Destined to Die (The Briar Creek Vampires, #3) by Jayme Morse & Jody Morse (14 page)

They followed Anna into one of the classrooms.
It looked just like the type of classroom that you would find at
any high school; there were high school sized desks arranged in
rows and world maps that hung from the walls. The classroom was
free of students. “Professor Hart? I would like to introduce you to
Lexi Hunter,” Anna said to the teacher, who was sitting in the back
of the classroom at her desk, grading a stack of tests with a red
marker.

Lexi noticed right away how beautiful the
teacher was. Her auburn hair fell in long, loose waves over her
narrow shoulders, and her porcelain skin looked flawless in the
emerald green dress suit she was wearing. The one thing that caught
Lexi off guard was the teacher’s age. It seemed kind of weird that
she could be their teacher; she appeared to be around the same age
as Lexi. She might have just looked really young for her age, but
Lexi doubted it.

The woman looked up at them, her glossy lips
twisting into a slight smile. Lexi smiled back. “Gabe Marshall,”
Professor Hart said. “Fancy seeing you here.”

“Veronica,” Gabe muttered. “Long time no
see.”

“I’ll say.” Veronica Hart stood up from her
desk and walked towards them, her high heels clacking against the
tiled floor. She took a step closer to Gabe, placing both of her
hands on his chest. “You’re a lot stronger than I remember. Not
that your strength surprises me.”

“I suppose you take credit for that,” Lexi
heard Gabe mutter under his breath. She felt her face twist into a
confused expression. What was he talking about?

Lexi watched as their eyes met, as though they
were somehow communicating with each other mentally. Veronica
didn’t remove her hands from his chest. Feeling a sudden sense of
possessiveness wash over her, Lexi gritted her teeth. Who was this
Veronica woman, and why was she touching Gabe like this?
Her
Gabe.

More importantly, why was Gabe allowing
Veronica Hart to touch him? Lexi wasn’t all over Craig when she had
seen him a few minutes ago. If he had even tried to come close to
her, she would have pushed him away in a heartbeat because she
didn’t want to hurt Gabe. So, why was he hurting her by letting
Veronica
get that close to him?

“Let’s not go there right now, Veronica,” Gabe
replied.

The professor removed her hands from his chest
and dropped them to her waist, a pouty expression on her face. “So,
what is it that brings you here to Huntington?”

“Professor Hart, we wanted to introduce you to
Lexi Hunter,” Anna said impatiently.
Professor Hart turned to Anna. “Yes, Anna, I am well aware of that.
I was asking Gabe what brings him to Huntington. He is a vampire,
after all.”

“He’s here to protect me,” Lexi spoke up. “I’m
here to learn how to fight vampires, and since he’s my boyfriend,
he came to make sure I stay safe.”

Veronica Hart turned her attention to Lexi,
looking at her for the first time since Anna had attempted to
introduce them. “Boyfriend?”

Lexi nodded. “Boyfriend,” she said again,
putting extra emphasis on the word, hoping that she sounded at
least a little bit sarcastic – and that it would actually sink into
the woman’s head this time around.

Veronica took a step closer to Lexi, continuing
to study her. “Hunter, you say? As in Benjamin Hunter’s
daughter?”

Lexi nodded, trying not to show her annoyance.
Why was it any of this woman’s business whose daughter she was? She
promised herself that no matter what the woman said, she was going
to stand her ground. It didn’t matter that Veronica was going to be
her teacher soon; Lexi didn’t really have to be here if she didn’t
want to be. At the same time, she was also going to try her hardest
to be the bigger person. Lexi wasn’t going to stoop this woman’s
maturity level and getting angry or annoyed would be the best way
to let the woman know how much she was getting to her.

“That’s very interesting,” Veronica said,
circling around her. “Your father and I have known each other for
many, many years. I see that you’re still wearing the necklace,”
she said calmly, her eyes locking on the pendant.

Lexi protectively reached for the bat necklace
that she wore around her neck and nodded. “How is it that you know
my father?”

“Let’s just say that I shared something very .
. . special . . . with him,” Veronica replied, smiling
mischievously.
Um, eww
, Lexi thought to herself. It was
gross to think that this obnoxious woman could have been
romantically involved with her father at some point.

“He showed me the necklace before you were
born. You’ll want to wear it at all times while you’re at
Huntington,” Veronica warned. “There are vampires on this campus.
If they get even the slightest whiff of you, things could get
really ugly.” She put an emphasis on ugly, which made Lexi feel as
though Veronica was hinting that she was ugly. Lexi knew that she
couldn’t compete with this woman’s beauty, but was she really ugly?
And why was Gabe just standing next to her and not coming to her
defense?

“I plan to wear it at all times,” Lexi replied
matter-of-factly.

“I think we’re done here,” Austin said firmly.
He had been quiet for so long that Lexi had nearly forgotten that
he was in the room with them, but she was grateful that he had
picked up on how uncomfortable she felt around Veronica.

“That’s a good idea,” Anna said, quickly
catching on and coming to the rescue. “We still need to show Lexi
around the rest of the school and introduce her to more
professors.” Lexi shot the two of them thankful smiles.

“Are you going to be attending my class, Gabe?”
Veronica asked as they all walked towards the door.

“So it seems,” Gabe replied.

“I look forward to it,” Veronica said before
they all walked out of the classroom.

Lexi followed close behind Anna and Austin,
plowing through the many questions that she had swirling through
her mind. Just as she was about to ask Gabe one of them, Anna
interrupted her thoughts. “Well, that was . . . interesting, to say
the very least. I’m sorry Professor Hart was so rude to you, Lexi.
I’ve never seen her act like that towards anyone
before.”

Lexi shrugged, unsure of what to say. Somehow,
it made it worse knowing that Veronica didn’t act like that towards
all of her students – that Lexi was just an exception. It also
didn’t help that she had no idea why Veronica seemed to hate her so
much. Obviously, it had to do with Gabe, but how did they even know
each other? And why did it almost feel like Veronica was holding
something over him? Something about the whole entire situation made
Lexi feel really uncomfortable, and she wanted to get the truth out
of the situation before she had to sit in her class for a few
hours.

“Anyway, Professor Hart teaches Vampire
Geography and Tracking. She’ll teach about how to sense when a
vampire is near, but remember that not everyone can do it.” Anna
looked down at the ground. Her voice was dripping with
disappointment. “It’s a talent that I haven’t quite caught on to
yet.”

“I’m sure you will eventually,” Lexi said
sympathetically. She felt genuinely bad for Anna. Unlike Lexi, she
hadn’t been forced to come here. She came here by choice, because
she really wanted to. It must be difficult to not be able to figure
out the one thing that she had come here to do.

Lexi glanced over at Gabe, who was staring down
at the ground, his body tense. “Umm, Anna, do we really have any
more teachers who I need to meet?”

“Yeah, there’s Professor Shields and Professor
Wiseman,” Anna replied.

“Do you think we can take a break right now?”
Lexi asked. “I really need some alone time with Gabe so we can talk
about some stuff.”

Anna nodded knowingly. “Come on,” she whispered
to Austin, who followed her down the hallway.

“Let’s go outside,” Lexi suggested, opening the
door that led to the courtyard in the center of the
school.

Gabe followed her, not saying a word. They both
sat down on a bench that sat beneath a huge maple tree in the
middle of the courtyard.

“So, who is Veronica?” Lexi asked
finally.

Gabe looked up at her. “She’s the vampire who
changed me.”

****

Chapter 10

“What?” Lexi asked with wide eyes. “I thought
you were, you know, born this way.”
Gabe laughed. “No, Lexi. I wasn’t born a vampire.”

“But you said your mom’s a vampire, too,” Lexi
pointed out. “I figured that meant that it ran in your
family.”

“Well, my mom is a vampire.”

“This is so confusing.” Lexi sighed.

“Do you remember what I told you about Dhampir
children?”

Lexi shook her head. All she remembered was
that, although she and Mary-Kate were supposed to be Dhampir, they
weren’t because of the witch’s curse that said that no children in
the Hunter family bloodline could ever become a vampire again. Lexi
didn’t quite understand it because, to be technical, Dhampir were
only half-vampires.

“A child can only be a Dhampir if their father
is a vampire. Children who are born to vampire mothers will remain
humans,” Gabe said. “My father wasn’t a vampire . . . only my
mother was.”

“What about Caroline, though?” Lexi asked. “I
thought you said that her father wouldn’t let her date you because
you were a vampire when you were a teen.”

Gabe nodded. “That’s true. Right before I fell
in love with Caroline, I met this girl. I used to play soccer, and
she would always come to my games and sit on the grass and watch,
always staring at me. One day, she just came up to me and told me
that I needed to take her on a date.”

Gabe looked up at Lexi. “Things were different
back then. People were sexist, and girls didn’t just ask guys out
that way. It was considered rude and unacceptable, but something
about the way she was so bold and daring made me attracted to her.
I guess I was attracted to rebels or something. So, I did what she
told me to do. I asked her to go on a date with me. I didn’t even
know her name at that point, but she later informed me that it was
Veronica Hart.”

“But things didn’t work out?” Lexi asked. She
sort of hoped that Veronica had been the one to let Gabe go, but
something told her that wasn’t the way it had happened. Judging
from the way Veronica had acted in her classroom towards him a few
minutes ago, it seemed like she still had feelings for Gabe, even
after all these years.

“We went out,” Gabe went on, not directly
answering Lexi’s question. “And we had a really good time, so I
asked her out again . . . and again. We ended up dating for about
six months before I realized that she wasn’t the right girl for
me.”

“How did you know that she wasn’t right for
you?” Lexi twirled a piece of hair around her finger. Even though
she was glad that Gabe hadn’t wanted to work things out with
Veronica back then, it made her feel nervous to think that Gabe
could wake up and realize at any time that she wasn’t the right
girl for him either.

“Veronica is a really selfish person. She
doesn’t care about anyone except for herself. Breaking up with her
wasn’t easy, though, to be perfectly honest. She went a little
psycho on me. Let me just say, I’m glad that cell phones weren’t
around back then or she probably would have made my life a living
hell by blowing up my cell phone with calls, voicemails, and text
messages. Instead, she stalked me the old-fashioned way. She
followed me everywhere I went, and she sent me a ton of love
letters begging for me to give her another chance.”

“Okay, so, you knew she wasn’t right for you,
and you were already broken up at this point,” Lexi said, trying to
make sense of everything that she was learning about yet another
one of Gabe’s former relationships. “Yet, she turned you into a
vampire? How did that happen? I don’t get it.”

“Months had passed after I broke up with her,
and she was still constantly pestering me,” Gabe began. “She
promised me that if I agreed to give her one last chance, she would
make things right and prove to me that we could be perfect
together. Her parents were going out of town, and she asked me to
spend the night at their house. That in itself was really risky. If
I had gotten caught spending the night, the town probably would
have wanted to give me a scarlet letter or something. Courting was
highly frowned upon back then even with a chaperone and pre-marital
intimacy just a bad idea altogether. I don’t know what I was
thinking by going over there that night, honestly. I think I just
wanted to be able to say, ‘Look, I tried to give you what you
wanted, but it still didn’t work out. Now leave me alone.’ I would
soon learn that one last chance wasn’t what Veronica wanted, and it
wasn’t why she had convinced me to go there.

“As soon as I got there, she tried to seduce
me. And I won’t say that it didn’t work,” Gabe continued, looking
away from Lexi and down at the ground. “I was a teenage boy with
human hormones, and she was just a pretty girl. At least, I thought
she was just a pretty girl. She was only pretending to seduce me.
The only thing she wanted that night was to turn me into a vampire.
It happened so quickly that I didn’t even really understand what
was happening.”