Touch of Death(43)

Randy turned to the side and threw up all over the wood floor. I couldn't blame him. I was having a hard time keeping myself from being sick.

"What happened to him?" Alex asked. "All of them. How are they here?"

Victoria walked past us. "Shall we all meet in the conference room? This entryway is feeling a little cramped." As she passed by me, she smiled. My eyes never left the locket. My locket. It wasn't Abby who had raided my room. It was Victoria.

Alex leaned closer to me. "Is she wearing-?"

"My locket." Tears stung my eyes. I knew she wasn't mother of the year, and she'd done some things that I'd questioned, but this was too much. Abby sneered at me as she followed the group to the conference room. I had almost felt bad for accusing her and tearing her room apart, but after that look, I decided she deserved it anyway. She wouldn't even be alive it weren't for me. I didn't owe her anything.

Alex and I were the last ones to enter the conference room. It was standing room only. The living dead Ophi were lined up along one side of the table like they were on display. The rest of us stuck to the other side of the table, not wanting to get too close.

"What happened to my dad?" Randy asked. "Why is he like that?"

Victoria sighed. "I had a little trouble. This locket wasn't as easy to use as I thought it would be." She fingered the bloodstone on the locket. "But, I figured it out after the first few attempts."

I looked at the Ophi she'd raised. Some of them didn't look that bad. Others were downright hideous.

"Why did you do it?" I asked. "You came into my room in the middle of the night and stole my necklace. You switched it with this fake." Everyone turned, looking back and forth between Victoria and me. "You could've told me what you were going to do. Asked me for help. Something."

"I did ask you for help." Victoria stood up straighter, and I swear she grew three inches. She looked huge and powerful. "Right in this room." She stabbed her index finger at the table. "I told you we needed you to go to Washington and use your powers to raise the Ophi we lost to Hades. You said no. You said you couldn't do it. You came up with every excuse you could think of not to try to help us, after we took you in and taught you about who you really are."

I swallowed hard. "But I didn't think I could do it. I was afraid something bad would happen. That it would go wrong and they'd turn out like-"

"This!" Leticia yelled, pointing at her parents. "Look at them! They aren't themselves. They're zombies, Victoria. You made them into zombies." She slumped forward and cried.

Victoria remained calm and unfazed. "Yes, Leticia. They did come back wrong, and the reason that happened is that I didn't know how to use the locket. It wasn't meant for me. But since Jodi was unwilling to help … " She shot me a look. "I did the best I could." She walked over to the few Ophi nearest to her. "As you can see, the first few I attempted to restore didn't come back right. My blood wasn't mixing properly, and it caused complications." She reached up to touch the huge sagging piece of flesh hanging off the side of Randy's father's face. "But then, I started to feel the locket working, and the others came back more like themselves." She walked along the line of them, stopping at a man at the very end. His dark hair was peppered with gray, and he stood about 5'10". He looked normal enough, except for the slightly dazed look in his eyes. "Go ahead, speak."

The man nodded. "My name is Calvin Davies. I was in charge of the group in Washington. We were attacked by Hades after we attempted to bring back a group of people recently killed in a plane crash. Hades stopped us before we succeeded. He said that, as payment for trying to steal their souls from him, he was taking ours." He laughed. "Victoria changed all that. While it may have taken her a few tries to get it right, you can see that I am very much like my old self."                       
       
           



       

"So, it worked." A smile spread across Troy's face. "You figured it out."

"Yes." Victoria turned to me, grinning. "I figured it out."

"What do we do now?" Abby asked. "How do we stop Hades from coming after us? I mean, he isn't going to be happy about Victoria raising all these Ophi souls. And since she's back here, it will lead him right to us."

"That's probably true," Troy said. "There's really only one thing to do. We need to raise more souls and get ourselves an army."

"A zombie army to fight Hades? Are you crazy?" Why was I the only one seeing the problem here? "He's king of the underworld. A bunch of dead bodies aren't going to stop him. He'll take control of them in seconds, and we'll all be dead. Besides, when are you people going to see that raising the dead for your own selfish purposes isn't the answer?"

Alex turned to me. "Jodi, don't get upset. We knew this day was going to come eventually. This has been our plan all along. It's the only way to defend ourselves. If we have control over the souls, Hades can't use them against us. We can set them on Hades and maybe even defeat him for good. This can work. It could mean our freedom."

I stared at him, not sure who he was anymore. Our freedom in exchange for an entire army of tortured souls didn't add up. "Don't get upset? How can I not get upset? Using people like this. Forcing all those souls back into their bodies. You're monsters!" I looked around the table and finally back at Alex. "All of you."

Abby laughed. "Well it's about time."

"Shut up, Abby," Alex said.

"Oh, come on. Don't you think this has gone on long enough? It's time Jodi found out your little secret."

"I told you to shut up," he said through gritted teeth. "This doesn't concern you."

"Oh, but I think it does. It concerns all of us."

"What secret?" I stared at Abby. "Tell me what's going on."

"My pleasure." Her smile was laced with hatred and happiness for getting to be the one to make me upset. "Consider it payback for bringing me back to life." I knew this was going to hurt. She considered my saving her as the worst form of torture. "Alex has been doing a great job of getting you to trust him." She walked over to Alex, peering at him under her dark bangs. "A little too good at times." She faced me again. "But no matter. He did what he had to."

I stared at Alex. The look on his face said Abby was telling the truth. "You lied to me."

"Did you really think he cared about you?" Abby laughed. "Honey, he already has a girl." She stroked Alex's shoulder. "And I'm twice the woman you'll ever be. Chosen One or not."

Alex swatted her hand away. "Don't touch me, Abby."

"Aw, don't be that way. You were just doing as you were told. I know that. I'm not mad anymore." She turned her eyes on me. "I'm sure it wasn't easy pretending to like her."

"Is this true? Did you just pretend to care about me?" I tried to keep my voice steady, but my hands shook with anger and embarrassment. How had I fallen for this? Alex wouldn't even look at me. "You liar! You lied to me. You made me trust you." Abby laughed at my outburst, and I ran out of the room, pushing past everyone.

I wanted to stop at the statue and ask Medusa what I should do, but I didn't want to risk having anyone catch up with me. Especially Alex. So I kept going past the statue and out the front door. I smacked into one of the servants watering the potted plants. Her watering can flew through the air. I went to catch it for her, but when it dropped into my hands, I saw that the woman's hand was still attached to it. It had broken off in our collision.

"Oh, God!" I dropped it on the steps and ran away. My legs were moving so fast I was out of control. I slipped on the last step and fell forward onto the driveway. I had scrapes all over my hands, and my jeans were shredded at the knees. The cool breeze stung as I picked myself up and hobbled to the cemetery. I headed for the mausoleum and leaned against it, using it to block the wind. I didn't have a jacket on, and I was shivering in the cold, though I knew a lot of my shaking had more to do with finding out that Alex had tricked me.

I turned around, leaning my forehead against the stone. Why had I come here? This was the spot where Alex and I had had our first kiss. It was the last place I wanted to be. Despite the scrapes on my hands, I pushed off the mausoleum and kept walking through the graves.

"Jodi!"

I forced myself to run. I couldn't handle seeing Alex right now. Ugh! I was so angry with myself for running off to the one place I knew he'd look. Only, I hadn't really expected him to come after me. Why would he? He didn't care about me. It had all been a lie. He'd played me. My blood boiled, and I stopped running. I turned to face him.

"Was this the plan all along?" I threw my arms up. "Did Victoria tell you to pretend to like me so that I'd tell you how my powers worked? She stole my locket and figured out how to use it. Obviously that was her goal. To find a way to be as powerful as me. She never wanted my help. She hated that I'm the Chosen One. She was jealous. Like Abby. So, she found a way around me."