The Van Alen Legacy(32)
«Force.» Kingsley nodded. He kicked the chair next to him away from the table so she could sit down.
«Let me guess. Cafe con leche? Four sugars?» Mimi smirked as she tried to still the butterflies in her stomach.
They hadn't seen each other since landing in New York. What happened in Rio stayed in Rio, wasn't that how the saying went? If she'd thought Kingsley would seek her out afterward, she'd been wrong. What did she care anyway? It hadn't mattered back then, and it sure didn't matter now.
Kingsley raised his cup to hers. «Back to school, I take it? Senior year?» He teased. «You know, it's a funny thing . . . I never did go to high school. I mean, not in any real sense. The first time I went was when I got assigned to the Duchesne case.»
«Don't tell me you miss it,» she joked. She wondered how old Kingsley was. Silver Bloods were like Enmortals, they were free of the cycles. They didn't age, almost as if they were frozen in time. She knew a little about Kingsley's history: he had been corrupted by a Silver Blood in Rome, but had been forgiven by Michael himself and welcomed back into the Blue Blood community.
«Maybe a little. The little announcements at the start of the day. All that peer counseling. Very self-actualizing.» He grinned to let her know he was making fun, but not making fun of her.
The barista yelled from the counter. 'Two clovers?»
«That's mine» Mimi said, collecting her order. Some things didn't change: even if this was no Starbucks, the coffee still came in a cup the size of a pitcher. «I should go or I'll be late,» she told Kingsley.
She picked up her satchel and swung it over her shoulder, holding the two drinks in a cardboard carrier.
«I heard about the bonding,» Kingsley said quietly. He put down his coffee cup and signaled to the waitress for another.
«Forsyth told you.»
«Indeed. He explained that since Charles is still MIA, he's giving you away.»
«So? What of it?» she challenged.
Kingsley smiled sweetly. «Nothing. I just wanted to congratulate you. You'll make a beautiful bride.»
Now it was Mimi's turn to blush uncharacteristically. She didn't know what she had expected. Him to plead with her? To ask her not to bond with Jack? Ridiculous. Impossible. Kingsley was exactly like her: selfish, dangerous, unable to follow rules. Had she wanted him to feel something for her when she felt nothing for him?
She stared at him, her cheeks slowly burning. He returned her gaze steadily.
«Dude, I don't know why I even bother,» Mimi said, and she left, storming out of the cafe.
A year ago, when Mimi had returned from Rio to New York, there had been no time to even think about the bonding. Everything had been canceled immediately. It wasn't the right time, and after what had happened, she and Jack were too shell-shocked to think of it. Deposits were lost, her gown taken to storage. A week later she had confronted him about his little affair with the half-blood, and they had reconciled. In any case, Schuyler had ceased to be a problem: the little wench had left New York and Jack. She was following in the footsteps of her mother, headed to some sad tragic end, Mimi hoped.
But instead of Schuyler's absence leading to a deeper relationship, the two of them being alone together at last had caused an estrangement between them. But this time it was Mimi who had withdrawn. She didn't want to be second choice. She didn't want Jack to be with her only because he couldn't be with the person he truly loved.
Jack in her arms was nothing but a Pyrrhic victory. Mimi wanted him to love her and to mean it. But every day, it appeared he was doing the same thing he always did: paying lip service to their bond, placating her fears with lies, while his eyes betrayed the deeper truth: that his heart still belonged to another.
And so she had escaped. She had joined up with the Venators. She had left him. See how well he would do without her. She wanted him to miss her. She wanted him to miss her so desperately he would understand exactly how much she meant to him. She thought that if she left, he would realize the error of his ways, and discover the deep bond between them. She might as well have stayed home.
Nothing had changed. Jack had gone his way and she had gone hers. When she had told him about Forsyth's request, he had accepted the new date of their bonding without comment. He would bond with her. But he would find no joy in the process: the groom as dead man walking. She was tired of it.
She found Jack standing at the corner, his messenger bag slung across his broad shoulders. He really needed a haircut, she thought.
«Here you go.» She handed her twin his coffee.
«Thanks.»
They walked to school, their steps easily matching the other's. Even after a year away, they fell in line together. In a weird way, they would always be bonded even without the official ceremony.
«Here's your croissant. Probably not as good compared to Paris, right?» Mimi asked.
Jack took a bite. «It's okay.» He shrugged.
When she'd mentioned Paris, his lips twitched, like they did whenever he was upset.
But for the first time in a very long time, Mimi couldn't care less about what was bothering him.
CHAPTER 45
Bliss
«Where r u? miss u. am back & want 2 c u. sky»
Bliss read her text. Her thumb hovered over the reply button, but in the end she put her phone away. No. She wasn't safe to be around. She didn't want any more of her friends to suffer because of her.
«Sorry,» she said, when she noticed Miss Murray looking in her direction.
«Glad you decided to join us,» her teacher said with a stern smile. Bliss didn't need to be told twice. Ancient Civilizations had quickly become her favorite class, and she didn't want to miss any of it. It was like a particularly good program on the History Channel, except without the cheesy reenactments. In the past few weeks they had covered such diverse and fascinating topics as Etruscan feminism (those Etruscan chicks ruled, literally), Egyptian funeral rites and the four types of love according to the ancient Greeks (from platonic to passionate), and how the ideas related to the birth of Western culture.
Today the topic was the reign of the third emperor of Rome. Caligula. When Miss Murray had handed the assignment to Allison Ellison last week, there had been much tittering. Most of the class was familiar with a certain movie that played on cable. Or if not, like Bliss, they knew the basics of the emperor's reputation: sexual perversity, insanity, cruelty.
«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 Roman Republic, 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.»