The Bonding Ritual (Girls Wearing Black: Book Four)

by Spencer Baum

  “Are you nuts? Trying to kill Sergio in Daciana’s house, that’s absurd!”

  “You don’t know how hard it is to get close to him! Vampire hunters have been trying for decades just to find him! Do you know how crazy it is that we had two encounters with him last night? How totally unheard of that is?”

  “There’s no way anyone’s bringing weapons to Daciana’s party. That would totally screw up Nicky’s chance of winning Coronation.”

  “Screw up Nicky’s chance of winning? Ryan, do you even know what we’re trying to do here?”

  “I know we’ve got a plan, and the best way to make a plan work is to stick to it.”

  “The plan was to leave, in case you’ve forgotten,” said Jill. “And I know your little story seems to be working out fine, but you were never supposed to be involved like this. You were never supposed to be involved at all! People have died, Ryan! People who dedicated their lives to fighting the clan! You don’t even know who they are!”

  “Nicky told me about your friends,” Ryan said. “It’s sad, but it comes with the territory. Jill, I get it. You’re scared. You’ve been through a lot.”

  Jill stood up. “You don’t know what you’re talking about. Why am I even having this conversation with you? I’m done with this!”

  She stormed out of the kitchen. “Shamus, where are you?” she yelled. “I need my car!”

  Shamus came running from down the hall. “Right here, Miss,” he said. “Is everything alright?”

  “Everything’s fine,” Jill said. “It’s just time for me to go.”

  Ryan was chasing after her.

  “Jill, wait,” he said. “I didn’t meant to make you angry. Did I say something wrong?”

  “You’ve said plenty,” said Jill. “Shamus, my keys please.”

  “Right here, ma’am,” Shamus said, pulling the keys from a wall cabinet.

  “Are you going to Bethesda?” Ryan said. “Because I think they’ll want to start planning for Daciana’s party.”

  “I don’t know where I’m going,” Jill said.

  Where she ended up going was her parents’ house, a place she thought she would never see again. No one was home when she came through the front door. Her parents had been in Seattle to meet with clients for the better part of the week. Her mother…

  “Ugh, my mother,” she whispered.

  Her mother was a complicating factor in all of this, one that nobody else understood. If they were going to stick around, they’d have to figure out what to do with Carolyn Wentworth, who knew enough to get herself in trouble if she wasn’t careful.

  Jill spent the next hour pacing around the home, trying to think through all that was happening. Helena, Phillip, Ryan, and Nicky were all so intent on sticking around—they were already settling in for another semester at Thorndike.

  And while the news that they would be invited to walk into Daciana’s mansion was indeed intriguing for the Network, trying to stay in town beyond that party just didn’t make sense to Jill. Setting aside all the dangers that awaited them now, and the difficulty of winning Coronation for Nicky, there was the simple matter of the final, most important step of the mission itself. Winning Coronation had always been a means to an end. The real goal was to get Sergio alone in a house that was full of vampire hunters.

  But that very house had now allowed two vampires to walk out unharmed. The first was Melissa Mayhew, who came in and killed every vampire hunter waiting for her.

  The second was Sergio, the vampire the house was built for. They got Sergio into the house and nothing happened.

  Whatever chance they had to kill Sergio was doomed now. Jill was certain of it.

  Not that the mission was a failure—three dead vampires and a treasure trove of stolen data made the adventure worth it—but it was time to collect their winnings and get out of here.

  Or maybe, get out after this party at Daciana’s. Yes, as Jill wandered the house, that was how she reconciled the divergent thoughts in her mind.

  Daciana has invited two Network agents to come into her house. We can’t pass that up. But after the party’s over, so is the mission.

  She’d find a way to convince the others. Perhaps they would be more willing to see reason after they spent time in Daciana’s mansion. After they got close to the queen of the clan.

  Ryan, in particular, would change his tune after an evening at Daciana’s house. Hours of nail-biting anxiety, always wondering if a vampire is right behind you, ready to look in your eyes and steal your thoughts—that’s what the Homecoming Masquerade and the Rose Ransom parties had been to Jill. That’s what Daciana’s party would be to Ryan.

  He’d see. Right now Ryan was high on the idea of rebelling against the clan. He was in the same mindspace now that Jill had occupied freshman year, when she was a hotheaded kid who went onto forbidden message boards and wrote long diatribes about the need for revolution.

  Jill went out the back door and walked into the woods behind her house, thinking about the 14-year-old version of herself who wrote those passionate rants on the Internet. The Marsh Hawk. Did she have any clue what was in store for her back in those days? Did she have even the slightest idea about the path she was about to go down?

  Jill stepped into a clearing and thought about her last time in these woods. She had come here with her mother. They had argued and her mother had stormed away.

  She and her mother had come a long way since that argument.

  Standing there in the clearing, thinking about her mother, the morning sun on her face, an idea came to Jill. The idea was fully formed the instant it popped into her mind, and the truth of it was undeniable.

  Ryan, Nicky, and the others were so hung up on the old plan, the plan to win Coronation, that they hadn’t seen the larger opportunity that just came their way. Yes, this was good. This idea was big. Bigger than Coronation. Bigger than Sergio.

  She pulled out her phone, which now had over 200 unread text messages. She ignored all of them and opened her contacts file. She placed a call to someone she hadn’t spoken with in a few days. Someone who would understand exactly what she was thinking.

  “Hello Jill,” he answered. “What can I do for you?”

  “Hi Alvin. I’ve got an idea. I want to run it by you.”

  Chapter 14

  Winter break. Christmas. Family.

  More than half of the Thorndike community had roots in places other than DC. By Monday morning, most of them would be on their way to whatever corner of the world they came from.

  Even so, they would keep on calling Jill until she responded.

  Her phone was a mess of unread messages and unheard voicemails. Most of the messages didn’t mean much to her. Mattie was being needy. Karmela wanted to chat.

  Other messages were more troublesome, like one that came in from Jenny the night before.

  Has anyone heard from Annika? She’s not responding to any of my texts.

  Jill shook her head. There was entirely too much for her to deal with at the moment, and she wanted nothing more than to cast it all aside and tell all of them to leave her alone.

  She decided a single text message, sent to everyone at once, was the way to go.

  Hi Friends. I’m sorry I have been so out of touch this weekend. As you might imagine, I’ve had a lot going on. What you’re hearing through the grapevine is true. Ryan and I have been together all this time, but we’ve been keeping our relationship a secret.

  She set the phone down. Why was it so hard to type that line? For years Jill had been living a lie. No, not just one lie. A whole tapestry of them. The Network, the computer hacking, stolen data, a trail of dead vampires in her wake—her entire life was a complex fabric of lies and she had never felt guilty or confused about holding it all together.

  But this lie was different. Ryan and I are together.

  The words made her nervous. She felt like she was tempting fate just by thinking them, and not in a good way. There were some things you just didn’t
lie about. To Jill, this felt like one of them.

  But she didn’t see any other choice. She and Ryan were committed to this story he’d created. It had taken Suzette less than a day to get all the power elite in Washington and around the world talking about the coup at Thorndike, and the clever little lovebirds who pulled it off. Ryan and Jill pulled one over on the Renwicks, and now Samantha Kwan has an insurmountable lead. That was the story going around town. It had all the juice and spin of the best Washington gossip. Lust, deception, power, and conflict. Nicky Bloom was just a ploy to keep the Renwicks off balance. Oh, how they loved a story like this! Red Meat. That’s what they called good gossip. A city full of sharks, and Suzette was pouring chum in the water. Kim never saw it coming and now it’s too late. Samantha will be the next immortal, and she’ll have every reason to reward Ryan and Jill.

  There was no stopping the feeding frenzy now. The best Jill could do was get out of the way. Shaking her head, she picked up her phone, and continued the text.

  After three years of keeping our love a secret, we couldn’t wait to be together for real, with no more sneaking around. That’s why I’ve been out of touch, and why I ask for your patience with me. I’ll make time to speak with each of you after the holiday. Until then, enjoy the time with your families.

  She clicked the send button and listened to the text fly into the ether. She imagined the text as an anchor with sharp points that would grab hold once people read it. Her plan to skip town and be done with Thorndike was now officially delayed.

  She opened a second text, this one just to Mattie.

  Hey. I wanted to tell you that, at her birthday party, Annika confessed to me that she was going to try and get away by herself. I think she’s been seeing someone from out of town and keeping it a secret. Will you spread the word that she’ll be out of touch for a bit, and people should just leave her alone? But don’t tell anyone you heard it from me, okay?

  So many lies to keep track of. So many people to keep at bay. She just needed everyone to be cool for a few weeks. If she could hold all of this together until after Daciana’s party…

  She typed one more text to Mattie.

  Will you get the word out that I kinda want to be left alone too, just in case my text to everyone wasn’t clear enough?

  She hit send. Ten seconds later, she received a response from Mattie.

  You got it. Turn off your phone and go enjoy yourself.

  “Oh don’t you worry, Mattie,” she whispered. “I intend to enjoy myself very much.”

  She called Alvin. “Are we ready to get started on this?” she said.

  “Yes. I’ve got a place where we can meet and talk about your idea,” Alvin said. “Tomorrow afternoon. I’ll send you directions now.”

  *****

  Nicky got the text from Jill on Monday night. She was in bed while she read it.

  I can’t pretend to understand why the rest of you are so gung-ho about trying to complete this mission, but now that we’ve been invited to Daciana’s mansion, I’ve decided to commit myself to the cause, at least for a little bit. I’ll be wearing surveillance cameras when I enter the mansion, and may try to sneak away to get pictures of the rest of the house. Can I count on you and Ryan to cover for me when I’m away from the party?

  Nicky stared at the text for a minute. She was proud of Jill. At the beginning of this mission, Jill was an anxious, reserved rich girl who was only allowed in the Network because of her skills with a computer.

  Now she was a bona fide spy for the resistance. More than that. She was a leader. She had taken charge of the mission when Nicky was gone.

  Nicky started typing a response to Jill. It wasn’t a response she intended to send. She just wanted to see the words on the screen. She wanted to read the truth in black and white, to imagine what it would be like if Jill knew what was really going on.

  Sergio found the safe house. He programmed Ryan, Helena, and Phillip. That’s why they don’t want to leave.

  She looked at the words for a minute, then erased the text and started typing a new one.

  Sergio thinks he is bonding with me. In his mind, he’s turned the Coronation contest into some sort of ritual I have to complete to prove my love to him before he makes me immortal.

  She erased that text as soon as she typed it. The words made her uncomfortable to look at. She had written them as if this was all Sergio’s doing, as if he was a foolish boy with crush and Nicky was prepared to brush him off.

  That wasn’t the case.

  She typed another text.

  Sergio asked me if I felt the bond growing between us, and I said yes. When I told him that, I wasn’t lying. I’ve been more truthful to Sergio Alonzo than to any of you. I haven’t told you that the mission has been compromised, that the vampire we’re meant to kill knows our true identities, that three in our group have been programmed, or that I don’t even know what I’m doing anymore. I’m putting everyone’s lives in danger because I don’t want to leave.

  “Because I’m bonding with Sergio,” she whispered.

  She erased that text as well, then set the phone down on her nightstand. She got out of bed and walked to the glass doors looking out on the balcony. She stared up at the moon and thought about a vision she and Sergio had shared once.

  A small village in the woods. A fighting tournament. A nobleman defeats all comers. A beautiful woman takes him into the forest, bares her fangs, and bites into his neck.

  When Sergio visited Nicky before the Date Auction, he had done more than share his memory. He had made it Nicky’s memory too. She felt the pain of that memory as deeply as if it were her own. Not just the physical pain of a body undergoing transformation, but the emotional pain too. The loss.

  Sergio’s bond with Daciana didn’t take, and he was left an empty shell, waiting to be filled. No, that wasn’t right. Not an empty shell. Half of a whole. Yes, that’s how Sergio felt in that moment and how Nicky felt right now.

  Half of a whole.

  She walked back to her nightstand and grabbed her phone. She really didn’t want Jill to try and sneak away from the party. She wanted Jill to play along with this clever story Ryan had come up with. She wanted Jill and Ryan to help her win Coronation.

  She wanted to complete the ritual.

  But she knew there was no talking Jill out of this. The best she could hope for was that Jill would be quick about whatever it was she intended to do.

  She typed a return text.

  Yes, I’ll cover for you if you sneak away from the party. Just promise me you’ll be careful.

  She hit send, crawled back into bed, and turned off the light.

  Chapter 15

  Jill found her invitation to Daciana’s party waiting for her in the next day’s mail. Printed on black cardstock with white lettering, the invitation was decorated with gambling iconography. The four suits of a standard card deck adorned each corner of the invite. A pair of dice was pictured in the bottom center.

  The language of the invite made the gambling theme more clear.

  Daciana Samarin requests your presence at a party in her home to celebrate luck, chance, and fortune’s expensive smile. $10,000 minimum bet required.

  “Casino night,” Jill said to herself. The spring semester typically kicked off with an all-night Coronation event where the senior class got together and gambled. Those who ended the night ahead were obligated to give their winnings to one of the Coronation contestants. Those who lost their money took comfort in knowing it all went to the Thorndike endowment.

  In years past, casino night had been held on a boat that floated down the Potomac River. Jill was glad for the change of venue. A riverboat casino held no interest for her.

  Daciana’s mansion, on the other hand, was a place she was excited to go visit.

  That afternoon, on Alvin’s instruction, Jill drove to the Hillswood Mall, parked in the north lot, and walked to the movie theater. Taking care to ensure she said the words exactly as Alvin had dictate
d them to her, Jill approached the clerk at the box office and said, “I’m here for the 2:20 showing of Demon Spawn.”

  The clerk, a young man with curly blonde hair, pulled a ticket from his pocket, looked Jill right in the eye, and said, “Theater thirteen.”

  Jill walked through the lobby and gave her ticket to the attendant at the front of the hall.

  “Last door on your left,” the attendant said, ripping her ticket in half.

  Jill walked to the end of the hall, finding the theater with the number thirteen on the marquee, and went inside. She found a brightly lit theater that was empty of patrons, save two people sitting in the middle row. One of those people was Alvin. The other was a woman Jill didn’t recognize. The mystery woman jumped up and approached with her hand extended.

  “My name is Eve,” she said. “I’ve heard a lot about you, Jill Wentworth.”

  “Eve Kendrick?” asked Jill.

  The woman nodded.

  “I missed you and Nicky the other night at the safe house,” Eve said.

  “Yeah, Nicky had some business to take care of that night,” said Jill.

  “Well, for what it’s worth, her friend Frankie is something special. I knew right away when I picked him up that night that he had big potential, and on the first day of his training it was apparent that he has instincts and physical gifts unlike anything I’ve ever seen.”

  “I’m not surprised,” said Jill. “What he did in Renata’s mansion…he saved all of us.”

  “He’ll be doing a lot more,” said Eve. “The Network is so excited about him they sent two more trainers down to work with him, which is good for me, because as soon as Alvin told me about your idea I wanted to get involved.”