Мелисса де ла Круз - Masquerade

Oliver was in love with her.

He had been in love with her all along. Ever since they'd met. For years and years and years.

She had long suspected this but had repressed it. But now it was confirmed. She couldn't deny it.

Oh, Ollie. I shouldn't have done this. Schuyler despaired. The Sacred Kiss would only increase his love, not dispel it.

Now they were bound to each other in a new and more complicated way.

This was more than she'd bargained for. Their friendship would be jeopardized, she knew that now. There was no going back from here. They would only be able to go forward. As vampire and familiar. Entwined by an ancient ritual of blood.

She finished. She was satiated. She withdrew her fangs and felt the life-giving energy flow through her body. It was as if she had ingested twenty-four gallons of high-octane coffee.

Her cheeks flushed with color, and her eyes sparkled.

Oliver's head flopped down. He was already asleep. Schuyler gently laid him on her bed, where he would have to rest for the next several hours, and covered him with her blanket.

What have I done? she wondered, even as she felt her vision clear and her senses heighten. Would they be able to keep this a secret from The Committee? What if Oliver were banished because they found out a Conduit had become a human familiar? She remembered Cordelia telling her that Allegra had married Schuyler's father, her human familiar, against the Code of the Vampires. Her mother had exchanged one bond for another.

And what about Jack?

When Oliver woke, Schuyler was sitting at her desk, watching him.

"Well," he said, scratching his neck where the bite marks were still raw, "I guess that's what you call friends with benefits.”

They both cracked up.

Schuyler threw a pillow at him. She walked Oliver to the door and thanked him again. He kissed her on the lips as he left. A quick kiss, but still, a kiss on the lips.

She closed the door behind him, her heart anxious and troubled.

This was a mistake.

FORTY-FOUR

Allegra Van Alen's hospital suite was on the top floor of Columbia Presbyterian, in a private wing where the rich and famous convalesced. The room was decorated in a style suited to the city's best hotels, with white Italian linens on the bed, sumptuous carpeting, and crystal vases filled with fresh flowers. Every day, a team of nurses massaged and manipulated Allegra's limbs to keep her muscles from the dangers of atrophy.

Not that Allegra would ever notice. Once the city's most celebrated beauty, she slumbered, oblivious to the world around her: a woman with a glorious and tragic past, but no future.

The heart monitor next to the bed showed a steady pulse, and for a long time, there was no sound in the room but the steady beeping from the machine.

Lawrence Van Alen sat in a chair opposite Allegra's bed. He had come to visit his daughter for the first time since he had returned. It was a visit he had been postponing due to the emotional weight of seeing his child reduced to such diminished capacity.

"Oh, Gabrielle," he said finally. "How did it come to this?”

"She can't hear you," Charles Force said as he entered the room, bearing another vase of flowers. He placed it on the sideboard next to her bed. He didn't seem surprised to find Lawrence there.

"She chooses not to hear," Lawrence said. "You have done this.”

"I have done nothing. This is her own doing.”

"Be that as it may, it was still your fault. If you had not—” "If I had not saved her, you mean, in Florence? If I had let the beast have her? Then she would not be in a coma? But what was the alternative? To let her die? What was I to do? Tell me, Father.”

"What you did was against the laws of the universe. It was her time, Michael. It was her time to go.”

"Do not speak to me of time. You have no idea what happened. You were not there," Charles said bitterly.

He put a hand on Allegra's cheek and stroked it gently. "One day she will awake. She will awake out of love for me.”

"It is sad that you still do not understand, Michael. She will never love you the way she did before. She herself did not understand the choice you made. You should have let her die. She will never forgive you.”

Charles Force's shoulders shook. "Why do you talk to me as if I were still a boy? She only left Heaven out of love for you and Cordelia when you were banished.”

"Yes. We had been doomed, we who were loyal to Lucifer. But your sister brought us hope. It was her choice to become one of the undead.”

“Just as it was my choice to follow her.”

Lawrence ruminated on their ancient history. How long ago it seemed now: Lucifer's ascent to the throne, the Prince of Heaven in all his glory, his bright shining star rising as beautiful as the sun, as powerful as God, or so they had thought, to their own detriment. How they had suffered. The cruel exile from Paradise, and Gabrielle, the Virtuous, who had volunteered to join the ranks of Lucifer's minions to bring hope and salvation to her kind. She had turned her back on Heaven for love of them, and Michael had followed her out of Paradise because he could not bear to be separated from her. The two of them were called the Uncorrupted because they did not bear the sin of banishment. They had left on their own accord. Out of love and duty.

"So you have won, Lawrence. After all these years, you finally have what you want. The coven.”

The White Vote had been called that morning, and Lawrence had been installed as Regis in an almost unanimous election. Charles had been stripped of his title and responsibilities immediately. His reputation had been badly tainted by Mimi's conviction. He had tendered his resignation from the Conclave as soon as the news had been announced.

"I never wanted to displace you, Charles. I only wanted us to be safe.”

"Safe? No one is safe. All you will do is sow fear and weakness. You will have us retreat once again. Back to the shadows. Back to the darkness, where we will hide like animals.”

"Not a retreat, a tactical exercise in which we will be able to prepare. Because war is coming, and there is nothing you can do to stop it this time. The Silver Bloods are ascendant and the future of this world will be decided once and for all.”

Charles Force remained silent. He walked toward the window and looked out at the Hudson river. A slow barge moved across the surface, and a seagull honked its lonely cry.

"But I have hope. It is said that Allegra's daughter will defeat the Silver Bloods. I believe Schuyler will bring us the salvation we seek," Lawrence said. "She is almost as powerful as her mother." He told Charles of Schuyler's astonishing abilities. "And one day she will be even more powerful.”

"Schuyler Van Alen…the half-blood?" Charles mused. "Are you certain that she is the one?”

Lawrence nodded.

"Because Allegra had two daughters," Charles said in a light, almost playful tone.

"Surely, even you have not forgotten that.”

FORTY-FIVE

Mimi's condemnation, the formal process for her execution, was coincidentally scheduled during Duchesne's Ski Week in March, so she allowed herself to pretend the family was just going on vacation to Venice. The whole prospect of what was to come her blood burned, her imminent destruction seemed absolutely ludicrous.

She believed her father would find some way to rescue her from her fate, and she spent the flight from New York paging through fashion magazines, marking off the clothes she would buy when she returned to the city. But once they arrived in Venice, Mimi's bravado cracked a little. Especially when members of the Conclave escorted them to their hotel. They had traveled to the ancient prison as well, to witness the final rites.