Burn Like Fire (11 page)

Chapter 21

Anna extended her hand to knock on the door of Dan and Lexi’s motel room, but before her hand could even hit against the wood, the door was opened.

“Oh, perfect timing!” Dan said with a grin. “Would you mind filling this ice bucket for Lexi? I don’t want to miss the rest of the Game of Thrones episode I’m watching.”

Anna raised her eyebrows. “They actually have good TV stations at this place?”

Dan shook his head. “Nah, I’m watching it on my laptop. It was right at the good part when I paused it, though.”

Anna rolled her eyes and laughed at him. “Alright, I’ll go get the ice. I’ll be right back.”

Dan closed the motel room door as Anna headed down the sidewalk that led to the vending machines. She thought about the morning she’d had with Austin. He had been abnormally quiet before saying that he was going to take her car for a drive. Anna asked where he was going, and he hadn’t been able to answer her. It felt like he was really distant and as though he really wanted to talk to her about something, but she couldn’t figure out what it was about or why.

Sighing, Anna held the cup underneath the ice dispenser. As the cubes clunked to the bottom of the cup, a trail of goose bumps ran down her arms and a chill shivered its way down her spine.

Anna got the feeling that someone was watching at her, staring at the back of her head.

Who could be watching her, though? They were at a motel that was all but abandoned aside from her, her friends, and the annoying motel manager (or whatever he was). Even so, she couldn’t seem to shake the feeling, so she slowly turned around.

When she turned back around, her heart dropped to her stomach. Someone
was
staring at her, watching her intently, but it wasn’t who Anna expected to see.

“Oh, Anna, Anna, Anna.” Rhonda giggled, tossing her copper hair over her shoulder. “Didn’t you listen to Headmaster Morton? You’re not supposed to go off on your own. You’re supposed to stick with others so you don’t get hurt.” A sinister smile was plastered on her face as she said the words.

“What are you doing here?” Anna questioned. A thousand thoughts were running through her mind. Even though Rhonda had never done anything to her personally, Anna knew what she was capable of. And it sort of worried Anna that Rhonda had managed to get her all alone in the empty motel hallway; it felt like she was trying to corner her for some reason, but why?

“I’m here to take you for a little ride.” Rhonda smiled. “You do want to go for a ride with me, don’t you, Anna?” When Rhonda stared at her, there was a look of focus in her eyes; it was the same look Anna had seen Rhonda use when she controlled Gabe to do whatever she wanted.

No
, Anna thought to herself.
You can’t let her get away with this. You have to try to fight it.

She tried to remember what she had learned about mind-control in class. Anna was pretty sure that there was only one thing that supposed to help—and that was to look away from the vampire who was trying to control your mind. As long as you didn’t stare into their eyes, you might be okay.

Anna darted her eyes away from Rhonda and back to the ice that she held in her hands. “No, I don’t want to go for a ride with you.”

“Oh, of course you do. Come on, don’t rain on my parade. We’re going to go somewhere fun. I have a party planned for you and everything,” Rhonda insisted.

Even though Anna didn’t look up at Rhonda, she could hear the sinister smile and the evil look she knew she held in her eyes.

“You shouldn’t have told Headmaster Morton the truth about me, Anna,” Rhonda went on. “It wasn’t a nice thing to for you to do. I thought we were supposed to be friends.”

Anna felt her heart drop to her stomach. So, that’s what this was all about. Rhonda had somehow found out that she’d told Chris Morton that she had been using mind-control over Gabe, and now she was out to get her revenge.

Afraid of what Rhonda might do next, Anna glanced around for some sort of weapon. But she had left her matches back in the motel room and she didn’t have a stake on hand. There was nothing around that she could even use in the form of a stake to pierce Rhonda’s heart if she needed to; the only thing that she had was the bucket of ice that she held in her hands.

“Aren’t you going to explain your behavior to me?” Rhonda questioned. It sounded like she was starting to get annoyed by the fact that Anna wasn’t looking at or even speaking to her.

“I don’t have to explain anything to you,” Anna replied. “I would appreciate it if you would just leave me alone. I have nothing to say to you.”

Rhonda scoffed. “I don’t think so, bitch.”

Anna heard the sound of Rhonda’s shoes hitting against the sidewalk as she walked over to her. Anna tried to think of a way to escape, but the vending machine was wedged into a little nook in the motel strip.

Before she could figure out what to do, Rhonda was already next to her, forcing Anna to look into her eyes. “Anna, you’re coming with me,” Rhonda said, but Anna wasn’t actually sure if Rhonda had said the words aloud or not.

All she knew was that she suddenly had an urge to go with Rhonda. As Rhonda turned to the parking lot, Anna followed her—feeling, the whole entire way, like someone was dragging her by her shoelaces, like she was a puppet on strings. But there was nothing Anna could do to try to stop it; she knew that she had no choice but to go with Rhonda.

Rhonda opened one of the back doors and glanced over at Anna. “Get in.”

Anna nodded and climbed into the backseat of the car. At first she wondered why she had to sit in the backseat when Rhonda was all alone, but then Gabe turned around.

“Hey, Anna,” he mumbled quietly. Gabe stared at her for a long moment. Anna wasn’t positive, but she thought he mouthed, “I’m sorry,” to her.

When Rhonda climbed into the front seat, Gabe quickly turned around and faced the front of the car.

“Where should we do this, Gabe?” Rhonda wondered aloud.

Gabe shrugged. “I don’t know. I’ve never been to Boston before.”

“We’re going to Boston?” Anna wondered aloud.

“No, we’re already
in
Boston,” Gabe replied, glancing over his shoulder at her and giving her a strange a look.

“Um, no, we’re not. We’re in Ohio,” Anna replied, narrowing her eyes at him. She quickly realized what was going on. For some reason, Rhonda had tricked Gabe into believing they were in Boston.

“No, we’re not in Ohio,” Rhonda said, turning around to glance over at Anna. “We’re in Boston.”

“We’re in Boston,” Anna mumbled, her mind becoming a confused jumble. As she stared out the windshield ahead of her as Rhonda pulled out of the parking a lot, she thought about what she’d
just said.

The words didn’t feel quite right . . . so why had she said them at all?

Chapter 22

Gabe was confused. He couldn’t figure out why Anna was in the car with him and Rhonda, when she really should have been back at Huntington. What confused him even more was why Anna seemed to think they were in Ohio when he knew they were in Boston.

At least, he’d thought they were in Boston. He
had
been surprised at how unpopulated the city was; it hadn’t been at all what he expected. Maybe they were just in a part of Boston that wasn’t that popular, though.

“Where are we going?” Anna asked from the backseat.

“We’re going to a party,” Gabe said, the words flowing from his mouth, even though he wasn’t exactly sure why he thought them. He turned to Rhonda. “We’re going to a party?”

“Yes, that’s right Gabe,” Rhonda replied, her lips twisting into a sexy smile. “We’re going to a party. It’s going to be loads of fun.” She glanced in the rearview mirror. “Anna is going to be our guest of honor.”

“I’m going to a party,” Anna said aloud, “and I’m going to be the guest of honor.”

Gabe frowned. Something about Anna’s voice didn’t sound quite right. She sounded sort of monotone, like she were a robot. He wondered why she wasn’t excited to be a guest of honor at this party they were going to.

“Are there going to be other vampires at the party?” Gabe asked, turning to Rhonda.

Rhonda laughed. “You’ll see once we get there. But it’s going to be an experience that none of us will ever forget, I can promise you that.”

Gabe slumped down in his seat and watched out the window as they passed a strip mall and then a diner. “I think I like Boston.”

“I like Boston, too,” Rhonda replied, turning to smile at him. “It almost makes me wish we could stay here.”

“Maybe we can,” Gabe mumbled in response, even though, once again, it felt like the words were flowing out all on their own. “It doesn’t really matter, though. As long as you and me are together.”

Rhonda glanced over at him and smiled. She touched his hand.

They drove in silence for a few minutes longer. Finally, Rhonda said, “Here. This is where the party is being held.” She pulled into a tiny dirt road that was lined with trees.

“Is there a house back here somewhere?” Gabe questioned.

“Yeah, somewhere,” Rhonda replied. Once she had driven about a quarter of a mile further down the road, she stopped the car and turned off the ignition. “Get out.”

Gabe didn’t even question her; he did exactly as she said, although it didn’t seem like he could have stopped it even if he wanted to.

Anna climbed out of the backseat and slammed her car door behind her. Gabe noticed that she looked nervous for some reason, as she twirled a piece of her pink highlighted hair around her finger and tapped her foot anxiously against the dirt road.

“Come on,” Rhonda instructed them. Gabe fell into place behind her, while Anna stood frozen in place behind them. Rhonda glanced over her shoulder and said, more loudly, “Come on, Anna.”

“Okay.” Anna began to follow them, this time looking more eager about it. “I’m excited for this party. It’s going to be so much fun,” she said, again in that robot-like voice.

“You
should
be excited about the party,” Rhonda replied, nodding. “It’s going to be the most important day of your life.”

Gabe followed Rhonda as she led them deeper into the forest, climbing over the logs and brush on the forest floor and skirting in between trees.

Finally, when they got to a tiny clearing, she turned to Anna. “Kiss Gabe,” she instructed.

“But I love Austin,” Anna mumbled.

Rhonda gave her a look that even Gabe knew said
do-what-I-say-or-someone’s-going-to-get-hurt
, and Anna took a step closer to him. She stood up on her tiptoes and pressed her lips against his mouth.

It felt weird for Anna to kiss him. Her lips felt unfamiliar to him, and he didn’t feel any spark when he touched her skin—which didn’t even have the same delicious smell that most humans did. He knew that was because vampires generally didn’t find humans who they weren’t attracted to all that alluring. Lexi and, at one point, Caroline had only smelled so good to him because he was in love with them. He didn’t feel anything for Anna.

But, then his feelings towards her seemed to change. As she took a step back from him, he suddenly wanted to kiss her more—and he wanted to drink her blood like he had done that one time in the past when she’d saved him after he’d had one of his dangerous visions. Even though her blood hadn’t tasted as good as Lexi or Mary-Kate’s because they’d had Hunter blood, there was something about it that made him long for it right now.

“Yes, that’s right, Gabe. Drink from Anna,” Rhonda said, seeming to notice the sudden urge that he had to taste Anna’s blood.

Gabe latched onto Anna’s neck and listened as she sighed into his shoulder. The savory taste of her blood filled his mouth and, even as he drank, his hunger intensified. He wanted more.

He began to pull away from her, but a magnetic force seemed to pull him back to her. He wasn’t sure if he heard Rhonda say the words aloud or in his mind, but her soft voice whispered to him.
Kill her.

Chapter 23

“Dan? Did you get the ice?” Lexi called impatiently from the bathroom, where she’d been standing, completely naked,
waiting for him to come back with the ice bucket so she could try to make her own shower.

“Oh, crap,” Dan said, coming to stand in front of the bathroom door. “I asked Anna to get it, but it’s been ten minutes. She should have been back by now.”

“Well, do you think you can go get it instead, then?” Lexi asked impatiently.

“Sure, I’ll be right back. Sorry about that,” he apologized.

“It’s okay.”

Lexi waited. She heard Dan close the front door to their motel room. A few moments passed, and the door was opened again.

“Lexi?” Dan called to her. “You gotta get dressed. There’s something you need to see.”

Groaning because she hated putting dirty clothes back on and because she didn’t want to change into clean clothes until she was able to take a shower, Lexi shrugged back into her clothes. Once she was dressed again, she stepped out of the bathroom. “What do I need to see?”

“Come on,” Dan said, motioning for her to follow him out the front door.

Lexi closed the motel room behind them, not bothering to lock it. There was hardly anyone staying at this motel, anyway, so she wasn’t worried about anyone stealing anything.

Once they were at the vending machines, Dan bent down to the ground and picked something up. “Look, this is our ice bucket.”

Lexi raised her eyebrows at him. “How do you know?”

“It has the number two on it,” Dan said, pointing at the silver-trimmed number on the ice bucket. “See?”

Lexi nodded. “Yeah, I see. Okay, so, what’s the big deal? Do you think someone stole it from
our room or something?”

“No, no.” Dan shook his head and explained, “When I asked Anna to get you ice, I sent her out with our bucket. And then when I came out here, I found the bucket lying on the ground. Something’s not right.”

A sinking feeling filled Lexi’s stomach as she realized that Dan was right. Something wasn’t right with this situation. Something had happened to Anna . . .

At that moment, Austin pulled Anna’s Ford Escalade into the motel parking lot. He swung the car door open and climbed out, grumpily, without even realizing they were there.

“Austin!” Lexi called over to him. “Come here!”

“What is it?” Austin called back.

Lexi rushed over to him and said, breathlessly, “We think something happened to Anna.”

A look of worry filled Austin’s eyes. “What do you mean you think something happened to Anna? What do you think happened to her?”

“We’re not sure,” Lexi replied, “but she was getting ice and now the ice bucket is here, but . . . she’s not.”

Austin closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “Come on, let’s go check our room.”

Austin led the way to the room he was sharing with Anna. He unlocked the door and pushed it open.

Holding her breath and hoping Anna was inside, Lexi followed Austin inside. All of the lights in the room were turned off, and there was no noise coming from the TV or anything else inside the room.

Austin went inside the bathroom and turned the light on. When he turned back to Lexi, he had a worried look on his face. “She’s not here.”

“Well, we have to do something to find her,” Dan insisted. “That Geoff guy might have gotten ahold of her. Or maybe even that creep, Darius.”

“Yes, it could be them,” Lexi agreed, feeling a wave of nausea wash over her. She hadn’t even considered the possibility that Anna’s mother’s killer or Darius could be the ones responsible with whatever had happened to Anna. “We have to find her . . . and we need to hurry!”

“How are we going to find her?” Dan asked, sighing. “Should we check Westbrooke?”

Austin shook his head. “No, even if Darius has something to do with this, I don’t think he would have taken her back to Westbrooke. It would be too obvious. He would have taken her to his house or something.” He hesitated. “I don’t know, but I don’t think we’re going to find out the answer here. Let’s go.” He headed out of the room and started for the car.

Lexi followed him, wishing her mom had mentioned that something like this was going to happen. She knew it would have meant that her mom had to break the rules, but it was still frustrating to not know what was going on with one of her best friends.

She climbed into the passenger’s seat next to Austin, and Dan sat in the back. Austin pulled out of the parking lot and onto the main road, frantically glancing around to see if he could see Anna anywhere.

“Dammit! What do we do?” Austin wondered aloud. “I wish Anna had let me change her into a vampire, dammit! If she was a vampire and something happened to her, I would know exactly where she was. Right now, I have no freaking clue where to look for her.”

Lexi glanced out the window as they passed by a farm. She watched the cows grazing on the grass and tried to come up with an idea of where Anna could be. It’s not like this place was familiar to them, and she doubted that Anna would go off somewhere without at least asking one of them to come along with her.

As she glanced out the window, she noticed a billboard featuring a magnifying glass. It read:
Do you see what I see?

“I need something to see out of!” Lexi exclaimed, realizing that there was something she could possibly do.

“Something you can see out of?” Dan questioned. “You mean like glasses?”

Lexi shook her head, trying to think of what she should use. And then it dawned on her. She pulled down her sun visor and glanced into the mirror.

“Dark as night, light as day, let me see where Anna is and if she’s okay,” Lexi said, the words flowing off the tip of her tongue with ease.

At first, as she stared at her own reflection, Lexi didn’t think that anything was happening, but then she noticed that the mirror started to cloud up and tiny green dots began to form in the glass. Except, they weren’t really dots at all—they were leaves, and the brown lines that formed beneath them were tree trunks.

Lexi gasped, feeling pleased that her charm had worked. When Austin glanced over at her questioningly, she explained, “Wherever she is, she’s in the woods.”

Lexi watched as the image in the mirror changed. She saw a girl with copper waves of hair staring straight ahead. “Oh, my God,” Lexi whispered. “It’s Rhonda. Rhonda has her.” She stared at Rhonda for a few minutes; she was staring ahead of her with a look of intrigue in her eyes, as though she were watching something.

The mirror changed again. This time, though, it didn’t change to scenery or a face. The mirror began to fog up, but not with the cloudy, steam-like fog that formed when it was too cold. It turned a solid shade of red. Lexi began to feel sick to her stomach.

Red could only mean one thing . . . Blood.