Vampire Beach: Initiation (16 page)

And at last his fingers hit roof.
Sweet, sweet roof.
Jason pulled himself up onto it. One of the huge glass panes was about five feet away. He crawled over, and what he saw took his breath away.

Sienna had called the meeting place the Garden. Jason had been expecting some sort of conservatory: lots of potted plants under glass. What he actually found was astounding.

Almost thirty feet below Jason, inside the house, smooth, green grass lawns stretched across the entire
-
top floor of the
Lafrenière
mansion.
Trees stretched up toward the windows, their top branches nearly brushing the glass. Birds of paradise, hibiscus, and other exotic
-
looking flowers Jason didn't know the names of blossomed everywhere. And a waterfall at the far end of the Garden splashed into a stream that meandered through the man
-
made glen. It looked like some kind of Eden.
E
xtreme.

Through a cluster of trees, Jason spotted flashes of color. People, he thought. Well, vampires. The trees blocked most of his view. He'd have to move to a dif
ferent window. Cautiously, attempting soundlessness,
Jason crept across the roof toward the next of the enormous skylights.

A mosaic of black
-
and
-
white stone dominated this side of the Garden. A huge glass table stood on top of it. And, standing around the table was a col
lection of Beautiful People. Capital B, capital P.
Make that a V,
Jason told himself. They were all vam
pires. But they looked like movie stars playing big
-
business execs. Power suits on the men.
Dresses and skyscraper heels on most of the women, in colors that rivaled the flowers.
Five
-
hundred
-
dollar hair
cuts all around.
Manicures, of course.
The undead knew how to take care of themselves.

Zach was the exception. Not that he wasn't a B.V. Jason had heard Dani rave about his intense dark brown eyes and his black hair and his perfect body. But Zach hadn't gone with a suit. Although Jason was pretty sure
-
thanks to Dani's fashion obsession
-
that his jeans were Armani.

As if they'd been given a signal, all the vampires sat down. And Jason felt a rush of adrenaline.

Tyler sat in one of the
chajrs
. No, "sat" was the wrong word. He was slumped in one of the chairs, his head hanging so that his chin rested against his chest.
Motionless.

For a horrible moment, Jason wondered if he was too late. Was Tyler already dead?

Ja
son stared at his friend. From so far away, he couldn't see if Tyler's chest was rising and falling. But after a moment, he saw Tyler's hand twitch. Tyler was alive
-
appar
ently
unconscious, but alive.

I
never should have brought him to Zach's
party,
Jason thought.
I
shouldn't have let him get within a hundred yards of
any of the vampires.

But Jason knew that that was not what he should be obsessing about now. He needed a plan to get Tyler away from the vampires. And he realized that first he'd have to find out what the vampires were plan
ning. Jason leaned closer to the glass in an effort to overhear their discussion below. He could hear noth
ing, but he felt something hard pressing into his chest.

Jason twisted around and slid sideways to see what it was, and found that he was lying on a latch. The massive skylight could be opened.

Could he risk it? The ceiling of the Garden stretched high
-
high enough to allow for full
-
size trees. Jason decided he could probably ease the win
dow open without attracting the vampires' attention. He flipped the latch and gradually inched the window
up. Thankfully, the skylight glided open smoothly and soundlessly. The scent of eucalyptus, bay, and grass filled the air.

Jason scanned the vampires at the table below him. Not one of them glanced up. He could see a guy in a charcoal suit talking. But he still couldn't hear what he was saying. Shit. He'd have to get closer.

Jason chose the thickest branch on the closest eucalyptus tree, which stood about thirty feet from the Council table. Without giving himself time to think, he slithered forward on his stomach and leaned down until he could reach the branch, then he grabbed hold and swung himself into the air.
Another branch, another branch.
I need another branch,
Jason thought, feeling around frantically with his feet. Luckily, he was now screened by the sharp
-
smelling eucalyptus leaves, but he could only cling to his branch for so long....

One of his toes hit something hard. Okay. Jason carefully got both feet positioned on the branch below, then inched toward the trunk. Now he could hear the man's voice, but not his actual words. He had to get closer still.

His heart pounded as he began to climb
-
agonizingly slowly
-
down the tree. He chose each step and handhold carefully, attempting complete silence.

Jason finally paused on a branch about fifteen feet above the ground. At first all he could hear was his pulse thumping in his ears. But the sound faded as his heart returned to its normal rhythm, and he found he could make out what the man was saying. He wrig
gled around until he could see the speaker through the leaves and branches. All eyes were on him as he spoke. No one glanced in Jason's direction.

"...
pawnbroker
sold it," the man continued. "The boy doesn't have anything to tell us. He's useless."

So let him go,
Jason urged sil
ently
.

"So let's dump him before he regains conscious
ness," Zach said, echoing Jason's thought. "He doesn't know anything. He can't connect us to anything that's happened to him."

Jason suspected Zach was more interested in mak
ing the score even between himself and Jason than in Tyler's well
-
being. Good enough for now.
Glad he hates to owe anyone,
Jason thought.

"That's only part of the issue," a woman with a blond bun responded. "He stole from all of us."

"So turn him over to the cops along with the secu
rity tape. Stealing from the
Lafrenière
s will be treated seriously by our loyal men in blue," Zach said with a grin, sticking one foot up on the glass table.

The blonde stared at his top
-
of
-
the
-
line hiking boot in disgust, but she didn't comment.

"How many tickets did we buy to the Policemen's Ball, Dad?" he asked the man sitting across the table from him. Jason noted that Zach's father had the same black hair as Zach, but his eyes were lighter, a silvery gray.

"A more than adequate number," Mr.
Lafrenière
answered. He stared pointedly at Zach's foot on the table. Zach didn't move it. "I'm sure they would be happy to make things very unpleasant for the young man," he added, indicating Tyler with a nod of his
head.

Unpleasant was ... unpleasant, of course, but at this point, Jason could easily imagine much worse. He prayed that Zach and his father would convince the rest of the Council not to hurt Tyler.

"'Unpleasant' isn't good enough," the blonde insisted. "There are people out there who know the history of the chalice. If it falls into the wrong hands, our whole community is threatened. He's endangered us all!" Murmurs of agreement came from what Jason estimated to be at least half of the Council.

"So we get it back," Zach said with a shrug. "That's the solution. We get it back, and no one sees it."

Right.
No harm, no foul. Jason looked hopefully at the other vampires around the table, to see if they seemed to agree.

"Our newest member of the Council certainly is chatty," put in a woman wearing a diamond ring that could choke a horse, frowning at Zach.

Zach ignored her. "We have the resources to find the buyer." Zach raised one dark eyebrow. "Or am
I
wrong?" His tone made it clear he was sure that wasn't a possibility.

Everyone else at the table was older than Zach. But he had their full attention. It occurred to Jason that Zach might actually have the cojones to pull this off.

"You're right," the speaker Suit answered. "And, of course, we'll do whatever we have to do to get the chalice back. But that's a separate question. We're talking about what to do with the boy."

"Kill him," a man with collar
-
length red hair said calmly. Jason bit his lip.

"I agree." The blond woman gave a decisive nod. "We can't tolerate such a lack of respect."

"But it's not as if he knows who we are," a woman with
bloodred
lipstick told the group. Relief flooded through Jason. "It's not as though he decided to steal from us on purpose."

"Does that matter?" the speaker asked.

"Not to me," the redhead answered. "I don't care about motive. I care about action."

"You care about vengeance," Zach said.

Way to go,
Zac
h!
Jason murmured soundlessly.

"That's enough," Mr.
Lafrenière
barked at Zach. "Being asked to join the Council is an honor.
An honor that can be revoked!"
He sighed. "We
all
appreciate the way you dealt with the last... situa
tion, Zach," he added more calmly. There were sev
eral nods around the table. "But you were too impulsive.
Too wild.
You still have a lot to learn.''

Zach dropped his foot back to the ground. "I killed that vampire because he stopped following our rules and started hurting innocent people," Zach said. "We don't murder. Or has that changed?" He looked over at his father. So did everyone else.

The silence that filled the Garden felt as if it had physical weight. Jason found himself holding his
breath.

At last, Zach's father responded. "We never feed to t
he point of death," he said flatl
y.

"I understand the need to kill a vampire
-
or a human
-
who is a threat to us," an older man with a mane of silvery hair said quie
tl
y. "But I hones
tl
y don't see the danger in letting the boy live. I think we're sliding into the realms of revenge here."

"I agree. I'm not at all comfortable killing him sim
ply because he stole from one of us," the woman in dark lipstick answered.

"All of us," another murmured.

"Murdering a thief is worse than what that vampire did, because we'd be killing calmly and rationally," put in the silver
-
haired man. "Not in the grip of the bloodlust."

"I don't see the point of more discussion," the speaker interrupted loudly. "It's
t
ime for the vote."

Mr.
Lafrenière
nodded gravely and leaned forward. "I second that."

A vote on whether Tyler lived or died.
Jason shook his head in an effort to dispel the horror that was threatening to cloud his brain. He scanned the enor
mous room, looking for all possible exits. If they voted to kill Tyler, he would have to move fast.

He listened to the voices as each member of the Council handed down a verdict.
Six to six.
A tie.
Now
what?

"Shouldn't the decision to kill be unanimous?"
someone asked.

"A fine point," Jason whispered.

"We've never required a unanimous vote before," the blonde said.

"Have you ever voted to slaughter a human before?" Zach asked lazily.

Jason saw her stiffen at the word "slaughter." Good.

"Our visitor from the High Council will be here any minute and will cast the deciding vote," Mr.
Lafrenière
said firmly, before any of the others could respond.

"Of course," the speaker agreed without hesitation, and there was an almost universal murmur of assent from the others around the table.

Okay, now time
for a bathroom break,
Jason thought.
Or everybody downstairs for coffee and doughnuts.
What
ever.
Just leave long enough for me to get Tyler out of here.