Alex sighed. “Release his soul, and Tony and I will go bury him.”
“I’ll help you.” I stood up. I needed to get out of this room. Away from all the judgmental stares.
Alex put his hand on my shoulder, stopping me. “No. We got it. You eat.” There was a small hint of warmth in his voice. Yes, he was angry, but that didn’t change the fact that he cared about me.
I released the soul and watched Tony and Alex carry the body out of the room. The rest of the day was pretty much a blur. Tony lectured about Ophi history. Arianna made something for dinner. It wasn’t my turn to help with the dishes, so I headed to my room to lie down. I wasn’t up for interacting with everyone. Not that anyone really wanted to interact with me. They weren’t being mean or anything, but they weren’t going out of their way to talk to me either.
I flopped facedown on my bed and tried to let the awfulness of the day melt away. It might have helped a little if someone hadn’t knocked on my door.
I sighed and got up to answer it. Chase was standing in the hall with a big bowl of popcorn and a movie in his hands. Oh, this wasn’t going to be good.
“Um, what’s up?” I asked, fully aware of how dumb that sounded.
“Thought you could use a good horror movie to forget your troubles.” He shook the DVD, and I saw it was a zombie flick. How appropriate.
“You’re kidding, right? My life is pretty much a horror movie. How would this make me forget about it?” I couldn’t help it. I laughed. Chase smiled, and I realized that was his exact reason for choosing the horror movie. The sheer irony of it.
“So, what do you say?” His eyes were hopeful, and I didn’t want to crush him by saying no. After all, he was the only one talking to me right now. Still, being alone in my room with Chase could only add up to trouble. There was only one thing to do.
“Tell you what, let’s invite the others. I know Arianna and Tony won’t go for it, but Alex, Leticia, and Randy might want to watch.” So much for not wanting to interact with people tonight.
Chase’s face fell. It wasn’t what he was hoping for.
“Go on in.” I opened the door more. “I’ll go get the others.” I hurried down the hall before he could protest. Leticia’s room was the closest, so I started there.
“Leticia.” I lightly tapped on the door. “We’re all going to watch a movie in my room. Want to come?” I figured I’d have better luck if I made it seem like everyone else had already agreed to it.
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.
