Chapter 105

Social gatherings had never been Jo’s thing. There was so much fake-ness to it. Being around a bunch of people, pretending to be happy, pretending to be interested in what they had to say, all of that was physically draining on her. It wasn’t that she was an introvert as much as she just hated other people in general, for the most part.
When Jo left Ryker, she’d walked away with a growing pain in the pit of her stomach. She needed to talk to Margie about getting a plane and a pilot. It wasn’t the sort of conversation she liked to have. She didn’t like to ask for help. But she didn’t have a whole lot of choices at the moment. If she wanted to get her group back to Russia to continue to hunt down Holland, she had to have transportation. The fact that Margie had been the one to recommend the runway that wasn’t long enough wouldn’t be brought up as a reason why the Guardian should hook her up, but she hoped it would occur to Jamie’s sister that that was the case.
For now, she found herself in a large tent with way too many people discussing what it had been like to be locked up in President Crimson’s service for a really long time. Most of them had been there since very early in the Revelation. They’d been captured around the time that the president came to power. Back then, LIGHTS hadn’t known for sure that the enemy was coming for them. Despite her father’s warnings and preparation, most of his colleagues couldn’t believe that the world would ever accept Vampires as a group that needed to have protected rights. How quickly they’d gone from demanding equality to dominating the other species on the planet. Even now, there were still humans who didn’t get that equality for all shouldn’t apply to predators.
Jamie had been taken in one of the very first raids. It wasn’t that he hadn't believed Aaron and tried to prepare; he had a family, and he was trying to look out for the others who were in danger of being hurt or killed. As the leader of all of the Healers, Jamie felt an obligation to the others very few other members of the team could understand.
He was standing in the middle of the tent, surrounded by friends and family members, people who were so glad to see him free. His wife, Ashley, a beautiful blonde who still looked like she was in her early twenties even though she had to be at least forty or forty-five by now, was draped around his waist. She still had tears streaking her face, though it looked like she wasn’t crying any more at the moment. Scott was on his dad’s other side, looking so proud and relieved.
For a moment, Jo felt a pang of jealousy stab her right in the heart, looking at the happy family. It wasn’t fair. Scott had never lost his mom, and now he had his dad back, too. Jo had lost her mom so long ago, and her dad had basically gone missing shortly thereafter.
Would she ever get either one of her parents back? At the moment, she had to think probably not.
Elliott was still talking, but his voice had seemed louder outside of the tent as it carried through the camp. Inside of the tent where there was plenty of other noise, it wasn’t so easy to hear him. Jo caught his eye and lifted her hand, forcing a smile, and he waved back but never paused in his story. She wasn’t looking for any of these people. She was looking for Margie, but she didn’t see the woman anywhere.
She did see another Healer, though, one she wanted to talk to.
Dr. Cale Ryan was sitting on the floor in the back of the tent, next to some of the other Healers that had just been released. Jo recognized Martin and Ona, but she didn’t know the others. She would be polite and congratulate them on their freedom, but she wanted to ask Cale a few questions about what had happened with Blanche. Hearing Zane explain what had happened helped, but she still wanted to hear what Cale had to say. After all, he’d been the one Blanche actually shot.
He lifted his head in a nod as she approached but didn’t get up, and she didn’t blame him. He looked exhausted, and there was blood on his clothes, as well as bullet holes in the shoulder area. Even the prisoners looked slightly better than he did. They were dirty, disheveled, and had certainly lost some muscle mass during their trials.
Jo didn’t like hovering over them all, so she sat down next to Ona. “Hi,” she said. “How are you guys doing?”
“Hi, Jo,” Martin said. “We’re okay. Thank you for getting us out.”
“I’m so glad we could help,” Jo said, trying not to take any of the credit. “It was a team effort.” Cale snickered at that. Jo ignored it, understanding that he was clearly upset about the way things had gone down.
“You’re so pretty,” Ona said, getting Jo’s attention. “I haven’t seen you since you were a teenager.”
“Right,” Jo said, not really remembering when she might’ve seen the woman last. “It’s nice to see you, too.” She braced herself for the comment she had to assume was coming next, but Ona didn’t say it--”you look so much like your mother.”
“Cale, if you’ve got a second, I just wanted to get your version of what happened in there. If you’re willing to talk about it.” Jo hoped she sounded official, like she needed it for a report or something, not just to ease her mind.
“There’s not much to tell,” Cale said. “You can watch the video from my IAC. I know we didn’t have video on between one another’s IACs to save Cass from having to secure it from their signal, but I had it recording.”
“I will definitely take a look at that,” she said. But she wouldn’t have Blanche’s angle because she was dead. As far as Jo knew, there was no way to retrieve an IAC from a dead team member and pull recordings off of it. Before the Revelation, their IACs all recorded to one big server that was housed at headquarters. But they didn’t have that anymore. “Was she behind you when she shot you?”
Cale nodded. “Yeah, right behind me. I ducked down, and then she did, too, for some stupid reason. She shot me three times at close range. It wasn’t comfortable.”
“Yeah, it doesn’t sound like it would be,” Jo said, not really sure what else there was to say. “Thank goodness you were able to heal yourself.”
“I guess,” Cale shrugged. “I mean, if I’m honest, I would’ve much rather have skipped it altogether or let her shoot someone else for me to heal, rather than myself.”
It didn’t seem fair to judge him for being honest when she had no idea what she might’ve done in a similar circumstance. “And how are you feeling now?” Jo asked, skipping over his last remark.
“Better but not a hundred percent yet.” Cale’s forehead looked a little sweaty, and his color was much more pale than usual.
“Do you want me to see if Margie has some clothes in her supplies you can wear?”
Cale looked down at his bloodstained, bullet hole riddled shirt. “Sure,” he said.
Jo nodded, glad to have something to break the ice with when she talked to Margie. For now, she couldn’t think of anything else to say to Cale. A million questions could've been asked of the other two, but Jo didn’t want to be tied up listening to Martin and Ona tell her long stories about how awful their imprisonment had been.
Instead, she patted each of them on the shoulder. “We’re glad you’re free,” she said. “Welcome back.”
Ona grabbed hold of Jo’s hand. “Thank you, Jo. I know you’re humble like your parents, but you really did a lot to help us break free. We appreciate it.”
“We really do,” Martin added with a nod.
Jo didn’t know what else to say. While it was in her blood to insist that she didn’t do much, it was easier to say, “You’re welcome,” and let it go at that.
Jo stood and turned around, surveying the tent. The only person she wanted to speak to was Margie. She saw plenty of other people who were smiling at her, perhaps inviting a conversation, but there wasn’t anyone she especially wanted to approach.
Then, her eyes landed on Margie. She was standing near the entrance to the tent, talking to a group consisting mostly of people from her outfit. Taking a deep breath, Jo headed in that direction.
Margie was in the middle of a discussion, so Jo stood at her elbow for a few moments, waiting for her to finish or for someone else to acknowledge her. It took a while, but eventually, someone standing across from Margie nodded in her direction, and the Australian leader turned to look at her. “Oh, Jo. Sorry. I didn’t know you were there. You should’ve said something.”
“It’s okay,” Jo replied, trying not to sound nervous. Margie placed her hands on her hip, a small smile on her lips. “Can I talk to you for a few minutes?”
“Sure. Do we need to go somewhere more private?”
Looking around, Jo thought that might be a good idea. Considering that Elliott and a few other potential interrupters were present, it was easy to get the words out. “Yeah. That’s probably a good idea.”
“All right,” Margie said, patting her on the shoulder and steering her toward the door. “Let’s go.”