by Jayme Morse
“I’m here because I want to leave Briar Creek,” Dan replied. “I want to stay at Huntington. I don’t want to be around them anymore. Mary-Kate feels the same way.”
“Absolutely not,” Austin replied quickly. “There’s no way Mary-Kate can come here. It would be one thing if she had no personal ties to them, but Greg is her father. He won’t rest until he finds her if she comes.”
“What about me?” Dan asked.
Austin sat down on his bed and sighed. “You can come under one condition.”
“What?” Dan asked.
“You go back and tell them that you got a call from Lexi. Tell them that she said she’s in Las Vegas. That should throw them off track for at least a couple of days. Once they leave to go searching for her out there, you come back here. We’ll go back to Briar Creek to get Gabe’s mom while they’re gone,” Austin replied.
Lexi shook her head. “No. This isn’t going to work.”
“Why?” Gabe asked.
“My aunt and uncle aren’t stupid. They know that I wouldn’t just call Dan for no reason,” Lexi replied. “They know that I can’t stand him.” She looked up at Dan, catching the pained expression on his face. She didn’t feel guilty though, it was his fault that she disliked him.
“I’ll say you were trying to get in touch with Mary-Kate, but you only had my number,” Dan said. “That sounds a lot more believable.”
“I guess.” Lexi sighed. Something about this plan made her feel really nervous, even though she had a feeling that, if they played their cards right, it could work. The only thing that sucked about it was that Dan was going to be living here, too.
Then again, that seemed like a better plan than letting him stay in Briar Creek, where he had access to all of the people in the town. Even if he didn’t intentionally let everyone know that Austin was alive and that they were all hiding out at Huntington, all it took was for him to slip up once and say the wrong thing. Just one wrong statement could end everything, and after taking Conflagration class today, Lexi knew she wasn’t ready to fight any vampires yet. She wasn’t emotionally prepared for it just yet.
“I guess I better get going then. I want to get out of there as soon as I can. And Lexi?” Dan said. “Stay safe, okay?”
Lexi nodded, just as Gabe barked, “I’m keeping her safe. Just worry about you, and I’ll worry about Lexi.”
And Veronica, Lexi couldn’t help but think.
*
Sometime after three o’clock a.m., there was a knock on Lexi and Anna’s dorm door. Startled, Lexi got up and opened it. Austin stared back at her, his face as white as a ghost. “It’s happening again,” he hissed. “Gabe. The same as what happened in the shower that day. Go to the dorm room. I’ll stay here.”
Forgetting to put on a pair of shoes, Lexi ran down the hall barefooted. She didn’t care that her shorts were so short that anyone who saw her would think she was a slut or that her bra straps were hanging out of her tank top. She didn’t even care about what was going on with Veronica. Lexi just had to make sure that Gabe was okay.
When she got to the dorm room, Gabe was laying on his side, facing her. His skin was paler than usual, and it looked like he was staring into space. He didn’t look like a vampire. He looked like a zombie.
“Gabe?” He didn’t respond. “You have to drink from me, okay?” Lexi knelt down on the ground in front of him and pulled her hair to one side. Minutes passed, and nothing happened.
Just as she was sure that he wasn’t going to do anything and she was going to have figure out a way to get her blood down his throat, Lexi felt his fangs sink deep into the back of her neck. A feeling of warmth rushed through her body as she felt Gabe’s tongue swirl around her skin. He pulled away and then sunk his fangs even further into her neck, this time hungrier and more forceful.
When he was done drinking from her, he pulled back. Lexi looked up into his sparkling steel blue eyes. “Thank you,” he whispered before kissing her. She kissed back, trying to ignore the grossness factor of kissing someone after they had just gulped down her blood. Then again, she was just glad that he was alive – and that he wasn’t kissing Veronica instead of her.
“So,” Lexi said, climbing onto the bed next to him, “tell me about your vision.”
Gabe closed his eyes tiredly. “It was the same vision I had last time. I saw the arms carrying the book again. This time, I know that it was a woman, though.”
“How?”
“Their sleeves were hot pink this time. None of the guys I know who live in Briar Creek wear hot pink,” Gabe replied. “I also saw the person’s skin tone. I think the arms belonged to Violet, but I’m not one hundred percent sure. Does she have a yellow gemstone ring?”
Lexi shook her head. “Not that I’ve ever seen, but I also didn’t know she was a vampire either. She’s pretty good at keeping secrets from me. It probably was her, though.”
“That’s the only thing I saw. I guess I just got so weak from it because once again, my visions were pretty close together.” Gabe sighed. “I feel like my visions are almost teasing me in a way. I’m getting to see everything in bits and pieces, but who knows how many more I’m going to have to endure before I actually find out who took the book.”
Lexi didn’t say anything. She wished that his visions would hurry up, but she wasn’t about to tell him that. It would just make him feel pressured, which might make it even more difficult for him to have visions about the book. “I guess I’ll go back to my room now that you’re okay.”
“Wait,” Gabe said, grabbing her arm. “Don’t go. Stay here with me tonight?”
“What about Austin?” Lexi asked.
“He’ll figure it out on his own. Don’t worry. I want to be with you.”
“Okay.” Lexi curled into a ball next to Gabe. He wrapped his arm around her waist. Before she drifted off to sleep, Lexi thought about Veronica. She hoped that Veronica would tap into Gabe’s mind right now, so that she would know who was in bed with him – and that it wasn’t her.
*
Lexi didn’t sleep well that night. She kept having dreams about the book. In one of the dreams, it was being dangled in front of her and she tried to chase after it, but she ended up falling off a cliff instead. All of her dreams were that way; she was put through some sort of test to get the book in her own hands, but each time, she ended up falling to her own death. Lexi wasn’t big into dreams before all this, but she really hoped that the dreams she was having weren’t a sign that she would never get the book.
When she woke up the next morning, she reached for Gabe, but he wasn’t there. Huffing, Lexi climbed out of bed and left his dorm room. Lexi felt like she was on a walk of shame. Students were all getting ready for breakfast, each of them giving her funny looks – probably partly because she was coming from the boys’ dorm and partly because her outfit was so revealing.
As she was stumbling with her keys to open her own dorm room door so she that she could get changed, Lexi noticed the guy standing in front of her.
“Lexi,” Craig said. She felt his eyes hovering over her body, noticing her attire. “What are you doing here?”
“What am I doing here?” Lexi snapped back at him. She opened the door to the room and, glancing inside to make sure that Anna wasn’t there, motioned for Craig to follow her. “I need to talk to you.”
“Lexi, I’m not sure this is a good idea,” Craig said when Lexi had shut the door and locked it. “There are rules here that teachers must abide to at Huntington.”
Lexi scoffed. “There were rules that you were supposed to abide to at Briar Creek High School, too, but that didn’t stop you from making out with me in the janitor’s closet.”
Craig looked like he was about to say something, but decided not to. “Anyway, do you want to tell me what this is all about?”
“Why are you here? Why are you teaching at Huntington?” Lexi asked.
“I’m not sure that it’s any of your business.”
“Wel
l, I’m pretty sure that most of the teachers here would find it a little odd, to say the least, that you taught at Briar Creek if they don’t already know.”
“Oh, they know. They were well aware of it before they hired me,” Craig replied, running a hand through his straight hair. “Is that all you wanted to talk to me about?”
Lexi shrugged. She wanted to ask him about Mary-Kate. And she wanted to ask him why he had been mingling with the enemy. She wanted to ask him a thousand things, but the only thing that she could manage to say was, “I guess.”
“Too bad. I thought you were going to tell me that you’re insanely in love with me.” He opened the door and closed it gently behind him. As Lexi began undressing, she heard the door swing open again from behind her. “Craig! I can’t do this right now.”
When he didn’t answer, she turned around. Gabe was staring back at her, a look of anger on his face. Before Lexi could come up with the right words to say, he had already left the room.
****
Chapter 12
After she scarfed down a blueberry bagel and almond milk, Lexi followed Austin and Anna to Vampire Geography and Tracking class. Gabe hadn’t shown up at the cafeteria like usual, and Lexi hadn’t said much to Austin and Anna during breakfast. No one asked her why she was upset or why Gabe hadn’t come. For all she knew, maybe he had already told them why and what he had witnessed.
Lexi knew that what Gabe had seen probably looked really bad. If the situation had been reversed and she had seen Veronica leaving his Gabe’s room and then found him without some of his clothes on, she would probably think that he had cheated on her, too.
What she really was dreading was going to Veronica’s classroom. She wished that she could find a way to get out of Vampire Geography and Tracking altogether, but Anna kept telling her what an important class it was. Lexi didn’t really understand because it didn’t seem important to humans or humans-turned-vampire since only to those who were biologically predetermined to be vampire hunters were able to track down vampires. It may have been useful for other humans to learn where the highest populations of vampires were, but Lexi didn’t care; all she cared about was the vampires who lived in Briar Creek. They were the only ones who wanted her to die.
Austin and Anna separated from Lexi to take their seats in the back of the classroom. As she settled into her own desk, she felt Gabe’s eyes glaring at the back of her head.
When Veronica came into the classroom, wearing a short black dress, she glanced over at Lexi and, laughing, flashed a red lipstick smile. Lexi gritted her teeth. It was obvious that Veronica had somehow gotten into Gabe’s mind today. It made Lexi wonder if Veronica had ever tried to tap into his mind before they had all arrived at Huntington . . . and why he hadn’t told Lexi if she had. It made her wonder what other secrets Gabe was keeping from her.
*
“Houston, we have a problem,” Austin said, as his cafeteria tray which was loaded with two burgers, French fries, and a pudding cup clanked against the table.
“Oh, so, you found out about your taste buds changing,” Anna said matter-of-factly.
Austin raised his eyebrows at her.
“You haven’t heard?” Anna asked. “Geez, didn’t Gabe teach you anything about the transition into a vampire?”
“I guess not.” Austin shrugged. “So, what’s this about taste buds?”
“Well, when vampires turn about two hundred years old, they completely lose their sense of taste, but it dwindles before then. Taste buds take slightly longer to die than other organs. Most scientists think it’s so that you can see that blood tastes better than food before you lose your sense of taste permanently – and your appeal for food.”
“I doubt that will ever happen to me. Food’s like my BFF. How do you even know about all of this? You’re not a vampire,” Austin said, reminding Lexi that she wasn’t the only human who was going to Huntington.
“Professor Males teaches a class on Vampire Biology every other semester,” Anna replied. “It’s actually really interesting.”
“Well, I have two hundred years to worry about my lack of taste buds. This is something more relevant to right now.” He took a big bite of his hamburger and wiped away the ketchup that dripped down his chin. “Ben’s phone is disconnected.”
“What do you mean it’s disconnected?” Gabe asked as he sat down at the table. “That can’t be possible.”
Austin shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t know. We haven’t heard from him in a while, which is weird enough in itself. He said that he would keep the lines of communication open for us.”
“So, are you saying that you think something happened to him?” Lexi asked, feeling the panic rising in her throat. This was the first time since she was a kid that she had even the slightest bit of hope that she might be able to reunite with her father, but what if it wasn’t going to be possible now? Or, even worse, what if her dad really wanted nothing to do with her now that he had the opportunity to finally see her again after all this time? Maybe he was too occupied with his other family, the mysterious one that no one knew about. Maybe he felt like he didn’t have the need to get to know another kid.
“I think something weird is going on,” Austin replied. “And we have to get to the bottom of it soon so we can get Gabe’s mom out of here. So, here’s the new plan. Me and Gabe are going to go look for Ben.”
“Do I get to come?” Lexi asked, hopeful.
Austin shook his head. “No . . . definitely not. It’s way too dangerous for you to come with us. Someone might see you and turn you into the police.”
Lexi had nearly forgotten that the people of Briar Creek were claiming that she had murdered somebody – and as much as she wanted to see her dad and basically meet him all over again for the very first time, she knew that she couldn’t argue with Austin’s logic. She might feel like she was in a prison here at Huntington, but she didn’t want to go to a real prison for a crime that she didn’t commit.
“Besides, it will be safer for you here, anyway,” Austin went on. “You’re at one of the safest places to hide from vampires. No one here will let anyone hurt you.”
Anna grabbed Lexi’s shoulder. “And, hey, it can be fun. We’ll have a girl’s night. We’ll have a sleepover and watch chick flicks and do each other’s nails and makeup. It will feel like we’re normal teenage girls for once.”
Lexi smiled at her. “Yeah, I guess it can be fun.” She tried to ignore the fact that she was going to be worrying about Gabe and Austin the whole entire time they were gone. “So, when do you guys leave?”
“Tonight,” Gabe replied. “As soon as it gets dark so that no one will see us.”
“They won’t recognize that car anyway,” Lexi pointed out. “It’s so old and beat up that it won’t draw anybody’s attention.”
“We’re not traveling by car,” Austin told her. “We’re flying.”
*
Austin spent over an hour primping in the bathroom that was connected to Anna and Lexi’s dorm room. Lexi couldn’t figure out why; all the times Gabe had come to visit her in bat form, he’d ended up just falling onto the bed or floor and getting his hair all messed up anyway. Austin insisted that he had to make a good impression on her dad, though, because he had done so much for him.
Even though Gabe and Lexi had hardly said two words to each other the entire day, she decided she better say goodbye to him anyway. Otherwise, she knew that she was going to end up regretting it. Lexi also really wanted to at least try to make things right between them before he left or she knew she would spend the entire time he was gone moping around and stressing about it.
Lexi knocked on the dorm room door. When there was no answer, she called, “Gabe?”
There was still no answer. Twisting the doorknob, she was surprised to find that the door was unlocked. Stepping inside, she covered her mouth at what she saw.
Veronica was standing in the dorm room, in nothing more than revealing red lingerie. Gabe stood next to her, t
he top two buttons of his shirt undone. “I know you want me,” Veronica murmured quietly.
When Gabe met Lexi’s eyes, he froze. “Wait! Lexi!”
Lexi turned around and bolted from the dorm room. Realizing that she was too embarrassed for Anna to see her tears as they streamed down her face like a waterfall, she ran to the courtyard.
She sat down on a bench and stared down at the ground, feeling a wave of anger pass over her body. How could she have been so naïve and trusting? She should have been expecting something like this to happen. Gabe had tried to kill her, after all. If it hadn’t been for her mom insisting that she should forgive him, Lexi probably wouldn’t have. It made her feel angry at her mom, for letting her fall for Gabe, and Lexi really hated being mad at her mom now that she had died.
Lexi sat outside for a few minutes before anyone passed her. When someone did, it was the person who she least wanted to see. Well, besides Veronica.
Craig walked along the brick path, as though he were going to go inside. Suddenly, he stopped and turned around. “Why are you upset, Lexi?”
She shrugged her shoulders. “How do you know I’m upset?”
“Two reasons,” Craig replied. “I’m really good at reading people. It’s like I can read auras, except I don’t actually see a color. I can just tell, somehow, what someone’s feeling. The other reason is because I have a really good sense of smell. I could smell your tears. They have sort of a salty scent.”
Lexi sniffed a little. “I’m in love with this guy . . . and I thought he loved me, too. But I just caught him with Veronica Hart.” Just saying the teacher’s name made her feel angry all over again.
“I’m sorry, Lexi,” Craig replied, sitting down on the bench next to her. “It might not feel this way now, but I think you deserve someone better than that. You deserve someone who will love and respect you.” He glanced over at her. “You don’t deserve to be cheated on.”