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Chapter Eleven
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2021-02-22 09:33:55Jo’s heart was beating out of her chest as she stepped past her grandmother and walked toward her father. He didn’t move, only stood there with his hands on his hips, his head dipped slightly, as if he were searching for words or struggling with emotions. He looked thinner than he had the last time she saw him, maybe even a little gaunt in the face, like instead of eating once or twice a week like he usually did, he wasn’t eating at all. Had she done that to him? Or was it the weight of everything else?
About two feet in front of him, she stopped, his eyes locking on to hers as she fought to put a sentence together. When her lips parted, she only got the first syllable of “Hello” out before his strong arms were around her, pulling her close and holding her tight like he had when she was a little girl with a scraped knee or a bad dream. Jo stood still, a petrified tree, for a few moments before the surprise wore off enough fo
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Grandpa Eli’s study was always well organized and neat. Jo could remember seeing him sitting in here reading when she was younger, after he’d retired, and they’d moved to escape the chaos in the US. She couldn’t imagine he used it for much of anything these days since his memory had gotten so bad. When she followed her dad into the room, it was evident Aaron had done some unnecessary straightening and that all of his own belongings on the desk were in precisely the spot he wanted them in. Jo almost laughed--some things never changed--but enough things did change that it wasn’t funny anymore, and she felt silly for evening forgetting for a second how the world was all messed up now.Her dad didn’t go around the desk and sit in the plush swivel chair on the other side. Instead, he took a seat on the small leather sofa her grandpa had over by the window. Grandpa Eli had said the room needed more seating so he could have v
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Her grandparents’ dining room became a makeshift board room. Jo sat in the corner, between Zane and Brandon, trying to be inconspicuous. After the conversation she’d had with her father, Jo had washed her face and built back the part of her wall he’d managed to bring crumbling down. But now, as more and more LIGHTS team members made their way into the room for the meeting, the last thing she wanted was to appear weak. So she found her resting bitch face and kept her mouth shut, something she hoped she’d be able to do no matter how long this lasted or what topics they touched on.Some of the people who joined them were familiar; others she knew she’d never met before while a few were legendary. Her dad knew she wanted to lay low, so the few times people asked which one was his daughter, he’d gestured in her direction but hadn’t insisted she get up and come over, which Jo was happy about. She did her best to act as
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Jo listened to the plan, but her mind kept wandering. Any time someone asked her dad a question, she tuned out, trusting if it was important, he’d let her know later. Basically, a little over half of the people present would be going to Moscow to track down Holland while the others would be undergoing another mission, to find some chick that used to be on the team, someone her Aunt Cassidy had ties to. The old timers wanted to see if this woman could come help with the other mission. She figured her dad knew what he was doing, even if it made more sense to Jo to just send all of these people in to get Holland and not worry about this Heather person, but she wasn’t going to tell the man how to do his job.After about twenty minutes of Aaron giving them all of the information they would need to hook up with the right people in Moscow and hopefully jump on Holland’s tail, Cassidy interrupted. “I’m sorry. Tell me again why I can
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The sound of conversation and laughter poured out of the house so loudly, Jo thought the neighbors might call the cops if someone didn’t make the loudmouths tone it down a little bit--especially Elliott whose laughter was noisy enough to wake the undead.She took a sip of her beer and set the bottle back by her boot. The sky here was even more polluted by light than it was in the city since most of Denver was desolate now. Hardly any of the stars were bright enough to compete, but those that did made her wonder for a split second if it was possible her dad was right, and her mom was stuck between them somewhere. She dismissed the idea and took another swig of the alcohol, wishing it would do something--anything—for her.The door behind her creaked open, causing her head to whip around. Relief washed over her when she saw it was Zane--not her dad. Or Cadon. Or Scott. Zane had two bottles of Bud in his hand. “Mind if I j
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Zane spoke politely to her dad as the two passed each other, and then Aaron sat down in his spot next to her. “You doing okay?” he asked, and Jo nodded, still trying to figure out what she was going to say. While it was a huge compliment to be asked to lead the mission, Jo knew she wasn’t really the right person for the job. Even if she was the most strategically minded--which she was pretty sure she wasn’t--and even if she was the best shot--which she was pretty sure she was--she wasn’t a leader, not like her dad was. Not like her mom had been. He was disillusioned as to her abilities because she reminded him so much of his wife.“I’m okay,” Jo finally said. “Just… not used to dealing with so many people.”“Yeah? You never really did like parties much. Even when you were little, you’d try to go hide somewhere, off in your room if we were at home, or in a qui
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Flying on small planes was nothing new to Jo, but this one was even tinier than the ones she remembered traveling on when she was younger, and she doubted she’d have much of a chance to speak to Cassidy without everyone else hearing while they were in such cramped quarters.The plane seated four besides the pilot and the co-pilot. She climbed in next to Zane with Brandon and Cassidy behind them, and hooked her seatbelt. It would be a long flight with several fuel stops, but Jo decided not to drink too much since there was no bathroom on board, and she doubted they’d be stopping frequently enough to accommodate too much water in any one bladder. She couldn’t help but wonder if her brother was on a nicer plane, one with a restroom, maybe even seats that reclined. No one else was complaining, so Jo didn’t either, but the seat was uncomfortable, and she had no idea how the guys were managing to squeeze their longer legs in behind the
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The flight was long and boring, but at least Jo was able to use her IAC the further away from home they got. Rather than spending her time chatting with other team members who had also rediscovered the wondrous device that was the IAC, she spent her time looking through the archives, trying to get a sense of what tools she would be working with, what sort of strategies might work given the terrain and the obstacles they’d face in locating Holland and bringing her in, and researching the teammates she wasn’t familiar with. She slept a little, only ate a few bites when they stopped for fuel, and probably said less than ten words to anyone else on the plane, so by the time they landed in Moscow, the plane waving around in the snowy breeze like a ribbon, she was exhausted and felt just as ill at ease as she had when she’d agreed to do this several hours before.It didn’t seem like it should be snowing this time of year, even in Moscow
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The Russian soldier standing next to Brandon’s window barked orders at them in a language none of them spoke, though their IACs were capable of translating what he was saying. That didn’t help in replying. Brandon said, “English,” politely about ten times before he finally held up his badge for the gun toting militant to see. This guy was more of a boy than a man, maybe nineteen at best. Jo fought the urge to reach inside her jacket pocket and finger the cold steel she had strapped there. She caught Cassidy’s eyes and knew the Hybrid was considering tossing all of them out of the way.Once the soldier boy had the badge in his paw, he shouted for a few of his comrades to come over. They looked at it, exchanged some speculative jibes with each other in their native tongue, laughed and then, in broken English, a different soldier, one a little older than the other said, “You all LIGHTS, eh?”&ldquo
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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
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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
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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
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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
