Briar Creek Vampires 02 - Thicker Than Water, page 1
Thicker Than Water
by Jayme Morse & Jody Morse
Copyright © 2011 by Jayme Morse and Jody Morse
Thicker Than Water is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents in this book are products of the writers’ imaginations or have been used fictitiously. Any similarity to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, events, or locations is coincidental and not intended by the authors.
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this ebook and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, please return purchase your own copy.
Thank you for respecting the hard work of these authors.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, without permission in writing from Jayme Morse & Jody Morse.
Connect with the authors at:
http://www.jaymemorse.com
http://www.jodymorse.com
****
Chapter 1
“Lexi, you have to leave.”
“Why? It’s so perfect here,” Lexi sighed deeply. She could tell that her shoulders were getting sunburned, but she didn’t care. The feeling of the warm waves breaking against her knees and the gentle sea breeze blowing against her blonde wavy hair and pale skin was enough to make up for it.
When her mom didn’t answer her, Lexi turned to look at her. The area of water that she had been standing in just a few moments ago was empty. Lexi calmly looked around the beach, searching for her. The beach was empty, except for her cousin, Austin, who was relaxing underneath the cool blue umbrella which offered him plenty of shade. Lexi also spotted a few greedy seagulls, snatching up some leftover French fries that beachgoers must have left behind.
Her mom was gone.
Lexi started walking over to where Austin was sitting on his blue Ninja Turtles beach towel, the water splashing up at her as she walked to shore. His strawberry blonde hair was messy and longer than Lexi had ever seen it before. Lying down on her own hot pink seahorse beach towel next to him, she reached her hands out and pressed them against the ground, raking her fingers through the sand. The sand felt pleasantly hot against her fingertips and the palms of her hands, and she could feel it clumping onto the bottoms of her wet feet.
Being at the beach reminded her of the time when she was eight years old, and she and her mom had gone to Seaside Heights. They’d spent the whole entire morning building sandcastles until Lexi got up and shouted, “I’ll race you to the water!” Her mom had chased after her, and they’d collapsed into laughter when a wave went over both of their heads.
Lexi wondered if her mom was going to come back to sunbathe with her and Austin. She knew her mom loved the beach just as much as she did. It had always been one of their favorite pastimes.
Lexi could feel herself becoming increasingly exhausted, like she had just swum a dozen laps in the swimming pool while preparing for one of her high school swim team’s competitions. She didn’t want to allow herself to take a nap until her mom came back, but her drooping eyelids had a mind of their own.
The sun shining in her eyes made it hard for her to fall asleep. She tried to turn over, but she felt too weak to. Lying perfectly still, Lexi listened to the peaceful sounds of the roaring waves; they had always helped her sleep when she was a kid – but no matter what she did, her eyes kept flying open, inviting the sun to shine brightly into them.
“Austin,” Lexi mumbled, barely able to hear herself over the wind and strong currents surrounding her. “Can you give me my sunglasses? It’s so…bright.” Lexi clutched at her chest with one hand as she felt a sharp pain shoot through her lungs. Her breathing was becoming more difficult, and she could hear her breaths turning into ragged gasps. Her lungs felt heavy, as if something were pressing down onto her chest.
Lexi felt her sunglasses being placed into her other hand and Austin’s face swam into her vision, blocking the bright sunlight with his head. “Lexi, I don’t have much time. You have to listen to me,” he spoke urgently. “Things are going to be different from now on. Don’t let them fool you. You have to keep everything you know a secret. There’s a curse, and you need to find out all that you can about it before Halloween.”
“What? A curse? Austin, I’m so confused. My head hurts.”
“I’ll come back for you.”
And then he was gone, the sun shining more brightly into her eyes, blinding her vision. Lexi wanted her mom. She tried to roll over on her beach towel, but it felt like she was stuck.
“Lexi! Can you hear me?” a voice she didn’t recognize asked. “You’ve been into a serious accident.” Lexi squinted as a bright light was flashed in front of one of her eyes.
“Do you remember anything that happened?”the voice persisted.
Remembering the advice that Austin had given her in her dream, she decided to play dumb. Lexi shook her head. “What happened?” She knew exactly what had happened. There was no way she could ever forget the events of that night, even though she so desperately wanted to.
Dan Nichols, Austin’s best friend had attacked her. Just as he had her pinned against the wall, Lexi was saved by Gabe, the guy who lived across the street who she was sort of in love with, but who her Aunt Violet and Uncle Tommy had also forbidden her to see.
Lexi had gotten into Gabe’s car with him because he promised her that they were going to run away together. That plan had come to a screeching halt when Gabe crashed his car with both of them inside. The way it had happened felt strange to Lexi. Gabe had been speeding along the winding road and right before a sharp turn, instead of keeping his eyes on the road, Gabe had leaned over to the passenger’s side and kissed her, which had caused him to crash his car into a tree.
Before the car had crashed and the airbag had blown up in her face, knocking her unconscious, Gabe had told her that he was a vampire and that he was actually over one hundred years old.
Lexi squinted, allowing her eyes to adjust to the lighting of the room she was in. The white walls that surrounded her seemed brighter than they should have been, probably because she had been out of it for what she assumed had been hours. Her body ached, and her hand was tingly and sore. Glancing down at her hand, Lexi realized that she was firmly squeezing her bat pendant, with the silver chain dangling from it. She wasn’t sure how it had even gotten off her neck. She didn’t remember taking it off. Lexi tried to sit up, though she found that she couldn’t.
Reaching her hands up to her neck, Lexi realized that she was too sore to put the necklace back on by herself. Instead, she wrapped the chain several times around her wrist. The bat pendant was the one thing that she had left from her father, who had abandoned her as a child; there was no way that she was going to lose it now.
“It’s best if you just relax for now, Lexi,” a caramel-skinned nurse said, fluffing Lexi’s pillow. “You’ll have plenty of time to find out all of the details about what happened later. The good news is that you are going to recover from this. You should consider yourself a very lucky girl.” Lexi wasn’t sure if the nurse was talking really slow or if it just seemed like she was because Lexi was so out of it. “Your body has gone through a lot of trauma in the past few hours. We’re going to give you something for the pain. It’s going to make you want to sleep for awhile.”
*
“Lexi, you have to get out of here.”
For the second time that night, Lexi awoke with a start. Dreams of her mother’s death, of Justin’s death, all came swarming back to her like a mob of angry bees.
Each dream was worse than the one she had before it. She wasn’t sure which type of dream upset her more; seeing the people who she loved die over and over again without being able to do anything to stop it from happening, or in the other dream, not understanding what she should do with the advice they were trying to give her. Lexi knew that there was no way to really know if the people that she had lost were really trying to communicate with her through her dreams, but after she had seen and talked to her mom, who left residue in the room when she left, Lexi definitely believed in ghosts.
She didn’t know why Gabe had done what he had done to her. She could only guess that he had caused the accident on purpose. Why, though? Maybe he wanted her to die so he could drink her blood. No, that wasn’t it. As much as she was confused by what Gabe had done, she knew that he wasn’t a bad person (or vampire). Maybe he had been so tempted by drinking her blood that he had just lost control of the car. It didn’t seem like that was the case either, though. It definitely felt like Gabe had crashed the car on purpose, and Lexi really wanted to know why.
Lexi didn’t know if she was going to be able to ask him that question, though. She didn’t even know if Gabe was even alive.
****
Chapter 2
“How are you feeling, sweetie?” Mrs. Collins, Justin’s mom, walked in and sat down on Lexi’s hospital bed. “They told me you were in the car with him when it happened.”
“No, I—” Lexi started to tell Justin’s mom that she hadn’t been in the same accident as Justin, but she stopped when she saw the pained expression on the woman’s face. She realized that she and Mrs. Collins had a lot in common now that Justin was gone. Like Lexi, Justin was the only family who Mrs. Collins really had. She was married, but Justin had told Lexi that his father traveled for weeks at a time and he was pretty sure that his dad was cheating on his mom. Mrs. Collins had no other children, and both of her parents had passed away the year before, within months of one another. “I’m so sorry,” Lexi said, a tear rolling down her cheek. “I wish this didn’t happen. I wish I could bring him back.”
Justin’s mom nodded sadly, her eyes red and puffy. Lexi thought that it looked like she had been crying non-stop for hours. “I know. It’s hard for me to accept that he’s not going to be coming home. I keep thinking he’s on one of his hockey trips. I know you’ve been through so much already, first losing your boyfriend and now having to be in this dreary place, but would you mind coming with me to see him? I think I need to say goodbye,” his mom said, pulling a tissue out of her pocket and wiping away the tears that fell from her eyes.
“Boyfriend?” Lexi asked confusedly. So, Justin’s mom knew that Gabe had left.
“He was very fond of you, Lexi. You meant the world to him. You made him want to change for the better and, for that, we are extremely grateful.”
Oh, she meant Justin.
“I nearly forgot,” Mrs. Collins said, unzipping her purse and pulling something out. “They found this in the car on the day of the accident. I assume that it belonged to you.” Mrs. Collins handed her a tiny Cross earring. Deciding that she wouldn’t tell Mrs. Collins that she hadn’t actually been in the car at the time of the accident because it might seem reassuring for his mom to know that he had died while he was with someone he cared about, she took the earring from her. Lexi realized that she was wearing her favorite pair of light blue pajamas that her aunt must have brought from home. She slid the earring into the back pocket. It was strange that she hadn’t actually seen her aunt yet, but it also wasn’t surprising. Her aunt had acted like a control freak all summer longer, forcing Lexi to date Dan. For all Lexi knew, Violet was probably mad at her for running away from Dan when he attacked her, which she was sure that Dan had already told her aunt about.
Lexi tentatively followed Mrs. Collins down the long corridor that led to the hospital’s morgue. Her legs felt stiff; she wasn’t sure how long she had been lying in the hospital bed, but it was long enough to make her feel uncomfortable walking. She hadn’t been told much about her injuries, though, so her legs may have been hurt during the accident.
“Dr. Stevens!” Mrs. Collins said warmly as the man in the white physician’s coat stopped in front of them. “I need you to let me into the morgue so that I can say goodbye to Justin. I’ve already asked my son’s girlfriend, Lexi, to come into the room with me for moral support, if that’s okay with you.”
“I don’t see why it would be a problem,” Dr. Stevens replied, as he unlocked the door to the morgue, but the look on his face told Lexi that he wasn’t too happy about it. Dr. Stevens was the same doctor who had treated her mom the night she died and had also lied to Lexi about the cause of death. Even though he seemed like a friendly guy, Lexi didn’t trust him one bit.
Lexi watched breathlessly as Dr. Stevens lowered the white sheet and placed it under Justin’s chin. Painful tears clouded her vision. It was her fault he was here, laying lifelessly on the ice cold, metal morgue table. Mrs. Collins let out a pained sob and held onto the table to keep herself from falling. Lexi placed a hand on Mrs. Collins’ shoulder, trying to comfort her the best she could. It was a little bit difficult to comfort someone, though, when you felt in pain yourself.
Mrs. Collins placed a hand on Justin’s bare chest. “Justin, you were my baby,” she said, through sobs. “You’re always going to be my baby. I know that wherever you are right now is a better place than here. You’re probably already up there rolling around in the dirt with Max,” Mrs. Collins said, glancing over at Lexi and adding in a whisper, “that was his Golden Retriever when he was a kid.” Turning back to her son, she continued, “I know that I’ll see you again one day, Justin. I love you.”
Lexi had no control over the tears that fell from her eyes. She looked at Mrs. Collins and Dr. Stevens and said, “I’d like to have some time alone to say goodbye, if that’s all right with everyone.”
“Of course, dear,” Mrs. Collins gave her a tight hug and hovered in the doorway, looking at Dr. Stevens expectantly. “Ahem,” Mrs. Collins cleared her throat when the doctor didn’t follow. He shot Lexi a look that said don’t touch anything, and reluctantly closed the door behind them.
Lexi leaned over Justin’s body and looked at his pasty bluish-white face. Memories flooded back to her. She remembered their very first kiss when they went to Wildwood on their first date. At the time, she had considered that the worst kiss she would probably ever have; they had been at the very top of the Ferris Wheel, overlooking the ocean at sunset when Justin leaned in and kissed her—unfortunately, he didn’t know at the time that Lexi was afraid of heights and on the verge of puking. Even though so much had happened since then and she had lost feelings for Justin long before he had died, she wished that she could go back to that moment right now.
If Lexi hadn’t agreed to let Justin come to Briar Creek to see her, this would never have happened. He would still be alive, playing hockey at some ice rink in New Jersey.
“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry, Justin…for everything,” Lexi whispered, wiping at her tears as they flooded down her face. “I love you.” Lexi bent down and kissed his cheek.
Lexi raised the sheet and began to slowly cover Justin’s head. She felt as if she were covering a part of her past – of Justin’s past – that never should have happened. He should still be alive. Lexi knew that along with Austin and her mother, she wouldn’t be able to make peace with any of their deaths until she found out exactly what happened to them.
Glancing around the morgue, an idea occurred to her. She was just feet away from getting the answers that she had been searching for during the past few months.
She had been obsessing over her mother’s true cause of death. Dr. Stevens had told Lexi that her mom had died of food poisoning from eating beef, though Eileen was a vegetarian. Lexi realized that now was her chance to find that answer.
Lexi rushed over to the tall, black filing cabinet that stood in the far corner of the room. “Please don’t be a dead body,” Lexi whispered to herself before pulling the middle drawer out. To her relief, she was greeted with a drawer full of files. Some of the folders that held the files seemed old; they looked worn and had accumulated dust. Luckily, the files were alphabetized.
She searched through the H’s, and the file that she had been looking for stared her back in the face. Hunter, Eileen.
Lexi flew through the pages quickly, looking for anything that seemed out of place. Finally, on Page 4, she found what she was looking for. The file read, Cause of death: and beside it, the answer glared back at her.
The word ‘Confidential’ was stamped in red ink.
Lexi huffed in frustration. Of course the file wouldn’t give her the answer she was looking for. This only confirmed her suspicions that someone was trying to hide what had happened to her mom the night of her death. She shoved the file back into the drawer, careful to put it back in the same spot that it had been in. Lexi began searching through the G’s, but the folder that she was looking for wasn’t there. There was no file for Austin Graham.
*
“Do you think she remembers anything that happened the night of the accident?” Violet spoke quietly, but the sound of her voice echoed throughout the room. “If she remembers, we’re going to have to…take care of the situation.”
“Violet, I already told you. We have enough attention drawn to us now that everyone has caught wind of the accident. The last thing that we want to do is put the spotlight on us again.”
“I suppose you’re right. But you better pray to God that my neice,” Violet said, a hint of sarcasm in her voice, “doesn’t remember what happened last night.”
