Once they said goodbye and climbed back into Anna’s car, Dan turned to Lexi. “Do you think that was weird? That her daughter lived in Briar Creek?”
Lexi shrugged. “People live in Briar Creek.” She gulped. Was that really true? If there were that many people, there wouldn’t be such a high number of vampires who were suffering from Wilkins’ Syndrome. “I don’t know how many people live there, but some people do, I’m sure. I mean, I lived there without knowing about vampires.”
Dan shrugged. “Maybe you’re right, I guess. I just have a feeling there’s more to the story than Mary let on. Maybe when we come back, she’ll open up about it a little more.”
“So, you want to come back?” Lexi asked him, smiling.
Dan grinned at her. “I want to do whatever you want to do. I don’t want us to get separated ever again like the way we were recently.” Turning his attention to the road, he pulled out of the parking lot and drove them back to school.
Lexi smiled, but she couldn’t help but find herself worrying about Mary and her daughter again.
Chapter 21
“Feel my pulse,” Lexi instructed Dan when he stirred next to her the next morning. She’d wanted to check it all morning, but part of her felt nervous. Even though she was sure that her pulse was gone since she’d done a selfless act, she would still feel better to hear it coming from someone else for some reason. So, instead of checking, she’d laid in bed next to him, waiting for him to open his eyes all morning. Vampires didn’t sleep, but they did relax peacefully, and she didn’t want to ruin his relaxation.
Ruffling a hand through his morning hair, Dan rolled over and glanced at her. “Okay, let’s check.”
Lexi had already explained to him the night before what she had read about the signs of immortality.
As he gripped her wrist between his fingers, Lexi could feel herself getting nervous. It felt like her heart was beating, but would it still feel like she had a heart that was beating if she was an immortal—if she had no pulse?
When Dan met her gaze, she knew the answer right away. His sky blue eyes were filled with disappointment as he whispered, “I’m sorry, Lexi.”
Her eyes filled up with tears and, for the first time since she had gotten back from the 1800s, she realized how much she really wanted this. Why else would she be so upset that the potion hadn’t worked? She felt a genuine sense of disappointment, and the truth was, she really hadn’t expected to feel this way.
“Why didn’t it work?” she whispered, turning away from Dan so that he wouldn’t see the tears in her eyes. “I did a selfless act, just like she told me to.”
“I don’t know,” Dan replied, shaking his head. He rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “Maybe it wasn’t selfless enough, though.”
“What do you mean?” Lexi asked, resting her head on her elbows. “I volunteered. That’s a selfless act.”
“It might seem selfless to mortals, but is it all that selfless when it comes down to it?” Dan asked. “I mean, you love cats. That’s why you chose to volunteer there. And you did adopt one, but . . . it wasn’t something that was really out of the ordinary for you, ya know? You did it because you love them already. Now, if you hate dogs, maybe we should volunteer at a dog shelter.”
Lexi laughed. “I don’t hate dogs.” She thought about what he was saying. It made a whole lot of sense. Maybe she needed to come up with something that she didn’t really want to do and do that instead. But what would that be?
Sighing, she got up and grabbed her clothes. “I’m going to change in the bathroom.”
Dan smirked.
“What?” she asked, afraid that she had a piece of hair sticking up or something else that would make him laugh at her.
“It’s just that I’ve already seen you nearly naked already,” Dan said. “And you feel like you have to go in the bathroom to change your clothes.”
“Well, I have to change my underwear, too. And you haven’t seen me without those yet,” Lexi pointed out. “So, for now, bathroom it is.”
Once she had changed into a pair of dark wash skinny jeans, a red sweater, and a pair of green sparkly ballet flats (it was Christmas, after all), she went back into the dorm room. Dan was standing up, talking to someone outside the door.
Lexi realized who the familiar voice belonged to right away. Benjamin.
“What are you doing here?” she asked, hurrying to the door.
“You look nice, Lexi,” her father said. “I just wanted to come wish you a Merry Christmas.”
“Merry Christmas to you, too,” she replied politely. The realization hit her that it was the first time she’d seen her father on Christmas in over a decade—and was reminded that it was the first Christmas without her mother, too. Glancing down at the ground, she tried to push the thought to the back of her mind.
“Do you have plans today?” Ben asked.
“No, I don’t,” Lexi began to say, but Dan interrupted her.
“We have plans a little bit later, Sir.”
Lexi raised her eyebrows at Dan. It was the first time she had ever heard him say the word ‘sir’, but she couldn’t help but feel kind of happy about it. At least Dan wasn’t being a complete jerk to her dad. She wondered how Gabe had acted to Ben was he was around him.
“Well, that’s perfect. If you’re not busy right now, I’d like for you to go somewhere with me,” Ben said. He turned to Dan. “Both of you are welcome to come.”
Lexi hesitated. She hadn’t really thought about what she would do on Christmas Day. The truth was, she hadn’t expected Dan to come back, so she had figured that she would spend most of the day moping around in her room or watching cheesy Christmas movies on Lifetime. She wasn’t in the mood to watch her old favorites, since they all reminded her of her mom. But even Austin and Anna had left early this morning to go visit Anna’s father for Christmas. She wasn’t sure what Gabe was up to, but her guess was that it had something to do with Rhonda.
Deciding that she and Dan would probably go stir crazy if they continued to spend as much time in her dorm room as they had spent over the past few days, she agreed to go. “Sure, we’ll go with you.”
“Perfect,” Ben said. “Meet me outside in the parking lot in ten minutes.”
*
Ten minutes later, Lexi stood outside, making circles in the cold air with her breath. Dan stood next to her as they patiently waited for Ben. Even though her father had lent Austin his sedan once, she wasn’t even sure what he was driving now.
When he pulled the white SUV up to the sidewalk, Lexi climbed into the front seat next to him, and Dan climbed into the backseat.
The car ride was long and mostly awkward. Ben and Dan made small talk about sports—something that Lexi had no interest in, and up until now, hadn’t known that her father was interested in. She asked her father several times where they were going, but each time, he had told her that he didn’t want to ruin the surprise, so she finally stopped asking.
When he pulled into the driveway of a two-story house with a brick front that had a chimney that smoke was escaping from, she really wondered where they were. “Is this your house?” she asked, turning to Ben.
He grinned. “No, you’ve been to my homes already. I live at the summer cottage in Pennsylvania or at my Long Island Bed and Breakfast, unless I’m traveling—which I do quite often. Come on, you’ll see.”
Once they were standing on the front stoop, Ben reached for the doorknob and turned it open. Lexi raised her eyebrows, wondering why he was walking into a house if he didn’t actually live there himself. She only hoped that they weren’t going to get in trouble for breaking and entering or something.
“Erica? Connor?” Ben called once they were in the house, and Lexi’s stomach dropped to her knees.
No wonder he had made this out to be such a big deal and didn’t want to spoil the secret! Ben wanted her to spend the holiday with her half-siblings.
Part of her wanted to be angry at him, but Lexi knew that she did
n’t really have a reason to be. After all, she had agreed to get to know them better. In fact, part of her even wanted to get to know them better. Mostly, she just wished that Ben had given her a little bit of a warning so that she could have made herself look better. She would have put on more makeup or would have made sure her hair was straighter—or curlier, for that matter. If she was going to get to know her half-siblings, she wanted them to get a good first (or technically third, since they had met twice already) impression of herself.
“Lexi!” Erica cried when she saw her, and she wrapped her arms around her legs. “You’re here!”
“I am,” Lexi replied, laughing. Kneeling down to get a good look at her sister—whose hair was a little bit lighter than it had been the last time she had seen her—she smiled. The resemblance was obvious now that she knew they were related; the girl’s fair skin and green eyes matched her own. She also had really curly hair, just like Lexi had when she was a child . . . and she still had it now if she didn’t spend hours abusing it with the hair straightener.
Connor bounded into the room, and Lexi noted that he, too, shared many of the same features she and Erica had gotten from their father. His hair was a disheveled mess, but it was the same shade as theirs.
“Hi, Lexi,” Connor said sheepishly. “Dad told us last night that you were coming.”
“Did he?” Lexi asked, glaring at her dad. “What would you have done if I couldn’t have made it today?”
“I knew you’d be able to,” Ben replied with a wink. “We Hunters always make time for family, don’t we?”
Lexi wanted to mutter that it hadn’t always been that way, but she knew she was only going to create a scene—on Christmas Day, no less—if she did. And she really didn’t want to ruin Christmas for Connor and Erica. They, at least, deserved to have a joyful holiday, even if hers hadn’t always felt so joyful over the years.
“So, what did you guys get for Christmas?” Lexi asked, trying to make conversation with her siblings.
“I got a bunch of stuff, but my favorite is the Disney princess set,” Erica said, holding up a red-haired doll with a green tail that Lexi quickly recognized as Ariel from The Little Mermaid. “Maybe we can play dolls later.”
“Sure,” Lexi agreed with a smile. “Can I be Belle? She was always my favorite.”
Erica beamed. “Sure! I love Beauty and the Beast. Belle’s my second favorite next to Ariel.”
“And what did you get, Connor?” Lexi asked, trying to include her brother in the conversation.
“Some G.I. Joe’s. Glow in the dark stars for my bedroom. And a telescope. I’m really into star viewing,” he explained.
“That sounds really cool. Maybe you can show me the Little Dipper sometime,” Lexi said, naming the first constellation that came to mind. She never actually paid that much attention to the stars (although she did think they were pretty), but she just wanted to make the effort to try to bond with her half-siblings.
“Okay, cool.” Connor grinned. Noticing Dan for the first time, he asked, “Who is that?”
“Yeah, who is he?” Erica asked, with a tone in her voice that made Lexi think she was about to put her hands on her hips defensively.
Lexi laughed. “This is my, um, boyfriend, Dan.”
Dan glanced over at her, and by the look on his face, she knew that he was surprised that she had called him her boyfriend, since they technically hadn’t made things official yet. She hoped he didn’t mind.
“Boyfriend, huh?” Connor asked, sizing Dan up. “You better not hurt my sister.”
Lexi nearly burst into laughter at her younger brother’s tough guy approach. It was one of the cutest things she had ever witnessed.
“Don’t worry, buddy,” Dan replied, shaking his head. “I don’t intend to hurt her.” He glanced over at Lexi, and she couldn’t help but think how honest his sky blue eyes looked. And it definitely didn’t seem like he cared that she had called him her boyfriend, either.
“Lexi? Can I talk to you in the kitchen?” Ben asked. From the tone of his voice, she knew that he wanted this to be a private conversation between the two of them.
“Sure. I’ll be right back, guys,” she told Erica and Connor. “Keep Dan company while I’m gone, okay?”
“We will,” Erica said, nodding her head. Turning to Dan, she asked, “Wanna play my Dora the Explorer game?”
“Sure, why not?” Dan asked, glancing over at Lexi and smiling at her.
She followed her father into the kitchen. He motioned for her to sit down at the kitchen island, and she did.
“So, Dan’s your boyfriend now?” Ben asked, accusingly. “I thought you were seeing Gabe.”
“Yeah, well, let’s just say that things with Gabe didn’t work out,” Lexi replied. Rolling her eyes, she added, “I’m sure you’ve seen him around school with his new girlfriend . . . Rhonda.”
Her father’s face softened a little, and he exclaimed, “Oh, Lexi! That’s no big deal. She’s just his offspring. I can’t even tell you how awkward it is for me to be living under the same roof as the vampire who created me.”
She wanted to say something about how after not being in her life for so long, he really didn’t have the right to offer her advice about her relationship, but she refrained because she realized what he had just told her. Blinking, Lexi asked, “You live with the vampire who created you?” Lowering her voice, she asked, “Is it Darlene?”
She had assumed that her father hadn’t met Darlene until after he was with her mom, but maybe they had known each other for a long time. Maybe that’s why things between them were supposedly so complicated.
Benjamin laughed. “I didn’t mean at home. And to be technical, Darlene and I don’t live together. She lives here, and I have my own home. Anyway, I meant that lately I’ve been living at Huntington, and the vampire who created me also lives there.”
“Who?” Lexi asked, genuinely curious. Had her dad been romantically involved with one of the students? The thought made her feel strange, but it didn’t seem too far-fetched. She’d had a relationship with Craig—not that it had ever been a real relationship. Thinking about Craig now made her cringe.
“Well, I hope that me telling you this won’t make things awkward for you at all.” Ben hesitated. “I know that you see her on a near daily basis when you’re at Huntington.”
“It won’t make things awkward, I promise,” Lexi insisted. “Just tell me, please.”
“It’s one of your teachers. Veronica Hart.” Ben studied her face closely for a reaction.
Lexi looked down at the granite countertop and wrung her hands, as she tried to absorb this information. It was awkward that the same vampire who had turned her ex-boyfriend or lover or whatever Gabe had been to her was also the same vindictive vampire as her own father had been turned by.
No wonder Veronica had made that comment the first time she’d met her about knowing her father. She knew him better than most vampires or people did. He was her offspring, so she actually knew where he was at all times. The thought made Lexi shift in her seat uncomfortably.
“What happened between the two of you?” Lexi questioned, trying to sound more casual than curious. “Were you ever romantically involved?”
“We were romantically involved,” her father replied. “For about ten years. We eventually decided to go our separate ways. It wasn’t that we didn’t care deeply about one another, but it was the fact that we simply grew bored of each other’s presence. Being with someone forever doesn’t happen often. Only with soul mates, usually. And I don’t believe for a second that Veronica was my soul mate. So, I broke it off with her.”
The mention of soul mates reminded Lexi that the witch had told her that she had one herself. She wondered if it was possible that her soul mate could be Dan, or if it was someone else. “So, that was it? You just ended it and never talked to each other again until now?”
“Oh, we saw each other over the years. It’s difficult not to run into someone when you
have hundreds of years’ worth of chances to bump into them. In fact, your mother and I once saw her when you were just a baby. She found out that you existed, and she congratulated me. Later, she sent me a letter telling me that she wished that things had been different between us.” Her father shook his head. “I’m not sure that I felt the same way. I’m happy with most of the choices I’ve made in my life.”
“You don’t regret ending it with her then?” Lexi asked, knowing that her voice probably sounded hopeful. It would pain her to know that both her father and Gabe still wanted to be with Veronica—and even though Gabe had claimed that nothing had happened between the two of them in recent times, Lexi was beginning to have her doubts . . . especially after the way he had been acting with Rhonda lately. It was obvious that Lexi’s relationship with him had been very disposable to him.
If her dad and Gabe both wanted to still be with Veronica, though, it felt like the woman had won, in some sense. And Lexi definitely didn’t want to feel like she had been defeated, especially not by someone as spiteful as Veronica.
Benjamin shrugged. “It was many years ago, and things were very different then. I mean, you saw what things were like. Men and women dressed differently, acted differently, and treated each other differently. Back then, Veronica was a nice woman. She was a little more headstrong than many other women were during that time, but I always assumed that it had something to do with her being a vampire and all. In a way, it made her seem more sophisticated and more of a feminist than other women of her time. Years later, I can see that it wasn’t just that. She’s still headstrong, so I think it’s just who she is. Now, though, it’s much less appealing to me.”
“Has she tried to get back together with you since you came to Huntington?” Lexi questioned. She had a feeling that the answer would be ‘no’, mostly because of the way Veronica had been acting towards Gabe lately. It seemed like getting him back was her one and only goal in life right now. But, maybe she had been acting that way towards Ben, too. Maybe she was just desperate and clingy.
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