by Jayme Morse
“I don’t care. Get the hell up,” Anna said, reaching down and grabbing his hands to help him off the ground. “You have to be strong, okay? Everyone needs you to live through this.”
“Do you need me?” Austin asked, once he was standing on his own two feet again.
“We’ll talk about that later,” Anna said with a small smile.
Austin wasn’t sure what Anna’s smile meant. He didn’t know if it was good or bad, or maybe even neutral, but he knew that he wanted to live to find out. Ignoring his headache, Austin grabbed one of the sticks that he had dropped on the ground, and ran forward, launching it into the next vampire heart he came across.
As he moved onto the next person, Austin felt his stomach drop, the same way it would feel if he were gliding down a really tall roller coaster. His father stood in front of him, a stake that he’d brought from home in his hands.
“I won’t hesitate to kill you, the same way I killed Mom,” Austin said, deciding that it was better to be upfront about this than trying to hide his true feelings.
“Austin, relax, alright? I’m not here to hurt you. I’m here because I heard about what Mary-Kate arranged, and I came down here to support you and Lexi. I’m on your side.”
Austin studied his father’s face, waiting to see if his reaction changed, but it didn’t matter. He knew, deep down, that there was no way his father would say those things if he didn’t mean them.
For the first time in over a year, he found it in himself to truly forgive his father for everything he’d done in the past. “Alright then,” Austin nodded, and for a moment they stood there, staring at each other in silence, but they both knew what that silence meant.
Austin knew he’d made the right decision to forgive his father when he shoved a stake through one of his favorite co-worker’s hearts, just to protect him.
Chapter 28
Lexi stared at the bodies that were strewn across the lawn of Briar Creek High, feeling a mixture of awe and disappointment. She couldn’t believe that she and her friends had really done it; they had really killed all of the vampires who had come after her.
At the same time, though, it upset her that it had come to this. She hated knowing that she was responsible for the people who had died. Even though her friends and Dan had helped to kill them, she knew it was mostly her fault that they were gone.
“Are you okay?” Gabe asked, seeming to notice her reaction.
“Yeah, I’m sort of just disappointed this all had to happen,” Lexi explained. “I wish it hadn’t come to this, you know?”
Gabe nodded, ruffling his nearly black hair. “It’s been on my mind for years. I knew that all of these people were going to die—though, at one point, I saw that you would die, too. It’s just crazy it all had to go down this way.”
“Gabe, I hate not having you as a friend. Even if we weren’t meant to be together, I still care about you. I probably always will,” Lexi explained. “So, let’s hear it.”
“Hear what?” Gabe questioned, eyeing her with a confused look.
“The truth. All of it,” Lexi said.
Gabe sighed. “It’s a long story, but what it comes down to is this. Just about everything I’ve ever done is to protect you. I tried to kill Kevin, right before you came to Briar Creek, because I knew that he would try to drink your blood and he probably wouldn’t stop. He’s the only person I’ve ever killed, though, besides Justin. And Lexi, I still don’t know why I did that. I mean, I know I did it because he threatened to take you away from me, but . . . I think it was meant to happen that way. I think a part of me did it because I knew you needed to stick around in order for this town to stop being so crazy and going after innocent people to save themselves. If they weren’t after you, it would have been Connor and Erica. Tonight had to happen.”
“Okay, fair enough,” Lexi said, tossing her hair over her shoulder. “I forgive you for Justin. You proved to me today, by keeping Connor and Erica safe, that you deserve my forgiveness.” She glanced over at him. “So, what about Rosie, then?”
Gabe shook his head. “I don’t know who Rosie is, but I think Kevin must have been the one who killed her.”
Lexi nodded. “That makes a lot of sense, actually.” She didn’t need to ask questions about what had happened between him and Caroline over the past week, since she knew now that it was Kevin who had been with her the whole time. Knowing that Caroline hadn’t even been with Gabe during that time sort of gave Lexi the heebie jeebies. Anything could have happened to Caroline, since she was with a complete stranger, and Lexi would have felt responsible for it.
“I guess we should get going, shouldn’t we guys?” Dan asked, heading over towards them. Even though he didn’t say anything about it, Lexi could tell that he didn’t look too comfortable about the fact that she was talking to Gabe.
To reassure him, Lexi gave Dan a small kiss on the lips. “Yeah, we probably should.”
As they were about to leave the school yard, Mary-Kate’s Jetta pulled up alongside them. “Not so fast. You’re not going anywhere without dealing with my family first.”
Mary-Kate climbed out of the car, followed by her mom. In the moonlight, Lexi could see that it looked like Mrs. Lawrence had aged about ten years and, even though she hadn’t seemed like it was possible for her to walk earlier when she had been lying on the sofa in the townhouse earlier that night, she now saw that she was able to stand on her own feet. Greg walked alongside her, though, allowing her to rest on his shoulder.
Lexi was surprised when her father climbed out of the backseat, too, though. At first, it made her wonder if he had somehow changed sides—maybe he suddenly agreed with Mary-Kate and her father that Lexi was a selfish bitch for not trying to cure the whole town of Wilkins’ Syndrome.
But when her father met her eyes, Lexi knew that wasn’t true. No matter what the reason was that he’d come to Briar Creek High with Mary-Kate and her family, her dad was still on her side.
“Okay, so I’ll tell you what our deal is, Lexi,” Mary-Kate said, as she came to stand in front of her. “If you let my mom drink from you, we’ll let you live—you and all of your friends. If you don’t, though, you can kiss your life goodbye.”
Lexi felt her blood boiling. Even though she had really wanted to help her sister earlier that day, it made her feel angry that her sister was giving her an ultimatum like this. It felt like her sister was basically threatening her; if she didn’t let Mrs. Lawrence drink from her, she was toast.
Then again, Lexi was confident that she and her friends were good enough at vampire hunting to defeat Mary-Kate’s entire family. And, unlike Lexi, Mary-Kate herself wasn’t even an immortal. She was just a human.
“I think I’ll pass,” Lexi said, staring at Mary-Kate coolly. “I can think of better uses for my blood than curing your ungrateful mother.”
Mary-Kate’s jaw dropped, and she glanced over at Greg. “Get her! We need to tie her down and let Mom drink from her if we have to. Before we kill her, that is.”
Greg stared Lexi down, as though he were trying to figure out the best way to grab her, but Lexi backed up instinctively. As he came closer to her, Greg said, “Actually, Mary-Kate, I have a better use for Lexi than your mom drinking from her.”
“What do you mean?” Mary-Kate questioned, narrowing her eyes at her father.
“I mean, people are desperate for her blood,” Greg explained. “I’ve had several people with Wilkins’ Syndrome offer tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars, just for a small vial of her blood. If I can get Lexi to them tonight, I could retire and move to Hawaii tomorrow. I could be rich.”
“What?” Anna asked from her place next to Lexi. “I thought you told me I had to bring Lexi to you so that you could save your wife.”
Greg scoffed. “Sure, that’s what I told you. It’s not my fault you’re so damn gullible.” He rolled his eyes at her, obviously annoyed. He turned back to Mary-Kate. “I don’t want to waste Lexi’s blood on your mom, Mary-Kate. I know
you’ll understand. I’ll even share some of the money with you.”
“Are you kidding me?” Mary-Kate asked, her voice squeaking a little bit. “You’re seriously planning to use Lexi to get rich? And you just want to forget about my mom? You don’t care if you just let her die?”
Greg glanced over at Mary-Kate, a softer look on his face. “Let’s be realistic, Mary-Kate. Chances are, Lexi’s blood isn’t going to cure anyone now that she’s an immortal. It probably won’t save your mom, and even if it had the potential to, your mom is already so sick that she’ll probably die within the next few days, anyway.” He shook his head, seemingly annoyed at his daughter’s stupidity. “Your mother has been nothing but a burden to me. She’s better off dead.”
Mary-Kate scoffed. “I can’t believe you! You’re the biggest asshole I’ve ever met! I hate you.”
Greg laughed. “You don’t even know what you’re saying, Mary. You don’t hate me. I’m your father. You love me.”
“Actually, you’re not my real father,” Mary-Kate said, crossing her arms over her chest angrily. “Ben is my real father. You’re just an asshole I’ve been forced to live with most of my life, and for some reason, my mother stupidly loved you. It doesn’t mean I ever did.”
Lexi felt shocked by what Mary-Kate was saying. She had always thought that her half-sister really cared about her stepfather. It had never crossed Lexi’s mind that Mary-Kate secretly despised him.
Of course, at one point, Lexi had thought that Mary-Kate liked her, too.
“Well, guess what, Mary-Kate? The feeling is mutual. I’m sick of constantly having to cater to you my whole life. It was always what Mary-Kate wants, what Mary-Kate says, Mary-Kate, Mary-Kate, Mary-Kate,” Greg said, rolling his eyes. “Why do you think your mother and I were never truly happy? How could we be happy when you were constantly in the way?”
“Well, guess what, Dad? You’re not getting Lexi’s blood,” Mary-Kate said, taking a few steps closer to him. “I’m the only one who really needs it. Well, my mom does, I mean.”
Lexi glanced over at Mrs. Lawrence. Even though she was standing upright, she was staring off into space. Even Lexi had to agree that Greg was probably right; Mrs. Lawrence wouldn’t last more than a few more days.
Out of the corner of her eye, Lexi saw Greg Lawrence move towards her. He wrapped his arms around hers, locking her into a firm grip. “Oh, yeah? How are you going to stop me, Mary-Kate?” Greg Lawrence asked pointedly.
“Ugh!” Mary-Kate screeched in frustration. “How could you do this to me?”
As Greg tried to drag Lexi towards the car and Dan tried to pry him away from her, Mary-Kate stampeded towards them, a stake in her hand. Dan moved out of the way just in time; Mary-Kate launched the stake directly through her stepfather’s heart.
Greg screamed out in pain, before falling to the ground. Within seconds, his body began to smoke and fell onto the ground in a pile of ash.
Mary-Kate laughed. “Wow. It’s about time. I’ve been waiting forever for that to happen.”
Lexi glanced over at Mary-Kate, completely shocked that her sister had just killed her stepfather—and that she was happy about it. As much as she agreed with what her sister had done, it reaffirmed only one thing. Mary-Kate really was nuts.
“It’s time for you to let my mom drink from you,” Mary-Kate said, patting Lexi on the back. “Are you ready?”
“I-I don’t know,” Lexi stammered, trying to find the right words to say. How could she tell Mary-Kate that she wasn’t going to do everything that she could to save her mother, just because she didn’t like being threatened?
Before she had to worry about it, though, Gabe leapt forward and hit Mary-Kate, hard, over the head with a large rock.
Mary-Kate slumped to the ground. Gabe hit her again over the head, trying to make sure that she was really dead.
Shakily, he dropped the rock to his feet and waited a few moments before sinking to his knees and feeling for a pulse. “She’s gone. There’s no heartbeat.”
Lexi breathed a small sigh of relief. As sad as it made her to know that she would never get the chance to know her sister, the truth was that Mary-Kate had put so many lives in danger. It was probably a good thing that she was gone.
“Oh, my goodness!” Anna gasped, covering her face with her hands.
Lexi glanced over in the direction that Anna was staring in, only to find that Mrs. Lawrence had also fallen to the ground. It looked like her body was convulsing, but within a few minutes, she stopped moving completely.
“Think she died of a broken heart?” Austin asked. “Watching her husband die and then her daughter?”
Lexi shrugged. “Maybe. In any case, you know what this means, right?”
“What?” everyone questioned, glancing over in her direction.
“We can go home,” Lexi replied with a smile.
Chapter 29
Once they got back to the Nichols’ house, after making sure that Ben reunited with Darlene, Erica, and Connor safely, Austin rested his head against his pillow. He was still in pain from the blow to his head, but he knew that his body was healing itself quickly. It hurt at that moment, but he would live through this.
What he wasn’t sure he would live through was whatever answer Anna had for him. As much as Austin wanted to know what she had to say, he was also too afraid to ask. The truth scared him. Once he knew what her answer was for sure, it would make it real . . . and if her answer was that she didn’t want to be with him, he didn’t want it to be real.
Sighing, Austin stared out the window. He wasn’t sure where he would go from here if Anna didn’t want to be with him. His mom was gone, and even though he wasn’t angry with his dad anymore, Austin was pretty sure that he didn’t want to go back to Briar Creek. Not anytime soon, at least. And although Lexi and Dan would probably let him stay with them wherever they ended up, did he really want to be the third wheel all the time? He knew that eventually they would all get sick of each other.
Austin supposed that he could make a new life for himself somewhere else, somewhere aside from Pennsylvania. He could start over, and maybe if he was lucky, he could even find some way to pretend that he wasn’t a vampire. When it became obvious that he wasn’t getting any older, he could move to a new town and make a fresh start all over again. Austin had always wanted to travel to see new places and meet new people. Even though he hadn’t felt that way ever since he’d met Anna, because he hadn’t pictured himself anywhere except where she was, he would just have to make do with that alternative if it came to that.
Time could change everything, but Austin doubted that he would ever find someone else who he wanted to spend the rest of his life with. He knew deep down that Anna was the only one for him, and if things didn’t work out, he didn’t want to even bother trying to meet someone else. He didn’t want to fall in love again—not if it meant there was a chance that he might have his heart broken again. Austin didn’t want to ever have to feel that way again.
It wasn’t just the idea of being heartbroken all over again that scared him, though. Part of him worried that if he did date someone else, he would end up with someone crazy. At one point, he had actually cared about Mary-Kate. His feelings for her hadn’t been nearly as strong as his feelings for Anna; he’d never truly loved Mary-Kate, but he had definitely cared about her, at least enough to date her for a long time.
And yet, despite what he had once felt for her, Mary-Kate had ended up being one of the craziest girls he had ever met.
Looking back on their relationship, Austin wondered if maybe he had just missed the signs that Mary-Kate was crazy. There were things that had happened between them—things that she’d said that had made him feel uncomfortable. She’d wanted him to drink from her, but it had never felt right so he had never actually done it, even though they’d dated for a decent amount of time. Maybe it was because Austin knew she let other vampires drink from her, or maybe it was because he had never truly loved her. Either way, he h
adn’t done it, even though she’d given him a vial of her blood to carry around at all times in case he ever got thirsty.
There was something else Mary-Kate had pressured Austin to do—something else he hadn’t been comfortable with, so he hadn’t done it. She’d asked him to get in contact with Lexi, to invite her to Briar Creek to visit with him for the day. Even though Mary-Kate had claimed it was because she wanted to meet her half-sister, Austin always had a weird feeling about her pushing him to do it—a weird feeling that had been confirmed when he’d overheard his mom and dad talking about how they were going to kill him, just so they could get his Aunt Eileen and Lexi back in town.
Austin supposed that none of that really mattered now, though. All that mattered was that Anna had been acting distant lately. Even on the way home from Briar Creek, while everyone else had been sort of excited that Greg and Mary-Kate were both finally out of the picture, it had seemed like Anna had been in her own world, nervously twisting her ring around her finger and not meeting his eyes.
It hurt Austin to know that Anna couldn’t even look at him; if she couldn’t look at him, how could she possibly want to spend the rest of her life with him?
Austin was pretty sure that he already knew what her answer was. He just hated to think that there was a possibility—a fifty percent chance, really—that he could be right.
At that moment, there was a loud knock at the door.
“Who is it?” Austin called, knowing that his voice probably sounded cold and distant to whoever was behind the other side of the door. He didn’t care, though. He couldn’t pretend to be happy when he wasn’t.
“It’s me,” Anna’s voice called back at him. “Can I come in?”
Austin quickly rose to his feet and swung the guestroom door open. He imagined that if he still had a heart, it would have stopped beating when he saw the tears that streamed down Anna’s cheeks.
Chapter 30