Blue Bloods (Blue Bloods 1)

"Schuyler, listen to me. Nothing can harm us... except - "

"Except...?"

"I don't know!" He folded his hands into fists in frustration. "But there is something out there. The Committee isn't telling us everything."

Jack explained that before the first meeting, the senior members of The Committee decided that they wouldn't tell the premature about the danger. That instead of warning everyone, it was best to leave them in the dark for now. It was enough that they would find out about their true heritage first; no reason to raise alarm bells where there might be none. Except that he hadn't believed them. He knew they were keeping something from them.

"They're holding something back. I think it's something that might have happened before, in our history. Something to do with Plymouth, when we first came here. I've tried to dig it up, but it's as if it's blocked from my sight. When I try to think about it, all I remember is a word. A message nailed to a tree in an empty field. It contained one word: Croatan."

"What's that?" Croatan. Schuyler shuddered, repulsed by the mere sound of it.

"I have no idea." Jack shook his head. "I don't even know what it is. It could be anything. It might be a place, I'm not sure. But I think it has to do with what they haven't told us about. Something with the power to kill Blue Bloods."

"But how do you know? How can you be so sure?" she asked him, alarmed.

"Because, like I told you, Aggie Carondolet was murdered," he said, looking intently into her deep blue eyes. Schuyler was silent. "And?"

"Aggie was a vampire."

Schuyler gasped. Of course! That's why she'd felt so empathic at the funeral. She'd known, somehow, that Aggie was one of them.

"She's never coming back. She's gone. Her blood - all of it - was drained from her body. Her memories, her lives, her soul - gone. Sucked out, just like we suck the Red Bloods," he said sadly. "Extinguished. Taken."

Schuyler looked at him in horror. It couldn't be true.

"And she wasn't the first. This has happened before."

Catherine Carver's Diary

25th of December, 1620

Plymouth, Massachusetts

Panic everywhere. Half of us are determined to flee, to find safer ground. Perhaps head south, farther away. The Conclave is meeting today to discuss the alternatives. John is convinced that one of them is hidden among us, that one of us has succumbed to their power. He is determined to convince the Elders. William White will stand with him, he said. But Myles Standish is adamant about staying. He has argued that there is no proof, even if the Roanoke colony is gone, that they were overtaken by Croatan. A hysterical lie, he says, perhaps even a willful misleading. He will not believe messages left on trees. The Conclave is ever in accordance, it has never happened that they have failed to reach an agreement. It is not our way to doubt. Myles Standish has led us well for as long as I can remember. But John is certain there is danger. Stay or flee? But where would we go?

CHAPTER 27

What was up with the dry ice? It was like a bad magic show in there. Bliss shooed away some freshmen helping themselves to more than one goodie bag on the exit table, and circled the room. She felt a rising panic. She couldn't find Dylan anywhere. The one guy she wanted to see, and he was missing.

She flopped down on the leather couch and looked at the hallway leading to the massage rooms. Two people were making out behind the ice sculpture. The taller figure looked familiar - that worn, beaten leather sleeve, the fringes of that white silk scarf - it had to be...

"Dylan?" Bliss asked.

Mimi turned around. Shit. She should have taken him into the bathroom or somewhere more private. She retracted her fangs quickly and put on her most dazzling smile.

"Bliss, sweetie. There you are," she said.

Dylan turned around, his eyes glassy and unfocused. "What are you doing?" Bliss asked Mimi.

"Nothing." Mimi shrugged. "We were just talking."

Bliss pulled Dylan out of the shadowy corner. She checked his neck for marks, but there were none. Good. She glared at Mimi and led him away.

"What were you doing with her?" Bliss demanded.

Dylan shrugged. He hadn't even realized he was with Mimi Force. He'd been lost in a daze, as if he were under a spell. He blinked his eyes and looked at Bliss. "Where have you been?" he asked, his voice suddenly normal.