Change of Fate (The Briar Creek Vampires, #4) by Jayme Morse & Jody Morse (10 page)

So, what was it that she was feeling with Dan
right now? It couldn’t be love. It might be lust. Lexi had always
thought that he was really cute, and there was a time when she
thought that they might have some chemistry – though not nearly as
much as she had with Gabe. Then again, once she’d realized her aunt
and uncle’s motives and after Dan had tried to attack her that
night, Lexi hadn’t really allowed herself to feel anything for him.
Would her feelings have grown with time if that hadn’t
happened?

Lexi quickly shook the idea away. It wasn’t
even lust. It was probably just because they had gone through this
whole ordeal together. Dan was the only one in the entire world who
would be able to relate to her right now.
That must be why I’m
feeling this way
, Lexi thought as she rested her head on Dan’s
shoulder.

It also must have been why, as Dan tightened
his embrace, he whispered to her, “When we get back, I’m not going
back to Briar Creek. I want to go to Huntington with you.”

Chapter 14

****

125 Sandy Shore Lane. That was the address on the
house that Gabe had seen in his vision that Ben was staying at.
Sitting up in the bed that he had been laying in, Gabe muttered to
Craig, “Tell Austin that I have an address, but not a town
yet.”

Craig nodded and darted out of the hotel room. Gabe
stared at the ceiling, trying to ignore his headache and the
nauseous feeling that had built up in his stomach. He wished that
Lexi was here with him right now so that he wouldn’t have to go out
and find another human to feed from. He had forgotten how tedious
it was to constantly require blood after his visions.

Moments later, the hotel room door creaked open
again, and Gabe heard the sound of several pairs of feet coming
towards him.

When Gabe looked up, Austin was hovering over him,
looking him in the eyes. “Gabe? Are you okay?”

Gabe felt himself declining fast. “No,” he
whispered. “I need blood.”

Anna knelt down on the ground in front of him and
held out her wrist. “Drink from me, Gabe.”

Gabe looked at Austin for approval, and he nodded.
Lowering his head to Anna’s wrist, Gabe sunk his teeth into her
skin and felt the blood pour onto his tongue. Anna closed her eyes
while he drank.

Anna’s blood tasted good, but not as good as Lexi’s.
Still, he could feel his body replenishing with the nutrients that
his vision had depleted him of. When Gabe felt revitalized and
stopped drinking, he wiped his mouth with his hand. “Thank you,” he
whispered.

“You’re welcome,” Anna said, a solemn look on her
face. Gabe wondered what was wrong with her. It seemed like she was
upset or angry. Gabe hadn’t been the one who had asked for her
blood; she’d offered it to him all on her own.

“So, what exactly did you see?” Austin asked.

“All I saw was the address . . . 125 Sandy Shore
Lane. I have no idea what town it was in but we know from my last
vision that it’s in New Jersey,” Gabe replied. “I’m guessing we can
probably find the house based on that alone, though. It should help
us figure out the town.”

Austin turned to Craig. “Would you mind going to the
internet café? It’s right next to the hotel lobby. Just see if you
can find out what city at the Jersey shore has that address.”

Craig nodded. “I’m on it.”

Once the door shut behind him, Gabe said, “The house
. . . it was white. I didn’t actually see Ben inside, but somehow,
I just know he’s there.”

“I don’t doubt your vision,” Austin replied. “It
would have been helpful if you had seen the city, but we can figure
that out on our own.” Just then, his cell phone began blaring to
the sound of a rap song. “I’ll be right back,” Austin said, picking
up the phone and leaving the room.

*

“What do you mean you’re in Long Island?” Austin
asked loudly into the phone. He could feel his cheeks reddening and
his panic level escalating.

“When I got your message yesterday, I just . . . I
had to see you,” Mary-Kate said softly. “We just need to talk about
this, okay?”

Austin sighed loudly into the phone. He didn’t want
to see Mary-Kate; he didn’t care to explain anything to her. He had
already told her all there was to be said, but how could Austin say
no when she had come all the way from Long Island? “Fine,” Austin
said through gritted teeth. “I’m at the Starlight Inn. Room
220.”

“Awesome, I’ll be there in two minutes,” Mary-Kate
replied. “I’m across the street at my dad’s bed and breakfast.”

When Austin hung up the phone, the feelings of dread
began to build up. He really didn’t want to see Mary-Kate. Even
worse, he was going to have to find a way to explain to Anna why
Mary-Kate was here. Austin knew that Anna wasn’t the jealous type
like Mary-Kate was, so she probably wouldn’t care. Still, he was
hoping that Mary-Kate would only be here for a really short time
and leave unnoticed so that he wouldn’t even have to explain
anything to Anna.

Mary-Kate’s estimate on how long it would take her
to get to the room was about right; within two minutes, there was a
loud knock at the door. Austin opened it and, when he saw Mary-Kate
standing in the doorway, he let her in.

Her mascara was streaked down her cheeks; it was
obvious that she had been crying on the way here. Her chestnut
brown hair was also disheveled. It looked like she hadn’t even
brushed it yet. Austin tried to ignore the pang of guilt that he
felt at the sight of her sloppy appearance and red puffy eyes. “So,
what do you want to talk about?” he asked.

Mary-Kate shook her head. “I just – I don’t
understand. Why?”

“It just happened,” Austin said, shrugging. “I don’t
know why. I guess all this time away from each other has made us
really grow apart. Maybe you should have come to live with me at
Ben’s house when I asked you to.”

Mary-Kate stared back at him, completely silent.
Then she glanced over at the dresser, her eyes hovering over Anna’s
pink duffel bag. She looked back at Austin, meeting his eyes. “Who
is she?”

”I don’t know if that’s any of your business,”
Austin replied. As sweet as Mary-Kate could be, Austin knew that
she could also be vicious when she wanted. Girls who crossed her
path were often punished by taking a hit to their social status; no
one messed with the mayor’s daughter and still remained
popular.

“Okay, fine,” Mary-Kate replied. “Don’t tell me her
name if you don’t want, but . . . do you think we can try again?
Maybe we could work this out.”

Austin shook his head. “No, it’s not going to work
out. I’m sorry.”

For some reason, Mary-Kate’s reaction was surprising
to him. Austin hadn’t really expected her to care about their
breakup at all. He had assumed that she was experiencing the same
feelings as him – and maybe even seeing somebody else, too.

“Well, then,” Mary-Kate said, standing up and
brushing her jeans with her hands. “I guess that’s that. I better
head back to Briar Creek. Can I use your bathroom here first,
though?”

Austin nodded, grateful that Mary-Kate wasn’t going
to push the issue any further. He didn’t know what the point of her
driving all the way to Long Island was just to have this talk, but
things definitely could have gone a lot worse than they had.
Hopefully, Mary-Kate would make peace with their break up really
soon.

There was a knock on the door that connected Anna
and Austin’s room to Gabe and Craig’s room. “I’ll be right there,”
Austin called. He walked over to the bathroom door and knocked.
“Mary-Kate,” he hissed. “I’m gonna go. You can let yourself
out.”

When Austin went into the other room, he found Anna
sitting at the table and Gabe was sitting up in bed. Craig was
awkwardly standing front of one of the beds.

“We found the address,” Gabe told Austin. “It’s in a
little town called Ocean Crest. There were no other matches.”

“Well, then, I guess that’s where we’re going,”
Austin said. He glanced over at Anna, who had a sad expression on
her face.

“We have to be prepared for what we’re going to find
there, though,” Gabe said. “We need a plan before we go.”

Craig looked over at Gabe. “What do you think we’re
going to find there? This isn’t just a case of a missing guy.”

Gabe shook his head. “No . . . based on my other
visions, I’m pretty sure that Ben is being held hostage.”

“Let me guess,” Craig said. “By the Mayor and his
cronies.”

“Well, that was a tough one,” Gabe muttered.
“Anyway, what are we going to do if we get there and there are more
people guarding Ben than we’re expecting?”

“We fight,” Anna chimed in. “We’ve all been at
Huntington for a reason. We can’t back down . . . not if we want to
save Lexi and Dan.”

“Yeah, that’s really the most we can do,” Austin
agreed. He had been listening to see if he could hear the door to
his hotel room close. He hadn’t heard anything; the hotel walls
were probably soundproof. Austin had been in Gabe’s room for more
than enough time for Mary-Kate to finish up in the bathroom and let
herself out, though, so he said, “We should probably get
packing.”

“Yeah, let’s be ready to leave in an hour,” Craig
said.

Austin opened the connecting door, which he had left
unlocked, and Anna followed him inside their room. Austin glanced
at the bathroom door. It was wide open. Mary-Kate must have left
herself out already. He breathed a sigh of relief. Austin hated to
keep secrets from Anna, so he would probably tell her that
Mary-Kate had come to their room eventually, but he just didn’t
feel like dealing with it right now.

Anna was still being quiet – which was rare for her
when they were alone together. She was normally happy and giddy
around him. “Is everything okay?” Austin asked.

Anna shook her head and flopped down on the bed. “I
don’t know. I just – I know I had to let Gabe drink from me because
there was no other human blood available, and he really didn’t look
too good. But . . . I just always thought that the first time a
vampire would drink from me, it would be you.”

Austin felt a wave of relief wash over him. “How
about this? Instead of being the first vampire to drink from you,
I’ll be the last.”

Anna smiled. “I’d like that.”

*

“I can’t believe you thought to bring stakes and
matches,” Gabe told Anna, as he sat next to her in the backseat of
the sedan. They were almost in New Jersey already; their attack was
in the near future.

Anna smiled and shifted in her seat uncomfortably.
Gabe wasn’t sure why, but he had noticed that Anna had been acting
really weird tonight – ever since he had drunk her blood. He hoped
that wasn’t why she was acting so strange. It actually made him
feel bad. “I’m a vampire hunter. I bring stakes and matches almost
everywhere I go.”

“Let me be the one to put a stake through their
hearts,” Austin chimed in from the front seat.

Gabe laughed. “I don’t think so, Austin. We all know
how good you were in Stakeology class.” The science of staking a
vampire was called Stakeology. It was one of the classes that they
had taken during their stay at Huntington High. As it turned out,
Austin was actually really bad at it – almost laughable, really,
because of the way he snuck up (or, to put it bluntly,
didn’t
sneak up on vampires). Lexi was the only one who had
exceled in the subject, which they had later found out was probably
because she had vampire hunters in her bloodline; that was probably
why her last name was Hunter.

Gabe found it a little ironic that her blood was the
most sought after because it was superior to the blood of other
humans – and yet, she also had powerful vampire hunters in her
bloodline. It seemed really strange that their blood would be so
much more powerful. It would make it a lot harder for a vampire
hunter to stay hidden. On the other hand, maybe that was why she
had vampire hunters in her blood; what better way to catch them to
lure them in with blood that vampires go crazy over? The Hunter’s
had probably had to learn overtime to become hunters to fight back
against the vampires who sought them out.

“So, what do we do if this Ben guy doesn’t know how
we can get Lexi back?” Craig asked from the passenger’s seat.

“We deal with it then, I guess,” Austin replied. “As
of right now, Ben is our only answer.”

Gabe thought back to the vision that he’d had
tonight. He hadn’t seen Lexi’s father in the vision. He also hadn’t
seen the people who were keeping him there. Yet, somehow, Gabe knew
that Ben was still alive – at the time of his vision, at least. It
was as though he felt some sort of presence that let him know that
Ben was there inside the house.

Once Austin drove past the sign that read “Welcome
to Ocean Crest,” Gabe began to feel panicky. It had been a really
long time since he had fought any vampires. Fighting other vampires
was mostly common sense. Gabe hoped that, like riding a bike, it
was something that he would be able to pick up on again really
quickly.

It was funny how many changes had happened in his
life since he had been a teenager. He still found it ironic. Even
though he had turned eighteen many years ago, it still felt like
yesterday. Back then, before he had become a vampire, Gabe never
would have thought about fighting someone. Even when someone messed
with him, he usually didn’t defend himself as much as he should
have. His mom had always gotten angry with him over letting people
bully him and walk all over him.

Gabe would never let someone walk all over him
again. When he saw Greg Lawrence next, he was going to give him a
peace of his mind – even if that meant that one of them wouldn’t
live to see the next day. Ideally, Gabe would be the one who would
win that battle.

Gabe listened from the back seat as the obnoxious
woman’s voice on the GPS spurted out the directions to Austin. He
rolled his eyes. Were people really so lazy nowadays that they
couldn’t just read a road map to get where they needed? Advances in
technology confused him sometimes.