The Rose Ransom (Girls Wearing Black: Book Three) (21 page)

And it explained why Melissa had
been so confused.

“So who is this girl really?
Have you used other means to make her talk?”

“I have. The boy is her pressure
point. She is quite fond of him. So long as he is being treated well, she is
cooperative. The minute I made life difficult for him, she spilled her guts.”

“And?”

“She is a member of the
resistance. She came to Thorndike to cause trouble for your family.”

“Oh my,” Renata said. “I never
would have expected that. The organization it must have taken. I mean, just to
get into Thorndike--”

“It is quite an accomplishment,
I know,” said Falkon. “She is an impressive girl. There’s more I should tell
you about her, but I think the full story should wait until you arrive. We can
have a chat while Nicky and her boyfriend are present. I think it will be a lot
of fun.”

“Hey, speaking of fun, can I
tell you about these clues I wrote for the Rose Ransom?”

“Certainly,” Falkon said in a
less than enthusiastic voice.

Twenty minutes later, Renata
having exhausted all there was to say about the Rose Ransom, they hung up.
Renata set down the phone and reached for her coin.

“Now, Opal,” she said “I believe
you and I were talking about fate.”

Nicky lost herself in the
darkness of her prison cell. Her body was locked up somewhere in Falkon’s
laboratory, but her mind was not.

Her mind was floating on a sea
of memory.

Standing in the courtyard.
Playing in the garden. Swimming in the lake. Running into the woods with her
father.

At first she thought it was the
solitude that allowed the memories to come forward. With so little stimulation,
her mind had nowhere to go, and turned in on itself.

But as time marched forward and
the memories continued to flow, that explanation didn’t feel right to Nicky.
Some of these memories were bubbling to the surface on their own. Others felt
like they came in from the outside.

Like her memory of a summer
afternoon at the lake with her father. Or of long spring days out in the woods,
exploring the side of the mountain, picking flowers as she went. 

She remembered reading books in
her father’s lap. Sitting at the table with him and learning how to write her
letters and numbers. Going out into the meadow and flying a kite.

She wondered where her mother
was in all this. It seemed like the only memory she had of the woman was that
horrible vision in the courtyard.

A flood of bright light
interrupted Nicky’s thoughts. She had been in darkness so long that any light
was blinding. This light came from outside the cell, shining bright through the
glass door that locked her inside. Nicky covered her eyes with her hands.

The door slid open and someone
came in. Unable to see, Nicky crouched against the wall.

“Oh look at her, she’s a mess,
Falkon!”

It was Renata. Her voice, so
intimidating the first time she came, now seemed distant and harmless to Nicky.

“You need to let her out every
once in awhile,” Renata said. “I mean, look at her! She looks like a crazy
person!”

She feels like one too
,
Nicky thought.

“We can clean her up at the
house,” Falkon said. “Come along, Nicky. Renata’s going to take your picture.”

They carried Nicky to Falkon’s
mansion, Renata on one arm, Falkon on the other. It took the entire walk for
Nicky’s eyes to adjust. When they got to the house, Renata dragged her into a
bedroom.

“Take a shower,” she commanded.
“You stink. I’ll be back.”

Nicky looked around. The bedroom
was small. A twin bed, a bookcase, a television, a writing desk...

Her eyes doubled back to the
bed. The cover was pulled back. Someone had been sleeping here. Where had he
gone?

“Where is he?” Nicky shrieked,
running into the hallway. “You promised you would let him sleep in here! You
promised!”

She was rushing through the
doorway to the living room when she ran right into Falkon. He was like a wall,
his body not giving an inch.

“You may relax,” he said. “Your
boyfriend is fine. I woke him not more than ten minutes ago.”

“But where is he?”

“Somewhere safe,” said Falkon.
“You’ll be seeing him in a few minutes, provided you behave.”

“I want to see him now.”

“And I want you to take a shower!”
Renata yelled as she entered the room with a black dress in her arms. She
walked up to Nicky and pushed the dress at her. “Put this on after you’ve
showered,” she said. “I’ve brought someone to help you with your hair and
makeup.”

Her hair and makeup?

“We’re going to do a little
photo shoot,” Renata said. “I’m sure your friends back home are all quite
curious about your date in Italy. We’re going to show them a picture of a sweet
couple having a lovely time.”

Nicky looked from Renata to
Falkon, hoping one of them would tell her more.

“Get moving!” Renata yelled.

Nicky did as they asked. Twenty
minutes later, she was wearing the dress and sitting in a chair while one of
Renata’s slaves blow dried her hair. After her hair was dry, the slave did a
complete workup on Nicky’s face. Mascara, eye shadow, blush, lipstick—it was
one of the strangest experiences of Nicky’s life. A prisoner in a vampire’s
mansion, already told she wasn’t getting out, and she was being made up like a
movie star.

When her makeup was complete,
Renata led Nicky across the mansion and to another bedroom, this one set up
with bright lights and a full camera rig. Ryan was sitting on the bed.

Nicky made to run for him, but
didn’t get anywhere. Renata was holding onto her wrist.

“I will tell you when you may
get on the bed,” she said. “We’re putting Ryan in place first. You stand here.”

Renata left Nicky at the foot of
the bed and went behind the camera rig. As she walked around, Nicky and Ryan
shared a glance.

There was so much she wanted to
say to him. So much she wished she could tell him before it was all over.

“Okay Ryan,” said Renata.
“Gently, so as not to mess up the comforter, I want you to crawl back into the
bed and lie down.”

Ryan did as Renata instructed.

“Very good. Nicky, it’s your
turn. You may climb on the bed and lie next to Ryan.”

Nicky crawled onto the bed and
put her head on the pillow next to him. They were facing each other.

I never meant to hurt you
,
Nicky thought.

“Stay right there,” Renata
commanded. “Just a little more scenery.”

Renata grabbed a bucket from
beside the bed and dumped its contents all over Nicky and Ryan.

Rose petals. Hundreds of them.
Renata laughed as they spilled all over the place.

“Oops, made a bit of a mess,”
she said. “Brush each other off, will you? I want the petals on the bed, not
your faces.”

With a gentle touch, Ryan pushed
a rose petal off Nicky’s hair. With another touch, he removed one from her
cheek. With another, her temple.

“That looks good,” Renata said.
“Now, stay perfectly still.”

Renata went behind the camera
rig and started adjusting the equipment. Nicky and Ryan lay in the bed, looking
at each other, saying nothing.

The camera flashed three times.

“Very good. Sit up, both you,”
Renata said. “Falkon and I have something we wish to discuss.”

As Falkon entered the room,
Nicky wondered if this was it. They had just taken their picture. Did they have
any use for them anymore?

“Renata was quite interested to
hear that you lied to her,” Falkon said to Nicky.

“And I was even more interested
when Falkon told me the truth about you,” Renata said. “So, the Network. Did
you know about this, Ryan? Did you know your little girlfriend came to
Thorndike not to become an immortal, but to kill one?”

Ryan shook his head.

“I don’t think this boy is involved,
do you, Falkon?”

“Oh no. His mind is an open
book. Poor guy just fell for a pretty girl. She ended up being trouble for
him.”

“Isn’t that always the way?”
Renata said. “But it begs the question. Who is working with you, Nicky Bloom?
Is there anyone else at Thorndike who is at school under false pretenses?”

“No,” Nicky said.

“She’s lying,” said Falkon. “I
will make her tell the truth. Mr. Jenson, I want you to imagine a fire.”

“No, stop!” Nicky said. “I’ll
tell you.”

Ryan’s eyes were open wide in
fear. Just a few words from Falkon and his mind was already in turmoil.

She had to be clever about this.
She had to convince Falkon she was telling the truth without giving Jill away.

“I don’t work alone,” she said.
“My parents –they’re not my parents--”

“Your parents are conveniently
missing,” said Renata. “So, you are telling me they are Network agents too?”

“Yes,” said Nicky.

“Who cares about your phony
parents?” said Falkon. “Ryan, the fire is at your feet. It’s burning your
toes.”

Ryan hissed, pulling his feet
back.

“I want to know if anyone else
in the clan is in league with you,” Renata said. “Someone powerful enough to
get you the only open slot in Thorndike’s senior class.”

“There’s no one!”

“Ryan, your whole body is on
fire,” Falkon said.

Ryan cried out in pain. He
jumped up from the bed and crashed into an end table, demolishing it on his way
down. He landed on the floor and rolled side to side, as if trying to put
himself out.

“Please!” Nicky said. “Please
stop this!”

“The pain is growing, Ryan,”
said Falkon. “The worst you’ve ever felt.”

Ryan was thrashing on the floor,
waving his arms at imaginary flames. Nicky was about to open her mouth and tell
them anything that might make them stop, when Ryan shouted, “Don’t…tell…them…anything!”

Falkon let out a cackling laugh.
“Well, would you look at that?” he said. “Mr. Jenson wants to tough it out.”

“It’s in my mind,” Ryan growled.
“It’s all in my mind.”

“It’s not in your mind,” Falkon
said. “Ryan, the pain is excruciating. Every nerve in your body is exploding
with it.”

“It’s in my mind!” Ryan yelled.
“Don’t tell them a thing, Nicky! They’re going to kill us anyway!”

“Yes, we are,” said Renata, “but
it doesn’t have to be this painful. You can go with dignity. Give me names,
Nicky. How did you get into Thorndike? Who is helping you?”

“We don’t work with vampires!”
Nicky yelled. “We kill them!”

Falkon raised his hand and
snapped his fingers. Ryan quit yelling. He lay on the floor, breathing as if
he’d just run a marathon.

“Why did we stop?” Renata asked.

“The boy was on the verge,”
Falkon said. “Much longer and we would have killed him. You need him alive for
the ending of your little contest, don’t you?”

“Yes, but…the interrogation.”

“She is telling us the truth,”
said Falkon. “We have nothing to fear. None of your clanmates are in league
with her.”

“But how did she get into
Thorndike?”

“We hacked the admissions
database,” Nicky said. “We made sure the committee didn’t want anyone but me.”

“A likely story,” said Renata.
“And I’m supposed to believe you broke into one of the most secure computers in
the world and somehow arranged everything so we had no choice but to choose
you?”

“We did it twice,” said Nicky.
“Once to get me into school, and once to make Karmela the princess for the
Ransom.”

Renata’s eyes opened wide.

“She said something of
interest?” Falkon said.

“Just today,” said Renata. “The
Regents called me today while I was on the plane! They were unanimous in their
recommendation of who to choose as princess! They all wanted Karmela. They
fought with me when I told them I’ve chosen someone else.”

Falkon smiled. “I think we’re
done here,” he said. “Come along, Nicky. Back to your cell.”

Renata returned from Italy a day
later and raced to complete the final preparations for the Rose Ransom kickoff
party.

The ballroom was an array of
banquet tables set up in front of a stage. Renata tinkered with the
centerpieces on each table, and checked that the projector was working
properly.

In the foyer, she made some
final adjustments to the indoor forest her servants had created. There were
forty-eight potted trees in all, spaced in a way that their branches came
together some seven feet above the ground. Renata had her servants string lights
all throughout the branches. When the party started, the house lights would
dim, leaving only the strings of white lights in the trees to illuminate the
place.

It would look and feel like they
were having a party under the stars.

The only décor she allowed that
was not part of her forest theme was her grandfather clock, which had been in
Renata’s family for a hundred years by the time her parents died and bequeathed
it to her. On the night of the party, Renata stood in front of that clock for a
while, thinking. She was about to change everything. They were on the cusp of a
new era, one where an immortal could be created at will. They could create
thousands of new immortals if they desired, all of them loyal to Renata and
Falkon. All the politicking and backstabbing and general nuisance of being in
the Samarin family—Renata was about to end it. She would handpick a few of her
most loyal brothers and sisters who could remain in her new clan. The rest
would have to go. Melissa and Dominic were just the first.

The clock read five minutes to
eight. A little over an hour and her guests would arrive.

She went through the kitchen and
into the garage, where a team of servants were washing the vans. She found
Frankie standing behind one of the vans, his long arms stretched out over the
hood with a towel in each hand.