Cold as Ice (8 page)

“I know how everything works lately,” Justin replied, shrugging. “Try me. Ask me anything.”

Lexi scanned her head for a question. She settled on a geography question, since it was one of Justin’s worst subjects in school. “What’s the capital of Ukraine?”

“Kiev,” Justin replied. “That’s an easy one. Let’s try another.”

She had to take his word for it, since even
she
didn’t know that answ
er.

“Who won the VMA for the best music video of the year?” Lexi asked, knowing that there was no way he would know the answer, since, well, he was dead. Even if he had been alive, he probably wouldn’t have known the answer, anyway, since he wasn’t into mainstream music; he chose to listen to Indie and acoustic bands only, claiming that the music that was normally played on the radios was garbage.

“Rihanna,” Justin replied, flashing his toothy grin. “Believe me now?”

“I guess I have no choice but to believe you,” Lexi admitted
, still surprised that he even knew who Rihanna was
. Stranger things had happened over the past year, after all. “So, what am I supposed to do about the spell on the book? Can I break it?”

“That
,
you’re on your own with,” Justin told her. “I have no clue how the book can be fixed.”

She slapped him across the shoulder playfully, the same way she normally would, but her hand went through his body. She shakily folded her hands in her lap, hoping that she hadn’t upset him. “Wow, you’re really useful! The one piece of information I could really use, and you have no
clue.” She joked—mostly because there wasn’t much else she could do.

“Sorry, Lexi,” Justin replied, shaking his head. “I can tell you who took the potion, though. Well, sort of. I can only give you a hint, or there’s no way I can ever come back if you need me again.”

Lexi rolled her eyes. “Yeah, I know all about the rules from when my mom visits me. Quite frankly, I think they suck.”

“I couldn’t agree more.
I get to watch all of this stuff take place, and yet, I’m not allowed to say a word to anyone about it. It’s no fun
to find out all of these secrets and have to keep them
all
to myself
.
”

“So, wait, my potion was definitely stolen then? It didn’t just disappear into thin air or something?” After the search of Rhonda’s room had produced nothing, Anna had suggested that she may have simply misplaced it, but Lexi knew, deep down, that she hadn’t. Someone had definitely taken it.

“It’s someone who you’ve trusted a lot lately,” Justin told her. “Someone who you’d never even suspect.”

Lexi sighed. “That doesn’t tell me a lot.”

“Sorry, I don’t know how to give you more details about who it was without giving it away.” Justin hesitated. “I need you to promise me that you’ll be more careful in the near future.”

“Careful about what?” Was he insinuating that it was her fault the potion had gotten stolen? That wasn’t fair. It’s not like she had done anything wrong; she’d only evacuated her dorm room like she’d been told to. She hadn’t thought that someone would steal the potion while she was gone for only a few minutes.

Even so, she wanted to kick herself in the ass. If she could turn back time—just enough to slip the potion into her pocket before they’d headed to the auditorium—she wouldn’t be dealing with this mess.

“I know it’s not your fault,” Justin told her softly. “Just be careful about who you trust.” He stood up and turned to walk away from her, but he glanced back over his shoulder. “And Lexi?”

“What?”

“Think twice about taking that potion. Just for me, okay?” Justin asked. “It’s selfish of me, but I hate to think that I’ll be dead forever . . . while you’ll always be here on earth.”

And just like that, he disappeared into thin air.

Chapter 12

There was a loud knock on the door to her dorm room shortly after Justin left. Lexi got up to answer it, trying to absorb all of the new information that she’d learned about the potion and the spell
book. She knew that she was going to have to talk to her father about it; he was one of the only people who might be able to make sense of things, only because he was wise beyond everyone else’s years.

Craig’s hazel eyes stared back at her from the doorway. There was a look of panic and something else—something that she couldn’t place again. “Lexi? Did you get the text message from Gabe?”

Lexi shook her head. “No, I haven’t heard from him since before he left. Why do you ask?”

Craig held out his phone. The open text message said it was from Gabe, and it read
I’m in serious trouble. I’m at Bear Cliff State Park.

Glancing back up at Craig, Lexi asked, “Did you ask him what type of trouble he’s in?”

Craig nodded. “Yeah, and I haven’t heard anything back, so I figured we should probably go there. He might be hurt or something.”

Lexi shook her head. “We can’t just do that. Huntington is under lockdown. We won’t be allowed to come back if we leave—if they even let us out. Maybe we should tell someone, and they can go find him.”

“We can get out, don’t worry. Teachers have special privileges,” Craig explained to her. “They’ll l
et me out, but I was wondering . . . do you want to come with me?”

She hesitated. On the one hand, it was obvious from that text message that Gabe needed help, for whatever reason. But at the same time, she also wanted to stay at Huntington, just so that she could stay with the book in case Dan did manage to come back. “I don’t know. . . .”

“Gabe really needs you, Lexi,” Craig insisted. “He needs your help. Mine, too. He needs both of us. I think we need to go to him.”

Lexi still wasn’t convinced. “People need me here, too.” And the fact of the matter was, Gabe hadn’t even told her he was leaving in the first place. But now
he
needed
her
? What about when
she
needed
him
through the whole Dan ordeal she was going through? He had just up and left without saying a word.

“Come on, Lexi,” Craig insisted. “We can’t just leave Gabe hanging. How about this? We go to Bear Cliff State Park, get him, and come back right away. I’ll make sure Huntington’s security guards let you back in. Actually, come to think of it, I don’t think they could deny you entry back into the school. All we have to do is point out that the town of Briar Creek is after you, and they’ll let you back in.”

Letting out a sigh, she nodded. “Fine, let’s go. The sooner we get there, the sooner we get back.” She grabbed her jacket and followed Craig out into the hallway. “I think I’m going to let Austin and Anna know we’re going.”

Craig waved his hand in the air. “I wouldn’t worry about it. The park is only about fifteen minutes from here. We’ll be back before they even realize you’re gone.”

She decided not to object because Craig was probably right. Austin and Anna were so wrapped up in each other lately that they might even be relieved to know that they had some more privacy since Lexi wasn’t going to be around for the next half hour or so.

Once they were outside, the cold wintry air hit against Lexi’s cheeks. She remembered that it was getting really close to Christmas. The holiday was only a few days away.

It was going to be Lexi’s first Christmas without her mother.

Sighing, she followed Craig to his car, which was parked in the front of the Huntington parking lot, the ignition already on.

“I figured I would warm the car up before I asked you to come with me,” Craig explained, as he unlocked the passenger side door and opened it for her.

She was a bit annoyed that he had automatically assumed that she would go with him. Was she really that predictable?

“Thanks,” Lexi muttered, as she climbed into the familiar car. It was the last car she had been in before she’d traveled to the 1800s. She had a feeling that if she hadn’t been so stubborn—if she hadn’t agreed with Austin’s request to just let Dan retrieve the book from the Lawrence’s house on his own—they wouldn’t be in the predicament they were in. But because she hadn’t trusted Dan at all at that point, she had insisted on ge
tting the book herself.

When Craig was in the car, he backed out of the parking spot and drove over to the security guards, who were pacing back and forth, their expressions as hard as stone.

Craig lowered his window when one of the guards came over to them.

“Where do you think you’re going? You do know that we’re on a lock down, right?” the guard questioned. It was obvious by the tone in his voice that he wasn’t amused.

“Y
eah, we have some business to attend to
off campus,” Craig told him. “I will be back within two hours, as I do have a six o’clock class to teach.”

The guard’s face softened a little, but he still shook his head. “I’m sorry, but I cannot let you out—” he started to say, but he was interrupted by the sound of Craig gunning the engine.

Lexi watched, with disbelief, as Craig pulled out of the parking lot. She glanced over her shoulder to see all of the security guards staring back at them. Turning to Craig, she said, “I thought you told me you had special privileges.”

“I do, but the security guard I’m friends with—Manny—wasn’t on duty,” Craig replied with a shrug. “It’s not like they did anything about it, though, so don’t worry
too much
.”

“Well, that doesn’t make me feel that safe,” Lexi muttered. “What good are security guards if they’re not actually going to follow the security protocols that are supposed to put in place?”

Craig flashed her a cocky grin. “Well, it’s useful for
us
. We can save Gabe now without them trying to stop us.”

Lexi forced herself to give him a small smile back. Somehow, saving Gabe didn’t seem worth the risks that she had a feeling were going to be involved. She only hoped that she would be able to get back inside the school so that she would somehow be able to figure out how to break the spell on the spell book and find out who had taken the potion.

Chapter 13

As Gabe was about to step foot onto Huntington’s campus, all of the security guards came closer to him.

“Young man? What is your name?” one of the security guards asked.

“I’m not as young as you may think,” he muttered. “My name is Gabriel Marshall.”

“Ah, so you’re the one everyone is offering to pay for if we allow you into the school,” another security guard commented, looking Gabe up and down.

“You’re allowed to come back,” a third security guard said, strolling over to them. “Let him be, guys. This one isn’t going to do any harm.”

“Whatever you say, Beck,” one of the security guards muttered, his eyes still locked on Gabe’s. “Welcome back, Mr. Marshall. We’re under lock down. No one is to leave the campus. If you leave, you’re not allowed back.”

“Why are we under lock down?” Gabe questioned. He knew that Huntington had really stringent security measures in place—they had to if they were going to keep the vampires off campus, which was difficult to do since they were only a few miles away from Briar Creek, which had the country’s highest collective population of vampires. Although the school did have tight security measures, Gabe had never known that the school did lock downs.

“Some vampires came near school grounds,” Beck replied. “It didn’t seem like they were only after blood. They seemed to be staring at the building.
We can only assume that they were trying to find a way inside.
This has never happened before. We can only hope that they don’t learn that Huntington is made up of vampire hunters. Until then, we aren’t letting students in or out. It’s far too risky.”

“I understand,” Gabe nodded. At least he knew Lexi was inside. Rhonda, too. That was all that mattered to him.

When he got back inside, Rhonda was waiting for him in front of his dorm room.

“I could feel your presence,” she explained, her lips a shade of flirty pink. Her hair fell in long curls over her shoulders, and Gabe couldn’t help but think that she looked really irresistible. “I just knew you were back at Huntington.”

Gabe smiled at her. “Well, I’m glad you missed me.”

“More than you could ever know,” Rhonda cooed at him. “So, did you find your mom?”

He shook his head. “No, I didn’t find her anywhere. Our house was empty. I checked out one of our old vacation spots, but she wasn’t there. Not that I really expected her to be. And she still hasn’t returned any of my phone calls, either. For now, I guess I’m just going to have to give up and call off the search. It’s hard to find someone who doesn’t want to be found.
Maybe she’ll come around eventually.
”

Rhonda wrapped her arms around his waist, cautiously, as though she wasn’t sure how he would respond. When he kissed her forehead, she pushed herself closer to him. “Well, you did all you could do. Please don’t leave me alone again?”

“Never,” Gabe replied
. And it definitely felt like he was telling her
the truth.

*

“I thought you said this place was only fifteen minutes away,” Lexi told Craig, whose eyes were trained on the road.

He glanced over at her, smiling. “I may have over-exaggerated. It’s not as close as I thought.”

When he glanced away, she rolled her eyes. She knew this was a bad idea. Hopefully, they
would actually be able to help Gabe from whatever danger he was dealing with at the moment—and be allowed back into the school once they got back. Lexi had a feeling it wasn’t going to be that simple, though.

“I used to go there when I was a kid,” Craig said, his eyes flitting over at her. “To Bear Cliff Park. It’s one of my favorite pastimes. I know the whole park, inside and out, like the back of my hand.”

“Oh.” Lexi stared out the window at the trees that Craig drove past, wondering what was going on with Gabe. Had her aunt and uncle gotten to him while he was looking for his mother? Or was his mother in some sort of danger that he needed their help with? The not knowing was beginning to drive her crazy.

“I thought it would be a really cool place for us to go on a date sometime,” Craig continued. “If you ever wanted to date me once you’re ready to be in a relationship with someone, that is.”

Lexi glanced over at him. The expression on his face was completely serious. “I-I don’t think I’ll be ready for a relationship for a while,” she replied
. At least she wasn’t completely
lying still; dating wasn’t on the top of her to-do list at the moment, but she was leaving out the part about not liking him. Had he really not taken the hint before?

Craig turned to her and smiled. “I understand, Lexi. I understand better than anyone.”

What did
that
mean? She wondered if Craig was trying to tell her that he had been in a lot of confusing relationships or if something in his past had made him not ready for a relationship. Not that she would know if that was the truth. Come to think of it, she didn’t know that much about Craig at all.

“So, you grew up here
,
then?” Lexi asked him, trying to change the subject, but also hoping that she would learn more about him in general.

Craig shook his head. “No, I didn’t, but we vacationed a lot in the Poconos when I was a kid. My dad loved camping.”

“I’ve never been much of an outdoorsy girl,” Lexi commented. Actually, that wasn’t true. She had liked spending time outdoors and camping when she was younger. Once she got older and
moved away from Briar Creek, though, it felt like she was usually on her own in New Jersey, since her mom worked long hours at the hospital. The great outdoors were also a reminder of Austin, too, so she tried to avoid them altogether
, opting to spend her days lounging on the couch reading
.

Craig glanced over at her. “I love the outdoors. I always did. Even after I changed.”

“Yeah
,
about that,” Lexi began. “How did you change? I’m not sure if you ever told me.”

“One of my friends from high school changed me,” Craig replied with a shrug. “Just some girl I knew. It wasn’t a big deal.”

“It sounds like a big deal to me,” Lexi insisted. “Do you still talk to her?”

Craig’s face hardened, and he kept his eyes on the road. “She died.”

“How?” Lexi asked, surprised. Vampires didn’t just die of natural causes like humans did (unless they had Wilkins’ Syndrome). The only way a vampire could die was if someone put a stake through their heart, or if they were lit on fire—and even that took a long time to kill them because, unlike humans, it took a while for their organs to shut down once their skin
was burning. Generally speaking, though
, the only way a vampire could die was if they were murdered.

“I’m not really sure. But I could feel it.” Craig glanced over at Lexi, taking note of her questioning eyes. “We all have a connection to the vampire who created us—and us to them. It’s very strong and not much can get in the way of that connection.”

“Yeah, I know all about that,” Lexi muttered, thinking of Veronica’s constant reminders about how connected she was to Gabe.

“Well, when a vampire creates you, you can always know where they are if you wish to find them. When that vampire dies, though, it’s like a part of you dies.
It’s the loneliest I’ve ever felt.  I
t makes your body hurt all over, and you can just feel that they’re gone. It’s surreal.”

Lexi wondered if Gabe would feel that way if Veronica were ever to die. “I bet.”

“Do you want to be a vampire, Lexi?” Craig asked, glancing over at her.

She shook her head. “I used to want to be. I thought it was what I really wanted, but then I
realized that it’s just not for me. The only reason I wanted to be a vampire was so I could live forever. Blood sucking—and not being able to have my own blood sucked—just wouldn’t be worth it. So I’ll settle with being an immortal.”

Craig raised an eyebrow at her. “So, you like having your blood drank then?”

Feeling her cheeks redden, Lexi nodded. “I think most humans would.”

“That’s good to know,” Craig said, turning the car down a dirt road that was nestled between lines of trees. A sign that read
Bear Cliff State Park
loomed ahead of them. When he turned off the car’s ignition, he turned to her. “We’re here.”