Мелисса де ла Круз - Keys to the Repository

Files on the Croatan/Silver Bloods and was instrumental in allowing the Venator teams to re-form and return to their full power in order to meet the growing threat of the Silver Bloods’ return.

During his investigation into troubling events in Rio de

Janeiro, Lawrence was slain, allegedly by Leviathan himself.

Eyewitnesses at the scene are not credible: Bliss Llewellyn does not remember anything, Oliver Hazard-Perry is human

(Red Blood testimony is inadmissible), and Schuyler Van Alen is a person of interest in the investigation and has yet to be brought in front of a full tribunal to ascertain the truths of the events on the night in question.

Lawrence’s prodigious research notes, labeled only Van

Alen, Legacy—Paths, have been missing since his Conduit retired from service. It is the Repository’s belief that these documents are now in the hands of Schuyler Van Alen.

Current Status. Finished. (If the Conclave is to believe Schuyler’s account, the Enmortal has been extinguished forever from the Light.)

STEPHEN CHASE

Human Familiar

Birth Name: Stephen Bendix Chase

Origin: September 1, 1967, San Francisco, California

Bondmate: Allegra Van Alen Chase

Physical Characteristics: (according to high school records)

Hair: Blond

Eyes: Blue

Height: 6’3”

Not much is known about Stephen Chase, Schuyler Van Alen’s

Red Blood father. In fact, according to the official records, his name is misspelled with a “V” (“Steven Chase” according to the

Van Alen family tree in Masquerade [Repository Record #202]).

This could be a result of Allegra Van Alen’s hope to keep the identity of her human familiar a secret, or a result of a common clerical error. Allegra always maintained that she met Stephen, an artist in San Francisco, at his gallery opening in 1990.

However, new documents unearthed by a research team led by

Oliver Hazard-Perry (which include Allegra’s high school diary) indicate that they may have met earlier. It has just come to light that Stephen Chase may have been the same person as

Bendix Chase, a boy who was in the same year as Allegra at

Endicott Academy, a boarding school in Massachusetts. If so, then Ben/ Stephen was her first and only human familiar.

In any event, in the fall of 1990, Allegra made Stephen her bondmate, against the Code of the Vampires, breaking her blood bond to her brother, Charles. His name appears on

Schuyer Van Alen’s birth certificate, but it is unknown whether he lived to see his daughter. The documents are unclear on the time of his death, again, perhaps a deliberate deception on

Allegra Van Alen’s part—it is our belief that she did not want the

Committee to know very much about her human husband, and many documents pertaining to his whereabouts are missing or were destroyed. We can only assume that he is dead, as he has never been in contact with either his comatose wife or his errant daughter.

Current Status: Presumed deceased

OLIVER HAZARD-PERRY

Human Familiar/Human Conduit

Birth Name: Oliver Aloysius Fitzgerald Hazard-Perry II

Origin: October 18, 1992, New York, New York

Physical Characteristics:

Hair: Brown

Eyes: Hazel

Height: 5’11”

Born to one of the oldest human families in service to the vampires, Oliver Hazard-Perry was assigned to Schuyler Van

Alen from the moment of his birth. Like all human Conduits, Oliver has been trained in the art of secrecy and vassalage. He has performed admirably well, and as Schuyler’s human

Conduit, Oliver has gone above and beyond the call of duty. It is noted that he is not only her best friend, but her confidant, protector, and “partner in crime,” according to a Repository intern posted at Duchesne. However, he displayed uncharacteristically poor judgment by allowing her to take him as her human familiar, marking him with the Sacred Kiss, an offense that has so far gone unpunished, due to an order from the Regis (Lawrence Van Alen, 2007).

Oliver is an exceptional student at Duchsene, with one of the highest human IQ’s recorded for his generation. His academic performance has been stellar, although his participation in athletics has been the minimum required of a

Conduit. He is a frequent visitor to museums and galleries, and is one of the youngest important collectors of antiquities in the world.

The Repository has long suspected that Oliver was instrumental in aiding and abetting Schuyler Van Alen’s yearlong evasion from Committee justice. However, the

Committee is satisfied with his confession, and further investigation into the possibly illegal nature of his actions has been terminated. (Note: The Hazard-Perry family recently made a sizable donation into the Committee’s accounts.)

He was rumored to have been spotted at Kennedy Airport with Schuyler Van Alen the day after the Silver Blood attack at

St. John’s Cathedral. However, details remain inconclusive, as conflicting eyewitnesses report that she was last seen with Jack

Force, entering the International Terminal. Under the Vampire

-Conduit Confidentiality Act of 1755, Oliver will not confirm or deny any of our suspicions of Schuyler Van Alen’s actions or whereabouts. In any event, with Schuyler missing, Oliver has been relieved of his duties as human Conduit and has chosen to serve the Committee in another position.

Current Status: Repository Scribe

Author’s Note: A request—more like a plea—I receive very often from my readers is to tell the story of Schuyler and

Jack’s first meeting at the Perry Street apartment. So I thought

I would write it, since I wanted to see it for myself.

THERE’S A FIRST (OR FOURTH) TIME FOR EVERYTHING, OR “MR. DARCY REQUESTS”

Schuyler’s Story

When Schuyler awoke that morning, she found that a book had been slipped underneath her door. It was wedged tightly in the narrow space, and she had to pull it out carefully so it wouldn’t bend or catch. The Plague by Albert Camus. She held it up and flipped through the yellowed pages. Inside the book was an envelope, and inside the envelope was a key. There was nothing else—no note, no address, nothing. Schuyler had no idea what the key was for, but she had an inkling that she should not ask Mimi about it.

She retrieved an old pair of Doc Martens from her trunk and removed one of the frayed shoelaces. She looped one end of the shoelace through the key and tied it around her neck so that it hung underneath her shirt collar, hidden. The book she put away in her backpack. She had read The Plague for class the year before and had not liked it very much; had found it depressing and severe. Why had h e chosen to give her a copy? Because, of course, the moment she picked it up, she knew who had given her the book—there was no one else in the

Force town house that even cared that she lived there now.

She tried to remember the story of The Plague: a terrible epidemic strikes a small town, which is then quarantined from the rest of the world. One of the main characters is separated from his wife—whom he longs for throughout the novel. He struggles to hold on, fighting despair only because he so desperately wants to see her again. Schuyler’s heart began to beat a little too fast. Was it possible that she was reading too much into this? Certainly. She tried to remember what she had learned in Mr. Orion’s English class. Wasn’t Camus’s story one of social breakdown and the futility of the human condition? The

Plague was a story about rats and disease, wasn’t it? But what ha d h e argued . . . Oh, she remembered now . . . He had argued that the story was about longing and exile . . . and love.