Chapter 111

Jo had somehow managed to stay awake for the entire ride from the airport to Adrian’s house. It was a sort of a miracle; she was so used to falling asleep every time she got into a vehicle any more. Of course, all that meant was that as soon as she got out of the SUV, she was tired and wanted to go to sleep.
There was no time for that, though. Lucas was waiting for them, apparently with his hand on the door. The second the vehicles stopped, Adrian’s front door was flung open, and the Souled Vampire came out. His expression was something between relieved and agitated.
Everyone got out and headed inside, Lucas greeting each of them but paying particular attention to the people he hadn’t seen in a really long time--Aaron, Jamie, and Ashley. It was clear that he knew all of them to some extent, though. Jo understood the history between her dad and Lucas’s wife, but she didn’t quite get how that meant the two of them would get along together. Lucas seemed to have respect for her dad, but then, everyone did, even the Russian military guards they’d ran into when they’d first landed in the country the first time, all those weeks ago.
“Come on in,” Lucas said. “It isn’t my home, but with Adrian out spying on the Vampire bitch, well, I sort of feel like the host.”
“This is an amazing house,” Aaron said, looking around.
“Yeah, it’s huge!” Ashley agreed. “Wow! Look at that lamp! Oh, and that vase….”
Jo had a feeling Scott’s mom could spend hours looking at the decor in the house and put off talking about Vampires for a year or two, but Jo was ready to get on with it.
Lucas led them into the same room they normally had their meetings in, what Jo referred to as the library, though she wasn’t sure if there were other rooms in the house that had more books. They all took seats on the couches and chairs, a few people pulling them in from elsewhere so that there were enough, and Lucas gestured to the map on the coffee table in the middle of them. It was difficult to see from where Jo was sitting, but she had that map ingrained in her brain--both in her memory and literally in her IAC.
First, Lucas gave the new team members a run-down of everything that had happened and showed them where the various mines were on the map. He then caught them all up on what was going on with Holland, which wasn’t a whole lot of anything. She basically hadn’t moved since she’d arrived in the cave that she was currently holed up in, at least, as far as they knew, that’s where she was. Adrian’s team had been watching diligently, making sure the mountain was covered from all angles. There was always a chance there was a portal or even a tunnel that would take her out somewhere far from where they were watching, but the hope was she was still in there.
And when they attacked, she’d be trapped and taken prisoner, so they could finally figure out if she knew anything about where Cadence Findley was.
“What’s the plan, then?” Elliott asked once Lucas got them caught up. “We just blast our way through the front door? There’re no chimneys for us to go down this time.”
The idea of going down another fireplace made Jo’s body shake. That was the last thing she ever wanted to do again.
“I think that’s our only option,” Lucas said with a nod. “We can use Cassidy and Heather to block us, but we’re going to have to shoot our way in.”
“How many scandium proof uniforms does Emma have?” Scott asked, leaning forward to study the map as if he hadn’t seen it a million times.
“Last I heard seven,” Jo said. “I told her while we were on our way here that she needed to go ahead and come on back, bringing all of that stuff with her.”
“That’s not enough for everyone,” Cadon reminded her, as if she couldn’t count how many Guardians she had with her.
“I know, but if we keep delaying, waiting for her to make enough, we could lose our opportunity to get Holland while we have her allegedly cornered,” Jo reminded him.
“We’re just two short,” Aaron pointed out. “I don’t need one, and I’m sure we can leave a Healer in reserve who can go without.”
“What do you mean you don’t need one?” Elliott asked, giving Aaron a stern look. “Since when are you indestructible?”
“I’m not, but if someone has to go without… I’ll manage.”
Jo didn’t like the thought of that. Her dad needed to be protected probably more than anyone else. After all, he was a lot smarter than the rest of them, not to mention he was a better shot and had a lot more experience to draw from.
But she wouldn’t be mentioning that at the moment. It was better to have that conversation in private.
“Do we have any strategy other than blast our way in and try to overwhelm them?” Cassidy asked. “I mean… that and shields from Heather and I?”
“It’s hard to come up with a strategy for this,” Aaron said. “With there only being one entry point and one exit that we know of, there aren’t a lot of options. Trying to draw her out would likely just tip her off of our intent. I think we need to throw everything at her at once and hope she’s unprepared.” Looking at Lucas, he asked, “Is there any reason to think that she’s aware that we’re watching her?”
Lucas shook his head. “Not that we know of.”
“All right,” Aaron said. “As soon as Emma gets here, we need to move then. How are we on weapons, Jo?”
Her father’s intense blue stare caught her off guard, and she almost lost track of the question. She realized what he’d asked her about the time that a prompt from Zane popped up in her head. “Oh, uh, we have a few of Christian’s grenades left, plenty of bullets, titanium and otherwise, but that’s about it.”
Aaron nodded. “We might need to see what else we can scrounge up before we go in. This isn’t a time to be under prepared.”
“Where can we look to find those resources?” Elliott asked. “You got some people hiding out on us with grenades and bombs?”
With a shrug, Aaron said, “Maybe. I know there are more of us hiding around Europe than have been willing to come out and announce themselves up until now. But… now that they know what Australia has done and that you were able to go out there and raid the Capitol Building, we might have more support around here than expected.”
“Well, if you know how to conjure them up, please do so,” Elliott said. “We will use them and abuse them.”
“I’m just going to ask for resources,” Aaron reminded him. “If they want to join the ranks, they’ll have to do that themselves. I’m not going to ask anyone to put themselves in the line of danger when we don’t have enough uniforms to guard against the scandium bullets.”
“There are liable to be Assassin Hunters in there, too,” Jo said. “We’ve run into them a few times.”
Aaron shook his head. “I hate those bastards.”
“How many days do you want to use to look for more resources, weapons and all that?” Lucas asked. It was clear to Jo that he was hoping it wasn’t going to take very long. He was in a hurry to get on with this and to pull his people out of there, too. Jo was glad that Lucas had agreed to help them, but it was clear now that he was ready to be done with all of it.
“I think we should be ready to go by the day after tomorrow,” Aaron said.
Lucas nodded, but Jo could tell by the way he held his breath that he was hoping for a different answer, that he didn’t want this to go on one minute longer, let alone continue for two more days before they even made the attack.
“Once we have a better idea of what we have to work with, we’ll meet back here so Jo can go over assignments,” Aaron said. It seemed like he’d just remembered in the last few minutes that he was supposed to be letting his daughter lead this. She hadn’t minded him taking over, though. She would’ve just as soon let him lead the entire attack, but he’d already said he didn’t want to do that.
The group broke up, some of them volunteering to go with Aaron to see what they could dig up while others went to continue discussions from earlier. Some of the members who hadn’t gone with them to America wanted to talk to Jamie and Martin.
All Jo wanted to do was go to sleep--in a comfortable bed. While it seemed like she’d slept quite a bit on the way home, the airplane was anything but comfortable, so she faded into the back of group and then, when she was sure no one was really paying any attention to her, she slid out of the room, headed down the hallway to the bedroom she’d claimed before they took their trip.
Jo lay down, pulled the blankets up over her, and reached for sleep. She found it pretty quickly, but what she got was dropped right back into that dream she’d been having before.
She was in the Blood Moon Portal, and she was looking for her mom. She could feel the black, crumbly surface beneath her feet. Her fingers dragged along the walls, a gash from the sharp surface cutting deep into her skin, blood trickling down her hand as she pulled it away.
She got to the end of the tunnel and turned her head to the right. In the distance, she saw a white glowing cocoon like substance, white and milky. Inside, she could clearly see the outline of a woman. “Jo! I’m here! Come get me!”
Jo sat straight up, sweat pouring from her forehead, her heart pounding out of her chest.
“Sorry--did I scare you?”
It was Zane. He was lying next to her, his arm around her. She was sure she hadn’t used the IAC to call him this time, but she didn’t need to. He could come in anytime he wanted to, and he knew it.
She shook her head. “No, I’m okay,” she said, wiping her forehead with the back of her hand. “I just… had a bad dream.”
“I’m sorry.” Zane pulled her closer so that her head was against his chest. “Do you want to talk about it?”
“No,” Jo said emphatically. She most definitely did not want to talk about it. “It was just a dream… a bad dream.”