Vampire Beach Hunted (2 page)

‘OK . . . did Brad mention the party in front of Brianna?’ she asked.

Adam sucked in a deep breath. ‘Yeah.’

‘Well, then it would be rude not to ask her if she wants to go,’ Sienna decreed. ‘Tell her that Brad was definitely inviting everyone.’

‘Really?’ Adam grinned.

‘I don’t think at this stage in your dating life you should be playing hard to get,’ Jason added.

And Adam was off, sending up another shower of sand.

‘What was that
Swingers
answering machine thing he was talking about?’ Sienna asked.

‘I don’t know. Some movie thing. And I never ask him to explain his film references anymore. Ask one movie question and you can’t get a word in for at least half an hour,’ Jason answered. ‘So, before the Adam interruption, we were talking about my house – which is going to be empty tonight, which means we could be alone.’

Sienna snuggled up against him. ‘That was what I had planned. Is it uncool of me to tell you that?’

Jason grinned, shook his head and wrapped his arm around her.

‘Who knows how many chances we’ll have to be alone this summer?’ Sienna went on. ‘Then when we’re in college, we’ll both have room-mates . . .’ She let her sentence trail off.

She’s right
, Jason thought. Next year in L.A. was probably going to be great. But could it really compare to what he already had? Was that possible?

‘Right now, let’s not think about anything but today,’ Jason suggested. He pulled Sienna tighter against him, trying to absorb every detail of this moment with her, with their friends, trying to lock in the memory of this little stretch of paradise on earth. Because, in Malibu, things had a way of changing quickly.

Two

‘
I CAN
’
T BELIEVE
I let you drag me away from Sienna for this,’ Jason complained to Adam. ‘She was wearing the black bikini. Not that it isn’t a thrill a minute standing around in the drugstore with you.’ He checked his watch. ‘You do realize we’ve been here, in this same aisle, for thirty-two minutes.’

‘Thanks for the update,’ Adam muttered. He picked up a small orangey-red box, one he’d already picked up about twenty times. He put it down again, and picked up a small neon-green box that he’d also picked up about ten times already.

Jason shook his head. ‘I’m still opposed to the Night Lights. One, the name is stupid. It sounds like something that should be in a baby’s room. Two, do you really want to be illuminated down there on your first try? I mean, if you know you have the moves, then maybe, but . . .’

‘But “Caution Wear” sounds like heavy-duty protection,’ Adam commented. ‘It doesn’t exactly sound fun. Or romantic.’ He shot a look down the aisle to make sure it was still clear. ‘Can you see it? “Hey, Bree, excuse me a minute, while I slip into the Caution Wear”.’

‘I don’t want to see it. I don’t want to
think
about it. Do they sell brainwash in here?’ Jason groaned, scrubbing his forehead with both hands.

‘I heard this is the brand they use in movies,’ Adam said, pointing to another one of the little boxes.

‘That’s all you’ll have to tell Brianna,’ Jason joked. ‘By the way, Van Dyke was pretty impressed that you scored such a babe,’ he added.

‘I’m totally impressed with myself,’ Adam admitted. ‘I mean, she’s so out of my league, right? She looks like she could be on one of these boxes’ – he tapped the nearest row of condoms – ‘and I look like, you know, me.’

‘You don’t exactly look like you’ve been raised in the cellar or anything,’ Jason told him. ‘You shower. You brush your teeth. Belle has stopped you wearing all your truly geek-squad clothing.’

Adam shook his head. ‘Still, Brianna and I don’t match up on the hot scale, I know. But on the, well, the
soul
scale, we are a perfect match. Two minutes after I met her at the conference, she was telling me how
Inland Empire
had made her swear she was going to shoot in digital her whole life. And just a couple of weeks ago, I wrote this whole blog about deciding that I was never going to shoot on film, that it sucked all the spontaneity and lightness out of a piece. And CGI – well, it can be awesome – but now, I see something with CGI and a little part of my head is saying “fake, fake, fake”. Brianna agrees totally. She—’

‘OK, OK, I get it. You’ve found the girl who is worthy of the gift of your precious virginity,’ Jason interrupted. ‘So pick a box, any box, and go pay.’

Adam shot a look at the counter and groaned. ‘I can’t.’

‘Can we just leave then?’ Jason asked. ‘Clearly, you aren’t going to need any condoms tonight. If you can’t even get yourself to buy any, I don’t think you’re ready for actual sex.’

‘Unfair,’ Adam answered. But he laughed. ‘I’m just waiting for that other cashier to come back. I can’t buy condoms from a hot girl. It would be pure bep.’

‘ “Bep”?’

‘Did you even look at the Klingon dictionary I gave you? “Bep” means “agony”,’ Adam explained. ‘And, speaking of bep, couldn’t you spare me some, and just give me some of your stash? That way we could leave right now. Or I’ll give you money, and you buy me some from the hot cashier. I’m sure you’re used to it. I mean, Sienna Devereux walked away from Brad Moreau for you. And from what I heard from your friend Tyler, it’s not like you were hurting for female attention back in Michigan.’

Jason felt his neck and ears turn hot. ‘Sienna and I haven’t, uh, been together like that,’ he admitted.

‘Dude! You’ve put me in a full-on state of shock and awe,’ Adam burst out. ‘Why not? How could you be in the vicinity of Sienna Devereux for this long without sealing the deal?’

‘You’re right. Maybe I should have thrown her up against a wall while we were breaking into the lab at her dad’s company,’ Jason suggested. ‘Or, wait, the vault her sister’s psycho stalker was holding her hostage in would have been a romantic location. Or the backseat of the vampire hunter’s Eldorado. I’m sure he would have let us call a time-out and held off trying to shoot us with his crossbow.’

‘You’ve got a point. These have been strange and dangerous times,’ Adam agreed. ‘But come on. There wasn’t
one
right time? The last few weeks have been pretty tame by DeVere Heights standards.’

Jason decided not to mention that tonight – with his parents and Dani away – could be it, even though that knowledge had been coming to a boil inside him ever since Sienna had told Brad that they might not make his party.

‘True. But think about this. Sienna’s previous boyfriend was
enhanced
,’ he told Adam. ‘You’ve seen what the vampires can do playing football or volleyball. It kind of makes you wonder how good they are at . . .
other
things.’

‘Oh, man. I hadn’t thought of that – the vampire super-powers and all,’ Adam said. ‘Wow. I’m glad Brianna’s not from V Central.’

Jason grabbed a box of condoms.

‘What are you doing?’ Adam demanded.

Jason didn’t answer. He just strode toward the cute girl behind the counter. When he plunked the box down in front of her, he looked over his shoulder. Adam was further back in the aisle, staring intently at something on the bottom shelf.

‘These are for that guy cowering in the feminine hygiene section,’ Jason told the cashier, loudly enough for everyone in the store to hear him.

The girl giggled. Adam turned and walked out of the store.

‘For that, you are going to suffer a death that will make Willem Dafoe’s in
Platoon
look quick and merciful,’ Adam announced when Jason joined him outside.

‘That movie came out before I was born,’ Jason told his friend.

‘DVDs have been invented,’ Adam reminded him for the millionth time as he held out his hand for the condoms.

Jason slapped the small paper bag into Adam’s hand. ‘Good luck,’ he said, silently wishing himself the same thing. Tonight really could be
the
night with Sienna.

Jason stared at the blue and red comforter on his bed. It was total guy. Everything in the room was. All the old swimming trophies on his bookshelf. The Active Right Guard Sport deodorant on his dresser. He could at least get rid of that. He opened the top drawer, knocked the deodorant inside, and slammed the drawer shut. That helped . . . almost not at all. His bedroom was still in the negative on the romance-o-meter. Should he take down the poster of—?

The doorbell rang, saving him from turning into a complete nutball. Another few minutes and he’d have been repainting the walls and ripping up the carpet. As he headed to the stairs he heard Danielle saying, ‘The place is yours. Kristy and Maria and I are hitting Granita for pizza before we go to Brad’s. You be careful. Last time Jason tried to cook something fancy, we almost had to call the fire department.’

‘Not true,’ Jason called, taking the stairs two at a time.

‘Uh-huh. So true,’ Dani countered, as she started out the front door. ‘He needs supervision in the kitchen,’ she warned Sienna. Then she closed the door behind herself, leaving Sienna and Jason alone.

‘So you need supervision, huh?’ Sienna asked. She walked slowly over to Jason, her long, dark hair falling down her back in a sleek curtain. ‘
Close
supervision?’ she asked, her throaty voice teasing and suggestive at the same time.

‘Oh, yeah,’ Jason answered. ‘Very close.’

Sienna wrapped her arms around his neck. ‘I can do that.’ And she kissed him, sliding her body tight against his.

‘Wait,’ she said, stepping away from him. ‘What about this fancy food Dani was talking about? Do we need to check on it?’

‘It’s pretty much on auto-pilot for a while. No worries. I set the timer and everything,’ Jason answered.

‘I can’t believe you’re cooking for me,’ Sienna told him.

‘There’s no end to my talents,’ Jason laughed. He slipped his fingers under the thin straps of her yellow sundress and started backing toward the couch. He hit the arm of the sofa two steps later. Sienna gave him one of her trademark slow smiles, then put her hands on his chest – and pushed. Not with her full-on vampire strength, but hard enough to send him sprawling onto his back on the sofa cushions – with Sienna on top of him.

Jason slid one hand behind her neck, and pulled her head down to his. Sienna’s tongue flicked across his lower lip, a touch that sent shockwaves of sensation slamming through his body.

Forget the beach and the surfing and all that
, he thought. This
is the moment I want to hold onto
. He could live in this moment pretty much forever.

Sienna deepened their kiss, her silky hair swirling around both their faces. It smelled like the ocean. The ocean . . . and smoke.

Wait.
Smoke
.

Jason sat up so fast, he almost dumped Sienna onto the floor.

‘What?’ she demanded.

The smoke detector answered for him, with long, ear-splitting shrieks. Jason bolted for the kitchen, Sienna right behind him. As soon as he whipped open the door, smoke billowed out. He grabbed a dishtowel from the stove door handle, dashed back into the hallway, and started frantically using it to fan the detector. ‘You keep doing this,’ he told Sienna, handing over the towel. ‘I’ll get some windows open.’

‘Turn the stove off too,’ she suggested.

Jason did that first, dialing the oven down to zero. He didn’t even take a peek at his chicken breasts. From the smell, they were already inedible. He raced from window to window, yanking them open as wide as possible. He opened the back door too, then went to check on Sienna. She still hadn’t managed to get the smoke detector to stop screaming.

‘The thing is supposed to go off at the first whiff of smoke,’ he said. ‘Whiff.’ He jumped up and knocked the plastic cover off, then took out the batteries. The screams subsided. ‘Come on. Let’s go sit by the pool until the air in here is breathable again.’

Jason ushered Sienna outside and plopped down in a lawn chair. ‘Yep, we have the house all to ourselves – the part that hasn’t burned down, anyway. Sorry.’

‘I was supposed to be supervising,’ Sienna reminded him as she sat down on the lounge chair next to him. ‘Dani warned me what would happen.’

‘So, what do you want to do? We could order in. Or I’ll take you anywhere you want to go,’ Jason offered.

‘With your parents and Dani out, I vote we stay in,’ Sienna replied. ‘We hardly ever have a place to ourselves.’

‘My parents do need to get a life, don’t they?’ Jason said with a grin. ‘Where should we call for food?’

‘We’re not calling anywhere. This is the best thing that could have happened. Now we can cook together,’ Sienna answered. ‘It’ll be fun.’

Jason doubted it would be quite as much fun as what they’d been doing on the couch a couple of minutes ago. But they would definitely have a good time. When they were together, they always did. Well, when they weren’t right in the middle of life-threatening danger. Although even that wasn’t a dead loss with Sienna around.

Sienna checked the oven temperature. ‘Three-fifty.’ She gave a satisfied nod. Then she set the timer for forty-five minutes. She hadn’t allowed Jason to use the stove or even the timer since what they’d started calling ‘
la fatalité
’.

‘Forty-five minutes to make a dessert?’ Jason said incredulously.

‘It’s worth it,’ Sienna told him. ‘And it’ll give us time to clean up this mess.’ She walked over to the sink where the charred remains of the first dinner were soaking. ‘What did you say this was again?’

‘Chicken breasts stuffed with perfection,’ Jason answered. ‘It was going to be awesome, with feta cheese, and those sun-dried tomatoes you like, and spinach, which I put in for you even though I find it kind of slimy and disgusting.’

‘Next time we cook together, we’ll make that,’ Sienna promised. ‘And we’ll even leave out the spinach. Now, you start trying to scrub the “perfection” off that pan while I clear the table.’ She headed for the dining room. Jason found a Brillo pad under the sink and got to work.

Twenty-five minutes later, the pan had been washed, dried and put away. The dishwasher had been loaded. The sink scrubbed. The floor had even been swept and mopped. Jason and Sienna stood beside the gleaming dining-room table. ‘Twenty minutes until dessert,’ she said. ‘You’re going to love the chocolate truffle cake.’