The Bonding Ritual (Girls Wearing Black: Book Four) Read online

  Jill hid silently in the foliage while one vampire after another selected a Ping-Pong ball and headed to the ballroom to find a student. Daciana’s servant was calling out student names in alphabetical order. Jill’s name was the last one given out.

  She couldn’t see clearly which vampire was the last to leave the moon room, but whoever it was would be looking for her. She’d have to be quick about her business so she could get back to the party.

  After the last vampire exited the moon room, Jill hopped out of her hiding place and ran back to the brick path. She crossed a bridge over the pond, then found her way to the staircase leading to the upper deck, which she followed underneath the waterfall.

  “I’m exiting the moon room,” she whispered.

  “You’re clear all the way to the crypt,” Alvin said.

  The hallway leading away from the moon room ended with a set of stone stairs descending into darkness.

  “I’ll need some light now, Alvin,” she said.

  “Here it comes,” Alvin said.

  As he spoke the words, a sodium lamp clicked on at the base of the stairs. A colorless, dim light, the lamp’s only purpose was to aid any servants traveling this deep into Daciana’s lair. It gave Jill enough light to make sure she didn’t trip on her way down.

  She descended the stairs into an underground cavern.

  “I’m here.”

  “Third door on your right,” said Alvin.

  “Her own private bubble,” Jill whispered, remembering Daciana’s handwritten note on the blueprint. She ran along the wall, stopping at the third door and gently touching the doorknob.

  It was made of brass, and looked like it was a hundred years old. Such a quaint appearance on the outside, masking the sophisticated security system that kept this door shut.

  “I’m at the door,” Jill said.

  “Alright. First I’ll disable the alarm, then I’ll hit the power. Get ready.”

  Jill removed the magic wand charm from her bracelet. She pressed the button on one end of it, activating a single LED on the other end, and turning the magic wand into a tiny flashlight.

  “Alarm is off,” Alvin said. “Power’s next.”

  Tucking the bright light of the magic wand charm into her palm, Jill flipped through the charms on her bracelet until she found the key. She pulled it off.

  “Here’s hoping our contraption in the bathroom works,” Alvin said. “I’m activating it in five…four…three…two….”

  Jill slipped the key into the lock and put her hand on the doorknob.

  “…one,” Alvin said.

  With a pop, the lights went out and the cavern was bathed in darkness. Jill turned the key.

  “Hang on,” Alvin said. “The control unit is giving a power alert on the crypt. I’m disabling it now.”

  Jill stood in total darkness for what might have been a few seconds, or a few hours for how it felt.

  “Okay, we’re good,” Alvin said. “Get inside.”

  Jill opened the door and aimed her magic wand charm inside. The single LED cast a powerful white light, illuminating a small set of stairs leading down to a lavish bedroom.

  Jill closed the door behind her as she descended into Daciana’s crypt.

  The computer stack sat on three shelves of an antique bookcase, with the terminal on a small table immediately next to it. Jill used her flashlight to get a close look at the setup.

  Three towers, networked together. A shared computing stack, with the master machine sitting alone on the bottom shelf.

  Jill pulled three puzzle-piece charms off her bracelet and snapped them together, creating a small thumb drive. She squatted down in front of the bottom shelf and slipped the drive into the USB port on the front of the computer.

  “I’m ready for you to bring the power back on,” she said.

  “Excellent,” said Alvin. “Flipping the breaker in three, two, one.”

  There was a quick flash on the computer screen, but nothing more.

  “Alvin? Was that you?” said Jill.

  “That’s strange,” Alvin muttered. “Can you tell me what’s happening in there?”

  “It was like we got a single surge or something,” said Jill. “I still don’t have power down here.”

  “Yeah, and the security system is showing another power alert on the crypt,” Alvin said. “Hang on while I turn that off. Okay, trying again to get you power. Three, two, one…”

  The computer screen flashed again then went to black.

  “Dammit!”

  “Alvin? What the hell is going on?”

  “I think there’s a problem with the device you left in the bathroom,” Alvin said.

  “You mean the mushroom charm? What kind of problem? I’m in the crypt. I need the computer to come on right now!”

  “Maybe there’s an additional layer of surge protection we didn’t see,” Alvin said. “Or maybe the problem is the device, I don’t know! All I know is something is tripping the breaker every time I try to bring the power back up. I bet it’s that damned mushroom charm! We compressed those wires into too small a space.”

  “Alvin, I’m relying on data remanence to do this hack. If the power’s out too long--”

  “I know how a cold boot works,” Alvin snapped. “I’m just trying to see if…”

  “If what? Do I need to abort? Please don’t tell me I need to abort!”

  “Let’s not panic you two,” said Eve. “I’m looking at the camera feed in the rest of the mansion and everything seems fine.”

  “Yep. I knew it,” Alvin said. “I knew it alright!”

  “Knew what?” Jill said.

  “I used the power test feature in the control box,” Alvin said, “and the whole circuit connected to the bathroom is red hot. My remote isn’t separating the wires in that mushroom charm because they’ve melted together. We’ve got to remove it from the wall.”

  “Do you have a way to get in touch with Nicky?” Jill asked. “Can you ask her to go in there and take it out?”

  “That’s exactly what we’re going to do,” said Alvin. “Hang tight, Jill. We’ll get you up in running in a minute.”

  *****

  Nicky was pretending to stare at the cards on the table. Two of Spades; Jack of Spades.

  In reality, she was watching her opponents.

  She only had two blue chips left, but there was a multi-colored pile in the center of the table worth just under a million dollars, and Nicky knew she could win it.

  Samantha was biting her lower lip again. Mary had been betting conservatively this round. And Kim, well, Kim had poured in half her chips on this hand, pushing the pot to the largest sum it had been all night.

  She was bluffing. Nicky knew it. While Kim was better at hiding her tells than the others, she still had them. Kim thought she had a solid poker face, but didn’t realize how forceful her body language became when she had a decent set of cards. Whether giving a hard stare to her opponents, leaning forward at her waist, or both, whenever Kim was confident she was going to win, her body gave the classic signals of aggression.

  But on this hand, even as Kim raised the pot higher and higher, her body language told Nicky that her cards were weak. Her shoulders were slightly raised. Her lower back was arched.

  There was a submissive smile on her face.

  Nicky recognized all of this. This was the same Kim Renwick who had rushed to the center of the floor to confront Nicky during the Masquerade. That version of Kim had announced, “You’re dead, New Girl,” even as her body language spoke the language of fear.

  The dealer placed another card face-up on the table. Ten of Spades. When it came time for Nicky to turn over her cards, she would have a flush.

  The betting started with Nicky, who pushed in a single blue chip.

  “Fold,” Samantha said, pushing her cards away.

  “Call,” said Mary, tossing a blue chip into the pile.

  Kim pushed a blue chip into the pile, then, without a word, pushed
in another.

  The crowd that had formed around the table gave a collective gasp. They knew what it meant that Kim had raised the bet. If Nicky wanted to stay in the game, she would have to push her last chip into the pile.

  She was really beginning to like poker.

  Her finger was on the chip when a voice rang from inside her ear canal.

  “Nicky, we’ve got a problem.”

  It was Alvin Green. Not now, Nicky thought.

  “Nicky, I need you to get to the bathroom right away,” Alvin said. “Give me a tap on your earring to tell me you can do it.”

  She was regretting she had agreed to put the little microphones in her ears. It seemed innocent enough when Eve came to Bethesda and asked her to do it—the Network wants surveillance, she had said. Eyes and ears in the mansion, she had said.

  Those eyes and ears were a giant distraction now, pulling her away from the work at hand. From the giant pile of chips on the table she needed to win if she was going to stay in this game.

  “She’s not answering,” said Alvin. “You did give her the earpieces?”

  “Yes!” came a new voice. This one was Eve. She spoke again. “Nicky, we can see from your cameras that you’re in the middle of something, but you’ll need to trust us when we say what we need from you in the bathroom right now is more important. Find a way to leave the table. Tap your earring to tell us you copy”

  Nicky sat in place. The hand would be over in just a minute. She could go then. Yes, she’d finish out the hand and relish the look on Kim’s face that Nicky had called her bluff. Then she’d ask for a break and go do whatever it was that Eve and Alvin wanted from her.

  Of course, a break might mean that a lot of people would go to the bathroom. Most of the party was now gathered round the poker table to watch the Coronation candidates play. What did Alvin need her to do in there? Did she need to be alone?

  “She’s still not answering,” said Eve.

  “Jill is asking to be patched through,” said Alvin. “I’ll bring her on.”

  There was a crackle of static, and then a third voice was speaking in Nicky’s ear, this one belonging to Jill.

  “Hi Nicky, it’s me. I’m in Daciana’s crypt right now.”

  Daciana’s crypt? Now Nicky was completely distracted. She looked up from the table to the rest of the room. She made eye contact with Ryan, who nodded in the direction of the poker table, as if encouraging her to focus on the game.

  “It’s a long story, Nicky, and I don’t have time to tell you now,” Jill continued, “but I need you to understand that no matter what you’re in the middle of right now, it’s imperative that you stop what you’re doing and get to the bathroom. Nothing you’ve got going on, Nicky, and I mean nothing, is as important as this.”

  “Dammit,” Nicky muttered.

  “Please, Nicky, tap on your earring if you copy,” said Alvin.

  Nicky pulled her hand away from her last poker chip.

  “Fold,” she said, turning over her cards.

  The crowd reacted just as Nicky would expect them to. After all, she was completely out of the game now, and in a minute, they’d be applauding for Kim when she revealed she had bluffed Nicky out of a nine-hundred thousand dollar pot.

  “For you,” Nicky said, tossing her last chip to the dealer. “It’s been fun, ladies. Enjoy the rest of the game.”

  She pushed her chair away from the table and stood up. A wide part opened in the crowd to let her through. As she walked away, she tapped twice on her earring.

  “Excellent,” Alvin said. “When you get to the bathroom, you’ll find something strange plugged into the outlet by the hand dryer. Your job is to pull it out.”

  Pull a plug out of the wall? She was walking away from the poker game to pull a plug from the wall? Jill had some explaining to do.

  “Got it,” she said quietly.

  She passed under the arch and entered the hallway leading to the bathroom. She heard a set of feet walking quickly behind her, almost like they were trying to catch up to her.

  Thinking she’d better deal with this now rather than inside the bathroom, Nicky turned around to see who it was, and was surprised to find herself face to face with a vampire.

  “That’s right, Nicky Bloom. Look in my eyes. I want to talk to you for a moment, and I want your full attention.”

  Her black hair pulled back in a ponytail, her slender figure inside a white silk shirt, Nicky was looking at Lena Trang, who apparently was trying to hypnotize her.

  “That’s it, Nicky,” Lena said. “Step a little closer to me.”

  Nicky did as Lena asked. By now she was well versed in how to fool the immortals into thinking they had control of her mind.

  “Good, Nicky. Yes, that’s very good. Now, I’m going to ask you some questions, and you’re going to tell me the truth,” Lena said. “Do you understand?”

  “I understand.”

  “What’s going on out there?” came Jill’s voice in Nicky’s ear.

  “We’ve got a new problem,” said Eve. “Sit tight, Jill. Nicky, find a way out of this.”

  With what seemed like an entirely separate party of people talking to her from inside her ears, Nicky looked Lena Trang in the eye and waited for her to speak.

  “You’re not going to leave anything out that I might want to hear,” Lena said, “even if you don’t want me to hear it. Do you understand?”

  “I understand.”

  “The night of the Date Auction, I received a call from Melissa Mayhew,” said Lena.

  Fortunately for Nicky, she was still in the headspace of a long poker game, having spent the past hour making sure her eyes gave nothing away. As sad as she was to hear Lena mention Melissa’s name, Nicky was a statue who betrayed nothing to the vampire in front of her.

  “Melissa was calling me from your house,” Lena continued. “She said she had uncovered betrayal and that your family was guilty. I was going to go to your house that night, but I told Renata about the call and she decided to go in my place. I never saw or heard from Melissa again. And truthfully, I never expected to see or hear from you again either after Renata made you the princess for the Rose Ransom.”

  Nicky held eye contact with Lena and maintained her breathing. She needed a story. She wished she had come up with a cover story before walking into this house tonight.

  She should have known something like this would happen.

  “I have so many questions for you, Nicky,” Lena said. “Let’s start with the betrayal Melissa mentioned. What betrayal was she talking about?”

  This one was easy. The simplest lie is always the best one.

  “I don’t know,” Nicky said.

  Lena furrowed her brow, clearly unhappy with this answer.

  “So take a guess, then,” she said. “Why did Melissa think your family had betrayed the clan?”

  Nicky stood in place for a few seconds, imagining herself under Lena’s spell. I’m searching through my memories, Lena, just like you want. I’m being a good girl who’s doing exactly what you tell her to do.

  “I don’t know,” she said.

  Lena’s jaw dropped open.

  “So whatever it is, they’ve kept you in the dark,” she said. “How very clever. Well then what do you know, Nicky Bloom? Think of something you’d be afraid to tell me under normal circumstances. Think of something you’d be frightened to say to a vampire, and then say it to me.”

  Nicky went with the first thing that came to mind.

  “There’s a tear in your shirt,” she said. She pointed at a small hole at the seam on Lena’s shoulder.

  Lena tilted her head to one side, confused, and then looked where Nicky was pointing.

  “So there is,” she said. “We were playing in the woods earlier. And it’s cute you’d be frightened to tell me about a hole in my shirt. But that’s not what I’m looking for, Nicky. I want to know your secrets. I want to know why Melissa called me from your house. Think. There must be something in your
head. Something you overheard. Some mysterious behavior you witnessed. Some shady friends of your parents. Anything.”

  Lena was right in Nicky’s face now. How long was she going to have to keep this up?

  “Lena!” came a voice from down the hall.

  Both Lena and Nicky turned to see Sergio rushing towards them.

  “Daciana wants to speak with you,” he said.

  “Right now?” Lena said. “About what?”

  “Yes, right now, and it isn’t my business to ask what it’s about. Yours either. Come on.”

  Lena turned back to Nicky.

  “We’re not done,” she said. “We’ll finish this conversation when I get back. You will wait for me to come talk to you again. Do you understand?”

  It was all Nicky could do not to smile.

  “Yes,” she said.

  As Sergio led Lena away, he glanced back in Nicky’s direction. A fraction of a second—that was all the time it took for them to make eye contact, all the time it took for Sergio to tell Nicky that Lena wasn’t going to be a problem for her anymore.

  “Holy shit, Nicky,” came Alvin’s voice inside her ear. “What the hell was that all about?”

  “Relax,” Nicky whispered. “I’ve got it under control. Tell Jill I’m on the way to the bathroom now.”

  *****

  Jill was frantically searching Daciana’s bedroom. The single LED on her wand charm was a lifesaver. Without it, the room would be pitch black, and she wouldn’t stand a chance.

  She found the first thing she was looking for in a pencil shelf underneath the computer desk. A tiny screwdriver with a familiar logo embossed on the handle.

  Black Dart Enterprises.

  Many years ago, before Jill was even born, some slick-talking sales rep had convinced her father to order six cases of these tiny screwdrivers and give them out to clients. When Jill was little, her house was swimming in screwdrivers. Even today, some twenty years after Walter had ordered the stupid things, you could still find them in pencil dishes and desk drawers all throughout the Wentworth home.

  How happy she was to see one now.

  She kept searching the computer desk, eventually finding something else she needed. It was in the bottom drawer of a filing cabinet, sitting on top of a stack of out-of-date computer cables. A can of compressed air, the plastic straw still hanging from its spout. It looked like it had been years since anyone had touched this can. Daciana’s servants probably kept the keyboard so clean that a can of compressed air wasn’t needed.