Author(s): Kirsty Eagar

BABIES & TODDLERS

He looked to the sky, praying for rain, a downpour, some sign from the heavens that he should refuse the abomination contained in that flask. But all he saw was the bloated white face of the moon smiling down on him. Mocking him. And the sky around it was cold and clear and black. His shoulders slumped. When the apothecary tipped the flask over his cupped hands, the black stuff that filled them was so heavy he could hardly hold it, so thick that none of it dripped through his fingers, swirling with an energy of its own ...They made their circle of blood. And only the moon witnessed the slaughter that followed. For fifteen-year-old Jamie Mackie, summer holidays in the coastal village of Rocky Head mean surfing, making money, and good times at the local music festival. But there are a few strange and unsettling events that make this year different from most. It starts with a savage and unprovoked attack in the surf one night. Then, as the town gears up for a New Year's Eve concert, there is something about the festivalgoers that seems decidedly ...sinister. At the music festival, a new drink called Juice has everybody else acting strangely. People sleep all day, party all night and have developed a taste for raw meat. Helped by Talia, Kelly and Willem, Rocky Head's resident metalhead/genius, Jamie and Tanner uncover the truth, and discover romantic complications are the least of their worries. Curious forces have come to town and are fulfilling a pact that was begun on the wreck of the Batavia , four hundred years ago ...Turns out a band of ancient vampires are on the festival line-up, and if their plans succeed, nobody in Rocky Head will survive to see out the new year.