Kelly Hashway: Stalked by Death

“What’s going to happen when you return to Tartarus and he finds out you talked to me?”

He tried to smile, but it came off looking like a lopsided snarl. “He can’t kill me, because I’m already dead, but his punishments are worse than death.”

“Then you’re not going back. You can stay here with me. I’ll protect you.”

“No. He’ll come for you.”

“Maybe not.” That was it. My decision was made for me. I wouldn’t lose my dad again. He’d been taken from me before I even met him. Now I had the chance to save him, and I would.

Corpses don’t exactly sleep, so Dad sat in my desk chair doing nothing but staring at me while I tried to get a few decent hours of sleep. The sun came up too quickly, and after I showered to rinse the dried sweat of the hellfire from my skin, I got dressed quickly and took my dad downstairs for breakfast. I was the last one there, and we were greeted with gasps all around.

“What in Heaven’s name?” Arianna said.

Lexi smirked. “I don’t think Heaven had anything to do with it.”

“Everyone, this is Derek Colgan…my father. I accidentally raised him in my sleep last night.”

Tony dropped his fork. “Oh, Jodi, not again.”

“That’s not your dad,” Leticia said. “He’s way too old.”

“Hades took my dad’s body. Remember that day in my room? He took several bodies from us. I put my dad’s soul into a body from the cemetery.”

“Oh, dear!” Carol said, looking frightened. “This is not good news. Hades is going to come here any second.”

The table erupted in a panic.

“Relax.” I sat down next to Chase, who raised an eyebrow at me, waiting to hear my decision. Of course sitting by him instead of Alex wasn’t enough. He was going to make me spell it out for everyone. “I have a plan.” I looked at Alex who eyed me over a forkful of mac and cheese. “I’m going to fulfill the prophecy. It’s the only way to save us. Chase and I are going to reclaim all the souls Hades took.”

Tony shook his head and clutched his hands in front of him. “You’ll be declaring war if you do that.” He didn’t say it, but I knew he didn’t trust Chase to help me either. The only reason Tony and Arianna hadn’t kicked Chase and Ethan out was because they knew I didn’t want them to. They were only holding back because of me, and I could tell it was killing both of them.

“I think it’s a brilliant plan,” Ethan said.

“You would.” Tony glared at him. “You’re all about sneakiness and tempting the gods, aren’t you, Ethan? Or are we still supposed to call you Mason?”

“Enough,” I said. “I’m in charge. I’m making the rules.” I looked around the table, waiting for everyone to get quiet again. My eyes lingered on Alex. He stared at my dad, and somehow I knew he understood why I’d made the decision to be with Chase. It didn’t make it easier on him, but he knew me well enough to know I’d do anything for the people I loved. That included using my powers on him in a moment of desperation.

“Okay, here’s what’s going to happen. Hades is going to be seriously pissed when Dad doesn’t return to Tartarus, so we need to move quickly.” I turned to Chase and put my hand on top of his. “You ready to do this?”

He sent a wave of power my way. “I know the quickest way to tap into our power and get those souls.”

I knew what he meant. The whole hand-holding to transfer power wasn’t enough. We’d almost failed last time. We needed a better connection. We were only going to get one chance to do this before Hades interfered. I took a deep breath and nodded.

“Everyone to the cemetery,” I said.

We all headed outside without another word. Everyone was scared, me most of all. This stand I was taking was either going to show Hades we had more power than he thought and he shouldn’t mess with us, or it was going to get us all killed.

I stopped in the middle of the cemetery where Chase had made the souls rebury themselves in a row. I’d been upset when I found out he did it, but now I was glad to have them all together. I motioned to the line of headstones. “Okay, everyone pick a grave.” I hated having to do this with an audience, but with this many souls coming our way, we needed enough of us to control them. “When the souls get here, command them to stay where they are. The woman Chase and I raised was angry and wanted to hurt us at first, but she calmed down. In the end, she preferred being here with us to being stuck in Tartarus. Hades is constantly forcing the souls into the wrong bodies. It’s awful. Chase can tell you just how awful, because he felt it too.”

“Got to say, I’m not looking forward to that part.” He shook his head like he was trying to forget how terrible it had been.

I put my hand on his shoulder. “I know. Me neither. But this is important.”

He leaned down to me. “You chose me. I can handle anything now.”

I smiled at him. At the version of him I liked.

“Everyone set?” I asked once everyone was lined up in front of a grave.

“There are a few graves left down here,” Jared said.

“Then everyone shift down.” I waved them on. “Chase and I will get these graves here.”

“If we can pull away from each other,” he said with a sly smile.

He probably had a point. The connection it was going to take to pull off a raising this huge was insane. We were going to practically have to—no, I couldn’t think about it. Especially since Alex would be witnessing the whole thing. I was kind of surprised he wasn’t bailing on the plan. He knew what this was going to entail. Could he really be so over me already that this wasn’t going to bother him?

Chase moved toward me and placed his hands on my waist. “Let’s do this.”

I took one last look at Alex. His eyes were glued to the grave in front of him. “Focus, everyone. Eyes on your graves and be ready to take control.”

“Jodi,” Leticia said. “I’ve never been able to control a soul someone else raised.”

The others were starting to be able to control the souls they didn’t raise, but it was still hit and miss, and we needed them all to hit.

“You can do this, Leticia.” I kept my expression serious. I had to make her believe me.

She wasn’t convinced. “How do you know?”

“Because we can’t fail. It’s not an option.”

“You can do it, Leticia,” Alex said. “I’m right here if you need help.”

Leticia nodded, looking very thankful to be next to Alex. I was grateful for his help.

“Do you want to get right to making out, or should we form a more conservative connection and let the power overtake us?” Chase asked.

Lexi scoffed. “This is going to be disgusting to watch, isn’t it?”

“You have no idea,” Alex mumbled.

Maybe he did still care after all. I turned back to Chase, but not before meeting my dad’s eyes—or at least the eyes in the body he was borrowing. “Dad, would you mind turning around? I’d rather you didn’t watch this.” I knew I didn’t need to command him. He was going to listen to me no matter how I asked.

He nodded and faced the mausoleum.

I took Chase’s hands, interlacing my fingers with his. “Let’s start here.”

“You know it’s going to take a lot more—”

“Chase, let’s start here,” I insisted.

He shrugged. “Whatever. I know where we’re going to end up.”

I hoped he wasn’t right. I closed my eyes and willed my blood to mix. I transferred my power to Chase, very slightly at first. My power was more intense than his. If I gave him too much to begin with, he’d be too consumed by it to transfer any power back to me. I waited for him to begin sharing his blood with me.

“Come on, Chase,” I said.