Cold as Ice (14 page)

“Sure, why not?” Dan asked, glancing over at Lexi and smiling at her.

She followed her father into the kitchen. He motioned for her to sit down at th
e kitchen island, and she did.

“So, Dan’s your boyfriend now?” Ben asked, accusingly. “I thought you were seeing Gabe.”

“Yeah, well, let’s just say that things with Gabe didn’t work out,” Lexi replied. Rolling her eyes, she added, “I’m sure you’ve seen him around school with his new girlfriend . . . Rhonda.”

Her father’s face softened a little, and he exclaimed, “Oh, Lexi! That’s no big deal. She’s just his offspring. I can’t even tell you how awkward it is for me to be living under the same roof
as the vampire who created me.”

She wanted to say something about how after not being in her life for so long, he really didn’t have the right to offer her advice about her relationship, but she refrained because she realized what he had just told her. Blinking, Lexi asked, “You live with the vampire who created you?” Lowering her voic
e, she asked, “Is it Darlene?”

She had assumed that her father hadn’t met Darlene until after he was with her mom, but maybe they had known each other for a long time. Maybe that’s why things between them were supposedly so complicated.

Benjamin laughed. “I didn’t mean at home. And to be technical, Darlene and I don’t live together. She lives here, and I have my own home. Anyway, I meant that la
tely
I’ve been living at Huntington, and the vampire who created me also lives there.”

“Who?” Lexi asked, genuinely curious. Had her dad been romantically involved with one of the students? The thought made her feel strange, but it didn’t seem too far-fetched. She’d had a relationship with Craig—not that it had ever been a
real
relationship. Thinking about Craig now made her cringe.

“Well, I hope that me telling you this won’t make things awkward for you at all.” Ben hesitated. “I know that you see her on a near daily basis when you’re at Huntington.”

“It won’t make things awkward, I promise,” Lexi insisted. “Just tell me, please.”

“It’s one of your teachers. Veronica Hart.” Ben studied her face closely for a reaction.

Lexi looked down at the granite countertop and wrung her hands, as she tried to absorb this information. It was awkward that the same vampire who had turned her ex-boyfriend or lover or whatever Gabe had been to her was also the same vindictive vampire as her own father ha
d been turned by.

No wonder Veronica had made that comment the first time she’d met her about knowing her father. She knew him better than most vampires or people did. He was her offspring, so she actually knew where he was at all times. The thought made Lexi shift in her seat uncomfortably.

“What happened between the two of you?” Lexi questioned, trying to sound more casual than curious. “Were you ever romantically involved?”

“We were romantically involved,” her father replied. “For about ten years. We eventually decided to go our separate ways. It wasn’t that we didn’t care deeply about one another, but it was the fact that we simply grew bored of each other’s presence. Being with someone forever doesn’t happen often. Only with soul mates, usually. And I don’t believe for a second that Veronica was my soul mate. So, I broke it off with her.”

The mention of soul mates reminded Lexi that the witch had told her that she had one herself. She wondered if it was possible that her soul mate could be Dan, or if it was someone else. “So, that was it? You just ended it and never talked to each other again until now?”

“Oh, we saw each other over the years. It’s difficult not to run into someone when you have hundreds of years’ worth of chances to bump into them. In fact, your mother and I once saw her when you were just a baby. She found out that you existed, and she congratulated me. Later, she sent me a letter telling me that she wished that things had been different between us.” Her father shook his head. “I’m not sure that I felt the same way. I’m happy with most of the choices I’ve made in my life.”

“You don’t regret ending it with her then?” Lexi asked, knowing that her voice probably sounded hopeful. It would pain her to know that both her father and Gabe still wanted to be with Veronica—and even though Gabe had claimed that nothing had happened between the two of them in recent times, Lexi was beginning to have her doubts . . . especially after the way he had been acting with Rhonda lately. It was obvious that Lexi’s relationship with him ha
d been very disposable to him.

If her dad and Gabe both wanted to still be with Veronica, though, it felt like the woman had won, in some sense. And Lexi definitely didn’t want to feel like she had been defeated, especially not by someone as spiteful as Veronica.

Benjamin shrugged. “It was many years ago, and things were very different then. I mean, you saw what things were like. Men and women dressed differently, acted differently, and treated each other differently. Back then, Veronica was a nice woman. She was a little more headstrong than many other women were during that time, but I always assumed that it had something to do with her being a vampire and all. In a way, it made her seem more sophisticated and more of a feminist than other women of her time. Years later, I can see that it wasn’t just that. She’s still headstrong, so I think it’s just who she is. Now, though, it’s much less appealing to me.”

“Has she tried to get back together with you since you came to Huntington?” Lexi questioned. She had a feeling that the answer would be ‘no’, mostly because of the way Veronica had been acting towards Gabe lately. It seemed like getting him back was her one and only goal in life right now. But, maybe she had been acting that way towards Ben, too. Maybe she was just desperate and clingy.

Her father hesitated. “It’s difficult to explain. She has mentioned you a few times in our conversations. Basically, she said that she thinks we could have stayed together—and would still be together—if you had never existed. She seems a little crazy lately, so I’ve been keeping my eye on you, to say the least.” He shrugged. “Aside from that, though, she hasn’
t said much of anything to me.”

Lexi considered what her father was telling her. Was there a chance that Veronica was so mean to her for more reasons than just the fact that she had been Gabe’s girlfriend? Maybe Veronica really believed that the reason her relationship with Benjamin hadn’t worked out was because of Lexi.

As much as she wanted to get mad at Veronica for holding it against her, she couldn’t blame her. In fact, if that was her problem was, Lexi sort of felt sorry for her. She understood how Veronica felt, in a way. It was similar to the way Lexi felt about Darlene, Erica, and Connor; as much as she was trying to like her half-siblings, she believed that if it weren’t for them, her father may have been in her life a little more than he had been. It just made it hard for her to know that he had basically blown off their relationship in exchange for his other family, even if things were complicated with them, too.

As if on cue, a woman, who Lexi assumed to be Darlene, strolled into the kitchen and paused in the doorway when she saw them sitting at the kitchen island.

The woman had an olive skin tone, dark chocolate brown hair, and big sultry eyes that she had applied smoky eye shadow to. Even though the woman appeared to be young, Lexi got the impression that s
he was older than she looked.

Most of all, though, she noticed that the woman looked nothing like Erica or Connor, but then again, Lexi hadn’t looked anything like her own mother, either. It was no surprise that her father’s genes were so dominant, though, since he was a Hunter, after all.

Turning to Ben, Darlene asked, “Is this her?”

Ben nodded. “She is a beauty, isn’t she?”

“She is,” Darlene said, taking a step closer to Lexi. “Now I know what Erica will look like in a decade from now.”

Lexi forced herself to give Darlene a small smile. It always made her feel uncomfortable when people spoke about her in third person, as though she wasn’t even in the same room.

“I’m so sorry. I’m being so rude admiring you like this, without even introducing myself. I’m Darlene.” The woman flashed Lexi a genuine-looking s
mile.

“It’s okay. It’s nice to meet you. I’ve heard a lot about you,” Lexi offered weakly. She wasn’t about to tell her that everything she heard had to do with the shaky relationship that Darlene and her dad apparently had with each other. Lexi couldn’t see why—the woman seemed nice enough, and she was very beautiful. It made Lexi think that maybe her father’s relationship issues had more to do with himself than anyone else. She didn’t know all that much about him yet, but it seemed as though he had issues with letting people get too close to him because he was afraid of getting too attached. With as long as his life been, he probably had seen a lot of people die. Maybe that was all it boiled down to.

“Connor and Erica told me about that day when you saw them at the swimming pool. I’m so sorry if they made you feel uncomfortable with the things they said,” Darlene apologized, scooping her hair up into a neat ponytail before she checked on the turkey in the oven. “I’ve been showing them pictures of you over the years. I always wanted them to see what their big sister looked like.”

Lexi smiled, appreciating the fact that Darlene had done something to make her brother and sister feel like they were her family. It made her feel more welcome in the house than she would have been otherwise. “I don’t mind. I was just surprised. I didn’t even know that I had half-sibli
ngs, let alone three of them.”

As soon as she let the words slip out, she wished she could take them back. Lexi had only assumed that Darlene knew about Mary-Kate, but she wasn’t positive. She glanced over at her dad, hoping that she hadn’t said too much, but his face remained unchanged.

“I can only imagine. It must have been a lot to take in,” Darlene sympathized with her. “As far what they told you—how I said you were going to save a lot of people—I want to explain. I always told them that you weren’t in their lives because you couldn’t be. I told them it wasn’t safe
for you to be in Briar Creek.

“So, when they found out that you were back in town, they didn’t understand. It was the first reason I could think to give them. It wasn’t that I really thought you had or should save people if you didn’t want to,” Darlene explained. “I just tend to speak before I think. I know it was probably a little scary for you at the time, but I hope that we can all put it behind us.”

Lexi smiled at Darlene. “I’ve already put it behind me. Thanks for explaining, though. It did scare me at the time, but I’m not sure what I would have said either if I were in your shoes.”

“I just really want for us all to be a family,” Darlene explained. “I want them to be able to know you, and for you to know them. And I want to know you, too, Lexi. I want you to always feel welcome here, because you are.”

“Thanks. I want to know all of you, too,” Lexi replied. This time, she didn’t have to force herself to smile; she really did want to know Erica, Connor, and Darlene. She even wanted to get to know Ben now that they were both beginning to open up
to each other a little more.

More than anything, Lexi wanted a family, and it finally felt like she was getting one back.

*

This is the place,” Dan told Ben later that night when he dropped them off on the street. “Thanks for giving us a ride here.”

“No problem,” Ben replied, smiling. “You kids have fun.”

Lexi could tell that her dad liked Dan. Darlene, Connor, and Erica were all smitten with him, too. After he spent all day playing with the kids’ Christmas toys and then teaching them how to make volcanoes out of mashed potatoes and gravy at dinner (with Darlene’s approval, of course), they couldn’t have found anything not to love. It made Lexi happy that they were all warming up to each other so well.

“I’ll be back to pick you up around nine,” Ben told them, as they opened their car doors.

When Lexi was standing on the sidewalk, she glanced over at Dan. “What exactly are we doing?”

He still hadn’t told her what they were doing tonight; earlier, he had told her that it was going to be a surprise.

“Come on, you’ll see,” Dan said with a grin, leading her through the front door of the building.

She was sick of all the surprises that everyone seemed to want to keep from her today, but she knew that protesting would get her nowhere. Rolling her eyes, Lexi said, “Okay, lead the way.”