Stalked by Death (Touch of Death) (33 page)

“The group in Washington?”

“Yes. Still think
I’m
the bad guy?”

“Yes,” I said, being completely honest. “You killed Chase’s mother. Fine, she did some awful things. I get that. You did your job and punished her, but then you made a deal with Chase. You wanted him to use his powers to help me destroy all the Ophi.”

“Yes, yes, and yes.”

“What made you think your plan would work? You knew I was with Alex. You saw us together.”

Hades laughed and stared at Chase, still on the ground and suffering from the poison I’d given him. “Girls always go for the bad boys.”

Chase was the bad boy. He was everything Alex wasn’t. Sure, Alex had a little bad boy in him. I’d seen that side of him, but he was also really sweet once you got past the wall he put up. Medusa seemed to think Chase might have been different before his mom died. Before he made the deal with Hades.

I avoided Hades’ eyes and focused on Chase. “Why did you do it? Why did you agree to help him? Did he threaten you?”

Hades laughed again. “Always blaming me, aren’t you, Jodi Marshall?” He walked over to Chase, and the contempt he felt for him was written all over his face. “This one, he was evil from the start. He knew his powers were greater than other Ophi. With the exception of you.” He turned to me. “Chase was jealous of your power. It was all his parents ever talked about. Isn’t that right, Ethan?”

Ethan turned away.

“That’s why your son hated you. You pushed him, forced him to use more power than he should have. Tried to make him be more like Jodi. But that backfired, didn’t it?”

“Backfired how?” I asked, since Ethan wasn’t talking.

“It was Chase I came for that day, not Charlotte, but she begged me to give him a second chance. To let him prove he could be of use to me.” Hades bent down, getting in Chase’s face. “Your mother begged for your life, putting hers up in exchange, and you let her do it. You took my deal without hesitation.”

“No.” I couldn’t believe it. Chase had seemed tortured over losing his mother. How could he be the reason Hades took her? “Chase, what really happened?”

He was still too weak to move or talk, so I walked over and gave him a dose of my power to heal him.

“Talk!” I demanded.

Chase staggered to his feet, looking at Hades and ignoring me. “I did everything you told me to. You said you’d give her back to me.”

My stomach lurched. “You did all this to get your mom back?” I whipped my head toward Hades. “You only took her temporarily?”

“That depended on whether Chase succeeded. Which he did not.” He motioned to the others. “They are still alive.”

“They died. It worked. I did what you said.” Chase was desperate, grasping for a loophole.

That’s when I realized Hades never set up a deal he couldn’t win.

“We’ll do it again,” Chase said.

“Like hell we will!” I’d had it. Chase might be trying to save his mom, but I wasn’t going to let him kill everyone else to do it. I shoved him, letting a dose of poison knock him back to the ground. If it were my mom on the line, I wouldn’t have given up, either. I was sure that was something Chase and I had in common. I had to eliminate him as a threat, and poisoning him was the only way I knew how.

“Perhaps I can persuade you otherwise.” Hades raised his arms out to his sides and a figure rose from the crack in the earth.

Matt. I stared, nearly collapsing. He was himself again. Not a corpse. Not a zombie.

I couldn’t breathe. My body was frozen in place as I looked at the first guy I ever loved—or could have loved if I hadn’t killed him. I’d never forgiven myself for killing Matt. I had known I was poisonous to him, yet I’d kissed him anyway. I’d given in to my emotions and kissed him, knowing what the consequences would be. Now, he here was. Alive.

He stared at his arms, hands, and legs. He patted his chest, trying to figure out if he was real. I knew the feeling. I wanted to do the same thing.

I shook my head, still in disbelief. “How?” I asked Hades.

“I’m god of the underworld. I can even bring your father back. If you give me what I want.”

“What do you want?”

Hades walked toward me, invading my personal space and making every hair on my body stand on end. “I want you to destroy the Ophi. Choose Matt and your father. You could be happy. The only thing I ask for in return is your promise never to have a child. I don’t want any loopholes left open. The Ophi line ends with you.”

Matt wrinkled his forehead and reached his hand toward me. “Jodi? Where are we? What’s going on? All I remember is being in your backyard, kissing you. Then things got fuzzy.”

Tears streamed down my cheeks. “Oh, Matt, I’m so sorry. I never meant to hurt you. I never meant for any of this to happen.”

“Don’t cry. I’m fine.” He took his thumbs and wiped the tears from my cheeks.

“Matt, no!” But I was too late. His eyes rolled back in his head, and he crumpled to the ground. I collapsed with him, my heart torn in two. I’d killed Matt again. Hades had brought him back alive, and I had killed him for the second time.

I looked up at Hades, my blood boiling. “You lied! It’s all a lie!”

Something landed with a loud thud next to me. Alex was clinging to the edge of the crack, trying to pull himself up. While I’d been wrapped up in Matt, he’d jumped over it to get to me.

“Alex!” I grabbed his arms and tried to pull him up, but he was too heavy.

Hades watched, clearly amused.

“Jodi, I can help.” Chase’s voice was weak from poison.

I held on to Alex and stared at Chase. I couldn’t trust him. He’d try to make me kill everyone. But I couldn’t save Alex on my own. I needed help, and Hades wasn’t about to lend me a hand.

“Alex, hold on. I have an idea.”

“He’ll throw me over, Jodi. He’s tricking you.”

“Trust me.” I locked my eyes on his, hoping he’d see how much I cared about him.

He nodded, and his face contorted in pain as I released my grip on his arms and he held on without my help. Leticia and McKenzie shrieked, obviously terrified for Alex. Tony moved like he was going to try to jump the crack and help Alex, but I held my hand up. I couldn’t risk him falling, too.

I went to Chase and gave him only enough power to allow him to stand. “Let me be clear. You’re going to help me, and if you try anything, I’ll dose you with more poison than your body can take. Do you understand me?”

Chase glared at me. He’d obviously been hoping I was dumb enough to believe he was going to help me.

I pushed him over to Alex. Keeping one hand on Chase, ready to transfer my poison if need be, I reached for Alex. Chase grabbed Alex’s other arm, and we pulled him up.

Hades clapped. “How touching.”

I glared at him, wishing more than anything that I could take him on, but I wasn’t stupid. He was a god, and he’d squash me in seconds, if it even took that long.

“This is what you’re protecting?” Hades scoffed in Alex’s direction. “You see, you really would be better off with Chase.”

“Why would I believe anything you say? You lied to me and said I could be with Matt again. You know I can’t be around humans.”

“No, but you can be around Chase.” He walked over to Chase, looking him up and down. “His power is almost as strong as yours. He’s Ophi, so you wouldn’t have to worry about killing him. He’s the closest thing to an equal you are going to find.”

“I’m not taking a consolation prize. I refuse to kill the Ophi.” I stood my ground, but inside, I was shaking.

“Very well. Have it your way. I can’t kill all the Ophi at once, but I can kill those who are right here.” Hades reached his arms out, and the others fell to the ground. All but Chase and me.

“No!” I reached for Alex. He didn’t have a pulse. His heart wasn’t beating. He was dead.

“I will hunt down every Ophi, Jodi Marshall. I will kill them all. Your only chance at saving yourself is to take my deal. It would save me a lot of time if you’d end the Ophi race for me.”

I looked at Chase. He was petrified. I was sure he thought Hades was going to kill him, too.

“Your answer?” Hades crossed his arms. “I don’t have all day, you know.”

Something inside me clicked. My emotions were out of control. I’d never hated someone so much. Hades had taken my father, made me kill Matt again, wiped out every Ophi in the school, and worst of all, he’d taken the guy I loved. I was done. My blood bubbled, and my skin looked like it was transforming. Hades stared at me, obviously surprised by the change in my appearance.

My hair whipped back as I stood. I must have looked insane. That’s how I felt. I reached my arms out and summoned the souls of the Ophi lying on the ground. They came to me willingly, recognizing my power. There were no screams, and I didn’t have to force them back into their bodies. They wanted to come with me. I heard them stirring on the ground, so I turned my attention elsewhere. Somewhere deeper. Tartarus.

Hades’ eyes locked on mine, but he didn’t stop me. He was measuring me. Seeing how much power I actually had. Not even I knew that, but I was going to find out. I didn’t call out to the souls this time. I took them. I ripped them out of there. Hades had said they were evil people when they were alive, so I didn’t feel bad about torturing them this way.

One by one, I forced them into the bodies lying in the graves below us. I hoped the giant crater Hades had created wouldn’t make them all go plummeting back to the underworld. I saw the first set of fingers reach through the ground, and I commanded the soul to go right for Hades. I kept going, ripping souls from Tartarus and turning them on the god who’d tortured them for who knew how many years.

Hades didn’t seem too worried. He stood there watching, mocking my attempt to stand up against him. I worked faster, making the cemetery crawl with zombies, and they all wanted one thing: Hades.

Still, Hades was toying with me instead of taking control of the situation. He wanted to make me suffer.

“Stop her!” Hades commanded Chase. “Destroy her with your power. Make her bend to my will.”

“She’s too strong. I’ve never seen her like this.” Chase kept his distance. Wind whipped around me like a hurricane.

Hades raised his arms, and I expected an attack, but instead he brought a woman from the crack in the ground. I knew instantly that it was Chase’s mother.

“Break through her powers and poison her, or your mother’s soul is mine forever. I’ll see that she suffers in Tartarus for all eternity.”

I kept my focus on controlling the souls. Hades was beating them down and sending them away, but I raised them again. It was an unending cycle, and he was getting pissed. I’d hoped it would make him leave—retreat to the underworld, even if it was out of annoyance rather than fear. But he stayed.

Chase got as close to me as he dared, and he lowered his voice as much as he could with all the wind howling around me. “Jodi, take my hand. Together you and I are strong enough to stop him.”

What? This had to be a trick. He didn’t want to help me defeat Hades. He wanted to get his hands on me so he could poison me.

“Nice try, Chase. Don’t get in my way, or I will take you down.”

“I’m not lying.” His eyes left me and went to his mom. She stood there, bound in place by Hades’ power. “I can’t let him take her again. I have to make it up to her. Please, let me help you.”

Maybe he was desperate to help his mom. Maybe he really did want to defeat Hades. He’d failed Hades, and if he made it through this fight, Hades would kill Chase anyway because he’d failed. I knew it, and Chase knew it. I couldn’t trust him. As much as I wanted to save all the Ophi, this wasn’t the way to do it. Even if Chase was serious about helping me, our combined powers still weren’t enough to defeat a god.

“I’m sorry, Chase. I feel bad about your mom, but I’ve made my choice, and it’s not you.” I reached my hand out and hit him with a dose of poison. I couldn’t risk him doing the same to me. I knew it was wrong, but it was a poison or be poisoned situation. I wasn’t dying at Chase’s hands. If I was going down, it would be Hades’ doing.

“Wrong choice, Jodi Marshall.” Hades let out a yell, and the ground opened wider, crumbling beneath our feet.

I couldn’t maintain focus on the souls. I stopped controlling them and tried to grab onto something, anything. Alex was next to me, and we reached for each other’s hands as we plummeted into the black abyss.

The fall went on for what seemed like forever. I caught glimpses of the others. The Ophi, the zombies. Everyone was falling. Everyone was screaming in terror. The only one I didn’t see was Hades. He was already where we were going to end up. The underworld.

I’d made my choice. According to Hades, it was the wrong choice. He couldn’t let me go after that. I was a threat to him, and he wasn’t having it. I clutched Alex, silently communicating an apology. I’d put him through hell these past few months. I didn’t deserve him. Even just in the past hour, he’d had to see me with my human ex-boyfriend, who I clearly had unresolved feelings for. He should’ve hated me, but the look in his eyes said he still loved me.

I looked around, trying to get my bearings and remember what we were passing on our way to the underworld, but Hades had us surrounded in a black cloud of smoke. It carried us over the River Styx, which was barely visible through the smoke, and finally we fell at the gate to the underworld.