It was evening when Schuyler left the apartment on Perry Street. Her face was still flushed from Jack's kisses, her cheeks and lips a rosy deep red. Like everything in New York, Schuyler was blooming. A kiss for a kiss for a kiss, she thought, still hazy from their night in Vienna. They had just returned and repaired to the hideaway to shower and change.

Jack had left first - slipping out the side door - and she had waited the requisite half hour before attempting an exit herself.

She was smiling softly to herself, trying to calm her wild hair in a sudden wind, when she saw someone she did not expect to see.

He was standing across the street, staring at her with a look of shock and dismay. One look in Oliver's eyes and she knew he knew. But how? How could he have known? They'd been so careful to keep their love a secret.

The grief etched all over in his face was too much to bear. Schuyler felt the words catch in her throat as she crossed the street to stand in front of him. "Ollie...it's not..."

Oliver shot her a look of pure hatred, turned on his heel, and began to walk, then run away.

"Oliver, please, let me explain..."

In a flash, she was standing right in front of him. He could run, but he could not outrun her. "Don't do this. Talk to me."

"There's nothing to say. I saw him leave, and then, just as she'd said, I waited a half hour, and then you left too. You were with him. You lied to me."

"I didn't - it's nothing like that - Oh God, Oliver." The sobs forming now, Schuyler felt his sadness and anger wash over her. If only he would hit her, if only he would strike her - do something other than stand there looking so devastated that she could only feel more devastated in turn.

It began to rain. Thunderclouds opened up overhead, and the first raindrops pelted, then drummed on them. They were going to get drenched.

"You have to choose," Oliver said, as the rain mixed with tears that fell from his cheeks. "I'm tired of being your best friend. I'm tired of being second best. I won't settle for that anymore. It's all or nothing, Schuyler. You have to decide. Him or me."

Her best friend and Conduit, or the boy she loved. Schuyler knew one day it would come to this. That she would have to lose one to have the other. That this game would have consequences. That she could not carry on just as she'd had - with a vampire lover and a human familiar, with none the wiser. She had lied to Oliver, lied to Jack, lied to everyone, including herself. But her lies had finally caught up with her.

"You are selfish, Schuyler. You should never have made me your familiar," Oliver said impassively. "But I let it happen because I cared about you. I was worried at what would happen to you if I didn't. But you - if you ever cared about me at all, if you were thinking about me at all, you should have had the decency to restrain yourself. You knew exactly how I felt about you, and you used me anyway."

He was right. Schuyler nodded dumbly as the rain ran in rivers over her hair and her clothes, her garments becoming a soggy mess. Oliver had always been the more sensible of the two of them. He'd had a crush on his best friend, loved her since they'd first met, carried a torch for her for years, but if she hadn't brought the Caerimonia into it, hadn't drunk his blood, hadn't imprinted herself on his soul, maybe someday he would have stopped feeling that way about her.

If she had found another familiar, if she had chosen another human boy, Oliver's crush might have faded into a soft, nonbinding affection. Oliver would be able to grow up, love a Red Blood girl, have his own family one day. But she had made him her own. She had sealed his affection with that first tantalizing bite. The Sacred Kiss had marked him as hers.

She had acted selfishly, needlessly, recklessly.

He had no choice but to love her. Even if he left her now, he would never love another; he would always be alone.

He was damned, and she had cursed both of them with her weakness.

"I am sorry." Schuyler's eyes filled with tears. There would be no way to make this right.

"If you are sorry, you will leave him. Jack will never be yours, Schuyler. Not like I am yours."

She nodded, crying bitterly, wiping her tears and runny nose with a wet sleeve. She knew she looked as wretched as she felt.

Oliver softened. "Come on, let's get out of the rain. We're both going to catch a cold." He led Schuyler gently into the shelter of a store awning.

"You're too kind to me," Schuyler whispered.

Oliver nodded. He knew what it was like to love one who did not - or could not - love you back. But he'd had no choice. None of them did.

AUDIO RECORDINGS ARCHIVE:

Repository of History

CLASSIFIED DOCUMENT:

Altithronus Clearance Only

Transcript of Venator report filed 3/3

Venator Martin: They have called for the blood trial. All will be known. I will be discovered.

Charles Force: Yes, I heard. You must be quick. You must disappear. I will help you.

VM: But I want to know why. Why did you have me call the Silver Blood? Why?

CF: Because I had to know.

VM: Had to know what?

CF: If it was possible.

VM: What do you mean?

CF: It should not have worked, (agitated) It should never have happened - it was just a test. To see ...

VM: What?

CF: No time, (whispers) I know what I must do now.

VM: But the Regis. He will want an explanation for my actions.

CF: Yes. I will take care of Lawrence. Do not worry. He, of all people, will understand why I did what I had to do. Now, listen to me. I am sending you to Corcovado....