Burn Like Fire (13 page)

Chapter 27

When they got back to the clearing, Anna carried the shovel. Somehow, it made her feel almost protected by being the one who carried it. If, for some reason, Rhonda happened to resurrect herself from the dead, Anna would be able to protect herself. Hopefully.

As they reached the area where Rhonda’s body had fallen, Anna felt a sick feeling form in the pit of her stomach. There was a small pool of blood in the dried out grass, but Rhonda’s body was gone.

“Guys, where is she?” Lexi questioned, a horrified expression on her face.

“I don’t know,” Austin said. “But I think we better get out of here.”

“Yeah, let’s go,” Dan agreed.

They turned to go back in the car, none of them looking over their shoulders to the spot where Rhonda’s body had been only a half hour before.

Once they all slammed their car doors shut, Anna asked, “What happens to a vampire body when someone puts a stake through their heat?” She knew that she should have known the answer from her studies at Huntington, but her mind was drawing a complete blank; she’d like to attribute it to the blood loss, but she wasn’t so sure.

“Nothing happens to it,” Austin replied. “A vampire body turns to ash if it’s burned in a fire, but when their heart is pierced, it’s just like when a human dies.” He paused. “There’s no way that body moved on its own, and it definitely didn’t evaporate into thin air.”

“Then, what happened to it?” Lexi asked from the backseat, asking the same question Anna was wondering herself.

“Someone must have moved it,” Austin replied, keeping his eyes on the road ahead of him.

Lexi sighed. “Yes, but who? We all stayed together. No one else knows what happened. Do you think someone was watching?”

“I don’t know,” Austin replied, “but I’m not so sure I want to stick around to find out. It’s time for us to go back to Huntington. As soon as we get back to the motel, we’re packing our shit and getting the hell out of here.”

Anna shuddered, thinking about the fact that someone could have been watching them in the woods. They might have seen Gabe almost kill her, and there was a good chance they may have seen Lexi kill Rhonda. Whoever it was might not have even known that vampires existed; it may
have been a human, who was now going to report them to the authorities and make some sort of witch-hunt out of this.

As Austin pulled the Escalade into the motel parking lot, Anna nearly bolted from the car. She was ready to leave this place and, hopefully, never come back.

Chapter 28

Almost as soon as Lexi and Dan got back to their motel room, Lexi’s cell phone rang. Lexi glanced down at the caller ID. It was her father.

“Dad?” Lexi asked into the phone.

“Lexi, Huntington’s on fire,” her dad’s voice sounded on the other end of the line.

“What do you mean Huntington’s on fire?” Lexi nearly screamed into the phone.

“I mean, someones trying to burn down the school,” her father replied. “And they’re pretty sure they know who did it.”

“Who?” Lexi’s heart pounded against her chest. Huntington was the only real home she’d found since her mom had died, and it made her angry to think that someone could want to destroy it. It felt like someone was always out to destroy everything that made her happy, and she didn’t want to just sit back and let it happen again.

Her father hesitated for a moment before saying, “Greg Lawrence.”

The anger rose to Lexi’s cheeks. “I should have known.” She glanced over at Dan, who was staring at her, waiting for an explanation about who had set fire to Huntington. She mouthed ‘Greg’ and watched as Dan shook his head in disgust.

Turning her attention back to her father, Lexi asked, “What can we do? Should we come back to Huntington and get ready to fight?”

“No, that’s exactly what I don’t want you to do. We’re not sure if they’re going to continue to try
to attack us, but if they do, we don’t want you to be here, front and center, in the middle of it all. Not when we know you’re their main target.”

“But we might be able to help—” Lexi started to protest, but her dad interrupted her right away.

“No, absolutely not. We have the situation under control here, Lexi. I don’t want you to come here under any circumstances. Do you understand that?”

“But where are we supposed to go? Huntington is our home.”

“I don’t know. Go wherever you need to go to stay safe. I just don’t want you to set foot anywhere near Briar Creek or Huntington. Are we clear?”

“I guess,” Lexi mumbled, even though she wasn’t sure that she actually agreed with what he wanted her to do. It wasn’t right for Greg to light the whole school on fire when she was the only one who he wanted to hurt. In a way, she almost wanted to show herself, to tell him that if he was going to try to hurt anyone, it should be her and not the innocent students at Huntington.

There was a muffled sound on the other end of the line. Her dad said something to someone in the background before saying into the phone, “Lexi? I need to go now. They need me to help make sure all of the students have been properly evacuated.” He paused. “Promise me you won’t come anywhere near Huntington.”

“I promise,” Lexi replied with a sigh. “Dad?”

“Yeah?” her father asked.

“Stay safe, okay?” Lexi could feel the tears build up behind her eyes as she began to worry about her father. It was the first time she had ever really worried about him; they hadn’t been close in so long. She also couldn’t help but worry that Greg Lawrence would try to use her father as a target because of his relationship to Lexi.

“I
will, Kiddo,” her father replied into the phone. “I’ll talk to you soon. Bye.”

Lexi hit the ‘end’ button on her cell phone and stuffed it inside of the pocket of her jeans. She turned to Dan. “Well, I don’t know where we’re going to go, but we can’t go back to Huntington.”

Dan hesitated. “What about your dad’s house?”

Lexi shook her head firmly. “No, I don’t want to risk it. I know we could stay there if we really wanted to, but I don’t want to put Erica and Connor at risk.” Erica and Connor were her father’s other children, her half-siblings, and even though she was only just starting to get to know them, Lexi already felt attached to them. She wasn’t about to put them in the middle of this, not when there was the risk of them getting killed.

“Why would your brother and sister be at risk?” Dan asked, raising his brows at her.

“If Greg Lawrence is crazy enough to put all of the people and vampires at Huntington at risk, he would hurt my half-siblings if he could find them.” Lexi sighed. “I just don’t want to risk it.”

“Well, we can’t stay here,” Dan said, glancing around the dreary hotel room. “It’s not safe anymore.”

Lexi tried to think of somewhere else they could go, but her mind drew a complete blank.

“Well, I guess this only means one thing,” Dan went on. He rose to his feet and picked up his overnight bag. “We’re going to stay at my family’s house.”

“We are?” Lexi gulped. Even though she wanted to be okay with the idea of staying at the Nichols’ house, his mom made her feel really uneasy. Mrs. Nichols didn’t seem to like her because she couldn’t figure out what Lexi was doing with her vampire son.

If only his mom knew that she wasn’t as normal as she seemed—that she, too, was an immortal now. Lexi wondered if his mom would be more accepting of her if she knew the truth . . . or if, more likely, his mom would begin to see her as some sort of monster, the same way she saw her son.

Glancing over at Dan, Lexi asked, “Shouldn’t you ask your mom to make sure it’s okay first? I don’t want her to think we’re intruding.” She wasn’t about to tell Dan that she really just didn’t want to see his mom again anytime soon and, deep down, she was sort of hoping that Mrs. Nichols would say that they weren’t allowed to stay there.

Dan stared back at her knowingly. “It’s okay . . . I get it. You’re not a fan of my family.”

“No, that’s not exactly true. Your sister and your father both seemed nice enough. It’s just your mom who I’m not a fan of,” Lexi admitted quietly.

“I understand. The way my mom acted even surprised me,” Dan murmured, his eyes clouded over at the memory of their visit to his parents’ house. He met Lexi’s gaze. “My parents aren’t home right now, though. I was chatting with Caroline on Facebook a few days ago, and she said our parents are in Europe for the next few months. We’ll have the house all to ourselves.” He paused. “Well, except for Caroline, that is.”

“Oh, Caroline’s going to be home?”

Dan nodded his head. “Yeah, she doesn’t start Julliard for another week. They still have off for winter break until then.”

“Oh.” Lexi could feel her face fall a little. Even though Dan’s sister seemed nice enough, it still made her feel awkward to think that she would be at the house while they were staying there. She had only met Caroline once; spending an indefinite amount of time under the same roof didn’t seem fun.

Plus, Lexi had sort of been hoping for some time alone with Dan. Then again, she realized, even if Caroline wasn’t home, that wasn’t going to happen. They couldn’t just leave Austin and Anna at the motel . . .

“I guess we’ll be bringing Anna and Austin with us, too,” Dan said, as though he were reading her thoughts.

Lexi nodded. “Yeah, we better go to their room and let them know we can’t go back to Huntington.” She rose to her feet and led Dan out the motel room door.

They began to walk towards the room that Austin and Anna were staying in when Lexi saw him out of the corner of her eye; Gabe, sitting on the sidewalk outside his own room, cradling his face in his hands. He didn’t seem to notice they were there . . . or if he did, he didn’t say anything to them.

Once Lexi and Dan were a little closer, she heard it—the soft sound of Gabe’s sobs, which sounded like they were caught in the back of his throat.

Dan glanced over his shoulder and then met Lexi’s eyes. She knew that he had heard Gabe crying, too. What she couldn’t tell, though, was if Dan felt sorry for Gabe or not.

Tugging on his sleeve, Lexi pulled him down a sidewalk between the two buildings that led to the ice dispenser. A mouse scurried in the corner, flitting away from them.

Lexi turned to Dan. “We can’t just let him go back to Huntington. Not when the school is under attack like my dad said.”

Dan’s sky blue eyes sparkled even in the dim lighting, as they penetrated her own. “What exactly are you suggesting?”

“That he comes back to your house with us,” Lexi replied quietly, darting her eyes away from him. She didn’t want him to think that she was still interested in Gabe because the truth was, all of the feelings that she’d once had for him had completely diminished once she had become an immortal.

She only had eyes for Dan now. It was like she had no choice but to love him; he was the only one her heart truly wanted.

At the same time, she couldn’t just allow Gabe to go back to Huntington during the midst of Greg Lawrence’s attack. Gabe would probably be one of Greg’s first targets because Greg knew that Gabe had once been involved in Lexi. Greg probably still thought they were together, so he’d probably figure that Gabe could help lead him to Lexi.

Gabe’s current mental state was also another reason why Lexi didn’t want him to go back to Huntington right now, either. Even though Lexi wasn’t sure exactly why Gabe was crying, she guessed it probably had something to do with Rhonda. He was probably in pain because of the bond that formed between two vampires who were so connected to one another.

Gabe was crying because, no matter how good or bad Rhonda was, he was affected by her death. And while Lexi might never be able to forgive Gabe for what he had done to Justin, she felt sorry for him right now.

“You really want Gabe to come back home with us?” Dan asked, tapping his foot against the sidewalk nervously.

Lexi nodded. “Yeah, I do. Just until everything gets sorted out at Huntington.”

Continuing to tap his foot on the ground as he considered the option, Dan sighed relentlessly. “I guess we can ask him to come along.” He met Lexi’s gaze. “You’re lucky I love you because I’d never agree to this otherwise.”

“You’re right. I am lucky.” She smiled. “I love you, too. And thank you. I know it’s not the most ideal situation, but . . . I don’t want to think about what might happen to him if he goes back there. Even though we’re not together, I still don’t want anything back to happen to him. I couldn’t live with myself if something did.”

Dan nodded. “I can understand that. It’s sort of like how I felt about you when you were with Gabe.” A shadow crossed over his face, and Lexi knew that he was remembering how things had been between them—before they had traveled back to the past together, and Lexi had fallen head over heels for him. Before then, Dan had been interested in her, but she’d always thought he had been out to get her, which seemed really silly now that she knew he’d been watching out for her the whole time.

“Well, come on,” Dan said, interrupting her thoughts. “We better go tell Gabe before he leaves or something.”

Dan rounded the corner and approached Gabe, who was still sitting in the same place on the sidewalk. He was no longer sobbing, but now he was staring off into space.

“Hey, Gabe . . . I was wondering, do you want to come back to my house to hang out for a couple of days? We’ve been told to stay away from Huntington for now because they’re under attack,” Dan explained. Even though Lexi knew that he didn’t really want Gabe to come home to stay at his house for a while, that the whole reason he was agreeing to it was because it was what she wanted, he sounded really convincing.

“I-I don’t know,” Gabe mumbled, not bothering to look up at him. “I might just stay here. I don’t want to intrude.”

“You won’t be intruding,” Lexi insisted. “Dan’s family has a really big house, and his parents are gone right now, so there’s plenty of room for you to stay there if you have nowhere else to go.”

Gabe met her eyes, his cool blue irises seeming to study hers to see if she was serious about this. “Are you sure this is okay? You’re not still mad at me over the . . . the Justin thing?” His voice was merely a whisper, and it sounded like he was nervous to even mention Justin’s name.

“It’s fine,” Lexi replied, even though it wasn’t. “I don’t want us to talk about Justin, though. I’m not going to lie . . . it still hurts me to know what you did to him. I don’t want to think about that right now, though. I want to try to put it past us.” She decided to leave out the fact that she knew, deep down inside, she would never
really
be able to forgive Gabe for what he had done to Justin, that the very most she would ever be able to do was try to forget what had happened enough to be civil with him. A part of her that she was trying to keep hidden right now hated him for what he had done.

“Okay.” Gabe kept his eyes locked on hers. “Okay. I can do that. I won’t mention him. Thank you . . . for putting this past us.”

Lexi nodded, glancing down at the ground.

“Have you heard from your mom at all?” Dan questioned him.

Gabe shook his head. “No, I’ve tried calling her over and over again, but she hasn’t been answering me. I know she’s okay, though. I had a vision, and she was smiling in it.” A look that Lexi couldn’t quite identify filled his eyes, but it quickly passed.

“So, you think she’s avoiding you, then?” Dan asked.

Gabe shrugged. “I-I guess so. Nothing else makes any sense.”

“Why would your mom avoid you?” Lexi questioned. She didn’t know much about Gabe’s mom, aside from the fact that his mom didn’t approve of the relationship he’d had with Lexi because he was a vampire and she was a human. From what she understood, though, Mrs. Marshall really seemed to care about her son. So, it was really surprising for Lexi to hear that Gabe’s mom might be avoiding him for some reason.