The Bonding Ritual (Girls Wearing Black: Book Four) (60 page)

He could swear she was smiling at him as he passed.

Now he was in front, with maybe two hundred yards of open road before the exit.

“Get out of there, Jill,” he said. “Finish what you’re doing and get out of there.”

With Daciana right on his bumper, Ryan lifted his foot from the gas, and slammed on the brake.

As Jill watched the blue progress bar push from left to right across the screen, she felt like she was watching more than a computer program updating its status.

She was watching the curtain close on her life in Potomac.

Nicky, Ryan, and Zack were already on their way to Richmond. The emails to her parents, inviting them to leave, were sent. By this time tomorrow, word would be spreading through town about what she did.

About what they all did.

The progress bar reached the far right side of the screen and disappeared. In its place, a message appeared.

Cycle complete.

“That’s it,” she said.

“We’re done?” said Alvin.

“We’re done.”

She grabbed the thumb drive from the USB port and the phone from the computer desk.

“Let’s get out of here,” she said.

They went up the stairs, out of the crypt, and back into the mansion, which was completely trashed. In the group’s rush to empty it out, they had thrown over file cabinets and
bookcases, emptied boxes onto the floor, and left trash everywhere.

“You weren’t kidding when you said you had to leave a lot behind,” said Jill.

“You should see what we took,” said Alvin. “My truck is stuffed to the gills.”

They worked their way to the loading dock and found their cars parked outside. Before Alvin got into his truck, he glanced at his phone.

“Geez,” he said. “Phillip called me eight times when we were down there. Did he call you?”

Jill grabbed the phone from the pouch in her dress. Before she even looked at it, she realized her mistake.

In her rush to get out of the crypt, she had grabbed Daciana’s phone instead of her own.

She briefly considered leaving her phone behind, but thought better of it. There was too much confidential information on that phone to hand over to Daciana.

“I need to go back,” she said. “I grabbed the wrong phone.”

Alvin scowled. “Be quick about it,” he said. He pressed a few buttons on his screen and held the phone up to his ear to listen to his voicemail. “I’ll wait for you.”

Jill ran back the way they came, going all the way to the crypt, where she dropped Daciana’s phone on the desk and grabbed hers instead. Back up the stairs, through the moon room, down a hallway, dodging trash along the way…she was nearly at the loading dock when she heard it.

A clicking sound.
Like someone opening a door.

And then her phone buzzed with an incoming text, startling her so much she yelped and dropped it on the floor.

“Shit,” she muttered, bending down to pick it up again.

The text was from Ryan. The time stamp said he had sent it more than fifteen minutes ago.

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

“Oh no.”

Before she even started to run, she knew. That clicking sound wasn’t her imagination. It was the front door of the mansion. And no matter how fast she ran…

A blinding force hit her from behind and she crashed to the floor, skidding across a continuous pile of loose papers and junk. She raced to get back on her feet, but a hand grabbed onto her shoulder and threw her down again.

She grunted in pain as she hit the floor.

“Hello, Jill.”

Daciana was on top of her, pressing her head to the ground with one hand.

“You’ve made a big mess of my house. I hope you weren’t intending to leave before you cleaned up.”

Daciana pressed harder on Jill’s head, squeezing it against the tile. Jill felt like her skull was about to crack. Her instinct was to try to push back, to fight with her arms and legs and neck, but there was nothing she could do. Daciana had her legs wrapped around Jill’s body.

“Don’t worry, I’m not going to kill you,” Daciana said. “Not until we’ve spoken first. Are you ready to have a chat?”

Jill moaned in agony as Daciana ground her temple into the floor.

“I’ll take that as a yes.”

Daciana grabbed Jill by the hair and lifted her head up, forcing Jill to turn and face her. The instant Jill made eye contact, she knew it was over. Daciana had control of her mind before she could even blink.

“Are you with me, Jill?”

Jill didn’t want to say the words but they came out anyway.

“I’m with you.”

“Good. I’m going to ask you some questions and you’re going to answer with every piece of information you think I’d like to hear. Do you understand?”

“I understand.”

“Why are you here tonight?”

“I hacked into your computer so I could use your banking software to get at every bank account in the clan.”

“Why do you want our bank accounts?”

“I emptied them,” Jill said. “I stole all your money and sent it to the Cayman Islands. From there, it’s going to a dozen Swiss bank accounts where you won’t be able to track it.”

“Will you be able to track it? If I ask you to, can you recover all the money for me?”

“Yes.”

Staring into Daciana’s eyes, Jill felt like she was of two minds. There was the part of her that had no choice but to obey. That part was in full control of her body, and would do anything Daciana asked her to.

But the other part of her, the part that wasn’t enslaved, was still there. That part was furious that she had spent so much time in the crypt, that she had left behind her phone and had to run back to get it.

That part of her was aware of her surroundings. The trash that lined the floor, the pain in her ribs as Daciana squeezed on her torso, the smell of gasoline.

Why did it smell like gasoline?

“I’m glad to hear you can undo at least some of the damage you have done,” Daciana said. “We’ll get to that in a minute. First I want to know who you’re working for. You’re obviously not in this alone. Not after all that’s happened of late.”

“I work for the Network.”

“The what?”

“The Network. The resistance.”

“The humans?”

“Yes.”

A puzzled look came over Daciana’s face.

“But what about Renata?”

“She’s dead. We killed her. Then I gave the order to burn down her mansion.”

Daciana’s eyes opened wide. She loosened her grip on Jill’s hair.

“Renata is dead,” Daciana said. “You’re certain of this.”

“We cut her head off. You probably couldn’t find her body because we left it in the mansion when it burned.”

Daciana let go of Jill and stood up.

“To your feet,” she commanded

Even as Jill resisted the command with her mind, her body obeyed. She stood up and turned to face Daciana, seeing for the first time what a mess she was.

Daciana’s clothes were bloodstained and torn. Her skin was covered in dried blood and dirt. Her hair had fallen down and was caked in mud and gunk.

What happened to you?
Jill wanted to ask, but couldn’t.

“Who killed Sergio?” Daciana said.

The question brought Jill tremendous relief, even if her body wasn’t capable of expressing it.

Sergio was dead? Had they done it? Had Winnie and her team really done it? It was
exhilarating even to consider the idea. If Sergio was dead, then it all was worth it. No matter what Daciana did to Jill now, even if she forced her to put back all the money she stole, even if she made Jill tell her every detail of the operation from the very beginning, even if she murdered Jill before the night was over, it was worth it.

The mission was a success. Coronation was over.

“We had a team of vampire hunters waiting for Sergio at Mary Torrance’s house,” Jill said.

“But Sergio didn’t die at Mary’s house.”

“He didn’t?”

“You don’t know? How curious. Perhaps all didn’t go according to your plan. I need to speak with the others in your group. Who is helping you?”

This was a question she really didn’t want to answer. Not that it mattered much—everyone was on the road, already beyond Daciana’s reach.

But she still hated to be a rat.

“Nicky Bloom,” she said. “Ryan Jenson. Phillip and Helena Fischer. Alvin Green, Eve-”

A gunshot from the other end of the hall interrupted Jill’s confession.

“Get down, Jill!” someone shouted. “Down, now!”

Jill dropped to the floor right as the fireworks began.
Explosions and yelling and gunfire, lots of gunfire. Within seconds, the room was full of smoke. Jill heard screams and bodies crashing into walls and bullet casings clattering to the ground.

Jill crawled on her stomach away from the noise, covering the length of the hall on elbows and knees while chaos reigned behind her. When she reached the end of the hall she pushed herself to her feet and ran into the great room.

The battle followed her in there.

Daciana came first, leaping into the room from the hallway and soaring all the way to the opposite wall, which she used as a springboard for her next jump.

“Stay down, Jill!” came a voice. It was Helena. Helena was here. Who else? How did they know to come?

Jill ducked towards the near wall as Daciana’s pursuers entered the room. Helena and Winnie were in the lead, with machine guns in their arms. Eve was right behind them, holding a barrel-shaped tube emitting an ultraviolet laser. Behind Eve was Frankie, who had a sword in his hands, and a calm, inquisitive look on his face.

Daciana bounced around the room like a pinball, always one jump ahead of the gunfire, which pulverized the walls and filled the air with dust.

“Run, Jill!” Helena screamed.

Jill rushed out of the great room and into the foyer. She made a mad dash across the open floor, headed for the hallway that led to the kitchen. She was almost there when Daciana came flying in, landing right in front of her.

“Don’t go away just yet, Jill,” Daciana said. “We need to finish our conversation about my bank accounts.”

With the back of her hand, Daciana slapped her across the face. The force of the blow lifted Jill off the ground and sent her crashing into a nearby cabinet. Jill was still conscious when she landed, but barely. She opened her eyes and could hardly see. She tried to stand and immediately fell down again.

“Stay on the ground!” Helena yelled.

Jill felt so dizzy she hardly knew where she was. The room was spinning, end over end—she felt like she was inside a clothes dryer looking out. Breathing deeply, she tried to control herself, but she couldn’t pull it together. The sounds around her were a jumble. Gunfire and shouting blended together into a muddled mess of noise.

That faded.

The fight was leaving the great room. Her vision still spinning, Jill couldn’t see them leave, but she could hear them. Daciana led the others into the hallway, towards the kitchen, and into the rest of the house.

She was alone.

She tried to stand again but only got as far as her hands and knees before the wooziness took over.

Focus on something
, she thought.
Focus on something and get yourself together
.

She was looking at the floor, which was a blur of images. Trash, papers, bullets, a knife…

A knife?

A shiny silver blade attached to a golden hilt. She stared at the knife for a second, willing her scattered vision to come into focus.

She had seen this knife before. Spring carnival. The presentation of gifts. This was Kim Renwick’s gift to Daciana.

She reached out for the knife, missing it on the first try, but grabbing it on the second. With the knife in-hand, she willed herself to her feet. She stood in place, testing her balance. It was coming back. The room was still spinning, but more slowly now. She just needed to give it a second.

“Jill!”

She turned her head towards the sound, finding its source at the entryway. It was Alvin.

“Come on!” he said. “The front door is this way. Let’s get out of here!”

Yes.
The front door. She was in the foyer. She could just walk through the front door!

She took a step. Her balance held. She took another. And another.

And then the room went dark.

“What’s happened?” Jill said. Her head still foggy, she wondered if something had gone wrong with her vision.

“The power’s out,” Alvin said. “It’s just the lights going off. Come on, Jill. This way!”