by Jayme Morse
How could that woman have been all of those things, all while being a secret blood donor at Westbrooke and having an affair with Darius? It really didn’t make any sense.
“Hey, is that car following us?” Dan asked, peering out of the back windshield.
“I doubt it,” Anna replied, sniffling. “No one around here knows us. Well, not exactly. I’m sure it’s nothing, though.”
Dan shrugged. “Okay, if you say so.”
“We saw Gertie in there,” Lexi said aloud.
Anna turned to look at her with a confused expression on her face. “Who’s Gertie?”
“She’s this old woman. She’s a waitress in Briar Creek.” Lexi shrugged. “Dan thinks it’s weird that we saw her here. I don’t think it’s that weird, personally.”
“Hmm,” Anna murmured.
“Dan wondered if she wrote that letter to you . . . you know, the one tipping you off about this place?”
“No, that’s not possible. It was definitely Darius who wrote it.”
“That’s what I thought,” Lexi replied.
Anna turned back around and looked out the front windshield, just as Austin pulled into the parking lot at the motel. She glanced out her window in time to see the car that had been following them whizz past their car. As the driver passed by, Anna could have sworn she thought the driver looked like Rhonda.
Anna shook her head, realizing just how crazy the idea seemed. There was no way Rhonda would have been able to find them here. She was really starting to lose it.
Chapter 17
As Rhonda drove past Lexi and her friends in the motel parking lot, she tried to cover her face with her scarf because out of the corner of her eye, she could see Anna staring in her direction. Shit.
The only reason she hadn’t pulled into the motel parking lot behind them was because she’d had a feeling they’d spotted her following them. Dan had kept looking back, as though he knew she was riding their tail.
Rhonda sighed with relief as she whizzed past the motel and turned to Gabe, who was staring at her with a confused expression on his face. “Where are we going?”
“We’re going to my father’s house,” Rhonda replied, offering him the first excuse that came to mind. Obviously, they weren’t going to her father’s house since her father was dead. But Gabe didn’t need to know that. All he needed to know was why she had driven past the motel.
Gabe seemed to accept her excuse, but he sighed loudly. “I always thought Boston would be much more crowded than this. I thought it was a city.”
Rhonda eyed him curiously. “You’ve been alive for over a hundred years, and you’ve never been to Boston?”
Gabe shook his head. “No, I haven’t.”
“Why not?” Rhonda questioned. She wasn’t sure why, but she had expected Gabe to travel all over the country and even the world. What else would a one-hundred-something-year-old stuck in a teenager’s body do with his life?
“I just never got there.” Gabe shrugged. “I’ve been to a lot of places—New York City, Miami, Detroit, San Francisco. But I’ve never been to Boston.”
“I’ve always wanted to see San Francisco,” Rhonda admitted.
“It isn’t that nice,” Gabe replied. “If it wasn’t for my brother, I probably never would have gone there.”
Rhonda glanced over at him again, this time really taking him in. All she knew of Gabe was his outward appearance; his dark hair and his gorgeous blue eyes that seemed to penetrate her own whenever he looked into them. But how much did she really know about what was on his inside? It felt like she didn’t know much about him at all; she didn’t know his favorite color, what bands or musicians he listened to, or anything about his family. “You have a brother?”
“Oh, um . . . no. I don’t have a brother actually.” Gabe’s eyes darted away from Rhonda’s and down at the ground.
“You just said you wouldn’t have gone to San Francisco if it wasn’t for your brother,” Rhonda said, accusingly. She couldn’t figure out why Gabe would lie to her about his family, but she had a feeling it was because they were pretty dysfunctional. The last thing she’d heard, his own mother had left Huntington without saying a word to him about where she was going. What type of mother would do that with everything that was going on in Briar Creek?
A mother who obviously didn’t care that much about her son, Rhonda thought.
Well, it didn’t matter now. Gabe’s family may have been dysfunctional and, who knows, maybe his mom really didn’t care about him. But Gabe had a new family now. He had Rhonda, and that was all that mattered. At least, that’s all Rhonda thought should matter because Gabe was the only family she had now, too.
Rhonda spotted a house that was dark and had an empty driveway. It appeared to be abandoned or, at best, no one appeared to be home. Deciding this was the perfect house to pretend her father lived in, Rhonda pulled into the narrow driveway and stopped the car. She turned to Gabe. “Stay here. I’ll be right back.”
Gabe shrugged his shoulders. “Okay, if that’s what you want.”
As Rhonda swung her car door open and climbed out, she could feel Gabe’s eyes on her, watching her every move. When she got up to the front step, she rang the doorbell. There were no sounds inside the house; she didn’t hear any dogs barking or the sound of someone calling that they were coming to the door.
Relieved when no one actually answered and that she had gotten the desired effect, she went back to the car and climbed back inside.
“Well?” Gabe asked, pointing his chin at the house. “Is he not home or what?”
“No, he’s not home,” Rhonda replied quietly, glancing down at the chipped nail polish on her fingernails. She glanced up at Gabe. “It looks like the house is abandoned. I think my dad stood me up.” For an added effect, she sniffled a little and forced herself to keep her eyes open long enough without blinking to provoke a tear that slid down her cheek.
“Man, I’m sorry, Rhonda,” Gabe replied, a sympathetic tone in his voice. “Families really suck sometimes.”
“That they do,” she agreed. Blurting out the first thing that came to mind, she said, “It doesn’t matter, though. You’re my family now.”
Gabe glanced over at her and then quickly glanced away. He didn’t say anything right away, and Rhonda got the feeling that he was pondering what she’d said.
“Right?” Rhonda pressed. She decided something, for the first time ever. She needed to let Gabe make his own decision in regards to this. If he had feelings for her—true feelings, like the type Dan had for Lexi and Austin had for Anna—he would find a way to let her know he did right now. Rhonda wanted to see, if it was possible, for him to admit that he had feelings for her without her trying to control his mind.
If he said that she wasn’t his family—that he didn’t really care about her—Rhonda wasn’t sure what she was going to do. There was no way Rhonda could just let Gabe go, not after what he had done to her. But maybe she would try to change her course of action. Maybe she would try to find a way to make him really fall in love with her, rather than just convincing him that he cared about her when he was vulnerable to her mind-control.
Or maybe she would let him go. Maybe she would take it as a sign that that this was all for nothing. Yes, if Gabe said that she wasn’t his family now, Rhonda would give up and allow him to be free again. She would go on to find someone who really loved her. But if he did say she was his family, she’d take it as a sign that he was the only one for her.
Rhonda waited anxiously for him to answer her.
Gabe shot a small smile at her. “Yeah, I guess you are my family now.”
Chapter 18
Telling Rhonda that she was his family now was one of Gabe’s weakest moments he realized when they got back to the motel room. But for the first time since he had met Rhonda, he could finally figure out his own motivations when he was around her. He’d told her that she was his family for two reasons: 1.) he felt sorry for her; and 2.) he didn’t have anyon
e else in his life who he could consider his family anymore. At one point, his family might have been Lexi and Austin, but things had obviously changed.
Once he was settled back in the motel room and Rhonda was in the shower, Gabe leaned against the bed. He tried to force himself to get into relaxation mode, even though he felt incredibly stressed out and he wasn’t sure why.
Resting his head against the pillow, Gabe closed his eyes. He stared into the blackness that was his eyelids, as he waited for something to happen. He wasn’t sure why, but he had a feeling that a vision was coming, and that was why he was so stressed out.
And that’s when he saw it. It was the shortest vision that he’d ever had in his entire life, but it was definitely a vision: a flash of a face that looked very similar to his own. The face had a haunting look to it, and he could somehow tell that the person was up to no good.
As soon as the vision filled his mind, though, it quickly passed, like a star shooting through the night sky. It was there and vivid in his mind, and then it faded to nothing.
Gabe sat up in bed and glanced around the dark hotel room. He could hear the water spraying from the shower in the bathroom, and the sound of the cheerful voices of the people on the TV.
He didn’t feel any different, though. When he had a vision, he always felt drained right away. Though he normally did usually have visions weeks after he had drank blood and he had drank only the night before from not just one, but both of, the girls who Rhonda had brought to their room, Gabe didn’t think that had anything to do with why he didn’t feel weaker than usual.
Gabe was positive that what he had experienced was a memory. It was different than any memory he’d ever had before, but he was pretty sure he could explain that, too. It was different because it was a memory that was driven by sadness—a sadness that he wasn’t even aware that he felt, a sadness he didn’t think he was even capable of.
It must have been all of the talk about family that was getting to him. It didn’t matter, though.
Even though Gabe felt sad, he definitely didn’t feel guilty.
Chapter 19
When there was a knock on the motel room door at a quarter past ten, Anna crawled out of Austin’s arms and climbed out of bed. She was fully expecting to see Lexi and Dan on the other side of the door, so it surprised her when the man who worked at the motel registration office was there, balancing a tray of beverages in his hands.
“Miss Anna?” the man asked. “I would like to offer you my sincere apologies for the condition of your rooms. We received complaints from our previous tenants, who left only a few days before you arrived. We wanted to offer you these complimentary drinks . . . on the house, of course.” The man flashed her a wide, toothy smile.
“I didn’t know you even had a bar,” Anna mumbled, glancing down at the drinks on the tray. They looked like fruity cocktails—strawberry and pineapple, maybe. She was actually a sucker for fruity cocktails, so she smiled at the man. “Thanks for the drinks. You really should clean the rooms better in the future, though, if you want to stay in business. This place can’t possibly meet town codes and regulations.”
The man smiled, even though it looked like an annoyed smile. “Thank you. I will take your advice into consideration in the future.” He handed her the tray and turned in the opposite direction.
When Anna stepped back inside, she set the tray down on the round table and turned to Austin. “Are you going to have a drink?”
Austin shook his head. “No, I’m not drinking that.” He kept his eyes focused on the TV. Just as Anna was about to take a sip from the glass, he said, “Wait! How do you know those drinks are okay?”
Glancing down at the glass she held in her hands, Anna shrugged. “I don’t know. They look okay to me.”
“I have a bad feeling about this. Did Lexi and Dan get drinks, too?” Austin questioned.
“I don’t know. Does it look like I’ve talked to Dan and Lexi?” Anna rolled her eyes. She knew that it was good at times to have Austin around because he was the voice of reason, but there were other times when he was just a big party pooper. All she wanted was to enjoy the drink that she held in her hands; after the day she’d had, she definitely deserved it.
“Please don’t drink it, Anna,” Austin begged.
“Fine, I won’t.” Anna set the drink back down on the tray and turned to Austin, pouting. “Are you happy now? You took away the only thing that was going to help me feel better tonight.”
Austin rested his head on one of his elbows and turned to look at her. “I can think of something else if you’re up for it.”
Anna hesitated. It had been a few weeks since Austin had drank from her, and she was actually trying to avoid letting him. The whole purpose of this trip was supposed to be for her to find out who had murdered her mother. Now she knew who had most likely done it, but it didn’t seem like there was anything she could do with that information. So, what was the point of holding back?
Turning to Austin, Anna threw her arms around her neck. She inhaled the scent of his spicy cologne; it was one of her favorite smells.
Austin’s lips came down on hers passionately; he explored her mouth with his cold tongue.
As he moved down her neck, Anna felt his cold breath against her warm skin. There was nothing that compared to the icy, hot feeling that she felt when he was near her. It only seemed to intensify every time he drank from her.
When Austin’s teeth punctured her skin, Anna had a hard time controlling herself. She grabbed the sheets with her hands, balling them with her fists. As Austin’s tongue encircled the wound and he sucked the warm blood from her veins, Anna let out the moans that had caught in the back of her throat.
Austin was right. This was even better than the feeling of being drunk.
Once he finished drinking from her, Austin closed her wound the way vampires always did by injecting her skin with a healing saliva. Just the feeling of the wound closing was enough to drive her crazy.
“I don’t want you to stop drinking from me,” Anna murmured, glancing into his turquoise eyes.
Austin gave her a small smile. “I don’t want to stop drinking from you, either,” he admitted, “but I have no other choice. We can’t risk you losing too much blood in one day. Unless . . .” He trailed off.
“Unless what?” Anna questioned.
Austin shook his head. “Nothing.”
Anna narrowed her eyes at him. “Nothing?”
“Yeah, nothing,” Austin replied, glancing over at her. “It’s nothing, I promise.”
Anna sighed. “You shouldn’t make promises you can’t keep.” She didn’t know what type of promises her mom had made to her dad, but she doubted that any of them had ever involved Darius. As much as she didn’t want to let her mom’s unhappiness affect her own relationship, she couldn’t help but wonder how she and Austin would ever be able to work out if her own parents hadn’t had the happy marriage she always thought they’d had.
“I always keep my promises,” Austin said, quietly. “It was no big deal. Don’t worry about it. Come on, let’s go to sleep.” He grabbed the remote from the end of the bed and flicked off the TV and climbed under the covers.
When Anna allowed herself to curl against his body and listened to her own labored breathing, she sighed. This wasn’t the way she wanted to go to sleep, but she didn’t want to talk about it, either. Talking to Austin about everything would mean that they would have to discuss the issue of their future, and she just wasn’t ready to do that.
As much as Anna loved Austin, she wasn’t even sure what their future looked like.
Chapter 20
The next morning, Rhonda paced back and forth in the room that she was sharing with Gabe, worrying about Anna. It had been easy enough to convince the man at the front desk to deliver Anna the drinks containing the poison. She was going to tip the man twenty bucks to do it, but then she remembered that she didn’t even need to do that—his mind was just as pliable as everyone else�
�s. All she’d had to do was look at him and think about what she wanted, and the man had done it.
But this morning, she had heard Anna giggling outside in the parking lot as she and Austin left. They’d come back with bags of breakfast food, which they’d taken to Lexi and Dan’s motel room.
Rhonda seethed. Why hadn’t the poison worked? Was it because it wasn’t strong enough to kill Anna now? Rhonda knew it wasn’t because Anna had turned into a vampire yet; Rhonda could still smell her mortal blood from down the hall.
Apparently, Anna hadn’t drunk the cocktail that Rhonda had given the man to give her the night before. Rhonda was half-tempted to storm into the man’s office and rip his throat out, but she knew she couldn’t do that. It would draw attention to the fact that someone ‘bad’ was staying at the motel, and Rhonda wanted to keep Anna and Austin here for as long as she possibly could.
It probably wasn’t the man’s fault, anyway. Anna probably had chosen not to drink the alcohol on her own. She was probably some pathetic prude who didn’t believe in drinking until she turned twenty-one—which was absolutely ridiculous, considering she was dating a vampire. It’s not like little Miss Anna played by the rules all the time.
Sighing frustratedly, Rhonda sat down on the bed. She glanced over at Gabe, who was sprawled out in relaxation mode. He had been really quiet ever since they had gotten back to the motel room the night before, which only made Rhonda think that he had lied about them being a family.
It only reaffirmed what Rhonda already knew—that she couldn’t let Gabe make his own decisions, and that no one could figure out what she was doing. That was why she had to get rid of Anna, once and for all.
*
Back in the bathroom of their motel room, Lexi pulled her hooded sweatshirt over her head and tossed it to the tiled floor. She glanced at herself in the bathroom mirror. She’d noticed that, recently, she no longer got pimples or any other type of skin imperfections for that matter. It was still too early to say, but Lexi was pretty sure that immortality was taking kindly to her.
