Blue Bloods (Blue Bloods 1)

Schuyler smiled. She sat down on the ledge next to him. He was her best friend, her confidante, her soul mate, and in the past week, she had ignored and neglected him, pulling away because she was too frightened to tell him the truth about herself. "I have to tell you something about me." She reached out and took his hands in hers. "Oliver, I'm a... I'm a vam..."

Oliver's face softened. "I already know."

"Excuse me?" she demanded.

"Schuyler. Let me show you something."

Still holding her hand, he led her down past the basement pit and the coed bathrooms toward the corner where she had encountered that strange blank wall the last time they were at the club. He muttered a few words, and an outline of a door glowed brightly. Oliver pushed softly on it, and the wall swung open, revealing steep, curving stairs that led to the lowest bowels of the building.

"What is this?" Schuyler asked as they stepped through the entryway. The wall shut behind them, leaving them alone in the dark.

Oliver removed a thin flashlight from his shirt pocket. "Follow me," he said. They began to walk down the stairs, which spiraled down for what seemed like miles. Schuyler was out of breath by the time they arrived at the bottommost stair.

There was another door, a more magnificent one this time, made of gold, ebony, and platinum. INGREDIOR PERCIPIO ANIMUS read the inscription around the perimeter.

Oliver removed a gold key from his wallet and twisted it in the lock.

"Where are we? What is this all about?" Schuyler asked, stepping tentatively inside the room.

It was a library - a large, airy space that smelled like chalk dust and parchment. There were bookshelves that reached seventy-five feet to the ceiling, and a maze of ladders and bridges that connected the towering stacks. It was bright and well-lit, and decorated with cozy Aubusson rugs and bankers lamps. Several scholars at rolltop desks looked up curiously when they entered. Oliver bowed to them and led Schuyler to a private cubicle.

"This is the Repository of History. We keep it protected."

"Who's we?"

Oliver put a hand to his lips. He led her to a small, shabby desk in the back of the room. It held a gleaming iBook, several framed photographs, and a dozen Post-it notes. He searched the shelf on top of the desk and made a satisfied sound as he took down a book, musty and dirty from years of use. He blew softly on the cover. He flipped to the first page and displayed it to her. He pointed to the crumbling page where a family tree was illustrated, the name Van Alen inscribed in the center, with Hazard-Perry in small letters underneath.

"What is this?"

"It's how we're related," Oliver explained. "How we're associated, I mean. We're not family, so don't worry."

"What do you mean?" she asked, still trying to fathom the fact that there was a secret library underneath the nightclub.

"My family has served yours for centuries."

"Come again?"

"I'm a Conduit. Like everyone in my family. We've been caretakers for the Blue Bloods forever. We work as doctors, lawyers, accountants, financiers. We've served the Van Alens in that capacity since the 1700s. You know Dr. Pat? She's my aunt."

"What do you mean, serve us? Your family is so much richer than mine," Schuyler pointed out.

"An accident of fate. We offered to ameliorate the situation, but your grandmother wouldn't hear of it. 'Times have changed, she said."

"But what does that mean - a Conduit?"

"It means, we serve a different purpose. Not all humans are familiars."

"You know about that?" she asked. She looked down at the page again, recognizing the names of her ancestors on her mother's side.

"I know enough."

"But why didn't you ever say anything?"

"I'm not allowed."

"But how come you can know what you are, but I didn't know what I was?"

"Search me. That's how it's been since the beginning Being a Conduit is something that's passed down, that's taught, and it's easier to teach at a young age. We serve to keep the Blue Bloods a secret, to protect them and help them manage in the real world. The practice is an old one, and only a few vampire families keep Conduits nowadays. Most got rid of theirs, like the Forces. It's an ancient tradition, and some Blue Bloods don't keep to the old ways anymore. Like your grandmother said, things are different now I'm one of the last of our kind."