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!”
Chapter 6
I tried to get up, but I collapsed back on the bed. My head was spinning, and sweat dripped down my forehead. Alex wiped my face.
“Oh, God, Jodi, you’re burning up.”
“What about Leticia?” Randy asked, panic in his voice.
“Check her pulse,” Chase said.
I was vaguely aware of Randy checking on Leticia. “I can’t feel anything! Jodi, do something. You’re the only one who can raise an Ophi.”
Alex shook his head. “Look at her. She’s sick or something. I don’t think she’s strong enough to try raising anyone.”
“So, what, we let Leticia die?”
“She’s already dead,” Chase said. The coldness in his tone brought me to attention.
“But why?” I croaked.
“Shh, don’t try to talk. I’m going to get you some water, okay?” Alex kissed my head and headed for the bathroom.
“We have to do something!” Randy insisted.
“Jodi.” Chase slid into Alex’s spot. “I can help you. Mason said Ophi can combine their powers to make them stronger. It’s dangerous, but it’s possible. I’d guess, with you being the Chosen One, you have a better chance than anyone at figuring it out. Let me help you raise Leticia. Before her soul leaves her body.”
Combining powers. Victoria had told me that the Ophi had had to combine their powers to raise Medusa’s soul and put it in the statue. Many of them had died in the process. This was more than a little risky, but I had to try for Leticia’s sake. I glanced toward the bathroom. “Okay, but we have to hurry. Alex won’t let me try this without knowing what’s wrong with me.”
Chase scooped me into his arms and carried me to the floor near Leticia. He held my hand, and we touched Leticia’s forehead. I didn’t normally need blood to raise things anymore. Other Ophi did, but since I’d drunk Medusa’s blood I no longer had to bleed on the body of the person I was raising. Chase didn’t know that though. He took a needle from the sewing kit on my dresser and poked both our fingers. Drops of blood dotted Leticia’s forehead.
“Ready?” Chase asked.
I nodded and willed my blood to mix. I felt it working, and Chase was right about combining powers. I could feel his blood flowing through the veins in his hand. I focused all my strength on Leticia’s soul. Sweat poured down my cheeks, and I started shaking. Still, I concentrated on bringing Let
icia back. Her soul was still in her body, so I only had to wake it. “Breathe,” I commanded. There was a sudden intake of air as Leticia’s eyes and mouth opened. She was alive.
“What are you doing?” Alex yelled. I could barely see. My vision was cloudy. He rushed to me and pulled me away from Chase. “Why did you let her do that?” He buried my face in his shirt.
“Alex, calm down,” Randy said. “They brought Leticia back. They saved her.”
“And it nearly killed Jodi.” Alex’s chest heaved, and he let go of me. I pulled back and saw his shirt was covered in blood.
“What happened to you?” I asked.
“It’s not my blood.” He wiped my cheek with his thumb and showed it to me. It was covered in a deep red liquid. “It’s yours.”
I brought my hands to my eyes. Blood was pouring out of them. I’d gotten headaches and nosebleeds from using my powers, but never anything like this. At least not from raising souls. My eyes had bled after I drank Medusa’s blood, though. I turned to Chase, and he looked as horrified as I was.
“Jodi, I had no idea combining our powers would do this.”
“It didn’t do anything to you,” Alex snarled.
Chase shook his head. “You have to believe me. I didn’t know. I was only trying to help Leticia.”
Leticia sat up and gasped. “Jodi? Are you okay?”
I was burning up from the power inside me. My blood wouldn’t stop boiling. “It’s too much. It’s trying to find a way out.”
“What is?” Alex asked.
“My blood. There’s too much power in it.” My body shook, jolting with every surge of power running through my veins.
“Alex, we should take her to Arianna and Tony,” Randy said. “They might be able to help her and explain what happened.
“No,” I said. “Take me to Medusa. She’ll know.”
Alex carried me downstairs and held me up while I joined hands with Medusa. The second the connection was made, I started to feel better, and before long I was standing on my own. Medusa’s spirit appeared in my mind like usual.
“My child, what’s happened? Who did this to you?”
“I’m not sure. It happened when I brought Leticia back from the dead.” Luckily, my conversations with Medusa were completely private. We spoke only in my mind, so Alex couldn’t overhear anything.
“How did Leticia die?”
“I don’t know. I was sort of out of it when it happened. I heard her choking and gasping for air. Then she fell to the floor. Randy checked for a pulse and said she was dead.”
“Why were you out of it, Jodi?” Medusa eyed me suspiciously. She knew I was holding back.
“There’s a new student at the school.”
“Yes, I met him earlier today.” Medusa only ever appeared to me, but when another Ophi connected with her statue they felt her power and Medusa could tap into their emotions.
“Right. Well, we were all watching a movie in my room.” I swallowed hard before continuing. “Chase started touching my feet. It was weird at first, like a tingling in my feet and legs, but then I recognized it was power I was feeling. Only it wasn’t like the power I feel when I raise souls. I don’t think this power came from you.”
Medusa nodded, like she understood. “Jodi, when you arrived here you were told that the blood in the left side of my body could not harm you, but that was not entirely true.”
“What do you mean? I thought it was only poisonous to humans?”
“It is highly poisonous to humans, but in its purest form it’s poisonous to Ophi as well.”
I shook my head. “In its purest form? What does that mean?”
“It means you weren’t mixing your blood, Jodi. You were pushing all the blood with the power to restore life to a very concentrated part of your body and allowing the poisonous blood to spread throughout the rest of you.”
I started to feel dizzy again, but this time it was from information overload. “How is that possible?”
“How much do you know about Chase?”
“Just that he’s from Serpentarius. He studied with Mason, but he wanted to learn more about his power, so he came here. They don’t actively train there. They don’t believe in it.”
“Keep him close, Jodi. I sense he isn’t like the others.”
“Do you mean he’s like me? He has more power than other Ophi?”
“More power, yes.” Medusa looked down at our hands. “That’s enough for now. You don’t want to indulge in too much of my power at once.”
I wanted to know more, but Medusa was right. Connecting with her for too long drained my energy completely. “Thank you.” I let go of her hands.
“Well?” Alex asked the moment I opened my eyes. I’d only been connected to Medusa for a few minutes, ten tops, but he looked like he’d been waiting an eternity. “What did she say?”
He wasn’t going to like this. “She said Chase isn’t like the other Ophi. He’s more like me. He has more power.”
“You’re kidding, right?” His voice was full of disgust.
“No.” I conveniently left off the part about Chase touching my feet, the incident that had started all this power overload. “When we combined my power and his, it was too much for my body to contain.”
“So, now we know not to let you work with Chase anymore.”
“Actually, I think I need to work with him more.”
He folded his arms in front of him. “How do you figure?”
“We need all the power we can get. Hades is breathing down my neck, and my power alone isn’t enough to keep him away. Maybe if I can figure out how to work with Chase, then—I don’t know. But if it might help us, it’s worth a shot.”
“What about before you raised Leticia? You were acting really weird. What was that about?”
“Stress, I think.” I turned away so he wouldn’t be able to read my face. I was sure it had “big fat liar” written across it.
He stepped forward and hugged me. “We’ll figure it out. But just so you know, whenever you train with Chase, I’m going to be there to make sure nothing like this happens again.”
I nodded. I’d expected as much.
“Let’s get you cleaned up. The blood-streaked face is very last season.”
I smiled. He always could make me feel better.
The movie party was definitely over, so I said goodnight to Alex and took a long, hot shower. Nothing calmed me down better. I was looking forward to crawling under the covers and sleeping my problems away. I couldn’t deal with another thing today. Before I shut my eyes for the night, I said a little prayer—that I wouldn’t have a single dream.
I woke up still feeling slightly exhausted from the previous day, but I didn’t have any dead guys pounding on my door, so I was content. I couldn’t remember dreaming at all, so I took that as another sign that today would be a better day. In fact, I started to think the only reason I was drawn to Chase in the first place was because the power in my blood recognized the power in his. He was like me. That didn’t mean I liked him. And maybe he didn’t even really like me. Maybe he was only drawn to my power.
I got out of bed with a smile on my face. Things were starting to make sense again, starting to look better. Maybe Chase and I would be able to figure out how to combine our powers and get the other Ophi to join us. Be a real family. And more importantly, keep off Hades’ radar.
Alex was waiting for me by the stairs. I ran up to him and threw my arms around his neck.
“I guess you’re feeling better this morning,” he said.
“Good as new, and I think I’ve figured things out. I’ve got an idea. One that might convince a few more Ophi to come here and join us.”
Over breakfast I told Alex and the others all about my plan. “So, here’s what I’m thinking. Chase seems to have different powers than other Ophi. Stronger powers. Kind of like me. That’s good news for us.”
Leticia and Randy turned to Chase, looking him over with jealousy in their eyes. They w
ere both still struggling with their powers, and now here was another Ophi with more abilities than them.
“What did you have in mind, Jodi?” Tony sipped his coffee.
Even Arianna had stopped fussing over the food and sat down. “Have you seen evidence of these powers Chase has?”
“Yes. Last night, something terrible happened.” I looked at Leticia. She’d begged us not to tell Tony and Arianna what had happened, and since I hadn’t wanted to deal with any more drama either, I had made the others agree. “I think an attack was made on Leticia.”
“An attack?” Leticia looked horrified. Clearly, she hadn’t considered this was a possibility.
I nodded. “I hate to admit this, but I think Hades is purposely trying to make me screw up. Do something he can deem as a deal breaker so he can come after me.”
“You think Hades did that to me?” Leticia’s voice cracked.
“I don’t know how else to explain it. You just started choking. On nothing.”
Leticia shook her head, still not believing this. “I thought it was the popcorn or something.”
“You really think a popcorn kernel could take down an Ophi?” Alex asked.
I knew Alex was trying to help, but Leticia was sensitive. She wasn’t going to respond to jokes. “Leticia, I think Hades came after you to get to me.” I looked around the table. “I’m afraid he might come after all of you.” My eyes lingered on Alex.
“So, we need to be ready,” Alex said.
“Yes, and here’s how.” I got up and walked over to Chase. I took a deep breath and reached my hand out to him.
Chase looked at Alex and smiled before taking my hand. “Don’t get too excited,” Alex said. “She’s only demonstrating a point.”
I closed my eyes and felt the surge of power between us. My hair danced like a gentle breeze was blowing it. Even without seeing him, I knew Chase felt it, too. I didn’t want it to go too far, not with Alex and the others staring at us. Last night the connection between us had been… well, more than PG rated. I wasn’t ready for the others to witness that. I let go of Chase’s hand.
“When we form a connection, I can feel Chase’s power. Like it’s communicating with my blood.”
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