The Van Alen Legacy (26 page)

“My thesis today, please
excuse me, Miss Murray?
since
the class is called Ancient Civilizations and the Dawn
of the West, is that the West, or the idea of it truly died with the assassination of Caligula,”
Allison began. The tall girl stood in front of the blackboard and read confidently from her note
cards.

“Interesting
theory.
Please explain,” Miss Murray said, leaning forward from her desk at the front of
the room.

“As you all know, Caligula was
assassinated by a conspiracy headed by leading members of the Senate. They stabbed him multiple
times. By the time his loyal guards came, he was dead. The Senate then attempted to restore the
RomanRepublic, but the military did not support them, they remained loyal to the empire. With the
help of the Praetorian Guard, they installed Claudius as emperor.”

“So you are saying Caligula’s
death did exactly the opposite of what the Senate intended?” questioned Miss Murray.

Allison nodded
enthusiastically. “With the death of Caligula came the death of the idea of the Republic. The
empire was infallible. The people grieved for their murdered emperor, no matter how cruel or
insane his enemies said he was. And with Caligula’s death, the death of the Republic was all but
confirmed. The Romans never tried to bring it back again. The Senate’s greatest achievement,
then, in murdering the emperor was solidifying the people’s loyalty to the empire,” Allison said.
“It’s ironic, isn’t it?
Especially since it wasn’t the first attempt on Caligula’s
life.
His sisters Agrippina and Julia
Livilla
had tried to kill him before,
but failed. They were unsuccessful and banished. But the Senate succeeded where they did
not.”

There was a hand up. “I
thought Caligula was . . . um, you know, close to his sisters,” Bryce Cutting insinuated with a
smirk.

Miss Murray interjected this
time. “He was certainly “close,” as you say, to his sister Drusilla. She was treated as the head
of his household, and when she died, he mourned the loss like a widower. He even had the Senate
name her a goddess. But as to whether they were close in a Biblical sense, history is ambiguous
on the subject. Understand, class, that just like today, they tried to discredit their rulers
with sex scandals and all sorts of salacious lies. If you believe half the things you read,
everyone is a sexual pervert in antiquity. Perhaps Caligula and Drusilla were lovers. Or perhaps
they simply wanted to solidify their power, to rule as brother and sister, as did the Egyptian
despots.”

Bliss looked up from her
notes. For some reason she had the sense that she was not hearing about distant historical
figures safely entombed in the past and in the pages of history books. Instead, when she heard
the names Drusilla, Agrippina, and Julia
Livilla
, she felt her skin tingle. These
were people she knew.

“Dylan, I think I’m
getting close. I think this is what I am meant to know.”

“Thanks, Miss M.,” Allison
said. “Anyway, for the trivia portion of my presentation, I wanted to add that even though we all
call him Caligula, it was just a nickname, which he probably didn’t like too much since it meant
“Little Boot.” His real name was the same as Julius Caesar’s. They called him Gaius.”

“Gaius. Yes. That was
what they used to call the Visitor.”

And Allison was absolutely
right. He had despised that nickname. Bliss felt as if everything was coming back too fast and
too soon, memories were falling like snowflakes, bright and glittering in her mind, but these
were the Visitor’s memories: Rome, the final days, the deception, the betrayal. First with his
sisters, Agrippina he could understand (Bliss was shocked to find the image of Agrippina looking
back at her with the eyes of Mimi Force), Agrippina and
Valerius
had sided with that
damned Cassius or whatever they had called Michael back then.

But Julia! How could she do
this to him, his baby sister, the youngest child, she was so young when she first suspected, and
it was she who had called Cassius’s attention to his corruption, Julia
Livilla
. . .
how Julia hated that name, said it reminded her of her awful aunt, whom she despised. She had
wanted to be called something else. . . .

Sophia.

He had been so close.
So
close to having his dream realized.
He had come so close, only to have Cassius ruin
everything. . . .

In her mind, Bliss saw what
the Visitor had seen back then.
A path.
A winding path deep below the city of
Lutetia
, through tunnels far beneath the earth, a winding path that led underground,
to a coven of demons bowing to his crown. . . . He would rise again, majestic and glorious, the
Prince of Paradise once again . . . forever.
All the
world would shake and cower.
The rivers would run with blood and the horsemen would be unleashed. . . . There would be no
escape from Satan’s army. This was the crisis in Rome.

Bliss gasped.

The demons.
The deaths.
The corruption.
All this had happened before. And it was
going to happen again. Unless . . .

She blinked. She was sitting
in the classroom, Allison was done, and everyone was stuffing books and papers into their
bags.

Miss Murray was looking at her
curiously. “Are you all right, Bliss?”

“Yes,” she said. “I just . . .
I think I forgot to eat breakfast.”

Miss Murray nodded. “You know,
Bliss, that if you find you need someone to talk to, I’m here for you.”

Bliss nodded. Teachers at
Duchesne were always super-empathic. The school policy was an “all-hands” approach. They didn’t
wait for troubled students to find their way to the guidance counselor’s office.

“Sure, Miss M.
Thanks.”

Miss Murray was smiling at her
so kindly that she found herself talking, even though she had not meant to say anything. “It’s
just . . . I have this problem, see . . . and I’m worried about bringing my friend into it . . .
but I have a feeling she’s the only one who can help me.”

“I see.” Miss Murray crossed
her arms. “
sometimes
it’s good to ask for help, Bliss. And friends are the only
people we can trust when we are in trouble. That’s what they’re for, anyway. I’m sure your friend
would be glad that you had reached out to her.”

Bliss nodded. “I think . . . I
think you’re right.”

“Good.” Miss Murray smiled.
For a moment, she reminded Bliss of someone, but she couldn’t figure out
who
.

Bliss removed her cell phone
from her handbag. Her history teacher had helped her make a decision. She couldn’t do this alone,
and the Force twins were no help at all. Trying to have a meaningful conversation with Jack was
impossible. He stalked the halls of Duchesne with a shuffling, mournful air, as if grieving the
loss of something precious. He rarely smiled anymore. Bliss had even seen him barking at the
freshmen who got in his way, which was completely unlike him. Jack had always been kind to new
students.

As for Mimi, Bliss had felt
the temptation to confide in her, but so far all Mimi ever wanted to talk about was lipstick and
jeans, and there was no way for Bliss to steer the conversation in a more serious direction. Mimi
had once been so interested in the Conclave, but now she acted as if she could care less about
what happened to the Blue Bloods.

But there was someone who
could help her. There was someone who would understand.
Someone who was just as intimately
connected to everything that had happened as she was, and who deserved to know everything.
She couldn’t shield her friend even if she wanted to. She was part of this too.

Bliss punched a quick reply on
the screen.

“
tomorrow
.
meet
me at the
prada
sample sale.”

Schuyler was familiar with the
horror stories of American public education: the overcrowded classrooms, the violent students,
the indifferent teachers. She had no idea what to expect: graffiti-ridden walls?
Metal
detectors?
Roving gangs slashing innocent victims in the hallways?

It was early October, and as
she walked into the school, a nondescript building on 
22nd
Street
, she tried not to look too surprised. It was orderly. The metal
detectors were built into the entrance, so students wouldn’t feel like they were walking into a
prison. You had to walk through a metal detector to get into the Met, right? Not that this was
anything like the Met, but it wasn’t something out of Jonathan
Kozol
either. She had
even managed to get in to the few AP and honors classes offered. She had a locker, a homeroom,
and a pretty good English teacher.

But even though she was
relieved that Hamilton High exceeded her expectations, as she walked through the hallways that
always smelled slightly of Pine-Oil cleaner, she realized with a pang how much she had loved
Duchesne.
Especially now that she could never go back.
At least she would be seeing
Bliss tomorrow. Schuyler decided enough was enough.

There were some people she
could trust in this world and Bliss was one of them. She was keen on seeing her friend, and
wondered why it had taken Bliss so long to get back to her. Maybe she was mad at her for
deserting her, Schuyler hoped not, she had to make Bliss understand,
they’d
had no
choice but to leave. Oliver said that at school Bliss was friendly but uninterested, acting as if
they were mere acquaintances and nothing more.

It hurt to think of everyone
back at Duchesne without her. She didn’t know what the future held, but she had a feeling it
would not bring SAT prep classes and early admissions letters. She was here to follow her
grandfather’s advice: to learn how to move in human society without giving away her vampire
ancestry.

One thing Hamilton lacked was
a proper library. Oh, it had a tiny library, a room the size of a closet displaying old S. E.
Hinton paperbacks, with a bank of computer terminals where everyone checked their e-mails.
Studying at home had always made Schuyler feel itchy, and one of the things she loved about her
new neighborhood was that she wasn’t too far from the New York Public Library.

She liked the reading room on
the second floor, where the writers worked,
the
ones with the library fellowships.
It was always quiet there. She was walking up the grand staircase one afternoon after a long day
of classes when who should be walking down but Jack Force.

He didn’t look too surprised
to see her back in New York.

“I’m glad to see you took my
advice finally,” he said by way of greeting. He did not smile. “Welcome back.”

“Thanks. It’s good to be
back,” she said, trying to appear as nonchalant as he was. Jack had let his hair grow out a
little since they had seen each other last, now that he wasn’t a Venator anymore. It curled
behind his ears and over his shirt collar.

“What are you doing here
anyway?”

Duchesne had a wonderful
library, on the top floor, with a view of Central Park. And whatever could not be found in the
Duchesne library could be found in the vampire Repository.

Trinity’s on the board for the
Library Lions,” Jack said. “
since
she’s been in D.C., she asked me if I could fill
in during the meeting.”

Schuyler nodded. She had come
back to New York, but had come back too late. When she’d spied the invitation the other evening,
her heart had not thumped wildly in her chest, her mouth had not turned dry,
her
eyes had not threatened to water. She had almost expected it, somehow. She was resigned to the
news by now.

“About the Conclave,” she
started. “Are they . . . “?

“Don’t worry about them. You
are safe for now. Oliver did a fine job with his story of your estrangement. Thankfully there’s
no one on the Conclave who knows the two of you well. Because if they did they would realize
there’s absolutely no truth to it,” he said. “He is a good friend to you.”

She knew it took an effort for
him to say it, and she thought she would return the gesture. “So . . . I hear . . .
congratulations are in order.
You and Mimi.”

“Ah. Yes.” He appeared
pleased.

Schuyler understood they would
not talk about what had happened between them in Paris.
The kiss.
It was as if Jack
were standing behind a block of ice. He was unreachable. His face set in stone. Already he was
shutting her out. He had tried so hard so many times, and she had always rejected him.
On 
Perry Street
.
In
Paris.
He would not give her another chance, she knew.

She had come too late. She had
followed her heart and had come too late, as usual. In two weeks he would be lost to her forever.
He would be bonded to Mimi, but at least he would be safe. It’s all she ever wanted for
him.

“I’m happy for you,” she said
brightly.
“Really.
I mean . . . I know what it’s like to be alone in the world, and
I wouldn’t want that for you.”