Kiss of Death (The Briar Creek Vampires, #1) by Jayme Morse & Jody Morse by Jayme Morse Read Free Book Online Page B

around
her room. She felt silly apologizing to a ghost, but she was really
scared of Austin haunting her for invading his privacy. Lexi could
feel the hair on her arms start to prickle up.
    Laughing in spite of herself, she took the
lid off the box and placed it on the bed beside her. The first
things she saw were a photo album and a journal. There was also a
vial on a chain with a dark brown liquid. Lexi’s mouth dropped
open. It looked like blood. What was Austin doing with a vial of
blood?
    Shuddering, Lexi put Austin’s personal
belongings back in the box and stuffed the box into her duffle bag,
zipping it up to hide its contents. She knew that she had to go
through Austin’s journal and photo album to find out what she
could, but she felt way too queasy to right now.
    Getting into bed, she curled up into a tiny
ball – something that she had always done when she was scared as a
child – and pulled the floral comforter over her head. Lexi wasn’t
sure what it was, but something wasn’t right. First there was that
strange email from Mary-Kate and now there was a vial of blood
which could belong to anyone.
    As she drifted off to sleep, Lexi realized
what she had to do. She had to go directly to the source. If anyone
knew what Mary-Kate and Austin had done the night of his death, it
would be Mary-Kate. Would Mary-Kate be honest with her, though?
Lexi wasn’t sure, but it was worth finding out.
     
    ****

Chapter 5
     
    The next morning, Lexi found Aunt Violet,
Uncle Tommy, and her mom huddled around the dining room table where
they were talking in hushed voices. When Lexi entered the room, the
three of them stopped talking and stared at her.
    Lexi became self-conscious when she thought
that she noticed that they had accusing looks on their faces.
“What’s going on?” she asked suspiciously. She and her mom never
kept secrets from one another at home, and she didn’t want them to
start keeping secrets from each other now.
    “The police are looking further into the
cause of Austin’s death, Lexi.”
    “Why?”
    “They took his laptop for a routine
investigation, you know, just to make sure that nothing weird was
going on. And while they were searching, they found out that
someone had signed onto Austin’s Facebook account after he had
already…passed.”
    “Oh,” Lexi looked down at her cereal. Should
she tell her family that she had been the one to log onto Austin’s
Facebook? She didn’t want her aunt and uncle to worry for no
reason, but she also didn’t want them to know that she had intruded
on Austin’s privacy. Deciding against it, Lexi took a bite of her
Frosted Flakes instead. There wouldn’t be a way for the cops to
figure out it was her, anyway – she hoped. “Did they find something
strange?”
    “No,” Violet said, adding more creamer to her
coffee. “It’s just the fact that someone signed into his Facebook
account after he was already gone. And we know it wasn’t us, and
the cops are asking some of his close friends if it was them. It’s
a little strange. The police are now suspecting some form of foul
play.”
    “It is a little weird. But then again, who
knows how many people he gave his Facebook password to?” Lexi
rattled on, “Maybe one of his ex-girlfriends or something went on
his account to look at pictures of him or something because she
misses him.” She decided that she’d better stop defending the issue
before she made it too obvious that she was the one who had been
snooping on Austin’s Facebook.
    “Austin was a very private guy,” Violet said.
“I doubt he would have given his password to anyone, except for
Dan, maybe. And Dan already said that he wasn’t the one who signed
in.”
    “Oh.” Lexi wasn’t sure what else to say, so
she changed the subject. “How was your night?” she asked.
    “It was okay. I had some trouble sleeping,
but I got up and took a Benadryl to knock me out,” Violet
answered.
    “Dan was kind enough to bring us the
newspaper