Kiss of Death (The Briar Creek Vampires, #1) by Jayme Morse & Jody Morse (19 page)

Lexi forced a tight smile. Why did everyone
talk so damn proper in this town?

“Your aunt told us that you were on the swim
team at your old school?” Karla asked.

“Um, yeah, I used to swim,” Lexi answered.
She didn’t want to tell Karla that she had quit the swim team after
she had been on it for only a few months.

Karla smiled. “That’s great. You may need to
jump in the pool sometimes – and you’re welcome to swim with the
kids whenever you’d like. You just have to keep an eye out for kids
who are doing anything wrong.”

“What do I do if one of the kids is
drowning?” Lexi asked, hoping that she wouldn’t have to deal with
it. After Austin and her mom dying, she didn’t want to be exposed
to yet another death – even if it wasn’t someone who she wasn’t
close to.

“If someone looks like they’re struggling,
you get me or another one of the lifeguards. Don’t try to perform
CPR on your own unless you’re already certified,” Karla replied.
Lexi was certified, but she wasn’t about to tell Karla that. Karla
seemed to notice that the idea made Lexi feel uneasy and responded,
“Don’t worry too much. We’ve never had a drowning in Briar
Creek.”

Lexi felt some of the knots inside of her
stomach loosen. She hoped that Karla was right, but wondered if it
was really going to be that easy. Ever since she had been in Briar
Creek, Lexi had found that luck had not been on her side.

Glancing back at the pool, she quickly shoved
her whistle back into her mouth. The screeching of the whistle hurt
Lexi’s ears, and Karla’s yelling on top of it didn’t help. The
little girl she just yelled at stomped away from the pool and sat
down on a bench, crossing her arms in front of her chest.

Karla looked down at Lexi again and handed
her a whistle. “Your station is going to be in between the three
and a half foot and four foot section,” she told her, pointing to
the other end of the pool. Lexi slipped out of her flip flops and
planted herself on the cold cement, dangling her feet in the ice
cold water. Looking around, she realized that Splish ‘N Splash must
offer daycare services. There were only a few adults in the pool
and they seemed to be looking after groups of children. Besides,
what reasonable parent would bring their kid to the pool at seven
o’clock in the morning on a cloudy day?

A boy and a girl wearing goggles swam in her
direction, obnoxiously splashing and kicking the overly chlorinated
water at the other kids along the way.

“Hey! You’re new here!” The girl yelled,
coming up for air and pointing at Lexi.

Lexi nodded and said unenthusiastically,
“Yes, I’m new here.”

“You’re the girl that my mommy always talks
about,” the boy said, staring at Lexi through his neon green
goggles.

“I don’t think so,” Lexi replied, laughing.
“I’m new here. I haven’t met many people in Briar Creek.”

“No, I’m sure it’s you. She has a picture of
you,” the boy said confidently.

“I’m sure it’s just someone who looks like
me,” Lexi insisted.

The boy shrugged, cocking his head. He and
the girl swam away, whispering to each other, before they began
splashing again.

“Do you want me to relieve you?” A deep voice
asked Lexi. She craned her neck up to see a guy standing above her.
The guy, who had dark brown hair and dark eyes, appeared to be
about her age. Judging from his red swim trunks and the whistle he
wore around his neck, Lexi decided that he was a lifeguard. She had
a hard time not staring at his six-pack and large biceps.

“Excuse me?”

“If you want to take a break, I can sit here
for a few minutes. I came in an hour early,” the guy said. “I’m
Brandon, by the way.”

“I’m Lexi,” she started to answer him.

“I know. We’ve all been waiting for the new
girl to start,” he teased, interrupting her.

Raising an eyebrow, she went on to say, “But
I’m feeling okay right now. I just got here a little while ago
myself. Thanks for offering though.”

“No problem. If you change your mind, just
let me know,” he said, winking at her.

Turning back around, Lexi noticed a red
haired girl about to dive into the three and a half foot
section.

“Hey! You can’t dive in this area!” Lexi
yelled at the girl, “You have to use the ladder or jump in feet
first.” Instead of diving, the red-headed girl jumped into the
pool.

Lexi realized that she was beginning to feel
a little bit better about her new job. If most of the kids left her
alone and all she had to do was yell at kids for diving into the
shallow end, maybe it wouldn’t be that bad after all. Plus, she
couldn’t ask for a cuter co-worker than Brandon.

Just thinking about how cute Brandon was made
Lexi feel guilty. Lexi was beginning to feel like a slut. She was
in love with Gabe, falling for Dan, attracted to the guy Craig who
she had met at the college, and thought that Brandon was really,
really cute. She was beginning to understand Mary-Kate better –
although Lexi knew that she would never date brothers or best
friends, even if one of them was dead.

Lexi was so lost in thought that she didn’t
even notice the teeth that had sunk deep into her leg until she saw
her own burgundy blood clouding the chlorinated water.

****

Chapter 19

“Help!” Lexi shrieked, forcefully thrashing
her leg to remove the blonde-haired child who was tightly gripping
it. “Somebody help me!”

Karla rushed over to where Lexi was sitting
and jumped into the pool. She detached the boy, who appeared to be
about three years old, from Lexi’s leg long enough for her to pull
it out of the pool before he attempted to bite her again.

“Noah, what were you doing!?” Karla
exclaimed. “You bit Lexi?” The little boy nodded, laughing and
bobbing in the water.

“Ow,” Lexi moaned, watching in horror as the
blood poured out of her new wound.

“Noah, you’re in time out.”

“Aw, that’s no fair,” he lisped.

“Get out of the pool,” Karla said. “Lexi,
come over to my lifeguard chair. I have a First Aid kit.”

Lexi reluctantly followed, feeling the blood
droplets cascading down her leg. She sat down on the bench while
Karla pulled out her First Aid kit.

“I’m so sorry about this,” Karla said,
turning to face Lexi. “Noah is a really hyperactive kid.”

Lexi flinched as Karla wiped off her wound.
“It’s okay. It’s not your fault.”

“I’ll have a talk with his parents later,”
Karla replied, applying an antibacterial ointment. She reached in
the First Aid kit and pulled out a large bandage. “You should keep
your leg out of the water for the rest of the day so the bandage
stays on.”

“Trust me, I wasn’t planning to put it back
in,” Lexi mumbled, examining her newly bandaged leg. It felt like
she was getting more wounds in Briar Creek than she had gotten in
her entire life. With the exception of scraping her knee up pretty
bad once when she and her mom had first moved to New Jersey, Lexi
hadn’t been seriously wounded until the night of the carnival.

She shuddered. Just thinking about what had
happened in the House of Mirrors made her stomach drop to her
ankles. Lexi still wondered if the attack had been random or if
someone had
really been out to get her, even
though not many people in Briar Creek knew who she was. If
the
attack was intentional, if they really were out to kill
her, Lexi would be prepared to fight back next time.

*

Once 3 o’clock rolled around, Lexi grabbed
her towel and headed to the changing room. She shrugged into the
dark wash denim skirt and white t-shirt that she had packed the
night before. Walking outside of the building, Lexi reached in her
pocket for her cell phone to call her aunt and nearly collided with
Dan. In the midst of being bitten by Noah, she had actually
forgotten that he was supposed to pick her up from work today.

“Hey. How was your first day?” Dan asked,
with a big grin on his face. Lexi thought that he looked genuinely
happy to see her.

“Let’s not go there,” Lexi answered
sarcastically, pulling her ponytail down.

When his eyes told her that he was going to
ask questions until she gave him the scoop, she added, “A little
kid bit my leg. One of the lifeguards had to bandage it up.”

Dan froze, stopping dead in his tracks. “What
do you mean a little kid bit your leg?”

“Just that. I had my leg in the pool and he
swam over to me and bit me. I guess he’s a really hyper kid,” Lexi
said, shrugging. “Either way, he got time out and I have a bite
mark,” she said, giggling. Now that she was over the initial shock,
she decided that this would be a funny story to look back on.

“It’s not funny, Lexi” Dan said quietly,
leading her to his car. “He could have done some serious
damage.”

“It hurt, but he’s a three year old. What
damage could he possibly do?” she joked.

“Just promise me you’ll be more careful from
now on.”

“Ok,” she said. Wanting to change the
subject, she asked, “So, how was your day?”

“Fine,” Dan answered grumpily.

Noticing the sharp change in his mood she
said “Lighten up, okay? I promise to be more careful. Not that
there was anything I could have done to prevent that from
happening. So, what did you do today?”

“Just hung out with Dave and Julie.”

“Dave and Julie? They’re still together?”
Lexi asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Yeah…they didn’t break up,” Dan replied
slowly, not understanding her confusion. “Why do you ask?”

“Um…Oh. Well…that night we went to the
movies, I saw Dave and Mary-Kate together, so I just assumed that
he and Julie had split up.”

Dan turned his head and looked at her. “Lexi,
you shouldn’t make assumptions like that.”

“Yeah, I know,” she admitted. “But it was
pretty hard not to. They were all over each other.”

“The thing you have to understand about
Mary-Kate is that she’s a people person. She’s so nice that she
comes across as flirting, even when she’s not. So, it may look like
it’s more, but it’s not always,” Dan said slowly.

Deciding that she didn’t want to tell him
everything she had seen at the drive-in, Lexi just nodded. “I’ll
try to remember that,” she said, making a mental note to not
question Mary-Kate’s sluttiness in the future.

When Dan pulled into Lexi’s driveway, Violet
and Tommy were both outside talking to a short, burly man. On
further inspection, Lexi realized that it was Mayor Lawrence. Even
though she had only seen him once in the daytime and once at night,
she was able to recognize his bald spot.

Getting out of the car, Lexi hurried towards
the front door in an effort to escape them. She really didn’t feel
like telling Violet about her first day of work in front of Greg
Lawrence. Looking over her shoulder, she realized that Dan was
already heading towards Violet and Tommy. Lexi reluctantly followed
him.

“Hi, Lexi,” Greg Lawrence said, halting the
conversation that he and Tommy were having. “How are you?”

“I’m fine, sir. How are you?” Lexi asked,
wondering where “sir” had come from. She never spoke that properly.
Briar Creek must be rubbing off on her.

“I’m doing great! I heard that you stopped by
to see Mary-Kate recently.” His statement sounded more like a
question.

“Yeah, I did,” Lexi replied, noticing
Violet’s confused expression and Dan’s blank (and ghostly white)
face from the corner of her eyes.

“That’s good. My daughter’s a nice girl,
Lexi. She’s also very popular,” he said, putting emphasis on the
“very.” The mayor added, “I can assure you that if you befriend
her, living in Briar Creek is going to be a great experience for
you.”

Lexi tried not to gag when she realized how
much Greg was talking his daughter up. “Thanks, I’ll, uh, keep that
in mind,” she said.

“So, how was your first day of work, Lexi?”
Violet interrupted.

“It was fine.”

“Aren’t you going to tell them?” Dan asked,
nudging her with his arm.

“Tell us what?” Tommy questioned.

“A kid at the pool bit Lexi,” Dan said. “She
had her foot in the pool and he bit her.”

“A child at Splish ‘N Splash did this to
you?” The mayor asked, staring at the bandage on her leg with a
concerned expression on his face.

“Yeah,” Lexi answered reluctantly. This was
the conversation she wanted to avoid, and Dan had been the one to
encourage it. “The lifeguard called him Noah. I don’t know what his
last name is.”

“Must be Noah Young,” the mayor said, shaking
his head. “He’s been going through a lot of family issues lately.
His mom attends the town hall meetings. I’ll have a talk with her.
Hopefully, it won’t happen to you or anyone else again.”

“Thanks,” Lexi replied, smiling. She had only
met Greg Lawrence a few times, but he definitely seemed like a
genuinely nice guy. He also seemed like a good mayor; between
stopping the fight between Dan and Gabe and talking to Noah Young’s
mom, he was clearly concerned about what was going on his
community. It was hard to believe that Greg Lawrence was the same
mayor who had messed with evidence so that Austin wouldn’t get in
trouble for killing the man in the car accident, though.

Lexi found herself feeling a bit jealous of
Mary-Kate. At least she had a dad. Growing up, Lexi had always
wondered how different her life would be if her dad had stuck
around. Would she and her mom still be as close as they had been?
Would they have ever left Briar Creek at all?

Lexi wanted to ask Aunt Violet questions
about why her dad had really left, but she knew it would only spark
an argument – especially when her uncle was around. It still really
bothered her that Tommy hadn’t wanted Gabe to let them know if he
had heard from Lexi’s dad. Did it have something to do with why her
mom and Tommy didn’t get along? Maybe she had found out that he was
trying to keep her dad away and she could no longer trust him,
which had ignited their move to New Jersey.