Stalked by Death

Chapter 17

That was all I thought about for the rest of the night, long after the water in the tub turned cold. Long after Arianna brought me dinner on a tray because I never came downstairs. Long after Chase knocked on my door and I pretended to be asleep. When I woke up in the morning, the only explanation I could come up with was that Chase had survived because our powers had been connected. I had kept him alive.

Then, another thought struck me. How far had my powers reached? Had Alex been far enough away that he wasn’t affected? I had to ask Medusa. She would know. She had a way of sensing all of us, of knowing what was going on.

I threw the covers off and ran downstairs. All I was wearing was the long-sleeved shirt Alex had given me my first night here. It was like a dress on me. Well, more like a mini, but I didn’t care. I needed answers now. I reached the statue and grabbed Medusa’s hands.

“Medusa?” I called with my mind. “I need you.”

Her face appeared to me. “Yes, my child?”

“Alex—where was he when I killed everyone? Was he affected by my power?”

“I reached out to every Ophi who was affected. He was not among them. He was safe.”

I breathed a long sigh of relief. I hadn’t harmed Alex. He was okay. He was still gone, but at least he was alive.

“Thank you, Medusa.”

“Jodi?” Chase pulled my hand from Medusa’s.

I looked at him. “Why did you do that?”

“I wanted to make sure you were okay. You looked upset.”

“I’m fine. I needed to talk to Medusa.”

“You should be careful how much time you spend connected to her. All that power could wear you out.” He brushed his finger against my cheeks, making my face tingle from his touch.

“Please, don’t do that.”

“Sorry. I have to remember to hold back my power when I’m around you. Your blood screams to mine, and what can I say? I tend to give in to it.”

I looked down at my bare legs. “I should go get dressed.”

“Why? I like the look.”

“It’s Alex’s shirt.” I wasn’t sure why I wanted Chase to know that.

His face went cold. “On second thought, take it off.”

“I don’t get it. Why do you hate him? I mean, he should hate you. You came here and openly tried to take me away from him.”

“I didn’t have to try very hard.” He smiled and wrapped one arm around my waist.

“Stop it.” I smacked his arm away and started for my room.

“I can make you forget about him, Jodi.”

I stopped at the top of the stairs, but I didn’t turn toward him. “No, you can’t, and I don’t want to anyway.” I turned and ran to my room, locking the door behind me. I didn’t want him following me. If he caught up to me, he could use his power on me. Make me give in to him. I leaned against the door and sank to the floor. I was losing control of everything. I’d been reduced to hiding in my room. Some leader I was.

It took me a minute to realize the shower was running in my bathroom. I got up and walked in there. Steam hit me in the face. Someone was using up all my hot water. A pair of leather knee-high boots rested on the bench outside the shower. I only knew one person who dressed in knee-high boots. Lexi.

My blood was boiling, but not in a Gorgon sort of way. I was mad. I marched over to the shower, reached my arm in, and turned the water to freezing cold. Lexi screamed and jumped back, bumping against the back of the shower by the sound of it.

“What the hell!” She shut off the water and peeked her head out.

“My thoughts exactly. How did you get into my bathroom?”

She reached for her towel and disappeared behind the curtain again. A moment later she came out wrapped like a burrito. “I have my ways.”

“Found spare keys in Abby’s room?”

She narrowed her eyes. “Think you know everything, don’t you?”

“I know you’re just as big a bitch as Abby was.”

“What do you mean was?”

I shrugged. “Being trapped in the underworld as Hades’ slave is as good as dead.” I had no idea where this burst of self-confidence was coming from. It wasn’t like me to act this way.

“You wish,” Lexi said.

“I don’t believe in wishing. I wished you to the underworld the second I found out you were Abby’s sister, but that didn’t do me any good.”

“No, it didn’t, but don’t worry. You’ll be wishing again soon.” She grabbed her clothes and boots off the bench. “You’ll be wishing you were dead.”

I matched her glare. “Don’t count on it.”

“Abby will be kicking your sorry soul around the underworld soon enough. Just like that pathetic kid you killed earlier. What was his name, Ricky?”

“Randy. And believe me, she wouldn’t dare.”

Lexi laughed. “Honey, you obviously don’t know my sister.” She walked out, leaving me imagining all the awful things Abby was probably doing to Randy’s soul right now.

Breakfast was quiet. Even though there were so many new faces at the table, I could only focus on the ones who weren’t there—Randy and Alex. I’d trade all the Ophi from Serpentarius to have them both back. I couldn’t even remember why I’d pushed so hard to get these guys here.

Arianna came up behind me with a tray of eggs. “I’ve arranged for a small ceremony tonight. We’ll meet at the mausoleum at eight.”

I felt my orange juice coming back up, but I fought it. The acidic taste burned the back of my throat. “Thanks,” I choked out.

“Hi,” said a brunette sitting next to me. “I’m McKenzie. We didn’t really get a chance to meet yesterday.”

“Hi.” I put on the best fake smile I could manage. “Thanks for coming, McKenzie.”

She smiled back. “That’s Lucas across from us. He’s the same age as me. We both just came into our powers.”

I nodded, pretending to follow along.

“Have you met Mason’s wife, Carol? She’s a sweetheart. She sort of takes care of me since my mom and dad aren’t around anymore.”

“Oh,” I said, suddenly being brought back to the conversation. “Do you mind me asking what happened?”

She pushed her eggs around on her plate. “They died. They were part of the group in Washington. Hades came after them.”

My fork missed my eggs and screeched across the plate. Oh, God! Another person whose parents I’d sent to the underworld? I couldn’t take much more of this.

“I know what happened,” she said. “And just so you know, I don’t blame you.”

“Thanks.” It was a stupid thing to say, but nothing else seemed right either.

“Where are your parents?” McKenzie asked.

“My mom’s human, so I’m not allowed to see her anymore, and my dad is in the underworld like your parents. Hades took him from me a few days ago.” It felt like a lifetime ago.

“Oh, sorry.” She took a sip of juice and continued telling me who everyone was. “You know Lexi. She needs no introduction.”

She could say that again.

“That guy with the goatee, he’s Thayer. Jared, the dirty blond sitting next to him, is his son. They’re both nice. You know Carson already,” she said, moving right along. “Then there’s Asher. He’s one of my favorites. After Carol, of course. Asher is really strong, and he’s not afraid of anything.”

“What about Mason? What’s he like?” I’d only talked to him a couple times on the phone. He seemed nice enough, but not overly helpful.

McKenzie shrugged. “He’s cool. He’s been weird lately, though. Not his usual self. I guess that’s because he’s away from home. You wouldn’t believe how much he loves Serpentarius. I never thought he’d leave it to come here. Not even with all of us begging him.”

“Well, I’m glad he changed his mind. We all need to stick together if we’re going to stand up to Hades.”

McKenzie dropped her fork and stared at me. “We’re going to fight Hades?”

“Well, not ‘fight him’ fight him, but we are stronger in numbers. He won’t come attack a group this big. It’s too risky.”

McKenzie nodded. “Oh, okay.” She looked scared, and I couldn’t help thinking I had a younger version of Leticia on my hands.

“Hey,” McKenzie said, “where’s Chase?”

I looked around the table. How hadn’t I noticed he was missing? “I don’t know. I saw him earlier.”

“Weird. He never missed a meal back at Serpentarius. I forgot what a great cook Arianna is. The food’s gone downhill since she left.”

McKenzie kept talking, but I wasn’t listening. I couldn’t help wondering where Chase was. For some reason, I didn’t like not knowing.

After breakfast, Mason, Carol, Thayer, Carson, and Asher said they wanted to meet with Tony and Arianna to discuss the situation some more, so they all headed to the conference room for some adult Ophi conversation, while the rest of us went outside. I split the group up into training teams as soon as we got to the row of graves that still had bodies in them.

“Okay, those of you with more experience will come with me. We’ll work on commanding multiple souls at once. That will be Jared, Lexi—” I looked at the others, realizing I had more newbies than anything else. Plus, I really didn’t want to spend the morning with Lexi. “On second thought. I’ll take the less experienced ones, Leticia, McKenzie, and Lucas. We’ll work on maintaining control over souls once they’re raised.”

“What about us?” Lexi said. “Do we watch the youngsters screw up, or do we actually get to have a little fun?”

“Raising souls isn’t fun,” I snapped.

“Then you’re not doing it right.” Lexi whipped a nail file out of her back pocket. I thought she was going to mock me further by giving herself a manicure in the middle of my lesson, but instead she pricked Jared’s finger.

“Ow!” he said. “What was that for?”

“I can’t wear a Band-Aid on my finger for the rest of the day,” she said. “I just did my nails.” She flicked his finger, getting drops of his blood on one of the graves.

“Lexi, how do you expect to control that soul if you didn’t raise it?” I could do it, but I knew she couldn’t. She wasn’t that far along in her training.

“I don’t. I want to see how Jared does.” She smiled at him.

“Thanks a lot. I wasn’t even ready for this.” Jared looked about twenty-one, but like most Serpentarius Ophi he wasn’t used to using his powers.

Lexi laughed and turned to me. “He gets stage fright sometimes.”

“Shut up. I do not. I just need time to get my blood to do what I want it to.”

“Well, then you better hurry.” Lexi pointed to the hand coming up out of the grave. “Your zombie slave is here.”

“Crap!” Jared closed his eyes and threw his head back. I wondered who’d taught him that technique. He looked possessed.

The zombie was almost completely out of the grave, and Jared still wasn’t ready. Images of Randy getting bitten by the zombie flew into my head. That was not going to happen again.

“Stop!” I commanded the soul. “Turn to me. I’m in charge here.”

The zombie turned and faced me.

“Hey,” Jared complained. “I was almost ready.”

Lexi laughed. “Ready to what? Run away when that thing attacked you?”

Jared looked at me. His eyes were full of hate. I didn’t care if he was mad at me. I was doing what I had to.

“I lost a friend to a zombie because he wasn’t ready. I’m not taking any chances.”

“So, how exactly do you expect us to train?” Jared asked.

“When you’re ready to take over, I’ll be more than happy to hand this guy to you.” I stared at Jared. “What do you say? Now that you’re ready and not being ambushed by Lexi, do you want to give it a try?”

Jared nodded and closed his eyes again.

“Stop,” I said. “Closing your eyes when a zombie is coming for you is a sure way to get yourself killed. Never take your eyes off them. Use your mind’s eye to focus yourself and get control of your powers.”

Jared shrugged. “Guess that makes sense.”

“Good. Now focus on this guy and nothing else. Reach out to him with the power of your blood.”

Jared fell silent, concentrating as hard as he could. “Got it.”

“It’s him you want,” I said to the zombie, releasing him from my control. The corpse turned to Jared again and reached for him.

“Stay where you are.” Jared’s voice shook.

“You have the control, Jared. Don’t let him think otherwise,” I said.

Jared focused on the soul, staring him in the eyes. “Lower your arm.”

The zombie lowered his arm but kept advancing.

“Stop!” Jared’s voice was strong, confident.

The zombie stopped short.

“Great!” I said. Jared had real potential. He was already an adult Ophi, so he’d be a quick learner. “Think you can release him?”

Chase came up behind me. “Why not have a little fun first?”

“Where have you been?” I asked.

“Why? Did you miss me?” He brushed his hand against my back, and chills ran through me. “I bet these guys would love another demonstration of our combined powers.”

Lexi’s eyes widened. “See, now here’s a guy who knows how to have fun.” She batted her eyes at Chase, and I tensed up.

Chase leaned down and whispered in my ear, “Don’t worry. She’s not my type. No need to be jealous.”

Oh, God. I was jealous. What was happening to me?

“So, what would you all like to see us do?” Chase sounded like the ringleader of a circus, only he and I were the main attraction.

“Can you really make them do anything you want?” Lucas asked.

“Let’s find out,” Chase said. “Think of something really tough.”

“Chase, don’t.” I reached for his arm, but he put his hand over mine, letting his power flow to me. He was playing dirty. He knew I couldn’t resist him when he did that.

“Can you make him stab himself?” Lexi suggested.

In my mind I was screaming “No!” Out loud, I made more of whimper. I was lost in the power. Chase was controlling me. He turned to me and smiled. “What do you say, Jodi? Should we give it a try?”

“No, no, no!” Why couldn’t I say that out loud? I had to get through to him. I had to make him stop. He was squeezing my hand so tightly. It hurt and felt amazingly good at the same time. He turned toward me, taking both my hands. He was really going to do this. He was going to torture this corpse, and he was going to force me to help him. I had to snap him out of it. The power was going to his head. I didn’t know what else to do to shock him, so I reached up on my toes and kissed him.

He kissed me back, and the power shot through us. This was a bad idea. I hadn’t shocked him at all. All I’d managed to do was fuel his power. Intensify it. I tried to pull away, but I couldn’t. My blood was responding to his against my will. I wasn’t in control at all. I heard screams and finally Chase turned to see what we’d done. With the connection broken, I staggered back, my eyes falling on the body.

The corpse was lying in a heap on the ground. Lexi’s nail file was jammed into his neck. Leticia and McKenzie stared at me in horror. Like they were looking at a monster. The monster I’d become.