Chapter 19
The Russian soldier standing next to Brandon’s window barked orders at them in a language none of them spoke, though their IACs were capable of translating what he was saying. That didn’t help in replying. Brandon said, “English,” politely about ten times before he finally held up his badge for the gun toting militant to see. This guy was more of a boy than a man, maybe nineteen at best. Jo fought the urge to reach inside her jacket pocket and finger the cold steel she had strapped there. She caught Cassidy’s eyes and knew the Hybrid was considering tossing all of them out of the way.
Once the soldier boy had the badge in his paw, he shouted for a few of his comrades to come over. They looked at it, exchanged some speculative jibes with each other in their native tongue, laughed and then, in broken English, a different soldier, one a little older than the other said, “You all LIGHTS, eh?”
“Yes,” Brandon confirmed, his tone conveying his patience was growing thin. He looked around, and the other three held up their badges for him to see.
“Why you in Russia? Not enough Vampires in USA for you to kill?” That brought another roar of laughter from his colleagues, even the one that allegedly didn’t speak English a few minutes ago.
“We are here on special assignment,” Brandon explained, his voice even. “We are meeting up with some Russian LIGHTS members.”
“We have Vampires under control here,” the younger soldier from earlier barked, making everyone laugh, and Jo wondered why he didn’t just speak English before if he knew how to so well.
Clearing his throat, Brandon said, “Yes, I’m sure you do. We are just passing through.”
“Not unless we say you so.” Despite the grammatical error, the soldier holding Brandon’s ID in his hand wore a stern expression on his face and had a gruffness about his voice that conveyed he was demanding authority.
Again, the driver said, “We don’t want any trouble. LIGHTS appreciates how welcome we’ve always felt in your country. We can assure you, we won’t be in your way. We are here on a special assignment from the Guardian Leader.”
“The Guardian Leader?” The soldier’s eyes widened, and behind him, all of the others lost their smiles as they stared at the vehicle in harsh silence.
Jo felt her pulse race, wishing Brandon could un-do whatever he’d just done. What had her dad done when he was here to get that kind of a reaction?
“Uh....” Brandon was stammering, not sure how to answer the question. But he’d already committed. “Yes, that’s right. It’s a very special mission, one only his daughter here can be trusted to perform.”
He was gesturing at her now, and all of the men in military uniforms turned to look at Jo. “Way to go, asshole!” Jo said to him through her IAC. “Sometimes you are just as brilliant as your father!”
“You are Guardian Leader’s daughter?” The soldier tossed Brandon’s ID back at him and leaned in the window, gesturing for hers.
Not for the first time in her life, Jo wished her last name was anything but McReynolds. Still, she handed the badge over, the fingers on her other hand flexing for her weapon. She could see tension in Cassidy’s face when her eyes flickered to her aunt. There were so many of them, she had no idea if one woman could toss that many men all at the same time, but she was afraid she was about to find out.
“Well, I’ll be damned.” He said the last word like it had two syllables. “You are daughter of Aaron Mac-Reynolds.”
“I am.” Jo hoped her voice was unwavering and confident. “And we have important matters to attend to, so if you’ll just move aside.”
“Yes, why don’t you just go ahead and move aside.” Brandon was trying his Jedi mind tricks now, and Jo wanted to kick him. He could’ve done that to begin with. Now, it seemed like there were too many armed militants standing around for all of them to be convinced.
“Oh, we have heard your father’s legendary stories many times.” He handed the badge back to her, and a smile broke out across his face. “He was there when Dracula died.”
“And Jack the Ripper,” another soldier chimed in.
“We know of your mother’s greatness as well, God rest her soul.” All of them crossed themselves, and Jo’s mouth dropped open in astonishment. Since when did Russians do that?
“You’ll let us on our way then?” Brandon urged. “We need to get going so we can follow Mr. McReynolds’s orders. It’s very important.”
Again, there was some discussion in Russian before the officer who seemed to be in charge turned back to the window. “Yes, very good. We let you go because we are fond of this lady’s parents. You don’t make trouble while in Russia, though. Understand? We don’t have Vampire problem here like you do in USA. We keep it that way.”
“Yes, of course,” Brandon assured them. With a friendly wave, he rolled up the window and waited for the soldiers standing in front of them to move aside before he slowly accelerated.
Jo kept her eyes forward, fumbling to put her badge in an interior pocket of her jacket. Part of her wanted to scream at Brandon for failing to use his powers to begin with. The rest of her was just glad they got through.
“That was a shit show,” Cassidy muttered. Jo didn’t turn to look at her. “Thank God it wasn’t your dad they’d heard of,” she said to her husband.
“Hey, we got through it, and that’s all that matters.”
Jo caught Zane’s eyes in the rearview mirror. He hadn’t said a word or even moved the entire time they’d been at the checkpoint, other than to show his badge, but she knew he was ready if a fight broke out. She gave him a small smile, which he returned, and then she focused her eyes straight ahead. Something told her they’d be forced to break the promise they’d just made to the Russians. They were going to cause trouble, whether they wanted to or not. The way Jo was feeling right now, she was going to cause a lot of it.
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