Change of Fate (The Briar Creek Vampires, #4) by Jayme Morse & Jody Morse (18 page)

Belinda nodded her head. “Yes, there is
something that I’m going to do instead.” She turned to Lexi. “You
say that you are in love with a vampire. Is this correct?”

“I – umm – I guess so,” Lexi stumbled. She
didn’t know if she was in love with Gabe. Of course she had
feelings for him, but did they even mean anything anymore? Did he
even want to be with her . . . or was there a chance that he was
actually with Veronica Hart right now? Lexi realized that she
probably wouldn’t know what was going on between her and Gabe until
she saw him.

“It seems to me that he is in love with you,”
Belinda said, chuckling.

It took Lexi a moment to realize that the
witch was talking about her and Dan. What would have given Belinda
that impression? Lexi shifted in her seat, feeling uncomfortable
with the entire discussion. “What does who I love have to do with
anything?”

“If you are in love with a vampire, as you
say, I would imagine that part of this romance involves him
drinking your blood,” Belinda said, looking back at Lexi for an
answer. Lexi nodded her head. Belinda continued. “If you choose to
become a vampire, your lover will no longer be able to drink from
you without becoming diseased. Do you realize this?”

“Umm, no, I didn’t,” Lexi replied, shaking
her head. In fact, it hadn’t even crossed her mind at all. Did it
really matter, though? Maybe she should just live with the fact
that Gabe – and no other vampire, for that matter – would be able
to drink from her again. That would solve everything.

Lexi immediately shook the thought away when
she remembered how good it felt and how sensual the experience had
been. She wouldn’t be able to be in a relationship with any vampire
knowing that they would feel that way with another girl or woman
when they drank from her. It would feel like he was cheating, which
would just set their relationship up for failure.

“Ah, you see, you have not considered
everything,” Belinda went on. “So, here is what I have come up with
for you instead.”

Lexi bit her tongue. She remembered that her
mom had told her that she was supposed to listen to whatever
Belinda told her to do. Lexi was pretty sure that the decision that
Belinda was about to reveal to her right now was what her mom had
been talking about. She just hoped that it was a decision which
would be right for her in the long run.

“You are to become an immortal,” Belinda told
her. When Lexi stared back at her with wide eyes, the woman
continued. “This will allow you to live forever, similarly to a
vampire. The only difference is that vampires can be killed with
stakes and fire. The only thing that will be able to kill your
immortal self is another immortal.”

Belinda poured the contents of the cauldron
into a tiny jar. “I have put a charm on this potion. As soon as you
have transitioned into your new life as an immortal, your blood
will no longer be that of a Hunter. It also will not be like the
blood of a vampire, which due to the curse that you have told me
about, seems to be tainted. Vampires
will
be able to drink
from you, but they will not be cured from their disease. Your blood
will not have the same powerful scent that it does right now, and
it will not provide vampires with the same level of energy as
Hunter blood typically does.”

Belinda turned away from them and covered the
jar with a lid. “There is but one exception to all of this. Your
soul mate, who is a vampire, will still find that your blood is
potent for him. It will smell strong to him, and it will rejuvenate
him more than the blood of any other human has or will.”

“How do you know my soul mate is a vampire?”
Lexi asked. She never really thought about it that much, but wasn’t
there a chance that she could end up with a human instead of a
vampire?

“I just know things,” Belinda said, waving
her hands in the air. “I know, for certain, that your soul mate is
a creature of the night. A vampire.”

“So, that’s it then?” Lexi asked. “All I have
to do is drink this potion, and I can become an immortal?”

“You must do a combination of two things in
order for your immortality to take effect,” Belinda replied. “You
must drink the potion . . . and afterwards, you must commit a
selfless act.” Belinda paused, tapping her chin with her finger.
“Oh, there is one more thing that I have forgotten to mention.”

“What?” Lexi asked.

“I’ve made a sacrifice for you, Lexi,”
Belinda told her. “If you choose to accept this potion from me, my
powers will be transferred to you. I will no longer be a witch.
You, however, will be. This change will not take effect until you
have consumed the potion – which you may not do until you go back
to where you came from.”

Lexi blinked. “Have you cursed the vampires
yet? If you don’t have your powers, you won’t be able to do it
right?” She tried to hide the hopefulness from her voice. What if
this was the way around the curse, though? Belinda had told her
that they couldn’t change the past, but maybe this was some sort of
loophole.

“It does not work that way, Lexi. By the time
you get back, the curse will already be set in motion,” Belinda
replied. “Once you are gone, it is likely that I will forget that
you ever existed in my life. Even if I do somehow remember you, I
have no control over this. The past has already happened, and the
present and future are already scheduled to happen. There is
nothing that either of us can do to change it. The most I can do is
offer you this potion to take home with you.”

Lexi sighed. She knew that her mom had told
her to listen to whatever the witch said, but . . . this was a
major decision. It was life-changing. Actually, it was more than
life-changing. It would completely alter her life forever. Was she
ready to become an immortal?

“Do you wish to take the potion with you?”
Belinda pressed. Lexi could feel both Belinda and Dan’s eyes on her
as they waited for an answer.

Becoming an immortal sounded scary. Lexi
couldn’t imagine a life that would last forever. Even though that’s
what she would have gotten if Belinda had granted her wish to
become a vampire, it somehow seemed scarier when she was going to
be called an immortal.

Fire wouldn’t kill her. Disaster wouldn’t
kill her. A stake through the heart wouldn’t even kill her. Did she
want a life that would forever prevent her from death?

When Lexi considered the alternative – to
live in fear of the vampires of Briar Creek forever – immortality
didn’t seem all that bad, though. And she would never have to worry
about Gabe, Austin, and Dan all staying the same age, while she
grew old and eventually died. If she was going to love a vampire,
it could be forever this way.

“Yes,” Lexi finally answered, looking up at
her. “I will take the potion with me.” Now was not the time to turn
down Belinda’s offer just because she was unsure if this was what
she wanted. When she got back to Pennsylvania, she would decide
whether or not she was going to use the potion.

“Do you know how we can get back to the
future?” Dan asked Belinda. Lexi realized that was the first time
either of them had thought to ask Belinda if she knew.

Belinda shook her head, her long braid moving
with it. “No. I sincerely apologize. I know about book time travel
incantations, but I do not actually know how one gets back once
they have time traveled.” She paused, squinting her cat green eyes,
as though she were remembering something. “I do recall another
woman who practiced witchcraft mentioning once that she had heard
that one could return if they thought about wanting to go back to
the future at the same moment in time as someone in the future
thought about how they wanted that person to come back.”

Lexi glanced at Dan. He had a worried look on
his face. She knew that he was thinking the same thing as her: that
should have already happened by now. Even if Gabe had moved onto
Veronica Hart and had completely forgotten about Lexi already,
Austin and Anna should have thought about them at least once since
they had time traveled.

Would it have been at the same exact time
that one of them thought about how they wanted to go back, though?
Lexi had been focusing more on being angry at Gabe, her mom,
Belinda, the bat pendant, staying alive, and her dad than she had
been on missing home. She decided that she was going to have to
channel some of her energy into wanting to go back.

“Well, I suppose that is all that I can do
for you. The rest is up to you,” Belinda told them, turning to
Lexi. “I hope the odds work in your favor once you are back
home.”

“What will become of you . . . now that you
will no longer be a witch for the rest of your life?” Lexi asked
Belinda. She hadn’t really considered the sacrifice that the woman
was making for her. Losing her powers surely was going to change
her whole life. She tried to imagine having part of herself taken
away for the benefit of someone else. She couldn’t even begin to
imagine how difficult this change was going to be for Belinda.

Belinda smiled. “I guess things will be
easier for me from now on.” Lexi knew that Belinda was talking
about her scarred face and, more importantly, the people who had
caused those scars.

“Umm, I have a question before we never see
you again,” Lexi told Belinda. “What about the spell book?”

Belinda stared at her wide eyed, the
confusion written all over her face. “You mean, you do not already
know about the spell book?”

Lexi shook her head. “No, I don’t think so. I
am supposed to know?”

“As far as I know, my spell book is what
brought you here,” Belinda said slowly. “Once my powers have been
transferred and you are able to use them, you will realize how
silly the idea of a spell book is. You will not need a spell book
to know what words or ingredients to use when you cast your spells.
It will come naturally . . . It will come from your heart.”

“Then, why is there a spell book at all?”
Lexi asked.

“In case you ever need help figuring out a
spell, mostly,” Belinda replied, shrugging. “My mother gave the
spell book to me when she died.”

“You mean, being a witch is hereditary?” Lexi
asked. “If I have children one day, will they be witches now?”

“It is a possibility,” Belinda said, nodding.
“Though, your children will be with a vampire, so they will
probably be half-vampire, half-witch.”

Lexi shook her head. “That’s not possible,
remember? The curse prohibits anyone from the Hunter bloodline from
becoming a vampire again. My children will be half-Hunters.”

“Oh, yes, I forgot about that clause,”
Belinda said slowly.

As Lexi tucked the small jar of potion under
her shirt, she turned to Belinda. “Why are you doing this for me?
You know, giving up your powers?”

Belinda let out a sigh and looked around the
room, as though the walls of her home held the answers. Finally,
she said, “You need them more than I. You can use them to protect
you. And to be honest, I no longer see a need for them. My powers
have only complicated things in my life. If it were not for the
decisions that I am about to make, if it were not for me casting a
spell on your bloodline, the future that you live in would be
better.” Pausing, Belinda met Lexi’s eyes. “You must use your
powers wisely, child. Always consider the future outcomes of the
spells that you cast. Never use your powers with evil intentions.
Do not allow your emotions to get in the way any time you cast a
spell.”

Lexi nodded and, just as she was about to
walk out the front door, she turned around and threw her arms
around Belinda. Although Belinda seemed surprised by the hug at
first, she wrapped her arms around Lexi, the same way a mother
would hug her child.

This might be the last time they ever saw
each other, but Lexi knew that if she chose to drink the potion and
become an immortal, she would also be accepting a part of Belinda
into her life forever. Even though she knew that she should
probably hate the woman who had cursed the town that wanted to
sacrifice her, she couldn’t. Belinda was giving up everything that
she had left for her.

It was in that moment that Lexi truly
understood Belinda. She was already able to relate to Belinda in
some ways. Like Lexi, Belinda really had no one in the town that
she lived in. No one was able to understand her; they only wanted
to hurt her because of who she was. She tried to imagine what it
would be like to lose the one person who truly loved you, the one
person in the entire world who mattered to you, because of someone
else’s selfish motives.

Lexi realized that she didn’t have to
imagine. She already knew what that was like. And she completely
understood why, in a moment of pain, Belinda had made the choices
she’d made. But hadn’t the psychic from Briar Creek told her that
understanding the originator of the curse would break the spell? If
that was true, why hadn’t anything changed?

Chapter 27

****

“So, what do we do now?” Dan asked Lexi as
they sat down next to the river. Albert’s body laid on the ground
feet away from them. He still hadn’t woken up yet. If Lexi hadn’t
known that he was going to be a newborn vampire when he woke up,
she would have been worried that he had died during Zachary
Wilkinson’s attack.

Lexi shrugged. “I guess we just sit here and
think about how we want to go back – and hope that someone from
home is thinking the same thing about us.”

“If someone thinks of me first, make sure you
grab my leg,” Dan said, laughing.

Lexi laughed at his lame attempt at a joke,
but she wondered if someone
would
wish for Dan to come back
before they would hope for her to return. Sighing, she knew that
she couldn’t get mad at anyone just yet. She hadn’t been thinking
about how badly she wanted to get back to the 21st century; she
wasn’t even thinking about going back to the future right now.