Change of Fate (The Briar Creek Vampires, #4) by Jayme Morse & Jody Morse

Change of Fate

© 2012 by Jayme Morse and Jody Morse

Change of Fate is a work of fiction. The names,
characters, places, and incidents in this book are products of the
writers’ imaginations or have been used fictitiously. Any
similarity to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, events,
or locations, is coincidental and not intended by the authors.

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment
only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people.
If you would like to share this book with another person, please
purchase an additional copy for each person. If you’re reading this
ebook and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use
only, please return to smashwords.com and purchase your own
copy.

Thank you for respecting the hard work of these
authors.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be
reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical,
without permission in writing from Jayme Morse and Jody Morse.

Connect with the authors at:

http://www.jaymemorse.com/

http://www.jodymorse.com/

Chapter 1

****

The back door of the Lawrence’s house was
wide open when Gabe and Austin arrived. “You would think that Dan
would have been a little more discreet,” Gabe said, glancing over
at Austin. “The last thing we need is for Greg Lawrence, the mayor
of Briar Creek, no less, to catch him breaking and entering in his
house.”

Austin nodded before following Gabe into the
house, which he had been in many times before. Together, they
searched the place for Dan Nichols, Austin’s best friend. When they
reached the door that led to the attic, Gabe and Austin looked at
each other knowingly; like the back door, it had been left
open.

Once Gabe had tiptoed up to the top of the
creaky staircase and scanned the room, he froze.

Craig Lindstrom stared back at him. Like many
vampires, Craig was naturally pale. Right now, though, his face was
a shade of ghostly white.

“What are you doing here?” Gabe asked, trying
to keep Craig from seeing how much his guard was up. Where was Dan?
More importantly, why was
Craig
here at all? An unsettling
feeling washed over Gabe, as he debated the idea that Craig might
be one of Greg Lawrence’s allies, that he might have been place
here to protect the book and ensure that it stayed in Greg’s
hands.

“I drove Lexi here,” Craig replied
nervously.

“What?!” Gabe yelled. “Lexi was here?”

He should have known that Lexi was planning
to come here, since she had hung up on Austin after he told her
that Dan was heading over to the Lawrence house to retrieve the
book. Gabe wasn’t sure if he could really blame her, either; he
didn’t trust Dan one bit, but Austin had insisted that it was safer
to send Dan to get the book instead of Lexi, since all of the
vampires in Briar Creek still wanted to sacrifice her to cure the
fatal disease called Wilkins’ Syndrome that had been placed on them
by a revengeful witch in the 1800’s. Lexi’s blood, which was
extremely powerful to vampires, was the only thing that could cure
the disease, but time was running out. The vampires only had until
Lexi turned eighteen to be cured; the vampires had discovered the
age limit when Lexi’s half-sister, Mary-Kate Lawrence, who was the
adopted daughter of Greg Lawrence, turned eighteen and her blood
was no longer a cure. Desperate to cure themselves of the disease,
Lexi’s Aunt Violet and Uncle Tommy came up with a plan to get her
to come back to Briar Creek, the town she had left behind years
ago, by murdering their son, Austin. Only Gabe and Austin had
outsmarted them; before Violet and Tommy had the chance to set
their plans into motion, Austin became a vampire and faked his own
death so that he would be able to help Lexi make it out of this
town alive. The plan had worked so far, except . . .

“Where is Lexi now then?” Gabe asked, not
attempting to mask the accusing tone in his voice. He glanced
around the attic. Stacks of junk had been piled up high throughout
the dust-coated room. There was a wooden table in the middle of the
room, which a large, old book was resting on.

That was it; it was the same book that
someone had stolen from Lexi’s duffel bag the night the vampires of
Briar Creek had tried to kill her. It was the same book that Gabe
had seen in his vision; he had seen that the book was in the
Lawrence’s house, which left him to assume that Greg Lawrence had
been the one to steal the book for his own selfish reasons. Greg
had probably figured that the book, which was a part of the Hunter
family history, would help him figure out a way to break the deadly
curse. He was running out of options because his wife, Mary-Kate’s
real mother, only had been given a short time to live.

“I – I’m confused about what I just saw,”
Craig replied, looking over at Gabe. “I don’t know what
happened.”

“Well, what do you think happened?” Austin
pressed. “We’re on a time limit here. The Lawrence’s are going to
be home any minute now.”

“I dropped Lexi off and parked on the
street,” Craig began shakily. “When she didn’t come back soon, I
had a bad feeling, so I came into the house. The back door was
already open. I found my way up here . . . and I heard Lexi
screaming at someone . . . a guy who I didn’t recognize.” He
paused, as though he were trying to make sense of what he had just
seen. “When I came up here, the room was empty and that book,” he
pointed to the table, “was floating in the air on its own. It was
like it was magic. It snapped shut, and it . . . it fell on the
table.”

“So, what are you trying to say?” Gabe asked,
narrowing his eyes. “You heard Lexi, and you came here . . . and
she was gone? Where could she have gone? Out the window?”

Craig shook his head. “This is going to sound
crazy, but . . . I’m pretty sure that the book sucked them in.”

“Oh, okay. The
book sucked them in.
That makes
perfect
sense. If you even think for a second
that–”

“Gabe, the time capsule,” Austin murmured,
interrupting him.

“What?” Craig and Gabe asked simultaneously,
turning to look in his direction.

“Ben told me that the book could allow you to
time travel,” Austin replied, looking from Craig to Gabe. “I don’t
know how it happens or why. I just know that it can.”

“Who’s Ben?” Craig asked.

“Lexi’s dad,” Gabe replied offhandedly. He
turned to Austin. “Does he know how this time portal works?”

“I think so,” Austin replied.

“We need to find him then,” Gabe said. “We
need to hurry. I don’t know what this book can do. For all we know,
it might be dangerous.”

Austin grabbed the book from the table and
tucked it under his hoodie. “You’re right. We have to find him.
Let’s get the hell out of here before the Lawrence’s come back.
From what Mary-Kate told me, they weren’t supposed to be gone
long.”

Gabe turned to Craig. “We’ll see you back to
Huntington High before we go looking for Lexi’s dad.” Huntington
High was the vampire hunter’s school that Gabe, Austin, and Lexi
had been staying at. Craig Lindstrom had been one of their
professors there, but Lexi had also known him beforehand because he
was her gym teacher at Briar Creek High School. It had never really
crossed Gabe’s mind that it was strange that Craig had taught at
both schools. For all they knew, he had been against Huntington
this whole time and was feeding information to the people of Briar
Creek.

“No way,” Craig said, putting his hand up. “I
promised Lexi that I would stand guard . . . that I would keep her
safe. She’s gone now. I failed to do my job. I’m going to stick
with you guys until you find her dad and figure out where she might
be.”

“I don’t think that’s necessary,” Gabe
started to protest.

Austin interrupted him, telling Craig, “We
think that the people who are out to get Lexi kidnapped her dad.
The more of us there are, the better off we’ll be if we need to
fight them off. I think you should come along. We could use your
help.”

Gabe wanted to argue and object, to tell
Austin that he thought that Craig might not really be on their
side; that he couldn’t be trusted. From the look on Craig’s face,
though, Gabe knew that there was something more going on than what
he was saying. Craig was in love with Lexi. If Gabe spoke out
against him, he would look insanely jealous – and, once they found
her, Lexi might even be mad at him for being unwelcoming to her
friend, regardless of how Craig feels about her.

No, now wasn’t the right time for him to
protest. If he was going to win Lexi back, he would need to be the
bigger man throughout all of this.

“I do want to stop off at Huntington before
we leave, though,” Austin said as they all climbed down the attic
steps.

“I want Anna to come with us,” Austin
replied. “I know that wherever we’re going might be dangerous, but
. . . I don’t want to leave her here alone. Not in the midst of all
this.”
Gabe nodded. If it were up to him, he’d have Lexi with him right
now, too.

*

By the time they arrived at Huntington High
in the black sedan with tinted windows that Austin had retrieved
from Ben’s house, Anna was waiting outside patiently. She was
wearing a pair of tall black boots over dark gray leggings with
what looked like a black and lime green striped sweater dress and a
hot pink pea coat that matched the pink highlights in her hair.
Anna was carrying a large pink duffel bag, which she stuffed on the
floor as she climbed into the car.

“What’s going on?” Anna asked Austin. “You
didn’t tell me much over the phone.”

Austin explained where they were going, and
Anna glanced over at Craig. He knew that she was wondering why
Craig was there. He wanted to explain, but now didn’t seem like the
right time – especially because Gabe was in the car.

Austin had sensed that there had been
something going on between Craig and Lexi from the way she froze in
the hallways when she saw him. Still, he hadn’t been able to figure
out how serious it had been. After all, he had been under the
impression that Lexi was madly in love with Gabe. From how weird
Gabe had been acting when he and Austin had gone to Long Island
together, though, Austin had a feeling that something had happened
between them before they left.

At that moment, Austin’s cell phone rang. He
glanced down at the caller ID. It was Mary-Kate Lawrence. Even
though he and Mary-Kate were still technically together, Austin
didn’t want to be with her anymore. He was quickly falling for
Anna, but he still hadn’t figured out a way to break the news to
Mary-Kate that they were over.

When Austin didn’t answer his cell phone
after it went to voicemail, it began ringing again. Austin
groaned.

“Will you just answer it, please?” Anna
asked. Austin had never known her to get annoyed easily, but she
probably didn’t like that Mary-Kate was calling him anymore than he
did – or at least, he was hoping that she didn’t.

Keeping one hand glued to the wheel, Austin
put the phone to his ear. “What’s up?”

“Austin?” Mary-Kate asked shrilly. “What are
you doing?”

“We’re trying to find out where Ben is.
Why?”

Mary-Kate paused for a long moment. “I – I
have to ask you a question. Did you come into my house today?”

Austin hesitated. He hadn’t been planning to
tell Mary-Kate that they had just broken into her house. If Greg
Lawrence was within listening distance or had somehow figured out a
way to tap Mary-Kate’s phone, there was a chance that he might
figure out that they had the book. Up until now, he hadn’t thought
about the possibility that the mayor might know that he was still
alive. Austin didn’t want to risk the chance of Greg Lawrence
getting the book back in his own hands before they figured out how
to save Lexi. “No, I wasn’t at your house today,” he lied. “Why
would you think that?”

Mary-Kate breathed into the phone nervously.
“I told you about my mom’s doctor’s appointment in Philadelphia
today. You’re one of the only people who knew that we were gone.
When we got back, the door was open, and someone had stolen
something – something really important – from my father.”

“I’m sorry to hear that,” Austin said, trying
to sound sympathetic. “Me and Gabe are still in Long Island right
now, though. I hope that you guys figure out who broke in.”

“Right,” Mary-Kate muttered unconvincingly.
Austin understood why she didn’t believe that he was being sincere;
after all, he had hated her father for months now. The hatred had
grown even more intense when Austin had found out that Greg
Lawrence had been physically abusing Mary-Kate. Austin had even
convinced her to come to live with him, Gabe, and Lexi when they
were staying at Ben’s summer house, but Mary-Kate hadn’t wanted to
leave her mom, who was becoming sicker by the day with Wilkins’
syndrome.