Vampire Beach: Initiation (15 page)

"We only want to find the buyer so we can buy back the chalice. We'll pay more than they paid.
A lot more."
Jason had no idea where he or Tyler would come up with the money.
A loan from Aunt Bianca, maybe?
It didn't matter. For now, all he cared about was finding the chalice.

"Doesn't interest me," the clerk said. "I don't give out buyer information."

Jason pulled his fingers through his hair.
"How about this?
You contact the buyer for us, and tell them that we'll give them a pr
ofit if they'll sell us the chalice back.”

The man pulled a rag out of his back pocket and started to polish the closest counter. "Of course, you'd get a percentage if the buyer agrees to sell," Jason added quickly.

"Give me your phone number." The man slid a business card across the counter to Jason.

Jason carefully printed his cell number on the card and slid it over. "We really appreciate this."

The guy grinned. "I'll call you if they're interested."

Jason waited. But it was clear that no call would be
made while they were standing there, so he turned and
headed out.

"Thanks for doing that," Tyler told him as they walked down the sidewalk toward the car. "I shouldn't have come here. I shouldn't have brought all this into your life. Your parents have always been great to me,
and-”

"Enough, already," Jason interrupted. "You com
pletely pissed me off. You lied to me. You got my house trashed. But you're my oldest friend. Who else were you supposed to come to?"

"There was no one else," Tyler admitted.

"What do you think
-
," Jason began.

An SU
V with tinted windows abruptl
y pulled up alongside them and stopped. The side door slid open, fast and soundless. Immediately, two men leaped out, and Jason saw a flash of metal in the sunlight as a piece of pipe came down on Tyler's head.

Jason launched himself at the closest assailant, but another man moved in from the left to block him. Before Jason could reach Tyler, the men had him in the van and the door was sliding shut.

A second later the guy who'd blocked Jason was behind the wheel. Jason heard the van pull away. He stared after it. No license plate.

It sped around the corner and disappeared.
With Tyler inside.

Jason
stared down the empty street. Adrenaline rushed through his body. Where were they taking Tyler? And what were they going to do to him when they got there?

His cell phone started to play "It's a Small World,
”
courtesy of Dani again. Jason jerked the cell out of his pocket and hit talk. "Tyler?" he asked, knowing even as he said it that there was no possible way it was his friend.

"No, it's me.
Sienna."

Sienna.
The last person he'd expected. Jason hadn't thought she'd ever want to talk to him again.

"You have to get Tyler out of Malibu. Right now," she told him, her voice tight with tension.

"Too late."
Jason looked down the street again, as if somehow, magically, the SUV would come speeding backward toward him and the whole abduction would happen in reverse, leaving Tyler standing next to him. "Two guys just snatched him. I was right there, but I couldn't stop it."

Sienna didn't respond. But he could hear her breathing. "I know where he is," she said finally.

"Where?
Tell me."

She hesitated.

Come on, come on,
come
on!
Jason urged sil
ently
. He didn't have time for this.
Tyler
didn't have time.

"Meet me at Zach's. At the gazebo in the side gar
den," Sienna instructed.

"I'm on my way." Jason started toward his car.

"And Jason?
Don't park where anyone can see you," Sienna finished. She hung up before he could respond.

Jason parked a block away from Zach's. He cut down to the beach, figuring there was less chance of him being spotted if he approached the house from that way, rather than from the front. Although it occurred to him that all those decks and balconies would give anyone who happened to be looking a perfect view of him. He just had to hope no one had picked this moment to enjoy the ocean views.

He ran along the sand, his feet sinking into it with every step. Jason usually loved running on the beach, but right now he wanted some nice, hard asphalt.
A surface that would let him get some traction and
speed.

Sneakers wouldn't hurt either,
he thought as he veered toward the rough wooden logs that served as stairs up the side of the cliff. A layer of sand had crept between his
Tevas
and his feet.

Jason pounded up the steps and
and
raced over to the gazebo. Sienna was already waiting, her long, inky hair fluttering in the breeze coming off the ocean.

"Thanks for calling me," he said when he reached her. "So what gives?"

"Zach asked me to call," Sienna told him. "He thinks he owes you for saving his life," she continued. "Zach doesn't like to owe anybody."

"He doesn't owe me. He saved my life, too. But I'm sure as hell not going to turn down his help," Jason answered. "Where's Tyler?"

"Zach wanted you to get him out of town." Sienna twisted her hair into a knot to keep it from blowing in her face. "But I really don't know what you can do for
him now.”

"Just tell me where he is and let me worry about the rest," Jason said impati
ently
.

Sienna gave a reluctant nod. "He's been taken before the Council."

Questions exploded in Jason's head.
"The what?"

"The DeVere Heights Vampire Council," Sienna repeated. "It's this group that makes decisions about things that involve all of... of us."

"Why would this council care about Tyler?" Jason demanded. "Is it, like, steal from one of you and you steal from all of you?"

"What Tyler took belongs to all of us, in a way," Sienna explained. "The
Lafrenière
s keep the chalice
because they are one of the oldest vampire families, but it doesn't truly belong to them. It's a sacred relic that has been used in our ceremonies for centuries."

Nice one, Tyler,
Jason thought.
The
Lafrenière
house is stuffed with expensive crap. And you had to grab some precious vampire artifact!

"So what are they going to do with him?" Jason paced the gazebo, unable to stand still. "He's already sold the thing, but we have a lead on getting it back. We just need a
little
time."

"I don't know," Sienna admitted apprehensively. "That's what they're deciding right now. But it doesn't look good. That's why Zach wanted you to get Tyler out of town before they found him."

"Where
is
Zach?" Jason demanded. He and Jason weren't friends. Jason didn't know if Zach was actu
ally friends with anyone
-
even any of the vampires. But Zach had power and, rightly or wrongly, he felt indebted to Jason. Right now, Jason could use that.

"He's at the meeting," Sienna replied. "He's on the Council now. That's why the chalice was out of the bank vault in the first place. It was used in the cere
mony to inaugurate Zach onto the Council, the night of the party. The party was given just to hide the fact that all the vampires were gathered. There was even a member of the High Council at the house that night."

So
that's
why
there
was
extra
Zach
-
adoration
at
the
party,
Jason thought. "Okay, well, where does the Council meet?" he asked. His mind was racing. Maybe he could talk to the Council. Explain that he had already been to the pawnbroker.
That, no matter what, he and Tyler would get the chalice back.

Or was discussion time over?

"If I tell you that..." Sienna let her words trail off. She pulled her thin sweater tighter around herself.

"I get it. The Council could come after you," Jason filled in for her. "Look, I won't tell them who I got the information from. Just tell me where they are."

"I don't care about me," Sienna burst out, her voice ragged with emotion. "But if you try to interfere with the Council, they could kill you. I can't let that hap
pen, Jason. It might be too late for you to save Tyler. . But it's not too late for
me
to save
you
!
"

Her words were so unexpected that it took Jason a moment to process them. After all his clumsiness, he was amazed that Sienna actually cared. In the midst of the current crisis, part of him still found time to be
ridiculously pleased that she did. But it didn't change anything. He reached out and touched her arm. "Sienna, he's my best friend. I can't just..." He shook his head. "I can't."

"In the Garden," she said simply.

Jason's eyes darted around the gardens surrounding the gazebo.

"No, up there."
Sienna pointed to the roof of the
Lafrenière
house. Sunlight glinted off huge panels of glass.

Jason frowned. He'd been on the top floor
-
all over the top floor
-
with Adam, and yet he hadn't seen those massive skylights. And, even at night, all that glass would have been impossible to miss.

And then suddenly, he got it. He and Adam hadn't actually been on the top floor at all. There was another whole floor to the house. That's why he and Adam had seen the vampires go upstairs but hadn't seen anyone there when they went up themselves.

"Go home, Sienna," Jason said, his eyes fixed on the roof.

"What are you going to do?" she asked anxiously.

He turned to look at her and paused to run one fin
ger down her soft, pale cheek. "Don't worry about me. Just
go."

I
t
's not like l
c
an
just go ring the doorbell and ask if I can please have my friend back,
Jason thought, staring at the
Lafrenière
house. He pulled out his cell and called Adam. He had the strong, unpleasant feeling that he might need someone to get his back.
Soon.

"Talk to me," Adam said.

"I don't have time to explain, but I need you over at Zach's," Jason told him. "I'll be ... I should be on the roof.
North side."

"Why would you
-
?" Adam began.

Jason hung up and surveyed the roof. Even a few more seconds could be critical to Tyler. But, since he wasn't
freakin
' Spider
-
Man, how was he going to get up there to find out what was going on? Could the ivy and honeysuckle growing up the side of the house be strong enough to hold him? Jason trotted over to investigate.

Not a great option, he decided as he gave the thick, intertwined vines an experimental tug. But the only one that seemed to be available. And, hey, Sienna had climbed up a trellis in his dream, so this had to work. "Here goes nothing," Jason muttered, and reached up to grab a handful of the vines.

He slowly scaled the wall of the house, inch by inch. Leaves tore off in his fingers, but the thin vines held.
For now.
He moved up one story.
Then another.

He ignored the sweat forming on his palms and between his toes. He tried to keep his movements even, putting steady pressure on the vines without jerking.

Snap!

The hunk of ivy and honeysuckle in Jason's right hand broke free. His body slipped, his feet sliding off the wall. His full weight now hung on the vines in his left hand. And he could feel them beginning to give....

One of the smaller balconies was just a
little
way above him and a few feet to the left. Jason swung out just as the vines tore. With one hand, he grabbed the balcony railing. The metal bit into his palm and the muscles in his arm burned, but he slowly hauled him
self up and over the railing.

Jason allowed himself to take a couple of deep breaths,
then
leaned over the railing to survey the damage. There were no longer any vines in reach above him. Unless...

He braced one hand against the wall and got him
self balanced on top of the thin wrought
-
iron railing of the balcony. Then he twisted his body
-
and jumped. He managed to grab some of the vines high
up above him in each hand. His feet scrambled against the stone wall, then found purchase. He scaled the rest of the wall as quickly as possible, trying to keep his weight on each section of vine for as short a time as possible.