Cold as Ice (15 page)

Once they were inside, she immediately realized what they were doing. The smell of soup wafted into her nostrils, and people were putting food into bowls in what looked like a cafeteria. “A soup kitchen,” Lexi whispered.

“On Christmas,” Dan replied, smiling at her. “What could be more selfless than serving in a soup kitchen on a holiday? Come on.”

They went behind the counter, where they were each handed a red and white striped apron, and began filling bowls with soup as people came through the line for food. It broke Lexi’s heart to see a woman with a baby who didn’t look older than a few months, and an elderly man who
was all alone for the holiday.

By the time they had finished a few hours later, Lexi wanted to break down into tears.

“That was rough,” she told Dan as they stood outside on the sidewalk under the street lamp, waiting for her father to pick them up.

“I thought so, too,” Dan agreed quietly.

“I can’t imagine what it must be like to have nothing during the holidays.” She shuddered, and not from the coldness of the night, but from what she had just witnessed.

Dan wrapped an arm around her waist protectively. “Me either. And even though we did a good deed, I have to say . . . I think it’s going to work this time. You know, the immortal thing.”

“Why?” Lexi asked, glancing over at him, rubbing her gloved hands together to warm them up. “What makes this time any different from last time, besides the fact that there were no cats involved?”

His sky blue eyes flitted over to her. “Because it’s affected you. You feel sympathetic. You really did a good deed. You didn’t just volunteer time at one of your favorite causes this time. You actually helped people, and you will have lasting memories because of it.”

“That’s true,” Lexi replied hesitantly. “I do feel affected by it.”

“I feel affected by you,” Dan whispered, planting a tiny kiss on her lips. “Are you ready for your Christmas present?”

“You got me a Christmas present?” Lexi was genuinely surprised. “When could you have done that?”

“Don’t worry about it. I have my ways,” Dan replied. He pulled a tiny box out of his coat pocket and handed it to her.

Lexi frowned. “But I didn’t get you anything for Christmas. I feel guilty taking this.” She tried to hand back the box, but Dan wouldn’t take it.

“Lexi, it’s okay. I got you a Christmas present because it’s something I want you to have. I don’t care if you got me anything or not. As you already said, we’ll have hundreds of Ch
ristmases to look forward to.”

Smiling, Lexi agreed. “Okay, I’ll accept it.” She felt like a giddy little kid opening a present, but it had been so long since she’d received anything from someone she cared about. Dan was also the first guy who had ever
given her a gift of any kind.

Glancing across the street, she noticed that the town Christmas tree was lit up and standing right in front of them. It only had gold lights, just like the ones that she and her mother had always strung on their faux Christmas tree. Seeing the tree reminded her of the Christmas memories that she and her mother had shared together, but for once, she didn’t feel sad about it.

When she opened the tiny box that Dan had given her, she found a pair of earrings. They were large, princess cut stones that glimmered in the moonlight. “They’re beautiful,” Lexi whispered, glancing up at him.

“Just like you,” Dan replied, leaning in for a kiss. “Do you like them?”

“I love them,” Lexi replied, pulling them out of the box and poking them through the holes in her ears, which she didn’t have any earrings in at that moment. Once they were in, she felt them and realized just how large they were. “These must have been so expensive. I feel bad. I promise I’ll get you an amazing present next year.”

Dan laughed. “Stop worrying about getting me presents, Lexi. It doesn’t matter. I’m happy with just having you. They weren’t as expensive as you might be thinking, though. The diamonds were my grandmother’s. I had them reset for you. My uncle owns a jewelry store.”

“Oh.” Lexi suddenly felt awkward about accepting such an extravagant gift. They weren’t just any old gift; this was a family heirloom. How long had Dan been planning to give these to her? While they were in the 1800s, or since they got back? She decided that it didn’t really matter. She started to take them out of her ears to give them back to him, but he stopped her.

“Please keep them, Lexi. I want you to have them,” Dan told her. “There’s no one else I would rather give them to.”

Lexi hesitated. “Why me?”

“Because they match your eyes perfectly. When I look into those stones, your eyes are all that I can think of. And you’re the first girl I’ve ever felt this way about,” Dan replied quietly. “I can tell that you feel it, too.”

Lexi
felt her cheeks redden, and she was glad that it was mostly dark out, even with the glow from the street lamp, so that her blushing was concealed from
his view. “I do,” she admitted.

Dan smiled. “Then please accept them. For now, at least. If you want to give them back to me one day, then do it if it will make you feel better, but right now, I just want us to be together. It’s Christmas . . . let’s just enjoy it.”

“Okay,” Lexi said, breathing a clouded puff of breath into the cold night. “I’ll keep them. Thank you.”

“They’re high enough quality to withstand the end of time,” Dan added, glancing over at her, his sky blue eyes glimmering in the moonlight. “That’s what I want with you . . . to withstand the end of time.”

At that moment, Ben’s car pulled up along the sidewalk, and Lexi felt thankful for the interruption . . . because it was scary for her to admit that even though that was what she wanted, too, she wasn’t sure if it was going to be possible if her im
mortality didn’t kick in soon.

Chapter 22

Relaxing in her dorm room that night, Rhonda was busy trying to figure out some of the ways she could ruin Lexi’s relationship with Gabe. Lately, he had been choosing her over Lexi anyway, but it felt like there was a chance that he could go back to her now that she’s around more often. The thought scared her, but whenever she looked in his eyes when she wasn’t too busy controlling what he did, there was a look of longing that
she knew had to do with Lexi.

The best way to crush that longing feeling was to crush any shot at a relationship they had with one another.

So, what could she do? Part of her wanted to kill Lexi, but she knew that would be taking things to the extreme. People would probably suspect that it was her because it was pretty obvious that she didn’t like the girl, and she really didn’t need people to be suspicious of her here. Not when she already couldn’t go back home to Long Island. No, killing Lexi would be reserved as a last resort. She’d only do it if nothing else worked to keep Lexi away from Gabe for good.

It didn’t matter if Lexi caught Gabe with another woman. From what Rhonda understood, she’d already caught him with Veronica Hart—that wretched woman who had threatened to kill her—and yet she’d forgiven him for that. What girl in her right mind would forgive a cheater? Lexi had to be really dumb.

And then it dawned on her. The best way to keep Lexi away forever was to make her hate Gabe.

She glanced over in Gabe’s direction. His dark hair was getting long, but it was slicked back. He looked over at her with his steel blue eyes and gave her a small smile.

Rhonda smiled back.
Go to Lexi’s dorm room right now and tell her something that would make her hate you. Tell her something that you’ve done that would really hurt her or tell her the truth about a lie that you’ve told her in the past. Anything that will make her hate you.

Standing up, Gabe reached for the doorknob. As he went out into the hallway, Rhonda tried to contain her excitement. This was it. After tonight, Gabe would be all hers. There would be no more Lexi to get in the way of the plans that
she had for their future.

Chapter 23

Sometime around three o’clock in the morning, there was a loud knock on Lexi’s dorm room door. Startled at first, she thought about waking Dan up, but he was deep in relaxation with his eyes closed and headphones in. And he looked so perfect when he relaxed that she rea
lly hated to ask him to get up.

So, instead, she braved answering the door on her own, but not before grabbing a stake from Anna’s nightstand. If there was a crazy, deranged vampire in her hallway, she wasn’t about to let them kill her without even having the fighting chance to kill them herself. She didn’t have just herself to think of anymore; she
had Dan to think of, too, now.

Lexi figured that it was probably Rhonda on the other side of the door, though. It would be just her luck. Rhonda
would
be looking for a notebook or something belonging to Anna on Christmas Day just to try to rub something about Gabe into her face.

When she opened the door, the person she found standing there instead shocked her. It was Gabe.

His steel blue eyes looked different than they usually did. Something about them seemed colder, more distant than they normally were—which was saying a lot because he had seemed extremely cold lately.

“Gabe?” Lexi whispered, glancing over at Dan. “What do you want?”

“I need to talk to you, Lexi,” Gabe replied, not meeting her eyes. He glanced into the dorm room nervously. “Can you come outside in the hallway so we can talk?”

Nodding, Lexi grabbed a robe to cover up what she was wearing—a skimpy tank top and a pair of short shorts that she wouldn’t want strangers seeing her in if they were to walk by. Not that many students—or teachers—should be walking by her right now since most of them had gone home or somewhere else for Christmas bre
ak.

When she stepped into the hallway, she looked into Gabe’s face; his jaw was hardened, and his eyes still had that funny, dazed look to them. “Gabe, why are you here? What do you want to talk to me about? You’re making me a little nervous.”

She really hoped that he wasn’t going to ask her to be with him again. Even though they had a past with each other, it had hurt her too much to see him with both Veronica and Rhonda while she
was just thrown to the side.

Lexi wasn’t sure if she would ever be able to forgive him for that. She didn’t think she would ever be able to trust him again.

Besides, she had Dan now. Dan, who made her feel happy inside all the time. Dan, who had saved her life more times than she could count—and who would do again in a heartbeat if he ever had to. Dan, who she couldn’t get enough of. Dan, who was the main reason she had drank the potion that Belinda had given her. Dan, who she hoped, more than anything else, was her soul mate.

There was no room for Gabe Marshall
in her life again. Not now or ever.

If he told her he wanted her back, she was going to tell him to take a hike because it was obvious that he didn’t really love her. Not the same way that Dan did. And she was positive that she didn’t really love Gabe, either. She may have loved Gabe, but it was a different kind of love than what she felt for Dan. Before, she was just trying to cling onto any sort of stability. Now, she knew that she had someone who would make her happy. It felt very different, in a good way.

“I have something I need to tell you. It’s going to hurt you and make you hate me, but you deserve to know the truth,” Gabe told her.

“You cheated on me with Veronica?” Lexi asked, rolling her eyes. “I already knew that. It hurt at the time, but I’m over it now. I just wish you hadn’t lied about it in the first place. It would have helped me to move on from you from quicker than I did.”

“No, I didn’t cheat on you with Veronica,” Gabe replied, and there was a genuine look of honesty in his eyes. They were softer and twinkled in the hallway lighting, but only for a moment. They were quickly replaced by that cold look that flashed through
them again. “I killed Justin.”

“
What
?!” Lexi asked, throwing her hand over her mouth in shock and staring back into the face of the guy who she once loved, viewing him as a monster for the very first time. “You’re kidding, right? This isn’t a funny joke!” Her voice echoed through the hallway, and she realized she had been a lot louder than she had meant to be.

“It’s not a joke, Lexi. Do you really think I’d joke about this? I killed your ex-boyfriend, Justin,” Gabe replied, looking down at the floor. “I ran him off the road on purpose.”

“You made me think that they had something to do with this . . . my uncle and Greg Lawrence,” Lexi replied, recalling the night of the car accident. Gabe had been the first one she’d talked about Justin’s death with, and he had led her to believe that her uncle and the town mayor had killed him. Was he just trying to cover up for them now, months later?

Gabe met her eyes. “I blamed it on them because I didn’t want you to get mad at me for what I did. I knew you never would forgive me if you knew I killed him on purpose.”

“How could you
do
that?” Lexi asked, the tears sliding down her cheeks now. “How could you kill him?
Why
would you kill him?”

She heard the sound of her dorm room door click open, and she knew that Dan was standing there in the hallway, watching them, but she didn’t care. All she cared about at that moment was learning the truth and trying to understand why Gabe would want to kill an innocent stranger—someone so young and innocent, someone who
she had cared about very much.

“I killed him because he was going to take you away from me,” Gabe replied. “He was going to take you back to New Jersey, and I would never see you again—and I needed you. I couldn’t watch you leave me. Not when I was already beginning to care so much about you. I couldn’t let him have you. There was a risk that you would fall in love with him, and I wanted you
to be mine.”

It was official: Gabe was crazy. The way he said the words made his actions sound so normal; they could have been having a conversation about macaroni and cheese or who had won the World Cup and his tone would have stayed the same. Did he not understand the severity of the situation . . . the fact that he had
killed someone
for his own selfish reasons?

“So, you killed him so you could keep me?” Lexi’s breath caught in the back of her throat; it felt like a sob was trapped inside. “You killed him because you were
jealous
of him?”

Gabe nodded. “I’m sorry, Lexi. I hope you’ll forgive me. This all happened so long ago, and things have changed so much between us since then. You didn’t even know what I did before, and you loved me still, so I know you can again.”

“Just answer me one question. Did you really try to kill me that night because you loved me?” Lexi asked. She just wanted to hear the truth, once and for all.

Gabe nodded. “Yes, that was why.”

“I will never forgive you for what you did,” Lexi told him. “You’re a controlling, selfish asshole, and I don’t ever want to see your face again.”

“Lexi. Please wait,” Gabe pleaded with her. “I can explain. If you just listen to me, I can explain, and we can go back to old times.”

“I don’t want to go back to old times. I’m with someone else now, Gabe. Even if you hadn’t killed him, I wouldn’t want you back. I don’t want to be with you in the present or the future.” Lexi stepped into Dan’s arms and closed her dorm room door behind them, blocking out everyon
e else from the outside world.