Blue Bloods

CHAPTER 42

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 grandmother 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 grandmother'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 liquid surrounding her—it was almost as if she had known it would happen.

"Fought it off… but so powerful…" Cordelia whispered, 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 hospital."

"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?"

Cordelia shook 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 up Paradise 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. In Egypt, pharaohs routinely married their sisters, as the emperors did in Rome. But in the modern world, the practice 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 generations."

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?"

Cordelia coughed. 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 of Italy. 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?"

Cordelia smiled 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's is 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, reaching for Schuyler's hand. "Facio Valiturus Fortis." Be strong and brave. With that final blessing, Cordelia Van Alen's spirit reverted to a passive state.