No, I couldn’t. “Thanks, Arianna.”

“Anytime, hon. Goodnight.”

“Goodnight.”

She left, and I stood there shivering in my wet clothes. I had to fix things with Alex. I couldn’t let this destroy us. I put on pajamas and ran to his room without even combing my hair. I must’ve looked like a drowned rat, but I didn’t care. I had to see him.

I knocked on his door, but there was no answer. “Alex?” Still nothing. I tried the knob. Locked. Where else would he be? I went to Randy’s room and knocked.

“Hey, Jodi.” He looked me over.

“Hey, I know I’m a mess. I’m looking for Alex. Do you know where he is?”

“He was heading out to the cemetery the last time I saw him.”

“Why would he go there?” We’d already reburied all the bodies. Was he training on his own?

Randy shrugged.

“Thanks. See you in the morning.” I turned and ran downstairs, heading right past the Medusa statue and out the front door. The cool air slammed into me. I was only in pajamas and my hair was soaking wet. My teeth chattered, and I shook from head to toe, but I kept going. The lights were on in the cemetery, and I saw Alex sitting up against the mausoleum. I jogged over to him.

He looked up at me and wrinkled his brow. “You’re going to get sick coming out here like that.”

“I don’t care.” I stood in front of him, shaking uncontrollably. “I understand why you didn’t tell me where we were. You know me too well. You knew I’d go back home, that I’d find some way to at least glimpse my old life. You were right. What I did today was stupid. I hurt Melodie, and I killed an innocent man.”

“Is that all you did wrong?” His stone cold eyes bored into me. He was angry, which meant he was still thinking something had happened between me and Chase.

“I didn’t cheat on you, if that’s what you’re thinking. Chase was in my room when I got out of the shower. He had my locket in his hands. He had gone through my stuff. I was furious.”

“So furious you let him stay and hang out.” He pointed to the locket on my neck. “Did he put that on you?”

I lowered my eyes. “Yes, but it’s not what you’re thinking.”

Alex stood up, chucking the rock he’d been holding. “I think you can’t stay away from him. I think you give him certain liberties the rest of us don’t have.”

“What?” I couldn’t believe this. Was he implying I let Chase—no, I couldn’t even think it. “You can’t be serious.” I’d come here to make up, and Alex was accusing me of screwing around behind his back.

He stared at me and finally his expression softened. “Why do you let him in? Why can’t you tell him to leave you alone? That you’re with me? You said you were going to get him to back off.”

“I’m trying, but he won’t take the hint.”

“He can’t take a hint if you don’t drop a hint.”

“You’re saying I’m leading him on?”

He didn’t deny it.

Suddenly I wasn’t freezing anymore. I was warm. No, I was hot. My blood was going crazy again. I had to stop this. I couldn’t live in the shower. Alex moved closer to me and rubbed my arms. The blood in my veins rippled in waves.

“Jodi.” He was scared for me. He wrapped his arms around me. “Am I doing this to you?”

“My emotions are doing it.”

“But it’s because of me, isn’t it?”

Now it was my turn to not deny something. He pulled away and looked into my eyes. He was searching for something. An answer to fixing what was wrong with me. He pressed his lips to mine. I wasn’t expecting it. We were in the middle of a fight, but here he was, kissing me. It took me a few seconds to respond, to wrap my arms around him and kiss him back. I felt my blood cooling. Alex was calming me. I continued to kiss him, long after I was back to normal. I was afraid to let go. Afraid we’d go back to arguing. All I wanted was to be in his arms.

Finally, he pulled away. “Are you better now?” He held onto my arms, feeling to make sure my blood wasn’t surging through my veins anymore.

I nodded. “Thank you.” Who knew what Alex had stopped me from doing this time? I was just grateful he had.

“I wasn’t sure that was going to work. Lately, it’s me kissing you that gets your blood all riled up. Why did it have the opposite effect now?”

Was he viewing this as a bad thing? “I don’t want kissing you to make me lose control of my powers. It would mean I couldn’t kiss you anymore.” I hoped that would be enough to convince him this was a good sign.

“So, you still want to be able to kiss me? Only me?”

“Alex, I never kissed Chase. I swear.”

“I want to believe you, but I’ve seen the way you get around him.”

I took his hands in mine. “I came here because I wanted to tell you that I believe you. You were only trying to protect me by keeping the truth from me. It wasn’t easy for me to accept. I still don’t think it was your choice to make, but I know you wouldn’t intentionally hurt me. I need you to do the same for me. To believe me and know I wouldn’t hurt you like that.”

“The question is, would you keep the truth from me to avoid hurting me?” He didn’t take his hands away, but he wasn’t giving in to me yet either.

I shook my head. “No. That’s not what I’m doing. I’m telling you the truth.”

He let go of my hands, and my heart sank, but then he reached for my face and pulled me to him. He kissed me hard, spinning me around so I was backed up against the mausoleum. He kissed me until I was completely breathless. When he pulled away, I noticed a light flashing on and off in one of the bedroom windows. Alex couldn’t see it because he was only looking at me. I tried to keep my focus on him, but I couldn’t. It was Chase’s room. He was trying to get my attention. The light stayed on, and his silhouette was in the window. He was watching me. My body tensed.

Alex leaned into me and kissed me again. I kissed him back, but my eyes stayed glued to the window. Glued to Chase.

Who was I? I didn’t want to be the girl who thought about another guy while kissing her boyfriend. I forced my eyes away from Chase, which, surprisingly, was harder to do than pulling away from Alex.

“Sorry, I’m freezing.” I wrapped my arms around myself.

“No problem. Let’s get you inside.” He put his arm over my shoulder and kept me close as we walked inside.

My eyes rose to Chase’s window. His light was off, but I could sense he was still watching us. I laced my fingers through Alex’s. He walked me to my room and kissed me goodnight.

“I’ll come get you before breakfast.” He gently kissed me again.

I smiled and nodded before going in my room and shutting the door. I leaned my back against it and slid to the ground. I was out of control. I shouldn’t want anything more than Alex. He should’ve been enough. My teeth chattered again, so I got up and took my third hot shower of the day. Then I crawled into bed and pleaded with myself to only dream of Alex, but the second I closed my eyes, it was Chase’s face I saw.

I tossed and turned all night, afraid to let myself sleep long enough to dream. I actually set my alarm and repeatedly hit snooze so I would keep waking up. It was pure torture, but it was better than waking up to a room full of corpses. Or should I say half-full. We were running low on corpses these days.

Alex met me before breakfast, like we’d planned.

“Hey, did you have trouble sleeping? You look beat.”

“Thanks, that’s just what a girl wants to hear from the guy she’s dating.”

He laughed and kissed my cheek. “You look beautiful, but I can tell you didn’t sleep well.”

“I appreciate the little white lie. I woke up a lot. My alarm kept going off.” There, that wasn’t a lie.

“Is it broken? I could look at it for you.”

“No, that’s okay. I think I fixed it.” Yeah, I fixed it, when I finally shut it off.

We passed Chase in the hallway. “Sleep well?” he asked.