Chapter 120

Finding a place to cremate a body in Siberia was a lot easier than Jo had ever thought it could be. Perhaps it was because there was so much death all around them; funeral homes were one of the few businesses that must’ve had an uptick in business thanks to the death and destruction the Vampires brought with them--not that anyone was burying dead Vampires when they exploded into piles of ash. But most of them sucked their victims dry instead of turning them, and that resulted in corpses. Lots of them.
The drive to Adrian’s house had been solemn. Jo and Cadon had both insisted on riding in the same vehicle as their dad. Elliott drove, tears still streaming down his face the entire time. Jo had sat in the back seat with Zane’s arm around her, trying to concentrate on what she needed to do next, not on what she couldn’t go back and change.
Ryker had come out to greet them. Jo was shocked to see him; she’d forgotten he existed. He had a slightly amused, questioning look on his handsome, scruff covered face, but when he saw her demeanor, all amusement had faded. “What happened?” he’d asked.
Jo had shook her head, not able to put the words into a sentence. Zane had answered for her. “Aaron… her dad.” Jo hadn’t been looking at Zane but knew he had to have shook his head in that sympathetic way people did when they didn’t want to say someone is dead in front of their loved ones--loved ones who know for certain that the person is dead so saying it wouldn’t really make any difference.
“Oh, God,” Ryker had said, shaking his head. “I’m… I’m so sorry.”
Jo had nodded and went inside. Around her, people had talked about what to do--where to take him. Someone suggested just burying him, like they had Ping, but Elliott had put the kibosh on that very quickly. Jo knew why. Her father’s best friend wasn’t about to give up the opportunity to use that damn portal that her father had specifically said not to open.
Ryker had a guy. Of course, Ryker had a guy. He always had a guy. Most of the team had stayed behind. Only the McReynolds twins, as they’d been called growing up, Elliott, Cassidy, Brandon, and Jamie went to meet Ryker’s guy. The place had looked like a dump, but the fire had burned brightly, and after a few minutes, a man who spoke very little English had handed them a small box.
And that was that.
Jo rode back to Adrian’s’ house with the box sitting on her lap. Elliott had stopped crying by then. He was back to talking… and talking… and talking. Jo had to tune him out. She knew that talking about the good ol’ days was what would get Elliott through this, but couldn’t hear another story. Everything that Elliott was talking about existed only in his mind. It was gone now. Time stood still for no one, and just as quickly as a moment turns into the past, into a memory, that was how quickly a person’s life could change. Forever.
“What are we going to do with him?” Cadon asked as they made the last turn to Adrian’s house. He was sitting next to her in the middle seat, Cass and Brandon behind them with Jamie in the front passenger seat. The question was directed at her.
“I’m not sure,” she said. “I guess… you should keep him. I can’t take him with me.”
“I’ll keep him,” Elliott said. “I’m not sure I trust either one of you.”
She knew exactly what he meant. He thought one of them might go spreading Aaron’s ashes all over the beach or something in order to make sure that his plan of attempting to bring him back from the dead would be spoiled.
‘We have to go back to America,” Cadon said. “We can figure it out then.’
“We don’t have a pilot,” Jo reminded him.
“Ryker,” Cadon’s eyes were narrowed in concentration. “He’ll take us.”
Jo shook her head. “Why would he do that? Besides, we don’t have a plane. Those guys from last time will never let us borrow that one again.”
“You guys, things are changing pretty swiftly already,” Jamie said, turning to face them. “I’m not sure how much you’ve heard, but now that Holland is gone, the Vampire forces are definitely weakening. Humans are fighting back. LIGHTS team members are resurfacing. We’ll be able to get a plane now. Mikali and Mila will be able to help us with that. They’ve had contacts underground this whole time. Now, those Hunters and Guardians will want to help put their country back together, and if that means helping us get back to America, then that’s what we’ll do.”
Jo hadn’t been paying any attention at all. It was good to hear, but she wasn’t going to get too excited, not yet.
They pulled into Adrian’s drive. Zane was on the front porch waiting for her, a solemn expression on his face. He’d wanted to go with her, but she’d told him it was okay. She’d be all right. And she had been.
Her father’s wedding ring was on her thumb, and it would stay there until she could give it to her mom. His cell phone was in her pocket. As soon as they got back to America, she had a phone call to make.
Jamie and Elliott were talking about the situation in America, and she heard Jamie say that his sister, Margie, was in the process of moving toward Kansas City. She thought in order for LIGHTS to reestablish itself, they needed their old headquarters back--so she was going to take it.
When Jo reached Zane, she stopped listening. “Are you all right?” he asked, standing up but not hugging her, probably because of the box she had in her hand.
Jo nodded. “One minute at a time.”
Cadon took the box from her, and she let him have it. Having it out of her hands was a bit of a relief. Now that it was gone, she could stop thinking about it. Pretending her dad was just off in the portals should be easy enough--until she was the one off in the portals. Then, she’d have to come up with another lie to sell herself.
“You should get some sleep,” Zane suggested.
Jo nodded. He was right. She hadn’t slept since before the attack, and that was almost two days ago by the time they got back to Adrian’s and finished the cremation. She had at least paused to take a shower and wash the Vampire dust off of her skin. Her flesh still felt like it was crawling with a foreign substance. Like evil was trying to crawl inside of her through her pores.
He led her inside to the room she’d claimed. Even though Adrian was back in his own home now, the rest of them were still treating it like they could come and go as they pleased. He didn’t seem to mind.
She collapsed on the bed. Zane was kind enough to pull her boots off, and then he lay down beside her, not touching her. She’d let him know if she wanted to be touched. “It sounded like they were planning our trip home,” Zane said.
“Yeah, Jamie and Elliott are. I guess.” Her voice didn’t sound like her own. Her throat was raw from being overly tired and from crying so much.
“Why are we flying home just to get in a portal that we could get in here?” he asked.
Jo turned to look at him. “Cassidy said she thought it would be best if we all flew home and assessed the situation, just to make sure those of us who were planning on leaving could be spared.”
“And if she doesn’t think we can be spared?”
“She can stay behind,” Jo concluded.
“So… we’re going to humor your aunt then?”
“I guess so.” Jo rolled over onto his chest and put her head over his heart. There was comfort in the consistency of its rhythmic thumping.
“Can I ask you something?” Zane said.
Jo braced herself for one of those deep questions she wouldn’t want to answer--what are we? Are we a couple? Do you love me? Where do you see this going? “Sure,” she said, praying it wasn’t anything like that. Surely, he wouldn’t go there now, would he?
“When your dad was listing the things he didn’t want… what did he mean by… ‘no fucking cowbell’?”
For the first time since the attack, Jo found herself laughing. She’d let that slip by her, but Zane was right. He had said that. “Well, when Elliott died, apparently, Hannah decided his funeral should be a little different than the norm. Apparently, the funeral started with the song, ‘Don’t Fear the Reaper,’ by Blue Oyster Cult.” She remembered how her mom would always laugh when she told that story. Thinking of Hannah, a Guardian and the second in command of all of the Guardians made her wonder where the hell the woman was. She’d thought all along that Hannah was with Jamie--but she hadn’t been there when they’d freed the prisoners, and she hadn’t even thought to ask.
“Oh,” Zane said. “That makes sense.” He chuckled, too.
Jo would worry about Hannah and everything else later. For now, she needed to go to sleep. As she began to drift off, she was pretty sure she was going to dream about Elliott playing the cowbell while her dad sang “Don’t Fear the Reaper.”