Ritual Read online

  “Hush,” Madame Rosa said. “I need to concentrate.” She stared down at Dani’s palm for a long moment, then ran her finger over the deepest line that ran horizontally across the top of Dani’s hand. “This is your heart line. Do you see this star, here?”

  Jason leaned forward and saw several short lines crossing the main line in a way that looked sort of like a star—in that way that little kids draw stars. “A star means happiness in your marriage,” Madame Rosa continued.

  “I better not be getting married soon,” Dani said. “I’m planning to have some fun first. My Aunt Bianca might let me work in her casting agency.”

  “Yeah, you need to be available for any of those hot actors who come in wanting to be discovered,” Kristy agreed.

  “The marriage comes later,” Madame Rosa confirmed.

  Jason had the feeling she was the kind of fortuneteller who made money by telling people exactly what they wanted to hear. People like Dani made it especially easy by spelling out exactly what Madame Rosa should, quote unquote, predict.

  “But the star is also significant now,” the old lady was saying. “Stars hold the key for you. Stars will lead you to your heart’s desire. They will lead to your true love. Keep your eyes on the stars.” Madame Rosa released Dani’s hand.

  “Is that everything?” Kristy asked, echoing Jason’s thoughts. He had read more substantial predictions in newspaper astrology columns.

  “I tell people vat they need to know,” Madame Rosa said, tossing in a little accent again. “Sometimes zat takes hours. Sometimes a few minutes. Your friend now knows everything she needs to in order to find the love she vants.”

  At least Madame Rosa’s predictions are cheap, Jason thought as he reached for his wallet. The sign outside the tent had said five bucks. He handed her a ten and waited for his change.

  “There’s zomething you should know,” she told him.

  Of course there is. That way, you can keep the whole ten, Jason thought.

  “What is it?” Dani asked. She nudged Jason. “I want to know.”

  “Fine.” Jason held out his hand. The so-called psychic grabbed it and pulled it right up to her face. She spent about thirty seconds studying his palm in silence. Building up the suspense, Jason figured.

  “Your love line is strong and deep. You will experience true love,” Madame Rosa announced.

  “Si-en-na,” Dani and Kristy said together.

  And we’re back to that. So much for the distraction, Jason thought.

  “But vat I am most interested in vith you is your fate line.” Madame Rosa ran one long, deep red fingernail up the line that started near the base of Jason’s palm and ended about three-quarters of the way to his middle finger. “You see this island where the line breaks?” She tapped the spot, and Jason nodded.

  “That vorries me. You come to this point in your life soon. And it is a time of great danger for you. Your fate vill be decided von way or the other,” Madame Rosa continued.

  “What’s going to happen? You have to give him more than that!” Dani burst out, actually sounding anxious now.

  “I cannot. That is all I see,” Madame Rosa said, tightening her grip on Jason’s hand.

  “Isn’t there something you can do?” Kristy asked. “A talisman you can give him to wear or something?”

  Madame Rosa shook her head. “He alone vill determine his fate.”

  Now, that surprised him. Jason had thought that for, say, fifty bucks, she’d offer him a lifetime of protection with a money-back guarantee—especially since he’d never see her again.

  Madame Rosa locked eyes with Jason. “The only varning I can give is bevare of the cold. There is a connection there to the danger. So bevare of the cold!” As she spoke, a shiver seemed to run through her fingers and into Jason: a rush of ice that traveled up his arm and into his heart.

  Jason quickly pulled his hand away. “Thanks. I’ll, uh, keep that in mind,” he said, shoving himself hurriedly to his feet and leading the way out of the tent as the coldness of unease continued to course through his body.

  TWO

  An ice pick of cold stabbed into the back of Jason’s left eye. “Now I know what Madame Rosa’s warning meant,” he gasped, shoving his mint-chip milk shake away.

  “What?” Dani demanded.

  “I shouldn’t have sucked that down so fast. I’ve got a killer ice-cream headache now,” Jason explained, toying with the half-empty cup.

  Dani and Kristy both shot him the Eyes of Death.

  “Kidding. Just kidding,” Jason said, and took another cautious sip of his shake. He and the girls had decided to make a stop at a 31 Flavors on the way home from the psychic fair. “I completely respect Madame Rosa.” He gave the lump of ice cream in his shake a stir. “Look, it’s not that I don’t believe that psychic ability exists,” he explained. “But the fair just seemed more about raking in the big bucks.” He smiled at Dani. “Something you will not be doing while taking care of my chores for the next four weeks, since you’ll be handling them for free.”

  “Yeah, yeah. But it’s three weeks, not four,” Dani reminded him. “And maybe some of the stuff at the fair was fake, but I don’t think you should assume all of it was. I want you to be careful, like Madame Rosa told you to be.”

  “But I already survived the ice-cream headache,” Jason told her. “If it hadn’t been for Rosa, I might have kept on drinking without a break and my eyeballs might have frozen!”

  “Just be a little careful, idiot,” Dani insisted.

  “What about you?” Kristy asked Dani. “What do you think you should be doing? Madame Rosa told you to pay attention to the stars.” She popped the last little bite of her sugar cone into her mouth. And then an idea seemed to hit her. She chewed frantically, waving her hand in front of her face. “Ooh! I got it!” she cried as soon as she’d swallowed the cone. “Maybe a movie star is going to take you to the masked ball!”

  “Well, there are a few sons of movie stars at our school,” Dani reminded Kristy. “Oooh, maybe Madame Rosa meant Zach Lafrenière! He had that part in that movie that time. He’s not exactly a star, but—”

  “He will be,” Kristy said firmly. “You can’t look like Zach, ooze charisma like Zach, and not be a star. And I can so see you with him. He’s never gone out with a sophomore before, but you weren’t in town until this semester!”

  “Maybe Madame Rosa meant you should pay more attention to zee ’oroscope,” Jason suggested. He so didn’t want Dani going after Zach. Jason had nothing against the guy. Actually, he and Zach were … well, not friends, exactly, but they had an understanding.

  Zach had come through in a big way when Tyler had stolen the vampire artifact from, oh, yeah, Zach’s house! The DeVere Heights Vampire Council had been ready to kill Tyler. But Zach went against them—even though he was the newest and youngest member of the Council—to help Jason and Sienna get Tyler out of Malibu and safely back to Michigan.

  But helpful as Zach had been, he was also deep in the vampire world. He knew secrets that even Sienna didn’t know. And that could end up being dangerous for Dani—especially since she had no idea that the most popular kids at their school were all vampires. No idea that their own Aunt Bianca—the one Dani wanted to work for someday—was on the Vampire High Council, an even more powerful organization than the DeVere Heights outfit. And no idea that vampires even existed. She’d been lecturing Jason all day about keeping an open mind, but Jason knew that not even the tiniest bit of her brain considered the possibility that vampires were real.

  “I wonder if Mom knows the exact time of my birth,” Dani was saying.

  “You’ll need it to get a really accurate horoscope done,” Kristy replied.

  The girls were completely wrapped up in a discussion of horoscopes now, Jason noted with relief. He wanted to keep it that way. Horoscopes were safer than vampires. Much safer.

  Jason had planned to sleep well into the afternoon on Sunday to make up for the torment of getting up practic
ally predawn the day before to play chauffeur. But the first day of December was so sunny and warm that he was out of the house and trotting down the wooden steps to Surfrider Beach by eleven, his surfboard held over his head.

  Maybe other people were used to December days that felt like June. But this Michigan boy wasn’t, and he didn’t plan to waste any of the sun.

  Adam Turnball, whom Dani always called Jason’s wingman, followed him, carrying the only thing he planned to surf: a beach towel with a picture of Alfred Hitchcock on it. Alfred Hitchcock in swimming trunks. Not such a pretty sight. In his other hand, Adam carried his video camera.

  “You sure you don’t want to try surfing?” Jason asked Adam. “We can rent you a board real quick, and I’ll pass on all the wisdom I’ve learned from the Surf Rabbi.” Jason had been taking lessons for months from the fifty-something rabbi who’d ridden the waves all over the world.

  “First, I’m going to fry my lily-white skin to a shade of tender pink,” Adam told him. “Then I’m going to shoot some stuff on the beach. I want to experiment with color, the way Spielberg used red in Schindler’s List, and I need some footage to—” He stopped abruptly and studied Jason for a moment. “Your eyes have already started looking like doughnuts.”

  “What?” Jason asked.

  “You know, glazed. Try to keep up,” Adam explained. “Now make the rabbi proud. Go do your Johnny Utah impression. See you later.” He made shooing motions until Jason turned and headed for the ocean.

  Even though the day was so warm, Jason was glad he’d decided to wear his wet suit as he jogged into the cold water. Dani would probably tell me not to go in, he thought. She was sure Madame Rosa was a true psychic, but Jason suspected that that was because Madame Rosa had told Dani she’d find love. Dani had been wanting a boyfriend since they’d moved here, but so far nobody had come up to her standards. She’d always been like that, refusing to go out with a guy unless he was perfect in every way. But Madame Rosa or no Madame Rosa, Jason wasn’t about to avoid the sea.

  Enough thinking about the psychic fair, he told himself. Giving up a whole Saturday to it was enough. Now he was going to recharge his primordial batteries, as the rabbi said. Jason wasn’t sure exactly what that meant. But he did feel like surfing recharged something. And, besides, it was great swimming training. He was part of the DeVere High swim team now, and his teammates were good. Jason knew he was going to have to keep in shape if he wanted to keep up.

  He slid onto his board and started to paddle out to the lineup, where all the surfers waited to pick their waves. Not too many surf dogs out today. Things got a little quieter on the beach post-summer.

  Jason spotted a wave coming at him that was big enough to push him halfway back to shore. Time to duck dive it. He kept the Surf Rabbi’s instructions in mind as he stretched his hands out in front of him and pushed down the nose of his short board. Just before the wave broke, he took a deep breath and kept the pressure on the board until it submerged completely. When the wave passed, he angled the board up, resurfaced, and kept paddling out.

  He remembered how, when he’d first started taking lessons, just making it to the lineup had pretty much exhausted him. Now at least he’d gotten good enough that he still had some energy left to actually surf. He kept paddling and duck diving until he was out far enough to take his place with the other surfers, then he pulled himself into a sitting position and stared out at the ocean, looking for the wave he wanted to ride.

  He let a couple go by, then spotted the one he wanted. Jason used his hands and feet to turn the board so it was facing the beach. Then he pushed the board back, stretched out on top of it, and started paddling. He felt the water swell underneath him, tensed for a moment, then snapped into the pop-up and rose to his feet.

  I’m surfing, he couldn’t help thinking. It still felt so completely cool. He was surfing. That’s all he wanted to do all day: ride in, then paddle out, so he could ride back in again.

  At least that’s all he wanted to do until he hit the beach after ride five and saw Sienna, with a bunch of other people from school. They were setting up a volleyball net. And suddenly, all Jason wanted to do was play volleyball.

  He headed over to Adam. “Volleyball game starting up. Belle, Van Dyke, Brad …”

  “Sienna,” Adam added.

  “Wanna head over?” Jason asked, stripping off his wet suit.

  “I don’t really do volleyball,” Adam answered, but he shoved himself to his feet. “But I guess I can suffer through a game where hot girls jump up and down a lot, if it means so much to you.”

  Jason toweled off, pulled shorts and a T-shirt over his bathing suit, and ran his fingers through his hair. “Okay. Let’s go. But with all that jumping up and down, don’t get so distracted that you forget Belle has one insanely jealous boyfriend.”

  “Ah, you mean Dominic. Make that insanely jealous with extremely low impulse control,” Adam agreed as they headed across the sand. “I will keep my eyes off Belle. Not that she makes it easy.”

  True. Today Belle was dressed like Daisy Duke, except Daisy Duke never wore a diamond belly ring. She’d even managed to wrangle her short blonde hair into pigtails.

  “You guys playing?” Brad called.

  “Yeah,” Jason called back, getting the usual hit of guilt he felt whenever he saw Brad. His eyes drifted to Sienna. It wasn’t cool to keep kissing each other behind Brad’s back They had to make some kind of decision. The next time I see Sienna alone, I’m going to talk to her about it, he decided. We’ll figure it out together.

  “You’re both on Zach’s team,” Brad told them.

  “That leaves me with one more player,” Zach said, his eyes hidden by a pair of smoky Diesel sunglasses.

  “Yeah, but you’ve also got Van Dyke, so it’s all fair,” Brad joked. Brad and Michael Van Dyke were always insulting each other in true best-friend style.

  As Jason and Adam took their places on Zach’s team, Jason noted that the non-vamps were now evenly divided. Brad had Kyle Priesmeyer and Aaron Harberts from the swim team. And Zach had Jason and Adam.

  “Service!” Zach yelled. A second later, the ball went flying over the net. Sienna managed to hit it with one hand. It would have made it back over the net on its own, but Dominic gave it an assist from the front row. He leaped up as the ball flew over his head, and spiked it. Sand flew up like a dry fountain when it hit right in front of Maggie Roy’s toes.

  Maggie leaned down to pick up the ball. Jason and Adam exchanged a glance. The thing had sunk about a foot in the sand.

  “Holy crap,” Priesmeyer muttered. He ran both hands over his shaved head.

  “You been taking more than the recommended dose of Liquid Mojo?” Brad asked.

  “You wanna watch it. It can be dangerous,” Scott Challon added.

  It wasn’t that Jason knew so many of the vampires’ secrets, but he knew enough to translate what Brad and Scott were telling Dominic. Hell, he could even translate it into pig Latin: Ixnay on the upersay engthstray.

  All the vampires were crazy strong, as well as crazy beautiful. They kept their looks toned down to movie star gorgeous, and they usually kept their muscle power in check too. Dominic just wasn’t good with the self-control—in any area. Jason had seen him almost annihilate a guy who was built like a meat freezer after the guy had done a body shot off Belle, at Belle’s invitation.

  “Good one, baby,” Belle called to Dominic as Maggie tossed the ball over the net.

  “You’re on our team,” Maggie reminded her.

  “Oh. Whoops,” Belle said with a laugh. “Go, us!”

  “You can cheer for us if you want, Belle,” Erin Henry joked.

  Sienna moved into the server position. It almost hurt to look at her. Her long black hair picked up sparks from the sun. And even in December, her skin was golden. Yeah, it almost hurt to look at her—especially when it was impossible to touch her.

  Brad was nothing like Dominic in the jealousy department. If he had been,
Jason would probably be dead by now. How could Brad miss the way Jason looked at his girlfriend? Hard as Jason tried not to stare, he—

  Womp! Sienna slammed the ball across the net, aiming right at Jason. He caught a glimpse of a playful smile on her face as the ball whizzed toward the sand at his feet.

  Oh, no, Jason thought. I’m not letting her get away with that!

  He dove for the ball, managing to get his clasped hands underneath it just before it hit the ground. He shot it up into the air, and Scott tapped it easily back over the net.

  Jason leaped back onto his feet in time to get the next volley, and they all played on until Adam somehow whacked the ball out-of-bounds on their own side of the net. As they changed positions, Jason shot a look at Sienna.

  She was looking back, her dark eyes shining, and Jason felt a flush of pleasure. He hadn’t made a complete fool of himself, then, even playing with all these superhero types. Sienna blushed too, the tiniest bit.

  She’s thinking the same thing I am, Jason thought with complete certainty. She’s thinking that we should be together.

  “You’re actually going jogging now? After the surfing and the Volleyball?” Adam shook his head.

  “I find my life easier to manage if I’m semi-exhausted at all times,” Jason told him. “It lowers my stupidity level.”

  “I think it works in the opposite direction,” Adam said. “If you’re tired, you’re more stupid. Look it up.”

  “Not me,” Jason muttered. “When I’m lacking energy, I’m less likely to do stupid things that I shouldn’t do.” Like kiss my friend’s girlfriend, he added silently.

  Adam rubbed his arm. “Well, I’m going to have to pull out the BenGay. I got a bruise from Belle. Belle. A petite little girl!”

  “A petite little vampire,” Jason corrected him. “You know they’re super-strong.”

  “Yeah, well, strong is one thing. But this is ridiculous—my shoulder got in the way of her hand when she was going for the ball. And now, Ben-Gay. Maybe some Epsom salts.”