by Jayme Morse
Lexi glanced down at her siblings, who nodded at her.
“Gabe is telling the truth,” Connor said quietly, shifting in his Nike sneakers uncomfortably. “Mary-Kate came to our house, acting like she was there to meet us and really get to know us. We were supposed to go get ice cream. But then she tricked us to take a ride with her, and she put us in the trunk of her car. Our mom’s still in the trunk.”
Lexi’s jaw dropped open. She glanced over at Gabe. “Are they right? Darlene is still in the trunk?”
Gabe nodded and darted his eyes away from her guiltily. Even though he felt bad about leaving her stepmom in the trunk of the car, he also wasn’t sure what to do about her. There wasn’t enough room for her to sit in the car with them, and he knew that Darlene would probably try to do something to stop Mary-Kate from harming her children, which would put them in even more danger. “It’s safer for her in there. It’s safer for all of us, really. I’d hate to think of what would happen if she tried to stand up to Mary-Kate.”
“Well, maybe someone needs to stand up to Mary-Kate, instead of going along with everything she says, for once,” Lexi replied with a huff. Sighing, she said, “Look, you didn’t answer my question. I wasn’t even talking about Justin. Did you kill Caroline the same way you killed Rosie?”
“Rosie? Who’s Rosie?” Gabe questioned, eyeing Lexi with a confused look on his face.
“Oh, come on, Gabe. You don’t need to play dumb with me. I already know the truth,” Lexi replied, shaking her head angrily. “I met Mary, Rosie’s mom. She told me you killed her daughter. I just need to know . . . did you do the same thing to Caroline?”
Gabe shook his head. “The last day I saw Caroline was the day I nearly died in the fire at Huntington. You know, the fire that took down the rest of the school?”
Lexi gaped at him. “Do you have multiple personality disorder or something? You have to remember that you came back to Dan’s family’s house and then took off with Caroline when she went to Juilliard.”
Gabe shook his head. “No, that’s the thing, Lexi. I didn’t do that. It wasn’t me. It was my twin brother, Kevin.”
“Kevin?” Lexi narrowed her eyes at him. “You seriously want me to believe you have a twin brother, who happens to have the same name as the person you told me you were when we first met—the fake alias you created so no one would figure out your age and who you later killed off in a fake motorcycle accident with my cousin.” She rolled her eyes at him. “I’m not an idiot, Gabe. I know that all didn’t really happen. And I might be a lot of things, but I’m far from stupid. But obviously you must think I am.”
“No, Lexi. I don’t think you’re stupid, because I’m telling you the truth. I really do have a twin brother named Kevin,” Gabe insisted, feeling a sense of desperation take over. He wanted Lexi to believe the truth; he needed her to believe the truth. Even though he had no doubt that it was going to be difficult for her to ever trust him again, getting her to believe the truth would be a good start.
“You really are a much sicker person—err, vampire—than I ever thought you were. You probably did kill Caroline. Not that you would tell me the truth, even if she is dead,” Lexi said, shaking her head with disgust. “I can’t believe I ever trusted you. I should have known that you were up to no good when you tried to kill me and then said you did it to protect me. I just wish my mom hadn’t convinced me to trust you. If it weren’t for her, I probably would have cut ties with you a long time ago.”
When Gabe met her eyes, he could see everything she felt towards him inside of them. She truly despised him. It seemed like it would be nearly impossible for him to change her feelings towards him, no matter what his intentions were.
“Well, this is just lovely,” Mary-Kate’s voice came from the other end of the hallway, as she approached them. “The nurse said my mother’s not in her room because she’s been checked out of the facility.”
“Where is she, then?” Lexi asked. Her voice sounded relieved.
“I don’t know,” Mary-Kate replied. “But we’re going to find out. My father is the one who checked her out.”
“Why would Greg check her out?” Gabe questioned. It didn’t make any sense why Greg Lawrence would want his wife to leave the nursing home, where the nurses were taking such good care of her.
“Not that father,” Mary-Kate replied, meeting his eyes. “My other father. Benjamin Hunter.”
Chapter 23
Kevin was in the backseat of Caroline’s car, staring out at the falling rain, when Dan’s cell phone rang loudly.
“Hello?” Dan asked into the phone on the third ring. There was a long pause for a moment before he said, “How do you know Mary-Kate kidnapped Lexi?”
Kevin froze in the backseat. He was curious to see where the conversation that Dan was having was going. Even more than that, though, he was wondering who the conversation was with—and how they knew what had happened to Lexi.
“Well, that can’t be possible,” Dan said into the phone. “He’s with us.”
Kevin felt a lump form in the back of his throat. It almost seemed like Dan was talking about Gabe, but Dan was right; there was no way that could be possible. The real Gabe was dead. He had died in that fire at Huntington.
“Okay, we’ll be there in about fifteen minutes,” Dan said into his phone before shoving it back inside his pocket and turning to Caroline. “That was Ben Hunter—Lexi’s dad. Someone told him that they saw Mary-Kate driving around Briar Creek with Lexi—and Erica and Connor—in the backseat. They also said that they thought they saw Gabe in the car, but obviously they were wrong about that, since he’s with us.”
“Umm, I’m still in the car,” Kevin spoke up from the backseat. “I don’t appreciate you talking about me like I’m not even here.”
“Whatever, man,” Dan said. “I don’t have time to worry about your feelings right now. We have to find Lexi.”
“Well, at least there’s something we agree on,” Kevin muttered under his breath. He wasn’t going to tell Dan the reason that he wanted to find Lexi was because he wanted to drink from her, though. Kevin knew that it would upset Dan . . . and that wasn’t something he wanted to do, especially since he wanted to get his girlfriend alone.
“Anyway, I told Ben we would meet him at 129 Chester Ave,” Dan went on. “I guess he’s holding Mrs. Lawrence there. He’s hoping he can make some sort of exchange with Mary-Kate. If she gives up Lexi and the kids, he’ll give up Mrs. Lawrence. I’m not sure how that’s going to work out.”
Caroline turned onto the road that would lead them to Briar Creek before glancing over at Dan. “I thought you said Mary-Kate Lawrence got stuck in the 1800s. How could she have taken Lexi?”
Dan shrugged. “Someone must have wished that she would come back. It was probably her dad or something.”
Kevin smiled to himself. What no one knew, except for him, was that he was the one who had wished for Mary-Kate to come back. He had overheard Lexi and her friends mention that Mary-Kate had gotten stuck in the 1800s. He knew that, like Lexi, Mary-Kate was of the Hunter bloodline. Since he wanted, more than anything, to taste Hunter blood, he wished that she could be there at that moment.
Maybe this whole night wasn’t turning out to be that bad, after all. Maybe he had brought Mary-Kate back from the past for a reason. Kevin could tell Mary-Kate that she owed him for bringing her back from the past. Maybe she could find a way to help him drink from Lexi Hunter—or maybe she would even share her own blood with him. Kevin doubted Mary-Kate’s blood would taste quite as good as Lexi’s, but it would have to hold him over until he could drink from Lexi.
Kevin was feeling awfully thirsty, too. Even though it hadn’t been that long since he’d drank from Caroline, he was used to drinking blood more regularly. If he didn’t start to drink more often soon, he was going to get weaker . . . and Kevin couldn’t afford to get weaker. He had been working on making himself a stronger vampire for years. He wasn’t about to let that go now.
> Hunter blood would do the trick, though. Kevin just knew it. If he could drink from a Hunter, he would become more powerful.
“Are you okay Caroline?” Dan asked from his place in the passenger’s seat. “Nothing bad has happened since the last time we spoke to each other, right?”
Caroline hesitated for a long moment, and Kevin got the feeling that they were talking about him. What had Caroline told her brother about him, though? The idea unnerved him.
Finally, Caroline replied quietly, “Everything is fine, Danny. We’ll talk later.”
Kevin slumped down in his seat and stared at the back of Caroline’s head. He didn’t want Caroline to talk to her brother about him later. In fact, he didn’t want them to talk about him at all.
What Kevin wanted, more than anything, was to put an end to annoying Caroline Nichols’ life.
Chapter 24
Anna stared at Austin, who sat in a chair, pretending that he was staring out the window. Every so often, though, she noticed his eyes on her.
Anna wanted to go over to him and tell him everything. She wanted to let him know the truth—to tell him where she had gone and what her answer was. But she knew that now wasn’t the right time. It was a conversation that the two of them needed to have in private, rather than while they were being babysat by Greg Lawrence.
“Try calling Lexi again,” Greg barked at her. “It’s been at least an hour since the last time you tried calling her.”
Anna sighed and hit the redial button. She wasn’t sure what was going to happen when Lexi finally got there, but she knew that she wasn’t excited to find out. All she got from this whole thing was a bad feeling.
After the third ring, there was a clicking sound on the other end of the line, and Lexi’s voice whispered, “Hello?”
“Lexi!” Anna said into the phone, shocked to hear her friend’s voice. “I need you to come here. I need your help with something.”
“I’m a little busy right now, Anna,” Lexi replied in a lowered voice, as though she were afraid that someone would overhear their conversation. “Mary-Kate went crazy and had Gabe kidnap me.”
“What? Mary-Kate kidnapped you?” Anna asked, her eyes darting over in Greg’s direction. A curious look crossed over his face.
“Yeah. Well, technically, she had Gabe kidnap me,” Lexi said, “but it was all her doing from what I understand. In any case, I guess my dad had her mother moved out of her nursing home. I have no idea why, though.”
“Lexi, where are you?” Anna asked, mostly because she was concerned about her friend and what was going on. Even though Greg Lawrence was crazy, from what she understood, Mary-Kate was just as crazy—if not crazier. Mary-Kate had tried hard to end Lexi’s life in the 1800s, but she hadn’t been successful. Anna was worried that she might somehow succeed tonight, though.
“We’re on the way to Chester Ave,” Lexi replied. In a more urgent voice, she said, “Look, Anna, I have to go. I’ll try to get in touch with you soon. I’m sorry I can’t help you out with whatever it is you needed.”
“It’s okay,” Anna replied, as she ended the call and shoved her phone back inside her pocket. She looked up at Greg Lawrence. “Ben Hunter had your wife moved out of the nursing home. That’s why the nurses said she was sleeping when we stopped by earlier tonight. She wasn’t actually there.”
“How dare they? Those morons,” Greg said, shaking his head. “Don’t they realize that, as town mayor, I have the power to have them fired? I guess they’ll find that out soon once their asses are out of a job.” He glanced down at Anna. “Where did Lexi say they were going?”
Anna hesitated. She wasn’t sure if she should tell Greg where Lexi had said they were going. She didn’t want him to try to go there and find her, but . . . if she didn’t tell him, he might try to kill Austin. Once that thought crossed her mind, it didn’t take her long to say, “They’re going to Chester Ave.”
“Then, let’s go,” Greg said. As Anna rose to her feet and started for the door, Greg motioned for Austin to follow them.
When Austin came up alongside Anna, he took her hand and gave it a tiny squeeze. She squeezed his hand back, trying to convey the same message that she was pretty sure he had just conveyed to her: everything was going to be okay tonight.
*
As Caroline pulled the car onto Chester Ave and Kevin climbed out of her car, a second car parallel parked in front of them. The bright light from the headlights blinded Kevin, so he didn’t get a chance to see who was inside the car until the doors were flung open and three people climbed out.
Kevin instantly recognized Austin and Anna, who both had worried looks on their faces until they saw Dan.
“Dan! Caroline! Gabe!” Anna said, breathing a sigh of relief. “I’ve missed you all so much. Have you guys heard what happened to Lexi?”
Dan nodded. “Yeah, that’s why we’re here. We think she’s inside this apartment right now.” He motioned to the right side of a townhouse that stood in front of them. When he saw the driver of the car, his breath caught in the back of his throat. “Mayor Lawrence. What are you doing here?”
The mayor shot a glare in Dan’s direction. “That’s really none of your business. Lucky for you, there’s something I want here. If you don’t mind, I need to fetch my wife—and Lexi. I don’t really have time to deal with you right now.”
Kevin heard Dan start to say something else, but before he could get a word in edgewise, the mayor had already climbed up the front steps and kicked his way in the door.
Anna, Austin, and Dan all dashed up the steps, following close behind the mayor. Caroline stayed close behind them, and Kevin followed all of them into the house last.
The house was dark inside, but even through the dim lighting, Kevin noticed the sickly-looking woman who was lying on the couch. Her eyes were shut, like she was sleeping, and a man who Kevin assumed was Lexi’s father sat in a chair alongside her.
“All you need to do is let Lexi, Erica, and Connor go,” Ben Hunter was saying. “If you do that, I’ll let you take your mother back home or wherever you want. I just want my kids back.”
Mary-Kate hesitated. “Why should I do something like that for you? You never did anything for me. I was your child, too. Actually, let me rephrase that. I am your child, too, but you never gave two shits about me. It was always about Lexi and Erica and Connor. Why didn’t you care about me?”
Ben gave Mary-Kate a sad smile. “Because I always knew what you were capable of, Mary-Kate. I knew that somewhere, behind your pretty smile and your good grades, there was a crazy, deranged girl. You were beyond help, Mary-Kate, and it was out of my hands.”
Mary-Kate eyed him furiously before looking up at Kevin, who just entered the room. “Gabe, you’re finally out of the bathroom. I want you to do what we talked about. Now.”
Kevin narrowed his eyes at her. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, Mary-Kate.”
Mary-Kate rolled her eyes at me. “Don’t play dumb with me. You’ve been cooperating with me all day. Let’s not change that now, or I’ll lock you in that room without blood again, the way I did after I found you in that fire.”
Kevin raised his eyebrows. “You found me in the fire? At Huntington?”
“Umm, duh,” Mary-Kate replied, rolling her eyes at him. “Geez, what has gotten into you? Temporary amnesia or something?”
A nauseous feeling formed in the pit of Kevin’s stomach. This meant the one thing that he hoped couldn’t be true. Gabe was still alive.
“What’s wrong, Gabe?” Lexi asked, her forehead wrinkling with confusion.
“Nothing,” Kevin mumbled, shaking his head. “I’ll be right back.” He headed up the stairs, where he assumed the bathroom would be. That must have been where Gabe was at that very moment, since Mary-Kate had seemed to think that he’d come back from the bathroom.
As he rounded the corner, the door was flung open and Gabe stepped into the hallway. A horrified look crossed his face. “Kevin,” he said. �
�What are you doing here?”
“I was just wondering the same thing, brother,” Kevin shot back at him. “I guess you didn’t burn to death in that fire, after all.”
“No thanks to you,” Gabe replied, shaking his head. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to go back downstairs. I have to protect Lexi and her brother and sister.”
Kevin laughed and took a step forward, blocking Gabe’s path. “I don’t think so, Gabe. I want to finish what I started.”
“Kevin, move out of my way,” Gabe insisted, keeping his voice at a cool, even level. “I need to be down there. It’s important.”
“No, Gabe. I’m going to kill you, just like I planned to from the beginning,” Kevin said, scanning the room for something—anything—that he could use like a stake to stab his brother through the chest. He noticed a broomstick that hung on the wall in decorative display. Deciding that it would do, he reached for it.
“Gabe?” a voice called from behind them.
Kevin glanced over his shoulder to find Caroline staring back at him. Actually, she wasn’t staring back at just him. She was staring back at both him and Gabe. A look of horror crossed her face when she seemed to register what she was seeing.
“There are two of you?” Caroline whispered.
Chapter 25
“Yes, there are two of us, Caroline,” Gabe said. “I was the one who you met in the very beginning. I’m the real Gabe. This guy is my twin brother, Kevin. He’s the one who you’ve been with ever since that day at Huntington when the fire burned down the school.” He paused before adding, “Kevin tried to kill me in that fire.”
Caroline’s eyes widened. “I haven’t been with you this whole time, Gabe?”
Gabe shook his head. “No. I don’t know what exactly has happened since I’ve been gone, but I do know that you spent all of this time with Kevin and none of it with me. You have to trust me on this.”