Мелисса де ла Круз - Keys to the Repository

Seeker and joined the team that found the remains of Jordan

Llewellyn in Brazil. During this tenure she was rumored to have conducted an intimate affair with her commanding officer, Venator Martin. However, the veracity of this gossip is doubtful, as upon her return to New York, Mimi took no time in enthusiastically planning her bonding to Jack. When her father resigned from the Conclave, Mimi claimed the family seat and serves as her family’s voice on the council.

Mimi survived the attack at the cathedral, but her brother’s sudden disappearance and rumored liaison with Schuyler Van

Alen has compelled her to call for his execution, as proscribed by the Code of the Vampires. The punishment for breaking a heavenly promise is eternal death. The Castigatio Mortis can only be called for by the bondmate. While Charles Force did not call for this punishment on Allegra Van Alen, Mimi has no qualms in her decision. She has been overheard saying, “If I ever see Jack again, I’m going to kill him.”

Current Status: Conclave elder. Venator emerita.

CHARLES FORCE

Michael, Pure of Heart, the Valiant, Prince of the Angels, Supreme Commander of the Lord’s Armies, Archangel of the Light

Birth Name: Charles Edgar Van Alen

Origin: August 24, 1969, New York, New York (Blue Bloods:

Repository Record #101 lists his age as sixty. This is incorrect and possibly the result of Charles’s hair going prematurely silver.)

Known Past Lives: Myles Standish (Plymouth), Cassius

(Rome), Menes (Egypt)

Bondmate: Allegra Van Alen (broken)

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 Llewellyn 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 College, and

Harvard Business School, Charles Force’s life has been marred by the inexplicable breaking of the bond between himself and his twin sister, Allegra Van Alen. All reports of their early life together indicated that they were ready and willing to commit to their union, as they have for centuries past, until the jarring and unfortunate decision on Allegra’s part to elope with her human familiar, Stephen Chase.

After Allegra 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 allow him to call 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 allowed 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 alleged 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 Mitchell (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 well 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 Allegra 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 topranking 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 all 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 all of downtown from the windows. The city is still and quiet outside. There are no cabs honking, no dogs barking, no ambulances wailing; instead, all 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 still 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 all.” Words are not enough; they can only do what words can do. Lawrence was more than a friend; he was a mentor, an ally. 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 will avenge each of our lost brothers and sisters. Worldbreaker is waiting. We will not despair or retreat. We will fight. And we will win. War has come to us once again, and this time we will vanquish our foes for eternity. I am almost looking forward to it.