Time Will Tell (6 page)

“It’s okay, Dad. I don’t mind,” Lexi said honestly, knowing that her father probably felt bad for talking about his marriage with his new wife because things hadn’t worked out between him and her mom. But Lexi knew that her father had wanted things to work out with her mom; her mom was the one who hadn’t wanted him to have any invo
lvement in her—or Lexi’s—life.

Her dad smiled. “You really are a great daughter, kiddo. I’ll spare you the details, though. All I’m really saying is that I know
Darlene didn’t take the kids.”

“What do you think happened to
them, then?” Austin questioned.

“Someone was here,” Lexi’s dad said firmly. “I don’t know who it was, but they were h
ere . . . and they took them.”

Lexi hugged her arms around her jacket. Suddenly, she felt very cold. “We need to go find t
hem, then. We can’t just sit around here and do nothing.” She headed for the door and glanced over her shoulder. “Come on. Let’s go.”

Chapter 14

“Where are we going, Mary-Kate?” Gabe asked. His hands were still cuffed behind his back, and while he felt like he was strong enough to probably break through the metal now, a part of him knew that it wasn’t even worth it. Mary-Kate had already shown him the can of gasoline and the matches that she had in the back seat of the car. She’d threatened to light them if he acted out, or if he didn’t do what she wanted him to do.

Even though he was beginning to regain his strength now that he had drank from Mary-Kate once, Gabe stil
l felt completely vulnerable.

Slamming her foot on the gas pedal, Mary-Kate glanced over at him, and her lips tilted into a wide smile. “You’ll find out soon enough. The short answer is we’re going to ruin Lexi Hu
nter’s perfect little family.”

Gabe held in the sigh that he wanted to let out. As much as he knew that none of this was Lexi’s fault, he found himself wanting to blame her for everything. If she only just agreed to save the town—without them trying to kill her—they wouldn’t have go through this, an
d Gabe could be with Caroline.

Even as the thought crossed his mind, though, Gabe knew that Lexi couldn’t have helped save the
town of Briar Creek without them killing her. He’d had plenty of visions that had shown him what would happen if she attempted it.

Gabe sighed. All he wanted to do was get to Caroline. He had debated going back
to Dan Nichols’ parents’ house once he finally freed himself of Mary-Kate. Gabe knew it would be a waste of time, though. Caroline wouldn’t be at the house anymore, anyway. Even though Gabe wasn’t sure how long he had been gone, he did know that it was probably long enough for Caroline to have started her semester at Juilliard.

Gabe had to go to New York if
he was going to find Caroline.

A part of him was beginning to wonder if Caroline really believed that Kevin was him. Even worse, he wondered where Kevin was right now. Gabe doubte
d that Kevin would be in New York with her. Kevin wasn’t the type to stay in a relationship long. He normally scared girls away pretty quickly with his sometimes psychotic behavior. Plus, he had seemed really enthusiastic about drinking from Lexi, who was probably still at the Nichols’ house. Gabe wasn’t sure where else Lexi would go now that Huntington had burnt to the ground, except for maybe her father’s house.

Of course, that was all assuming that
she was still alive.

Mary-Kate came to an abrupt stop and pulled into a parking lot. Gabe glanced at where she was parking, and he quickly realized
where it was they were going.

Briar Creek.

Gabe hadn’t wanted to come back here any time soon. Even though he had lived in Briar Creek for most of his life, the memories of the town were beginning to haunt him. That wasn’t even to mention the fact that if he went back there, the vampires who were still left would probably try to come after him. They would be convinced that he knew of Lexi’s whereabouts, since he had been involved with her before he and Austin had helped her skip town.

Briar Creek was still home to Mary-Kate, which was probably why she was taking him back there. Maybe she just needed to stop and get some things, but she would probably threaten to tell the other vampires he was there if he didn’t agree to w
hatever she wanted him to do. 

Mary-Kate’s current control over Gabe made him feel sick to his stomach. And it wasn’t because he wa
sn’t used to being controlled by another person; the problem was that he
had
been controlled and manipulated in the past. Rhonda had controlled him, and the day Lexi had killed Rhonda, it had been a relief to know that he was no longer under someone else’s control—that he could finally be himself again.

But now he was back in the same exact situation again. Well,
maybe
he was. Even though Mary-Kate was threatening to kill him, all he needed to do was find a way to outsmart her. At least she didn’t have control over his mind the way Rhonda had, and physically, Gabe had some advantage over Mary-Kate.

“Get out of the car, Gabe,” Mary-Kate said as she turned off the ignition. She glanced over at him, a serious look on her face. “We’re going to
be walking the rest of the way . . . after I show you what’s inside the trunk. I suppose you can say it’s a present.” 

A bad feeling formed in the pit of his stomach, as Gabe glanced over at her with wide eyes
. Unsure of what her “present” could be, he reluctantly climbed out of the car and onto the black pavement. He walked to the back of the car, waiting for Mary-Kate.

“Wait till you see what’s inside. Or
who’s
inside, I guess I should say,” Mary-Kate said with a devilish grin, before opening the trunk. As it popped open, the scent of garlic wafted into Gabe’s nostrils. The scent was strong, and it made his eyes burn.

Gabe gasped when he saw the three bodies that were inside the
trunk; it was a woman with dark curly hair and two children, who were slumped against her. They were all blindfolded with their wrists and ankles tied with rope, but it didn’t take Gabe long to figure out who they were—Lexi’s stepmom, Darlene, and her two half-siblings, Erica and Connor.

A knot tightened in his stomach, and he tur
ned to Mary-Kate. “You didn’t.”

“Oh, but that’s where you’re wrong, Gabe. I did. I
so
did,” Mary-Kate said, as she laughed sinisterly.

“How long have you had them in there?” Gabe questioned, as he realized
how crazy Mary-Kate actually was.

“Oh, don’t worry about them,” Mary-Kate said with a hand wave. “I’ve had them for a few days, but they haven’t been in the trunk this whole time. I put them in there when we left this morning. They were in the same abandoned building I was keeping you in the rest of the time.” She glanced up at him. Noting his concern, she rolled her eyes. “And don’t worry. I’ve been feeding them and watering them and all that. I wasn’t trying to kill them. They would be of no use to
me if they were already dead.”

“What do you mean if they were
already
dead?” Gabe asked. “You’re not planning to kill them, are you?”

“
I’m
not,” Mary-Kate replied with a smile. “But they’ll probably die, anyway. You’re going to help me walk the kids to the Briar Creek town square, where we’re going to offer their blood up to everyone with Wilkins’ Syndrome, including my mother. She gets to drink first, since she’s very close to death.”

Gabe could feel his own jaw drop. Was Mary-Kate really that sick that she would feed these kids to a bunch of vampires who were like hungry lio
ns, desperate for their blood?

When Gabe met her eyes,
and noticed how serious she looked, he knew the answer. She was serious. She was dead serious.

“Come on, Gabe,” Mary-Kate said. “Help me get them out of the trunk.
They’re too heavy for me to move on my own. I’m not sure how I even managed to get them in the trunk in the first place.”

Gabe didn’t hesitate to do what she said. He reached into the trunk and pulled
Lexi’s sister out first and then her brother, setting them both carefully down on the ground. Gabe felt bad about the fact that they had all been squished together inside the trunk; it was probably difficult for them to breathe in there, and he knew that they were probably cold since it was still winter.

Once the kids were standing on the ground,
with their eyes still covered by the blindfolds and terrified looks on their faces, Gabe reached into the car to help Darlene out of the car, when Mary-Kate batted at his hand.

“What do you think you’re doing?” she asked, eyeing him accusingly. “Dar
lene is staying in the trunk.”

“But we can’t just leave her here,” Gabe protested, feeling a twinge of guilt about leaving the woman there w
hile her kids might be killed.

“Why can’t we, Gabe? It’s not like she’ll even know she’s inside the trunk the whole
time. She’s not even conscious. Like you, Darlene has a garlic allergy, and there’s plenty of garlic inside the trunk,” Mary-Kate said with a proud grin.

Gabe raised his eyebrows at her. “How do you know that? That she and I have garlic allergies? It’s n
ot like it’s even that common.”

“All it took was a little snooping through the hospital’s patient records,” Mary-Kate explained, waving her hand in the air. “They keep a list of all the patients who have needed to be hospitalized due to an interaction with garlic. It was pretty easy to find, luckily. I needed some way to control the both of you.” She glanced down inside the trunk. “Anyway, Darlene Hunter is out like a light. Besides, it’s not like she can die, anyway. Not from that, at least.” Mary-Kate pushed the trunk closed and then turned to Gabe. “Now,
come on. Let’s start walking. It’s getting late.”

Gabe was about to protest. He was going to tell Mary-Kate that he didn’t need to do what she said, but he noticed the stake that she held behind her back. All it would take was one wrong move on his part, and she would try
to shove it through his heart.

Not that it would necessarily work. Gabe was stronger than her. Even if she tried to
stab him with the stake, chances were, he would be able to defend himself from her. It’s not like the girl was on steroids.

But there was always the chance that Mary-Kate might actually be able to hurt him—that, by some chance, she might somehow overcome his physical strength and kill him. Like Lexi, she might have the vampire hunting gene; she might be able to kill them with ease. What worried him more than Mary-Kate trying to hurt him, though, was the fact that she might tr
y to hurt Connor and Erica.

As long as Gabe was with them, he would be able to keep them safe. He felt like he owed it to Lexi to keep her brother and sister
out of harm’s way, especially after what he’d done to Justin. Gabe knew that he would never be able to bring Justin back and that it was something he would have to live with for the rest of his life, but if there was a chance that he could do something to try to make up for it, he had to take that chance.

No,
Gabe had to be the stronger one here. The only way he was going to die would be if it was to protect Connor and Erica.

Mary-Kate pulled a set of keys out of her pocket and met Gabe’s eyes. “I’ll take your handcuffs off, just as lo
ng as you promise to be good.”

“I will be,” Gabe promised. He wasn’t even lying to her. He wouldn’t go anywhere or do anything that could put the kids in danger. Even so, he had to figure out a plan before it was too late. Gabe hated to think about what would happen once Mary-Kate announced to the whole town that the
re were other Hunter children, and that they were here.

What made him sicker than anything else was that these weren’t just some random kids she was
planning to feed to the vampires. These weren’t just Lexi’s half-siblings. They were Mary-Kate’s, too.

Mary-Kate studied his face for a moment, as though she were trying to decide if he was lying or not, before
she reluctantly unlocked his handcuffs.

Once his hands were free, Gabe flexed his wrists. He wasn’t sure how long it had been since his hands had been free, but he was relieved to f
inally have the handcuffs off.

Gabe took a step closer to Erica and took her hand, which was trembling, in his. She faced him, even though he knew she couldn’t see him through blindfold, and wh
ispered, “Where are we going?”

Mary-Kate laughed mercilessly. “You’ll find out soon, Erica.” She began her way down the street and motioned for Gabe to follow after her. “Come
on, you guys.”

Gabe placed his other hand
on Connor’s shoulder to guide him. Once Mary-Kate was far enough ahead of them that he was sure she was out of earshot, Gabe whispered, “You guys are going to be okay. I’m not going to let anything happen to you. I promise.”