Burn Like Fire (19 page)

Chapter 38

Resting her head against the bed, Anna let out a loud sigh. She hadn’t wanted to kick Austin out of the room. She knew she was going to be lonely tonight without him.

Anna felt bad about the way she had treated him, but she couldn’t help it. There was no way she could become a vampire right now. And there was no way she could look him in the eyes right now and honestly tell him that she was sure she was in love with him. As much as she wanted to be in love with him, she still had her doubts.

Anna’s cell phone buzzed in the palm of her hand. At first she thought it was going to be Austin sending her a text message apologizing or getting in a word that he hadn’t been able to say before he’d left the room, but it continued to vibrate in her hand.

Glancing down at the caller ID on the screen, Anna’s breath caught in the back of her throat.

It was Darius. She’d exchanged cell phone numbers with him at Westbrooke. They’d promised to catch up with one another in a few weeks so they could talk about her mother, so it surprised her to hear from him again so soon. Anna wasn’t disappointed, though. Even though there was a lot going on right now, she couldn’t help but feel curious about her mom’s other life. She was hungry for details, and it was nice to have someone who actually wanted to talk about her mom. When Anna had taken Austin home for Christmas, it was obvious that her father didn’t want to reminisce about her mom and relive the memories.

“Darius?” Anna asked into the phone.

“Hey, Anna.” Darius’s voice was filled with a little static, like he was in a poor reception area. “I know I’m calling you earlier than we talked about, but I have a lead on Geoff.”

“You do?” It felt like Anna’s heart was going to pound through her chest; it was beating so fast.

“Yes, I had a private investigator—who also happens to be a biological vampire hunter—do some digging,” Darius explained. “He’s closer than either of us ever would have imagined.” He paused. “Anna, do you remember how when you spoke to me in private, you asked if Geoff might have had connections to Briar Creek?”

“Yeah,” Anna nodded, remembering. She had asked him mostly because the letter she had received with the tip about Westbrooke had been postmarked from Briar Creek. Darius had explained that the reason the letter had come from Briar Creek was because he had sent the letter from his own home there. But he didn’t think that Geoff had any connections to Briar Creek; Geoff had clearly listed the Bronx, New York as his location on his application to the vampire training facility.

“I may have been wrong. The last credit card transaction that Geoff made was in Briar Creek, and we’re about ninety-nine percent positive that he’s still there right now.”

Anna felt her stomach drop to her knees. It felt like she had been at the tippy top of the world’s highest roller coaster, hanging on by a thread, and someone had pushed her over the edge. “How is that possible?” Even as she asked the question, though, she knew how moronic the words sounded. It actually made sense that her mom’s vampire killer would be in a town that was filled with a high population of evil, corrupted vampires.

“We don’t know exactly why he’s there, Anna, but we’re trying to figure it out. I want you to stay away from Briar Creek for now, okay? I’ve sent some of our toughest vampires there to look for him.” Darius took a long, hesitant pause before saying, “Anna, we don’t know if the reason Geoff is in Briar Creek is because he lives there or if it’s because he might be after you and knows you’re nearby. You’re still with Austin, right?”

“No,” Anna started to say, but she quickly realized that Darius wasn’t asking her what her relationship status with Austin was. Darius was asking if she was still physically near Austin. “I mean, yes. Yes, I’m still with him.”

“Good,” Darius replied. “I want you to stick close to Austin for now. If Geoff tries to come after you, he might be deterred by Austin’s scent on you.”

“Okay,” Anna muttered. She wasn’t sure if she felt happy about being near Austin after the blowout argument they’d just had, but it didn’t seem like she had much of a choice right now either; it was do or die.

And it’s not like Austin was that bad, anyway. Anna did think there was still a chance that she
may love him; it was just that she wasn’t sure how much those feelings were driven by the fact that Austin was a vampire and she was a human.

At that moment, an idea dawned on her. “Actually, Darius . . . I have a question for you,” Anna said into the phone. She opened the door and glanced around the house to make sure no one was within earshot.

“Sure, what is it?” Darius questioned.

“I’m thinking about making a second trip to Ohio. I might come by myself this time, though. Do you think it would be okay for me to be a blood donor at Westbrooke?”

Darius paused for a few moments. When he finally spoke again, the surprise was obvious in his voice. “I don’t see why it would be a problem. I have to admit . . . I’m a little shocked to hear you want to do it, though. I suppose it’s because you want to understand what your mom went through, huh?”

“Yeah,” Anna lied, relieved that Darius had thrown an excuse right into the palm of her hands. The truth was, she only wanted to be a blood donor so that she would know what it felt like for another vampire aside from Austin to drink from her. And another vampire aside from Gabe; she could barely remember what it had felt like for him to drink from her.

This would be an experiment . . . or perhaps it would be a test of her life for Austin. If the experience was different in a bad way, maybe it was because she and Austin truly were meant to be. But if letting another vampire drink from her felt the same, if she felt a sense of attachment to the vampires who she donated her blood to because of how pleasurable the experience was, then maybe she should take it as a sign that she and Austin would never be anything more than a blood-thirsty vampire and a more than willing human blood donor.

Chapter 39

Gabe screamed, but it didn’t matter. He was locked inside a closet that was so deep in the basement of the mostly-abandoned Huntington that no one would hear him, anyway. And since he was locked in, it wouldn’t even make a difference if he morphed into his bat form. He would still be stuck in there, in the closet, no matter what.

How could he have ignored the vision that he’d had of Kevin that night in the motel room? It obviously hadn’t been just a memory; it must have been his brother’s face as he planned this attack.

Under ordinary circumstances, Gabe would wonder how his own brother could do such a thing. But his brother had obviously learned from the best because this was exactly what Gabe had done when he’d tried to kill Kevin.

No one in Briar Creek besides his own mother had ever known that Gabe had a brother. Gabe had gone away to live in Nebraska not long after Caroline had died. He couldn’t take living in Briar Creek anymore; it was too hard to deal with the memories, and he always worried that someone would see him. So, he’d convinced his twin brother, Kevin, to come and stay with their mother, to watch over her while he was gone.

Kevin had agreed to stay with her, but he didn’t want to go by Gabe’s name. He’d insisted on keeping his own identity.

Kevin was the guy who Lexi had met when she was a kid, though Gabe had heard about her plenty of times from his brother. Even back then, Kevin had a hard time keeping himself from drinking from her. He’d known she was a Hunter and that her blood was better than any of the other humans who lived nearby. Gabe had needed to convince him that he couldn’t just drink from a child; he had to at least wait until she was old enough to understand what she was and what vampires were.

Aside from that, Gabe also knew that there was the risk of Kevin killing Lexi if he tried to drink from her, since she was a child. It was easy to accidentally kill a child. Gabe had heard of it happening many times.

It had taken a lot of convincing, but Kevin had agreed not to drink from her even though he so desperately wanted to. Kevin had promised that he would leave Lexi alone until she was a teenager.

For a period of time, Gabe had moved back home and was going to school with Austin. He didn’t actually need to go to school since he had graduated from high school earlier in his life, but it was a way to help him pass the time more easily. Plus, half of the teenagers in Briar Creek had been going to school for many years. It helped to keep Gabe social, though, which he needed. He wanted to make friends and maybe even meet someone. And there was the added benefit of Mary-Kate, who would often let him and the other guys at school drink from her in the school bathrooms, hallways, or under the bleachers when no one was looking.

When Gabe had the vision of Lexi coming to Briar Creek and he and Austin started coming up with a plan to turn him into a vampire before his parents had the chance to kill him, Gabe knew
he had to do something about Kevin. He couldn’t let Kevin hurt Lexi. Even though he hadn’t actually met Lexi yet at that point, he knew he had to keep her safe because she was going to play an important role in defeating the vampires of Briar Creek.

Gabe realized now that even back then, through his visions, he must have felt something for Lexi. He hadn’t met her yet, but he’d smiled every time he saw her smiling face inside his mind, and he had an overwhelming urge to protect her.

So, Gabe had done what he knew he needed to do. He had Austin stage a motorcycle accident to kill off “Kevin”, who he tricked Austin into believing was his second alias. Gabe had told Austin the same thing he’d later told Lexi—that Kevin was his own personal identity, one that he used in order to make sure that people didn’t start to catch onto his age. Since Austin had never seen Gabe and Kevin in the same room together, he had fallen for Gabe’s lie and had been more than willing to help Gabe “kill” Kevin.

The whole purpose of the accident wasn’t to kill Kevin, of course. Kevin wasn’t even there at the time of the car accident. The whole point of the accident was to make it appear as though Kevin really had died, so that Gabe’s mother would believe that he had died in a car accident, during which the engine had blown up and caught fire.

Gabe had felt horrible when the police officers had come to the front door to tell his mom that Kevin was gone, but that, since they were vampires, his body had turned to ash so there weren’t any identifiable remains. They only knew that he had died because Austin had told them that he had . . . and why would he lie about killing someone?

Gabe’s mom had believed the lie and had grieved over the loss of her other son for months.

The whole time, Gabe knew this really wasn’t what had happened. The same night of the accident, Gabe had taken Kevin to an abandoned building in North Dakota, leading him to believe that they were going to meet Lexi. He’d read about the abandoned storage building online, and it said there were no people or cops for a mile around.

Gabe had locked Kevin in a closet inside a room that he’d also locked and fled from the place, setting the building on fire on his way out.

He’d later read that the building had burnt down. He’d never read anything about someone’s remains being found, but it would have been impossible to find a vampire’s ashy remains in a fire as big as the one Gabe had created. Besides, most humans still don’t know that vampires even existed, so they wouldn’t have noticed a vampire’s remains even if they had been handed to them.

When Gabe never heard from Kevin again, he had assumed that his plan had worked—that he really had killed his twin brother.

So it had shocked the hell out of him earlier this evening when Kevin had come up from behind him and stuffed him in this closet. He had seen the pack of matches in Kevin’s pocket, but he wasn’t sure why he hadn’t actually used them yet. It felt really warm inside the closet, but he was pretty sure that there were no flames near him . . .
yet
.

Gabe had to find a way to get out of this closet before the fire got to him.

The closet door was quickly opened and then closed again.

A sinister laughter filled the room, as a tall figure appeared above him. When Kevin stared back at him, it felt like Gabe was looking in a mirror. His twin was nearly identical to him; they shared the same dark brown hair that looked nearly black in certain lightings, the same fair skin, and the same slightly muscular build.

The only difference between their appearances was that Gabe’s eyes were blue, whereas Kevin’s right eye was blue and his left eye was a shade of mossy green. Right now, though, Gabe noticed that Kevin was wearing contact lenses, just like he normally did, to make both eyes appear the same color.

“Well, well, well, look at what the bat dragged in.” Kevin paused, waiting for Gabe to laugh. When he didn’t, Kevin shook his head frustratedly. “What, Gabe, don’t you find my sense of humor funny anymore? Or is it that you don’t understand the joke? I’m not a cat, I’m a bat.” Kevin laughed again, sinisterly, at his own joke.

Gabe stared up at Kevin, afraid to know what he was going to do next. It was obvious that his twin was here to get revenge . . . and he had to be angry. Gabe had tried to kill him, after all.

“Mom has been hanging out with me the past few weeks, in case you’ve been wondering,” Kevin said. “She’s really angry at you. She can’t understand why you would lock me inside a building and try to light me on fire. I don’t understand why, either, if we’re being perfectly honest with each other.” He took a step forward and, for a second, Gabe thought about trying to slide past him.

“I’ve tried to figure out the reasons, Gabe, but I can’t seem to come up with anything. The only thing I know is that girl—that Hunter girl—came back to town. So, my guess is this had something to do with her. Is that the truth?”

Gabe hesitated. Part of him wanted to tell his brother the truth, but the other part wondered if explaining the reason was even worth it. Did it really even matter now? The damage was already done; Gabe had already tried to kill Kevin to save Lexi and, unfortunately, failed.

“Well? Is it?” Kevin asked, his voice rising with anger. He inched closer to Gabe and pulled something out of his pocket. It took Gabe a second to figure out what it was, but once he knew, he cringed. It was a match; Kevin was going to set him on fire if he didn’t answer him.

Trying to appease him, Gabe nodded his head and mumbled, “Yes.”

Kevin scoffed. “I can’t even believe you would kill me—your own brother—just to save some girl. We could have shared her blood, you know. It didn’t have to be just for me. You didn’t have to do what you did.” He narrowed his eyes. “How
could
you do what you did and be okay with it? How could you lie to Mom like that and let her believe I was really dead? You’re a sick son of a bitch.”

Gabe lowered his eyes to the ground. When Kevin put it that way, even Gabe had to agree that he sounded like a horrible brother. It made him sound like a traitor and like he really was a sick person. Who really killed their own brother?

But it didn’t change the fact that Gabe knew he had done the right thing. Kevin deserved to die. He was the bad twin.

No, Gabe was completely right about what he had done. The only thing that he had been wrong about was the fact that he hadn’t been able to kill Kevin. If he could go back to that night outside the abandoned building as it was burning, Gabe would have made sure that Kevin didn’t get out alive.

“I have something to show you,” Kevin said, tugging at a black duffel bag that had been sitting on the floor next to him. Kevin slid the zipper open, revealing what was inside. Gabe’s stomach turned as the smell reached his nose.

It was Rhonda, her body pale and lifeless.

“You were there that day?” Gabe whispered, feeling sick to his stomach. How had Kevin been there in Ohio, watching as they killed Rhonda and then snatching her body, without Gabe even knowing he was still alive?

“Uh huh.” Kevin grinned, proud of himself. “Pretty soon, you’re going to join her. But first I want you to explain yourself.” Kevin stared him in the eye, coldly. “I need to understand why you tried to kill me.”

Gabe shrugged. “I . . . I just knew I had to.”

“Please tell me this had nothing to do with one of your stupid visions,” Kevin replied with an eye roll.

“No, it wasn’t that,” Gabe replied, though he sometimes wished that he had gotten a vision about Kevin and how things could have turned out. It would have helped reassure him that he had done the right thing in killing him. “I just knew you weren’t going to do anything good. You were going to hurt Lexi.”

Kevin rolled his eyes. “Since when do you care so much about mortals? And Hunters, no less.”

Gabe shrugged his shoulders weakly. “I loved her.” It was sort of the truth; he had loved Lexi, but not until after he had tried to kill Kevin.

“Love?” Kevin laughed. “Love doesn’t exist, Kid. It’s one of those made up things—sort of like fairy tales and urban legends. If you believe in love, you’re going to be in for a long, miserable life. Well, that is, anyone else would be.
You’re
not because this is the end of the straw for you. I’m going to make sure you don’t get out of this building alive tonight.”

Gabe stared into the darkness of the closet, wondering how much longer he had left before Kevin lit him on fire. “You don’t have to do this. We can talk things out.” Even as Gabe said the words, though, he knew his brother’s mind was already made up. Kevin wasn’t going to reason over this, and Gabe wasn’t sure if he really blamed him.

If their roles had been reversed and Kevin had been the one who had tried to kill him first, Gabe didn’t think he would be able to show much mercy, either.

“I’m going to light this room on fire, but don’t worry. I’m not going to light
you
on fire. I want you to watch as the flames burn down everything else in the room first. I want you to watch as they start to circle around you, and I want you to think about the fact that the next few hours—which are sure to go by long and painfully—will be the last few hours of your life,” Kevin said. “I want you to go through exactly what I went through when you tried to kill me. Thank God I managed to break through the walls and got out alive. And the only thing I could think of that whole time was that if I got out alive, I was going to do the same thing to you.”

Gabe didn’t say anything. He didn’t know what he could say at this point. It seemed pretty
hopeless. Today was the day he was going to die.

Gabe watched as Kevin lit the match and tossed it onto the floor. Kevin turned back to Gabe. “I thought about putting some gasoline in here, but it would speed this whole thing up. I want you to think long and hard about what’s going to happen to you.” Kevin grinned.

Kevin was about to walk out of the closet, but before he did, he turned back to Gabe. “Oh, by the way, if you think I’m going to leave that Hunter girl alone now, you’re out of your damn mind. If anything, I’m going to make sure I drink from her now, just to spite you.” He smiled. “I have to go now. A girl named Caroline is upstairs waiting for me. She seems to think I’m you. So, I’m going to take your place. This should be interesting.” He smiled. “I hope you have a slow, painful death, Gabe.”

When Kevin closed the door behind him and fumbled with the lock, Gabe stared into the darkness of the tiny closet. Minutes went by and he watched as the flames began to rise, creeping up the wall.