2 years ago:
The long-haired red head looked at her friend who sat across the booth from her. The dark-haired girl's eyes glossed over from potential tears as she stared across the room, her face looked as if she'd seen a ghost.
"Lex, are you ok?" Charlie Bradbury questioned her friend, as she followed the girl's gaze.
"It's him," Lexi replied quietly, as she batted her eyes to subside the tears that wanted to fall.
"Who?" the red-head was confused.
"Bryan."
Charlie's mouth fell open slightly as she spotted the man. He was tall, with jet black hair and piercing blue eyes. He was in a booth across the room from them with a pretty, long-haired blonde woman, who sat on the other side of the table from him.
"Bryan," Charlie looked over to her friend, and emphasized her next words, "the Bryan."
Lexi just nodded slowly and looked down to the half empty margarita in front of her. She put her elbow up on the table as she tried to shield her face from view.
"Can we go?" she asked her friend quietly.
"Of course," Charlie replied, shoving her half eaten chicken nachos to the side and grabbing her phone from the table.
The two of the stood up from the table and Charlie instinctively put herself between Lexi and the other side of the room where the man sat, as they made their way to front of the restaurant to pay.
The car ride back to the motel was quiet, Charlie sat in the passenger seat of the Challenger and glanced over at her friend occasionally.
"Of all the towns I've stopped in," Lexi finally began, "I always avoid Memphis, so I can avoid him."
"People move," Charlie replied gently, then pulled out her laptop from the bag in the floorboard.
"But I know him," the dark-haired girl stated, "He'd never move to Missouri, much less a smaller town like Fulton, and did you see the blonde he was with?"
Charlie didn't respond as she quickly typed away on her keyboard.
"He doesn't like blondes," the hunter continued, "a red-head I could understand, but a blonde? She probably cooks casseroles and shit, wearing a little apron, like Betty freakin' Crocker. That's what he always wanted, a trophy wife."
Charlie had pulled up the blue-eyed man's social media page and could see photos of him and the blonde girl, wedding photos we're the most recent on his timeline.
Lexi pulled her car to a stop in front of the motel and glanced over at Charlie to see what she was doing on her laptop.
"Charlie?"
"Sorry Lex," she looked up at her friend, "I was doing a little digging, looks like her name's Mary, she's a nurse, who is originally from Fulton, she attended the University of Memphis, and she has several pictures of food on here, all of which, I think she made."
Charlie turned the screen so her friend could see. The wedding photo portrayed a picture perfect couple.
"They just recently got married," the red-head said quietly, "From what I can tell, they've been dating nearly two years."
"Two years?" the dark-haired girl glared at the screen and shook her head, "I was with him three years ago."
Charlie knew that Bryan was the only person to ever break her best friend's heart and he was lucky she wasn't around back then to kick his ass for it. They had been together a couple years before he'd proposed and Lexi thought she was ready to settle down with him and start a life, until she walked in on him and a woman he worked with. It devastated Lexi, and Bryan begged and pleaded for her to take him back, but the dark-haired girl packed up and left town, no good-byes or screw you, just disappeared in the middle of the night. Charlie felt that damage was one of the reasons Lexi stayed guarded when it came to men or anyone for that matter, she didn't let people in, Charlie was her only exception. Lexi would go out for the occasional fling, Charlie had witnessed that in action. She wouldn't spend the night with just anyone, she picked her person out of the crowd. Men only 'thought' they were in charge, having picked up the pretty dark-haired women at the bar, but Lexi had set her sights on them, and when she set her sights on something she wanted, Lexi always got what she wanted.
Once she had left Memphis, Lexi dove back into the life. Hunting monsters and chasing things that went bump in the night. She only thought she wanted out of hunting, Bryan proved her wrong.
"What do you say we pack up and we get the hell out of this town?" Charlie suggested to her friend, as she slammed the laptop shut, "There's a convention over in Saint Louis this weekend. We can go splurge on some collectables."
Lexi nodded her head with a small smile, "I love you."
"Love you too," Charlie put a hand on her friend's shoulder and smiled warmly.
Present:
Lexi Wilson looked down at the article on the computer screen again, "Fulton Women Dies After Animal Attack". That article was the third animal attack she'd seen information on for the small town in Missouri. Her hunter instinct told her that it wasn't an animal, the victims were drained of blood. She knew it was probably a vampire. She also knew, because she had checked after she saw the first article, that he still lived in Fulton.
Normally, Lexi would just take off to the town and take care of business as usual, but that wasn't the case this time. She never needed her best friend more than she did at that moment. Charlie would keep her mind occupied on other things and not on the past, she would help be Lexi's distraction, but she would also keep her focused on the case, that's one reason she loved her best friend and that's what Lexi needed, someone to keep her focused and distracted all at the same time.
The dark-haired girl looked at her cellphone which laid beside her laptop. She hated herself already for what she was about to do, it made her look weak, as if she couldn't handle a vampire on her own. The vampire would be a piece of cake, it's what would happen if she ran into him that left her feeling sick to her stomach. Lexi picked up her phone and scrolled through her contacts and hit send on a familiar name. She needed focus and distraction.
She smiled when he answered the phone, "Hey Sam."