Destined to Die (The Briar Creek Vampires, #3) by Jayme Morse & Jody Morse (21 page)

Anna shook her head. “No, he promised that he
would call me sometime later tonight to give me an update. I’ll let
you know as soon as I find out anything. Let’s cross our fingers
that they found Ben already.”

“Fingers crossed,” Lexi agreed.

*

She knocked on Craig’s door a little earlier
than nine o’clock that night. When he opened up his door, she
nearly gasped. He was dressed all fancy, in a black suit and silver
tie. “You didn’t tell me that I needed to dress nice,” Lexi said.
“I’ll go back to my room and change.”

“Non-sense. I didn’t tell you because you
didn’t need to dress nice,” Craig replied. “I wanted to impress
you.”

“Well, consider me impressed.” Lexi blushed.
After all the months she had spent with Gabe, he had done very
little to impress her. Maybe Craig was right. Maybe she really did
deserve someone who would treat her better.

“Are you ready to go?” Craig asked, motioning
towards the door.

“Go?” Lexi panicked. She hadn’t thought about
what would happen if Craig wanted to leave the Huntington campus.
Austin and Gabe hadn’t left her specific instructions on what she
could and couldn’t do while they were gone, but she assumed that
she was just supposed to stay here. As boring as it would be, not
leaving Huntington was probably the safest thing for
her.

“Yeah, come on.” Craig told her. Grabbing her
hand, he led her out the door next to his room.

She followed him into the school parking lot.
“Where are we going?” she asked, glancing around at the cars,
wondering which one was his.

“You’ll see.” Craig walked past all of the cars
in the parking lot and continued until they were walking on a dirt
path. When Craig finally stopped, he pointed at a tent that sat
next to a pond. “That’s where we’re going.”

Lexi followed him into the tent. Inside, there
was a picnic table with a picnic basket on it, along with a bottle
of wine and two wine glasses. “So, tell me,
Mr. Lindstrom
,
is this our first date?”

Craig nodded and smiled at her. “You can call
it that.”

Lexi sat down on one side of the table and he
sat at the other side. He lit a few candles and pulled the food out
of the picnic basket. Handing her a sandwich, he said, “It’s peanut
butter and jelly. I wasn’t sure if you ate meat or anything, so I
figured it would be the safest bet.”

“It’s fine.” Lexi smiled. She hadn’t eaten
peanut butter and jelly in years, but it had been one of her
favorites when she was a kid. Her mom had always packed her
PB&J sandwiches that she cut in animal shapes for lunch at
school.

“So tell me about yourself, Lexi. I feel like
I’ve known you for so long, but I still don’t really know you.
You’re a bit of a mystery to me.” Craig poured them each a glass of
wine.

Lexi looked down at her hands, unsure of what
to say. She didn’t know if she was supposed to be keeping anything
about her life a secret, and she also didn’t want to sound
pathetic. “I’m not really good at talking about myself. What do you
want to know?”

“Well, what do you want to do with your life?”
Craig asked.

Stay alive
, Lexi thought to herself. “I
think I might want to go into medicine.” She surprised herself by
saying that. It was the first time she had even admitted it to
herself.

“Really?” Craig asked. “I wouldn’t have pegged
you as someone who would want to study medicine. You seem like more
of a creative type . . . a free spirit.”

“Well, I used to want to be an English teacher
or maybe an architect. But my mom always wanted me to go into
medicine. She was a doctor,” Lexi explained, taking a sip of wine.
She puckered her lips, realizing that it was her first real drink
ever. The first time she had thought she was getting drunk, she had
actually been drinking blood. Lexi shuddered and then continued,
“And now that she’s gone, I feel like I need to honor her
wishes.”

“That’s understandable,” Craig replied. “You
just need to make sure that you really want to do it, though. You
can’t force yourself to be passionate about something that you
don’t really love.”

Lexi thought about Gabe. Was that why he was
more passionate towards Veronica . . . because he didn’t really
love Lexi? “I know. So, tell me something. Are you a vampire
hunter?”

“I had a feeling that was coming.” Craig
paused, putting his sandwich down. “I want to be one. I’m not a
biological vampire hunter, though. I’m not all that talented at it
yet.”

Lexi was having a hard time getting used to
everyone referring to vampire hunting as a talent. “What made you
decide to become a vampire hunter?” she asked. She knew that
everyone at Huntington had a story – and usually a more interesting
story if they weren’t biological vampire hunters. It was
interesting to see why someone would choose this life as opposed to
the alternatives.

“Well, I am a vampire. I’m not sure if you knew
that already,” Craig said, studying her face.
Lexi nodded. “I kind of figured it out after I learned about
Mary-Kate. I know that she’s kind of a blood donor, and I saw you
together that time . . .” Lexi drifted off.

Craig nodded. “Yeah, that’s what that was all
about the night of the dance. It wasn’t because I was interested in
her.” There was a moment of awkward silence. “Well, I chose to
become a vampire hunter after someone who was very dear to me . . .
someone who I loved . . . was killed by another vampire. I vowed to
get revenge. That’s when I came to Briar Creek in the first
place.”

“Oh. I’m sorry for your loss,” Lexi said
quietly. She knew that if she and Craig ever became anything more
than this, she was going to want to know who had been killed. Now
wasn’t the right time for her to ask, though. She didn’t want to
seem too nosy. “Why were you teaching at Briar Creek High School,
though? Why didn’t you come straight to Huntington if all you
wanted to do was get revenge?”

“I believe that the best way to figure out how
to conquer your enemies is to learn more about them first,” Craig
replied. “I wanted to be close to the vampires in Briar Creek so I
could learn more about their inner circle. What I learned disturbed
me.”

“What are you talking about?”

Craig gazed into her eyes. “They talk about you
a lot in Briar Creek, Lexi. More than you probably realize. It’s
almost like all of them have been brainwashed to believe that they
need to get your blood and then kill you.”

Lexi looked down at her hands. It was no news
to her that the people in Briar Creek had it out for her, but she
still hated thinking about it. “So, you know then.”

Craig stared back at her
questioningly.

“About my bloodline . . . and the curse,” Lexi
went on.

Craig nodded. “I’ve known all about you ever
since I was a child. I’m a biological vampire, so I’ve grown up
knowing about the curse. I was always told that there were no
Hunter’s left, so imagine my shock when I met you.”

“How did you know I was a Hunter when you met
me?” Lexi asked. “I don’t remember telling you my last name the
first day we met.”

“You have a very sweet scent . . . sweeter than
any human I have ever tasted. It took everything in me to not
kidnap you and drink from you.” Craig chuckled. “You even smell
sweeter than Mary-Kate.”

“I guess because I’m younger,” Lexi muttered.
She felt a little jealous that Craig had drunk from Mary-Kate, too.
Hearing him compare them made her feel even worse about it. Would
there ever be a guy who Lexi liked who hadn’t somehow been involved
with her half-sister first? She knew that they needed to do it for
survival purposes, but really?

“Don’t be jealous,” Craig said.

Lexi looked up at him. “I . . . I’m not,” she
stuttered.

Craig laughed. “You can’t lie about how you
feel to me, Missy. Remember that I can read emotions. If I could
see auras, I would see yours as green right now. Green with
envy.”
Lexi gulped. She felt embarrassed that Craig was able to tell that
she was jealous of Mary-Kate. If she was going to pursue anything
with Craig long-term, she was going to need to get a grip on her
emotions.

“I guess we should be heading back,” Craig
said, glancing down at the empty sandwich bags.

“I’m not ready to head back yet,” Lexi replied.
“I like spending time with you.”

“I like spending time with you, too,” Craig
said softly. He leaned over the table and kissed her gently.
Closing her eyes, Lexi kissed back.

When she opened her eyes and pulled away from
him, she was out of breath.

“That was . . . amazing,” Craig said. “I didn’t
think it could get more amazing than last night, but . . . tonight
was even better.”

“It was,” Lexi agreed. Admitting that kissing
another guy felt amazing made her feel a twinge of guilt again,
even though she knew that she had no reason to feel bad after what
Gabe had done to her.

“It’s getting kind of chilly out here, though,”
Craig said. “Let’s go back to my room.”
Lexi followed Craig out of the woods. When they reached the parking
lot, she stopped dead in her tracks.

Students were swarming in all directions, and a
few teachers ran through the parking lot to the front of the
school. All of the chaos let her know that something was wrong.
Very wrong.

“What’s going on?” Lexi whispered to
Craig.

Craig looked over at her, a look of worry on
his face. “I don’t know,” he murmured. He squeezed Lexi’s hand.
“I’ve never seen anything like this before.

Pulling away from him so that no one would
notice that they had been together, Lexi scanned the crowd for
Anna. When she found her, she ran over to her. “What
happened?”

Anna turned to Lexi, a horrified look on her
face. “They killed someone.”

“Who’s they?” Lexi asked. “And who did they
kill?”

“One of the vampires from Briar Creek. They
killed Melanie Jacobs.” A tear ran down her cheek.

“Well, how did it happen?” Lexi asked. “I
thought the werewolves were great security guards.”

“Melanie went off campus for a bit,” Anna
replied, her voice shaky. “She went to the diner to meet up with
her boyfriend from back home. On her way back, they attacked her.”
She turned to Lexi. “This isn’t good. Vampires from Briar Creek
have tried to attack our students before, but they were never
successful. They never killed anyone before this.”

“What’s going to happen?” Lexi
asked.

“Administration hasn’t announced anything yet.
It’s still too early,” Anna said, shaking her head. “There are some
rumors that we’re going to declare war on Briar Creek, though. I
guess they need to notify Melanie’s family about her death first
before they take any serious action.”

Lexi gulped. This wasn’t going to make it any
easier for her to hide here. If anything, it was only going to draw
attention to the fact that Huntington was a vampire hunting
school.

“It would be the first mass attack Huntington
has ever done in Pennsylvania,” Craig said from behind her. “It
would be risky. We need to be prepared if that’s the route we’re
going to go.”

Anna looked over at him and back at Lexi, as
though she was wondering why they were together again. She didn’t
say anything about it, though. “Don’t worry. We’ll kick some
vampire ass.”

“Well, not me,” Lexi replied. “I’m not strong
enough yet. I need to train and learn more in Stakeology class
before I can get involved.”

“We’ll get you ready,” Anna replied. Just then,
her cell phone bleeped. She answered it. “Austin?”

Lexi put her ear next to Anna and tried to
listen to what Austin was saying to her on the other line, but
everyone around them was yelling and crying and talking so loud
that she couldn’t hear anything.

“Oh, no,” Anna said, her face turning a ghostly
shade of white.

****

Chapter 15

“Lexi?” Austin said into the phone. “I have
some bad news.”

“Ugh. What is it?” he heard Lexi say on the
other end of the line. After he had told Anna what had happened,
she had immediately handed her cell phone to Lexi. “Please tell me
that he’s not dead.”

“Well, we don’t exactly know,” Austin replied
and began explaining everything that had happened since they had
arrived at Ben’s bed and breakfast in Long Island. When they got
there, the manager told them that he hadn’t seen or heard from Ben
in over a week. His car was missing, and his house seemed to be
empty. When Austin said that he was Ben’s nephew, the manager had
offered to let him and Gabe stay at the bed and breakfast until
they figured out what had happened to Ben. Austin was pretty sure
that the manager was actually freaked out, and that was why he had
agreed to let them stay there without paying a dime.

“So, what are you going to do next?” Lexi
asked. “How are you going to find him?”
Austin glanced over at Gabe, who was lying on the bed in the room
that they were staying in, sprawled out on the pink and white
floral comforter. Gabe had been acting really weird ever since they
had left Briar Creek, but Austin wasn’t sure why. “I think we’re
going to try breaking into his house to see if there are any clues
or anything there.”