Change of Fate (The Briar Creek Vampires, #4) by Jayme Morse & Jody Morse (14 page)

Natural instinct told Austin that, no matter
what happened, he was going to have to do his best to try and
protect everyone in the house from these guys. He couldn’t let Anna
die because, quite frankly, he was beginning to fall in love with
her. He would never forgive himself if she died and he had been so
much of a chicken that he had just let it happen.

Austin also couldn’t let Gabe die – not after
everything that he had done to help him and Lexi over the past
year. If something happened to Gabe, Austin was pretty sure that
Lexi would never forgive him. Ben had to stay alive because without
him, they might never figure out how to get Lexi and Dan back. And,
although Austin couldn’t figure out a reason why he had to save
Craig, he knew that he couldn’t let him die here either. He didn’t
know what was going on between Lexi and Craig, but Austin was
pretty sure that she wouldn’t be happy if their professor died.

When they reached the top of the staircase,
Austin pulled one of the matches out of the box. One wrong move and
he was going to light these guys on fire – and hope that no one
else in the house would get in the way.

As Austin and Anna approached the bedroom
that Ben had been staying in, they heard the yelling. “How the hell
did you get loose?” Larry’s voice boomed from the other side of the
wall.

Before Ben had the chance to say anything in
return, Austin took a step forward. “I let him loose.”

Larry and Mike both glanced in Austin’s
direction, their eyes widened and their faces full of utter
fear.

“Austin Graham?” Mike asked, his voice merely
a whisper.

It took him a minute, but Austin quickly
realized why Mike and Larry were so shocked to see him, and why
their faces looked like they had just seen a ghost. It was because
they thought he
was
a ghost. They didn’t know that he wasn’t
really dead. Maybe Austin would be able to use this to his
advantage. He laughed out loud. “Yes, guys, it’s me . . . good ‘ol
Austin Graham back from the dead.”

“He’s a ghost,” Larry muttered weakly to
Mike, who continued to stare at Austin like he was a four-headed
dinosaur.

“Indeed. I am a ghost,” Austin replied. “This
is my ghost girlfriend, Anna.” He motioned towards Anna, who gave
the guys a very forced smile. Austin allowed himself to lose
control of his voice; without any anger or emotion, there was no
way these guys were going to believe his act. “We have come here to
warn you both to leave Benjamin Hunter alone,” Austin boomed, his
voice echoing throughout the mostly empty room.

Mike and Larry both backed away from Ben,
their faces still a shade of ghostly white. They crept out of the
room, edging their way past Austin before running down the steps.
As Austin heard one of them slip and fall, he stifled a giggle.
Things couldn’t have worked out more perfectly.

Once Austin heard the front door slam shut,
he motioned for Ben to follow him. “Come on! And hurry up. We might
not have much time before they realize they didn’t just see a
ghost.”

Ben followed him out the door, and Craig and
Gabe climbed out of the closet that they had been hiding in
together. When Austin raised his eyebrows in question at them, Gabe
explained, “Well, we had to hide somewhere.”

“Well, let’s stop hiding and get in the car,”
Austin replied, whirling around and walking down the steps.
Thankfully, no one had found that he was really alive yet or this
wouldn’t have been so easy. Would his parents – if he could even
call them that – put two and two together now, or would they
believe that Larry and Mike had really seen his ghost?

Austin felt relieved that he wasn’t going to
be around to find out. And right now, he couldn’t worry about what
his parents would think if they
did
find out that he was
alive. He had to worry about finding a way to get Lexi and Dan
back.

He led Anna, Gabe, Craig, and Ben out the
front door and raced over to the car. As they all got in and
slammed the car doors closed, Anna bursted into laughter. “Austin,
that was freaking awesome! And they totally bought it!”

Austin grinned at her in the rearview mirror.
“It was pretty funny.”

“It was pretty risky,” Ben said, sternly. “If
anyone takes those two seriously and figures out that Austin’s
still alive, it isn’t going to be pretty.”

“You’re telling me,” Austin muttered, as he
pulled the car off the road. “Where should we go now?”

“I don’t think we should go back to Long
Island,” Anna spoke up. When Austin glanced at her for an
explanation, she continued. “It’s just that Mary-Kate knows we were
there. You told her on the phone. She might come looking for us or
rat out where we are.”

“That’s not possible,” Ben interjected.
“Mary-Kate doesn’t know where my bed and breakfast is. I’m the one
who gave Gabe and Austin the address.”

Austin kept his eyes on the road. “Actually,
Mary-Kate does know the address. I don’t know how, but . . . she
came to visit me at the hotel we were staying at.”

“She did?” Ben, Anna, and Gabe all asked at
the same time. Only Craig, who was sitting in the passenger’s seat,
didn’t seem surprised about it. That or he just didn’t care that
Mary-Kate had visited Austin. Why would he? It’s not like it
affected him in any way. He probably didn’t even know Mary-Kate any
better than most of the guys who she let drink from her knew
her.

Austin nodded. “Yep, she came to see me after
I broke up with her. She wanted to know why.” He glanced at Anna,
who was looking down at her hands. She looked up and, when their
eyes met in the rearview mirror, Austin noticed the pained
expression in her eyes. It looked like she had been punched in the
face by someone she loved, and it made Austin feel like shit.

He knew that he should have told her about
Mary-Kate’s visit before now. Austin didn’t even know why he had
kept it a secret so far. Was it because he didn’t want Anna to
know? No, that wasn’t it. Anna was the coolest girl Austin had ever
met. She would have understood. In fact, she probably would have
even felt some pity for Mary-Kate’s feelings and likely would have
told Austin that he was a jerk for breaking up with her over a
voicemail message again.

Austin realized that the reason he hadn’t
told Anna was because he didn’t want to ruin their getaway from
Huntington. He’d wanted this to be fun and romantic for them –
which was probably a mistake in itself. He should have been
focusing on Lexi and Dan this whole time instead of trying to start
a relationship. Austin would apologize to Anna later for not
telling her about Mary-Kate, but right now, he had to get his
priorities straight.

“I guess we’ll head to Huntington since Long
Island might be risky.” Austin said, turning his focus to Ben. So,
how do we time travel like Dan and Lexi?” Austin asked, turning to
Ben.

“There is a way, but I’m not sure offhand,”
Ben said. “I’d need to see the book for a moment to remember what
it is.”

“The book’s in the trunk,” Craig told him.
“Do you think we should all time travel or should some of us stay
here?”

“Why?” Gabe shot back at him. “Do you not
want to time travel?”

Craig shrugged. “I dunno. It wasn’t on my
to-do list before all this.”

Austin heard Gabe scoff, obviously annoyed at
Craig. He didn’t know what was going on between Gabe and Craig, but
it felt like they were really tense around each other. Of course,
it probably had to do with Lexi. Gabe probably knew that Craig was
only here because there was something going on between him and
Lexi. Why else would Craig have been at the Lawrence’s house with
her that day?

“Actually, it probably would be wise for some
of us to stand guard of the book,” Ben said, considering the idea.
“Is Mary-Kate mad at you, Austin?”

Austin paused.
Was
Mary-Kate mad at
him? It hadn’t seemed like it, but then again, he knew that she
wasn’t one to show her emotions too much when it came to
relationships – which was really strange because she could
definitely be a drama queen in other aspects of her life. “I don’t
think so. Why?”

“If she was, I think we would have to worry,”
Ben replied. “I’d be afraid that she would tell Violet and Tom or
Greg Lawrence that you’re still alive.”

Austin didn’t say anything in response,
considering the possibility. It didn’t seem like something
Mary-Kate would do, but he also didn’t think she would drive all
the way to Long Island – to an address she wasn’t supposed to know
about – just because she was upset about the breakup. He hoped that
Mary-Kate would just keep her mouth closed for now, but the odds of
his parents finding out that he was still alive seemed to be
increasing.

Glancing in the rearview mirror, he noticed
that the same green Ford Focus that had been following them since
they’d left the house at the Jersey shore. He noticed that the car
was getting closer to them. “It looks like we’re being followed,”
Austin told the others.

Chapter 19

****

Gabe stared out the window as the green Ford
Focus approached their car. He was afraid that it was Mike and
Larry, somehow coming to their senses and realizing that Austin
wasn’t actually dead.

When the car pulled into the lane next to
them and the driver stared into his window, Gabe froze. It was
Rhonda. “What the hell,” he said aloud.

Anna, Austin, and Ben all turned to look at
him, their faces full of questions. “What’s wrong?” Ben asked.

“It’s Rhonda,” Gabe replied.

“Who’s Rhonda?” Anna asked, her voice
squeaking a little bit. Gabe could tell from the way her legs had
tensed up that she was freaked out by the fact that someone had
been following them.

“She’s the cutie who Gabe turned into a
vampire,” Craig said matter-of-factly.

“You turned someone into a vampire?” Ben
asked, turning to Gabe. “Why did you do that? It’s going to draw
attention to us.”

“I had no choice,” Gabe replied in
frustration. “My visions drain me. They make me weak. I need to
drink, and Lexi wasn’t here. If I didn’t drink from Rhonda, I would
have died.”

“I understand that,” Ben said slowly. “What
I’m asking is why you
turned her into a vampire
.”

“I’ve been living on Hunter blood for the
past few years,” Gabe replied. “Lexi and Mary-Kate weren’t there.”
He paused. “Try switching from the highest quality human blood to
blood that’s only mediocre. It doesn’t quench your thirst as
well.”

Ben didn’t say anything in response. Gabe
knew it was probably because Ben didn’t understand because he
couldn’t drink Hunter blood since
he
was a Hunter. Drinking
from one’s own bloodline was basically the same thing as incest. It
was completely unethical, so Ben would never be able to experience
how delicious – how satisfying – Hunter blood really was.

Gabe’s thoughts were interrupted by the loud
sound of Rhonda’s car horn blaring. He leaned his head back and
stared up at the ceiling of the car, even though he really wanted
to bang his head against the window. How had Rhonda found him? It
wasn’t that easy to find the vampire who created you. Were her
abilities already so sharp that she would be able to find Gabe no
matter where he was? The idea absolutely terrified him.

Rhonda continued honking at them until Austin
said, “I’m pulling over. This is ridiculous.” Moving in front of
Rhonda’s car, Austin took the next exit and parked in front of a
McDonald’s. Austin turned and looked at Gabe. “Go figure out what
her deal is.”

Reluctantly, Gabe climbed out of the car,
just as Rhonda was swinging her own car door open. When she stepped
out, Gabe felt his breath catch in the back of his throat.

Rhonda looked really different than she had
the last time he’d seen her at the hotel room. In just a short
time, her appearance had drastically changed. She wasn’t the same
awkward Plain Jane who he had picked up at the bar that night.
Rhonda was transforming into a beautiful vampire. Her hair, which
had been a shade of strawberry blonde before, had taken on a
lustrous shade of copper. Her fair skin no longer appeared to be
ghostly white; it now looked like it should belong to a porcelain
doll. And the curves of her body, which had either been nonexistent
before or had been hidden behind the baggy clothing, was now hugged
by the short red dress with the plunging neckline that she
wore.

“Gabe,” Rhonda said, flashing him a wide
smile with her red lipstick-covered lips. “I need to speak to
you.”

“Then speak,” Gabe said, trying hard not to
stare at her. Her looks were having a mesmerizing effect on him –
an effect that he had never really experienced because he’d only
ever been interested in humans, for the most part. There had been
Veronica, but he hadn’t been attracted to her nearly as much as he
was to Rhonda right now.

“Can we go inside?” Rhonda asked. “Let me buy
you a milkshake.”

Gabe hesitated. As a vampire, he didn’t need
to eat – and he actually had to bring it back up or it would make
him sick otherwise. But strawberry milkshakes were one of his
weaknesses, and he hadn’t one in many years.

Glancing over at the car, he noticed that
everyone seemed to be talking amongst themselves. They wouldn’t
even notice if he went inside the McDonald’s with Rhonda for just a
little bit. “Fine,” he told her and followed her into the
restaurant.

The smell of greasy hamburgers, chicken
nuggets, and French fries filled his nostrils as he and Rhonda
ordered their milkshakes. Once they were seated at one of the
booths, Gabe glanced around to make sure no one was listening
before saying, “You know eating human food isn’t good for you,
right?”

“I didn’t know that, but it explains why I
haven’t been hungry lately,” Rhonda replied, tying a knot in the
paper wrapper from her straw. When it ripped in half, she held up
both pieces and squealed, “Oh, look! Someone’s thinking about me! I
wonder who that might be.” She winked at Gabe flirtatiously.