Stalked by Death

Chapter 27

Chase picked me up and sat me on the bed. “Calm down. You’re better off without him. He wasn’t strong enough for you.” He held me and smoothed my hair, not using any of his power on me.

After I couldn’t cry anymore, I looked up at him with puffy eyes. “This is the guy I was talking about. This is who you used to be.”

“I don’t want to talk about that.” He leaned down and kissed me, just a small peck on the lips.

“I need you to tell me about your mom.”

“Shh.” He kissed me again, and this time he transferred his power to me. He wasn’t playing fair. He was making me forget what he didn’t want to answer. He was making me feel better about Alex walking out on me again. He was making me want him. I ran my fingers through his hair and kissed him back. The tingling coursed through me until my entire body felt like a live wire. All I could think about was Chase and wanting to be closer to him.

Then the power stopped. Chase took it away, and he let go of me. For the first time, after the power connection ended, I still wanted him.

“What are you doing? Kiss me,” I said.

“Is that what you really want?” He looked different, sad.

“Yes.”

“What if I didn’t give you my power at the same time? Would you still want me to kiss you?”

“What do you mean? Why wouldn’t you give me your power?”

“I’ll give you all you want after you choose me. After you swear that you and Alex are history. Nothing more than a memory.”

Alex. His name brought waves of pain. Heartache. “You don’t just stop loving someone.”

“Jodi, we have to fulfill this prophecy, and until you commit to me, I’m cutting you off from my power.”

“You won’t connect with me at all? Not even to bring my dad here? We were going to spy on Hades. See what he’s planning so we could be ready for the attack. I can’t do that without you.” I reached for his hands, sending him some of my power.

He pulled away before he could be sucked in by it. “Don’t try that on me. I invented that game.” He stood up. “Sleep on it. Decide who you want. Be sure. Because whatever you decide, the decision is final. If you pick Alex, you’ll never see me or your dad’s soul again. If you pick me, Alex goes.” He walked out of the room, pausing in the hall. “Alex will never be able to do for you what I can. Remember that.” He left.

I fell back on the mattress and stared at the ceiling. The decision should’ve been easy. Alex. I loved him. But Chase and I were destined to be together. He had the ability to be a good person. He just needed someone to help him get there, and if I didn’t choose Chase, I’d have another enemy. I didn’t need any more of those. But could I give up Alex? Would Alex even take me back at this point?

Sometime around three in the morning, I finally dozed off. My questions all went unanswered, yet I knew Chase was expecting an answer in the morning. I woke up drenched in sweat, feeling like I was in the middle of a hellfire. I sat up and looked around the dark room. Even without any light, I felt the presence of someone in the room. I reached for the lamp on the nightstand. A corpse was standing at the foot of my bed.

“Not again.” I was about to release him when something hit me. The feeling of hellfire. Where had I raised this soul from? I got up and walked over to him. He turned so he was facing me. His movements were awkward, like the body was unfamiliar, not really his.

“What’s your name, and where did you come from?”

He opened his mouth, struggling to form words. Finally he said, “Derek Colgan. Tartarus.”

I had to grip the bed to stop myself from falling over. “Dad?”

He nodded.

“How did I raise you? I wasn’t trying to, and you were in Tartarus. Hades has your body. It should’ve been too difficult to get to you without Chase helping me.”

“Another soul said you were looking for me.”

The woman Chase and I had raised!

“I’ve been waiting for you to come for me. I felt you reaching out, and I grabbed hold of you.”

I wasn’t used to souls being willing to come to me. “Was it painful? The woman said it’s like torture to be in someone else’s body.”

“I’m okay. It was worth it to see you again.”

I wanted to hug him. I didn’t care that he was a corpse or that my seventeen-year-old father looked like a sixty-year-old man. He was still my dad.

“I have to warn you, Jodi. Hades is planning an attack. He says he’s free to claim all the Ophi after all the slip-ups you’ve made.”

I’d figured as much. “What is he waiting for? I thought he would’ve come for me already.”

“I don’t know. He’s hiding something.”

“What’s going to happen when you return to Tartarus and he finds out you talked to me?”

He tried to smile, but it came off looking like a lopsided snarl. “He can’t kill me, because I’m already dead, but his punishments are worse than death.”

“Then you’re not going back. You can stay here with me. I’ll protect you.”

“No. He’ll come for you.”

“Maybe not.” That was it. My decision was made for me. I wouldn’t lose my dad again. He’d been taken from me before I even met him. Now I had the chance to save him, and I would.

Corpses don’t exactly sleep, so Dad sat in my desk chair doing nothing but staring at me while I tried to get a few decent hours of sleep. The sun came up too quickly, and after I showered to rinse the dried sweat of the hellfire from my skin, I got dressed quickly and took my dad downstairs for breakfast. I was the last one there, and we were greeted with gasps all around.

“What in Heaven’s name?” Arianna said.

Lexi smirked. “I don’t think Heaven had anything to do with it.”

“Everyone, this is Derek Colgan…my father. I accidentally raised him in my sleep last night.”

Tony dropped his fork. “Oh, Jodi, not again.”

“That’s not your dad,” Leticia said. “He’s way too old.”

“Hades took my dad’s body. Remember that day in my room? He took several bodies from us. I put my dad’s soul into a body from the cemetery.”

“Oh, dear!” Carol said, looking frightened. “This is not good news. Hades is going to come here any second.”

The table erupted in a panic.

“Relax.” I sat down next to Chase, who raised an eyebrow at me, waiting to hear my decision. Of course sitting by him instead of Alex wasn’t enough. He was going to make me spell it out for everyone. “I have a plan.” I looked at Alex who eyed me over a forkful of mac and cheese. “I’m going to fulfill the prophecy. It’s the only way to save us. Chase and I are going to reclaim all the souls Hades took.”

Tony shook his head and clutched his hands in front of him. “You’ll be declaring war if you do that.” He didn’t say it, but I knew he didn’t trust Chase to help me either. The only reason Tony and Arianna hadn’t kicked Chase and Ethan out was because they knew I didn’t want them to. They were only holding back because of me, and I could tell it was killing both of them.

“I think it’s a brilliant plan,” Ethan said.

“You would.” Tony glared at him. “You’re all about sneakiness and tempting the gods, aren’t you, Ethan? Or are we still supposed to call you Mason?”

“Enough,” I said. “I’m in charge. I’m making the rules.” I looked around the table, waiting for everyone to get quiet again. My eyes lingered on Alex. He stared at my dad, and somehow I knew he understood why I’d made the decision to be with Chase. It didn’t make it easier on him, but he knew me well enough to know I’d do anything for the people I loved. That included using my powers on him in a moment of desperation.

“Okay, here’s what’s going to happen. Hades is going to be seriously pissed when Dad doesn’t return to Tartarus, so we need to move quickly.” I turned to Chase and put my hand on top of his. “You ready to do this?”

He sent a wave of power my way. “I know the quickest way to tap into our power and get those souls.”

I knew what he meant. The whole hand-holding to transfer power wasn’t enough. We’d almost failed last time. We needed a better connection. We were only going to get one chance to do this before Hades interfered. I took a deep breath and nodded.

“Everyone to the cemetery,” I said.

We all headed outside without another word. Everyone was scared, me most of all. This stand I was taking was either going to show Hades we had more power than he thought and he shouldn’t mess with us, or it was going to get us all killed.

I stopped in the middle of the cemetery where Chase had made the souls rebury themselves in a row. I’d been upset when I found out he did it, but now I was glad to have them all together. I motioned to the line of headstones. “Okay, everyone pick a grave.” I hated having to do this with an audience, but with this many souls coming our way, we needed enough of us to control them. “When the souls get here, command them to stay where they are. The woman Chase and I raised was angry and wanted to hurt us at first, but she calmed down. In the end, she preferred being here with us to being stuck in Tartarus. Hades is constantly forcing the souls into the wrong bodies. It’s awful. Chase can tell you just how awful, because he felt it too.”

“Got to say, I’m not looking forward to that part.” He shook his head like he was trying to forget how terrible it had been.

I put my hand on his shoulder. “I know. Me neither. But this is important.”

He leaned down to me. “You chose me. I can handle anything now.”

I smiled at him. At the version of him I liked.

“Everyone set?” I asked once everyone was lined up in front of a grave.

“There are a few graves left down here,” Jared said.

“Then everyone shift down.” I waved them on. “Chase and I will get these graves here.”

“If we can pull away from each other,” he said with a sly smile.

He probably had a point. The connection it was going to take to pull off a raising this huge was insane. We were going to practically have to—no, I couldn’t think about it. Especially since Alex would be witnessing the whole thing. I was kind of surprised he wasn’t bailing on the plan. He knew what this was going to entail. Could he really be so over me already that this wasn’t going to bother him?

Chase moved toward me and placed his hands on my waist. “Let’s do this.”

I took one last look at Alex. His eyes were glued to the grave in front of him. “Focus, everyone. Eyes on your graves and be ready to take control.”

“Jodi,” Leticia said. “I’ve never been able to control a soul someone else raised.”

The others were starting to be able to control the souls they didn’t raise, but it was still hit and miss, and we needed them all to hit.

“You can do this, Leticia.” I kept my expression serious. I had to make her believe me.

She wasn’t convinced. “How do you know?”

“Because we can’t fail. It’s not an option.”

“You can do it, Leticia,” Alex said. “I’m right here if you need help.”

Leticia nodded, looking very thankful to be next to Alex. I was grateful for his help.

“Do you want to get right to making out, or should we form a more conservative connection and let the power overtake us?” Chase asked.

Lexi scoffed. “This is going to be disgusting to watch, isn’t it?”

“You have no idea,” Alex mumbled.

Maybe he did still care after all. I turned back to Chase, but not before meeting my dad’s eyes—or at least the eyes in the body he was borrowing. “Dad, would you mind turning around? I’d rather you didn’t watch this.” I knew I didn’t need to command him. He was going to listen to me no matter how I asked.

He nodded and faced the mausoleum.

I took Chase’s hands, interlacing my fingers with his. “Let’s start here.”

“You know it’s going to take a lot more—”

“Chase, let’s start here,” I insisted.

He shrugged. “Whatever. I know where we’re going to end up.”

I hoped he wasn’t right. I closed my eyes and willed my blood to mix. I transferred my power to Chase, very slightly at first. My power was more intense than his. If I gave him too much to begin with, he’d be too consumed by it to transfer any power back to me. I waited for him to begin sharing his blood with me.

“Come on, Chase,” I said.

“Sorry, just enjoying the rush. Here you go.”

I felt his power flow through my fingers, up my arms, and to the rest of my body. Unlike me, he wasn’t holding back. A moan escaped my lips, and I increased my power flow to him. Our blood mixed and circled between us. I needed to wait for the connection to be strong before I tried reaching the souls.

“Jodi, why are you putting this off?” Chase yanked my hands so I was right up against him. Our hands were down at our sides, keeping the circle going, but I felt the power passing between our chests now, too. He leaned his head down, finding my lips with his. I kissed him back, and our emotions heightened our power. Chase wrapped my arms around him and cupped my face in his hands.

For a moment, I was lost in him. All I wanted was him. My nails dug into his back. He picked me up and wrapped my legs around his waist.

“Do I really need to be subjected to this?” Lexi yelled.

Her screechy voice broke through, and I remembered what I was supposed to be doing. I focused on the souls I wanted to raise. I reached out with my powers, all the way to the depths of Tartarus. I knew the woman I’d summoned earlier would be eager to come, and hopefully she’d convince the others so I didn’t have to work so hard to get them here. I knew I was close by the tormented screams that filled my head. Hades was torturing them, and if they didn’t understand what I was trying to do, they’d see my powers as more torture and shy away from me.

“Chase.” I pulled away from his lips. “Are you concentrating? I need help. They’re resisting, or Hades is clutching to them. Something isn’t right.”

Instead of answering, he pressed his lips to mine again. I had no idea if he was trying to make the connection stronger or if he was lost in the power. It was intoxicating. I had to fight to stay in control. I assumed he was trying to help, so I reached out further. My body shook, and I had trouble holding on to Chase. My legs slipped from his waist, but he had latched onto my hands again. He wasn’t letting me go.

Finally, I felt the first soul grab on. It was so much work raising them from Tartarus, and I needed a bunch more. I was losing hope that my plan was even possible. Hades was there. I could feel him, and he wasn’t going to make this easy on me. I tugged at the soul, and it screamed in pain. Its body was in Tartarus, too, so it knew it wasn’t returning to its home. That made me its enemy. I felt its pain, and it overwhelmed me. My blood shifted.

No, it wasn’t the soul’s pain I was feeling. It was my pain. My blood was being poisoned. I opened my eyes to look at Chase. He stared back at me, eyes filled with pure evil. What was he doing? The poison spread throughout my body. Chase stopped kissing me long enough to say, “Trust me, you’ll feel amazing once the poison takes over. It only hurts at first.”

His blood overtook mine; I was no longer transferring any of my power. The soul from Tartarus slipped from my grasp. Chase had tricked me! He was trying to turn me evil. He’d only pretended to go along with my plan to take back the souls Hades had stolen from us. I tried to pry my hands from Chase’s, but he was too strong, and the poison was weakening me. I heard the others choking and saw McKenzie fall to the ground. She was shaking uncontrollably, so I knew she was still alive, but this connection was killing her. It was killing all of them.

Then, the pain stopped. For me at least. The poison was taking over, and it didn’t hurt anymore. I felt different, but strong.

“See, I told you,” Chase said. “Now kiss me, and let’s finish what we started.”

I stared at him, totally understanding he meant killing the others. Even his dad. We were still connected and that craving for his blood, his power, took over. I leaned in and kissed him.