Vampire Beach: Initiation (18 page)

"Don't worry about my car. It's a rental," she added cheerfully.

Tyler's knees buckled. Zach and Bianca had to tighten their grip on him to keep him on his feet. Jason took advantage of the situation. "I got him," he said, grabbing Tyler's arm.

Bianca rushed over to the Mustang and opened the passenger door. "You can trust me to take Tyler home and tuck him into bed,'' she said swee
tl
y
. "
Let's get him sitting down."

Phenomenal liar,
Jason thought.
Pure ice.

"That would humiliate him," Jason said. "He, uh, he has a crush on you." He turned to Zach, desper
ately playing for time. "You can see why he'd have a crush on my aunt, right?"

Zach ran his eyes from Bianca's dark hair to her black spike heels. "Absolutely," he announced calmly.

"Absolutely," Jason repeated. Now sweat was pop
ping out on his forehead. Would Bianca notice? Would it make her suspicious?
Don't
think
about
it. Keep
talking,
he ordered himself. "Absolutely," he said again. "And Tyler wouldn't want the woman he's hot for
-
sorry, Aunt Bianca, I mean attracted to
-
tuck
ing him into bed."

"Unless she was with him," Zach added.

"Right.
So you should let me take care of Tyler;'' Jason urged. And then he heard a wonderful, miracu
lous sound. He glanced over his shoulder. Yeah. It was the bug. "And Adam's here with the car now, so,
no
p
roblema
.
We'll cart Tyler home."

Adam pulled up right next to Bianca's car. He jumped out and opened the passenger door. Jason hus
tl
ed Tyler into the passenger seat,
then
slid behind the wheel. Adam jumped into the tiny backseat.

This is it,
Jason thought. He knew his aunt had very few choices left. Either she had to give up the kindly aunt
pretence
and out herself as a vampire. Or she had to let them leave.

What was it going to be?

“
S
ee you back at the house," Bianca said, her blue eyes ice
-
cold.

Jason realized with a huge rush of relief that his gamble had paid off. Bianca wasn't willing to reveal the truth about
herself
.
At least, not yet.

He smiled at her, nodded, and put his foot on the gas.

"Where are we?" Tyler mumbled.

"We are now leaving hell," Jason told him as they sped through the massive iron gates that guarded the
Lafrenière
property.

"Okay," Tyler said, head lolling.

Jason pulled up next to Adam's Vespa and stopped. "Thanks. I didn't have anyone else to call."

Adam nodded. "Are you going to be okay from here?" he asked. "I'm available for more sidekick duty
-
as long as I don't have to start wearing yellow tights or anything."

"I'm good. And no one with the middle name 'Tecumseh' can be a sidekick," Jason replied. He needed to find a place to stash Tyler. And he knew it could put Adam in danger
-
more danger than he was already in
-
if
he knew where that place was.

"Call me later and tell me how it goes, Batman," Adam joked. But his eyes were serious.

Jason nodded,
then
started to drive out of DeVere Heights as the twilight deepened to night. His cell rang. A number he didn't recognize. He answered it.
"Yeah."

"Take Tyler straight to the airport," a low, cool voice said. It took Jason half a second to recognize it: Zach. "Sienna will meet you there with cash.
Terminal 3."

"Got it."
Jason glanced over at Tyler. The cool breeze seemed to be reviving him a little. "And thanks."

"We're even now, Freeman," Zach replied. "Don't expect any more favors." And then there was nothing but silence.

Jason didn't care. The favor Zach had already done him was probably going to save Tyler's life. And Jason very much hoped he'd never need another favor from Zach.

He pulled out onto the Pacific Coast Highway for what felt like the hundredth time that day. PCH had a completely different vibe at night.
Eerie.
The ocean stretched away down below the road, a dark, endless
abyss.

Jason saw headlights appear in his rea
r
view mirror. Someone was coming up fast behind him.
But who?

The car flashed its
brights
, blinding him for a moment. Was it Bianca?
One of the other vampires from the Council?
The hit squad that had picked up Tyler in the SUV?

This was a bad place to be followed. The empty beach ran for miles on one side. And now that they were outside of Malibu, there were very few exits on the other. Jason figured he could veer off into one of the little beach towns and try to lose whoever was behind him in the warren of
little
streets. But he didn't know the area. He could end up turning down a dead end
-
and somebody could end up dead.

Jason checked the rearview again. The car moved into the left lane and drew up alongside. He could see it now: a Mustang;
-
red, like Bianca's.

"Tyler, stay low," Jason ordered.

"What's going on?" Tyler asked, frowning at him. His eyes were clearer now.

"Later," Jason told him.

The driver honked and flashed the
brights
again. Were they trying to get him to pull over?
And then what?
Just hand Tyler over to them? Jason's fingers tightened on the wheel as he tried to decide how to play it.

He could floor it
-
but he wasn't sure the bug could outrun the Mustang. He could slam into the other car and maybe it would knock the driver
-
Bianca?
-
out
. Those seemed like his only options.

The Mustang picked up speed until it was next to Jason. He didn't recognize the driver.

He
didn't
recognize the driver!

It
wasn't
one of the vampires from the Council. It
definitely
wasn't his aunt. It was some middle
-
aged guy with gray hair, wearing a leather jacket and a goofy Red Baron
-
type silk scarf. That plus the red Mustang convertible equaled midlife crisis. Jason let out a sigh of relief.

"One of your taillights is out," the Red Baron yelled. "You're going to get pulled over." Jason waved his thanks, and the Baron accelerated around him with a cheerful
toot
-
toot.

Jason immediately checked behind him.
Only blackness.
Unless someone was back there driving with the headlights off, he and Tyler were safe.
For now.

"Can you answer my question now?" Tyler's voice had lost the muzzy quality.

"What do you remember?" Jason asked, stalling.

"I remember us going to the pawn shop and that the guy had already sold the chalice," Tyler answered. "I remember... smelling flowers. And was I in Zach's house?"

"You've lost a little memory," Jason told him, relieved that he had. It would make things easier.

"When we came out of the pawn shop, two guys jumped you.
Knocked you out.
You took a pretty good smack to the head," he explained. "That's why you're out of it. From what they said when they were beating the hell out of you, they were from that dealer in Michigan."

Tyler touched the back of his head and winced,
then
he turned and studied Jason. "You look pretty good. You take a seat, have some popcorn, and watch the show?" he joked, sounding more like his old self with every word.

"Nah.
I'm just not as big a wimp as you are. I know how to handle myself in a fight," Jason answered, grin
ning. He glanced at Tyler,
then
checked the rearview.
Still no one there.
"Right now, we need to get you out of town. Those guys seemed pretty Terminator. I think they'll be back. Any ideas on where you want to go?"

"With my fifty bucks?"
Tyler asked, staring out at the dark waves crashing against the darker rocks.

"Fifty
-
four," Jason corrected.
"But no worries.
Sienna's meeting us at the airport with traveling money. You just have to pick your final destination."

"Back to Michigan, I guess," Tyler said, still look
ing out at the ocean. "At least I have a place to crash there." He gave a snort of laughter. "My dad probably hasn't even realized I'm gone. Or if he has, he just fig
ures I'll be back when I get hungry."

Bleak
.
But Tyler couldn't stay out here even if Jason's parents would agree. "Is Michigan going to be safe?
With the dealer and everything?"

"He'll have got the money I wired by the time I get home. It'll be cool." Tyler turned to face Jason. "It'll be cool," he repeated. Like if he said it enough times it would be true.

"Maybe I'll come out there and visit," Jason said. "Experience a few days without sunshine and maybe some
-
"
He stopped, his attention caught by a pair of headlights behind him.
Get a grip,
he told himself.
A lot of people use PCH.

"Some what?"
Tyler asked.

"Uh
-
"Jason kept his eyes on the headlights, try
ing to remember what he'd been about to say. He set
tl
ed for, "Some of that gray, slushy snow that gets down in your boots."

"I can pretty much guarantee it." Tyler looked over his shoulder. "You don't think those are the guys back there, do you? Wanting to go another round?"

"Crossed my mind," Jason admitted. "But it's doubtful." The car behind them hung back, keeping pace from a distance.

It
was
doubtful. But by now, Bianca would
have
had time to get home. And she'd have realized
that
Jason hadn't returned with Tyler. What was
she think
ing? Was she coming to find them?

"Uh, I could use some caffeine," Jason said. "Maybe some barbecue potato chips. We can't be driving all the way to the airport without provisions." He glanced at the car again. It was still back there. Taking a little detour would show whether he and Tyler were just being paranoid, or if they had something real to worry
about.

"My treat," Tyler
answered,
his eyes also on the
rearview mirror.

Jason turned off on Tuna Canyon Road. So did the car behind them.

"Maybe they're after caffeine too," Tyler suggested, but he didn't sound like he believed it.

This is what Jason had wanted to avoid. Ending up in some kind of chase in an area he didn't know. He spotted the neon sign of a mini
-
mart up ahead. He'd only said he wanted to do a junk
-
food stop so they'd have an excuse to pull off the highway. But a mini
-
mart meant witnesses. And that felt like a good thing right now.

He sped up and pulled into the parking lot. The car
-
a station wagon with wooden panels that had got the
Pimp My Ride
treatment
-
pulled in behind them. "Let's get inside," Jason urged.

He and Tyler scrambled out of the bug and rushed into the store. An electronic bell announced their arrival. A moment later, it rang again. Jason looked toward the door. Two strangers had come in and were
heading for the beer.
Another false alarm.
Man, he was going to be one of the few seventeen
-
year
-
olds to experience heart failure if he didn't get his paranoia in
check.

Except, Jason reminded himself, what was that
T-shirt
slogan? "Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get you."

He loaded up on Mountain Dew
-
he felt like he'd been awake for about three days
-
then grabbed the biggest bag of BBQ
Ruffles available. Dani would say he was stress eating. But who cared?