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

you, no matter where you are. You have to listen to me, Lexi.
What I’m about to tell you next is very important.”
    “Okay,” Lexi replied, nodding. She never questioned
when her mom gave her advice because there were times when she
didn’t understand it . . . like when her mom had told her that she
had to forgive Gabe even after he had tried to kill her.
    “You have to open your eyes,” her mom instructed.
“It’s not your time to go yet. You have to be strong. A lot of
people are depending on you.”
    “What do you mean? Who’s depending on me?” Lexi
asked. “You can’t mean the people of Briar Creek.”
    “They are depending on you, Lexi. But not in the way
you’re probably thinking,” her mom replied. “I can’t explain it at
all to you right now, but you have to trust your instincts. Next,
you have to be careful about who you trust. Not everyone who
you care about is being honest with you. Some of them have ulterior
motives and bad intentions.”
    “Is Gabe one of them?” Lexi whispered. Her mom had
insisted that she trust him before. Could she really be taking it
back now? Just thinking about the possibility that Gabe could have
ulterior motives or bad intentions made her feel sick to her
stomach. It was then that she realized how much she loved him – how
much she didn’t want to be apart from him. Gabe had the capability
to hurt her, to break her down, to tear her to pieces, because she
cared about him so much.
    Then again, maybe Gabe didn’t even want to be with
her anymore. She had caught him with Veronica, after all. Maybe he was the one who she couldn’t trust.
    “Remember the rules, Lexi,” her mom said, shaking
her head. “I can’t tell you much about your fate or I won’t be able
to visit you again. What I will say is that I do like Gabe,
though.”
    Breathing a sigh of relief, Lexi wondered if her mom
knew that Gabe had cheated on her with Veronica?
    “Things aren’t always as they seem,” her mom said.
It was as though her mom had read her mind, but Lexi didn’t
question her further. She still felt so weak. “When you wake up,
Dan will be waiting for you.”
    “Dan?” Lexi asked, confused. Why did her mom think
that Dan was going to be waiting for her when she hadn’t even seen
him since she’d left him at the general store?
    Her mom’s muffled voice filled her ears. “Lexi,
forget about how you feel about Dan. You and he have to go to see
the witch to ask her an important question and –”
    Before her mom could finish her sentence, a cloud of
smoke fogged Lexi’s vision and, once again, everything went
black.
     
    *
    When Lexi opened her eyes and looked around, she
heard the sound of flowing water. Her skin was pressed against
something rough.
    “You’re awake,” a familiar voice said from behind
her.
    Glancing over her shoulder, Lexi realized that she
had been lying in Dan’s lap. The rough feeling against her skin was
denim jeans. “What are you doing here?” she asked, her voice merely
a whisper.
    Dan looked at her with a confused expression on his
face. “You don’t remember what happened? You said my name
before.”
    “That was just a dream . . . or something,” Lexi
replied, shaking her head. Had it been a dream? Seeing her mother
had felt so real. This was the first time she had really
seen her mom while she was asleep – except for the time in the
hospital when she had imagined being at the beach with her, but
Lexi was pretty sure that was a side effect of one of the
medications that she had been given. Normally, her mom visited her
when she was very much awake, leaving no doubt in her mind that she
was in ghost form during her visits.
    Maybe this time had been different because Lexi had
been on the brink of death . . . or had she? “So, what happened?”
Lexi asked Dan. She tried to sit up, but her pounding headache
forced her to remain in Dan’s lap. “Two guys came to drink from me
. . . I think.”
    “Yeah, there were two of them,” Dan