Cold as Ice (2 page)

“No, I don’t
agree
.” Lexi shook her head. “Because even though you say he’s safe, the fact of the matter is that Dan isn’t back yet. And until we get him back, I don’t care about what happens with those vampires.
I can’t worry about conquering those vampires
when he’s stuck in the 1800’s. If something happens to me, there will be no one else on our end to help wish him back, since the only person anyone else cares about around here is themselves.
Now
,
if you’ll excuse me, I’m feeling tired.” She pulled the blankets back up over her head, blocking the image of her father out.

“Lexi,” he said gently. He waited for a few moments for her to respond and when she didn’t, he stood up and walked across the room. “We’ll talk sometime later, Princess.”

Lexi felt her cheeks redden
.
It was so selfish of him to use that nickname on her now.
Aside from him calling her the name back in the 1800s, it was also the nickname he had used for her when she was a child—before he
had
abandoned her and her mother.

If only she knew back then where the nickname had originated from, that it was the name he had been calling her for hundreds of years before she was even born. She’d always just assumed that her father simply wanted to call his daughter a princess, but everything made so much more sense now
—the name held a special meaning between the two of them
.

The door clicked behind him as he made his way out, and she sighed. Lying in bed all day long and doing nothing but staring at the unchanging walls was getting to be boring, but there weren’t many other places she could go at Huntington where she wouldn’t have to face people.

The door clicked open again, and Lexi groaned. “I don’t want to talk to you about this right now, Dad. I thought I made that clear already.”

“Lexi, it’s me,” a soft voice said.

When Lexi looked up, she breathed a sigh of relief. It wasn’t her father who was barging into her room this time. It was someone who she hadn’t thought of since she’d gotten back to Huntington—someone whose visit she had been expecting . . . and dreading, in a way, ever since she had make it back.

Chapter 3

“Hi, Craig,” Lexi said warmly, as her teacher and former love interest came to sit down in the chair that her father had sat in only minutes before. She felt a little nervous knowing that she looked like a bum in her lounge clothes and her hair a mess, but it didn’t matter. It’s not like she was trying to impress him.

“How are you doing?” Craig asked, his hazel eyes gazing into hers. It made her breath catch in her throat; even though she knew that she didn’t want to be with him, he was just so damn attractive. His brown hair was slicked back, and he was dressed in a tailored suit—a change from his usual polo t-shirts which made him look more like a student than a teacher.

Lexi let out a loud sigh. “I’m okay, I think, but Dan isn’t. Well, I don’t know if he is. He’s not back.”

Craig hesitated. “Maybe you could go back for him.”

“I’ve already tried,” Lexi replied, shaking her head. “No such luck.”

“Well, if there’s anything I can do, just let me know,” Craig said.

Lexi forced a tight smile. “Thank you,” she whispered.

Even though she knew that Craig wasn’t the right guy for her, the one thing she had to give him credit for was that he did always seem willing to help her. He’d driven her to the Lawrence’s house the day she’d gotten sucked into the book with Dan—except at that point, she thought that she had feelings for Craig and that Dan was her enemy. It turned out that neither was true. Well, maybe she had feelings for Craig at that point, but
she definitely didn’t anymore.

“Anytime,” Craig replied, continuing to stare at her. She got the feeling that he wanted to move closer to her, to kiss her, but he stayed put. She was
glad that he did; breaking the news that she didn’t have feelings for him was only going to ruin their friendship, which she was
really beginning to appreciate.

“So, umm, did anything new happen since I was gone?” Lexi asked. She already knew the answer; the only thing that had happened since she was gone was that he and Austin, Anna, and Gabe had gone to New Jersey to rescue Ben from Greg Lawrence’s friends. But she needed to fill in the awkward silence that was taking over the room.

Craig shook his head. “Not much, really. I just missed you a whole lot.”

“I missed you, too,” Lexi replied. She wasn’t about to mention that she probably didn’t miss him in the same way that he missed her, as more than just a friend. Searching her head for a way to get him out of the room, she said, “I’m feeling really tired, so I think I’m going to take a nap right now. I’ll see you later?”

Craig nodded. “Of course. If you don’t feel like coming to the cafeteria again for dinner, just let me know. I can always bring you a tray
up and we can eat together.
”

“Thanks. I’d appreciate that.” Lexi watched as Craig stood up and glanced over at her desk, his eyes falling on the jar that sat on top of it.

Craig turned back to her. “What is that?” he asked, motioning to the jar.

Lexi hesitated. She hadn’t told anyone besides Austin and Anna about what was inside. She hadn’t even told
Gabe
. Yet she didn’t know why she was keeping it a secret, so she decided to tell Craig the truth. “A witch from the 1800s gave me this potion.
It will make an immortal, so I
won’t
be able to
cure Wilkins’ anymore.” Wilkins’ Syndrome was the name of the disease that the vampires who were after her blood were dying from.

She opened her mouth again, but quickly closed it, deciding not to mention the part about Belinda’s powers transferring to her. The truth was, she didn’t care about being a witch . . . and part of her worried that telling anyone about it right now would jinx it. She decided that she was
going to keep it to herself until it happened—and possibly even afterwards, since she might not want everyone to know what type of powers she possessed.

A look that Lexi couldn’t identify flashed through Craig’s eyes, but it quickly passed. “I see. Are you planning to drink it?”

“I’m not really sure,” Lexi replied. “I haven’t given a lot of thought to it yet.” Actually, that was a lie. She
had
given a lot of thought to it, but it mostly depended on whether or not Dan came home. If Mary-Kate had killed him,
she didn’t want to live with the eternal guilt that she had left him there to die.

Craig cocked his head at her. “Well, would you like my advice?”

“Sure,” Lexi shrugged. It’s not like anything he had to say was going to change her mind, but she was
open to a second opinion, just for the sake of their conversation
.

“The potion will be permanent. Make sure you’re making the
right
decision before you drink it,” Craig told her, that
same
look flashing through his eyes again. “I’ll see you later, Lexi.” And with that,
he s
wiftly breezed out of the room.

*

For the first time in the past three days, Lexi left her dorm room that night. She still felt like a zombie, but she followed Austin and Anna into the cafeteria, filling her tray up with cheese drenched nachos, crispy chicken fingers, and golden French fries. If she had to eat, she might as well eat
all of
her comfort foods.

When they sat down at their usual cafeteria table, Lexi noticed that the seat next to her was empty. “Where’s Gabe?” she asked, looking down at her tray and bitin
g into one of her French fries.

Anna jabbed Austin in the ribs with her elbow.

“Ouch!” he yelled.

“You didn’t tell her yet?” Anna asked, raising a thin, perfectly shaped eyebrow at him. “Gabe told you to let her know yesterday before he left.”

Lexi’s head jerked up. “He left?”

“He went to find his mom,” Austin replied.

Lexi recalled that Gabe’s mother had left Huntington without letting anyone know where she was going. They had been hiding her at Huntington so that she would be away from the other va
mpires who were planning to harm
her just to get Gabe to show his face in Briar Creek. Lexi’s aunt and uncle knew that she was head over heels for him, so they had automatically assumed that Gabe and Lexi were together, wherever they were.

“Did he say when he’s coming back?” Lexi asked.

“Whenever he finds his mom,” Austin shrugged. “Who knows when that will be.”

“Well, I personally doubt she’s gone that far,” Anna chimed in. “She probably went back to her house.”

Lexi felt her own forehead scrunch up in confusion. “Why would she go back to her house across the street from my aunt and uncle? That’s, like, a death sentence.”

“Because it’s her home, Lexi,” Ann
a replied, glancing over at her
with her chocolate brown eyes. “It’s not easy to just leave your home behind.”

“Home is a place where you’re surrounded by people who love you and care about you,” Lexi replied, remembering what Dan had told her while they were in the 1800s, the words playing through her mind like he had just said them a moment before. “Her old house—her home, as you call it—is cold and empty and lonely. Gabe is here.
He’s her family.
She should be
here
, too.”

Austin shrugged. “She probably should be, but she’s not. Anyway, I have something more important to talk to you about right now. Why were you so mean to Ben?”

Lexi opened her mouth to try to explain, but she knew if she told him the truth, it would bring tears to her eyes. It killed her to think that her father blamed her mother for everything that was happening—and that he thought she just needed to look to
wards the future. Her mom would never be
a par
t of the future.

Instead of saying anything at all, she only shrugged in response.

“He’s crushed that you called him an asshole,” Austin went on. “He was hoping you would open up to him and try to forgive him for the past.”

“Do you even understand the past?” Lexi shot back at him. When Austin didn’t say anything, she continued, “He cut me out of his life, Austin. I was a little girl, and I needed a father. I didn’t have one. Ben
jamin
Hunter chose to not be a part of my life.”

“Lexi,” Austin started to say, a defensive tone in his voice, but Anna elbowed him again.

“We’ll see you back at the dorm room, Lexi. Austin and I need to go study for our exam tonight,” Anna told her, picking up both of their trays and leading Austin out of the cafeteria. It was obviously an attempt to
make sure their conversation didn’t escalate
, but it still made Lexi feel crappy th
at they were leaving her alone.
Sure, she may have been the one who had pushed them away, but it still hurt her feelings.

Sighing, Lexi glanced around the cafeteria. There were people laughing and talking all around her. It was the first time since she had gotten back to the 21st century that she realized how terribly alone she felt.

She had no friends at this school. Gabe was gone. Austin and Anna didn’t even want to be around her.

Even though she used to want to stay as far away from him as she could, Lexi felt like she needed Dan right then, at that very moment, as she sat alone in the cafeteria.

She had to get him back.