The Bonding Ritual (Girls Wearing Black: Book Four)

by Spencer Baum

  He pulled away from the kiss, ready to make for her neck, to insert his fangs deep into her flesh. He opened his eyes for only half a second. To look at her. To stare into her eyes and share this moment with her before it finally happened. And when he saw her, she looked even more beautiful. Her hair was down. She was an angel with flowing brown hair that had fallen to her shoulders and…

  She moved too quickly for him to respond. At first there was nothing, then there was pain.

  Terrible pain.

  “Nicky?”

  Her right hand was extended. She had thrust it into his chest.

  Into his heart.

  He looked down, expecting to see her entire hand in his chest cavity, wrapped around his still-beating heart. It wasn’t her hand he saw. A weapon. A slim piece of steel. She had stabbed him and his blood was gushing forth from his chest, spilling all over her hand, which was wrapped tight around the weapon. She leaned in, twisting the steel farther into his heart.

  “Nicky?”

  “You never asked about the third item I wore to honor the clan tonight,” she said. “The crossbars from the paper lantern you made for me. I tempered the steel and sharpened the edges.”

  Sergio fell to his knees. Nicky bent down with him, holding her arm around his back. His heart had stopped beating. The world was fading away from him.

  “I meant what I said to you that night in the safe house. I felt the connection, Sergio. I’ve always felt it. From the very first time we danced together, I felt it.”

  “Nicky.”

  The word came out in barely a whisper. There was no air in his lungs to say it.

  “But I didn’t come to Thorndike to fall in love with you, Sergio. I came here to kill you.”

  Her arm still around his back, Nicky laid Sergio’s head on the floor, gently.

  “Goodbye, Sergio.”

  His world fading to black, Sergio looked up at Nicky Bloom. Her white dress was covered in blood, just like the girls in the portraits behind her.

  She was so beautiful.

  After five hundred years of life, Sergio died on the floor of the Purgatory House, in the arms of the only woman he had ever loved.

  Chapter 46

  Ryan was hiding in a bathroom stall when he read the text from Jill.

  Got what I needed and am on my way to the next job. See you at the rendezvous.

  Jill’s “next job” was hacking the computer at Daciana’s mansion, and “the rendezvous” was a farmhouse in Richmond, Virginia, where everyone was supposed to gather after their jobs were completed tonight.

  Ryan’s job, his only job, was to walk into prom with Jill and cover for her while she stole Daciana’s phone.

  His work was done. It was time for him to go.

  He lingered in the stall for a moment. It surprised him how scared he was to leave. He wasn’t just leaving the prom. He was leaving behind his entire life.

  He sent a return text to Jill.

  Good luck with your next job. See you after you’re done. On my way out now.

  He slipped his phone into his jacket pocket and left the stall. Jake Castillo stopped him right outside the door.

  “Dude. I’ve been looking for you,” Jake said. “Where’s your girlfriend?”

  “I don’t know,” Ryan said. “I was in the bathroom.”

  “I can’t find her anywhere. Daciana’s looking for her.”

  “Oh. Daciana? Do you know why?”

  “Not a clue. She’s just got me looking for Jill. Hey, if you see her, will you send her Daciana’s way?”

  “Sure thing.”

  Jake slapped Ryan on the back, saying, “Good man,” and then walked away. Ryan stood in place for a second, pondering what this meant.

  Did Daciana know something? Why would she be looking for Jill?

  Whatever the reason, Ryan needed to be careful to avoid Daciana on his way out.

  *****

  She wasn’t on the dance floor. Or in the lobby. Or the bathroom.

  Daciana was beginning to think that something suspicious was going on with Jill Wentworth.

  She looked at the clock in the lobby. Nicky would make her entrance in fifteen minutes. Then Mary would arrive. Pomp and circumstance and ceremony—she really wanted to find Jill before all of it got started.

  She saw Jake Castillo walking through the lobby.

  “Any luck?” she said.

  Jake shook his head. “I just talked to Ryan. He didn’t know where she was either.”

  “Ryan is her boyfriend, right?”

  Jake nodded.

  “Bring him to me, please.”

  Jake turned to run back the way he came and immediately collided with Mattie Dupree. The two of them fell to the floor in a clumsy heap.

  “Sorry,” Jake said. He pushed himself up and started running again, leaving Mattie on the floor in her formal dress.

  Daciana shook her head. Kids these days. No chivalry. No tact.

  She went to Mattie and offered her hand.

  “Thank you so much,” Mattie said, reaching out and taking Daciana’s hand.

  Something on Mattie’s wrist caught Daciana’s eye. A bracelet.

  Daciana helped Mattie to her feet but didn’t let go of her hand. Instead, she lifted it up so she could inspect the bracelet more closely.

  Tiny charms made of pewter, ten of them, dangled from Mattie’s wrist.

  “Where did you get this?” Daciana said.

  “At Roberson’s in the mall,” said Mattie. “You like it?”

  “Why did you wear it tonight?”

  Befuddled, Mattie didn’t answer right away.

  “There has to be a reason why you chose to wear a charm bracelet with your formal outfit,” Daciana said. “It’s a very unusual fashion choice.”

  “I don’t know. Jill wore one like this to your party. I thought it was cute.”

  “Jill Wentworth? She wore a charm bracelet when she came to my house?”

  “Yes. Is there a problem? I’ll take it off if you don’t like it. I totally trust your judgment.”

  Daciana let go of Mattie’s hand and rushed across the lobby, to her servant who was standing watch in front of the coat check room.

  “There are eight people from the crew guarding the Purgatory House,” she said to him. “I want you to go get them right now and bring them here. One of our students has gone missing and I need her found right away.”

  *****

  From a hiding place just outside the bathrooms, Ryan watched the whole scene play out.

  He saw the angry look on Daciana’s eyes when Jake told her he couldn’t find Jill. Had Jake not collided with Mattie, he would have spotted Ryan, who began hurrying back the other way as soon as Daciana said she wanted him found. Ryan came back around on the other side of the lobby just in time to see Daciana freak out about Mattie’s bracelet. When she rushed to the other end to talk to the servant at the coat check station, Ryan bolted for the door. Once outside, he sprinted to his car.

  He had his keys in his hand and was nearing the driver’s side door when he saw something unexpected. Something he didn’t want to see.

  The black Corolla was still parked in front of his car. Nicky was still here.

  Behind him, a servant came running out of the gym. Ryan stood still, right next to his car, and watched the servant run all the way down the sidewalk and to the Purgatory House.

  The servant gathered all eight guards and they followed him back up the sidewalk to the gym.

  “Where are you, Nicky?” he whispered. “It’s time to go.”

  With the guards all running to the gym, no one was watching the Purgatory House. Was she still in there? Why hadn’t she left yet?

  The answer came to him in a memory. Gordon had taught him to recognize Sergio’s programming not as truth, but as memory. That’s how he saw Sergio now. Standing above him at the safe house, whispering commands to control Ryan’s brain.

  It is her destiny to be with me.

  Rya
n put his car keys back in his pocket and ran down the sidewalk to the Purgatory House.

  *****

  Nowhere. Jill Wentworth was nowhere to be found. Her boyfriend was missing too.

  Put them out of your mind, Daciana told herself. Don’t let them spoil the best moment of the year.

  Jill would turn up eventually. And when she did, Daciana would learn the truth.

  For now, there were more pressing matters. The ceremonial entrance music began to play. In just a minute, Nicky Bloom would enter the gym.

  *****

  Ryan pushed open the front door and poked his head inside.

  “Nicky?” he said.

  No answer.

  He stepped into the front room.

  “Nicky are you in here?”

  The bedroom door was closed. He opened it. No one was there. He went down the hall, to the other bedroom. That door was closed too. He opened it and peered inside.

  He saw her.

  She wasn’t in the room. She was outside. He could see her through the window. She had come out on the north side of the gym and was opening the door to the Corolla.

  She was okay. She was getting out.

  Time for him to get out too.

  He ran back to the door. His hand was on the doorknob when he saw the reflection in the glass of the front window.

  Blood. The floor of the parlor was covered in blood.

  He took his hand off the door and went to go look.

  *****

  If memory served Daciana right, 1953 was the last year the Coronation candidate was late to prom.

  Donna Stallworth was late that year because her parents tried to kidnap her and run for the border.

  What was Nicky’s excuse?

  It was five minutes after eleven, and Nicky still wasn’t here. The entrance music had played through to the end and the cage was empty.

  What the hell was going on?

  “I can’t imagine what’s causing the delay,” Edith said in a panic. “Perhaps one of the clocks in the Purgatory House is off.”

  “Go find her,” Daciana commanded.

  As Edith scurried away, Daciana snapped her fingers at one of her servants.

  “Yes, Master, what can I do for you?”

  “There is a good chance we won’t be ready for our new immortal when she arrives. Will you…”

  She was about to ask him to call the limousine driver who was bringing Mary to the dance, but felt like she had delegated enough already. From Jake Castillo to the servants who couldn’t find Jill to Edith and her broken clocks, everyone was disappointing Daciana tonight. She’d had enough.

  “You know what? Just get my phone for me. It’s in the coat check room.”

  “Right away, Master.”

  *****

  “Oh Nicky, what have you done?”

  Ryan eased his way into the parlor, being careful not to step in the blood. The body lay diagonally across the floor, its feet near the entryway, its head close to the wall.

  He had to take a wide angle around the room to get a better view without stepping in blood. It wasn’t until he was in the corner that he saw the head.

  And confirmed what he suspected, but could hardly believe.

  Nicky had killed Sergio Alonzo. A metal stake of some sort, one of those bars Nicky had asked Ryan to bring—it was dangling from Sergio’s chest. His face was ghostly pale. His eyes were lifeless.

  “She did it.”

  The front door to the house swung open and someone came inside, yelling, “Nicky! Nicky Bloom where are you?”

  Ryan froze in place. Fortunately, the woman who came into the house took the same path Ryan did when he arrived, starting with the bedrooms. Stepping quietly, he worked his way back across the parlor and towards the front door.

  The woman finished searching the bedrooms before Ryan could make it out. She was headed back to the parlor. She would see him if he went for the door. So he ran the other way, making it to the kitchen right as she emerged from the hallway.

  Had the woman turned around and looked, she would have seen him. But she didn’t. She was too occupied with the spectacle in the parlor.

  “Oh my gracious,” she whispered, then, in a high pitched wail, “Oh my gracious!”

  She went running out of the parlor with her hands over her eyes, yelling as she ran up the sidewalk.

  “Daciana! Daciana! Oh my gracious!”

  Ryan waited for her to get a few steps ahead, then he followed her out the front door, and made for his car.

  *****

  “What do you mean my phone isn’t in there?”

  “Gilbert says he put it on the corner of the table, with all the other phones. It isn’t there now.”

  “Then where is it?”

  “I do not know, Master.”

  “Was Gilbert minding his post at the coat check room? Did someone break in and…”

  And steal it.

  Daciana remembered a week full of strange messages coming through on her phone. She thought they were spam, until Carolyn told her otherwise.

  “That little bitch is trying to steal my money,” she said.

  “I’m sorry Master, what?”

  “My car keys. Please go back to the coat check room and fetch my car keys.”

  “Right away, Master.”

  As her servant dashed away, Edith came storming into the gym, breathing heavy and drenched in sweat.

  “Dead,” she heaved.

  “What? Edith, what’s the matter with you?”

  Edith gasped in huge, wheezing breaths. “Dead.”

  “Edith if you don’t pull yourself together I’m going to make you wish you had! What are you trying to say?”

  “Sergio Alonzo. He’s in the house. And he’s dead.”

  Chapter 47

  Jill drove through the back entrance to Daciana’s estate and arrived at the loading dock to find Alvin closing the doors on his truck.

  “Perfect timing,” Alvin said as she got out of her car. “The house is clear and ready for you to get to work.”

  “How did everything go?” Jill asked.

  “No problems, other than being a little short-handed. By the time we loaded up the slaves, we didn’t have enough room to take everything we wanted.”

  “That’s okay,” said Jill. “As long as you got all the people out.”

  “Forty-two of them,” said Alvin. “Asleep and on their way.”

  “So everyone else is gone?”

  Alvin nodded. “We hustled everybody out of here to make sure our rescues don’t wake up before we’re ready for them.”

  “Sounds good. Are you ready to help me?”

  “You’ve got what you need?”

  Jill reached into the pouch on her dress and pulled out Daciana’s phone.

  “This is gonna be so awesome,” Alvin said.

  *****

  Ryan had just put the keys in the ignition when he saw a crowd of people come flying down the sidewalk. He crouched down in his seat and waited for them to pass.

  The forward tilt on the Lamborghini’s seats didn’t allow him to duck all the way beneath the windows, and he saw her out the driver’s side.

  Daciana, across the street, opening the door to the Vicenza and jumping in. She tore out of the neighborhood with the engine blaring.

  “That’s not good,” he said.

  He grabbed his phone and called Jill. It went straight to voicemail.

  “Jill, if you get this message and you’re still at Daciana’s house, get the hell out of there, will you? I think she knows something. She just left the prom and the way she’s driving, I think she might be coming to find you.”

  He ended the call and immediately followed it up with a text.

  If you are still at Daciana’s, get out! I think she is on her way home, going very fast!

  He looked in his rearview mirror. Students were pouring out of the gym and looking down the street. He had to get out of here.

  He started his car and dr
ove away.

  *****

  With the house empty, there was no need for bathroom-circuit subterfuge. Alvin cut the power using the breaker box in the utility room. Jill listened to the electromagnet click and release. She stuffed a pick into the ancient, mostly decorative lock, and opened the door.

  Down the stairs and to the computer—she slipped the thumb drive into place and waited for Alvin to bring the power back up. He had agreed to give her a ten-count before he flipped the switch.

  When the power returned, Jill found plenty of data remnants waiting for her in the computer’s memory, and easily took control of the machine. Within minutes, she had Daciana’s banking software open on the screen, and a pop-up window asking for a verification code.

  “What’s that?” Jill said. “You want a verification code? Well guess what? I’ve got your verification code right here.”

  She grabbed Daciana’s cell phone.

  But the screen was blank. No new text messages.

  “No, no, no!” she said. “Where is it?”

  Alvin appeared at the top of the staircase.

  “Everything okay down here?”

  “I’ve opened the banking software. The verification code should be on her phone but…”

  Jill saw two words on the top left corner of the screen that explained what was happening. She began to laugh.

  “What’s so funny?” said Alvin.

  Jill held up the phone for Alvin to see, pointing at the words in the corner of the screen.

  “No service,” Jill said. “My mom…”

  She had to take a breath she was laughing so hard.

  “What about your mom?”

  “It’s just this weird relationship she has with Daciana. My mom is so anal about security, and Daciana is so clueless about technology. Put them together, and you get this. A security system for Daciana that she has to step out of the room to use.”