Change of Fate (The Briar Creek Vampires, #4) by Jayme Morse & Jody Morse (16 page)

Whirling around to face her, Gabe said, “What
the hell are you doing here?”

“I saw Anna in the hallway,” Veronica
explained. “So, I figured you were back. You know how I knew you
were in your dorm room, though.”

Gabe shook his head in disgust. “I would
appreciate it if you would try to not find me unless I make it
clear that I want to be found.” He was getting sick of Veronica
using their special bond to figure out where he was. It was getting
old.

“Tsk, tsk. There’s really no reason for you
to be so mean,” Veronica said, shaking her head. “I just wanted to
see how you were.”

“I’m fine,” Gabe told her. “I’ll be better
once you leave my room.”

Veronica’s delicate features twisted in
anger. “Fine, but answer me one question first. Why did you bring
home offspring?”

“This isn’t my home,” Gabe said coolly. “And
you know I don’t like the term ‘offspring’.” Offspring was a fairly
old-fashioned term that was used to describe newborn vampires. They
were considered the offspring of the vampire who created them. The
whole idea sickened Gabe, though, because it implied that there was
some sort of mother or father relationship with the vampires they
created. It wouldn’t be so bad if it weren’t for the fact that many
of these so-called offspring ended up spending the rest of their
life, as lovers, with their creators.

“Fine, why did you create another vamp?”
Veronica said sweetly. “Is Lexi not enough for you?”

“This has nothing to do with Lexi,” Gabe shot
back at her. “And, to be honest, it’s really none of your business,
either.”

Glaring at him through her green cat-like
eyes, Veronica walked away from him and slammed the door behind
her.

Lying on his bed, Gabe couldn’t help but
wonder how long it was going to be before Lexi got back. He had
taken for granted how uncomplicated things were with her in
comparison to the other women who were trying to force their way
into his life.

*

Austin knocked on the door of Anna’s dorm
room. It was opened, and Anna stared back at him. She had changed
into a pair of short black leather shorts and a hot pink and black
zebra print tank top. Her hair was pulled into a short ponytail on
top of her head. Austin’s breath caught in the back of his throat
at the sight of her beauty.

“Hi,” Anna said quietly, looking down at the
ground.

Austin could tell, from the look on her face,
that Anna was still mad at him. “Look, I wanted to apologize to
you. I’m so sorry I lied to you.”

“You didn’t lie to me, Austin,” Anna said,
her face softening.

“I know, but it feels like I did. I should
have just told you that Mary-Kate came to see me instead of hiding
it from you. I just . . . I wanted us to have a good time. I didn’t
want to even think about Mary-Kate. I was only concerned about
you.” Austin sat down on Anna’s bed, patting the down
comforter.

Anna sat down beside him, tucking her legs
under her. “I understand. And I forgive you. But –” She took a deep
breath. “There’s something I need to know.”

Austin looked over at her, losing himself in
her chocolate brown eyes. “What is it?”

“Well,” Anna began, looking down at the
linoleum floor. “I like you. And I know you like me, too. So, what
does that make us?”

Austin smiled. She was so damn cute. “What do
you want it to make us?”

Anna looked over at him. “I want to be your
girlfriend.”

“I was hoping that’s what you would say,”
Austin said. He couldn’t control the grin that crossed his face as
he took her in his arms, pulling her close to him. Anna tilted her
chin and, closing her eyes, pressed her lips gently against his.
Austin felt the knots in his stomach twist as they shared their
first kiss.

When Anna pulled away from him, Austin
whispered, “I’ve wanted to do that for so long.”

“Me, too,” Anna agreed. She started to say
something else, but they were interrupted by the sound of a loud
knock at the door.

Anna climbed off the bed and flung the door
open. Gabe came into the room. “There you are,” he told Austin.
“Ben wants to see us. It has to do with the book.”

“Okay, cool,” Austin said, standing up. He
felt a feeling of hope wash over him as he followed Gabe out of the
room, holding hands with Anna. As long as things went according to
plan, Lexi and Dan should be back with them really soon – possibly
even tonight.

When they found Ben, who was sitting on a
sofa in the lounge, he said, “We have a problem.” Judging from the
saddened look that crossed Ben’s face, Austin could tell that
things
weren’t
going to go according to plan; it wasn’t
going to be that easy to get Lexi and Dan back after all.

Chapter 22

****

Belinda’s house smelled like cinnamon,
ginger, and a few other scents that Lexi didn’t really recognize.
The woman hovered over the stove, watching the pot as it bubbled
over.

Lexi felt her neck. She’d convinced Belinda
to give her one of the bat pendants so that she wouldn’t have any
run-ins with vampires while they were here. Belinda had ended up
giving her both pendants. Lexi had stuffed the second pendant
inside her jeans pocket.

“What happened to your face?” Lexi asked
quietly. She didn’t know if now was the right time to ask, but the
tears had been streaming from Belinda’s eyes like a waterfall. Lexi
figured that she might as well talk about something – anything –
that would get the woman’s mind off Albert, who they had left lying
by the river bank. Dan was on the front porch, watching out for
him.

Belinda turned and glanced over at Lexi.
“Albert and I went to our hunting cabin, and the people from church
knew about it. They caught it on fire.”

“Why?” Lexi asked.

“They believed I was a witch. They would
lynch me if they knew what I was doing right now.” Belinda
chuckled. “Being involved in witchcraft is not acceptable in our
society, even when it’s used for the greater good.”

“Not in our society, either,” Lexi murmured.
She remembered watching a Lifetime movie about a girl who was
harassed at school because she practiced witchcraft. It was weird
how, as much as technology progressed over the years, people were
still set in their ways. She wondered if witchcraft would ever be
accepted.

“What’s it like, the future that you come
from?” Belinda asked, tossing her long braid over her shoulder.

Lexi shrugged. “We wear different clothes.
They come in bright colors, and we show off more skin. We have the
internet, reality TV shows, and –”

“The internet? TV shows?” Belinda asked, a
baffled look on her face.

Lexi laughed, realizing that Belinda wouldn’t
know about any of these things. “We have these things called
computers. They’re, like… boxes. And you can talk to anyone you
want, from all over the world, using them. And televisions – or TVs
– are these boxes which let you watch actors put on plays, sort of.
Except TV’s getting kind of dumb lately. We just watch people go to
the beach and get drunk.”

“Oh, my, it does sound different,” Belinda
murmured, turning back to the pot. She glanced back at Lexi. “This
isn’t going to be done for a few hours. Maybe you and Dan should go
see what it was like to live in the 1800s, since you’re here
already.”

Lexi nodded, realizing that this was
Belinda’s cue to make her leave so that she could have some time to
herself.

“Are you hungry?” Belinda asked. “You may
take a biscuit and jam with you.”

“Yes, I am hungry actually,” Lexi replied,
feeling her stomach growl at just the thought of food. “Thank you.”
She grabbed a biscuit from the basket on the table and slathered on
blueberry jam from the jar that Belinda handed her. As she went out
of the house to find Dan, she savored the deliciousness of the
biscuit, but realized how much she could go for a slice of
pepperoni pizza right now.

Dan was still sitting on the porch, staring
at the place where Albert’s body laid completely motionless. As
Lexi approached him, he looked up and smiled. “Well, what did she
do for you?”

“She refuses to tell me, but she’s cooking up
whatever it is,” Lexi said, shrugging. “It won’t be done for a few
hours. She basically told me I had to leave for now. I figured we
could take a walk or something to kill some time.”

Dan nodded. “Sounds good to me. I don’t think
he’ll be waking up any time soon. If I remember right, it usually
takes forty-eight to seventy-two hours before you wake up after
becoming a vampire.”

“Guess I should get ready for two to three
days of sleep then,” Lexi said, as they walked down the porch
steps.

“Do you really think Belinda’s planning to
let you change into a vampire?” Dan asked, glancing over at
her.

“I think so,” Lexi replied. “Don’t you?”

Dan shrugged. “I got the impression that she
was planning something else, but you may be right.” As they
continued down the dirt path that led to the road, he turned to
her. “What do you miss most about home?”

Lexi considered the question. Before her mom
had died, she would have been her answer, but it didn’t seem to
make much of a difference now. Her mom was obviously able to follow
Lexi anywhere she went, which was a bit of a relief. Gabe would
seem like the most logical answer, but . . . it didn’t feel like
she missed him. Sure, there had been times since she’d got here
when she wondered what he might be doing or wished that he were
there to help her out, but it wasn’t like she had been constantly
thinking about him.

After a moment of silence, Lexi thought of
something, even though it probably wasn’t what she missed the most.
“Sleeping in a warm, comfortable bed, I guess. What about you?”

Dan shrugged. “My mom . . . and Austin, I
guess.”

Lexi smiled. “I miss Austin, too. I’m kind of
jealous, you know.”

“Of what?” Dan asked, raising an eyebrow at
her.

“Well, here I have this awesome cousin who
was willing to sacrifice everything – his whole life really – just
to help me,” Lexi explained. “And you got to know him all these
years, but I didn’t.”

Dan put his arm around her waist. At first,
Lexi thought about pushing him away; sleeping on top of him at
night made her feel safe, but did she really need his protection
during the day? Deciding that she didn’t want to upset him – and
that having his arm around her actually did make her feel safe, no
matter what time it was – Lexi gave into his embrace. “I’m sure
you’ll get to know Austin soon,” Dan said softly.

As they walked down the dirt road that would
lead them to town, Lexi heard a rustling in the bushes. Whirling
around, she glanced into the bushes. She didn’t see anyone. “Did
you hear that?” Lexi whispered to Dan.

“Yeah,” Dan said, nodding as he stared into
the bushes. When he didn’t see anything, he said, “Maybe it was
just an rabbit or something. Come on, let’s keep going.”

Lexi nodded, but she couldn’t seem to ignore
the feeling that nagged in the back of her mind that told her that
something just wasn’t right. She just wished that she knew
what.

Chapter 23

****

“So, what’s the problem?” Gabe asked, as he
sat down in a chair across from Ben. There were a few other
students talking in muffled voices on the other side of the student
lounge, but they were out of earshot. Not that it really mattered.
It’s not like they were keeping secrets about what was going on
with Lexi and Dan.

Austin and Anna stood next to his chair,
panicked looks on their faces.

Ben sighed and buried his head in hands. “The
problem is that none of us can time travel to save them.”

“Why not?” Anna asked in a soft voice.

“Well, first let me tell you that I haven’t
been completely honest about rescuing Lexi and Dan,” Ben began,
looking up and staring into each of their faces. “I didn’t want to
let you down because I know that you all wanted to help Lexi. My
memory was a bit foggy, yes, but I knew that the only way one can
time travel using the book is if they are a Hunter. You see, the
witch who cursed the town of Briar Creek is the one who implemented
this rule when she gave me the Briar Creek family book. It’s a long
story, one which I don’t have much time to go into, but she sealed
the book so that only Hunters may time travel. But here’s the
thing: only 2 Hunters can time travel through this book at once.”
He paused to take a deep breath of air.

“Wait, wait, wait,” Gabe interrupted,
throwing his hands in the air to halt the conversation. “That
doesn’t even make sense. If only Hunters can time travel with the
book, then why is Dan with Lexi?” He turned and looked at Austin.
“
Is
Dan even with Lexi? Do we know that for sure or is he
just hiding out somewhere?”

Austin shrugged. “Why are you giving me an
attitude, man? I wasn’t there to witness it. Where’s Craig? He’s
the one who told us that he saw both Lexi and Dan get sucked into
the book.”

Gabe looked around. Where
was
Craig?
The whole situation was beginning to seem really strange. First,
Craig had claimed that he wanted to come along to rescue Lexi.
Then, he had seemed more than a little interested in Rhonda. Not
that Gabe could really blame him for that; Rhonda was definitely
hotter than most of the vampires he had met in the past. Despite
that, Craig hadn’t hung around to see what had happened to Lexi.
Did he even still care? Why had he even bothered to go along with
them in the first place? Things didn’t quite add up.

“I don’t know how Dan got pulled into the
book, too,” Ben said, interrupting Gabe’s thoughts. “My best guess
is that he might have been trying to pull her out himself and ended
up getting sucked in. I don’t know much about how it works because
I’ve never time traveled myself. Anyway, the problem is . . . I
tried to time travel. Since I’m a Hunter, I’m the only one in this
room who would be able to get into the book. But it didn’t work.
The book is sealed shut right now.”