Stalked by Death (Touch of Death) (11 page)

“Yeah.” Alex had been in my dream, so it wasn’t a total lie. He stepped over the bodies of the souls I’d released and came to me. Arianna and Tony were already releasing the other souls.

“Jodi, you need to figure this out. Hades is going to come after you if you don’t stop this.”

“I know. I’ll figure it out. Something is going on with my powers. Maybe they’re increasing. I’ll have to learn to control them better. I’ll talk to Medusa some more about it.”

The room shook with a loud rumbling. Sounds of glass shattering and wood splintering filled the air. The entire mansion was going to come down. The floor split open. Alex grabbed me and pulled me toward the bathroom and away from the crack. Bodies toppled into the darkness. Arianna and Tony huddled in the doorway. I couldn’t see Randy or Leticia in the hallway, but I hoped they were safe.

Black smoke swirled out of the crack in the floor. This was it. Hades was coming for me. I’d broken our agreement, and he was coming to collect my soul.

Hades emerged from the smoke and stared directly at me. “I think it’s about time we had a talk, Jodi Marshall.”

He was every bit as gorgeous as I remembered. Gorgeous in a completely terrifying way. After my first meeting with Hades, I’d discovered where the term “tall, dark, and handsome” came from. Why he chose to appear to me in this form, I didn’t know, but he certainly knew what my type was. Physically at least. His personality was horrifying.

“Hades, please, let me explain.” I put my hands up in surrender. “I didn’t know I was raising those souls.” I pointed to the bed. “I was asleep. Something is going on with my powers. I don’t know how to control them. But I released the souls. We worked together to get them back to you as soon as possible.” I had to get it all out before he interrupted. Before I lost my nerve.

“It’s not her fault.” Alex came to my rescue. “She’s trying to figure out what’s going wrong with her powers.”

Hades narrowed his eyes, and I felt them burning into me. Literally. My entire body felt like it was on fire, and I knew it would be that easy for him to kill me. I tried to cry out, but the pain in my throat wouldn’t allow it. I crumpled in Alex’s arms.

“Stop!” Alex yelled. “You’re killing her!”

Chase ran into the room, pushing past Tony and Arianna. My eyes burned, and I actually saw flames. I was looking at Hell, but I could sense Chase’s blood. He came closer, and the fire went away. Hades stared at Chase, no longer interested in burning my soul. Chase didn’t say a word, and neither did Hades. They just stared at each other. Finally, Hades turned back to me. I cringed, afraid he’d pick up where he’d left off, but he only spoke.

“Figure out what’s happening, and learn to control it. Soon. I won’t tolerate much more of this.” He waved his arm around the room, and a whirlwind of black smoke swept most of the bodies into the crack in the floor. He glared at me one last time before disappearing into the ground. The floor sealed up behind him, but my room was still a mess.

“Well, he’s pleasant,” Chase said.

“Thank you,” I said. “If you hadn’t come in here and broken Hades’ stare…”

“Any time. I won’t let anyone hurt you, Jodi.” Chase gave Alex a look before he turned and left the room.

I shivered even though I was still burning up from Hades’ stare. Chase had declared war on Alex. He’d openly shown his feelings for me in front of everyone. Alex was shaking with rage. I buried my face in his chest, squeezing him tight. I wanted to show him that I’d chosen him, regardless of how Chase felt.

Randy finally stepped into my room. “Hey, where was Chase during all that?”

Leticia let go of his arm. “What do you mean?”

“When we heard you scream, we all came running. Everyone but Chase.”

We all looked back and forth between each other. No one had an answer.

Alex pulled away from me. “I’m going to find out.”

“No, please. Let it go. Maybe he didn’t hear Leticia. Maybe he was in the shower.”

“His hair wasn’t wet,” Leticia said.

Randy smirked. “And if you hadn’t already raised them, the dead bodies in the cemetery would’ve heard Leticia, too.”

Alex stared at me. “Why are you defending him, Jodi?”

“I’m not. I just don’t think we should all go storming his room, making accusations. We’ll never get an answer out of him that way.”

“He does like to avoid answering questions,” Randy said.

“What do you mean?” I’d experienced this about Chase, but I wasn’t aware he was keeping things from the others. I mean, what would Randy ask him that Chase wouldn’t want to answer?

“The other day I asked him about his parents. I was curious if either of them had more powers than other Ophi, because Chase had to get it from somewhere, right? But he wouldn’t answer. He changed the subject, and when I tried to bring it up again, he made up an excuse and left.”

“He’s hiding something,” Alex said. “More reason to make him talk. He’s got a lot of things to explain.”

I looked to Arianna for help, but she shrugged. Tony saw us exchange a glance and said, “Let me talk to Chase. He’ll only feel threatened if we all go asking questions.”

I mouthed a “Thank you” and he nodded.

Alex noticed, and he gave me a questioning look, so I changed the topic. “We’ll have to rebury these bodies right away. Hades took several bodies with him, which means we have fewer corpses to train with. We can’t afford to lose any more.”

“I’ll get started on it now,” Tony said. “You all can help me after breakfast.”

We nodded.

“Oh, and, Jodi, if you don’t mind, I’m going to leave the bodies here until we get the graves dug, okay?”

“Sure.” Unfortunately, I was getting used to having corpses in my bedroom.

Everyone left, going back to their own rooms to finish getting ready for the day, but Alex stayed behind with me. I hugged him, loving how safe I felt in his arms. I wanted to only want Alex, but something inside me was screaming for Chase, and I didn’t know how to make it stop.

Alex pulled away. “I saw that little exchange between you and Tony. What was that about?”

I sighed and sat down on the bed. “Listen, I know you hate Chase, and I know he gives you a hard time, but we’re short on numbers. Hades was in my bedroom threatening me. He could’ve killed me, Alex. If Chase hadn’t—”

“No! Chase did
not
save you from Hades. He showed up late because he was doing God knows what.” Alex was yelling now. “He’s not the good guy. I mean, did you see the way Hades looked at him? It was like he recognized evil.”

That was crazy. Hades and Chase had locked eyes, but I figured it was only because Hades hadn’t seen Chase before. He wasn’t here at the school when I’d made the deal with Hades two months ago. “I’m sure Hades was surprised to see a new face around here. That’s all, and really—whatever it was, I don’t care. All I know is I’m alive right now. Can’t we take two minutes to be thankful for that?”

Alex pulled me to him and kissed me lightly on the lips. “You know I’m thankful you’re alive. I watched you die once, remember? After you drank Medusa’s blood.”

“I didn’t die.”

“The human part of you did.”

Sometimes, I forgot there was a difference between being human and being Gorgon. But Medusa’s blood had transformed me, made me fully Gorgon. Hades hated me for that. I’d killed the human in me, and there was no soul to show for it. As far as Hades was concerned, I owed him my soul.

“I think you should leave the school,” Alex said.

“What?” I nearly stumbled back in surprise.

“I’ll go with you. We’ll go somewhere Hades can’t find you. Just until you get your powers under control.”

“I can’t leave. I have a job to do. The Ophi from Serpentarius will be here tomorrow. It took months to get them here. How would it look if they came and I’d taken off?”

Alex started pacing. He was determined to find a way to save me. I didn’t say a word. Just let him think. Finally, he stopped. “Did you ever consider that Hades might want you to get all the Ophi under one roof so he can take us out in one shot?”

I was starting to wonder about that. We were sitting ducks here. Hades could kill us all in our sleep if he wanted to. But I had a feeling Hades was a god of his word. We’d made a deal. Sure, he was hoping I’d screw it up so he could kill me. But if I didn’t, we’d be okay. Hades would honor our deal—I hoped.

Except I was screwing up, and Chase was a big part of that.

Breakfast was quick. We had bodies to bury, and I couldn’t exactly sit and enjoy my pancakes knowing Tony was digging graves on his own. I hurried the group along, giving Randy a long hard stare when he reached for a second helping of pancakes.

“I’ll take a few to go.” Grabbing a handful, he got up from the table.

“Fine. Everyone else good?”

Leticia stood up. “I’m ready. I can’t eat a thing after seeing Hades. He scared the appetite right out of me.” I was with her there.

Arianna shooed us out the door. “You all go help Tony. I can handle clean-up on my own today.”

“Ari, you’re a life saver.” I gave her a quick hug and followed the others out to the cemetery. Tony was dirty, sweaty, and dead tired. He’d managed to dig up seven graves already. I wasn’t sure how he’d done that many so quickly, but then again, he’d had a lot of practice.

“Take a break,” I told him. “Go shower, get something to eat, and put your feet up. We’ll take over from here.” Thanks to Hades, there weren’t that many bodies left. Most had fallen into the earth when he came out of it. And since we didn’t know which body belonged in which grave, we could simply dig them all up in a straight line. We’d be finished by lunchtime.

Tony stuck his shovel in the fresh dirt and wiped his brow. “Sounds good to me. Any of Arianna’s pancakes left?”

“Yeah, I stopped Randy from polishing them all off.”

“Thanks.”

“No, thank you. It was my mess, and you’ve been—” I didn’t know what to say. How did you apologize for raising an entire cemetery of corpses, drawing Hades’ attention, and nearly killing every Ophi in existence?

Tony put his hand on my shoulder. “No one blames you, Jodi. Whatever is going on here isn’t your fault.”

“Of course it is. It’s my powers that are screwing things up, and I have no idea how to fix it.”

“We’ll figure it out. I’m going to cancel lessons this afternoon. I want to do some research and make a few phone calls. Someone has to have some idea what’s happening to you. I can’t believe you’re the first Ophi this sort of thing has happened to.”

Why not? I was the only Ophi who was part human—or at least I used to be. The only Ophi who could raise our own kind without turning them into zombies. The only Ophi who was answering to Hades. Being the only anything was nothing new to me.

Tony must have taken my silence as a protest. “I mean, if that’s okay with you. You’re in charge, and if you don’t want me cancelling lessons, I can do my research this evening after dinner.”

“No. Cancelling lessons is a good idea. We’ll be digging graves and burying corpses all morning. I could use the afternoon to train these guys some more.”

Tony nodded. “We’ll figure this out. I promise.”

“Thanks, Tony.”

He gave me a small smile before walking away. Everyone else was busy digging already, so I grabbed a shovel and got to work helping Alex.

“He’s right, you know.” Alex didn’t look at me. He was focused on shoveling, and his tone was completely serious. “You have to stop blaming yourself. It’s not like you know what’s wrong with your powers.”

Sure. Except I
did
know what was wrong with them. I was conflicted. I liked Chase. As much as I wished I didn’t, I liked Chase. I didn’t know how long I could keep lying, especially to Alex.

He stopped digging and looked at me. “Hey, you don’t think it’s us, do you?”

“What do you mean?” Did he know something?

“Well,” he stepped closer and lowered his voice, “your powers keep going all crazy when we’re together or you’re thinking about me.”

I smiled at him. “No, I don’t think we’re the problem. You’re the only thing in my life that’s right.”

He wrapped one arm around my waist and pulled me to him. He kissed me as if we were the only two people in the cemetery, and in that moment, we were. I forgot about the others. This was how I wanted things to be. Why couldn’t it be this simple?

“Seriously you two.” Randy flung dirt at us.

“Hey!” I jumped back, trying to avoid the dirt.

“Hey, yourself. If you two don’t stop making out in front of me, I’m going to throw myself in this open grave just so I don’t have to see it anymore.”

“Funny.” I rolled my eyes.

Leticia leaned on her shovel and stared at Chase. “I think it’s romantic the way they can’t keep their hands off each other, don’t you?” But Chase wasn’t paying any attention to Leticia. His eyes were fixed on me.

Alex glared at him. “You got a problem, Chase?”

“I was just thinking.”

“About what?” Leticia was drooling a little.

“About how every time I see these two it’s something different. One minute they’re kissing, and the next minute they’re fighting. I’m waiting for their relationship to implode.”