The Bonding Ritual (Girls Wearing Black: Book Four)

by Spencer Baum

  “Well, now she has no more money to pay you with. Now that the gravy train has stopped, I ask you, what are you going to do? Will you honor Ryan Jenson, who was brave enough to stand up for what’s right, or will you latch onto the next bloodsucker who comes to town?”

  Jill looked away from the audience, turning her gaze to the coffin in front of the altar.

  “Ryan, you were a good person who consistently chose to do the right thing, even when it wasn’t easy for you. Even when it put you in danger.”

  Jill’s face was soaked in tears. Confused by her own feelings, Mary was crying as well.

  “I’ll always be grateful for you Ryan,” Jill said, “and I’ll always love you.”

  With those words, Jill stepped down from the lectern. As she neared the coffin, she raised two fingers on her right hand, kissed them, and then touched that kiss to the coffin.

  Watching Jill make the gesture, Mary saw that she had a green ring made of glass on her finger, and vaguely remembered Jill wearing that same ring during freshman year.

  The other pallbearers got up and gathered around Ryan’s coffin. Together, they picked it up and began walking to the back of the cathedral.

  As they walked past, Mary got a good look at the girl walking closest to Jill, and saw the face behind the veil.

  “Nicky Bloom,” she whispered.

  Her grandmother, standing next to her, leaned in and said, “What’s that, Dearie?”

  “Just…one of the pallbearers,” Mary said. “She was part of the contest. She’s one of the girls wearing black.”

  Her grandmother smiled. “Honey, all the girls are wearing black today.”

  Chapter 51

  Nicky crouched low, using a rock to provide cover, and peered at the mansion through her binoculars.

  “Right back where you started,” he said to her. “You hid behind the same rock the last time you staked out this mansion.”

  He appeared in moments like these, when it was quiet, and they had time to talk.

  “I may be hiding behind the same rock, but I’m hardly where I started,” she said.

  “Yes, I suppose that’s true. Last time you came here, you were looking for Frankie. What is it you’re doing this time?”

  Nicky pulled her eyes away from the binoculars and turned to smile at him. He was on the ground next to her, sitting with his back against a tree trunk.

  “Looking for Frankie,” she said.

  “Like I said, right back where you started.”

  “It’s different now. You know that. Yes, technically I’m sitting out here looking for Frankie.”

  She placed her eyes back on the binoculars and aimed them at the window on the side of the mansion, waiting for her partner to appear.

  “But last time I sat out here with a pair of binoculars—how long ago was that?”

  “Seven years,” Sergio said. “You were eleven years old.”

  “Wow,” Nicky said, shaking her head. “What on earth was I doing out here when I was eleven years old?”

  “Looking for Frankie.”

  “Searching for Frankie,” Nicky corrected. “There’s a difference. Last time I had a lot of ground to cover to find him. This time, I just need to keep my binoculars aimed at the window, and I’ll see him eventually. I was searching then. I’m looking now.”

  “Fair enough,” said Sergio. “So if you’re only looking for Frankie, then what are you searching for?”

  Nicky held her gaze on the window.

  “Who says I’m searching for anything?”

  “You’re always searching for something, Nicky Bloom.”

  Nicky Bloom. It wasn’t her name anymore. The mission was over. Her friends knew her real name now. Her family name. Celeste Nicole Allen.

  But to Sergio, or rather, this ghost of Sergio that lived on in her mind, she would always be Nicky Bloom.

  “Yes, I suppose I am,” she said.

  “So what is it? What are you searching for?”

  “I don’t know,” she said.

  Frankie appeared in the window. He looked out at Nicky and held up one finger.

  “We’re all-clear,” she said. “Time for me to go.”

  She pulled down her binoculars and glanced over at Sergio.

  “See you later, Nicky,” he said, then he faded away, disappearing into the darkness.

  *****

  The doorbell rang. Jill barely heard it.

  She had been staring at the screen for hours. There was a pattern here; she knew it. It just hadn’t revealed itself to her yet.

  “Honey! The package is here!” Zack called out from downstairs.

  She heard the words, but they took a few seconds to filter into her brain. She was looking at blocks of encrypted data on a hard drive. She didn’t have the encryption key to open them, but had three other hard drives on her desk where the data was stored in the exact same pattern. It was only a matter of time before she figured it out.

  “Can you get it for me?” she called back at Zack. “I’m kind of in the middle of something!”

  The packages were arriving daily now. Nicky and Frankie were on a roll.

  Jill and Zack lived in a small house outside Montreal. They arrived a few days after Ryan’s funeral. The idea was that they would stay in Canada for a week and then board a plane for Europe.

  But after Frankie killed Nora Jamison, and they found messages from Fu Xi on Nora’s computer, messages that ensnared two other immortals, Jill decided she needed to stay close. In Canada, she could receive next-day shipments from Nicky. She was getting a shipment almost every day.

  The Network was on the march back in the States. Many of the vampires down there, convinced that a powerful new enemy of the clan was coming after them, had already fled. Those that stayed behind became targets for the increasingly effective team of hunters led by Frankie and Nicky.

  With every mansion Frankie and Nicky cleared, more treasures flowed out of the clan’s possession and back into the world. And more secrets, stowed away on computers the vampires left behind, got shipped up to Canada, where Jill and another agent worked to decode them.

  The other agent was named Carolyn Wentworth. She lived in the house next door, where she happily spent her days working on the steady stream of projects Jill brought to her.

  Carolyn lived alone. Jill’s father, who always kept a stash of fake passports and emergency cash, chose to disappear on his own, rather than with the Network’s help.

  Jill thought it was probably for the best that Walter didn’t come. If anyone needed a fresh start, it was Walter Wentworth. Hopefully in his new life, wherever it was, he was looking for honest work, rather than an opportunity to ride someone else’s coattails.

  Zack opened the bedroom door and poked his head inside.

  “I was wrong,” he said. “It wasn’t a package. You’ve got company downstairs.”

  “Oh, okay. Thanks, Hon. I’ll be right down.”

  Jill closed up what she was working on and went downstairs, where she found three guests in her living room. She rushed to hug the only one she recognized.

  “Hello, Jill,” Eve said. “I’m so glad to see you. Your house is cute!”

  “It’s a mess!” Jill said. “If I’d known you were coming, with guests…”

  Jill looked at the other two guests, two young men she didn’t recognize. Teenage boys, neither of them older than fourteen.

  “Are these…?” Jill gestured at the boys, wanting Eve to finish the question for her.

  “Yes,” said Eve. She pointed at the taller of the two boys, a slim young man with chestnut-colored hair. “This is Eddie.”

  Jill shook his hand.

  “And this is Patrick,” Eve said, introducing Jill to the other boy, who had sandy blonde locks and wide, curious eyes.

  “That was fast,” Jill said, trying to think about when she’d asked Eve to find people for her. It was only a few weeks ago.

  “I’ve known these young men for years,” Eve said.
“And when I read your email, I knew they were our guys. They’re ready.”

  Looking at them, at how young they were, Jill wasn’t so sure she agreed with Eve’s assessment. But then again, she wasn’t ready either when she started.

  Jill led the group to the dining room, where they gathered around the table. Zack fetched coffee and water for everyone, and Jill placed an envelope at the center of the table.

  “How much do you guys know?” she said. “Should I start at the beginning?”

  “They know their history,” said Eve. “Start with the mission.”

  Jill touched her fingers to the envelope on the table, and for a moment she traveled back in time. She thought about when she was no older than these boys, and she stood outside the Washington Monument, waiting for a mystery car to come pick her up.

  She met Gia Rossi that day, and learned what she would be doing for the Network.

  “Alright,” she said. “We’ll start at the mission.”

  She dumped the contents of the envelope out on the table.

  “If you’ve been briefed, then you know there is a huge power vacuum in DC right now,” Jill said. “The Samarin clan is on the run at present, but we know that a few of them are working to organize the vampires who are left. Over the past few weeks, our agents in the field have stolen data from the mansions of three vampires who have been in communication with Fu Xi.”

  “I haven’t told them anything about Fu Xi yet,” said Eve.

  Jill pulled one of the photographs from the pile. It showed a handsome young man walking into a skyscraper in downtown Shanghai.

  “Now that Falkon Dillinger and Daciana Samarin are dead,” said Jill. “Fu Xi is the most powerful vampire in the world. And several members of what was once the Samarin clan have contacted him for help.”

  Jill pushed Fu Xi’s photograph out of the way, and pulled a printed email from the pile.

  “This is an email Fu Xi sent to Nora Jamison,” said Jill. “In the email, he outlines a strategy where a new clan of vampires takes control of Washington DC. As you can see in the email, the centerpiece of his strategy is Thorndike Academy. That’s where you guys come in. The Network needs eyes and ears at the school, and as of this morning, there are still a few slots available in next year’s freshman class.”

  She looked up at the boys. Eddie and Patrick. Two young men, both of them eager to make their mark on the world. Excitable, brimming with confidence, certain that they had what it took to walk into enemy territory and bring the fight to the vampires.

  Just like I was.

  “Before you agree to do this,” Jill said. “You both need to be aware that you’ll be risking your lives. The Network will provide you all the support we can give, but if you find yourselves in a situation where your cover is blown, we might not be able to help you.”

  “We’re aware of the risks,” said Eddie.

  “This is a chance for us to fight for something we believe in,” said Patrick. “How many times in life do you get an opportunity like that? Besides, we’ve all got to die eventually, right?”

  Jill looked at Patrick, and felt like she was staring at a mirror. A mirror showing a younger, more naive version of herself. These boys had so many things to learn, things that could only be learned out in the field. Like how you’ll react when a vampire steps into the room. And who your real friends are.

  And what you’re willing to die for.

  “Right you are, Patrick,” Jill said. “Nobody gets to live forever.”

  THE END

  Acknowledgements

  I should start with a thanks to you, my readers. You’ve been with me for four books now, and I can’t tell you how honored I am that you keep coming back.

  Thanks to Chris Stenger for designing all the covers for this series. Chris, your work is magnificent, and will forever be a part of these books.

  Thanks to Martha Baum, Napoli Coffee in Albuquerque, and many public libraries for providing me a place to set down my laptop and work on this novel.

  Thanks to Kira, Rowan, and Connor for being patient with Daddy since I started working on these books in 2011.

  And the final thanks, of course, goes to Julie Baum, who serves as muse, editor, consultant, first reader, last reader, and most favorite person in my life.

  Email me at spencerbaum75@gmail.com or look me up at spencerbaum.net, and I’ll see you when the next novel is out!