Masquerade (Blue Bloods 2)

No, sadly that dress is gone to the Tiber river....Silk does not keep a thousand years, my darling. This is a new one, for a new bonding.

"But not yet," Jack blurted. Their shared vision disappeared, and Mimi was annoyed to find herself wrenched out of a very pleasant memory.

"No, not yet," Mimi allowed. They would not be bonded officially until their twenty-first birthday. According to vampire law, the bond--the holy matrimony between vampires was an immortal vow, but the ceremony could not be performed until they were of age. The two of them were obligated to renew their bond in every cycle, although this was the first time that they had been born as twins to the same family, confusing matters due to pesky human laws. But no matter. They were vampire twins, which had a different meaning among their kind. It meant their souls had twinned in heaven, where they had pledged their love.

The bond could not be performed until they had both come into their full memories and mastered their powers. Vampire twins sometimes spent cycles looking for each other, and bonded couples had to be old enough to be able to rec- ognize the latest reincarnation of their spouse in a new phys- ical shell.

She knew that in the entire history of the vampires, there was only one couple that had forsaken their bond. Gabrielle as Allegra Van Alen had forsaken Michael, Charles Van Alen Force, in this cycle. She had married--married--in a church, a holy sanctuary, had said the words, had pledged her troth to a human! To her human familiar! And look what happened...Gabrielle trapped in a coma forever, caught between life and non-death. Condemned to eternal silence. "But why wait?" Mimi asked. "I've known who you were ever since I could see. And you know who I am now."

Mimi was referring to the night in her father's study when Jack's memories had finally rushed back, allowing him to finally see what was right in front of him all along. They were two who were one. She was his. For eternity.

"I love you, you know," Mimi said. "You make me crazy, but God help me, Jack, I do."

Jack bent his head so that his nose was buried in Mimi's hair. It smelled of honeysuckle and jasmine, and he inhaled deeply.

"I love you too," he replied.

"My God." Trinity said, with a sharp intake of breath.

Mimi and Jack slowly parted from their embrace and looked to see their mother standing at the open doorway.

"Mimi, you are only sixteen. And that is certainly not a dress for a sixteen-year-old," Trinity accused, her voice shaking.

"Should I remind you I am centuries older than you, `Mother'?" Mimi sniffed. She was coming of age now, the memories flooding back, and Mimi did not want to have to play at being Red Bloods anymore, with typical nuclear family dynamics.

"Charles," Trinity said. "Control your children."

"Mimi, you look beautiful," Charles said, kissing his daughter on the forehead. "Let's go."

Trinity scowled.

"Come, darling, it is time to dance," Charles said soothingly, taking his wife's hand and leading her out of the room.

"Shall we?" Jack asked, holding out his hand.

"We shall." Mimi smiled.

And together the Force twins walked out, arm in arm, to the party of the year.

A few blocks away, in an altogether different penthouse the Llewellyns' outlandish triplex, nicknamed "Penthouse des R?ves" due to its awesome, if surreal, extravagance Forsyth Llewellyn was standing in front of a secret compartment behind the shoe closet. He quickly turned the knob on the vault two clicks to the right, then three clicks to the left, and stepped back as the five-inch stainless steel door swung open.

"Daaaad, what's this all about?" Bliss asked, standing beside him. "I'm supposed to meet Jaime in the lobby at eight." She was holding Miss Ellie, her Chihuahua, in her arms. Miss Ellie was her canine familiar, named after her favorite character, on Dallas, of course. Just as promised, Mimi had set Bliss up with Jaime Kip. It was a total friend-date. Jaime had absolutely no interest in Bliss, and vice versa. In fact, it was Jaime who had suggested they meet in the St. Regis lobby since they were both attending with their families. Bliss got the distinct impression Jaime had asked to be her escort for the sole purpose of getting Mimi off his back. Mimi could be quite pushy when she wanted to be.

Bliss crossed her arms and looked around at her step- mother's enormous dressing room. It never failed to impress guests during the ritual house tour. The "closet" was easily two thousand square feet. It had a step-down Roman bath lined with travertine marble and was equipped with dancing showerheads along the side, so that you bathed in the midst of a fountain. There was an endless hallway of mirrors that masked a series of compartments that housed five thousand items of designer clothing, which had been catalogued and archived by BobiAnne's personal assistant. Too bad so much of what was inside was, in Bliss's opinion, vulgar and tasteless. BobiAnne had never met a marabou-trimmed leopard-print poncho that she didn't like.

BobiAnne was absorbed in her own toilette, and Bliss could hear her stepmother's gravelly laugh echo around the dressing chamber as she gossiped with her two stylists.

Bliss looked at herself in the infinity of mirrors. She had decided to wear the green Dior after all. Her father and stepmother had simply gasped when they saw her.

"My dear, you are so beautiful," BobiAnne had whispered, clasping her stepdaughter in her bony arms made stringy by too much Pilates. It was like being hugged by a skeleton.

BobiAnne was forever praising Bliss's good looks to the heavens, and disparaging her own daughter's rather plain appearance. Jordan, who at eleven was too young for the ball, had peeked in while Bliss was getting dressed and rendered her own judgment. "You look like a slut."

Bliss had thrown a pillow at her sister's retreating back.

After showing her parents the dress, her father had taken her aside and led her to the safe. He pulled open several of the suede-lined drawers custom-made to BobiAnne's exact specifications. Bliss could see the sparkle of her stepmother's many diamond tiaras, necklaces, rings, and bracelets. It was like the inside of Harry Winston. In fact, rumor had it that when the Texans had moved to Manhattan, the senator's wife had cleaned out the vaults at all the major diamond merchants in order to celebrate their ascendance in the city's social realm.