He thought I’d done it on purpose, and he was taking this as a good sign. Maybe it wasn’t such a bad thing, after all, if it got Chase off my back.
“We should send them back before Hades shows up. I thought you would’ve done that already,” I added, hoping it would cover up my previous outburst about the bodies being here.
“You’re right. Why don’t we do it together? I’ve been itching to mix our blood again.” He ran his hand down my arm, sending my blood into a frenzy. I wanted to throw my arms around him and pull him close, absorb all his power, but I had to stay in control. For Alex.
“I’m kind of drained. Can you just give me enough to release these guys all at once?”
“You got it.” He took my hand, and a tingling slowly crept up my arm. I hated that I loved the feeling.
I forced myself to focus on the corpses. “I release—” Chase squeezed my hand, sending a shot of concentrated poison to me. I winced in pain. Apparently all wasn’t forgiven.
“Jodi, I don’t feel like digging all those graves this late at night,” Chase said. “Have the corpses bury themselves before you release them.”
The searing pain subsided, and I struggled to stay on my feet. If I crumbled or appeared weak at all, the rest of the Ophi were going to question my abilities. They had no idea Chase was the one weakening me. Maybe Tony would figure it out after our talk, but I didn’t want him to lash out at Chase and ruin the plan Alex and I had come up with.
I tried to command the souls, but I was too weak now. “Please,” I said to Chase. Damn it! I hated that I needed his help.
He let his power flow to me. I turned back to the corpses. “Return to your graves; once you’re there, you may release your souls to where you were before I raised you.”
I expected the souls to return to the graves they’d dug themselves out of, but instead, they all went in different directions with their shovels. “What are they doing?” Leticia asked.
“Returning to their original graves,” Tony said. He looked at me. “Watch your wording. Now we don’t have them all together anymore.”
I was okay with that. I hated not even knowing the names of the souls I was raising. It felt wrong to treat the souls as nameless beings.
“Jodi and I will train together a little harder tomorrow to make sure no more slip-ups like this happen.” Chase put his arm around me, and I cringed, expecting to feel his poisoned blood enter my body. It didn’t. “Won’t we, Jodi?”
I nodded. “I think I need to go to bed. I’m really tired. It’s been a long day.”
Mason—well, Ethan pretending to be Mason—stood up. “It’s been a long day here, too. You would’ve known that if you hadn’t run away.”
He was angry with me, too. That wasn’t good. I couldn’t let him take the others and leave.
“I’m sorry. It won’t happen again.”
Chase squeezed my shoulder. “Uncle Mason, I’m sure Jodi would be happy to take over the service.”
“Take over the service?” I looked around at the group in confusion.
“We just started,” Carol said. “We wanted to be able to say goodbye to Lucas.”
“And Randy,” Leticia added. “We never got to have a service for him. He deserves one.”
I knew Alex would want to say goodbye to Randy too, but I couldn’t postpone the service for him. I wasn’t supposed to know about Alex coming tomorrow. “Of course,” I said. “I’d be happy to say a few words.”
The service was pretty much a blur. I rambled on about Randy, and thankfully, when it was time to talk about Lucas, McKenzie asked to speak, so I didn’t have to say much. By the end of it, all the corpses were back in their graves, as I’d commanded them earlier. They released all around the same time, and I watched the souls float away. It would’ve been beautiful if I wasn’t at a funeral and Chase wasn’t hovering no more than two feet away. He stayed in arm’s reach. That way, he could easily control me if necessary, I was sure. I hated him. I hated that he could hurt me so much one minute and make me want his touch the next. He was evil, and he was making me evil.
Chase walked me up to my room after everyone said goodnight. He kissed me at my door, but this time he didn’t use his power on me, and I cringed. He wasn’t Alex, and I resented having to put on this charade. “Want me to come in for a little while?” He tapped his finger on my door, and I struggled not to show my disgust.
“No. I’m really tired. I want to go to sleep.”
“You left me, Jodi.” He raised his hand to my face, letting it hover there. I knew his next touch would be filled with the burning poison of his blood.
“I’m sorry. Chase, please. This is why I left. You can’t keep doing this to me. You can’t keep controlling me. It’s not right.”
“I’m only showing you what your blood wants.” His hand came closer to my face.
I closed my eyes and turned my head away. “No, you’re hurting me.”
“You think taking off didn’t hurt me?”
I looked at him, surprised he hadn’t used his power on me. We both knew he could.
“Alex never had to make you love him.”
“Are you saying you want me to love you?”
“You don’t have to love me, but choosing to be with me without me having to use my power on you would be a nice change.”
“I can’t choose you if you don’t give me the chance. You’re forcing me to feel things.” My mind spun with ways to work Chase’s insecurity into my plan. “I bet you didn’t know I really didn’t like Alex when I first met him. He scared me.”
Chase raised an eyebrow. “You expect me to believe that?”
“It’s true. He was so wrapped up in doing his job—getting me to come here because that’s what his parents told him to do. He followed me around and tried to make me listen to him. I only started to have feelings for him after he backed off.”
“So, you’re saying that if I back off, let you decide how you feel on your own, there’s a chance you’ll actually choose to be with me?” He stepped closer to me, but not in a threatening way.
“I’m not promising anything, Chase, but we do have a lot of combined power. I can’t say I’m not drawn to that. Maybe we could work well together and even be together like—”
“Like you and Alex were?”
Why did he have to make it so hard to lie to him? He and I could never be like Alex and I were—and hopefully would be again. But if I said that, I’d be right back where I was before. I nodded, unable to say the words out loud.
Chase laughed, but then his hand came slamming down on the door next to my head, making me flinch. “Come on, Jodi. How stupid do you think I am? You’re still in love with Alex. I can tell. You have no intention of falling for me. Not unless I make you. It looks like that’s exactly what I’m going to have to do.”
I tried to duck under his arm, but he grabbed me. The second his skin touched mine, I felt his power. It wasn’t poison like I’d been expecting. It was the energy I craved from him. He wasn’t trying to hurt me—at least not physically. Before I gave in to the power, I saw Jared and Lexi at the top of the stairs. Chase must have heard them coming, and now he was using his power to make it look like he and I were caught making out in the hallway. His lips were on mine in seconds, and without being able to stop myself, my arms were around his neck.
“Damn, Chase,” Lexi said, “I thought you had better taste.”
“Whatever, Lexi,” Jared said. “Way to go, man!” Jared must have thought Chase and I were making up.
They went to their rooms, and when both doors closed, Chase pulled away. “Why can’t you let us be this way all the time?”
I could’ve given him a slew of answers. He was evil. He was a manipulative prick. I wasn’t his little plaything. But the simplest answer, and the one I definitely couldn’t say, was he wasn’t Alex.
“Goodnight, Chase.” I reached for the knob, but he stopped me, taking my hand in his. His touch made my blood ripple under my skin.
“You sure you’re ready to say goodnight?” He moved in closer, and I almost gave in. Almost. But I saw Leticia’s door closing. She’d been watching us. I twisted the doorknob with my other hand and ducked into my room, locking the door behind me. I leaned against the door and relaxed my breathing. I pictured Alex’s face in my
