Cold as Ice (3 page)

Chapter 4

Early the next morning, Lexi knocked on the door of the room that Austin had told her
that
Benjamin—she was becoming accustomed to thinking of him by his name, rather than as her father—was staying in.

She heard a movement from the other side of the door, and it was slowly opened. A look of surprise registered on Ben’s face when he saw Lexi standing there, staring back at him.

“I need to talk to you,” she told him.

“Come in.” Benjamin opened the door wide enough for her to step inside, and she took a seat on the beige chaise lounge tha
t sat in one corner of the room.

She eyed his room. The large living
room--which had a window seat—
that they were in led to a small kitchen and dining area, as well as a large bedroom. It surprised her to find that his room didn’t
have the same layout as the room
she shared with Anna; she’d been assuming that all of the dorm rooms at Huntington were
exactly
the same.

“They gave me one of the professor’s quarters,” Ben explained, as though he were reading her mind. With a chuckle, he added, “I guess they wanted to give me some sort of special treatment because of who I am.”

“Oh.” Lexi didn’t even bother to question why her father had been given a nicer room than the one Craig was staying in.
If she didn’t know who her father was, it would have
made no sense, considering Craig actually
was
a professor at Huntington
, while her father wasn’t
.
But, even though
Craig worked for the school, her father was more respected in the vampire community because of his family history. It just didn’t seem fair that he could be treated
better than Craig, or any other professor at this school who worked hard, just
because of
his blood and his family name.

“Would you like some tea?” Ben asked. “I don’t actually cook in here, but I’m pretty sure I saw a box of teabags lying around somewhere.”

“No, thank you,” Lexi declined, shaking her head. “I-I just need to talk to you. I need to ask you something.”

“You can ask me anything, Alexandria,” Ben said quietly.

Lexi felt a knot twist inside her stomach at the mention of her full name. No one ever used it . . . except for her father. Deciding not to object because she simply didn’t have the energy at that moment, she continued. “When I was in the 1800s, I was offered a potion that would grant me immortality.”

Benjamin nodded knowingly. “Yes, Austin mentioned something about that to me. Have you decided whether or not you’re going to take it?”

“Well, here’s the thing,” Lexi hesitated, realizing that she was telling her concerns to her father—who she should be able to trust, but who she technically knew nothing about. She hadn’t even known for most of her life that he was a vampire . . . and yet, she was afraid to share what she was about to tell him with anyone else in fear of how they might react. “I’m worried that if I become an immortal, I might not be able to save anyone.”

Ben narrowed his brows at her. “How do you suppose that drinking the potion would lead to that? I am sure that you would still be a capable young woman.”

“Well, once I drink the potion, I can no longer save someone with Wilkins’ Syndrome,” Lexi explained. She glanced up at him, almost feeling guilty about what she was about to ask. “What if I want to, though?”

“If you believe that you might want to save someone with the disease, you should probably allow them to drink your blood before you become an immortal,” Ben told her, running a hand over his longish blonde hair. “Otherwise, you may regret the choices that you might make in the future.”

Lexi hesitated. “I’m most worried that I might want to save someone in years from now—someone who has the disease—that I don’t already know about. I mean, the witch—Belinda—she told me that my soul mate is a vampire. But what if it’s someone who already has Wilkins’ Syndrome? I wouldn’t be able to
save him, so I would lose him.”

As Benjamin tapped his fingers against his chin, Lexi noticed that he was wearing a gold band around his ring finger. It made her wonder which marriage it was from—or if he was still married to anyone. Given how little she knew about him, she really had no idea.

“It seems to me that it would be in your best interest to think long and hard before making the decision to drink this potion,” Benjamin told her matter-of-factly.

She refrained from rolling her eyes. First Craig had given her the same advice and now him?
They both acted as though
she didn’t already know that she should give a lot of thought as to whether or n
ot she wanted to live forever.
It was probably the most important decision she would have to make in her lifetime.

“There is an option that you might consider,” Ben continued. “Have you thought about saving your blood?”

Lexi could feel her eyes widen at the idea. “No?”

“Should you decide that you would like to become an immortal, we can refrigerate your blood,” her father suggested.

“How long does refrigerated blood last?” Lexi asked
, intrigued
.

“For humans, it doesn’t last that long. Something like a month
, I’m not exactly sure
,” Benjamin recalled. “For vampires, though, refrigerated blood is usable forever, so to speak.” He paused before adding, “There is one thing that I’m not sure about, however. We already know that your blood will not save someone with the disease if they consume it after you have turned eighteen years old. What we don’t know is if it will save someone after it’s been refrigerated for days, months, or years. Will it still save someone? I do not know. But it could be worth a try if this is som
ething you’re concerned about.”

Lexi sighed. It wasn’t surprising that no one knew what would happen if she did save her blood—that would have only made her life somewhat easier, which is something that it never seemed to be lately. Meeting her father’s gaze, she asked, “If you were me, what would you do?”

Ben looked down at the floor
, cracking his knuckles. After a long moment of silence passed between them, he replied, “I think you should listen to your heart. If it tells you that there’s something on this earth worth sticking around for, then you should drink the potion. But if there’s not—if there’s any chance that an everlasting life could leave you feeling miserable for the rest of eternity—then you shouldn’t touch the potion.”

Lexi stood up, knowing that she had a lot to think about. If Dan
did
make it back, did she want to become an immortal? Was there something on this earth worth sticking around for, as her father had put it? Or was she supposed to go on with her life as a mortal, knowing that she could have lived forever and regretting that she hadn’t taken advantage of the opportunity that most people would kill for?

As she turned to go out of the room, Ben stopped her. “Lexi?”

She glanced over her shoulder at her father, who stared back at her intently.

“Make sure that you keep your eyes on that potion at all times. You never know who might try to get their hands on it if
they find out what it can do.”

*

When Lexi got back to her dorm room, she ended up walking
in on Anna and Austin in a make out session. She had no idea what had happened to them since she and Dan left, but they were basically inseparable now.
“Don’t mind me,” she muttered, rolling
her eyes as they untangled themselves from one another, and she climbed back into her own bed, burying her head in the pillow.

“I wish Dan would come home,” she whispered, only loud enough for herself to hear. “Please let Dan come home.” She continued whispering the same words until she had almost fallen asleep.

As Lexi was about to doze off, the covers were yanked away from her, and she glanced up to find Anna hovering over her.

“You are going to class today . . . aren’t you?” Anna asked her softly. The look in her eyes told Lexi that she was genuinely concerned about her.

“I don’t really feel like going,” she admitted. “I think I’ll just stay here and lay in bed all day again.”

“It isn’t healthy for you to act this way, Lexi,” Austin chimed in, rising from his place on Anna’s bed. “It’s not healthy for you to just lie around all day.”

“I don’t think it’s healthy for
you
to act this way when Dan could be dead right now,” Lexi shot back at him, feeling the anger rising to her cheeks. “Some best friend you are.”

Austin’s face crumbled. “What way am I acting?”

“Like you don’t even care,” she snapped. “You’re just going to class and acting like this is nothing out of the norm, while Dan could be lying somewhere in his own blood with a stake through his heart.” Lexi blinked away the tears that clouded her vision. Just thinking about the fact that this could be Dan’s reality upset her . . . and made her feel
incredibly sick to her stomach.

“You were always the one who hated him,” Austin pointed out. “You were making me start to think that you were right, that Dan really wasn’t on our side.”

“Well, I’m sorry that I ever made you question him,” Lexi replied. “Dan has been on our side—or at least on my side—all along.”

Austin’s face softened. “I’m glad you trust him now. At least one good thing came out of your trip to the past. Once he comes back, we can all be a happy family.” The tone in his
voice was hopeful and genuine.

Lexi glared at him. “Get it through your head, Austin. Dan might never come home. Even if he’s alive, he might not know how to get back.
The last time I saw him, Mary-Kate was sneaking up on him. He could be dead or in a coma even, for all we know.
” She climbed out of bed and stormed out of the room, unsure of where to go. There was no one at Huntington who could
comfort her. Not the way Dan could have.

Chapter 5

Rhonda hated that Gabe had left Huntington.
She was stuck here all by herself.
She’d begged him to let her go with him, but he hadn’t agreed. Even though she’d thought about using mind control on him to convince him to let her go, she hadn’t. There were things she needed to do back at Huntington now that Lexi was back.

Glancing at her naked body in the long mirror in her dorm room, she felt disappointed that she wouldn’t be able to strut around her room without her clothes on anymore. Her roommate, Amanda Frank, would arrive in the morning. Getting a new roommate brought back memories of what she had done to her college roommate, Michelle, after Gabe had turned her into a vampire. Just thinking about it made her feel
guilty. But only for a moment.

Rhonda really didn’t want a roommate. She didn’t want to have to pretend that she wanted to be
BFFs with someone, or that she was genuinely interested in vampire hunting—which only felt counterproductive to her own existence. Why would she want to kill off her own kind?

Having a roommate would also mean that Rhonda wouldn’t be able to seduce Gabe so easily—not with
in the privacy of
her own dorm room, at least. She’d have to go to his dorm room from now on, and while it wouldn’t make seducing him any more difficult, it was going to be just anothe
r burden that she didn’t need.

She had more important things to deal with right now
on top it
—like meeting Lexi
,
now that she was back from her
little
trip to the past.

All she had to do was figure out the girl’s weaknesses—and her strengths—to make sure that Gabe never set foot near her again. It was going to be a piece of cake th
at Rhonda couldn’t wait to cut.

As she opened her dorm room door and stepped out into the hallway, Rhonda glanced around to make sure that Veronica wasn’t anywhere nearby. Ever since the woman, who happened to be the vampire who
had
created Gabe, had threatened to kill her if she didn’t leave Ga
be alone, Rhonda felt uneasy.

At the same t
ime, she also felt more daring.

The truth was, Veronica threatening her to leave Gabe alone wasn’t going to make her
back off
. If anything, it only made her want to be with him more. She wasn’t about to give up on the one thing that she wanted out of life just because someone else didn’t think she should have him. Besides, even Gabe had said that Veronica wasn’t serious about her threats, so she likely had nothing to worry about.

“Did you hear about the murder in Long Island?” one of the girls who were walking down the hallway in front of her asked, and Rhonda stopped dead in her tracks.

“Yeah, it’s a shame. It makes me so worried about dor
ming at a real college next year
.
Maybe I should just go to a community college and commute, like my parents want me to do. There’s just
so many crazies out there that you never know who your roommate will turn out to be,” a second girl replied, shaking her head.

Rhonda reached in her pocket to pull out her smartphone when she remembered that she had thrown it away before she’d arrived at Huntington, in hopes that no one would ever figure out where she was. Once she left Huntington, she figured that she would get a whole new identity, but for right now, she was just going to hang low s
o that no one would find her.
She would worry about changing her name and everything later.

She fled to the library, where there were rows of computers lined up for students to use for research purposes. Plopping down in one of the chairs, she opened a window to check the news, nearly gasping when she saw the headline of the article featured on the computer’s homepage.
Long Island Student Killed in Dorm Room.
She hadn’t been expecting t
he case to make the front page.

Clicking on the article, which featured a photo of Michelle’s smiling face, Rhonda began to scan the words on the screen. She skimmed through the beginning of the article, which told her everything she already knew—her roommate had been murdered in the bathroom of her dorm room. Her breath caught in the back of her throat when she found her own name about halfway through the article.

Michelle’s roommate, Rhonda
Kerrigan
, has been missing since the body was found. None of her family members have been in contact with her. Her cell phone was found abandoned several hours away from the university campus, leading to speculation that Michelle might not be the only victim in this case.

Rhonda’s mother, Collete
Kerrigan
, said, through tears, “When you send your child away to college, you don’t think anything like this could ever happen. It feels unreal that my daughter could be dead right now. We only just had lunch
together
recently. I know there’s been a lot of talk about Rhonda being dead, but as a mother, I know that isn’t true. She’s out there somewhere. I only hope that whoever has her will let her go. Pl
ease let her go, I beg of you.”

If you have any details about Rhonda’s whereabouts or have witnessed anything unusual on campus, please contact the local authorities.

So, no one was blaming
her
for the murder? They thought that she, too, might have been murdered or that she was with the murderer. That was a relief, but she also felt weird thinking that her own mother was questioning
whether
something had happened to her, too. At the same time, it was easier to let her mom think that she had also been killed or kidnapped than to tell her the truth, which was that she was a murderer.

For the first time since she had been changed into a vampire, Rhonda felt really guilty about what she had done to Michelle. On the other hand, it wasn’t like she could do anything about it. The damage was already done; Michelle was dead, and she had no choice but to stay
in hiding,
far away from Long Island
, until things cooled down—if they ever did
.

Deciding that she was wasting time
and psyching herself out
by reading news articles, she
exited the window,
climbed out of her chair
,
and headed for the door. She was in the hallway when she saw her; the blonde, fair-skinned girl who walked down the hal
lway, biting her lip nervously.

Rhonda could tell right away that it was Lexi. She knew that she hadn’t seen the girl around in the hallways since she’d arrived at Huntington, but
she could just tell that it was her
. The girl
looked so fragile—so helpless; it was
exactly how she imagined a girl who had just traveled back to the past and had a whole town of angry vampires waiting for her in the present.

Lexi turned and glanced at her, a funny expression on her face, and Rhonda wanted to shrink against the wall. Instead, she decided that it was time to introduce herself. She wasn’t sure why
she had waited so long as it was
.

As she opened her mouth to say something, Lexi
had already
turned away from her and disappeared into an opening door.