Chapter 119

“How are you, Jo?” Zane arrived with much of the rest of the team. The battle was all but over. There were a few Vampires and Assassins hiding in some of the rooms in the cave, but Lucas and his Souled Vampires were handling that as the LIGHTS team members gathered in the cavern where Aaron was still lying on the floor, but at least the blood was hidden now beneath a sheet that Lucy had brought in with her from one of the bedrooms when she’d come a few minutes before Zane made his way in. Cassidy’s best friend, like the others, had tears streaking her face. Everyone was in a state of shock.
“I’m numb,” she said. She hadn’t moved since she’d slid out of the way to make room for the Healers. That might’ve been five minutes ago or five hours ago, she wasn’t sure. All she knew was that her dad was dead, and there were a lot of reasons why that sucked, but the biggest one of all was the fact that she’d been a really shitty daughter and had only realized it in the last few months, when it was too damn late to do anything about it.
Zane draped his arm around her. “I’m so sorry, Jo. I’m sure that you’re thinking a lot of things about yourself right now that aren’t true.”
She turned to look at him. “You know me so well.”
“Why didn’t he wear the damn scandium blocker?” Cadon shouted from where he’d collapsed when he couldn’t handle it anymore. “I know we didn’t have enough, but we could’ve left one of the less experienced Guardians at home and made him wear it.”
“You ever try to make your dad do anything he didn’t want to do?” Elliott asked, somewhat managing to get a coherent sentence out despite the fact that he was still sobbing.
“He is wearing it.”
The voice was quiet, but Jo recognized Emma Burke’s voice despite the rest of the noise in the room. “What’s that?” Jo asked, not sure why the tech guru would say that. “No, he’s not. He said he could do without, remember?”
Emma nodded. “Yes, but then, when we got here, after the attack started, Leo said he was going to stay back with Martin because he had a bad feeling about this, and he gave his skin to Aaron.”
Jo continued to stare at Emma, along with everyone else, for a long moment. What she was saying didn’t make any sense. If her dad was wearing the skin, then there was no way that he could be dead--unless the material Emma had created didn’t work after all.
“How do you explain the fact that Holland killed him then, Emma?” Cadon asked. “She’s a Vampire. Only scandium allows a Vampire to kill a Guardian.”
“As far as we know,” Cassidy muttered.
Jamie was still sitting right next to where Aaron lay beneath the sheet. With a deep breath, he moved to pull the sheet back and then examined the wound.
There was a hole in Aaron’s leather jacket, which wasn’t a surprise. Jamie let it fall open and then checked his shirt. There was a bloody hole there as well. The rip was large enough for him to see beneath it. “Damn,” Jamie mumbled. “Yeah, she’s right. He is wearing it. But….”
“What?” Elliott shouted, having gotten up to come and have a look for himself but not quite reaching his intended target yet.
“Whatever the hell she shot at him, it ripped a giant hole through the shield and… this wound is... .” Jamie shook his head and then recovered everything, still shaking his head.
“It’s what?” Elliott insisted.
“Massive,” Jamie said. “Like… it wasn’t a fucking bullet, I’ll tell you that.”
“It had to have been her powers that allowed her to do that,” Cassidy said. “She must’ve created the hole with her magic and then used the bullet.”
“Is there a bullet, Dad?” Scott asked.
Jamie looked a bit disgusted that he was going to have to investigate further. He cleared his throat and carefully lifted Aaron’s shoulder off of the bloodied cave floor. “There’s an exit wound.”
Both Jamie and Scott examined the floor near where they were sitting, where Aaron had originally hit the wall and then slid down it. Jo’s eyes landed on it first. “To your left, Scott. Up by the cave wall.
He picked it up carefully and handed it to Jamie.
It wasn’t a regular sized bullet. It was huge, more like a miniature missile than anything that would fit into a handgun or even a rifle.
“How the hell did she shoot that at him?” Elliott asked.
“She didn’t.” Jo remembered fairly clearly what she’d seen, now that they were asking, and she could go back and look at the IAC footage if she needed to. Holland had been looking at her, but she’d fired at her dad, and it had come out of her hand, not out of any weapon, as if her wrist was capable of shooting projectiles.
“She must’ve been saving that for him,” Brandon said. “How did she know he’d be here? He wasn't supposed to be.”
Another thing Jo could blame herself for.
“Maybe she was holding onto it… just in case,” Cassidy said, folding her arms. “She’s been trying to kill him for as long as he’s been a Guardian, more or less. She finally pulled it off.”
“At least that bitch’s dead, too,” Heather said. “Not that I wouldn’t rather have her alive if it meant Aaron was alive, too.”
“What did Holland tell you, Jo?” Cale asked from across the room. “Did she tell you where Cadence is before you killed her?”
“She told me enough. I’ll find her.” Jo wasn’t sure of much at the moment, but she was sure of that.
“I’m going with you,” Cassidy said.
Jo lifted her eyes to look at the Hybrid. “I don’t think--”
“Josephina, she’s my sister. Shut your mouth,” her aunt warned.
“You know I’m not going in there with you, right Cass?” Brandon said, his face paling even at the mention of the portal. “I can’t.”
“I know. It’s fine. We’ll be fine.” She patted her husband’s arm lovingly.
“You tried to run into a crumbling cave to save her, but you won’t go into the portal?” Mandy, Brandon’s sister, asked.
“The last time he was in there wasn’t pleasant,” Cassidy reminded her. “I don’t blame him for not wanting to go.”
“I’m going, too,” Cadon said.
“No,” Jo and Jamie said at the same time. She looked at the Healer and deferred to him.
Jamie nodded at Jo and then addressed Cadon. “Your dad said you’re in charge, didn’t he? I’m pretty sure that’s what I heard on the IAC as I was running to get here. He said you need to lead the team while your sister finds your mom.”
“To hell with that,” Cadon barked. “You can lead it. Or Elliott. I don’t care who leads the team, I’m going to find her.”
“Cade,” Jo began, choosing her words carefully, “the portals are dangerous. Anyone can die in there. Dad knew that. He had to think it would be better if one of us stayed out here in case… something goes wrong. Besides, now that Holland’s dead, if Dad was right and she really was pulling all of the strings, then all of the power behind the Vampire movement is literally dead. Now is the time to start righting the Ternion. That’s what you’re meant to do.”
Her brother opened his mouth to argue but then closed it, and even from several feet away from him, Jo could see the tears in his eyes.
“You’ll need at least one Guardian,” Elliott said, “and probably a Healer. I can go--”
“I think you should stay here,” Jo said. “I think you’re more useful to the team on the outside.” She looked around at all of the faces around them. “I don’t think we need a big team. We don’t want to attract too much attention from the demons if we can help it.”
“I’ll go,” Zane said, making Jo’s breath catch in her throat. She turned and looked at him, looking into his eyes to make sure he meant it. She could see that he did, so she nodded in thanks.
“I’ll go, too,” Scott said, turning to look at Jo.
“Scott, I can’t ask you to do that,” Jo began.
“You’re not. You need a Healer. I would’ve been here to save your dad if I hadn’t stopped to save my mom. So I’ll go.”
“Anyone would’ve done what you did,” she reminded him.
“And anyone would do what I’m doing now,” he said. “Stop arguing, Jo.”
“Okay,” she said, seeing that his mind was made up. “All right,” she said, addressing the whole team. “So… we’ll… take care of everything else we need to handle here,” she said, looking across the room at Mila and Mikali, who would most certainly be in charge of this region once Jo pulled the Americans out. “And then… head home and see what’s left of our country. Dad said no funeral, so we’ll do a cremation, I guess. Once all of that is… over with… we’ll go find Mom.”
Around the room, everyone was nodding. Having a plan made her feel better--if anything could.
“Then… let’s get the hell out of here,” Cassidy suggested.
For once, Jo saw absolutely no reason to argue.