40. Wild World.

My steps were measured as I returned from the kitchen of the Pennsylvania manor to my office on the fourth floor. I had come here to work and assumed that after the vampire heat, Mariella would want to go to the Azores, and things would go as they had in the past - holidays, Christmas, blah blah.

I was planning on returning to Rok but not going to the base yet, only after the vampire heat was over and they were in the Azores. I planned to get Wulfe, Magnum, and others who might join in working. By then, I would have missions for them that they would find hard to refuse. I was good at that kind of stuff. Oh, I had my fun.

I decided to make the vampire heat a little more interesting by giving my support to the females. First, I gave them ideas on how to get free, and I boosted their powers, so they were quite spry. Sure, there might be consequences, but I wanted Mariella to have fun, Damon to get a little riled up, and make things interesting. It had been three weeks since the vampire heat started, and I had my fun, but now I was returning to my desk.

I sat down in my chair, put my earpiece back on, ready to answer if someone would call. I focused on my laptop. I had brought a big thermos full of coffee and my treats, too. I was looking at satellite pictures from Arkansas. There was one suspected nasty medical facility, and these pictures were taken by our satellite, in which we had a share.

We had bought our share of one supersharp satellite, and we had the computer power to get damn good pictures. But it was still not easy to find enough proof to get this on our lists. We had rules for a reason, and my gut feeling was not part of it.

This was quite a tricky place to nail down as there was no movement there, or if there was, just one guy walking and nothing more - no vans coming or going, no several men walking, no guards, no visible cameras.

Yet, I had a nagging feeling that this was it. But I had to find evidence, not just a nagging feeling. I leaned back in my chair, shutting off the satellite feed I had put on, just in case, hoping to see something, but there was nothing.

My office was mostly light blue. I had found an old light blue sofa there, along with some country-style rag rugs, a few tapestries on the walls, and a couple of prints. Nothing too fancy or precious, but still stylish enough to give some character to my office.

Of course, I had a sizeable desk filled with laptops, displays, piles of papers, maps, phones, tablets, and more. It was a controlled chaos of sorts. I had a cork wall where I could pin stuff, and tall bookshelves lined with thick, heavy folders that held papers like orders and other important documents.

Recently, I had received folders full of inventory lists as our storages had been inventoried. I would need to check them at some point to see if there was an urgent need for supplies somewhere now that we had a better idea of what we had in stock.

As I sat behind my desk, I reminisced about how my organization had started. I had never shared my story in detail with many people, just casually mentioned it to Adam, who caught on early. However, I hadn't talked much about it to Damon or Mariella. I remembered the tough times we faced when I started my resistance, blaming myself back then for our troubles.

A wistful smile crossed my face as I recalled my nervousness, constant self-doubt, and the need to fake it till I made it. Despite the many mistakes I made along the way, my old friends Brutus, Luiz, and others had been my mentors, almost like another family to me.

It was a different time back then. I felt like things were moving too fast and becoming too big for me to handle. However, I persevered. For the first time, I felt proud of myself. It was strange, but I had grown and learned so much about myself. My resistance was something I was truly proud of, a significant accomplishment that I had achieved on my own.

Perhaps, I thought to myself, I might treat myself to some old-fashioned recruiting when Damon and the others go on holiday. Maybe I'll even travel to Portugal or somewhere else to see if I can still do it, or if my reputation has spread too widely for me to pull off my little stunt.

Oh, I would love to show Wulfe how it is done, not Magnum as he would tell me just how sloppy I was, but Wulfe. Now, there was a good partner in crime, so to speak. I missed him. I was thinking that maybe someday we should have another round of road trips, just the two of us, belting out songs and buying all the stuff.

Oh, we could tour Europe, visit all the fancy shops. Not much chance of haggling there, but I am sure he might try, anyway. Or we could visit some local farms, just the two of us, no Salvatores, no sedatives.

But as I was planning this and that, my phone buzzed, and it was time to return to work. Being the leader of over three and a half million people was almost amazing and daunting. How big my cause had grown and how long I had been a leader already, over a century.

"Mimi, talk to me. What's the matter, Augustus?" I answered my call, noticing it was the base leader from Montana.

He said, "Boss, we have a little trouble here. A few feral werewolf packs are wreaking havoc on our surveillance at Whitney's labs. As we set up cameras in trees to monitor the guards, these ferals take them out."

I cussed under my breath and said, "Fine, don't use any more cameras. This is Bran through and through. He is a threat to us. He is the one controlling these ferals. Let's not give him any ammo. That lab is not so important. So, abort the whole mission, and I'll talk to the NSA at some point. Let's see if Bran feels strong enough to attack them."

Augustus said, "Sure thing, boss. We will continue with other stuff."

I said to him, "Montana is a big state, but it is Bran's home turf, so be damn careful. He is again in a wild mood, and we don't need any distractions or for him to get a whiff of our bases. So, utmost vigilance when coming in and out. Put more spells on, stronger ones, too."

He confirmed and ended the call. I slammed my palm against my desk. Fuck, I was pissed off. I had learned to react instantly, not to push them inside of me. Fuck, I was furious. But there was little that I could do. He was baiting me, waiting for me to slip up. Maybe he had some nasty plan for me again.

Bran was an old creature and he was unstable. It seemed that when he was not under the direct supervision of Samuel; he went off the rails. Samuel was not always in the mood to pull him back, and I couldn't blame him. Managing a volatile being like Bran was a full-time job, and Samuel had his own interests in life, like infections, healing, and other things, not controlling his crazy father.

It seemed that evil had left its mark on Bran, but not on Samuel. Then again, Samuel had never been evil like Bran. I remembered every damn thing he had done to me over the centuries.

I could still recall my very first heat, and it was not nice. I had just made fleas come back to States and got trapped by Bran. He raped me and made many alphas rape me until I went into heat, almost. I hated that damn contraption, the rack.

Damon had faded the memory, and it had become very vague over time. However, when Damien got more on board, he brought them back, making that memory very real in my mind. I had never clearly told that to Damon; it was my burden, and I could carry it, as I had done until now.

I was jolted from my reverie when my phone buzzed again. Oh, it was one of the European base leaders.

I clicked my headpiece and said, "Hello Suzie, nice to hear from you. What's up?"

Susan's voice was calm as she answered, "Nothing much, except we recently captured 13 Sarks and 7 Krychecks. They are in a safe place and have no chance to harm themselves. I just wanted you to know."

A smile curved on my lips. I had little outlets for my frustrations, and this could be so much fun, but only when the pack would be on holiday.

I said, "Keep them in. I will tell you when I need them, but not just yet. Soon enough."

She said, "Sure thing, boss. They are harmless, and there's no chance they would perish. They are also from different places, so each of them has different information. Our initial scan showed it."

Oh, even better. My beast side was waking up, and this would be so catastrophic for them, at least, fun for me for sure, but for them... 

Here I was, a chimera of a vampire and a shifter, embodying chaos all rolled into one neat package. I had my mortal enemies, or their clones, reserved for me to be tortured. Yes, I was a sadist and torturer, but it was just my evolution. I had been tortured and experimented on one too many times, warping me in the process.

However, I only tortured the bad guys and saved the innocents. I was not human; not even a drop of it in me. Therefore, my morals were my own, distinct from those of humans. After all, I was my own species, or subspecies.

This was just who I was - darkness within me, a dark side that craved victims, the need to torture and feel their pain. I didn't dwell on many questions; I simply sought to have fun. Humans could perceive me as a monster, and in a way, I was the biggest and baddest monster under their beds, lurking in the shadows, waiting for someone to slip up and become my victim.

My mind fluttered like a butterfly in the sun, moving from one thing to the next and then some more. I didn't think in a linear fashion, but my mind created connections as my memories linked together. That was just how my mind operated.

Wulfe had taught me this, and he tried to disconnect from it as much as possible, just like Damon had tried to do in the past. However, it became increasingly difficult for them, often reminding them of their old failures.

Wulfe had reached a breaking point; he no longer bothered to ask them to act, instead doing what he could, which turned out to be more than enough. Facing the reality of being a creature like me, who remembered everything - every sensation, smell, and thought all the time - there were a vast number of memories to deal with.

Wulfe made it his mission to find the worst of them, isolate them, and disconnect them initially so that my mind would not dwell on them. However, my mind was filled with a lot of troubling memories, making it a long and arduous project even for someone as strong as Wulfe.

He strongly believed that he was almost created for me, a sentiment that I found myself agreeing with sometimes, as he felt like my missing half, a part that Damon could never be for me. Damon, on the other hand, knew that Mariella was his missing half, in a way that I could never fulfill. 

The Pennsylvania mansion was my sanctuary. It had once felt like a place of punishment for Damon and Mariella, but not anymore. I wasn't in the mood to decorate yet; I needed to focus on work.

However, my mind kept wandering. I had no idea about Damon's future plans, which didn't involve a holiday in the Azores. It was something new, a new endeavor that built upon our past experiences. His plan promised an exciting and lengthy journey ahead. Life was about to throw me a curveball, along with the rest of the pack.