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

floor
next to him, a worried look on her face. She reached over and
grabbed Austin’s hand. He gave her hand a little squeeze as they
watched in silence as the two men climbed the stairs.
    “What should we do?” Anna asked in barely a
whisper.
    Austin reached in his pocket for the box of matches
that Gabe had given him. A year ago, he never would have guessed
that he might have to light someone on fire. Now, this box of
matches could be his lifeline. Glancing at Anna to make sure that
her stake was still tucked under her arm, Austin helped her off the
floor and led her to the staircase.

Chapter 15
     
    ****
     
    There was a ruffling sound in the trees behind her,
and Lexi opened her eyes. She hadn’t even known that she had fallen
asleep. The last thing she could remember was curling up next to
Dan, his arm around her waist.
    Where was Dan? Lexi glanced around. She
didn’t see him anywhere. “Dan?” she called softly, afraid of
whatever was moving in the trees. Deciding that it was probably
just a deer, she tried to remain calm. Lying back down on the hay,
she shut her eyes and tried to fall back to sleep.
    Lexi heard the sound of crunching leaves from behind
her and froze.
    “I told you we would find Hunter blood here, did I
not?” a male voice said. His voice was deep and frog-like.
    “Aye, and she’s pretty, too,” a second male voice
said. This voice was slightly higher-pitched. The suggestive tone
in his voice raised goose bumps on Lexi’s arms.
    Should she run? Even though she was pretending that
her eyes were closed, she could see the vampires approaching. They
were both pretty tall and much paler than Dan. One of them had long
light brown hair, and the other had dark hair which he wore slicked
back. The evil looks in their eyes told her that she needed to
think quick.
    “She’s not that pretty,” a third voice, this time
belonging to a female, said from behind them. A dark-haired woman –
who appeared to be in her early twenties – approached them. Her
hair was twisted into a long braid and she wore a dark dress which
revealed much more leg than most women during this time period
showed. The scoop cut of the woman’s dress hugged her cleavage, and
her facial features seemed far too fragile for a vampire. Lexi
recalled that Austin had once told her that female vampires were
very beautiful, and this was the first time she had met one who she
had found this to be true about.
    The woman took a step closer and kicked Lexi in the
shins. Shocked by the blow of the kick, Lexi felt her eyes flutter
open. “Are you going to allow us to drink from you or do we need to
knock you out first?” the female vampire asked.
    “I – umm – I,” Lexi tumbled over her own words.
Where was Dan? Why would he go off on his own without telling her?
Surely, he knew that there was a risk of this happening to her
again. If he wanted to protect her, why wasn’t he really standing
guard?
    Before Lexi could manage to answer the vampire, she
felt something hitting her head, and everything went black.
    Lexi was hoping that she’d see her mom again, but
all she could see were the three vampires who had attacked her. The
problem was that she couldn’t tell what was real and what wasn’t;
everything had gone hazy in her mind.
    First, Lexi saw the girl vampire drinking from her.
Once she was done, she turned to one of the guys and gave him a
kiss with her blood-covered lips. The guy kissed her back, hungrily
cleaning the blood off her lips before taking his turn to drink
from Lexi.
    At some point, everything went dark again, and she
felt herself falling into the blackness, tumbling like Alice
tumbled down the rabbit hole – except Lexi knew that she wasn’t on
her way to Wonderland.
     
    *
     
    When Lexi woke up, the sunlight shone in her face.
She guessed, from the warm temperature, that it was sometime in the
afternoon. She must have slept the whole entire night away . . . or
maybe even longer.
    Lexi tried to sit up, but