The Bonding Ritual (Girls Wearing Black: Book Four) Read Online Free Page A

being. He was connecting with her now, as he had done when they danced at the Masquerade and he saw into her memory. Yes, as he stood in this prison cell, he felt Nicky’s presence. So much sorrow. Nicky Bloom had been locked in this corner for weeks, an eighteen-year-old girl trapped in the darkness, surrounded by monsters.
    His anger at Falkon and Renata grew. It was a shame they had killed Falkon so quickly. So painlessly. He would find Renata and make her pay for what they had done to—
    “Sergio?”
    He turned around to see Daciana standing just outside the prison cell.
    “Yes?” he said.
    “Something’s on your mind. Tell me what it is.”
    Sergio shrugged his shoulders. “I was just dealing with my own anger at Renata,” he said, “for betraying you.”
    Daciana stepped into the cell.
    “Hang on,” she said. “This one smells different.”
    Sergio took a deep breath. He saw a chain of events unfolding in the near future. Daciana returning to Washington; Daciana meeting the girls wearing black; Daciana learning about the new girl who had taken the school by storm…
    Daciana smelling her and recognizing the scent.
    “Falkon wasn’t just holding feral vampires in this place,” he said.
    “Yes, I can tell,” Daciana said, now placing her nose close to the stone wall. “There was a human in here. A girl. Perfectly ripe.” She inhaled deeply. “Oh, it’s making me hungry just being here.”
    At that moment, a vision came to Sergio’s mind with such speed and clarity he had to put his hand on the wall to stay upright. In the vision, he was charging at Daciana, biting into her throat, and tearing her apart at the neck.
    “So who was she?” Daciana said.
    Sergio’s mind envisioned his master lying dead on the floor. Dead at his own hands.
    “Sergio?”
    “Yes?”
    “The girl in this cell. Do you know who she was?”
    He had to tell her. Tell her or kill her, and he couldn’t bring himself to kill his own maker.
    “It was the princess,” he said.
    I have to find Nicky , he thought. I have to find her before Daciana does.
    “The princess?”
    “It’s December,” Sergio said. “The Rose Ransom contest has just come to an end.”
    “Oh, yes of course,” said Daciana. “So Renata kidnapped a Thorndike s tudent for the Ransom game and…and locked her here? Why did she do that?”
    “I believe Renata’s intent was for the Rose Ransom to go unsolved this year,” Sergio said. “In fact, I believe Renata did all she could to make the clues as hard as possible. She didn’t follow protocol on the contest. She kidnapped a girl wearing black, who just happened to be dating a boy from the wealthiest family in school. She kidnapped him too.”
    “She intended to steal the Ransom money,” Daciana said.
    “For all we know, she already has,” said Sergio.
    “But which girl?” Daciana sniffed again. “I know the Renwick girl. It isn’t her.”
    This is for the best , Sergio thought. Soon Daciana would return to DC and learn all about the Rose Ransom. There was no way to hide Nicky Bloom from her.
    The best he could do for Nicky was spin a story to protect her.
    “It’s a girl you’ve never met,” said Sergio. “A new girl at school.”
    “A new girl?”
    Sergio nodded.
    “A delightful girl,” he said.
    “What is her name?”
    “Nicky.” The word tasted like candy on his tongue. “Nicky Bloom.”
    Daciana stepped back and looked up at the entire prison block.
    “Walk me through what happened,” she said. “You arrived in this laboratory to find a dozen feral vampires and one of the girls wearing black.”
    The lies. So many lies would be required to protect Nicky Bloom. But what kind of lies would Daciana believe?
    “I wanted to free the girl,” Sergio said, stepping over to the control console where he had seen Nicky release the feral vampires. “I pressed this button,” he said, pointing at a button Nicky had pushed. “Falkon arrived. We started fighting. The feral vampires