Thicker Than Water (The Briar Creek Vampires Book #2) by Jayme Morse & Jody Morse by Jayme Morse Page B

until he takes his last breath.”
    “What doctor is treating him?” Lexi asked,
ignoring the last thing that her aunt had just said. As long as
Lexi thought that her uncle was plotting against her, there was no
way that she could appreciate her time with him.
    “Dr. Stevens is Briar Creek’s only on-call
doctor,” Violet replied before getting out of the car and going
into the house.
    Lexi got out of the car and sat on the front
porch, thinking about the plan that she had just come up with. She
was going to confront Dr. Stevens tonight. She just wasn’t sure how
she was going to do it without Violet and Tommy knowing that she
had remembered enough when she was in the hospital morgue to look
for her mom’s file.
     
    *
     
    Dr. Stevens came by after Lexi and Violet ate
dinner together. Neither of them said a word at the dinner table,
and Lexi was happy that she hadn’t yet gotten the lecture that she
knew was coming. Tommy wasn’t feeling well enough to come out of
his room. As much as Lexi wanted to feel sorry for him, she
couldn’t after everything that had happened since she had moved to
Briar Creek.
    The doctor brought a briefcase, which Lexi
assumed was full of his medical equipment. Violet took him into the
bedroom that Tommy was lying in and closed the door behind
her.
    Lexi tiptoed over to the room. She crouched
down and put her ear against the door.
    “Hey, Doc,” Tommy said in between coughs. “I’ve
got a fever and some swelling in my legs.”
    “No other symptoms?” Dr. Stevens
asked.
    “No, just those. Sometimes I get the chills,
but not often. Oh, and I’ve lost more hair in this week alone than
in the past few years.”
    There was a moment of silence. Lexi guessed
that Dr. Stevens was probably listening to his heartbeat or taking
his blood pressure. Finally, the doctor said, “Well, I’ve got to be
honest, Tom. Things aren’t looking too good for you right
now.”
    “What does that mean?” Violet asked. Lexi noted
a tone of worry in her voice. She might be a psycho-aunt, but she
definitely cared about her husband.
    “It means that if Tom doesn’t get a treatment for his illness, he won’t live past November,” Dr.
Stevens replied.
    “That can’t be! You said that we had more time
than this,” Violet said.
    “I know I did. Unfortunately, Tom’s illness is
progressing much more quickly than we previously expected. I think
that the damage which has been done to his bloodstream was just too
significant. If he had given it up when we told him to, he probably
would have lasted a little longer, but it wasn’t until May when he
quit cold turkey.”
    Quit cold turkey? Lexi figured that the doctor
must be talking about smoking. She didn’t know a whole lot about
emphysema, but she knew it wasn’t good to smoke cigarettes when you
had lung problems. Lexi was a bit surprised to learn that Tom had
quit the month Austin died, but it was probably not a coincidence.
His son’s death probably made him realize the important things in
life.
    “So, what do we do now?” Violet
asked.
    “My best advice is for him to start treatment
as soon as possible,” Dr. Stevens replied. “I know we’ve already
been over the details about this, but if you have any more
questions about it, feel free to call me at any time.”
    Lexi stood up and backed away from the door.
She tiptoed into the living room, picked up a magazine, sat on the
sofa, and pretended that she had been reading the whole time the
doctor was there. When Dr. Stevens came out a moment later, Violet
stayed in the bedroom. Realizing that this was the perfect time to
confront him, Lexi followed after him.
    “Dr. Stevens,” Lexi hissed when she was
outside, trying to talk loud enough for him to hear her, but low
enough that Violet wouldn’t. “I need to ask you a
question.”
    The doctor’s back stiffened and he turned
around. “What is it, Lexi?”
    “You told me that my mom died from E. Coli
poisoning from beef,” Lexi said.
    Dr.