by Alex Duval
The boss woman gave the three of them a warning look and moved away.
“You guys are going to get me in trouble,” Lauren whispered. “What are you even doing here?”
Jason said the first thing that sprang into his mind. “I just wanted to apologize for being such a idiot at Belle’s party this weekend.”
“Oh, okay.” Lauren frowned. “Honestly, I don’t even remember talking to you that night.”
“You didn’t. I meant that scene while you were in the hot tub with Brad,” Jason explained.
Lauren smiled. “That explains it. You don’t really expect me to remember anything that happened while I was in the hot tub with him, do you?”
“You don’t remember when Jason—,” Adam began.
“She said she doesn’t remember,” Jason interrupted. He really didn’t want to hear a replay of his bad behavior, especially since Lauren didn’t even recall it. Maybe she’d had too much to drink. Jason knew he had. He’d had to practically squeeze his memories of the party out of his brain. Even Dani had been fuzzy, and she was still sticking to the not-drinking story.
“So I accept your apology. And don’t do it again, whatever it was. Now please get out of here,” Lauren said in a rush.
Jason shot a look at Adam. How were they going to—
Adam took action before Jason could finish the thought. “We’re gone. But you gotta tell me where you got that necklace. My mom’s birthday is coming up, and she loves stuff with beads.”
Lauren didn’t have a chance to answer. Adam slid one finger under the necklace and, a half a second later, beads were bouncing all over the floor. Lauren dropped to the ground and frantically began trying to gather them up. Jason knelt down next to her as if to help, but he ignored the beads. His attention was firmly focused on Lauren’s neck….
And there, without a doubt, were two tiny red marks. Marks identical to the ones on Carrie Smith’s arm.
Jason scrambled backward and felt something crack under his foot: a bead. “Sor—”
“I don’t need any more help. Or apologies. Just leave,” Lauren hissed. Jason and Adam bolted out of the door and practically ran over to their vehicles.
“See. You saw them, right? The same marks. The bite,” Adam said.
“I saw the marks,” Jason confirmed. “I’m not sure what made them. But I saw them.” And he knew that meant that there was a connection between Brad and Carrie.
Jason felt like his head might explode. Brad had always seemed like such a decent guy. But it seemed he was sick enough to want to get girls drunk and then bite them—maybe kill them! Jason couldn’t believe he’d been trying to stay away from Sienna out of loyalty to Brad. Hell, he should be warning her….
I have to warn her! Jason thought with a jolt. If Brad was dangerous, then Sienna was probably in danger. And, for all he knew, Sienna was with Brad right this very second. He had to get to her.
“Adam, I think you should take this to your dad,” Jason said urgently.
“I can’t even get you to believe me,” Adam burst out in frustration. “And my dad’s a lot less open-minded than you are. If I say the word ‘vampire,’ he’s going to have me climbing a mountain at one of those camps for troubled boys!”
“So don’t use the V word,” Jason said, pulling his car keys out of his pocket. “Just show him the tape. And tell him what we saw on Lauren. Show him the link between her and Carrie and Brad.”
“No way. The second there’s even a hint of legal trouble involving anyone from DeVere Heights, the celebrity lawyers come out, it gets hushed up, and it goes away,” Adam protested. “I need time to get proof that no one can laugh at.”
“Okay. Fair enough. You know this place a lot better than I do,” Jason said. “But, look, I’ve got something I have to do right now. We’ll talk about this some more another time, right?”
“Fine,” Adam said. “Where are you going?”
But Jason didn’t answer. He didn’t have time. He dashed over to the VW and jumped in. The tires squealed as he pulled out of the parking lot. Sienna didn’t live far away—nothing was far away in Malibu—but it felt as if it took hours to get up the hill, through the gates, and round to her house. He drove all the way up the driveway, getting as close to the door as he could.
A woman who was clearly Sienna’s mom—same dark hair and eyes—opened the front door before he could knock.
“Is Sienna here?” Jason demanded.
Mrs. Devereux didn’t answer. She just looked Jason up and down as if deciding whether or not to call security.
Jason did a fast backpedal. “I’m Jason Freeman. My family and I just moved into the Heights. I’m in a couple of classes with Sienna. Is she here, please?”
“Sienna didn’t tell me she was expecting anyone,” Mrs. Devereux said slowly.
Jason forced himself to smile. To try to look a little less like a lunatic. “She isn’t. I just thought I’d stop by. In Michigan, that was okay. I’m still trying to figure out the rules for California.”
Mrs. Devereux finally cracked a smile and stepped back, allowing Jason into the house. “Sienna’s out by the pool. Straight through the house and out the glass doors,” she instructed.
“Thanks.” Jason kept himself to a walk as he made his way through the house and out of the French doors. The day was hot, and there was no breeze to cool things down. The water in the pool stood perfectly still, reflecting the cloudless sky and the unforgiving sun. Sienna lay on a wooden lounge chair with a plush pillow. Just the sight of her made Jason’s heart leap.
Sienna looked surprised to see him. She pushed herself up onto her elbows. “Jason!”
“Is Brad here?” he asked. The last thing he wanted was for Brad to come walking in on them.
“You came to my house to see Brad?” Sienna pulled off her sunglasses and put them on the marble table in front of her. A pitcher of water and a glass sat on the table, bleeding condensation onto the marble.
“No. I came to see you,” Jason said in a rush. “Is he here?”
Sienna shook her head. “What’s going on? You’re hyperventilating. What’s the matter?” she asked, her voice warming up with concern. She pointed to the chair next to hers. “Sit.” Jason sat. “Okay. Now talk.”
“I think Brad killed Carrie Smith. Or that he has something to do with her death, anyway.” The words tumbled out of Jason’s mouth so fast that he wasn’t even sure what he was saying.
“Whoa!” Sienna held up a hand. “You’ve got to slow down. Say that again.”
“Sorry.” He took a deep breath and forced himself to speak more slowly. “I think Brad may have done something to Carrie. I think he may have killed her.”
Sienna’s mouth fell open. “I have known Brad Moreau my whole life,” she said. “You’re crazy. What would make you say something like that?”
Jason hesitated, trying to figure out how he could make Sienna listen to him. “Look, I know after, uh, what happened on the beach, this could seem like some pathetic attempt to—”
“To get me away from my boyfriend so you can have a shot?” Sienna offered.
“Yeah,” Jason said. “I mean, no. That’s what it could seem like. Not what I’m doing. I’m here because I’m worried about you. Carrie had these marks on her arm. Lauren Gissinger has them too—on her throat. And I think I saw Brad put them there. I mean, I know I did. At Belle’s party. I saw Brad with blood on his mouth right after he’d been kissing Lauren’s neck.”
Jason knew he was talking too much, saying too much at once, but he couldn’t stop. “Well, obviously not kissing, because that wouldn’t have made Lauren bleed,” he rattled on. “Adam thinks Brad bit her, but…I don’t know. I don’t know what’s going on. But I think Brad may be dangerous. You’ve got to stay away from him.”
Sienna stared at Jason as if he’d been speaking in a language she’d never heard before. “You saw this? You just stood there and—”
“No,” Jason interrupted. “I wasn’t there.
Not right when the biting happened, anyway. I saw it on tape. Adam’s been shooting all this footage. He’s convinced that Malibu is being taken over by vampires.”
“Vampires?” Sienna repeated. She stood up.
“Yeah. Insanity, I know,” Jason said. “But something is going on. And you have to promise me you’ll stay away from Brad until—”
“Stop,” Sienna ordered. “Just…stop.” Slowly she sank back down onto her lounge chair. Her dark eyes betrayed concern.
“I know you love Brad, but—”
“Seriously, Jason. Stop talking,” Sienna ordered. She took a shaky breath. “Okay. Okay.” Jason thought it sounded more as if she was talking to herself than to him. But then she lifted her eyes to his and stared at him for a moment. “There’s something I have to tell you,” she whispered. “I’m trusting you here, all right?”
“Of course,” Jason assured her. “I’d never…” The words died in his throat as he noticed Sienna.
She’d been sitting there the whole time, of course, but suddenly he really saw her, and his breath caught in his chest.
Sienna’s dark hair was glossier than he’d ever seen it; her skin clear and creamy, almost luminous; and her lips glowed a deep rose red. She was stunning, spectacular—impossibly beautiful.
Jason realized he was staring. “What is it?” he asked. “Sienna, you can tell me anything.”
And then Sienna smiled, slowly revealing a pair of very white, very sharp, and very real fangs.
Eleven
“Adam is right: Brad is a vampire,” Sienna told Jason quietly, her voice shaking a little.
Jason couldn’t respond. He felt like he was caught in a particularly weird and vivid dream.
“And so am I,” Sienna continued.
Jason’s brain finally managed to get a message to his body, and he stood up so fast, he knocked his chair over. He couldn’t take his eyes off Sienna’s fangs. They were perfectly shaped to make the marks on Carrie and Lauren. He took a step away from her as his mind reeled in shock.
“Jason.” Sienna reached for him, but he whipped his arm away from her. And suddenly the confusion in his mind vanished to be replaced by fear. Total, overwhelming fear. Sienna was a vampire. A monster. A killer.
And so was Brad.
“Which one of you killed her? Which one of you killed Carrie Smith?” Jason managed to ask, clamping down on the fear that engulfed his entire body.
“Neither. We didn’t. It’s not like that!” Sienna replied desperately, moving toward him. Jason’s muscles tensed. But all she did was set his chair back on its feet. “It’s not like that, Jason. My whole life—the whole time my parents have lived in Malibu—there’s never been a death. Not from a vampire.”
“So you’re saying you’ve never bitten anyone?” Jason asked doubtfully.
“No. I have. We all have. We have to feed to stay alive,” Sienna told him.
“You all have?” Jason cried. “You mean there’s more than just you and Brad?”
Sienna dropped her head into her hands. “Oh, God,” she said. “Yes. It’s…it’s hereditary. There are several of us. But we don’t kill people. We only feed because we have no choice.”
“And that’s supposed to make me feel better? You haven’t actually killed anyone, but you drink human blood?” Jason exclaimed.
“Do you think I should allow myself to die instead?” Sienna asked, her eyes bright with emotion. “It’s not like you’re thinking, Jason. It’s…it’s pleasurable. It’s good for both of us, both sides. It’s not even that I haven’t killed someone to survive—I’ve never even hurt anyone.”
Jason sat down. Mainly because he wasn’t sure his legs were going to be able to keep him upright. Sienna returned to her seat next to him. “How can you say you haven’t hurt anyone?” he finally asked. “Do you get permission? Do the people you…you drink from, say, ‘Sure, go ahead, I’ve got more blood than I need’?”
Sienna swallowed hard. Jason could see the muscles in her throat working. “You’re talking to me like I’m a monster. Like I’m a stranger. Like we’ve never kissed.” She met his gaze steadily. “Like you don’t know me at all.”
“I don’t,” he snapped. “You told me that yourself, remember? And you were right! I obviously don’t know anything about you, because you’ve been hiding the truth.”
“Well, I’m telling you everything now. I’m trusting you. Not just with my secrets, but with the lives of every single person that I care about. And we’re not monsters.” She leaned closer to Jason, and strangely, she was so beautiful that even knowing what he did, Jason didn’t want to draw away.
“Think about it. Think about that film of Adam’s that you watched,” Sienna urged. “Did Lauren look like she was in pain? Did Brad have her overpowered? Did she look like she wanted to get away from him?”
Jason pictured Lauren and Brad on the monitor. The truth was that Lauren had looked like she was having the best damn time of her life. But he wasn’t ready to hear more rationalizations. “Has it happened to me?” he interrupted. “Has anyone…drunk from me?”
She just stared at him, her eyes big and worried.
“I deserve to know,” he told her.
“Yes,” she said softly. “But it wasn’t me.”
He felt a single second of confusion, and then he knew exactly who she was talking about: Erin. Jason remembered the ecstasy he’d felt while dancing with her. He hadn’t even known her, but he’d been beyond happy during their make-out session.
“Erin,” Sienna agreed.
“And that’s why I couldn’t remember much the day after the party!” Jason guessed. “Because somebody drank from me. Is that part of the whole experience—the victim doesn’t remember it?”
“You remembered having a good time,” Sienna pointed out.
A new thought slammed into Jason, making him feel sick. “So that means my sister, too?” He remembered Dani telling him that she’d had the best time in her young life after Brad’s beach party.
Sienna nodded. “But she’s fine. You know that. You can see it.”
The idea of a vampire gorging itself on his little sister’s blood nauseated Jason. It couldn’t be true. None of this could be true—it was beyond ridiculous. Maybe he’d been out in the sun too long. And that made him think of something else….
“You’re out in the sun!” he cried, glancing up at the perfect yellow ball in the cloudless blue sky. “You can’t be a vampire. The sun kills vampires.”
“Watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer doesn’t mean you know anything about what we are,” Sienna replied. “The sun doesn’t bother us, not anymore. We’ve adapted.”
“Fine,” Jason said grimly. “Then what does bother you? What kills you?”
Sienna bit her lip. “You want to kill me?”
“No.” Jason forced himself to dial it back. He was feeling a little crazy. This whole conversation was too surreal. “No. Of course not. I just meant…what else is true about vampires? What’s true and what’s just made up in the movies?”
“Well, we can change our appearance somewhat,” Sienna said, and gestured to her supernaturally beautiful face. “This is what I look like naturally. I usually tone it down a little bit on purpose. We all do. We want to blend in with regular people.”
“So you can actually alter your appearance?” Jason asked. “You can shapeshift?”
“No,” Sienna said quickly. “Nothing so extreme. We can just…modify ourselves to a degree.”
“Modify.” Jason jumped on the small fact, wanting to understand. “So no morphing into bats or wolves or fog, then?”
“No. And no sleeping in coffins. I’m sure that was going to be your next question.” She actually sounded a little hurt. Absurd.
“And crosses, stakes through the heart, garlic?” Jason asked.
Sienna raised one eyebrow. “I thought you didn’t want to kill me.”
He didn’t. He absolutely did not want to kill Sienna. But he did want t
o know how to protect himself from the ones who clearly could kill him. “Do any of those things work?” he demanded.
“Well, I think a stake through the heart kills pretty much everyone,” Sienna said. “But, crosses? No. And the only thing garlic does is ruin your social life.” She smiled, and Jason almost smiled back. But he wasn’t ready to let the subject drop.
“How old are you? Will you live forever? How long have you been in high school?” he asked, the questions tumbling out more quickly than he’d intended.
“I’m the same age as you,” Sienna replied, amused. “And I won’t live forever, but most…of us…do live longer than humans. We age the same way you do, until we’re adult. After that, we age much more slowly.”
“So, how many of you are there? Brad, you, Erin…Zach?” he added, suddenly picturing Zach’s cold once-over at school the other day. He was clearly the leader of Sienna’s group of friends. Chances were good that he’d be a vampire too.
“Jason, I can’t…,” Sienna began.
“What about Van Dyke?” he rushed on, suddenly remembering Van Dyke’s miraculous recovery at the first swim practice. He’d gone into the locker room—with Simkins, the assistant coach—and his body had been weak and pale. He’d emerged just a few minutes later, full of energy and raring to go, while Simkins had come out pale, but looking completely blissed out. Jason suddenly understood how Van Dyke had recovered so quickly: He had fed on Assistant Coach Simkins.
“There are several of us,” Sienna said. “Several families in Malibu. But no one will ever hurt you. I promise.”
“Oh, yeah? What about Carrie?” Jason shot back. “Someone sure hurt her.” He felt anger rising in him again. Carrie was the whole reason he’d come here, and he’d almost forgotten in the midst of this shock. “I found her body. That girl did not enjoy herself with someone from one of these families and go home happy.”
Sienna wrapped her arms around herself, as if she’d suddenly gotten chilled. “No. She didn’t. Poor Carrie.”
“‘Poor Carrie?’” he repeated. “That’s it? She gets murdered by a vampire and that’s all you’ve got to say?”
