Time Will Tell (The Briar Creek Vampires, #7)

by Jayme Morse

  Gabe hesitated before answering. “I like to think you meant that you felt like you couldn’t live without me because you were in love with me, but that you couldn’t live with me because your family didn’t approve—and that you had to let me go because there was no way we could ever be together.”

  “That makes a lot of sense.” Caroline gave him a small, sad smile. “I’m sorry I did that to you. I wish there was some way I could go back and do it all over again.”

  Gabe smiled back and reached for her hand. “It’s okay, Caroline. I don’t hold it against you. I’m just happy to have you back now. And to be honest, I’m sort of happy it all turned out the way it did. This way, you still have Dan as your brother. Plus, not being with you all those years helped me realize just how much I wanted it to be with you. I’ll never take you for granted now.”

  Caroline nodded understandingly. “I get what you mean. I don’t think I’ll take you for granted, either. I used to hate knowing that I’m eighteen years old and I’ve never fallen in love yet, but . . . maybe the reason I never met the right person to fall in love with is because this whole time, I was waiting for you. I just didn’t know I was waiting for you, if that makes any sense.”

  “It makes perfect sense.” Gabe smiled, feeling pleased about the way this conversation was going. Caroline was taking the news way better than he’d expected, and he also had a feeling that they had a bright future.

  “Why didn’t my parents approve of you in my last life?” Caroline questioned with a frown.

  “They knew I was a vampire,” Gabe replied, running a hand over his hair. “Your father was a little bit stricter than most of the people back then because he was our town’s reverend. But, back then, people used to hunt vampires the same way they used to hunt witches. Eventually, people started to think that vampires and witches don’t exist, but everyone in Briar Creek always knew the truth. Well, almost everyone.”

  “I wish my parents back then hadn’t been that way. And I wish my parents now were more accepting of the whole vampire thing. I feel so bad that they don’t want Danny around.” Caroline glanced over at Gabe. “If things work out between us, I want to become a vampire one day. Just so you know.”

  Gabe hesitated. He hadn’t wanted Lexi to become a vampire because he didn’t want her to have to go through the experience of an eternal life. Sometimes, he wished that he hadn’t been turned into a vampire himself. He’d spent half of his life hating Veronica Hart, and he hadn’t wanted Lexi to go through the same type of pain.

  But now that Caroline was telling him that she wanted to become a vampire, Gabe felt differently about it. Aside from the fact that he already knew that there was no telling the new and improved Caroline what to do, Gabe also couldn’t stand the idea of losing her again. “I’ll do that for you. I’ll change you into a vampire—when and if you’re ever ready to make that change.”

  Caroline beamed at him. Her skin glowed and her eyes twinkled, and it made him happy to know that he finally had his Caroline back.

  “So, what is it you wanted to talk to me about?” Gabe asked.

  Caroline frowned. “Well, I feel weird asking about this now, but I need to know the truth. When I asked if you killed Lexi’s ex-boyfriend, I thought I was asking you, but I was really asking Kevin. He made me think you killed her ex-boyfriend on accident, but now I need to know . . . did you kill him?”

  Gabe felt a knot tighten in his stomach. He should have known that Caroline would ask him about this, eventually. Why wouldn’t she ask? It was the truth . . . and the truth made him look like a cold-hearted monster. “I did kill him,” Gabe said.

  A look of horror crossed Caroline’s face. “It wasn’t just an accident?”

  “No, Caroline . . . I tried to kill Justin,” Gabe admitted. When Caroline stared back at him blankly, he explained, “It will probably be hard for you to understand, but . . . . I was jealous of him. There was a point in time when I really thought I was in love with Lexi—or meant to love Lexi, at least—and I felt very protective of her. I felt like Justin would get in the way of me being with her.”

  Caroline darted her blue eyes away from him. “I see.”

  Gabe searched his head for a way to help her understand, for a way to make her see that they could still be together, even though he had killed Justin. “It’s something I have to regret every day of my life, Caroline. I might not be in love with Lexi anymore—in fact, I’m not sure that I ever was truly in love with her at all—but now I have to live with the fact that I really hurt someone who I care about. And I have to live knowing that I killed an innocent bystander in all of this. I would never kill someone for the same reason again.”

  Caroline glanced over at him, studying his face with her light blue eyes. It looked like she was trying to gauge his emotions, to see if he was telling her the truth. “How do I know you’re not lying to me?”

  “You’ll just have to trust me on this,” Gabe said. “If you trust me, I promise I’ll prove to you eventually that I’m telling the truth.”

  Caroline hesitated for a few more moments before smiling. “Okay, Gabriel. I trust you.”

  “I love when you call me Gabriel. No one has ever really called me that before—no one except for you in your past life.”

  Caroline smiled. “I hope it sounds just as good in this life, too, because you’re going to be hearing it a lot from now on.”

  Chapter 32

  Austin sat on the bed next to Anna, holding her hands. It had been an hour since he’d changed her—or since he had tried to change her, at least—but she still hadn’t woken up yet. Her chest didn’t move up and down like it would if she was breathing, but Austin knew that it wouldn’t anyway. Vampires didn’t breathe; they merely existed.

  Of course, that was assuming that Anna had even really changed. What if she hadn’t made it . . . or if Austin had done something wrong? If that was the case, if she was really dead, that would only mean one thing: he would have been the one who had killed her. It would be no one’s fault except for his . . . and he would never be able to forgive himself.

  Austin’s palms shook as he pulled away from Anna. He didn’t want to leave her alone, not even for a minute, but he had to get someone else in the room with them—someone who was familiar with the process of changing a human into a vampire.

  When Austin reached Gabe’s room, he found him rummaging through his duffel bag. He pulled a few things out and then stuffed even more things inside, rearranging everything so that it would fit. It looked like Gabe was leaving.

  “Are you going somewhere?” Austin asked when Gabe looked up at him.

  “Yeah, I am. Well, not right now, but sometime within the next two days,” Gabe answered, glancing over at him. He looked happy—happier than Austin had ever seen him, in fact. “Caroline asked me to go back to stay with her while she goes to Juilliard. The real me, this time, instead of Kevin. So, I’m going to go with her.”

  “You are?” Dan’s voice came from behind them. “Were either of you planning to tell me about this?”

  Gabe nodded. “Yeah, Caroline and I were going to come to your room to let you know soon. I know you haven’t trusted me in the past and you have every reason not to, but I assure you, I will take good care of your sister. I know we haven’t known each other for very long, but I really feel like I’m falling in love with her.”

  “Falling in love?” Lexi asked from behind them.

  Austin turned to look at his cousin. Even though he expected to hear a note of jealousy in her voice, Lexi actually seemed to look happy for Gabe. Austin was glad. After what Gabe had done for all of them, Austin hoped that Gabe would find happiness.

  “Yeah, falling in love,” Gabe said with a wide grin.

  Dan hesitated. “Well, the past is the past for a reason, right? I think you’ve more than earned my forgiveness at this point.” He narrowed his eyes at Gabe. “If you hurt my sister emotionally, though, I will need to kick your ass.”

  Gabe nod
ded. “Quite understandable.”

  “Okay, while I’m happy you guys are making up, I have a problem I need your help with,” Austin said, motioning to Gabe.

  “What is it, Austin?” Lexi asked, her voice filled with obvious concern.

  “I tried to change Anna into a vampire,” Austin explained, running a hand over his strawberry blonde hair nervously. “The problem is I’m not sure if it even worked. It’s been an hour, and she hasn’t woken up yet.”

  Gabe gave him a concerned look. “She didn’t move at all in the past hour?”

  Austin shook his head. “No. Is that bad?” He wasn’t even sure why he was asking; from the look on Gabe’s face, he could tell that it definitely wasn’t a good thing that Anna hadn’t been responsive yet.

  “Yes, come on,” Gabe said, hurrying out of the room and leading the rest of them down the hallway to the room that Austin had been staying in.

  When Gabe opened the door, Austin noticed that nothing had changed. Anna was still lying on the bed, her eyes closed and her chest not moving at all.

  A feeling of dread formed in the pit of Austin’s stomach. He had a feeling that this was bad . . . very bad.

  Gabe stepped forward and knelt down on the floor beside the edge of the bed. He took Anna’s hand in his own and felt for her pulse.

  “Of course she’s not going to have a pulse. Whether she’s a vampire or dead, she doesn’t have a beating heart anymore,” Dan said.

  Austin glared at him. “Do you have to put it so insensitively?”

  “Yeah, seriously, Dan,” Lexi said, rolling her eyes. “Something might be wrong with Anna.”

  “Actually, guys, she does have a pulse,” Gabe said, pressing his ear to her chest. He listened for a few moments before saying, “Her heart’s beating really slowly, but it is still beating.” Gabe glanced over at Austin. “This is worrisome to me, though, because I’ve never known a human’s heart to take this long to stop beating when they change into a vampire. It normally happens much quicker than this.”

  “So, what could it mean?” Austin asked, unsure if he should feel hopeful because a heartbeat—even a slow one—meant that Anna was still alive, or if he should worry because what she was going through was rare.

  Gabe shook his head. “I don’t know. The only thing I can think of is that her body is still trying to hang onto its mortality, for some reason.”

  “Well, how do we make her let go?” Austin asked. “How do we hurry this whole thing up?”

  No one said anything for a long while. Finally, Lexi spoke up. “I think I have an idea.”

  Austin glanced over his shoulder at her, waiting for her to explain, but she shook her head. “I’ll be right back.”

  As she ran out of the room and down the hallway, Dan gave him a sympathetic look. “Don’t worry, Austin. I have an idea of what Lexi is planning to do, and I think it might work.”

  “Let’s hope so,” Gabe said, his hand still on Anna’s wrist. “It feels like her pulse is getting even slower than it was before, but I’m not sure if it’s a good thing or a bad thing.”

  As Austin waited anxiously for Lexi to come back, he stared down at Anna’s limp body. Even though he couldn’t see her breathing, it made him feel reassured to know that she was still alive. He hadn’t lost her . . . yet.

  Dropping to his knees in front of her, Austin did the only thing he could think to do. “Come back to me, Anna,” he pleaded with her. “Please come back.”

  *

  Lexi paced back and forth in the room that she shared with Dan, trying to focus. She knew that a spell was the only thing she could do to help to bring Anna back from the state she was in and encourage her body to make the change to vampirism quicker—or at all.

  If only Lexi could figure out the right spell. That was why she’d left the room. She needed to clear her mind and gather any supplies, if she could think of what she needed.

  She glanced over at her spell book, which she left on the dresser. Even though she felt tempted to flip through it, she had a feeling that Belinda never would have given her a spell to help turn someone into a vampire, since she was so against them. It just didn’t make any sense. If Lexi was going to do this, she was going to need to come up with a spell all on her own, a spell that came from her heart.

  Once the spell came to her, she grabbed the candles and matches that she’d placed in the nightstand, just in case she ever needed them, and headed out of the room and back down the hall.

  When she reached the room where everyone was huddled around Anna, Lexi placed one red candle and one white candle on the dresser. She pulled a match out of the box and lit their wicks, which glowed in the dim lighting of the room.

  Turning to the bed that Anna was lying on, Lexi pushed Austin out of the way and knelt down on the hardwood floor beside her. She took Anna’s wrists in her hands and found her pulse before saying, “Ashes to ashes, dust to dust, make Anna neither dead nor alive. Make her mortal blood stop flowing and her immortal life start going. Make her thirst for blood and burn at the sun’s touch. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust, don’t let her give up without a fight, make Anna transition to a creature of the night.”

  Lexi and the others waited in darkness to see what would happen.

  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 into 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 process 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, shooting 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 never felt before. “Umm, guys?”

  Eve
ryone turned 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 smile. “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 some 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 said, 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.