Thicker Than Water (The Briar Creek Vampires Book #2) by Jayme Morse & Jody Morse (19 page)

Now, it was all
beginning to make sense, though. Brandon’s mom probably had
Wilkins’ Syndrome, and he most likely thought that Lexi’s mom also
had it, too. Lexi wouldn’t even be surprised if his grandma had
it.

Lexi wondered if
Brandon was a vampire himself or not. If he was, it seemed weird
that he didn’t know that she was a human – a Hunter, no less. Maybe
he was one of the few vampires in Briar Creek who wasn’t a vampire,
though. Gabe had made it sound like Mary-Kate and Lexi were the
only ones, but surely there had to be others, right?

“Lexi, why don’t
you jump in and play with us? Ou
r team could use another player,” Karla said from the
pool.

Lexi glanced down
at her neck. There was no way she was going to take off her bat
pendant now that she knew that it offered her some sort of
protection. Thinking back, Lexi remembered that she hadn’t been
wearing her necklace when Noah had attacked her in the pool on her
first day working at Splish ‘N Splash. Maybe wearing the pendant
today would at least prevent another kid from biting her.
There were probably half-vampire kids
in the pool with her who would be tempted to bite her if given the
chance.

Swimming over to
Karla’s side of the volleyball net so that she could play on her
team
, Lexi felt a deep sense
of regret. This was the first time she had gotten into the water
since she had quit her high school swim team at her old high school
in New Jersey. Water was one of the joys in Lexi’s life. No matter
how many days or months or years she didn’t swim, being in the
water made her happy. If she hadn’t quit the swim team, it might
have been more difficult for her mom to drag her to Briar Creek in
the first place. Her mom might still be alive today if she hadn’t
quit because they wouldn’t have made it to Pennsylvania when Austin
died in the first place.

“
Don’t blame
yourself, Lexi,” her mom whispered from behind her.

Lexi whirled
around
. She didn’t see her
mom, but there were ripples in the pool behind
her.

The volleyball flew in
Lexi’s direction, nearly hitting her in the head because she was
facing the opposite direction. The kids on her team booed because
she didn’t hit it. Picking the ball up, she served it as hard as
she possibly could. When it splashed against the water, they all
jumped up and down with excitement for the point that she had just
scored for the team.

“
What are
you doing for Halloween?” Karla asked, interrupting Lexi’s thoughts
and snapping her back to reality.

“I’m not really sure
yet,” Lexi replied hesitantly. “Why do you ask?” She was still
planning to keep the fact that she was going to the Briar Creek
Halloween festival a secret unless her anonymous note sender said
otherwise. If Karla mentioned to Brandon who mentioned to Dan that
Lexi was going, her aunt and uncle would find out.

This was yet another
one of the reasons why Lexi hated living in such a small
town.

“
Well, I was
thinking about going to the party store down the street to look for
a costume after work. Do you want to come with?”

“Sure, that sounds
fun,” Lexi replied, feeling relieved that Karla hadn’t actually
invited her to go anywhere with her for Halloween. The truth was,
she really did need to start looking for a Halloween costume for
the festival.

“Great! I can’t wait!”
Karla said, glancing at her watch. She blew her whistle loudly,
letting the kids know that it was time for them to get out of the
pool and eat lunch. Lexi climbed out of the pool, too, clasping her
bat pendant in her hand. She had decided today that she was never
going to take it off again.

*

The party store was stocked with a wide array
of Halloween costumes. There were aisles filled with costumes
ranging from butterflies and ladybugs to Disney characters. Lexi
spotted the witch costume that she had worn the previous year to a
swim team party. Witches had always been her favorite Halloween
character, but she knew that after the story that Gabe had told her
about her bloodline, she would never be able to just see them as
simply a Halloween character again.

Lexi hadn’t even thought that witches were real
until Gabe told her about the witch. Even though she had lived
hundreds of years ago, Lexi couldn’t help but feel a bit annoyed
with her. If it weren’t for her, Lexi wouldn’t have to be fighting
for her life. Her mother and Justin would still be alive. Tommy
also wouldn’t be on the verge of dying. Even though Lexi felt angry
and disappointed with the way her aunt and uncle had acted in
recent times, she wondered if they would be different if the witch
had never placed her curse.

Karla reached for the classic Marilyn Monroe
costume and held it up in front of her. “What do you
think?”

With the costume, Karla probably wouldn’t look
too far off from Marilyn Monroe. Her bleached blonde hair was piled
into a messy ponytail above her head, wet from the chlorinated pool
water. Lexi thought that it was a little bit too young for her,
though. Karla hadn’t actually told her how old she was, but Lexi
guessed that she was probably in her mid to late
twenties.

“It’s cute,” Lexi said, choosing her words
carefully, “but I think you might be able to find something a
little less cliché. I don’t know where you’re going, but I’m sure
that there will be lots of other people wearing that
costume.”

“Hmm, I’ve always wanted to be Marilyn Monroe,”
Karla replied, reluctantly hanging the costume back on the rack and
continuing down the aisle. “What do you think you’re going to
be?”

“I’m not sure,” Lexi replied. “I want something
a bit mysterious.”

“Mysterious?” Karla asked, looking up at her.
“Maybe you should be a vampire.”

“I do like
Twilight
,” Lexi chuckled
nervously, wondering if Karla was a vampire herself. “I think I
want something a little bit more…unique, though. Vampires are so
overdone,” Lexi said, watching Karla’s face closely for her
reaction. Her facial expression didn’t seem to change, though. It
made Lexi think that either a.) she wasn’t a vampire or b.) she was
so used to talking about vampires that she just didn’t react to
them anymore.

Karla looked thoughtful for a moment before
pulling a costume off the rack. “Gypsies are mysterious.” It had a
short skirt with layers of blue starry material, a white
Pirate-looking corset top, and a maroon bandana that the girl in
the picture on the box wore with huge silver earrings and her hair
down.

“Hmm, maybe.” Lexi actually really liked the
costume, but it would reveal her face. She could add tons of
dramatic costume makeup or add a bandana to her mouth, but her face
would still be partially revealed. Lexi realized that finding a
costume that would hide her face was going to be more difficult
than she had originally thought.

After browsing through every costume rack in
the store, Lexi came to the conclusion that there weren’t any cute
costumes that would hide her face. She really didn’t want to wear a
Scream
mask or any of the other scary masks that she had
come across. If anything, those costumes would only draw more
attention to her.

“I found a costume I love!” Karla said
excitedly, holding up a peacock costume. It had a purple dress with
decorative “feathers” and a cute little beak hat.

Lexi had never seen such a unique Halloween
costume before. “It’s cute! You should get it.”

“I’m going to.” Karla smiled at her. Looking at
Lexi’s empty hands, she asked, “You’re not getting
anything?”

“I didn’t see anything I liked,” Lexi shrugged.
“I think I’m going to try looking online.” She hadn’t thought about
it until now, but even if she had found a costume that she really
wanted, there was no way she could have bought it while she was
with Karla. If she did, Karla would know what she would be wearing
on the night of the festival, which didn’t seem like a good idea -
especially not after that vampire comment that she had made. Even
though she didn’t think that Karla was out to get her, she probably
knew someone who was.

*

“I need to ask a favor,” Lexi said, as she
played with her mashed potatoes at the dinner table that night.
“Can I borrow some money? I really need to get a Halloween costume,
and I won’t be getting paid from Splish ‘N Splash for two weeks.
Costumes will probably be sold out by then.”

“Absolutely not,” Violet replied, as she
stuffed a forkful of green beans into her mouth. “I don’t think
it’s appropriate for you to go out on Halloween. It’s the day of
the devil. We never let Austin celebrate.”

“What are you talking about?” Lexi asked,
trying to keep her voice at an even level. “Me and Austin always
used to go trick-or-treating when we were little kids. I remember
one year when we were kids, he dressed up as Batman and I dressed
up as Catwoman.”

“That was because your mother allowed my son to
go trick-or-treating with you. She went against my wishes,” Violet
replied. “I also didn’t have the heart to tell him that he couldn’t
go when you were going. It wouldn’t have been fair to him. That was
years ago, though. When he got older, he knew better than to ask.
You’ll get used to our rules, Lexi. We only have your best
interests in mind. No, you won’t be going out on
Halloween.”

“That’s not fair!” Lexi turned to Tommy. “You
even said yourself that I need to start socializing with people in
Briar Creek, Uncle Tommy. Do
you
care if I go out on
Halloween?”

Tommy looked at her with his hollow, sunken in
eyes. “I’m afraid that your aunt’s not going to give in this time,
Lexi. I’m sorry, but it looks like you’ll be staying in. Let’s also
not forget the last time you went out. You were not only drugged
and nearly kidnapped on the night of the Homecoming dance, but you
also ran away. We don’t want to have a repeat of that. Maybe you
and Dan could send for pizza and rent
Children of the Corn
or some other scary movie, on us.”

Lexi threw her fork down on the table and
stomped upstairs to her bedroom. Once she was inside, she slammed
the door and sunk to the floor in tears. She should have known that
it wasn’t going to be this easy to get out of Violet’s house on
Halloween. If it was an easy task, the person who wrote the notes
wouldn’t have been so specific about it.

Lexi didn’t cry or throw temper tantrums half
as much when she lived in New Jersey as she did here. Her mom had
always been really easygoing about everything, and they rarely
fought. Violet just seemed to know how to push Lexi’s buttons - and
she did it pretty often, too. Besides, what had happened to her
aunt being nice? So much for her fake act of being overly nice; her
aunt was finally starting to show Lexi her true colors
again.

Instead of trying to figure out how she was
going to get a Halloween costume and sneak out of the house to go
to the Briar Creek Halloween festival like she knew she should be
doing, Lexi curled up into a ball on her bed and wrapped her satin
comforter around her.

Just as Lexi was about to drift off to sleep,
she heard a familiar sound. It was from the music box that her
father had given to her mother before she was born. When she opened
her eyes, a bright figure was hovering over her.

“Mom,” Lexi whispered, a tear rolling down her
cheek. “I miss you. I hate it here.”

“I know, sweetie. I miss you, too.”

“What’s it like in Heaven?”

Lexi’s mom smiled. “It’s peaceful. Lucky is
there.” Lucky was Lexi’s Maltese who had gotten hit by a car when
he was only four years old. “I have to tell you something, and I
hope I’m not breaking the rules, but you need to know.”

“What is it?” Lexi sat up in her
bed.

Eileen sat down on the bed next to her,
reaching her hand out to smooth out the comforter the way that she
always did. The wrinkles in the comforter didn’t change, which
surprised Lexi because her mom had left ripples in the water. “I
know that you have been wondering why I never told you that your
father was a vampire. The truth is that I didn’t know - not until
you were a child.”

“Is that why we moved to New Jersey?” Lexi
asked.

Her mom shook her head. “Yes. There was a lot
of tension between us. At first, I actually thought that he was
cheating on me because he would go out late at night to find
someone to drink from without letting me know where he was going.
Eventually, I threatened him with a divorce and he finally admitted
that he was a vampire - and that he had been one all along. I felt
like he had betrayed me. How could he marry me and get me pregnant
with his child without even telling me what he was?”

“Did you know that I have a
half-sister?”

“Yes, I knew that Mary-Kate was your
half-sister.”

“And you never told me all of these years,”
Lexi said, the anger rising in her voice. “I always wanted a
sister, but you kept me from her.”

“It’s not that easy, Lexi,” Eileen responded.
“I was told that I was to keep Mary-Kate a secret for as long as I
lived. Your father made it very clear that we were to keep the two
of you separated. I didn’t know at the time that Greg knew that
Mary-Kate wasn’t his daughter. I thought that if I told anyone, it
would destroy their family. I’m sorry that I didn’t tell you, but I
am telling you now.”