Lost In Time (Blue Bloods Novel)

“Oh forget it, you’re not going to tell me anything,” Mimi said. She stood up from the table and began to put on her coat, glaring down at him.

Always a game with this one, Kingsley thought. But he decided to call her bluff. She wanted to know, so why not tell her? She deserved to know. They all did. Not just Mimi but the entire Coven. She would hate him for what he did, or else find him pathetic and weak. But he was tired of keeping secrets. What was the point anymore, when everything was falling apart.

Kingsley put a hand on her wrist. “Sit down. I’ll tell you everything you want to know,” he said quietly.

Mimi slunk back down on to the banquette, looking like a spoiled child. “Begin at the beginning, when you first came to Duchesne. When you set me up.”

He shook his head. “Understand, you were just another suspect who happened to be at the club the night Aggie Carondolet died. No one special. You were given the same treatment as the others. A Silver Blood sympathizer would be amenable to learning more about the Dark Matter. You were the only one who took the bait. I tried with Schuyler, but never got anywhere with her. Then with Bliss.” He remembered what he had said to the Southern girl: “I am the same as you.” If Bliss had been Croatan, she would have recognized the hidden meaning behind his words, that he was revealing his true nature, Silver Blood to Silver Blood. But Bliss had not responded to his confession.

“But you, my dear . . . you were a different story. You were very receptive to learning the dark magic. I had to hide it from your father. Charles would have protected you if he had known. Would have told me I was jumping to conclusions again.” Kingsley looked apologetic. “Old allegiances and all . . .”

“You don’t have to remind me,” Mimi said, her face turning red. “I know what they say about Jack and me. That one day we’ll be Benedict Arnold vampires.”

He nodded. She knew as well as he did that Azrael and Abbadon would forever carry the stain of once being Lucifer’s proudest generals.

“The Incantation Demonata,” Mimi said. “Why did you do it?”

“I was ordered to by the Regis himself. It was a test, he said.” Kingsley gripped his drink so tightly his knuckles turned white. “I thought he was playing me. Testing my loyalty maybe. But whatever. We just take orders, Venators. That’s the way it is. If he wanted me to call up the Silver Blood, I was going to call up the Silver Blood.”

“But why would Charles have you do such a thing. . . .” Mimi asked, horrified.

Kingsley gripped her arm across the small table. “Do you remember anything about Rome?”

“Some of it,” she said. “It comes in bits and pieces— flashes—images—I remember the crisis, demons walking in daylight, hunting them down . . . and that last night in Lutetia . . .” She closed her eyes. “I remember telling Valerius that Sophia was wrong—there was no way Caligula had turned—that Cassius was just jealous as usual—but then . . . we saw it.”

Kingsley nodded. Caligula and his crimson eyes with the silver pupils. The unmistakable sign of Corruption. Agrippina Azrael and Valerius Abbadon had led the emperor down to the path, down to the newly forged gate, where Cassius—Michael—was waiting. The battle had not been easily won. But they had done it. Sent the Devil down to Hell.

“But what does Rome have to do with what happened in the Repository?” Mimi asked.

“Well, for starters, since the incantation worked, it proved that Silver Bloods still existed, and that they had a way into our world. Because Charles didn’t believe it—not at first, not even with all the killings. I don’t think he truly accepts it now. And he wanted to keep it from the Committee. But he had to do something if he was wrong—so he sent me to Corcovado. Because if they were back, that’s the first place they would go—to free Leviathan.”

Mimi nodded, taking it all in.

“Do you know anything about the gates? About the Order of the Seven?” Kingsley asked.

Mimi shrugged. “I don’t think I was privy to that meeting. I was surprised as anyone to find that Michael had chosen to father us for this cycle. He knows we weren’t huge fans of the so-called Uncorrupted. At least, I never was.”

Kingsley filled her in on what he knew about the Gates of Hell and the guardians ordered to protect them, as well as his part in it. “The gates keep the paths secure and the demons in the underworld. The gates should have stopped the incantation from working. But they didn’t. That was the test. The Silver Blood was able to break through the barrier. Charles suspects that Lucifer has been able to find a way into our world that we did not expect, did not foresee.”

“But how?”

“How indeed . . . especially since the Conclave took care of the biggest threat.”