Cold as Ice

by Jayme Morse;Jody Morse

“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 everyone else from the outside world.

  Chapter 24

  When Gabe closed his dorm room door behind him, he stared into Rhonda’s face. She smiled back at him, trying to seem innocent. “What was that all about? I thought I heard you talking to Lexi in the hallway.”

  “I was,” Gabe replied, sitting down on the bed. He stared at the walls, trying to process what he had just done. Why had he told Lexi the truth? He had been holding it inside him all of these months, hoping that she would never find out. Gabe had been doing everything in his power to make sure that he kept this to himself. He had known all along that if Lexi found out that he had killed her ex-boyfriend, things between them would never be the same again.

  Now, he had gone and ruined it. And for what reason? He didn’t know, and he wasn’t sure if he ever would. It was like he had just betrayed himself, spilling his guts out to her for no reason.

  “Lexi and I are over,” Gabe told Rhonda.

  She gave him a sympathetic look. “Well, I could have told you that a long time ago, Gabe. She’s not right for you.”

  Gabe shrugged. “I thought she was right for me, but I guess not.”

  “Nope, she’s not, baby,” Rhonda said, taking a step towards him. She pulled off her shirt, revealing the lacy blue bra she was wearing underneath it. “But I can tell you who is.”

  “I’m not in the mood,” Gabe muttered. Suddenly, he had a change of heart, but he wasn’t sure why. Meeting Rhonda’s gaze, he said, “Come here.”

  As he allowed Rhonda to climb on top of him and pull off his shirt, he wondered what was going on with him. If it were Lexi who he was about to have sex with, it would make sense because it would be makeup sex. But he wasn’t sure why he wanted to be with Rhonda right now—he just knew that he did.

  Pressing his lips against her mouth and pulling down his pants, he decided that it didn’t matter what was going on. Anything to keep his mind off Lexi right now was a good thing because he’d never be with her again.

  *

  In the room next door, Lexi lay in bed, listening to the sound of Rhonda moaning and the headboard hitting against the wall. She turned to Dan, who was staring at her intently. Even though she had wanted to hide her crying from him, her eyes were glossed over with tears.

  “I can’t believe Gabe did that,” Dan muttered. It was the first time either of them had said a word since the hallway incident had happened. “Here, Austin trusted him so much. And the whole time, he betrayed you. Who knows what else he’s done? I don’t get it.”

  “I don’t get it, either,” Lexi replied. What she didn’t get, most of all, was why her mother had told her that she should trust Gabe. Did her mom have rocks in her head or something? Why would she want her daughter to trust a cold-blooded (literally) murderer?

  A visit from her mom would be nice right about now, but she wasn’t expecting one for a long time . . . if she ever saw her mom again, for that matter. Every time her mom visited her, Lexi wondered if it would be the last time.

  Next to her, Dan seethed. “He’s such a jerk.”

  “Yeah. Thank God I didn’t lose my virginity to him,” Lexi muttered, just as Rhonda screamed louder in the next room. Lexi wanted to put a pillow over her ears so she wouldn’t have to listen to the sound of the two of them having sex, but maybe it was a good thing—it was just another reminder of how bad he was for her and that she had made the right decision by choosing Dan.

  Dan rolled over onto his side and looked at her. “You’re a virgin?” he asked. There was a genuine sense of surprise in his voice.

  “Um, yeah. Why is that so shocking?” Lexi asked defensively. Did she seem promiscuous? She knew that she had been involved with her fair share of guys when she had first moved to Briar Creek, but she hadn’t realized that it was because they were all drawn to her because her scent was so alluring. Plus, vampires seemed to have some sort of hold over her; they were so captivating. But that didn’t
make her a slut. She hadn’t actually fooled around with all of them.

  “Oh, I don’t know,” Dan replied. “I just figured that since you were so close to Gabe for so long.” He paused. “That day I mowed the lawn at Violet and Tom’s house, I was pretty sure that you guys did it. I mean, you were home alone and everything. If I had been in his shoes and was the one who was there alone with you, I can’t say that I wouldn’t have made a move on you.”

  Lexi blushed at his compliment. “I just wasn’t ready yet.”

  “Well, that makes me feel kind of relieved, to be honest,” Dan replied.

  “Oh, why’s that?” Lexi asked, glancing over at him.

  “Because it means that once you are ready—assuming it’s with me—I’ll be your one and only. I hope.”

  “I hope so, too.” Lexi closed her eyes, trying not to think about the alternative. She had been wondering how she would know who her soul mate was, but she was pretty sure that she knew the answer. Belinda had told her that her soul mate would find her blood just as appealing—and tasty—as any vampire would find it right now . . . which was extremely desirable. Once she became an immortal, her blood would only be as appealing as an ordinary human’s to most vampires, but it would still be extremely desirable for her soul mate.

  So, if Dan didn’t think she smelled any different from an ordinary human and didn’t find that her blood tasted better than all of the other blood he’d ever tasted, he wasn’t her soul mate. Finding out the answer would be as simple as that.

  Lexi wondered if they would know in the morning. What would happen if he wasn’t her soul mate, though? Would they be able to love each other, anyway? She doubted it.

  Sighing, Lexi rolled over and buried her head in her pillow. She wondered if they would find out the next morning if they were meant to be. If they weren’t going to be together—if whatever they had going on between them wasn’t real—it would be easier for her to move on if she found out sooner, rather than later.

  But the idea of moving on from Dan scared the hell out of her.

  Chapter 25

  The next morning, Dan woke her up by wrapping his fingers around her wrist. She shifted in her sleep, cracking one eye open to look at him.

  “Well?” she asked, anxious to know the answer.

  “You still have a pulse,” Dan replied, resting his head on her shoulder. “Are you sure what you read was accurate?”

  “I’m pretty sure,” Lexi replied, sighing with disappointment. “I doubt it would say it in a book at Huntington if it weren’t accurate.”

  “Well, let’s not worry about it right now,” Dan suggested. “Maybe your pulse will stop beating sometime in the future.”

  Lexi rolled her eyes. “I highly doubt it.”

  “Hey, cheer up,” Dan said, nuzzling his chin against her neck. “And get dressed. We’re going somewhere.”

  “Where?” Lexi asked.

  As he opened his mouth and began to say “It’s a surprise—”, she interrupted him. “No more surprises! Please just tell me where we’re going so I can dress appropriately.”

  “Well, I got to meet your family yesterday. So, I’m taking you to meet mine today,” Dan said.

  Lexi glanced over at him. “Are you serious?” She couldn’t help but feel nervous about meeting his family. She hadn’t heard very much about them, so she wasn’t really sure what to expect.

  Dan nodded and grinned. “Come on, let’s go.”

  *

  Lexi was surprised to learn that the Nichols didn’t live in Briar Creek, only Dan did. After Dan had been changed by a crazy vampire while he was working at a grocery store in Briar Creek, his parents no longer wanted to live in the town. But Dan didn’t want to leave, and a town where there were other vampires was the best place for him to adapt to his new lifestyle, so he chose to continue living with his uncle, John, who also lived in Briar Creek.

  When he pulled into the long driveway that led to his family’s house, Lexi gasped loudly. The house wasn’t just a house; it was a Victorian-style mansion, complete with a circular driveway that contained statues and a water fountain, rose gardens, and even a tiny pond off to the side, which ducks floated on.

  “Why didn’t you tell me your family is rich?” Lexi asked, turning to him with wide eyes. Touching the family heirloom earrings that she wore in her ears, she suddenly felt strange about wearing them. They were the only nice jewelry that she now owned (except for her bat pendant), but his family probably had tons of it . . . especially since his uncle owned a jewelry store.

  “It doesn’t matter that they’re rich,” Dan shrugged. “Money is just money.”

  “Well, I might have dressed a little differently if I had known that I was meeting such fancy people,” Lexi said, glancing down at her black leggings, charcoal sweater dress, and silver sparkly ballet flats. She just looked so plain in comparison to what she was now expecting Dan’s parents and his sister to look like.

  “Don’t worry, Lexi,” Dan told her softly. “They’ll be happy with you just the way you are. Clothes and material things don’t matter to them all that much.”

  Lexi wasn’t entirely convinced, but she followed him out of the car anyway. It’s not like she had much of a choice—she could either A). sit there and wait for him to visit with his family, B). force him to turn around and go back to Huntington, or C). go inside and seem like the polite girlfriend that Dan’s family was probably hoping for. So, she chose option C, but she did it reluctantly.

  Once they rang the doorbell and were greeted by a butler (yes, Dan’s family even had a butler), they were escorted inside the house and into the piano room. That’s right; the Nichols had a room that was just for the piano, as well as the Victorian-style sofas that sat alongside it with a coffee table in between them. She didn’t even have her own bedroom.

  Sitting on the sofa next to Dan, Lexi waited nervously for his family members to come into the room. She wondered how he would feel if his family hated her. Would that make him less interested in her? Her record with ex-boyfriend’s mothers seemed tied; Justin’s mom had loved her, but Gabe’s mom had despised her, simply for the fact that she was a human. She hoped that the Nichols wouldn’t hate her, too.

  “Don’t worry,” Dan whispered to her, just as she heard the sound of shoes clacking against the tiled floor of the hallway.

  “Danny!” a blonde girl, who looked a lot like Dan, cried, flinging her arms around his neck. “I’ve missed you so much! I haven’t heard from you in weeks.”

  “Yeah, I’ve had a lot going on,” Dan grunted. “Caroline, this is my girlfriend, Lexi.”

  Caroline glanced over at Lexi; her blue eyes examined her, and her face registered that she understood, for the first time, that Dan and Lexi were romantically involved. “Hello. I’m Dan’s sister, Caroline.”

  Caroline was pretty. Her skin was a little too tan for it being wintertime, so Lexi assumed that she used tanning beds regularly, and although her blonde hair looked like it had been highlighted recently, her natural hair color matched Dan’s sandy blonde hue. Her nails were freshly manicured, and she wore an outfit that consisted of basic, solid colors, but Lexi guessed that it was very expensive.

  She was exactly like the type of girl Lexi would have been friends with back in New Jersey. But now, she just felt out of place.

  Despite her high-maintenance appearance, Caroline’s smile seemed genuine.

  “It’s nice to meet you,” Lexi replied. Before Lexi had time to say anything else to Caroline, Dan’s mother and father bounded into the room.

  Lexi was surprised to see that his mom was a brunette, though her hair was on the lighter end of the brown hair color spectrum. She was wearing a simple black dress, white heels, and a British tea party-styled hat. She wore a coral shade of lipstick on her lips, which were in a tight line when she entered the room.

  Mr. Nichols looked a lot like Dan; he had a tan skin tone, sandy blonde hair, and a smile that extended to his eyes. Lexi imagined that thi
s was exactly what Dan would look like when he got older, but then she quickly reminded herself that she would never get to see because he would always stay the same as he was right now. She would never get to see him age. If all went well, she would never get to see herself age.

  Once they got past the quick introductions and the maid had been called into the room to offer them tea and scones, Mrs. Nichols sat down on a couch across from Lexi and crossed her legs. “So, Dan, tell us . . . what is new in your life?”

  “Not much really,” Dan replied. “I’ve just been at Huntington lately.”

  “That is a private school, correct?” Mr. Nichols asked, taking a bite out of a blueberry scone.

  Taking a sip of tea, Dan shrugged. “Sort of. It’s hard to explain. It’s not too focused on academics.”

  His father narrowed his eyebrows in confusion.

  Lexi wondered how much Dan had told his parents about Huntington; surely they knew it wasn’t an academics-based private school since they didn’t have to pay for their son’s tuition to go there. Actually, the whole tuition thing confused her. From what she understood, they didn’t have to pay for classes, only room and board, but Anna was paying for all of their room and board for the next year since she came from money, too. Lexi felt bad, but she knew it was what Anna wanted so that Austin could be there with her at all times.

  “Will Huntington help you get into Yale? Or perhaps Harvard?” Mrs. Nichols questioned. There was a hopeful expression on her face. “We want you to go to an Ivy League school more than anything.”

  “Mom, I’ve already told you. I’m not going to get into any of those schools. My grades just aren’t good enough. We’ll be lucky if I get accepted to a state college with a football scholarship, but that seems doubtful now that I’m not going to Briar Creek High anymore,” Dan replied. There was a patient tone in his voice, which made Lexi think that he was used to this type of badgering from his parents and that it didn’t phase him.