Chapter 13

Her grandparents’ dining room became a makeshift board room. Jo sat in the corner, between Zane and Brandon, trying to be inconspicuous. After the conversation she’d had with her father, Jo had washed her face and built back the part of her wall he’d managed to bring crumbling down. But now, as more and more LIGHTS team members made their way into the room for the meeting, the last thing she wanted was to appear weak. So she found her resting bitch face and kept her mouth shut, something she hoped she’d be able to do no matter how long this lasted or what topics they touched on.
Some of the people who joined them were familiar; others she knew she’d never met before while a few were legendary. Her dad knew she wanted to lay low, so the few times people asked which one was his daughter, he’d gestured in her direction but hadn’t insisted she get up and come over, which Jo was happy about. She did her best to act as if she wasn’t paying attention to those conversations so she wouldn’t be inclined to be friendly.
“Are you okay?” Zane asked, leaning down to whisper into her ear.
“Oh, yeah, fine,” she said, knowing he would realize right off the bat she was lying. “Never better.”
He smirked at her and patted her knee a few times before withdrawing his hand. “You’re doing it, Jo. You’re getting through this.”
She gave him an appreciative smile but had to look away. Now was not the time to remind him that this was just the first of a million long days that could last her the rest of her life. If they didn’t get Holland, it would never end. If they did get Holland, and she couldn’t tell them where Cadence was--which Jo knew she couldn’t since she was dead--then her dad and Christian would continue to hunt for her mom for the rest of eternity. The government would continue to fall apart until it was illegal not to be a Vampire, and then the world would probably just implode.
She saw her dad checking his watch, something he had always done, even when his IAC was working, and checked the time herself. The meeting was supposed to start in two minutes, and so far, Scott and Ashley weren’t here. She knew they were supposed to be. Fair warning had been given about that. Every second that ticked by without him walking through that doorway was a prolonging of her torture.
The sound of women’s boots clicking on the wood floor in the hall let Jo know that time was up. Ashley had a distinct rhythm to her walking, so when the blonde stepped into the dining room, she wasn’t surprised it was her. She was just as beautiful now as she had been when Scott was born, twenty-five years ago, or so everyone said. Jo didn’t remember that because she was born the same year, but Ashley was one of the most gorgeous women she’d ever seen.
Her son looked a lot like her. He was taller and had his dad’s hair color--sort of a caramel brown, though his was never frosted the way Jamie’s used to be. He also had his dad’s nose, which had a little bump on one side, but he was still strikingly handsome--and he knew it. He’d always known it. Jo wished she’d been granted the power of invisibility, but unfortunately, that wasn’t something even Major Henry had figured out--yet.
“So sorry we’re late,” Ashley said, walking straight over to Jo’s dad and wrapping her arms around him. “I got a message a few minutes ago that I couldn’t ignore.”
Aaron nodded as he stepped away from her, as if he understood what that might be. “It’s no problem,” he assured her, gesturing to empty chairs near Cadon. “We were just getting started.” He shook Scott’s hand, and the two new arrivals headed over to take a seat. Jo let out a deep breath, glad she hadn’t been spotted.
“Oh, my God! Jo!” Ashley exclaimed just as her bottom almost made contact with the chair. She jumped up and skirted around the dining room table to where Jo was sitting in the corner of the room, faster than a laser pointer. “I didn’t know if you’d come.”
Having no choice but to greet her, Jo stood. She’d hardly made it to her feet when Ashley’s arms wrapped around her so tightly, she thought she might need a Healer by the time Ashley was done. “We’ve missed you so much,” Mrs. Joplin said, finally letting go.
“I’ve missed you, too.” Jo took a step back, plastering a polite smile on her face, and she thought she saw tears in Ashley’s eyes as she apologized for interrupting and headed back to her seat.
“We will have to catch up soon,” she said, sitting down next to Scott and another of the younger Hunters, a girl named Mavis.
Aaron caught Jo’s eyes for a second, and she saw appreciation there. He knew how much she hated it when people who knew her mom well fawned all over her just because she looked like Cadence. He insisted that wasn’t the reason, but Jo knew better. After what happened between Jo and Scott, Ashley shouldn’t like her one bit, but there she was, pretending like the prodigal daughter had returned.
“All right, this is everyone,” Aaron said, surveying the room. “I’ll take a quick second to introduce all of you because our IACs are spotty at best. If you can tune in, great, if not, that’s okay.” He started to his left, near the dining room door and quickly stated everyone’s name, where they were from, and if they were a Hunter or a Guardian.
Jo wasn’t so good with names when her IAC wasn’t working. That was a gift she’d gotten from her mother, apparently, but she tried to pay attention. She knew Zane would have everyone memorized the first time he heard who they were, which was usually annoying, but it would come in handy later if she needed a refresher. She wanted to know who these people were though, because, there was as good chance, over the next few months or years, her life may be in each of their hands at some point, particularly the Guardians, so she did her best to listen, hoping she could find a way to get along with whoever her dad assigned her to work with. So far, her track record wasn’t so good.
She knew over half of the twenty people in the room. Her brother, Elliott, Brandon, Cassidy, Scott, Ashley, and Zane, of course. Then, there was Elliott’s daughter--Brandon’s sister—Mandy Sanderson, who was nineteen and often annoying. She was sitting a few seats away from Jo, and when she was introduced, Jo did her best to smile at the girl.
Jo also knew Mavis and Rich Roberts from when she was younger. They’d each been relocated to Canada by their parents, too, though Jo didn’t know for sure where any of their parents were at the moment. Cale Ryan and Meagan Talberson had worked with Jo’s dad, so she knew them, and Meagan had her daughter Shayna with her. She was two years younger than Jo, and while she was cute like her mom, she was as feisty as her dad had been conceited. He had been killed in one of the early raids, caught in the crossfire. Jo had never asked exactly what happened, but looking at Shayna now, sitting there with her arms folded in a hostile fashion, a lost look on her mother’s face, she thought maybe she should ask a few questions, just to know if Shayna might have a beef with someone on the team.
The others, she tried to keep up with. Hattie Foils, a tech chick her dad seemed to know. A Healer named Martin Green he also seemed to have a history with. Two younger Canadians--Leo and Fiona Acres. A really muscular dude named Alvin Little--a name that did not fit him in the least, in Jo’s opinion--and two gorgeous girl Guardians named Leslie Donavon and Denise Hensley that seemed to be looking at her dad in ways that made Jo want to go punch them in the face. The last person was a lanky guy sitting in the opposite corner from Jo as if he also didn’t want to be detected. She thought her dad said his name was Dax Forrest, and something about him seemed familiar, but in his eyes all she saw was pain.
“There are a few other LIGHTS members that couldn’t make it today that will catch up with you once you get to Russia,” her dad continued. “Your IACs will work much better there since the Russian government doesn’t try to jam them, so even if you don’t know your teammates well, you’ll be able to find them and communicate. Hattie should be able to keep you up and running.” The woman with the short brown hair gave a thumbs up. “You’ll have another tech person on the ground with you there, too, assuming Emma Burke and Lucy O’Sullivan make it in from Bangladesh. You’ll also have a couple of other Guardians who are busy in Asia today but will hook up with you there--Andrew Winston and Crystal Friend. The Russian leader will help get you situated, but Mikali Ivanov has a lot going on within his own borders at the moment so he might not be of much assistance, but he’ll do his best to be there. So this is your primary team. And your mission won’t be easy, but I know if anyone can do this, it’s the people in this room.”
Glances were exchanged as they took each other in, and the doubt in Jo’s mind doubled. Even if the room was filled with LIGHTS members, how would they bring Holland in alive?
“Now, if you are all ready, let’s get into the intel, make a plan, and then go get that bitch.”
Cheers went up at her dad’s statement, and even Jo found herself smiling. They might not have a chance in hell at capturing that demonic whore, but that wouldn’t stop Jo from trying.