Lost in Time (Blue Bloods 6)

“Regardless, the Petruvians’ cleansing goes against everything in the Code of the Vampires, which mandates the protection of human life,” Schuyler maintained.

“The Nephilim are not human,” Deming said. “I have the scars to prove it.” She raised her sleeve to show the white marks she carried from battling their foes.

“Has anyone seen the Venator reports on this area?” Jack asked. “I tried to find the local conclave offices, but no one would tell me where they had relocated.”

Sam shook his head. “The Coven here is barely hanging on. many of their members have been brutally murdered, burned—not just young ones but Elders. There was an attack at the Cairo Tower last month, their headquarters. That’s why you couldn’t find them. They’re ready to go underground. It’s like that everywhere. Our kind is retreating—they went back into the shadows.”

“What’s the latest in New York?” Jack wanted to know.

Deming and Sam exchanged glances. “The Regent’s disappeared and supposedly she took the Repository keys with her, to keep the Coven from disbanding. No one knows where she went. But without your sister, New York is not going to last very long,” Deming said.

So. Mimi was Regent. Oliver had told the truth. Schuyler watched Jack process this information. She thought she knew what he was thinking—that he should have been with Mimi; that without the twins, the Coven had no one.

“We thought Azrael had come after you,” Ted said to Jack. “For the blood trial, when you didn’t return to New York.”

“We haven’t seen Mimi,” Schuyler said. “Not yet, anyway.”

“What are you doing in Cairo?”

Schuyler was careful not to reveal the exact reason for their journey. “We’re looking for someone. Catherine of Siena, a friend of my grandfather’s. Jack heard of a holy woman named zani, who we thought might be her. One of her dis-ciples was supposed to meet us at the market and take us to her. You guys must have scared him off. Do you know where we can find her?”

“The name rings a bell—where have we heard it before?”

Sam asked.

“It’s name of a priestess at the temple of Anubis,” Deming said. “Where the girls have been disappearing.”

ELEVEN

White Wedding

Where to next? Is there a map?” Oliver asked.

When he saw the look on Mimi’s face, he felt chastened.

“Okay, I promise to stop asking stupid questions. I’m just making conversation.”

“There’ll be a second checkpoint or something,” Mimi explained. They were still driving through the desert, but after a few miles, Oliver noticed the road was now along a seashore, and he could see the blue waves of an ocean, and a breeze blew. If they were descending deeper into Hell, it was getting nicer instead of worse. Mimi drove until they spotted an elegant hotel by the beach.

“Am I dreaming? It looks like martha’s Vineyard,” Oliver said. He recognized the hotel. It was a famous one on the island. He half expected a group of inebriated teenagers to walk out wearing Black Dog T-shirts.

Mimi pulled into the driveway and looked around expect-antly. When no one came to park the car, she sighed. “In Hell there’s no valet?” she asked, driving into the parking lot.

Oliver chuckled. “Isn’t that just like the Vineyard? What is this place?”

“We’ll find out soon enough,” Mimi said. They got out of the car and walked toward the resort entrance. There was music playing from a string quartet, and a waitress in a crisp white shirt and black pants appeared carrying a tray of champagne. “The party is in the back. Come join us.”

Oliver took a glass. The champagne smelled delicious—buttery and bubbly, with a hint of apple and strawberries, along with a musky undertow of something earthy and delightful. He was not surprised to find he was wearing a khaki suit and a pressed white shirt, while Mimi was now wearing a plain linen dress and sandals, and she had a flower in her hair. “If this is what life is like in the underworld, it doesn’t seem too bad,” he said, clinking Mimi’s glass.

“That’s what you’d think, of course,” Mimi said, rolling her eyes. “But wait till you’ve seen Paradise.”

“What’s that like?”

“It’s been so long I don’t even remember anymore. It was just—different. Peaceful,” she said wistfully.

“Boring.”

“No. It wasn’t like that. Of course people think it would be boring, but it’s not. It’s like the best day of your life, for the rest of your life,” Mimi said. “Anyway, it looks like we’re here for some sort of wedding.” They’d followed the crowd to the back of the hotel, by the beach, where white wooden folding chairs had been set up, and a sandy aisle led to a flowered trel-lis. The guests were a ruddy-cheeked New England bunch—the men in seersucker, the women in modest day dresses. Children ran round blowing bubbles. It was beautiful and festive, and not too hot.