Thicker Than Water (The Briar Creek Vampires Book #2) by Jayme Morse & Jody Morse (22 page)

Lexi shrugged. “Maybe they just had a wake-up
call. They don’t want to make the same mistake again, so they’re
genuinely concerned about me. People change.”

“
Yeah, obviously. You’ve changed a
lot over the past few days. If I’m remembering correctly, you were
trying to run away from them this past weekend! I don’t know why
you feel different about them now, but I think you’re making a big
mistake.”

“
Maybe,” Lexi replied. “I really
have to get to class now, though. See you later?”

Mary-Kate looked Lexi in the eyes for a few
moments before saying, “Whatever. See you later. If you decide that
you want to go to the festival after all instead of hang out with
Karla, let me know,” she said sarcastically.

Lexi listened to the loud clacking of
Mary-Kate’s heels on the tiled floor as she walked away from her.
She didn’t know what Mary-Kate’s problem was. If Lexi wanted to be
friends with someone, not that she wanted to be friends with Karla,
it was her choice to make. Spinning in her locker combination, Lexi
felt someone’s eyes on the back of her head.

When she turned around, Brandon was standing
there. “Can I speak with you for a sec?” he asked.

“
Umm, yeah, just let me put my
stuff in my locker,” Lexi replied. “I’ll meet you over in front of
the gym in a few minutes.”

Lexi swung her backpack off of her shoulders
and put it inside the locker. She almost missed the large manila
envelope which sat on the top shelf; it was addressed to her.
Although it had seemed like the other envelopes had been stuffed
into her locker through one of the slots at the top, there was no
way this one could still look so perfect if it had been stuffed
inside. No, someone had definitely opened her locker to put the
note inside. It made Lexi wonder how the person had gotten her
locker combination.

After she unclasped the two metal prongs that
held the envelope together, Lexi pulled out the contents. Someone
had stuck a neon green Post-it on top of a pile of papers which had
been torn at the edges. The Post-it said:
This is from
Austin’s
other
journal.

Lexi couldn’t help but feel like the person’s
use of the term “other journal” insinuated that they knew that she
had found and read Austin’s
first
journal. The only person
Lexi had told was Gabe, unless Violet or Tommy had snooped in her
bedroom and found that she had it. Even if they had, she doubted
that they would come all the way to her school just to put notes in
her locker. They were way too confrontational for that; it would
just be yet another reason on their growing list of reasons to
ground Lexi.

Immediately, Lexi recognized Austin’s chicken
scratch handwriting. He had written:

I want to warn Lexi and Aunt Eileen
about what’s going to happen. I just wish that I had a way to get
in touch with them. My mom would never leave their phone number
laying around, probably in fear that I would call. She knows how
much I miss Lexi, even though it’s been years since I last saw
her.

Today, Mary-Kate told me she feels
like everyone’s relying on her and that doing what she’s been doing
is beginning to make her exhausted and mentally and physically
drained. It’s hard to be her boyfriend. It’s hard to sit back and
watch what’s happening to her, without being able to do anything
about it.

Lexi frowned. Austin must have been talking
about the fact that Mary-Kate was allowing so many of the town’s
vampires to feed from her, even though Gabe had made it sound as
though it was only just a few. Maybe Gabe didn’t really know the
whole story, though. Lexi totally understood why it was hard for
him to watch what she was going through. Not only did he have to
watch Mary-Kate make herself ill, but he undoubtedly was going
through the feelings of jealousy when she let guys drink from
her.

When the bell rang, Lexi stuffed the manila
envelope in her backpack and raced to the gym.

Brandon was walking away when she caught him.
“Hey, what did you want to talk about?” she asked.

“
I was wondering if you wanted to
go to the Briar Creek Halloween festival with me.”

“
Wouldn’t Julie be uncomfortable
with that?” Lexi asked.

Brandon chuckled nervously. “No, she wouldn’t.
We broke up – not that we really had a relationship in the first
place. She’s just too competitive for me.”

“
I see. Thanks for asking me, but I
think I’m going to a Halloween party instead of the festival,” Lexi
lied.

“
Oh, okay,” Brandon said, looking
down at his feet. He paused for a moment, as though he was waiting
for her to invite him to come along as her date or something. When
she didn’t say anything, he said, “I guess I’ll see ya
around.”

Lexi breathed a sigh of relief. She figured
that she had just made a really smart move. If word got back to
anyone in the town who was plotting against her, they would think
that she was going to try to go to a Halloween party. The Briar
Creek Halloween festival would be the last place they would think
to look for her.

Although she couldn’t ask the person who was
sending her anonymous notes if they thought she was doing the right
thing, Lexi was pretty sure they’d be proud of her for thinking of
it.

*

Lexi opened the door to her room and pulled her
hooded sweatshirt over her head, taking it off and throwing it on
the floor. Just as she was about to flop down on her bed, she
noticed the costume.

It was a pretty white corset top with a frilly
tiered skirt that Lexi never would have been confident enough to
pick out on her own. On top of the corset, there was a white
masquerade mask, which had an intricate glittery silver design.
Next to the costume, there was a blonde wig that was styled into
long ringlets that were a lot longer than her medium-length surfer
blonde hairstyle. Lexi assumed that if she put the wig on, the fake
hair would reach to the middle of her back.

The Halloween costume would definitely hide who
she was at the Halloween festival, but who had given it to her? It
had to have been the same person who had been putting the notes in
her locker and had put the first note on her bed. How could they
have gotten in? They also must know that her first Halloween
costume had been stolen, but how could they know that? The only way
they could have possibly found out was by looking in her closet and
that would just be creepy.

Glancing around, Lexi realized that her bedroom
window was open. She knew that she hadn’t opened it since the last
time Gabe had come to visit, and she was fairly sure that she had
locked it after he had left. If she had forgotten to lock her
window, then there was only one person who would’ve known:
Gabe.

Lexi guessed that Gabe was probably the person
who was doing all of this – the notes and the money in her wallet –
but why didn’t he just come out and say it? If it was him, he must
have some weird motive behind it. Lexi was going to have to ask him
to see what his reaction was. If he said it wasn’t him and he
looked uncomfortable and fidgeted a lot, she would know that he was
lying to her. But then again, Gabe had been able to fool her
before.

She felt relieved to know that she had a
costume to wear to the festival now, though The one that the person
had picked out was also way more flattering than the one she had
purchased herself. Lexi just wondered what her anonymous friend was
planning for her to do next.

*

That night, she opened the window and thought
about Gabe. It took him longer than usual to appear, but he flew
into her window the same way that he always did. She had promised
herself that she wouldn’t call for him unless it was an emergency,
but he had told her that they needed to make sure that their plan
would go as smoothly as possible.

When he had transformed into his human form,
she asked, “Why are you sending me anonymous notes?”

“I’m not,” Gabe replied, raising an eyebrow. “I
don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Closing the window, Lexi stared into his eyes.
Gabe didn’t blink or look away from her. He made no indication that
he was lying to her. Instead, he looked back at her intently,
seemingly worried.

“I keep getting these anonymous notes,” Lexi
said, realizing that she sounded a little bit crazy accusing him
the way she had. “I just thought it was you.”

“What do the notes say?” Gabe asked.

Lexi thought quickly to herself. Should she
tell him? Her anonymous friend hadn’t said that she couldn’t tell
him, but the person had made it very obvious that they didn’t want
people to know that she would be going to the Halloween festival.
Something told her that she should keep her mouth closed. “Oh,
nothing really. They’re just cute secret admirer notes,” Lexi said,
laughing nervously.

“So I’m guessing I have some competition then?”
Gabe teased.

“No,” Lexi giggled. “I was actually hoping they
were coming from you.”

“Hmm,” Gabe said, inching closer to her. “Well,
I am certainly your admirer.”

Before Lexi could figure out what was
happening, Gabe was tilting her chin and slipping his cool tongue
inside her mouth. She wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled
him in closer.

Gabe pulled away, and looked deeply into her
eyes. “Lexi, I really love you. I haven’t told you that since I got
back, but I need you to know that I do.”

“I love you, too,” Lexi whispered
back.

“That’s why I decided to give you what you
asked for tonight. Tomorrow is Halloween and although I’m going to
do everything in my power to keep you safe, we don’t really know
what’s going to happen to either of us by the end of tomorrow
night.”

Lexi nodded, feeling her heart race faster. He
didn’t have to say what she had asked for because she already knew;
he was going to drink from her.

Gabe watched impatiently as she fumbled with
the clasp to her necklace. Pulling her closer to him, Gabe pulled
the pendant from her neck and tossed it onto the bed. Gabe planted
a trail of kisses along her neck. She felt his tongue swirling
around in circles above her collarbone, moistening her
skin.

Just as Lexi was about to ask him if it was
going to hurt, she felt his teeth seek into her skin.

Lexi moaned in pain. Feeling a burning
sensation fill every ounce of her body, Lexi leaned into Gabe’s
chest. As much as the pain made her want to scream, it gave her
more pleasure than anything else she had ever felt.

She felt Gabe’s tongue encircling her skin,
hungrily lapping up her blood as it poured from the wound that he
had just inflicted. A wave of energy passed between them as they
held one another close; for the moment, nothing else in the world
mattered to them besides each other.

****

Chapter 22

“Wow,” Lexi whispered when Gabe finally pulled
away from her, kissing her neck one final time.

“Pretty hot, huh?” Gabe asked, smiling down at
her.

“Umm, yeah,” Lexi replied, blushing. “No wonder
why Mary-Kate lets everyone drink from her. That felt
amazing.”

Gabe shook his head. “No, it’s not the same for
everyone. You only feel the type of connection that we just felt
when you’re truly in love.”

“Oh.” Lexi smiled. “Now, I just need to lose my
virginity and then I’ll be your average teenager.”

Gabe smiled back at her. “All in good
time.”

“You just said that we don’t know what’s going
to happen tomorrow,” Lexi pointed out.

“You’re right, there’s no way to really know
for sure. I have confidence that we are going to find a way to
escape from all of this, though. You have to trust me.”

“I’m hoping you’re right,” Lexi replied,
leaning against him and putting her head on his shoulder. “I don’t
want to lose you now. Will you stay here with me
tonight?”

“Of course,” Gabe replied, running his fingers
through her hair. “I’ll stay with you tonight and for the rest of
your life.”

When Lexi fell asleep snuggled up to Gabe, she
had a smile on her face.

*

Just as she expected, the spot in her bed that
Gabe had been laying on was empty when Lexi woke up the next
morning. Even though she knew that he had to sneak out so that no
one would see him, it made her feel sad. Lexi wasn’t sure when (or
if) she would see him again. Her window was wide open and the cool
breeze blew her blonde hair across her face. That’s odd, Lexi
thought. Gabe had told her never to leave her window open for too
long.

Lexi put her necklace back on. She was
definitely going to need the protection that it would offer her
today.

Deciding that she had a lot to do to get ready
for the events that were supposed to take place that night, Lexi
shrugged it off. She climbed out of bed and went
downstairs.

Lexi found Violet and Tommy sitting at the
kitchen table. When she stood in front of them, Violet flashed her
one of her fake smiles and Lexi tried not to laugh at the amount of
red lipstick she had on her teeth. “Good morning, Lexi! Tommy and I
thought about what you said, and you’re right. But we still don’t
want you going out so we decided that we would bring Halloween to
you! I hope that you’re prepared for a long day of cleaning first,
though. I have a few chores for you today to keep you busy. I want
you to have all of them done by eight o’clock tonight because we
are going to be having a Halloween party here.”