Kiss of Death (The Briar Creek Vampires, #1) by Jayme Morse & Jody Morse (12 page)

A man with a deep voice began speaking.
“Hello, this is Dr. Stevens calling from Briar Creek Medical
Center. I’m calling to share the autopsy results—”

Lexi scooped the phone up from its cradle and
pressed the “talk” button. “Hello? This is Eileen Hunter’s
daughter. You have her autopsy results?”

“Yes, I do. First, let me say that I am
terribly sorry to hear about your mother’s passing,” he said,
coughing into the phone. “Traces of Escherichia coli, which you’ve
probably heard referred to as E. coli, were found. The particular
strain of the bacterium generally comes from undercooked beef,
which was found in the contents of her stomach.”

“So, you’re saying that my mom died of food
poisoning…from eating beef?”

“Yes ma’am. Once again, I’m sorry. I hope you
will find some closure with these results. Have a great day,” the
doctor said, hanging up the phone on her.

Lexi curled up on the couch. The tears began
pouring out, sliding down her cheeks before forming a tiny a puddle
on the front of her navy blue hoodie. Somehow, the autopsy results
made her mother’s death even more real to Lexi…and more painful.
She wasn’t sure what she had been expecting from the phone call.
Maybe for the coroner to tell her that her mom was still alive,
that this was all just a bad dream?

Lexi wanted something,
anything, to make the pain go away. If she were at home, she would
probably sit in the bathtub and cry until her skin turned wrinkly.
Or she would drown herself in Ben and Jerry’s Chunky Monkey ice
cream, while watching depressing Lifetime movies. Aunt Violet’s
bathtub was old and uninviting, and Tommy was lactose intolerant so
they never kept ice cream in the fridge.

Violet and Tommy had been
drinking wine yesterday; maybe there would be some left. Lexi had
promised her mom that she wouldn’t try her first alcoholic drink
until she was twenty-one, but that promise didn’t matter much
anymore now.

She decided to check the
kitchen, since that was where she had seen Violet and Tom gulping
down their drinks in the middle of the day.

Opening the refrigerator,
she spotted a jar of mayonnaise, a few tomatoes, and a carton of
milk – but no wine. Sighing, she glanced at the counter top, which
was also bare.

Lexi knew that her aunt and
uncle had had another fridge installed in their basement when she
was a kid. They mostly used it to hold alcoholic beverages that
they wanted to keep away from her and Austin. Deciding that it
should still be there now, she moseyed her way to the
stairs.

When she reached the
basement, Lexi found that the stainless steel fridge was in the
same place that she remembered it. Pulling the handle open, she
glanced in to find four glass bottles of Coor’s Light staring back
at her. Lexi had never imagined that her first alcoholic drink
would be beer. All of her friends told her that it tasted like cat
pee – though she wasn’t sure how they knew what cat urine tasted
like. She’d always imagined that her first drink would be a
Cosmopolitan like Sarah Jessica Parker’s character on Sex and the
City or a chocolate martini with whipped cream.

Sighing, she reached into
the fridge and picked up the closest Coor’s Light – which looked
like nothing more than a blur to her, because her eyes were
practically swollen shut from all that crying.

Popping the top off, she
sniffed at the bottle of beer that she held with both hands and
realized that her nose was too stuffy from crying so hard to smell
anything. She took a cautious sip, hoping that it tasted better
than she was expecting. It didn’t.

Lexi had never tasted
alcohol before, but she never expected it would be so disgusting.
It was salty and so thick that it was almost hard to swallow.
Tilting her head back, she choked down the entire bottle in one big
gulp, allowing its cool contents to run down the back of her
throat.

Wiping the remnants away
with the sleeve of her hooded sweatshirt, she walked outside to
toss the bottle into the recycling can. She was relieved to find
that the can was already filled with Coor’s Light bottles, so one
more would go unnoticed. Violet would probably lock her in her room
forever if she knew that she was drinking. Lexi remembered that
after her dad had disappeared, her aunt had made a huge deal about
him drinking and, at one point, had said that was why he had left.
Lexi never believed it – she didn’t remember him that much, but she
had also never seen him drunk, as far as she knew.

Hoping that the alcohol
would kick in soon, Lexi went back inside and settled down onto the
couch. So far, the beer hadn’t taken away her pain; instead, it had
only intensified it because she had broken her promise to her
mom.

Lexi felt a wave of nausea
overtake her, along with a dizzy headache. Clutching her stomach,
she ran to the bathroom and gripped the toilet seat.

After she vomited, Lexi
realized that it had probably been a bad idea to drink her first
beer when her stomach already felt like it was on a really intense
roller coaster ride.

Knowing that she would feel
even more miserable if she stayed in the house and cried all day,
Lexi went upstairs and slid into a clean pair of denim shorts and
pulled on a mint green tank top with crochet trim.

Without thinking twice about
how unattractive her puffy, red eyes must look, she went outside,
leaving the front door unlocked, and crossed the street.

When she reached the front
door of Gabe’s house, Lexi paused and straightened her glossy
blonde hair, which fell in waves just below her
shoulders.

As she extended her fist to
knock on the door, it swung open. “Lexi, what are you doing here?”
Gabe asked, stepping out onto the front step and closing the door
behind him.

“I wanted to see you and I
didn’t have your number to call. I hope you’re not mad.”

“Of course I’m not mad.” He
kissed her lightly on her forehead and stared at her with his deep
blue eyes. “Why don’t you go back to Violet’s and I’ll be over in a
few minutes. I have a few things to do here really
quick.”

“Okay,” Lexi agreed in a
heartbeat. Her own eagerness to go back to her house,
correction,
Violet’s
house, surprised her. She was sick of being at
Violet’s. Their house gave her a bad vibe. Actually, it was
probably just Violet and Tom that gave her a bad vibe; she
shouldn’t blame the house.
At least they’re not home for
now, she thought to herself, crossing the street. Glancing back at
Gabe’s, she saw a curtain quickly close. This time, she knew for
sure that she hadn’t imagined it.

When Lexi went back inside the house, she
felt a cool draft, despite the fact that she could probably lay
outside, comfortably, in a bikini right now. She pulled her
sweatshirt back over her head and realized that she was hungry.
Really hungry.

Looking in the empty refrigerator, she tried
to think of something she could whip up. Her ideas were limited;
she only knew how to make pasta and cereal (if that even counted).
In the kitchen cabinet, she found a box of Easy Mac.

She didn’t know anything about Gabe’s eating
habits, but she hoped he liked Mac ‘n cheese. It was one of the few
things that Lexi could find that she actually knew how to cook.
Just as she was stirring the powdered cheese in, Lexi heard Gabe
knock softly on the front door.

From the kitchen, she called, “Come in.”

Putting the pot of pasta on the table, she
turned to go downstairs to greet him, and nearly collided with him.
She pressed her lips firmly against his, allowing his cool tongue
to encircle hers. Gabe pulled her closer to him, kissing her
frantically and tugging at the zipper of her jeans.

Suddenly, he gasped for air and pushed her
away. Pointing to her wrist, he asked, “What happened?”

“What do you mean?” She raised her wrist,
examining it in the dim light.

“Your sleeve is all bloody.”

“Oh, I didn’t even know I was bleeding,” Lexi
said, looking down to examine the rest of her body. “You’re not.
It’s not your blood,” Gabe said, with a confused look on his
face.

Lexi frowned. “How do you know?”

“I, uh...I just don’t see any wounds,” he
replied, examining her wrist.

“Oh, that’s strange. Are you hungry? I made
dinner,” she said, tearing off the sweatshirt and heading
downstairs. “I’m just going to put this in the washer.”

When she came back upstairs, Gabe was sitting
at the table with a pile of Mac ‘n cheese in front of him and a
plate waiting for her across the table.

“I wasn’t sure if you liked Mac ‘n cheese or
not, but I was hungry,” she said.

“It’s fine,” he said, in between bites.
“Thank you for cooking for me.”

She smiled. Her aunt may think Gabe was a bad
guy, but what bad guy had good manners?

*

After they did the dishes, Gabe suggested
that they watch a movie together. Lexi realized that a night on the
couch with him was just what she needed right now. While Violet’s
DVD collection consisted of a lot of horror movies Lexi was too
much of a chicken to watch, she did find
Legally Blonde
,
which was one of her all-time favorites.

On the couch, Gabe pulled Lexi against his
rock-hard chest, wrapping his arms tightly around her. She snuggled
back against him.

“Gabe, what do you know about Austin and
Mary-Kate?”

“Honestly? Not much. All I know is that they
were dating.”

“Dan was Austin’s best friend. Do you have
any idea why he wouldn’t even mention that Mary-Kate and Austin
dated?”

Lexi felt Gabe shrug behind her. “It’s just
the type of person Dan is, Lexi. He’s not the most honest guy
you’ll ever meet,” he muttered.

“Is that why you two don’t like each
other…because he’s lied to you before?”

“It’s part of the reason. You know how I told
you that Kevin died in a motorcycle accident a few years back?” He
waited for Lexi to nod so he could finish. “Well, Dan was at the
scene of the accident. When the cops questioned him, he said he
didn’t see anything. Later, I found out that he saw it all.”

“That’s strange,” Lexi whispered, gazing into
Gabe’s eyes. “I found a picture of Dan kissing Mary-Kate. That’s
the only reason I can see why he would lie about Austin and
Mary-Kate.”

“He was involved with Mary-Kate?” Gabe asked.
Lexi could hear the worried tone in his voice.

“Yeah, he was. Why, do you know something
about them?”

“No,” he said, coolly. “It’s just that she’s
the mayor’s daughter. Cheating on her boyfriend with his best
friend seems out of character.” A soft thump came from the kitchen.
Lexi turned to look. Once again, she became worried that her
attacker had found her.

“It’s always the ones you least expect,” Lexi
pointed out, afraid that Mary-Kate was getting more credit than she
deserved. After the Facebook message she had read and what she had
overheard, Lexi had a hard time believing that Mary-Kate was a
goody-goody. She didn’t know what she and Austin had been doing the
night he died, but it didn’t sound like something a mayor’s
daughter should be involved in.

Lexi’s thoughts were interrupted by the loud
banging sound.

This time, Lexi and Gabe both turned to look
in the direction the noise had come from.

“I suppose,” he said, kissing a trail down
her neck. Lexi leaned against him, feeling a spark shoot through
her body every time Gabe’s lips brushed against her skin.

Another bang sounded from outside. This time
it was louder, and Lexi was sure that it was coming from outside.
Lexi jumped and felt her heart beat quicken as Gabe’s entire body
went tense.

Tiptoeing into the kitchen, Lexi glanced out
the window. “Oh, my God,” she gasped.

“What is it?” Gabe asked, shooting up from
the couch.

“Come look.”

In a millisecond, he was standing at her
side. “What,” Gabe asked again.

She pointed at the hundreds of bats that were
hovering outside the window, blindly crashing into it.

****

Chapter 11

The next morning, Lexi opened her eyes and
breathed a sigh of relief. The bats, which had hovered outside the
house, darting loudly against the windows until sometime after she
had fallen asleep, were gone. Shivering, she grabbed a fleece
blanket and resumed her place on the couch next to Gabe. Lexi
figured that, between vomiting yesterday and having the chills
today, she must have the stomach flu.

She remembered the phone call from the doctor
yesterday and felt her stomach drop.

Next to her, Gabe shifted and cracked an eye
open. “Morning, sunshine,” he said, kissing her forehead.

“Be careful. I think I’m getting sick.”

“That’s okay, I won’t catch it. I have a
strong immune system. I never get sick.”

“Well, I don’t really want you to take any
chances,” Lexi said, laughing. “I want to spend all the time I can
with you while my aunt and uncle are gone.”

“Don’t worry, my love. We’ll take advantage
of them being gone. Do you want me to make you breakfast?”

She shook her head. “No, thanks. I’m not
really hungry.”

He hugged her close. “I know how you feel.
It’s hard to lose someone you love. You’ll feel better if you eat
something though.”

“Maybe later. Hey, can you come upstairs with
me? I want to show you something.”

“Alright,” Gabe agreed hesitantly, after Lexi
had already grabbed his hand and began pulling him up the narrow
staircase.

When they reached her bedroom, Lexi closed
the door. Even though Violet and Tom weren’t home, she still felt
the need for a privacy barrier.