Destined to Die (The Briar Creek Vampires, #3) by Jayme Morse & Jody Morse (11 page)

“Yes.”

Lexi felt her heart drop to her knees. For some
reason, she had always assumed that she was Gabe’s first love. He
was hers, after all. It made her jealousy to think about all of the
things that could have happened in his past. Now that she thought
about it, she realized how selfish she was being. Gabe was old. Of
course he had fallen in love and had other relationships in the one
hundred and how many more years he had been alive. For over half
his life, Lexi hadn’t even been born yet. It’s not like his past
meant that he was being unfaithful to her.

She was so deep in thought that she didn’t even
realize that it had been minutes before Gabe had last spoken when
he went on. “Her name was Caroline. We met when I was a
teenager.”

“Did you marry her?” Lexi asked, unsure if she
really wanted to know the answer. How would she feel if Gabe had
been married already and was now a widower?

“No.” Gabe shook his head. “She came from a
very Christian family. Her father was a reverend. When he heard the
rumors that I was a vampire, he forbade Caroline from ever seeing
me again.” Gabe paused and then poked Lexi in the hip. “It feels
like I’m always forbidden from seeing the girls I love.”

Lexi giggled, remembering how her aunt and
uncle had forbid her from seeing Gabe. She hadn’t realized at the
time that he had already gone through something like that before.
“Do you still love Caroline?” She was afraid to know what his
answer was, but she couldn’t stop herself from asking.

“When you’re in love with someone, they’re
always going to have a special place in your heart. It’s like
they’ll always be a part of you,” Gabe replied. “But Caroline died
in a car accident about forty years ago.”

“I’m sorry,” Lexi found herself saying
sympathetically. “What was she like?”

“She had blonde hair, cat eyes, and ivory
skin,” Gabe replied. Lexi ignored that he was basically describing
her, but she wondered if Gabe was ever reminded of Caroline when he
was around her. “But it was mostly her personality,” he continued,
“that drew me to her the most. She was one of the kindest people
you’d ever meet. She never judged anyone – even me, the vampire.
Aside from her and you, most humans who have known the truth about
me didn’t have an easy time accepting me for what I am. I guess I
scare them.

“Then, eventually, Caroline grew up. We both
got older, but I continued to stay young since I was a vampire, and
she aged because she was a human. That’s the bad thing about being
a vampire. Everyone around you grows up and changes, while you’re
stuck in the same body. I’m an adult . . . but I’ll never look that
way. I used to see Caroline around town as the years went by. I
always noticed a look of recognition in her eyes, but she’d always
walk right on by, never acknowledging me. I can’t really blame her.
The way I looked . . . for her, that was the past. But for me . . .
it was the past, present, and future.”

Lexi sighed. She didn’t even want to think
about the fact that she was going to get old, and Gabe was going to
stay the same. How could she even think that they had a real chance
to make things work out? Gabe would stay a hot teenager, and she
would become a gray-haired, wrinkled-skinned old lady who would
have to wear diapers one day. Even if he didn’t stop being
physically attracted to her, Lexi feared that people would look at
them funny when they were in public when it got to the point where
he looked like he could be her grandson. Just the thought of it
seemed weird. Lexi turned to Gabe. “I wish I could become a
vampire.”

Gabe reached for her hand. “I wish you could,
too, but only for my own selfish reasons. I don’t want to lose you,
but I’d never wish this life that never ends on anyone. You don’t
want this, trust me.”

“Okay, now you’re really beginning to sound
like Edward Cullen. Are you positive that you don’t sparkle?” Lexi
teased.

Gabe laughed. “I’m sure. You should try to get
some sleep now, though, or you’ll never be able to function
tomorrow.”

“And you should try to go lay down so that you
can try to have a vision,” Lexi replied. “Goodnight.” She leaned
over and pressed her warm lips against Gabe’s own icy-cold lips
before laying her head back down on the pillow, closing her eyes,
and falling asleep.

****

Chapter 8

Three Weeks Later

On Thanksgiving morning, Lexi stayed in her bed
curled up in a ball, with the cover pulled up over her head,
thinking about the fact that this would be her first Thanksgiving
since her mom had died. Not that she and her mom had always spent
the whole day together, anyway. Since her mom was a vegetarian and
they didn’t have any family close by (or at all, for that matter),
they’d always skipped the whole turkey dinner thing. Most
Thanksgivings, her mom ended up working long shifts at the hospital
– and Lexi spent them in the hospital child care center or alone
when she got older.

To keep her own traditions alive, Lexi always
made a point of eating a turkey sandwich on Thanksgiving. Austin
was making turkey and bacon club sandwiches for dinner at Lexi’s
request, but she knew that it just wouldn’t be the same as when her
mom was alive. She didn’t even want to think about how hard it was
going to be on Christmas, which was a holiday that she normally did
spend with her mom.

Next to her, Gabe groaned and rolled onto his
stomach, wrapping the pillow around his head. “I’m so tired… so, so
tired. I didn’t even know that vampires could get this tired,” he
mumbled. Lexi sighed. Gabe had been having a lot of visions, most
of which were meaningless, over the past few weeks, to the point
where it was exhausting him. Yet, he still hadn’t cracked who had
stolen Lexi’s tote bag. She worried that the visions were going to
be harmful to his health, and part of her wanted to tell him to
just stop trying. Lexi couldn’t do that, though. If he didn’t have
this one vision, they might never find out who took the tote bag
and if they didn’t get the book back . . . Lexi was going to
die.

Just thinking about the fact that her time on
Earth may be more limited than she ever could have imagined made
her feel uneasy and downright scared. They had to figure out who
had taken the book . . . and fast.

Once Gabe appeared to be in relaxation mode,
Lexi climbed out of bed. She clutched the bat pendant that she wore
around her neck. She wasn’t sure if anyone from Briar Creek could
actually smell her out here in the middle of nowhere, but she
wasn’t willing to take any chances. Lexi wore the pendant at all
times, even when she slept. Choking hazard or not, she didn’t want
any vampires to be able to smell her. And from what she understood,
if vampires could smell blood from a distance, hers would be the
first they’d go for. The Hunter bloodline was supposed to be like
sweet addictive wine for vampires, which was what had gotten this
whole dumb curse started in the first place.

When she went into the living room, she found
Austin sitting on the couch watching the Disney Thanksgiving
Parade. Lexi sat down on the couch next to him and grabbed for the
remote. “Why are you watching this? The Macy’s Parade is so much
cooler.” Lexi had always made her mom watch the Macy’s Thanksgiving
Day Parade with her, even if that meant that she had to TiVo it so
that they could watch it when her mom got home from work. It was
one of the few Thanksgiving traditions that they did
have.

“I like the Disney Parade,” Austin replied,
staring at the remote with a pouty look on his face. Lexi rolled
her eyes and turned the channel.

“Oh, come on. Justin Bieber and Selena Gomez
were about to perform!” Austin said jokingly, trying to grab the
remote from her.

Lexi pulled the remote away from him and held
it up in the air. “Macy’s!”

Austin sighed. “So, you’re not a Belieber,
then?”

“A what?” Lexi asked with raised
eyebrows.

“You’ve been out of the real world for too
long,” Austin replied, shaking his head. “A Justin Bieber
fan?”

“Oh, um, not really.”

“Well, that’s a relief. At least I don’t have
to listen to his music while we’re stuck in this house together.
Miley Cyrus is cool, though.” As Austin began to say something
else, he froze and cocked his head. “There someone outside,” he
whispered. “I can hear them, but I can’t smell them. It’s not a
human. It’s another vampire.”

Lexi felt a sick feeling form in the pit of her
stomach and gulped down the saliva that was building up in the back
of her throat. It was either someone who was looking for them or
her father. She hoped that it was her dad because she was so not
prepared for someone else.

There was a loud knock at the door behind
them.

“Go get Gabe,” Austin mouthed to
her.

Lexi dropped to the floor so that whoever was
knocking wouldn’t see her through one of the windows and crawled to
the bedroom.

As the knocking proceeded, she shook Gabe. When
his eyes opened, she whispered, “There’s someone at the
door.”

“Who?” Gabe asked alertly, sitting up in
bed.

As if on cue, a deep voice called, “Ben?” Lexi
recognized the voice immediately. It belonged to Greg Lawrence.
“You need to come out here and talk to me right now.” When there
was no response, the mayor bellowed, “I know you’re in there,
Hunter. Your car is parked in the driveway. You can’t hide from
us.”

Lexi met Gabe’s eyes. He looked just as nervous
as she felt, but through her panic, she felt a sense of relief.
Greg was here looking for her father. That meant that the bat
pendant was working; he hadn’t gotten a whiff of her scent. She
felt relieved that she had it on because otherwise, she would be
really screwed right now.

As Lexi was about to ask Gabe what they should
do, Austin crawled into the bedroom, too. He handed each of them a
backpack. Lexi stared down at the bag that he gave her. Unzipping
it, she realized that it was stuffed with a pile of her clothes.
Lexi decided that she wasn’t going to ask questions right now.
Austin had obviously been prepared for this day, and she should be
grateful for that. She just had to trust her cousin’s instincts,
even though she had no idea what he was planning for them to do
next.

“They’re going to get in here,” Austin told
them quietly. “There’s more than one of them. We need to leave.”
When Lexi stared back at him and stayed frozen in place, he hissed,
“Now!”

“Wait!” Lexi said louder than she meant. “What
about me?”

“What about you?” Gabe asked.

“Well, it wouldn’t be that easy for them to
kill you. They’d need to set a fire or put a stake through your
heart. But it would be easy for them to kill me. How . . . how are
we going to sneak me out of here?” Lexi asked. She felt her face
beginning to flush, and she was pretty sure that her blood pressure
was going up. Sneaking out of the house and getting away alive
seemed like it was going to be a real challenge, and just thinking
about trying it – and what could happen if they failed – scared the
shit out of her.

“Don’t worry. I have a plan. Now come on,”
Austin said, crawling out of the room. Lexi followed and she heard
the sound of Gabe’s knees hitting against the hardwood floor from
behind her.

Austin grabbed something from the kitchen
counter before quietly opening the glass sliding door.

Lexi stepped outside after Austin, and Gabe
quietly slid the door closed behind them.

“Go hide in the woods,” Austin instructed them.
He ran to the side of the house and pointed the thing that he had
grabbed from the kitchen counter at one of the windows, which Lexi
realized was open.

A moment later, the sound of classical music
blasted from the bedroom that Austin had been staying in, and she
realized what he had done. He had turned on the radio to distract
and confuse Greg Lawrence, who would now think that Benjamin was in
the room where the music had turned on. She watched as Austin
shifted into a bat and flitted over her head and through the
woods.

The only thing that made her fearful was that
soon Greg would realize that Benjamin wasn’t in that bedroom. He
would realize that the music had been to divert the attention, and
then what? Would he realize that Lexi and Gabe were behind
it?

Lexi looked up at Gabe, who reached for her
hand and squeezed it. “Come on,” he whispered. He slowly began
walking through the woods. Slowly, Lexi followed after him. Every
time either one of them crunched the fall leaves under their feet
or cracked a fallen tree branch, Lexi sucked in a deep breath of
air to try to make her breathing sound less obvious and felt a new
cluster of goose bumps pop up on her arms. She looked over her
shoulder.

No one was following them. No one had seen
them. Lexi hoped that it would stay that way.

When they got far enough into the woods that
Lexi couldn’t see the house in plain sight anymore, she whispered
to Gabe, “Where exactly are we going?”

“To find Austin.” Gabe began trudging down a
gravel path. Lexi quickly realized that it wasn’t a path, but a
narrow, winding road. It was a lot different from the blacktop
roads that were lined with sidewalks that she was used to walking
on in New Jersey. Even the roads in Briar Creek looked more normal.
Lexi didn’t actually know what town they were in, but it had to be
out in the middle of nowhere, which made her wonder one thing: how
did Greg Lawrence find them out here? How had he figured out Ben’s
address if even Mrs. Lawrence didn’t know where his summer home
was? It completely baffled her, but there wasn’t much time to think
about it now.