Cold as Ice (7 page)

Chapter 11

When Lexi woke up the next morning, the first thing she did was glance around the room to see if Dan was back. He wasn’t.

Her eyes fell on the spell book. It was left open, which was strange because she was positive she’d closed it. Her eyes hovered over the emp
ty spot next to the spell book.

The jar of potion was gone.

“Anna,” Lexi called.

Her roommate, who had to have been the lightest sleeper ever, rolled over and cocked one eye open. “What?”

“My potion’s gone,” Lexi said. She was out of bed by now, searching around the room frantically. “I don’t see it anywhere!”

“What?” Anna asked, climbing out of bed and sliding her feet
into a pair of Ugg slippers. “What do you mean it’s ‘gone’?”

“I mean, it’s not in our room anymore,” Lexi replied, yanking drawers out of the dresser, searching in between clothes and underwear. As she suspected, the potion hadn’t been tossed carelessly into a dresser drawer by her roommate.

“I’m texting Austin,” Anna announced, tapping away on her phone, as Lexi tossed pillows and blankets to the floor and searched under the bed. There was nothing but empty space, the tiled floor was bare.
She let out a loud sigh as the door clicked open.

“The potion’s gone?” Austin asked, rushing towards her. “How could this happen, Lexi?”

Lexi shook her head, her eyes filling up with tears. “I-I don’t know.”

“When’s the last time you saw it?” Austin asked, beginning to search the room himself.

“I-I think it was yesterday,” Lexi said, trying to recall the last time she’d seen it on her nightstand. “I don’t know.”

Austin glared at her. “If this potion gets into the wrong hands, it could be really bad.
Who knows what the outcome would be.
You should have had it with you at all times!”

“You’re right, I should have. But I didn’t, okay?” Lexi cried. “It’s not like I tried to lose it! I just want us to find it now.”

Anna cleared her throat before speaking up. “I think I know who took it.”

“Who?” Austin and Lexi both asked at the same exact time.

“Rhonda,” Anna replied. “She came into our room last night to hang out, remember? I just have this feeling she took it.”

“That’s right.” Lexi hadn’t even considered that Rhonda could be responsible for this, but it made perfect sense. How coincidental was it that she had noticed the potion was gone the night after Rhonda had been in their dorm room?

“Well, what did you guys do? Was she anywhere near the desk?” Austin pressed.

Anna nodded. “Yes, she was standing next to the desk.”

“And you just let her take the potion?” Austin asked, his reddish eyebrows raised.

“Austin, I think she might have used mind control on me,” Anna told him. “The last thing I remember is agreeing to let her hang out with us, even though I didn’t really want her to. My memory goes kind of blank after that.”

“Mind control?” Lexi questioned.

“It’s one of the most powerful abilities a vampire can have,” Anna explained to her. “I’m pretty sure that Rhonda uses it. She controls peoples’ minds to make them do things she wants them to do. I bet that’s why I don’t remember anything—and why your potion disappeared, just like I don’t remember her even leaving our room last night.”

Lexi just gaped at her. “Why didn’t you tell me about this mind control stuff?”

Anna shrugged, and her lip quivered, as though she was about to cry. “I-I didn’t think she would be able to do it to us. The thing is . . . most vampires who use mind control use it on the vampire who changed them. They tend to do it in retaliation—it’s like their way of saying, ‘you changed me, so now I’m going to control you.’ It’s rare for a vampire to be able to use mind control on anyone they choose to.”

“Well, you know what we need to do now then, don’t you?” Austin asked.

Anna nodded. “Yeah, we might as well get this over with.” She opened the door to their dorm room and strolled out into the hallway. Lexi followed close behind her and Austin, feeling dazed. She couldn’t believe that this was really happening, that the potion was gone, and that of all people,
Rhonda
might have it.

Once they were at the door to Rhonda’s room, Anna knocked on it loudly.

The door was swung open, and Rhonda stared back at them, a smile on her glossy red lips. “May I help you?”

“Give us back the p
otion,” Austin demanded. “Now.”

“Potion? I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Rhonda said innocently, and Lexi gritted her teeth. It was obvious that Gabe’s offspring
did
know what they were talking about.

“Stop pretending, Rhonda. It isn’t cute. I want my potion back. Now,” Lexi demanded.

Rhonda only shrugged her shoulders this time. “You’re more tha
n welcome to search through my room
if you don’t believe me, but I don’t have your potion.”

“Okay, do you want to stay in here while we search
, or do you want to step outside
?” Anna asked, pushing the door open further so that she could step inside. “Because we’re not going to leave until we’re positive that you’re not hoarding it in here somewhere.”

“Be my guest,” Rhonda said, sitting down on her bed and smoothing out the silky lavender comforter. Crossing her
legs, she leaned back on her arms, staring
at them pointedly, daring them to search through her things.

Lexi began searching through the dresser drawers. She tried to ignore all of the sexy lingerie—mostly lacy bras and G-string underwear—that she found inside before moving to the bookcase. Neither of the two revealed anything.

When she glanced up, she noticed that Rhonda was glaring at her. “Are you done looking? I really need to get some beauty sleep, a
nd that’s difficult to do with a search
team in my room,” she said sarcastically.

Turning to Austin and Anna, Lexi asked, “Did either of you find anything?”

Anna shoved something back under the bed and shook her head reluctantly. “No, I don’t see it anywhere.”

“Me either,” Austin agreed, plucking an empty soda can off the floor and stuffing it back into the trashcan.

Lexi turned to Rhonda, who glared at her. “If I ever find out that you are the one with the potion, I’m going to make you regret it.”

Rhonda’s lips twisted into a smile. “Good luck with that, sweetie. One thing you should know about me is I don’t have regrets.”

*

Lexi lay in her bed, staring at the wall. She was past the point of sadness; the only thing she could feel at that moment was hopelessness. How could she get Dan back
. . .
and the potion? She felt like a failure.

An
na had suggested that she should ask Gabe if he could try to have a vision about it, but Lexi knew that was really hit or miss. It could take him weeks or longer to have a vision, and by that time, there was a risk that whoever had it would either drink it themselves or pour it down the drain, not realizing the powers that the jar contained. She needed to come up with a quicker solution, but her mind felt blank.

She kept replaying the situations over and over again in her head, without coming up with any solid ideas of how to get both Dan and the potion back, when she heard a sound.

Glancing at the window in front of her, Lexi nearly gasped.

Her ex-boyfriend Justin was hovering there, his body nearly translucent, his skin as white as porcelain.

“Justin?” Lexi whispered, unsure if what she was seeing was reality. Justin had been killed in a supposed car accident shortly after she’d arrived to Briar Creek—the same day he happened to be going back to New Jersey to ask his mom for permission for Lexi to live with them.

She knew that wasn’t what really happened, though. Someone—probably her uncle and Greg Lawrence—had murdered Justin.

“Hi, Lexi,” Justin said, his voice soft and calm.

“Are you a ghost?” Lexi asked, even though she knew that he had to be. That was the only way he could be standing in front of her at that moment. It wasn’t that surprising, either. Her mom was a ghost, after all.

Justin shrugged his shoulders. He was wearing the same hockey jersey he had always worn when they were dating. “I’m not sure if that’s what you can call me or not.”

Lexi raised her eyebrows at him. “What do you mean? Obviously you’re not alive.”

“I think I’m more like a spirit or something,” Justin replied. “Actually, I think I might be your guardian angel.”

“Those really exist?” Lexi asked. She wasn’t sure why she felt surprised; if vampires, werewolves, witches, and immortals existed, sur
ely guardian angels could, too.

Justin shrugged again. “No one’s actually told me that’s what I am, but I have been watching over you ever since the day I died.”

“Why me?” Lexi questioned. “Or do you get to watch over more than one person?”

“Well, I check in on my mom sometimes. I really miss her,” Justin admitted. “But I think I watch over you because you were my first love.”

Lexi glanced down at the palms of her hands. Before she’d moved to Briar Creek and had fallen in love with Gabe, it had been obvious to her that Justin still had feelings for her. Even though she’d agreed to move in with him and his mom just so that she could get away from her aunt and uncle, she’d never given him nearly enough consideration. Mostly, she’d just blown him off.

“Do you think you’ll have to be my guardian angel forever?” Lexi asked quietly. It made her feel guilty to think that he was stuck in his afterlife watching over her.

“I’m not sure,” Justin replied. “I think it’s just until you figure everything out.”

Lexi stared at him blankly. How much did he get to see while he was “watching over her”? Did he know everything that was happening in her life now? Did he watch her changing her clothes or showering this morning?

Justin shook his head and laughed at her. “No, I don’t watch you change your clothes or shower, Lexi. Sure, I’d like to, but I know I have to respect your privacy. But I do know everything that’s going on. I can hear your thoughts, which you might have realized just now.”

“I see,” Lexi replied, fe
eling at least sort of relieved, except now she knew that she needed to monitor her thoughts. It’s not like she felt like she needed to hide anything from Justin, but she didn’t want to embarrass herself by thinking of something that was too private—or by thinking of something that could potentially upset him. Even as a ghost, he still had feelings for her, and she needed to do whatever she could to respect them, because she cared about him, too.

“Anyway, I think I need to watch over you until you can get this Dan guy out of that book,” Justin replied. “That’s why I’m here. There’s something you need to know.”

Lexi raised her eyebrows at him. What could he possibly know about the book and Dan that she didn’t already know herself? “What is it?”

“The reason you can’t get in the book and Dan can’t get out is because Mary-Kate put a spell on it,” Justin explained. “She sealed the book shut so that no one else could get in—or out.”

Was he right?
What if she had been wandering around aimlessly trying to will Dan to come back when it was never possible because of Mary-Kate? It made complete and total sense, but . . . how did Mary-Kate put a spell on the book? She wasn’t a witch, too, was she?

Justin shook his head, sitting down on the bed. “She’s not a witch, but she figured out how to do a spell. Witches have the power to do any spell at ease, but a human can also do a spell if they know the right words to say and if they put enough feeling into it.”

“Since when did you become such an expert in witchcraft?” Lexi questioned, feeling unsure about the answer he’d given her. How did he know that was how it worked?