Cold as Ice (13 page)

Lexi found a few toys, which resembled mice, and began dragging them across the floor. A few of the cats scurried over to her, waving their tails in the air and di
gging their claws into the toy.

One of the cats—a small tabby—rubbed up against her leg. It l
ooked into her eyes and meowed.

“Hi, kitty,” Lexi whispered, running her hands through the cat’s soft fur. The cat rubbed up against her even more before jumping into her lap and re
sting his head on her stomach.

Mary strolled over to her, wide eyed. “That’s Garth. He’s two years old. I’m surprised you’ve been able to get so close to
him. He doesn’t like anyone.”

As if on cue, Ga
rth turned and hissed at Mary.

“See what I mean? He’s been here since he was a kitten, and we haven’t been able t
o
find anyone willing to take him because he’s not the most likeable cat we have h
ere,” Mary said with a chuckle.

Garth turned back to Lexi and, purring, ru
bbed his head against her arm.

“I’ll take him,” Lexi said, picking up the cat and holding him close
to her chest as she stood up.

“What? Are you sure? I thought you said you weren’t going to adopt a cat today,”
Mary said, baffled by the news.

“I’m positive,” Lexi nodded. “I wasn’t planning to adopt a cat, but I didn’t think I would find one that I felt really attached to.” She wasn’t about to tell Mary that it also had to do with her wanting to do a selfless act because the woman might not agree to let her adopt. It wasn’t the only reason, though. She felt smitten by the cat, who only purred in her arms, brushing his tail agai
nst her cheek, as she held him.

“And you’re sure this isn’t just a holiday fling?” Mary asked. When Lexi stared back at her blankly, she explained, “I don’t usually like to adopt my cats out right before a holiday. Too many people adopt them as pets and then they or their children lose interest once the holiday’s over. So, you have to promise me that you won’t bring Garth back after Christmas or New Year’s has passed.”

Lexi
smiled. “I won’t. I promise.”

“Judging from the looks of it, you are going to be pretty inseparable,” Mary murmured, watching Garth, who lay comfortably in Lexi’
s arms as she stroked his fur.

“How much is the cat going to cost?” Dan asked, as he strolled over to them, putting the cat food bag back w
here he had retrieved it from.

“Not a dime,” Mary answered, waving her hand in the air. “With all the help you’ve given me today, I’m not going to charge you our adoption fee. Besides, I’m afraid no one else would adopt Garth any time soon otherwise. It’s a bit of a relief to get rid of him, really.
All he does is cost me money.”

Dan laughed and walked over to the cat. Reaching out his hand to pet Garth, he quickly jumped back as the cat swatted his paw at him, hissing. “I see what you mean,” Dan said, turning to Mary. “I have a feeling this is
going to be a fun ride home.”

“Where
is home, exactly?” Mary asked.

Dan’s eyes flitted over at Lexi, and she was pretty sure that he didn’t know what to say. It was difficult to not say too much. The right answer would have involved vampire hunting school, but no normal human in their right mi
nd would ever understand that.

“We go to a private school,” Lexi replie
d. “It’s next to Briar Creek.”

“I see.” Mary nodded knowingly. “One of my daughters lived in
Briar Creek many years ago.”

“Did she like it?” Lexi asked.

“Oh, sure,” Mary replied. “She loved it. So much that I couldn’t convince her to leave when she should have.
She died about six years ago.”

“I’m so sorry to hear that,” Lexi said softly. She wondered if Mary’s daughter hadn’t been aware that Briar Creek was filled with vampires and had been killed by
one. The thought made her sad.

Mary’s dark eyes clouded over with a look that Lexi couldn’t identify. “Anyway, I’m not trying to kick you out or cut this short, but I need to close up here so that I can get to my sister’s house in time for Christmas Eve dinner. If you had showed up much later, I wouldn’t
have been able to let you in.”

“Oh, of course. I understand,” Lexi replied, shifting on her feet. Garth looked up at her; his green
eyes had a happy look in them.

“Will you be back?” Mary asked, as all three of
them headed towards the door.

“We have a really busy school schedule, but we’ll try to get back here sometime soon,” Lexi replied. She had only been planning to volunteer once, but she actually liked being at the cat shelter. It was kind and cozy, and Mary seemed nice enough. It made Lexi feel good to help out--and if was nice for the two of them to get away from Huntington, even if they wer
e just going to a cat shelter.

Once they said goodbye and climbed back into Anna’s car, Dan turned to Lexi. “Do you think that was weird? That her d
aughter lived in Briar Creek?”

Lexi shrugged. “People live in Briar Creek.” She gulped. Was that really true? If there were that many people, there wouldn’t be such a high number of vampires who were suffering from Wilkins’ Syndrome. “I don’t know how many people live there, but some people do, I’m sure. I mean, I lived there w
ithout knowing about vampires.”

Dan shrugged. “Maybe you’re right, I guess. I just have a feeling there’s more to the story than Mary let on. Maybe when we come back, she’ll op
en up about it a little more.”

“So, you want to come
back?” Lexi asked him, smiling.

Dan grinned at her. “I want to do whatever you want to do. I don’t want us to get separated ever again like the way we were recently.” Turning his attention to the road, he pulled out of the parking lot
and drove them back to school.

Lexi smiled, but she couldn’t help but find herself worrying abou
t Mary and her daughter again.

Chapter 21

“Feel my pulse,” Lexi instructed Dan when he stirred next to her the next morning. She’d wanted to check it all morning, but part of her felt nervous. Even though she was sure that her pulse was gone since she’d done a selfless act, she would still feel better to hear it coming from someone else for some reason. So, instead of checking, she’d laid in bed next to him, waiting for him to open his eyes all morning. Vampires didn’t sleep, but they did relax peacefully, and she didn’
t want to ruin his relaxation.

Ruffling a hand through his morning hair, Dan rolled over and glance
d at her. “Okay, let’s check.”

Lexi had already explained to him the night before what she had read about the signs of i
mmortality.

As he gripped her wrist between his fingers, Lexi could feel herself getting nervous. It felt like her heart was beating, but would it still feel like she had a heart that was beating if she was an
immortal—if she had no pulse?

When Dan met her gaze, she knew the answer right away. His sky blue eyes were filled with disappointment as he
whispered, “I’m sorry, Lexi.”

Her eyes filled up with tears and, for the first time since she had gotten back from the 1800s, she realized how much she really wanted this. Why else would she be so upset that the potion hadn’t worked? She felt a genuine sense of disappointment, and the truth was, she really had
n’t expected to feel this way.

“Why didn’t it work?” she whispered, turning away from Dan so that he wouldn’t see the tears in her eyes. “I did a selfless
act, just like she told me to.”

“I don’t know,” Dan replied, shaking his head. He rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “Maybe it wa
sn’t selfless enough, though.”

“What do you mean?” Lexi asked, resting her head on her elbows. “I volunteered. That’s a sel
fless act.”

“It might seem selfless to mortals, but is it all that selfless when it comes down to it?” Dan asked. “I mean, you love cats. That’s why you chose to volunteer there. And you did adopt one, but . . . it wasn’t something that was really out of the ordinary for you, ya know? You did it because you love them already. Now, if you hate dogs, maybe we shou
ld volunteer at a dog shelter.”

Lexi laughed. “I don’t hate dogs.” She thought about what he was saying. It made a whole lot of sense. Maybe she needed to come up with something that she didn’t really want to do and do that in
stead. But what would that be?

Sighing, she got up and grabbed her clothes. “I’m goi
ng to change in the bathroom.”

Dan smirked.

“What?” she asked, afraid that she had a piece of hair sticking up or something else tha
t would make him laugh at her.

“It’s just that I’ve already seen you nearly naked already,” Dan said. “And you feel like you have to go in the bat
hroom to change your clothes.”

“Well, I have to change my underwear, too. And you haven’t seen me without those yet,” Lexi pointed out. “So, for now, bathroom it is.”

Once she had changed into a pair of dark wash skinny jeans, a red sweater, and a pair of green sparkly ballet flats (it was Christmas, after all), she went back into the dorm room. Dan was
standing up, talki
ng to someone outside the door.

Lexi realized who the familiar voice bel
onged to right away. Benjamin.

“What are you doing here?” sh
e asked, hurrying to the door.

“You look nice, Lexi,” her father said. “I just wanted to com
e wish you a Merry Christmas.”

“Merry Christmas to you, too,” she replied politely. The realization hit her that it was the first time she’d seen her father on Christmas in over a decade—and was reminded that it was the first Christmas without her mother, too. Glancing down at the ground, she tried to push the th
ought to the back of her mind.

“Do you
have plans today?” Ben asked.

“No, I don’t,” Lexi began to
say, but Dan interrupted her.

“We have plans a little bit later, Sir.”

Lexi raised her eyebrows at Dan. It was the first time she had ever heard him say the word ‘sir’, but she couldn’t help but feel kind of happy about it. At least Dan wasn’t being a complete jerk to her dad. She wondered how Gabe had acted to Ben was he w
as around him.

“Well, that’s perfect. If you’re not busy right now, I’d like for you to go somewhere with me,” Ben said. He turned to Dan. “Bot
h of you are welcome to come.”

Lexi hesitated. She hadn’t really thought about what she would do on Christmas Day. The truth was, she hadn’t expected Dan to come back, so she had figured that she would spend most of the day moping around in her room or watching cheesy Christmas movies on Lifetime. She wasn’t in the mood to watch her old favorites, since they all reminded her of her mom.
But even Austin and Anna had left early this morning to go visit Anna’s father for Christmas. She wasn’t sure what Gabe was up to, but her guess was that it ha
d something to do with Rhonda.

Deciding that she and Dan would probably go stir crazy if they continued to spend as much time
in her dorm room as they had spent over the past few days, she agreed to
go. “Sure, we’ll go with you.”

“Perfect,” Ben said. “Meet me outside in th
e parking lot in ten minutes.”

*

Ten minutes later, Lexi stood outside, making circles in the cold air with her breath. Dan stood next to her as they patiently waited for Ben. Even though her father had lent Austin his sedan once, she wasn’t even
sure what he was driving now.

When he pulled the white SUV up to the sidewalk, Lexi climbed into the front seat next to him, and
Dan climbed into the backseat.

The car ride was long and mostly awkward. Ben and Dan made small talk about sports—something that Lexi had no interest in, and up until now, hadn’t known that her father was interested in. She asked her father several times where they were going, but each time, he had told her that he didn’t want to ruin the surprise,
so she finally stopped asking.

When he pulled into the driveway of a two-story house with a brick front that had a chimney that smoke was escaping from, she really wondered where they were. “Is this your hous
e?” she asked, turning to Ben.

He grinned. “No, you’ve been to my homes already. I live at the summer cottage in Pennsylvania or at my Long Island Bed and Breakfast, unless I’m traveling—which I do qu
ite often. Come on, you’ll see.”

Once they were standing on the front stoop, Ben reached for the doorknob and turned it open. Lexi raised her eyebrows, wondering why he was walking into a house if he didn’t actually live there himself. She only hoped that they weren’t going to get in trouble for brea
king and entering or something.

“Erica? Connor?” Ben called once they were in the house, and Lexi’s
stomach dropped to her knees.

No wonder he had made this out to be such a big deal and didn’t want to spoil the secret! Ben wanted her to spend the h
oliday with her half-siblings.

Part of her wanted to be angry at him, but Lexi knew that she didn’t really have a reason to be. After all,
she
had agreed to get to know them better. In fact, part of her even
wanted
to get to know them better. Mostly, she just wished that Ben had given her a little bit of a warning so that she could have made herself look better. She would have put on more makeup or would have made sure her hair was straighter—or curlier, for that matter. If she was going to get to know her half-siblings, she wanted them to get a good first (or technically third, since they had met twice already) impression of herself.

“Lexi!” Erica cried when she saw her, and she wrapped her arms around her legs. “You’re here!”

“I am,” Lexi replied, laughing. Kneeling down to get a good look at her sister—whose hair was a little bit lighter than it had been the last time she had seen her—she smiled. The resemblance was obvious now that she knew they were related; the girl’s fair skin and green eyes matched her own. She also had really curly hair, just like Lexi had when she was a child . . . and she still had it now if she didn’t spend hours abusing it with the hair straightener.

Connor bounded into the room, and Lexi noted that he, too, shared many of the same features she and Erica had gotten from their father. His hair was a disheveled mess, but it was the same shade as theirs.

“Hi, Lexi,” Connor said sheepishly. “Dad told us last night that you were coming.”

“Did he?” Lexi asked, glaring at her dad. “What would you have done if I couldn’t have made it today?”

“I knew you’d be able to,” Ben replied with a wink. “We Hunters always make time for family, don’t we?”

Lexi wanted to mutter that it hadn’t always been that way, but she knew she was only going to create a scene—on Christmas Day, no less—if she did. And she really didn’t want to ruin Christmas for Connor and Erica. They, at least, deserved to have a joyful holiday, even if hers hadn’t always felt so joyful over the years.

“So, what did you guys get for Christmas?” Lexi asked, trying to make conversation with her siblings.

“I got a bunch of stuff, but my favorite is the Disney princess set,” Erica said, holding up a red-haired doll with a green tail that Lexi quickly recognized as Ariel from
The Little Mermaid
. “Maybe we can play dolls later.”

“Sure,” Lexi agreed with a smile. “Can I be Belle? She was always my favorite.”

Erica beamed. “Sure! I love Beauty and the Beast. Belle’s my second favorite next to Ariel.”

“And what did you get, Connor?” Lexi asked, trying to include her brother in the conversation.

“Some G.I. Joe’s. Glow in the dark stars for my bedroom. And a telescope. I’m really in
to star viewing,” he explained.

“That sounds really cool. Maybe you can show me the Little Dipper sometime,” Lexi said, naming the first constellation that came to mind. She never actually paid that much attention to the stars (although she did think they were pretty), but she just wanted to make the effort to try to bond with her half-siblings.

“Okay, cool.” Connor grinned. Noticing Dan for the first time, he asked, “Who is that?”

“Yeah, who is he?” Erica asked, with a tone in her voice that made Lexi think she was about to put her hands on her hips defensively.

Lexi laughed. “This is my, um, boyfriend, Dan.”

Dan glanced over at her, and by the look on his face, she knew that he was surprised that she had called him her boyfriend, since they technically hadn’t made things official yet. She hoped he didn’t mind.

“Boyfriend, huh?” Connor asked, sizing Dan up. “You better not hurt my sister.”

Lexi nearly burst into laughter at her younger brother’s tough guy approach. It was one of the cutest things she had ever witnessed.

“Don’t worry, buddy,” Dan replied, shaking his head. “I don’t intend to hurt her.” He glanced over at Lexi, and she couldn’t help but think how honest his sky blue eyes looked. And it definitely didn’t seem like he cared that she had called him her boyfriend, either.

“Lexi? Can I talk to you in the kitchen?” Ben asked. From the tone of his voice, she knew that he wanted this to be a private conversation between the two of them.

“Sure. I’ll be right back, guys,” she told Erica and Connor. “Keep Dan company while I’m gone, okay?”

“We will,” Erica said, nodding her head. Turning to Dan, she asked, “Wanna play my Dora the Explorer game?”