Author: Melissa de la Cruz
Category: Vampires
Go to read content：https://readnovelfree.com/p/33889_11
"I don't know." She didn't. In the chaos afterward, the sword seemed to have disappeared along with Leviathan, and she told them so.
"What do you know about Gabrielle's sword?" the Inquisitor asked.
"Nothing. I didn't even know she owned a sword."
"It is a true sword. It holds a special kind of power. It was forged so that it always meets its target," he grumbled, as if her ignorance were a sign of guilt.
"I don't know what you're getting at."
Forbidden Desire - BDSMCheck out the best interactive novels on Whispers: Interactive stories.
The Inquisitor spoke very slowly and carefully. "You say you were carrying your mother's sword. A sword that has been lost for centuries and that has never failed to strike its enemies in all its history. And yet... you did. You failed. If you were indeed holding Gabrielle's sword, how could you miss?"
"Are you saying that I wanted to miss?" she asked, incredulous.
"I'm not saying that: you are."
Schuyler was shocked. What was happening? What was this? The Inquisitor turned to his audience. "Ladies and gentlemen of the Conclave, this is an interesting situation. Here are the facts of the matter. Lawrence Van Alen is dead. His granddaughter would like us to believe a rather outrageous story, that Leviathan, a demon that Lawrence himself buried in stone a millennium ago, has been released, and that that same demon killed him."
"It's true," Schuyler whispered.
"Miss Van Alen, you had never met your grandfather until a few months ago, is that correct?"
"Yes."
"You barely knew him from a stranger on the street."
"I wouldn't say that. We became very close in a short amount of time."
"Yet you harbored bitterness against him, did you not? After all, you chose to live with your mother's estranged brother rather than with Lawrence."
"I didn't choose anything! We were fighting the adoption. I did not want to live with Charles Force and his family?"
"So you say."
"Why on earth would I want to kill my grandfather?" she practically shouted. This was insane. A kangaroo court, a charade, a travesty. There was no justice to be served here.
"Perhaps you did not mean to kill him. Perhaps, as you told us earlier, it was an accident."
The Inquisitor smiled, looking like a shark. Schuyler slumped in her seat, defeated. For whatever reasons, the Inquisitor did not believe her story, and it was clear the remaining members of the Conclave would not either. The hidden Silver Blood among their ranks had been discovered, Nan Cutler had perished in the Almeida fire. The Conclave believed that, at least. They had accepted it. Forsyth Llewellyn had been the victim of Warden Cutler's betrayal and had borne witness.
But the ruling body did not want to accept the reality of Leviathan's return. It was one thing to accept the testimony of a fellow Elder, and another thing to take the word of a half-blood. They would rather believe Schuyler had deliberately killed Lawrence than that a demon stalked the earth once more.
There were no other witnesses to back her up except for Oliver, and the testimony of human Conduits was inadmissible in a Committee investigation. Humans simply didn't count, when it came down to it. So the night before the Conclave cast judgment and decided what to do with her, she and Oliver fled the country.
ER 5
Mimi
Stepping into someone's subconscious is like discovering a new planet. Everyone's internal world is different and unique. Some are cluttered, stuffed with dark and kinky secrets pushed to the edge of their minds, like racy underwear and handcuffs shoved in the back of a closet. Some are as pristine and clear as a spring meadow: all hopping bunnies and falling snowflakes. Those are rare. This guy's psyche looked pretty standard, and Mimi chose a neutral environment in which to interrogate him, his childhood home. A suburban kitchen: white tiles, Formica table, clean, orderly, ordinary.
Kingsley pulled up a stool across from Frat Boy. "Why did you lie to us?" he asked. In the glom the Venator looked fiercely handsome. The glom did that to vampires: made them look even more beautiful than they already were.
"What are you talking about?" the guy asked, a confused look on his face. 'show him."
Mimi found the memory and played it on the television set on the kitchen counter.
"You remember this night?" Kingsley asked as they observed Frat Boy step out onto a hotel balcony and watch a tall man carrying a child-size bundle out of the resort gates. "You remember this man?"