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Mimi tried not to look too flattered. It was nice to be wanted. Kingsley and his voracious appetite.
"Where are we going? Or should I say, where are you taking me?" she asked, as the car made a left onto FDR Drive. In answer, Kingsley held up several plane tickets.
"Paris. The Lennox boys are already at JFK. We leave tonight."
"We?"
"You're not deserting the team, are you, Force?" He smiled. "Don't worry, I have everything you need. Got you a new Venator pack. Of course, it doesn't come with those impractical boots of yours, but I'm sure you can find a replacement in the City of Lights."
Mimi buttoned her blouse. "You've got to be joking. Turn this car around right now. I'm not going to Paris."
"Why not?"
He really was a piece of work, this one, she thought. Did she have to say it?
"Don't you remember? I'm getting bonded next Sunday. Duh."
"Are you?"
"What are you getting at? Jack is my..." Soul mate seemed cheesy to say. "He's my twin. We belong together. We always have."
Kingsley nodded as if he were seriously considering her argument. 'Right. And that's why you've been sneaking into my hotel room every night for the last week."
Every night! Had it been every night? Surely he was wrong. Surely she had spent one night on her own. She had been in denial. This had gone too far. She was cutting it off right here.
"You know the Code," she said. 'that's just the way it is. I can't deny our bond."
"Bonds are made to be broken," he said. "Just like rules."
"Spoken like a true Silver Blood," she snapped.
Kingsley's face became grave. "You know my secret. You know what we face, the enormity of our task if what Charles suspects is true. The team needs you. Come with us."
Mimi flushed. She had never felt this way in her life. In all of her lives. Loving Abbadon was all she'd ever known. But then Kingsley walked in and turned her every assumption upside down. But did he really want her? Did he really care for her? Did he love her? Or did he just want her around for his amusement?
Kingsley smiled at her, and she knew it was a smile of triumph, the smile of a boy who always got what he wanted. Sure, he wanted her right now, but what happened when he didn't? She knew what the bond was like, the dedication, the commitment to each other and the service they rendered to the community as a whole. The vampires were fading, that much she knew. The Blue Bloods needed them now more than ever. She thought of all the things she and Jack had accomplished together: they had defeated Lucifer in Rome, they had founded the New World.... She was Azrael. She was true to her word. She would not waver from what was asked of her. Who did she think she was, her brother? Inconstant, indecisive, unable to make a choice between foolishness and duty?
"No, Kingsley. I can't." She shook her head. "Let me out of here. Stop the car."
Kingsley looked at her for a long time. Then he cleared his throat and picked up the interior phone and asked the driver to pull to the side. "As you wish."
CHAPTER 54
Bliss
New York Presbyterian visiting hours were over when Bliss arrived, not that it even mattered. Allegra Van Alen had checked out by the time she got there.
"But what do you mean she's gone? I just got a call that she was awake.... I'm her daughter!" Bliss cried.
"Schuyler was here an hour ago," the nurse said, looking confused. 'she walked out with Allegra."
"I mean, I'm her other daughter. Oh, never mind," Bliss said, stomping off and shaking raindrops all over the floor.
"She's gone. Allegra was gone. She didn't even stick around long enough to talk to me. She doesn't care about me. She doesn't even know I'm alive. Do you hear that, Father?" she screamed inside her head. "Where are you, anyway?"
But it was as if the Visitor knew they would not find Allegra at the hospital. Sometime during the traffic-clogged drive uptown, he had retreated again.
Bliss went back home to an empty apartment as usual. She nuked a potato for dinner. Even if she didn't feel really hungry anymore, try ever, it was hard to break the habit of having three meals a day.
