Chapter 107

Jo could hardly believe her eyes. Confusion washed over her as she tried to figure out how she was actually seeing the man in front of her. The tent hadn’t even opened, yet here he was, standing there, right when she needed him.
“Hi, Jo.”
“Dad?” Jo had to clarify, even though she was certain it was Aaron in front of her. “How did you... ? Where did you…? How are you here?” Words weren’t flowing from her mouth but tears were starting to brim her eyes. She did her best to fight them. Crying was for wusses, and she didn’t need her dad to think that she was a wuss.
“Brandon sent me a text a few hours ago,” he said. “He told me that you guys were getting ready to launch an attack on the Capitol Building to try to free Jamie and the others. I didn’t get it until a few minutes ago. Have you gone yet?”
Jo nodded. She remembered Brandon suggesting that they send a text to her dad to see if he could help them find a way behind the concrete walls of the building, but she had let it slip her mind. She didn’t even if her dad had gotten it. “We did. We… got them.”
“You did?” A mix of relief and happiness filled his face, and something else, an emotion Jo wasn’t too used to seeing. What was it? “That’s amazing, Jo! I’m so proud of you.”
Oh, right. Pride. It had been a long time since anyone had looked at her the way that her dad was looking at her now, like he was so happy she existed and that he had helped make her.
He was hugging her before she could fight it. Her instincts were always to pull away from an embrace, but the longer her father’s arms were around her, the more she forgot why it was she never wanted anyone to touch her.
Eventually, her dad let go of her. For a few fleeting seconds, Jo felt cold without his arms around her, but then the hardness settled back into place, and she reminded herself of why she hated hugs to begin with.
“Hi, Margie,” Aaron said, stepping around Jo to shake Margie’s hand. Something told Jo Margie wasn't much of a hugger either.
“Welcome back to earth, Aaron,” she said, taking his hand.
“Thanks. I can’t stay long, though. Where’s your brother?” Aaron pushed his hands deep into his pockets.
“He’s around. I’m sure Jo won’t mind walking you over there. I think she has something she wants to ask you.”
Her dad turned and looked at her, his eyebrows raised. Jo swallowed hard. Margie sure did know how to make a person feel uncomfortable. “Yeah, I’ll take you over. I’m sure there are other people who will be happy to see you, too.”
“All right,” Aaron said. “See you, Margie.”
“Bye.” Margie walked around her desk and got to work as Jo and Aaron walked toward the tent opening, which was zipped tight.
“Did your portal put you right into Margie’s tent?” Jo asked as they stepped out into the tent city.
“Yeah. Coincidentally. At least, I don’t think Christian did it on purpose, but who the hell knows with him.”
“Right.” Jo understood what he was saying. Christian was weird, to say the least.
“What was it that you wanted to ask me?”
Jo swallowed hard, not sure how to say what she needed to say, even though she had no way around it. Her dad flying them back to Russia was her only chance of getting back in time to find Holland. Unless he commanded someone else to do it. He was the Guardian Leader, after all.
“Well, we need a pilot to fly us back to Russia,” she explained. “Ryker, the guy who flew us here, he’s a human, and he sustained a head injury in the crash.”
“He crashed your plane? I guess you shouldn’t want him flying back anyway.”
“Not on purpose. I mean… not that it’s ever on purpose. It’s just that the runway was too short, that’s all.”
“Oh, I understand that,” he said. “Well, Jo, I hadn’t intended on staying very long. How’s the mission going?”
“We found Holland,” she said. “Hell, I even spoke to her. But she blasted Cassidy into the wall and got away. We know where she’s at now. We just have to make our move.”
“Wow.” Her dad looked away from her for a minute. “You spoke to Holland.”
She wasn’t sure if it was a question or not. “Yeah, I did. She says she doesn’t know where Mom is, by the way. I don’t believe her or anything, but… just so you know.”
“Well, if you’re that close to getting her, how can I say no?”
Jo stopped in her tracks and turned to look at her dad. She honestly wasn’t expecting it to be that easy. “Really?” she said.
“Yeah. I mean… the least I can do is fly you over. I might not be able to stay, but I can get you there.”
“Great. Thanks, Dad.” Jo could’ve hugged him if she hadn’t met her quota for the year. “I do have a question, though. If you came because Brandon asked if you could open a portal into the Capitol Building, why didn’t you come out in the Capitol Building?”
“The first portal Christian opened was inside the Capitol Building, but I’m not stupid enough to climb out of a portal opening into a mess of Vampires running around screaming by myself. I thought maybe the attack had to have already started for them to be acting that way.”
Jo nodded. That made sense. They were at the tent where Jamie and the others were now, so she knew she’d have to share her dad’s attention in a second. Everyone would want to see him, especially Jamie.
The tent flaps were open, and Elliott saw him first. “Holy hell! Look what the crocopire dragged in!”
Seeing no point in asking what crocopire, Aaron and Jo walked in, and her father was immediately swallowed up into the crowd of people who were just as excited to see him as they were the freed prisoners. That was okay, though. Jo’d gotten her opportunity to talk to him. He’d said he’d get them back to Russia, which meant she wouldn’t have to worry about giving orders for a bit. If she was lucky, he’d decide to stay and help them get Holland. But with her luck, he’d leave before they caught her, and she’d have to resume control of the pack again.
“Dad!” Cadon shouted, leaving the conversation he’d been involved in and sprinting across the tent so quickly, he collided with Aaron and knocked him backward into Jo. It was like her brother was a five-year-old again, and their dad had come to get him from the first day of school.
“Hi, son,” Aaron said, recovering his balance and hugging Cadon as tightly as Jo’s twin was hugging him. “How have you been?”
“I’m alive. That’s something.” Cadon stepped back and looked at Jo. She knew that second he was going to start complaining about what an awful job she’d been doing as leader, but he didn’t. “Why are you here?”
“Uh, well, I got Brandon’s text,” he said, gesturing at Brandon who was standing nearby. Every eye in the tent was on them, more specifically on the Guardian Leader, and it was clear everyone wanted their turn to hug him or shake his hand, but they also wanted to know what one had to do, specifically, to get him to come out of the tunnels where he was desperately searching for his wife.
“You came to help us?” Brandon asked.
Aaron nodded. “I got it a little too late to help, but I’m glad the mission was successful.” With that, Aaron went over to Jamie, and the two embraced for a long moment, talking so quietly to one another that no one else could hear.
Aaron took his time talking to everyone who’d been a prisoner until recently, telling them all how happy he was to have them back. He knew every single one by name, could ask about their family or remember something specific about what they’d done together at some point during their long lives. All of that without his IAC even working. Jo couldn't remember her own name half the time. She definitely didn’t take after her dad when it came to remembering things and making connections with people.
After all of the greetings, a group consisting mostly of the people Jo had brought with her from Russia, as well as Jamie and his wife, and Martin the other Healer, sat down with Aaron and talked about the mission to get Holland thus far and what their next moves should be.
Jo was content to sit back and listen. Her dad cringed a little when Elliott mentioned that Jo had brought Eliza and Lucas in, not because of Lucas but because of his wife. He seemed relieved when he was told Eliza wasn’t actually involved in the hunt for Holland so far.
“Lucas has been a really big help,” Scott said. “We didn’t know what to expect, working with Souled Vampires, but they’ve come through a few times in ways we didn’t expect.”
Aaron nodded. “I did think it would be a good idea to get Lucas’s help. I just didn’t know how it would be to have Eliza back on the team.”
“Thank God we were able to dodge that bullet, so far,” Cassidy said under her breath.
“So the plan now is to head back to Russia and attack the mine where Lucas’s people last saw her?” Aaron asked, looking around at all of the faces of the people who’d been on the mission.
They all looked at Jo.
“That’s the plan,” she confirmed with a nod. “Unless, of course, you think there’s something else we need to be doing instead.”
“No, that’s what I would do,” Aaron assured her.
“We just need a pilot,” Elliott said with a big, goofy grin on his face. “Oh, and a plane.”
“Well, Margie is fixing our plane,” Jo told them. “And I already asked if Dad would be willing to fly us back.”
“Wait!” Elliott exclaimed. “Does this mean we’re getting the band back together?”
Aaron chuckled and shook his head. “You know I can’t sing. That was always Cadence’s thing, not mine.”
“I believe what my father is trying to ask is if you are going to be accompanying us on our return trip to Russia,” Brandon said in the tone of a college professor or some other intellectual. Jo had never gone to college, so she could only assume.
Aaron knew that, but he seemed to like keeping them all in suspense. “Yes, I’ll fly you back,” he said, getting a big cheer from everyone.
“Hot dog!” Elliott exclaimed, slapping his leg. “And then… will you stick around long enough for us to get her? I mean, Jo’s doing an awesome job, but it would be great to have the three of us back together again.”
“Three of us?” Jo asked, not sure what he was talking about.
“Yeah--your dad, me… and Doc.”
Jo’s eyes went to Jamie. She was confused. She didn’t want to get her hopes up, but she had to ask, “Are you coming with us, too, Jamie?” Margie had mentioned the possibility, but she hadn’t even spoken to Jamie yet.
He shrugged. “I got nothin’ better to do.”
“All right then!” Elliott exclaimed, clapping his hands together. “We need to get a playlist together.”
“Why is everything a band tonight?” Cassidy asked, rolling her eyes. But she didn’t really expect an answer.
And she didn’t get one.
As the seasoned veterans got into the details about what had been done and what needed to be done, Jo sat back and listened for a while. Then her mind wandered, and it wasn’t until Zane gave her a little nudge with her elbow that she realized she was starting to fall asleep.
By then, the conversation had shifted to reminiscing. Jo didn’t really need to listen to that, but she found herself doing her best to tune in. If anything, it was just nice to hear the sound of her dad’s voice.
She’d missed that.