Destined to Die (The Briar Creek Vampires, #3) by Jayme Morse & Jody Morse (24 page)

“Just around,” Lexi shrugged, afraid to tell
her the truth. “Is everything okay?”

“Austin called,” Anna replied. “Apparently,
Gabe had a couple of visions. He saw that the vampires in Briar
Creek are holding your dad hostage. In the second vision, he saw
that they have him somewhere in New Jersey, but he couldn’t figure
out where. He just saw the ‘Welcome to New Jersey’
sign.”

Lexi felt her stomach drop to her knees. She
hadn’t actually admitted it to herself or thought about it, but she
had feared that the Briar Creek vampires may have had her dad. “Now
what do we do?”

“We just wait for Gabe to have another vision,”
Anna replied. “He does want his mom to come to Huntington for now,
though. He’s afraid that if he doesn’t get her soon, they’re going
to take her hostage, too.”

“They probably will,” Lexi said softly. “How
are you going to pull that off?”

“He’s calling her tomorrow and asking her to
meet me on the sidewalk outside the school. I would go off campus
to get her, but it doesn’t seem like a good idea after what
happened to Melanie Jacobs.”

“I agree.” Lexi sighed. “That’s all they had to
say?”

“Yeah, nothing else seemed to be
new.”

Lexi wasn’t sure if she should be
happy or relieved that she hadn’t found out any other bad
news.

*

The next morning, the sound of Anna’s voice
woke Lexi up. “All you need to do is come here. I promise
everything is going to be okay.” She paused. “I’ve already taken
care of everything. I don’t want you to worry.”

Lexi rolled over in bed and glanced at her.
Anna was chatting softly on the phone. “Please don’t worry, Mrs.
Marshall. We have very good security here.” She paused. “Okay,
great. I’m so glad that you’ve decided to come. I’ll see you
soon.”

“She’s coming?” Lexi asked when Anna had hung
up the phone.

Anna nodded. “Yeah, she is. She’s meeting us
out front in about an hour.”

“Gabe’s mom hates me,” Lexi muttered, pulling
her comforter over her head. “This is going to be loads of fun.
Where will she be staying? Is she even allowed?”

“I’ve already cleared it with administration.
She’s going to be staying in Gabe and Austin’s dorm until they get
back.”

“Well, I’m glad she’s not staying in our room.
That would be a total nightmare.”

“Lexi! That’s really mean,” Anna
said.

“No. You haven’t seen how much this
woman hates me yet.”

*

An hour later, Mrs. Marshall climbed out of her
car and stepped onto the sidewalk where Anna and Lexi were waiting
for her. “Hello, Anna!” Mrs. Marshall said warmly. She glared at
Lexi, but didn’t say anything to her.

Anna looked over at Lexi and shrugged with an
I-guess-you’re-right look on her face.

“I’ll show you to your room so that you can get
settled,” Anna told Mrs. Marshall.

“Have you heard from my son since last night?”
Mrs. Marshall asked.

“No, Mrs. Marshall, I haven’t.”

“Please, call me Marie,” Gabe’s mom said,
waving her hand in the air. “I don’t want to be too
formal.”

“Marie, is anything going on in Briar Creek
that we should know about?” Lexi asked.

“Did I say that you could call me Marie? It’s
Mrs. Marshall to you,” Mrs. Marshall snapped at Lexi. “And, no,
from what I know, nothing is new in Briar Creek. You’ve already
destroyed any good that could come from that town by honoring us
with your presence,” she spat.

Lexi closed her eyes and took a few deep
breaths. She was going to have to stay very far away from Gabe’s
mom or she was going to lose her temper. Not that it really matter
anymore. She and Gabe weren’t even together now, as far as she
knew. And she wasn’t sure if she still wanted to be with him
either.

*

In Long Island, Austin examined himself in the
mirror. He hadn’t drunk any blood in a while, but he seemed to be
doing okay so far. His skin hadn’t changed colors and he didn’t
feel too thirsty yet.

Gabe flopped down on the bed behind him. “I
have to tell you something. I was going to keep it a secret, but
it’s eating me alive.”

Austin whirled around. “What?” It wasn’t like
Gabe to talk to him about things, so this must be big.

“Last night when you went to the beach and to
grab something to eat, I had a girl over here,” Gabe began. “It was
right after I had my visions. I was feeling really tired and weak –
and I just really needed to drink from someone. I didn’t have many
options, obviously.”

“Okay,” Austin replied impatiently. “Go
on.”

“I convinced this girl I met at a bar to come
back here. Her name is Rhonda,” Gabe said. “It’s been so long since
I’ve had human blood that didn’t come from the Hunter bloodline
that… I accidentally drank more than I meant to. I drained her of
all her blood.”

“What?” Austin shrieked. “Dude, what did you do
with her? A dead girl with freakin’ holes in her neck is going to
draw attention to the fact that we were here!”

“Calm down,” Gabe replied. “I felt bad, so I
did the only thing I could think of. I changed her.”

Austin sat down, his head throbbing. “You’re
joking, right? You didn’t really change a random girl you met in a
bar into a vampire.”

Gabe shook his head. “No. I’m not joking. It’s
true.” He sighed. “I didn’t mean to do it, it just happened. Can
you do me a favor, though?”

“What?” Austin asked.

“Don’t tell Lexi about this. I don’t want her
to be mad at me for something else.”

Austin groaned. “I guess, but you better tell
her eventually.”

Gabe knew that Austin was right. He just wasn’t
sure how to tell her that he had brought yet another obstacle into
their relationship – if they even still had one anymore.

****

Chapter 19

In the dim fluorescent lighting, Rhonda
Kerrigan stared at herself in the full length mirror that hung from
the wall in her dorm room. Everything about her looked different
today than it had yesterday. Her skin, which normally had a warm
reddish tone, had suddenly taken on a ghostly appearance; her hair
looked raggedy; and there were dark circles under her eyes that
made it look like she hadn’t slept in days.

Even worse than how she looked was how she
felt. A throbbing pain had taken over most of her body, while an
empty feeling had filled the pit of her stomach. She didn't know
what death felt like, but she imagined that it was pretty close to
this.

Rhonda tried to remember what had happened last
night, but she was drawing a complete blank. The
last thing that she remembered was going to the cute little
bar, Brewer's, on South Main Street. She’d used her shiny new fake
ID for the first time, all because she thought that Jeremy might be
there.

Jeremy. Just thinking about him
made her smile a little. Jeremy was her boss – the only guy out of
the dozens of interviews that she had gone to since she’d arrived
in Long Island who had been kind enough to give her a job. He said
that he saw potential in her. Rhonda began going to the office
where they worked together earlier than usual and bringing him
coffee just to show him how much she appreciated the job. He seemed
to be interested in more than just her work ethic.

Jeremy and Rhonda had begun having
sex in his office every day for the past two weeks.

At first, Rhonda had been afraid
that Jeremy would think that she was nothing more than just a
cheap, tawdry slut. The truth was, he was the first guy who had
ever shown interest in her. That made him special to her. She had
been overwhelmed with joy when he’d asked her to go to Brewer’s
with him last night. She’d even broken the law and purchased a fake
ID for the occasion.

Except Rhonda had never seen him. Why hadn’t he
shown up? It made her feel lame to even think about how he had just
stood her up like that. She recalled telling the cute guy who she
had met at the bar that she had been stood up by friends. Ha . . .
like she even had any friends here! Still, telling him that she had
been stood up by friends hadn't made her feel awkward. Admitting to
both him and herself that she had been left hanging by the man of
her dreams would have made her feel really pathetic.

She hadn’t felt pathetic last night when she
had left the bar with the cute guy, though. Gabe – that’s what the
cute guy had said his name was.

Rhonda had almost felt confused when he had
come up and just started talking to her and flirting with her. Out
of all the pretty girls in the bar, why would he choose her? She
wasn’t special. In fact, she’d always heard quite the contrary;
everyone always said that there was nothing great about gingers –
that they were only average.

Rhonda couldn’t remember what had happened
after she left the bar with Gabe last night. She knew that they had
gone back to his hotel room to model for the portrait that he
needed to do for class and that she had kissed him, but her mind
drew a complete blank after that point. She didn’t remember leaving
his hotel room or if he had ever found his sketchbook to paint her.
Had they exchanged numbers? Heck, she couldn’t even remember if
they’d had sex.

She must have some weird stomach
flu . . . or she was developing an early onset of Alzheimer’s
because she couldn’t come up with anything.

Lying down on her dorm-sized twin
bed, Rhonda closed her eyes and tried to fall asleep. The whirring
of cars driving down the street outside as they swished through the
rain puddles and her pounding headache didn’t seem to allow her to
drift off – even though she felt really weak and tired. So very
tired.

Rhonda heard the sound of a key sliding through
the door, which clicked open a second later and was followed by the
sound of her roommate’s shoes clicking against the linoleum
floor.

“Rhonda? Are you awake?” Michelle
asked, standing above her bed. When Rhonda pretended that she was
still asleep, Michelle sighed and strolled past her. A sweet smell
that made Rhonda’s stomach growl blew in her face as Michelle
walked by.

Rhonda heard the sound of Michelle
opening and closing her dresser drawers. Moments later, she heard
the sound of the shower in their private dorm room bathroom
spurting water out of its faucet.

The smell that Michelle had brought
into the room with her made Rhonda feel hungry. From all the way in
the other room, Rhonda could hear Michelle’s pulse pounded inside
of her head. Climbing out of bed, Rhonda traced her roommate’s
footsteps to make sure that she wasn’t just imagining it all. She
wasn’t.

It was the smell of blood.

Rhonda wasn’t sure how she knew
that blood was what she was yearning for. Was it the tasty,
iron-like taste that had just filled her mouth at the thought of
blood, sending an even hungrier sensation throughout her body? Or
was it the crimson color that flashed through her mind at just the
thought of what it would be like to taste just one drop of her
roommate’s blood?

Without even realizing what she was
doing, Rhonda opened the door to the bathroom and crept over to the
shower. Pulling the curtain along its rod, she avoided staring at
her roommate’s naked body. Rhonda knew that what she was doing
wasn’t sexual; she was doing what she needed to do, even though she
wasn't really sure how she knew she needed to do it.

When Michelle glanced back and saw
her standing there, a look of shock crossed her face. “Rhonda? What
are you doing in here? Are you okay?”

Rhonda didn’t answer her. She
lurched into the shower and, greedily, sunk her teeth deep into her
roommate’s flesh. Michelle struggled. Rhonda gripped her fingers
around her throat, making Michelle fall to her knees.

Michelle’s scream
echoed through the quietness of the bathroom. Rhonda continued to
hear the echoes throughout her head as she allowed her roommate’s
blood drip to the back of her throat, sweet like honey and filling
her body with the warm, satisfied sensation that she remembered
having the night before when she was with
Gabe.

****

Chapter 20

Lexi watched out her dorm room window as the
rain slid down the glass, reminding her of tears. It had been
thunder storming all day, and it really made her miss her mom. When
she was younger, they always pet sat their neighbor’s dog, Teddy.
One rainy day, Teddy got into the garbage and ended up with a
mustard-covered face. Her mom insisted that they give him a bath
outside in their plastic baby pool because it would be easier than
trying to get him into the bathtub. It had been raining the whole
time and Teddy loved the rain. He jumped around in it excitedly
trying to bite at the raindrops, as Lexi and her mom chased him
around the yard. It was one of the few times her mom had let her
play outside in the rain. Lexi wished, more than anything, that she
could go back to that perfect moment in it.