Stalked by Death

Chapter 5

“Alex, wait!” I jumped up and ran after him. “Let me explain!”

At the top of the stairs, Chase grabbed my arm. “Explain what?”

“Let go of me, Chase. I need to talk to Alex.”

“Don’t tell me you two are fighting again.” His expression was unreadable. Not quite concern, but not quite wishful thinking.

“We’re not fighting. Things are fine. Let me go.”

He released his grip, letting his fingers lightly trail down my arm until he reached my hand. He laced his fingers through mine, and a tingling sensation soared through me. I couldn’t deny the effect he had on me, but I didn’t want to feel this way. I wanted Alex. I dropped Chase’s hand and walked around him, careful not to touch him in the process.

“See you at lunch,” he called after me.

I rushed to Alex’s door and knocked. “Alex, please let me in. I need to talk to you.”

For a moment there was only silence, but then I heard footsteps coming toward the door. “Go away, Jodi. I have nothing to say to you.”

“Well, I have something to say to you. Please, Alex.” My voice quivered as I struggled to hold back tears. Emotions welled up inside me. Emotions I hadn’t realized I had. Arianna’s words echoed in my brain. Honey, that boy is in love with you. I pressed my palms against the door and let the tears spill from my eyes. “Alex…I love you.”

Time seemed to freeze as I waited for some sort of reaction, but all I got was silence. My throat constricted. If Alex didn’t listen to me after I’d said the L-word, there was nothing I could do to save our relationship. I was about to walk away when the lock clicked, and the door swung open. Alex stared at my tear-streaked face.

“I’m sorry if I said that too soon. If it freaked you out. I just had to tell you.”

His arms were around me before I could blink. He pulled me close and kissed me. He didn’t have to say it. I knew Arianna was right. He loved me. Alex pulled away slightly. “Do you want to come in?”

I nodded, and he stepped back so I could follow him into the room. Before I made it through the doorway, I saw Chase still standing in the hall. Staring at me. He’d seen and heard everything. My blood bubbled under my skin, but I looked away and walked into Alex’s room, shutting the door behind me.

Alex and I hung out until lunch. I let myself forget about everything else and focused on him. It was exactly like it was before Chase had gotten here. The only problem was that once we left this room, Chase would be there, and what would happen the next time he touched me?

I tried not to think about it while we walked to the dining room. Arianna smiled at me when she saw Alex holding my hand. I smiled back at her and mouthed the words, “Thank you.” She had helped me realize how I felt about Alex. I was still confused about Chase and why he affected me the way he did, but at least I had a handle on Alex.

We took our seats and dug right into the meatball subs Arianna had made us. I even had a side of mac and cheese with Alex. Chase still hadn’t shown up for lunch, but I pretended not to notice. Finally, I heard footsteps and looked up, expecting to see Chase, but instead I saw the corpse. The one I’d left in my bathroom with instructions not to leave unless I told him to.

Leticia screamed and everyone else pushed their chairs back away from the table, ready to spring into action if the zombie tried to attack us.

“That’s the guy from the cemetery,” Leticia said. “The one Jodi raised and brought to her room.”

“I didn’t bring him to my room,” I said. “At least not on purpose.”

Tony stared at me. “What’s he doing back here?”

“I don’t know.” It wasn’t a complete lie. I didn’t know why the zombie had left my bathroom. I hadn’t called him.

Chase walked into the room. “What did I miss?” His gaze fell on the zombie, and he stopped. “Do you guys always invite the dead to eat with you? ‘Cause it’s a little gross, don’t you think?”

I shook my head. “No one invited him. He just showed up.”

Alex stared at me. He knew I was hiding something.

Tony walked over to the zombie but kept a safe distance. His face fell completely still and focused. He was calling on the power in his blood to control the corpse. “Who brought you here?”

The zombie looked past Tony at me. “Her.”

All eyes were on me. No way could I hide this anymore. “Okay, okay.” I put my hands up in defense. “I sort of summoned him this morning…in a dream.”

A chorus of “What?” rang through the room.

“I didn’t know I’d done it. I had this dream and—”

“About what?” Randy asked.

“I can’t remember.” I played dumb. I couldn’t admit I’d been dreaming about Chase. “I only remember I was dreaming, and then someone was knocking on my door. I forgot to set my alarm, and when I saw what time it was, I figured it was Alex knocking, trying to wake me up.” I paused, but everyone was silent, waiting for me to continue. “It wasn’t Alex. It was him.” I turned toward the corpse. “I didn’t know I’d summoned him.”

“Why didn’t you tell me about this?” Alex asked. “I came to get you when you were late for breakfast. Why didn’t you tell me then? And what did you do with the guy? He wasn’t in your room when I got there.”

“I told him to hide in the bathroom.” My voice was barely a whisper.

Alex threw his head back and ran his fingers through his hair.

“I was freaked out. You have to understand that. I’m raising souls in my sleep now. Do you know how dangerous that can be for us?”

“Exactly, Jodi,” Alex said. “That’s why you should have told me.”

“Lay off,” Chase said. “She panicked. Big deal.”

I looked at Chase, thankful for his support. I felt like I was up against a firing squad, so it was nice to have one person on my side.

Alex was seething at this point. He slammed his hand down, knocking over his meatball sub. “Don’t try to play the hero here. You have no idea what you’re talking about or what Jodi has been going through.”

“Alex, I think Chase was only trying to help everyone calm down.” Tony put a hand on Chase’s shoulder.

I lightly touched Alex’s arm. “I was going to tell you.”

“When?”

I shrugged. “I sort of forgot he was in my bathroom. I haven’t been to my room all day, and so much has happened since this morning. It slipped my mind, but honestly, the second I saw him again, I was going to come to you for help.”

Alex closed his eyes, processing everything. I wasn’t sure if he believed me or not. All I knew was he was mad.

The room fell silent. I was supposed to be the leader. The one to make the decisions and keep us safe. But instead I was clueless about how to do my job, and I was putting us all in danger. I wasn’t cut out for this, and somehow I had a feeling Hades knew that when he’d agreed to my deal.

Alex sighed. “Release his soul, and Tony and I will go bury him.”

“I’ll help you.” I stood up. I needed to get out of this room. Away from all the judgmental stares.

Alex put his hand on my shoulder, stopping me. “No. We got it. You eat.” There was a small hint of warmth in his voice. Yes, he was angry, but that didn’t change the fact that he cared about me.

I released the soul and watched Tony and Alex carry the body out of the room. The rest of the day was pretty much a blur. Tony lectured about Ophi history. Arianna made something for dinner. It wasn’t my turn to help with the dishes, so I headed to my room to lie down. I wasn’t up for interacting with everyone. Not that anyone really wanted to interact with me. They weren’t being mean or anything, but they weren’t going out of their way to talk to me either.

I flopped facedown on my bed and tried to let the awfulness of the day melt away. It might have helped a little if someone hadn’t knocked on my door.

I sighed and got up to answer it. Chase was standing in the hall with a big bowl of popcorn and a movie in his hands. Oh, this wasn’t going to be good.

“Um, what’s up?” I asked, fully aware of how dumb that sounded.

“Thought you could use a good horror movie to forget your troubles.” He shook the DVD, and I saw it was a zombie flick. How appropriate.

“You’re kidding, right? My life is pretty much a horror movie. How would this make me forget about it?” I couldn’t help it. I laughed. Chase smiled, and I realized that was his exact reason for choosing the horror movie. The sheer irony of it.

“So, what do you say?” His eyes were hopeful, and I didn’t want to crush him by saying no. After all, he was the only one talking to me right now. Still, being alone in my room with Chase could only add up to trouble. There was only one thing to do.

“Tell you what, let’s invite the others. I know Arianna and Tony won’t go for it, but Alex, Leticia, and Randy might want to watch.” So much for not wanting to interact with people tonight.

Chase’s face fell. It wasn’t what he was hoping for.

“Go on in.” I opened the door more. “I’ll go get the others.” I hurried down the hall before he could protest. Leticia’s room was the closest, so I started there.

“Leticia.” I lightly tapped on the door. “We’re all going to watch a movie in my room. Want to come?” I figured I’d have better luck if I made it seem like everyone else had already agreed to it.

She opened the door and shrugged. “I guess.”

“Great, go on in my room. Chase is setting it up now. I’ll be there in a second.” I continued down the hall to Randy’s room. It didn’t take much to convince him. The mention of popcorn was enough. I’d saved Alex for last because I knew he’d be the most difficult to convince.

“Alex?” I called through the door. “It’s Jodi.”

He opened the door. “You think I don’t know your voice by now?”

I smiled. He didn’t look angry with me anymore. “I missed you.”

“You saw me at lessons and dinner.”

“Yeah, but it’s not the same.” I leaned forward and kissed him.

“What was that for?”

“For understanding about the corpse and cleaning up my mess for me. I seem to be needing a lot of help lately, and you’re always there for me.”

“Want to come in?” he asked.

“Actually, I want you to come to my room.”

He raised an eyebrow. “Okay.” He didn’t hesitate. He closed his door and wrapped one arm around my waist as we headed to my room.

Okay, so I’d purposely misled him, but I had to get him to come with me. It was the only way I was going to make it through the group movie. The only way I’d be able to keep myself from staring at Chase. As we got to my open door, Alex heard and saw the group inside.

“What’s going on?” He stopped short, hooking his finger through my belt loop so I had to stop, too.

“Movie night.” I tried to sound all innocent. “Come on. Things have been tense lately. I think it would do everyone good to hang out and watch a zombie flick.”

“A zombie flick? What moron decided that would be a good movie choice for a bunch of stressed out necromancers?”

“I did.” Chase stepped into the doorway. “This was my idea, only I was hoping—”

“That everyone would think the zombie thing was funny,” I blurted out before Chase could tell Alex what his real plan had been. To get me alone.

“Funny?” Alex asked.

“You know, in an ironic kind of way.” I forced a laugh and reached for his hand, lacing my fingers through his.

Chase’s eyes dropped to our hands before he gave me a look that clearly meant “What are you trying to prove?”

“Shall we?” I motioned toward my room.

As we went inside, Alex whispered in my ear, “You owe me. Big.”

I reached up and kissed his cheek. He gave me a small smile, and we sat down on the bed. I kind of thought the bed would give out under the weight of all five of us, but it held strong. The movie was every bit as cheesy as I’d expected it to be. We were all cracking up five minutes into it.

“Oh, yeah, as if a zombie would really walk around with its arms out all the time,” Randy said.

Leticia laughed. “Or yelling, ‘Braaaaiiins,’” she said in her best Hollywood zombie voice.

I smiled at Alex, happy to see everyone having a good time. Well, almost everyone. Chase was sitting by my feet, and he spent most of the movie staring at me instead of the screen. I ignored him as best as I could, trying to keep my attention on the movie.

I must have been tired because, at one point, I dozed off to the sounds of everyone talking and getting along. I woke up to a tingling in my foot. It started very lightly and crept up my leg. The sensation was electrifying, and after all the stress I’d been under, it felt amazing. I opened my eyes and rolled over slightly, resting my head on Alex’s chest.

“Thanks, that feels great.”

“What does?” he asked.

I saw Alex’s hands behind his head. I discreetly looked down at his feet, thinking maybe he was rubbing my foot with one of his, but his legs were crossed. My gaze met Chase’s, and he smiled.

Oh, God!

“Jodi, what feels great?” Alex asked again.

“Being here with you.” I tried to keep my voice steady. “Thanks again for agreeing to this.”

He smiled. “I don’t really have a choice when it comes to you.”

I put my head back down on his chest and stared at Chase. He was still rubbing my foot, sending waves of this strange tingling sensation throughout my body. Why wasn’t I stopping him? I willed my foot to move away from Chase’s hand, but it wouldn’t. I was paralyzed by this feeling. I didn’t want it to stop. Not really.

I closed my eyes, giving in to it. My blood surged with power I’d never felt before. It was sort of like the power I used to raise souls, but there was something different about it. Something stronger. Something that felt almost wrong. Yet, I couldn’t stop it. Wrong felt right.

I felt Chase’s fingers on my other foot now too, and the power welling up inside me doubled. I didn’t know what was happening. Only that I didn’t want it to end.

“Jodi?” Alex’s weight shifted under me. “Are you okay?”

I couldn’t answer. Couldn’t open my eyes. I was lost in the power. Lost in Chase’s touch. The energy in my body was overwhelming.

“Leticia?” Randy said. “What’s wrong?”

“She’s choking,” Alex said. He sat up, and my head fell onto the pillow. “And something’s wrong with Jodi, too. She isn’t moving.”

I heard Leticia gasping, and suddenly the feeling in my feet stopped. The power slowly drained from my body, leaving me feeling like I had pins and needles all over.

Something fell to the floor with a thud just as I managed to open my eyes. I sat up, feeling wobbly all over.

Randy reached for Leticia’s body, resting in a heap on the floor. “I think she’s dead!”