Cold as Ice (19 page)

Violet took a few steps forward, and Lexi heard a loud snap. She quickly realized that the sound she had heard was Noah phasing into his werewolf form. It was unlike anything she had ever seen before; he was large, hairy and beast-like, reminding her more of Bigfoot than he reminded her of a werewolf and, standing on his hind legs, he growled at Violet, snarling his teeth.

This was enough to make Violet quickly back down; she sunk back into the crowd before quietly asking, “May I speak to my son, please? He’s over there. I just want to talk to him. I won’t hurt him.” She laid down something that Lexi assumed was a fire torch.

Noah glanced over at Austin, questioning him through his red werewolf eyes. Austin nodded, “Yeah, I’ll speak to her.”

Lexi watched as Austin strolled over to his mother and, keeping a safe distance between the two of them, said, “Yes, Mom, I’m alive. Now you know. My secret is out in the open.”

“Oh, Austin! How could you do this to us? How could you trick us into believing you were dead?”

Austin scoffed. “How could I do this to
you
? Are you really asking that, Mom? Because I have to wonder how co
uld you try to have me killed.”

“It was the only way your father could get better, Austin,” Violet replied, shaking her head. Her hair was no longer red; it was a shade of dark brown now, but strands of gray were beginning to poke through. Lexi couldn’t help but notice that she looked a lot older and more fragile than she had the last time she’d seen her; it seemed like her aunt was finally beginning to show the signs of her sickness.

“What about me? I guess I was just disposable to you,” Austin replied, shaking his head. “Well, I don’t care about you anymore. You’re no longer my parents . . . just the sperm and egg donors.”

Violet looked hurt. “We are your parents! Take that back.”

“No,
Violet
,” Austin said, antagonizing her.

“Fine, if you’re going to be difficult about this, I’m not going to be nice either.” Violet took a step forward and, raised the stake that she pulled
out of her pocket in the air.

Chapter 30

Lexi stared in horror as her aunt nearly plunged a stake through her cousin’s heart. She stood there, completely frozen in place. Dan dashed forward just in time, ripping the stake out of Violet’s grip and hurling her away from them.

He held the stake firmly at his waist, his demeanor calm and collected. “Violet, let’s all just get along. Why don’t we talk about things? There’s no need for us to be violent here.”

“Bec
a
use,” she spat at him, “we are past the point of talking! You, especially, should know that, you traitor! It’s time for us to take action. We could solve the problem easily, if only we could just drink from her.” She motioned to Lexi, who wished at that moment that she could be invisible because all of the heads of the vampires who stood behind Violet turned to look at her. She could just see the hunger in them, as they stared at her like she was nothing more than a piece of fresh meat.

Angry people from the crowd of vampires began chanting, “Kill him! Kill him!”

“Set Austin on fire!” one of the guys from the crowd chanted.

Violet reached in her pocket and pulled something out. Lexi watched as she lit a match and tossed in the air, nearly hitting Austin. Instead, as Austin ducked out of the way, the tiny match landed on one of the vampires in the crowd. He howled in pain, ripping his shirt off and flinging the shirt to the ground. The match went with it, and Lexi watched as the flames grew.

“Mommy, I’m sorry,” Austin said quietly, taking a step closer to her and away from the fire that was forming on the ground. “I’m sorry for what I’ve done. I just got overly emotional just now. I’ve just missed you so much. Will you forgive me?”

What?
What was Austin saying? How could he just forgive his mom for everything that she’d put him through? Lexi gritted her teeth, feeling the anger build up inside of her, as she realized that her cousin might a
ctually be a traitor after all.

Violet’s face softened. “Aww, Austin. I couldn’t stay mad at you for long. You’re such a wonderful son, ev
en though you have done this.”

“Give me a hug,” Austin told his mom and, as he stepped forward, Lexi realized what he was about to do. Surprisingly, he had learned from something that she had tried out in Stakeology class once. She only hoped that it would work in a real life altercation.

When Violet wrapped her arms around him in a warm embrace, Austin shoved the stake that he held
in his hand through her heart.

A look of shock registered on her face, but it was quickly replaced by anger and then pain.

Turning to Tommy, Violet managed to utter, “Kill Lexi,” before falling to the ground. Her body convulsed in a fit of spasms before she slumped against the ground. Smoke surrounded her, coming straight from the hole in her heart.

Lexi cupped her mouth with her hands. She couldn’t believe everything that was happening right in front of her eyes. Her aunt was dead. Gone. Austin had killed his own mother.

And the crowd of vampires began to roar in anger. They all lunged at Austin, stakes in hand, and Lexi knew that it was time
for her to defend her cousin.

Glancing down at her bat pendant to make sure that she still had it on because it made her feel more protected, Lexi noticed that the gold had turned a shade of blue. Deciding that she didn’t have time to figure out what it meant right now, she focused all of her attention on the fight that was taking place right in front of her eyes.

She rushed over to the area where they were all fighting and shoved a stake through one woman’s heart. The woman glanced over her shoulder, her glassy eyes filled with pain, as she fell to the ground as though she had been electrified. Lexi ripped the stake out of the woman’s heart, knowing that she was going to have to use it again. Her hand brushed against the smoke that billowed out of her heart, and she took a step back, just as Greg Lawrence moved towards her.

“It’s time for you to pay for everything that you’ve done to all of us, but first I need to know where my daughter is,” Greg barked at her. “I know you know where she is. Di
d you kill her? Where is she?”

Lexi shrugged. “Beats me. She’s stuck in the 1800s. Back then, there were a lot of crazy vampires. Oh, wait, there still are,” she said pointedly, firmly gripping the stake in her hand because she knew that she was going to have to use it. The idea that she would be able to kill Greg Lawrence made her feel strong and powerful; she wanted to kill him. She had to. It was the only way she would ever be able to avenge her own mother’s death.

Greg narrowed his eyes at her. “I don’t believe you. I don’t believe that’s what happened to Mary-Kate.”

“Believe whatever the hell you want, but that
is
what happened to Mary-Kate,” Lexi replied, gritting her teeth. With Greg Lawrence’s face only inches away from her own, she could smell his breath; the iron-like scent of blood drifted into her nostrils, and she wanted to gag.

“I’m gonna kill you,” Greg told her. “But not until we’ve all had our share of blood. I promise you it won’t be painless. I’m going to make you wish you had never been born.”

Greg inched closer to her, just as she took a step back. Grabbing her wrist, he threw her to the ground.

Lexi kicked him where she knew it would hurt, and he screamed out in pain.

“Guess you’re not such a big, bad vampire, after all,” she sneered.

“Lexi! Help!” someone yelled, and she whirled around. Leaving Greg Lawrence lying
crumpled
on the black pavement, she ran towards Anna, who was surrounded by three vampires, all
who were much taller than her.

Anna’s face was filled with worry. Lexi wanted to yell at her for being outside, but then she remembered that Noah had told them that the school wanted them to stand outside, to hold their ground. Shouldn’t the school have wanted to keep their students safe? Sending a bunch of barely-trained human vampire hunters out when they were under attack by vampires didn’t seem like a smart idea. If they wouldn’t protect their stude
nts, she knew that she had to.

Lexi jabbed her stake in one of the vampire’s backs, sending the pointed edge straight through his heart. He let out a pained yelp before falling to the black pavement, just as Anna put a stake through another one of the vampire’s hearts.

The third vampire stared at Lexi. She wondered how she could catch him off-guard long enough to put her stake through his heart, when he picked her up. “I’ve got her! Over here!” he yelled to the crowd of vampires.

“If you put me down, I’ll let you drink my blood,” Lexi whispered into the guy’s ear.

Glancing into her eyes, he asked, “Really?”

“Yeah, of course,” Lexi cooed. “I love when cute vampires like yourself drink from me.”

The guy set her down, and once her feet were solidly on the ground, she sneered at him. “Just kidding! Why would I let you drink my blood?” She raised her arm in the air to launch the stake into his heart when he slumped down on the ground. Once he had fallen, Lexi realized that Dan had been on the other side of him the whole time, and he was the one who had killed him.

“Five down for me, and nineteen more to go,” Dan said.

“Nineteen? Is that how many of them there are?” Lexi asked, confused.

“It’s the remaining ones I’ve counted. Come on, I think it’s time to
put an end to Mayor Lawrence.”

Lexi followed him as he led her back to the area of pavement where she had left Greg; he was lying there still, as though he wasn’t conscious. “He must have hit his head,” she said, kneeling down to get a better look at him.

As soon as she was inches away from Greg’s body, his hand moved quickly and grabbed her by the wrist. She tried to pull away from him, but her human strength was nothing in comparison to his hold on her.

Greg pulled her into his grip, wrapping his arms around hers to prevent her from going anywhere and stood up. “I’ve got you now, Lexi. Do you have any last dying wishes?”

“Yes. For you to go to Hell,” she said curtly.

“Sorry, no can do, kiddo. I’m never going to die. Your life, on the other hand, is coming to a drastic end soon.” Greg cupped his hand over her mouth, making it difficult for her to breathe. “Say goodbye to your little boyfriend because you’ll never seen him again.”

As it got more and more difficult for her to breathe under his grip, Lexi bit down hard on his hand. Greg yelped in pain.

And that’s when she saw it out of the corner of her eye: a tiny spark moving closer to them.

“Ouch!” Greg screamed out in pain, dropping Lexi onto the ground and moving backwards. Rubbing her shoulder, which she had scraped against the black pavement, she glanced over at him. Someone had lit his hair on fire. Greg rolled around on the ground and when that didn’t help to extinguish the fire on his head, he ran down the street, away from
Huntington.

Most of the vampires followed him, all racing down the street after him. The sound of him screaming and cursing could still be heard after he had made his way down the street.

Turning to Dan, Lexi grinned and jumped up and down excitedly. “We got rid of them!”

“For now,” Dan replied, hesitantly. “I have a feeling that they will be back, especially now that they know where you are. We should probably leave.”

“Leave Huntington?” Lexi asked quietly. She hadn’t thought about how she would feel once it was time for her to leave this school behind. The truth was, she didn’t think she had learned that much while she was here yet. She felt like she still had so much more to learn before she would be ready to face Greg Lawrence—if he lived—or any of the vampires from Briar Creek again.

But this place was also filled with treasures; she would only learn more about her own existence and her family if they stayed here.

Dan nodded. “I think it’s important for us to hide from them so that we can keep you safe.”

“I don’t think I want to hide anymore,” Lexi replied, shaking her head. “I’m tired of hiding. No matter where I go, they’ll always find me. So, I should just stay somewhere that will make me happy. And this place makes me happy. Living here with you and Garth is the closest thing I’ve had to a real home in so long. I don’t want to leave it.”

Dan grinned at her. “It feels like home to me, too. Even
with
Garth.” He laughed and, locking his fingers between hers, he said, “We’ll stay here for as long as you want, Lexi. And when you’r
e ready to leave, we’ll leave.”

“Thank you,” she whispered, standing on her tiptoes to give him a tiny peck on the lips.

Someone tapped the back of her shoulder. Lexi whirled around, fully expecting it to be either Anna or Austin. Instead, Uncle Tommy stared back at her, an unreadable expression on his face.