“Silver Blood attack and all.” Mimi nodded.
The doctor consulted his chart again. “That’s the interesting thing. Like I told Senator Llewellyn, as far as we can determine, there are no signs of Silver Blood corruption in his blood. He has been attacked, yes, and badly tortured, but we are skeptical that he has actually performed the Caerimonia on a fellow vampire. He hasn’t completed the process. Or let me make it clear: he hasn’t even begun it.”
Bliss started. “But . . .”
“That’s ridiculous,” Mimi said flatly. “We all know Dylan killed Aggie. She was fully drained. And he was the only suspect. He even confessed to Bliss.”
“He did,” Bliss agreed.
Dr. Andrews shook his head. “Perhaps he’d been deluded, or manipulated into thinking he was one of them. Our findings are quite conclusive.”
“Forsyth knew this? That Dylan was innocent?” Mimi asked sharply.
The doctor nodded. “I called him as soon as the tests came in.”
Mimi laughed a sharp, sarcastic laugh. “If Dylan’s not a Silver Blood and he didn’t take Aggie, that means he probably wasn’t lying when he told me he doesn’t know where the jeans she’d borrowed from me are.”
“What are you talking about?” Bliss asked, her mind awhirl.
“Never mind.” Mimi shrugged. She stood up, and Bliss followed her lead. “Thanks very much for meeting us, doctor. You’ve been a great help.”
Bliss couldn’t concentrate. Her fingers shook as she buttoned her coat. She bumped her knee into the table and almost tripped. Dylan was innocent. He was not a Silver Blood nor about to become one. He was a victim. For months, everyone in the community had believed in Dylan’s guilt in the murder of Aggie Carondolet. That he had dispatched the other victims, attacked Schuyler, and mortally wounded Cordelia. He’d told Bliss himself that he’d done those things. And she’d believed him.
But what if he’d just been covering up for someone else? What if he’d just been made to think he had been infected? And if it hadn’t been Dylan who’d done all these things, then who had?
THIRTY
It was evening when Schuyler left the apartment on Perry Street. Her face was still flushed from Jack’s kisses, her cheeks and lips a rosy deep red. Like everything in New York, Schuyler was blooming. A kiss for a kiss for a kiss, she thought, still hazy from their night in Vienna. They had just returned and repaired to the hideaway to shower and change. Jack had left first—slipping out the side door—and she had waited the requisite half hour before attempting an exit herself. She was smiling softly to herself, trying to calm her wild hair in a sudden wind, when she saw someone she did not expect to see. He was standing across the street, staring at her with a look of shock and dismay. One look in Oliver’s eyes and she knew he knew. But how? How could he have known? They’d been so careful to keep their love a secret.
The grief etched all over in his face was too much to bear. Schuyler felt the words catch in her throat as she crossed the street to stand in front of him. “Ollie . . . it’s not . . .”
Oliver shot her a look of pure hatred, turned on his heel, and began to walk, then run away.
“Oliver, please, let me explain. . . .”
In a flash, she was standing right in front of him. He could run, but he could not outrun her. “Don’t do this. Talk to me.”
“There’s nothing to say. I saw him leave, and then, just as she’d said, I waited a half hour, and then you left too. You were with him. You lied to me.”
“I didn’t—it’s nothing like that—Oh God, Oliver.” The sobs forming now, Schuyler felt his sadness and anger wash over her. If only he would hit her, if only he would strike her—do something other than stand there looking so devastated that she could only feel more devastated in turn.
It began to rain. Thunderclouds opened up overhead, and the first raindrops pelted, then drummed on them. They were going to get drenched.
“You have to choose,” Oliver said, as the rain mixed with tears that fell from his cheeks. “I’m tired of being your best friend. I’m tired of being second best. I won’t settle for that anymore. It’s all or nothing, Schuyler. You have to decide. Him or me.”