Schuyler held up the bracelet. She had picked the lock on the case so expeditiously that the alarm had not had time to register a disturbance.
Lawrence allowed a small smile to play on his lips. “Now return it.”
The next day, Schuyler was exhausted from the effort yesterday’s lesson had required, yet she managed to hide it. There was little time for weakness; she wanted to forge ahead without Lawrence worrying about what it was costing her. She was eager to learn the tenets of animadverto, or “intelligent sight.”
“The vampire trait of animadverto is another one that is founded in myth and misunderstanding,” Lawrence lectured. “Humans think that we have the capacity of infinite knowledge, when in fact all we have is a perfect photographic memory. If you exercise this ability, you will be like me, able to quote verbatim from every book you have ever read in your entire lifetime.
“The library of Alexandria has been lost to humankind for centuries, but thankfully, I was a voracious reader even then,” Lawrence said, pointing to his head. “It is all in here.”
“Why would we need to know all this? How is this helpful to defeating the Silver Bloods?” Schuyler asked.
“The Silver Bloods put no value on learning, and those who do not learn history are condemned to repeat it. It is imperative that we find traces, clues, to their operations by immersing ourselves in the history of the world. Perhaps then one of us will successfully figure out the mystery of their continued existence.”
He gestured to the entire thirty-book Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Take a mental snapshot of each page. Catalog it in your memory. With your speed, this should take you less than five minutes. But I will give you an hour.” Lawrence left the study and closed the door behind him.
At the appointed hour, Lawrence came back to find Schuyler splayed on the couch, napping.
“Finished?”
“Fifty-five minutes ago.” Schuyler grinned.
“Fine. Give me their definition of the Egyptian reanimation rite.”
Schuyler closed her eyes and spoke in a slow, measured voice, almost as if she were reading from the page. “The rite to prepare the deceased for afterlife, performed on statues of the deceased, the mummy itself, or statues of a god located in a temple. An important element of the ceremony was the ritual opening of the mouth so the mummy might breathe and eat. The rite, which symbolized the death and regeneration concept of the Osiris myth, in which the dismembered . . .”
“Excellent,” Lawrence praised. “You are doing very well for your age. Very well indeed. It is impressive. I had thought that with your mixed blood, the vampire strength would be diluted, but instead it is even more tenacious.”
“Grandfather?” Schuyler asked hesitantly as she helped him put the encyclopedia volumes back on their proper shelf.
“Yes?”
“If vampires can do this. Why do we need to go to school? I mean, is it really necessary?”
“Of course,” Lawrence replied. “What we are doing here is merely rote memory. School teaches a different skill set entirely: socialization, debate, learning to mix with humans. One must not alienate oneself from the mainstream. Blue Bloods must understand their place in the world before we can attempt to change it. You may be able to call up the entire encyclopedia, but a brain with no heart and no reasoning . . . well, nothing is more meaningless.”
Schuyler began to look forward to the tests every afternoon. Lawrence presented her with the hardest one yet at the end of the week.
“You have heard of the glom,” Lawrence said. “The ability to control human minds.”
“Yes.” Schuyler said. “One of the most dangerous arts, Priscilla Dupont said. Best that we do not attempt it until we are of age.”
“Ridiculous. You need to learn it now, to protect yourself from its seductive effects. Because the glom also works on Blue Bloods. It is a pernicious Silver Blood technique.”
Schuyler shuddered.
“So you must learn how to control it, and defend yourself against it. We shall try the first one, before I can prepare you for the second.” Lawrence decided. “There are four factors to the glom. The first one is merely telepathy. The ability to read minds. To read another’s thoughts, one must concentrate on their energy—and strive to understand its source. A mind is like a puzzle; you must unlock it to read its hidden secrets.”
“Anderson, come in here, please.”
The white-haired gentleman entered the room. “Yes?”
“Anderson has been trained to resist the glom. He must, if he is going to be a good Conduit. One cannot have a vampire’s assistant corrupted.”
For the next three hours, Schuyler sat on one end of a table, Anderson sat at the other. Lawrence would hold up a flash card to show Anderson, and Schuyler had to guess what was on the flash card.
What is he thinking? She focused on his signal, but all she got was static, a dense gray fog.
“Queen of hearts?” Schuyler asked.
Lawrence showed her an ace of spades.
“Ten of clubs?”