Keys to the Repository (Blue Bloods 4.50)

Palaver: A conversation between those of different status: angel vs. demon. Bliss demands a palaver of the demon in her dreams.

Passive State: The resting state vampires enter between cycles. Also called Evolution.

Paths of the Dead: The only remaining passageways between Earth and the underworld, they are now secured by the Gates of Hell, forged by the Blue Bloods at Michael’s command after the battle in Rome. In the glom they look like paths of molten lava, hissing with steam.

“Phoebus ostend praeeo”: “The sun shall show you the way.” It is the cryptic message Jordan leaves for the Venators searching for her.

“Propon familiar”: “Tell your friends.” The Compulsion Mimi uses to get the little slum girl in Rio to tell the Venators of Jordan’s whereabouts.

Quadrille: An old-fashioned figure dance at the Four Hundred Ball lead by the Committee members being presented; the teens in the foremost quadrille are chosen because of their family’s hierarchy in the Committee.

Regenerative Memory Syndrome: The process during a vampire’s Transformation when a Blue Blood’s memories of past cycles return; the young vampires feel as if they are actually experiencing the memory again.

Regent: The second-highest ranking member of the Conclave. The Regent is responsible for the Coven when the Regis is unable to fulfill his/her duties. Also, when the Regis is in the passive/ hibernation state, a Regent is chosen to lead the community.

Regis: Head of the Coven and the Conclave, the Regis can only be elected unanimously and blessed by the seven Wardens representing the seven ruling houses. The Regis’s orders are law.

Regression Therapy: The process in which vampires learn to access past lives and the accumulated knowledge available to them from their vast past-life experiences

The Repository of History: The Committee headquarters and Blue Blood archives, it holds all the knowledge and secrets of their race. Its towering stacks were once located several stories below the Blue Blood–exclusive nightclub Block 122, but after Kingsley called forth a Silver Blood, it was moved to a “corescraper” below Force Tower, miles underground.

The Sacred Language (the Old Tongue): The ancient, heavenly language of the vampires. Latin is the bastardized, awkward Red Blood version of the language, as the sacred language is not Latin, per se, and does not adhere to Latin structure or grammar. Its historical roots trace even beyond Sumarian script or Egyptian hierogylphs. According to the laws of Heaven, every creature on God’s earth must obey commands given in this language.

Sanctus Balineum: The ritual cleansing a Blue Blood bride undergoes before her bonding. Surrounded by her bondsmaids and the female Wardens, she dips into an ice pool, a steamy vapor bath, a relaxing harmony pool, and finally a fire pool, all of holy spring water.

Sangre Azul: The blue blood: it is as old as time and a living database of the vampires’ immortal consciousness. It contains their wisdom, vast intelligence, and memories.

Sending: A manipulation sent through the glom

Shapeshifters: Vampires able to change their physical shell at will, for example, into another human figure or an animal. Unlike mutatio, not every vampire can do this.

Sigul: A telltale mark or signal, as the emblems of each of the seven ruling houses

Silver Bloods: Immortal enemies of the Blue Bloods who have sworn allegiance to Lucifer, the exiled Prince of Heaven. Like the Blue Bloods, they are fallen angels, but refuse to live by the Code of the Vampires. Enslaved instead to a bottomless appetite of greed, sex, and desire, they now hunt the Blue Bloods. They are insane with the legion of memories they hold. Their eyes are crimson with silver pupils. They each have the strength of a thousand vampires.

Solom Bicallis: A one-way path from the underworld, as in Leviathan’s prison at Corcovado. Once it is used, it is closed to all.

Stasis: A locked-in state of paralysis that inhibits motion

Subvertio: A spell that unlocks what can not be unlocked, that destroys what can not be destroyed. A white hole of death. Also called the White Darkness, a vacuum of space and time.

Sunset Years: The years between fifteen and twenty-one—the most vulnerable time for vampires, during which their Transformation from human to vampire takes place and their Blue Blood asserts itself as they come into their full powers. This young generation of Blue Bloods does not use this term, as they find it “corny.”

The Uncorrupted: Angels who were not cursed and banished by the Almighty, but chose to leave Paradise out of love for their kind.

They are Michael and Gabrielle, the most powerful Blue Bloods on Earth.

Velox: The vampire ability of superhuman speed, so fast that they are undetectable, which leads most Red Bloods to think vampires have the ability to be invisible.

Venatio: The practice of memory hunting

Veritas Venator (Truth Seeker, Truth Teller): The highest order of the Committee’s secret police. Fearless warriors in the fight to keep the Blue Bloods safe from harm and discovery, they are able to decipher dreams and access human and vampire memories.

V.F.E. (Vessel for Evil): What Bliss calls herself when the Visitor takes over. A way for her to laugh when she really wants to cry.

“Vos vadum reverto”: The words spoken at a funeral for a vampire who has left this cycle: “We await your glorious return.”

Ward: A secure protection placed on a location by incantation