Vampire Beach Hunted (10 page)

There was a loud grunt, and the sound of fist slamming into flesh. Somebody yelled in pain, and a big guy came flying toward Jason.

He leapt out of the way just as the huge dude hit the ground, blood spraying from his mouth.

One down
, Jason thought, stepping over the security guard. He glanced down to make sure the guy wasn’t going to be getting up again any time soon – and stopped, astonished.

The guy on the ground was Van Dyke.

Eleven

JASON LOCKED EYES
with Van Dyke. ‘What the hell?’ he gasped.

Van Dyke frowned. ‘Dunno,’ he grunted, pushing himself back to his feet. ‘They’re strong.’ Shaking it off, he rushed back into the blinding lights, where Brad and Zach were still fighting with the six human guys.

Jason ran after him. Closer up, he had a better view of the humans. They were all big dudes, but none of them had weapons. They were just fighting hand to hand with the vampires.

And they were winning.

Did we get it wrong?
Jason wondered.
Are these security guys vampires, too?

But even though they were strong, none of the security men
looked
like vampires. Not one of them had the sort of glow that Zach, Brad and Van Dyke had shown earlier.

‘Van Dyke,’ Jason called, running into the fray. ‘Are these guys . . . like you?’

Van Dyke didn’t even look at him, he was too busy trading punches with a dark-haired security dude. ‘No. No way,’ he grunted.

Jason tried to figure out how he could best help. His friends were being pummeled.

Brad took a forearm to the jaw that snapped his head around. Before he could recover, the guy fighting him threw a punch into Brad’s gut. The vampire doubled over, gasping for breath.

On the other side of Jason, Zach was trading blows with the New Yorker, who was the biggest of the humans. Zach got in a few good punches, but the big guy didn’t even seem to feel them. As Jason watched, he casually backhanded Zach across the face, then followed up with a sucker punch to the side of Zach’s head.

Dazed, Zach stumbled into Jason. Jason grabbed his arm to steady him, but Zach looked pretty out of it. The New Yorker was heading right for them.

Jason stepped in front of Zach and threw up his arm just in time. The New Yorker’s huge fist slammed into Jason’s arm with an incredible amount of force, but Jason managed to hold strong. He ducked and ran head-first at the guy’s stomach, tackling him to the ground.

Jason landed on top of him and immediately reached back to hit the guy in the face. But the New Yorker grabbed his arm before the blow even fell. He bent Jason’s wrist back until Jason cried out in pain, rolling off him.

The man immediately jumped back to his feet and rushed at Zach again.

Jason took off after him. His wrist still ached, but Zach couldn’t take this guy alone. Running up behind the man, Jason snaked his arm around the guy’s neck, secured his hold with his other hand, and squeezed. As the New Yorker tried to pry Jason off his back, Zach pummeled his torso with punches that would’ve floored a normal human.

The New Yorker bellowed in rage and spun away, moving faster than Jason thought possible for such a big guy. The sheer velocity of the movement made him lose his hold on the dude’s neck. The guy grabbed Jason’s arm and yanked, pulling Jason off of him and sending him flying through the air.

Slam!
Jason’s back hit something hard and cold, and he fell to the ground, winded.

I’ve got to get up before he comes after me again
, Jason thought. But he couldn’t move. He could barely breathe. He dragged himself to a sitting position and looked up. A black van loomed above him, the metal side dented where he had slammed into it. Jason shook his head, trying to think clearly. Maybe he could use the van as cover if the New Yorker came for him.

Jason glanced back to the fight. The New Yorker was still battling it out with Zach, both of them moving so quickly that they were a blur.

He doesn’t care about me
, Jason realized.
He’s only interested in taking down Zach
. In fact, all six humans were busy fighting Zach, Brad and Van Dyke. None of them paid any attention to Jason at all.

They must know I’m human
, he thought. He wasn’t a threat to them, so they weren’t bothering to go after him.

But the vampires didn’t seem like much of a threat to these guys, either. Whenever the New Yorker stopped hitting Zach, one of the other dudes started in. Van Dyke was on his knees, two big guys raining punches on his head.

They have to be vampires
, Jason thought. How else could the dudes be pounding on his friends this way? Maybe Van Dyke had got it wrong.

Brad let out a cry of pain, snapping Jason back to attention. Human or vampire, these guys were destroying Jason’s friends. He had to help them.

Jason got to his feet and waded back into the battle. One of the guys beating on Brad had his back to Jason. Jason leapt up and shot a fast kick into his kidneys. It wasn’t a fair kick, but these security guys had been fighting dirty right from the start. Jason figured he and his friends were going to have to do whatever it took to get out of here alive.

The guy hit the ground, moaning in pain. Brad shot Jason a grateful look, but he was too busy fending off the other guy to do more than that. Jason took a step toward them, but another security dude suddenly blocked his path.

‘Get out of our way,’ the guy muttered. He placed his hands on Jason’s shoulder and shoved – hard.

For the second time in about three minutes, Jason was eating dirt. His whole ribcage felt bruised from the shock of being thrown around. At least this time he’d just landed on the ground instead of slamming into a car. Jason lay there for a moment, mentally checking himself for injuries. Once his head was clear, he dragged himself to his feet and looked around. These security dudes were too much, even for the vampires.

But would they even be able to make it to their car? Things looked bad. As Jason watched, Zach went down, the New Yorker on top of him. Van Dyke’s face was covered in blood, and Brad was getting punched in the stomach, over and over, while only managing to get one or two return blows in.

This is no ordinary brawl
, Jason thought.
My friends are really in danger
.

And then an engine roared to life. Jason’s head snapped toward the sound, and he saw the black van’s headlights come on. ‘What now?’ he muttered.

The engine revved loudly, then the van sped into the knot of fighters. Everybody scattered.

With a cry of surprise, the New Yorker jumped out of the way. The van squealed to a stop just inches from where Zach lay.

Jason blinked into the light. Was that . . . ?

‘Get in!’ Sienna yelled from behind the wheel. Belle sat beside her, gesturing frantically.

‘Thank God,’ Jason said. In a second, he was up and running toward Zach. ‘Let’s go! Let’s go!’ he called to the vampires.

Brad turned and stumbled toward the van as Jason grabbed Zach under the arms and dragged him to his feet. The security guys were already after them again. ‘Van Dyke, come on!’ Jason yelled.

The double doors at the back of the van opened with a
clang!
and Adam appeared, holding out a hand to Brad. The security dudes fell back as Brad got into the van, followed by Zach. Jason had to grab Van Dyke to keep him from going after the guys again, in spite of his bloody face.

‘Get in the van,’ Jason ordered him.

Reluctantly, Van Dyke climbed in. Jason followed, and he and Adam jerked the doors closed as Sienna tore away.

Nobody said a word as the van made its way up the winding drive to the top of the hill. Sienna pulled to the side of the road behind Brad’s car, and cut the engine. The sound of crickets filled the air, and for a moment they all sat in the darkness, listening.

‘Are they coming after us?’ Jason asked.

‘I don’t hear anything,’ Zach replied.

‘Well, good then. Because you have super-hearing and all,’ Adam joked nervously. ‘So we must be safe.’

Jason threw open the back doors of the van, and they all climbed out. Sienna came around from the driver’s side and slipped her arms around him. ‘You OK?’ she asked quietly.

‘Yeah. They weren’t interested in me,’ Jason told her. He turned to the vampire guys. ‘You three took a pretty bad beating. Everyone all right?’

Van Dyke wiped his face with his shirt. Jason was surprised to see that, once the blood was gone, he looked absolutely fine. ‘We heal fast, remember? We’ll be fine.’

‘It might take me an hour or so,’ Zach said wryly. ‘That New York dude had it in for me. I’m glad you all showed up when you did.’

‘What are you doing here, anyway?’ Brad asked the girls.

‘Sienna and I were worried about you,’ Belle explained. ‘Actually, we were worried about the humans. We thought you might get carried away and hurt somebody real bad. So Adam suggested that we come along ourselves and keep an eye on things.’

Jason glanced over Sienna’s dark hair to see her Spider parked about twenty feet away.

‘We got down to the warehouse just as you all started fighting,’ Sienna said. ‘We wanted to be around in case the humans needed help. But then it turned out that you were the ones who needed help. So Belle and I decided to commandeer the van to get us all out of there – fast.’

‘I tried to get the girls to climb back up the hill so they’d be safe,’ Adam told Jason. ‘They ignored me.’

‘Good thing they did,’ Jason replied.

‘I’ll say,’ Belle agreed. ‘What on earth happened?’

‘I’m not sure.’ Zach rubbed his neck and winced. ‘Those security guys weren’t normal.’

‘Are you absolutely positive they were human?’ Jason asked. ‘Because the only time I’ve ever been thrown around like that was when Luke Archer was doing the throwing.’ The memory of fighting a bloodlusting vampire wasn’t a pleasant one. But Jason couldn’t help thinking about it tonight.

‘Yeah, they definitely had vampire strength . . .’ Brad said slowly.

‘They’re human,’ Van Dyke declared firmly. ‘They’re the same guys who held me captive. Human.’

‘I agree,’ Zach said. ‘I just didn’t get any kind of a vampire sense from them. But they had the strength, and it’s superhuman strength.’

‘How can that be?’ Sienna asked, her voice tense.

‘That’s what we have to find out,’ Zach said. His eyes met Van Dyke’s. ‘Before we make our next attempt to rescue Christopher.’

Van Dyke looked as if he wanted to argue, but Brad nodded. ‘Definitely. Next time we’ll be prepared.’ He turned to Van Dyke. ‘Dude, I’m gonna stay at your place tonight, just in case they decide to show up. We’ll all meet up tomorrow and devise our rescue plan.’

Slowly, Van Dyke nodded. Jason could see that he was still itching to get back there and save the vampire he’d left behind.

‘Now let’s get out of here,’ Belle suggested. ‘It creeps me out with them just down the hill.’

‘What about the van?’ Sienna asked. ‘Should we just leave it here?’

‘No, let’s take it with us,’ Jason replied. ‘It was parked at the warehouse. Maybe it will give us some information about the operation they’ve got going down there.’

‘We can put it in my garage,’ Van Dyke said.

‘Good idea. I’ll drive it back,’ Zach said, heading for the driver’s side. Belle climbed in beside him as Brad and Van Dyke headed for Brad’s car.

Sienna slipped her arm around Jason’s waist.

‘Coming, Adam?’ Brad called over his shoulder.

‘I came with Sienna,’ Adam said obliviously.

Van Dyke turned around, clapped his beefy arm over Adam’s shoulders, and steered him away from Jason and Sienna.

‘Oh. OK. Um . . . I’ll catch a ride with these guys,’ Adam said.

‘Great.’ Jason grinned and waved as his best friend was dragged off.

‘You sure you’re OK?’ Sienna asked as they walked toward her car.

‘Well, I’ll feel better once I see your car actually start,’ Jason teased her. ‘What were you thinking, driving all the way up here in that piece of junk?’

‘I was thinking my boyfriend was here and he could fix it,’ she teased back. Then her expression grew serious. ‘Stay at my house tonight, Jason. Can you? I’d feel better.’

‘I thought all the girls were sleeping over,’ Jason said.

‘Even so, I’d rather have you there. It’s been a really weird day.’ Sienna leant against the car and turned toward him, pulling him against her. ‘Of course, if you don’t want to . . .’

‘Oh, I want to.’ Jason bent to brush his lips against hers, astonished to find himself so hot and bothered in spite of having been thrown against a van twenty minutes ago. ‘But I’m kind of banged up. If I come home with you, will you kiss all my bruises and make them better?’

‘I’ll kiss whatever you want,’ Sienna purred. She slipped out of his arms and got behind the wheel.

Jason climbed in next to her, his heart racing – and not from the recent fight. He could hardly wait to be alone with Sienna. The drive back to DeVere Heights seemed to take forever.

The other girls had set up camp in the living room and were busy watching
Smallville
DVDs.

‘Don’t mind us,’ Maggie called teasingly as Sienna pulled Jason past them toward her room.

Inside, Jason pulled her to him and kissed her passionately, moving her toward the bed. They collapsed onto the soft mattress, and Jason felt his body sink into the silky sheets.

‘Wow,’ he murmured. ‘This is really comfortable.’

‘I know,’ Sienna agreed, her voice sleepy.

‘It’s been a long day,’ Jason said. His body ached from the fight, and he couldn’t keep his eyes open.

‘Yeah.’ Sienna sounded far away.

I’m in bed with Sienna
, Jason thought happily, just before he fell sound asleep.

Twelve

‘WE’RE LATE,’ SIENNA
said the next day at lunchtime.

‘I’m going as fast as I can. I don’t have super-fast healing skills like some people,’ Jason joked, making his way slowly through the hallway toward the school cafeteria. His body was still sore from last night’s fight.