Change of Fate (The Briar Creek Vampires, #4) by Jayme Morse & Jody Morse by Jayme Morse Page A

must have
really depleted her nutrients.
    “I picked you some blueberries and a watermelon from
that garden,” Dan said, motioning towards Albert and Belinda’s
house. He pulled a wicker basket out from behind him. Lexi raised
an eyebrow, and he explained, “I kind of stole it from the garden.”
Shrugging, he pushed the basket in front of her.
    Lexi bit into one of the blueberries. Its sweet,
ripe juice seeped into her mouth. Hungrily, she began eating all of
the blueberries, one by one, until they were all gone.
    “Dang, you were hungry,” Dan said, laughing
at her.
    “Hush,” Lexi said, giggling. “Become a human and go
get ambushed by a bunch of vampires who are drawn to your super
powerful blood, and see what happens to your appetite.”
    Dan looked down at the ground, his expression
turning to stone. “Do you want the watermelon now?”
    Lexi shook her head. “No, I’ll save it for the
morning. Dan, what’s wrong?”
    Dan looked away from her. “I’ve never killed someone
before. Sure, I’ve been in situations where I probably could have .
. . and should have . . . killed. But, I never did it until
tonight.”
    “Oh,” Lexi replied quietly. It made her feel guilty
that Dan was going to have to live with this weighing on his
shoulders. If she had have thought about it before, she might have
been able to steal the bat pendant from the witch’s house. Maybe
then this wouldn’t have happened. I f I hadn’t opened that
book in the first place, maybe this wouldn’t have happened ,
Lexi thought.
    “I never killed because I was never this angry
before, Lexi. When I saw what those guys were doing to you – when I
realized that they could kill you – I just… I had no other options.
I don’t know how to explain it,” Dan explained, staring into her
eyes.
    Lexi knew what he was trying to tell her. The reason
he’d killed those other vampires – the reason he hadn’t just let
her die tonight – was because he actually had feelings for her.
    And it was the first time she’d ever really believed
him.

Chapter 10
     
    ****
     
    Gabe knew that he had to be more careful than
he had been the last time he’d needed blood. He couldn’t just go
around turning a bunch of women into vampires. As it was, he had no
idea how Lexi wasn’t going to react when she found out that he had
turned Rhonda. Would she understand that he would probably die of
thirst because his visions weakened him, or would she be jealous
and angry at him for drinking another woman’s blood? Would she
consider it cheating?
    Gabe didn’t know. He also didn’t know how
long it would be before he would see Lexi again . . . or if she
still had feelings for him at all. As much as Gabe didn’t want to
believe it, he knew that there was a chance that Lexi might have
moved on completely. If only she knew that he hadn’t really cheated
on her, that what she had seen between him and Veronica wasn’t what
it looked like at all – that there had been nothing romantic or
sexual between them for more than one hundred years.
    The night he and Austin were supposed to
leave for Long Island, Veronica had come to his dorm room. She’d
been wearing some type of skimpy lingerie that he hadn’t even
gotten a good look at, attempting to seduce him, just as Lexi had
walked in on them. Gabe knew right away that what Lexi had seen
made him look guilty, but the truth was, he wanted nothing to do
with Veronica. After Lexi had run away from the room, presumably
crying, Gabe had told Veronica to back off if she knew what was
best for her.
    Not that telling Veronica to back off had
deterred her. If anything, it probably just made things worse. The
woman seemed to think that she and Gabe were meant to be, and she
promised him that once he was back to the area, she was going to
find a way to convince him of this herself. Just thinking about the
fact that he was going to need to deal with Veronica once he went
back to Pennsylvania made him feel annoyed and