Masquerade

Chapter Forty-three

 
Lawrence was poring over archives from the Repository, and noticed that one clipping had been completely burned except for the date on the top. November 23, 1872. He was still puzzling over it when Schuyler returned from school. She told her grandfather about Jack Force being able to read her mind that afternoon.
"I thought I was safe from telepathy, and yet he was still able to read my thoughts. Why?" she asked.
"Abbadon has always been one of our most gifted seers," Lawrence said. "It will take more than a simple occludo exercise to close one's mind from him. But it sometimes happens that those who are drawn to each other can share a kinship of some kind."
"Drawn to each other?" Schuyler asked.
"You must have noticed he is drawn to you," Lawrence said.
Schuyler blushed. She had hoped but she had never thought of it as a reality. And yet, even with his bond with Mimi, he had sought her friendship and hinted that maybe he would be interested in something more....He had kissed her once, so long ago. And the boy behind the mask...Could it have been him?
"But he is bonded," Schuyler said. "It cannot be." "No. Not among our kind. Abbadon has always been this way. You were not the first to tempt his fidelity," Lawrence said. "But it will pass. Thank goodness you are not drawn to him. Otherwise it will spell disaster for both of you."
She looked down at the carpet, wondering if her grand- father was testing her, or if he merely assumed that Schuyler would choose the right path simply because she was his granddaughter.
"Yes," she said. "Thank God for that."
She felt a sudden light-headedness, and her vision became pixilated and blurry; her knees buckled, but before she could collapse, Lawrence leaped to his feet and steadied her. "You have not done as you were told," he said grimly. "You have not taken a human familiar. You are weakening."
She shook her head.
"This is not a trivial matter, Schuyler. If you do not take a familiar, there is a very real danger you will succumb to a coma like your mother."
"But I..."
Lawrence cut her off with a curt directive. "You must hunt, then--use the seduction. The call. That is the only way now."
The Caerimonia Osculor was a ritual between vampire and human that was usually a development within an existing relationship. That was why human familiars were traditionally lovers and friends of Blue Bloods. But the Code also allowed for the use of the powers of Seduction if the vampire was desperate. The vampire would use The Call to draw the human to him, hypnotizing the human and drawing its blood.
"I have taught you the words from the sacred language that would induce it," Lawrence said. "I will be going to the club tonight. When I return, I will trust that you have performed what is necessary."
Her grandfather departed soon after that, leaving Schuyler upstairs in her room. I don't want to, she thought stubbornly. I don't want to do it with a stranger. I don't want to do it with someone I don't know. I'm not desperate! Or am I?
Then, almost as if drawn by the call, someone knocked on Schuyler's bedroom door.
"What is it, Hattie?" Schuyler asked.
The door opened. "It's not Hattie, it's me," Oliver said, slouching in the doorway.
"I didn't hear the front door open. What are you doing here?" Schuyler asked defensively.
"Your grandfather told me you wanted me to come over," Oliver explained.
Ah. So Lawrence had performed a call of his own. Only, this one merely involved the use of a telephone. Very clever, grandfather, Schuyler thought.
Oliver walked over to sit on the footlocker across from Schuyler's bed. He looked at her pensively. "I was thinking...if you still want to do it, we can."
"You mean?"
"Yeah."
"Here?" Schuyler asked, looking around at her room, at her Evanescence posters, the pink Barbie dream house, the row of Playbill covers--Rent, Avenue Q, The Boy from Oz--taped on her wall during the time when Cordelia regularly took her to Broadway musicals. It was still a childish bedroom and painted Mountain Dew yellow. It didn't look like the lair of a vampire.
"As good a place as any," Oliver shrugged. "Besides, it'll save me the cost of a hotel room."
"You're sure about this?" Schuyler asked, reaching for his hand.
"Yes." Oliver exhaled. "I know what's going to happen to you if you don't, and between you and me, I'd prefer it if you weren't a vegetable. I hate vegetables," he joked. "Especially broccoli...So how do we..." Oliver said. "Should I stand? Or..." He stood up and looked around. He was so much taller than she was.
"No, sit down," Schuyler said, pushing him gently by the shoulders onto her bed. "This way I can reach down." She stood between his legs. He looked up at her. She thought he had never looked so handsome, or so vulnerable.
Oliver closed his eyes. "Be gentle."
Schuyler leaned down, kissed the hollow at the base of his neck, and then, ever so gently, she elongated her fangs and stuck them in.
Oliver whistled between his teeth, as if in pain. "Should I stop?"
"No...go on..." he said, waving a hand.
"I'm not hurting you, am I?"
"No...It feels...good, actually," he whispered. He put a hand on her head and guided her to his neck again.
Schuyler closed her eyes and sank her fangs back into his neck. As she did so, her senses heightened, and his mind became open to her. The blood memory came flashing out. It was just as Bliss had said: she was devouring his soul, his very being...and, what was this? His mind was an open book to her now, his blood mixing with hers, reviving hers...and she could read every thought he'd ever had in his life...could access every memory.
Oliver was in love with her.
He had been in love with her all along. Ever since they'd met. For years and years and years.
She had long suspected this but had repressed it. But now it was confirmed. She couldn't deny it.
Oh, Ollie. I shouldn't have done this. Schuyler despaired. The Sacred Kiss would only increase his love, not dispel it.
Now they were bound to each other in a new and more complicated way.
This was more than she'd bargained for. Their friendship would be jeopardized, she knew that now. There was no going back from here. They would only be able to go forward. As vampire and familiar. Entwined by an ancient ritual of blood.
She finished. She was satiated. She withdrew her fangs and felt the life-giving energy flow through her body. It was as if she had ingested twenty-four gallons of high-octane coffee. Her cheeks flushed with color, and her eyes sparkled.
Oliver's head flopped down. He was already asleep. Schuyler gently laid him on her bed, where he would have to rest for the next several hours, and covered him with her blanket.
What have I done? she wondered, even as she felt her vision clear and her senses heighten. Would they be able to keep this a secret from The Committee? What if Oliver were banished because they found out a Conduit had become a human familiar? She remembered Cordelia telling her that Allegra had married Schuyler's father, her human familiar, against the Code of the Vampires. Her mother had exchanged one bond for another.
And what about Jack?
When Oliver woke, Schuyler was sitting at her desk, watching him.
"Well," he said, scratching his neck where the bite marks were still raw, "I guess that's what you call friends with benefits."
They both cracked up.
Schuyler threw a pillow at him. She walked Oliver to the door and thanked him again. He kissed her on the lips as he left. A quick kiss, but still, a kiss on the lips.
She closed the door behind him, her heart anxious and troubled.
This was a mistake.