Gates of Paradise (a Blue Bloods Novel)

She could no longer speak, no longer think. But she held on to the one thing that she knew was true. Her love.

Jack…Jack…my love…help me…she sent. Even if he would not answer, she still held on to him. He was all she had at the last.

Only Jack.

She stared at him, at his blank eyes, and she prepared for death, prepared for the end of her life.

I have nothing to regret. I regret nothing. She had tried and failed everyone—her mother, Lawrence, the Coven. She had failed Jack as well. By falling in love with him she had doomed him. But even so, she could not regret their love. She had tried her best and she had lost.

She closed her eyes as her life drained from her.

Then, all at once, through the fog, as if from very very far away, Schuyler heard him. Heard his voice in her head.

Jack’s voice.

Reaching out to her like a lifeline, a light in the dark. Just as she’d hoped. Perhaps the Sacred Kiss had returned him to her somehow.

But when he spoke, his voice was cold and cruel.

Only your father can help you now, Jack sent, as he stood at Lucifer’s side, watching her die.





FIFTYTHREE


Mimi


don’t believe it,” Kingsley said, staring at the emerald stone that yoked her to Lucifer. “I don’t believe it for a second.”

But Mimi was tired of waiting and tired of playing this game. He was so close to her and so dear, and if she did not do it now, she would never have the courage again, and so she pulled on his sword and brought it against her throat, wanting to end it all, to save him even if she could not save herself.

She waited for death.

But death did not come.

Kingsley was faster, stronger, and instead of letting his blade cleave her in two, he directed it toward the heart of the emerald.

“No!” she screamed.

The emerald burst into White Flame and disappeared.

Mimi blinked her eyes open. She was alive and Kingsley was alive. The terrible dark burden had fallen from her shoulders.

She threw herself into his arms and sobbed.

Kingsley clasped her to him and they fell backward to the floor, and he was kissing her, and she was kissing him with a passion that surprised even her.

He was smiling. He was so handsome and brave, and he held her as if he would never let her go.

“How did you do that?” she asked.

“The godsfire. We have equipped all of our swords with the power of the Holy Spirit. It destroyed Lucifer’s Bane. So what’s going on? Are you going to tell me?”

She told him everything, just as the door opened with a bang.

Oliver stood there, babbling and hysterical. He had used the Venator’s code that Kingsley had given him in secret to track them to the safe house. “Schuyler! They took Schuyler—they’re bringing her to the gate!”





FIFTYFOUR


Lupus Theliel


hey had returned to the underworld, collected the rest of the pack in the passages, and returned to their former home. Bliss could see the smoke, smell the fire, and breathe the ash of the barren lands, the forgotten world, where nothing grew and everything was dead. The eternally gray skies hung above them.

“I hope you remember your way around here,” Bliss whispered.

“Like it was yesterday,” Lawson replied. “Come on, the wolves are in their dens.”

“What about the trolls? And the masters?” Malcolm asked.

“What about them?” Lawson smiled.

“You are not afraid,” Bliss said.

He shook his head. “Your mother. The Angel of the Lord. Gabrielle. She called me Fenrir.”

Bliss realized he had never believed it before. Even after he had destroyed Romulus—even after everything he had been able to accomplish. Lawson hadn’t believed in himself. Could not accept that he was the one who would lead the wolves out of enslavement.

With a great roar, Lawson transformed into the great wolf, and Fenrir stood before Bliss. He was larger than Romulus; larger than any beast of Hell.

His strength will break our chains.

In his spirit we shall be reborn.

Bliss looked at the pack: they had transformed as well. The wolves stood in a circle around her. Their eyes were shining with the blue crescent sigils that marked them as Fenrir’s own.

She was alone.

She was no longer a vampire.

But as she discovered, she was no longer human either.

She looked down at herself. Her claws. Felt the sharpness of her fangs. Different from the vampire fangs. She felt the strength in her body, in her animal nature.

She was one of them.

Whatever her mother had done, she had done this. Given her the wolf gift. Given her the strength to belong.

Lawson nuzzled her. You are truly one of the pack now. Run with me.

The wolves howled, a battle cry, a warning:

We are coming. We are coming, my brothers and sisters.

Fenrir has returned.

We shall break your chains. We shall lead you into freedom.

We shall bring war upon our enemies.

Arise, arise! It is our time. The War of Heaven is upon us. Arise, wolves of the den, wolves of the guard. Arise and defeat the enemy we slew once before.





FIFTYFIVE


Schuyler