Destined to Die (The Briar Creek Vampires, #3) by Jayme Morse & Jody Morse (20 page)

By the time Lexi got ready, it was nearly one
o’clock. She stepped outside and began searching for Mary-Kate’s
car. Just as she was about to walk over to the sidewalk, a tall guy
walked towards her. “Alexandria Hunter?”

Lexi nodded, deciding that it wasn’t worth
correcting him. No one seemed to understand that she hated being
called by her full name. It was mostly because of her dad; he’d
always called her Princess Alexandria during their tea parties.
When he left, she decided that she didn’t want anyone else to call
her Alexandria and chose to go by her nickname, Lexi, at all
times.

“What are you doing out here?” the guy asked
her.

“I’m waiting for a friend,” Lexi replied
coolly. She eyed him up and down. His raven-colored hair was
cropped short and was almost a perfect match for his nearly black
eyes. Even though he was wearing a white t-shirt (which was unusual
because it was really cold outside), Lexi could see his clearly
defined six pack. “What’s it to you?”

“Sorry, I should probably introduce myself.”
The guy laughed a deep, sultry laugh. “My name’s Noah. I’m one of
the security guards here, so it’s necessary for me to know who goes
in and out of Huntington at all times.”

“Oh, so you’re . . . a werewolf?” Lexi
asked.

Noah nodded. Lexi glanced at him again. So,
that was why he was so muscular and wasn’t even dressed
appropriately for December. According to all of the mythology that
she had ever learned about, werewolves were supposed to really
strong and hot. Temperature-wise, that is. Noah’s body temperature
might be high, but he was definitely hot in other ways,
too.

“Well, my friend Mary-Kate is coming to visit
me,” Lexi went on. “I hope that’s okay, isn’t it? She’s not bad or
anything like that.”

“Mary-Kate Lawrence?”

Lexi nodded. “You know her?”

“She used to date my cousin, Brandon,” Noah
replied. “She’s a good girl. I see no reason why she can’t visit,
just as long as she doesn’t spend the night here. School
administration doesn’t take kindly to overnight
visitors.”

Lexi stared at Noah dumbfounded at the name he
had just mentioned. “Are you talking about the Brandon who works at
Splish ‘N Splash?”

Noah nodded. “Yeah, he does. He told me that
you worked with him.”

Part of Lexi wanted to ask why Brandon had
mentioned her to Noah, but the reasons were probably obvious. Aside
from her being so popular in the vampire world, she and Brandon had
almost dated. That was before she had found out that he, too, was a
vampire. “So, let me get this straight,” she said to Noah. “You’re
a werewolf who works at Huntington, but your cousin is a vampire
who lives in Briar Creek?”

Noah nodded and grinned at her. “Shocking, I
know. Every family has its issues, I suppose. Mine just happens to
be that we’re two different species and should be enemies.”
Lexi smiled. “I know how that feels.”

Just then, she saw Mary-Kate’s car pull up
alongside the sidewalk. Before she had the chance to ask Noah if he
had told anyone that Austin was still alive, he had already walked
away. Lexi didn’t have time to worry right now about whether or not
he was on their side. She ran towards her sister’s car
instead.

“Lexi!” Mary-Kate yelled, pulling shopping bags
out of the trunk of her car. “I brought some stuff for
you.”

“For me?” Lexi asked, surprised.

“Well, Austin told me that he didn’t have time
to bring all of your clothes when you left, so I did a little
shopping. Let’s go inside so I can show you everything.”

When they were back in Lexi’s dorm room, she
was in the middle of trying on a plum-colored dress that Mary-Kate
had bought her. The dress hugged her hips in all of the right
places and actually made it look like she had some cleavage. She
wished that she had a special occasion coming up soon so that she
could actually wear it.

All of the jeggings, sweater dresses, and
Victoria’s Secret velour outfits that Mary-Kate had brought her fit
similarly. Lexi was going to have to remember that Mary-Kate would
be a great shopping buddy if she ever needed one.
If
she was
ever able to leave the confines of Huntington or one of Ben’s
houses and actually go on a mall shopping trip again.

“So, what exactly is going on, Lexi?” Mary-Kate
asked. “Austin hasn’t called me in weeks. I’m clueless.”

Lexi frowned, surprised that Austin hadn’t
called Mary-Kate to fill her in. She’d just assumed that they had
been keeping in touch often for some reason. “Well, like I told
you, they’re looking for our dad. He hasn’t communicated with them
for months and his phone’s been disconnected, so they’re pretty
sure something is going on with him.”

Mary-Kate looked down at the floor. “I hope
he’s okay,” she said, playing with the hem of her
sweater.

“Me too.” Lexi sat down on the bed next to her.
“I’m sure he’s fine. They’re probably just
overreacting.”

“Let’s hope.” Mary-Kate looked up at her and
smiled. “Anyways, how do like it here?”
Lexi shrugged. “It’s okay, I guess. I feel like a caged poodle,
though. I hate not being able to do anything.”

“Hopefully this will all be over really soon,”
Mary-Kate said sympathetically. “Then, we can work on being a
family.”

“Really?” Lexi squeaked.

“Of course! I’ve always wanted a sister. I hope
that we can go to the same college together. I’ve always wanted to
go to NYU, but we can go wherever you want to go, I guess.
Somewhere on the West coast might be kind of cool. Maybe we can
even be roommates.”

Glancing away, Lexi tried to hide the fact that
she was becoming teary-eyed. It had been a long time since she felt
like she had any family who really cared about her. She hadn’t even
known that Mary-Kate really wanted to be her sister, even though
she had been a good friend to her so far.

Lexi heard the sound of the doorknob being
turned. The door swung open, and Anna stepped inside. When she saw
Mary-Kate sitting on the bed next to Lexi her face fell. “Oh, uh,
hi. You must be Mary-Kate.”

Mary-Kate nodded and smiled at her. “Yes. And
you’re Anna, right?”

Anna nodded. “Yeah.” She took a step back
towards the door. “I guess I’ll go hang out in Jill’s dorm room or
something.”

“No, that’s okay,” Mary-Kate said, throwing her
hands up in the air. “I should actually be getting back to Briar
Creek or everyone’s going to start wondering where I went.” She
turned to Lexi. “I’ll see you soon. Tell Austin to give me a call
when he gets back, okay?”

Lexi nodded. She glanced over at Anna, who was
staring solemnly at the floor. “I will.”

When Mary-Kate shut the dorm room door behind
her, Lexi turned to Anna. “What is up with you?” she whispered.
“You acted really strange around her.”

“Nothing. I’m going to get a cup of coffee.
Want to come with?”

Lexi shook her head. “No. I’m kind of sleepy.
I’m gonna take a nap.”

Anna shrugged her shoulders. “Suit
yourself.”

When the door closed, Lexi flopped down on her
bed and wrapped the comforter around herself. Why had Mary-Kate
come to visit, only to leave shortly after? And why was Anna acting
so weird? For some reason, when she got to Huntington, she figured
that she wouldn’t have to deal with any drama, but it felt like it
was finding her here quicker than it had anywhere else.

Just as she was getting ready to doze off, Lexi
heard the sound of a cell phone chirping. She realized that it was
close to her . . . really close.

Picking up the cell phone, she noticed that it
was in a light purple cover. Lexi remembered that Anna’s cell phone
cover was hot pink zebra print. This cell phone must belong to
Mary-Kate. It must have fallen out of her bag before she
left.

Glancing at the caller ID, Lexi noticed that
the call was from Brandon. Lexi accidentally hit the “talk” button.
Just as she put her ear to the receiver to apologize, she realized
that she couldn’t actually say anything or Brandon might recognize
her voice and figure out that Mary-Kate knew where she was. It
didn’t seem like it was worth risking.

“Hey, Mary-Kate,” Brandon said. “What time do
you want me to pick you up for our date tonight? And have you
broken up with Austin yet?”

Unsure of what else to do, Lexi quickly hit the
“end” button on the cell phone.

There was a knock at the door. “Lexi?”
Mary-Kate called. “I think I left my cell phone on your bed or
something.”

Lexi opened the door and handed the phone to
her. “I was just about to come find you.” She smiled at Mary-Kate,
trying not to make it seem obvious that she had just answered her
cell phone.

When she closed the door behind her, she sunk
to her knees. Had Lexi just heard what she thought she had heard?
Could Mary-Kate be cheating on Austin with Brandon?

No. There was no way. Mary-Kate wouldn’t have
been so concerned about Austin if she really didn’t care about him.
All of the things that Lexi had thought about her sister when she
first met her just weren’t true; she helped other people by letting
them feed from her, but she was in love with Austin. Wasn’t
she?

****

Chapter 14

That night, Lexi sat in the Huntington
cafeteria eating dinner with Anna and her friends. She had met them
all the night she had first stayed at Huntington when she had tried
to run away from Briar Creek a few months back, but she couldn’t
recall their names (and, frankly, she didn’t really care to right
now).

Thinking about the call from Brandon made
Lexi’s mind drift back to Gabe and Veronica. Somehow, this felt
even worse than when Gabe had crashed the car and disappeared from
Briar Creek. This time, he had chosen someone else instead of her.
When he crashed the car, she knew it was because he loved her. Now,
she had her doubts . . . and she wasn’t sure how much more she
could take. What was worse was the fact that Gabe was one of the
only people who, up until now, Lexi thought she could trust. He was
one of the only people who knew her whereabouts for however long it
had been since she’d escaped Briar Creek, which made her feel like
they had a special bond with each other.

It made Lexi even angrier because Gabe had
refused to have sex with her. He said that he wanted it to be the
right time. And yet, he obviously must have felt that it was the
right time for him to fool around with Veronica. Thinking about the
way she had seen them together made Lexi feel like she wanted to
vomit.

She was so lost in thought that she hadn’t even
noticed when Craig came up from behind her and started talking to
her until he said, “Lexi? Are you okay?”

“Huh?” Lexi asked, turning around to look at
him.

“I asked if I could have a word with you in
private.”

Glancing around at Anna and her friends, who
were staring at her suspiciously, Lexi followed Craig outside into
the courtyard. She wasn’t sure what she could tell Anna and her
friends when they asked what Craig had wanted to talk to her about
to make it seem less weird. She didn’t even start his class until
the end of next week because it was a bi-weekly class.
When they were outside, Craig said, “Last night was really
amazing.”

Lexi stared back at him. She thought that when
she had first met him, his eyes had been hazel, but they looked
greener every time she saw him. Today, they had taken on a pretty
shade of emerald.

“Yeah, it was . . . nice,” she
replied.

“Meet me tonight in my room at nine o’clock?”
Craig asked.

“Umm, why? What do you have in
mind?”

“I have a few surprises up my sleeve,” Craig
said flirtatiously.

Lexi hesitated. Even though Gabe had cheated on
her with Veronica, it made her feel guilty to know that she was
sort of doing the same thing. Did two wrongs really make a right?
Lexi wasn’t sure, but she knew that one thing was for sure. Right
now, what she needed the most was to get her mind off of the Gabe
and Veronica situation because it was driving her nuts. “Okay, I’ll
be there at nine.”

“Great.” Craig smiled. “I promise that you
won’t be disappointed.”
When Lexi got back to the cafeteria table, Anna leaned over to her
and whispered, “What did Professor Lindstrom want?”

“Oh, um, he told me that he’s compiling a list
of books for me to read so that I can catch up on Vampire Lit,”
Lexi lied, thinking of the first thing that came to
mind.

“Oh, that’s probably a really good idea.
There’s a lot of good information in some of those books. I can
help you find more if you want,” Anna offered.

“That would be great. Thanks.” Lexi breathed a
sigh of relief, feeling proud of herself for coming up with such a
believable lie.

“And, see, I told you there’s nothing to worry
about. He wouldn’t be trying to help you catch up if he was really
against you,” Anna pointed out.

“I guess you’re right,” Lexi said, smiling. It
felt relieving to know that she could actually trust Craig. “Have
you heard from Austin yet?”