Blue Bloods (25 page)

Her younger sister looked at her as if she’d seen a ghost. “You’re okay.”

“Of course I am,” Bliss snapped.

“I heard something—I heard—a deep voice …”

“Dylan. My boyfriend. He was here with me earlier.”

“No, not the boy—another,”Jordan said. She was shaking violently, and Bliss was surprised to find her sister near tears. She’d never seenJordan act that way before.

Bliss, still holding the jacket, walked to her side and held her close. “What did you hear?” she asked, trying to soothe her trembling sister.

“There was a thump—like—something heavy dropping—then footsteps, out of your room—

dragging something away—then you were screaming—I, I didn’t know what to do—so I called Mom and Dad….”

It all made sense now.

The broken window.

Someone had been there.

Someone else.

Or more likely, something.

And it had … oh God, Dylan … all the blood—there was so much blood on the jacket—how could anyone survive after losing so much blood? She felt a deep sense of grief. He was as good as dead. The creature had taken him.

It had returned, to finish the job—to get her—the swelling in her neck—she’d tried to fight it off—ifJordan hadn’t heard, if her parents hadn’t come…. She felt chills. The fine hair on her arms stood on end.

It was no nightmare—she’d been fighting it, it had been there, it was real. It had tried to kill her.

What Dylan had tried to warn her about, what she and Oliver and Schuyler had discovered in the Repository. Croatan . A creature that preyed on vampires.

A Silver Blood.

FORTY-TWO

The Forces dropped her off in front of her door.

Schuyler was painfully embarrassed to think that she had accused Jack’s father of being a Silver Blood. Even though she was still troubled by his cavalier attitude toward their return—almost as if it didn’t bother him—almost as if he had expected it. But that couldn’t be true. He was the Regis, their leader, a vampire by choice instead of sin. She had to trust him to know the right thing to do.

“Take it easy,” Jack said, bidding her good-bye.

She nodded her thanks and exited from the car. Then she realized she had completely forgotten to ask why Charles was visiting her mother in the first place. Maybe her grand mother would know.

When Schuyler entered the house, she felt a strangeness in the air. The sitting room was as dark and shrouded as ever, but there was a feeling of menace. The umbrella stand had been knocked over, as if someone had run down the stairs in a hurry. The silence seemed ominous. Hattie was away on her week off, and her grandmother would be alone in the house. Schuyler quickened her pace up the stairs. She noticed one of the paintings hanging in the stairway was askew. Someone had definitely been in the house. Someone who did not belong there.

Dylan! What if Dylan had been here? Looking for her? To finish what he’d started? She felt a wild panic. Her grand mother’s room was on the far end of the second landing. She threw the doors open and walked briskly inside, calling her name.

” Cordelia! Cordelia !”

There was a moan from the other side of the bed.

Schuyler ran toward the sound, frightened of what she would find. But she didn’t scream when she saw Cordelia lying on the floor in a pool of her own blood—thick blue liq uid surrounding her—it was almost as if she had known it would happen.

“Fought it off … but so powerful …” Cordelia whis pered, opening her eyes to see Schuyler leaning over her.

“Who?Who did this to you?” Schuyler asked, helping Cordelia to a sitting position. “We need to get you to a hos pital.”

“No, no time.” Cordelia argued, her voice barely louder than a croak. “Came for me. Croatan .”

She spit up blood. “Who? Was it Dylan? Did you see?”

Cordeliashook her head. “I saw nothing. I was blinded momentarily. But it was young, powerful.

I did not see its face. I held it off. It tried, but it wasn’t able to take me or my memories. But this is the end of my cycle. You need to take me to Dr. Pat’s. So they can take my blood. For the next Expression. Very important.”

Schuyler nodded, tears in her eyes. “But what about you?”

“This cycle is ended for me. This is the last chance we will have to speak for a long time.”

Schuyler told her quickly about what happened at the Carlyle, and what she’d learned from Charles Force about Dylan, how he’d been bitten, and turned, by a Silver Blood. How he had killed Aggie. “But he’s missing. He escaped from the hotel room. Nobody knows where he is.”

“He is most likely dead by now. They will kill him before he can reveal their secrets. Before the Blue Bloods can hold him again. It is as I always feared,” Cordelia whispered. “The Silver Bloods are back … Only you can defeat them … Your mother was the strongest of us and you are her daughter….”

“My mother?”

“Your mother was Gabrielle. Gabriel. One of the seven Archangels. Only two of them went voluntarily with the cursed, down to earth. To save us. She was the strongest. She was Michael’s—that is—Charles Force’s twin. His only love. It was her original sacrifice. He only followed out of his love for her. He gave upParadise to be with her.”

So that was why Charles visited her mother. Allegra was his sister. Which meant, he was her …

uncle? The tangled Blue Blood family history was too complicated for Schuyler to make sense of it at the moment. Cordelia continued speaking. “They ruled together for thousands of years.

InEgypt , pharaohs routinely married their sisters, as the emperors did in Rome . But in the modern world, the prac tice became increasingly proscribed, and so it became a hidden secret.

Twins were still born in the same families, blood-bound to each other like I was to your grandfather; but through a change, one twin would assume the role of spouse, and the Red Bloods never noticed the transition. This way, fortunes were preserved in the same family for gen erations.”

Schuyler thought of Mimi and Jack, of the strange and intimate bond between them.

“Charles and Allegra were blood-bound to each other for eternity. Until she met your father, that is. Your mother fell in love with Stephen. It was her doom. She renounced Charles. In his anger, Charles left the family. He took a new name and forsook the Van Alen legacy. When your father died, Allegra swore never to take another human familiar, to preserve their love. It is why she does not wake up. She exists between life and death. She refuses to take the Red Blood to keep her alive. Charles could help her, but chooses not to.”

“My father was human?”

“Yes. You are the only one. You are a Half Blood. Dimidium Cognatus . You must take care. I have protected you as long as I could. There are those who will seek to destroy you.”

“Who?Why?”

“It is said that the daughter of Gabrielle will bring us to the salvation we seek.”

“Me? How?”

Cordeliacoughed. She gripped Schuyler’s arm tightly. “You must find your grandfather … my husband … Teddy … an Enmortal , a vampire who has kept the same physical shell for centuries…. He and I separated a long time ago. After we were banished from the Conclave, we agreed it was safer to separate … We did not trust the Wardens … We believed one of them harbored the Croatan … Teddy has been missing for centuries … You must search the Repository for his last known whereabouts … He can help you. Try Venice , I think. He was fond ofItaly . He might have gone there. Only he knows how to defeat the Silver Bloods. You must find him and tell him what’s happened.”

“How will I know him?”

Cordeliasmiled wanly. “He’s written a lot of books. Most of the ones in the library are from his collection, or were written by him.”

“Who was he? What was his name?”

“He has many names. You need them, you know ,if you’re going to live for so long. But when we were together last he was going by Lawrence Winslow Van Alen . Comb the Piazza San Marco.

And the Academy. Wait— Cipriani’sis most likely. He did love his Bellinis . Tell him, tell him Cordelia sent you.”

Schuyler nodded. She wept openly now. There were so many things yet to fathom—

Charles/Michael, Allegra / Gabriel, her human father, her immortal grandfather. She certainly had a strange and varied family tree. Her status as a Half Blood. Who else knew? Did Oliver?

Jack? And what did it mean? What did it mean that Gabrielle’s daughter would bring the Blue Bloods to salvation? It was too much. It was too big a burden to shoulder. She wanted nothing more than for Cordelia to stop bleeding. How would she go on without her?

Even though she knew her grandmother would never really die—she was still leaving this world for the time being. “Grandmother,” she pleaded. “Stay.”

“Take care of yourself, granddaughter,” she said, reach ing for Schuyler’s hand. ” Facio ValiturusFortis.” Be strong and brave. With that final blessing, Cordelia Van Alen’s spirit reverted to a passive state.

FORTY-THREE

The funeral was SRO—Standing Room Only. It was amazing how many people knew Cordelia Van Alen . St. Bartholemew’s was packed, and on the seventh night of viewing, there were still hundreds of people who showed up to pay their respects. The governor, the mayor, the two sen ators from New York , and many other people came to pay homage. It was almost as crowded as Jackie O’s funeral, Mimi thought.

Unlike at Aggie Carondolet’s funeral, almost every per son attending had worn white to Cordelia Van Alen’s . Even her father had insisted that the family dress in ivory raiment for the occasion.

Mimi had chosen a cloud-colored Behnaz Sarafpour dress. She noticed Schuyler Van Alen at the front of the receiving line, greeting everyone in a slim white dress, her hair held back by two white gardenias.

“Thank you for coming,” she told the Forces, shaking their hands.

“We share your sorrow. She shall return,” Charles Force said solemnly. He was wearing a suit the color of cream. Schuyler had kept the circumstances of her grandmother’s death to herself. If there was really a Silver Blood in the Conclave, she felt it best not to reveal what had truly hap pened. Instead, she had told everyone that Cordelia had tired of the Expression and was looking forward to resting before the next cycle.

“We await for glad tidings,” Schuyler said the traditional reply back. She had learned a lot in the past two months.

” Vos Vadum Reverto,” Jack whispered, bowing to the coffin. You Shall Return.

Mimi gave Schuyler a quick nod. She found Bliss arriv ing through the side door with her family. Bliss was wearing a Sarafpour shift dress identical to Mimi’s. The girl from Texas was learning, too.

“Hey, Bliss, maybe after the funeral we can go to a spa. I’m so sore from power yoga,” Mimi said to her friend.

“Sure,” Bliss said. “I’ll wait for you after the service.” She walked up to Schuyler, who was standing by herself by the magnificent platinum coffin.

“Sorry about your grandmother,” Bliss said.

“Thank you,” Schuyler said, her eyes downcast.

“What are you going to do now?”

Schuyler shrugged. In her will, Cordelia had declared Schuyler an emancipated minor, with Hattie and Julius as her guardians for now.

“I’ll be okay.”

“Good luck.”

Schuyler watched Bliss walk away, huddled closely to Mimi. The day before, Bliss had told her about the other night, what had happened when she’d returned from the Carlyle. How she’d found Dylan in her room, how he’d con fessed. How she’d blacked out, and when she awoke, had dis covered the broken glass, the bloodstained jacket.

“He was a vampire and now he’s dead, Schuyler,” Bliss said, tears in her eyes.

No—not dead. Worse than dead, Schuyler thought. Cordelia had told her that when the Silver Bloods drained the Blue Bloods, they took their souls, their memories, made them prisoner to their immortal consciousness forever.

“They took him, but they wanted me too,” Bliss sobbed. “He only came back to warn me. They’d turned him into one of them, but he was fighting it. Now he’s gone, and I’ll never see him again.”

Schuyler had hugged her close. “At least you’re safe.”

She felt heartsick for Bliss. She wanted her to know that she would always be there for her. But the next day, it seemed the Texan girl had completely reverted to her old self. She refused to talk to Schuyler or Oliver about everything that happened, and gravitated back to her old circle—that is, next to Mimi Force.

Schuyler hoped that they would get a chance to become friends again. In her heart, she understood that Bliss was weak, but someday she would help her become strong. Valiturus .

Fortis.

Oliver came over and placed a spray of white calla lilies on the coffin. He was wearing a dazzling three-piece white suit. His dark chestnut hair curled above the collar.

“We will miss her,” he said, blessing himself.

“Thank you,” she said, accepting a kiss on the cheek.

The service began, and the choir sang Cordelia’s favorite hymn, “On Eagle’s Wings.” Schuyler sat in the front pew, her arms folded in her lap. Cordelia was gone. The only family she had ever truly known. She was alone in the world. Her mother, trapped in a sleeping death, and her grand father lost, hiding somewhere.

Oliver, seated next to her, squeezed her hand in sym pathy.

After the funeral, Jack Force walked over to Schuyler. He, too, was wearing a white suit, and it gleamed in the sun. They walked out of the church to busy Park Avenue, where it was just another Sunday in New York . Mothers and nan nies pushing eight-hundred-dollar strollers toward the park, well-dressed residents out for a brisk fall stroll or an after noon at a museum.

“Schuyler, could I have a sec?”

“Sure.” She shrugged.

With his light hair and green eyes, Jack Force looked princely in his shining garb. He had the face of an angel. A face not unlike his father’s.

“Speak,” she told him.

“I’m sorry things went so weird between us….” he said . “I … my life is not my own…. I have responsibilities to my family that … that preclude the kind of relationship that—”

“Jack, you don’t need to explain,” Schuyler said, cutting him off. She could guess about him and Mimi. Blood-bound to each other since the day of their creation.