conscious. I'd give you my blood, but it won't help you now; it might put you to sleep..."

Samuel rushed into the room, and with one look, he saw what had happened. Damon looked at Samuel with a wild look on his face, eyes black, fangs bared. Samuel sighed and said calmly.

"Adam, take Mimi in your arms and take her downstairs to the med bay. We need to do an emergency blood transfusion. Wrap her on a sheet and come. Damon, go after Wulfe if you can catch him. You're not much use right now. And you were in a hurry, anyway."

Damon obeyed and rushed downstairs and out the door. He left his phone and grabbed his bag. He didn't know when he'd be back. Samuel stomped down the stairs two at a time and headed for the medbay.

He grabbed some blood from the fridge and set it to warm, a blood transfusion tube, an infusion pump, and fluids. Samuel only had three bags of Mimi's blood on hand. It would help Mimi through the worst of it, and then once Mimi had fluids, she would recover.

Adam had carried the now unconscious Mimi wrapped in a sheet and placed her on the operating table.

Mimi looked even paler in the bright light, if that was still possible. Samuel put the first bag into the infusion pump and the transfusion tube, then let the blood drain until it filled the whole tube. He took a large cannula and found Mimi's vein. He hit the central vein and got the central venous cannula in place.

He connected the transfusion tube to the cannula and let the blood flow. He went to the other side and cannulated from there into Mimi's elbow, where he attached fluids to come in. He let it flow pretty much at full speed.

He covered Mimi warmly and sat down on a chair to watch. Mimi moved. Adam stroked her hair and soothed her. Samuel cursed himself for not getting blood on Damon. It would probably be best for Mimi.

I felt Adam scoop me out of bed and take me downstairs. I kept my eyes closed because the light blinded me so badly. I felt Samuel poking into my veins and felt the warm blood slowly start to trickle into me.

I also felt him put something in one hand to drip into the other, and I was already a little more refreshed. I tried to turn my head away from the light. Adam was stroking and soothing me.

Eventually, I could mutter, but when the light started to piss me off enough, I was still weak and tired. I felt so insecure, so victimized, and I was shaking; I don't know what the reaction was, but I was shaking. 

My voice was still weak when I said, "Turn the fucking light off."

Adam laughed and turned the light away from my eyes. I was grateful. He spoke soothingly, stroked, made sure I didn't interfere with the cannulas, and tried to keep me calm. I could feel my heart still beating slowly and unevenly. 

Samuel took some sedatives from the cabinet and showed them to Adam. Mimi was shaking in bed, and Adam wasn't sure why, but rest would do Mimi good. Mimi's heart was still beating weakly and unevenly.

Adam nodded. Samuel pulled enough from the syringe and pushed the syringe into one of the small drip bags, which he gently mixed and then put the drip on full. Mimi would be asleep in a few minutes.

Adam stroked Mimi, talked to her soothingly, and noticed when Mimi's breathing calmed down, and she sighed slightly as she fell asleep. The shaking stopped, and Mimi's heart seemed to beat more steadily and even a little stronger.

Samuel said." The greatest danger is over. She'll be fine. Now she needs sleep, and these all need to be dropped. That was some kind of panic reaction; she was prey to a vampire, and it can be traumatic, and it doesn't help that you can't die. Vampires know how to do that."

Mimi still had a bad habit of pulling out all the cannulas and IV tubes and tying them. Mimi would need all the fluids Samuel could put in her.

Adam asked, "Are either of us a suitable blood donor?"

Samuel looked for a moment and said: "I don't know. I can certainly test. As I said, I can give her little over a liter of blood, and she's fine, but she's still experiencing some symptoms like dizziness, tiredness, thirst, and headaches. The best donor would probably have been Damon, but he's chasing Wulfe now. And then he had whatever gig he had, so I don't know when he'll be back. Since Mimi's normal blood volume is about 45 liters, a little over liter is still pretty damn low. And how she'll start making new blood, I can't predict. "

Samuel took a blood tube from both of them and put it in the machine. Half an hour later, Samuel said. "You're going to be a blood donor. "

Samuel pulled a chair close to Mimi and said to Adam, "Go sit over there. "

He cannulated a vein from Adam's elbow and placed it in a five-litre collection bag. Ten minutes later, he placed the finished bag on Mimi to drip. He told Adam to hand over two more full bags.

From there, he dropped another on Mimi. Finally, Mimi was a much better color, and Samuel told Adam to carry Mimi back to the bedroom to rest. Mimi would probably sleep for a couple of days at least.

Damon came to visit the next day. He had little time and hadn't caught Wulfe, but he wanted to see that Mimi was recovering. Samuel took the opportunity to make Damon give his blood as soon as he sat near Mimi's bed and gave blood. 

When I woke up, Damon was asleep in the chair next to me. I was already feeling really good; the whole Wulfe thing had taken a back seat, and now it seemed a kind of ridiculous that I had been so weak.

Damon woke up and said: "Baby, you have to stop this. I can't stand that something always happens to you; I swear you won't be alone for a minute. I can't stay now, but Adam can, and he'll keep you safe. I couldn't catch Wulfe and I have a couple of jobs so I don't know when I'll be back."

And so Damon had to leave again wherever he went the next day. He slept with me for the night, and when I woke up in the morning, I was in a slight state of velvet, and on the bedside table was his wallet, empty except for my pictures and the phone I had a number for. But this is just our life, and I just had to learn this.