Free Stalked by Death (Touch of Death) by Kelly Hashway Page A

you just dunk her toothbrush in the toilet instead?” Randy asked.
    Leticia’s face turned red. “I didn’t think of it,” she said in a small voice.
    We all started laughing. Poor Leticia. She really was kind of helpless—for someone who could raise the dead.
    Tony spun the hand again. This time it landed on Randy.
    “Um, I don’t have any secrets like Leticia’s, but I did steal a bag of Troy’s favorite chips once. Man, he went crazy looking for it. He even blamed the servants. Like a bunch of living dead would eat potato chips.”
    “Boring.” Chase dragged out the word. “At least Leticia’s story was funny. You’ve got to have a better secret than that.”
    Randy fidgeted with his hands in his lap. “I do have one secret, but it’s not something I want to share.”
    “Come on. That’s the whole point of this game, isn’t it?” Chase was pushing awfully hard. I hoped that meant he’d be more than willing to share when it was his turn.
    “Yeah, Randy, you can tell us.” Leticia put her hand on his arm.
    Randy squeezed his fists. “All right, but before I tell you all this, I want to say that I know I was overreacting at the time. I don’t feel this way now.”
    We all nodded.
    Randy inhaled loudly. “When I first saw my dad after Victoria brought him back, I wanted to…I wanted to kill her. I wanted to make her pay for the way she’d mangled his body.”
    I remembered all too well how wrong Victoria had been to try raising the Ophi. It was a power reserved for me, but she wouldn’t listen. She insisted on using my locket, the one Medusa had given me with her blood infused in the bloodstone, to raise those poor people. All she’d succeeded in doing was creating an army of living dead Ophi. I reached my hand up and touched my bare neck. The locket lay broken in my dresser drawer now. I hadn’t been able to part with it. It didn’t hold Medusa’s blood anymore, but it still had special meaning to me.
    No one had said a word for several minutes. We all waited to see how Alex would react to this. Finally Randy said, “I’m sorry, man.”
    Alex shook his head. “I don’t blame you. Victoria was a monster. She acted without thinking about any consequences. I’m sorry for what she did to your dad, and to Leticia’s parents.” Alex was talking about her in the past tense. He’d already written her off as dead, and even though she was really serving Hades, I guessed she was as good as dead.
    Randy leaned forward. “But she was only trying to help. I realize that now.”
    “You’re saying you don’t blame Victoria anymore? You’re not upset that your father’s soul was ripped from wherever it was and forced back into a body that was so mangled you barely recognized it?” I was on my feet now and practically yelling.
    “Jodi,” Tony said. “Please.” He nodded slightly toward Alex.
    “I’m sorry. Alex, I know they were your parents, but Victoria and Troy were awful.”
    Tony put a hand up to stop me. “Jodi, it’s still Randy’s turn, so why don’t we—”
    “I don’t care about the hand or whose turn it is right now. You wanted us to share and get to know each other better, so I’m sharing.” Tony nodded, and Alex looked up at me with pain in his eyes.
    “I watched you eat mac and cheese at every meal, trying to get her attention, but she wouldn’t give you the time of day. And when it came down to choosing sides in the end, your own father put a knife in your chest.”
    “Is this supposed to make me feel better?” Alex asked.
    “I’m sorry. I’m trying to tell you you didn’t deserve that. You didn’t deserve any of it.”
    “So your big secret is that you feel sorry for Alex?” Chase asked.
    “No!” That was the last thing I wanted Alex to think. That I was with him out of pity. “My big secret shouldn’t be a secret at all. My big secret is that I think Alex is the greatest Ophi I’ve ever met, and I wish his own parents could’ve seen him for who he