Stalked by Death (Touch of Death) (27 page)

“I just said I can’t mix—oh wait, you don’t trust me. You think I’m going to dose you with poison.”

The others were still staring, but they weren’t close enough to hear us. Except for Alex. He was staying in earshot. “You’ve done it numerous times before. This is what I’m talking about, Chase. How can I trust you or want to work with you when you’re purposely hurting me? If I’m skeptical of you, it’s because you’ve made me be this way.”

His face turned crimson with anger. “If I were you, I’d help me calm down before I lose it and my blood takes over.”

I narrowed my eyes at him. “Are you saying you can’t control your emotions? That you haven’t been hurting me on purpose? Are you blaming your blood for what you’ve done to me?”

“Haven’t you blamed your emotions and blood for raising the cemetery countless times?” He yanked his hands down, pulling me directly over the grave. I stumbled forward, but he caught me. “We’re not that different.” He pressed his lips to mine, and I realized he was trying to calm down. He wasn’t trying to use his powers on me. I gave in because I didn’t want his poisoned blood to cripple me and stop me from raising this soul. I let him kiss me until his hands unclenched.

I pulled back slowly. “Are you okay now?”

“Fine. I hate that you can turn me into a monster.”

“Funny, I feel the same way about you.”

He smiled. “We’re either going to make the perfect couple or we’re going to kill each other, aren’t we?”

I laughed it off, but inside I knew it would probably be the latter of the two.

“You two going to actually raise something today, or did you just come here to make out on top of the graves?” Alex yelled.

I jumped, and I felt Chase tense up again. Crap! After I’d just calmed him down.

“Not your problem, Alex,” I called, keeping my eyes locked on Chase.

Chase smiled again. I was getting better at fooling him.

“Okay, let’s try this.” We joined hands and closed our eyes. “On three.” I felt Chase’s power already flowing to me. For a second I wanted to let him dose me with that amazing energy. I was high on it, but I knew I had to transfer my power to him. I willed my blood to mix, feeling it bubble beneath my skin. I sent him a little at first, waiting to see how he’d respond. I opened my eyes so I could watch his reaction. He threw his head back and laughed, obviously loving the feeling. I gave him a little more power before I reached out toward the underworld.

It took me a second to realize Chase wasn’t helping. He was too busy enjoying the power surging through him. “Chase, I need your help. Stay with me.”

“Sorry.” He didn’t sound sorry at all. “Is this how I make you feel? Because this is seriously awesome stuff. No wonder you throw yourself at me when I touch you.”

I felt my cheeks redden. Alex and the others were watching. I hoped they were far enough away not to hear Chase.

Chase pulled me closer to him. He was acting exactly like I did when he used his power on me. He wanted to wrap his arms around me, but I couldn’t let him break our connection or mess up what we were trying to do. I clenched his hands tighter and gently pushed him back.

“Focus. Reach for the soul with me.”

“Only if you promise we can do this again later when we won’t be interrupted by souls.”

I sighed, partly because Alex was having to watch all this and I knew it was killing him, but mostly because I understood why Chase wanted to connect like this more. I wanted it, too. I had to stay focused. I had to find a good use for the power Chase and I had.

“I promise,” I said.

Chase squeezed my hands, and I felt the power circle through us. He was concentrating now, helping me call out to the souls Hades had taken. I settled for the first one that answered us. It was a woman. She came with us willingly at first, which was a nice surprise. Usually the souls didn’t want to come with us. But when she realized it wasn’t her body we were trying to put her in, she freaked. Her soul lashed out at us. Her screams rang through my head.

Chase squeezed me tighter. He heard her, too. For the first time, he could hear the torment the souls went through when we raised them. It was good to sense him cringing. It meant he was capable of emotion. So far today, he’d shown me that side of him more than once. It was a side of him I didn’t hate.

His breathing became heavy and labored. He clenched my hands so hard it hurt. He was getting angry at the soul. I worried what he’d do. What he’d make me do.

“Chase, relax. It’s always like this, only you never heard or felt it before. This is what I experience every time I raise a soul. It’s awful, I know, but don’t let it overtake you. Push it out of your mind.”

His hands and arms shook. I had to get him to calm down. I stepped closer to him without breaking our connection, not that I could with how tightly he was holding my hands.

“Chase, I’m right here. Focus on me. Focus on our power. Forget the soul. I’ll handle her.”

He grunted as the soul screamed so loudly I thought my eardrums would burst. She whipped around us, not wanting to get near the body we were standing above. She tried to force us apart. Chase was losing it. His anger flared up, and I felt his blood change.

“No, Chase! Don’t!” He was going to poison the soul, and in doing so, he was going to poison me.

I sent more life-restoring power to him, no longer mixing my blood but forcing concentrated bursts of the energizing power to Chase. I hoped that would snap him out of it. Instead, he countered with a shot of poison.

The soul and I screamed in agony at the same time. Chase was hurting us both. I stopped transferring power to him, too weak to give him any more. His poisoned blood was taking over mine. My vision blurred. My hearing dimmed, but I could still hear the soul screeching at us. My screams stopped, turning to choking instead. I fell to my knees, my hands still in Chase’s. He wasn’t stopping. I coughed up blood, staining the dirt beneath me.

Then the soul stopped screaming. Chase let go of me, and I slumped onto the grave. There were more screams, and feet shuffled against the ground. Someone slid on the dirt next to me.

Alex was at my side, cradling my head in his lap. “Jodi! Jodi, can you hear me?” His hands were caressing my face.

“Did you kill her?” Lexi asked Chase, not sounding all that concerned.

I could barely see through the blood filling my eyes, but I could make out Chase staring at me.

“We did it. She’s in there.” He pointed to the ground beneath me.

“What, in Jodi?” Leticia asked. “You put the soul in Jodi?”

“No, in there.” Chase continued to point, not paying any attention to me.

I felt something claw at my back before two decaying arms came up out of the ground and wrapped around me.

I was virtually powerless. Chase had dosed me with so much poison I couldn’t defend myself against the corpse. Alex pried the arms from my waist.

“Leticia, get Jodi out of here!” he yelled. Before Leticia could get to me, Chase scooped me into his arms. He sent waves of life-restoring power to me, and I instantly started to perk up. I wrapped my arms around him and leaned my head against his chest so I was touching him and soaking up his energy in as many places as possible.

“Don’t release that soul,” Chase said. “We fought too hard to get it here. That’s not even the soul’s body. Jodi is going to want to see this when she’s feeling up to it.”

I heard Chase command the soul to stay where it was, but mostly I was aware of how much I wanted to be close to him. He looked down at me, concern on his face. “I’ve got you. Take as much as you need.”

Why did he have to be two such completely different people? If he was always like this, he really could give Alex some competition. But the fact that Chase had nearly killed me two minutes ago made me realize that, no matter how nice he was on occasion, he was still mostly evil.

“You can stop now,” I told him. “I feel fine.”

“You sure? I don’t mind connecting with you again. If you think that would help. In fact, I’d love to. I’m sure these guys wouldn’t mind babysitting the soul for us.” He turned to Alex. “What do you say, Alex? Can you watch this corpse while me and my girl get some private time?”

“Stop it.” I smacked his chest. “Put me down. I’m fine now.”

He put me down, but he didn’t let go of my hand. “Just in case,” he said, and I knew he wasn’t talking about me needing a little more energy from him. He was making sure I didn’t step out of line. So much for the temporary glimpse of good I had seen.

I walked toward the corpse with Chase at my side. “We didn’t have your body to return you to,” I said to the soul. “Hades took it, but we need to speak with you, so we’re letting you borrow this body for now. Do you understand?”

The soul practically growled at me, but she nodded her head—or should I say his head because the body she entered was a male.

“Sorry about the gender mix-up. We didn’t know which soul was going to respond to our call.”

She/he continued to growl at me.

“Okay, stop.” I put my hand up to her/his face. “I’m trying to have a civil conversation with you. I know you went through hell to get here, but please work with me.”

The corpse stopped growling, not because it wanted to, but because I’d commanded it to. I looked at Alex, trying to silently tell him that this was the kind of thing I was hoping to be able to use Chase’s power for. At least this might help us. Alex only met my eyes for a second before looking away. He was in agony. I could tell. I had to figure things out quickly before this thing with Chase really did end my relationship with Alex for good.

I turned back to the corpse. “What can you tell me about where you were? Did you see Hades? Did you see the others he took?”

The soul moved awkwardly in the corpse, not at all at home in its unfamiliar body. It reminded me of those horror movies where the zombies and possessed people bend in inhuman ways. I tried my best not to cringe. After all, I’d done this to the poor soul.

“Stop playing nice, Jodi, and make the thing talk.” Chase’s voice was full of anger. He dug his fingers into my hand as a warning. Either I hurt the soul or he was going to hurt me.

Alex clenched his fist, but he didn’t move to help me. I looked at him briefly, letting him know I was okay, that I could handle this. Truthfully, I wasn’t sure I could.

“Tell me your name,” I commanded the soul.

“Rebecca Ellison,” the corpse said in a rather masculine voice.

“Hi, Rebecca. I know Hades has your body trapped. Tell me where he brought you and the others.” I had to remember to phrase my questions as demands to ensure an answer, but I was still trying to be a little nice about it.

“Tartarus,” the corpse spit out.

“What’s Tartarus?” McKenzie asked.

Jared shook his head. “Really? Tony taught us all about it. It’s the part of the underworld that people refer to as Hell.”

Lexi laughed. “‘A place of profound misery.’” I could tell she was mocking Tony.

I couldn’t be bothered with them right now. We weren’t supposed to be able to raise souls from Tartarus. Hades kept them protected from us. “Hades brought you to Tartarus? Tell me how he’s torturing you and the others.”

“Like this!” The corpse raised its arms. “Forcing us into each other’s bodies. The pain is unbearable. He removes us briefly and fakes pity, only to shove us into other bodies that are not our own. I thought I was finding freedom coming with you, but you’re as bad as Hades!”

I staggered backward, but Chase put his hand against my back to stop me. “My God.” My voice was barely a whisper. “What have we done?” I looked at Chase in horror.

“I think this is a good thing. Hades won’t be angry when he finds out we’re torturing the souls the same way he is.” He smiled. “I think we found the answer to our problems, hon.” He wrapped me in a hug and picked me up off the ground. My arms were pinned to my sides, and my lungs tightened.

Chase put me down, and I looked at Alex. I needed to talk to someone rational, and that wasn’t Chase. “Do you think he took those bodies from my room because he knew I’d try this?”

Alex shook his head and stepped toward me. Chase grabbed my hand again, but he didn’t push Alex away. He let him talk. “I don’t know, but it does make sense. He took your father. That pretty much bought him insurance of exactly this.”

“I’m playing right into his games.” I’d done what Hades had wanted me to. “All I wanted was to talk to my dad again and see what Hades was doing in the underworld. I thought he could spy for us.”

“I can spy,” the corpse said.

I wrinkled my forehead at her/him. “Why would you do that? You said this is torture. I’m doing the same thing to you that Hades is.”

“Yes, but he does it repeatedly. It’s the initial act of shoving the soul into the wrong body that is so painful. I can adapt a little once I’m here. It’s still torture, but not as bad.”

“Then, I could bring my dad here.”

“Jodi!” Alex looked appalled. “She said it was torture. Why would you put your own father through that?”

“Because she said this isn’t as bad as what Hades is doing.”

“Are you sure about this?” Alex’s voice was soft and full of emotion. I was waiting for Chase to notice and punish me for it. I had to avoid that.