"Sky, you look awful. What happened?" Bliss asked, finding Schuyler standing morosely at her doorway. Schuyler's eyes were red from crying, and she was blowing her nose with a tissue.

"Your maid let me in. I hope that's okay. Are your parents around?" Schuyler asked, still sniffing.

"No. They're at some campaign fund-raiser. What else is new. Come on in. Not that they'd care anyway. You know they like you," Bliss said. As soon as she said it, Bliss realized she wasn't sure if it was true. Her parents had never shown any interest in her friends. They still assumed she hung out with Mimi Force. That's how clueless they were. They'd never even met Schuyler or Oliver.

"Are you all right?" Bliss asked.

Schuyler shook her head. She followed Bliss into her bedroom and climbed onto her bed, leaning back on the pillows and closing her eyes. "Oliver hates me," she said with a strangled cry as she rubbed her eyes. "He saw...the...two of us...Jack and..."

"He knows." Bliss nodded. So that's what Mimi was telling Oliver that afternoon.

In answer, Schuyler grabbed a fluffy pillow from among the huge goose-down heap and put it behind her neck. "Yeah."

Bliss sighed. She picked up the television remote and started flipping through recorded programs. "Did you see the latest episode of The Beach?"

"No, put it on," Schuyler urged. The fabricated "reality show" about the lives of three vacuous and yet strangely fascinating blond girls from Los Angeles was their favorite.

"So how'd he find out?" Bliss asked, keeping her eyes on the screen. Then she paused the action and turned to Schuyler. "Although, I guess it doesn't matter. You know he would eventually."

"I know," Schuyler said. "I wish you wouldn't look at me that way. I know what you're thinking."

"I didn't say anything."

"You don't have to."

Bliss rubbed Schuyler's back. She was sympathetic, but Schuyler had known what she was doing when she hooked up with Jack. She'd alienated a friend, and for what - Jack Force? What did she see in him anyway?

"Look, I've got to tell you something: Mimi and I visited Dylan today," Bliss said. She repeated everything the doctor had told her.

Schuyler was astonished and confused. "So if it wasn't Dylan who killed Aggie and all those others - who was it?"

"Who knows?"

"Does anyone else know about this? That he didn't do it?"

"Other than Mimi and me? Yeah. Forsyth," Bliss said. She realized she somehow couldn't bring herself to call him "Dad" lately. "Dr. Andrews said he'd called him once the tests came in."

"But your dad didn't mention anything to you?"

"Not a word."

"Or to the Conclave?"

"Mimi said Forsyth didn't tell them about Dylan at all," Bliss said, feeling more and more embarrassed about her father's actions.

"I wonder why ..."

"Maybe he did it to help me," Bliss said defensively. "He knew the Conclave would want Dylan destroyed, so he hid him from them."

"But Dylan's not a Silver Blood," Schuyler said. "And he never was. So there was no threat that he would be destroyed. They performed the test, and he passed. Hey, what's with the suitcase?" she asked, motioning to the half-packed Tumi rollers at the foot of Bliss's bed.

"Oh yeah, we're going away."

"Where?"

"Rio. Forsyth said Nan Cutler called a major Conclave meeting, told them your grandfather needed help, and now everyone's going."

"What kind of help?" Schuyler demanded.

"Hey - don't worry," Bliss said, seeing the panicked expression on her friend's face. "I'm sure he's all right."

"I haven't heard from Lawrence in a long time," Schuyler admitted. "I've been so caught up with Jack I didn't even notice. What else did Forsyth say?"

Bliss was reluctant to say, but decided Schuyler had a right to know. "I'm not one hundred percent sure, but it sounded like Lawrence was in some sort of trouble."

"What kind of trouble?"

"I wish I could tell you. All I know is this morning Forsyth told us we were going to Rio. Conclave business." She pointed the remote control in the direction of the television screen and fast-forwarded through the commercials.

The show came back on, and Bliss reached under her bed and handed Schuyler a bag of her favorite jalape§⭠potato chips. "Anyway, don't worry about Ollie. He'll come around. You know he will."

"I don't know about that. I really think he hates me, Bliss. He told me it was him or Jack. That I had to choose."

"And what did you say?"

"Nothing." Schuyler blinked back fresh tears. "I can't choose. You know I can't." She tossed the empty bag and kicked at a pillow. "Everything's rotten."

Bliss kept one eye on the television and the other on her friend. She heartily agreed with Schuyler's assessment. Everything did feel rotten. Like how Forsyth had never been straight with her about Dylan. Sometimes it felt as if everyone was lying about everything.

After a few minutes of watching the main star of the show break up with her boyfriend for the nth time, Schuyler spoke. "You know, I haven't heard anything from Lawrence since he's been there, except that he wishes the weather were cooler. If he's truly in danger, don't you think he would have said something to me? Maybe sent me a message?"

"Maybe he doesn't want you to worry," Bliss said. "He's probably just doing it to protect you. If there's something wrong with Corcovado, he did say he wanted to keep you away from it," she reminded.

"I guess." Schuyler played with a tassel on her pillow. "But it feels weird, you know? I mean, Lawrence doesn't trust the Conclave with anything. Not since Plymouth," she said. "Why would he call for them now?"

"What are you thinking?" Bliss asked. She noticed there was a purposeful look in Schuyler's eye. At least the girl had finally stopped crying about those boys. This was the Schuyler she knew and admired.

"I'm going down there. If Lawrence is really in danger, I have to help him. I couldn't live with myself otherwise."

AUDIO RECORDINGS ARCHIVE:

Repository of History

CONDUIT: Hazard-Perry, Oliver

POSITION: Van Alen family

Personal Report filed 5/19

?Transcript notes two minutes of tape were lost in feedback. Transcript begins as follows:?

Schuyler will tell you that I had no choice in the matter. She believes that I love her because I have to, or because I had no choice, but she's wrong. She gives herself too much credit sometimes.

I knew what we were doing, when we did the Caerimonia. I knew exactly what it meant. I knew what it would do. More importantly I knew she didn't feel the same about me. I've known that for a very long time. Do you think I'm stupid?

So why did I do it?

I don't know. I wasn't going to. In my defense, I had told her no the first time. We were sitting there in that hotel room, and she was sitting on my lap, and it felt nice, you know. Being so close to her. Yeah, I guess it felt great. I don't want to get into it - I'm not a suck-and-tell kind of guy.

She thinks I've been in love with her since we were kids, or since I first laid eyes on her, or some other romantic crap. But it wasn't like that. We were friends. We got along. I liked the way she thinks. Liked the sound of her laugh. Liked how she dressed-in all those dark layers. What was she hiding from?

Did I think she was beautiful? I'm not blind, am I? Of course I thought she was beautiful. But it was more than that - I liked that she used to wear this ugly shade of blue eyeshadow-girls think guys  don't notice stuff like makeup, but we do - and it would get all cakey and smudged at the end of the day. She would have these huge blue raccoon eyes, and she wouldn't even notice ... I don't know. I was charmed.

But I didn't feel that way about her back then. Not even in eighth grade when we had to go to the Sadie Hawkins dance together and she asked me to be her date, and we spent the evening sitting in a corner making fun of everyone. We didn't dance once, and she wore this hideous, baggy dress. No, I wasn't in love with her then.

I fell in love with her when she found out she was a vampire. Just a few months ago. When she accepted her heritage and didn't flinch from her destiny. Because you know who she's supposed to be, right? I mean, Gabrielle's daughter. Heavy stuff. She's so strong it scares me. I wasn't lying when I told her that.

So, yeah - again, you're asking me why I did it. Why I let her take my blood, let her mark me as her own. Do that whole "familiar" thing. All that jazz.

I don't even know why I bother with these reports. Who's listening to them, anyway?

Anyway, I guess the truth of the matter was, I didn't want her to have to do it with someone else. I didn't want to share. She was already so different from me, changing already. She is different. She's going to live forever, while I'm only going to get to go around once.

I wanted to hold on.

Because yeah, I do love her.

I loved her when she came to me that night at The Bank. When she was looking for me and was so relieved to see me. When she accepted everything I told her, and she didn't even freak out that much when I told her I already knew. That I was her Conduit.

That's why I took the next plane out of the city to Rio after hers. Yeah, Bliss told me what was going on. Do you think I would let her go there alone? You're kidding, right?

But if you think I walked into this blind, you're wrong. I knew being her familiar wouldn't change anything. I knew that even if she knew I was in love with her, it wouldn't change how she felt about me.

I knew I would lose in the end.

What do I think of Jack Force? I don't. I don't think much of him. Just another guy who thinks he's God's gift to Earth. In his case, probably literally. But, you know - he's irrelevant to me. He just doesn't factor in. Even if they end up together, which I highly doubt given the strength of that particular bond -  Mimi is no joke, I wouldn't mess around with Azrael - but even if Schuyler still loves him, or thinks she does, it doesn't matter.

Because Jack is going to leave her one day. I know he will. He's too much for Schuyler. They're wrong for each other. Anyone can see that.

And when he leaves her, I'll be there.

However long it takes, I'll still be there for her.

Waiting.

So I guess Schuyler's wrong. I guess I'm a pretty romantic guy after all.

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