The Bonding Ritual (Girls Wearing Black: Book Four) (12 page)

“Right,” Nicky said. “It’s over.”

As Jill drove off the property, Nicky said the words again, quieter this time, like she was trying to convince herself they were true.

“It’s over.”

Sergio followed them to a run-down house with an overgrown jungle of a yard. The whole of it buried in a thick pile of fallen leaves, the house looked more suited for a meth addict than a Thorndike student. A pair of shoes were strung over a nearby power line. Deep cracks in the street and sidewalk were full of brown, frozen weeds.

To an immortal, or anyone in the power elite, this entire neighborhood was as good as invisible. It was a great place for enemies of the clan to hide. As Sergio watched Nicky and Jill go around the side of the house and enter through a back door, he resolved not to underestimate these people, lest he end up like Renata and Bernadette.

Moving quietly and staying in the shadows, he went to the back door and listened.

Footsteps inside.
Two pairs of feet. Jill and Nicky were either the only ones in the house, or the only ones awake. He considered breaking the door down and charging inside to take Nicky, but he knew that wasn’t right.

That wasn’t part of
the ritual.

Nicky had come to him tonight. Without even knowing it, she had entered his world. Forces outside them both were conspiring to bring them together.
I need to have faith that whatever brought us together tonight will continue to push us forward,
he thought
. I need to have patience, and allow the bond and its ritual to guide me.

His ear pressed against the back door, he could hear Jill and Nicky talking. They were speaking about someone named Frankie.
Someone who, apparently, had left the house while they were away.

There was sadness in Nicky’s voice as she spoke of this person. A minute after the conversation
ended, a window on the near side of the house slid open. Nicky poked her head out. Pressing her elbows onto the windowsill, she looked up at the moon, longingly.

You are sad, Nicky,
he thought.
And you don’t understand why. You feel empty and incomplete. I will help you understand your feelings
.

Nicky closed the window and walked away. But she left the window unlocked.

The forces bringing us together are larger than either of us understand,
Sergio thought.

Staying low and close to the house,
he went to the window. He looked inside, peering into a small laundry room. Beyond that room was a galley kitchen.

Quietly, he pushed the window open and crawled inside.

He sensed her presence immediately. The house
smelled
like she was here.
This is it
, he thought.
After all these years, finally, my moment can begin.

But only begin. The ritual. It was all about the ritual now. He would open the door for Nicky tonight. She would have to choose to step through. She would initiate the music that would reach its crescendo five months later after the ritual was done and they were ready to seal their bond.

The only sounds in the house were light footsteps of two people preparing themselves for bed. Sinks went on and off, dresser drawers opened and closed, lights throughout the house switched off, starting in the front room and falling like dominoes through to the back.

When the house was dark and silent, Sergio moved further inside.

He passed through a small living area that was empty of people. He went into a hallway and walked to the end, where he found a young man asleep on a cot.

The Jenson boy.
Yes, he was meant to be part of the ritual. When Sergio stood in the forest beyond Renata’s mansion, listening to Nicky and Jill talk, it was clear that Ryan Jenson was the tether holding Nicky in place. She wanted to stay in Washington—Sergio had heard it in her voice—but as soon as Jill mentioned Ryan Jenson, Nicky had gone silent.

Sergio leaned down and whispered into Ryan’s ear.
Nicky cannot leave. It is her destiny to stay at Thorndike and win the Coronation contest
.
It is her destiny to be with me.

It was freeing to say the words. Never before had anything sounded so correct to him. So precisely true. And when he was done telling Ryan all that was in his heart, he asked the boy for confirmation that he understood the implications of this truth.

“Do you understand?”

From the depths of his slumber, the Jenson boy opened his mouth to acknowledge Sergio’s commands.

“I understand.”

Next, Sergio went into a bedroom, where he found a man and woman pressed together on a double bed. He didn’t know who they were or how they were involved, but his gut told him they too would be part of the ritual. He leaned over their sleeping frames and spoke to them at once.

“Nicky will stay at Thorndike. Her work here isn’t complete. Do you understand?”

“I understand,” came a response in unison.

Just a nudge
, he thought.
Just a simple nudge to help keep the ritual going.

He went to another bedroom, where he found the Wentworth girl in the early stages of sleep. Clearly, she was the most important of Nicky’s colleagues. What to say to her? Should she get a more specific command? Should he give her more specific guidance on what to do? If he wanted to, Sergio could put the right words in her mouth for Jill’s next conversation with Nicky.

He approached her bed. He was leaning down over Jill and about to speak when Nicky arrived.

“Sergio.”

Her voice gave him chills. Even in a whisper, it was so perfectly beautiful when Nicky Bloom said his name.

He looked up and saw her standing in the doorway.

“Leave her alone,” Nicky said.

There
was no mistaking the tone in her voice. She was giving him an order. At some level, she understood the power she held over him.

It was thrilling to obey her.

He walked away from Jill and towards Nicky, their eyes locked on one another. He could take her now. He could let his fangs come out, find the soft spot on her neck, and fill her blood with his venom.

But it wasn’t time yet. Stronger than his desire to connect with her was his understanding that it had to be done right. Their ritual had barely begun.

As he approached, Nicky stepped back from the door, clearing a path for him to come into the hallway. Then she led him through the living room and to the front door.

He was happy to follow.

He joined her on the front porch of the house. Her skin glowed softly in the moonlight. She wore a black nightgown. Her hair draped over her shoulders. There was no makeup on her face.

He had never seen her look so beautiful before.

He went to her, put his hand on her cheek, gazed in her eyes.

“Sergio,” she whispered. “What--”

He put his finger to her lips and she stopped talking. He stared at her, drawing out the connection between them.

Yes…there it was. The air between them grew hot. Nicky felt it just as much as he did—he was
sure of it. He saw it in her eyes.

He had created so many immortals, but none had
meant anything, not when compared to her. Mark’s description of bonding seemed so perfectly true now.
Our blood needed to connect
. That’s what Sergio was feeling. The other girls he created were a
want
. He made them immortal because he
wanted
to please Daciana. Nicky was different. Nicky was a
need
.

“You were going to leave,” Sergio said.

Nicky was silent for a few seconds, then she said, “You were at Renata’s mansion, weren’t you? You followed us here. You heard us talking.”

“I know all about you, Nicky Bloom. I know about the Network. I know about your mission. And I know why, even though you came here to kill me, you couldn’t do it when you had the chance.”

She looked at him for a few seconds before she spoke.

“I was scared, Sergio. You and Falkon were fighting. I was confused.”

“There is no need for you to lie to me,” Sergio said. “I know the truth about you and I don’t care, because there is something happening between us that is larger than what brought you to Washington.”

She stood in place. He could see the war raging inside her head, and as he looked on, he knew the conflict inside her wasn’t a normal response, that very few others would make any effort to resist the bonding ritual.

She was so incredibly strong. It was, perhaps, his favorite thing about her.

“You can’t leave, Nicky. At the Homecoming Masquerade you made a promise to me that you’d stay.”

“If you know everything about me, then you know I never had any intention of keeping my promise. If you know who I am, then you know--”

“—that you came here to kill me? So kill me then, Nicky. Go inside and grab a knife. I will wait here for you to come back. And if you can do it, I won’t try to stop
you. That’s my promise to you. If the true desire in your heart is to kill me, then I want you to do it.”

He pushed closer to her.

“But I know that’s not what you want,” he said. “You feel it. I know you do. Tell me that you feel it.”

“I feel it,” Nicky whispered.

There was fear in her voice. He wanted to comfort her. He wanted to tell her that what was happening was the most beautiful, most natural thing in the world, and there was nothing to fear.

But that wasn’t in the spirit of the ritual. Nicky had to face her feelings. She had to make the conscious decision to proceed in spite of her fear.

“I want you to stay at Thorndike,” Sergio said. “And I know you want to stay as well.”

“I can’t stay,” Nicky said. “It’s time…my friends.”

“Tomorrow morning, you may find your friends more amenable to the idea of sticking around,” Sergio said.

Nicky’s eyes opened wide. “What have you done?”

“The commands were simple,” he said. “I have left your friends just as they were before, with only a simple change in their minds. Now they understand the importance of staying so you can finish what you started. And I haven’t spoken with the Wentworth girl at all. You found me before I had the chance. Shall I go speak with her now?”

“No! Please, I--”

“You and Jill are the two key players in this attempt to come here and kill me, are you not?”

Nicky said nothing.

“Yes, I think maybe it’s best that I leave the Wentworth girl alone,” Sergio said. “Perhaps that’s why you discovered me before I could say anything. Perhaps it should be your job to convince her to stay, not mine. Yes, that feels right. After all, it was her work that brought you here, correct? In a way, she is the one who set our ritual in motion.”

“Sergio, you keep talking about a ritual. I don’t know what you’re saying.”

He smiled at her. He couldn’t wait to be with her. Their bond would be strong. A hundred years or longer. He could sense it. How amazing it was going to be! No longer alone in the world, but joined at the heart with another.

With her.

“We are bonding, Nicky Bloom, and every bond is strengthened and sealed with a bonding ritual. Our ritual began at the Homecoming Masquerade. How fitting it was that we began our bonding ritual with a dance! Because at root, that’s what our ritual is. The back and forth. The dance. You thought you were coming here to kill me. I thought you were here to join the clan. We were both wrong. We have both been dancing around the truth, Nicky. The truth that brought us together and demands that we finish what we set in motion when we first met.”

“You want me to win Coronation,” Nicky said. “That’s this bonding ritual you’re talking about.”

“We don’t choose the ritual,” Sergio said. “It chooses us. And a good ritual prepares us for the bond. It forces us to overcome the obstacles that would keep us apart. For us, the obstacles are huge, aren’t they, Nicky? I have been loyal to my maker for centuries, but now she is an obstacle to our bond, and last night I lied to her in order to protect you.”

“Sergio, I can’t win the contest anymore. Things have changed.”

He leaned even closer, his eyes now centimeters away from hers. The silence outside was total. It would be dawn soon. It was time for Sergio to go.

“You must choose for us to be together,” he whispered. “It’s the only way. You must choose us, and when you do, the rest will be easy. All the problems you and Jill were discussing tonight are easily resolved if you choose to stay and continue our ritual.”

He felt so content looking in her eyes. He would have been happy to stay there and gaze at her forever.

“Go rest now,” he said. “Tomorrow morning you will make your decision. If you choose to run away, I won’t try and follow you. But I hope that’s not your choice. I hope you choose to stay, and see our ritual through to the end.”