Kiss of Death (The Briar Creek Vampires, #1) by Jayme Morse & Jody Morse (6 page)

“Oh, come on. I’ll protect you,” he laughed,
his pearly white teeth gleaming in the moonlight.

“I’m pretty sure the bear will take you down,
too. I have an idea though. There’s a carnival on Sunday. Why don’t
we go together?”

His expression turned serious and anger
clouded his light blue eyes. “You don’t want to go to the carnival.
Trust me.”

“Why not? What’s not to love about
Tilt-A-Whirl and funnel cakes?”

His look softened. “I get nauseous on
Tilt-A-Whirl,” he teased.

“That’s okay, I don’t do well with motion
rides either. We’ll skip it.”

His smile disappeared again. “Lexi, I just
really don’t think it’s a good idea.”

“Fine.”

She got up and as she began to stomp her way
back towards the front of the house, Gabe called out to her. “Lexi,
I’m sorry. It’s just that –”

“Gabe, let it go. You don’t owe me an
explanation. You don’t want to go with me and that’s fine. I’m
going to bed. Maybe I’ll see you at some point before I go back
home. If not, it was nice to meet you.”

As Lexi climbed the stairs to go up to her
bedroom, she had a sick feeling in her stomach. She realized it was
because she suspected that Gabe was embarrassed of her. He didn’t
want to be seen with her at the carnival, yet he wanted her to
spend the night with him? What a scumbag.

Lexi felt her chest tighten as she replayed
their last kiss in her mind. She really thought that Gabriel liked
her. At least, that kiss seemed to indicate he did. How could she
have been so wrong about him? He was just another one of those guys
who were only out for one thing. Well, he wasn’t getting it from
her.

When Lexi had broken up with her
ex-boyfriend, Justin, she had made a vow to stay a virgin until she
met the right guy. At one point, Lexi had thought that Justin had
been the right guy, too, until she realized that hockey was all he
cared about. She wasn’t going to waste her virginity on someone who
didn’t really love her. Clearly, Gabe wasn’t going to be the right
guy, either.

Once she got back to her room, she glanced
out the window that overlooked the backyard. Lexi’s stomach flipped
as she realized that the place where Gabe had been sitting was now
empty. For some reason, she had expected him to wait there for her
to come back outside. Who was she kidding, though? He had probably
moved on to another girl’s hammock by now.

Glancing up at the night sky, she noticed
that it was just as beautiful as both Dan and Gabe had mentioned
tonight.

Something small and black banged against the
window, seeming to fall into the flower-filled window box. It
recovered quickly and before flying back into the darkness. It was
a bat. Lexi used to see bats all the time when she lived here; it
was like they were everywhere. After never seeing a single bat in
New Jersey, she’d almost forgotten what they’d looked like in real
life.

Lexi changed into her pajamas and sat down on
the bed. She knew that there was no way she was going to be able to
get a decent night’s sleep. She kept replaying in her mind every
interaction she had ever had with Gabe. Lexi felt stupid for
allowing herself to believe that he was a decent guy. Thinking of a
way to occupy her mind without a television or a computer, she
remembered the “Private” box in Austin’s room.

Peeking downstairs to make sure no lights
were on, Lexi quietly hurried into Austin’s room. Without turning
on any lights, she grabbed the box from his bed and tiptoed back to
her room. She sure as hell wasn’t going to let herself be caught in
Austin’s room. Last time was too close of a call.

Lexi placed the old shoebox on her pink
floral comforter, somewhat nervous to see its contents. “Sorry,
Austin. But if this helps me figure out what happened to you the
night you died, then it’s worth it,” she whispered, looking around
her room. She felt silly apologizing to a ghost, but she was really
scared of Austin haunting her for invading his privacy. Lexi could
feel the hair on her arms start to prickle up.

Laughing in spite of herself, she took the
lid off the box and placed it on the bed beside her. The first
things she saw were a photo album and a journal. There was also a
vial on a chain with a dark brown liquid. Lexi’s mouth dropped
open. It looked like blood. What was Austin doing with a vial of
blood?

Shuddering, Lexi put Austin’s personal
belongings back in the box and stuffed the box into her duffle bag,
zipping it up to hide its contents. She knew that she had to go
through Austin’s journal and photo album to find out what she
could, but she felt way too queasy to right now.

Getting into bed, she curled up into a tiny
ball – something that she had always done when she was scared as a
child – and pulled the floral comforter over her head. Lexi wasn’t
sure what it was, but something wasn’t right. First there was that
strange email from Mary-Kate and now there was a vial of blood
which could belong to anyone.

As she drifted off to sleep, Lexi realized
what she had to do. She had to go directly to the source. If anyone
knew what Mary-Kate and Austin had done the night of his death, it
would be Mary-Kate. Would Mary-Kate be honest with her, though?
Lexi wasn’t sure, but it was worth finding out.

****

Chapter 5

The next morning, Lexi found Aunt Violet,
Uncle Tommy, and her mom huddled around the dining room table where
they were talking in hushed voices. When Lexi entered the room, the
three of them stopped talking and stared at her.

Lexi became self-conscious when she thought
that she noticed that they had accusing looks on their faces.
“What’s going on?” she asked suspiciously. She and her mom never
kept secrets from one another at home, and she didn’t want them to
start keeping secrets from each other now.

“The police are looking further into the
cause of Austin’s death, Lexi.”

“Why?”

“They took his laptop for a routine
investigation, you know, just to make sure that nothing weird was
going on. And while they were searching, they found out that
someone had signed onto Austin’s Facebook account after he had
already…passed.”

“Oh,” Lexi looked down at her cereal. Should
she tell her family that she had been the one to log onto Austin’s
Facebook? She didn’t want her aunt and uncle to worry for no
reason, but she also didn’t want them to know that she had intruded
on Austin’s privacy. Deciding against it, Lexi took a bite of her
Frosted Flakes instead. There wouldn’t be a way for the cops to
figure out it was her, anyway – she hoped. “Did they find something
strange?”

“No,” Violet said, adding more creamer to her
coffee. “It’s just the fact that someone signed into his Facebook
account after he was already gone. And we know it wasn’t us, and
the cops are asking some of his close friends if it was them. It’s
a little strange. The police are now suspecting some form of foul
play.”

“It is a little weird. But then again, who
knows how many people he gave his Facebook password to?” Lexi
rattled on, “Maybe one of his ex-girlfriends or something went on
his account to look at pictures of him or something because she
misses him.” She decided that she’d better stop defending the issue
before she made it too obvious that she was the one who had been
snooping on Austin’s Facebook.

“Austin was a very private guy,” Violet said.
“I doubt he would have given his password to anyone, except for
Dan, maybe. And Dan already said that he wasn’t the one who signed
in.”

“Oh.” Lexi wasn’t sure what else to say, so
she changed the subject. “How was your night?” she asked.

“It was okay. I had some trouble sleeping,
but I got up and took a Benadryl to knock me out,” Violet
answered.

“Dan was kind enough to bring us the
newspaper this morning. He asked about you, Lexi.” Uncle Tommy
looked up from his empty plate. “He said that he wanted to talk to
you sometime before you went home. I guess things didn’t go too
well?”

“Well,” Lexi picked her brain for an excuse.
“It was just a little awkward. I think he’s devastated about Austin
and I didn’t really know what to say to him. I also wasn’t
expecting him to call me,” she looked at Violet. “I thought that I
was going to be the one to call him, so I wasn’t really
prepared.”

“Oh, I’m sorry about that Lexi. You can blame
me. It’s just that he was so excited about getting to know you. I
hope that I didn’t ruin anything. I would love to see you two
date,” Violet smiled ashamedly from across the table. Lexi noted
the glimmer of hope in her eyes and found herself accepting her
apology.

“Speaking of that…we’re leaving tonight
Lexi,” her mom reminded her.

“Mom, I don’t want to leave. I want to stay
here.”

Her mom frowned. “We talked about this before
we got here, Lexi. We agreed that we would go back to New Jersey
tonight. The hospital wouldn’t give me any more days off.”

Violet looked at Tommy, who nodded in return.
“School’s out for the summer, Eileen. Lexi is more than welcome to
stay with us. If she wants to, that is.”

“No,” her mom snapped at her, her anger
showing on her rosy cheeks. “Absolutely not. Lexi is coming home
with me.”

“And actually, Eileen, with Austin gone, we
have more than enough room for both of you. You and Lexi don’t
really have much in New Jersey and –”

Cutting her off, her mom said sharply “We do
have a life in New Jersey. I have my job. There are parents who
would be angry if their pediatrician were to just up and leave for
who knows how long without any previous notification. And Lexi has
school.”

“Yes, but I’m sure that Briar Creek Medical
Center is always looking for new pediatricians. Greg could pull
some strings. And the high school here is good…I bet Lexi would fit
in just fine.”

“Yeah, mom,” Lexi said hopefully. “Can
we?”

“No, Lexi. We’ll talk about this more later,”
Eileen said.

“Please, mom?” Lexi persisted. “I want to
stay here. I miss it. And everyone’s so much nicer here. I’m
already starting to make some friends here – Dan and Gabe. Do you
remember him? He lived across the street when I was little. His
brother was Kevin.”

“No. I don’t remember him. I don’t see any
reason why you would want to stick around to get to know
these…these people,” Eileen said carefully, shifting her gaze back
and forth from Lexi to Violet and Tommy. “You have friends at home.
You haven’t had enough time to see what these new friends of yours
are really like.”

“Fine,” Lexi yelled back at her. “Can I at
least stay for the rest of the summer?”

“No, Lexi,” her mom huffed.

“Why not? They already said that I’m allowed
to. I’m going to be so bored this summer if I go back home.” This
was the first time in a while that Lexi felt like her mom was
trying to control her. She didn’t like it. They never had that type
of relationship before; her mom had always been her best friend,
not her keeper. “I feel like I belong here right now.”

“Because I said so. End of discussion.”

“You never let me make my own decisions!”
Lexi yelled. “I’m sick and tired of doing things your way. You
barely pay attention to me at home. I think I would be happier
here.”

“It may seem like that at the moment, but I
know what’s in your best interest. Staying in Briar Creek wouldn’t
be good for you,” her mom insisted.

“You don’t care what’s good for me! All you
care about is yourself! You’re so selfish! I hate you!” Lexi
shrieked.

“You don’t mean that,” her mom said
quietly.

“Yes, I do,” Lexi said, stomping away.

Lexi felt guilty. She and her mom had never
fought like that before. She understood why her mom was upset. Lexi
was all she had in New Jersey. Her mom would probably be lonely if
she went home without her. The only time she and her mom had been
away from each other was when Lexi went to sleep away camp one
summer and had called her mom, in tears, begging for her to come
get her on the fourth night.

Deciding to not let her mother’s
disappointment bother her, Lexi went into the kitchen and grabbed
the phone book, which had always been kept in the bottom cabinet.
Putting her bowl and spoon in the sink, she flipped to “L.” She
reached in the drawer and found a pen and a note card. She
scribbled down:
125 Birch Street.
Shoving the phone book
back in the cabinet, she headed upstairs for her bedroom. She was
on a mission and no one was going to stop her.

Upstairs, Lexi grabbed a change of clothes
out of her duffel bag, trying to avoid the box of Austin’s personal
belongings, which were screaming out at her. No, she thought,
there’s no time to read his journal right now
.
There were
more important things that she had to take care of. Deciding to
read it later, she grabbed a pair of dark wash skinny jeans and a
yellow sequined tank top out of her bag.

Slipping into the bathroom, Lexi stripped off
her clothes and glanced at herself in the mirror. The gaping hole
glared back at her through the floral wallpaper. She found herself
wondering again what had happened. Did Austin and Uncle Tommy get
into a fight or had it been an accident?

Stepping into the old-fashioned claw foot
bathtub, Lexi turned on the cold water and let it hit her bare
chest. She thought about the mission that she wanted to accomplish
today.

Lexi had already decided that she would pay a
visit to Mary-Kate; she just wasn’t sure what her excuse for
dropping by the Lawrence house would be.

As she stepped out of the tub and dried
herself off with a fluffy pink towel, Lexi realized that she
couldn’t stay here for even one more day without buying some new
clothes. Although her suitcase had been overflowing when she
packed, she somehow managed to forget to bring a comfortable pair
of clothes for the drive back home. Maybe she would also pay a
visit to the Briar Creek Mall before she stopped to see Mary-Kate.
Of course, her mom was never going to agree to the shopping spree
that she had already promised her when they first arrived in Briar
Creek after the argument that they had just had.