OLIVER WAS PACKING HIS BAGS, getting ready to leave. After a week at Mimi’s, he was finally ready to face home. Their home. He had given the staff the night off, had wanted to be alone on his last night in New York. He knew where he was going first, but that was all. He was tired, so tired, and he missed her. And that was when he realized he wasn’t alone. He knew she wasn’t dead. Whatever she had in her, it was much more potent, much stronger, than the dose the two girls had taken. He had killed her and she had risen from death into eternal life.
He walked to the French windows and saw her. Finn was standing on the balcony of their home at 13 Central Park West. Their favorite place, the terrace from which they surveyed their kingdom—the city of New York, the city of vampires.
Oliver opened the doors and joined her.
“I was waiting for you,” she said, without turning around. “I wondered when you’d come home.”
She was still wearing the dress from the night of the ball, and her creamy skin was translucent against the red. She looked like a vampire bride, Oliver thought. That’s what I made her into. I did this to her.
“I know it’s my fault,” he said. “I knew something had changed—I saw it in your blood, I felt it in my own, but I ignored it. I ignored your sadness, your disappointment in this life. I’m so sorry.” He ignored every warning, every doubt, because he was so afraid of knowing the truth about her. He hadn’t known her, not really, and he would regret it forever.
“You couldn’t change it. You couldn’t change what you did to me,” she said. “What I asked you to do to me. You didn’t know and neither did I.”
“Finn… I know I killed you. I know it was my fault that you died. And I’m not talking about last night; I’m talking about ten years ago, when I made you my human familiar. I turned you into this, into what you are now. But we can fix it. I can fix it. We can leech out the poison in your blood. I did it to the Coven, I can do it to you.”
“No,” she said. “It was my idea to take the darkness into my soul. I thought I was biding time; at first I thought I was just saying it so that Sam wouldn’t kill me. But then I realized what he was offering and I wanted it. I wanted it badly. I wanted it more than I wanted anything in my life.”
“You don’t know what you want,” he said, agonized. “Please Finn, don’t say this.”
“I’m beyond help, Oliver. When I started taking the drug, I knew there was something in it that was terrible, and I welcomed it. I’m one of his now. I am one with Lucifer. I carry pieces of his soul inside me.”
“There has to be a way to save you.”
“But I don’t need saving,” she said. “This is exactly what I wanted. To be more than I was. To have more than you could ever give me.”
He walked toward her but she held up her hand. “Stop, don’t come any closer. I wanted to say good-bye, Oliver. I wanted to see you again before—”
“What are you saying?”
“You never understood me. You loved me, you wanted me, but I was a thing to you. The most precious jewel in your empire. But I’m not a possession, Oliver; I’m not a prize. I’m not a spoil of War.”
“I never thought you were,” he said. “Did you really think that?”
“You didn’t know what I wanted. I wanted to be you. I wanted power. To be able to change lives. To have the power over life and death.” Her voice was hers, but the words were not her own. They were the words of their enemy, the silver poison that had seeped into her soul, corrupting her, that had turned her into one of them. A demon.
“That’s Lucifer speaking—not you,” he said. “That’s not you. I know you. You’re a good person, you’re good. You’re my angel.”
“Maybe I was once. But I’m not anymore, and if you come after me, I will destroy you,” she said.
She was beautiful and terrible, and he loved her still.
“Good-bye, Oliver,” she said, and she burst into white flame and disappeared into the night.
I will fix this, he thought, standing alone on the rooftop of their former home. I will fix you. He would clear his name and take back the Coven. He could do this. Once upon a time, he was the most powerful vampire in the world. He had been blessed with the gift of the Coven and the responsibility of the remaining souls in his care.
He could do it.
He just needed a little help from his friends.
EPILOGUE
THEY SAW HIM BEFORE he made it to their door, and when he did, they had dinner laid out and candles lit, and a warm fire and a glass of wine ready.
Jack nodded to Schuyler as she held up the bottle for his approval. She smiled at him, and he smiled back, although his smile was touched by worry. They had lived so happily here, so peacefully. From outside their window they could see the lights of the valley and the black car inching its way up toward their hill.
He took the bottle from her hands and appraised it. His life’s work so far, the best one, a fantastic year; the rains had been good, the grapes fat with flavor, the soil itself blessed by the gods. They had been saving this for a special occasion. He had hoped to open it on a different kind of night.
“Are you sure you want to do this?” she asked. “We can still say no.”
“We’ve been away long enough. They need us. He needs us.”
“Then we are agreed,” she said. She was older now, no longer the young girl who had led the Coven safely to Paradise. But what was salvation? There was no ending, not for them. There was only vigilance and effort.
She put her hand in his and squeezed. “Thank you.”
Jack nodded, but he wasn’t doing it for her, although she might believe that. He wanted a world that was safe for his family, and if Oliver was here, then it meant that the world was not safe, not for them, not for their children.
Schuyler had known almost as soon as it happened—she had seen the pentagrams in her dreams. She could feel the darkness spreading. They were about to leave for New York when Edon came to visit on his way there, and he told them to stay where they were, he would take care of it. Schuyler had given enough, and it was time for the wolves to answer the call this time. And so they had stayed put.
But they had made plans. They had begun slowly, letting the staff go first, then shutting down the little store they kept in the village. They would not sell the vineyard, not yet; they would just hand it over to a caretaker for the time being. They had kept the twins with them for as long as they could. The twins. It had been so difficult to say good-bye to them. Schuyler did not speak for a few days, and Jack was just as wrapped up in his own misery, but they were kind to each other, and they did not blame each other for what they had to do. They knew the children would be in good hands, and that would be enough to sustain them through the dark days. They were only seven years old. Too young to fight, but he would teach them, Jack thought; he would teach them everything he knew, not just about wine, but about the darkness that was in them, that was part of them, the darkness and the light.
“I’m ready,” Schuyler said. She looked not like a mother in her thirties, but like the girl he had fallen in love with, and he loved her still. She would always be that girl to him, no matter what happened. That was love, after all, the ability to see one’s youthful beloved in the aging stranger with her face. He would always love her, he thought. He was made to love her.
He smiled, and Schuyler smiled, because he was still Jack Force, Abbadon, the Angel of Destruction. They had kept their true natures hidden in this quiet life, but it was time to wake up again. “Let’s do it.”
The doorbell rang.
Schuyler opened the door and smiled. “Ollie. It’s been too long,” she said. She hugged him tightly and let her friend inside her house. She showed him the fire, handed him a glass of wine, bid him take a seat at their table.
“Jack. Sky,” he said. “I’m sorry to do this. But I didn’t know where else to go.”
“It’s all right,” she said. “We’re here. Tell us what happened. From the beginn
ing.”
And so he did.
TO BE CONTINUED…
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Thank you to my family, especially Mike and Mattie, who put up with having wife/mama on deadline all the time. Thank you to my work family, Richard Abate and Melissa Kahn, for catching me when I fall. Thank you to my wonderful editor Christine Pride and the team at Hachette—Betsy Hulsebosch, Martha Levin, and Mauro DiPreta—for their patience, support, and willingness to bring the Blue Blood vampires into a new decade.
Thank you to “the gang” and for that wonderful night in the power tower: Andy Goffe, Tristan Ashby, Tyler Rollins, and Peter Edmonston.
Thank you to the Blue Bloods readers who have followed my characters for more than a decade. Your enthusiasm makes it all worthwhile. It’s been an honor sharing their stories with you.
ALSO BY MELISSA DE LA CRUZ
THE WITCHES OF EAST END SERIES:
Witches of East End
Serpent’s Kiss
Winds of Salem
THE BLUE BLOODS SERIES (YOUNG ADULT):
Blue Bloods
Masquerade
Revelations
The Van Alen Legacy
Misguided Angel
Lost in Time
Gates of Paradise
Blue Bloods: Keys to the Repository (reference book)
Bloody Valentine (short stories)
Wolf Pact (e-book only)
THE HEART OF DREAD SERIES (YOUNG ADULT):
Frozen
Stolen
The Ring and the Crown (young adult)
New York Times bestselling author Melissa de la Cruz’s novels are “a bubbling cauldron of mystery and romance.”
—People magazine
Meet the Beauchamp women—Joanna, Freya, and Ingrid—who live seemingly quiet lives in Northampton on the tip of Long Island while harboring a centuries-old secret: they are powerful witches forbidden to practice magic. But a devastating murder makes it clear that it is time to dust off those wands and spell trouble for a mysterious enemy.
The Beauchamp women could use a little time off—now that the prohibition on practicing magic has been lifted. No such luck… a long-lost relative returns; a lover betrays; and the spirit of someone dead is determined to get Joanna’s attention, whether for fair or foul purposes. No wonder this second Witches of East End novel is praised as “just a little bit wicked!”*
Freya is trapped in time in 1692 Salem—not a good place for witches! Back in twenty-first-century Northampton, the family searches for a totem that could allow them to open the passages of time and rescue Freya, while challenges ancient and new appear with alarming frequency. Winds of Salem is, in a word, bewitching!
Read on at www.melissadelacruz.com
* Deborah Harkness, author of A Discovery of Witches
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Contents
COVER
TITLE PAGE
WELCOME
DEDICATION
HELL’S BELLS: THE PRESENT SUNDAY TO FRIDAY CHAPTER 1: OMENS
CHAPTER 2: KING OF NEW YORK
CHAPTER 3: HAPPILY NEVER AFTER
CHAPTER 4: LEFT BEHIND
CHAPTER 5: THE LATEST CONSPIRACY
CHAPTER 6: TAINTED LOVE
CHAPTER 7: MEAN GIRLS
CHAPTER 8: PICTURES OF YOU
CHAPTER 9: OLD FRIENDS, NEW ENEMIES
CHAPTER 10: SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST
CHAPTER 11: A NIGHT AT THE HOLIDAY
CHAPTER 12: SPEAK, MEMORY
CHAPTER 13: THE SECOND WORST
CHAPTER 14: REGRETS ONLY
CHAPTER 15: SYMPHONY FOR THE DEVIL
CHAPTER 16: SAFE HOUSE
RED BLOOD: FIVE WEEKS EARLIER CHAPTER 17: SEVEN-YEAR ITCH
CHAPTER 18: TROPHY WIFE
CHAPTER 19: KILL SHOT
CHAPTER 20: LITTLE GIRLS
CHAPTER 21: TATTLETALES
CHAPTER 22: TRUTH OR DARE
CHAPTER 23: MYSTERY GANG
CHAPTER 24: LOSS
CHAPTER 25: WOLF IN THE DESERT
DARK NIGHT: THE PRESENT FRIDAY TO SUNDAY CHAPTER 26: LOYALTIES
CHAPTER 27: DIVINE DETAILS
CHAPTER 28: THE DEVIL YOU KNOW
CHAPTER 29: PROM NIGHT
CHAPTER 30: GOLDEN COUPLE
CHAPTER 31: FRIENDS IN NEED
CHAPTER 32: TO CATCH A KILLER
CHAPTER 33: A CERTAIN SATURDAY NIGHT IN AUGUST
CHAPTER 34: DEVIL’S OWN
CHAPTER 35: KING WITHOUT A CROWN
CHAPTER 36: A GOOD MAN
CHAPTER 37: NEVER SAY GOOD-BYE
CHAPTER 38: WOLF AND ANGEL
CHAPTER 39: VAMPIRE BRIDE
EPILOGUE
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
ALSO BY MELISSA DE LA CRUZ
NEWSLETTERS
COPYRIGHT
Copyright
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
Copyright © 2014 by Melissa de la Cruz
Cover design © Ilina Simeonova/Trevillion Images; © Shutterstock images
Cover copyright © 2014 by Hachette Book Group, Inc.
All rights reserved. In accordance with the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, the scanning, uploading, and electronic sharing of any part of this book without the permission of the publisher constitutes unlawful piracy and theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), prior written permission must be obtained by contacting the publisher at
[email protected] Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.
Hachette Books
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First ebook edition: September 2014
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ISBN 978-1-4013-3081-1
E3
Melissa de la Cruz, Les vampires de Manhattan
(Series: # )
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