33.

I drove out to the yard, and I was exhausted. I knew there were a few rooms here with good beds, and I was really looking forward to getting some rest. Recovery should be taken slowly because I didn't have the strength left until I was getting a little better. I collected my food and other bags and went to the door.

I didn't have time to dig out my keys before it opened. Damon opened it. I looked at him for a moment, and then I saw Adam and Samuel. Oh, the knights to the rescue have arrived. Now I understood why my wolf had been so damn smug. Fine, we're in a pack.

I had four layers of clothes on, and they masked my condition well. Adam took the bags from my hands while Damon wrapped his arms around me and supported me, noticing my good stuffing. Samuel took the keys to my car and drove my car into the garage, noticing how I'd had the heat on. 

Fine. I didn't feel like talking now as I walked somewhere, supported by Damon.

Adam said, "Welcome home, Mimi; this has already been transferred to my pack. Now you get some rest, and we'll start getting you sorted out."

I looked at Adam and said, " Oh, just for your pack. Fine. I'm going to rest now. I'll see you in a while. There are a couple of beds upstairs. There's a lift." I said to Damon.

He looked at me for a moment and continued to guide me downstairs. I gasped as he pushed on my side and felt the rot ooze and soak into the bandage. It felt pretty damn full again. Breathing was difficult for me as the wound was somewhere in my chest, so deep breathing hurt.

Damon said, " You're going to rest right here in the medbay. I don't think you need any medicine when you're so exhausted. Do you have a sore spot when you're whimpering?"

Damon somehow found all the wounds that hadn't been closed.

 I said, "A couple of the wounds haven't closed, so they're tender; I don't know if there's something in them or what."

Damon directed me to medbay. Well, it was a room with a patient bed. It was in what I almost would have thought was a greenhouse. There was a new wall put up, obviously an operating theatre, because it was obviously isolated. The room had two broadside and chained patient beds. Samuel followed. Samuel pushed a button so that the bed lowered down, and it was easier for me to sit on it. Damon helped me to sit on the bed. 

Damon looked me straight in the eye and said, " I don't even have the courage to apologize when it's not enough. But I will help now, and as you know, I will help where I see fit, not where you allow. As your doctor, I may do what I see fit. You saved the world, and now I'm going to fix you up. Let's see where this goes and what we can do."

I replied, " Yeah, apologizing doesn't really work. Hopefully, you'll learn something, and I learned that I really can save the world no matter what condition I'm in. But right now, I'm not okay, not at all." 

Damon furrowed his brow and said, " That's a rare baby that you admit you're not okay." He went and pulled one of the little tables closer, and then he said. "Take your clothes off and let's have a look at you. You're so weak I will not give you any stronger medicine just yet until we get a general idea of your condition."

I undressed. I took off my cardigan first. Then, underneath, I had a fleece jacket. Then, there was a thick velour shirt with a long-sleeved tee shirt underneath. It was slow and difficult, but Adam helped. I tried to get my trousers off, and Adam came and lifted me up for a moment and took off my pants, then helped me naked onto the bed. I was shivering because I was so damn cold.

I was thin if you could call it that. I had lost some weight. I weighed about 26 kilos. The bandages on my wounds were in place, but a couple had already leaked through. Damon came to examine me. He felt all over, and my ribs were a little tender. I was more or less bruised on all sides.

Samuel came to examine me, too. Damon helped me to lie on my back and the doctors continued their examination. Damon gently undid one bandage, and when he found it was stuck to the wound, he put the bandage back down.

When Mimi had undressed, and Damon had noticed this thick layer of clothing, he had kept himself under tight control so that he would not react when Mimi was finally naked. If there was no bruise, contusion, or wound on Mimi's skin, then there were no thick bandages, and in quite a few of them, Damon could see directly that they were leaking and almost through.

His teeth hadn't reacted yet, as it wasn't time. Damon felt Mimi gently through them. Her delicate, bony body was cold, Mimi was trembling, and her lips were slightly blue all over, telling him she was not getting enough oxygen. One large bandage ran down the right side of her chest, and when Damon opened it, he felt it was stuck; he could smell poisons and some plants, and when he brushed the rash on her arm, he knew it was an allergic reaction to one of the tomato-related plants.

He went through Mimi with his senses and took a stethoscope and listened to her lungs, which were not working as they should, and the overly intense uneven pulse that was pounding in Mimi's chest. Damon could almost feel his own pulse trying to beat at the same rate and had to work to stop it. Now, he had to be a doctor.

 Samuel examined me, too; they used some instruments and portable ultrasound. Damon put the instruments away while Samuel smiled reassuringly. Then they retreated to the other end of the medbay to mumble again so low I couldn't hear anything.

Adam came to me and brought a warm blanket. It was hot.

Adam said, " An electric blanket. I bought these to stock up on when I actually found them to help keep you warm. How on earth did you get the whole gig done? It took me a month to recover from those Seven Clubs, and you just pushed through the whole gig. I'm so fucking sorry about the whole fucking thing. I don't know about anyone else, but I was pissed off about the fight clubs, so I started drinking, and when I drank, I fucked, so I'm not the perfect mate I thought I was, and you're paying the price."

I said to Adam, "I had no choice. I had to save the world, you know. And that's history now. Let's move on and try to learn and hope there's not another job for me right away. "

Adam stroked me and sat down. He said, "If it does, now I know fucking better. Now, I won't leave you."

I said nothing. The heat crept in a little deeper, and I stopped trembling. He kept touching me, and I could see he wanted to gather me in his arms and keep me safe. Adam's expression was worried, too, and I could see that these months had been very hard for everyone. I was tired and closed my eyes. I was in pain, but not so much that it disturbed my sleep. I fell asleep. 

Damon said to Samuel, "Mimi is 28-25 kilos. Chilled, powerless. Sleepy. Sugars are probably non-existent, broken bones that have partially healed, and no ability to heal at all. Blood won't clot. Breathing works maybe 20% either there is an infection or then there is damage to the lungs or chest that she can't breathe oxygen saturation was at best 67% I think she just fell asleep, or passed out. Where do you want to start? Those wounds smell like either. Probably, black fae or black elves were the cause. And some wounds are bites. There's a rash from a couple of different plants. They have very nasty poisons. That lady's going to have some work to do to get her well again. Let's go see where to start. I don't have the courage to give her any drugs yet with all those poisons, and then when Mimi chops them up, she usually fucks them up... the internal organs, well, they are there, but it would be good to get a better scan and as she is so damn skinny and needs to be kept warm."

Samuel was silent for a moment and said, " Let's start by taking a tube of Mimi's blood and sniffing or tasting. Some blood tests same time. What do the teeth think? Then we'll see if we can scan at some point and if we need to cut, but maybe your teeth might do the most good now." 

Damon nodded. He went to the laptop and typed away. The printer whirred into action, and Samuel grabbed the referral. The referral had all the tests Damon had wanted, and it also had QR codes for each test, so when the tubes were full, Samuel would feed the referral into the machine's scanner and load the tubes into it.

This was a state-of-the-art machine that centrifuged the samples that were needed. It also had a tube sticker sheet, and Samuel took the papers in his hand and went to collect the tubes from one bag. Adam was sitting with Mimi, and Damon started loading more bandages onto one tray. Samuel gathered his supplies and nodded to Adam. He moved for a moment as Samuel took one of the movable tables and put the tubes on its rack. He had already put the labels on them readily. 

I was startled when someone took my hand out.

Samuel said, "It's all right; just give me your hand, and I'll take a tube of blood. Let's get a little idea of what is or isn't in your blood. "

I let him pull my hand out, and he didn't even put a tourniquet on it; I was so skinny that even though I must have been really dehydrated, my veins were very visible. I could feel the needle go into my vein.

I saw quite an army of tubes, and after he had taken about five tubes, he took one open one, filled it, and then handed it to Damon, who had come closer. Samuel went on and calmly took quite a few tubes. Damon walked around with his tube and sniffed it. He went into another room to concentrate on the matter at hand.

I could feel the blood lust surging again, and the thermal blanket had relaxed me, and so had the fact that I was in the pack. I was being looked after, and now I couldn't find the strength to do anything about it. I felt my teeth come down.

Vampire teeth work like a cat's claws. We actually have muscles in our palate, and they always pull the teeth into the gums, and when the bloodlust hits, those muscles relax, and the teeth come down. I normally had excellent control over those muscles, meaning that I could control how prominent my teeth would come out and how big they would get.

They actually came out behind the normal canines, and when the vampire's teeth came out, the normal canines would come up and hide in the gums, as the lifting muscles tightened up as the vampire's teeth relaxed. 

Samuel's neck vein looked just as suddenly delicious, but I didn't even have the strength to plan my attack to catch up. I looked at Adam, who came close to me again to sit next to me. I smelled his blood, or thought I did, and heard his pulse.

My teeth came out, all big, and now I couldn't keep them small. It's fucked up to have an ungodly bloodlust when you have no strength to do anything about it. I stared at Adam's neck, lips parted, and felt my eyes blacken—that neck vein.

My thoughts were only on how good that blood would taste or feel as it trickled down my throat. I growled low as Adam noticed. He furrowed his eyebrows, looked at me, stood up, and went into the other room. A moment later, Damon came in with Adam. Samuel had just finished drawing blood and was putting a bandage over the puncture mark. He went with his tubes to the analyzer and took some paper with him.

Damon came over to my bedside and said, "Are you blood-hungry, baby, huh? Your fangs are bared, and your eyes are black, so don't even deny it. "

I nodded. I said, " I just can't do anything about it. I just can't, and how wonderful it would feel to have that blood running down my throat." 

Damon smiled and came to sit on the edge of the bed.

He said, "You talk like an actual vampire; there's nothing to worry about; I'm equipped, as I knew you were months short of blood. I made myself a dental agent, and I'm full of blood, really full. I'm going to help you sit down for a moment so you can eat right out of my neck. You're so incredibly weak that you can't eat long enough from my wrist, so you'll eat faster from my neck. Do you think you're up to it? You've got your teeth out, so as long as you can just get them in the vein and swallow. "

I nodded and let Damon gather me up to sit almost on his lap. His grip was gentle, as I was so incredibly thin and cold. He took his shirt off, pressing me against his warm body. He put my head on his neck, and I slammed my teeth into him unhesitatingly and brutally. And I drank.

Damon just stroked me and supported me. His one hand was on the back of my neck, holding my head in place, and the other stroking my back as he supported me at the same time. I felt his hot, firm body against mine, and I knew it was almost a year since the last time. I knew now I was drinking well and a lot.

 Eventually, I had had enough and pulled my teeth out as they retracted back into their hiding place. It had felt incredibly wonderful, and the euphoria I got when I felt the fresh blood flowing down my throat was something to behold. But now the bloodlust was gone... lying or leaning against Damon. That seemed to take what little strength I had left.

Damon laid me back down. He covered me warmly, pulled on his shirt, and brushed my hair away from my forehead; the gesture was so familiar and safe that it always brought a smile to my lips.

He smiled and said, " Not bad at all. You just drew 50 liters just like that. It's very good for you. Now rest up. More treatments are coming when we get some results. I don't dare give you any drugs yet, not painkillers or anesthetic, because those faes and elf poisons are so nasty. Not to mention the bits of snake venom and all the other shit you've got in your blood, but don't panic. My teeth are still thinking about it. "

I closed my eyes again. Now, I was just full of lovely, warm blood.

When a vampire eats blood, it can eat incredible amounts, and that's because the moment we eat blood, our vampire system, or specific cellular units, is activated. First, the water is taken out of the blood. So, the blood in our stomach will be condensed by removing the water out of the blood through a specific cell on the walls of our stomach.

The blood condenses in an hour or two so that if we've eaten an enormous meal of blood over five liters, we condense. The blood is 95% water, and our cells absorb about 65% of that, leaving us with thick, condensed blood left over. Then, the blood gets an additive, which is also secreted by the so-called Apollo cells in the wall of our stomach.

So, this additive breaks down the blood in a certain way. It is fast-acting, and when the concentrated blood meal is pre-digested, it goes into the small intestine just like any normal food. This additive protects the blood from the excessive effect of stomach acid. But it is always secreted only if our vampire food needs blood.

One important thing we need is a certain lipid found in the walls of red blood cells. And there's more. It is not iron that we are looking for, but the blood cell structure has many essential compounds and energy bound up in a certain way that the vampire can exploit. The blood has a kind of life force, and that's one thing we actually eat.

Now then, why couldn't I eat any more humans, or wasn't my food because of that energy? The life force of humans vibrates at a different frequency than supernatural, and Damon had directed my body to a different frequency, so I needed a life force that was at a different frequency than humans. Why, then, did human blood cleanse the same thing? Now that frequency then pulled all the shit out and made my body eliminate it.

I could feel the blood of Damon already beginning to condense inside me as my very overcrowded feeling slowly eased. I had read more vampire anatomy, and so I knew some things. Not nearly everything.

I was still lying in bed, but now I felt maybe a little better. But I was really powerless, safe, warm, and I didn't need to cope anymore. So when I relaxed, I fell asleep and started having those tired nightmares again where I just didn't have the strength to run away. Then, the nightmares slowly eased, and I finally drifted off into a deep sleep. I couldn't bear to see them anymore. My body was so exhausted that I went into a deep sleep just to go into hibernation.

Damon and Samuel examined Mimi's blood test results and planned what to do first. Some results had already come in during the half hour it had taken Mimi to gorge on Damon's blood, and more results were coming in all the time. Nothing was right.

Adam was getting worried. Mimi had fallen asleep and had some dream or nightmare, and Adam had tried to calm her down, and then Mimi just went deeper. She was completely limp and unresponsive. Her pulse was muffled and slow. Mimi seemed to sweat, and something about Mimi made Adam wary. He was overprotective, but when his connection with Mimi weakened, it gave him the impetus to act.

Adam went to tell Damon, who came to check on her. "Aha, you're not doing that, missy, no way. Don't even try,"

Damon said after a quick run-through to Mimi. He quickly grabbed his bag and said to himself, "Good thing I brought this."

Samuel came to see what the problem was as Damon grabbed some long, thick needles from the shelf, a couple of five-mill syringes, and a jar of medicine. Samuel saw it was a drug that he had seen and used rarely, anti hibernation drug. Damon turned Mimi on her side, stuck the needle straight into her brain, and injected three doses of the anti-hibernation drug into her. That should do it.

Damon said to Adam, "The lady tried to hibernate. Notice how wet she is. That'll prevent it."

Samuel went through the Mimi, too; she had pushed her fluids out to dry herself off for hibernation.

 Damon put a cannula on Mimi and put her already in the feeding and bump feeding tube directly. He gave a good dose of black velvet because the teeth were doing it so hard. Damon had collectors in his teeth that were now making as a reaction to Mimi's condition black velvet.

Mimi should get some sleep. Damon felt that the velvet kept the nightmares and anxiety away. Once Mimi was anesthetized with velvet, she usually felt safe. That's why Damon preferred velvet over any other medicine. He made several bags of velvet, and Mimi slept on velvet.

They scanned Mimi, and Damon's blood had healed some internal damage, so the surgery was not yet acute. Then Damon and Samuel removed all the bandages. Washed and cleaned the many wounds and bruises and re-bandaged them.

Damon felt quite restless, and soon, a headache hit him, starting between his eyes and spreading behind his eyes to his forehead. He realized as he put the collectors in that nothing was coming out that he had to give these directly into the vein.

He said to Samuel and Adam, " Fine, I already have a massive headache, but nothing coming out of the collectors means I have to put the teeth in the neck for the lady. Keep the black velvet coming all the time. I feel like I'm chopping and removing, so I may not make velvet."

Samuel nodded and said, "Fine, we have the velvet concentrate now properly, and there are plenty of bumps. Do what you have to do, and then we will see."

When Mimi slept deeply enough, Damon's teeth were forced very hard. He had to climb on top of Mimi and sink his teeth right into her neck. Damon fell into a kind of sleep himself. It was his body's way of conserving energy between making and processing the tooth stuff.

Samuel and Adam left Damon to do his work for the time being, and Adam, with Magnum, started organizing the fleas and their gigs again. Now, it would just be a case of waiting and seeing what Damon could do. Everything would be fine.