by Jayme Morse
“We can go back,” Austin replied. “Just not right away . . . definitely not tonight. We need to give it some time for things to cool off, but I honestly don’t think they know we were there. They really think it was just Ben.”
“It didn’t help that you had to blast that radio,” Gabe chimed in from the back seat. “Why would Ben do that?”
“Ben wouldn’t want to see them,” Austin replied, shaking his head. “He hasn’t seen them in years. Even Greg knows how Ben feels about him. It wouldn’t have been that out of character for him to just turn up the radio and ignore them. I just hope that they didn’t break into the house and realize that he wasn’t actually there.” Turning onto the highway, Austin added, “Besides, it was the only way I could figure out to distract them long enough to not notice Lexi. And it worked, so don’t complain.”
Lexi glanced over at Gabe. The look on his face told her that he wasn’t convinced that Austin had done the right thing. “Well, where are we going to stay tonight?” she asked. “I doubt we’re going to find a vacant hotel room on Thanksgiving Day.”
“We’re going to Huntington High,” Austin said. When Lexi looked at him questioningly, he went on, “I’ve had it planned out for months. I was going to wait for us to go tomorrow because I figured it would be a hassle to leave on Thanksgiving, but it won’t kill us to go a day earlier than expected. I’ll explain it all once we’re there.”
Lexi groaned. She really hated being out of the loop, and she couldn’t help but wonder why they were going to be staying at a private boarding school.
When Austin pulled into the parking lot at Huntington High, Anna was there waiting for them. “Hi, Lexi!” she said, extending her arms for a hug.
Lexi hugged her back and smiled. Besides Mary-Kate, Anna was one of the only friends she had made since she been in Briar Creek. When Lexi was trying to run away from her aunt’s house, Anna had tried to help her run away to New Jersey, where she planned to live with Justin’s mom. That had all come to an abrupt stop when Greg Lawrence had found her going to the bus stop and had dragged her back to his house for a sleepover with Mary-Kate. It was the same night Lexi had learned that Mary-Kate was her half-sister. So much had happened since then, and Lexi hadn’t kept in touch with Anna, but she would never forget the kindness that she had showed her.
“Hey, Austin,” Anna said. Lexi wasn’t sure, but she thought she noticed a tone of admiration in Anna’s voice. Did Anna have a crush on Austin?
Taking a step back, Lexi took a closer look at the two of them. Austin was wearing the Briar Creek High School’s letterman’s jacket that he always wore. Lexi knew that underneath it, he was wearing a polo shirt. Anna’s dark hair, which had purple streaks, was pulled into a ponytail on top of her head. She wore a dark purple camisole with a black fishnet long-sleeved shirt with thumb holes on top of it, along with a medium length black skirt and purple sequined ballet flats.
Lexi quickly shook the idea away that there was anything going on between Austin and Anna. They were polar opposites.
“I thought that Anna didn’t know you were alive,” Lexi said to Austin.
“Well, she thought that I died. I called her this week to let her know that we were coming.”
“You can imagine my surprise,” Anna said. “I was really confused. I thought I was a getting a call from a ghost because, as far as I knew, he was already dead. Not that I’m not happy about it,” she said, glancing at Austin.
Lexi laughed. “Well, as someone who has seen a ghost, that doesn’t even sound too far-fetched, to be honest.”
“So,” Anna said, linking her arm through Lexi’s. “We have a lot to talk about. Let me show Gabe and Austin their room first, though.”
“Do I get my own room?” Lexi asked.
“Sorry, lady, but you’re stuck with me,” Anna replied, smiling at her. Lexi forced herself to give a small smile back. She had been sleeping in the same bed as Gabe for nearly a month. It was comforting to know that he was always right there if she needed someone to talk to after a nightmare. She didn’t even want to think about being in a different room from him – especially when she was so worried that someone was going to find her. Now that they were closer to Briar Creek, it seemed even more possible than it had before.
Once Anna showed Austin and Gabe where they would be sleeping, they all went back to Anna’s dorm room. Lexi glanced around. The suite, which Anna had told her that her parents had splurged for, now had a second bed in the room. Lexi didn’t know how much the boarding school cost, but the comfy pillow top mattress and the burgundy down comforter on the bed that she would be sleeping in were very luxurious and probably quite pricey.
“So, there’s no easy way to say this,” Anna said. “I’m a vampire hunter.”
“What?” Lexi asked, laughing out of shock. She had seen Buffy the Vampire Slayer before, but she had no idea that vampire hunters actually existed. Then again, she hadn’t known that vampires existed a year ago, and there were two in the same room as her at that very moment.
Anna nodded. “I’m not the only one either. Everyone else who goes to Huntington High is vampire hunters, too.”
“I thought this was just a boarding school,” Lexi replied.
“It is a boarding school,” Austin said, nodding. “It’s a boarding school where vampire hunters come to train.”
“I don’t understand.” Actually, she did understand what they meant; it was just too difficult to wrap her head around the idea at the moment.
“Huntington High has been around for hundreds of years,” Gabe said. “Its original location was actually in San Francisco. It always seemed like a funny location to me because it’s always sunny there, so you wouldn’t be likely to find many vampires. The location of Huntington changes every once in a while . . . generally so that it can be closer to areas with a high vampire population. Those places are always changing over time as vampires migrate to different areas.”
“Kind of like you,” Lexi said, remembering that Gabe had also lived in California at one point. “Is that why they move around a lot? So that no one discovers who they are?”
“Pretty much,” Gabe replied. “A lot of vampires change their identities fairly regularly so that no one catches up with them. Certain vampires, the bad ones, also flee the area if they know that they’re in dangerous. And vampires are always trying to move away from areas where they know there are a lot of vampire hunters.”
“Interesting. I didn’t know any of that,” Lexi said, “So, all of the vampire hunters who go to Huntington were born this way then?”
“Some of us,” Anna replied. “All of the instructors who teach here are biological vampire hunters and many of the students here come from vampire hunter bloodlines. If vampire hunting runs in your blood, you’re genetically predisposed to seek out vampires. There really is no other choice . . . it’s what you need to do with your life. There aren’t many other options for you when it’s in your blood. It’s easier for a biological vampire hunter to pick a vampire out of a crowd than someone who chooses to become a vampire hunter. I’ve never actually been able to track down a vampire, so I can’t really tell you how it works.” She took a deep breath before continuing. “Most of us ... even a lot of us … don’t come from vampire hunting bloodlines, though. I came to Huntington because a vampire killed my mother. My father didn’t want me to come here, but I had to. I have to seek revenge on the vampire who killed my mother.”
Lexi noticed that Anna’s eyes were filling up with tears. “I’m so sorry for your loss. How long ago did it happen?”
“Two years ago,” Anna replied. She darted her eyes away, but Lexi caught the sad look in them.
Lexi realized that even though she and Anna seemed really different from each other on the outside, they actually had one really important thing in common; they had both lost a mother because of vampires. Mary-Kate might be Lexi’s half-sister, but even she and Lexi didn’t have this in common. “Does losing one of your parents
this way ever get any easier?” Lexi knew that she didn’t have to explain why she was asking; Anna already knew what had happened to her mom.
Anna shook her head. “They tell you that as time goes on, the pain goes away or gets easier to deal with. It’s all a lie. It still hurts . . . it really, really hurts. I think about what happened to my mom every single day, usually several times a day. I feel like, as time goes by, I just get angrier and angrier at the vampires who did this to her.”
Lexi gulped. So this was what she had to look forward to in a year or two from now: anger. In her case, her anger would likely be towards Greg Lawrence since he was the vampire who she was sure was responsible for her mother’s death. Lexi wondered how long it would take her to get to that stage of coping. She wasn’t sure that she was dealing with her mother’s death like other humans would. Although Lexi had cried since her mom had died, it felt like she had never really let it out. It was almost like she didn’t even have time to grieve. Everything had happened so quickly and ever since then, things had only gotten crazier.
Realizing that Austin and Gabe were still in the room, Lexi turned to them. “So, why exactly are we at Huntington then?”
For a moment, neither Gabe nor Austin said a word. Finally, Gabe replied, “You need to learn how to defend yourself, Lexi. There’s a town of vampires who are out to get you – and eventually, there’s going to be a huge battle that you’re going to be a part of.” He paused. “I don’t want you to be there . . . but we might not be able to stop it unless we can figure out when it’s going to happen. Either way, you need to be prepared for it. The vampire hunters here at Huntington are going to teach you how to fight against vampires.”
“What about you guys?” Lexi asked Gabe pointedly. “Austin’s a new vampire. He doesn’t know how to fight yet either, does he?”
“We’ll be taking the classes with you,” Austin replied. “Because you’re right . . . I do need to learn how to fight. My football hero strength isn’t enough to kick vampire ass.”
Anna laughed. “Must you always point out that you were a football star?”
Austin shrugged. “Hey, if the shoe fits, wear it. Might as well be proud about something from my past life. I seriously wish I could join the Huntington football team.”
“Why don’t you?” Lexi asked. If there was one thing that she had learned about Austin before reuniting with him again, it was that football played a huge role in his life. She couldn’t imagine how difficult it would be to give up something like that – and the rest of your human life, for that matter – because you found out that your parents were plotting to kill you. It didn’t seem fair that his life had taken a drastic turn for the worse. Then again, nothing in Briar Creek seemed fair.
“I might eventually,” Austin replied. “It depends on how long we stay here. I need to learn as much as I can while I’m here . . . and when I’m playing football, I usually lose focus.”
Lexi turned to Gabe. “What about you? Do you already know how to fight, or are you going to take classes with us, too?”
“Well, I do already know how to fight, but I’ll be here to help out in any way that I can,” Gabe said, looking Lexi in the eyes. He touched her shoulder. “I’ll also be here for moral support.”
Lexi breathed a sigh of relief. At least she wasn’t going to be stuck at Huntington all by herself. She liked Anna enough, but she didn’t want to be without either one of the guys – Gabe, especially. It was bad enough that they weren’t going to be living in the same dorm room. He was like her safety net; even though she doubted that anything was going to happen to her any time soon (considering Gabe would probably have already had a vision about it if something was going to), but it was always nice to have him there with her just in case.
Lexi knew that it would be bad for her to not see Austin regularly either. If he were to stay away from the school and she didn’t hear from him often, she would be constantly wondering if someone had discovered that he really wasn’t dead. Just worrying about it would probably only distract her from being able to learn whatever the vampire hunters were planning on teaching her.
Just thinking about what she was going to learn about vampire hunting and killing made her shudder. Lexi didn’t want to have to worry about coming face to face with a vampire during a battle. There was no way she could possibly learn that much at Huntington. It wouldn’t change anything; she was still a human, and they were still vampires. Lexi didn’t stand a chance against one of them, did she?
Actually, there was something that made Lexi feel slightly better about her fate. One time, Mary-Kate had dragged Lexi over to her best friend Julie’s house. While they were there, Lexi had overheard some vampires talking in the kitchen, including a guy named Nick from school, who had tried to kidnap her with his friends once. They were talking about Lexi and how she was so powerful.
At the time, Lexi didn’t really understand what they were talking about, but she had later learned that her blood was powerful. Could she be physically powerful as well? She was going to have to remember to talk to Gabe about it sometime later when they were alone. As comfortable as she felt around Austin and Anna, it felt like something that they should talk about in private for some reason.
“So, what’s next?” Lexi asked, realizing that the room had grown really quiet.
“Next, you need to meet some of our professors,” Anna replied. “And for the record, this isn’t routine procedure here at Huntington. They’ve all asked to be personally introduced to you.”
Lexi blushed. “I’d be happy to meet them, but why a personal introduction? I know I’m important in the vampire world, but they’re vampire hunters.”
Anna laughed. “You’re important in the vampire hunting world, too, Lexi. Our worlds intertwine because without vampires, vampire hunters wouldn’t exist.”
“That’s interesting,” Lexi replied. She hadn’t really thought about it that way before, but then again, she hadn’t given much thought to vampire hunters in general until now – considering she didn’t even know that they existed. “Okay, so where do we find these professors?”
Anna glanced at her watch. “They should be in the teacher’s lounge.” Lexi raised her eyebrows, and Anna laughed again. “Huntington’s just like any other school, Lexi! We have teacher’s lounges, and well, you’ve already seen the cafeteria when you were here before.”
“Do the Briar Creek vampires know that Huntington is a school for vampire hunters?” Lexi asked as they all exited the dorm room.
Anna shook her head. “Nope, they have no clue. They think we’re just a private school for rich kids. Huntington only moved here over the past century, mostly because of the close proximity to Briar Creek.”
“And they have no idea? That’s really surprising,” Lexi replied.
Anna nodded. “Nope, they don’t know because a lot of us give off a human scent. We actually have werewolves for security guards because there have been times when they’ve tried to attack students here.”
Lexi raised an eyebrow. “Werewolves? Are you serious?” She wasn’t sure why it surprised her to find out that werewolves existed. She already knew that vampires, witches, and ghosts existed, so it would make sense that there were other types of paranormal creatures out there. It was just crazy to think that she had lived in a world for so many years where people told her that all of these paranormal creatures were just myths; it got her wondering how many paranormal creatures she had come across throughout her lifetime. If only the whole world knew what was really out there.
“Yeah, but don’t worry. Werewolves aren’t how you’re probably imagining them. They’re really strong so they can keep unwanted visitors out, but they’re actually pretty cool. Most of them aren’t naturally mean . . . they’ll only give you a hard time if you do something to piss them off.” Turning a corner and leading them all down a long hallway, Anna stopped in front of an open door. “Here we are.”
Lexi stuck her head in the doorway. The sound of jazz
music flowed out of the room, reminding her of the teacher’s lounge at her old school back home in New Jersey. She noticed a woman with black wire-rimmed glasses and shoulder length curly black hair sitting at a long rectangular table. The woman, who had somewhat of a boyish look, was staring into the cup of coffee that she was holding. It was like she was staring into space.
“Professor Males?” Anna asked warmly. The woman looked up. “This is Lexi Hunter. Lexi, this is our Conflagration Studies instructor, Joanne Males.”
Joanne pushed her glasses up her nose and took a closer look at Lexi. “My, my, my. A Hunter! You don’t know how long it has been since I have wanted to meet someone from your bloodline.” She laughed. “It’s actually been one of my ambitions in life . . . to meet a Hunter. Now I get to cross that off on my bucket list! It’s such a pleasure to meet you.”
“It’s nice to meet you, too,” Lexi forced herself to say back, ignoring the goose bumps that had risen on her arms. Something about the way Professor Males was staring at her made her feel uncomfortable. It was like she was a specimen that the woman wanted to use for some creepy science project. What exactly was conflagration, anyway? It definitely sounded like some weird type of science – or a stomach virus. Lexi seriously hoped that another teacher also taught it or that, for some reason, Lexi didn’t have to take it herself because she wasn’t sure if she could stomach being around this woman on a day to day basis.
Lexi noticed a guy sitting in the corner reading from a book. She did a double-take. She had never seen a guy with such large muscles in real life before; he looked like he belonged on the cover of a romance novel. The man glanced up at them.
“Hey, Christian. This is Lexi Hunter,” Anna introduced her.