Time Will Tell (16 page)

Chapter 33

Anna felt herself drowning. She was under the water, tucked within the dark blankets of the sea, and trying to come up for air. But no matter how hard she tried, it didn’t seem to work. It felt like she was stuck, and her lungs couldn’t handle her breath being held for one more minute. Even worse, she couldn’t see where she was going, so she didn’t know how to reach the surface.  

And then she heard something that she wasn’t expecting to hear. It was Lexi’s voice, from somewhere above the surface. Anna couldn’t hear what Lexi was saying; all she knew was that Lexi was talking, probably calling for her to come back or she was going to drown.

Hoping that she would be able to
, Anna tried to fight against the water, which was beginning to weigh heavier on her chest. She struggled to reach the air so she would be able to breathe again.

She was beginning to feel defeated. It felt
like the harder she fought, the worse off she became. She felt like she would never be able to come up for air, no matter how hard she tried.

As Anna pushed herself forward through the water, giving herself one more chance to try to fight before giving up, she noticed a light flickering above her head. It wasn’t quite as bright as sunlight, but it was exactly what she needed to find her way back up to the surface.  

Once she was above the water, she felt her eyes flutter open—and when she could see again, she quickly realized that she wasn’t on a sandy beach somewhere or floating in the middle of the ocean, the way she had expected herself to be. She was on the bed at the Nichols’ house, and all of her friends and Austin were surrounding her.

“She’s awake!” Lexi chirped happily, leaning in to give Anna a tight hug. “My spell worked. It helped you turn int
o a vampire instead of dying.”

“I almost died?” Anna asked, her voice squeaking just a little bit. She remembered Austin trying to change her, but then everything had seemed to go black. It hadn’t occurred to her that she might have been dying when that had happened; it had seemed like the natural proc
ess of turning into a vampire.

“We don’t really know,” Gabe explained. “We think Lexi’s spell must have helped, though.
”

“Thank you,” Anna said, shootin
g a smile in Lexi’s direction.

As everyone started to rise to their feet and leave the room, Austin scooped Anna up into his arms and kissed her on the forehead. “And the best part about it is it really worked. I don’t smell you anymore. You’re no longer a human. You’re a vampire now
. We can be together forever.”

Anna smiled. “Forever seems like it will go by quickly if it’s with you.” She swallowed and noticed that her throat felt unusually dry. In fact, it was so dry that it was a feeling she’d n
ever felt before. “Umm, guys?”

Everyone tu
rned around and looked at her.

“
What is it, Anna?” Gabe asked.

“I’m feeling awfully thirsty,
” Anna said, licking her lips.

“Do you want me to get you a glass of water?” Lexi asked. “Or I can get you some Gatorade or something
if you’re feeling dehydrated.”

“No, I’m not that type of thirsty,” Anna said with a small s
mile. “I’m thirsty for blood.”

“Already?” Austin asked, raising his eyebrows. “It took me at least a few hours before I had a blood craving.”

“I guess I’m just different from you,” Anna replied with a shrug. “All I know is I’m really hungry right now. I can smell Lexi from here. Actually, I think I can smell Caroline, too, and she’s not even in the room.”

“Well, don’t go getting any ideas,” Dan said, laughing at her. “You’re not drinking from my girlfriend . . . or from my sister, for that matter. Luckily for you, I have som
e blood stored in the fridge.”

“Umm, you do? The same fridge I was eating out of when I was staying here before I became a vampire?” Anna questioned
, raising her eyebrows at him.

Dan laughed loudly. “Yes, Anna. Vampires have to eat, and there’s not always
fresh blood on hand. I mean, I have Lexi so I don’t really need to worry about it, but I’ve been keeping some blood stored just in case one of the other vampires staying here got hungry,” he said, eyeing Gabe and Austin. “I’m not willing to share my own fresh supply of blood,” Dan added, kissing Lexi on the forehead.

“Oh, Dan, how considerate of you
,” Lexi giggled sarcastically.

“Anyway, before I do end up needing to share my girlfriend with you, I’m going to go get you some of that blood,” Dan s
aid, turning towards the door.

“How are you feeling otherwise?” Austin asked, grabbing Anna’s hands
and locking fingers with hers.

“Sleepy. I know I won’t be able to sleep, but I feel like I need to rest,” Anna said, glancing over at him. His turquoise eyes twinkled in the dim light. Somehow, he suddenly looked even cuter now that she was a vampire, too. She hadn’t been expecting that; she’d always expected to be less attracted to him, if anything, since humans were known
to be more drawn to vampires.

“You shou
ld rest, then,” Austin agreed.

When Dan came back with the bag of blood, Lexi wrinkled her nose. “Okay, I’m going to let you eat that in privacy. The sight of blood kind of grosses me out, but then I guess it should. Unlike you guys, I don’t need i
t to live.” She left the room.

Anna smiled. “Thanks for the blood, Dan. Where do you get it
from?”

“The Briar Creek Hospital gives it to us for free,” Dan explained. “I’m pretty sure Westbrooke also has a blood
bank you can get blood from.”

“Yeah, I don’t think I ever want to go back there,” Anna replied, wrinkling her nose at the idea of Dar
ius. If it weren’t for him, the past few days would have gone so much differently. Of course, maybe what had happened was for the best. Even though there were still vampires left in Briar Creek, hopefully all of the ‘bad’ ones were dead now.

Anna turned to Austin. “Eventually, you’ll have to teach me how to dr
ink from people in real life.”

Austin sighed. “It’s going to make me jealous as hell for you to drink from other guys, but okay. We’ll have to go out to
find blood together sometime.”

“Don’t be jealous,” Anna told him. “At the end of the day, you’re the only guy for me. I would have never done this,” she said, motioning to her newly changed vampire body
, “for anyone except for you.”

“I know,” Austin said, planting a kiss on her lips and licking at the blood that was dripping down them. “I couldn’t be any happier.”

Chapter 34

Once she was back inside her room, Lexi flopped down on her bed and stared up at the ceiling. She was in desperate need of a nap, especially with all of the craziness that
had taken place that night.

Just as she felt like she was about to drift off to sleep, a fam
iliar male voice said, “Lexi?”

Lexi opened her eyes and glanced at the ghostly-looking guy standing in front of her. “Justin?” she whispered. Even though her ex-boyfriend had come to visit her once, he hadn’t been back since then. She’d assumed that something had happened, something that would prevent him from being able to visit with her. He’d compared himself to being similar to a guardian angel once before, but she was
n’t sure how much guarding he had done over her lately.

“Yeah, it’s me,” Justin said, a wide grinning crossing his face. “I saw what happened tonight, Lexi. You did a gr
eat job. You were very brave.”

“Thank you,” Lexi replied. She hesitated. “I know it’s going to sound weird, considering he killed you and all, but do you think
I’m wrong for forgiving Gabe?”

Justin shook his head. “No, Lexi. I think it’s a good thing. It shows that you’re a forgiving person. I might not like the dude myself, but it seems like he’s done enough to make it up to you. Not to mention the fact that maybe he was right. Maybe the only way to stop all of the vampires from being so nuts was for me to die so you could stay here, instead of going back to New Jersey with me l
ike you planned.”

“Yeah, maybe,” Lexi murmured, running a hand through her hair as she considered it.
“Am I going to see you often?”

Justin shrugged. “I wish I could tell you for sure. All I can say is you’ll see me when you see me. But just know that I’ll always be watching, so don’t say anything ba
d about me, okay?” He grinned.

“I would neve
r,” Lexi replied with a laugh.

“Good. Bye, Lexi,” Justin said, as
he disappeared into thin air.

Lexi shifted onto her back and stared up at the ceiling again. It wasn’t more than a few minutes after Justin had left that she felt her mom’s presence in the room. It seemed to get cold and sor
t of comforting, oddly enough.

“Hi, Lexi,” her mom whispered, coming closer to her and caressing her cheek with a
n almost transparent hand.

“Hi, Mom,” Lexi replied with a smile. It had been a while since she had seen her mother, but her vis
its were always so meaningful.

“There are a few important things I need to tell you, Lexi,” her mom said, sitting down on the bed next to her and staring into her eyes with a serious look. “
You have to listen carefully.”

“What is it, Mom?” Lexi asked, feeling a knot tighten in her stomach. Her mom’s advice was always important, but for some reason she got the feeling that it was even
more important this time.

“You have to take care of your father,” her mom said. “He has Darlene and the kids, but he needs you, too, Lexi. It might be easy for you to forget that sometimes,
but he will always need you.”

“Okay,” Lexi replied. “I’ll reme
mber that.”

“Next, remember that you must always follow your heart. There are going to be times when you’re not sure what the right thing to do is, but you need to trust your gut instinct. It’s the only way you’ll ever know that you’re making the best ch
oice,” her mom said.

“
Okay,” Lexi replied quietly, wondering where her mother was going with this and what it had to do with anything.

“Don’t blame yourself,” her mom went on. “It might be easy to feel like the reason so many people died is because of you, but the truth is . . . people will also ge
t better because of you, too.”

Lexi raised her eyebrows. “What do you mean?”

“I can’t tell you everything, but you have to trust what I’m saying,” her mom replied. “Things are going to change, and you will be the reason they change.”

“Okay,” Lexi replied, even though she wished that her mom could te
ll her exactly what she meant.

“Don’t forget to tell the people who matter to you that you love them,” her mom told her. “There might come a time when you can’t say it anymore. Treat every day as though it’s your last,
even if you are an immortal.”

That piece of advice was something that Lexi already understood too well. If she could go back in time, she would have spent mu
ch more of it with her mother.

“And, Lexi? Don’t become a doctor,” her mom said. “I know you wanted to become a doctor because you felt like it would make me happy. But I know it’s not the real place where your heart lies. You need to follow your own dreams, not try to follow in my footst
eps.”

Lexi smiled. “Okay, Mom. I won’t become a doctor.” Secretly, she had already sort of decided that she wasn’t going to become a doctor already, but her mom reaffirmed that decision. It made her happy to know that not becoming a doctor wouldn’t disappoint her mom. “Why are you tellin
g me all of this now, though?”

“Because this is the last time I will ever
be able to come talk to you again,” her mom told her sadly, and for the first time, Lexi noticed that her mom’s ghost-form was less transparent than it normally was. “It’s time for me to move onto the other side.”

“But I don’t want you to,” Lexi protested, the tears welling up in her eyes. “I wa
nt you to stay here, forever.”

“I wish I could do that, Lexi, but unfortunately, I can’t. We can only linger until we’ve resolved all of our unfinished business, and after tonight, I have nothing that needs to be resolved. You’re going to be okay here on your own, without me. Everything is going to be okay. And, no matter what, I will always be watching.
”

The tears were pouring from Lexi’s eyes now, but she only nodded because she knew that she had no other choice. She was lucky to have had the opportunity to talk to her mom this many times after her death. Did she reall
y think it would last forever?

“Okay, Mom,” Lexi said, trying to use the bravest tone she could muster. “I understand.” She tried to swallow, despite the lump that had formed in the ba
ck of her throat. “I love you.”

“I love you, too, Lexi,” her mom said, caressing her cheek again. “How about I stay here wi
th you until you fall asleep?”

“I would like that,” Lexi agreed. She rested her head against her pillow and eventually dozed off, with her mom’s cold arms wrapped around her the whole time.