Beginning of Volume 3: Queen Catcher
Waking to the sounds of screaming was nothing new, and yet, every time it happened, Jo McReynolds felt her heart leap into her throat. Like every other night for the past few weeks, she tossed the blankets off of her legs and headed for the door, wishing she could do something to help but knowing that she was running to her aunt’s aid not because she could actually be of use but because she was obligated to do so. That and because, whenever Cassidy started screaming like this, it scared the bejesus out of everyone, including Jo.
Her legs carried her down the hallway of the house they’d borrowed from Lucas’s Souled Vampire friend, Adrian, who wasn’t even there to sleep in his own bed. He had volunteered to track Holland’s car when it left the castle in Poland during the last attack. Now, they had a good idea where the Vampire queen was hiding, but
Sorry I haven't updated this one in a while! I've been focused on Sold to the Alpha and Mage of Wolves. I will try to update more often! Thanks for reading!
“I just don’t think this is a good idea,” Lucas was saying when Jo sat down with him to talk about her plan to take most of her squad back to the United States for a mission to save Jamie Joplin and the other Guardians being held captive by President Crimson Crotch and his asshole lackeys.“Why is that?” Jo asked. “I’ve already told you how important this is. We can’t let him execute our people.”“No, I understand that, believe me. I do. I know this Jamie you speak of. He was a friend to Eliza when few others were.” Lucas’s eyes went to Elliott. It was no secret that Elliott and Eliza had never gotten along, but then Lucas’s wife rarely got along with anyone. He refocused on Jo. Elliott didn’t say a word. He certainly wouldn’t deny that he didn’t get along with
“You just promised I could do somethin’ that’s damn near impossible, honey,” Heather said, her arms folded beneath her chest as she stared into Jo’s eyes, unblinking. “I can’t get Cassidy back that quickly. Hell, I’m not sure I can get her back at all.”“I know, Heather. And I’m sorry,” Jo assured her. “But I didn’t know what else to do. We have to help Jamie, and the only way Lucas would agree to it is if we took Cassidy with us. We can’t take her with us if she still doesn’t know who she is. So… you’ve got to fix her. And fix her fast.”Heather shook her head until her curls danced. “Nope, nope, nope. Ain’t gonna happen.”“I believe in you, Heather,” Jo said, knowing the
“Holy shit! She remembers!” Elliott said, drawing Cassidy’s eyes to him.“What’s happening?” Cassidy asked. “Why am I tied to this bed?”“Cassidy, do you… do you really know who I am?” Brandon asked, startled.“Yeah, of course I do. You’re my husband. What is happening?”They all turned their attention to Heather who wasn’t talking yet. It was clear that whatever she’d done to get Cassidy back, it had all but drained Heather completely. “Is it safe to untie her, Heather?” Elliott asked.Heather slowly nodded, and all three of the others moved to untie Cassidy who sat up all the way and rubbed at her wrist
“I need a plane,” Jo said for about the hundredth time. Lucas was nodding. He understood her concerns, but he couldn’t help her. The man could produce a lot of things, including an army of Souled Vampires and this beautiful mansion in the middle of the frozen tundra, but he couldn’t seem to come up with a plane, and the ones they’d used to get there in the first place were long gone. “I’d like to help you, Jo, I really would,” Lucas said, shrugging. “But I told you. I can’t get you a plane. There are no planes here. You’re going to have to go to another country to get one.” “But we don’t have time!” Jo sighed in exasperation, running her hands through her hair. A few strands came out between her fingers. “Why didn’t you mention this to me earlier when I was telling you my plan for going back to the US?” “I though
The drive to the airport was fast and silent, for the most part. Jo sat in the passenger seat while Zane drove with Heather and Scott in the back seat. Elliott was driving another vehicle with Cassidy, Brandon and Ryker in it while Cadon drove a third with Cale, Dax, and Mandy. The fourth vehicle they were taking had Meagan, her daughter Shayna, and Lucy in it, but she had no idea which of them was driving. Whoever it was behind the wheel was keeping up with Elliott, and that was saying something because he was driving like a man who’d been challenged to make a two hour drive in less than an hour.The roads were icy and slick, but Zane managed to stay in Elliott’s tracks, and he wasn’t having any problems sliding around. The fact that he wasn’t able to die probably made him a little less cautious than most people would be.Whether it was
Ryker confiding in her that his family had been killed at an airport struck Jo deeply, something she hadn’t been expecting. She wanted to know more, but she also didn’t want to pry. She’d already said she was sorry, which always seemed like a stupid thing to say in that situation, in her opinion. Asking questions might piss him off. But then, if he wanted to talk about it, maybe she should let him.“What happened?” she asked him.He shook his head slowly from side to side, and Jo assumed that meant he wasn’t going to answer her. She went back to staring out the window.“We were trying to leave the country,” he said, his voice soft, almost monotone.Jo didn’t turn her head to look at him for fear her emotions might mak
The sound of someone calling her name jarred Jo awake. She sat up straight, realizing she’d fallen asleep in the co-pilot’s seat. Alarmed, she looked around, petrified that she’d touched something she wasn’t supposed to.“Are you awake now?” Ryker asked. “Can I hit the head?”“Huh?” she asked, wiping sleep from her eyes. “I’m awake, but I don’t know how to fly this thing.”“You don’t need to,” Ryker told her, already unbuckling his seatbelt. “Autopilot is on.”“Then… why do I need to be awake,” she asked, a bit more sarcastic than she intended.“Because… you tend to thrash while you
Jo was afraid to ask exactly what it was Elliott was talking about when he’d said he had found the thermal exhaust port of the building where Jamie and the other LIGHTS prisoners were being held. Her eyes went to Cassidy first, who’d asked Elliott what he’d meant when he exclaimed, “Aha!” but her aunt was focused on Elliott, so Jo was unable to get a sense of whether or not everyone else was holding their breath thinking he’d probably come up with something that simply wouldn’t work or if they were hopeful that he had actually solved the problem.“What is it, Dad?” Brandon asked. “What do you mean?”“I mean… look at the west side of the building. Do you see anything remotely familiar about the shape of that part of this allegedly new building?”
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,
“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&
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
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.
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
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
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
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
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