Touch of Death(23)

       
           



       

"You don't have to tell me if you don't want to. It's none of my business really. I was just curious." I fidgeted in my seat, putting my feet on top of my bag like a footrest.

Alex swallowed so hard I heard it. "She told me her birthday was coming up, and the one thing she really wanted more than anything else was a first kiss."

My heart pounded as I put the situation together in my head. I knew what was coming, yet it didn't make it any easier to hear.

"I'd kissed a few Ophi girls by then, so I thought I'd give this girl her wish. I didn't know I was coming into my powers already. All my training so far had been preliminary, preparing me so I knew how to control my powers once they came to me. So, I kissed her. When we pulled away, I wished her a happy birthday. But before she could respond, she slumped forward in my lap. I was terrified. I looked for my instructor, but he was gone. He'd walked off to make his call more private."

I reached over and touched his hand on the wheel. He jerked his hand, making the car swerve to the right in the process. I braced myself, sure we were going to crash into a telephone pole, but Alex quickly got the car back in our lane.

"I knew my powers were working," he continued as if nothing had happened. "I held her in my arms and tried as hard as I could to bring her back. Only, it didn't work. I screwed it up, and she came back wrong."

"Like Matt," I said.

Alex looked at me for the first time since beginning his story. "Yes, like Matt. Only I'd had training. I was supposed to know how to control my powers."

"Alex, you-"

He floored the gas, and I took the hint. I shut up. He didn't say anything for a few minutes, but then he picked right up where he'd left off. "When my instructor found us, he sent me away. Told me to get in the car and wait for him. He killed her. And after that, I wasn't allowed to go on any more field trips. My parents made me study and train twice as hard."

"I'm sorry," I said, at the risk of making him angry again; I couldn't help it. I was sorry. I understood how he'd felt. And now I knew that, no matter how much time passed, I'd never get over what I had done to Matt. Bringing someone back wrong was devastating. I didn't need the details of what that girl had done when Alex had brought her back to life. Without asking, I knew what she'd been like.

"It made me stronger, Jodi. Just like all you've had to deal with will make you stronger."

There wasn't much left to say after that, so I reclined my seat and closed my eyes. It was strange that a story like that would make me feel I could trust Alex. But it did. It made him almost human. Even though I was technically Ophi, I was still more comfortable with humans.

When I woke up, the clock on the dashboard said 2:15. I looked around. We were stopped at a gas station. Alex was at the pump. I rubbed my eyes, making sure there wasn't any sleep in the corners of them. I really needed to stretch my legs, so I stepped out of the car.

"Morning," Alex said. "The bathrooms aren't the cleanest, but they work if you want to go inside." He pointed to the convenience store behind me.

"How much farther do we have to go?" We'd been driving for hours already.

"Not much. If you're worried about," he lowered his voice, "being around humans in there, you might want to wait."

Worried about being around humans. It seemed absurd. I'd been around them all my life, but that was back when I thought I was one of them. Now? I nodded my head and got back in the car. We were on the road again before long. Alex kept glancing at me like he was trying to make sure I wasn't going to fall apart.

"You sleep well?"

"I guess. I'm still tired, though."

"I'll ask my parents if the training can wait a little longer, so you can get some rest once we get to the school. I'm sure they've had your room made up for you for months."

I turned to him, studying his face. "When exactly were you supposed to bring me back?"

"When you came into your powers."

"So, we're right on time then?"

"Not according to my father's standards." He sounded annoyed and a little scared at the same time.

"What do you mean?"

"Dad thinks I should've convinced you to come with me the second you came into your powers. When you brought the deer back to life."

I nodded. Of course he'd been there for that. He'd been following me for months. "Then why didn't you?"

"I was going to introduce myself to you right when it happened. But your neighbor pulled over to help you, and then your mom showed up." My heart clenched at the mention of Mom. "I had to wait. So, I watched you in school. I figured it was good for you to hear Mr. Quimby's lecture on Ophiuchus and the Gorgon blood anyway. Of course by that time, you'd already-"

"Killed Nurse Steingall." God, this past week had been a nightmare.

"When I told my parents what happened, they were furious. They told me to get you and bring you back that night, no matter what it took."

"Is that why you showed up at Alberto's looking so angry?"

He nodded. "I wasn't angry with you. I was angry with myself. Nurse Steingall's death is on my head, not yours. You had no idea what your powers could do or that you even had them. It was my job to tell you. And I failed."

"Alex." I reached for him but stopped when he pulled away. "All the texting you were always doing, you were communicating with your parents, weren't you? Keeping them updated on what I was doing."

"Them and Mr. Quimby." Of course. That explained why Mr. Quimby was always emailing in study hall and in between classes. There was something else I had to ask him. Something that had been bugging me. "Why'd you get into a fight with Matt?"

"He was always in my way. Every time I tried to approach you, there he was. It was annoying."

"But you fought him. That was dangerous."

Alex shrugged, and that's when I realized what had really happened. Aside from the initial shove, Alex hadn't touched Matt. He didn't punch him. He didn't even let Matt hit him. He dodged everything to avoid any bloodshed.

"You ducked and backed off when Matt swung at you."

"What was I supposed to do? I could've killed him …  easily. I was mad, but I didn't want him dead. I let him do what he thought he had to do to defend your honor. You know, act all boyfriend-like."

Alex turned off the main road onto one I could barely make out. It might have been a fancy gravel driveway at one time, but was now more like an overgrown trail with extra rocks.

"Hang on. It gets a little bumpy up ahead."

That was an understatement. I grabbed the door handle and the edge of my seat to keep from bouncing around and bashing my head into the window. I cried out in pain from my injured fingers.

"We'll get those healed up soon enough." Alex motioned to my hands.

My seatbelt was virtually powerless against the so-called road. We passed a cemetery, and I couldn't help shivering a little. Now that I knew what I was capable of, being around dead bodies didn't seem like such a good idea.

We followed the path-I couldn't accept that it was actually a road-up a hill to where an enormous old building stood. Alex had said it was a mansion, but seriously this thing looked like a university. Maybe that was a good thing because it didn't seem like I'd be going to college anymore. Alex parked the car in the six-car garage. Six! Yes, the place could've used a facelift, but the size made it easy to overlook that.                       
       
           



       

"Ready to meet the family?" He gave me a killer smile. For a second, it almost felt like we were on a date and he was taking me home to meet his parents. I hoped they'd like me.

Alex walked back out of the garage and waved for me to follow. I looked at the door leading from the garage into the house, just a few feet away from the car, and then back at Alex.

"You can't make your grand entrance through the garage. Come on, the entryway is the best part of the house."

I followed him around to the front of the house. There was a curved stone staircase, leading up to massive wooden double doors that were probably the size of my entire house. I must have looked nervous because Alex squeezed my arm. I looked down at his hand and got a strange sinking feeling in my stomach. Oh, God, I was starting to have feelings for Alex. And not "creepy my-former-stalker-is-touching-my-arm" kind of feelings. They were "I-can-kiss-him-and-not-kill-him" kind of feelings.

The door opened without us even knocking or Alex using a key, and two people, a man and a woman, stood in the doorway. By the way the man looked at Alex like he was a major disappointment, I could only assume he was his father. Which meant the stunningly beautiful blonde woman next to him was Alex's mother. I felt myself feeling really insecure standing that close to her. My clothes were wrinkled from being in the car so long, and I was sure I had bed head. All we had in common were our green eyes. But she didn't seem to mind my appearance one bit because she stepped forward, wrapped me in a hug, and said, "Welcome home, Jodi."