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

out what it was or what she
was supposed to do. She only wished that she could figure out what
that page had said before she and Dan had been sucked into the
book. Lexi had a feeling that whatever was on the page – which had
obviously been torn out – would have given her a clue as to how to
get out of here. Without that knowledge, she was beginning to lose
hope.
    Lexi tried to figure out what she was going
to do for shelter. Should she just knock on the door and tell
Albert she was one of his relatives who had come back from the
future? No. They would think she was insane and try to have her
arrested. Her best bet was going to be to sleep outside, but
where?
    Scanning the yard for somewhere to sleep,
Lexi spotted a pile of hay at the side of the yard. Hay would help
keep her warm tonight, and block her from Albert and Belinda’s view
if they happened to look outside. As she walked over to it, Lexi
heard a grunting sound.
    Panicked, she crouched down so that whoever
it was wouldn’t see her. Just as she grabbed a fallen tree branch
that she was planning to use as a weapon, she heard the whinnying
from a few feet away.
    Lexi breathed a sigh of relief. It was a
horse. Why hadn’t she noticed that Belinda and Albert had a horse
in their backyard earlier? Probably because she had been so wrapped
up in listening to their conversation that she hadn’t even paid
attention to her surroundings.
    Even in the moonlight, Lexi could tell that
the horse was a beautiful shade of black, its hair as dark as coal.
As she took a few steps closer to the horse, it whinnied louder,
obviously startled by her presence.
    “Shh,” Lexi hissed softly. The last thing she
needed right now was for the horse to somehow let Belinda and
Albert know that she was camping out in their backyard. Grabbing a
handful of grass and what felt like clovers, she held it out to the
horse. “Shh,” she whispered again soothingly.
    The horse inched its way over to her,
reluctantly sniffing at her hand. After a few moments, it gently
took the grass from her, its muzzle grazing over the palm of her
hand. “You’re a dainty one,” Lexi whispered, remembering one of
Violet’s old neighbor’s horses, Midnight, who had bit her
fingertips when they’d gotten in the way of the graham cracker she
was feeding him. Lexi had cried, and her mom had hugged her,
laughing, and told her that Midnight hadn’t tried to be mean.
    She would never be able to hug her mom
again.
    Would her mom even be able to visit her in
this time period? If Lexi was right – and, judging from the fact
that the witch was making the bat pendant right now and her own
pendant was missing – her mom hadn’t even died yet. Her mom wasn’t
even alive . She wouldn’t be born until 1976. It would all
depend on whether or not ghosts could visit other time periods, but
for some reason, Lexi seriously doubted it. If her mom knew she was
here – and how scared she was – she probably would have visited her
already to tell her what to do.
    Once she was sure the horse was going to be
quiet, Lexi settled herself down behind the bales of hay. It was
bad enough that she had to sleep outside; the idea of sleeping in
the woods freaked her out. Plus, as long as she stayed beside the
house, she would be able to listen to Albert and Belinda when they
woke up the next morning.
    Lexi rested her head against one of the bales
of hay. She wrapped the dress that she had stolen from the clothes
line (and had yet to change into) around her tightly as a blanket
to shield her from the coldness of the night. Lexi felt so alone
and, now more than ever, she wished that Gabe were with her.
     
    *
     
    The next morning, a loud banging sound
startled Lexi awake. She had dreamt of the people who she wanted to
get back to: Gabe, Austin, and her mom. Mary-Kate had also been in
her dream, reminding Lexi that as soon as she got back to
Huntington, they could focus on being sisters.
    A loud humming came from inside the house.
Lexi