Thicker Than Water (The Briar Creek Vampires Book #2) by Jayme Morse & Jody Morse (9 page)

“No, I’m positive that it wasn’t Nick. I didn’t
see him or his friends there that night,” Dan replied with
certainty. “I don’t know for sure, but I still think it was Gabe
who attacked her at the carnival. I saw him sucking someone’s
blood, but I didn’t realize that it was Lexi at the
time.”

Lexi felt her heart skip a few beats at the
mention of Gabe’s name. Had Gabe been the one who had attacked her?
When she became conscious again, he was the one who was there
helping her. She thought at the time that he had saved her, but
could it be that he really was the one who had hurt her in the
first place? Maybe Gabe hadn’t expected her to wake up, so when she
did, he pretended to be the hero. He’d later told her that he knew
that a vampire attacked her. What if he was actually talking about
himself?

After causing the accident the way he did and
then leaving, anything seemed possible.

“I want you to keep an eye on her, Dan,” Tommy
chimed in. “We really need to keep her safe until the end of
October. Do you think you can do that for us or are you too
incompetent to handle that?”

Lexi felt goose bumps run down her arms. Why
did her aunt and uncle need to keep her safe until the end of
October? Shouldn’t they want to keep her safe at all times? It
seemed too big of a coincidence that her uncle had said the end of
October, which was also when her gravestone said she was going to
die.

“I saved her tonight, didn’t I?” Dan shot back.
“Don’t you worry, old man. I need her just as much as you do. I’ll
be watching her like a hawk.”

Well, that was reassuring, Lexi
thought.

*

Lexi pretended to stay asleep on the couch
until after Dan left and Violet and Tommy went to sleep that night.
Deciding that she needed a breath of fresh air, Lexi went
outside.

Lexi knew she had to be more careful from now
on, she just wasn’t sure
how
careful she needed to be.
Should she avoid going outside? She glanced around at the darkened
houses on her street. It was quiet outside, for the most part. She
could hear an owl hooting somewhere in her neighbor’s yard. Being
outside felt safe enough, Lexi thought. If anything, it made her
feel safer than being in Violet and Tommy’s house. She knew now not
to take drinks from strangers. Had Badminton Boy been the one to
spike her drink or had it been Nick? Dan had mentioned that Nick
and his friends had tried to kidnap her, so maybe Rich was one of
his friends. It seemed like a good way to make sure that she got
double the amount of punch with whatever it had been spiked
with.

Sighing, Lexi glanced across the street at
Gabe’s house. There was a light on and she could hear sounds from
the TV from her spot on the front porch.

Lexi wanted to march across the street, bang on
the front door until Gabe’s mom answered it, and demand to know
where he was, but that would probably only make things worse. They
hadn’t really had the chance to get to know each other before the
car accident and judging from their last interaction, Lexi could
tell that his mom really didn’t like her that much. It seemed like
his mom blamed her for what happened. Lexi knew that the accident
wasn’t her fault, but it’s not like she could defend herself
without giving away the fact that she had a very clear memory of
everything that had happened that night.

She couldn’t reveal that she had her memory of
the car accident until after Halloween– if she survived. Lexi’s
stomach twisted and turned while she thought over the events that
could take place over the next few weeks. How would they kill her?
Would they drug her again? Another car accident, assuming that one
would do the trick this time?

The person who was sending her anonymous notes
was right. The one thing that she really did need to do was figure
out what her own weakness was. Thinking about it, she realized that
her weakness was that she was naïve. Lexi was way too trusting. She
trusted people when she barely knew them, whether it was when she
was running away with them or taking punch from them.

From now on, she was going to have to be on
guard. She would trust no one until they gave her a good reason to
trust them…even Gabe.

Lexi realized what she needed to do. She slid
back into the house and climbed the stairs that led to her room.
Grabbing the duffle bag that she had brought to Pennsylvania with
her before she knew that she was going to end up being stuck here
forever and stuffing Austin’s journal inside, she headed downstairs
and snuck out the back door.

She glanced back at her aunt’s house and, once
she was sure that no one was watching her, crossed the street. Lexi
crouched down low, hoping that no one would see her, and continued
walking down the street, past Gabe’s house.

Once she reached the corner of the street, she
kept on going. Lexi had to get as far away from Aunt Violet’s house
as possible. If that meant that she had to keep walking until she
got to another town, then that’s what she was going to
do.

Violet was Lexi’s legal guardian. Even if she
went to Child Protective Services, they’d probably bring her back
if they had no reason to believe that Violet and Tommy were out to
harm her, and why would they? To an outsider, Violet seemed like a
warm loving woman who baked cookies and pretended she was Martha
Stewart. Tommy seemed like nothing more than a poor unfortunate
sick guy. Neither of them seemed truly capable of harm.

Lexi was beginning to question if they were
truly out to harm her, herself. She knew she hadn’t taken Austin’s
advice in her dream lightly, but that’s all it was: a dream. Maybe
her aunt and uncle truly had changed, and she should give them a
chance. Either way, though, Lexi still had to worry about what
would happen to her on Halloween and her uncle mentioning the end
of October didn’t make them look any less suspicious.

She had to do everything in her power to make
sure the fate that someone had already created for her didn’t come
true. If she had to leave her family (if she could even call them
that), create a new identity for herself somewhere, and make it
seem like she had just gone missing in order to stay alive, that’s
what Lexi was going to do.

Crossing the narrow street, she waited at the
traffic light. Once it was her turn to go, she darted across the
main street of downtown Briar Creek and kept running.

Lexi heard a loud clap of thunder, saw a crack
of lightning in front of her, and the rain began falling. It wasn’t
just sprinkling. Within minutes, Lexi was soaking wet. It was just
her luck, Lexi thought. She looked around and saw a tiny restaurant
on the corner. There weren’t many cars parked in the parking lot
and her aunt had never mentioned it, so it seemed like a safe place
for her to go for shelter right now.

The tiny restaurant had a few other customers,
which was surprising considering how late it was. Lexi scanned
their faces to make sure there was no one who would recognize her
and rat her out to Violet or Tommy. A few tables over, in a darker
section of the restaurant, someone sat with their hood pulled up at
a booth facing away from her. Lexi knew that she shouldn’t be
paranoid, but something about the person made her
uneasy.

Pushing the feeling out of her mind, Lexi went
to the counter and ordered a Cherry Coke. She figured that if she
was going to stay there until it stopped raining, she should at
least order something or she would probably end up getting kicked
out. She slid back into the booth and took a sip of the
soda.

“Hi, Lexi,” a chipper brunette girl said,
sliding into the booth across from her.

“How do you know my name?” Lexi asked,
confused.

“You’re Austin’s cousin, aren’t you?” the girl
asked. When Lexi nodded, she said, “I’m Anna.”

“Hi,” Lexi replied, still feeling confused
about how Anna knew her name. Maybe Austin
had
talked about
her to his friends, after all. It still made no sense how Anna
could recognize her at a restaurant, though.

“How do you like living in Briar Creek so far?”
Anna asked. “I know that you’re new to Pennsylvania and
all.”

Lexi shrugged. “It’s okay, I guess. It’s just
different from what I’m used to.”

“I understand. I’m from California, so
Pennsylvania is really different for me, too.”

“Oh, really? I’ve always wanted to go to Cali,”
Lexi admitted. “I used to love watching
Laguna Beach
and
The Hills.
What brought you to Pennsylvania of all
places?”

Anna looked down at the straw wrapper that she
was twisting in her hands. “Just family stuff,” she said
hesitantly. She looked up at Lexi. “It was a major shock when I
first moved here, but I’m pretty well adjusted now. I still miss
home sometimes, though.”

“I’ve just been having some…issues since I
moved here, I guess,” Lexi said quietly. “I’m actually running away
right now. That sounds kind of crazy, but I just really need to get
away from Briar Creek for a little while.”

“You don’t have to explain to me,” Anna
replied. “I totally understand. Where are you headed?”

“I haven’t actually figured that part out yet.
I just figured I would go wherever my feet would take me. I don’t
really have any money either. Then it started raining, and I didn’t
know where to go…so I just came in here until the storm was
over.”

Anna looked up at her, her grey eyes framed by
a thick line of navy blue eyeliner. “If you don’t have anywhere to
go tonight, you can always come back to my place.”

“Your parents wouldn’t mind?” Lexi asked,
realizing that she was just assuming that Anna was about the same
age as her. She could be older than her for all she knew. “Sorry,
you just look as young as me. Do you have your own
place?”

Anna laughed. “No, I don’t actually. I go to
Huntington High. It’s a private school, so we get dorm rooms. My
parents splurged for the suite this semester, so I don’t even have
a roommate right now. I kind of get sick of having a roommate, but
it sometimes gets lonely sometimes, so I wouldn’t care if you came
to stay with me.”

“Oh, cool. Yeah, I’ll spend the night with you
if you don’t mind,” Lexi replied. She realized that she didn’t
actually know Anna, so there was always that chance that she could
be a crazy serial killer or something, but Lexi felt…safe with her.
Anna seemed nice enough, and she knew Austin, so that was a good
sign. Lexi hoped that she wasn’t making a mistake and being too
naïve again, but right now she was kind of desperate. If this storm
didn’t end, she was going to end up getting soaked in the
rain.

“Awesome,” Anna said. “We’ll help you figure
out how to get out of here.”

Lexi smiled. That was definitely what she
needed. Things were beginning to look up.

*

When they got back to Anna’s dorm room, Lexi
glanced around. It was a really nice dorm room. It reminded her of
the hotel suites that she used to have to stay in when her mom had
to go to medical conferences in New York City. Her mom would always
leave her there with a credit card for the day, as though shopping
made the trip less boring for her.

“Austin left some things here,” Anna said. “I
understand if it’s too upsetting for you to go through them right
now, but they’re yours if you want them.”Anna handed her a
rectangular wooden box that was about the size of a
shoebox.

Lexi tried to open it, but it was locked. “Do
you have the key?”

Anna shook her head. “No, I’m sorry. Austin
told me it was locked. The key must be at his house or something.
Lexi, he made it very clear that I had to get this box to you.
That’s how I knew who you were. He gave me a picture of you so that
I would remember what you looked like. He said it was important for
you to have it, and not to let anyone else find it.”

“How do you know Austin?” Lexi asked
casually.

“We’ve been friends for a long time. No one
really knows about me. That probably sounds weird, but I guess I
was one of the aspects of Austin’s life that he kept private. He
didn’t want anyone to find out that we were friends,” Anna
replied.

“Austin seemed to keep a lot of things private.
I wonder how Austin knew that I would see you one day.” Lexi was
confused about what her cousin had been thinking. If he really
wanted her to have the box, shouldn’t he have just mailed it to her
in New Jersey? Why would he give it to someone who didn’t even live
in the same town as him? What were the chances of Lexi actually
going to Huntington or Anna going to Briar Creek to find her? It
all seemed too weird.

Lexi wondered if Austin knew that he was going
to die, the same way that she knew people were out to kill her. The
thought hadn’t even occurred to her until now, but she was also
beginning to wonder if the same person who had killed Austin was
the one who was planning to kill her. Maybe Austin had seen his own
gravestone, too, although she didn’t know why he would have been
hanging out in a cemetery and just happened to stumble on his own
gravestone the way she had. Although, maybe there was a
reason.

When Justin came to Briar Creek to visit her,
he had done some research on the town. He’d found that there had
been a string of murders, which had all happened fairly recently.
None of the murder cases had been solved, and there were never any
suspects. He thought that there was something fishy going on in
Briar Creek. It almost seemed like the town was trying to cover up
these alleged murders. Maybe Austin had known someone who had been
killed, which could have led him to the cemetery. It could explain
why he had given Anna the box to give to Lexi. If he really thought
that he was going to live, he would have just given her the box
himself.