Face of Death

Chapter 3

Human. I’d get a second chance to be human. Tears welled up in my eyes as I realized just how much I missed being human. I wouldn’t be a threat to anyone anymore. I really could see my mom—not that she’d recognize me in a different body, but still. I’d get to see her.

Alex stared at me, looking every bit as hurt and rejected as he had when I’d decided to fulfill the prophecy and join my powers with Chase. I knew he was thinking of Matt, my human boyfriend, but that was silly. Matt was dead. I assumed he was in the Elysian Fields where all the good souls went for the afterlife.

“You’re really going to do this? You want to be human again?” Alex touched my cheek, brushing away a tear.

“I never got to say goodbye to my old life. I just left after you brought my mom back. I need some sort of closure on that part of me. Killing the human half of my soul didn’t kill the feelings I had. They’re still buried inside me, and I think if I don’t deal with them, I’ll never truly be able to lead the Ophi.” It hurt to say the words because I knew how much they tore Alex apart inside. He wanted me—all of me, and I’d never be able to give him that. Not until I did this.

He nodded but didn’t say a word.

“Thank you. I know it’s hard for you to understand.” I ran my fingers through his hair, and Tony coughed behind us.

“Sorry to interrupt, but keep in mind that we aren’t alone here.” Tony turned, and I saw souls wandering aimlessly. It was the first time I’d noticed them. They didn’t look like they were suffering. They didn’t look like they felt anything. It wasn’t a life I could imagine—but then again, it was the afterlife.

“I guess we need to look for a body for you,” Alex said.

Tony sighed, still obviously conflicted. “We’ll have to wait for a new soul, meet up with her when she arrives. The fresher the body, the easier the transition will be for you, Jodi.”

All this talk about fresh bodies to possess was making me queasy. I was going to be doing to myself what I had done to the souls in Tartarus—the ones whose bodies Hades stole, thinking I wouldn’t be able to raise them anymore. The ones like my dad.

“Having second thoughts?” Tony asked.

I shook my head and swallowed my fear. “No. I have to do this, no matter how gross it’s going to be.”

“Gross isn’t the word.” Alex ran his hands through his hair. “You’re going to be torturing your own soul. Do you really think you’ll be able to hold on and raise half of your soul when you’re in that much pain?”

Great question. There was one way to make sure I pulled it off. That I continued to rip my soul out no matter how much I was suffering.

“Don’t even think it.” Alex grabbed my arms and looked me square in the eyes. “Chase is not helping you do this. That scumbag would probably kill you the first chance he got.”

“What if I can’t do it by myself? What if I don’t have enough power?” I looked to Tony for help. “Chase may be my only chance.”

“I thought I heard my name.” Chase walked around the row of asphodels and into view.

Alex was on him quicker than I could blink. He rammed into Chase, knocking him to the ground.

“Alex!” I rushed to them as Alex grabbed an asphodel and brought it down toward Chase’s mouth. “No!” I pushed his arm away, throwing myself between him and Chase. I landed face down, inches from Chase’s lips.

Chase smiled. “How sweet. You just can’t keep your hands off me, can you?” Speaking of hands, I pressed my palms to his chest and jolted him with a dose of pure poisoned blood from the left side of my body. His eyes rolled back into his head, and he passed out.

I pushed myself off him and reached for Alex’s hand, pulling him up, too. “We aren’t killing anyone. Got that?”

Tony stared at me. “Jodi, I’m glad Chase isn’t a threat anymore, but do you really think you should be giving in to your power like that? I do believe this is the sort of thing Hades was talking about. The thing that made Chase turn evil.”

“No.” I crossed my arms. “Chase was jealous of my power and wanted more to make up for it. I only did what I had to. Yes, I hurt him, but I did it to save his life.” I turned to Alex. “And to save your soul. Don’t let him—” I pointed to Chase’s limp body, “—turn you into a monster. That’s not you, Alex. I get that you’re trying to protect me, and I love you for that, but I won’t be the reason you become evil. I won’t let you turn into your parents.”

“I’m going to round up the others,” Tony said, motioning over his shoulder. He wasn’t one to pry.

“Thanks.” I smiled at him as he turned and walked away.

“You don’t know what it was like.” Alex’s voice was small, barely more than a whisper. I knew he was talking about what had happened between Chase and me—how Chase had become a wedge in my relationship with Alex—but I let him get out whatever he’d been holding inside. “I wanted to rip the guy’s head off. I’ve never wanted to kill anyone before, but I wanted him dead. The way he…and the way you…”

I threw myself at him, pressing my lips firmly against his. He couldn’t even talk about Chase without going crazy. I’d thought getting that anger out would’ve been therapeutic, but it was killing him inside. I wanted him to forget about Chase. To forget about everything but me and how much I loved him. He returned the kiss as if it was the last one we’d ever have—and considering we were in the underworld and Hades could very well kill us, maybe it would be.

His arms wrapped around me, pulling me closer. I could feel his heart beating against my chest. Thumping. I wanted to take his pain away, so I allowed my blood to mix and sent some of my power to him through every part of our bodies that were touching. His eyes opened wide in response and then closed as he pressed himself against me. This was what he’d been talking about earlier. This was how Chase used to make me feel. How Chase used to control me. Only I wasn’t controlling Alex. I just wanted to make him happy.

“Oh, come on!” Lexi’s voice shattered the perfect bubble Alex and I had created for ourselves.

As I pulled away from him, he pouted and tried to find my lips again. “Alex, we have company.”

He opened his eyes and looked shocked to see everyone watching us. “What’s going on?” He was still dazed from my power.

“Jodi,” Arianna said, “I’m not sure that’s good for him. Remember, too much power is never a good thing.”

“I’m not complaining.” Alex had a big dumb grin on his face, and I couldn’t help smiling. At least he wasn’t angry anymore, or thinking about killing Chase.

“What’s it like?” Jared’s eyes lingered on me a little too long. If he thought I was going to show him, he was dead wrong.

“Okay, let’s talk about my plan before this gets any more awkward.” I motioned for the group to huddle up. The other souls in the Fields of Asphodel were pretty oblivious, but I didn’t want to take any chances. I wasn’t putting it past Hades to send souls to watch over us while he was busy doing who knew what in some other part of the underworld. I tried to sound confident as I filled everyone in on my plan.

Arianna wrapped her arm around my waist. “Honey, I have to tell you that I don’t like this idea at all. I’m afraid we might lose you if you try this.”

She was sweet to care so much about me. I often wondered if she felt so attached to me because her own daughters weren’t exactly the caring type. Abby had gone completely evil and power-crazed, and Lexi was… well, not exactly Miss Congeniality.

“Arianna, I appreciate your concern, but this is our best shot. I know it’s risky, and it’s going to hurt like hell to rip my soul in half, but if it means saving all of you, I’m doing it. You guys are my family now.” Family. I thought of Mom and how, if my plan worked, I’d get to see her again. I held back my tears.

“What can we do?” Carol asked. She owned Serpentarius, the Ophi nightclub, along with her husband Mason, and I was sure she missed him like crazy.

“I’m going to need help from all of you. My body will still be here with half my soul inside, but Tony said I’ll have to tune it out. Otherwise, the double vision is going to drive me insane.”

Carson, our Ophi doctor, readjusted his glasses and nodded. “You need us to watch over your body, make sure nothing happens to it.”

“More than that.” I looked around the group. “I need you all to make sure Hades doesn’t notice I’m not all here.”

“How on earth do we do that?” Leticia asked, already looking defeated.

I wished I had a clue.

Tony put a reassuring hand on Leticia’s shoulder. “We talk to her, and if necessary, we pretend she’s talking back.”

“What about when the others are torturing us?” Lexi asked, and, for once, she actually sounded like she was trying to be helpful. Arianna smiled at her, no doubt proud that her daughter was choosing to do the right thing instead of following in Abby’s footsteps. Maybe the fact that Abby had been the one torturing her had finally knocked some sense into her.

“There’s nothing you can do about that,” I said. “I’m sure my body will respond to the pain, so it will look like I’m suffering just as much as the rest of you.” I hoped the torture wouldn’t send me rushing back to this body. I had to be strong enough to keep my soul divided and figure out a way to save us all.

Leticia stared at me, and any sign of the fights we’d had in the past—the times when she didn’t quite believe I wasn’t screwing up on purpose—had all melted away. She was scared for me. “It seems like there’s an awful lot that can go wrong with this plan.”

“That’s because there is.” I gave her a weak smile. “Leticia, I told you I never intentionally did anything to harm our group. Yes, I’ve made mistakes, but I never meant to hurt any of you. If you have any doubt in your mind, I plan to erase it now, by doing this. I’m putting my soul on the line to prove I want to be your leader. I want to be the one to save us all.”

She rushed toward me and threw her arms around my neck. “I’m so sorry. I should’ve believed you. I know you were only trying to do what was best for us.”

“Hey, there’s no need to apologize.”

“Yes, there is. I blamed you. For Randy dying, for my own failures, for everything that happened with Chase. When I saw what he did to you, I realized I was wrong. And now, seeing how you’re going to risk everything for us, I have to tell you how sorry I am.”

“What’s this? Group hug time?” Abby stood with one hand on her hip, glaring at me. She always had been good at sneaking up on me.

Leticia squeezed me even harder, terrified of Abby and the torture she could inflict upon us.

Arianna looked at her daughter with nothing but disappointment in her eyes. “Abigail, this doesn’t concern you.”

“Mother, didn’t you miss me? I asked Hades if I could spend a little extra time with you. You know, to make up for all the time we lost when you shipped me off to the school and dismissed me as Victoria and Troy’s problem.” Abby was trying to maintain her composure, but I could see her fingers trembling. I remembered how much it hurt her that her own family had abandoned her. But I also knew Arianna had been trying to scare Abby into changing. It was a tough-love kind of situation—a last effort to show her how dangerous it was for her to crave power the way she did. That was the difference between the Ophi at the school and the Ophi at Serpentarius. The ones at the school actively used their powers. The ones at the Serpentarius were Ophi more in theory. They didn’t believe in using their blood to raise the dead.

I pulled myself free from Leticia and stepped toward Abby, letting her know I wasn’t afraid of her. “What do you want?”

“Hades sent me to get all of you. It’s time to return to Tartarus.”

How long had we been in the Fields? It hadn’t seemed long at all. Definitely not as long as we’d been in Tartarus.

Leticia sobbed. “I can’t go back there.”

Abby grinned, enjoying this way too much. “You don’t have a choice.”

“Fine.” I crossed my arms in front of me. “We’ll go, but not with you.”

Abby cocked her head to the side. “I don’t think you understand how this works. I have control over you now. This isn’t your little school, Jodi.”

“No, it’s not. It’s the underworld, where you’re a prisoner, too.”

Abby laughed. “Really? Because the last time I checked, I wasn’t the one being tortured twenty hours a day.”

Twenty hours? That was how long we’d been in Tartarus? Hades was only giving us a four-hour break each day? It struck me for the first time that we hadn’t slept since we got here. Apparently, sleep didn’t matter in the underworld, because I wasn’t tired.

“You’re still a prisoner.” I managed to find my voice at last. “You aren’t free to do whatever you’d like. You’re following orders.”

“Do you really want to play ‘sucks to be you’? I mean, even a simpleton like Leticia can see that you got the short stick.”

Now I was really pissed. Leticia was definitely not dumb. She was one of the smartest Ophi I knew. She just didn’t like raising souls, and it interfered with her ability to control them. “For your information, Leticia was smarter as a toddler than you’ll ever be. And if you think for a second that you have a good thing going on here, you’re even stupider than I thought. You’re Hades’ servant.” I got right in her face, knowing she couldn’t hurt me right now. At least not the same way she’d tortured us in Tartarus. Not here in the Fields of Asphodel. This wasn’t a place of violence. It was a place of indifference. “If you disrupt Hades’ balance in this place, you’ll be joining us in Tartarus, and not as the one doing the punishing.” I had no idea if that was true. Nothing had happened when Alex attacked Chase, but Abby didn’t know that.

Leticia took a step toward Abby. “Yeah.” It was probably the worst attempt at sounding tough, but I was proud of her anyway. For once, she wasn’t cowering or shying away from Abby.

“Now, go find Hades. Tell him if he wants us back in the pit, he can come get us himself.” It was a gutsy move, making demands of Hades, but I wasn’t about to give Abby the satisfaction of leading us back to Tartarus.

The others stared at Abby, obviously agreeing with me. Tony even waved her on.

Abby glared at me. “Suit yourself, but I’ll be seeing you soon, and I will make you all pay for this little stunt.”

She turned and walked away, leaving us to count the minutes, maybe only seconds, until Hades descended on us and took us back to Tartarus.