The Van Alen Legacy (31 page)

“Here’s what we know,” Oliver
said. “Tiberius
Gemellus
was supposed to be emperor, because he was Caesar
Tiberius’s real grandson and heir, while Caligula, who actually became emperor, was adopted. But
Tiberius preferred Caligula over
Gemellus
, and so named Caligula to succeed him to
the throne. You would think
Gemellus
would have been upset, but the records show he
was very close to Caligula, and loved him as a brother. The Red Bloods’ history books say there
is nothing known about
Gemellus
, which is logical, since most of the real history is
hidden from them, I mean us,
you
know what I mean.”

Schuyler nodded.

“But there’s really nothing
about
Gemellus
or his family in any of the Blue Bloods records either. It’s like he
never existed. Or wasn’t important enough to keep track of,” Oliver said, getting up when the
teakettle began to whistle. He poured hot water into two cups and threw in the tea
bags.

“But he was important,”
Schuyler said, accepting her cup and blowing on the surface before taking a sip.

“He was a keeper. He was
important enough that Michael and Gabrielle named him to the Order of the Seven. But where is he
now? What happened to him? Who did he become?”

Schuyler asked. “How do we
find a person who’s not in the books?”

Oliver and Schuyler looked at
each other. They were both thinking of a rather unusual diary they had found two years
ago.

Oliver said excitedly,
“Usually when something’s not in the books, it means . . .”

“It’s deliberately been
hidden,” Schuyler said.

“Exactly.”
Oliver
put down his cup. “So wherever he is, we’re not going to find him here,” he said, pushing the
books away.

“He was brother to Caligula.
Beloved by the emperor.
His closest advisor.
Ollie, I’ve got an idea.
Call me crazy, but do you think that maybe
Gemellus
. . . was a Silver
Blood?”

When Mimi had first asked
Bliss to be a bonds-maid at her wedding, Bliss had been taken aback. The two girls had not seen
each other in over a year, and were hardly friends anymore. But Mimi had seemed a bit desperate,
and Bliss took pity on her and said yes. So on the bright October morning that Jack and Mimi were
to be bonded, Bliss arrived early at the salon to get her hair and makeup done, as Mimi had
directed.

Trinity Force and several
other daughters of high-ranking Conclave members were already swaddled in robes, reading
magazines and drinking champagne. Mimi herself was seated in the middle of the action. The
bond-to-be was wearing a fluffy white robe, but otherwise she looked picture-perfect. Her face
was made up as exquisitely as a doll’s, with ruby red lips and the barest hint of blush. Her
lustrous platinum hair was pulled back into a chignon woven with white flowers. She looked
gorgeous.

“Bliss!
I’m so
happy to see you?” she said.

“Oh my god!
I
know! Are you excited?” Bliss asked, matching Mimi’s ditzy-girl tones. “You’re getting bonded
today?”

“It’s about time, don’t you
think?” Mimi practically screamed.

Bliss could smell the alcohol
on her breath, but something about Mimi’s excitement seemed . . . forced. Mimi was smiling so
hard her face looked like it was going to crack.

“You’re over here.
Danilo
will take care of you. Remember,
Danilo
, make my friend pretty
but not prettier than me?” Mimi giggled.

“Hey, by the way, I’m sorry I
missed that um . . . bathing thing,” Bliss said, trying not to feel awkward.

“No worries. You’re here now
and that’s what matters,” Mimi said with a brilliant smile.

She was exactly the same old
Mimi Force, Bliss thought. Totally vain, preening, and self-centered, or maybe she was just
getting the bonding jitters.

Bliss was anxious about the
event. She hoped the bonding would go quickly so she could get away from everyone. After her
encounter with the Visitor the other day, she felt shaken and unsteady and not quite safe to be
around. Not that she would ever, ever, ever, in her right mind, ever do such a thing as murder
her best friend. She had to convince Schuyler to leave New York as soon as possible. The longer
Schuyler stayed in the city, the more dangerous it was for her. Bliss had to keep her friend safe
. . . and away from her. But she had yet to figure out how to do it, how to talk to Schuyler
without the Visitor finding out.

At least she knew Schuyler
wouldn’t be at Mimi’s bonding, so Bliss wouldn’t have to worry about it today. It was a small but
welcome reprieve, but she was still nervous.

The stylist straightened
Bliss’s hair and spackled on the makeup so thick, when she looked in the mirror she hardly
recognized
herself
. Her hair was almost to her elbows, it was so much longer
straightened, and her face was a mask of perfection, although that spray-tan made her look a bit
orange. She took a cab home so she could change into her dress, a black strapless gown. Pretty
basic
bondsmaid
attire, nothing that would take away from the vision that Mimi was
sure to be.

Back at the penthouse, Bliss
checked her makeup one last time in the mirror, attempting to tone down the bronzer on her
cheeks. Where was Dylan? The Visitor was keeping him from her, she knew, and she hated him
bitterly for it. Was he being held somewhere? Hurt? Was it all her fault? How had this happened
to her? What could she do? Sometimes she felt as if she were truly going crazy.

As she gazed at herself in the
mirror, she noticed she was still wearing the emerald Forsyth had given her two years ago.
Lucifer’s Bane.
She touched the cold stone, and with great difficulty, removed the
necklace from her body. She didn’t want anything near her associated with her father. She tossed
it onto the dressing room table. She felt as if it had marked her skin, but of course that was
just her imagination.

There was no one to talk to
anymore. Not Dylan. Not Schuyler. She really was alone. She left her room and found the bouquet
that Mimi’s florist had delivered that morning.
An enormous arrangement of white
lilies.
She picked it up and found a small envelope slipped inside the flowers, with her
name on it.

She opened the envelope.
Inside was a thin piece of glass. When she touched it, it suddenly transformed into a
sword.

“What the . . . “? Bliss said,
holding both bouquet and sword awkwardly. She put down the flowers and took a closer look at the
sword. It looked familiar. It was Michael’s sword.
The same sword that Jordan had used to
stab her.
What was it doing here?

When she put it down, it
turned into a thin piece of glass again. She couldn’t just leave it here. She tucked it back into
the bouquet and left for the ceremony.

What am I doing here? Schuyler
wondered. She was supposed to be home, going through some new books and documents Oliver had dug
up in the Repository. He had wanted her to look over the files he’d found, and to call him as
soon as she had read them. But somehow her feet had taken her uptown instead. She had walked the
eighty blocks to 
Cathedral Parkway 
and 
Amsterdam Avenue
.

I have to see it for myself. I
have to see him for the last time before he is bound to Mimi. Once he is hers, I’ll
go.

When she had lived on 
Riverside Drive
, Schuyler used to attend the Sunday
services at St. John the Divine. Cordelia preferred her chapel on 
Fifth
Avenue
, but Schuyler had a soft spot for the gothic revival church that had
been built in 1892 but was still incomplete. For as long as Schuyler could remember, the south
tower had been covered in scaffolding, and part of the facade was still missing its sculptural
stone carving.

Every year, to celebrate the
feast of Saint Francis, the church organized a formal Blessing of the Animals. Schuyler had
remembered feeling joy at seeing all the animals, including an elephant from the circus, a
Norwegian reindeer, a camel, and a golden eagle among the assorted menagerie. She had taken
Beauty several times for the blessing. She hoped her bloodhound was faring well, comfortably at
home with Hattie and Julius. Schuyler walked toward the church, watching as a procession of black
town cars and yellow cabs let out a crowd of elegantly dressed guests, who called gaily to each
other as they arrived. There was a festive mood in the air as the Blue Bloods came to celebrate
one of their most sacred rites of passage.

The sun was low on the
horizon. The ceremony would begin just after sunset. Schuyler lingered across the street. She
should go. She had no right to be here. She wasn’t even invited. This was such a bad idea. The
place would be crawling with Blue Bloods, and she was supposed to be in hiding. But Schuyler
couldn’t help it. Against her better judgment, she found herself walking toward the church. She
needed to see it for herself.
Because maybe if she did, she would stop feeling this
way.
If she saw Jack bonded to Mimi, and how happy they were, maybe then her heart would
begin to heal.

Schuyler slipped through a
side door to a pew in the back behind a column. The orchestra was playing Strauss, and there was
a smell of incense in the air. The assembled guests whispered to each other while they
waited.

Jack was already standing at
the altar, looking so very dashing in his tuxedo. He looked up when she arrived, and she could
feel his stare all the way down the length of the vestibule. His eyes flashed with hope. Schuyler
shrank in her seat. He can’t have . . . I should go. . . . But it was too late. Jack had seen
her.

“Schuyler? Is that you?
What are you doing here?”

Oh, crap. She shut her mind to
him. She had to get out, this was wrong. What was she thinking? But as she tried to slip away,
she realized she would be walking right into the wedding party, which was already marching in.
She spotted Bliss among the attendants. She was trapped. She had to stay. At least until the
bride made her entrance, then she would be able to slip away unnoticed.

But someone else had seen her
too.
Someone who had been invited to the wedding.
Oliver and his family had been
walking in the opposite door when she had entered, but he had not acknowledged her presence. He’d
just kept walking to his seat.

“You look beautiful, my dear.
If only your father were here to see you,” Trinity Force said as she adjusted Mimi’s veil in the
car.

“He’s not really my father.
You know that, right?” Mimi asked. “Like you’re not really my mother and Jack’s not my brother.
Otherwise, why would I be bonded to him?”

“Family is family,” Trinity
said. “Maybe we are of a different sort, but we are still a family. We can learn from the humans
too.”

“Whatever,” Mimi said, rolling
her eyes.

So.
It was
finally here.
Bonding day.
She was wearing the gown of her dreams. A custom-made
creation: a real Balthazar
Verdugo
. Made from fifty yards of the finest Parisian
silk jacquard, woven with dozens of tiny silk rosebuds, tinsel
paillettes
, antique
lace, and ostrich feathers, the dress had taken two thousand hours to make, not counting the one
thousand hours the Belgian nuns spent on the embroidery. She carried a rosary in her purse: the
same one she had carried at the last bonding, in Newport. Diamond-and-pearl earrings from
Buccellati
were her only jewelry. Mimi checked her reflection in the rearview
mirror, liking how her lips were red and juicy underneath the veil. She looked absolutely
perfect; if only she felt the same way. Instead, Mimi wondered if she was making the biggest
mistake of her life.

Bonds are made to be broken.
Like rules.

The car pulled up to the
church. Inside would be her whole Coven. The vampires would celebrate tonight. There would be
dancing and fireworks and many toasts to the happy couple. Everything was perfectly orchestrated.
All she had to do was slip into the role. She could do that, if she could just stop listening to
Kingsley’s voice in her head.

She stepped out of the car,
and a sudden gust of wind lifted the veil from her face. Her mother walked her just into the
anteroom, where Mimi would wait until it was her turn to enter.

Inside the church, the
bondsmaids
were walking slowly down the aisle, with the little petal
girls.

Trinity turned to give Mimi
her last words of motherly advice: “Walk straight. Don’t slouch. And for
heavens’s
sake, smile! It’s your bonding!”

Then she too walked through
the door and down the aisle. The door shut behind her, leaving Mimi alone. Finally, Mimi heard
the orchestra play the first strains of the “Wedding March.” Wagner. Then the ushers opened the
doors and Mimi moved to the threshold. There was an appreciative gasp from the crowd as they took
in the sight of Mimi in her fantastic dress. But instead of acknowledging her triumph as New
York’s most beautiful bride, Mimi looked straight ahead, at Jack, who was standing so tall and
straight at the altar. He met her eyes and did not smile.