Trinity Force and several other daughters of high-ranking Conclave members were already swaddled in robes, reading magazines and drinking champagne. Mimi herself was seated in the middle of the action. The bond-to-be was wearing a fluffy white robe, but otherwise she looked picture-perfect. Her face was made up as exquisitely as a doll’s, with ruby red lips and the barest hint of blush. Her lustrous platinum hair was pulled back into a chignon woven with white flowers. She looked gorgeous.
“Bliss! I’m so happy to see you?” she said.
“Oh my god! I know! Are you excited?” Bliss asked, matching Mimi’s ditzy-girl tones. “You’re getting bonded today?”
“It’s about time, don’t you think?” Mimi practically screamed.
Bliss could smell the alcohol on her breath, but something about Mimi’s excitement seemed . . . forced. Mimi was smiling so hard her face looked like it was going to crack.
“You’re over here. Danilo will take care of you. Remember, Danilo, make my friend pretty but not prettier than me?” Mimi giggled.
“Hey, by the way, I’m sorry I missed that um . . . bathing thing,” Bliss said, trying not to feel awkward.
“No worries. You’re here now and that’s what matters,” Mimi said with a brilliant smile.
She was exactly the same old Mimi Force, Bliss thought. Totally vain, preening, and self-centered, or maybe she was just getting the bonding jitters.
Bliss was anxious about the event. She hoped the bonding would go quickly so she could get away from everyone. After her encounter with the Visitor the other day, she felt shaken and unsteady and not quite safe to be around. Not that she would ever, ever, ever, in her right mind, ever do such a thing as murder her best friend. She had to convince Schuyler to leave New York as soon as possible. The longer Schuyler stayed in the city, the more dangerous it was for her. Bliss had to keep her friend safe . . . and away from her. But she had yet to figure out how to do it, how to talk to Schuyler without the Visitor finding out.
At least she knew Schuyler wouldn’t be at Mimi’s bonding, so Bliss wouldn’t have to worry about it today. It was a small but welcome reprieve, but she was still nervous.
The stylist straightened Bliss’s hair and spackled on the makeup so thick, when she looked in the mirror she hardly recognized herself. Her hair was almost to her elbows, it was so much longer straightened, and her face was a mask of perfection, although that spray-tan made her look a bit orange. She took a cab home so she could change into her dress, a black strapless gown. Pretty basic bondsmaid attire, nothing that would take away from the vision that Mimi was sure to be.
Back at the penthouse, Bliss checked her makeup one last time in the mirror, attempting to tone down the bronzer on her cheeks. Where was Dylan? The Visitor was keeping him from her, she knew, and she hated him bitterly for it. Was he being held somewhere? Hurt? Was it all her fault? How had this happened to her? What could she do? Sometimes she felt as if she were truly going crazy.
As she gazed at herself in the mirror, she noticed she was still wearing the emerald Forsyth had given her two years ago. Lucifer’s Bane. She touched the cold stone, and with great difficulty, removed the necklace from her body. She didn’t want anything near her associated with her father. She tossed it onto the dressing room table. She felt as if it had marked her skin, but of course that was just her imagination.
There was no one to talk to anymore. Not Dylan. Not Schuyler. She really was alone. She left her room and found the bouquet that Mimi’s florist had delivered that morning. An enormous arrangement of white lilies. She picked it up and found a small envelope slipped inside the flowers, with her name on it.
She opened the envelope. Inside was a thin piece of glass. When she touched it, it suddenly transformed into a sword.
“What the . . . “? Bliss said, holding both bouquet and sword awkwardly. She put down the flowers and took a closer look at the sword. It looked familiar. It was Michael’s sword. The same sword that Jordan had used to stab her. What was it doing here?
When she put it down, it turned into a thin piece of glass again. She couldn’t just leave it here. She tucked it back into the bouquet and left for the ceremony.
CHAPTER 58
Schuyler
What am I doing here? Schuyler wondered. She was supposed to be home, going through some new books and documents Oliver had dug up in the Repository. He had wanted her to look over the files he’d found, and to call him as soon as she had read them. But somehow her feet had taken her uptown instead. She had walked the eighty blocks to Cathedral Parkway and Amsterdam Avenue.
I have to see it for myself. I have to see him for the last time before he is bound to Mimi. Once he is hers, I’ll go.
When she had lived on Riverside Drive, Schuyler used to attend the Sunday services at St. John the Divine. Cordelia preferred her chapel on Fifth Avenue, but Schuyler had a soft spot for the gothic revival church that had been built in 1892 but was still incomplete. For as long as Schuyler could remember, the south tower had been covered in scaffolding, and part of the facade was still missing its sculptural stone carving.
Every year, to celebrate the feast of Saint Francis, the church organized a formal Blessing of the Animals. Schuyler had remembered feeling joy at seeing all the animals, including an elephant from the circus, a Norwegian reindeer, a camel, and a golden eagle among the assorted menagerie. She had taken Beauty several times for the blessing. She hoped her bloodhound was faring well, comfortably at home with Hattie and Julius. Schuyler walked toward the church, watching as a procession of black town cars and yellow cabs let out a crowd of elegantly dressed guests, who called gaily to each other as they arrived. There was a festive mood in the air as the Blue Bloods came to celebrate one of their most sacred rites of passage.
The sun was low on the horizon. The ceremony would begin just after sunset. Schuyler lingered across the street. She should go. She had no right to be here. She wasn’t even invited. This was such a bad idea. The place would be crawling with Blue Bloods, and she was supposed to be in hiding. But Schuyler couldn’t help it. Against her better judgment, she found herself walking toward the church. She needed to see it for herself. Because maybe if she did, she would stop feeling this way. If she saw Jack bonded to Mimi, and how happy they were, maybe then her heart would begin to heal.
Schuyler slipped through a side door to a pew in the back behind a column. The orchestra was playing Strauss, and there was a smell of incense in the air. The assembled guests whispered to each other while they waited.
Jack was already standing at the altar, looking so very dashing in his tuxedo. He looked up when she arrived, and she could feel his stare all the way down the length of the vestibule. His eyes flashed with hope. Schuyler shrank in her seat. He can’t have . . . I should go. . . . But it was too late. Jack had seen her.
“Schuyler? Is that you? What are you doing here?”
Oh, crap. She shut her mind to him. She had to get out, this was wrong. What was she thinking? But as she tried to slip away, she realized she would be walking right into the wedding party, which was already marching in. She spotted Bliss among the attendants. She was trapped. She had to stay. At least until the bride made her entrance, then she would be able to slip away unnoticed.
But someone else had seen her too. Someone who had been invited to the wedding. Oliver and his family had been walking in the opposite door when she had entered, but he had not acknowledged her presence. He’d just kept walking to his seat.
CHAPTER 59
Mimi
“You look beautiful, my dear. If only your father were here to see you,” Trinity Force said as she adjusted Mimi’s veil in the car.
“He’s not really my father. You know that, right?” Mimi asked. “Like you’re not really my mother and Jack’s not my brother. Otherwise, why would I be bonded to him?”
“Family is family,” Trinity said. “Maybe we are of a different sort, but we are still a family. We can learn from the humans too.”
“Whatever,” Mimi said, rolling her eyes.
So. It was finally here. Bonding day. She was wearing the gown of her dreams. A custom-made creation: a real Balthazar Verdugo. Made from fifty yards of the finest Parisian silk jacquard, woven with dozens of tiny silk rosebuds, tinsel paillettes, antique lace, and ostrich feathers, the dress had taken two thousand hours to make, not counting the one thousand hours the Belgian nuns spent on the embroidery. She carried a rosary in her purse: the same one she had carried at the last bonding, in Newport. Diamond-and-pearl earrings from Buccellati were her only jewelry. Mimi checked her reflection in the rearview mirror, liking how her lips were red and juicy underneath the veil. She looked absolutely perfect; if only she felt the same way. Instead, Mimi wondered if she was making the biggest mistake of her life.
Bonds are made to be broken. Like rules.
The car pulled up to the church. Inside would be her whole Coven. The vampires would celebrate tonight. There would be dancing and fireworks and many toasts to the happy couple. Everything was perfectly orchestrated. All she had to do was slip into the role. She could do that, if she could just stop listening to Kingsley’s voice in her head.
She stepped out of the car, and a sudden gust of wind lifted the veil from her face. Her mother walked her just into the anteroom, where Mimi would wait until it was her turn to enter.
Inside the church, the bondsmaids were walking slowly down the aisle, with the little petal girls.
Trinity turned to give Mimi her last words of motherly advice: “Walk straight. Don’t slouch. And for heavens’s sake, smile! It’s your bonding!”
Then she too walked through the door and down the aisle. The door shut behind her, leaving Mimi alone. Finally, Mimi heard the orchestra play the first strains of the “Wedding March.” Wagner. Then the ushers opened the doors and Mimi moved to the threshold. There was an appreciative gasp from the crowd as they took in the sight of Mimi in her fantastic dress. But instead of acknowledging her triumph as New York’s most beautiful bride, Mimi looked straight ahead, at Jack, who was standing so tall and straight at the altar. He met her eyes and did not smile.
“Let’s just get this over with.”
His words were like an ice pick to the heart. He doesn’t love me. He has never loved me. Not the way he loves Schuyler. Not the way he loved Allegra. He has come to every bonding with this darkness. With this regret and hesitation, doubt and despair. She couldn’t deny it. She knew her twin, and she knew what he was feeling, and it wasn’t joy or even relief. What am I doing?
“Ready?” Forsyth Llewellyn suddenly appeared by her side. Oh, right, she remembered, she had said yes when Forsyth had offered to walk her down the aisle.
Here goes nothing. As if in a daze, Mimi took his arm, Jack’s words still echoing in her head. She walked, zombie-like, down the aisle, not even noticing the flashing cameras or the murmurs of approval from the hard to-impress crowd.
Almost halfway down the aisle, she saw someone she wasn’t expecting, and she almost stumbled on her satin heels.
Kingsley Martin stood at the end of a pew, his arms crossed. He was wearing a tuxedo as well. Just like any other guest. What was he doing here? He was supposed to be in Paris! He was supposed to be gone! He looked directly at Mimi.