Touch of Death (20 page)

I smiled at her. If I’d ever doubted that I was Ophi, the connection I felt to Medusa erased that doubt completely. I was drawn to her. The urge to touch her took over again. I reached both my hands out to hers. A surge of power bubbled through my blood. I inhaled, welcoming the boost of energy Medusa was giving me. I closed my eyes, allowing myself to be consumed by the experience. Like last time, Medusa entered my mind. I saw her standing before me. This time she didn’t look like my mom. She was beautiful, more beautiful than anyone I’d ever seen. I remembered the myth about Medusa being so beautiful that Athena cursed her.

“Welcome back, my child. I was hoping I’d see you again soon.” I tried to respond to her but my mouth wouldn’t form the words. “Speak with your mind alone, Jodi. We are connected. I will hear your thoughts.”

“What is this?” I asked. “What is this connection doing to me?”

“I am allowing you to feel the full extent of your power. You are chosen, and you must learn to use all of your power if you are to fulfill your duty to the Ophi.”

“How do I fulfill my duty? What do I have to do?”

“In time, that will become clear to you. For now, follow your instincts. They brought you to me twice now. They will serve you well as long as you don’t allow them to be overshadowed by what others tell you.”

“What others tell me? I don’t understand.”

“Not everyone here is your friend, Jodi. Some will try to steer you wrong.” Medusa stepped closer and looked down at her neck. The locket—my locket—hung there.

“The locket belongs to you!”

“At one time it did, but now it is yours. I left it for you, but you are not wearing it.”

“I was. Until someone stole it.”

“You must get it back, Jodi. It’s not an ordinary locket. Inside is a vial of my blood, taken directly from the center of my body. It contains the poison
and
the power to heal all in one. That is a dangerous thing to let slip into the wrong hands.”

The red veil over the green, I
had
seen it swirling. It was Medusa’s blood. “I tried to open the locket. It’s sealed shut.”

“For good reason. Opening the locket at the wrong time would have disastrous effects. Should you ever need to use the blood inside, you will know how. But it is meant for you alone. Do you know who has the locket now?”

“Abby.”

“Get it back. Soon.” I felt Medusa slipping away and became aware of fingers wrapped around my forearm. I let go of Medusa and opened my eyes to see Alex.

“I’m not so sure you should be doing that. We still don’t know what it will do to you.”

“Medusa claimed me as one of her bloodline, remember? She’s not going to do anything bad to me. Besides, I thought you’d be happy I was trying to learn more about who I am.”

Alex sighed. “Speaking of bloodlines, did you call your mom?”

“No. You were right. I wouldn’t be able to hang up on her. She’d cry and then I’d cry and who knows what I’d say.”

“We’ll figure something out.”

I nodded. “Hopefully soon. I don’t want to keep her wondering. It’s probably killing her.” Really bad choice of words. “Why aren’t you in training?” I asked, needing to change the subject.

“I was, but it’s over.” He looked at me like I had three heads. “How long have you been down here?”

“I don’t know. I was bringing my food to the kitchen, but I felt—” I wasn’t sure if I should tell him about the strange pull of the statue when I’d gotten to the bottom of the stairs.

“You’re hiding something from me.” His face fell. “You don’t trust me. I get it.”

“No, that’s not it.” I put my hand on his arm.

He jerked his arm away. “Whoa, your fingers are burning hot.”

I raised my fingers to my face, but I lowered them instantly. Alex was right. They felt as hot as burning coal. “What’s that about?”

Alex touched my arm again. “The rest of you feels fine. It’s just your hands.” Alex and I both looked at the Medusa statue. “How long did you say you were down here?”

“Only a couple of minutes.”

Alex walked over to the stairs and picked up my plate. He walked it over to me and held it up. The tiny piece of meat was scaly and dry, like it had been sitting out for hours.

“What time is it?” I asked.

“Six o’clock.”

I shook my head. “No way. That’s impossible. I came downstairs about a minute after you left my room.”

“That was three and a half hours ago, Jodi.”

My legs went limp, and I slumped forward. Alex dropped the plate in time to catch me. He dragged me over to the stairs and sat me down on the bottom step. Everything went black. I heard a shuffling of footsteps and Victoria’s voice. “Alex, what happened?”

“I found her touching the statue again. Like last night. She’d been there for hours. I think the rush of energy completely wiped her out.”

“My, how the mighty have fallen,” Abby scoffed.

“Go to your room, Abigail,” Victoria said.

My eyes fluttered open, and I was relieved that I could see again. Alex sat me up more but didn’t say a word. All eyes were on me, waiting to see if I was all right. Alex took one of my hands in his. I thought he was being sweet until he said, “She feels normal now. When I found her, her hands were too hot to touch.”

“Help her to her room. She needs rest.”

“No,” I said. “I feel okay now.”

“I’d still like you to lie down for a while,” Victoria said. “You were connected to the statue for way too long. We can’t be sure what effect that’s had on you.”

I nodded. I couldn’t deny that my body wanted rest, even if I didn’t. I wanted to search Abby’s room for my locket—Medusa’s locket.

“Wait,” I said, “before I go upstairs, there’s something I need to ask you.”

Victoria folded her hands in front of her. “Go ahead.”

“When can I see the prophecy about me?”

“Why do you ask? Did you see something when you were connected with the statue?”

“Yes. Medusa’s spirit appeared to me again. She said she had a gift for me. Something that had belonged to her.”

Victoria stiffened. “Has she told you what the gift will be?”

“She showed it to me.”

“And? What is it?” Victoria was speaking slowly, like she was trying hard to remain calm.

I looked at Alex next to me on the stairs. His face was pinched and frightened. I’d made a mistake even mentioning the gift to Victoria. I didn’t know what I’d been thinking. But Medusa had said so little about it, and Victoria was supposed to help me, right? I had to test her, see if she really knew anything about it.

“It’s a ring with a red stone. She didn’t say when I would get it.”

“Well, then no sense worrying about it this evening,” Victoria said with a smile. But I could see the wheels turning in her head. The Ophi may know a lot about themselves and their own powers, but I was still somewhat of a mystery. Because once again, I was different from everyone else.

Chapter 19

After Alex brought me upstairs and made me get into bed, he sent a servant to get me some food. When I protested, he said I needed to get my strength back up. I really wasn’t feeling all that bad. Confused mostly. How had I been connected to the statue for three and a half hours? It had felt like only minutes.

“Still trying to work things out in there?” Alex tapped his finger on my head.

“You could say that. I did lose a few hours of my life.”

“You’re probably pretty freaked out right now, huh?”

“A little, but not in the way you’re thinking.” It wasn’t Medusa who was scaring me. Sure, she’d put me in some sort of mind trance that made time sort of stand still, but I had this feeling she was trying to help me. “I think the statue is helping me tap into my powers. When I’m connected to Medusa, I can feel every ounce of power in my body. And it’s like both sides of my blood, the poison part and the part that restores life, are working together. Is that even possible?”

“Not that I know of.” He looked down at the blanket on my bed, studying it like it was the most interesting thing in the world. “I was worried about you. You were feverish, and not a small fever either. I’ve never felt anything that hot that wasn’t on fire.”

“I don’t understand it either, but maybe it has to do with how my blood feels when I touch Medusa. It bubbles, like boiling water, only I don’t feel hot. Not inside anyway.”

“You should tell all this to Mr. Quimby in the morning.”

“Mr. Quimby? He’s here? I haven’t seen him.”

“He’s not here yet, but he will be in the morning. He stayed behind to tie up a few loose ends after you left.”

Alex still wouldn’t look at me, so I leaned forward and grabbed his hand. “What loose ends?”

He looked at me and frowned. “Little things that could’ve been traced back to you.”

“Like what?” We’d taken care of Mom, and Matt was not a threat to the Ophi anymore.

“The deer you brought back, for one. It was doing a number on the farm animals.” I’d forgotten about the deer. “The squirrel from the construction site—the vet thought he euthanized it, but really the thing was just knocked out. It’s dead now, though. And then, of course, he had to say something to your mom.”

“My mom? Mr. Quimby talked to my mom about me, and you chose to lead with the deer?” There had to be a reason Alex didn’t tell me that right away. What was he trying to bury? Ugh! My brain was wired with words straight out of the dictionary for the dead. “What did he say to my mom, Alex?”

“I don’t know for sure, but he had to cover up anything that could lead people to finding out about us.”

“But I told my mom about my blood. She thought it was a joke. Crazy talk. She didn’t believe a word of it.”

“Yes, but you still told her things. Things a human shouldn’t know.”

Now I was shaking. The Ophi were very secretive. What would they do to Mom to keep her from telling our secret? “What did Mr. Quimby do?” My voice cracked.

“He wouldn’t hurt her, Jodi. I promise. He had to convince her that you really were talking crazy.”

“Crazy as in, ‘Gee, that Jodi has a really weird sense of humor,’ or crazy as in ‘Jodi needs to be locked up in a padded cell’?”

He didn’t answer, but he didn’t need to. Things were getting frighteningly clear.

“That’s the real reason why you didn’t want me calling my mom. You knew Mr. Quimby was going to talk to her. To tell her that her only daughter was crazy. Now, not only does she think I ran away, she thinks I did it because I’m a complete mental case!” A knock at the door interrupted me. “What?” I yelled, not wanting to deal with anyone else right now.

The door opened, and one of the servants came into the room with a covered dish. “Your food.” He brought the dish to me, and our hands touched for a second. I jerked my hand away from his, spilling the contents of the dish all over my blanket. The servant immediately began wiping the spaghetti and meatballs off the blanket with his hand. Bits of flesh peeled off his palm and stuck to the blanket.

“Stop!” I shrieked. “Just stop!”

“Only trying to help,” he said.

“Yeah, everyone here is trying to help. Only I don’t want help. Besides, you’re the one who needs the help.” My heart raced, and I could feel the blood in my veins. It simmered as I stared at the servant. “You’re not supposed to be here. This is all wrong. You’re supposed to be in your grave. That’s where you belong.”

Alex grabbed my shoulder, but he pulled away and winced. “Jodi, you’re on fire. You need to calm down. Our power is rooted in our emotions. If you don’t get a hold of yourself—”

“Don’t tell me what to do.” I shot a look at Alex before turning back to the servant. “I’m sorry you were brought back and forced to wait on people. I really am. I’m sorry you’re decaying and dropping pieces of flesh on my bed. I’m sorry you’re forced to stay here when you should be six feet under the ground.” I wasn’t trying to be mean. I really hated seeing the servants forced to exist like this. My blood boiled under my skin, making me shake. “You need to go back to your grave because that’s where you belong.”

“Jodi, no!” Alex yelled. I turned to him, not sure why he was so upset.

The servant nodded to me. “As you wish.” He turned and left the room.

“We have to stop him,” Alex said, throwing the pasta-covered blanket off me.

“What? Why?”

Alex was breathing heavily and shaking his head. “You used your power on him.”

“No, I didn’t. I didn’t bleed on him or cry on him. I just told him where he belonged.”

“He isn’t human anymore. He’s a spirit that’s been shoved back into a decaying body. A body controlled by—”

“Your family. You did this to them.”

“The servants are controlled by the adults. I told you, they only listen to the rest of us as far as giving us what we want to eat and other little things Victoria and Troy told them to do for us. But underage Ophi don’t know how to control a soul raised by someone else.” He glared at me. “Except you.” I didn’t know how to control any of my powers. He was talking crazy. “Something happened to you just now. You changed. You got scalding hot to the touch, and you commanded that servant to go back to his grave.”

“No. I didn’t command him to do anything. I told him where he was supposed to be.”