18. It's In His Kiss.

Damien was enjoying himself. He knew he had to step back and let Damon see what had happened again. He let a few memories and feelings go all the way to Damon just so that his self-loathing would really kick in when he realized what he'd done.

Damien sometimes thought how much fun it would be if Damon or Mimi knew about him, but then again, the love between Mimi and Damon was the force that weakened him the most, and there was the danger that the two of them would fall more deeply in love and figure out how to get rid of him.

But as he already had many contingency plans in place, that wouldn't be the worst option. He was so skilled at manipulation that he wondered how well he could get Damon to believe that he had done some things he had done, not him. And how Mimi's life would be very precarious when she didn't know who was in power, him or Damon. Damien chuckled to himself and retreated, letting Damon take the lead and figure out what had happened. 

Damon wondered what on earth drove him to turn a perfectly fine teaching session into torture? And what on earth made him suddenly want to make Mimi beg? He remembered the beginning, the first 24 hours, and he remembered what Mimi had said. He'd been so close to going to release Mimi, but then his rage, no, when the volcano had completely exploded, and he'd then stopped caring.

He remembered how he'd thought of all the bits and pieces he'd snatched from Mimi's mind after those weeks, how he'd sensed this happiness with Adam. And he'd left her alone in the house in Oklahoma and driven away to his other hiding place to run away again.

Then, here he looked at his phone. He'd been drinking bourbon for two days straight now and thought, " Hell no, I've got to go see it. It's not getting any better. What the fuck is going on in my head when I can't get anything right? "

He remembered all the damage and how he didn't even put his own blood in. Mimi must have been in pain and probably got the infection again and the multiplying enzyme. He collected himself, took a shower, and drank a pot of really strong coffee.

 He went for a drive, called Samuel on the way, and explained the whole thing. "Samuel, I fucked up so bad again when Mimi was with Adam. I got so jealous, and my rage built up; well, I got Adam to go to Europe for a gig. He's going to be there for a while. I kidnapped Mimi. I meant to teach her with knives only. Still, when Mimi defended herself, I snapped and took a stabber and a rib crusher, then I beat her arms up to her elbows and her legs up to her knees with a hammer. After three days, she asked me to stop and begged me to help; I just put some bandages on, and her limbs crushed in a vacuum splint. I drove her to the Oklahoma house and carried her to one bedroom, and I left. I've been drinking bourbon for two days now, and I've got myself together, and I'm going to help Mimi,"

Samuel replied. "Well, yeah, you can do it, but Mimi's the priority now; I can't leave just yet. It'll probably be 24 hours or more before I get there. But I'm coming."

"Thanks," Damon said, "this girl is going to have some work to do, and she can get pretty fucking pissed off, and I have no defense."

Samuel grunted and hung up the phone. Damon hit the gas and drove to the house. 

The drive took two hours, although he drove as hard as he could when there was bad traffic and the detour took time, but he'd get there. Eventually, Damon drove up to the house. He parked his car, took his bag out of the boot, and went inside.

First, he went to get the medbay in shape. He unpacked the bags, which were already stocked up with various dental materials and bandages, and the instruments to fix Mimi's bones and get her limbs in alignment. He remembered how he had destroyed Mimi's ring and would make a new one for her. When he had time, but first, he had to get her in shape.

 Damon had now a plan of action and went to the bedroom where he'd left Mimi. He was wearing a doctor's coat and had a couple of jars in his pocket in case his teeth reacted. He opened the door.

Mimi was asleep. She was in the same position where he had left her, with no blankets or help whatsoever. Damon felt self-disgust rise inside him, but he controlled himself and approached Mimi. She had her own bottom lip between her teeth, and Damon could smell the dental solution dripping steadily.

Oh my God. That girl doesn't understand herself. He went and opened Mimi's mouth and released her lip from its distress. He took one jar out of his pocket and put it on Mimi's teeth. A purple liquid flowed out of it with little crystals or glitter in it. How to remove the metals. Clever. It didn't remove all of them, but mostly the platinum.

While removing the vacuum casts, he came across her legs and arms in a rather unfavorable condition for repair. Yet they had ossified. One couldn't really call them limbs. As he quickly felt through Mimi's body, he realized that the bone chips had partially ossified.

He cursed in his mind. In his mind, he thought of that stuff as some kind of healing booster and then realized it should not be used when bones have been crushed. Fine. This was going to take some pretty fucking brutal work. Mimi was warm but not yet burning hot; the infection was in control, and Damon swore it would keep up with it.

 Damon carried Mimi to the medbay, gave her a good, potent cocktail of various drugs to keep her unconscious and pain-free, and started the brutal work. Now, he would get Mimi's pheromone glands back and remove all the scars. Every single one. It would take time; he'd thought about it on the way, and he would give a little bit of his own gland, put it to grow, and it would take time for them to grow and function fully, but he would get Mimi's pheromones back. 

Mimi was naked on the operating table, and Damon began the brutal but necessary work. He started with the fingers, opened them up, and tried to get the bone fragments to grow back into the bone to see if the tendons and joints worked. It was slow and precise work, but he was slowly making progress. He took the shattered ring off Mimi's finger, knowing he would make her a new one.

He had got the fingers and hands in place, and they were in the splints, slowly healing when Samuel arrived after 24 hours. The legs had also been treated. Damon administered three different antibiotics to Mimi's body, which were produced by his teeth.

Damon also drained Mimi's body cavity of the organ mass when the amplification enzyme activated. There were no new organs in there yet, as everything was still so crushed and bruised that the healing ability couldn't take it. Samuel came to help with the surgery and saw that Damon was pale, tired, but persevering.

They worked on the chest together. The rib bones had ossified so badly that they had to remove everything. Every rib and sternum. And to wait for new ones to grow. They were cartilaginous, and Damon had developed a healing booster that would grow the organs after eight hours. 

Damon gave another six different dental agents, and eventually, the rib cage was stable. The bones had ossified hard enough for Damon to remove the splints and support from Mimi's limbs. Mimi would be fine. Damon was very pleased with Mimi's recovery so far.

As long as he could explain it to her when he didn't always understand it himself. Why did he do what he did? He was reacting. He knew that, and often quickly, impulsively, violently, but still. Why?

They put Mimi to sleep and recover in the incubator before the large animal tranquilizers and panic-inducing sedatives had completely broken down. Mimi's recovery was still fragile, and even though the complete torture had lasted three days, just that had been more than enough.

So Mimi would need time to recover, and Damon didn't want any crawling around on the floor now, so she would wake up when he was absolutely sure there was no infection. Fever medicine kept the fever away, but then the medicine brought the temperature down too low. The incubator was a safe place for Mimi to recover.

 Mimi would probably be sore, at least from her stomach. They had tied up all the herbs and all the metals. The meds would now keep Mimi asleep for a couple more days in the med bay; since there had been anything but velvet, Mimi was not keeping her body temperature. The infection would also go away for good. It had now been a week since the end of the torture.

 After ten days, Damon and Samuel saw Mimi could now wake up. She had healed but would still be sore; the metals and herbs had taken their toll, and she would be slow to recover. She weighed only 38 kilos, so she should be able to eat. Damon had cut off every scar, healed them with his blood, and went and took the protective bandage off Mimi's neck.

It was still a little red, but Damon could already smell a slight strawberry. Samuel came to see, too.

He said, "It's still early days, but I think she'll have a good pheromone gland in six months."

Damon grunted. He'd also implanted them in her wrists, so if Bran ever did the same thing, the glands in her wrists were a guarantee. He carried her to their bedroom to recover and put on one of his own shirts, used so that she could smell him. 

I woke up incredibly sore and tender, but again, with the feeling that I was healed. I was in our bedroom. The last thing I remember is that Damon carried me to my bed and left me there. Mirella made some medicine that at least put me to sleep. But fine.

I sat up and realized I was still completely medicated, so I didn't go to the wash. I didn't know if I wanted to eat because my stomach was sore. I went for a walk, and I heard voices. Damon and Samuel were in the kitchen. I went over there.

The men turned around, and Damon said, "Oh, we're already up, young lady. You should still be asleep. You're all drugged up. How about you turn around and go back to sleep? You've been asleep for about ten days since we fixed you up and took care of that infection, and, missy, your neck might be sore. Don't rub it; that's where the pheromone glands grow."

I raised my eyebrows and said, "Oh, how did you do that? "

Damon just smiled and said, "Go back to sleep." 

I shook my head and said. "I don't want to sleep anymore. I want to be awake. I should resume my training at some point."

Damon came over to me and directed me to a table to sit down.

He said, "Fine, let's get you some food then. Don't worry. I will not stuff you because you're still sore, but if the food would help. You're too skinny so that the food will do you good. "

Damon went to gather everything and saw Samuel pull a large chocolate cake out of the oven and pour melted chocolate over it—also ruby and white chocolate. Damon started carrying food in front of me. I got a steak; it was very tender, though red, as I always have to have. Thickened duck soup, a drink of coffee and Coca-Cola and lots of it, meatloaf and a small portion of pasta swimming in butter, and chocolate cake. I was pretty full and exhausted. I didn't resist when Damon took me back to bed and tucked me in.

He said, " Now close your eyes; you will not have nightmares; I won't let them come; I'll watch."

Then he sat next to me long enough for me to fall asleep. I fell asleep to the smell of passionfruit. I knew that at least he wasn't angry with me anymore now.

 Damon looked at the sleeping Mimi. She was still pale, tired, and miserably thin, but once she recovered, he knew one activity he could do to get her fed properly. He didn't understand himself and how he always lost control when the volcano came crashing down on him. Somehow, its rage was so burning that he just had to destroy and hurt.

He hoped he could have a better time with her. They hadn't had a fantastic time for so long. But he was confident things would get better. Damon laughed under his breath. The cure booster that Mimi had made for her teeth. Well, it suited him best of all because he was her biological half, so she had now kindly made him a powerful substance.

At the same time, Damon realized she could make a very potent poison in her anger that would work on him. Something about the idea was very disturbing, and he realized that Volcano, in his rage, didn't appreciate this realization at all. But Volcano was calm now, and they would have a better time. Damon stood up, walked silently out of the room, and closed the door behind him.