Cold as Ice (10 page)

Chapter 16

Austin and Anna bounded through her dorm room, arms wrapped around each other as they kissed passionately. No one was around, so it was the perfect time for Austin to do what he and Anna both wanted more than
anything else—drink her blood.

Once they were inside the dorm room, a voice from beh
ind them said, “Where’s Lexi?”

Austin turne
d to find Dan staring at them.

“Dan!” Anna squealed, running over to
give him a hug. “You’re back!”

“Hi, Anna,” Dan replied with a small smile.
He nodded at Austin. “Austin.”

“How did you get back, dude? Lexi’s been trying to save you for days,” Austin said, knowing that his voice had to have s
ounded as relieved as he felt.

“I don’t know,” Dan admitted. “I was just lying there—in a pile of hay—thinking about Lexi. It’s been weeks since she left, and I thought I had forgotten what she looked like. But I didn’t. He
r face was still clear to me.”

“It’s only been a few days since Lexi got back here,” Anna told him. “Are you sure
it was that long in the past?”

“Yeah,” Dan replied, a lustful look in his eyes.
“I’ve missed her like crazy.”

“Where
is
Lexi?” Austin asked, turning to Anna.
“I haven’t seen her in hours.”

“I haven’t either,” Anna replied. She opened the dorm room door and motioned for them to follow her into the
hallway. “Let’s go find her.”

Once they were down the hallway that led to the auditorium, the booming sound of music filled their ears. Austin was about to tell Anna and Dan that he hadn’t seen Lexi at the dance wh
en Gabe strolled over to them.

He looked
like he had just seen a ghost.

“What’s wrong, Gabe?” Anna asked, immediately sen
sing that something was wrong.

“I just had a vision,” Gabe muttered. “At le
ast, I think it was a vision.”

When he didn’t explain any further, Austin pressed.
“What was your vision about?”

“Lexi—she’s in danger.” Gabe’s eyes darted around the hallway; it seemed like he was afraid that someone was lurking nearby, listening to their conversation. “I think she’s at a park somewhere . . . about thirty minutes from here. At the top of a hill off to th
e left-hand side of the park.”

“Bear Cliff State Park,” Dan murmured. When everyone turned to look at him, he explained, “My dad and I always used to go there when I was a kid. There’s this really steep hill there that we used t
o go sledding down in the winter.”

Anna turned to Gabe, her chocolate brown eyes filled with worry. “What type of tro
uble do you think Lexi’s in?”

“The type that could kill her if someone doesn’t save her in time,” Gabe replied, closing his eyes. “I don’t know who she’s with—I can’t see that much. It might be Violet and Tom, but I can’t make it out for sure. I can just tell that she’s afraid. Her eyes—there’s so much fear in them.” His voice sounded scared and sad even, just thinking about the ty
pe of trouble that Lexi was in.

“I have to go,” Dan said. “I have to save her!” He turned, as though he were about to run in the opposite direction, when he glanced over his shoulder. “I’ll need a ride from one of you. I haven’t fed since Lexi left. I don’t think I c
ould handle flying right now.”

Austin glanced over at Gabe, noting that he was quieter than usual. “Are you okay? I know your visions can be pretty draining. Do you need us to get you some blood or anything
like that?”

“Thanks, but I think I’m good,” Gabe replied, not meeting his eyes. His voice sounded sort of cold, and Austin got the impression that he wanted to isolate himself from all of them. W
hy was Gabe acting so strange?

As they turned to go with Dan, Gabe only stood in his place. H
e didn’t move to go with them.

“Aren’t you coming, Gabe?”
Anna asked over her shoulder.

Gabe shook his head and, running a hand through his dark hair, said, “Nah, you can all go without me. I’m just gonna hang out here and go b
ack to the dance party thing.”

“How can you go to a dance at a time like this?” Austin asked, feeling the heat rising to his cheeks. “Lexi is in trouble! Even you said so yourself! You might be one of the only people who can help us figure out exactly where she is since you saw it in one of your damn visions! And you’re going to go to a party instead of
even trying to help her out?”

Gabe shrugged. “I can’t, guys. Rhonda will be upset with me if I try to
help
Lexi. She wouldn’t want me to leave her here alone, and she also wouldn’t want to go with you because she’s pretty excited about this
dance. You all go without me.”

Austin met Anna’s eyes just as she rolled them. He ro
lled his eyes, too, this time.

Was keeping Rhonda’s feelings from getting hurt more important to Gabe than saving Lexi?
Whether it was because of the mind-control that she had over him or not, it made Austin
infuriated—and for the first time since Lexi had come back to Briar Creek, he thought that Gabe was the wrong guy for her. How
could he betray her like this?

“Are you guys coming?” Dan asked from behind them, snapping Austin out of his thoughts and making him focus on what was really important at that moment: saving Lexi fr
om whatever danger she was in.

“Yeah, we’re coming,” Anna replied, looking away from Gabe and
turning to Dan. “I’ll drive.”

Anna tugged on Austin’s sleeve. He gave Gabe—who wouldn’t even meet his eyes—one last glare before following after them down the hallway and out the door that led them into the dark n
ight.

Once they were inside Anna’s car, she pulled out of her parking spot. When they reached the end of the parking lot, two security guards
stepped out in front of them.

“Oh, hell no!” Anna yelled, and Austin gaped at her. In all the time he’d known his girlfriend, he didn’t think he’d ever heard her curse. “These security guards better not give us a hard time because I
will
run over them if I have to.”

“Would that even hurt a werewolf?” Dan asked from his spot in the backseat. “I thought they could only be killed with a silver bullet. Not that I k
now all that much about them.”

“I don’t think it would hurt them. Not that bad, at least. But it might scare them enough for us to get by,” Anna replied, rolling down her window as one of the security guards
approached them.

“Can I help you?” the security guard asked,
shining a flashlight across
all of th
eir faces.

“Yes, you can help me
,” Anna replied. “Our friend—”

“And m
y cousin,” Austin interrupted.

“His cousin who is our friend is in trouble. She’s in danger somewhere. She’s at Bear Cliff State Park,” Anna explained. “You have to let us out so we can go save her.” As desperate as her voice sounded, the
security guard shook his head.

“I’m sorry, but there’s no way I can let you out of here. We already let a student and a teacher out, and we shouldn’t have done t
hat,” the security guard said.

Austin could feel a light bulb go off inside his head. “Was
that teacher Craig Lindstrom?”

Anna had told him that Lexi had been suspicious of the teacher, but she didn’t think that there was any reason to worry. He’d seemed like such a nice guy, and so what if he had taught at Briar Creek High School before he was hired at Huntington? Austin, Lexi, and Gabe had all gone to Briar Creek High at one point, too. That al
one didn’t make him a traitor.

But what if Anna was wrong? What if he was working with Violet and Tom? What if his being at Huntington was orchestrated to trick Lexi into thinking that he was her friend—or that he had feelings for her—just so he could feed her to the wolves (err, vampires)? What if he really wa
s nothing more than a traitor?

“Hey, Beck?” the security guard called over to one of the other security guards. “Is Craig Lindstrom the teacher
we let through here earlier?”

“Yeah, that was him!”
Beck called back.

“Was the student who he was with a blonde girl?” Anna asked, reali
zing what Austin had realized.

“Yes. It was dark out, but her hair was pretty light,” the security guard
replied. “What makes you ask?”

“That’s Lexi! That’s our friend who’s in trouble!” Anna cried. “You
have
to let us help her. One of our friends—he’s a vampire—has these visions. And he saw that if we don’t get to her in time, she’s going to die.” When the security guard’s face remained unchanged, she began pleading. “She’s in danger. She desperately needs our
help. Please let us through.”

Finally, the security guard’s face softened a little. “Fine, just this one time. But make sure you’re back here by midnight or I won’t be able to
let you back on campus. Deal?”

“Deal,” Austin, Anna, and Da
n all yelled at the same time.

The guard said something to all of the other guards, and they took a step back. Anna put her foot on the gas ped
al and pulled onto the street.

Austin breathed a sigh of relief. They had made it this far. With any luck, they would be able to get to Lexi before it was too late.

Chapter 17

The only sound that could be heard from the top of the hill was Lexi’s shrill screams, which echoed thr
ough the quiet December night.

Craig pinned her wrist against the hard, cold ground; his other hand was still on her throat, but he wasn’t choking her anymore. His hand seemed like it was just a threat that was there to remind her that if she did or said the wrong thing, he was in a position where he could kill her i
f he wanted to.

His face hovered over her, a few inches away from hers. Even through the dark night, she could
see his eyes flash with anger.

“If only you hadn’t been so selfish. We wouldn’t have to be here right now if you had shared your blood with me when I ask
ed you to,” he growled at her.

That’s
what this was all about? Her blood? Lexi gulped. “We still don’t have to be here,” she told hi
m, her voice merely a whisper.

“Oh, but we do. I have no reason to save someone who’s nothing more than a blood hoarder. Not when she didn’t try to save me. You would rather let me die from this disease,” Craig replied. His voice had suddenly taken on a cold, angry tone . . . and Lexi was reminded of the day she had learned that M
ary-Kate was against her, too.

“But you didn’t tell me you needed saving. If you would have just told me, I would have tried to
save you,” Lexi insisted, remembering the one and only time Craig had asked her if he could drink her blood. He hadn’t mentioned anything about Wilkins’ Syndrome, so she had been under the impression that he had only requested her blood for sexual reasons. It had seemed like he was really into her, and she knew that bloodlust was common among vampires
who were attracted to humans.

Craig smirked, his lip curling in disdain. “So you say. We’ll never know that you would have saved me for sure.” His face hardened. “I couldn’t tell you. I didn’t want sympathy from you—or
anyone else, for that matter.”

He moved his face even closer to hers, and Lexi held her breath, wondering what he was going to do next. Had he brought her t
o this park just to kill her?

“You need to be punished for what you have done,” Craig told her, meeting her eyes. “I have already decided what your punishment is going to be. Are you ready to hear it?” There w
as an amused look on his face.

“Yes, tell me,” Lexi whispered, even though she didn’t want to know. If he was planning to kill her, she wished he would just do it and get it over with so she wo
uldn’t even know what hit her.

“I’m going to drink every drop of blood from your body,” Craig replied, excitedly. “And once I’ve finished, I will drink the potion just so that no one else can have it.” He pulled the tiny jar of potion out of his pocket and held it up for her to see it before setting it down next to him. Smiling, he asked, “What do you think of that? Sounds like
a glorious plan, doesn’t it?”

Lexi gaped at him. The fact that he had just told her that he was going to kill her didn’t even phase her; it was what she had been expecting. Instead, she stared at the potion, which was within her reach—if only he didn’t have her wrist in a tight lock. “Where did you get the potion?” she whispered.

“Don’t be foolish, Lexi,” Craig replied with a chuckle. “I got it from your dorm room, of course. I tipped off some of the vampires from Briar Creek that you were in the area, so they came looking for you. I knew it would make the school go on lock down, which would give me the opportunity to steal the potion . . . and prevent you from going anywhere again. Don’t worry about those other vampires, though. I wasn’t about to tell them where you were exactly because I don’t want to share you with them. Your blood is all mine.” He smiled. “It’s too bad you left
your door unlocked, isn’t it? Well, too bad for you, maybe. But it’s not too bad for me. Since you’re not an immortal, I can still get the sa
me benefits from your blood.”

“I saved blood for that very reason,” Lexi said, hoping that knowing that she wanted to save people would convince him not to kill her. “I s
aved vials in case I wanted to cure
anyone.”

“Where is it?” Craig asked.

Lexi hesitated. If she were to tell him, he might try to drink it . . . and that wasn’t what she wanted. Even if she didn’t live through this ordeal, her father would. If anyone he knew got sick, h
e would know how to save them.

“Where is it?!” Craig shrieked, his fingernails ripping t
hrough the skin on her wrists.

“It’s in the refrigerator in the basement at Huntington,” Lexi whis
pered. “Please don’t hurt me.”

Craig chuckled. “I’m going to do to you exactly what I did to Rose. Don’t worry. Rose didn’t feel too much pain, so neither will you.” He lowered his head to her
neck, and she pushed him back.

“Wait, before you drink from me . . . who’s Rose?” Lexi questioned, hoping that talking to him would prolong things so that sh
e could figure out what to do.

“Rose is the girl w
ho changed me,” Craig replied.

“I thought you said that you didn’t know how she died,” Lexi pointed out, remembering the story he’d told her about how he had felt when the vampir
e who had changed him had died.

Craig laughed. “Oh, I know very well how she died. She died begging me to stop drinking from her. She begged until she became unconscious from so much blood
loss
.” He smiled, his eyes twinkling as he remembered Rose’s death. “I wanted to punish her, too. I wanted to punish her for changing me, so I killed her. I chose a way that would benefit us both, though. At least, I thought it would benefit me. I didn’t know that drinking her blood would make me get this disease.”

“It’s not your fault,” Lexi whispe
red. “You couldn’t have known. I don’t blame you for getting revenge on Rose. I would have done the same thing. She deserved it after what she did to you. It wasn’t your fault at all,” Lexi told him, trying to make him think she was on his side.

“You’re right, it’s not my fault. It’s your fault. Well, your family’s fault,” Craig replied, shaking his head. “Once I started to get sick, all
the
other vampires talked about was the Hunter curse. They kept telling me that there was this girl named Mary-Kat
e who could cure me. So, I started
drink
ing
from her on a regular basis. What I didn’t know was that her blood had already expired and that past the age of eighteen, her blood
was useless to me.”

Pausing, he moved his hand that was on her throat to pin down her other wrist. “When I first saw you that day at the college, all I could think about was how delectable you smelled to me. I knew, right away, that you were the other Hunter girl, and I knew that I had to have you if
I wanted to cure this disease. So, I gave you my number, remember? I waited for you to call, but you never did.

“So, I waited
some more
. I waited for you to come around when I was your teacher. I wanted to take you away on what you would have thought was a romantic getaway for the weekend so that I could devour you there
and dispose of your body before anyone even realized what had happened
.
But that plan didn
’t work out and when you disappeared from school, I wasn’t sure when I would see you again. So, imagine my surprise—my
pleasant
surprise—when you ended up at Huntington, too. I knew that if I played my cards right, I could make you fall for me. I think you started to develop feelings for me, too, did
n’t you?” Craig smiled at her.

“A little,” Lexi whispered.

“A little? You were practically throwing yourself at me! I suppose I have Gabe to thank for that more than anyone else. If he hadn’t cheated on you with Veronica Hart, you might never have given me the chance. You might not have come to trust me as much as you do now.” Craig smiled. “Thank goodness for
cheating boyfriends
. And thank goodness you care so much about that asshole,
Gabe, enough to come here to try to save him.” He laughed. “I knew it would be the easiest way to get you to come her
e with me, no questions asked.”

Lexi gulped. How could she have been so stupid? She should have taken Justin’s warnings to not be so trust
ing a little more seriously.

Then again, she never thought in a million years that Craig would have turned on her. It seemed like—of all the people in her life—he had no reason to. If anything, she was sort of expecting the traitor in her life to be Gabe. He was the one who had tried to kill her in a car accident once, after all. Her mom had assured her that she should trust him, but Lexi still found herself wondering, to this day, how he could have tried to kill someone who he supposedly loved. She might not be here right now if it weren’t for Mary-Kate pulling her from the wreckage—and even then, the only reason her half-sister had done that was because she wanted Lexi to save Mrs. Lawrence from Wilkins’ Syndrome, too. It felt like
everyone
was only out f
or her blood. She was getting sick of it.

“Can’t you j
ust spare me?” Lexi whispered.

“Spare you?” Craig laughed. “Why
would I do a thing like that?”

“So I can save other people with Wilkins’ Syndrome,” Lexi replied. “If you want, you can still drink that potion. Just let me go. Pl
ease.”

Craig laughed. “I have no reason to spare you. You’re a selfish little bitch. You know, you could start a blood bank and made good money off your blood. People would pay you hundreds of thousands of dollars just to drink from you.” Sneering, he added, “I thought about doing that myself, you know. Kidnapping you and forcing you to give blood daily and profit off of you. But then, I realized this would be a lot more fun. I have no reason to want to share you. I don’t want to save anyone.
Why should I help any other vampire? No one around here has ever helped me. No,
I only want to dr
ink from you and save myself. I’m the only one who deserves you.”

Lexi could feel her whole entire body begin to shake. There was no way she was going to be able to talk him out of this. And with no stakes nearby, she couldn’t kill him. With her wrists pinned down by his strong vampire body, there was no way she would have been able to escape to grab a stake
even if there were one around.

R
emembering the last time she had nearly died from blood loss, she decided that if she had to die, this was probably the kindest death she could have been given. First, she would feel good as the blood poured out of her veins, and then she would black out and feel
nothing once he drank too much.

Deciding that she didn’t have a fighting chance, Lexi decided to give in. “Fine. Kill me,” she whispered. “
Get it over with.”

“Don’t worry, Lexi,” Craig said with a wide grin. “I’ll make this as painless for you as I possibly can. All you’ll feel is the pleasure you so enjoy when vampires drink your blood.” He leaned in closer to her and opened his mouth to si
nk his teeth into her neck.