Cold as Ice (4 page)

Chapter 6

Lexi sat in the chair as the nurse prepared to draw her blood.

“Are you sure you want to do this?” Ben asked. He was sitting next to her, watching intently as the nurse cleaned her skin with a swab.

“I don’t think I have much of a choice,” Lexi admitted.
Ben was right—e
ven if Dan didn’t come back, she still had to find some way to protect herself from all of the vampires who were out to get her blood. If she didn’t take the potion and become an immortal, they were going to hunt her down for the rest of her life. She really didn’t want to have to hide from them until the day she died
, which, if she took the potion, may not happen for a very long time
.

Ben nodded understandingly, watching the nurse, who was reaching for one of the blood vials. She hadn’t been around him for that long, but he didn’t seem like the type to question the decisions she was making.

As the blood poured out of Lexi’s veins, she cringed. Having her blood taken or getting injected with needles had always bothered her—which was ironic because she had no problem with having her blood drank. In fact, it was the most pleasurable thing she had ever experienced.

“One down, four more to go,” the nurse said, as she sealed the first vial. “What you’re doing is a brave thing, Lexi. If you’d like, we can keep the blood here at Huntington.”

Lexi nodded and gave the nurse a tight smile, knowing that Benjamin had briefed her about what was going on before she’d arrived so that she’d understand why she was drawing her blood. “That’s fine. I wouldn’t know of an
ywhere else to keep it, anyway.”

“We’ll put it in one of the basement refrigerators, which have locks. That way, no one will get into it that isn’t supposed to,” the nurse explained.

Lexi nodded, appreciative that they were at least going to take extra
precautionary
steps to
make sure that no one would be able
to get their hands on her blood.
It made her feel weird to think that a complete stranger could drink it without her permission.

Once the nurse had finished filling all of the blood vials and gave Lexi a small cup of orange juice and an oatmeal cookie so she wouldn’t feel dizzy, Ben muttered, “Let’s hope this works.”

“Do you believe it will?” Lexi asked
, sipping her juice slowly
.

“I don’t know. Why don’t you ask Gabe?” Ben asked. “He has visions. Maybe he can look into the future for you.”

Lexi shrugged her shoulders. She turned her head, hoping that would be the end of the conversation. But when she glanced back at Ben, he was staring
at her, waiting for an answer.

“Gabe’s not here,” she offered weakly, unsure of what else to say at the suggestion.

“You can’t expect to save the world, Lexi,” Ben told her softly. “You’re only one person, and there are hundreds of sick vampires. Just remember that.”

Lexi nodded, as they walked out the door together.

“Do you mind taking a walk to the courtyard?” Ben asked her. “There’s something I’d like to talk to you about.”

“Sure,” Lexi replied. She noticed a girl with strawberry blonde hair staring at her from the other
side of the hallway, and it freaked her out a little. It was the same girl who had been looking at her be
fore she’d had her blood drawn.

Once she and Ben were further down the hall, she glanced over her shoulder. The strawberry blonde was still staring back at her. The girl’s glossy lips twisted into a small smile, which didn’t reach her eyes.

Lexi forced herself to give a small smile back and quickly turned back around. She let her father lead her into the courtyard.

“It’s kind of warm out for December,” Lexi commented, as they sat down on one of the park benches.

“Is it?” Ben’s green eyes lit up. “That is one of the things that I do miss about being a mortal—being able to tell the difference between the seasons. It grows quite boring when winter and summer
always
feel the same.”

“I think I would miss it too,” Lexi replied, unsure of what else to say.
Would she miss it? What else about her human life would she miss?

“Well, you will soon enough, I suppose.” He paused before adding, “If you choose to drink the potion, that is.”

She glanced down at the ground, trying not to feel too much pressure over the potion. The t
ruth was, she couldn’t tell
if Ben thought she should take it or not. “So, what did you want to talk to me about?”

“Are you happy here?” Benjamin asked.

Meeting his eyes, she wondered how he knew she wasn’t. Was it
that
obvious? Shrugging, Lexi replied, “I haven’t been happy since Mom died.” Actually, that wasn’t true. There were times when she was back in the 1800s when she’d managed to forget about the tragedies that had been happening in her life because she’d had such a good tim
e getting to know the real Dan.

Ben nodded knowingly. “I understand. Did you know . . .” He paused, glancing over his shoulder, as though he wanted to make sure that no one was watching. Finally, he said, “You do know that I really loved your mother, right, Lexi?”

Lexi shook her head. “No, I don’t.”

Her dad stared back at her with wide eyes. “You don’t,” he repea
ted, as though he were trying to absorb
what she had just said.

“You left,” Lexi whispered, staring down at the cracked cemented ground
beneath her feet.

“I only left your mother because she made me leave, Lexi,” Ben said quietly. “She wanted to keep you safe. After she found out that you have vampire genes and once she understood what was going on in Briar Creek, she knew that she had to get you out of there.”

Lexi tried not to roll her eyes; it wasn’t anything he hadn’t already told her before. What was the point of even re-discussing it, aside from stirring up her emotions?

“The reason I was asking if you were happy here is because there is someplace else you can go. If you’re int
erested, that is,” Ben told her.

“I-I don’t know. Where would that place be?” Lexi asked.

“To stay with Connor and Erica’s mother,” Ben replied.

Lexi stared back at him, clueless. Now, she really had no clue who he was talking about. “Who?”

“Connor and Erica are your half siblings,” her father explained. “T
hey’re my other children . . . your younger brother and sister.
”

She gaped at him. Even though everyone had told her that Benjamin Hunter had other children, part of her didn’t really want to believe it and she
definitely
didn’t want to hear about it. Lexi also thought that, since no one actually knew who her father’s children were, it was some s
ort of big secret or something.

“If you loved my mother, why do you have other children?” Lexi questioned him with a raised eyebrow.

Ben shifted uncomfortably in his seat. “A person shouldn’t have to wait around for someone forever. Believe me, I would have. But it was pretty clear to me after a few years—seven years, to be exact—that your mother was never coming back
to me
. So, when I met Darlene—Connor and Erica’s mother—I gave it a go.”

“Are you still together?” Lexi asked. She hadn’t considered the possibility that her father could still be with Connor and Erica’s mother.

Her dad glanced over at her. “Darlene and I have a very complicated relationship, Lexi. It’s obvious to me that she can sense that I don’t care as much about her as she does about me. She cares deeply about me.” He let out a loud sigh. “On the other hand, she also wants to do all that she can to keep her own children safe, and she knows about the Hunter curse. For the most part, she’s asked me to stay away from them.”

“Do they live around here?” Lexi questioned. “In Briar Creek, I mean?”

Ben nodded. “Yes, they do live in Briar Creek. In fact, I believe that you met them while you were working at Splish ‘N Splash.”

“I did?” Lexi raised her eyebrows, thinking back to when she worked at the swimming pool as a Lifeguard’s assistant—A.K.A. glorified pool babysitter—because her aunt had forced her to get a job. She didn’t remember meeting Erica and Connor, though.

Her father grinned. “Do you remember a brother and sister telling you that their mother had photographs of you?”

“Oh, my God,” Lexi whispered, recalling the incident—which at the time had really freaked her o
ut. “That was
them
?”

Benjamin nodded. “Yes, Erica is four and Connor is six.”

“How do they . . . survive?” she asked, remembering how a child named Noah, who she now knew was a vampire, had bitten into her leg—presumably because her blood smelled good to him—hadn’t bothered to bite Erica and Connor while they were in the pool at the same time. Why didn’t he go after them, too? Lexi didn’t recall seeing a bat pendant like her own on either of their necks, which made sense because Belinda had only made two bat pendants like it to hide the scent of Hunter blood, and she had one of them herself. No one knew who the legendary Benjamin Hunter’s other children were, but shouldn’t they have been easy enough to track down due to the scent of the Hunter blood?

“Once I knew that the reason you and Mary-Kate both had Hunter blood was because both of your mothers were human, I knew that I couldn’t be with another human woman again,” Ben explained. “Darlene is a vampire. We’re pretty sure that neither Erica nor Connor have the same blood type as you, but it could begin to smell stronger and more tainted by the Hunter bloodline when they mature more. We will just have to wait and see
what happens as they get older
.”

Benjamin paused before adding, “Not that it would stop the people in Briar Creek from trying to drin
k their blood. Just knowing that they are related to us would make them try to drink
from them
, so we make sure that no one can find out that they are Hunters.
So, we pretend that there is no connection between us.
I keep trying to persuade Darlene to move out of Briar Creek, but she doesn’t want to leave her mother. And her mother is too stubborn to leave and doesn’t understand the situation because she doesn’t know about us.”

By ‘us’, Lexi knew he was talking about vampires.

“They told me that their mother said I was going to save a lot of people’s lives,” Lexi murmured, remembering one of the conversations she’d had with the children at the pool. She glanced over at her father. “Why does Darlene have pictures of me?”

“I wanted her to know what you looked like in case you ever needed her help,” Ben replied. “As it is, she is offering you a place to stay if you don’t want to live at Huntington.”

She hesitated before saying, “Thanks, but no thanks.”

“Darlene really wants to meet you, Lexi,” her father insisted. “She wants to do all that she can to help out. More than anything, though, she wants you to get to know Erica and Connor. They are your half-siblings, you know.”

Lexi sighed. “Look at what happened the last time I tried to get close to one of my half-siblings.”

“Erica and Connor are different, though,” Benjamin replied, running a hand over his blonde hair. “They’re
still
so young and innocent. Connor understands the situation a little, but Erica is completely c
lueless as to what’s going on.”

Thinking back to their conversations, Lexi smiled. Her half-siblings actually
were
kind of cute as far as little kids went. And it wouldn’t hurt for her to get to know them. The thing that she wanted more than anything now that her mom was gone was a family. Sure, she had Austin, but he was so involved with Anna lately that it didn’t leave much time for her.