Privilege 5 - Pure Sin (2 page)

"Hey, Quinn," Ariana said.

"What's up," Quinn said with a bright smile. She clutched her books to her chest.

"Tahira would like an �clair. Would you mind running in and getting one for her?" Ariana asked.

Quinn blinked, clearly confused. Ariana knew why. Quinn normally acted as coffee gopher for Lexa, Ariana, Maria, and Soomie, but had never been sent on an errand for Tahira before. Even Tahira looked stunned.

"Is there a problem?" Ariana asked.

"No. Of course not," Quinn answered quickly. She knew that questioning orders would not be good for her position at APH, nor for her chances of making Stone and Grave the following year. "I'll be right back."

"Okay, what was that?" Tahira said as Quinn disappeared through the door. She shoved her hands into the pockets of her white coat, her diamond nose ring twinkling under the doorway light. "Lexa's gonna freak."

"No, she won't," Ariana said, holding herself against a cold breeze. "Things are different now."

It was a simple statement for a simple truth. Tahira and Ariana were the only two girls being initiated into Stone and Grave. During their pledge period, Ariana had grown close to Tahira. That made her part of the group, without question.

"If you say so," Tahira said, looking less than confident for the first time since Ariana had met her.

"Here you go!" Quinn opened the door and handed Tahira a wax-paper bag full of pastry. "Anything else?" she asked, looking only at Tahira.

"No. That'll be all," Tahira said, amused.

Quinn smiled and went back inside, leaving Ariana and Tahira alone to stroll across campus.

"So, have I mentioned I'm totally jealous of you?" Tahira asked, shaking her wavy dark hair back as she peeked inside her pastry bag. "I would pretty much kill to have a single right now."

Ariana bit down on her tongue to keep from laughing at the irony of that statement. "It is the greatest thing ever."

"I'll bet," Tahira said, her dark eyes wide. "I love Allison, but if I could get her to disappear, I would. I need some more space. Back home I have an entire wing and my own pool. Here I don't even have my own bathroom. Plus she's been kind of pissy ever since she got thrown out of S and G. I mean, I was pissed too, you know, but at some point it's just like . . . get over it already."

"Totally," Ariana replied. "Do you think she's jealous of you?"

"She's jealous of all of us," Tahira confirmed. "Sometimes I think that if you don't get in to S and G, you shouldn't be allowed to live in Privilege House. I mean, it's just so annoying. For both of us. There's all this stuff I can't talk about, and she's irritated because she thinks I'm being a bad friend. It's unnecessarily hard."

Ariana smiled to herself, thinking how odd it was to be having a heart-to-heart with a girl who, just a couple of months ago, was her sworn enemy."Maybe you two should just--"

Ariana's advice died on her lips when she heard footsteps rushing up behind them. She glanced at Tahira, and they both froze.

Suddenly a thin black sack came down over Ariana's head. Her heart fluttered with excitement as two firm hands gripped her arms and yanked her off the pathway into the evergreen bushes alongside.

This was it. Initiation.

"Let's go, plebe," a gruff voice growled in her ear. Ariana's shoes crunched over dried, dead grass, and the group stopped while someone opened a heavy, creaking door. As Ariana was manhandled down a set of shallow concrete steps, she was careful to maintain her balance to keep from tripping. Now that she and the other pledges knew that the Tombs were located in the basement of the APH library, being taken there under black hoods seemed pointless, but she understood that it was all part of the tradition. At the bottom of the steps she started to turn to the left, as usual, but this time, she was yanked to the right.

Okay. This was new. Ariana's heart pounded in earnest as they shuffled along the concrete floor. The two Stone and Grave brothers who led her kept bumping into her hips as if they were hemmed in on both sides by a narrow hallway. They paused again, and frigid air rushed in all around her. There was a lot of whispering and shuffling, followed by a series of odd squeals and wails, like several rusty latches opening. Ariana's throat was dry.

Finally, Ariana was shoved forward, and the brothers let go. Wherever they had left her, it was freezing. Her wool coat did nothing to ward off the chill. Then someone came forward and ripped that coat off her shoulders.

"Strip!" dozens of voices shouted.

"Here we go."

Ariana recognized Jasper's voice. He must have been mere inches from her in the darkness.

"Strip!" the brothers shouted again.

Shaking, Ariana removed her heeled boots and unbuttoned her jeans. As she bent to tug them off her heels, she bumped into Jasper and staggered forward. Goosebumps popped up all over her legs as she fought for her footing. She took a breath. So what if dozens of her friends were watching this ridiculous, humiliating display? So what if they were laughing at her in the dark? It was all for a good cause. Removing her V-neck cashmere sweater without taking her black hood with it proved to be a bit more difficult, but she managed, dropping the sweater on the ground at her feet. As soon as she was down to her bra and underwear, someone stepped forward and brought a familiarly itchy burlap sack down over her head, cinching it around her waist with a rope.

She was dying to scratch the openings around her neck and elbows. But she knew better than to move.

Just breathe, she told herself. This will be the last time you have to wear this thing.

A pair of strong hands came down on her shoulders suddenly and turned her around. She could feel someone moving next to her and assumed Jasper was being directed in the same way. When the bags were removed from their heads, would they be facing the brethren? Would this all be over soon? Ariana hoped that Palmer would be right in front of her so she could see him. So she could be looking at him when they performed the rite that would make them members.

Then, out of nowhere, someone grabbed Ariana's hands and wrenched them behind her back. This, too, was new. Her wrists were tied together with some kind of thick cord that, when pulled tight, sent a stabbing pain into her upper arms. The black sacks were ripped off, and Ariana's heart hit her throat. She wasn't looking into the warm, loving eyes of her boyfriend. Instead, she was looking down at a plain wooden coffin. Actually there were three coffins, set down in deep ditches in the dirt, which had been exposed thanks to a huge hole in the cement floor. She was in a room she had never seen before. More like a cavern, really. The walls were curved like a dome and made of jagged black rock. The room was circular, but the hole in the floor was a perfect rectangle. Low candles flickered all around the hole, but otherwise there was no light in the cavern, and no sign of life.

Where was Palmer? Where were the rest of the Stone and Grave members? The brothers that had brought them here? Ariana looked at Jasper, alarmed.

"What the--" He was cut off when someone shoved him from behind. He fell into the coffin in front of them with a thud. Terror seized Ariana, but she didn't have time to react. A foot hit her in the small of the back, and suddenly she was free-falling, face-first, with no way to stop herself. She landed right on top of Jasper, clunking heads with him. Stars burst in front of her eyes, almost blacking out her vision.

"That's gonna leave a mark," Jasper said, wincing.

"How can you joke at a time like this?" Ariana hissed. She flipped over onto her back as best she could in the small space, stabbing Jasper's ribs with her elbow before crushing both arms beneath her. She looked up to see the coffin lid being lowered over them.

"No!" she screamed, and heard Tahira shout out as well, her voice muffled. "Stop!"

"Silence!" someone growled.

And then, all was dark.

"Well," Jasper whispered, his lips grazing her earlobe. "This just got interesting." Trapped. I'm trapped. I'm trapped inside a coffin in the ground in a cellar, and no one knows I'm here.

The bottom of the coffin was hard and cold against her shoulder, and pain radiated up her spine, into the base of her skull. All she could hear was her pulse rushing in her ears, and the steady sound of Jasper's breathing.

Don't be stupid, Ariana. Tons of people know you're here. Palmer, Lexa, Maria, Soomie, Conrad, April, Rob, Hunter . . . and certainly Jasper, every inch of whose body is touching yours. He couldn't exactly miss you, could he?

Ariana tried to take a deep breath, but the air in the coffin was thick with humidity and the choking scents of mold and dirt. She turned her head toward the ceiling and coughed, struggling for air.

But no one knows I'm here. Me. Ariana Osgood. No one knows where I am. I could die here and no one would know Not my mother or my

. father or--

They already think you're dead, you idiot! Shut up and stop heaving! You're going to use up all the oxygen!

"Ana?"

Ariana flinched at the sound of Jasper's voice. She slammed her head into the lid of the coffin, reinjuring the exact spot where she'd hit Jasper. The pain exploded all over again.

"What?" she said through her teeth.

"Are you okay?" Jasper asked. "You do know there are air holes in this thing, right? We have enough oxygen."

"Are you sure?" Ariana asked, sounding irritatingly pathetic.

"I promise," Jasper assured her calmly.

Ariana's right arm was screaming from bearing all her weight. She tried to squirm into a new position and rest more squarely on her back, but she succeeded only in pressing her shoulder blades together so tightly that she pulled a muscle--and flattened Jasper against the wall.

"Ow. Okay, there is someone else in here with you, you know," Jasper said.

"Sorry," Ariana went back to her former position. "And speaking of which, weren't there three coffins in the ground?"

"So?" Jasper said.

"So? Do the math. There are five of us. Which one of us got a coffin all to themselves?" Ariana whispered. "My best friend is the president, and my boyfriend is second in line. Where the hell are my perks?"

Jasper laughed. "Perhaps you're not as significant as you think you are."

Ariana's face burned at the insult, and for the first time she was grateful for the pitch darkness.

"Besides," he added, his tone more placating. "Think about it. Would you really want to be in here alone?"

Ariana considered this. The boy had a point. If he weren't there to distract her, she'd probably be having an acute panic attack.

"How long have we been in here, anyway?" she asked. "An hour? Three hours? When are they going to let us out already?"

"Ana, we've only been in here about fifteen minutes," Jasper said, sounding amused.

"What? That's not possible," Ariana whispered.

"I've been counting the seconds since they closed the coffin," Jasper replied matter-of-factly. "We're at exactly nine hundred and four."

Ariana scoffed. "You have not."

"Yes. I have."

"That is so not possible," Ariana replied. Jasper said nothing. His breath was minty fresh on her face. "You can do that?" she asked finally.

"I can do lots of things."

She felt him shift, his cheek pressing against hers as he leaned forward. For a brief moment she was sure he was trying to kiss her. Unbidden, her skin sizzled and her face burned. But then she felt his fingers on her hip.

"Wait," she said slowly, realizing what this meant. "You got your hands free."

"Ta-da," Jasper said, tapping her hip with his fingers.

"How did you do that?" she asked.

"Not important." Jasper shook his head slightly and his nose brushed hers. Ariana's heart seized, and she suddenly felt light-headed.

I am not attracted to Jasper, she told herself. It's just all this . . . touching. And lack of air.

"Here. Let me get yours," Jasper said, making a move.

"Wait," Ariana said. "Won't they be mad if we're untied when they let us out of here?"

"I think they'll be impressed with our ingenuity," Jasper replied. "Here."

He bent his right elbow, then straightened his arm out so that it rested in the open space between her neck and the bottom of the coffin. Then he slid it down under her shoulder, so that it was pinned beneath her. His arm continued to travel down, while Ariana twisted and adjusted, doing her best to lift her weight off of it and help him along, until his hand found hers behind her back. At that moment, her weight tipped her forward over his forearm, and suddenly her whole body was pressed against his. Her face buried itself in the spot between his shoulder and his neck. If she pursed her lips, she could have kissed his skin.

"Almost there," Jasper whispered, his voice husky.

His left arm was around her now, pulling her, impossibly, even closer to him. His body was wiry and strong. Stronger than she would have thought just by looking at him. As he struggled to blindly untie the cord that bound her hands, his breath was hot and labored on the back of her neck.

"How's it going?" she said, because she felt she had to say something.

"I think I've . . . yes. I've got it," Jasper whispered.

She felt a jerk and the cord slipped free.

"Thanks," she breathed.

"Any time."

Jasper leaned backward, and the space between them suddenly felt like a chasm. With some effort, Ariana brought her hands in front of her. She folded them at chest level and Jasper did the same. Now the two pledges were curled, knees touching, hands touching, foreheads touching, perfect mirror images.

"So," he said, his breath warm and comforting against her face, "what do we do now?" "I don't know," she said quietly. "What do you want to do?"

"I think you already know the answer to that question."

Ariana's heart skipped a startled beat. "Jasper, I--"

"Kidding!" he said with a laugh. "For someone so smart, you sure are gullible."

Ariana's face burned anew. She was just about to tell him off when there was a sudden, deafening crack, and the coffin was wrenched open.