Gates of Paradise
Page 10

Lawson waited patiently while Bliss decoded the last paragraph of the e-mail. Finally, she raised her head in triumph. "He's in London. Something about the gates. Schuyler's with him. They're staying at a Venator safe house. They must have received the same bulletin Renfield was talking about."
"Does it mention where the house is?"
"No, but we can find it. We just need to get there." And then she remembered. "Jane! She's in London too. How could I have forgotten?" Jane Murray, the Watcher, had told her that the Venators were gathering in the British capital and for Bliss to meet them there.
Lawson's brow furrowed. "London? We just got to New York."
Bliss realized Lawson had never really been in a city before, and now she was carting him all over the globe. She knew it made him uncomfortable to have to rely on her, to trust that she knew what she was doing.
"It's going to be fine," she said. "We just have to get plane tickets and passports and some clothes, and we can get out of here."
"You've got a magic wand?" He smirked.
"Something better. A Park Avenue apartment," she said. Her apartment! Penthouse du Reves. She hadn't been there in what felt like forever. There was no reason to think it wasn't still there: she was the sole beneficiary of her foster parents' largesse, and while the Repository had been destroyed, she had a feeling the Silver Bloods had left the apartment alone. After all, it had belonged to one of their own - Forsyth Llewellyn, when he was alive, had been Lucifer's closest ally.
"I don't have a passport," Lawson said. "And what about my brothers, and Ahramin? I need to check in with them."
"We will. I can arrange for a passport for you, I know I can. We'll make sure everything is okay with the pack before we leave. Don't worry, it's going to be fine." Bliss was back in New York City, back home, and she felt invigorated, glad to be useful instead of helpless.
"If you say so," Lawson said. But he didn't look so sure.
Chapter Sixteen
Schuyler
nce in a while, Schuyler missed him so much it was hard to put into words. She'd only known him for such a short time before he was taken from her. Nevertheless, he was always on her mind. Lawrence Van Alen. Her grandfather. The vampire who had taught her the four factors of the glom, who taught her about her legacy, who prepared her for her task.
It was amazing how much Peter Pendragon reminded her of Lawrence. Something in the haughty way he greeted her, his aristocratic mien and aloof manner. As Oliver explained, the Knights Templar was a splinter group of Venators, devoted to protecting the holy relics. But as time passed, their importance to the Covens had diminished and their ranks thinned. Peter Pendragon was one of the last remaining members.
They met him in his study at Marlborough Farm, a sprawling estate a few hours away from the city. The grand old manor had seen better days, most of its windows shuttered, dust motes flying in the air, furniture covered in sheets of fabric. The house was a beautiful ruin, like many historical homes in England that were too expensive for the upkeep, left to linger and decay. Perhaps that was why Schuyler felt at home in the shrouded, dark manor - it reminded her of her own home in New York City. She had been a child among phantoms, surrounded by memories of a better time, living in a dark, secluded place, with only her formidable grandmother as a companion.
She felt that watchful presence again; it came and went, and while it was troubling to feel as if she were being observed, there wasn't much she could do about it. For now, whoever or whatever it was seemed to be benign enough.
"So you are Allegra's daughter," Peter said, looking Schuyler up and down. "And you have come to London to unlock the secret of the Gate of Promise."
"Yes. Tilly St. James sent us. She said you were part of Gabrielle's old team, just like her and Lucas Mendrion."
"I was," he said. "Come, sit down. Will you have tea?"
Schuyler declined politely, feeling as if the world were on a knife's edge, and all she was doing was drinking champagne and sipping tea while her love was lost and Rome burned.
"Nice spread," Oliver said, admiring the furnishings. Schuyler nudged him with her elbow, annoyed.
"What?" he asked. Kingsley's cockiness was wearing off on him.
Pendragon turned to Schuyler. "I know Mendrion and the rest of the Coven are going underground. But I will stay here and make my stand. Besides, I heard through the Venators that something is happening in London soon. Your arrival is fortuitous, I think. Gabrielle's daughter. That I am alive in this cycle to meet you is a wonder.
"I was assigned to Gabrielle when Dantos died in Florence in the fifteenth century, during that ugly mess. I had a shorter run than they did, since I left your mother's service to join the Knights Templar."
"Why did you leave?" Schuyler asked.
"It was Gabrielle's idea, actually. She said I could serve her better as a knight." He smiled. "I tried not to take it too personally. I liked working for your mother."
"Can you help us?"
"Maybe." He nodded. "Tell me what you know."
"Catherine of Sienna told us that the Gate of Promise will only unlock with the key of the twins," Schuyler said. "Do you know what that means?"
"The key of the twins is the sangreal. The holy blood," he said, shifting in his chair.
"Holy blood," Schuyler echoed.
"Another name for it is the Blood of the Father."
"The Holy Grail?" Oliver guessed.
"No. The grail is the cup of Christ. There's some mishmash about it being a person, but that's not true; just some popular rumor, another false concept we released to the Red Bloods to keep the grails safe." He shrugged.
"There is more than one?" asked Schuyler.
"Well, of course; you do not drink from only one cup, do you?" he said. "They are hidden all over the world. Once upon a time, there were enough of us to guard each one, but no more," he sighed, just as his butler entered the room and whispered in his ear.
"Excuse me," he told them, struggling to stand with the help of his cane. "It seems there is a disturbance at one of the grail sites and I must take my leave. Please forgive me. We must continue this charming conversation another time."
"Is it serious?" Schuyler asked, looking worried.
"I'm sure the nuns are just jumpy. Do not worry. The grails are well hidden. A very old and very deep magic keeps them safe from harm."
"Just like the gates," Schuyler said.
Pendragon nodded, appraising her with approval. "The holy blood is about lineage, about ancestry." The old knight looked at Schuyler. "Do you know who your father is?"
Back in the cab on the way to the town house, Schuyler mulled over Pendragon's words and her own history. She was the Dimidium Cognatus. The half-blood. The only child of vampire and human lineage. "The Blood of the Father...Do you think?" she asked Oliver. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"
"Your father is still alive," Oliver said. "That's what your mother wanted you to know."
"Alive? It can't be."
"What did your grandmother say? What did Cordelia say about him?"
"She always made it clear he was dead, and that's why Allegra was in a coma, because my mother wouldn't take another familiar after he passed. I got the feeling Cordelia hated my father's family. She never spoke of them, especially him. She couldn't stand it that Allegra had married a Red Blood. I never knew much about him." Schuyler fiddled with the latch on her bag. "I mean, I don't even carry his name," she said softly. She remembered all those lonely afternoons by Allegra's bedside, and the time she had come upon a stranger kneeling by her mother's bed, and how her heart had raced at the possibility that her father had returned. But the stranger had turned out to be Charles Force. The vampire Allegra had spurned to bond with her human familiar.
Oliver squeezed her hand in sympathy. "That was your grandmother's fault, not yours."
"Do you really think my dad is still alive?" she asked. "But there's no way that's true. My mom was in a coma out of grief, remember?" But then again, Allegra had so many secrets, it was hard to know what was true and what wasn't, and Schuyler told that to Oliver as well.
"Well, there's only one way to find out. What do you know of your father's family?"
"They owned some big company a long time ago; my father was named after it. Bendix Corporations, I think. But they sold it."
Oliver tapped the information into his phone. "Says here Bendix is now headquartered in Los Angeles, but that the family still retains a percentage of ownership, and sits on the board. I can get us on a flight tonight if you want."
"Let's do it," Schuyler said. Her father was alive? No. It was impossible. She didn't know much about her father, but she knew he was gone. If he was alive, why hadn't he ever tried to come see her? How could someone just let their child grow up without ever once trying to contact them? She had grown up missing both her parents, a mother and father she never knew. She was a product of their great love for each other, and yet their legacy to their only child was a deep and abiding loneliness. She had been alone for so many years.
Not alone: she always had Oliver, she realized. Her human Conduit, her faithful companion. He was with her now.
Mother, where are you sending me? she wondered.
Chapter Seventeen
Mimi
t was dim inside the enchanted chapel, the windows black, as if the world extended no further than the space inside it. Mimi was trapped in an insulated world, in Limbo, in the nothingness of the abyss.
"I knew it was you at the station," Kingsley said. "Don't tell me you're with that jerk. What happened to that brother of yours?"
Mimi tossed her hair back haughtily. "We work for Lucifer now."
"Yeah, right." Kingsley laughed.
"He wants the grail to make godsfire, and we mean to give it to him."
"The Mimi I knew - "
"The Mimi you knew is gone," she said. "I told you to forget about me, and it looks like you took my advice to heart."
"Jealous, were you?" he asked. "Now I know you're lying about your feelings for me."
In reply, she drew out her sword and faced him.
He did the same, brandishing his weapon. "Do you really mean to fight me for it?" He tipped his sword against hers, and a dull ring echoed around the room. He took two steps backward, the grail in one hand, his blade in the other. "All right, then, who am I to stand in your way. You always were a good sparring partner."
Make it look real, she thought. I've got to make him believe I have gone to the Dark, to keep him safe. Otherwise...
She swung first, and he met her thrust with the edge of his sword, bashing her blade against a stone pillar. The shock reverberated through the steel, rattling her grip. She nearly lost the weapon, but quickly recovered. Kingsley took a step back.
Mimi advanced, crossing her blade against his, then quickly recovering to jab at his chest. Rather than meet her second blow with his sword, he swung with the grail, and she nearly dropped her weapon once more.
"Careful now, you might destroy what you want to take from me."
Mimi smiled. "No chance of that." She held her sword low, scraping it against the hard stone pillar as she brought it up fast toward his left hand. She turned the blade sideways, as he had first done, and struck at the back side of his hand. The blow sent the cup flailing from his grip, and it fell to the ground with a clang.
Kingsley took a leap forward, but rather than striking Mimi, he kicked the grail with the back side of his foot, sending the old cup rolling behind him.
For a moment he was defenseless, and Mimi drew her sword across his chest. Her steel met flesh, drawing a bloody line across his midsection. Kingsley grunted in pain, and she felt the ache in her chest as well, at the thought of hurting him. But her face remained impassive.
She lunged for the grail, but Kingsley kept himself between her and the cup, circling her as they danced around each other.
They were now in the center of the nave. The elaborate stone carvings that were worn flat in the real church appeared newly carved and shining in the otherworldly extension. But Mimi stopped admiring her surroundings when Kingsley's sword nipped her shoulder, cutting through her coat.
"Ouch!" she said, annoyed.
"Tit for tat." Kingsley smiled and motioned to the gash on his chest. "Come on now, let's stop this. I haven't seen you in months and this is how you greet me? I'll say it. I've missed you. What happened to you? Why did you disappear like that? Why did you tell me to leave you alone? Explain what happened - I can help...."