Cold as Ice Read online

  “I wish Dan would come home,” she whispered, only loud enough for herself to hear. “Please let Dan come home.” She continued whispering the same words until she had almost fallen asleep.

  As Lexi was about to doze off, the covers were yanked away from her, and she glanced up to find Anna hovering over her.

  “You are going to class today . . . aren’t you?” Anna asked her softly. The look in her eyes told Lexi that she was genuinely concerned about her.

  “I don’t really feel like going,” she admitted. “I think I’ll just stay here and lay in bed all day again.”

  “It isn’t healthy for you to act this way, Lexi,” Austin chimed in, rising from his place on Anna’s bed. “It’s not healthy for you to just lie around all day.”

  “I don’t think it’s healthy for you to act this way when Dan could be dead right now,” Lexi shot back at him, feeling the anger rising to her cheeks. “Some best friend you are.”

  Austin’s face crumbled. “What way am I acting?”

  “Like you don’t even care,” she snapped. “You’re just going to class and acting like this is nothing out of the norm, while Dan could be lying somewhere in his own blood with a stake through his heart.” Lexi blinked away the tears that clouded her vision. Just thinking about the fact that this could be Dan’s reality upset her . . . and made her feel incredibly sick to her stomach.

  “You were always the one who hated him,” Austin pointed out. “You were making me start to think that you were right, that Dan really wasn’t on our side.”

  “Well, I’m sorry that I ever made you question him,” Lexi replied. “Dan has been on our side—or at least on my side—all along.”

  Austin’s face softened. “I’m glad you trust him now. At least one good thing came out of your trip to the past. Once he comes back, we can all be a happy family.” The tone in his voice was hopeful and genuine.

  Lexi glared at him. “Get it through your head, Austin. Dan might never come home. Even if he’s alive, he might not know how to get back. The last time I saw him, Mary-Kate was sneaking up on him. He could be dead or in a coma even, for all we know.” She climbed out of bed and stormed out of the room, unsure of where to go. There was no one at Huntington who could comfort her. Not the way Dan could have.

  Chapter 5

  Rhonda hated that Gabe had left Huntington. She was stuck here all by herself. She’d begged him to let her go with him, but he hadn’t agreed. Even though she’d thought about using mind control on him to convince him to let her go, she hadn’t. There were things she needed to do back at Huntington now that Lexi was back.

  Glancing at her naked body in the long mirror in her dorm room, she felt disappointed that she wouldn’t be able to strut around her room without her clothes on anymore. Her roommate, Amanda Frank, would arrive in the morning. Getting a new roommate brought back memories of what she had done to her college roommate, Michelle, after Gabe had turned her into a vampire. Just thinking about it made her feel guilty. But only for a moment.

  Rhonda really didn’t want a roommate. She didn’t want to have to pretend that she wanted to be BFFs with someone, or that she was genuinely interested in vampire hunting—which only felt counterproductive to her own existence. Why would she want to kill off her own kind?

  Having a roommate would also mean that Rhonda wouldn’t be able to seduce Gabe so easily—not within the privacy of her own dorm room, at least. She’d have to go to his dorm room from now on, and while it wouldn’t make seducing him any more difficult, it was going to be just another burden that she didn’t need.

  She had more important things to deal with right now on top it—like meeting Lexi, now that she was back from her little trip to the past.

  All she had to do was figure out the girl’s weaknesses—and her strengths—to make sure that Gabe never set foot near her again. It was going to be a piece of cake that Rhonda couldn’t wait to cut.

  As she opened her dorm room door and stepped out into the hallway, Rhonda glanced around to make sure that Veronica wasn’t anywhere nearby. Ever since the woman, who happened to be the vampire who had created Gabe, had threatened to kill her if she didn’t leave Gabe alone, Rhonda felt uneasy.

  At the same time, she also felt more daring.

  The truth was, Veronica threatening her to leave Gabe alone wasn’t going to make her back off. If anything, it only made her want to be with him more. She wasn’t about to give up on the one thing that she wanted out of life just because someone else didn’t think she should have him. Besides, even Gabe had said that Veronica wasn’t serious about her threats, so she likely had nothing to worry about.

  “Did you hear about the murder in Long Island?” one of the girls who were walking down the hallway in front of her asked, and Rhonda stopped dead in her tracks.

  “Yeah, it’s a shame. It makes me so worried about dorming at a real college next year. Maybe I should just go to a community college and commute, like my parents want me to do. There’s just so many crazies out there that you never know who your roommate will turn out to be,” a second girl replied, shaking her head.

  Rhonda reached in her pocket to pull out her smartphone when she remembered that she had thrown it away before she’d arrived at Huntington, in hopes that no one would ever figure out where she was. Once she left Huntington, she figured that she would get a whole new identity, but for right now, she was just going to hang low so that no one would find her. She would worry about changing her name and everything later.

  She fled to the library, where there were rows of computers lined up for students to use for research purposes. Plopping down in one of the chairs, she opened a window to check the news, nearly gasping when she saw the headline of the article featured on the computer’s homepage. Long Island Student Killed in Dorm Room. She hadn’t been expecting the case to make the front page.

  Clicking on the article, which featured a photo of Michelle’s smiling face, Rhonda began to scan the words on the screen. She skimmed through the beginning of the article, which told her everything she already knew—her roommate had been murdered in the bathroom of her dorm room. Her breath caught in the back of her throat when she found her own name about halfway through the article.

  Michelle’s roommate, Rhonda Kerrigan, has been missing since the body was found. None of her family members have been in contact with her. Her cell phone was found abandoned several hours away from the university campus, leading to speculation that Michelle might not be the only victim in this case.

  Rhonda’s mother, Collete Kerrigan, said, through tears, “When you send your child away to college, you don’t think anything like this could ever happen. It feels unreal that my daughter could be dead right now. We only just had lunch together recently. I know there’s been a lot of talk about Rhonda being dead, but as a mother, I know that isn’t true. She’s out there somewhere. I only hope that whoever has her will let her go. Please let her go, I beg of you.”

  If you have any details about Rhonda’s whereabouts or have witnessed anything unusual on campus, please contact the local authorities.

  So, no one was blaming her for the murder? They thought that she, too, might have been murdered or that she was with the murderer. That was a relief, but she also felt weird thinking that her own mother was questioning whether something had happened to her, too. At the same time, it was easier to let her mom think that she had also been killed or kidnapped than to tell her the truth, which was that she was a murderer.

  For the first time since she had been changed into a vampire, Rhonda felt really guilty about what she had done to Michelle. On the other hand, it wasn’t like she could do anything about it. The damage was already done; Michelle was dead, and she had no choice but to stay in hiding, far away from Long Island, until things cooled down—if they ever did.

  Deciding that she was wasting time and psyching herself out by reading news articles, she exited the window, climbed out of her chair, and headed for the door. She was in th
e hallway when she saw her; the blonde, fair-skinned girl who walked down the hallway, biting her lip nervously.

  Rhonda could tell right away that it was Lexi. She knew that she hadn’t seen the girl around in the hallways since she’d arrived at Huntington, but she could just tell that it was her. The girl looked so fragile—so helpless; it was exactly how she imagined a girl who had just traveled back to the past and had a whole town of angry vampires waiting for her in the present.

  Lexi turned and glanced at her, a funny expression on her face, and Rhonda wanted to shrink against the wall. Instead, she decided that it was time to introduce herself. She wasn’t sure why she had waited so long as it was.

  As she opened her mouth to say something, Lexi had already turned away from her and disappeared into an opening door.

  Chapter 6

  Lexi sat in the chair as the nurse prepared to draw her blood.

  “Are you sure you want to do this?” Ben asked. He was sitting next to her, watching intently as the nurse cleaned her skin with a swab.

  “I don’t think I have much of a choice,” Lexi admitted. Ben was right—even if Dan didn’t come back, she still had to find some way to protect herself from all of the vampires who were out to get her blood. If she didn’t take the potion and become an immortal, they were going to hunt her down for the rest of her life. She really didn’t want to have to hide from them until the day she died, which, if she took the potion, may not happen for a very long time.

  Ben nodded understandingly, watching the nurse, who was reaching for one of the blood vials. She hadn’t been around him for that long, but he didn’t seem like the type to question the decisions she was making.

  As the blood poured out of Lexi’s veins, she cringed. Having her blood taken or getting injected with needles had always bothered her—which was ironic because she had no problem with having her blood drank. In fact, it was the most pleasurable thing she had ever experienced.

  “One down, four more to go,” the nurse said, as she sealed the first vial. “What you’re doing is a brave thing, Lexi. If you’d like, we can keep the blood here at Huntington.”

  Lexi nodded and gave the nurse a tight smile, knowing that Benjamin had briefed her about what was going on before she’d arrived so that she’d understand why she was drawing her blood. “That’s fine. I wouldn’t know of anywhere else to keep it, anyway.”

  “We’ll put it in one of the basement refrigerators, which have locks. That way, no one will get into it that isn’t supposed to,” the nurse explained.

  Lexi nodded, appreciative that they were at least going to take extra precautionary steps to make sure that no one would be able to get their hands on her blood. It made her feel weird to think that a complete stranger could drink it without her permission.

  Once the nurse had finished filling all of the blood vials and gave Lexi a small cup of orange juice and an oatmeal cookie so she wouldn’t feel dizzy, Ben muttered, “Let’s hope this works.”

  “Do you believe it will?” Lexi asked, sipping her juice slowly.

  “I don’t know. Why don’t you ask Gabe?” Ben asked. “He has visions. Maybe he can look into the future for you.”

  Lexi shrugged her shoulders. She turned her head, hoping that would be the end of the conversation. But when she glanced back at Ben, he was staring at her, waiting for an answer.

  “Gabe’s not here,” she offered weakly, unsure of what else to say at the suggestion.

  “You can’t expect to save the world, Lexi,” Ben told her softly. “You’re only one person, and there are hundreds of sick vampires. Just remember that.”

  Lexi nodded, as they walked out the door together.

  “Do you mind taking a walk to the courtyard?” Ben asked her. “There’s something I’d like to talk to you about.”

  “Sure,” Lexi replied. She noticed a girl with strawberry blonde hair staring at her from the other side of the hallway, and it freaked her out a little. It was the same girl who had been looking at her before she’d had her blood drawn.

  Once she and Ben were further down the hall, she glanced over her shoulder. The strawberry blonde was still staring back at her. The girl’s glossy lips twisted into a small smile, which didn’t reach her eyes.

  Lexi forced herself to give a small smile back and quickly turned back around. She let her father lead her into the courtyard.

  “It’s kind of warm out for December,” Lexi commented, as they sat down on one of the park benches.

  “Is it?” Ben’s green eyes lit up. “That is one of the things that I do miss about being a mortal—being able to tell the difference between the seasons. It grows quite boring when winter and summer always feel the same.”

  “I think I would miss it too,” Lexi replied, unsure of what else to say. Would she miss it? What else about her human life would she miss?

  “Well, you will soon enough, I suppose.” He paused before adding, “If you choose to drink the potion, that is.”

  She glanced down at the ground, trying not to feel too much pressure over the potion. The truth was, she couldn’t tell if Ben thought she should take it or not. “So, what did you want to talk to me about?”

  “Are you happy here?” Benjamin asked.

  Meeting his eyes, she wondered how he knew she wasn’t. Was it that obvious? Shrugging, Lexi replied, “I haven’t been happy since Mom died.” Actually, that wasn’t true. There were times when she was back in the 1800s when she’d managed to forget about the tragedies that had been happening in her life because she’d had such a good time getting to know the real Dan.

  Ben nodded knowingly. “I understand. Did you know . . .” He paused, glancing over his shoulder, as though he wanted to make sure that no one was watching. Finally, he said, “You do know that I really loved your mother, right, Lexi?”

  Lexi shook her head. “No, I don’t.”

  Her dad stared back at her with wide eyes. “You don’t,” he repeated, as though he were trying to absorb what she had just said.

  “You left,” Lexi whispered, staring down at the cracked cemented ground beneath her feet.

  “I only left your mother because she made me leave, Lexi,” Ben said quietly. “She wanted to keep you safe. After she found out that you have vampire genes and once she understood what was going on in Briar Creek, she knew that she had to get you out of there.”

  Lexi tried not to roll her eyes; it wasn’t anything he hadn’t already told her before. What was the point of even re-discussing it, aside from stirring up her emotions?

  “The reason I was asking if you were happy here is because there is someplace else you can go. If you’re interested, that is,” Ben told her.

  “I-I don’t know. Where would that place be?” Lexi asked.

  “To stay with Connor and Erica’s mother,” Ben replied.

  Lexi stared back at him, clueless. Now, she really had no clue who he was talking about. “Who?”

  “Connor and Erica are your half siblings,” her father explained. “They’re my other children . . . your younger brother and sister.”

  She gaped at him. Even though everyone had told her that Benjamin Hunter had other children, part of her didn’t really want to believe it and she definitely didn’t want to hear about it. Lexi also thought that, since no one actually knew who her father’s children were, it was some sort of big secret or something.

  “If you loved my mother, why do you have other children?” Lexi questioned him with a raised eyebrow.

  Ben shifted uncomfortably in his seat. “A person shouldn’t have to wait around for someone forever. Believe me, I would have. But it was pretty clear to me after a few years—seven years, to be exact—that your mother was never coming back to me. So, when I met Darlene—Connor and Erica’s mother—I gave it a go.”

  “Are you still together?” Lexi asked. She hadn’t considered the possibility that her father could still be with Connor and Erica’s mother.

  Her dad glanced over at her. “Darlen
e and I have a very complicated relationship, Lexi. It’s obvious to me that she can sense that I don’t care as much about her as she does about me. She cares deeply about me.” He let out a loud sigh. “On the other hand, she also wants to do all that she can to keep her own children safe, and she knows about the Hunter curse. For the most part, she’s asked me to stay away from them.”

  “Do they live around here?” Lexi questioned. “In Briar Creek, I mean?”

  Ben nodded. “Yes, they do live in Briar Creek. In fact, I believe that you met them while you were working at Splish ‘N Splash.”

  “I did?” Lexi raised her eyebrows, thinking back to when she worked at the swimming pool as a Lifeguard’s assistant—A.K.A. glorified pool babysitter—because her aunt had forced her to get a job. She didn’t remember meeting Erica and Connor, though.

  Her father grinned. “Do you remember a brother and sister telling you that their mother had photographs of you?”

  “Oh, my God,” Lexi whispered, recalling the incident—which at the time had really freaked her out. “That was them?”

  Benjamin nodded. “Yes, Erica is four and Connor is six.”

  “How do they . . . survive?” she asked, remembering how a child named Noah, who she now knew was a vampire, had bitten into her leg—presumably because her blood smelled good to him—hadn’t bothered to bite Erica and Connor while they were in the pool at the same time. Why didn’t he go after them, too? Lexi didn’t recall seeing a bat pendant like her own on either of their necks, which made sense because Belinda had only made two bat pendants like it to hide the scent of Hunter blood, and she had one of them herself. No one knew who the legendary Benjamin Hunter’s other children were, but shouldn’t they have been easy enough to track down due to the scent of the Hunter blood?

  “Once I knew that the reason you and Mary-Kate both had Hunter blood was because both of your mothers were human, I knew that I couldn’t be with another human woman again,” Ben explained. “Darlene is a vampire. We’re pretty sure that neither Erica nor Connor have the same blood type as you, but it could begin to smell stronger and more tainted by the Hunter bloodline when they mature more. We will just have to wait and see what happens as they get older.”