Destined to Die (The Briar Creek Vampires, #3) by Jayme Morse & Jody Morse

by Jayme Morse

  Anna looked over at him and back at Lexi, as though she was wondering why they were together again. She didn’t say anything about it, though. “Don’t worry. We’ll kick some vampire ass.”

  “Well, not me,” Lexi replied. “I’m not strong enough yet. I need to train and learn more in Stakeology class before I can get involved.”

  “We’ll get you ready,” Anna replied. Just then, her cell phone bleeped. She answered it. “Austin?”

  Lexi put her ear next to Anna and tried to listen to what Austin was saying to her on the other line, but everyone around them was yelling and crying and talking so loud that she couldn’t hear anything.

  “Oh, no,” Anna said, her face turning a ghostly shade of white.

  ****

  Chapter 15

  “Lexi?” Austin said into the phone. “I have some bad news.”

  “Ugh. What is it?” he heard Lexi say on the other end of the line. After he had told Anna what had happened, she had immediately handed her cell phone to Lexi. “Please tell me that he’s not dead.”

  “Well, we don’t exactly know,” Austin replied and began explaining everything that had happened since they had arrived at Ben’s bed and breakfast in Long Island. When they got there, the manager told them that he hadn’t seen or heard from Ben in over a week. His car was missing, and his house seemed to be empty. When Austin said that he was Ben’s nephew, the manager had offered to let him and Gabe stay at the bed and breakfast until they figured out what had happened to Ben. Austin was pretty sure that the manager was actually freaked out, and that was why he had agreed to let them stay there without paying a dime.

  “So, what are you going to do next?” Lexi asked. “How are you going to find him?”

  Austin glanced over at Gabe, who was lying on the bed in the room that they were staying in, sprawled out on the pink and white floral comforter. Gabe had been acting really weird ever since they had left Briar Creek, but Austin wasn’t sure why. “I think we’re going to try breaking into his house to see if there are any clues or anything there.”

  “No, Austin. I don’t think you should do that,” Lexi warned him. “The last thing that we need is for you and Gabe to get arrested for breaking and entering right now . . . and having to call your legal guardians to bail you out or something, since you’re under eighteen.”

  “That’s a good point,” Austin said slowly, realizing that he hadn’t even thought about the possibility of that happening.

  “I think you should find some other way to dig up clues,” Lexi went on. “I have some bad news, too. We have a situation here as well.”

  “Is Anna okay?” Austin asked immediately, realizing that he had just spoken to her, so obviously she was still alive. Still, Anna was the first person who had come to mind.

  “She’s fine,” Lexi replied in a tone that let him know that she was thinking the same thing; he had just spoken to her. “A student at Huntington was killed by a Briar Creek vampire.”

  Austin paused. “Do they know that Huntington is a vampire hunting school yet?”

  “Not that I know of,” Lexi replied. “But Huntington might declare war on Briar Creek.”

  “Great. That’s just dandy. We need to figure out a new hiding spot in case that does happen . . . and an escape route.”

  “You’re right,” Lexi replied. “We’ll try to come up with something. You just worry about trying to find my father right now.”

  “I will,” Austin said. Before hanging up the phone, he said, “And Lexi? Make sure you don’t take your bat pendant off.”

  When Austin hung up the phone, he turned to the bed. “Gabe?”

  Gabe didn’t answer him. Austin sat down on his own bed and sighed. He knew that it was a good sign that Gabe wasn’t answering him. It meant that he was deep in a vision that would be interrupted if he responded to anything in the outside world. Heck, he probably didn’t even know that Austin was talking to him.

  Austin flicked on the TV and turned on the Jersey Shore. He needed something that would make him laugh right now, and if that didn’t do it, he wasn’t sure what would.

  When Sammy came on the show, Austin thought of Mary-Kate. Everything about Sammy reminded him of her. Sure, Mary-Kate’s hair and skin were a little lighter, but they shared similar features. They even had similar personalities . . . and Austin couldn’t help but think that the constant on and off relationship that he and Mary-Kate had with each other was similar to Sammy and Ronnie; they were all wrong for each other.

  As if on cue, his cell phone bleeped. He glanced down at his new text message. It was from Anna.

  He opened the message. Stay safe, Austin...xoxo.

  I will, u 2, he texted back.

  Anna and Mary-Kate were such different people that it was hard to imagine that he could have any sort of relationship with both of them. Well, technically, he and Anna hadn’t had a relationship yet, but he was pretty sure he wanted one. And he thought that she did, too, with all of the signals that she had been sending him lately.

  It was kind of weird because of how Austin had first met Anna. He thought back to that day. It had been so long ago. He wasn’t even sure what to think of her the first time they had met. At that time, her hair was bleached and had pink highlights in it. She’d come up to him one day on the street and handed him a card with her phone number.

  Austin went home that night, thinking about the unusual girl who he had just met. She was just so different from all of the girls who normally approached him with their phone numbers. Something about her fearlessness of handing a high school quarterback her phone number on the street made him call her. They’d had coffee together, and Anna told him all about Huntington. In fact, it turned out that the only reason she had given him a card with her phone number on it at all was to ask her to go to Huntington. Someone had told her that his parents were related to the Hunter’s, and she thought that he would be useful.

  Austin blew Anna off at first, but eventually, he called her again. There was just something about her that drew him to her, something that he liked. He told her that he didn’t want to go to Huntington, but that he did want to be friends. Anna had seemed disappointed, but she respected his choice and said that she, too, wanted to be his friends.

  Austin never told any of his friends that he had called Anna. He’d never even told Gabe or Dan how they’d met, just that she was an old friend. None of his friends from Briar Creek High ever would have approved of him calling, let alone dating, Anna. She was the complete opposite of the type of girl a high school quarterback was supposed to be with. She was too much of a punk or goth, depending on whether she was in a happy go-lucky mood or a dark and depressing mood that day. She didn’t have a natural-looking hair color . . . and yet Austin was more drawn to her purple highlighted hair than he was to Mary-Kate’s chestnut brown hair.

  Mary-Kate was the type of girl that his old friends would have told him that he was supposed to be with, but she bored him lately. Not to mention all of the drama that had gone on between them in the past.

  Something about Anna was more intriguing. And, somehow, even though they seemed so different from each other, he seemed to have more in common with her than he ever did with Mary-Kate. Austin wasn’t even sure why he was still technically with Mary-Kate. It used to be because her father had forced him to be with her, but things were different now. If he really wanted to get out of the relationship, he could do it without worrying about the consequences. Greg Lawrence wasn’t there to hold the car accident over his head any more, considering he didn’t even know that Austin was alive.

  Next to him, Gabe sat up in bed. “I saw him.”

  “Who?” Austin asked, turning the TV off.

  “Ben. I saw what happened. Well, part of it, at least.”

  “Do share,” Austin insisted. The fact that Gabe seemed somewhat calm seemed like a good sign; it meant that Ben probably wasn’t dead. At least, Austin hoped that wasn’t the case.

  “Greg hired some of
the guys from Briar Creek to come to Long Island for him. They checked all of his addresses that they knew of. That’s why they came knocking on our door. They snuck into his house when he wasn’t home and kidnapped him. They made sure to make it look like nothing had happened, though. They put a knife against his throat and forced him to leave with them.” Gabe paused. “What I didn’t see was why they did it. I heard someone in the background say that they thought that Ben was helping Lexi. But then my mind did a flash forward to a baby. I wonder . . .”

  “What?” Austin asked, motioning for Gabe to tell him what he was wondering.

  “I just get this feeling that they’re going to try to force him to have another child to give to them.” Gabe shrugged.

  Austin felt a wave of panic wash over his body. He couldn’t imagine what cruel-hearted people would want to subject another child to this type of torture. “Where did they take him? Did you see?”

  Gabe shook his head. “I don’t know. I think we just need to stay here for a while, though. My vision was really vivid, and I think it’s because we’re so close to his house . . . the area where it happened. If we go back to Briar Creek, I don’t think I’ll see anything.”

  “That makes sense,” Austin replied. “Hey, Gabe, is everything okay with you? You’ve been acting kind of strange.”

  Gabe shook his head. “No. Everything isn’t okay, to be honest. And no, I don’t want to talk about it. We have more important things to worry about right now.”

  “Well, if you change your mind, I’m always here to talk. You know that, right?”

  Gabe nodded. “I won’t be able to deal with it until we get back to Huntington.”

  “Go back to sleep and do your thing, old man. We need you to have a vision as soon as possible so we can get the hell out of here. This bed and breakfast is nice, but I’d rather be back in my warm bed at Huntington.”

  “Missing Mary-Kate that much, huh?”

  Austin shrugged. He wasn’t about to tell Gabe that Anna was the real reason he wanted to get back to Huntington.

  ****

  Chapter 16

  That same night, Lexi stared at Anna from across the room. As much as she wanted to spend the night with Craig, she knew that Anna really needed her to be there for her right now. Lexi felt like things had been rocky between her and Anna lately, and she knew it was because she had been keeping secrets from her. It was time to be honest, even if it would hurt her pride.

  “I caught Gabe cheating on me.”

  “What?” Anna asked. The shocked facial expression that filled her face told Lexi that she had no idea. “No way. Gabe loves you. Who was he with?”

  “Veronica Hart,” Lexi said through gritted teeth.

  “Wow. I can’t believe him,” Anna replied. “We all knew that Veronica had a thing for him, but I didn’t think it was mutual. I can’t believe that he actually gave in to her.”

  “It must have been hard for him to resist. Veronica created him. I guess they share a special bond or something.” Just thinking about the bond that Gabe and Veronica probably had with each other made Lexi’s eyes fill up with tears. Even if Gabe hadn’t cheated on her, things would never be as good between them as they were between him and Veronica; they would forever be tied and connected to each other. Even worse, Lexi and Gabe could never be connected in that way because Lexi could never become a vampire, even if she wanted to be.

  “Wow, I never would have guessed that Veronica changed him. No wonder she seems so obsessed with him in class. It makes more sense now. How are you holding up?”

  Lexi shrugged. “It is what it is. He was my first love, though. It hurts pretty bad . . . I’m just trying really hard not to think about it.”

  Anna looked at her sympathetically. “Well, if things don’t work out and you decide not to forgive him, I’m sure we can find you a cute guy here at Huntington.”

  Lexi bit her tongue. Should she tell Anna about Craig? She wanted to be completely honest with her so that they could continue to have a good friendship. At the same time, Lexi was afraid to say anything. What if Anna didn’t approve of teacher-student relationships? What if she told someone? Lexi didn’t want to do anything to ruin the chances that she did have with Craig or make it so he got fired from teaching at Huntington. She would have to test the waters first and ask her some hypothetical questions to see if Anna could be trusted.

  Lexi decided that if she was going to continue to see Craig, they were going to have to make things more private. They couldn’t let anyone see them. There were just too many risks.

  *

  On Monday morning, Lexi woke up bright and early. She felt happy until she remembered that she had to go to Veronica’s class today. The only thing that sounded worse than seeing Veronica on a normal day was seeing her after she had caught her fooling around with Gabe.

  When class started, Lexi noticed that Veronica scanned the crowd for Gabe. When she didn’t see him anywhere, she glared at Lexi.

  “Good morning, class,” Veronica said cheerfully, prancing around the room. “Today, we’re going to do a little bit of a review. I’ll ask you each a question and you can let me know what the correct answer is. Anna, you’re up first.” She pulled a note card from the pile. “What is the most common way to track a vampire?”

  “The most common way a vampire is tracked is through a biological vampire hunter,” Anna answered matter-of-factly. “Non-biological vampire hunters can’t track them as easily.”

  “That is correct.” Veronica pulled out the next card. “Leslie, this question’s for you. When a vampire sniffs the air, what does it mean?”

  “That’s an easy one,” Leslie replied hesitantly, her tone making it obvious that she thought it was too easy. “They’re sniffing the air because they’ve picked up on a human scent.”

  “Correct again!” Veronica pulled out another card. “Alexandria.”

  “Lexi. Please don’t call me Alexandria.” Lexi watched as everyone looked back at her, nervous that Veronica was going to lecture her. Surprisingly, she didn’t . . . but she didn’t call her Lexi, either. “Alexandria, what is the most dangerous thing a vampire hunter can do?”

  “We didn’t learn this in class since I’ve been here,” Lexi replied.

  “Well, you should be reading your book every night and catching up on past course material,” Veronica snapped. “If you don’t think that you can handle the coursework, perhaps you shouldn’t be taking the class. This isn’t in your book, though. It’s common sense.”

  Lexi hesitated before deciding to guess. “The most dangerous thing a vampire hunter can do is be around a vampire alone. Without any backup, they’re less likely to be able to beat a vampire or group of vampires.”

  “That’s incorrect. The most dangerous thing a vampire hunter can do is get romantically involved with a vampire,” Veronica Hart said, flashing Lexi the fakest smile she had ever seen.

  *

  “Okay, that was so not common sense,” Anna said when the class had ended. “I don’t know how she expected you to know that. I’ve been here all semester, and she has never taught us anything like that.”

  “That’s because she was trying to give me some sort of warning,” Lexi replied. “It had nothing to do with the class. She’s trying to tell me not to get involved with Gabe or it will be dangerous for me.” She paused. “It sounds really bad, but it almost makes me want to forgive him – or at least pretend to – so I can prove her wrong.”

  Anna laughed. “I don’t blame you. I’d probably do the same exact thing.”

  They walked into the classroom that they had to go to next. Lexi felt a little nervous. This was the first class that she had with Craig since she had arrived at Huntington. It was weird to think of him, yet again, as being her teacher.

  As soon as class started, she felt instantly relieved. Craig didn’t give her any sort of special treatment or act like she was the only one who was taking his class. Every once in a while, she did notice him meet her
eyes and smile when no one was looking, but it was subtle and kind of cute. It definitely didn’t make her feel weird or embarrassed.

  Lexi actually found the story that Craig had them read today really interesting. There was a vampire hunter named Leonardo Shermino who spent his entire life tracking vampires. He spent many years living in communities that had high concentrations of vampires to get to know his enemy. In his words, it was the easiest way he could figure out how to ‘squash them’. It actually reminded Lexi of what Craig had been doing in Briar Creek.

  When class was over, Craig said, “Lexi? Can you please stay after class?”

  Glancing around, she noticed that no one was giving her funny looks. They didn’t suspect that anything was happening between her and Craig, who, to them, was really just Professor Lindstrom. She really needed to stop being so paranoid. The world didn’t revolve around her and her relationships.

  Lexi waited until all of the students had filed out of the classroom before walking up to Craig’s desk.

  “Can you come over tonight? I want to ask you something in private.”

  Lexi hesitated. “Yeah, I can be there. I’ll see you around nine.”

  “Perfect.” Craig smiled at her.

  ****

  Chapter 17

  Back in Long Island that evening, Gabe walked out of the room they were staying in at Ben’s bed and breakfast. He had a vision that morning, and he was feeling really weak. He’d looked at himself in the mirror just before leaving. His eyes had looked sunken in and hollow and his skin looked paler than it ever had before. He looked like death . . . which was kind of ironic since he was already technically dead.

  Gabe wished that Lexi was here. Even though she was mad at him and he wasn’t so sure about things with her, he knew that she would help him if she knew that he needed it. He really didn’t want to do what he was going to have to do, but he could feel himself growing weaker and weaker as the night went on.