Blue Bloods: Keys to the Repository

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 top-ranking 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.

“Do not worry, my love, we shall have our vengeance. I promise it. Lawrence will not have died in vain.”

Her eyes become bright. She nods curtly. “He died because of me.”

“He died to protect you. It was his duty.”

She stands so still at the doorway, as if she doesn’t know what to do or what to say. And yet I know already. She will tell me we must stop meeting because the Coven will need me now, and that she will be saving me by taking herself away. . . . She could not be more wrong. Everything in my life depends on her being part of it.

When we first met, I was struck by her resemblance to her mother. But contrary to what many thought about my relationship with Gabrielle, we had a deep and affectionate friendship, nothing more. I loved her as an ally, and because she was our queen. I love her daughter in a completely different way. I love her because she has become something more to me. She has become my life.

“Come here,” I say gently. “Sit down.”

She shakes her head. “No. I . . . I can’t stay.”

“You want us to stop meeting.” I have to say it because she will not.

“Yes.”

“Because you think it is dangerous for me. Someone has told you something—my sister, perhaps.” I cannot say Mimi’s name in her presence, and vice versa. I cannot think of Mimi without thinking of the pain I am bringing her, and therefore choose the easier path: to not think of her at all. I am a coward.

“No.”

“No?”

She walks over, closer to the fire, and addresses her words to the flames. “I can’t meet you anymore, Jack, because I would be lying to myself for the reasons I’m here.”

“And what is that reason?”