"What are you going to do now?"
Schuyler shrugged. In her will, Cordelia had declared Schuyler an emancipated minor, with Hattie and Julius as her guardians for now.
"I'll be okay."
"Good luck."
Schuyler watched Bliss walk away, huddled closely to Mimi. The day before, Bliss had told her about the other night, what had happened when she'd returned from the Carlyle. How she'd found Dylan in her room, how he'd confessed. How she'd blacked out, and when she awoke, had discovered the broken glass, the bloodstained jacket.
"He was a vampire and now he's dead, Schuyler," Bliss said, tears in her eyes.
No - not dead. Worse than dead, Schuyler thought. Cordelia had told her that when the Silver Bloods drained the Blue Bloods, they took their souls, their memories, made them prisoner to their immortal consciousness forever.
"They took him, but they wanted me too," Bliss sobbed. "He only came back to warn me. They'd turned him into one of them, but he was fighting it. Now he's gone, and I'll never see him again."
Schuyler had hugged her close. "At least you're safe."
She felt heartsick for Bliss. She wanted her to know that she would always be there for her. But the next day, it seemed the Texan girl had completely reverted to her old self. She refused to talk to Schuyler or Oliver about everything that happened, and gravitated back to her old circle - that is, next to Mimi Force.
Schuyler hoped that they would get a chance to become friends again. In her heart, she understood that Bliss was weak, but someday she would help her become strong. Valiturus. Fortis.
Oliver came over and placed a spray of white calla lilies on the coffin. He was wearing a dazzling three-piece white suit. His dark chestnut hair curled above the collar.
"We will miss her," he said, blessing himself.
"Thank you," she said, accepting a kiss on the cheek.
The service began, and the choir sang Cordelia's favorite hymn, "On Eagle's Wings." Schuyler sat in the front pew, her arms folded in her lap. Cordelia was gone. The only family she had ever truly known. She was alone in the world. Her mother, trapped in a sleeping death, and her grandfather lost, hiding somewhere.
Oliver, seated next to her, squeezed her hand in sympathy.
After the funeral, Jack Force walked over to Schuyler. He, too, was wearing a white suit, and it gleamed in the sun. They walked out of the church to busy Park Avenue, where it was just another Sunday in New York. Mothers and nannies pushing eight-hundred-dollar strollers toward the park, well-dressed residents out for a brisk fall stroll or an afternoon at a museum.
"Schuyler, could I have a sec?"
"Sure." She shrugged.
With his light hair and green eyes, Jack Force looked princely in his shining garb. He had the face of an angel. A face not unlike his father's.
"Speak," she told him.
"I'm sorry things went so weird between us..." he said. "I... my life is not my own... I have responsibilities to my family that... that preclude the kind of relationship that - "
"Jack, you don't need to explain," Schuyler said, cutting him off. She could guess about him and Mimi. Blood-bound to each other since the day of their creation.
"No?"
"You need to do what you need to do, and I need to do what I need to do."
He looked troubled. "What do you need to do?"
She thought about Dylan, about the sad-faced boy with the wicked sense of humor and the tarnished reputation. Her friend. He had been transformed into a monster. Used and then killed. She thought about what her grandmother had said about the Silver Bloods - they were wily, cunning, and duplicitous, and how Cordelia believed the most powerful of them all was hiding among them, disguised as a Blue Blood. But no one wanted to believe in their existence, that there was a chance they had returned. Even if Aggie's death was real enough. And now Dylan's as well. Charles Force was determined to watch, wait, and do nothing. But Schuyler would not wait. There was nothing she could have done for Aggie, but she had to find out who had taken Dylan. She would hunt down the Silver Bloods. Avenge her friend.
"Don't make things any harder for yourself, Schuyler," Jack warned.
Schuyler only smiled. "Good-bye, Jack."
Oliver materialized suddenly. It was amazing how he always showed up right when Schuyler needed him the most. "Schuyler? The car's waiting," he said.