Stalked by Death

Chapter 2

I bent down, inspecting the ground. Looking for marks to show the body had been dragged off somewhere. Nothing. Everything looked the way I’d left it. All except for the body lying on the ground.

“Where is it?”

“Don’t panic.” Alex spoke calmly, though his eyes furiously scanned the entire graveyard. “Maybe Tony took it somewhere.”

“Why would he take it somewhere? If Tony moved the body, it would’ve been to rebury it.” I pointed to the ground in front of the headstone. “The dirt wasn’t dug up.”

Alex walked to the mausoleum. “Maybe he put the body in here. You know, to keep it safe until we reburied it.”

Keep it safe? It was a corpse, not a lost puppy. I knew Alex was only trying to help and keep me calm, but there was no explanation for a missing body.

Alex opened the mausoleum and stepped inside. The window was still broken from when he and I had been trapped in there by zombies Victoria sent after us. I peeked in after him, knowing I wasn’t going to find a body.

“Nothing.” He stepped back outside.

“So, now what?”

“We talk to Tony.”

A weird feeling came over me, sending shivers down my back. “Alex, what if Tony decided to make his own living dead servant, like the ones Victoria had?”

Alex shook his head. “No way. Tony wouldn’t do that.”

What other explanation was there? “Let’s not ask him about it.”

“Jodi, you’re being silly. He’d never—”

“Humor me, okay? If Tony just moved the body, then he’ll tell us at dinner. He knows we have to bury it tonight.”

“And if he doesn’t say anything?”

Then, we had a problem. I didn’t want to question Tony or think he would do something as evil as use the living dead to serve him. But he used to follow Victoria, and as an adult he could easily control one dead body. I couldn’t rule out the possibility, no matter how much I liked Tony.

Alex raised his eyebrows.

“Then we’ll keep searching for the body.” I left off the part where the first place I planned to look was in Tony’s room.

“I don’t think we should mention this to Leticia or Randy,” Alex said.

“Definitely not.” I started for the mansion. “Leticia can’t handle anything else right now.”

“Are you going to talk to her about what happened this afternoon?”

I knew I had to, but it wouldn’t be easy. I wasn’t sure how to make her believe that I had faith in her. That I was only trying to protect her.

“I don’t want to say anything at dinner where Tony and Randy will hear us. I thought I’d invite her to watch a movie with me in my room later.”

Alex lowered his head, staring at his feet as we walked. “I guess that means we’re not hanging out tonight?”

“You could come by after the movie. I heard Arianna talking about this devil’s food cake she made.” Arianna had been a cook at Serpentarius, but she’d gotten tired of the club scene. When I first called all the Ophi two months ago, she jumped at the chance to come help us out. She wasn’t the most skilled necromancer, but she cooked for us and even did a little cleaning, so I was happy to have her. “How’s a little dessert before bed sound?”

Alex raised an eyebrow and gave me a sly grin.

“I was talking about the cake.” I couldn’t keep from laughing.

“Okay, fine.” He stopped at the front door and spun me around to face him. “Just promise me that nothing is going to change tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow? Why would things change tomorrow?”

He wrapped his arms loosely around my waist and shrugged.

The insecure look instantly gave him away. This was about Chase. I raised my hands to his face. “Nothing will change between us.” I kissed him, and without knowing why, Chase’s picture came into my mind. I jumped, pulling away from Alex.

“What?”

“Um…” I couldn’t tell him the truth. I wasn’t even sure what the truth was. Why did Chase’s picture come to mind? “I bit my cheek,” I lied, raising my hand to my face.

Alex leaned forward and kissed my cheek. “Better?”

“Much.” I forced a smile and went inside. I barely looked at Alex on the way to the dining room.

We were the last ones there. Tony and Randy were in the middle of a conversation over spaghetti and meatballs, and Arianna was trying to convince Leticia to eat something. A bowl of mac and cheese was on the table in front of Alex’s seat. In all the time I’d known him, he’d had mac and cheese at every meal. He ate other things, too, but he had to have his mac and cheese. And now that I knew it was because Victoria used to make it for him as a child, it broke my heart every time he ate it.

As Alex and I sat down, Arianna greeted us with a smile. “You both must be starving. Eat, eat.” She placed a plate in front of me.

“It smells delicious, Arianna. Thank you.” Arianna was amazing. She kept us all fed and clothed. In a way, she made up for not being able to see or talk to my mom. That was the hardest part about being Ophi. I couldn’t be around my human mom. Not if I didn’t want to poison her with my blood. Again. Luckily, Alex had been there to bring her back before her soul left her body. Arianna had assumed the role of “mom” from the minute she came to the school. She loved us all, and we loved her in return.

Arianna sat down in Troy’s old seat at one end of the table. Victoria’s seat remained empty. No one seemed to want it, even if it was at the head of the table. “What’s on the agenda for this evening? A lesson? Some more training?”

“Actually, I think we all could use a night off.” I twirled spaghetti onto my fork.

“Really?” Randy asked. “That’s awesome.”

Leticia didn’t even raise her eyes.

“Yeah, and, Leticia, I was wondering if you’d like to watch a movie with me in my room after dinner.”

“Oh, a girl’s night,” Arianna said. “How nice. I’m sure Leticia would love to.”

That was another reason I loved Arianna. She somehow knew everything, and she used that knowledge to help each one of us. She was aware of Leticia’s fragile state and what had happened during training today, too, I was sure. Arianna wanted us to work through this.

Leticia sighed. “Fine, but I get to pick the movie.”

“Great.” I smiled and ate my spaghetti.

Everyone chatted about pretty much nothing for the rest of the meal. I kept waiting for Tony to say something—anything—about the body in the cemetery, but he didn’t. As we were clearing our plates, I gave Alex a look. He understood it immediately and shrugged. I knew he thought Tony’s silence meant he was innocent, but I wasn’t so easily convinced.

Alex and I were on clean-up duty tonight. I’d created a schedule so Arianna didn’t get stuck doing all the household stuff. There was no reason for her to have to clean up after all of us. We each cleaned our own rooms and bathrooms, and we took turns setting the table and doing the dishes. Arianna did the cooking, laundry, and vacuuming, and she never complained. She liked being around family, and that’s what we were to her.

“You look cute in rubber gloves,” Alex said.

“You look cute with soapsuds on your nose.” I reached one glove up and dabbed soap on his nose.

Instead of wiping it off, he pulled me to him and kissed me, getting soapsuds on my nose in the process.

“Ugh, come on,” Randy said.

Alex and I separated.

Randy turned his head away from us. “Can’t you two ever stop with all the cute couple stuff? It’s nauseating.”

Alex used the dishtowel to wipe the soapsuds from his nose. “Admit it. You’re completely jealous that Jodi’s into me.”

“Whatever, man. Just wait until I’m out of here before you two start going at it again.” Randy put his plate on the counter and practically ran from the kitchen.

“What’s up with him?”

“Who cares?” Alex reached for me again.

“Alex.” I swatted at him with my wet gloves. “I have to meet Leticia in my room in ten minutes. We have to get this cleaned up.”

“Fine.” He grabbed another dish to dry, pouting in the process.

Man, he was even cute when he was pouting. I tried not to notice. If I was late for meeting Leticia in my own room, it would look bad. Like I didn’t really care about her. I had to let her know I wanted to help her and that I understood what she was going through.

We finished the dishes, and Alex walked me to my room. Luckily, I had two minutes to spare, and Leticia wasn’t in sight.

“See, plenty of time.” Alex leaned in to kiss me again.

“Am I early?” Leticia came out of the bathroom.

“No.” I pushed Alex back. “Right on time.” I turned to Alex. “See you later.”

He smiled, said a quick hello to Leticia, and headed for his room.

“Do you have any idea how lucky you are?” Leticia followed me into my room.

Actually I did. At least when it came to Alex. The rest of my life? That I wasn’t so sure about.

“What movie did you pick?” I looked down at her hands, realizing she hadn’t brought a movie.

“I was wondering if we could just talk instead.”

“Okay.” We did need to talk, so maybe this was better. I sat down on my bed, leaning my back against the pillows. Leticia stood at the end of my bed. “Have a seat. Make yourself comfortable.”

She sat down on the edge, looking anything but comfortable.

“Was there something in particular you wanted to talk about?” I asked, since she wasn’t saying a word.

She nodded. “My parents.”

Good. She wanted to get right to what was bothering her. That was a good sign.

“Why did you hand them over to Hades like that, Jodi?”

What? I jerked back as if she’d slapped me across the face. I wasn’t expecting that.

“They were innocent. They weren’t like Victoria. She made them into zombies. Tortured them. And then, instead of helping them, you let Hades take them again. Why did you do that?”

She wasn’t yelling. It was worse. She was heartbroken, and it was because of me.

“Leticia, I’m sorry. I had no idea you felt this way. That you were angry with me.”

“I’m not angry. I know Victoria was controlling them. She made them do awful things, but that was her. You have to know that.”

“I do.”

“Then why did you give them over to Hades like that?” Her eyes were red and swollen from holding back tears.

“I didn’t know what else to do. I was trying to save us. Stop Hades from taking us all. I knew I had to make a deal with Hades. He responds to deals, and all I had to bargain with was Victoria and her army of—” I didn’t want to finish my sentence. I didn’t want to risk hurting Leticia’s feelings any more than I already had.

“I know, and you saved Randy and me. I’m grateful for that. But my parents didn’t deserve what happened to them.” She lowered her head, giving in to the tears. They poured down her face, falling onto my lavender bedspread.

I got a tissue from my bathroom and brought it to her, sitting down beside her. “I know your parents didn’t deserve what happened to them. Believe me, if I could fix it, I would.”

She lifted her head and looked at me. “Can you do something for me?”

“Sure. Name it. If there’s something I can do to make you feel at least a little better, I’ll be happy to do it.”

“You can bring Ophi back to life. I want you to bring my parents back. The right way.”

My breath caught in my throat. “Leticia, I’m sorry, but I can’t do that.”

“Yes, you can. I saw you bring Alex back after Troy killed him. You have all this power. Please, Jodi, you’re the only one who can help them.” She started sobbing all over again.

I leaned her head against my shoulder, letting her cry on me. I wished I could do what she wanted, but the truth was, it was impossible. Alex had explained it all to me after I’d accidentally killed my human boyfriend, Matt, and turned him into a zombie.

“Leticia, when a soul is summoned correctly, it returns exactly as it was before it died. Do you understand what I’m saying?”

She lifted her head, looking up at me.

“Victoria brought them back wrong. They were zombies. Hades took them to the underworld as zombies. If I brought them back now, they’d still be zombies. I can’t change that.”

“So, you’re saying there’s no way to make them the way they used to be?”

I couldn’t bear to answer her. My heart shattered for her and the pain she was feeling.

“Do you know anything about me? I mean, before I came here?”

Her body shook as she cried. I wasn’t even sure she was listening to me anymore, but I had to continue. I had to explain.

“I killed my boyfriend. He was human, and I kissed him. My blood brought him back to life. As a zombie. I watched him eat a bunny. I watched the guy I was crazy about lose all sense of who he was, and it was my fault.”

Leticia stopped crying and stared at me.

“You made him a zombie?”

“I didn’t know what I was doing. I didn’t have control of my powers yet.”

“And your mom…” her voice trailed off, and I knew what she was going to say.

“I accidentally killed her.”

She nodded.

“I cut myself with a kitchen knife. She tried to help me.” I choked on the words.

“Alex saved her for you.”

“Yeah.” I took a deep breath. “I know what it’s like to miss your parents. To feel like you got cheated out of having parents. You met my dad that day in the cemetery when Victoria raised him. You know what they did to him.”

“I’m sorry,” Leticia said. “I shouldn’t have asked you.”

I bit my lip and blinked tears from my eyes. It was a lot to relive in one night.

Leticia blew her nose. “It’s just hard, you know?”

“Yeah, I know. Believe me, if I could help you, bring your parents back the way they used to be, I’d do it in a second. But I know what happened to you when you saw what Victoria had made your parents become. I won’t do that to you. I will never bring a zombie back again.”

Someone pounded on the door. Not a normal knock. Not a “hurry up and open the door” kind of pounding either. It was clumsy, awkward. I got up to answer it when a fist slammed through the wood. The hand was bluish and covered in dirt, and that could only mean one thing. I’d found the corpse from the graveyard—or he’d found me. And he wasn’t dead anymore.