Blue Bloods: Keys to the Repository (7 page)

Cycle Wife
: Trinity Burden

Assigned Human Conduit
: Virgil Hazard-Perry (recused from service by CF, 1990)

List of Human Familiars
: Georgina Guest (1987–1988), Susan King (1989–1991), Charlotte Pittman (1992–1995), Desiree Hutch (1991–1994),

Sidney Cohen (1995–1999), Aspeth Heimann (2000–2003), Gina Dupont (2003–2006), current human familiar unknown

Physical Characteristics
:

Hair
: Silver (formerly black)

Eyes
: Gray

Height
: 5’10”

Charles Force is the latest reincarnation of Michael, the Blue Bloods’ leader since time immemorial. In this cycle he divested his share of the Van

Alen trust to build a new multimedia company. His Force News Network spans the globe and wields an incomparable influence upon every aspect of

human interaction, from news to politics to sports to entertainment. He serves on the board of several Fortune 500 companies and was instrumental

in the election of Forsyth Llewel yn to the U.S. Senate. As Regis, he expanded the funding for the New York Blood Bank for medical research on

blood-borne diseases; founded the New York Institute for Policy Research, a conservative think tank; and is known as a major donor to the

Republican Party.

Educated at Endicott Academy, Harvard Col ege, and Harvard Business School, Charles Force’s life has been marred by the inexplicable

breaking of the bond between himself and his twin sister, Al egra Van Alen. Al reports of their early life together indicated that they were ready and

wil ing to commit to their union, as they have for centuries past, until the jarring and unfortunate decision on Al egra’s part to elope with her human

familiar, Stephen Chase.

After Al egra broke their bond, Charles engaged in a human marriage with Trinity Burden (Sandalphon), who lost her bondmate in the Great War.

In 1990, he petitioned the House of Records to al ow him to cal up the spirits of Azrael and Abbadon as his twin children, Mimi and Jack Force.

Charles Force recently won a custody battle in the Red Blood courts that al owed him to overturn Cordelia Van Alen’s petition to make Schuyler

Van Alen an emancipated minor. For a time, Schuyler Van Alen was fostered in his home.

After he was deposed as Regis, Charles withdrew from Blue Blood life, and was reported to spend his days locked in his study. After

Lawrence’s al eged death, Charles disappeared but was sighted at the
Bal des Vampires
at the Hôtel Lambert. If Venator reports are to be believed,

he was last seen locked in a furious battle with the demon Leviathan and was lost when the Silver Blood released the
subvertio
.

Current Status
: Missing. Believed to be lost in the White Darkness.

TRINITY BURDEN FORCE

Sandalphon, The Angel of Silence

Birth Name
: Trinity Amelia Burden

Origin
: February 11, 1971, New York, New York

Known Past Lives
: Janice Adelaide (Melbourne), Sorina Sedlak (Prague), Claudia Caepionis (Rome)

Bondmate
: Salgiel (deceased)

Assigned Human Conduit
: None

List of Human Familiars
: Greer Chapman (1989–1990), Oswald Hefferlin (1990–1995), Paul Thornton (1995–1997), Simon Lawlor (1999–2005),

Boone Mitchel (2005–present)

Cycle wife to Charles Force and cycle mother to the twins, Trinity Force was instrumental in the founding of the Committee and is wel known in New

York society for her exquisite taste and good breeding. She lost her bondmate, Salgiel, during the Great War in Rome and was free to marry Charles,

in the Red Blood sense, after Al egra broke her heavenly bond. Theirs is a marriage of convenience rather than true affection, and it was rumored that

Charles chose her as his bride for the considerable dowry she brought to the marriage.

Until Charles’s disappearance led her to take leadership of the Force News Network, Trinity was like many a Park Avenue matron—a

benefactress of the arts, opera, and discreet plastic surgery.

Current Status
: Committee warden

Author’s Note: This is a companion story to
Revelations
. It details Schuyler and Jack’s final encounter, from Jack’s perspective. Schuyler has

come back from Rio and has agreed to meet Jack at the Perry Street apartment. The Committee is in disarray. Lawrence and many of the top-

ranking members of the Coven have been murdered. This event happened before the epilogue, in which Jack and Mimi reunite.

THE LIE THAT CONCEALED THE TRUTH,

OR “THE LAST MEETING”

Jack’s Story

It is my turn to wait. Funny that in al these months we have been meeting, it was always she who waited for me. It was never my intention to make her

wait, but my path to this place has always been the more complicated one.

I flip through the pages of
Anna Karenina
. The book I had slipped under her door before she left the country. The book that I found in my locker

this morning, returned to me. A sign that
she
wanted to meet. She has never done this before. The light is good here—I can see al of downtown from

the windows. The city is stil and quiet outside. There are no cabs honking, no dogs barking, no ambulances wailing; instead, al is silent. An eerie

calm.

The door opens slowly. The moment I see her face I know something is wrong. I expected it, and yet I am stil wounded by it. She does not fly into

my arms as before, and her eyes are clouded and gray. She displays none of that happiness to see me that I took so much delight in for so long. Only

a grim acceptance.

“I am sorry about your grandfather,” I say. “Your loss is shared by al .” Words are not enough; they can only do what words can do. Lawrence was

more than a friend; he was a mentor, an al y. I grieve his loss deeply.

When the news came—that Corcovado had broken, that Leviathan walks the earth once again—I did not react as many of us did, with shock and

fear. Instead I felt the old blood in these veins stir with vengeance. We wil avenge each of our lost brothers and sisters.
Worldbreaker
is waiting. We

wil not despair or retreat. We wil fight. And we wil win. War has come to us once again, and this time we wil vanquish our foes for eternity. I am

almost looking forward to it.

“Do not worry, my love, we shal have our vengeance. I promise it. Lawrence wil not have died in vain.”

Her eyes become bright. She nods curtly. “He died because of me.”

“He died to protect you. It was his duty.”

She stands so stil at the doorway, as if she doesn’t know what to do or what to say. And yet I know already. She wil tel me we must stop meeting

because the Coven wil need me now, and that she wil be saving me by taking herself away. . . . She could not be more wrong. Everything in my life

depends on her being part of it.

When we first met, I was struck by her resemblance to her mother. But contrary to what many thought about my relationship with Gabriel e, we

had a deep and affectionate friendship, nothing more. I loved her as an al y, and because she was our queen. I love her daughter in a completely

different way. I love her because she has become something more to me. She has become my life.

“Come here,” I say gently. “Sit down.”

She shakes her head. “No. I . . . I can’t stay.”

“You want us to stop meeting.” I have to say it because she wil not.

“Yes.”

“Because you think it is dangerous for me. Someone has told you something—my sister, perhaps.” I cannot say Mimi’s name in her presence,

and vice versa. I cannot think of Mimi without thinking of the pain I am bringing her, and therefore choose the easier path: to not think of her at al . I am

a coward.

“No.”

“No?”

She walks over, closer to the fire, and addresses her words to the flames. “I can’t meet you anymore, Jack, because I would be lying to myself for

the reasons I’m here.”

“And what is that reason?”

“That I love you.”

“And that reason no longer exists, is that it?” My voice is light, playful. She is not a natural flirt; she is so serious always, my love, it amuses me a

little. Of course she loves me. She is doing this precisely
because
she loves me.

“Yes.”

“Another of my sister’s ideas, isn’t this? ‘Tel Jack you no longer love him. It is the only way to set him free.’ As if I were a caged bird or a pet lion.”

I smile. Schuyler is so brave and ful of courage, my darling. She wil lose me to save me. She is ready to make that sacrifice, but I want her to know it

is not necessary. I can fight for both of us, and I wil .

“No.” She looks at me, and her face is ful of anguish. “No, that’s not it.”

It has been centuries since I have felt fear. I do not know fear. I do not have this weakness, and yet something in her face, in her voice—frightens

me. This is no girlish deception, no halfhearted attempt. I marvel at my fear, at the novelty of it. It is like ice in my throat. It is lodged there; I cannot

breathe. I cannot swal ow.

Before I can say anything, she speaks, and the bluntness of her words strikes me as nothing has struck me before.

“I don’t love you anymore because I haven’t been honest with myself. And I haven’t been honest with you. I love someone else. I always have.”

A cruel joke. I want to laugh but I don’t. I want to crumple to the ground but my pride wil not let me. I have never heard these words before. I do not

understand them.
Someone else? There is someone else?
This is a trick. Another deception. Another excuse Mimi has planted . . . Surely she

cannot be . . . She is lying. . . .

Schuyler is tel ing the truth.

Of al the vampires in the world, I should know. I do not need the blood trial to find out. I can sense it—the truth is written al over her face. Her

sadness. She is sad for me. She feels sorry—
for me
! I find her pity more disturbing than her words. It is ghastly and unimaginable.

How did she have time for someone else? I know our meetings were too few and far apart. But it was necessary, to keep her safe. If I’d had a

choice—but I did not—we would have been together always. I lived for those moments when we were together, those few times in my life that I actual y

felt alive. Centuries I have slumbered until we met. And I had a plan for us. I had a future in mind. I wanted to share it with her and was waiting for the

right moment. But the best-laid plans of mice and men . . .

I am not too proud to ask. “Who?”

“Oliver.”

Her familiar. The human. I want to leave the room immediately so I can seek and destroy the mortal. He has no chance. She can see it.

“Please don’t—don’t harm him. I love him. I always have. I just didn’t want to admit it.” For the first time this evening she reaches over and

touches me. She puts her smal hand—so tiny, real y—on top of mine. I flinch, as if her fingers were engulfed in flames.
So this is pain. So this is

wretchedness. So this is misery. I never knew.

I have nothing to say. I can feel it—the truth. The truth of her love for him, it shines al over her face, and I can sense his presence on her very skin.

Such is the way with the familiars—their blood brings us life, but they are not meant for us in this manner. I am sickened by jealousy and rage.

“Leave me.” I am ashamed of the strangled cry that flies out before I can control myself.

“Jack . . . I . . .” She is standing by the doorway. I have hunted down the Croatan, I have endured the tortures of Hel , and yet I cannot find the

strength to meet her eyes. I have to force myself to do so.