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

“We need to stay here again if that’s okay,”
Austin said. “Are there any vacant rooms?”

Manny clicked a few buttons on the computer
before shaking his head. “No, I’m sorry. It looks like everything’s
booked.”

“Damn,” Austin muttered.

Gabe tried to hide the “I told you so” smile
that crossed his face. “I guess we’ll have to look somewhere else
then. Sorry to bother you.”

Manny gave him a sympathetic look. “I’m
terribly sorry. I know that Ben wouldn’t be happy about this. I’ll
give you a call if anything becomes available for any reason.”

“Don’t worry about it. Thank you anyway,”
Gabe replied before leading Austin, Anna, and Craig out the door of
the reservation office. He glanced across the street. There was a
hotel called the Starlight Inn. “Let’s try there,” Gabe said before
darting across the street.

They were in luck. The Starlight Inn had
vacancies. There were two rooms available. Once they paid for the
rooms and got the keys, Gabe looked at Austin. “Am I rooming with
you?”

“Uh, no, I don’t think so, man,” Austin
replied, pointing his chin at Anna. Gabe caught on right away;
Austin didn’t want Anna to room with Craig. Gabe knew that if Lexi
were here, he would feel the same way – which was partly why he
didn’t want to room with Craig himself. It seemed like an
incredibly awkward way to try to catch a vision.

Gabe saw the future (and the past sometimes,
too), but it didn’t happen at his own will. He had to wait for his
visions to come – which could sometimes take days or weeks. When
Gabe was in stressful environments, it made it even more difficult
to see into the future. “Well, how about I stay in the room with
you guys? It’s not like we need to sleep.”

“Anna needs to sleep,” Austin replied,
reminding Gabe that Anna was still a human, not a vampire.
“Besides, I thought we could have some alone time together for
once.”

Gabe sighed. There was going to be no way for
him to win this argument. He headed to his hotel room, which he,
unfortunately, was going to be sharing with Craig.

Once they were inside, Gabe sniffed around.
The room had that musky scent that hotels near the beach sometimes
had. Glancing down at the floor, he noticed that there was also
sand caked in the carpeting. Gabe wondered who went to the beach in
the middle of December. He’d never understood the concept of the
beach really. It probably didn’t help that he couldn’t go even if
he wanted to. Sunscreen offered vampires enough protection to go
outside during the day without burning to a fatal crisp, but it
also didn’t allow them to bask in the blazing sun like humans
did.

Gabe turned his attention to Craig, who had
sat down on one of the double beds. “Look, the whole reason we’re
here is because I need to see into the future. I won’t be able to
do that while you’re around. So, it would be cool if you could
maybe hang out with Anna and Austin as much as possible.”

“I understand,” Craig replied, nodding
knowingly. “I don’t want to disturb you.”

“You already have,” Gabe muttered under his
breath.

*

Austin placed his duffel bag on the floor next to
Anna’s before lying down on the bed. He had to admit that it was
pretty comfortable for a hotel bed. Even the pillows weren’t too
firm or too soft; they were just right.

“So, why didn’t you tell Mary-Kate that you were in
her house today?” Anna asked slowly. “I mean, she’s your
girlfriend. Don’t you trust her?”

Austin shrugged. “I don’t know . . . it’s hard to
explain. I want to trust her. Deep down, I don’t think I do,
though. And I also don’t want her to be my girlfriend anymore,
either, to be honest with you.”

Anna’s eyes widened. “Did something happen? I
thought you two were so
perfect
for each other.”

Austin smirked at the sarcastic emphasis that Anna
put on purpose. He knew that was what he had told Anna when he had
first met her. At the time, he might have even believed it himself.
After all, he had been Briar Creek High’s quarterback, and
Mary-Kate was the head cheerleader. All of his friends thought they
were perfect for each other, but there was more to Austin than what
met the eye. He actually found that he was happier when he was
around Anna. “We were far from perfect for each other,” Austin
replied. “It just took a while for me to see that. Nothing really
happened. Not with me and Mary-Kate, at least . . . I just fell for
someone else.” Austin met Anna’s dark eyes, hoping that she would
realize that he was talking about her.

Anna’s cheeks turned a shade of pink and she turned
away from him. Austin smiled. She had definitely figured it
out.

“So, umm, this place has an indoor pool,” Anna said,
pointing at a brochure on the nightstand. “We should go swimming.
Vampires
can
swim, can’t they?”

Austin laughed. “Yes, we can swim. Did you bring a
bathing suit?”

Anna reached into her duffel bag and pulled out a
black frilly bikini. “Surprisingly, yes.”

Austin raised an eyebrow. “You just happen to be
carrying a bikini around with you in winter?”

“This bathing suit cost a
lot
. I wasn’t about
to leave it behind for one of the girls at Huntington to snatch
up,” Anna replied.

“Hmm,” Austin said, tapping his temple. “You never
seemed like the high maintenance girl with expensive bathing suits
to me.”

Anna sat down on the bed. Her tone turned serious.
“I’ve changed a lot since I came to Huntington. Did I ever tell you
that I used to play field hockey at my old high school? I bet you
never would have guessed that.”

“Actually, it doesn’t surprise me. Field hockey
players are fierce. They can kick ass. If I had to peg you for any
sport, it would be field hockey,” Austin said. “Or maybe dance
because you’re also pretty graceful.” He paused, staring at a
painting of a lighthouse that hung from the egg-colored wall. “What
made you change?”

Anna looked down at her boots. “When my mom was
murdered, I just . . . I felt so out of control. I’m not going to
lie. I was a spoiled, high maintenance bitch before my mom was
killed. After it happened, I realized how much I took everything
for granted. All the designer clothes, lavish parties . . . none of
it could ever take the place of my mom.”

“So, you just became this cute punk rock chick
because your mom was murdered? Not that I’m complaining, I think
it’s pretty hot. I just don’t get it,” Austin said, trying to meet
her eyes.

“Back then, I was this preppy, spoiled girl. I hate
who I was then. I wanted to become the total opposite.” Anna looked
up at him. “I’m happier with who I am now, though. There are no
crazy expectations on me to look or act a certain way. I feel like
this is the real me.”

Austin nodded, admiring the way her dark brown eyes
had flecks of green and gold when the light reflected against them.
He normally liked girls with a natural look and wasn’t a big fan of
a lot of makeup, but somehow, all of the makeup and crazy hair
colors looked right on Anna. “I’m glad you’re happy now. For the
record, I like you no matter what you’re like.”

Anna blushed again. “Shall we go for that swim
now?”

Austin nodded. Even though Austin knew they had to
find Ben soon, he kind of hoped that he and Anna would at least
have a little more time together. Austin knew that wherever Lexi
was, Dan was taking good care of her.

Chapter 6

****

As the night grew darker, Lexi tried to make
sense of what was happening. She had gone back in time to May of
1822. It had happened because she had read from the Hunter family
book. Albert Hunter and the witch who had casted the spell on the
town of Briar Creek were in the house that she was leaning against.
Belinda had wanted garlic to keep vampires away, and she had molded
two bat pendants out of clay to protect Albert from his “predators”
– AKA vampires. Lexi’s own bat pendant was missing, which had to be
because Belinda hadn’t even created it yet. Those were the things
that she was certain of.

What she didn’t know was why. Why was she
here? There had to be a reason Lexi had ended up in this town and
time period, but she couldn’t figure out what it was or what she
was supposed to do. She only wished that she could figure out what
that page had said before she and Dan had been sucked into the
book. Lexi had a feeling that whatever was on the page – which had
obviously been torn out – would have given her a clue as to how to
get out of here. Without that knowledge, she was beginning to lose
hope.

Lexi tried to figure out what she was going
to do for shelter. Should she just knock on the door and tell
Albert she was one of his relatives who had come back from the
future? No. They would think she was insane and try to have her
arrested. Her best bet was going to be to sleep outside, but
where?

Scanning the yard for somewhere to sleep,
Lexi spotted a pile of hay at the side of the yard. Hay would help
keep her warm tonight, and block her from Albert and Belinda’s view
if they happened to look outside. As she walked over to it, Lexi
heard a grunting sound.

Panicked, she crouched down so that whoever
it was wouldn’t see her. Just as she grabbed a fallen tree branch
that she was planning to use as a weapon, she heard the whinnying
from a few feet away.

Lexi breathed a sigh of relief. It was a
horse. Why hadn’t she noticed that Belinda and Albert had a horse
in their backyard earlier? Probably because she had been so wrapped
up in listening to their conversation that she hadn’t even paid
attention to her surroundings.

Even in the moonlight, Lexi could tell that
the horse was a beautiful shade of black, its hair as dark as coal.
As she took a few steps closer to the horse, it whinnied louder,
obviously startled by her presence.

“Shh,” Lexi hissed softly. The last thing she
needed right now was for the horse to somehow let Belinda and
Albert know that she was camping out in their backyard. Grabbing a
handful of grass and what felt like clovers, she held it out to the
horse. “Shh,” she whispered again soothingly.

The horse inched its way over to her,
reluctantly sniffing at her hand. After a few moments, it gently
took the grass from her, its muzzle grazing over the palm of her
hand. “You’re a dainty one,” Lexi whispered, remembering one of
Violet’s old neighbor’s horses, Midnight, who had bit her
fingertips when they’d gotten in the way of the graham cracker she
was feeding him. Lexi had cried, and her mom had hugged her,
laughing, and told her that Midnight hadn’t tried to be mean.

She would never be able to hug her mom
again.

Would her mom even be able to visit her in
this time period? If Lexi was right – and, judging from the fact
that the witch was making the bat pendant right now and her own
pendant was missing – her mom hadn’t even died yet. Her mom wasn’t
even
alive
. She wouldn’t be born until 1976. It would all
depend on whether or not ghosts could visit other time periods, but
for some reason, Lexi seriously doubted it. If her mom knew she was
here – and how scared she was – she probably would have visited her
already to tell her what to do.

Once she was sure the horse was going to be
quiet, Lexi settled herself down behind the bales of hay. It was
bad enough that she had to sleep outside; the idea of sleeping in
the woods freaked her out. Plus, as long as she stayed beside the
house, she would be able to listen to Albert and Belinda when they
woke up the next morning.

Lexi rested her head against one of the bales
of hay. She wrapped the dress that she had stolen from the clothes
line (and had yet to change into) around her tightly as a blanket
to shield her from the coldness of the night. Lexi felt so alone
and, now more than ever, she wished that Gabe were with her.

*

The next morning, a loud banging sound
startled Lexi awake. She had dreamt of the people who she wanted to
get back to: Gabe, Austin, and her mom. Mary-Kate had also been in
her dream, reminding Lexi that as soon as she got back to
Huntington, they could focus on being sisters.

A loud humming came from inside the house.
Lexi realized right away that the humming belonged to Belinda. She
hadn’t heard Belinda sing before, though she knew her voice would
be hypnotizing. Belinda’s voice drifted out of the window as she
said, “I combine these ingredients to keep my Albert safe from the
evil predators who hunt him. Cedar and patchouli oil.” Belinda
paused and although Lexi was too afraid to peek in the window, she
imagined the woman dumping the ingredients into a cauldron. Belinda
continued. “Seven hairs from a black cat.”

Lexi heard a hissing sound coming from inside
the window. She assumed that it was the sound of the cauldron
rising and not the cat hissing as Belinda plucked the hairs from
it. “Cloves of garlic. And finally, five drops of Hunter blood.”
The hissing sound resumed, and there was a long pause.

The scent of peppermint filled Lexi’s
nostrils. She quickly realized that the witch had lit incense for
her spell. Belinda began speaking again, this time, her voice loud
and powerful. “Shavings of cedar and oil of patchouli, scents of
the earth, mask Hunter blood from the creatures of the night. Seven
hairs of a feline, black as smoke, gatekeeper of the Afterlife,
provide protection from all evil who tries to cross his path.
Cloves of garlic mix with this blood to repel blood-suckers.
Protect Hunter blood from the vampires who wish to take Albert’s
life!”

Lexi heard the hissing sound again, but it
was much louder this time. Moments later, she heard a loud
swooshing sound, and Belinda laughed her cackling laugh again.
“This is wonderful, simply wonderful, Winston! It worked! The spell
worked!” There was a soft meow, and Lexi realized that Belinda must
be speaking to her cat.