Thicker Than Water (The Briar Creek Vampires Book #2) by Jayme Morse & Jody Morse (25 page)

Lexi shook her head. She wondered if she should
just tell Mary-Kate, right then and there. Gabe had said that at
one point, the town had also been after Mary-Kate’s blood. She
would understand. That is, if everything Gabe had told her was the
truth. She didn’t know what to think anymore, so she decided to
take Austin’s advice from her dream and keep playing dumb. “I’m not
exactly sure myself, but I know that it’s not safe for me here
right now. Someone is out to get me, and they’re planning to hurt
me tonight. I need to get away from here. Do you have your car with
you?”

Mary-Kate nodded, her forehead wrinkling with
worry. “Yeah, it’s in the parking lot behind Crimson’s Hair Salon.
Do you want me to drive you somewhere?”

“Shit,” Lexi muttered. Crimson’s Hair Salon was
near where the funhouse was and where Gabe had suggested that
Violet and Tommy should look for Lexi. There was also a haunted
house in Crimson’s Hair Salon itself, which they might also check
when they realized that the funhouse was unsuccessful. She couldn’t
even figure out why he thought she liked funhouses. She had never
mentioned liking them in front of him before – and, actually, she
didn’t really like them all that much.

The idea of being in a funhouse reminded her of
that night in the House of Mirrors. Now that she knew that Gabe was
on Violet and Tommy’s side, she realized that he was probably the
one who had attacked her that night.

“Give me your
keys,” Lexi said. “I promise I’ll
bring your car back to you as soon as I can, but I need to get
out of here right now.”

Mary-Kate looked
thoughtful for a moment
before
hesitantly handing over her keys. “Be careful. The Jetta’s my baby.
I don’t know what’s going on with you right now, but you better not
crash her.”

“I won’t, I promise,”
Lexi said, darting across the street. She didn’t think that it was
the right time to mention that she had never driven a car before.
Tonight didn’t really seem like the best night to learn, but it
seemed like the only way she would be able to escape from the fate
that had been planned out for her. Walking was the only other
option, and with her luck, Mayor Lawrence would end up stopping her
again. She needed to be quick – time was not on her side
tonight.

As she hurried
along
the road that led to the
Crimson’s Hair Salon parking lot, she heard Violet shout, “There
she is!” Her aunt pointed at her and grabbed Tommy’s arm. “Come
on!”

Dropping
Mary-Kate’s
keys to the
ground, Lexi ran as fast as she could, her legs moving with all of
the strength in her body. She couldn’t let them catch up to her. If
they caught up to her, their plan would work; she would die by the
end of the night.

Turning down one of the
streets, Lexi silently scolded herself for being dumb enough to
wear heels tonight. She hadn’t thought about what would happen if
she needed to make a quick exit. Lexi ran faster, scanning the
parking lot for somewhere to hide until her aunt and uncle passed,
eventually herself settling onto the blacktop next to a Hummer.
Lexi tried to conceal her body behind the large tire and the
sidewalk, but she knew that if her aunt and uncle walked past the
parking spot, they would be sure to spot her and it would all be
over.

Lexi waited, listening
for the sound of footsteps coming towards her, but she didn’t hear
any. She held her breath, partly because she was scared shitless
and partly because she didn’t want Violet and Tommy to find her
because they could hear her breathing. And Gabe…No, Lexi told
herself, don’t think about Gabe now. If he knew that she was
thinking about him, he would be able to find her, the same way he
was able to come to her room when she thought of him. Just
remembering that she had let him drink her blood, that she had even
wanted him to, made her feel sick to her stomach. The only reason
he had probably agreed was because her blood would make him
stronger. Even though he’d been drinking Mary-Kate’s blood for
awhile now, her blood was younger, which had added health benefits
for him.

He had pretended
that he was drinking her blood because he might not get to, but
really, Gabe had probably done it because her blood would make
him
stronger for
tonight.

“I swear, I
thought I saw her run down this street,” Violet said, her voice
echoing in the parking lot. “Halloween is almost over. We only
have
five hours left to find
her before it will be too late. We have to hurry up and get this
show on the road already.”

“Don’t worry, Vi.
She’ll fall right into our laps. You’ll see how easy it will be.
Lexi’s not very good at hiding,” Tommy replied, a ragged cough
taking over his speech.

“I hope you’re right,”
Violet sniffed. “If we don’t do this tonight, you could die. This
is the only way that we will be able to be happy together. I don’t
want to lose you.”

“I know,” Tommy
replied, a sympathetic tone in his voice. “I just got a text
message from Greg. He’s sending policemen to keep a lookout for her
on every street corner. I told him what the Halloween costume that
she’s wearing looks like. I assure you, if she is up this street or
any other street for that matter, there is no way she will make it
out of here without being caught.”

“You hear that,
Lexi?” Violet shouted; her cold voice made Lexi shudder. “You might
as well just give up already. You’re stuck here. Come out before
you really piss us off a
nd I
promise we’ll go easy on you. You—”

“Guys, I don’t
think she’s down here,” Gabe interrupted. “I think that we should
try looking somewhere else. Lexi’s not as stupid as you might
think. There’s no way she would be just hanging around
in a parking lot waiting for you to
find her.”

Lexi heard the sound of
their footsteps walking in the opposite direction, and she breathed
a sigh of relief. Standing up, she glanced around. She couldn’t
stay in the parking lot all night; she had to find a new place to
go. The parking lot might keep her concealed temporarily because
they didn’t suspect that she would be down here at the moment, but
someone was bound to realize eventually that she was hiding
there.

Pausing, Lexi looked
around.

The houses that lined
the road across from the parking lot were brightly lit with strands
of orange Halloween lights and inflatable ghosts and pumpkins. She
assumed that the people who lived there were home and waiting for
trick-or-treaters to show up. If she crossed through their yards,
they would be sure to notice her and for all Lexi knew, Mayor
Lawrence may have already notified them to be on the lookout for
her. Lexi had never been in this direction before, but she could
just make out the black iron gates that surrounded the cemetery at
the end of the road.

The only way out was to
go up one of the streets that the police men would be protecting.
No matter which way Lexi chose to go, she knew that someone was
going to catch her and she was going to die.

At least she knew that
she couldn’t trust Gabe anymore. Her trust for him was like a
rollercoaster; one minute she really believed that he was good and
the next minute, she knew it would be better for her own good if
she shoved all of her feelings aside and treated him for who he
was: someone who was out to get her. He had tried to kill her once,
so what ever made her think that he wasn’t going to try to kill her
again?

This time, if Gabe
found her, Lexi would be prepared. And, if she did survive after
tonight, she would know better than to ever trust him again. Lexi
scolded herself for being worried about what would happen in the
future with Gabe, when she should be thinking about more important
things, like a plan to escape safely.

Out of the corner of
her eye, Lexi saw Gabe walking towards her, his skeleton costume
illuminated by the street lamps. Oh no, she thought. If she hadn’t
thought of him again, he might not have figured out where she was.
Or maybe he had known all along and that was why he had lured Tommy
and Violet away from her; he had been planning to finish her off
himself.

Gabe walked closer to
her, not saying a single word.

Lexi backed away from
him, but he continued walking towards her until he was within arm’s
reach. She hated not being able to see the expression on his face
because it was covered by the skeleton mask. For all she knew, he
was preparing to lunge at her and attack.

He reached out for her, and she ran.

Not knowing where to go, she scanned the houses
on the street, looking for a safe place to hide. When she didn’t
see anywhere she could go and didn’t see anywhere else to turn, she
ran through the open gate of the cemetery.

She climbed up the grassy hill, realizing that
she was in the same area of the cemetery where Austin and her
mother buried, the same place where her own freshly dug grave was
located.

Gabe stood in front of her, as if he were
waiting for her.

She wasn’t sure how he had gotten there before
her. Deciding that he must have just flown there, she shrugged it
off.

Wordlessly, Gabe pointed to the empty
grave.

Lexi realized what he wanted her to do. He
wanted her climb down into the open grave. “Are you insane!?” Lexi
shrieked at him.

Gabe shook his head in response and reached for
her again.

Lexi slipped out of his reach, whirling around,
trying to figure out where she should go to get away from him. She
darted out of the graveyard. When she glanced over her shoulder,
she saw that Gabe was still there. He wasn’t following
her.

Lexi walked down the back street that was
behind the buildings that the block party had taken place in front
of. Surprisingly, it was still as empty as empty as it had been
earlier. She guessed that everyone was still enjoying the block
party. Lucky them, Lexi thought bitterly.

As Lexi approached the only shop on Main Street
that hadn’t participated in the festival, as indicated by the
‘Closed’ sign that was hanging on the door, a woman poked her head
out and said quietly, “I’ve been wondering when you’d show up.” The
woman stepped further into the doorway. “I think you need help,
little one.”

“That’s the understatement of the year,” Lexi
muttered sarcastically to herself. The woman nodded
sympathetically.

Lexi noticed a sign in the window that said
‘Tarot readings’ and wondered if this woman was a real fortune
teller. Lexi was instantly reminded of the time when she and her
mom had spent the weekend at the Jersey Shore. She had spent the
most of the evening playing almost every boardwalk game, trying to
win a stuffed animal or a pet fish. On their way back to the hotel,
Lexi had noticed a boardwalk booth that she hadn’t seen before:
Madam Genevieve’s Palm Readings. Lexi had bugged her mother to let
her get her palm read for the rest of their vacation, because she
thought that Madam Genevieve would be able to tell her what had
happened to her father. Her mother hadn’t let her; Eileen thought
that Madam Genevieve’s palm readings at $25 each were a rip off,
since she wasn’t really a psychic.

Lexi eyed the older woman that stood in front
of her and wondered if
she
really had psychic abilities. A
year ago, Lexi probably wouldn’t have believed in witches. Now that
she knew that vampires, witches, and ghosts existed, she had no
doubt in her mind that people with psychic abilities were out there
somewhere, too. Plus, the woman had been accurate so far; Lexi did
need help.

“Sorry, I’ve had a rough night. But yes, I do
need help,” Lexi smiled apologetically. Proper manners were the
last thing on her mind right now, but she knew that the woman
didn’t deserve an attitude from her.

Smiling as if she were amused at something, the
woman said, “Come inside, child, before someone sees you.” As she
turned to go back into the shop, her long, flowing purple dress
with an intricate gold pattern swirled around her feet. Once more
that night, Lexi felt as if someone was watching her. Not wanting
to stick around to find out who it was, Lexi followed the woman
into the store.

Thinking back to what had just happened in the
graveyard, Lexi realized that she might have overreacted. Now that
her head was clear, it made sense. Her grave was probably the last
place that anyone would expect her to be. She didn’t know if Gabe
was trying to help her or hurt her at this point, but she couldn’t
afford to think about it right now. If Gabe really
was
bad
and sensed that she was thinking about him, she didn’t know what he
would do to her this time.

She was mad that she hadn’t thought about
hiding in her grave on her own, but there was no way she could go
back to the cemetery now that Gabe had seen her there.

Lexi checked her phone to see how much time she
had left before midnight. To her surprise, she had one new text
message. When had her cell phone service been turned back on? She
shrugged it off, quickly opening the message. It read:
Lexi,
everything got messed up. Meet me in the Haunted House ASAP.
The text had been sent from Justin’s phone. That confirmed her
suspicions that Gabe had stolen Justin’s phone and texted her the
night she got the first text in the corn maze.