by Jayme Morse
“Hmm.” Gabe shifted to his back and stared up at the ceiling. “That can be taken in so many ways. It’s so broad that it makes me wonder if the psychic was even real.”
“What do you mean it makes you wonder if the psychic was even real?” Lexi asked.
Gabe glanced at her. His blue eyes glimmered in the moonlight that poured in through the curtain-less window. “Well, to be honest, I’ve never heard of a legit psychic during my one-hundred and twenty years on Earth.”
Lexi rolled over and, leaning on her elbow, glared at him. “Well, during my first sixteen years on Earth, I never heard of a legit vampire. It doesn’t mean you didn’t exist.”
Gabe chuckled. “That’s a valid point. I’m just a skeptic of the supernatural, I guess.”
Lexi scoffed. How ironic. A vampire who was skeptical of the supernatural? Annoyed at Gabe, she rolled onto her side, away from him. It felt like he just didn’t believe her that the psychic was real, similar to the way he didn’t believe that person had followed her in the corn maze. She didn’t like being doubted.
“Lex? What’s wrong?” Gabe asked, trying to pull her back towards him. “Are you mad at me?”
She shook her head, unsure if Gabe could even see it in the dark. “It’s not you . . . it’s just everything. It’s being cooped up in the house, knowing it’s not safe to go anywhere. It’s wondering if we’ll all still be alive tomorrow.”
A few moments passed before Gabe said anything. Finally, he wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled her closer to him. “We are going to be fine for the foreseeable future.”
Lexi rolled her eyes, but inched closer to him so that his breath was warm against her neck. “That doesn’t make me feel better. You’ve already foreseen the near future, and I’m not going to be okay.”
“Things could change,” Gabe replied quietly, obviously and unconvincingly trying to mask the doubt in his voice. “And we should make the most of what time we do have. One thing I’ve learned since I’ve become a vampire is that human lives are shorter than you realize.”
Lexi opened her mouth to speak, but quickly closed it and bit her tongue. There was something she had been wondering about Gabe, but she’d been too afraid to ask him – or even admit her own curiosity to herself, for that matter. Lexi wasn’t even sure if she wanted to know the answer, but she was too curious to not ask. “Gabe, have you ever been in love before?”
“You mean before right now?”
“Yeah,” Lexi replied, blushing. She didn’t want to seem like a psycho, insecure girlfriend, but she was curious about his past relationships.
“Yes.”
Lexi felt her heart drop to her knees. For some reason, she had always assumed that she was Gabe’s first love. He was hers, after all. It made her jealousy to think about all of the things that could have happened in his past. Now that she thought about it, she realized how selfish she was being. Gabe was old. Of course he had fallen in love and had other relationships in the one hundred and how many more years he had been alive. For over half his life, Lexi hadn’t even been born yet. It’s not like his past meant that he was being unfaithful to her.
She was so deep in thought that she didn’t even realize that it had been minutes before Gabe had last spoken when he went on. “Her name was Caroline. We met when I was a teenager.”
“Did you marry her?” Lexi asked, unsure if she really wanted to know the answer. How would she feel if Gabe had been married already and was now a widower?
“No.” Gabe shook his head. “She came from a very Christian family. Her father was a reverend. When he heard the rumors that I was a vampire, he forbade Caroline from ever seeing me again.” Gabe paused and then poked Lexi in the hip. “It feels like I’m always forbidden from seeing the girls I love.”
Lexi giggled, remembering how her aunt and uncle had forbid her from seeing Gabe. She hadn’t realized at the time that he had already gone through something like that before. “Do you still love Caroline?” She was afraid to know what his answer was, but she couldn’t stop herself from asking.
“When you’re in love with someone, they’re always going to have a special place in your heart. It’s like they’ll always be a part of you,” Gabe replied. “But Caroline died in a car accident about forty years ago.”
“I’m sorry,” Lexi found herself saying sympathetically. “What was she like?”
“She had blonde hair, cat eyes, and ivory skin,” Gabe replied. Lexi ignored that he was basically describing her, but she wondered if Gabe was ever reminded of Caroline when he was around her. “But it was mostly her personality,” he continued, “that drew me to her the most. She was one of the kindest people you’d ever meet. She never judged anyone – even me, the vampire. Aside from her and you, most humans who have known the truth about me didn’t have an easy time accepting me for what I am. I guess I scare them.
“Then, eventually, Caroline grew up. We both got older, but I continued to stay young since I was a vampire, and she aged because she was a human. That’s the bad thing about being a vampire. Everyone around you grows up and changes, while you’re stuck in the same body. I’m an adult . . . but I’ll never look that way. I used to see Caroline around town as the years went by. I always noticed a look of recognition in her eyes, but she’d always walk right on by, never acknowledging me. I can’t really blame her. The way I looked . . . for her, that was the past. But for me . . . it was the past, present, and future.”
Lexi sighed. She didn’t even want to think about the fact that she was going to get old, and Gabe was going to stay the same. How could she even think that they had a real chance to make things work out? Gabe would stay a hot teenager, and she would become a gray-haired, wrinkled-skinned old lady who would have to wear diapers one day. Even if he didn’t stop being physically attracted to her, Lexi feared that people would look at them funny when they were in public when it got to the point where he looked like he could be her grandson. Just the thought of it seemed weird. Lexi turned to Gabe. “I wish I could become a vampire.”
Gabe reached for her hand. “I wish you could, too, but only for my own selfish reasons. I don’t want to lose you, but I’d never wish this life that never ends on anyone. You don’t want this, trust me.”
“Okay, now you’re really beginning to sound like Edward Cullen. Are you positive that you don’t sparkle?” Lexi teased.
Gabe laughed. “I’m sure. You should try to get some sleep now, though, or you’ll never be able to function tomorrow.”
“And you should try to go lay down so that you can try to have a vision,” Lexi replied. “Goodnight.” She leaned over and pressed her warm lips against Gabe’s own icy-cold lips before laying her head back down on the pillow, closing her eyes, and falling asleep.
****
Chapter 8
Three Weeks Later
On Thanksgiving morning, Lexi stayed in her bed curled up in a ball, with the cover pulled up over her head, thinking about the fact that this would be her first Thanksgiving since her mom had died. Not that she and her mom had always spent the whole day together, anyway. Since her mom was a vegetarian and they didn’t have any family close by (or at all, for that matter), they’d always skipped the whole turkey dinner thing. Most Thanksgivings, her mom ended up working long shifts at the hospital – and Lexi spent them in the hospital child care center or alone when she got older.
To keep her own traditions alive, Lexi always made a point of eating a turkey sandwich on Thanksgiving. Austin was making turkey and bacon club sandwiches for dinner at Lexi’s request, but she knew that it just wouldn’t be the same as when her mom was alive. She didn’t even want to think about how hard it was going to be on Christmas, which was a holiday that she normally did spend with her mom.
Next to her, Gabe groaned and rolled onto his stomach, wrapping the pillow around his head. “I’m so tired… so, so tired. I didn’t even know that vampires could get this tired,” he mumbled. Lexi sighed. Gabe had been having a lot
of visions, most of which were meaningless, over the past few weeks, to the point where it was exhausting him. Yet, he still hadn’t cracked who had stolen Lexi’s tote bag. She worried that the visions were going to be harmful to his health, and part of her wanted to tell him to just stop trying. Lexi couldn’t do that, though. If he didn’t have this one vision, they might never find out who took the tote bag and if they didn’t get the book back . . . Lexi was going to die.
Just thinking about the fact that her time on Earth may be more limited than she ever could have imagined made her feel uneasy and downright scared. They had to figure out who had taken the book . . . and fast.
Once Gabe appeared to be in relaxation mode, Lexi climbed out of bed. She clutched the bat pendant that she wore around her neck. She wasn’t sure if anyone from Briar Creek could actually smell her out here in the middle of nowhere, but she wasn’t willing to take any chances. Lexi wore the pendant at all times, even when she slept. Choking hazard or not, she didn’t want any vampires to be able to smell her. And from what she understood, if vampires could smell blood from a distance, hers would be the first they’d go for. The Hunter bloodline was supposed to be like sweet addictive wine for vampires, which was what had gotten this whole dumb curse started in the first place.
When she went into the living room, she found Austin sitting on the couch watching the Disney Thanksgiving Parade. Lexi sat down on the couch next to him and grabbed for the remote. “Why are you watching this? The Macy’s Parade is so much cooler.” Lexi had always made her mom watch the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade with her, even if that meant that she had to TiVo it so that they could watch it when her mom got home from work. It was one of the few Thanksgiving traditions that they did have.
“I like the Disney Parade,” Austin replied, staring at the remote with a pouty look on his face. Lexi rolled her eyes and turned the channel.
“Oh, come on. Justin Bieber and Selena Gomez were about to perform!” Austin said jokingly, trying to grab the remote from her.
Lexi pulled the remote away from him and held it up in the air. “Macy’s!”
Austin sighed. “So, you’re not a Belieber, then?”
“A what?” Lexi asked with raised eyebrows.
“You’ve been out of the real world for too long,” Austin replied, shaking his head. “A Justin Bieber fan?”
“Oh, um, not really.”
“Well, that’s a relief. At least I don’t have to listen to his music while we’re stuck in this house together. Miley Cyrus is cool, though.” As Austin began to say something else, he froze and cocked his head. “There someone outside,” he whispered. “I can hear them, but I can’t smell them. It’s not a human. It’s another vampire.”
Lexi felt a sick feeling form in the pit of her stomach and gulped down the saliva that was building up in the back of her throat. It was either someone who was looking for them or her father. She hoped that it was her dad because she was so not prepared for someone else.
There was a loud knock at the door behind them.
“Go get Gabe,” Austin mouthed to her.
Lexi dropped to the floor so that whoever was knocking wouldn’t see her through one of the windows and crawled to the bedroom.
As the knocking proceeded, she shook Gabe. When his eyes opened, she whispered, “There’s someone at the door.”
“Who?” Gabe asked alertly, sitting up in bed.
As if on cue, a deep voice called, “Ben?” Lexi recognized the voice immediately. It belonged to Greg Lawrence. “You need to come out here and talk to me right now.” When there was no response, the mayor bellowed, “I know you’re in there, Hunter. Your car is parked in the driveway. You can’t hide from us.”
Lexi met Gabe’s eyes. He looked just as nervous as she felt, but through her panic, she felt a sense of relief. Greg was here looking for her father. That meant that the bat pendant was working; he hadn’t gotten a whiff of her scent. She felt relieved that she had it on because otherwise, she would be really screwed right now.
As Lexi was about to ask Gabe what they should do, Austin crawled into the bedroom, too. He handed each of them a backpack. Lexi stared down at the bag that he gave her. Unzipping it, she realized that it was stuffed with a pile of her clothes. Lexi decided that she wasn’t going to ask questions right now. Austin had obviously been prepared for this day, and she should be grateful for that. She just had to trust her cousin’s instincts, even though she had no idea what he was planning for them to do next.
“They’re going to get in here,” Austin told them quietly. “There’s more than one of them. We need to leave.” When Lexi stared back at him and stayed frozen in place, he hissed, “Now!”
“Wait!” Lexi said louder than she meant. “What about me?”
“What about you?” Gabe asked.
“Well, it wouldn’t be that easy for them to kill you. They’d need to set a fire or put a stake through your heart. But it would be easy for them to kill me. How . . . how are we going to sneak me out of here?” Lexi asked. She felt her face beginning to flush, and she was pretty sure that her blood pressure was going up. Sneaking out of the house and getting away alive seemed like it was going to be a real challenge, and just thinking about trying it – and what could happen if they failed – scared the shit out of her.
“Don’t worry. I have a plan. Now come on,” Austin said, crawling out of the room. Lexi followed and she heard the sound of Gabe’s knees hitting against the hardwood floor from behind her.
Austin grabbed something from the kitchen counter before quietly opening the glass sliding door.
Lexi stepped outside after Austin, and Gabe quietly slid the door closed behind them.
“Go hide in the woods,” Austin instructed them. He ran to the side of the house and pointed the thing that he had grabbed from the kitchen counter at one of the windows, which Lexi realized was open.
A moment later, the sound of classical music blasted from the bedroom that Austin had been staying in, and she realized what he had done. He had turned on the radio to distract and confuse Greg Lawrence, who would now think that Benjamin was in the room where the music had turned on. She watched as Austin shifted into a bat and flitted over her head and through the woods.
The only thing that made her fearful was that soon Greg would realize that Benjamin wasn’t in that bedroom. He would realize that the music had been to divert the attention, and then what? Would he realize that Lexi and Gabe were behind it?
Lexi looked up at Gabe, who reached for her hand and squeezed it. “Come on,” he whispered. He slowly began walking through the woods. Slowly, Lexi followed after him. Every time either one of them crunched the fall leaves under their feet or cracked a fallen tree branch, Lexi sucked in a deep breath of air to try to make her breathing sound less obvious and felt a new cluster of goose bumps pop up on her arms. She looked over her shoulder.
No one was following them. No one had seen them. Lexi hoped that it would stay that way.
When they got far enough into the woods that Lexi couldn’t see the house in plain sight anymore, she whispered to Gabe, “Where exactly are we going?”
“To find Austin.” Gabe began trudging down a gravel path. Lexi quickly realized that it wasn’t a path, but a narrow, winding road. It was a lot different from the blacktop roads that were lined with sidewalks that she was used to walking on in New Jersey. Even the roads in Briar Creek looked more normal. Lexi didn’t actually know what town they were in, but it had to be out in the middle of nowhere, which made her wonder one thing: how did Greg Lawrence find them out here? How had he figured out Ben’s address if even Mrs. Lawrence didn’t know where his summer home was? It completely baffled her, but there wasn’t much time to think about it now.
An old beaten up car drove down the road towards them, kicking up dust and sputtering noisily.
Lexi froze and quickly began walking towards the woods again. She ran her fingers over her bat pendant, reassuring herself that it was still
there, that whoever was in the car couldn’t smell her.
Gabe grabbed her arms. “Lex? Where are you going? It’s Austin.”
Shielding her eyes from the sun, Lexi glanced over at the car. The windshield was covered in dust and paw prints that looked like they belonged to a cat, so it was hard to see into the car. When it got closer, Lexi realized that Gabe was right. The person who was sitting behind the wheel had a mess of strawberry blonde hair and fair skin. It was Austin. Lexi’s heartbeat slowed down just a little.
As Austin pulled the car closer to them, he rolled his window down and yelled, “Get in! We have to get the hell out of here!”
****
Chapter 9
“Where are we going now?” Lexi asked once she was settled into the front seat next to her cousin.
“Huntington,” Austin replied, nervously biting his thumb nail.
“What?” Lexi asked, shocked. “Isn’t that a bad idea? Don’t you think that going to Huntington to meet up with Mary-Kate was what made Greg find us here in the first place?” She hadn’t really thought about the vampire bat that followed Austin home a few weeks ago. It hadn’t occurred to her at the time that it had been Greg Lawrence, but the pieces were all beginning to fit together now. She just wasn’t sure why Greg had waited so long to come – or why he was looking for Ben instead of Lexi and Gabe.
Austin glanced over at Gabe in the rearview mirror. “When we’re bats, we have exceptional hearing, which I think I may have already told you. From where I flew in the forest, I could hear everything that Greg was saying. He said that Mrs. Lawrence knew of this address, which is kind of strange because Ben insisted that she had no idea where this place was.”
Lexi sighed. “Well, where are we going now that we can’t go back there ever again?” She wasn’t sure why she suddenly felt so disappointed about not being able to go back to the house. Sure, it was boring and it felt like they were in a prison far away from everything else – but it was kind of cozy and a great place for her to get to know both Austin and Gabe a little better. She hoped that the next place they stayed would allow them to do the same.