Kiss of Death (The Briar Creek Vampires, #1) by Jayme Morse & Jody Morse (24 page)

“No,” Lexi said, trying to push his strong
body away from her. “I don’t want to do this. I’m not ready.”

“Don’t lie,” Dan said. “I know you want me.
You’ve wanted me since you first saw me at Austin’s funeral. That’s
why Vi told me to call you. And I’ve wanted you since the very
first time I heard you were coming back to Briar Creek. So let it
happen.”

“No,” Lexi squeaked. “I don’t. You have it
all wrong. Get away from me,” she said, giving him a stronger
shove.

“Shh,” Dan whispered. He forcefully pushed
her back against the wall, and slammed one hand on either side of
her head, trapping her into place.

“Get away from me!” Lexi shouted, bring her
leg up to kick him.

Dan pushed himself firmly against her
helpless body. He roughly yanked Lexi’s hair to push turn her head
to the side and sank his teeth into her neck.

“What are you doing?!” Lexi screamed. “Don’t
bite me, you asshole!”

“Lex, please. You know you want it,” Dan said
angrily, grasping both of her wrists in his large, strong hand and
forcing his tongue into her mouth to quiet her.

He began sucking her neck again, nibbling and
gently biting it. Lexi kicked and squirmed to get away from
him.

Neither of them heard the front door being
kicked in until Lexi spotted the tall figure hovering over them,
glaring at them with dark blue eyes.

****

Chapter 25

Gabe lunged at Dan, ripping his hands away from Lexi
and freeing her from his grasp. Dan stumbled away long enough for
Lexi to back away from both of them.

“Dude, you ruined everything!” Dan yelled in a
screechy voice.

Lexi watched, in horror, as Gabe punched Dan in his
right eye. Dan’s head snapped back with the force of the blow.

“Stay the fuck away from her!” Gabe shouted.

Dan gave Gabe one hard push, strong enough to throw
him across the room. Gabe fell into the table, breaking it in half.
“Remember what I told you, old man. I’m stronger than you. Do I
really need to prove it?” A beer bottle that had been left out on
the kitchen table smashed down onto the floor.

“Oh my God,” Lexi gasped as she watched the mushy
crimson gel leak onto the white tiled floor, and she got a whiff of
the familiar metallic scent of blood. Lexi ignored what Gabe and
Dan were yelling about and grasped her stomach, the contents of
which were threatening to come back up to the surface when she
realized that the first beer she had ever drunk was not beer at
all, but was blood.

The sound of Dan’s fist punching through the kitchen
wall snapped Lexi back to reality.

“Gabe, why are you here?” Lexi asked, shocked and
frightened by the fight that had taken place right in front of her
eyes. Lexi would probably end up taking the blame for the damage
because they would think that she had let Gabe in, even though she
really hadn’t.

“Not right now, Lexi. I’ll tell you later,” Gabe told
her, staring Dan down.

“Yeah, right,” Dan muttered, turning to Lexi. “He’s
not going to tell you. He can’t tell you or he’s in deep shit.”

“Maybe I’m willing to risk it,” Gabe said angrily.
“Unlike you, I actually have feelings for her,” he added
sarcastically.

Dan opened his mouth to speak, but before he could
get a word out, Gabe grabbed Lexi’s hand and pulled her out the
front door. Although she was probably too weak to fight against his
pull, Lexi realized that she wanted to go with Gabe. Despite him
randomly lashing out at Dan, she felt a thousand times safer when
she was with him.

Once they were outside, Lexi followed Gabe across the
street. His car was outside idling. Lexi assumed, at first, that
his mom must be borrowing it to go somewhere. When he climbed into
the driver’s seat and swung open the door to the passenger’s side,
she realized that she had been wrong.

“Get in!” Gabe yelled at her.

“But, where are we –?” Lexi asked.

“There’s no time for me to explain. We have to get
out of here right now, before your aunt and uncle get back!” Gabe
shouted. “Just shut up and get the hell in, Lexi! Come on!”

Lexi reluctantly got into the car and looked at him.
She had forgotten the way his dark hair fell just over his steel
blue eyes and how square his chin was, since they hadn’t seen each
other in so long. God, she missed him.

“I missed you, too, Lexi,” Gabe said.

“Huh?” Lexi asked. Had she said that she missed him
out loud?

Gabe glanced over at her from the corner of his eye.
“I said…I miss you.”

Lexi suppressed a smile. “I know, but you said you
missed me ‘too’. I didn’t say I missed you.”

“Did I say ‘too’?” Gabe asked confusedly. “Sorry. I
didn’t mean to.”

“It’s okay,” Lexi said. “For the record, though, I do
miss you. Like crazy.”

“Good. Then you’ll be happy to know that you’re not
going back to your aunt’s house,” Gabe answered.

“What do you mean I’m not going back?” Lexi asked,
feeling surprised, confused, and happy – all at the same time.

“We’re getting away from here. It’s safer for both of
us,” Gabe answered, keeping his eyes focused on the road.

“Why is it safer?” Lexi asked.

“There are a lot of things you don’t know,” Gabe
muttered.

“Well, are you going to tell me?” Lexi prompted
him.

Ignoring her, Gabe turned on the radio, which was
playing “Breakaway” by Kelly Clarkson. Lexi thought that it was
symbolic of her and Gabe leaving – though she wondered where they
could be going and why he wasn’t telling her what was going on.
Surely he had to tell her at some point if they were going to run
away forever?

Lexi tried to keep herself from smiling. After what
Dan had just done – or tried to do – she shouldn’t be happy. But
there was no one she would rather run away with forever than
Gabe.

Kelly Clarkson’s voice was replaced by a deejay with
an Australian accent talking about the weather. Lexi loved
Australian accents. It was one of the (many) reasons she was still
crushed that Heath Ledger had died.

“A driver was killed in a car accident on Marion
Boulevard yesterday afternoon,” the deejay announced. Lexi
remembered hearing about the accident before Aunt Violet had gone
in the restaurant to get the Chinese food yesterday. She leaned
over and turned up the volume. “The car was a 2009 yellow
Mitsubishi Eclipse. Police are trying to get in touch with the
victim’s family.”

Lexi froze. Justin had turned sixteen in May of 2009.
His dad’s birthday present to him had been the brand new, shiny
yellow Eclipse. The same yellow Eclipse that had been parked in
Tommy and Violet’s driveway the day before. Briar Creek was a small
town, like everyone kept telling her. If there were another yellow
Eclipse, Lexi probably would have seen it by now.

A lone tear trailed its way down her cheek, dampening
her chin before she brushed it away.

“Gabe, tell me what’s going on,” Lexi managed to say
in between the sobs that she held back in her throat.

“I don’t know how to tell you,” Gabe said. “I don’t
know if you’re even going to believe me.”

“Of course I’ll believe you,” Lexi insisted. “I love
you. Why wouldn’t I believe you?”

Gabe’s lips stretched into a tight smile. “I’m glad
to hear you say that. It makes what I’m about to tell you a lot
easier.” Pausing, Gabe sighed. “I’m a vampire.”

“What?” Lexi asked, laughing through a sob. “Come on,
Gabe. Just tell me whatever it is you need to tell me.”

“I just told you,” he grumbled. “I’m not
kidding.”

Lexi looked over at him. His lips were in a tight
line, and his eyes were not sparkling the way they usually did when
he was happy or joking.

“You’re not lying,” Lexi said, more to herself than
to him. “Why didn’t you tell me you were a vampire before?”

“It’s not the way I normally like to introduce
myself,” Gabe said quietly. “Besides, you might not have believed
me…and I missed you.”

“What do you mean, you missed me?”

“Well, do you remember how I told you my brother
Kevin died in a motorcycle accident died?” Gabe asked, glancing
over at Lexi, who nodded. “I lied.”

“He’s still alive?” Lexi asked, trying not to accuse
him for lying to her. “Where is he! How is he?”

“Yeah, he’s still alive,” Gabe answered, turning to
look at her. “You’re looking at him.”

“You’re Kevin?” Lexi asked, clasping her mouth with
both hands. “I knew it! The first time I saw you.”

Gabe nodded and smiled. “You did know. I could tell.
You’re the only one who’s recognized me so far.”

“You told me Dan was involved in the motorcycle
accident, though,” Lexi said slowly. “Why did you say that?”

“Well, he really was involved,” Gabe replied. “See, I
staged the motorcycle accident. I had to make it seem like Kevin
died, so that people would believe that I was his younger brother.
Dan and I were friends back then. We planned my death for months
ahead of time to make sure that everything would work out. But at
the last minute, he didn’t report the accident to the police…even
though he was supposed to. He actually came over to me, as I was
lying on the ground pretending to be dead, and spit on my face.
Then he got in his car and drove away.”

“But it eventually got reported?”

Gabe shook his head. “No, it didn’t get reported.
But, just as I suspected, Dan made sure that the word got around
town and everyone believed it happened anyway. My mom and I took a
long vacation immediately after the ‘accident,’” he said, making
air quotes with his fingers, “so it seemed believable.”

“Why don’t you look older?” Lexi asked, puzzled.

“I’m a lot older than you think, Lexi,” Gabe said.
“See, vampires can live for many years before dying. I’m older than
your great grandfather. I can’t tell you exactly how old, because
then I would be putting both of us in even more danger if someone
caught wind of it.”

“So, you made it seem like Kevin died, so that no one
will know how old you are?” Lexi asked as she pieced the
information together.

“Exactly,” Gabe said, pulling onto a curvy, unlit
road that was lined with acres upon acres of trees. Lexi glanced
around and realized she had no idea where they were – but that
didn’t matter. What mattered was that they weren’t going back.

“If you’re a vampire, does that mean you drink human
blood?” Lexi asked. “Or do you drink animal blood like Edward
Cullen?”

Gabe groaned and said, “Please don’t ask me if I
sparkle next.” Laughing, he answered her question, “Stephenie Meyer
wrote Edward Cullen’s character out of convenience, really. It was
the only way she could make it so that he didn’t eat Bella in those
books. What the author forgot was that girls bleed every month and
a vampire wouldn’t be able to resist that. Somehow, though, Edward
didn’t have the urge to attack her then. Anyway, real vampires
can’t drink animal blood or eat human food.”

“I always wondered what happened when Bella got her
period!” Lexi said, laughing. “Wait, I’m confused. You ate macaroni
and cheese with me.”

“Well, I can eat whatever I want…but I can’t digest
it. So, I have to bring it back up somehow.”

“Ew. Why did you eat with me then? So, if you don’t
eat animals, how do you…eat?”

“I eat human food around humans to keep up with my
act. I drink human blood,” Gabe said, shortly.

“Why haven’t you drunk from me?” Lexi asked, trying
to hide the hurt tone in her voice.

“I have, Lexi,” Gabe shot an apologetic glance at
her. “In the car, right after I brought you home from the carnival.
It’s just that you were already bleeding after you were attacked by
that filthy vampire, so I couldn’t help myself…you smelled so good.
But I healed you right after, don’t worry,” Gabe said, shooting her
another glance.

“That was a vampire that attacked me?” Lexi’s jaw
dropped and she looked at him with wide eyes. “Am I a vampire
now?”

Gabe grinned at her. “No, silly. It takes a lot more
than a simple bite to turn someone into a vampire. You’d have to be
drained almost completely, and then drink some of the vampire’s
blood.”

“Then if you haven’t drunken from me much, who do you
drink from on a daily basis? Or how often do you eat, anyway? Do
you kill people?” Lexi couldn’t stop the questions from pouring out
of her mouth.

“I drink from people who let me drink from them,”
Gabe replied.

“People give you permission to drink from them?” Lexi
asked, wondering who Gabe had drunk from in Briar Creek.

“Yes, they do. I’d rather not talk about how I meet
my nutritional requirements,” Gabe said, glancing at her. “Aren’t
you freaked out at all that I’m a vampire?” he asked.

Lexi shrugged. “Not really. It sounds weird, but…I
still feel safe with you. I was expecting you to tell me something
worse,” she admitted.

“Something worse…like what?”

“Like that you killed someone,” Lexi answered
quietly, staring out the window.

“Well…not recently,” Gabe said. “Let’s not get into
that right now. I do think that someone killed your ex-boyfriend,
though.”

“What do you mean?” Lexi asked, startled. “How do you
know something happened to him?”

“I saw his car at your aunt’s house,” Gabe began. “I
don’t want to admit that it was him because I know it will make you
sad, but I also don’t want to lie. You and I both know that there
aren’t any other flashy cars like that in Briar Creek. I think it’s
an unwritten rule that you’re not allowed to drive an obnoxious
yellow car in this town.”

Lexi sighed. She had been hoping that she was wrong
and that Justin’s mom would call her and let her know that he had
gotten home okay. Something deep inside told her that the only way
Justin’s mom would get in touch with her would be to give her the
details about the funeral arrangements. Lexi shivered at the
thought of her ex-boyfriend being dead. It felt like everyone close
to her was dying, and there was nothing she could do about it.