Alex Duval - [Vampire Beach 02]

by Initiation (epub)

  His mind kept returning to the expression on his aunt's face when she gave the vote that meant Tyler's death. So calm. So rational.

  "I know I'm the visitor, but shouldn't we be heading toward that exit?" Tyler asked.

  Jason realized that he'd almost missed the ramp to the 405. He glanced over his shoulder, then cut over a couple of lanes, just reaching the exit in time. "Good catch," he told Tyler.

  "Well, it said that way to the airport, and I thought since we were going to the airport..."

  "It's not very far from here," Jason said. He focused on the signage and managed to get them to LAX with only one U-turn, then into the big cement parking garage for Terminal 3.

  Jason and Tyler left the bug in the garage and cut across the bumper-to-bumper airport traffic to reach the terminal. Jason did a Sienna scan. There were lots of people around, but it wasn't as though she was easy to miss. She wasn't there yet.

  "Let's check out the flights to Michigan." He led the way over to the bank of arrival/departure monitors.

  "There's one in a little less than an hour. Midwest Express," Tyler said.

  Jason did another Sienna check. This time, he saw her. He waved, and she hurried toward them without smiling. All that emotion she'd shown when she'd tried to stop him from going after Tyler was gone.

  "We found a flight," Jason told her.

  And, after that, everything happened very quickly. Tyler bought a ticket with the money Sienna gave him. He had to go directly to security for check-in, and they weren't allowed to go with him past the metal detectors.

  "So, I guess I'll see you in Michigan sometime. Maybe," Tyler said when he was two people away from the detectors.

  "Yup, I'm coming. And I'm going to whip your butt in basketball," Jason replied with a grin.

  Tyler surprised him by grabbing him and hugging him hard. "Thank you. I'm going to get it together," he promised. Then he walked through the metal detector and disappeared from sight.

  It was then that Jason realized Sienna was no longer standing next to him. He spun around and saw her striding toward the closest exit. "Sienna! Wait!" he called. She didn't turn around. It was like what had happened between them in the gazebo had been erased from her memory.

  Jason sprinted after her and grabbed her arm. "I said wait!"

  She whirled around to face him. "Tyler's on his way to the plane. You don't need me anymore," she snapped, trying to pull free. "And in, oh, maybe another two seconds you'll be wanting to get away from me, anyway, right? You obviously can't manage to feel the same way about me for more than two minutes at a time."

  Jason did the only thing he could think of. He kissed her. Fast, before she had time to react. Hard, because he had been wanting to for so long.

  Everything fell away except the feel of her mouth on his. Complete inferno.

  A passenger in a hurry let his heavy suitcase slam into their legs, and they stumbled apart. Sienna reached down and rubbed her calf.

  Slowly, the world around Jason came into focus. There were people everywhere. All he wanted to do was kiss Sienna again. But this wasn't exactly the place. "Let me walk you to your car," he offered.

  "Okay." She was back to not quite looking at him as they headed outside and crossed the street to the garage. "I'm glad that Tyler's okay." She paused. "And you too.”

  "It got a little hairy there for a while. It would have gone a lot differently, a lot worse, without you and Zach. Thank you."

  "I'm on the second level," she answered.

  He opened the door to the stairwell and let Sienna go in ahead of him. Maybe they could just camp out here on the cement steps. Never go back to the real world. He glanced at her, wishing she had a little screen running across her forehead that spelled out her thoughts.

  "What?" she said.

  Jason realized he'd been staring. "I was just wondering about my aunt, the High Council member," he said. Because he couldn't tell Sienna what he'd been really thinking. And, anyway, he did wonder about his aunt.

  "I wanted to tell you about her. But she didn't want anyone in your family to know," Sienna said. She opened the door to the second level of the parking garage and they walked over to her Spider.

  Jason hated watching her slide behind the wheel. They'd hardly had any time together. And who knew when they'd be alone again.

  Sienna turned the key. The Spider gave a groan of protest. "Not again!" Sienna cried.

  Excellent - the Spider came through for Jason yet again. How much did he love that car? So very much. "Guess you need a ride," he said, feeling a grin spread across his face.

  Sienna got out of the car and slammed the door. “I guess I do."

  Half an hour later, Jason pulled back on to PCH, the lights from the Santa Monica Pier glittering in the darkness. It no longer bothered him to see people out there having fun. Eating bad food. Playing games. Pretending to be scared by plywood monsters. Making out on the sand under the boardwalk. Having Sienna with him changed everything.

  "Tyler should be boarding his plane right around now," Sienna said.

  "Yeah. And by now, my aunt must know for sure that he's gone." Jason shook his head. "I have no idea what to expect when I get home."

  "She'll probably act completely normal. Maybe a little worried because she expected you at home." Sienna reached out and put her hand over his for a brief moment. "She's not going to want the DeVere Heights Council or the other members of the High Council to know she let Tyler get away. So she won't tell anyone. And it's not like Zach or I will say anything. I think Tyler's pretty safe."

  "Can I ask you something else?" Jason went on, without waiting for a yes. "You said being a vampire is a hereditary thing. And Aunt Bianca's a vampire, right? So that should mean my mom is ... and Dani and me?"

  Sienna laughed. "Don't sweat it. You're not a vampire, neither is Dani, or your mom and dad."

  "So, how come? Bianca's adopted?"

  "No. Well, not that I know of," Sienna answered. "Your aunt is more unusual than that - she's a human who chose to become a vampire."

  "That's possible?" Jason asked curiously. It hadn't occurred to him that there might be more ways than one of becoming a vampire.

  "The only way a human can become one of us is if they bite back, if they drink the blood of a vampire as the vampire drinks from them," Sienna explained. "Usually, it doesn't ever happen because a vampire won't allow it. It's too much of a risk. When you're a born vampire, you grow up knowing that you have to protect yourself and your kind. You know how important it is to keep your nature a secret. But it's different for a turned vampire. They have so many ties to the human world. There's a much greater chance that they will put us in danger by trusting the wrong people."

  "I don't think Bianca has told my mom, and she usually tells my mom everything," Jason said. "But if turned vampires are sort of mistrusted, how did she get to be on the High Council? How'd she get to be a vampire at all?"

  "Stefan loved her so much that he was willing to risk everything for her," Sienna said simply. "If a vampire with less power and prestige than Stefan had turned a human, the rest of the vampires would probably have banished him and your aunt. Or worse," Sienna told him. "But Stefan was descended from one of the very first families on the first High Council, formed back in the Renaissance. He was hugely respected, so Bianca was accepted. And when he died, Bianca inherited his spot on the High Council. She's more famous and powerful among vampires than anyone in DeVere Heights." Sienna laughed. "It's kind of like you're related to a rock star.”

  "A rock star who can decide if someone lives or dies," Jason replied grimly. "It's going to be hard to walk into the house tonight and act like I don't know any of this."

  "But you have to," Sienna told him, a little of the intensity that had been in her voice in the gazebo returning. "I'm not sure you'll be safe if you don't."

  "I will. It'll be okay," Jason reassured her as they drove through the massive gates leading into the Heights.

  "It won't be
okay until the chalice is returned," Sienna said with a sigh. A breeze caught her long hair, blowing it across Jason's cheek, bringing that mix of scents - green apple, and vanilla, and the ocean - that was pure Sienna.

  "I'll do whatever I can to get it back," Jason promised. He turned onto Sienna's street, then into her driveway. He turned off the engine, and the car fell quiet.

  "So, well, good night," Sienna said. But she didn't move, didn't reach for the door handle. She turned toward Jason.

  He suddenly felt aware of every nerve ending. And of his pulse quickening as he looked into Sienna's eyes. He leaned toward heir - until their lips met. And Jason knew that, in spite of Brad being his friend, in spite of Sienna being a vampire, he never wanted that moment to end.

  And then his cell phone rang.

  Sienna started to pull away, but Jason looped his hands in her hair, holding her close.

  The phone continued to ring. Jason ignored it. He had been waiting for this kiss since the beginning of Thanksgiving vacation, which felt like a million years ago now.

  He felt a jolt of adrenaline as Sienna's tongue brushed his. It was definitely worth the wait, he thought.

  NINETEEN

  Sienna gently eased away from him. "I have to go in," she whispered.

  "Okay," Jason told her. "But we have to figure all this out." "This" meaning him, Sienna ... and Brad. Jason's friend, Brad. Sienna's boyfriend, Brad.

  "We will. I promise. Just not tonight." Sienna climbed out of the car and hurried up to her front door. He watched her until she had unlocked it. She turned and waved as she slipped inside.

  Jason watched as the door closed, and imagined her heading into her bedroom. Thinking about me? he wondered as he started the car.

  He checked his phone as he headed home. Seeing that he had a voice mail, he entered his code and listened. The pawnbroker. He had the chalice. It hadn't been what the buyer wanted, after all. Jason could have it back - but it would cost seven thousand dollars.

  Seven thousand dollars. Might as well be seven million. Where am I going to get that kind of money? Jason wondered.

  But a new worry shoved that thought aside when he pulled into his driveway. He could see a light on in the kitchen. Someone was waiting up for him.

  Jason parked the car. As soon as he got inside the house, he headed straight for the kitchen. Might as well get this over with, he told himself. As he had expected, his aunt was sitting at the table. The floor had been swept, the counters wiped down, everything was back in place.

  "So there you are. Your parents were worried, what with the break-in and all. So was I," Bianca said. "I didn't tell them I had expected to see you here when I got back. That would have worried them even more." She took a sip of coffee.

  "Thanks." Jason took a seat across from her.

  "Where's Tyler? Passed out in the car?" Bianca asked. Her voice was relaxed, but there was a steely glint in her blue eyes. She's dangerous, Jason thought. And not just because she's a vampire, but because there's something hard and cold and calculating inside her.

  "I took him to Starbucks to pump some coffee into him after we left Zach's," Jason explained, making sure to look his aunt in the eye. "But he got a call from his dad when we were there. Got ordered home. I guess he didn't exactly have parental clearance to come out here.”

  "Tyler went back to Michigan?" said a voice behind him.

  Jason looked over his shoulder and saw Dani standing in the doorway, dressed in her monkey pajamas. "Yeah. He needed to get home," he told her. "He said to tell you good-bye."

  "His father wouldn't even let him come back and get his things?" Bianca asked, and Jason could hear a note of suspicion in her voice.

  "He didn't bring anything with him," Jason explained. "Like I said, he didn't really have permission to come visit in the first place."

  "Is he okay?" Dani joined them at the table. "I'm worried about him."

  Bianca reached out and covered Dani's hand with her own. Watching his aunt with his sister put Jason on edge. She'd never hurt Dani - or any of us, he told himself firmly, trying to believe it.

  "Tyler's always seemed like a boy who knows how to take care of himself," Bianca told Dani. "I'm sure he'll be fine."

  So she'd leave him alone? Was that what she was saying? There was no way to ask Bianca that without revealing that he knew the truth about her. And that wouldn't be smart, Jason thought as he headed upstairs for a few hours' sleep before school. At all!

  Jason wrote out a check to cash for seven thousand dollars. His hand shook a little as he signed his name. His parents would implode when they found out he'd withdrawn a major chunk of his college fund.

  No other choice, he told himself as he got in line for the cashier. No way was he taking more money from Zach. Jason had brought Tyler into the Lafrenière house. What had happened was his responsibility.

  A bell dinged. Jason checked the lighted number on the monitor in front of him, then headed over to Window 3. He half expected the cashier to refuse to cash the check - even though he was at his own bank. But she just asked to see his driver's license, then had him sweep his ATM card through the machine and enter his PIN.

  Not much more than a minute later, he was walking back out into the afternoon sunshine, carrying seven thousand dollars in cash. He went directly to the pawnshop. Maybe there were people in the Heights who routinely walked around with that kind of money on them, but Jason just wanted to get rid of it.

  The pawnbroker with the ponytail buzzed him inside with a wide smile. Why shouldn't he be smiling? He was about to make a two-thousand- dollar profit for jack.

  "Do you have the chalice?" Jason asked.

  "If you got the money, I got the chalice," the man replied evenly.

  "Plus more than a twenty-five percent profit," Jason muttered.

  The guy shrugged. "If it's too much, I'll keep the thing. I'm sure I can sell it again."

  They stared at each other. The man knew exactly how desperate Jason was. Jason had made the mistake of revealing that on his first trip to the pawnshop. No point trying to negotiate now. Jason pulled out the wad of cash and shoved it across the glass counter to the pawnbroker.

  The man counted it, fast and efficient. Then he reached under the cash register, pulled out a paper bag, and handed it to Jason. Jason peered inside. The chalice was there. It almost seemed to glow, even in the dim light of the shop. And it pulled at something in Jason. He wanted to take the chalice out of the bag and just hold it for a minute. But he closed the bag and hurried back out to his car. The chalice wasn't for him. The safest thing was to get rid of it as soon as possible.

  Jason slid behind the wheel - and froze. A man was watching him from across the street. He tightened his grip on the chalice. Did the man know what was in the bag?

  A truck rumbled down the street. It blocked the man from Jason's view for a few seconds. And when the truck had passed, the man was gone. Jason glanced up and down the street; there was nobody to be seen.

  He fired up the bug, telling himself that he was being paranoid, but the desire to get the chalice back where it belonged had just got stronger. So he didn't pass Go, didn't collect two hundred dollars. He drove straight to Zach's.

  Zach met him in the driveway before Jason could reach the front door. "I wasn't expecting to see you here again ... so soon," Zach said.

  "Hello to you, too." Jason thrust the paper bag into Zach's hands. "Something I think you'll be happy to see.”

  Zach opened the bag, and raised one eyebrow. "You keep coming through for us, Freeman."

  "Now we're even," Jason told him.

  Zach gave a reluctant smile.

  "Don't expect any more favors," Jason added, and Zach's smile widened into a grin.

  Jason swung himself back into his bug and headed for home. Things were back to normal.

  As normal as they ever got in DeVere Heights.