Vampire Beach: Initiation (2 page)

If Zach Lafreni
è
re hadn't turned up at the last moment, Jason knew he would probably have ended up dead. The whole experience had taught him every
thing he needed to know about the vampires: They were outrageously strong, they could change their physical appearance, and they knew some seriously freaky fighting moves.

He wasn't anxious to get that up close and personal with vampire business again. Being friends with some of them was enough
-
Sienna and her best friend, Belle; Brad and his oldest friend, Van Dyke. Even Zach was okay. Jason knew that they were good peo
ple whose parents did a lot of charity work in the community. Beyond that, he didn't want to know much about the day
-
to
-
day vampire activities.
His own pri
vate don't
-
ask
-
don't
-
tell policy.

A light turned red in front of him, and Jason eased to a stop. To the left, the Pacific Ocean spread out to the horizon, its gray
-
blue water calling to him. Maybe he'd slip on his new wet suit and try some surfing this evening. With winter approaching, the sun went down early. But he'd discovered that surfers stayed on the water until the very last drop of light was gone. He would definitely have time to catch a few good waves. He'd only taken three lessons so far, but he already knew enough to go out on his own.

The late afternoon sun glinted off the water, and a warm breeze ruffled his hair. Hard to believe it was almost Thanksgiving. Warm sun, clear blue sky, crash
ing ocean surf
-
life just did not get any better.

"You are seriously zoning," Sienna commented.

The light was green. "Sorry," Jason replied as he hit the gas. "Sometimes the whole Malibu thing still dis
tracts me.”

"What 'whole Malibu thing'?" she asked.

"You
know,
the unrelenting incredibleness of the place." That was the best way he could describe it.

"Yeah.
I've been to a lot of places, and Malibu is still the most beautiful," Sienna agreed.

Jason glanced at her in surprise. Sienna's family
-
in fact, all the vampire families
-
had more money than he could even imagine. When she said she'd been to a lot of places, he believed her. The Devereuxs vacationed in Europe, Asia,
Australia
. He'd seen the photos scattered around their house. It was nice to know that California still held up, even with that kind of competition.

"Any big plans for Turkey Day?"
Sienna asked as they turned off the highway and headed up the hill toward DeVere Heights.

"The usual: food and football," Jason told her. "My aunt Bianca is coming in from New York. Danielle has about thirty outfits lined up to run by her. She approves of Bianca's fashion sense."

"Well, who wouldn't?" Sienna said. "The woman knows how to dress."

Jason's eyebrows shot up. "You know my aunt?"

"Sure." Sienna gave a languid shrug. "I mean, it's not like we're best friends or anything, but I've met her. Her husband was on the hospital board with my
mom.”

"Oh." Jason knew that Aunt Bianca had helped his father land his new job at the Los Angeles advertising firm
-
the new job with the huge raise that had led to their moving out here to Malibu. And he knew that
Bianca had suggested they buy a house in DeVere Heights. But somehow he hadn't realized that Bianca knew Sienna and her parents. "I guess Bianca's hus
band was really involved in all the Malibu charities and stuff, huh?" he asked.

"Yeah."
Sienna glanced over at him. "Didn't you know that?"

"I never really thought about it," Jason said. "Aunt Bianca was only married to him for four years before he died. And it's not like they spent much time in Michigan. They were always off to New York or L.A. or Paris or some other exotic locale. I met him at their wedding and maybe one or twice after that."

"So he wasn't exac
tl
y Uncle Stefan," Sienna guessed.

"I guess he was, technically," Jason said. "I just never thought of him that way. We've seen a lot more of Bianca since he died than we ever did before. I think my mom is happy to have her sister back."

"Makes sense," Sienna said. "But you should be glad Bianca married Stefan, or you wouldn't be living in DeVere Heights."

"What do you mean?"

"Bianca used his contacts. You know, pulled some strings for you guys," Sienna explained. Then she grinned. "We don't let just anyone live up here, you know," she teased.

"So if it weren't for Uncle Stefan, I never would have met you," Jason said. "I guess I do owe him one, then."
Was that too much?
he
wondered the second the words left his mouth. Sienna always seemed to be flirting with him, but he didn't usually flirt back. He mostly figured that she was just kidding around.

Sienna didn't answer, but she gave him a long side
ways look that sent the blood racing through his veins. Jason turned into the driveway of her ultramodern house and stopped the car.

"Thanks for the ride," she said casually, climbing out and closing the door behind her.

"No worries." Just having her out of arm's reach made Jason
relax
a little. It took serious concentration to remember that they were only friends when she was so close by. He reached for the gearshift, but suddenly Sienna turned back to the car.

"Did I drop a pen in there?" she asked, leaning in over the door. Her hair, loosened by the wind on the drive, slipped out of its knot and fell forward around
her face.

Jason's pulse sped up.
Friends!
he
thought.
Who am I kidding?
She soon found her pen and looked up. Jason stared at her lips, slightly parted,
then
raised his eyes to meet hers. She held his gaze and didn't move away. Without meaning to, Jaso
n
found himself lean
ing toward her...

His lips were barely an inch from hers when the phone rang.

Jason jumped in surprise as a Backstreet Boys song played out from his
cell. "Dani's idea of humor," he
explained to Sienna. "She's always changing the ring
-
tone." He searched for his phone, eventually manag
ing to extract it from a pocket, but he didn't recognize the number on the screen. He hit talk. "Hello?" he barked into the mouthpiece. Whoever it was had seri
ously bad timing.

Too late.
The caller had already hung up. Jason shrugged and turned back to Sienna.

But she was gone.

Not even the perfect Malibu sunshine could cure Jason's bad mood as he drove home from Sienna's house. He'd been so close to kissing her. He could practically feel her lips on his.

What kind of idiot answers the phone at a time like that?
he
thought, pulling to a stop in front of his house.
Why didn't I just ignore it?

He pulled in a deep breath, trying to achieve calm. Sure, he'd been stupid to go for the cell. If he hadn't, he could have done what he'd
been wanting
to do for months
-
kiss Sienna. But, then again, the call had saved him where his self
-
control had failed, and Jason didn't want to be the kind of guy who would make out with his friend's girlfriend. It would have been wrong. And obviously Sienna thought so, too, or she wouldn't have taken off.

Maybe she
-
was insulted that instead of kissing her, I answered the phone,
Jason thought.
Maybe that's why she left.
But he didn't think so. He figured she'd realized what they had come so close to doing, and so she'd left. She didn't want to hurt Brad any more than Jason did.

With a sigh, he climbed out of the car and made his way into the house. Their Malibu home dwarfed the house they'd lived in back in Michigan. Sometimes it didn't seem possible that this was home now. But the delicious scent of his mother's pumpkin pie wafting from the kitchen made the place smell like home. Mrs. Freeman had been making it every Thanksgiving since Jason could remember.

"Hey, Mom, I'm back," he called, making his way into the kitchen.

"Good, you can help me," his mother replied. "I can't reach the good china
-
it's up on the top shelf."

Jason shook his head. "It's only Tuesday. Why are you getting the good china out now?" he asked. His poor mother looked ready to drop from exhaustion. Her blond hair was a mess, and flour obscured the
MR. BUBBLE
on her T
-
shirt.

"You know I need to feel like everything's ready," she replied. "Just because it's a new house doesn't mean the Thanksgiving rules change."

"Yeah, and the rule is that Mom has to be com
pletely freaking out for the entire week before Thanksgiving," Dani put in from her perch on one of the stools at the breakfast bar. "Why are you home so early?" she asked Jason.

"No swim practice today," he replied, reaching over his mom's head and pulling down a stack of china plates. "Sorry I forgot to tell you. I would've given you a ride, but you were already gone."

"Maria drove Kristy and me home. She got her license last weekend," Danielle said. "Isn't that awe
some?”

"Sure. It means less time as the Danielle taxi service for me." Jason took down the gravy boat and handed it to his mother.

Dani ignored him. "Anyway, on the way home we stopped at
Peet's
Coffee and ran into Maggie Roy. She said Zach
Lafrenière
is having a huge party Friday night. It's his eighteenth birthday."

"Huh," Jason said. He realized that that was prob
ably what Zach and Brad had been talking about at school. He had to smile, thinking how he'd assumed some top
-
secret, hush
-
hush vampire business was going down when they were really just planning a party.

"You're going, right?" Dani asked.

"I guess. First I've heard about it," Jason said.

"Well, Jason might be going, but you aren't," his mother told Dani.

Danielle's mouth dropped open. "You are
not
going to keep me away from the best party of the entire year!”

"Oh yes, I am," Mrs. Freeman replied. "You know how I feel about DeVere Heights parties. The kids here seem to have a new one every week, and you tell me every time that it's going to be the best party ever."

"Yeah, but this one really will be," Dani argued. "Tell her, Jason."

Jason shrugged. "Zach is the most popular guy at school," he told his mom.

"Then I'm sure he won't miss you at his birthday party," Mrs. Freeman said. "He'll have plenty of friends to help him celebrate."

"But
-
"

"No, Danielle. It scares me too much. I don't even really like Jason going," Mrs. Freeman said. "Not since that yacht incident."

Dani fell silent for a moment. Jason knew she'd been as freaked out as he was by what happened at Belle R
è
my's yacht party a few months back. A girl, Carrie, had fallen overboard and washed up on the beach the next day, dead. Jason remembered it all too well
-
he'd been the one to find the body.

Mrs. Freeman had pretty much changed her party
-
going rules a minute later. And she didn't even know the truth about what had happened at the yacht party. If she did, she wouldn't have stopped at keeping Dani home from the parties, Jason thought. Even locking Dani in her room for a few years wouldn't be enough
-
she'd probably drag the whole family back to Michigan without second thought. Because the dead girl hadn't drowned the way everybody thought: Carrie had been the rogue vampire's unfortunate vi
ctim.

That was Jason's introduction to the vampires
-
a murderer on the loose, filled with a bloodlust that drove him mad. Sienna had told Jason that the vam
pire community stric
tl
y forbade its members to take the life of a human. And Zach had ended up killing the rogue to stop him from murdering again. Jason had believed them when they said there would be no more murders, when they said the DeVere Heights vampires only took a little blood from their human friends.

But that didn't mean he was okay with it.

Every party he'd gone to in DeVere Heights had hosted an orgy of vampire feeding. The vampires sup
plied plenty of alcohol and some seriously upscale surroundings. And then they seduced their human peers with their glamour and charisma. In the process, the vampires drank human blood. But the humans never remembered. They barely even noticed. All they knew was that they'd had an amazing time
-
partying.