Cold as Ice

by Jayme Morse;Jody Morse

  Noah nodded, turning to the back door. “Yeah, come on. Follow me.”

  He opened the door that would lead them outside and turned to them. Glancing outside before stepping out, he told them, “Just take a deep breath. It looks like security has this situation under better control than we do a few moments ago.”

  Once they were outside, Noah spoke into a blow horn. “Vampires of Briar Creek! Please lay down your weapons. Alexandria Hunter is here.”

  Nervously, Lexi stepped outside, Dan at her side, holding her hand. Glancing over at the crowd of vampires that had lined up past security, she looked up at the sky, trying to seem as confident as she could, but also so that she wouldn’t see what was going to happen to her.

  She wasn’t sure what she expected to happen, but she waited for it. She was afraid that she was going to be hit with a bullet or lit on fire, even though the vampires weren’t that close to her.

  When nothing happened, she glanced at the vampires. Violet and Tommy were standing at the very front of the crowd, right next to Mayor Lawrence, whose normally red face had a ghostly look to it.

  As if to prove a point, Lexi waved at them and forced herself to smile widely.

  From behind her, Austin stepped out in the crowd’s view.

  “Austin!” Violet shrieked. Lexi glanced over at her and saw that she had cupped her mouth with both hands. Her face was turning a vibrant shade of beet red. Turning to Tommy, she yelled, “I told you he was alive! I told you that it wasn’t just his ghost.”

  Lexi recalled the story that Austin had told her about how he had helped prevent an attack from Greg Lawrence’s friends by making them believe that they had seen a ghost. She chuckled to herself just thinking about the fact that Violet and Tommy had argued about this.

  Violet took a few steps forward, and Lexi heard a loud snap. She quickly realized that the sound she had heard was Noah phasing into his werewolf form. It was unlike anything she had ever seen before; he was large, hairy and beast-like, reminding her more of Bigfoot than he reminded her of a werewolf and, standing on his hind legs, he growled at Violet, snarling his teeth.

  This was enough to make Violet quickly back down; she sunk back into the crowd before quietly asking, “May I speak to my son, please? He’s over there. I just want to talk to him. I won’t hurt him.” She laid down something that Lexi assumed was a fire torch.

  Noah glanced over at Austin, questioning him through his red werewolf eyes. Austin nodded, “Yeah, I’ll speak to her.”

  Lexi watched as Austin strolled over to his mother and, keeping a safe distance between the two of them, said, “Yes, Mom, I’m alive. Now you know. My secret is out in the open.”

  “Oh, Austin! How could you do this to us? How could you trick us into believing you were dead?”

  Austin scoffed. “How could I do this to you? Are you really asking that, Mom? Because I have to wonder how could you try to have me killed.”

  “It was the only way your father could get better, Austin,” Violet replied, shaking her head. Her hair was no longer red; it was a shade of dark brown now, but strands of gray were beginning to poke through. Lexi couldn’t help but notice that she looked a lot older and more fragile than she had the last time she’d seen her; it seemed like her aunt was finally beginning to show the signs of her sickness.

  “What about me? I guess I was just disposable to you,” Austin replied, shaking his head. “Well, I don’t care about you anymore. You’re no longer my parents . . . just the sperm and egg donors.”

  Violet looked hurt. “We are your parents! Take that back.”

  “No, Violet,” Austin said, antagonizing her.

  “Fine, if you’re going to be difficult about this, I’m not going to be nice either.” Violet took a step forward and, raised the stake that she pulled out of her pocket in the air.

  Chapter 30

  Lexi stared in horror as her aunt nearly plunged a stake through her cousin’s heart. She stood there, completely frozen in place. Dan dashed forward just in time, ripping the stake out of Violet’s grip and hurling her away from them.

  He held the stake firmly at his waist, his demeanor calm and collected. “Violet, let’s all just get along. Why don’t we talk about things? There’s no need for us to be violent here.”

  “Because,” she spat at him, “we are past the point of talking! You, especially, should know that, you traitor! It’s time for us to take action. We could solve the problem easily, if only we could just drink from her.” She motioned to Lexi, who wished at that moment that she could be invisible because all of the heads of the vampires who stood behind Violet turned to look at her. She could just see the hunger in them, as they stared at her like she was nothing more than a piece of fresh meat.

  Angry people from the crowd of vampires began chanting, “Kill him! Kill him!”

  “Set Austin on fire!” one of the guys from the crowd chanted.

  Violet reached in her pocket and pulled something out. Lexi watched as she lit a match and tossed in the air, nearly hitting Austin. Instead, as Austin ducked out of the way, the tiny match landed on one of the vampires in the crowd. He howled in pain, ripping his shirt off and flinging the shirt to the ground. The match went with it, and Lexi watched as the flames grew.

  “Mommy, I’m sorry,” Austin said quietly, taking a step closer to her and away from the fire that was forming on the ground. “I’m sorry for what I’ve done. I just got overly emotional just now. I’ve just missed you so much. Will you forgive me?”

  What? What was Austin saying? How could he just forgive his mom for everything that she’d put him through? Lexi gritted her teeth, feeling the anger build up inside of her, as she realized that her cousin might actually be a traitor after all.

  Violet’s face softened. “Aww, Austin. I couldn’t stay mad at you for long. You’re such a wonderful son, even though you have done this.”

  “Give me a hug,” Austin told his mom and, as he stepped forward, Lexi realized what he was about to do. Surprisingly, he had learned from something that she had tried out in Stakeology class once. She only hoped that it would work in a real life altercation.

  When Violet wrapped her arms around him in a warm embrace, Austin shoved the stake that he held in his hand through her heart.

  A look of shock registered on her face, but it was quickly replaced by anger and then pain.

  Turning to Tommy, Violet managed to utter, “Kill Lexi,” before falling to the ground. Her body convulsed in a fit of spasms before she slumped against the ground. Smoke surrounded her, coming straight from the hole in her heart.

  Lexi cupped her mouth with her hands. She couldn’t believe everything that was happening right in front of her eyes. Her aunt was dead. Gone. Austin had killed his own mother.

  And the crowd of vampires began to roar in anger. They all lunged at Austin, stakes in hand, and Lexi knew that it was time for her to defend her cousin.

  Glancing down at her bat pendant to make sure that she still had it on because it made her feel more protected, Lexi noticed that the gold had turned a shade of blue. Deciding that she didn’t have time to figure out what it meant right now, she focused all of her attention on the fight that was taking place right in front of her eyes.

  She rushed over to the area where they were all fighting and shoved a stake through one woman’s heart. The woman glanced over her shoulder, her glassy eyes filled with pain, as she fell to the ground as though she had been electrified. Lexi ripped the stake out of the woman’s heart, knowing that she was going to have to use it again. Her hand brushed against the smoke that billowed out of her heart, and she took a step back, just as Greg Lawrence moved towards her.

  “It’s time for you to pay for everything that you’ve done to all of us, but first I need to know where my daughter is,” Greg barked at her. “I know you know where she is. Did you kill her? Where is she?”

  Lexi shrugged. “Beats me. She’s stuck in the 1800s. Back then, there were a lot of crazy vampires.
Oh, wait, there still are,” she said pointedly, firmly gripping the stake in her hand because she knew that she was going to have to use it. The idea that she would be able to kill Greg Lawrence made her feel strong and powerful; she wanted to kill him. She had to. It was the only way she would ever be able to avenge her own mother’s death.

  Greg narrowed his eyes at her. “I don’t believe you. I don’t believe that’s what happened to Mary-Kate.”

  “Believe whatever the hell you want, but that is what happened to Mary-Kate,” Lexi replied, gritting her teeth. With Greg Lawrence’s face only inches away from her own, she could smell his breath; the iron-like scent of blood drifted into her nostrils, and she wanted to gag.

  “I’m gonna kill you,” Greg told her. “But not until we’ve all had our share of blood. I promise you it won’t be painless. I’m going to make you wish you had never been born.”

  Greg inched closer to her, just as she took a step back. Grabbing her wrist, he threw her to the ground.

  Lexi kicked him where she knew it would hurt, and he screamed out in pain.

  “Guess you’re not such a big, bad vampire, after all,” she sneered.

  “Lexi! Help!” someone yelled, and she whirled around. Leaving Greg Lawrence lying crumpled on the black pavement, she ran towards Anna, who was surrounded by three vampires, all who were much taller than her.

  Anna’s face was filled with worry. Lexi wanted to yell at her for being outside, but then she remembered that Noah had told them that the school wanted them to stand outside, to hold their ground. Shouldn’t the school have wanted to keep their students safe? Sending a bunch of barely-trained human vampire hunters out when they were under attack by vampires didn’t seem like a smart idea. If they wouldn’t protect their students, she knew that she had to.

  Lexi jabbed her stake in one of the vampire’s backs, sending the pointed edge straight through his heart. He let out a pained yelp before falling to the black pavement, just as Anna put a stake through another one of the vampire’s hearts.

  The third vampire stared at Lexi. She wondered how she could catch him off-guard long enough to put her stake through his heart, when he picked her up. “I’ve got her! Over here!” he yelled to the crowd of vampires.

  “If you put me down, I’ll let you drink my blood,” Lexi whispered into the guy’s ear.

  Glancing into her eyes, he asked, “Really?”

  “Yeah, of course,” Lexi cooed. “I love when cute vampires like yourself drink from me.”

  The guy set her down, and once her feet were solidly on the ground, she sneered at him. “Just kidding! Why would I let you drink my blood?” She raised her arm in the air to launch the stake into his heart when he slumped down on the ground. Once he had fallen, Lexi realized that Dan had been on the other side of him the whole time, and he was the one who had killed him.

  “Five down for me, and nineteen more to go,” Dan said.

  “Nineteen? Is that how many of them there are?” Lexi asked, confused.

  “It’s the remaining ones I’ve counted. Come on, I think it’s time to put an end to Mayor Lawrence.”

  Lexi followed him as he led her back to the area of pavement where she had left Greg; he was lying there still, as though he wasn’t conscious. “He must have hit his head,” she said, kneeling down to get a better look at him.

  As soon as she was inches away from Greg’s body, his hand moved quickly and grabbed her by the wrist. She tried to pull away from him, but her human strength was nothing in comparison to his hold on her.

  Greg pulled her into his grip, wrapping his arms around hers to prevent her from going anywhere and stood up. “I’ve got you now, Lexi. Do you have any last dying wishes?”

  “Yes. For you to go to Hell,” she said curtly.

  “Sorry, no can do, kiddo. I’m never going to die. Your life, on the other hand, is coming to a drastic end soon.” Greg cupped his hand over her mouth, making it difficult for her to breathe. “Say goodbye to your little boyfriend because you’ll never seen him again.”

  As it got more and more difficult for her to breathe under his grip, Lexi bit down hard on his hand. Greg yelped in pain.

  And that’s when she saw it out of the corner of her eye: a tiny spark moving closer to them.

  “Ouch!” Greg screamed out in pain, dropping Lexi onto the ground and moving backwards. Rubbing her shoulder, which she had scraped against the black pavement, she glanced over at him. Someone had lit his hair on fire. Greg rolled around on the ground and when that didn’t help to extinguish the fire on his head, he ran down the street, away from Huntington.

  Most of the vampires followed him, all racing down the street after him. The sound of him screaming and cursing could still be heard after he had made his way down the street.

  Turning to Dan, Lexi grinned and jumped up and down excitedly. “We got rid of them!”

  “For now,” Dan replied, hesitantly. “I have a feeling that they will be back, especially now that they know where you are. We should probably leave.”

  “Leave Huntington?” Lexi asked quietly. She hadn’t thought about how she would feel once it was time for her to leave this school behind. The truth was, she didn’t think she had learned that much while she was here yet. She felt like she still had so much more to learn before she would be ready to face Greg Lawrence—if he lived—or any of the vampires from Briar Creek again.

  But this place was also filled with treasures; she would only learn more about her own existence and her family if they stayed here.

  Dan nodded. “I think it’s important for us to hide from them so that we can keep you safe.”

  “I don’t think I want to hide anymore,” Lexi replied, shaking her head. “I’m tired of hiding. No matter where I go, they’ll always find me. So, I should just stay somewhere that will make me happy. And this place makes me happy. Living here with you and Garth is the closest thing I’ve had to a real home in so long. I don’t want to leave it.”

  Dan grinned at her. “It feels like home to me, too. Even with Garth.” He laughed and, locking his fingers between hers, he said, “We’ll stay here for as long as you want, Lexi. And when you’re ready to leave, we’ll leave.”

  “Thank you,” she whispered, standing on her tiptoes to give him a tiny peck on the lips.

  Someone tapped the back of her shoulder. Lexi whirled around, fully expecting it to be either Anna or Austin. Instead, Uncle Tommy stared back at her, an unreadable expression on his face.

  Chapter 31

  “I just want to apologize to you, Lexi,” Tommy began, clearing his throat. It sounded like his cough, which was a characteristic sign of Wilkins’ Syndrome, had gotten a whole lot worse since the last time she had seen him, the night of Halloween. It was surprising that his health had taken such a downward spiral since then, but if she remembered correctly, the doctor had said that he wasn’t even supposed to live this long.

  “Apologize for what?” Lexi asked, surprised that Tommy wasn’t trying to kill—or drink from—her at that moment.

  “I never wanted to hurt you in the ways that Violet did,” Tommy explained. “She wanted to punish you for everything . . . for being a Hunter. It was never your fault. You didn’t ask for this to happen to any of us You’re not the one who set this curse in motion. Neither was your mother. So, I’m sorry for the way we treated you. I’m sorry for what happened to your mother. Most of all, I’m sorry that I went along with everything Violet wanted. But I’m not going to go along with one thing.”

  Lexi raised her eyebrows in question.

  “Her dying wish was for me to kill you. I’m not going to,” Tommy explained. “You deserve to live and to be happy. I hope you enjoy your life.” He turned and started to walk away from her, his work boots hitting against the pavement.

  “Wait!” Lexi yelled. “There’s something I want you to have before you go.”

  Tommy turned and looked at her. “Me? Why would you give anything to me? I’m sure there’s so
meone more deserving of it, whatever it is.”

  Lexi shook her head and smiled. “Not for this particular thing. I can’t think of anyone who would be more deserving of it. I’ll be right back.” She turned to Dan. “Keep an eye on him. Make sure he doesn’t go anywhere.”

  “Will do,” Dan replied, but she could tell that he wanted to come with her. He didn’t want to let her out of his sight in fear that she might come across another crazy vampire who was out for her blood.

  Lexi went inside the building and descended the staircase. It was dark in the basement, but the refrigerator was in her view. She swung the door open and found the vials of blood marked Hunter. Grabbing one of the vials, she started to head back towards the stairs when she saw a white, glittery light appear in front of her.

  “Lexi,” her mom said, coming to stand in front of her. “Oh, how I’ve missed you.”

  “I miss you, too,” Lexi replied, and all of the frustration that she had felt about her mom lying to her about Gabe disappeared.

  “I know that you found out about Gabe killing Justin,” her mom told her quietly.

  “Did you know the whole time?” Lexi was afraid to know the answer; if her mom had known, how would she ever be able to trust her again?

  Her mom nodded her head. “Yes, I knew what Gabe did to Justin. But there’s something you must understand, Lexi. I told you to trust him because I knew it was important to you at the time.”

  “What do you mean?” Lexi asked. “How could it be important for me to have a relationship with the guy who killed my ex-boyfriend out of pure jealousy? That’s insane.”

  “I don’t agree with what Gabe did to Justin,” her mom began. “But I knew that if you just let him in and trusted him for a while, you would be safe.”

  When Lexi didn’t say anything in response, her mom explained further. “I knew that Gabe would have visions that would help to save your life . . . visions that would help both you and your father.”