Chapter 25 - Big girls don't cry.

Schuyler stared blankly at Dylan and slumped back against the wall. Her metal restraints clattered, holding her arms up on either side of her. Whatever he used to knock her out, the symptoms were kicking in again. Her head throbbed, her chest was tight, and nothing could relieve her nausea. Her stomach growled from the constant drugging and vomiting that followed after.

"Please, explain." This definitely changed things. So they didn't want her dead and that bought her time.

Dylan stepped back and leaned against his own wall, shoving his hands in his pockets. "I only know what I hear. It looks like they want you to help them."

Schuyler scoffed and let out an amused laugh. "No, really."

She could only make out the outline of his silhouette and his pair of glowing red eyes. It was unnerving speaking to him like this, these reminders that her old friends wasn't an ally anymore.

"I'm not kidding. Apparently, you're a person of interest. Something to do with your mom. I think she helped them when she was awake. Now they think you will do the same."

"My mother would never help the Silver Bloods. And you all are crazy to think I will." Schuyler swore vehemently. Maybe she was stronger than most of her peers, but she was nothing compared to her mom. She couldn't possibly be of any help.

"They'll kill you if you don't."

"Then just get it over with." Schuyler looked away.

Dylan stepped back into the light, shaking his head. "Why would you say that? Sky, don't be stupid."

"I am not helping you kill innocent people." She bit out angrily.

He studied her face. He slumped forward, body giving away his tiredness. "I wish it was that easy. A simple yes or no."

Dylan moved to a nearby folding table to pick up a small syringe. He held it up to the light, "This is a anesthetic, try anything stupid and I will use it. You might be a Blue Blood, but even I don't know how much you can take before blood poisoning. You do not want that."

Schuyler tallied up the times in her head. He had already injected her twice. The symptoms were bad enough as it is. She looked at the syringe in his large hands, hard to believe he was her friend once. He betrayed them all, she wanted to hate him for it.

Charles was furious. He overheard the scuffle outside his den. When he went to investigate, the view was appalling. His children straining to overpower each other, fighting like they weren't suppose to be bonded and leaders of their community. Jack held Mimi against a wall, Mimi fighting against his arms.

Charles now paced the length of his desk in front of his twins. They sat in the armchairs, both stiff and tense. "Someone better be explaining themselves. Right now."

Neither of them spoke. Mimi tried to keep her poker face on. The reality of Jack's words hit her like a freight train. They replayed in her mind. It was then she realized she couldn't sense his thoughts. It wasn't like before when he closed his mind off. Back then, it was just static. But now, there wasn't even that. Just complete and total silence.

"Now!" Charles bellowed.

The two Blue Bloods flinched and Jack took a moment to choose his words carefully even though he was still seething. "Schuyler is missing, taken by the Silver Bloods. And none of this would have happened if it wasn't for her."

The way Jack referred to his twin was unsettling, with a disgusted look on his face. The young Blue Blood crossed his arms and looked away, apparently done speaking. Charles looked expectantly at Mimi, hoping she would be more helpful. "And you?"

"The bond's broken." She spoke to no one in particular, her tone flat.

"What?" Charles went tensed, freezing in the spot where he stood.

Jack fidgeted in his seat. He mustered enough confidence to look at his father in the eyes. "I don't want to be bound to Mimi. Not in this cycle or any other future cycles."

The room stood completely silent, the weight of those words settling on all their shoulders. The atmosphere shifted as if his verbal words were the proverbial nail to their bond's coffin.

When no one seemed ready to speak, Jack continued. "But that is the least of my worries. The Silver Bloods have Schuyler and I'm not going to sit around doing nothing."

"She's probably dead by now. She should have been." Mimi spoke flatly.

"Do not speak to me." Jack dismissed her sharply.

Mimi's expression darkened. She looked at her father. "I ordered the hit on her."

Charles massaged the bridge of his nose. "I expected more from you Azrael." He watched his supposed children, shoulders sagging under the stress.

Jack inched forward, sitting up. Charles was about to unveil something, preparing to speak.

"I had done all I could to keep them away from Schuyler. I've kept her under my watch. And you just hand her over along with our own safety." He shook his head disappointingly.

"What?" Mimi croaked. " I swear I didn't know."

"Every precaution I've taken... all for nothing." Charles spoke to himself, "Now they have the upper-hand."

"What do they want with her?" Jack asked.

"One can only imagine. We have to leave, both of you go grab your things." Charles cryptically answered. "We will deal with your indiscretion later."

Mimi jumped up, but Jack stayed glued to his seat. "I'm not running. Tell me what's going on."

"Certain circumstances have risen. We have no choice but to retreat. You will do as I say." Charles grabbed Jack by the arm and forced him up out of the arm chair. "I will explain in due time." He pushed Jack into Mimi's arms and she dragged them both out of the den.

"Don't touch me." Jack hissed, brushing where Mimi's hands had been on his arms.

Mimi shoved at him. "Stop it!"

"So when did you become a Silver Blood ally, before or after you plotted Schuyler's murder?" Jack growled, his eyes burning into hers, his body practically seething in heated anger.

"I thought they would obey me! I called them! I didn't know I was being used." Mimi threw her hands in the air, her eyes wild.

"You were played." Jack acknowledge dryly, even more disappointed with her. With that, he stalked off into his room. "Do not follow me, in fact stay the hell away from me."

Mimi stopped mid-step and blurted, "I still love you!" It escaped her lips before she could reel them back.

Her outburst didn't jar him. He actually pitied her. Jack stopped in his doorway, keeping his back to her. "What you did, I can never forgive you. I can't even look at you right now."

"So that's it. You throw it all away for some half-blood. After all that we've been through." Mimi put her hands on her hip.

He wondered if she ever stop to listen to herself. "I fell out love with you a long time ago. Schuyler doesn't change that. I just refused to see it for myself until she came into our lives."

"Do you love her?" Mimi whispered. Shock took over at the truth in Jack's words.

Jack took a moment. How was he going to explain it to her? Then decided, he didn't need and gave her a straight forward answer. "I do."

Mimi forced her eyes to stay on him. She wasn't going to show pain. She wasn't going to cry.

"She makes me want to be a better person. I feel like I am when I'm around her. She makes me feel-" Jack was trying to find a better word, but one only came to mind. As cheesy as it was, "-whole."

Mimi flinched, the idea of Jack and Schuyler made her stomach clench. "They'll hunt you down, you'll never be forgiven for breaking our bond." She was going to hunt him down, but she left those words unspoken.

"I'm not looking for their forgiveness." No, he didn't want it.

Dylan came to Schuyler about twice a day, or close to a day as she gathered. There were no windows, so her internal clock was completely thrown off. Her meals were given at sporadic times, they probably did that on purpose to keep her awareness mixed up. Dylan had visited a total of sixteen times, so that would make an estimated eight days had passed.

She was given an over-sized t-shirt and no bottom. Thankfully, the day before last Dylan came bearing a sports bra and underwear set.

When Dylan came walking in the door today, she nearly hugged him at the sight of a new set of clothes. This time she was given a smaller sized t-shirt and a pair of gray sweats.

He didn't trust her to take her restraints off. So without completely freeing her from her restraints, he dressed her. The shirt was harder to put on, as he unlocked her hands one by one, taking twice as long to put it on.

After the first day, he also changed her restraints to a pair of handcuffs and a short leg chain that was bolted to the floor. This was infinitely better than being chained to the wall. Her arms were in constantly numb in that condition.

On this eighth day of imprisonment, Dylan came bearing a bag of chips and an apple. He looked a little flushed, his cheeks were tinted in a shade of pale pink. He must have just fed. Her stomach rolled, lusting after some well needed blood. They had kept her fed, but only with Red Blood nutrition, she needed blood.

Dylan left and returned some few hours later. She had fallen asleep. He shook her once firmly, it was all she needed. He pulled a familiar looking syringe out. "Today's the day."

Schuyler backed up. "Oh no, not that again."

"Don't worry, it's a small dosage. It'll only slow you down... maybe make you slightly dizzy."

"Great."

Schuyler winced as she felt the needle sink into her arm. Then Dylan pulled a second item out from his pockets, a blindfold. He pulled it over her face, obscuring her view. He took her hand tightly. "Let's go."

As they walked through a few hallways, she sensed a few Silver Bloods pass them by. After a flight of stairs, down some more hallways, and through some doors, they stopped. Dylan pushed down on her shoulders, whispering for her to kneel. The anesthesia worked as intended, so she was in no shape to argue. Escape was out of the question. He had to keep a steady hand on her, to ease her swaying. The blindfold was pulled off and her eyes readjusted themselves.

She took a deep breath at the sight. They were in a large medieval looking room. The stone room was flushed in a soft glow of candlelight. If her surroundings were suppose to be stone gray, they looked amber now. The main source of light came from a heavy candelabra hanging from the vaulted ceiling. Déjà vu. It wasn't the one from her dreams, but she had a feeling this wasn't just a coincidence. If her dreams were real premonitions, they weren't really much help were they? Hindsight was hardly a useful tool.

Schuyler glanced around, there had to be at least a dozen Silver Bloods in the room. All of them looked at her. Some had total glee on their faces, others glared back, and the few leftover looked disinterested.

At the head of the group was someone who she was familiar with. "Kingsley."

"Schuyler Van Alen, how nice it is to see you again." Kingsley greeted her jovially, rising from his seat.

Kingsley walked over to her, passing a large mass on the floor next to him. It was lumpy and was draped over with a dark velvet cover. She didn't want to know what could be hiding underneath. It didn't seem to move.

"I hope Dylan was hospitable. Wouldn't want my guest of honor in poor condition."

"Why am I here?" Schuyler was still kneeling and they began to ache.

"Straight-forward. I like that. Well, I have a proposition for you." Kingsley paused for dramatic effect. "Work for me and I'll make you the second most power vampire ever to grace this mortal world."

"Then lets just cut to the chase and get it over with already. I'm not helping you."

Kingsley dismissed what she said. Instead he chuckled and took a few steps closer. "I take it you didn't take the news of your mother very well. Is it really that hard to believe?"

She glared at him. "You helped Mimi try to kill me earlier this year. Now you've kidnapped me and have kept me hostage. Doesn't exactly instill trust between us. So yes, I do find it hard to believe you."

This seemed to annoy him. "I guess you can say Gabrielle went rogue. She had fallen in love with that Red Blood father of yours and saw this as the only way out. In return for helping us, we agreed to help protect her beloved Red Blood and at one time-help her go into hiding. Only, the Committee got to them first. And we were still left without our Heir. That is, until now." He sounded tired, like it was a story not worth telling.

Schuyler took in all this information. Of all people, Kingsley was the one to divulge some desperately needed answers. How truthful these answer were to be questioned. But at least he was telling her something. "What's this heir?"

"Not what, but who. The Heir to Lucifer, the only direct descendant. The only one who can lead the Silver Bloods and get back what's rightfully theirs. A young girl so delusional and plagued by sin, she was said to be crazed. The Blue Bloods kept her hidden, out of cycle. The only way they could control her was to suppressed those memories, prevent her from being her true self. Gabrielle was going to hand us this child before the Committee killed your father and put her into a coma."

"I don't believe you." Schuyler shook her head. Her grandfather would have known this, he must have.

"Believe it." Kingsley's answered dead-panned. But he lightened up and continued with his story telling. "We found her. But we learned we could not control the Heir. And she would only cause more harm if we released her from her mental bindings. That's where you come in: the only half-blood of our kind. And the only one who can fully consume another without turning delirious yourself. Didn't think being Dimidium Cognatus would ever come in handy did you?"

That couldn't be true. Lawrence would have told her, unless he didn't know himself.

Kingsley bent down and balanced on the balls of his feet. He was dangerously close. "You're going to drink from the Heir, to kill her. With this transfer, you will have powers beyond your wildest dreams. With it, we need you to eradicate all Blue Blood heads and the Committee."

Schuyler couldn't believe what she was hearing. That was why he wasn't hard pressed to make her privy to all this information. They planned to use her. If she refused, they'd kill her. Either way, she wouldn't be able to relay this back to Lawrence or the Committee. Then it dawned on her and she eyed him suspiciously. "What do you get from this?"

Kingsley straighten up, apparently proud of his own scheme. "With the heads and any who disagree out of the way, I get control of the Blue Bloods. Under the full leadership of the Silver Bloods, of course. Then they'll probably start on the Red Bloods. World domination seems to be their thing." That warranted a few snickers around the room.

A regal looking Silver Blood spoke up. "If you take over our Heir's place, then you can also take her place as our leader."

Kingsley smiled and added more to the bargain. "I'll even let Jack live."

So that's what they were offering her. She played around with idea. She and Jack could be together. No one would try anything, they would be safe from the Committee. But the price of this power was too high.

"I can't do it." Schuyler let out.

"You're really don't have a choice here."

"Go to hell."

"I had a feeling you'd say that." Kingsley stood up and walked back over to his seat at the front, to the velvet covered mass. He grabbed a fist full of the dark velvet cover and swung it back.

Schuyler nearly choked and she fell off balanced. Dylan pulled her up, steadying her. At Kingsley's feet were the bodies of Bliss and her grandfather, unconscious, bloodied , and bruised. The sight was enough to make her scream.

A shout out to Mary-La and SpiderMonkey19! Thanks for you kind words on my dramione ficlet. :D