"The Committee must wake up to this danger. We can no longer sit back and wait while the Prince of the Silver Bloods marshals his forces against us and takes us one by one.”
"You really think Lucifer has returned?" Schuyler asked.
Lawrence said nothing for a long moment, his cigar burning steadily, the ashes at the tip growing longer and longer until they fell, sizzling into the Aubusson rug and leaving a small hole. "Oh, rats," he cursed. "Cordelia will never forgive me for that. She never let me smoke in the house.”
"Grandfather, you haven't answered my question." Schuyler said sharply.
"Maybe it doesn't need to be answered," Oliver said nervously. All this talk of Lucifer and Silver Bloods was making him feel queasy. Maybe he shouldn't have drank so much hot chocolate or eaten that fifth cookie.
"Only the most powerful of Silver Bloods would be able to cause a massive destruction in such a protected place," Lawrence finally said.
"Protected?”
"The Repository of History is one of the safest of our strongholds. It has wards all over it, spells to keep out such an invasion, to keep out Abomination. It is an ominous sign for all of us that the wards did not hold.”
"What are you going to do?" Schuyler asked.
"The only thing I can do. Call for the White Vote. It is time Michael is challenged as Regis.”
THIRTY-NINE
They were arguing about her. Through the morphine haze, Bliss could hear her father and Charles Force arguing about her behind the closed hospital door. What had happened?
She dimly remembered the black, purplish fire that covered the entire library in a thick, impenetrable fog, and she knew something bad had happened to her. There was the gauze around her neck. Had she been bitten? By a Silver Blood? The thought made her forehead perspire. If she had been attacked by Abomination, why was she still alive?
Bliss tried to lift her hands up to her neck so she could check on the wound, but she was paralyzed. She panicked, until she realized her hands were tied down to the bedposts. Why?
The room was as lavish as a hotel suite, with the modern white plastic furniture she knew so well. She was in Dr. Pat's clinic, the Blue Blood hospital. With her extrasensitive hearing, she concentrated on what her father and Charles Force were arguing about in whispered tones in the hallway.
"She has not been corrupted, Charles—you know the signs as well as I do you've seen her neck! There wasn't enough time," her father was saying.
"I understand, Forsyth, I do, but you know how it looks. I can't get Lawrence off my back about this. She's going to have to be tested, just like everybody who was there that night.”
"She's a victim! This is an outrage! I won't let you!”
"You don't have a choice," Charles said, and his tone brokered no further argument. "I know how worried you are, but as you said, she appears to be safe.”
There was a long silence, and then the two men returned to Bliss's room. Bliss immediately closed her eyes and pretended to be asleep.
She felt her father's hand on her forehead as he whispered a short prayer in a language she didn't understand. "Hey," she said, opening her eyes.
Her stepmother and Jordan walked into the room and crowded by the foot of the bed. BobiAnne was wearing another haute-hideous outfit a cashmere sweater with VERSACE emblazoned on its chest—and carried a small handkerchief, which she kept pressing to the side of each eye, although no tears were visible.
"Oh, honey, we were so worried! Thank God you're okay!”
"How are you feeling?" her father asked, his hands clasped behind his back.
"Tired," Bliss replied. "What happened?”
"There was an explosion at the Repository," Forsyth explained, "but don't worry, it was so deep underground the Red Bloods didn't even notice it on the sidewalk. They think it was just a small earthquake.”
Bliss hadn't even thought to worry about humans discovering the Blue Bloods' most secret place.
"What happened to me?" she asked.
"Well, that's what we're going to find out," he said. "What do you remember?”
She sighed and glanced out at the window, which looked into an empty office in the building next door. Rows of computers were switched on, blinking, even though it was past office hours. "Not much. Just a lot of black smoke…and…”
Eyes, crimson eyes with silver pupils. The beast, come to life. It had spoken to her…It had said…
She shook her head and closed her eyes tightly as if to ward off the evil presence. "Nothing, nothing…I don't remember anything.”
Forsyth sighed and BobiAnne sniffed again. "Oh, you poor, poor child.”
Jordan, her sister, remained silent, watching Bliss from the corner of her eye.
"Gobi, can you and Jordan leave us alone for a minute?" her father asked.
When they were gone, Forsyth turned to Bliss. "Bliss, what I'm about to tell you is very important. You were attacked by a Silver Blood, one of the Croatan," her father said.
"N0000," Bliss whispered. "But The Committee says they're just a myth…." she said weakly.
"The Committee was wrong. We realize that now. In fact, Priscilla DuPont had gathered enough evidence to…but I won't talk about that now. The fact is, somehow the Silver Bloods have survived, and we must face up to that reality.”
"But how?”
"Sadly, it means one of us is culpable. The Silver Bloods would not be able to thrive unless someone from our circle was hiding them. Helping them. It would have to be one of the very old families, powerful enough to cover up such black evil that Michael could not notice a change in the balance.”
"But what does it mean for me?" Bliss asked, her voice quavering.
"There are very few who have lived after a Silver Blood attack, and there is always the danger of corruption."
"Corruption?”
"Sometimes, the Silver Blood will not take his victim to full consumption; instead it will instill a hunger…drawing enough blood so that the vampire is left weakened. But Red Blood becomes poison to the victim, and he will hunt his own kind for survival.”
That's what happened to Dylan, Bliss thought. He had been turned. Corrupted. Transformed into a monster, and then killed before he could reveal its secrets.
"The crisis in Roanoke, we believe, happened because several of our people in that settlement had already been corrupted when they left the Old World.”
"How do you know if you've been corrupted?" Bliss asked nervously.
In answer, Forsyth began lifting the gauze from Bliss's neck. He unwrapped the bandage.
Bliss looked at her father anxiously. What was he going to show her? Had she been turned into a monster?