Destined to Die (The Briar Creek Vampires, #3) by Jayme Morse & Jody Morse (22 page)

“No, Austin. I don’t think you should do that,”
Lexi warned him. “The last thing that we need is for you and Gabe
to get arrested for breaking and entering right now . . . and
having to call your legal guardians to bail you out or something,
since you’re under eighteen.”

“That’s a good point,” Austin said slowly,
realizing that he hadn’t even thought about the possibility of that
happening.

“I think you should find some other way to dig
up clues,” Lexi went on. “I have some bad news, too. We have a
situation here as well.”

“Is Anna okay?” Austin asked immediately,
realizing that he had just spoken to her, so obviously she was
still alive. Still, Anna was the first person who had come to
mind.

“She’s fine,” Lexi replied in a tone that let
him know that she was thinking the same thing; he had just spoken
to her. “A student at Huntington was killed by a Briar Creek
vampire.”

Austin paused. “Do they know that Huntington is
a vampire hunting school yet?”

“Not that I know of,” Lexi replied. “But
Huntington might declare war on Briar Creek.”

“Great. That’s just dandy. We need to figure
out a new hiding spot in case that does happen . . . and an escape
route.”

“You’re right,” Lexi replied. “We’ll try to
come up with something. You just worry about trying to find my
father right now.”

“I will,” Austin said. Before hanging up the
phone, he said, “And Lexi? Make sure you don’t take your bat
pendant off.”

When Austin hung up the phone, he turned to the
bed. “Gabe?”

Gabe didn’t answer him. Austin sat down on his
own bed and sighed. He knew that it was a good sign that Gabe
wasn’t answering him. It meant that he was deep in a vision that
would be interrupted if he responded to anything in the outside
world. Heck, he probably didn’t even know that Austin was talking
to him.

Austin flicked on the TV and turned on the
Jersey Shore
. He needed something that would make him laugh
right now, and if that didn’t do it, he wasn’t sure what
would.

When Sammy came on the show, Austin thought of
Mary-Kate. Everything about Sammy reminded him of her. Sure,
Mary-Kate’s hair and skin were a little lighter, but they shared
similar features. They even had similar personalities . . . and
Austin couldn’t help but think that the constant on and off
relationship that he and Mary-Kate had with each other was similar
to Sammy and Ronnie; they were all wrong for each other.

As if on cue, his cell phone bleeped. He
glanced down at his new text message. It was from Anna.

He opened the message.
Stay safe,
Austin...xoxo.

I will, u 2,
he texted back.

Anna and Mary-Kate were such different people
that it was hard to imagine that he could have any sort of
relationship with both of them. Well, technically, he and Anna
hadn’t
had a relationship yet, but he was pretty sure he
wanted one. And he thought that she did, too, with all of the
signals that she had been sending him lately.

It was kind of weird because of how Austin had
first met Anna. He thought back to that day. It had been so long
ago. He wasn’t even sure what to think of her the first time they
had met. At that time, her hair was bleached and had pink
highlights in it. She’d come up to him one day on the street and
handed him a card with her phone number.

Austin went home that night, thinking about the
unusual girl who he had just met. She was just so different from
all of the girls who normally approached him with their phone
numbers. Something about her fearlessness of handing a high school
quarterback her phone number on the street made him call her.
They’d had coffee together, and Anna told him all about Huntington.
In fact, it turned out that the only reason she had given him a
card with her phone number on it at all was to ask her to go to
Huntington. Someone had told her that his parents were related to
the Hunter’s, and she thought that he would be useful.

Austin blew Anna off at first, but eventually,
he called her again. There was just something about her that drew
him to her, something that he liked. He told her that he didn’t
want to go to Huntington, but that he did want to be friends. Anna
had seemed disappointed, but she respected his choice and said that
she, too, wanted to be his friends.

Austin never told any of his friends that he
had called Anna. He’d never even told Gabe or Dan how they’d met,
just that she was an old friend. None of his friends from Briar
Creek High ever would have approved of him calling, let alone
dating, Anna. She was the complete opposite of the type of girl a
high school quarterback was supposed to be with. She was too much
of a punk or goth, depending on whether she was in a happy go-lucky
mood or a dark and depressing mood that day. She didn’t have a
natural-looking hair color . . . and yet Austin was more drawn to
her purple highlighted hair than he was to Mary-Kate’s chestnut
brown hair.

Mary-Kate was the type of girl that his old
friends would have told him that he was supposed to be with, but
she bored him lately. Not to mention all of the drama that had gone
on between them in the past.

Something about Anna was more intriguing. And,
somehow, even though they seemed so different from each other, he
seemed to have more in common with her than he ever did with
Mary-Kate. Austin wasn’t even sure why he was still technically
with Mary-Kate. It used to be because her father had forced him to
be with her, but things were different now. If he really wanted to
get out of the relationship, he could do it without worrying about
the consequences. Greg Lawrence wasn’t there to hold the car
accident over his head any more, considering he didn’t even know
that Austin was alive.

Next to him, Gabe sat up in bed. “I saw
him.”

“Who?” Austin asked, turning the TV
off.

“Ben. I saw what happened. Well, part of it, at
least.”

“Do share,” Austin insisted. The fact that Gabe
seemed somewhat calm seemed like a good sign; it meant that Ben
probably wasn’t dead. At least, Austin hoped that wasn’t the
case.

“Greg hired some of the guys from Briar Creek
to come to Long Island for him. They checked all of his addresses
that they knew of. That’s why they came knocking on our door. They
snuck into his house when he wasn’t home and kidnapped him. They
made sure to make it look like nothing had happened, though. They
put a knife against his throat and forced him to leave with them.”
Gabe paused. “What I didn’t see was why they did it. I heard
someone in the background say that they thought that Ben was
helping Lexi. But then my mind did a flash forward to a baby. I
wonder . . .”

“What?” Austin asked, motioning for Gabe to
tell him what he was wondering.

“I just get this feeling that they’re going to
try to force him to have another child to give to them.” Gabe
shrugged.

Austin felt a wave of panic wash over his body.
He couldn’t imagine what cruel-hearted people would want to subject
another child to this type of torture. “Where did they take him?
Did you see?”

Gabe shook his head. “I don’t know. I think we
just need to stay here for a while, though. My vision was really
vivid, and I think it’s because we’re so close to his house . . .
the area where it happened. If we go back to Briar Creek, I don’t
think I’ll see anything.”

“That makes sense,” Austin replied. “Hey, Gabe,
is everything okay with you? You’ve been acting kind of
strange.”

Gabe shook his head. “No. Everything isn’t
okay, to be honest. And no, I don’t want to talk about it. We have
more important things to worry about right now.”

“Well, if you change your mind, I’m always here
to talk. You know that, right?”

Gabe nodded. “I won’t be able to deal with it
until we get back to Huntington.”

“Go back to sleep and do your thing, old man.
We need you to have a vision as soon as possible so we can get the
hell out of here. This bed and breakfast is nice, but I’d rather be
back in my warm bed at Huntington.”

“Missing Mary-Kate that much, huh?”

Austin shrugged. He wasn’t about to tell Gabe
that Anna was the real reason he wanted to get back to
Huntington.

****

Chapter 16

That same night, Lexi stared at Anna from
across the room. As much as she wanted to spend the night with
Craig, she knew that Anna really needed her to be there for her
right now. Lexi felt like things had been rocky between her and
Anna lately, and she knew it was because she had been keeping
secrets from her. It was time to be honest, even if it would hurt
her pride.
“I caught Gabe cheating on me.”

“What?” Anna asked. The shocked facial
expression that filled her face told Lexi that she had no idea. “No
way. Gabe loves you. Who was he with?”

“Veronica Hart,” Lexi said through gritted
teeth.

“Wow. I can’t believe him,” Anna replied. “We
all knew that Veronica had a thing for him, but I didn’t think it
was mutual. I can’t believe that he actually gave in to
her.”

“It must have been hard for him to resist.
Veronica created him. I guess they share a special bond or
something.” Just thinking about the bond that Gabe and Veronica
probably had with each other made Lexi’s eyes fill up with tears.
Even if Gabe hadn’t cheated on her, things would never be as good
between them as they were between him and Veronica; they would
forever be tied and connected to each other. Even worse, Lexi and
Gabe could never be connected in that way because Lexi could never
become a vampire, even if she wanted to be.

“Wow, I never would have guessed that Veronica
changed him. No wonder she seems so obsessed with him in class. It
makes more sense now. How are you holding up?”

Lexi shrugged. “It is what it is. He was my
first love, though. It hurts pretty bad . . . I’m just trying
really hard not to think about it.”

Anna looked at her sympathetically. “Well, if
things don’t work out and you decide not to forgive him, I’m sure
we can find you a cute guy here at Huntington.”

Lexi bit her tongue. Should she tell Anna about
Craig? She wanted to be completely honest with her so that they
could continue to have a good friendship. At the same time, Lexi
was afraid to say anything. What if Anna didn’t approve of
teacher-student relationships? What if she told someone? Lexi
didn’t want to do anything to ruin the chances that she did have
with Craig or make it so he got fired from teaching at Huntington.
She would have to test the waters first and ask her some
hypothetical questions to see if Anna could be trusted.

Lexi decided that if she was going
to continue to see Craig, they were going to have to make things
more private. They couldn’t let anyone see them. There were just
too many risks.

*

On Monday morning, Lexi woke up bright and
early. She felt happy until she remembered that she had to go to
Veronica’s class today. The only thing that sounded worse than
seeing Veronica on a normal day was seeing her after she had caught
her fooling around with Gabe.

When class started, Lexi noticed that Veronica
scanned the crowd for Gabe. When she didn’t see him anywhere, she
glared at Lexi.

“Good morning, class,” Veronica said
cheerfully, prancing around the room. “Today, we’re going to do a
little bit of a review. I’ll ask you each a question and you can
let me know what the correct answer is. Anna, you’re up first.” She
pulled a note card from the pile. “What is the most common way to
track a vampire?”

“The most common way a vampire is tracked is
through a biological vampire hunter,” Anna answered
matter-of-factly. “Non-biological vampire hunters can’t track them
as easily.”

“That is correct.” Veronica pulled out the next
card. “Leslie, this question’s for you. When a vampire sniffs the
air, what does it mean?”

“That’s an easy one,” Leslie replied
hesitantly, her tone making it obvious that she thought it was too
easy. “They’re sniffing the air because they’ve picked up on a
human scent.”

“Correct again!” Veronica pulled out another
card. “Alexandria.”

“Lexi. Please don’t call me Alexandria.” Lexi
watched as everyone looked back at her, nervous that Veronica was
going to lecture her. Surprisingly, she didn’t . . . but she didn’t
call her Lexi, either. “Alexandria, what is the most dangerous
thing a vampire hunter can do?”

“We didn’t learn this in class since I’ve been
here,” Lexi replied.

“Well, you should be reading your book every
night and catching up on past course material,” Veronica snapped.
“If you don’t think that you can handle the coursework, perhaps you
shouldn’t be taking the class. This isn’t in your book, though.
It’s common sense.”

Lexi hesitated before deciding to guess. “The
most dangerous thing a vampire hunter can do is be around a vampire
alone. Without any backup, they’re less likely to be able to beat a
vampire or group of vampires.”