Chapter 151

Over her twenty-five-year-long lifetime, Jo had had to go to lots of places she would’ve rather never visited. She could think of several. The opera. A friend’s piano recital. The principal’s office. A cave full of bat poop. The gates of hell.
Yep, through the doorway that led to hell had to be the least favorite place she’d ever gone that she had no choice but to travel to.
Once they crossed through the doors, everything changed drastically, which was a shock to Jo because she thought the portal already seemed so much like hell itself. These tunnels that led down to the depths of despair were even more terrifying and lonely than anything she’d ever experienced before.
“Are you getting a signal from Cass on your IAC?” Scott asked as Jo tried to keep her focus. All around them, the landscape was changing from the black they’d experienced in the tunnels to a dark red with orange and yellow light coming from further down the walkway in front of them. She was expecting to begin to feel flames and smell smoke any moment.
“It’s not any stronger than it was before for me,” Jo said. “But yes, I do still see a signal.”
“I wonder if the old-fashioned method of locating someone would work in here,” Zane said, his weapon at the ready.
“What method would that be?” Jo asked as something moved in the shadows on her left, making her slow to turn her head that way. Zane was on her right, and Scott was behind both of them. She had to trust the pair of them not to let anything sneak up on the group from those two directions while she had to ensure they were safe from her side.
“Yelling her name at the top of our lungs,” Zane replied, which made sense. If they had no IACs or telepathy--or phone--that would be the only way to get a hold of one another.
“I don’t think that’s a very good idea,” Scott said. “We have no idea what kind of monsters are down here. Shouting our location out to them would probably be a bad idea.”
Zane nodded. “You’re probably right. It’s just… she’s been down here a lot longer than we have been. She could be anywhere by now.”
“That was the doorway that leads to hell,” Jo said, thinking aloud. “But I don’t think we’re actually in hell yet. After all, Holland is most definitely in hell, and if it was so simple for her to just walk through that doorway back into the portals, she’d be out of here in a few moments. So there has to be some other barrier between hell and where we are.”
“Either that or it’s just so horrible in hell, you can’t even move enough to make it to this walkway,” Zane said with a shrug.
Jo had to mull that over for a few moments. Could that be why they weren’t seeing any creatures? She was certain her dad and Elliott had both told her that the creatures that attacked them originated here and came through that doorway, at least at the beginning, when they’d gotten stuck in the portal. So… where were the monsters now?
In the distance, she heard a sharp cracking sound and then a whoosh of air. Jo couldn’t help but turn around and look behind her, in the direction where the sound had come from. Nothing looked different from this angle, but a change in the pressure told her that something was going on.
“What the hell was that?” Scott asked.
“I believe… that was a portal opening,” Zane said.
“Why was it so loud in here?” the Healer asked, the hand that held his weapon moving nervously.
“That must be the signal,” Jo said, turning around to look behind her.
“What signal?” Scott’s question hung in the air as an onslaught of motion and fury began all around them.
The creatures. They sprang out of the walls, the ceilings, and the floors, taking form as they began to move toward the doorway that they’d just come through, which really wasn’t a doorway now as much as it was just a dark opening. The monsters seemed not to pay any attention whatsoever to the three humans standing in the middle of the passageway as they darted around them, heading into the tunnels. In this light, it was easier to see their features. Monstrous horns, spiky tails, giant claws; these monsters were the stuff of nightmares.
And they were heading right for her mom and the others.
Using her IAC, Jo said, “Christian, I think you need to get Mom and Ryker out of here, now. A ton of creatures are headed your way.”
“This isn’t my first rodeo, Jo. I know how to handle them,” Christian replied.
“I’m talking dozens--maybe a hundred,” she clarified.
“Yeah, I’m sure that’s how many come out every time. But they spread out into every tunnel. They aren’t all going to head right for us. If I leave, I’m not coming back for your ass.”
She really didn’t want to be responsible for finding a way out of the portal for herself and the rest of the team, especially since she knew she’d have to rely on catching a portal opening the way that her dad, Elliott, and the others had when they’d been trapped in here. But if that’s what it took to keep her mom safe, she had no choice. “Just go, Christian!” she insisted as a final wave of monsters went sprinting by them. It was as if they were created expressly to guard the portals against invasions of some kind, and none of them cared about the beings beyond the door. Which was a little ironic since this entire time, they’d been afraid to come through that door for fear they’d be hurt, when in actuality, this was the best place for staying safe--apparently.
“Fine. I’ll go. I hope all of you can get out, though,” Christian said.
Jo realized he wasn’t being pleasant; he was sending her a warning. “I thought you said that one must stay behind rule had been broken somehow.”
“I don’t know. It never seemed to apply to your dad and I while we were in here looking for your mom, but that might’ve been because she was in here, and she couldn’t leave.”
“Well, Christian, if you’re not going to come back for us, can you at least do us the decency of tossing in a Vampire or two when you get back to headquarters?” she asked.
He grumbled through his IAC. “Fine. I’ll do it. But not for you. For your mom.”
“Thank you, Christian,” Jo replied. She honestly didn’t care why he did it. She just needed him to do it--the quicker the better. Those monsters were coming fast, and Jo honestly didn’t think her mother was in any shape, physically or emotionally, to fight anything at all, let alone a group of monsters that wanted to kill them and/or drag them to hell.
“Did you warn them that those monsters were coming?” Scott asked Jo as the last of the demons disappeared out of sight.
“I did,” Jo said. “I told them to leave.”
“Leave?” Scott echoed, his tone conveying that he didn’t expect or like that answer. “As in go out of the portal?”
“Yeah.” Jo continued to move forward, her weapon at the ready, as she searched for her aunt. “I don’t think Mom is in any shape to fight.”
“But what about us?” Scott asked. Zane was quiet, which wasn’t unusual for him. Jo hazarded a quick glance in his direction and saw nothing but serenity on his handsome face. He clearly supported her. “How are we supposed to get out of here?”
“We can get out through a normal portal opening,” Jo reminded him. “The same way that our dads did. But Christian said he’d toss a couple of Vampires in once he got back to headquarters so that we don’t have to worry about that one left behind rule.”
“I thought he said that wasn’t a thing anymore.” Scott was full of questions--or statements with questioning tones--and Jo was growing weary of answering them. The further down the tunnel they went, the brighter the red light, and the hotter it became.
“I’m not sure,” Jo told him, trying not to sigh in exasperation. “I think that the reason they were able to come and go might’ve been because, technically, my mom was down here all along. Now, come on. Let’s just find Cassidy and get out of here, okay?”
Scott grumbled under his breath, but he didn’t say more, and Jo continued to walk.
Back in the real world, heat and cold made no difference to them. This clearly wasn’t the world they were used to walking around in, though, because it was growing hotter than, well, where they were.
Her IAC still wasn’t telling her where Cassidy was, but Jo was getting a little leery of continuing to walk forward. It seemed that the demons weren’t paying them any mind anyway, so they may as well try shouting. “Cassidy!” she screamed. “Hey! Aunt Cass! Are you down here?”
“What are you doing?” Scott asked, moving to put his hand over her mouth. Jo shoved it away quickly, pushing him back hard enough that he stumbled and glared at her. “I thought we decided not to do that.”
“We did. But then we saw that the monsters were running right past us, so what difference does it make?” she asked.
Scott continued to give her a dirty look, but Zane was convinced that Jo was right and joined in with the shouting. ‘Cassidy! Can you hear us?”
With a victorious smile on her face, Jo turned back around and began to shout again. “Cassidy! Come on! I found her!”
Jo continued forward as they all shouted for her aunt, but then, the sound of hurried footsteps in front of them had them all readying their weapons.
A blur came flying at them, running right past them at first. Jo and the others held their fire as they turned to see Cassidy coming to a halt behind them. Sweat was pouring off of her forehead, and her clothing was a little singed. “Cass?” Jo screamed. “Are you all right?”
Cassidy seemed to be out of breath, which was unusual for a LIGHTS team member. She took a moment, breathing deeply, and wiped the sweat from her forehead. “I’m okay,” she said. “Did you say that you found your mom?”
Jo nodded. “Yes, I found her. She’s with Christian and Ryker. I told them to get her out of here.”
“Do you mean out of the portal?” Cassidy asked.
Jo nodded. “A whole bunch of demons or whatever the hell those creatures are just went flying out through the doors, and I didn’t think she was in much shape to fight them off, especially since Christian just blurted out the truth about my dad.”
“You hadn’t told her?” Cassidy’s tone was impossible to read. Jo didn’t know if she was mad that she hadn’t been completely upfront with her mom about her dad’s death or if she was just asking.
“I thought it was for the best not to tell her,” Jo admitted with a shrug.
Cassidy nodded. “Yeah, that makes sense. Okay. We need to get out of here before the portal returns to normal.”
“What do you mean?” Scott asked as the three of them started following Cassidy back the way they’d just come.
“After the portal opens, there’s a mass exodus of monsters, but when it closes, they all start making their way back down here. They’re not in such a hurry when the portal is closed, so that’s when they’ll attack us.”
Jo and Zane exchanged nervous glances. That didn’t sound good. “I take it you’re speaking from experience?” Jo asked.
Cassidy nodded. “Yep. Let’s go.”
They picked up the pace, but before they reached the door they’d all come through, it flung open, and Cassidy’s prediction came true.
At least thirty or forty monsters came flying through the doorway. All of them looked angry like they’d been hoping to get a meal in the tunnels and had returned unsatisfied.
Until their eyes fell on the four creatures in front of them.
“Open fire!” Jo shouted. All four of them turned their weapons on the monsters, unleashing a barrage of bullets. Jo could only hope that it was enough to keep the monsters from making them into lunch.