Vampire Beach: High Stakes (4 page)

As Jason said hello, he did a quick vampire check and decided that Tiffany and Jon were the fanged type and Suze wasn’t. There was an indefinable air about the vampires that he was starting to recognize. He was developing ‘Vladar’.

‘Where’s everybody else?’ Sienna asked.

‘Paige is the only one who’s back from college so far,’ Suze said. ‘The three of us are all up at Stanford, so it was easy for us to fly in for the weekend, but the rest of our crowd is spread all over the world. And Paige didn’t give us much notice that she was having a party.’

‘When people get home in May, we’ll have another big soirée,’ Paige put in. ‘This party’s for you, SiSi. I think you deserve some fun.’

‘I agree.’ Jason squeezed Sienna’s hand.

Just then, a loud crash reverberated through the house. ‘Oh,
snap!
’ some guy yelled. ‘You totally broke that sculpture!’

Sienna shot Paige a panicked look, but Paige just patted her arm. ‘No worries,’ she said. ‘I’ve got it.’

She headed across the room, followed by her friends. ‘Hey, guys,’ Paige called. ‘What’s going on?’

Stu Obermeyer, a big guy from school, gestured to his friend, who was even bigger. ‘He’s so drunk that he’s walking into things. He broke your statue.’

‘I did not,’ the other guy growled. ‘You pushed me!’

‘Oh, that little statue,’ Paige said, stepping in between them. ‘It’s not valuable, don’t worry. But maybe you two could help me move it outside before it gets knocked over again? You look strong enough to carry it, even though it’s made of stone.’

‘Yeah, we can help,’ Stu told her. The other guy nodded, and they both picked up the broken sculpture and followed Paige out the front door.

‘Jon will get them to leave now,’ Sienna said. ‘He’ll drive them home.’

‘What about the sculpture?’ Jason asked her.

‘It’s a statue of a peacock that Paige rented for the party. You don’t think we’d be crazy enough to leave real artwork out, do you?’ Sienna laughed.

Just then, Paige came back into the room with Tiffany. Paige had a pitcher of cocktails, and began offering refills to anyone who needed them – and some who didn’t.

‘Your sister is great at the hostess thing,’ Jason said. ‘Stu and his drunk friend didn’t even phase her.’

‘Nothing rattles her,’ Sienna replied. ‘And she was born to party.’

‘Then let her handle things, and come dance with me,’ Jason said, pulling her out to the patio, where couples were swaying underneath palm trees strung with tiny white lights. Sienna snuggled against him and began to move. Jason closed his eyes and let his hands slide down her back.

‘Jason! Help!’ Adam’s voice broke the moment.

‘He can’t help you,’ Jason heard Belle say sternly. ‘Nobody can help you!’

Jason opened his eyes just as Adam ducked behind him. ‘I think she might actually hurt me,’ Adam said. ‘You’ve got to protect me, man.’

By now Belle had caught up to him. She stood with her hands on her hips, frowning. ‘Do you see what he’s wearing? Do you?’

Adam sheepishly stepped from behind Jason, revealing his outfit: tight green corduroy pants and a matching double-breasted jacket.

Sienna burst out laughing. ‘You look like Austin Powers!’

‘It’s a Sixties theme party, isn’t it?’ Adam said. ‘I’m dressed appropriately.’

‘Adam, you’re only supposed to use the theme in ways that make you look
good
,’ Belle told him. ‘You don’t see Jason wearing puke-colored skinny pants!’

‘No, mine were at the cleaners,’ Jason joked.

‘But it’s a theme party,’ Adam repeated helplessly.

‘Which means it’s an excuse for girls to wear really great vintage dresses,’ Belle replied. ‘That’s the whole point. Nobody cares what the boys wear – as long as they don’t look ridiculous.’

‘But that’s sexist,’ Adam argued. ‘Guys should get to have fun, too.’

‘A month. I’ve spent an entire month trying to teach you how to be a chick magnet.’ Belle threw up her hands in despair. ‘And now you do this. You’re hopeless!’ She turned and stalked off, the full skirt of her dark red cocktail dress swinging around her legs.

Adam followed. ‘But I’m being ironic! I just need to find the kind of girl who appreciates ironic.’

Jason glanced at Sienna, and they both burst out laughing. ‘How long before she gives up on him entirely?’ Jason asked.

‘She won’t stop until she finds him a girl,’ Sienna said confidently. ‘Belle doesn’t like to fail at anything.’

‘I don’t know, Adam can be pretty stubborn. I think he might just be too much for her to handle.’

‘Maybe we should bet on it,’ Sienna joked.

Jason held out his hand, pinky extended. ‘I’ll bet you that Belle gives up on Project Find Adam a Girl within the next two weeks.’

‘Ooh, I didn’t know he was a gambling man,’ Paige cut in, making her way across the patio with a now-empty pitcher. ‘Careful, SiSi. Jason might be more my type than yours!’ She passed them by with a wink.

‘Does she flirt with everyone?’ Jason asked.

‘Yup. Boys, girls, dogs, cats. She flirts with waiters and salespeople and totally random people on the street.’ Sienna chuckled. ‘It’s just who she is, she doesn’t even realize she’s doing it.’

‘That’s why it’s charming,’ Jason decided. ‘She makes everyone feel as if she likes them.’

Sienna nodded. ‘I think she does like everyone. I always wanted to be more outgoing the way Paige is.’

Jason took her hand. ‘Well, don’t start tonight. I was thinking we’d go in the opposite direction. Less outgoing, more private?’

‘Sounds nice,’ Sienna murmured, moving in for another kiss, ‘but I don’t think I can really skip out on my own party. How about we find a spot on the couches in the game room?’

‘There’s a game room?’

‘Just for tonight,’ she explained. ‘Old-style board games, Twister and ping pong – stuff like that.’

‘As long as I’m sitting on a couch and you’re kissing me, I don’t even care if people are playing Parcheesi behind us,’ Jason quipped.

They found an empty loveseat in the game room, but it was only a few minutes before Belle found them. ‘He’s got Lisa Folliero interested,’ she cried excitedly as she flopped down next to Sienna. ‘Look!’

Sure enough, Adam had Lisa – Jason was pretty sure she was a junior – engaged in learning how to best hit a ping pong ball. Nearby, Paige was arranging a couple of rows of lowball glasses on the ping pong table.

Sienna squinted at the table. ‘What are they playing?’

‘Cocktail pong,’ Belle said. ‘It was Paige’s idea. Beer pong with cocktails.’

‘Sweet Tooth versus Kamikazes,’ Paige announced. ‘Lisa’s a Sweet Tooth. I’m a Kamikaze. Who’s with me?’

‘Wait, if you’re on the Kamikaze team, that means you stand on the side with the Kamikaze shots, right?’ Adam asked.

‘Right. And you try to hit the ball into a glass on the Sweet Tooth side,’ Paige told him. ‘Then the team on that side tries to hit balls into your Kamikaze glasses.’

‘And if a ball lands in the glass on your side, you have to drink it?’ Lisa asked.

‘You got it,’ Paige said. ‘So who’s with me?’

‘I am,’ Adam replied immediately. ‘I’d much rather
be
forced to drink a Kamikaze than a Sweet Tooth. I don’t have one. A sweet tooth, I mean.’

‘Oh. My. God. He is so clueless,’ Belle exploded. She leapt up off the loveseat and practically ran over to Adam. ‘No! I’m on the Kamikaze team with Paige,’ she told him. ‘Adam, you have to be on the Sweet Tooth team with Lisa.’

‘But I don’t like Sweet—’

‘I’m Kamikaze. You’re
with Lisa
,’ Belle repeated, dropping her voice to a whisper.

‘I think she would actually smack him upside the head right now if she didn’t think it would drive Lisa away,’ Sienna commented. Jason nodded.

‘No, if he doesn’t like that drink, he doesn’t have to play,’ Lisa said. ‘I’m sure somebody else is willing.’

‘I am,’ Brad called from a card table in the corner. ‘I’ll kick your butt, Paige!’

Belle threw up her hands in defeat, but Van Dyke grabbed Brad’s arm and yanked him back into his seat. ‘We’re in the middle of a hand.’

‘Oh, all right,’ Brad grumbled, turning back to the poker game he was playing with Maggie, Zach, and Van Dyke.

‘I think I can handle a few Sweet Tooths,’ Adam said quickly, finally getting the point and trying to rescue the situation. ‘Or is it Sweet Teeth?’

‘You’ll have to drink a lot more than a
few
,’ Paige teased. She raised her little paddle and swatted the ball over the net. It landed in a lowball glass with a soft
plop!

Adam stared at the lollipop drink in dismay. ‘Allow me,’ Lisa said. She grabbed the glass, took out the lollipop, and downed the whole thing in one gulp.

‘This is not going to end well for Adam,’ Jason said with a laugh.

The doorbell rang, its jangly chime echoing through the house and clashing with the upbeat vintage surf music playing in the game room. Sienna started to get up, but Brad was closer to the door.

‘I’ll get it,’ he called. ‘I’m folding anyway.’ He tossed his cards on the table and disappeared into the living room.

Paige took another shot with the ping pong ball, landing it neatly in a grape-lollipop Sweet Tooth. Lisa grabbed it before Adam could get to it. She was busy downing it when Brad came back into the room with a huge bouquet of white roses.

‘Something beautiful for the beautiful hostess,’ he said, presenting the flowers to Paige.

Paige raised an eyebrow. ‘You trying to work your way through all the Devereux women, Brad?’ she teased.

‘No man could be that lucky,’ he said, kissing her hand.

Paige laughed. ‘What a smoothie.’

‘I wish I could take the credit, but a delivery guy brought these,’ Brad told her.

‘Who are they from?’ Belle asked.

‘Let’s see,’ Paige said breathlessly. She pulled out the little red envelope and removed a card. But as she scanned it, the smile vanished from her lips and her face went pale.

‘Paige?’ Sienna said, standing up. ‘You OK?’

Paige raised her dark eyes to Sienna’s, and for a fleeting moment Jason thought he saw fear there. Then Paige shoved the flowers and the note into Sienna’s arms, ran for the steps and disappeared downstairs.

Jason hurried to Sienna’s side. ‘Just what does that note say?’

Sienna pulled it out. ‘“Always thinking of you. Can’t wait to see you again”,’ she read aloud. ‘It’s signed “M”.’

‘Well, that seems romantic,’ Belle said, confused.

‘Who’s “M”?’ Adam asked. ‘Other than the James Bond character.’ Belle swatted him on the arm.

‘I don’t know,’ Sienna said slowly.

‘Is Paige all right?’ Lisa asked.

‘Sure,’ Sienna replied, forcing a smile. ‘She’s fine. I think she’s just had a little too much to drink.’ She
turned
to put the flowers down on a side table, and her eyes found Jason’s.

He could see that she was worried. ‘Let’s get back to the cocktail pong,’ he called cheerfully. ‘I’ll sub in for Paige.’ The sooner he got everyone’s mind off Paige’s weird behavior, the sooner Sienna could slip away and check on her sister.

As Belle took the paddle and prepared to serve, Sienna mouthed a silent ‘thank you’ to Jason.

He nodded. He’d done what he could. But he had a feeling that the white roses were only the start. Paige was in some kind of trouble, and he and Sienna both knew it.

‘
PLEASE, PLEASE STOP
hitting balls into our drinks,’ Adam begged about half an hour later. ‘If I have to swallow one more Sweet Tooth I may turn into a lollipop.’

‘Wuss. I’ve had twice as much as you,’ Lisa told him, giggling.

‘I know, but sugar makes me woozy.’ Adam fake-collapsed onto the loveseat. Lisa collapsed beside him.

‘Looks like it’s going well,’ Jason whispered to Belle, his cocktail pong team-mate.

Belle frowned at the loveseat. ‘Oh, no …’

‘You guys,’ Adam said slowly, ‘I think Lisa just passed out.’ Jason and Belle rushed over.

‘Lisa?’ Belle said. ‘Hey, Lisa, are you OK?’

Lisa burrowed into the plush cushions of the loveseat and let out a snore.

‘How much did she drink?’ Jason asked.

‘Well, half the Sweet Tooths, thanks to you guys,’
Adam
said accusingly. ‘Couldn’t you have missed just a few?’

Jason grimaced. ‘Sorry. I wasn’t even thinking about that. I guess I figured Paige had watered the Sweet Tooths down.’

‘She did,’ Belle said. ‘But Lisa was drinking champagne cocktails before we started this game.’ She sighed. ‘I should have realized she was getting drunk.’

Kyle Priesmeyer came over, pulling on his ’60s-style sport coat. ‘I’ll take her home, you guys. Lisa lives right next door to me.’ He took Lisa’s hand, and she woke with a start.

‘Sweet Tooth!’ she cried.

‘Time to go, Lee,’ Kyle told her, pulling her to her feet. She held on to his arm and they started toward the door.