Privilege 4 - Sweet Deceit (13 page)

Calm down. It wasn't necessarily her, Ariana reminded herself. April was always a possibility. She was the girls' pledge educator. She was supposed to be in charge of Hell Week, along with Conrad. It might have been her job to figure out what each of the girls would have to do. But if so, what was she thinking, making one of the taps humiliate one of the active members?

It was Lexa. It had to be Lexa. Ariana knew she was just fooling herself thinking otherwise.

There was a quick rap on the door and Ariana's breath caught. She closed her eyes, took a breath, and held it. In a few minutes this would all be over.

Just breathe, Ariana.

In, one . . . two . . . three . . .

Out, one . . . two . . . three . . .

She opened her eyes, reached over, and hit the record button on her phone. Her hands were perfectly still. She got up, walked to the door, and opened it. Palmer was wearing a blue APH sweatshirt and his eyes were bright.

"I got your note," he said, holding up the scrap of paper between two fingers. "`Let's make up for the other night?'"

Ariana opened her mouth to greet him, but her airway was choked off by guilt. So instead she grabbed him by the front of his sweatshirt, the embroidered letters crushed inside her fist, and pulled him to her. Palmer tripped forward in surprise, but met her lips in a kiss. Ariana reached behind him and slammed the door. She backed toward her bed, kissing him all the while, then turned around and shoved him down, so that his back was to the bed, and his face would be clear to the camera.

Palmer looked up at her, surprised, but clearly pleased. Ariana could practically see him through the view screen on her phone--see how perfectly he was framed, how clear his face was in the picture. Swallowing back the nauseated feeling rising up in her throat, Ariana lay down on top of him, but quickly rolled off to the right side so that her back was to the wall. So that she wasn't blocking the camera's view of his face.

Palmer smiled, his eyes never leaving hers. He reached his hand up, cupped her face, and gently kissed her. Ariana's fingers clenched. He was so sweet. So gentle. So freaking unsuspecting.

I can' t do this. I can't, I can't, I can't.

But you have to. You must. You must get into Stone and Grave.

Ariana steeled herself. There was a task at hand. All she had to do was complete the task. Then she wouldn't have to worry about it anymore. It would all be over if she could just get through the next few minutes. And a few minutes were really all she had. The digital card on her phone would be full before she knew it.

She pulled back, sat up, and tore off her sweater, revealing the skimpy tank top underneath. Palmer smiled and took his shirt off too, showing off his very ripped chest and stomach. The next ten minutes were a blur. Ariana kept trying to concentrate on Palmer, kept trying to shove her own betrayal into the back of her mind. But she couldn't do it. All she could think about while he kissed her and touched her and undressed her was the fact that a camera was running. The fact that someone in Stone and Grave was going to demand to see the recording. Someone else--possibly Lexa--was going to watch every second of what was happening.

Unless . . .

Did it really have to be every second?

Ariana pulled back from Palmer's kisses.

"What's the matter?" he asked, breathless.

"Nothing. I just . . . I forgot. Lillian's supposed to be back soon," Ariana said, yanking her shirt over her head and rolling away from Palmer.

"Seriously?" he asked, sitting up. His face was flushed and he was practically panting. Ariana was flattered by the fact that he was so attracted to her that he was already that far gone.

"Yeah. I'm sorry. I totally forgot," Ariana said as she smoothed her hair. "Can we go back to your room?"

Palmer blinked a few times. He plucked his sweatshirt off the floor and pulled it on. "Um . . . yeah. Sure. Landon's at some record company meeting tonight."

"Cool. Let's go," Ariana said, taking his hand.

"Okay," Palmer said, still in a stupor.

Ariana led Palmer out of the room, leaving the camera behind, feeling giddy over the fact that it wouldn't be recording the ending of this encounter, wherever it may lead. Feeling, for the first time in days, like she had the power. NEW TASK

"Tap number three. What is the birthplace of Stone and Grave brother Rabbit?" Conrad demanded, staring down at Ariana. His nostrils flared and her heart pounded a nervous beat. It was amazing how intimidated she felt in front of him, when just a few hours ago they were laughing together in class over an odd turn of phrase in Hamlet.

"Brooklyn, New Y Brother Lear," she replied, her legs quaking beneath her. For the past hour, Ariana and her fellow taps had been kneeling

ork, on the floor in the Tombs, their knees pressed into the icy concrete, their burlap sacks chafing their bare skin. Never in her life would Ariana have been able to predict how difficult it was to kneel for that long, but her thigh muscles had started quivering about half an hour earlier, begging for her to sit back on her heels, to stand up, to lay down--anything to relieve them.

"What do you think you're doing, plebe?!" Conrad shouted suddenly, spittle flying from his lips as he turned on Tahira.

Ariana was so startled she almost collapsed. Tahira pushed herself up into her kneeling position with her fingertips to the ground. Clearly she had tried to sit back for a second.

"Sorry. I . . . I just needed a break," she stammered.

Ariana had never seen Tahira be anything less than firm, focused, and in charge. Stammering was not her style.

"What makes you think you deserve a break!?" Conrad shouted, his eyes nearly popping out of his skull. "I see you move again and you're out on your ass."

Ariana felt her heartbeat in every inch of her body. She tightened her glutes and thighs and they whimpered in response. This was torture. Plain and simple. But she wasn't going to move. No way was she going to invite Conrad and his psycho tirade to her end of the line. She breathed in and briefly closed her eyes. At times like these, she couldn't help thinking of Noelle and Kiran and Taylor and wonder what they were doing at that precise moment. Whatever it was, she knew that they would agree with her--this was no way to spend a Friday night.

"Tap number four," Conrad continued, shouting down at Jasper. "What is the Stone and Grave nickname of Maria Stanzini?"

"Estella, Brother Lear," Jasper replied quickly.

"Tap number five," Conrad said, pacing over to Kaitlynn. "Is Oswald your real last name?"

Ariana's throat closed and she turned her head to look at Kaitlynn. Up until that moment, every question posed for the past hour had been straight out of the Stone and Grave handbook--which Lear had updated once the rest of the members had revealed themselves. This was the first personal question anyone had been asked. The implications were clear. Stone and Grave was still trying to find information on Kaitlynn's family, and they were still, of course, coming up blank.

"Eyes forward, tap number three!" April shouted. She was standing off to the side as Conrad quizzed the pledges, but she stepped forward now, her green eyes flashing. Ariana whipped her head to face front, her heart bouncing around erratically in her chest.

"I'm not at liberty to say," Kaitlynn replied.

"Tap number five! Stone and Grave cannot admit a pledge if we can't be certain we even know her true name!" Conrad shouted. "Tell me! What is your true name?"

Ariana's mind felt hazy. A tingling sensation began at the back of her skull and clouded over her vision. She was going to faint. Right here and now. She wondered whether the Stone and Grave could admit a pledge who dropped unconscious at the first threat to a fellow tap.

There was a sudden slam and Ariana's brain instantly cleared. The sound of scurried footsteps preceded Soomie's panicked entrance into the Tombs. She raced over to Conrad and April, her dark hair wild, her eyes wide.

"You guys! The headstones . . . they're gone!" she gasped.

The few Stone and Grave members who were milling around, halfheartedly watching the pledges' interrogation--apparently this was not a required ritual for the membership--moved forward. Palmer emerged from behind the stacks and Ariana's heart filled with longing. She hadn't even realized he was there. Now she wanted to reach out and grip his leg for support. She would have killed just to stand up and fall into his arms.

Just that morning, Ariana had spent her entire free period reviewing the video she'd taken of the two of them on her phone, trying to find the perfect still shot to grab from it. The idea had come to her in the middle of their hook-up. A still-shot of Palmer in a compromising position was just as good as a video, and the task card hadn't stipulated live footage. After an hour of replaying the five-minute video over and over and over again, Ariana had managed to find a tawdry-looking still in which they were both bare-chested, her back to the screen, and Palmer was kissing her neck. She'd saved it, cropped it, printed it out, and sealed it in an envelope. Now all she had to do was deliver it to Stone and Grave, which she planned to do on Halloween--at the very last minute. No reason to incur whatever consequences would come of this until she absolutely had to. But at least she wouldn't need to use the video. She could take comfort in that.

And Palmer could too. Although he didn't know that yet. Still, she had to believe that he would want her to complete her task, at whatever cost. That her being in Stone and Grave with him was an end that would justify the means.

"What do you mean, they're gone?" Palmer asked Soomie.

"I just went to get them out for our ritual tomorrow, and they're not there," Soomie said, throwing a hand up. "Every last one of them is gone. They've been stolen. I found this on the floor of the closet." She handed Palmer an ivory note card. He opened it, read it, and went ashen as he held it out for the other guys to see.

"Freaking Fellows," Rob said under his breath.

Kaitlynn ever so slowly raised her hand.

"What is it, tap number five?" Conrad snapped.

"Sorry, Brother Lear. But . . . what headstones?" Kaitlynn asked.

Ariana rolled her eyes at Kaitlynn's audacity. Conrad had been just about to kick the girl out of the Tombs and now she was asking questions of the membership?

"Our ritual headstones," April explained. "They have our Stone and Grave names on them. We use them at all official rituals."

"Remember? From the woods?" Tahira said under her breath.

"Oh. Right," Kaitlynn said. "So the Fellows took them?"

"You are to address us by our Stone and Grave names," April admonished.

"Sorry, Sister Miss Temple," Kaitlynn said, coloring slightly. "Brother Starbuck, did the Fellows take them?" she asked Palmer.

"Looks that way," Palmer said, tipping the card. "Tsang does love his rhymes."

"Brother Starbuck, is that a clue?" Jasper asked, lifting his chin and inching forward on his knees, as if he could possibly see it from his position on the floor.

"Yeah. And it's a riddle, of course," Palmer replied. He held the card up and read it aloud.

"Small and dark and cramped am I, though never you would know.

For only one may enter to my secret lair below.

All honored memories locked inside,

And now your precious gifts I hide.

Prostrate and apologize

Or perish your names in a fiery glow."

He folded the card and looked around at the other Stone and Grave members as well as the taps. For a long moment, silence reigned inside the Tombs.

"Anyone know what that means?" Palmer asked.

Conrad, Rob, and Soomie all looked at one another blankly.

"Well, the end is pretty clear," April said, reaching for the card. "Tsang wants us to bow down to him and apologize for the gum prank, or he's going to destroy the headstones."

"That asshole," Rob said through his teeth.

"We need those headstones," Palmer said. "They're a huge part of Stone and Grave ritual. If anything happens to them, or worse, if they're publicly revealed, our alumni will kill us. They may even shut down our chapter."

Ariana glanced at Kaitlynn. Shut down the chapter?

"I can work on it," April offered, tucking the riddle into her jeans pocket under her robe. "I'm pretty good at word play."

"Good. Do that," Palmer said. "You figure out that riddle, Miss Temple, and you'll save Stone and Grave."

Ariana's heart fluttered and suddenly she knew what she had to do. She had to solve that riddle herself. If she did, she would be the one to save the APH chapter of Stone and Grave. And if she could do that, she was sure her task would no longer matter. Wouldn't rescuing the entire chapter from ruin trump handing in a stupid photo of one of their own members fooling around with his secret girlfriend? It would have to.

Talk about killing two birds with one stone. Or, more accurately, saving two birds--her chapter and her relationship. Ariana smiled slowly, even as her leg muscles cramped in anguish, radiating fingers of pain up her back.

This time tomorrow, she was going to be a Stone and Grave superstar. THE RIDDLE

"Thanks for gracing us with your presence," Ariana said tersely as Tahira trudged into study room A at the library on Saturday morning.

Tahira tugged off her dark sunglasses and shot Ariana an irritated look as she slid into one of the wooden chairs around the conference-style table, right next to Kaitlynn. Her face was, for once, completely free of makeup, and her dark hair was wavy and wild beneath a gray cloche hat.

"Sorry, but seven a.m. on a Saturday is kind of early for me," she said, plucking her hat off her head and tossing it in front of Landon's crossed arms.

Landon's eyes were at half-mast, his cheeks stubbly. Only Jasper and Kaitlynn looked as if they'd bothered to shower before showing up for Ariana's secret meeting. Jasper's blond hair was still wet and slicked back from his face and Kaitlynn had actually bothered to apply a little eyeliner and lip gloss.

"What are we doing here, anyway?" Tahira asked. "Your e-mail was seriously cryptic."