Stalked by Death (Touch of Death) (22 page)

That which has the power to save, has the power to destroy. What did that mean? All Ophi had the power to restore life or to kill. This wasn’t anything new to me. Ugh! A hand pressed against my back, and I knew it was Chase before he even transferred his power. I whipped around.

“Don’t. Please. I finally feel like myself again. Please, don’t do this.”

Chase grinned at me. “Don’t you see? I’m trying to show you who you really are. Your true self is who you become with me.” He pulled me to him, hitting me with his life-restoring power, making my body tingle and crave his blood. I couldn’t fight it. I gave in, and before I knew what I was doing, I was kissing him.

The door opened behind us, and Lucas stumbled in. He was clutching his throat and choking. Not again!

I pulled away from Chase and reached Lucas as he fell to the floor. “Lucas?” I felt for a pulse, but there was none. He was dead.

“Chase, help me.” I couldn’t believe I was asking him for help, but no one else was around, and with the way my energy level had been roller coasting, I wasn’t sure I could raise Lucas alone.

Chase bent down next to Lucas while I mixed my blood and focused my power on bringing Lucas back to life. I reached for his soul. It was still in his body, so it should’ve been easy for me to bring him back, but his soul wouldn’t listen to me. Something must have happened when Chase and I connected. He’d affected my power somehow. I struggled, feeling my body shake. I reached out for Medusa’s hand, but Chase grabbed me instead.

“Chase, what are you doing? I need help. He’s fighting me. I can’t bring him back alone.”

Chase laced his fingers through mine, and I waited for the tingling feeling that came with Chase’s power. I didn’t feel it. He wasn’t helping.

“Chase! Please!”

“I’m trying, Jodi. I’m giving you everything I have. Why isn’t it working?” His voice was strange, as it had been in the cemetery when he was putting on a show for everyone.

“Oh, God!” McKenzie gasped.

My eyes were closed, focused on Lucas’s soul, but I knew the others were here now. They were watching. Chase was determined to have them see me fail. He was pretending to help, but really he was letting me fail. Letting Lucas die. He couldn’t get away with it.

“Chase, you jerk. You’re not helping me! You’re not giving me any of your power.”

He squeezed my hand, sending his poisonous blood to me in such a concentrated form I instantly crumbled under the strength of it. I fell to my knees as it burned through me. He was going to kill us both. I had no choice. I stopped focusing on Lucas, letting his soul leave. I concentrated on pulling free from Chase. I jerked my hand from his and fell to the floor sobbing.

“No!” McKenzie screamed. “Lucas!” She threw herself on his body and wept.

I pounded my fist against the floor before glaring at Chase. “Why? Why did you do that? You poisoned me! You let Lucas die! We could’ve saved him.”

Chase faked sadness. “Oh, Jodi. Don’t do this. Don’t look for someone to blame. We weren’t strong enough. You couldn’t save him. I don’t know why, but you couldn’t. No one blames you.” He bent down and reached for me, but I backed away.

“Don’t touch me!” Everyone was staring at me now. Looking at me like I’d lost my mind. Maybe I had. I’d lost Randy and Lucas. Alex had walked out on me. Chase was poisoning me, and no one would listen. It was driving me mad.

“Let me take you to your room.” Chase was still pretending to be the perfect boyfriend.

“Jodi,” Tony said, “maybe you should let Chase help you.” Oh God, Chase even had Tony fooled.

“No.” I turned to Arianna. She was my last hope. “Please, Arianna. Will you help me?”

She nodded and extended her hand to me, but Chase waved her off. “Lunch is ready, right? You all go eat. I’ll take care of Jodi.” Chase turned to Mason. “Uncle Mason, will you take care of Lucas’ body?”

“Of course,” Mason said. He looked at me and shook his head. “Jodi, I suggest you listen to Chase, before things get even more out of hand.”

They were all turning on me. All but Arianna, and Chase wouldn’t let her near me. How had this happened? Chase reached for me, giving me a small pleasurable dose of power. The one I couldn’t fight. Instantly, I became a different person. I knew I was angry with Chase, yet when he touched me like that I wanted nothing more than to be with him. Yes, I was definitely crazy. Arianna gave me a puzzled look, no doubt completely baffled by the change in my reaction to Chase.

He took me up to my room, holding my hand to keep me passive and under his control. He brought me to my bed and tucked me in.

“See, Jodi. It could be like this all the time. I don’t have to hurt you. I don’t want to hurt you.”

I nodded. After using my power to try to save Lucas and getting a dose of poison from Chase in the process, I needed Chase’s life-restoring power. I didn’t want him to leave. I willingly held his hand.

“You understand now, don’t you?”

I did. He was stronger than me. If I didn’t give in to him, he’d kill me and the others. He’d proven that with Lucas. “I understand.”

“Good.” He kissed me. “I’ll go get you some food. We’ll eat up here. Just the two of us.”

I was torn. I wanted to get away from him, yet I didn’t want him to go. My body, my blood, was at odds with itself. “Hurry back.”

He smiled. “I knew you’d come around.” He kissed the back of my hand. “I’ll make you much happier than Alex did. I have so much more to offer you.”

He left, leaving me to think about Alex. Now that Chase wasn’t touching me, my head wasn’t cloudy anymore. Alex was the one I loved, not Chase. What was I doing? I couldn’t give in to him. I had to get out of here. Flinging the covers off me, I ran to the door, peeking out. The hallway was empty. Everyone was downstairs in the dining room. I doubted they were eating after what had happened to Lucas. They were probably discussing how to overthrow me. Maybe making plans to give me to Hades in exchange for their freedom.

I couldn’t think about it now. I had to run while I had the chance. I didn’t head toward the stairs. There was too much of a chance of running into Chase that way. Instead I turned right and went up to the third floor. I had to hide out. Make Chase think I’d run away from the school. Once he was out searching for me, I could come up with a plan. Lock him out or something until I could get help.

I went to the library, figuring it would be the last place Chase would look for me. Plus, no one ever came up here. Tony did on occasion, but maybe if I got him alone I could make him listen to reason. I went straight for the computers and logged in. I sent Alex an email, hoping he’d be online and respond. I needed to tell him what was going on. I didn’t dare explain in the email though. I didn’t want to leave anything Chase could trace. I simply told Alex I was in trouble. I waited ten minutes for a reply before logging out. Then, I logged in under Alex. I knew his password; I’d actually guessed it as a joke about a month back. “Macandcheese” was an obvious guess, so I never thought it would be right.

Alex had two recent emails, both opened and responded to. The first was from Arianna. She wanted to check up on him and make sure he was okay on his own. I checked his sent folder for his reply. He said he was fine, that he went to find Ethan and would be staying at Serpentarius. Not to worry.

Serpentarius wasn’t that far away. If I really could escape and get there, Alex could help me stop Chase from whatever evil he had planned. But the more I thought about it, the farther away Serpentarius seemed.

I noticed another sent email, more recent. It was to someone named Ethan. I opened it. It said, “We need to talk about Chase. I’ll be at your house tonight at nine.” I went back to the inbox. There was a response from Ethan.

“I’m out of town. Need to reschedule.” That was all it said.

Who was Ethan, and what did he know about Chase? I checked the sent messages one more time to see if Alex had responded to me. He hadn’t. I logged off. I heard a commotion coming from the second floor. Chase must have figured out I was missing. I ran to the back room and locked myself in. Chase didn’t have a key. Tony did, but I hoped Chase would assume the door was always locked and I couldn’t have gotten in. I ducked under the desk and stayed absolutely still, listening.

“Jodi?” Leticia called into the library.

“Oh, please,” Lexi said. “If she’s hiding in here, do you really think she’s going to answer you?”

“Ow!” Leticia said. Lexi must have pushed by her.

“Toughen up,” Lexi said. “I’ve never seen such a weak Ophi before. You make McKenzie and Lucas look like gladiators, and they’re pathetic.”

“Don’t talk about Lucas like that,” Leticia said. “He just died. Show a little respect.”

I smiled. Leticia was actually standing up to Lexi. Good for her.

“The weak
should
die.” I got what Lexi was hinting at, and I was sure Leticia got it, too. Too bad Chase wasn’t interested in Lexi. They seemed like the perfect match. Thinking that made me hate myself more for giving in to the power of his touch.

“Anything?” Tony asked. He must have just come into the room.

“No,” Leticia said. She actually sounded happy. Did she not want to find me because she thought they were better off without me?

Tony cleared his throat. “All right. I’ll tell the others. You two head to class.”

“Class?” Lexi spoke as if Tony had cursed at her.

“Yes. I don’t think we should let Jodi’s disappearing act disrupt our training. I’m sure she’ll show up soon.” I was glad Tony was getting them out of here, but sending them to class meant they’d be directly across the hall from the library, and I’d be stuck under this desk until dinner.

I waited until the library door closed before I peeked out. The office had windows, so coming completely out of hiding wasn’t an option. I doubted Chase would go to class. He was determined to find me. I made sure no one was in the hallway and reached for the laptop sitting on the desk. Pulling it into my lap, I logged in under Alex again. I figured the school might have some way to keep record of us logging in, and since it would be my name they’d search for, I wanted to avoid leaving a trail. I went to Alex’s sent messages, and this time there was a reply to me.

I opened the message and two words stared back at me. “Got it.” What did that mean? He understood I was in trouble? He got my message? What? I took a risk and sent him another message—from his own email account. I thought maybe seeing the desperate measures I was taking might make this all sink in and get a better response than “Got it.” My fingers flew across the keys.

Alex, don’t email me on my account. Reply to this message—if you are going to reply. I need help. You were right about Chase. He’s evil, and he’s hurting me. He’s found a way to control me with his powers. I’m helpless against him. I need you, Alex. Please. I’m so sorry about what happened. I love you. ~J

I knew it was his personal email account, but I still couldn’t convince myself to type my whole name. He’d know it was me. I didn’t mention going into hiding. If Alex showed up, I’d come out. I’d risk everything to be with him.

I had hours to kill before dinner. I peeked out again and saw Tony had the lights off in his classroom. Must be another thrilling PowerPoint presentation on the history of the Ophi. I couldn’t say I was sorry I was missing it. Still, I was bored out of my mind under this desk. I decided to do a little digging, see if there was anything on the Internet about Chase. I pulled up a search engine and typed his name. Nothing. Not a single match. Like he didn’t exist. That was strange. I typed in Alex’s name out of curiosity. Nothing. I tried mine. Nothing that actually pertained to me. There were other Jodi Marshalls, but all my old records and stuff were gone. Deleted.

The only conclusion I could come to was that the Ophi didn’t want records on themselves. They’d practically deleted my identity. There was one problem with that plan. They couldn’t erase my mom or my friends. They knew I existed, which meant there was still some imprint of me on the human world. I spent over an hour searching Melodie and my mom. I stared at their images on the screen and read Mel’s blog. She raved about the Valentine’s Day dance. The one I would’ve gone to with Matt if I hadn’t come into my powers. She didn’t mention her car being stolen by her former best friend, though. That was odd. Although, there was a picture of a different car in her profile picture. Nothing fancy, but definitely newer than the clunker I’d stolen. I was so wrapped up in Melodie’s life without me that I barely heard the key turn in the lock.

“No, problem, Tony.” Chase came into the room.

Oh, please no! If he walked around the desk, I was done for.

I didn’t move. The laptop was still in my lap, and my knees were sticking out from under the desk. Chase was going to find me and kill me. Or worse, he’d use his power on me to turn me into his slave again. If I’d had the choice, I’d pick death.

He moved to the bookshelf on the wall. I tensed up when his legs came into view. No way was I getting out of this. I thought about hitting him over the head with the laptop and making a run for it, but I figured he’d hear me and catch me before I could do any damage to him, so I stayed like a sitting duck.