Chapter 15

The sound of conversation and laughter poured out of the house so loudly, Jo thought the neighbors might call the cops if someone didn’t make the loudmouths tone it down a little bit--especially Elliott whose laughter was noisy enough to wake the undead.
She took a sip of her beer and set the bottle back by her boot. The sky here was even more polluted by light than it was in the city since most of Denver was desolate now. Hardly any of the stars were bright enough to compete, but those that did made her wonder for a split second if it was possible her dad was right, and her mom was stuck between them somewhere. She dismissed the idea and took another swig of the alcohol, wishing it would do something--anything—for her.
The door behind her creaked open, causing her head to whip around. Relief washed over her when she saw it was Zane--not her dad. Or Cadon. Or Scott. Zane had two bottles of Bud in his hand. “Mind if I join you?”
“Nope.” She finished off the bottle she’d been nursing now that another had arrived and set the empty aside, taking the offered drink from him as he sank down next to her.
He was quiet at first, content to sip his beer and stare up at the sky. Jo sort of hoped it would stay that way. She’d had enough conversation for one day. But he wouldn’t be there if he didn’t want to talk to her about something. Zane was much more social than she was. He’d probably already made best friends with half the team or more. Especially those two cute Hunters.
“So… my parents told me a little bit about all of this when I was younger, about Holland and your parents, all of that. I think I have a good enough grasp on what went on to know she’s the worst kind of trouble, but… could you fill me in a little more? Or is it not something you wanna talk about?” Jo raised an eyebrow at him, and he smirked at her, looking away for a moment before he tipped his face three-quarters of the way in her direction. “Humor me?”
He knew better than anyone she wouldn’t want to talk about it. Or anything else. But he had been kind enough to come with her when he didn’t have to, and while she may never admit it aloud to anyone, she was more comfortable with him there. “Well, I’ll give you the condensed version,” she said, glancing at him for a moment before she stared off at her grandmother’s flower garden across the yard from where they were sitting.
“Fair enough.”
Jo took a long drink and set her bottle down again before she got to it. “My mom first met Holland at an Eidolon Festival when she was nineteen. She’d gone there with a group of human friends. She knew nothing about any of this--Vampires, Hunters, Guardians. She was a college student, home for Thanksgiving break. One of her friends, Drew, tricked them all into going with her. Mom didn’t find out until years later that Drew had actually been contacted by Holland’s boyfriend, Carter, and manipulated into meeting him there.”
“Really?” Zane asked, shaking his head. “That’s evil.”
“Yeah, my dad’s theory is that Holland was trying to get rid of my mom before she could become a threat. She should’ve known my dad wouldn’t let that happen, though.”
“He was there, wasn’t he?”
She nodded. “He thought he’d have to take Carter out when he killed Drew, but my mom did that, without even Transforming.”
“Sick.” He took a drink of his beer, and Jo knew that was a compliment. “But that pissed Holland off, right?”
“It did. She came after my mom, and my dad and his team intervened. They got Mom and the rest of her friends out of there, but one of her friends, her ex-boyfriend, Jack, got scratched by Holland.”
“He got infected?”
It was evident Zane had some idea of what had happened by his questions, but she confirmed he was right with a nod. “Jamie took Mom home to grab some clothes, and then another team member, Eliza, drove her to my great-grandma’s house so she could tell her the whole story.”
“Janette?”
“The legend.” Jo pressed her lips into a thin line, and he smiled at her. “My mom started her training pretty quickly after that, got kicked off the team for insubordination for a day or two. Then, Jack got sick, or so they thought. At the same time, Dad got a tip about where Holland was, so he had to let my mom back on the team to go get her.”
“Why is that?”
“Because she was the only one who could do it, I guess.” She shrugged. “They went to France, and my mom killed Holland for the first time while everyone else on the team basically slaughtered her entire clan. Dad took a bullet that night, almost died. Jamie saved him, though, and I think that’s probably when my parents really started to realize they were meant to be together.”
Zane ran a hand through his hair like the comment made him a little uncomfortable. “How romantic. What happened with Jack? He turned?”
“He did. Giovani intercepted him. He was also one of Holland’s offspring.”
“Right. He made Gibbon, too, didn’t he? The ex-serial killer who slaughtered all of those people at the old prison?”
“Yes, but that was later. First, he and Jack and Zabrina, Giovani’s girlfriend-slash-sister went on a killing spree in Cabo and then came back to the states. My mom set Jack up, but Giovani intervened, shooting Mom and causing her to accidentally shoot Jack.”
“Accidentally? I thought you said she set him up.”
“She did, but she wasn’t intending to kill him. At least, that’s what she told me later. Another Hunter used a titanium bullet on Giovanni but hit my mom. That’s how we found out titanium acts different than silver, and that titanium can allow a Hunter to kill another Hunter or a Guardian to kill a Hunter.”
“I’d heard of that,” Zane said. “It was… Laura who shot your mom? Your dad’s ex?”
“My dad has some great ex-girlfriends, let me tell you.” She rolled her eyes, thinking of Eliza, the other mess of an ex on that list. “So Giovani got away. They chased him around. Laura got a crew of unhappy LIGHTS teammates to throw together the sabotage at Sierraville where Cowboy Sam killed Elliott. My mom and dad took out some of them there, caught Laura, and then tracked down the others before they located Giovani and Zabrina as well. By then, Giovani had made Gibbon, but Gibbon got away from his Dr. Frankenstein.” She was going faster than she would have if he didn’t already seem to know a lot of this.
“Is that when Zabrina tried to turn your Aunt Cass?”
“Yes. She scratched her when the Vampire was holding her hostage. Mom traded her sister places, but by then, it was too late. Cass was infected. So Jamie gave her the serum, and that’s how she became a Hybrid. Half-Vampire, half-Hunter.”
He nodded. “Then they took out Gibbon?”
“Eventually. First, they took out Giovani and Zabrina. Then, they captured Sam. After that, my mom found out about the Blue Moon Portal from my great-grandma. She used it to bring Elliott back. Then, they took out Gibbon”
“About the portal, when something good comes through, something bad comes through?”
“Exactly. The same night, Great-Grandma Janette went through the other way. Holland and Carter both came back that way. Janette and Elliott for Holland and Carter.”
He shook his head, took another drink and muttered, “What are the chances it would be those two?”
“I’ve often wondered the same thing. With Cassidy’s newfound powers, it didn’t take long for them to locate Holland and Carter--who were calling themselves Asteria and Perses. My mom led a team that took out Carter. It took a while for them to catch up to Holland after that. In the meantime, some quack doctor who worked for her found a professor to open the Blood Moon Portal, and it sucked up my dad, Elliott, Brandon, Jamie, and a couple of other people. I’m not sure who else.”
“Dax,” Zane said. Jo looked at him questioningly. “The lanky guy in there, kinda pasty. He was in there.”
“Oh. How do you know that?”
“He told me a minute ago.”
“Oh.” She wasn’t sure what else to say. Maybe she should’ve known that. “Anyway… they met that Heather chick in there. Somehow, they got everyone out but my dad, and then Cass threw Holland in, and they thought she had to be dead because my dad and Christian detonated a grenade before they came out.”
“Wait--Christian was in the portal then?”
Jo took a minute to think about that, throwing back another drink of her beer, which was almost empty. “He was. I’m not sure how he got in there, though.”
“Weird.”
Shrugging, she decided it didn’t really matter. “So anyway, Holland was gone again, but she’d been working with this creepy bastard in Eastern Europe--Daunator. Even though he’d been basically dormant for a few hundred years, he was pissed at that point and started making an army of Shadow Creepers. Of course, at the time, no one knew what those were. So my parents took a team over there to get rid of him. They blew him up with a grenade, but my mom fell off a mountain--and apparently she died for a few minutes or something. But Jamie brought her back, and that’s when my dad found out she was pregnant with me and my brother.”
He nodded. “So they both retired for a while, right?”
“They did. Margie Joplin and Daniel Bower led the team until I was about fifteen, but then Margie and Grant got married, and Daniel met his boyfriend, so my parents took things over again. It was slow back then, you know?”
“I do. I thought there was nothing to any of this.” He made a “humph” sound.
Jo wanted to stop her story there. She’d already told Zane everything she could remember about the day her mom died--the second time. “So… if this is Holland, like my dad thinks it is, this is her fourth time around. Who the hell knows what she can do now.”
“If she was in the Blood Moon Portal that whole time, it shouldn’t make her more powerful, should it? It didn’t change any of the Guardians’ powers that were in there.”
“Who knows? Christian doesn’t think she was in there the whole time. He figured out that you can actually step into other portals from that one, something Daunator knew. Maybe Holland did, too. All I know is, I don’t want to bring that bitch in for questioning. I want her dead.” She knocked back the rest of her beer and immediately wished she had more.
Zane chuckled softly, already aware of that. “What are you going to do if your dad asks you to lead the team then?” He wasn’t looking at her when he asked, but he turned his head in anticipation of her answer. “I saw how he was looking at you when he was talking about that, earlier.”
Jo shook her head. “I’ll have to respectfully decline.”
“Remember, ‘respectfully’ is the keyword. Your dad’s a really cool guy. It’s too bad… the two of you don’t always see eye to eye.”
She thought back to the story her dad had told her earlier, about their mornings together and the wooloos. “Yeah, it is.” Jo took Zane’s beer out of his hand and finished that off, too. He didn’t protest.
“Thanks for filling me in.” It was a whisper next to her ear.
“Yep.” She wasn’t going to say more, but even if she planned to, she wouldn’t get a chance. The door behind her opened again, and Jo didn’t need to turn her head to know who it was and what he wanted. With a deep breath, she reminded herself of what Zane had just said. Respectfully. It would be hard, but he was right. She’d have to find a way to decline without losing her cool like she had last time or else she’d be right back where she was a few days ago--alone. And for once, she didn’t want to be.