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Chapter 28
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2024-10-29 19:42:56Sitting on what appeared to be a handmade quilt at least a few decades older than her, draped across a mattress that may have been in the old lodge two villages over, the first one that had had an empty room, since Jo’s father was born, she listened to the rest of her team discussing their options, keeping her mouth shut. Ryker had spent the entire drive cussing them out over how much trouble they’d gotten him into, and even when Jo had handed over twice the cash she’d originally promised him, the man hadn’t shut up. He was downstairs in the bar now, likely spending a chunk of the money he’d just earned trying to forget their predicament, a luxury Jo couldn’t afford. He’d insisted on keeping his bags with him, too, saying he didn’t trust them not to go through them.
“I say we leave him here,” Leo was saying, sitting in an old recliner near a fire they’d lit for their human companion when t
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Voices awoke her well before Jo was ready to open her eyes. The sounds of men’s voices discussing something in hushed whispers across the room mingled with another voice, another male, a familiar one, emanating from her own mind, and she realized she’d fallen asleep with her IAC on. That didn’t happen often. By the time she realized it was her Uncle Elliott trying to get her attention, Jo’s eyes were open, and Leo and Zane were looking at her, wearing matching worried expressions.Rather than attempting to explain to them that she hadn’t heard a damn word they’d said, she pulled the blankets over her face and focused on her uncle. “What’s up?” she asked, certain the grogginess in her voice wouldn’t be his only clue that he’d woken her. He’d likely figured that out when calling her name eighty-two times had gotten him nowhere.“Well, if it ain&rsqu
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The location Ryker had given her was farther away than Jo realized. It took a few hours to get there, especially since the roads were terrible, full of potholes and covered with fallen branches. The inches of ice and snow they had to pick their way through didn’t help any either. If the vehicle they had was the high-end sort the team had instant access to in the past, they might’ve made it in half the time, but dreams of what used to be were nothing but a distraction, and Jo didn’t need any distractions at the moment.Zane brought the Jeep to a halt on the side of the road in a wooded area. The wind whipped between evergreen branches, blowing the snow off of the needles and sending it spraying up off of the ground so that it appeared to be snowing, even though it wasn’t at the moment. “This is it,” Zane said. “As close as I can get us by road.”“Where’s the actual location?&rdq
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Getting the team together was one thing; having a plan was something else. Assembling everyone from the cabin less the team that had gone with her Aunt Cassidy hadn’t taken long, but all of them wanted to know what Jo had in mind as far as the attack was concerned, and she didn’t have too many answers.She’d spent as much time as she could discussing the obstacles in front of them with Cassidy and Branden as well as Elliott. Those were the people she trusted most that she could easily access at the moment. Now would’ve been a great time for her dad to come barreling through a nearby portal opening, but that likely wasn’t going to happen, especially since she hadn’t sent him a text and Elliott had. No, if Aaron was able to make it back to help anyone, it would be the Africa team. Jo was basically on her own. And these veterans wanted answers.Mikali and Mila had volunteered to take point, with Sergio a
Night Slayer Chapter 32
Screams and shrieks echoed off of the cave walls in a deafening roar that filled her soul with the same gusto the crescendo of a grand opera might stir in order to bring the crowd to their feet, their hearts and hands banging together as they spurred the musicians on. Jo pulled the trigger again and again, firing into the near darkness at anything that moved in front of her.Zane held his fire. “Careful not to take out all of them,” he reminded her.Jo nodded, remembering the entire raid would do them no good if they couldn’t catch a squealer or two. The Vampires continued to pour around the corner, exploding in ash one after another. Whatever powers it had been increasing the strength of many of the monsters she’d encountered over the years, these seemed weak in comparison. Many of them went down from a single bullet, maybe two. It was unusual and made her question everything she knew about Vampires.
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The two bloodsuckers Mikali was holding at gunpoint in a dark cavern looked exactly like what Jo had been imagining when she’d picked out two potential snitches in her mind. Both of them were groveling on the ground, sweat pouring from their undead foreheads as they pleaded with the Guardian to let them go. Mikali was glaring at them, standing at his full height, which had to be at least six three since he towered over Jo, alternating the target at the end of his Beretta from one sniveling bastard to the other.She left Ping out in the hall to “guard the door” and then went inside. “Nice job, man,” Jo said, coming up behind him but hesitating to actually touch the large man on the back the way she might pat a teammate on the back if they were playing a team sport, rather than hunting monsters. “Have you figured out which one of them gets to live yet?”“Not yet,” Mikali growled in his
Night Slayer Chapter 34
In the hallway, on her way to the vault, Jo ran into Zane. Literally. It was dark, and she wasn’t paying attention to where she was going. He’d stopped, seeing her coming, likely hoping she’d look up and sidestep, but when she didn’t, her head collided with what felt like a wall of muscle.His arms entangled her, keeping her from falling backward. “Oh, God, Zane. Sorry,” she muttered, rubbing her forehead. It smarted for a second but otherwise she was fine. She knew exactly how muscular he was but had no idea running into him would feel like an encounter with one of those WWE fighters Uncle Elliott used to be so fond of, back in the day when sports were still a thing. “You okay?”“I’m fine,” he said, flashing that crooked smile that might’ve been enough to make her swoon under other conditions. “Are you?”“Yeah, I’m hard hea
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The sound of laughter cut through the clank of glasses and the crush of peanut shells under foot, mingling with the crooning sound of music sung in a Slovak language she didn’t speak as Jo tried not to breathe in the smoky air. Crossing the bar wasn’t as difficult this time since this establishment wasn’t as crowded as the one she’d first met Ryker in, and the lights were up, perhaps in an attempt to allow patrons to spot pointy teeth before they became a problem. Or maybe it was the fact that this tavern was attached to a hotel, unlike the seedy back alley haunt Ryker normally played cards in. Either way, she wasn’t impressed with his ability to pick watering holes and would’ve just as soon left him behind when her team pulled out of town. But she’d more or less made a promise she would look after him, and even though he’d been the one to take off without telling them where he was going, she still felt the pull of obligatio
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Finding a hotel that was better than the one she’d slept in the night before wasn’t difficult, but finding one that was decent was another story. Zane had asked privately why she cared so much about staying in a gross hotel when her own apartment looked like the set for a post-apocalyptic movie, to which Jo had replied that’s because it was smack dab in the middle of the apocalypse. “But if I’m gonna pay someone top dollar for a night in their borrowed bed, it better not leave me bitten by bedbugs,” to which he replied that was ridiculous; bedbugs’ teeth were not sharp to bite through her hard outer shell.Eventually, he’d found a three star joint for more than she’d been willing to pay and less than the rest of the team had been willing to pitch in if she’d shut the hell up. For two rooms, they’d paid more than her monthly rent back in Denver, but it would have to work. Four beds wouldn&r
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How Christian went about opening the portal, Jo wasn’t sure. It was like he cast a magic spell of some sort, though, when Scott asked him how he had done it, all Christian said was, “Science.” The next thing she knew, there was a wavering light in the wall of the black tunnel. An orange boundary grew brighter around the edges, and then inside of that, there was a moving orange light that seemed like a flickering fire in the distance. It was slightly different than the portal they’d come through, but it was close enough, and she was in a hurry to get her mother home where she belonged.Christian went through first, followed by Cadence, Cassidy, and Scott. Ryker followed him, and Zane insisted that Jo go ahead of her. But she grabbed hold of his hand to make sure that he didn’t get left behind. If he couldn’t come through the opening for some reason, she was staying, too,
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“Do you want to hold your mom’s hand?” Jamie asked Mallory as she lay on the operating table in his office. Cadon couldn’t believe how quickly everything was beginning to look like it used to. Even with the American government under collapse and citizens taking it upon themselves to hunt down Vampires and dispatch them, despite the laws that were still on the records, furniture, and other supplies were not that hard to find if one knew where to look–apparently.“Yeah, I’d like to hold her hand,” Mallory replied. She was so nervous, Cadon could see her shaking from his spot behind Jamie and slightly to the Healer’s left. Annastasia was standing on her daughter’s other side and had no problem taking her hand.“It’ll be fine,” Jamie assured her. Cadon had lost count of how many times he&
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The angry monsters were coming at them, and Jo, Zane, Scott, and Cassidy were outnumbered at least ten to one. The chances of them being able to shoot all of the monsters dead before any of them died were slim to none.Thankfully, Cassidy didn’t have to shoot the monsters in order for her to get them out of their way. As Jo and Zane worked on shooting them, Cassidy used her powers to create a bubble around the monsters, one they couldn’t break through. Jo held her fire, afraid she might do something to mess Cassidy’s plan up. The men followed suit. The monsters were contained, but it wasn't clear how long they would stay that way, and they were still blocking the group from reaching the door, the only means of escape.For now.Cassidy directed Jo, Scott, and Zane to move behind her. “Get out
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The penthouse was far quieter than Cadon had ever experienced before. At least, he couldn’t remember a time when his previous home wasn’t buzzing with noise of some kind. Whether it was his parents talking and laughing or loud music coming from his sister’s room, noise always filled the space. Now, he was sitting on a foreign sofa in a room that was painted the wrong color and had no decorations on the wall, and all he could think about was whether or not any of his family members would ever be in this home with him again.He’d decided to stop sitting in Christian’s office after a couple of hours of waiting for Jo to come back through the portal with his mom. It wasn’t that he didn’t have faith in either his sister or his mother. It was just… Ashley had told him the room was finished, and he’d needed to see it.
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Over her twenty-five-year-long lifetime, Jo had had to go to lots of places she would’ve rather never visited. She could think of several. The opera. A friend’s piano recital. The principal’s office. A cave full of bat poop. The gates of hell.Yep, through the doorway that led to hell had to be the least favorite place she’d ever gone that she had no choice but to travel to.Once they crossed through the doors, everything changed drastically, which was a shock to Jo because she thought the portal already seemed so much like hell itself. These tunnels that led down to the depths of despair were even more terrifying and lonely than anything she’d ever experienced before.“Are you getting a signal from Cass on your IAC?” Scott asked as Jo tried to keep her focus. All arou
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Sitting in Annastasia and Mallory’s living room--again--Cadon tried to stay quiet and let Jamie and Ashley answer all of the questions the girl had. Plenty of questions popped out of her mouth as they were talking about the pluses and minuses of becoming a Hunter. Mallory’s biggest concerns seemed to be actually having to fight Vampires and the pain that she would have to undergo in order to turn herself into a Hunter.“I have a medicine I will give to you after I give you the first shot, the Transformation serum,” Jamie was explaining. “I can’t give it to you until two minutes after the first shot, but most people don’t have a reaction until after those two minutes have passed anyway. For most people, the first Transformation shots aren’t painful at all. When some LIGHTS team members have chosen to have a second Transformation shot, later in their career, so
Night Slayer Chapter 135
Standing alone in the tunnel with no way of reaching the hole her mother had just disappeared through was more terrifying to Jo than she was willing to admit. Just a split second after her mother’s feet were gone through the opening, her heart started hammering in her chest, and she felt like she was going to throw up. But she took a second to assess the situation and reminded herself that she was okay. Lots of people knew where she was.That didn’t mean they’d be able to get her out.She knew her aunt could float her out, though. At least she hoped she would be able to. The thought that her powers might not work through the floor made Jo nervous. She took some deep breaths and waited.Only a few seconds had passed, but the panic was already there. “I trust you, Mom,” Jo whispered. &ldq
Night Slayer Chapter 135
Cadon wandered back over to the building where he thought he’d find Jamie and Ashley. He just hoped he didn’t run into them making out again. Even though they didn’t look old, they were still his friend’s parents, and that was kinda gross, sort of like walking in on his own parents making out.Not that that would ever happen again.He pushed the thought aside. Sometimes it was hard to remember that his dad was gone. He just hoped that his sister was having some luck locating their mom.Cadon entered the building and heard voices coming from the office on the left right inside the door. Jamie’s office. The door was open, so he stuck his head in. Ashley and Jamie were sitting across from a couple he didn’t recognize. The male looked familiar for some reason
Night Slayer Chapter 134
Jo could hardly believe that she was walking alongside her mother. She kept wanting to quiz the being beside her to see if she really was Cadence Findley McReynolds, or if this was some sick joke played on her by the Vampires. Maybe this was a demon that happened to look like her mom. Maybe it was a Vampire that someone as powerful as Holland was able to make look like her mom. It was just… surreal.“Do you know where we’re going, honey?” Cadence asked. “I’ve been up and down this corridor lots of times.”“You have?” Jo was surprised to hear that. “Yes, I think I know how to get out.”“Yeah, for the first… I don’t know how long… I kept trying to figure out how to get out, but after a while, I just sort of gave up, I guess. H
