Read Vampire Beach: High Stakes Online
Authors: Alex Duval
Vampire Beach: High Stakes
Contents
For once, things for Jason and his vampire girlfriend, Sienna, are right on track: great friends, great life, no great drama. Then Sienna’s older sister, Paige, comes home unexpectedly from college in Paris …
Paige is sexy, sophisticated and full of wild ideas – such as spending spring break in Las Vegas. Jason soon finds that life in Malibu may be intense, but life in Vegas is insane.
And when Paige’s controlling ex-boyfriend turns up, things quickly go from daring to dangerous.
Now Jason and Sienna are caught right in the middle of it all. Suddenly, the stakes are very high …
HIGH STAKES
To AC, for letting me tag along on the trips to Malibu
Special thanks to Laura Burns & Melinda Metz
‘
MARCH IN MALIBU.
Perfection,’ Jason Freeman murmured to himself as he stared out over the Pacific. The afternoon sunlight glinted off the surface and caught the rising waves, turning them into a glimmering paradise that just begged to be surfed.
‘Jason, stop staring out of the window. I’m desperate!’ Smiling, Jason turned to see his girlfriend, Sienna Devereux, gesturing frantically around Mystère. ‘I can’t find the dress.’
Jason glanced about the tiny boutique. There had to be 500 dresses crammed into the ultra-posh space. ‘Um …’
‘The
red
dress,’ Sienna said, a note of exasperation creeping into her throaty voice. ‘The one I’ve been talking about all week.’
‘Um …’ Jason said again. It was true; she’d been talking about a dress all week. But it hadn’t occurred to him that he was supposed to be actually listening to the details.
‘You’re hopeless,’ Sienna said, shaking her head, but a smile played along her lips.
‘Too bad Belle had therapy today,’ Jason said. Usually Sienna’s best friend would be the one helping score a fashion find, while Jason would be out riding the waves. As much as he loved Malibu – and as much as he loved Sienna – Jason wasn’t entirely comfortable hanging in the pricey boutiques along Cross Creek Road. No matter how hard he tried, he still couldn’t tell the difference between a Prada bag or a pleather knock off from Target. When it came time to find clothes for himself, he still preferred to hit the Gap like a normal person. Although ever since he’d started dating Sienna a few months back, ‘normal’ was a thing of the past.
That was because ‘normal’ didn’t include vampires.
Jason had barely been in Malibu for a month before he was neck-deep in vampire society. Everywhere he turned in DeVere Heights, the exclusive neighborhood where he lived, there was another vampire family. Zach Lafrenière, the coolest guy in his class at school? A vampire. Brad Moreau and Michael Van Dyke, his friends from the swim team? Vampires. And, oh yeah, Sienna Devereux, the girl he’d fallen head over heels for the very first second he laid eyes on her? A vampire.
It had been hard enough adjusting to the fact that
vampires
were real. But then Jason had kept getting all caught up in vampire-heavy situations. Like when Luke Archer, a rogue vampire, had been overcome by the Bloodlust and tried to kill him – which was nothing compared to the vampire hunter who’d shot a metal stake into Jason’s chest, thinking he was a vampire. The guy had actually killed Belle’s boyfriend, leaving Belle in need of therapy to help get over her grief.
And then there was Jason’s Aunt Bianca. She’d been a vampire for years and kept it from her family. But now Jason knew, and his younger sister, Danielle, knew. And they also knew that Bianca was slowly going insane as a result of her transformation from human to vampire.
It had been a pretty vampire-filled school year. Every time Jason thought he might be able to relax and just enjoy his time with Sienna, some kind of vampire issue intervened. ‘Thank God it’s spring break,’ he muttered as he looked through another rack of dresses.
‘Nothing but fun in the sun for a whole week,’ Sienna agreed. ‘That’s why I wanted the red dress so much. There’s bound to be a party or two during spring break, and I look fierce in this dress.’
‘You look fierce in everything,’ he told her. It was true.
Sienna gave him her slowest, sexiest smile. ‘But you
would
especially like me in this. Trust me. That’s why I wanted it.’
‘Then why didn’t you buy it last week when you first saw it?’ he asked.
‘I didn’t have enough with me.’
That one stopped Jason in his tracks. ‘
You
didn’t have enough money? Just how much does this dress cost?’
She slapped his arm. ‘I had maxed out my credit card paying for our group dinner at Duke’s the night before. I figured the dress could wait a few days.’
‘I’ve searched two whole racks,’ Jason announced. ‘And the only red thing was this. But I think it’s a belt.’ He held up a long, flimsy scarf-like thing.
‘That’s a shirt,’ Sienna told him.
He frowned at it. ‘If you say so.’
‘We’ve looked through every single thing here. Somebody else must have bought it,’ Sienna sighed in frustration.
‘I’m sorry,’ he said, reaching for her hand.
‘It was a
killer
dress,’ Sienna replied. ‘I can’t believe it’s gone.’
Jason held out his arms. ‘You need a hug.’
‘I need that dress.’ But she laughed and stepped toward him. ‘But I’ll take a hug, too.’ She slipped her
slim,
tanned arms around his waist and laid her head on his shoulder.
Perfect
, Jason thought, as he always did when he held her. It had been a hard road for the two of them. When they had first met, Sienna had still been with her longtime boyfriend, Brad. And after she and Brad had split up, her parents had tried to prevent her from dating Jason. But now, at long last, he and Sienna were together for real.
‘Oh, my God!’ Sienna exclaimed, and jerked away from him.
‘What?’ Jason cried, instantly on alert.
She ignored him, her dark eyes fixed on the glass doors of the store. ‘I can’t believe it,’ she murmured. Her hand gripped his arm so tightly it hurt. ‘
She
shouldn’t be here …’
‘Who?’ Jason twisted around to see what Sienna was staring at. Had his Aunt Bianca come back to town? Or was it some other vampire-themed threat to his happiness?
But instead it was just Sienna. Or at least someone who looked almost enough like Sienna to be her clone. The dark-haired girl was walking jauntily across the street, literally stopping traffic as she passed. The cars had a green light, but nobody seemed to mind the fact that a gorgeous girl had stepped out in front of them.
Jason
heard some appreciative honks and catcalls as she made her way up onto the sidewalk in front of Mystère. She turned and flashed the cars a peace sign.
‘Hmm. Sleek black hair, check. Kickin’ bod, check. Gorgeous smile, check,’ Jason said. ‘But wait,
you’re
standing right here. Which means that
she
could only be—’
‘Paige!’ Sienna cried, racing for the door.
Jason flung the red shirt-scarf thing over a rack and went after her. By the time he caught up, Sienna was out on the sidewalk, her arms tight around the other girl.
‘What are you doing here?’ Sienna squealed.
‘Getting my hair cut,’ Paige replied.
Sienna quickly released her and studied the hair for a moment. ‘Looks gorgeous.’
‘Thanks. You’d think I could find a good salon in Paris, but …’ The girl’s throaty voice trailed off as her eyes traveled over Jason, taking him in from head to toe. ‘Wow! Brad’s had a lot of plastic surgery,’ she cracked.
‘This is Jason Freeman,’ Sienna announced, grabbing Jason’s hand. ‘Jason, this is my sister.’
‘The famous Paige.’ Jason nodded. ‘I’ve heard a lot about you.’
‘It’s all true, no matter what they say,’ Paige
murmured
flirtatiously, twirling a lock of dark hair around her finger. ‘Especially the naughty stuff!’
‘Naughty?’ Sienna repeated, raising an eyebrow.
‘Too cheesy?’ Paige laughed. ‘Anyway, nice to finally meet you, Jason. Sienna hasn’t bothered to tell me much about you, but I’ve managed to find out quite a lot all on my own.’
Jason didn’t really know what to say to that. He settled for, ‘She was probably scared that if she told you how cool I am, you’d fly back from Paris and steal me away.’
‘And I might have,’ Paige agreed, with a teasing little toss of her head.
‘Well, you are older, right?’ Jason said.
‘And taller,’ Paige added.
‘See?’ Jason teased Sienna. ‘I could always trade up.’
‘Enough!’ Sienna smacked Jason on the arm – a tiny bit too hard. ‘Paige, how come you’re back from college so early?’
Paige reached out and rubbed Jason’s arm where Sienna had hit him. ‘That’s gonna leave a mark,’ she said.
‘Probably,’ he agreed, shooting Sienna a smile. ‘But I don’t mind. I dig the “super-strength”, as Adam would call it.’
‘Who’s Adam?’ Paige inquired, absently twisting her
hair
up into a bun, then letting it go again so that it cascaded down her back.
‘Adam Turnball,’ Sienna told her. ‘Jason’s best friend.’
Paige looked blank.
‘You know, the sheriff’s son,’ Sienna prompted.
‘Oh!’ Paige’s full lips curved into a mischievous smile. ‘I forgot Sheriff Turnball had a son.’
‘Paige had a few brushes with the law when she was at DeVere Heights,’ Sienna told Jason. ‘She and Sheriff Turnball are old friends.’
‘It wasn’t my fault. It’s just that I had a rule. If a guy wanted to date me, he had to be able to walk out to the end of the jetty at the beach,’ Paige said innocently.
‘During high tide, in the middle of the night,’ Sienna added.