Kiss of Death (The Briar Creek Vampires, #1) by Jayme Morse & Jody Morse (3 page)

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Chapter 2

Austin’s funeral turned out to be a big blur
for Lexi. It was bad enough that she had never been to a funeral
before, but it was even more awkward to go to the funeral of
someone that she hadn’t seen since she was a kid. It wasn’t what
she expected. Granted, she didn’t know what people did at these
things – but she also wasn’t expecting them to kiss Austin’s
corpse. As she refrained from the line to kiss Austin on his cheek,
she shivered; it was like a kiss with death. She wasn’t sure if she
would have kissed him even if she had known him better.

One of the things that surprised her about
Austin’s funeral was the number of people that came. She guessed
that his entire high school class must have been there, along with
family and neighbors. Austin had been timid as a child, but he
appeared to have been Mr. Popular before he died. From the
conversations she had overheard so far, everyone had said that he
had amazing football abilities, and that he was a “happy-go-lucky
jock that didn’t have a care in the world.” His closer friends had
also said that he was a social butterfly who had been the life of
all their parties. The pictures at the memorial service showed the
shining star football player that everyone described, but to Lexi,
his smile looked forced. Maybe he wasn’t really the happy teenager
that everyone thought he was.

After the memorial service, everyone had
headed back to Violet and Tommy’s. Lexi wasn’t quite sure what to
do with herself; she felt out of place with Austin’s friends and
she couldn’t stand to watch the pained expressions of her aunt and
uncle. In an effort to escape, she headed for the bathroom.

When Lexi got to the top of the staircase,
she noticed two puffy-eyed girls talking to each other in low
voices.

“No, I’m not overreacting. I just think it’s
weird that Mary-Kate is the last person who saw him,” the blonde
girl whispered to the girl with jet black hair and caramel skin. “I
don’t get why the cops aren’t even looking at her as a
suspect.”

“She’s the mayor’s daughter; of course
they’re not going to suspect her. It would draw a ton of unwanted
attention. Besides, what are the chances of a girl her size…you
know,” the brunette responded, looking around uncomfortably. Lexi
thought that it sounded as though they had already had this
conversation – maybe even more than once.

“Things were weird between them though,
Julie. She was really clingy and obsessed with him. The rumors were
that he was getting ready to dump her. Isn’t that a
coincidence?”

“Maybe, maybe not. Either way, what could we
do about it? Go to the police? They’ll never listen to us. They
want everyone to think that Austin was attacked by a bear or maybe
even a mountain lion. Then we’ll end up looking bad because
everything the mayor’s daughter does is golden,” she said cattily.
Through the blonde’s snickers she continued, “But we all know what
Ms. Goody Two Shoes does in her spare time.”

The blonde looked up sharply through her fit
of laughter and her eyes narrowed, as she noticed that Lexi was
listening in on their conversation. Shooting a few glares in Lexi’s
direction, she made her way downstairs, pulling Julie along with
her. Lexi wondered if it had really been that obvious that she was
eavesdropping on them.

Remembering what she came upstairs for, Lexi
made her way to the bathroom, closing and locking the door behind
her. She glanced around the room, taking note of the peeling floral
wallpaper, which Aunt Violet had left intact all these years.
Turning on the faucet to splash cold water on her face, she looked
up to check her hair in the mirror. Looking past her reflection,
she noticed a hole in the wall behind her. She turned around,
examining it. It wasn’t a huge hole, but it was obvious that it had
been made by a fist.

She wondered what had happened to cause
someone to punch the wall. Lexi couldn’t imagine her aunt and uncle
leaving evidence of a fight for all of Briar Creek to see today. It
must have happened recently, and they just hadn’t thought to patch
it up in the midst of everything that was going on. Maybe Austin
had gotten into a fight before he was brutally mangled to
death.

Lexi shuddered and turned around to finish
washing her hands. Stop thinking about this, she told herself,
staring at her pale reflection in the mirror. But the image she had
created of Austin laying lifeless in a pool of his own blood kept
popping back into her mind.

*

Rubbing her wet hands against her dark wash
Levi’s, Lexi shook the image from her head. She unlocked and opened
the door – only to find herself standing face to face with Kevin.
He was the same cute guy who had lived across the street from her
when she was a kid. He still had the same dark hair and chiseled
chin. Nothing had changed about him. She wondered how that was
possible; he would be almost thirty years old by now.

Feeling her cheeks getting hot, she forced
herself to smile. “Hey, Kevin. I didn’t know you moved back
here.”

“Oh, I’m not Kevin. He was my older brother,”
the guy standing in front of her said in a velvety voice. Lexi
thought for a second that she saw his eyes flash, but then realized
that it must have been the lighting.

“Was?”

“There was an accident a few years ago.” He
shifted his gaze uncomfortably away from her as if he was afraid to
look her in her eyes. “He flipped his motorcycle.”

“I’m really sorry to hear that,” Lexi said, a
bit shocked. She never would have admitted it out loud, but she was
secretly hoping that she would run into Kevin this weekend. Why
couldn’t Lexi remember Kevin having a younger brother? She guessed
that her memory must be foggy because she had been so young.

He stared at her intently. “I lived in Denver
most of my life. We moved back here last year.”

Finding it hard not to get lost in his deep
blue eyes, Lexi stuttered, “I-I haven’t been back here…not since I
was a kid. Not until now.”

Get a grip, she told herself. Stop sounding
so pathetic. It’s
just
Kevin’s brother. It’s not like he’s
Channing Tatum, though Kevin’s brother could probably play as his
stunt double, she thought dreamily.

“Seems like an odd time to come back,”
Kevin’s brother said. “I’m sorry about what happened to your
cousin. It must be hard for you. I remember how close you two
were.”

Lexi couldn’t help but sense the chemistry
between them; it was as if a magnetic force was holding her eyes to
his. She wondered if he felt it too. Her heart sped up and she
couldn’t force herself to look away – not that she was sure she
really wanted to. Breaking his gaze, he smirked and looked down the
hallway.

Finally able to compose herself, she said,
“Thanks. It’s strange, though…I didn’t really know him. Most of
what I have left is memories. We didn’t talk to each other for
years.”

“I see. Well, if you ever need to talk, you
know where to find me. We moved back into the same house.”

“Thank you,” Lexi said, turning to walk away.
Looking back at him, she asked, “Wait. What’s your name?”

“Gabriel. Most people call me Gabe.”

“Okay, well, I better get back downstairs,”
she hesitated, not sure if he wanted to talk more. He nodded
silently.

Lexi felt his eyes on her back as she slowly
walked down the hallway.

When Lexi turned for a final glance at Gabe,
he was already gone.

*

Downstairs, Lexi noticed that most of
Austin’s mourners had left while she was upstairs. She breathed a
sigh of relief. Talking to people she didn’t know about someone who
she hadn’t seen in years wasn’t on the top of her to-do list right
now.

Sitting down on her aunt’s maroon microfiber
couch, Lexi stared at the Hibiscus design on her left middle
fingernail. The rest of her manicure was starting to chip. She made
a mental note to make an appointment at the nail salon when she got
home.

She looked around for her mom, who she hadn’t
seen since they got back to Violet and Tommy’s house hours ago. She
was probably either outside smoking a cigarette or in Grandma
Jean’s room, Lexi decided.

“Rough day for you, too?” a deep voice asked
her. She glanced over as a blonde, tan guy sat down next to her.
She recalled that he was Austin’s best friend, Dan. Aunt Violet had
introduced her to him at the funeral.

“You can say that,” she sighed. “It’s rough
to go to a funeral of someone who you barely knew, especially when
you wished you had known them. Does that make sense?”

Dan looked at her, somewhat clueless. He
shrugged. “For me, it’s really hard. He’s been my best friend for
years. We were pretty much like brothers.”

“I’m sorry for your loss,” she uttered, not
sure what else to say to comfort him.

“I saw you talking to Gabe earlier,” he said.
“You two friends?”

“No. Not yet, at least. I knew his brother,
Kevin when I was younger. What makes you ask?”

“The kid’s a freak,” Dan said, raising his
eyebrows and running a hand through his hair. He rubbed the back of
his neck and turned his head to look her up and down. “You should
be careful around him.”

Lexi gave him a questioning look, to which he
responded, “He sticks to himself a lot. And when he does hang out
with anyone, he always gets himself into trouble. Like last weekend
when he was at Seneca Falls, he got a fine for hurting a small
animal.”

Lexi laughed at that. “What, was he fishing
or something?”

“No,” he replied, his face becoming
stern.

“Gabe doesn’t seem like a guy that would hurt
an animal for no reason,” Lexi thought out loud.

“You don’t know him, Lexi. He’s freakin’
weird.”

“Maybe he’s just shy,” Lexi persisted. She
didn’t know why she was trying to defend Gabe so much; she didn’t
even know him. Yet, a small voice in the back of her mind told her
that she wasn’t wrong. Gabe wasn’t a malicious person, or else he
wouldn’t have seemed so sympathetic about Austin.

“Well, it’s not the way to be in a small town
like this. It makes people talk. I’ve heard other stories about
him, but I won’t go into it right now…it doesn’t seem like the
right time to,” he said, glancing around. “Anyway, I’m just warning
you. Be careful.”

“I can take care of myself,” she said,
suddenly feeling agitated. “But thanks for your oh so important
lecture.”

The chirping of his cell phone distracted
him. “It’s my mom. She’s got a flat tire. I gotta get going,” he
told her, without looking up from his cell phone. “Tell Violet and
Tommy that I’ll be over on Tuesday to mow their lawn.”

“I will. Bye,” she said. Lexi was relieved
that he was leaving. She was tired of people feeling like they had
a right to tell her what to do. It was time for her to make her own
decisions and Briar Creek was the best place for her to start.

****

Chapter 3

“I hope that you’ll be comfortable in here.
If you need anything at all, just let me know.” Violet pulled the
decorative pillows off the bed that Lexi would be sleeping in and
piled them into the corner of the room before softly closing the
door on her way out.

The room belonged to Lexi as a child and,
mostly, it was still the same. The walls were painted the same
shade of lilac; her furnished Victorian dollhouse was just as she
had left it. Dozens of stuffed animals stared down at her from the
hammocks that were strung in the corners of the room.

Lying down, Lexi stared at the ceiling and
sighed. She really had the urge to check her Facebook, but there
wasn’t even a television in her bedroom, let alone a computer. Lexi
hadn’t thought to bring her laptop to Briar Creek with her. After
all, they would only be there for a few days at the most.

An idea came to her mind. She was sure that
Austin must have had a computer. Since he wasn’t around, he
couldn’t tell her that she couldn’t borrow it. She wondered if she
should ask Aunt Violet.
No
, she silently scolded herself for
even thinking of asking. It would seem really sick if she asked her
aunt if she could borrow her dead son’s computer only hours after
his funeral. Not only would that make Lexi seem heartless, but
bringing up Austin’s name so soon was bound to upset her aunt.

Oh well, she thought, what they don’t know
won’t kill them. Turning off the bedroom light, Lexi peered into
the hallway. All of the upstairs lights were off, except for the
nightlight that dimly lit the hallway. Deciding it was safe, Lexi
tiptoed out of her room. Although she knew her mom wouldn’t care if
she borrowed Austin’s belongings, she held her breath as she crept
past her room.

Holding her breath, she tiptoed into the hall
and quietly turned the knob on Austin’s bedroom door. It was the
same room that he, too, had slept in as a child. The walls were the
same shade of lime green, and there were still posters of Michael
Jordan on his walls. Even though Austin played football, his love
for basketball must not have worn off. The rest of the room was
mostly bare (Not that Lexi was surprised about that. She had been
convinced that Austin’s belongings were in the boxes that Lexi had
seen downstairs earlier).

The room was dimly illuminated by the
basketball shaped nightlight that was plugged into Austin’s wall,
and the fish tank screen saver of the laptop that sat on his
computer desk.

Perfect. No one will notice if Austin’s
laptop disappears for a few hours, Lexi thought happily, sweeping
the laptop up into her arms.

When she got back to her room, Lexi plugged
the laptop in and opened it. She pressed the power button and
climbed onto the bed, sitting Indian style with the laptop in front
of her. As the password prompter loaded, she sighed, resting her
elbows on her knees and pressing her hands against her forehead.
How could she guess Austin’s password? She barely knew him.