Touch of Death (12 page)

Chapter 11

Matt was kissing me! Matt was kissing me! It was everything I thought it would be. I leaned into him, kissing him back. Then, it hit me. Matt was kissing me! Oh, God, no! I pulled back, knowing it was too late.

“I’m sorry,” Matt said, the terrified look on my face registering with him. “It’s just I’ve been wanting to do that for days, and well, I had to do it before I lost my nerve.”

I stared at him, waiting to see what would happen. But he looked okay. He looked like Matt. For a split second, I thought maybe Alex had been lying. Maybe he really was a crazy stalker guy who just wanted to break Matt and me up. I relaxed, letting go of the tension in my shoulders. I smiled at Matt. “No, I’m sorry. I’ve been wanting to kiss you, too.”

Matt leaned toward me again, and I met him halfway, but before we got our second kiss, his face turned red and he started choking.

No. Please, no. Please, be a coincidence. He could’ve choked on his gum. But he brought his hands up to his throat. He couldn’t breathe. His hand reached for his chest. I watched the life drain out of his eyes, knowing I was the cause of it. He slumped forward, and I caught him in my lap. I didn’t know what to do. I couldn’t give him mouth to mouth, could I? My mind went into overdrive. Alex said I’d brought the deer, the rat, and the squirrel back to life. Could I bring Matt back?

Tears spilled from my eyes, and I let them soak the back of Matt’s neck. I didn’t know how my power worked. So far, it had been calling the shots, and that wasn’t going too well for me. But I couldn’t control myself. Matt was my boyfriend. We’d only gotten one kiss. He was dead, and it was because of me. Because I had been stupid enough to let him kiss me, to kiss him back. I had to try to fix this.

I stared at Matt’s limp body in my lap. Nothing was happening. He wasn’t jerking back to life the way the deer had. Maybe my tears weren’t enough to bring back a human being. Then I remembered I’d bled on the deer. I looked around. If my blood was the source of my power, then I’d have to use it to fix what I’d done. I lifted him off me and rested him on the bench, then got up and dashed to the tool shed. I went straight to the hedge clippers hanging on the wall. Grabbing them, I ran back to the bench.

Matt was gone. I panicked, spinning around in a circle to search the entire backyard. Had Alex seen what I did? Maybe he took Matt before I could bring him back. Or had my tears worked? No, I needed blood. Didn’t I? “Matt?” My voice was shaky. “Matt, please, if you can hear me, say something. I can help you. Just tell me where you are.”

I had no idea what waking up from the dead would be like for a person. The animals I’d brought back acted crazy, confused. Matt might be feeling the same way. I had to find him and fast. “Matt?” I ran to the bench, looking for signs of where he might have gone. I checked the back door. It was still shut, but that didn’t mean he hadn’t gone inside. Still, that would be my last option. I couldn’t go in there without Matt. Mom and Melodie would ask too many questions that I couldn’t answer.

I checked the bushes and the front yard. He wasn’t anywhere. I walked back up the driveway, deciding to head to the backyard again. But as I passed Melodie’s car, I jumped. Matt was sitting in the passenger seat. His expression was vacant. He stared straight ahead at the garage door. I tapped on the car window, trying to get his attention, but he ignored me. My hand shook as I reached for the door and opened it. My instincts told me to hold on tight to the hedge clippers, and I hated myself for thinking that.

“Matt? Are you okay?” I bent down, hiding the clippers behind my back. “What are you doing in here?”

He wasn’t answering, so I touched his arm. He looked down at my hand and sniffed the air. I didn’t know what that was about. What was he smelling? Finally, he raised his eyes to my face.

“Why don’t we go in the backyard again? We could talk some more.” I had to figure out what was wrong with him, if anything
was
wrong with him. I had no clue why he’d gotten in Melodie’s car, especially since his was parked right behind it. All I knew was that I couldn’t have Melodie come out to her car with him still sitting here. “Come on.” I took his hand in mine and gently tugged. My right hand hurt, and I noticed my sutures had split. I must’ve bled on him when I moved him off me on the bench. That was how he’d come back to life. He came with me, staring at everything in a daze. I closed the door as quietly as I could. I didn’t want to make noise and draw attention to us. We walked around the side of the house, and I heard Mom calling my name. I stopped short. Matt walked right into me and grunted.

“Sorry,” I whispered and put a finger to my lips. Mom couldn’t see us. Not until I did something about Matt. Only I had no idea what that something was going to be. We waited there, on the side of the house, until Mom finally gave up and went back inside. I peeked around the corner to be sure. We couldn’t go back to the bench swing. It was too much in the open, and Mom or Melodie could walk out and find us. I headed for the trees lining our property. Still holding Matt’s hand, I crept along the trees and came out behind the tool shed. No one would see us here.

“Matt?” He stared past me. Tears spilled over my cheeks again. “Oh, Matt. What have I done to you?” A bunny hopped across the lawn behind him. I wouldn’t have even noticed if Matt hadn’t whirled around, practically yanking my arm out of the socket. I let go of his hand and rubbed my shoulder. “Ouch. What are you doing? What’s wrong?” What was wrong was that he was dead. I knew that.

Matt eyed the bunny, and his face contorted into a tortured expression. His top lip curled up on one side, and he let out this guttural sound. “Matt,” I said a second too late, not that my talking was having any effect on him. He lunged and scooped the bunny off the ground. He brought it to his face and sank his teeth into the bunny’s back. “No!” I yelled in complete horror. This couldn’t be happening. I fell to my knees, dropping the hedge clippers, and covered my face with my hands. Matt grunted, and I heard slurping sounds that made me gag. The next thing I knew, I was puking. I tried to stand, but my legs wouldn’t support me. Matt tossed the bunny on the ground in front of me, like a cat that brings its leftover food scraps home to its master. I cringed and crawled backward, trying to get away from Matt.

He stared down at me with his head cocked to the side, blood splattered all over his face and neck. He stepped toward me, and I scrambled back until I was pressed up against the shed. Matt raised his arm like a club, and I shielded my head from his oncoming attack. Before I could scream, Alex grabbed Matt around his waist and knocked him to the ground.

“It’s not his fault!” I yelled.

Alex kept Matt pinned beneath him.

“I didn’t mean to,” I sobbed. “I was going to break up with him. Tell him I couldn’t see him anymore. But before I could say a word, he kissed me. I was caught off guard, and I kissed him back. I didn’t even realize what was happening until it was too late.”

Alex struggled to keep Matt down. Even dead, Matt was strong. “Stupid!” It took me a minute to realize Alex was talking about me. “Why would you go somewhere private to break it off with him? It’s like you were inviting trouble.” He kneed Matt in the stomach, and Matt groaned. “Look what you’ve done, Jodi.”

“I know,” I said, more angry at myself than at Alex. “Please, can’t you do something? Help him?”

Alex shook his head. “I can’t fix this.”

“Yes, you can. You can kill him and bring him back the right way. You said there was a trick to it. That I needed to learn how to do it right. You can do it. You can put him back the way he was.” I was begging, but I didn’t care.

Matt gritted his teeth and growled. Blood and spit flew out of his mouth. Alex shoved his face to the side so Matt was looking at me. It only made me cry more. “This isn’t your boyfriend, Jodi. This is a—for lack of a better word—zombie. You don’t know how to use your power, so you didn’t put all of him back into his body. He’s almost an empty shell. No brain, no thoughts. Only animal instincts.” Alex nodded at the bunny, shredded on the grass. “I’m guessing he did that.”

I couldn’t bring myself to answer, but I didn’t need to. Alex knew everything. He may not have been here to witness it all, but he knew enough about raising the dead to put the pieces together. “Please,” I begged, “there must be something you can do. We can’t leave him like this.”

“No, we can’t. We have to kill him, Jodi. But this time for good.”

I started to protest again, but Alex interrupted. “You didn’t know what you were doing when you brought him back. You did it wrong. When you bring someone back—the right way—they come back exactly as they were before they died.” He gestured to Matt, still growling and dripping blood from his mouth. That was how Matt would come back, even if Alex did everything right, because that was what I’d turned him into.

“You mean he’ll still be like a zombie?”

“Yes. I’m sorry.”

I lost it, sobbing so hard I could barely breathe. My nose ran, and my eyes stung. I hated myself for bringing Matt back in the first place. If I hadn’t brought him back, if I had waited, Alex would’ve been able to bring him back the right way. I still wouldn’t have been able to date Matt, but he’d be alive.

“Go,” Alex said. “You don’t need to watch this. I’ll take care of Matt and get rid of his body.”

“What do you mean ‘get rid of his body’?”

“We can’t let anyone see him like this. He’s covered in blood.”

“Then we’ll clean him up. I’m not letting his family wonder what happened to him. I’m not going to put them through even more hell than his death will already cause.” I stood up. “I did this. I have to take responsibility for it, and I have to do what I can to make up for my mistake.” It felt idiotic to call murdering the guy I liked a mistake. Mistakes were cheating on a test or lying to your parents. Killing a person wasn’t a mistake. It was inhuman.

Alex nodded. “Fine. We’ll clean him up and make his death look like an accident. Although, the effect our blood has on humans is most like a heart attack. Do you know if he had a history of heart problems in his family?”

I ignored the question. Matt was seventeen. He was healthy. No one would believe he’d had a heart attack. And besides that, I was caught up on something Alex had said. “We’re not human, are we? Ophi, I mean.”

Matt was getting really restless trapped beneath Alex. “There’s too much to explain right now. We need to get this over with. Fast.”

“How will you do it?” It was an awful question. One I didn’t really want to know the answer to. But I didn’t want Matt to suffer, and I didn’t want Alex to do anything that would raise even more questions about Matt’s death.

“I’ll use the power of my blood.” He removed a knife from his pocket.

“Wait!” I said. “Maybe we should use my blood. I’m the one who did this to him in the first place. I should be the one to clean up my mess.”

“Sorry, but you can’t. I appreciate you wanting to take responsibility, but you don’t have control over your powers yet. You may end up making things worse.”

I couldn’t imagine how things could get any worse. But I lowered my hand.

“I need to spill my blood if I’m going to fix this. An adult Ophi can release souls by commanding them, but I don’t fully have that ability yet, so I have to poison him again. I’ll explain how it all works later. But for now, I need you to step back, and no matter what happens, don’t touch Matt or me. Got it?”

I swallowed my fear and nodded, taking a step back. It was hard to watch Alex slice his left palm with his knife. I winced at the sight of his blood. He held Matt’s mouth open and dripped the blood inside. For a second, Matt welcomed the blood, and that made me cringe. He really
wasn’t
human anymore. But then his body went completely stiff. Alex stood up and nodded to me. “It’s done.”

The tears came again. I was surprised I had any left. Alex stepped forward and wrapped me in his arms. It felt strange to have him hold me. He’d completely freaked me out before, but now he was saving me… from myself. I cried on him for a few minutes, relieved that my tears couldn’t harm him. I could be myself around Alex.

“Jodi, we have to get him cleaned up and work out a story before your mom or Melodie finds us.” His voice was soft, comforting.

I pulled away from him. “There’s a hose at the back of the house, but someone might hear or see us.”

Alex put his hands on his hips and wrinkled his forehead. “Okay. I need you to go back inside. Tell your mom and Melodie that Matt broke up with you. Tell them he found out you liked someone else.”

“No. They’d never believe that. They knew I was crazy about Matt. There was no one else.” I cringed, realizing I was already talking about him in the past tense.

He sighed. “Fine. Tell them he was tired of all your drama. Dating you was too much work.”

That was believable. Especially with the way my life had been lately. I nodded.

“Good. I’ll clean him up. Give me five minutes or so. That’s all I’ll need. Then come back outside. I’ll handle the rest.”

I was afraid of what he’d do, but Matt was already dead. Nothing Alex did now was going to hurt him. I headed back to the house and hesitated at the door. I took a deep breath and went inside. Mom and Melodie were in the living room. Mom was on the phone.

“There you are!” she said. “I’ve been trying to call your cell. Where did you go?”

I fought back the tears. I couldn’t have any more accidents. I summoned all my strength and opted for a stoic misery. It must have been convincing because Mom and Melodie rushed to me and brought me to the couch.

“What happened?” Melodie asked.

“Matt,” I said. “He broke up with me.”

Mom looked angry, while Melodie looked almost relieved. They both waited for me to go on.

“He said dating me was too much work. Things were too hard, and he needed to move on.”

Melodie turned and peered out the front window. “Where is he? His car’s still out front.”

“We took a walk, but he was in the backyard when I left him.”

Melodie got up and stormed out of the room. Mom and I followed her. We went out the back door. “Matt!” Melodie yelled, sounding like she was ready to give him an earful. But she stopped short when she saw the pool of water on the back patio. Matt was lying in the middle of it with the neighbor’s snapped power line next to him.