Change of Fate (The Briar Creek Vampires, #4) by Jayme Morse & Jody Morse (7 page)

“I never killed because I was never this angry
before, Lexi. When I saw what those guys were doing to you – when I
realized that they could kill you – I just… I had no other options.
I don’t know how to explain it,” Dan explained, staring into her
eyes.

Lexi knew what he was trying to tell her. The reason
he’d killed those other vampires – the reason he hadn’t just let
her die tonight – was because he actually had feelings for her.

And it was the first time she’d ever really believed
him.

Chapter 10

****

Gabe knew that he had to be more careful than
he had been the last time he’d needed blood. He couldn’t just go
around turning a bunch of women into vampires. As it was, he had no
idea how Lexi wasn’t going to react when she found out that he had
turned Rhonda. Would she understand that he would probably die of
thirst because his visions weakened him, or would she be jealous
and angry at him for drinking another woman’s blood? Would she
consider it cheating?

Gabe didn’t know. He also didn’t know how
long it would be before he would see Lexi again . . . or if she
still had feelings for him at all. As much as Gabe didn’t want to
believe it, he knew that there was a chance that Lexi might have
moved on completely. If only she knew that he hadn’t really cheated
on her, that what she had seen between him and Veronica wasn’t what
it looked like at all – that there had been nothing romantic or
sexual between them for more than one hundred years.

The night he and Austin were supposed to
leave for Long Island, Veronica had come to his dorm room. She’d
been wearing some type of skimpy lingerie that he hadn’t even
gotten a good look at, attempting to seduce him, just as Lexi had
walked in on them. Gabe knew right away that what Lexi had seen
made him look guilty, but the truth was, he wanted nothing to do
with Veronica. After Lexi had run away from the room, presumably
crying, Gabe had told Veronica to back off if she knew what was
best for her.

Not that telling Veronica to back off had
deterred her. If anything, it probably just made things worse. The
woman seemed to think that she and Gabe were meant to be, and she
promised him that once he was back to the area, she was going to
find a way to convince him of this herself. Just thinking about the
fact that he was going to need to deal with Veronica once he went
back to Pennsylvania made him feel annoyed and angry.

Letting out a loud sigh as he walked down the
street, Gabe realized that none of that mattered right now. He
could worry about Lexi and Veronica all he wanted, but it wouldn’t
make a difference at the moment. All that mattered was that he
drank from someone so that he wouldn’t deteriorate. If he became
any weaker than he felt right now, he wouldn’t be able to have
another vision, which would only prevent him from finding Lexi
sooner.

Gabe wasn’t sure where to find someone to
drink. It was getting dark out, which meant that everyone would be
going out to get drinks at the bars soon. Did he want to try to
find another vulnerable girl to drink from again?

No. Gabe immediately shook that thought away.
Things had gone bad last time. Finding someone that way again just
felt like it was destined for failure – almost like finding another
girl at a bar would jinx him or something. Gabe had to think of
some way to find blood that would give him better vibes than
picking someone up at a bar.

Gabe crossed the wide street and started
walking along the beach. He slid off his shoes and planted his feet
into the sand, which was cold from the December weather. Not that
coldness really bothered him since he himself had cold vampire
skin.

Breathing in the fresh ocean air and
listening to the sound of the waves breaking against the shoreline,
Gabe decided that maybe this was just what he needed: a serene
place to figure out what he should do.

It had been so long since Gabe had needed to
choose a female, at random, to drink from (aside from Rhonda, that
is). Before Lexi came to Briar Creek, he had been drinking from
Mary-Kate for the past few years. Before that, Gabe had always been
in a relationship. Not necessarily a relationship with someone who
he was madly deeply in love with the way he was with Lexi, but a
relationship that would help him pass the time, allow him to get
through his lonely nights, and enable him to drink plenty of
blood.

All of the blood that he had drank before
Lexi – including Mary-Kate’s blood – had only just been mediocre.
There was something special about Lexi’s blood; he was drawn to it,
the same way she was drawn to him.

Gabe had noticed, ever since Lexi had moved
to Briar Creek, that she had been drawn to almost every vampire who
she’d met. It was normal for women to be attracted to male
vampires, but he got the sense that Lexi was even more attracted to
them. Gabe knew why Lexi was so drawn to them, and that’s what
bothered him the most. When a vampire really wanted to drink from a
human, they could put them under a sort of trance. Not every
vampire knew how to do it with as much strength as he could,
though. Gabe was against using method, but that didn’t mean that
other vampires didn’t use it to get what they wanted.

Thinking about all the guys that he knew Lexi
had been attracted to made Gabe feel sick to his stomach. He wanted
to believe that he was Lexi’s one and only, but he wasn’t so sure
if that was the case. He’d seen the way she’d acted around Craig
Lindstrom, and even though they might not work out for one reason
or another, there had definitely been a spark between them.

There was also Dan. As much as Lexi might
claim that she wanted no part of Dan because of his assault on her
the night of the car accident, Gabe knew that somewhere, deep down,
she was really attracted to Austin’s best friend. He’d seen the way
they’d acted around each other at the Briar Creek Carnival, and
he’d even walked in on one of their dates once; both times, he had
noticed an undeniable chemistry that made him extremely
jealous.

Gabe always told Lexi that he didn’t trust
Dan after that night, and that had never been a lie. Even though he
knew that Dan had been out of control that night, he’d understood
why. Lexi’s scent was so alluring that it would be difficult for
any vampire to control himself when he was around her. The real
reason he didn’t trust Dan was because he knew that there could be
something between him and Lexi, especially if he chose not to be on
Violet and Tommy’s side in all of this and allied himself with Lexi
instead.

Gabe hoped that wherever Lexi and Dan were
right now, they weren’t together. Somehow, he doubted that was the
case, though.

As Gabe continued walking along the beach, he
could smell someone coming towards him – someone who smelled
pleasantly good. He knew that he shouldn’t drink from someone
without their permission, but what other choice did he really have
right now? If he didn’t seize this opportunity, he was going to
have to meet someone and
hope
that they would agree to
letting him suck their blood – a request that was usually only
granted by the freaks and misfits because most sane women would
automatically assume that he was a psychopath.

No, Gabe wasn’t going to go through all that
tonight. He was going to just have to take things into his own
hands and just hope for the best. With any luck, this would at
least go smoother than it had last time, and he wouldn’t kill
anyone or turn them into vampires.

Crouching behind a garbage can, Gabe kept his
eyes on the dark silhouette of the female who loomed towards him,
her shoes slapping against the sand. He couldn’t seem to get a
sense of what her age was, but it didn’t really matter. Blood was
blood. Gabe tried to ignore the thought of Lexi, whose smiling face
flashed through his mind, as he darted out from behind the garbage
can and flung himself on top of the girl, who fell to the
ground.

“Please let me live,” the girl whimpered in a
high-pitched voice. “I’ll give you all my money . . . you can have
everything. Just don’t kill me.”

“I don’t want your money. Don’t scream,” Gabe
whispered, cupping a hand over the girl’s mouth. She bit his hand
at first, but after a few moments, she stopped struggling. “I’ll
make this as painless for you as possible.” Even in the moonlight,
he could see the terror in the girl’s dark eyes. She was clearly
terrified of him – probably expecting him to do the worst
imaginable things to her. It made him feel like shit.

Trying to ignore the panic in the girl’s
breathing, which had turned deep, Gabe sunk his fangs into her
throat. The blood droplets dripped out of the wound slowly at
first, but quickly began rushing onto his tongue and sliding down
his throat. He knew that the girl was moaning, but it sounded like
she was miles away; the only thing that he cared about right now
was her sweet crimson juices. Gabe sucked up all of the blood that
he could, reminding himself that he had to stop after a few
moments.

When he was finished, he released the girl
from his grip and whispered, “You may go now.” The girl stared at
him for a moment, as though she were trying to piece together what
had just happened, while trying to decide if he was really allowing
her to go, before getting up and darting across the sand, not
turning back.

Gabe felt completely energized. The girl’s
blood was nothing compared to the Hunter blood that he was used to
drinking, but it was enough to hold him over until he had another
vision, at the very least.

Even though he knew that his visions were
necessary, there were times – like right now – when they were so
draining that Gabe wished he could make them stop. He didn’t really
have control over his visions, though. His visions came when they
wanted to. Gabe sometimes tried to concentrate on having one and
while it worked sometimes, it didn’t always . . . which frustrated
him and, sometimes, made it even harder to have one.

The first time Gabe had ever had a vision was
when Joshua died. Joshua was his brother and, even though their
mother was a vampire, they weren’t born vampires because their
father hadn’t been. Gabe was later changed into a vampire by
Veronica, but Joshua had always remained a human.

When Joshua was in his early thirties, he was
living in Massachusetts with his wife, Julie, who was pregnant with
their first child. Gabe had ended up crashing his Chevrolet into a
tree when his mind had flashed to an image of his brother falling
off a roof and cracking his head open. He hadn’t believed that it
could be true at first, but the phone call had come the next day
that Josh was gone.

Most people wished that they could see into
the future, but Gabe always wondered why he had been blessed with
this curse. Not all vampires could have visions. In fact, most
couldn’t, which was why Gabe was the only one who might be able to
figure out where Ben was right now. Vampires were sometimes gifted
with special powers. It usually took vampires hundreds of years to
hone their craft or become attuned to their abilities. For some
reason, Gabe had realized his very early on. Even though he should
be grateful for it – especially now that he had to keep Lexi safe –
it was still a pain in the ass most of the time.

As Gabe crossed the street to go back to the
hotel, he noticed a flash of long, auburn hair. He froze in his
steps.

Could it be who he thought it was? Gabe shook
the thought away. There was no way Veronica could have followed him
to Long Island . . . was there?

Probably not. Veronica was a teacher at
Huntington High. It’s not like she could just leave her class to
take off and stalk whenever she felt like it. She’d get fired if
anyone found out. Gabe was probably just being paranoid.

As he ascended the stairs at the Starlight
Inn, Gabe had a really weird feeling in the pit of his stomach. He
didn’t know what it was . . . but something definitely wasn’t
right. Gabe decided that he better lay down when he got to the
hotel room because there was a good chance that he might have a
vision soon – which was good but also worrisome because he usually
never had his visions this close together.

When Gabe slid his key through the slot, he
heard laughing coming from inside his hotel room. Well, from inside
the hotel room that he was sharing with Craig.

Once he was inside the room, Gabe found Craig
lying on the same bed as Rhonda. Craig was close to her. In fact,
he was so close to her that it looked like he was about to drink
from her.

“What are you doing?” Gabe screamed from
across the room.

Craig looked up at him, a confused expression
on his face. “I – um,” Craig began. From the expression on Craig’s
face, Gabe knew that he was right; Craig was about to sink his
teeth into Rhonda.

“She’s a vampire, too, you idiot! Do you want
to get Wilkins’ Syndrome?”

Craig’s jaw dropped. “She is? No. How? I can
smell human blood. Her scent’s pretty strong, actually.”

Gabe sat down on the bed across from them. “I
just turned her a few days ago.”

Craig stared at Gabe. “I didn’t know that we
came here to start changing people,” he said, his face twisted into
a hardened expression.

“It was an accident. Why are you trying to
drink from her? I thought you were involved with Lexi,” Gabe shot
back at him. Immediately, he knew that he was wrong for making the
accusation. Even though he knew that Lexi was attracted to Craig
and she had practically admitted to him once that she had a crush
on the guy, he hadn’t known for sure if they were involved with
each other. Maybe Gabe needed to know now, though. If they had been
involved with each other, it would be better to have it all out in
the open so that he would have some time to make peace with it
before he and Lexi were reunited.