by Unknown
She had to figure out a way to get back to the 21st century, but she was running out of ideas. . . .
Lexi realized that she was going to have to find Dan at some point. Even though she didn’t want to be stuck here with him, she was. And as much as she didn’t trust him – and probably never would after the night he had attacked her – he was the only person she had in this strange place. Lexi also knew that if she figured out how to get out of this time trap before he did, Austin would be really disappointed in her if she left his best friend behind.
Find Dan. That was what she was going to have to do first thing tomorrow. She would do it for Austin – and because, hopefully, two minds would work better than one and they’d be able to find a way out of here.
Lexi wondered where Dan even was. Had he found someone who would pity him enough to let him stay the night in their guest room or was he outside somewhere himself? He, at least, had one benefit for survival over her; vampires were natural hunters; he was already used to finding his own food. If Dan did get stuck here, he could manage on his own.
Once Lexi was finally able to clear her mind, she closed her eyes and wrapped the dress she used as a blanket around her more tightly. As she drifted off to sleep, she didn’t even hear the sound of feet crunching on the leaves or the rustling in the woods.
Chapter 7
****
It was eight o’clock in the morning, and Rhonda had just filled up on a bagel with cream cheese, a classic New York-style breakfast. A nauseous feeling was beginning to form in her stomach. This was the first time she had eaten since the night Gabe had done what he had did to her, and she wasn’t sure if she could hold the food down. Could she still eat human food or would it never agree with her again?
She had been wondering why Gabe had approached her that night in the first place, though now, it didn’t seem too surprising. Why else would Gabe, an attractive guy, pick her out of a bar that was crowded with other, more attractive, women? He must have just needed to drink someone’s blood, and he’d preyed on her because she seemed so innocent and vulnerable.
It was really no different than what Rhonda had done to Dennis two nights prior. She had preyed on the weakest link. Why had Gabe turned her into a vampire, though? It didn’t make any sense.
When Rhonda found Gabe, she was going to show him that she wasn’t weak at all; she was going to make him pay for what he had done to her. What made him think that he had the right to ruin her life like this?
How was she going to find Gabe? He had told her that he was a student, too, hadn’t he? That was the whole reason he had wanted to draw her.
Not that it really mattered what he had said now. Rhonda knew that she couldn’t trust a single word that had come out of his mouth. It had probably all been a ploy to get her back to where he was staying and drink her blood.
The best way to find something that you’ve lost is to go back to the place where you last saw it. The only chance she had of finding Gabe was to start off at the place he had been staying.
When she got to the cute little bed and breakfast with the dollhouse-like exterior that she had always admired, Rhonda marched into the reservation office. A guy, whose nametag said Manny, looked up at her. “May I help you?”
“I hope so,” Rhonda said, flashing him a smile and tossing her strawberry blonde hair back. “I’m looking for this guy named Gabe. I know he was staying here a few days ago. Can you do me a big favor and see if he’s checked out already?”
“Mr. Gabe has checked out already,” Manny replied. “I can tell you where he’s gone, though.”
“Where?” Rhonda asked, trying to hide the surprise in her voice. She was dumbfounded that Manny was willing to tell her where Gabe had gone. It must have been her lucky day.
“He’s staying at the hotel across the street . . . the Starlight Inn. I noticed that the car he arrived in was still parked there this morning, so I don’t think he’s checked out yet.”
Rhonda smiled. “Would you mind doing me another favor?”
Ten minutes later, Rhonda was walking to Room 103, the room that the reservation office had told Manny that Gabe was staying in when he’d told them that Gabe had forgotten a piece of luggage. Rhonda was kind of surprised that Manny had agreed to call for her. She’d never been that convincing; could it be like the movies portrayed? Could vampires convince humans to do anything that they wanted?
Rhonda extended her wrist to knock on the hotel room door when it swung open. A tall guy with dark brown hair and a darker skin tone than Gabe stepped out of the room. His eyes met Rhonda’s and he flashed a wide smile at her. “Oh, hello.”
“Umm, hi,” Rhonda began, trying to ignore how attractive this other guy was. She found her mind drifting to his blood; what did it taste like? “I’m looking for Gabe. Is this the room he’s staying in?”
The other guy nodded. “Yeah, go on in.”
Rhonda flashed him a flirty smile before going into the room. She glanced in the bathroom; it was empty. The little eat-in area was also empty.
Gabe was sprawled out on one of the double beds, his head elevated by a few fluffy pillows.
Rhonda walked over to the bed and noticed that his eyes were closed. She sat down on the bed across from him and slapped her hand down on the wooden nightstand, causing the corded telephone to bounce against egg-colored wall.
“Craig, what did I tell you? Don’t disturb me. This is really important.”
“I’m not Craig,” Rhonda answered. “It’s me . . . Rhonda.” Gabe’s blue eyes popped open, and Rhonda grinned as the look of shock crossed his face. “Bet you didn’t think I’d find you,” she said.
Chapter 8
****
When Gabe opened his eyes, he found Rhonda smiling at him. Gabe felt a nauseous feeling build up in his chest. If he had a heart that pumped blood through his body like a human, it would have skipped a beat or two. He never thought he was going to see Rhonda again.
After the night Gabe had changed Rhonda into a vampire, he hadn’t been expecting to hear from her again. When he’d kicked her out of the room at the bed and breakfast a few hours later, Rhonda had seemed completely out of it.
Of course, Gabe knew that a vampire could always find the vampire who had created them. But it took a vampire a few years usually to realize this, and even when they did know how, they couldn’t do it without a lot of focus and concentration. It wasn’t something that just came easily, which was why Gabe had never bothered to find Veronica. He hadn’t even known that she would be at Huntington High when he’d arrived with Lexi and Austin.
After a few minutes, Gabe finally managed to say, “How did you find me here?”
“Oh, you know. A few birdies helped me out,” Rhonda said cheerfully, waving her hand in the air. Her happy expression was immediately clouded over by a look of darkness. “I need you to tell me why you did this to me.”
Gabe gulped. He remembered what it was like to be a newborn vampire. When Veronica had changed him, he’d gone on a killing spree, without even realizing what he was doing. There was just a constant thirst that he constantly needed to satisfy. Even worse, there were tons of questions about what he was and what would become of him. The answers didn’t make him happy, but the feeling of not knowing had been worse.
“You’re a vampire,” Gabe told her. When Rhonda stared back at him for further explanation, he went on. “The night we were together, I – I really needed to drink from someone. I’m sure that you know what it’s like to crave blood by now. I hadn’t drunk from anyone in a while, and I was thirstier than usual.” He looked up at Rhonda apologetically. “I drank more from you than I should have. My two options were to either let you die or turn you into a vampire, too.”
Rhonda stared at him for a long moment, nervously twirling a piece of strawberry blonde hair around her finger. Finally, she said, “You made the wrong choice. You should have just let me die.”
*
Austin was lying in bed watching a mov
ie with Anna when he heard his cell phone jangling on the nightstand that night. Glancing at the caller ID, he saw that it was Mary-Kate.
Anna seemed to know that Mary-Kate was the one who was calling before Austin even told her. She said, “Maybe you should just answer it. What if it’s something important? Something might be happening back in Briar Creek.”
“I guess you’re right,” Austin replied before reluctantly picking up the phone. When he hit the ‘talk’ button, Mary-Kate whispered, “Austin?”
“What?” Austin asked. He hoped that he didn’t sound as rude as he felt. He didn’t really have a problem with Mary-Kate. He just didn’t want Anna to think that he was still interested in her – and he didn’t want to lead Mary-Kate on either – so he figured that his best option was to be short with her right now.
“My father’s gone insane,” Mary-Kate said, sniffling into the phone. “He thinks Lexi was here . . . and he wants a warrant put out for her arrest.”
“For what?” Austin asked incredulously. “She didn’t do anything.”
“For breaking and entering,” Mary-Kate replied. “I said she didn’t do it, but he didn’t believe me.”
Austin felt the heat rising to his cheeks. It was just like Greg Lawrence to blame Lexi for this. He had already had a warrant put out for her arrest, claiming that she had murdered someone. A second warrant was only going to stir up the pot and make it even more difficult for Lexi to go out in public without getting caught.
“Anyway,” Mary-Kate went on, interrupting his thoughts, “I just wanted to let you know about that. I figured you could pass the information on to her, since I can’t seem to get ahold of her myself.”
“Yeah, I’ll let Lexi know,” Austin muttered. He wanted to tell Mary-Kate about what had happened; she was Lexi’s half-sister, after all. Austin knew that he couldn’t do that, though. If he told her what had happened, Greg Lawrence might somehow find out that they had all been inside his house.
“Be careful, okay?” Mary-Kate said, more of a statement than a question.
“I will be,” Austin replied quietly. He couldn’t help but notice the seriousness in her voice. She was genuinely worried about him, and here he was, not caring about how she felt. It made him feel guilty – but it didn’t change the way he felt about her.
“Austin?” Mary-Kate asked.
“Yeah?” Austin said into the phone.
“I miss you,” Mary-Kate whispered.
Austin glanced over at Anna. She was watching the movie that they had ordered on pay-per-view on the hotel TV. Austin had a feeling that she was listening to his conversation carefully, though. At least, he would be if the situation was reversed and she was on the phone with her boyfriend who she still hadn’t broken up with yet. Austin didn’t want to hurt Mary-Kate’s feelings, but he didn’t have much of a choice right now. If he kept Mary-Kate happy, he would be hurting Anna, and he didn’t want that.
“Me too,” Austin said into the phone before hitting the ‘end’ button.
*
When Craig got back to the hotel room, Gabe was sitting across from the strawberry blonde haired girl who had come looking for him. Craig wasn’t going to ask questions; Gabe had made it quite clear that they were going to stay out of each other’s business during this awkward trip. Craig couldn’t help but feel confused, though. He was pretty sure that Gabe and Lexi had been involved with each other . . . before Gabe had left and she’d gotten involved with him, that is.
Had Gabe really moved on from Lexi that easily?
Craig doubted it. If there was one thing that he knew about vampires, it was that they didn’t take romance that lightly. Sure, there were sometimes one night stands, just like there were with humans, but it normally only happened when a vampire was, to put it bluntly, hungry. When a vampire got romantically involved with a human, it was usually for the long haul . . . unless that vampire had an ulterior motive, of course.
Once Craig saw Gabe and the girl sitting together, he started to turn around and walk back out the door. Before he left the room, Gabe called his name. “Craig? Can you come here?”
Craig turned back around and walked over to them.
“So, Craig? That’s your name, cutie?” the girl asked, batting her eyelashes like butterfly wings at him.
Craig smiled. “Yup, that would be me.” He sat down on the bed next to her and looked at Gabe. “So, what’s going on?”
“I had a vision,” Gabe told him. “Ben is somewhere near a beach. That’s all I’ve seen so far. I need to take a walk, but would you mind telling Austin and Anna when you see them?”
Craig nodded. “Sure. I’ll let them know.”
“Thanks,” Gabe muttered before walking out of the hotel room, slamming the door behind him.
Craig glanced over at the girl. “So, now that you already know my name, what’s your name?” he asked.
“Rhonda,” she replied, smiling at him. She leaned back on the bed, resting on her elbows. Her hair fell over her shoulders, and there was an unusual glow to her skin.
No wonder Gabe was moving on so quickly. Something about this girl was oddly attractive.
Chapter 9
****
That night, Lexi dreamt that she was alongside a river where there were hundreds of butterflies swirling around her, attaching themselves to her clothes and to her hair. The sun was shining, and everything seemed so happy . . . when suddenly, everything turned black.
Dark clouds moved across the sky like a movie screen, and the rain began falling down all around her. As the rain began to soak her clothes, Lexi looked for cover.
She found it beneath a canopy of willow trees, which had branches that loomed over her protectively. Just as she hugged the trunk of the tree, loud footsteps sounded from behind her.
“She smells alluring,” a man’s voice said quietly, as though in whispers. Then in a whispery voice, he said, “Hunter blood.”
“Aye, very alluring. I bet she’s delicious,” a second man’s voice agreed. This voice sent chills down Lexi’s spine. It sounded gruffer; she was sure that it belonged to someone much more mature than the person who the first and seemingly more innocent voice belonged to.
“Do you want to drink from her or shall I?” the first voice asked. Although this voice was filled with desire, Lexi knew that he was submissive enough to listen to whatever the first voice would tell him to do.
“Let us share her. You may go first, but don’t be too greedy,” the second voice replied.
Feeling a hot breath on her neck, Lexi tensed up and cracked open one eye.
There was a guy, who appeared to be not much older than she, hovering over her. When he met her eyes with his own cat green eyes, he appeared startled. The guy glanced over his shoulder before turning back to Lexi and, covering her mouth with his hand, sunk his teeth into her neck.
Lexi felt a warm feeling rush over her body, sending chills down her spine, as the vampire drank from her. She should have known that this was going to happen without the bat pendant. There must have been a reason Belinda had been making the bat pendants in the first place. Vampires had probably been stalking Albert for weeks at this point.
As she felt her blood gush from the wound, the vampire swirled his tongue around her skin, lapping the blood up hungrily, Lexi began to lose focus of her thoughts. The guy was drinking from her forcefully – more hungrily than Gabe ever had – and it was making her feel weak.
Deciding that the end of her life was in sight, Lexi stopped struggling and gave in to the attack. Her mind drifted to Gabe. They would never see each other again. She would never get back to the 21st century. This was it. She was going to die.
At some point, Lexi felt the guy stop drinking for her. She waited for the second guy to begin drinking, but she didn’t feel him move towards her. Not that it was surprising; she didn’t feel anything at all. It was as though her body had gone into some sort of shock. She couldn’t bring herself to open her eyes – partly because she was too
afraid to see what was happening to her, but mostly because she felt too weak to even try.
Lexi felt strong hands grabbing her waist and lifting her up before everything turned to blackness.
*
A bright light shone in Lexi’s eyes, and her mom appeared in front of her.
“Mom?” Lexi whispered. Even though she still felt weak, she was really excited to see her mom. It had been a long time since her mother had paid her a visit. “I didn’t think you would be able to find me here.”
Her mom’s lips turned up into a warm smile and she touched Lexi’s face with her fingertips. “I’ll always be able to find you, no matter where you are. You have to listen to me, Lexi. What I’m about to tell you next is very important.”
“Okay,” Lexi replied, nodding. She never questioned when her mom gave her advice because there were times when she didn’t understand it . . . like when her mom had told her that she had to forgive Gabe even after he had tried to kill her.
“You have to open your eyes,” her mom instructed. “It’s not your time to go yet. You have to be strong. A lot of people are depending on you.”
“What do you mean? Who’s depending on me?” Lexi asked. “You can’t mean the people of Briar Creek.”
“They are depending on you, Lexi. But not in the way you’re probably thinking,” her mom replied. “I can’t explain it at all to you right now, but you have to trust your instincts. Next, you have to be careful about who you trust. Not everyone who you care about is being honest with you. Some of them have ulterior motives and bad intentions.”
“Is Gabe one of them?” Lexi whispered. Her mom had insisted that she trust him before. Could she really be taking it back now? Just thinking about the possibility that Gabe could have ulterior motives or bad intentions made her feel sick to her stomach. It was then that she realized how much she loved him – how much she didn’t want to be apart from him. Gabe had the capability to hurt her, to break her down, to tear her to pieces, because she cared about him so much.