Gates of Paradise (Blue Bloods 7)

“Well, well. A dog out of its cage,” the Silver Blood sneered. “Heel, boy.”

Lawson howled.

The demon raised a whip to strike, and brought it down hard on Lawson’s left flank. The wolf whimpered in pain and cowered.

Out of the corner of her eye, Bliss could see a large plank of polished wood, now cracked and broken. A shelf from one of the bookcases that had toppled to the ground. If she could just reach it, maybe she could use it to distract the Silver Blood, slow him down so Lawson would have the advantage.

Quietly, she crawled off to the side and retrieved the plank. The creature was still taunting Lawson, who looked just about ready to pounce. Bliss stood up as quickly as she could, lunged forward, and, swinging the plank low, bashed the vampire below its knees.

Her ploy worked—the demon fell to the ground. It only took a moment for Lawson to attack, taking advantage of the demon’s weaker position to rip him to pieces with his fierce teeth and sharp claws.

The Silver Blood was consumed by a bright silver flame, then collapsed into a bag of bones. It was dead.

Lawson panted heavily before shifting back to his human form. Bliss was breathing pretty hard herself—she couldn’t believe how close they’d come to being killed. Her clothes were drenched in blood—the historian’s and the demon’s. They fell into each other’s arms in relief.

“You okay?” Lawson asked, letting go as quickly as he had hugged her tightly.

Bliss nodded, blushing a little at the force of his embrace. “You?”

“Nothing that won’t heal up quickly,” he said. He was covered in scratches and blood.

“Do you need anything? Bandages?”

“Nope. Already on the mend. See?” He held up an arm dotted with small cu

ts, but as Bliss looked at it, they disappeared. “You saved my life, you know.”

“Funny, I thought you saved mine.”

“We saved each other,” he said. “We make a good team.”

“We do, don’t we?” she said, and smiled.

“I just wish we’d gotten that thing before it killed Renfield,” Lawson said.

“Poor Renfield,” Bliss said. “All he wanted was to serve the vampires.”

“We’ll take him up with us when we leave, so that his body can be found and buried properly.”

Bliss nodded. She was exhausted and traumatized, but she knew there was no time to stop and grieve for the poor human Conduit. They had to try to find what they had come for, the Venator bulletin Renfield had spoken of, which had given her hope that the vampires had not been completely wiped out. “He said it was in his office. You think maybe the Silver Blood was after it too?”

“Could be. Why else would it have been here?” Lawson said.

“Let’s check it out.” Bliss walked over to Renfield’s desk and started going through the drawers, but didn’t find anything that looked like it came from the Venators’ office. Bliss wished she’d paid more attention during Committee meetings. She didn’t even know what she was looking for. It had come over the wire, the Conduit had said. The Repository was notorious for relying on out-of-date technology.

“There’s a file cabinet over here,” Lawson said. “It’s locked, but I think I can take care of that.” He pulled the handle as hard as he could. Bliss could see his muscles straining through his shirt, and her heart started racing. Was it jealousy over her lost powers, or just a reaction to Lawson’s body? Which was a pretty nice body, as she well remembered from their one brief encounter.

Finally the lock broke and the drawers opened. “Files,” Lawson said, taking folders out and spreading them on the floor.

Bliss started flipping through them. The first drawer held records of all the vampires who’d originally come to America so long ago. The second contained files on the Venators. It was the third, though, that was the most chilling.

“What is it?” Lawson asked.

“It’s the files on the human Conduits,” Bliss said. “It says they’re dead.”

“All of them?”

“Hard to be sure. All the ones whose files are here. See the black marks? That means they’re gone. It looks like Renfield was one of the last to survive.”