Kiss of Death (The Briar Creek Vampires, #1) by Jayme Morse & Jody Morse (13 page)

“Uh, Lexi…I don’t think this is a good idea.
I know your aunt and uncle aren’t home but…”

Unzipping her duffel bag, she pulled out the
box of Austin’s things and thrust the journal into Gabe’s
hands.

“Oh. What is this?” He asked, staring blankly
at the book that he was holding.

Lexi grabbed the journal back and flipped to
the page where Austin had written:
Mary-Kate needs to back off.
I love her, but I’m never going to do what she’s trying to get me
to do. I don’t want to be like them. I’d rather leave Briar
Creek…forever
.

“It’s Austin’s journal,” she said, handing
the open book back to him. “Do you know what this might be about? I
can’t figure it out.”

She watched as Gabe’s eyes wandered over the
page before flashing an angrier shade of blue. “Lex, I really don’t
think you should be reading Austin’s journal. It’s his personal
journal...and he’s not here anymore to protect it.”

“But what if it gives me a clue about what
happened to him the day he died?”

“I just think it’s a really bad idea,” Gabe
said, raising his voice. “If you’re going to do anything with it,
you’re better off giving it to the police and letting them handle
it.”

“Like the police can do any better? They
haven’t even officially said that it wasn’t an animal attack yet,
just that they’re,” she answered, emphasizing the rest of her
sentence with finger air quotes, “investigating.”

Gabe stood quietly, as if he were trying to
come up with something to say.

“Please don’t tell me that you believe that
it was just an animal attack,” Lexi insisted.

“No, I don’t…and that is exactly why I don’t
want you to keep reading his journal. Who knows what you could be
dealing with?”

“Fine,” she said, putting the journal back
inside her duffel bag and zipping it back up. “I won’t read his
journal. Are you happy?”

“Yes,” he whispered, kissing her on the lips.
“Thank you.”

Wrapping her arms around his neck, she leaned
back on the bed and pulled him on top of her. He pressed his mouth
against her neck, lightly sucking and biting. Lexi felt a tide of
ecstasy sweep through her body, curling her toes and tilting her
head back.

She unzipped Gabe’s jeans, as he ripped her
tank top off and tossed it to the floor. He hungrily kissed his way
down her chest, reaching behind her back to unhook the lacy pink
bra she was wearing. Just as he bit her neck harder, the doorbell
rang.

Lexi froze. She rolled out from under Gabe
and slid her tank top back over her head.

Gabe groaned. “Can’t you just ignore the
door? It’s not like they’re even home.”

“What if it’s someone important?” She asked,
hurrying out of her room and downstairs. Straightening her hair to
make sure it didn’t look like she had just been lying in bed with
Gabe, Lexi swung open the front door.

Remembering that it was Tuesday, she wished
she had listened to Gabe.

*

“So, you know where the lawn mower is then,
right?” Lexi asked Dan to break the awkward silence that had swept
over them all. Gabe stood next to her in the large backyard shed
and, from all of the tension in his body, she could tell that he
was pissed about Dan coming over.

“Yeah, I mow the lawn all the time,” Dan
said, scowling at Gabe.

“Okay, then. Just let me know when you’re
done and I’ll see if I can dig up some cash. How much does Violet
normally pay you?”

“Fifty.”

Nodding, Lexi grabbed Gabe’s hand and headed
back towards the house. Slamming the front door, she leaned against
it and pulled him towards her, kissing his lips.

Gabe pushed her away.

“What’s wrong?” Lexi asked, confused.

“Nothing’s wrong. Dan just really killed the
mood, that’s all. Let’s look for some money so that he doesn’t have
to be here waiting longer than he needs to be.”

Too exhausted to argue, Lexi headed for
Violet and Tommy’s bedroom. Taking note of the queen sized bed that
was covered by a floral comforter, she glanced around the room.
Hmm, she wondered, where would Violet keep money?

Lexi spotted a wooden box in the corner of
the room. Opening it, she found a thick wad of cash. Flipping
through them, she realized that they were all fifty dollar bills.
Judging from the size of the stack, she estimated that she had to
be holding at least five or six thousand dollars in her hand.

Lexi grabbed a fifty dollar bill and started
back to the door when her uncle’s dresser and the laptop that was
resting on it caught her eye. It was identical to Austin’s laptop.
Flipping it open, she looked inside and sure enough, the words
“Bloody Mary” were written in permanent marker right next to the
mouse pad. This was definitely Austin’s laptop. When had the police
returned it? Maybe it had been this morning while she was still
sleeping.

Rounding the doorway, she nearly collided
with Gabe.

“Did you find any money?” He asked.

Nodding, she decided that she would keep the
laptop a secret from Gabe…for now.

In the living room, Lexi climbed on top of
Gabe, kissing his neck. Once again, he pushed her away.

“Stop,” he muttered.

“Why?” She asked.

“I can’t control myself around you.”

“Well, who says you have to,” Lexi whispered
into his ear, nibbling it gently.

The front door sprung open and they both
glanced up to find Dan standing in the doorway, his eyes darkly
clouded by anger.

“So, do Vi and Tommy know that you’re here?”
Dan asked, not taking his eyes off of Gabe.

“No, and I trust that you won’t tell them,”
Gabe growled back.

Dan snickered. “Have I ever given you a
reason to trust me? We’re not friends. You barely know me.”

“Dan, please don't tell them,” Lexi whined.
“Have I ever given you a reason to hurt me?”

“Yeah,” he muttered, staring Gabe down from
head to toe. “You chose this douche bag over me.”

Getting up from his place on the couch, Gabe
got into Dan’s face and snarled, “You crossed me once and I let it
slide. Don’t make that mistake again.”

Dan continued to glare at him. He took a step
closer to Gabe and raised his fist before looking at Lexi and
backing away. Dan slammed the door on his way out.

“Shit,” Lexi said. “He forgot to get his
money.”

“Who cares? Let him go,” Gabe said, but Lexi
was already chasing after Dan.

Once she stepped outside, she began running
towards his silver car. “Dan, wait!”

He turned. “What does Gabe have that’s better
than me, Lexi?”

“There’s just more of a connection,” she
said, handing him the cash. “It’s nothing personal. And to be
honest, the fact that Violet is pushing me so hard to be with you
is actually pushing me away.”

“I see. Just be careful,” Dan muttered. “Gabe
can be dangerous. I don’t want you to get hurt during one of his
temper tantrums.”

Turning back towards the house, Lexi stewed.
She was getting really sick of people telling her that Gabe was
dangerous guy when she knew better.

****

C
hapter 12

“Lexi, you were specifically told that you
were not to see Gabe while you’re living in this house. You broke
our rules. This means that we’re going to have to ground you,”
Violet said on Friday morning when they returned from New Jersey.
“No phone calls or going out of the house for a month.”

“Unless it’s with Dan,” Tommy added.

Great, Lexi thought, she should have known
that Dan would run back to her aunt and uncle. And now, on top of
that, he was the only one she was allowed to hang out with.

“Now, help us unload the things from the car.
We brought back your clothes and your laptop.”

“Oh, and add that to your punishment,” Tommy
said. “We’re not going to turn your Internet on until after your
punishment has ended.”

“That’s not fair!” Lexi yelled. “You won’t
let me out of the house, use the phone or have the Internet for a
month. What am I supposed to do? Be a prisoner in my bedroom?”

“If that’s what it’s going to take to help
you understand that we do not want you to see Gabe at all, then
yes,” Violet replied. She added, “And we already said, you can hang
out with Dan all you want.”

“I’m not going to hang out with Dan! I don’t
like Dan! Can’t you get that through your heads?”

“Maybe if you just give the boy a chance,
you’ll see that he’s a better choice for you than that boy across
the street,” Tommy said, in between coughs. Lexi noticed that he
looked particularly white and somewhat older today. All of the
summer pollen must not be too good for his emphysema.

“Maybe if you gave that boy across the street
a chance, you’ll see that he’s the perfect choice for me,” Lexi
snapped back.

“Oh, drop it, you two. Did the police call
while we were away?” Aunt Violet asked, diverting the
conversation.

“We’re still waiting to get Austin’s laptop
back.”

“Nope,” Lexi grunted, wondering why her aunt
was lying about the laptop. She had to have known that Austin’s
laptop was sitting in their bedroom at that very moment and not
with the police. Lexi decided that she wouldn’t tell her aunt that
she had found it. Who knows what else they would ground her for if
they found out she had been snooping around in their bedroom. Lexi
added, “The doctor called about my mom’s autopsy and Dan stopped by
to mow the lawn. Otherwise, no one called or stopped by.”

“I’m surprised they’re done with the autopsy
so soon. What did they say about it?” Tommy asked, suddenly seeming
interested in their conversation.

“That my mom died from food poisoning,” Lexi
responded, tears filling her eyes. Now that Gabe wasn’t there to
keep her company, she felt more alone than ever and really missed
her mom again.

“What a shame,” Violet said, with no sense of
emotion in her voice.

Lexi cringed. She knew that her aunt and her
mom hadn’t spoken in years, but didn’t she care, even just a tiny
bit, that her sister had died? Nope, she reminded herself. That’s
why there hadn’t been a funeral.

“Why did you tell Gabe to stay away from me?”
Lexi asked, feeling her anger start to seep through her body.

“Because I don’t want him to speak to you,”
Tommy answered. “He’s not good for you. Get it through your
head.”

“How about you get this through your head?
You’re not my father! In fact, you made sure that no one ever found
my father, I’m told. I hate you and you’re not my keeper. If I want
to see Gabe I’m going to. He’s the only one who’s going to help me
adjust to this awful town,” Lexi screamed before stomping her way
upstairs.

Slamming the door to her bedroom, Lexi backed
against it and fell to the floor, shaking as the tears flooded from
her eyes. Rocking back and forth, her mind drifted to Austin. No
wonder he wanted to move away from Briar Creek forever; she felt
the same way.

Lexi crawled across the floor to the duffel
bag and pulled out Austin’s journal. She knew that Gabe would get
pissed off at her for reading it if he ever found out. Since she
wouldn’t be seeing him any time soon, the chances of that seemed
unlikely. She flipped to the second page. Austin had written in red
ink:
My parents just don’t get it. They don’t get that I don’t
want to be like them. There are so many secrets between them,
secrets they’d probably kill me for if I were to ever repeat them.
725

Lexi wondered what type of secrets Violet and
Tommy had. Glancing at the next few pages, she noticed the same
type of journal entries. Austin didn’t want to be like these people
who he thought were “evil.”

Flipping about halfway through the book, she
began reading again. About a year ago, Austin had written in messy
handwriting:

Everyone thinks he’s so amazing, but they
don’t know what I know. I see a demon inside a human’s body. He’s
evil. If he wasn’t such a big part of my life, I might say
something – but probably not. He’d probably turn everyone against
me…and I really don’t want that. 716

Lexi wondered who Austin was talking about.
Could it be Dan? He was his best friend, so that would make him a
big part of his life. Or maybe it was about Uncle Tommy. Lexi would
agree that there could be a demon somewhere inside that body. She
flipped to the next page.

Mary-Kate just doesn’t get it sometimes. I
love her. That doesn’t mean I want to do everything she says,
though. I don’t mind having sex with her, but what she wants is
insane. I can’t just do that to someone I love, no matter how much
it will benefit me in the long run. I don’t just use people.
154

Lexi thought that this must mean that
Mary-Kate’s Facebook message about what they were trying again that
night probably had nothing to do with sex – at least, not sex with
Mary-Kate. What could it be if it made Austin so uncomfortable with
it? Was Mary-Kate trying to get him to cheat on her? It just didn’t
make any sense. She kept reading.

I have a feeling that there’s something going
on with Mary-Kate – something that she’s not telling me about. I’m
not sure if she’s cheating on me. I don’t think so, but I don’t
fully trust her either. But I think there are people out to hurt
her and she’s just not being honest with me about it. She’s so
vulnerable that she lets people walk all over her, even if it means
that her own health gets put in danger. 162

Why would Mary-Kate be in danger? Lexi
wondered if whatever was putting Mary-Kate in danger had something
to do with Austin’s death. Is there a possibility that he had died
while he was trying to protect her? If that were the case though,
why hadn’t Mary-Kate come forward to let the authorities know what
happened? Unless it was something illegal that would tarnish her
and her father’s name. Plus, Mary-Kate didn’t have a history of
being honest, or she wouldn’t have cheated on Austin with his best
friend.