Мелисса де ла Круз - Masquerade

Schuyler shuddered.

"So you must learn how to control it, and defend yourself against it. We shall try the first one, before I can prepare you for the second." Lawrence decided. "There are four factors to the glom. The first one is merely telepathy. The ability to read minds. To read another's thoughts, one must concentrate on their energy—and strive to understand its source. A mind is like a puzzle; you must unlock it to read its hidden secrets.”

"Anderson, come in here, please.”

The white-haired gentleman entered the room. "Yes?”

“Anderson has been trained to resist the glom. He must, if he is going to be a good Conduit. One cannot have a vampire's assistant corrupted.”

For the next three hours, Schuyler sat on one end of a table, Anderson sat at the other.

Lawrence would hold up a flash card to show Anderson, and Schuyler had to guess what was on the flash card.

What is he thinking? She focused on his signal, but all she got was static, a dense gray fog.

"Queen of hearts?" Schuyler asked.

Lawrence showed her an ace of spades.

"Ten of clubs?”

Three of diamonds.

And so it went. The gray fog did not lift. Schuyler felt depressed. After her success on the Velox and the aminadverto, she was certain mastering the glom would be just as straightforward.

Anderson was excused, and Schuyler was left alone with her grandfather.

"It is a hard one." Lawrence consoled, shuffling the cards and stacking them back in their case.

Schuyler nodded. "But it seems so easy," she said, mentioning how she could read Oliver's thoughts with no trouble.

"He is unprotected. Remind me, we will have to train him as well if he is going to be an effective Conduit.”

Schuyler nodded. The effort to master the glom had taken a lot of her energy, and she felt dizzy and tired all of a sudden.

"Are you all right?" Lawrence asked, concerned.

She waved her hand away. Schuyler never admitted it to her grandfather, but sometimes after completing the tests, she was so weak she could barely stand.

TWENTY-SIX

Their meeting in the Repository had been purely accidental. Schuyler was there to read as many books as possible on Lawrence's instructions and had been pleasantly surprised to find Jack studying at one of the desks.

"Oh, hey." He grinned, raking a hand through his hair and motioning for her to take the seat across from him. "What are you reading? The Trial?" he asked, showing her his copy.

She nodded. They had been assigned the Kafka tome in their AP English class. It was one of the several books she had in her stack.

"Silly love story, don't you think?" he asked, paging through the yellowed leaves in his book, which Schuyler noticed was well worn and dog-eared.

"Love story?" She made a face. "Isn't the book about the tyranny of justice? The absurd nature of bureaucracy? We never know what he's on trial for, after all.”

"I disagree. And since Kafka never wanted the book to be published, who's to say what it's really about?" Jack asked in a slightly teasing tone. "I read that it's about his failed courtship and engagement to Felice Bauer. Which means it's not about the law at all, but about a man who's frustrated in love….”

"Oh, Jack…" Schuyler sighed. She wasn't sure if he was pulling her leg or not, but she was enjoying their banter. It hadn't been clear until then whether they would ever be able to mend the budding friendship, or whatever it was that had started between them and then ended so abruptly last semester. But it looked as if Jack might not be too put off from trying again. Not that it meant anything. He was still Mimi Force's brother.

"Maybe my book has something yours doesn't," Jack said, pushing his copy over. "Here, let me take yours." He said. "Yours has a better cover anyway.”

Schuyler picked up his book, inhaling its mildewy scent. She found the page where she had left off and began to read.

Boring old place, Mimi thought, as she followed Kingsley down the stairs into the Repository of History, The Committee's headquarters and the coven's main library located underneath Block 122, the superexclusive nightclub open to Blue Bloods and their guests only.

Kingsley had become a friend, someone who shared Mimi's sense of wickedness. The incident with the boy on the balcony had been the start of their alliance. Kingsley represented everything Mimi admired in a vampire—the desire to use power. Privately, she agreed with Kingsley: The Committee was much too cautious, and she chafed against its stringent rules. Why not use their strength to dominate humans? What good was reading someone's mind if you couldn't use it for material or emotional gain? Why not feed on more than one familiar at a time?

Why not flaunt their superior status instead of trying to blend in with the mortal world?

He had asked her to come with him to the Repository so he could show her something cool, and he had disappeared into the stacks to find it.

She looked around the cavernous old room. Several pathetic humans, former Conduits no longer attached to vampire families, were working diligently in their carrels.

Mimi took a seat at one of the large reading tables in the middle of the room, drumming her fingers impatiently.

The soft sound of conversation drifted to her ears from behind a row of books.

"There's nothing about love in here, Jack," a girl was saying. "Maybe you're the one being absurd.”

"Are you sure? You should look harder, maybe you're not reading it closely enough," he countered.

Mimi gritted her teeth. That was the Van Alen mouse again, talking to her brother. She stood up and cleared her throat, peering over the low shelves at the two of them.

Jack and Schuyler immediately moved away from each other.

"I'll, uh, see you later," Schuyler said, taking her books and walking over to a different desk, not realizing she still had his copy.

"Oh, hi," Jack said, turning in his seat to smile at his sister. "I didn't even know you knew the way to this place.”

"Don't you underestimate me, Benjamin Force. For your information, I'm a huge reader," Mimi sniffed.

Jack grinned. Liar, he sent.

You're the liar, she sent back.

He made a conciliatory gesture. Forgive me.

Always. Mimi's face softened.

I'm off. I'll see you at home.

Bye.

Mimi watched him leave, but even with his gentle thoughts imprinted on her mind, she couldn't help but feel troubled. Why was Schuyler still a factor? There was something about that girl that was keeping her brother off balance, she could feel it. She could sense his desire to commit himself to their bond, but it was almost as if he were convincing himself to fall in love with her against his will. Why? It had never been like this before. In every cycle, the two of them had reaffirmed their bond without any complications.

For a moment, the supreme, smug self-confidence left Mimi's face, and she looked like a lost and scared little girl. What if he leaves me? What if he doesn't renew our bond when the time comes? What will happen to us?

Mimi shuddered as she thought of Allegra Van Alen, lying in her hospital bed, practically dead to the world.

She could not let that happen, to either of them.

"You look like you've seen a ghost," Kingsley said, setting a thick book in front of Mimi.

Mimi flashed him her most disarming smile. "I wish." She looked down at the leatherbound tome.

"What is that?”

"It's something we shouldn't be looking at. It's an old reference book of forbidden spells.

You've heard about this Croatan thing, right—the Silver Bloods?" Kingsley asked.

"Yeah," Mimi said warily. "But they're not supposed to exist.”

"Right," Kingsley smirked. "Only because they're not so obedient anymore.”