Thicker Than Water (The Briar Creek Vampires Book #2) by Jayme Morse & Jody Morse (5 page)

“Hey, Lexi,” a guy said, moving to sit down
next to her. Lexi looked up. The dark brown eyes that were staring
back at her belonged to Brandon.

“Hi!” Lexi replied, grinning back at him.
“Look, I wanted to apologize to you. I feel really bad that our
date never happened.”

“Don’t apologize. It’s not your fault,” Brandon
answered. “I heard that the accident was really bad. I’m just
really glad that you’re alive and okay.”

“Thanks, me too. Anyway, I was thinking that
maybe we could –” Lexi began, but she stopped when a girl came up
behind Brandon and wrapped her arms around his neck. When her
golden brown eyes caught Lexi’s gaze, Lexi realized that she knew
her. It was Julie.

Julie was dating (or judging from the way she
was acting towards Brandon, had dated) Dan’s brother, Dave. Lexi
had been at the carnival with Dan, Dave, and Julie when someone had
attacked her in the House of Mirrors. They’d cut her with pieces
from a broken mirror and she’d blacked out before Gabe had found
her and rescued her. Just thinking about that night sent shivers
down Lexi’s spine – especially since Gabe had revealed that it was
a vampire that had attacked her that night.

“What were you saying, Lexi?” Brandon asked,
just as he leaned in and gave Julie a peck on the cheek.

“Oh, umm…I lost my train of thought, I guess,”
Lexi said, laughing nervously. She had been planning to suggest
that they should still go on their date, but there was no way she
was going to ask him out now that she knew he was with Julie…or so
it seemed.

“Okay, class,” Mrs. Quinn said, clearing her
throat. “Pull out your homework from last night. Before we delve
into Hamlet, please welcome our new student, Lexi Hunter.” Mrs.
Quinn turned to Lexi. “Please introduce yourself, Lexi.”

“I, umm,” Lexi said, standing up awkwardly. She
hated public speaking. “My name’s Lexi Hunter. I’m originally from
New Jersey. My cousin was Austin Graham, who most of you probably
knew.”

When the class stared at her like she was an
alien, she sat back down and sighed. At least her final
introduction for the day was over with.

****

Chapter 6

“How was your first day?” Mary-Kate asked on
the way home.

Lexi shrugged. “It was a normal, awkward first
day, I guess. All anyone talked about was Gabe and the car
accident.”

Mary-Kate frowned. “Lexi, I hope that you don’t
forgive Gabe after what he did to you. It was really screwed up of
him to just leave you there like that.”

Lexi sighed. “I doubt I’ll have to worry about
that. I’ll probably never see him again, anyway.”

“I’ve known Gabe a lot longer than you have.
Trust me. You’ll see him again. He runs away from his problems, but
he always comes back.” The way that Mary-Kate had said
problems
really bothered Lexi—she was just another one of
Gabe’s
problems.
“Besides, his mom is still here. I saw her
at the grocery store the other day. He won’t stay away
forever.”

“Why did Gabe and Austin fight?” Lexi blurted
out. “You told me they got into a fight before, but why? Why do my
aunt and uncle hate him so much?”

Mary-Kate sighed. “We went over this already,
Lexi. Austin wouldn’t tell me why they fought. He acted like it was
some big secret. It seems like it was pretty serious, whatever it
was.”

“He didn’t tell you anything about it? That
seems kinda weird. I mean, you were his girlfriend.”

“All he said was that Gabe knew something that
he shouldn’t.” Mary-Kate tore her eyes away from the road to ask,
“Do you mind if we stop at my friend’s house really
quick?”

“No, I don’t mind,” Lexi replied, staring out
her window. What could Gabe have known that would make Austin want
to fight him? She wanted to ask Gabe, but she didn’t know where he
was or how to get in touch with him.

When Mary-Kate pulled into her friend’s
driveway, Lexi was prepared to stay in the car, but Mary-Kate
waited impatiently outside the car for her to follow.

Lexi climbed out of the car and followed
Mary-Kate up the front porch steps and into the house.

As they started to knock on the door, it swung
open.

Lexi groaned. “What is he doing here?” she
muttered under her breath.

“Lexi! It’s so good to see you,” Dan said,
extending his arms to hug her. Hesitantly, she returned the
gesture. “How are you feeling?”

“I’m fine,” Lexi replied into his chest,
looking down at the ground. “Thanks for your concern.” She hadn’t
meant to sound as sarcastic as she did – or maybe she had, but she
could tell from Dan’s facial expression that it was a slap in his
face. Lexi realized that she shouldn’t care about his feelings,
though, after the way he had attacked her the night of the
accident. If it hadn’t been for him, the accident would have never
even happened in the first place because she wouldn’t have felt as
if she had no other choice but to run away with Gabe. Sure, her
aunt and uncle had been controlling, but it was that spur of the
moment decision after Dan had attacked her that was the breaking
point for her. As aggressive as Dan had gotten with her, she had
been afraid for her life. Leaving had seemed like the only
option.

“Well, I’m gonna get going,” Dan said. “Julie’s
inside.”

When Dan had walked away, Lexi groaned again.
She didn’t like the fact that he was trying to be nice to her now.
Austin’s advice in her dream to not be fooled popped into her
mind.

“Cut Dan some slack, Lexi. He’s been devastated
lately.”

“He needs to get over it,” Lexi snapped. “I was
running away from him the night of the accident. He tried to attack
me. Of course I don’t want to be with him after that. I don’t know
what he really expects after the way he acted.”

Mary-Kate raised an eyebrow. “Someone’s getting
an ego,” she laughed. “He hasn’t been devastated about you. Dan’s
been upset about Dave.”

“Why?”

“You haven’t heard? Dave died the night of your
accident.”

Lexi felt her draw drop. She was in utter
shock. She had seen Dave several times in the weeks prior to his
death. “How did he die?” Lexi asked, wondering if he, too, had
gotten into a car accident.

“He had leukemia,” Mary-Kate replied, looking
down at her bare legs and running a finger over the hem of her
short denim skirt.

So that was why Julie was all over Brandon in
class. She and Dave hadn’t broken up; he had died. It seemed
strange for her to move on so quickly, though. Lexi actually
thought that Dave and Julie made a really great couple, even though
she had found him and his old-fashioned, Star Wars-like vocabulary
to be a little bit strange. Julie seemed nice enough, though, and
she really seemed to like Dave. Lexi wondered why Dan had been at
Julie’s house. Were the two of them involved now, too? That would
just be weird.

“Are you okay?” Lexi asked, remembering that
she had seen Mary-Kate and Dave at the drive-in movie theater
together when she and Dan had gone on a date. They had seemed
pretty intimate. Lexi thought it was weird at the time because Dave
and Julie were still together. Lexi had also found out that
Mary-Kate had cheated on Austin while he was still alive with Dan.
She’d found it unusual that Mary-Kate was involved with two guys
who were brothers, but now that she thought about it, Mary-Kate
hadn’t had a problem putting a damper on Austin’s friendship with
Dan either.

“Why wouldn’t I be okay?” Mary-Kate wrinkled
her forehead in confusion and looked at Lexi.

“Oh, I just thought that you and Dave were
close,” Lexi replied.

“What made you think that?”

“Dan told me,” Lexi lied.

“Oh. Well, no. It wasn’t like that,” Mary-Kate
replied. “We were just friends.”

At that moment, Julie came into the living room
where they were standing. “Hey, guys! Mary-Kate, Lexi…I didn’t know
the two of you were stopping by!”

“I had this book that I wanted to return to
you, so I figured I’d drop it off,” Mary-Kate replied, holding up a
book by Nicholas Sparks. “We bumped into Dan on his way
out.”

“Oh, yeah, he came to pick up some of Dave’s
stuff that he left here,” Julie said. Lexi found it unusual that
she didn’t seem upset at all when she mentioned Dave’s name. Lexi
hadn’t even had feelings for Justin when he died, but she knew that
if she were to say his name out loud, it would be a struggle. Had
Julie lost feelings for Dave before he’d died? Or had she been
prepared for him to pass away since he had leukemia? Maybe being
prepared for his death had helped her move on quicker than Lexi
would be able to move on from Justin and her mom’s
deaths.

“
Oh, Mary-Kate, I have to show you
something in my room. Come?”Julie asked, as she turned and walked
down the hall.

“I’ll be right back, Lexi,” Mary-Kate turned to
her, smiling, before disappearing after Julie.

Feeling left out, Lexi sat down on the loveseat
and looked around the room. The pistachio green walls were lined
with paintings by Thomas Kinkade. Lexi and her mom had some
replicas of his paintings at their house in New Jersey. The cottage
in the snow had always given her a warm fuzzy feeling. Even though
her mom had always thought the painting should only be left up
during the winter months, Lexi had insisted that it remain there
all year. Next to the paintings were portraits of Julie and a boy,
who appeared to be about eight years old and who Lexi assumed must
be Julie’s little brother. Lexi heard voices coming from the other
end of the house. She hadn’t realized that anyone besides Julie was
home, but one of the voices belonged to a man.

“The doctor said her memory can come back at
any time. I don’t think we should act right away, but we need to do
it while she’s still vulnerable. Once she remembers everything,
it’s going to be more difficult to get her blood.”

“Why does it matter if we trick her into
getting it?” a boy asked. “There are three of us, and one of her.
Any of us could take on a human. Together, we’ll be able to do it.”
Lexi froze. The way that the voices said ‘human’ made chills go up
her spine. Lexi assumed that they were talking about her. She had,
after all, pretended that she had lost her memory. Who were these
people, though, and why were they talking about her? She didn’t
recognize any of their voices.

“She’s not just any human, Nick. You have to
remember that she’s strong,” another voice replied. “I wouldn’t
doubt that she is stronger than all of us put together.”

Lexi gasped when she came to the realization
that there were more vampires in Briar Creek than just Gabe. She
wondered, if the three voices belonged to vampires, how she could
be stronger than them. Lexi had always assumed that vampires were
supposed to have superhuman powers. She knew for a fact that she
wasn’t that strong. She could barely lift a gallon of
milk.

“The best thing that we can do is act quickly,”
a man’s voice said. “The sooner we have her blood, the better off
we all will be.”

Lexi heard the door squeak open from behind
her. Mary-Kate bounded into the room, with Julie following closely
behind her. “Ready to go?” Mary-Kate asked.

“More than ready,” Lexi replied, standing up
quickly and heading for the door. She didn’t ever want to come back
to Julie’s house or come face to face with the people who were
talking about her.

****

Chapter 7

“How was your first day of school, Lexi?”
Violet greeted her with a warm smile.

“Fine,” Lexi replied. She thought about
complaining about all of the car accident conversations, but
changed her mind. Violet would probably lecture her about how what
Gabe had done was wrong, and Lexi wasn’t in the mood to hear it.
Instead, she decided to focus on the good things.“The teachers seem
really nice. Oh, and I have a class with Brandon!”

“That’s good!” Violet replied excitedly. “Did
he ask you to go out with him again?”

Lexi frowned. “No, he didn’t.”

“Well, what a shame! That’s okay, Lexi. You’ll
meet plenty of new guys in Briar Creek. Speaking of guys, do you
remember Dan?” Violet asked, pointing at Dan, who was standing
behind her.

Lexi turned to Dan and said slowly, “Yes, I
remember Dan. I can remember everything from before the night of
the accident. I also saw him earlier when I was with
Mary-Kate.”

“Lexi, I think maybe I owe you an apology,” Dan
said. “I never should have been so pushy. I just really liked you.
I didn’t mean to disrespect your feelings. I hope that you can
forgive me.”

Violet looked back and forth between the two of
them, her confusion obvious from the expression on her face, but
she didn’t say anything. Lexi wasn’t sure why she was so confused,
considering she was part of the reason Dan had been so
pushy.

“It’s okay, Dan,” Lexi said, putting on a fake
smile. “No hard feelings.” She glanced at the clock. “Well, I
better go upstairs to work on my homework. I have lots to do, with
it being the first day. See you all later. Bye, Dan.”