Free Vampire Beach Hunted by Alex Duval

did this to you?’ Brad cried. ‘Van Dyke, who in the hell did this to you?’
    Who could have done this? Jason wondered. Who could have been strong enough to do all this to a vampire?

Nine
     
    ‘ WHO DID THIS to you?’ Brad shouted again.
    Van Dyke didn’t answer. He just groaned weakly and pulled the towel more tightly around himself.
    Brad sucked in a deep breath. When he spoke again, his voice was gentle. ‘I’m going to take care of you, buddy,’ Brad told Van Dyke. Calmly, he pulled out his cell and punched in a number.
    ‘Who are you calling?’ Jason demanded.
    ‘School nurse,’ Brad answered.
    ‘Isn’t this a little out of her league? We need an ambulance. EMTs,’ Jason protested.
    ‘Can you come to the boys’ locker room? There’s been an accident. Nothing too serious. Some minor cuts. Thanks,’ Brad said into the phone.
    Has he gone into shock? Jason wondered, staring at Brad.
    Brad took him by the arm. ‘This is what he needs .’
    Finally, it clicked in Jason’s head. He got it. Van Dyke was dangerously weak. What he needed was blood. Brad had called the nurse so Van Dyke could feed on her. ‘Sorry.’ Jason shook his head. ‘I wasn’t thinking.’
    ‘Why don’t you go wait over by the lockers? I’ll wait with Michael,’ Brad said. Jason realized it was the first time he’d ever heard Brad call Van Dyke by his first name.
    ‘Sure.’ Jason automatically headed over to his own locker and sat down on the wooden bench in front of it. He knew all about the realities of vampire blood-drinking. But there was a part of him that was still deeply uncomfortable with the fact, even though he knew, knew from actual experience, that it was extremely pleasurable when a vampire fed on a human, and that the vampires never took enough blood to do any harm. Only a rogue vampire drained the donor when he drank.
    About five minutes later, Jason heard the nurse hurry into the locker room. Heard Brad direct her to the showers. Then, about five minutes after that, he saw Brad and Van Dyke walk her back out into the main part of the locker room, and saw the dazed and happy expression on her face as they easily convinced her that Van Dyke was absolutely fine and his parents didn’t need to be contacted.
    As soon as she was gone, Van Dyke’s pleasant expression hardened. ‘We need to get everyone together,’ he declared. ‘ Now! ’
     
    Jason called Sienna as he strode across the parking lot to the VW. ‘Change of plans. We’re meeting at Van Dyke’s place in an hour. He’s back. He’s going to tell us everything when we all get there.’
    Sienna hung up almost immediately so she could pass on the news. Jason hit Adam’s speed dial number.
    ‘What’s going on?’ Adam asked as soon as he picked up.
    ‘Just wanted to tell you I can’t do Reservoir Dogs tonight,’ Jason said.
    ‘Oh. That’s . . . OK. I figured it was off, with everything else that’s going down,’ Adam answered.
    ‘Yeah, I figured you’d figured, but I wanted to make sure. Also, Van Dyke is back.’
    ‘He is? Where was he? What happened to him?’ Adam asked in a rush.
    ‘I don’t really know yet. I’m not even sure how much he knows. He was hurt pretty bad,’ Jason said. ‘We’re meeting up at his place in an hour and he’s going to fill us in as much as he can.’
    ‘I’ll be there.’ Adam hung up before Jason could say that maybe that wasn’t a good idea.
    Except it actually was a good idea. Adam had come through for the vampires in lots of ways this past year. Zach had even pretty much said so at Brad’s party. They’d probably be glad to have him around tonight. In Jason’s opinion, they were in a we-need-all-the-help-we-can-get situation.
    ‘Start from the beginning. We need to understand as much about the situation as we can,’ Zach told Van Dyke when everyone in the group was gathered. Everybody seemed fine with Adam being there. It had only been awkward on the weekend because he’d had Brianna