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

no one telling her what to do or where to go, the victim walks along this path and pulls open the door on the other side.”
    On the other side was the back entrance to Thorndike’s old gymnasium, which remained standing for a single purpose. Thorndike no longer had a basketball or volleyball team, and there was no P.E. requirement at the school.
    Always and forever, an integral part of the school’s most important tradition, the old gym at Thorndike remained standing because that was where prom was held. Where prom had always been held.
    “Shall we make the walk?” Edith said. “It’s part of your tour package.”
    “No,” said Galen. “Let’s just stand here and allow Kim to imagine what it would be like to take those final steps, knowing that on the other side, she’s about to become food for one of her classmates.”
    Kim closed her eyes and crunched down the anger raging inside her. She felt like this morning’s events would permanently change the relationship with her father. The fact that he took her here, subjected her to this—she would never forgive him.
    “Think about it, Kim,” Galen said. “You walk along this path, and at the other end, you open the door and look in at the cage.”
    Kim was trying with all her might not to imagine it, and failing. She could see the cage. She knew the cage. Two carpet walkways leading into it. The victim walks a purple carpet into one side of the cage. The immortal walks a red carpet into the other. Her eyes closed, Kim found herself lost in this vision she wanted so desperately not to see. She was there, in the moment, looking up at Samantha Kwan, newly immortal, fangs bared, drool coming out of her mouth.
    “I smell smoke,” she said.
    “I’m sorry, what?” said Edith.
    “Smoke,” said Kim. She opened her eyes, which burned with irritation. “Something’s burning.”
    It was like a campfire, or maybe a wood-burning stove. She was glad for it, whatever it was. The smell had tickled her nostrils, irritated her eyes, and yanked her right out of the horrid vision of the cage at prom.
    “I smell it too,” said Galen.
    He stepped down onto the grass pathway and began looking around.
    “Over there,” he said, pointing westward, where a gray plume was rising above the tree line.
    “Oh my, would you look at that?” said Edith. “I hope everyone’s okay.”
    “Probably just a big burnout,” Galen said. “How many immortals were at the party last night?”
    “Just Renata,” said Kim.
    “Maybe more of them gathered after the rest of you went home,” said Galen. “I bet they piled all their kills into the cremation furnace at once.”
    “You think so?” said Edith.
    “Has to be,” said Galen. “That’s a lot of smoke, and Renata’s house is the only thing over there.”

Chapter 2
     
    After helping her kill Falkon Dillinger, Sergio Alonzo led Daciana Samarin out of the abandoned mineshaft where she had been held prisoner for months. They emerged in a moonlit mountain forest. Daciana took a tentative step onto the snow-covered ground. She was disoriented. Sergio saw it in her face. She had no idea where she was or how she arrived here.
    “You’re in the Italian Alps,” Sergio said. “We’re not far from Falkon’s villa.”
    He took her hand and started down the mountainside. He thought about the hours before daylight, the servants still in Falkon’s home, many of them ripe. Daciana could eat, regain her stamina, and tomorrow night, they could fly back to America.
    He hadn’t given the slightest thought to the question Daciana was bound to ask. When it came, it caught him completely by surprise.
    “How did you know to look for me way out here?”
    The answer to this question came quickly to his mind, where it froze in place, making no effort to push its way out through his lips.
    I didn’t know to look for you in the mountains. In fact, I wasn’t looking for you at at all. I was looking for Nicky Bloom. I k new she would be here