by Jayme Morse
Lexi took a deep breath and tried not to panic. Everything’s going to be okay, she reminded herself. “Should we call 911?”
Austin looked at her as if she had grown a second head. “What’s a doctor going to do for him? He’s already dead. The only doctor he could see would be a vampire doctor, but then we would have to take him to Briar Creek and risk getting caught.”
“Oh, right,” Lexi replied, feeling silly. Whatever was wrong with Gabe, it couldn’t be that serious. He was a vampire. He couldn’t die. Could he?
Lexi turned to Austin. “Does Gabe have Wilkins’ Syndrome?”
Austin shook his head. “No, he’s never told me that he did. And even if he did, he would have gotten healthy again as much as he drinks from Mary-Kate.”
Lexi shuddered at the thought of Gabe, the guy who was practically her boyfriend but wasn’t quite yet, drinking from her half-sister. She knew that Gabe had to drink from Mary-Kate to survive, and she assumed that he had drank from her the most before Lexi even came to Briar Creek. Still, she knew that it was always going to bother her. “Well, what do we do?” Lexi asked Austin. “If he’s not sick, what’s wrong with him?”
“Not...sick,” Gabe agreed in a mumbled, monotone voice from the shower, as he continued to stare into the faucet.
“Then, what’s wrong?” Lexi asked, trying, unsuccessfully, to hide the worry in her voice.
“See,” Gabe mumbled again.
“See? What do we need to see?” Austin asked, concerned. When Gabe didn’t respond, he went on. “Gabe, what are you talking about? Are you okay? Tell us something else.”
“I saw,” Gabe replied, still appearing to be in a trance.
Lexi opened her mouth to ask him what he saw, but before she could, Austin said, “He means that he had a vision.”
Lexi glanced at Gabe, who was shaking violently. “Gabe, tell me what you saw.”
“D-d-death,” Gabe stuttered. His skin and lips were beginning to turn a shade of blue. Lexi had never noticed any tint of color in his skin. It was normally a milky shade of white, but he looked like he could play the role of Jack Frost right now.
Lexi turned to Austin. “What’s happening to him?”
Austin shook his head, staring at Gabe in shock. “I don’t know, Lexi! I haven’t been a vampire long enough to know what can happen to us.”
“Th-thirsty,” Gabe managed to sputter. “Weak. I’m thirsty.”
“I’ll go get you a glass of water,” Lexi said, backing out of the bathroom. Austin grabbed her arm. “No, Lexi. He’s thirsty for blood.”
Lexi realized what she had to do. She motioned towards the door and told Austin, “Give us some privacy.”
When Gabe finished drinking from her, Lexi took a step back and stared into his steel blue eyes. They had regained their sparkly, human-like appearance, and he had stopped shaking so bad.
It had been different when he drank from her this time. It still felt good, but there was an obvious change in his demeanor. It was hungrier, rougher, more desperate. Lexi realized that this was what it was like when a malnourished vampire needed blood.
What happened when a vampire’s nutrients just ran out? She was pretty sure that they couldn’t die, but what happened to them? Lexi would have to remember to ask Austin or Gabe about that later. Gabe hadn’t spoken to her yet. She had managed to coax him out of the shower, but he still wasn’t completely back to normal.
Lexi was trying to decide if she should leave him in the bathroom unattended to dry off when Austin knocked on the door. “Lexi? Is everything okay in there?”
“Yeah, we’re fine . . . or better at least. He’s drying off now, but he still hasn’t talked to me yet.”
“I don’t want to scare you, but I thought you should know that I just saw you on the news,” Austin said.
“Me?” Lexi knew that her name had been celebrity-status in the vampire world (or at least in Briar Creek), but she hadn’t done anything to be considered newsworthy to the human world lately. The only time she had ever even been in the newspaper was when she had been on her high school swim team in New Jersey.
“You’ve been reported as a missing person,” Austin replied from the other side of the door. “But it’s even worse than that.”
Lexi took a deep breath. She should have expected that her crazy aunt and uncle would report her as missing. Of course they wouldn’t make this easy for her. “How does it get worse?”
“There are numerous witnesses who are reporting that you murdered someone in Briar Creek.”
****
Chapter 6
“Why would they say I killed someone?” Lexi asked Austin when they were sitting in the living room again. She wanted to calm the anger that had built up inside her, but she was trying to piece everything together first. Gabe was sitting on the couch beside her, with his arm wrapped around her waist. His face had returned to its natural color, but he still hadn’t been able to say much yet.
Austin shrugged. “I can only assume that they want to make sure that you get caught. Think about it. If people see your face on TV, on the front page of the newspaper, or behind the counter while they’re buying cigarettes, it’s going to be a lot harder for you to stay hidden. Our society gets kind of obsessed with criminals, so they’ll probably go crazy over this. And if you were to get caught, the cops will turn you right over to the town where it happened . . . the town that is offering a one hundred thousand dollar reward to anyone who can turn you in.”
Lexi gulped. “They did this because they knew I’d be more likely to get caught than if I was just a runaway. No one cares about runaways, but this would me a . . . a . . .” She tried to get the word ‘criminal’ out, but she couldn’t seem to say it.
“A fugitive,” Austin said, filling the blank in with another word that could describe her in this scenario. “This means we need to try even harder to stay hidden. I was thinking that we could go out to the next town over to do some grocery shopping or something where no one will know who you are, but we can’t do that now. At least, you can’t come with us. I think only I can go because no one there will be looking for me. I wouldn’t be surprised if they release Gabe’s picture and claim that he’s an accessory to the murder or something.”
Lexi sighed. She really hated being stuck in the house. Then again, it wasn’t much different from living at her aunt and uncle’s house for the past few months. They had tried to keep her under wraps and had grounded her just to make sure that she couldn’t get away from them. It was just like them to find a way to make it so she couldn’t even go out in public. “This feels like a witch hunt or something.”
“Witch hunt?” Gabe said, more of a statement than a question. Recognition flashed through his eyes and quickly disappeared. He glanced up at Lexi. “The vision that I just had . . . it was the same vision I had before. The vision that I had before Halloween. The town sacrificed you.” Gabe looked down at his hands, which were beginning to shake again. “I thought that running away might change my vision, but this is the second time I’ve had it.” He gulped. “So far, all of my visions have come true when I’ve had the exact same vision more than once.”
“Well, there’s always a first time for everything,” Lexi replied, trying to sound more enthusiastic than she really felt. She knew that Gabe’s prophetic visions were usually accurate, even though she hadn’t witnessed it firsthand.
Actually, now that she thought about, Lexi realized that his visions could be changed. The first time he had the vision about her being sacrificed, it was supposed to take place on the night of the Halloween festival. They had outsmarted the people of Briar Creek, though, and Lexi was still alive. “Technically, it is different this time, so maybe it’s your first vision,” she pointed out. “It didn’t happen on the same day. We just need to figure out when it’s supposed to happen, and then find a way to outsmart them.”
“That’s going to be easier said than done,” Austin said. “But I think we can do it.”
> “As long as I don’t have too many more visions,” Gabe replied. “Usually, they’re much more spaced out than this. I only have a few really important visions every year, but I’ve had about the same amount in the past couple of months. It’s taking a lot out of me, which has never happened before. That’s why I needed blood so bad. I felt like my body went into a coma, into shock, and I was going to pass out.”
Lexi reached over and grabbed his hand. “What happens if a vampire’s nutrients run out?”
“I’ve never heard of it happening before,” Gabe replied. “A vampire will kill a random stranger for blood before becoming malnourished. If it did happen . . . it would probably something similar to what I just experienced until I died.”
Lexi shuddered at thought. “I guess it’s a good thing I was here. Imagine if it had happened when you were flying back and forth to Briar Creek to see me.”
“Speaking of which,” Austin said, standing up, “I’m going to go see Mary-Kate.”
“Isn’t that a really dangerous idea right now?” Lexi asked. Even though no one would be looking for Austin because they all thought he was dead, it still seemed like it could lead to trouble if he wasn’t careful. What if somebody did see him? That would be one of the worst things that they could happen.
“I’m not going to Briar Creek,” Austin replied. “She’s agreed to meet me in Huntington.”
He opened the front door. Lexi heard a soft crackling noise as his human form was replaced by the body of a tiny bat, and he swiftly drifted away into the moonlit sky.
*
Mary-Kate’s Jetta was idling next to Huntington High, its headlights shining brightly through the dark night. Austin flew towards the car and skirted in through the window that Mary-Kate always left cracked open for him whenever they met. As he made the change back to human, he hit his head on the dashboard. “Ouch.”
“Austin!” Mary-Kate squealed, a wide smile crossing over her face. “I have missed you so much.”
“I’ve missed you, too,” Austin replied, planting a tiny kiss on her lips. He didn’t know why she was wearing sunglasses at night, but he assumed it was so that no one would notice who she was. “Do you have any news for me?”
Mary-Kate sat back in her seat, playing with her keys. “Well, have you turned on the news lately? Lexi’s been all over TV and in the papers.”
“Yeah, we’re aware of that,” Austin replied. “Who’s going along with my parents on this? These so-called witnesses of the murder she allegedly committed?”
“Believe it or not, your parents don’t have anything to do with it. They didn’t even report her missing. It’s my dad.”
Austin stared at her blankly. He knew that Greg Lawrence had some dirty tricks up his sleeve, but he really thought that his parents were responsible for this. “Why would he say that?”
Mary-Kate shrugged. “Easy. My mom’s going to die soon, probably within the next two months if she doesn’t get to drink some of Lexi’s blood.”
“I’m sorry,” Austin murmured.
“Thanks,” Mary-Kate muttered, lowering her head. “We’re just trying to make the best of the time that we have left.”
Austin felt bad for Mary-Kate. He knew that in the past, she and her mom had an awesome relationship with each other, which had quickly deteriorated when Mrs. Lawrence was diagnosed with Wilkins’ Syndrome. Something had snapped within Mrs. Lawrence since then. When she found out that she had the disease, she rarely agreed to come out of the house and spent most of her days wallowing in her bedroom. Austin knew that Mrs. Lawrence had it out for Lexi and Ben because she blamed them for her disease, which was pretty insane. It’s not like they were even alive when the witch had cast the spell on the people of Briar Creek.
Austin shook away the thoughts that he had about Mrs. Lawrence. He might feel bad for Mary-Kate, but she definitely didn’t feel bad for her parents. “Is there anything else new that I should know about? Did you tell them what I told you to tell them?”
Mary-Kate nodded. “Yeah, I told them that Lexi told me a few days before Halloween that she was thinking about going to California. I said she had a friend from back home who moved out there last year that she was planning to move in with.”
“Did they buy it?” Austin asked.
“Oh, yeah, they bought it alright. My dad’s really pissed off at me right now. He says that I should have told him as soon as Lexi told me.” Mary-Kate lowered her sunglasses, revealing the dark bruises underneath her eyes. “He hit me, Austin.”
Austin felt the anger rush through his body like a wave of water. “That’s it. You’re not going back home where he can do this to you again. You’re coming back to the house with us.”
Mary-Kate pulled her sunglasses back on. “I can’t. I would be putting the three of you in even more danger. My dad wouldn’t rest until he found me. And I can’t just leave my mom with him, Austin. He hasn’t exactly been a perfect husband to her, and it will probably only get worse if I’m gone. I’m starting to think her sickness pisses him off.”
“Why would it piss him off?”
“He said that he ‘didn’t sign up for this.’ You know… a dying wife. He’s afraid that it wouldn’t look good for him, as the town mayor, to be a widower.”
Austin shook his head in disgust. It didn’t surprise him that Greg Lawrence would feel that way. He was always more concerned about his image and what the voters would think than what really mattered. “I guess I can’t – and shouldn’t – try to convince you to leave your mom there alone. But now I’m going to worry about you all of the time. Will you come live with us when . . . I mean, if . . . your mom dies.
“Of course,” Mary-Kate replied. She smiled at him. “I’d rather be with you than at home with Greg.”
“What about Dan?” Austin asked. “Has he been doing everything that he’s supposed to be doing?”
“Honestly, Austin, I don’t know.” Mary-Kate paused, taking the time to carefully choose her words. “It feels like he’s really close with your mom and dad . . . too close, really. I don’t know if we can really trust him.”
Austin looked out the window. He was getting sick of everyone telling him that he couldn’t trust Dan. They’d been best friends for years. Dan wouldn’t betray him . . . would he? Austin quickly shook the thought away. Dan didn’t even have a reason to betray him. As far as Austin knew, Dan had no one close to him who had Wilkins’ Syndrome, and if he didn’t know anyone with the illness, how could he even relate to what Austin’s parents were doing? The only reason they wanted Lexi’s blood was to cure their disease. Surely Dan understood that Lexi shouldn’t be forced to be a blood donor. “Fine, we’ll start being a little more cautious about what we tell Dan from now on. I still trust him, though,” Austin told Mary-Kate. “I should probably get going now. I don’t want anyone to find out that either of us is here.”
Mary-Kate leaned over and pressed her lips gently against his. When she pulled away, Austin smiled at her.
“Stay safe, okay, babe?”
She nodded. “You stay safe, too. Let’s meet back here on Thursday around nine.”
As Austin flew out the car window and swooped through the night sky, a dark figure loomed in the background, watching the direction that he was flying in, before shifting into a bat and following him.
*
Back at the house, Lexi and Gabe were watching a movie on the couch. Gabe still wasn’t as talkative as he normally was, but he had stayed really close to her the whole time Austin was gone. It made Lexi feel safe knowing that Gabe would be here to protect her if something went wrong.
When there was a loud knock at the front door, Lexi jumped to her feet, startled. “Who could it be?” she whispered to Gabe.
“I don’t know,” Gabe said, coming up behind her. “I’ll handle it, though.”
Before either of them could open the door, Austin shouted, “Let me in!” He pounded on the door again.
When Lexi turned the knob, Austin burst
through the front door and said, “Sorry, I forgot to bring my keys with me.”
“Is everything okay?” Lexi asked, noting that her cousin’s normally freckled fair skin had turned a bright shade of tomato red.
“I don’t know,” Austin replied, his voice shaky and a startled expression on his face. “I get this weird feeling that I was being followed by someone.”
“Why would you think that?” Gabe asked, scanning their front lawn through the window.
Austin shook his head, running a finger through his strawberry blonde hair, which looked like it hadn’t been cut in quite a while. “No. It was when I was in the sky. It wasn’t until after I left that I noticed a bat flying behind me. I heard them and when I looked back, there was someone there.” He turned to Lexi. “When we’re in bat form, we aren’t able to recognize one another. I kept changing my route to throw them off and when I was about halfway home, I realized they weren’t behind me anymore. So I changed my route once more and came home but I still feel like something was strange about that bat. I don’t know what it was.”
“So, maybe it was just a real bat then,” Lexi said hesitantly, trying not to feel nervous. “You don’t even know for sure that it was a vampire, do you?”
“I guess I didn’t mention that we can smell the difference between a real bat and other vampires,” Austin replied. “They smell different from vampires. I didn’t smell a bat scent this time. The bat that was following me was definitely another vampire.”
“No vampires besides us and Ben ever come out this way,” Gabe murmured. “There’s a really low population of vampires in this area,” he explained to Lexi. “It had to have been someone who knew who you were.”
“But if they wanted to know where he was going, wouldn’t they have followed him all the way here?” Lexi pointed out. “Why would they have only gone halfway?”