Chapter 22

Jo stared at Scott as he came to a stop in front of her. He took a step to the side and gestured for her to step forward. “Let’s get on with it, Little Mac,” he said.
If Scott was willing to listen to her, then everyone else had to be, too. The others gathered around, and Jo tried to determine what would be the best place to start strategizing.
There was a pool table in the corner. Jo moved toward it, and the others saw where she was headed. A screech of wooden legs against wooden flooring filled her ears as they moved the table and assembled chairs around it. “Do we have a paper map?” she asked Mila because she was standing nearby and had been there a while.
She looked a little confused, but Mikali stepped over with the requested item. It was large, and he’d pulled it from the corner of the room where it had been propped against a bookshelf.
“Thank you. I appreciate your preparedness,” Jo said.
“Well, I figured I’d be leading this,” he said, through her IAC.
“I’m definitely going to need your help. I didn’t ask for this position,” she said only to him, meeting his eyes.
He seemed to get the gist and nodded as the team stretched out the map and weighed down the edges with books to keep it from curling again. “Now, I’m gonna guess we are that big red dot?” she asked, looking at Mikali. He nodded. “And does anyone know where my dad was when he saw Holland?”
“Russia!” A laugh broke out from some of the younger members of the team, and Jo tried not to roll her eyes. Of course, her brother was going to make this difficult. The sooner she could split this team and put him on someone else’s, the better off she’d be.
None of the members who’d been around more than a decade or two thought it was funny at all. “He was in Yakutsk, which is here,” Mila said, coming around behind her. “He said that she was headed north. We met up with him here, just south of the Verkhoyansk Mountains and did some reconnaissance of the area, but we couldn’t find any trace of where she went.”
“After that, your father had to leave.” Sergio, another team member from nearby, one Jo wasn’t familiar with, picked up. “We continued to scout out the area, but all of our clues led to dead ends.”
Jo studied the map for a moment. Their current position was about fifty miles from the mountain range in question. “Where else might she have gone? Are there any known clans in the area?”
Mikali nodded. “There are some in the Chersky Range, here, but a lot of humans who live there do not welcome our kind. They have an agreement with the Vampires, or so they think.”
That didn’t matter to Jo. She brushed her bangs out of her eyes. “It’s still worth looking into, don’t you think?” she asked.
Again, Mikali’s head bobbed up and down. “Yes, but there is one potential tool no one has mentioned yet, Jo, and I think we need to consider it.”
“Don’t even go there. It’s not happening.” The voice behind her was stern, and Jo turned to see that it was Cale speaking, the Healer who used to date her mom, a long time ago. He spoke with conviction, and it was tempting to not even hear Mikali out under the circumstances, he seemed so unable to bend on the idea.
But that would be foolish of her. “What’s that?” Jo asked. “I need all of the information we have available so we can make a good decision.”
“It’s not a good decision.” That was her aunt, her head wagging back and forth.
“Interesting statement coming from you.” Mila had her arms folded as she studied Cassidy.
“How’s that arm working out for you, Mila? I’m pretty sure you wouldn’t have that if it weren’t for me.” Cassidy glared at her.
“Let’s not fight. Not each other anyway,” Jo said, trying to keep her voice calm. She wished she had the emotional regulating power some Guardians had. “What are you guys talking about anyway?”
“Eliza,” Scott said. “They want you to talk to Eliza. Lucas can probably track Holland. She lives in Magadan.” He pointed at the map, his finger thunking against the pool table.
“Eliza Wrath?” Jo repeated. The thought had crossed her mind, a long time ago, before she was put in charge of this mess. It was not a move her dad was likely to make if he were here and in charge. No one trusted Eliza before she’d made the decision to leave LIGHTS for her own personal reasons. Now that she was married to a Vamp, even if Lucas was different than most of the others, they trusted her even less. He was Souled, which meant when he’d been turned, he hadn’t become some demonic version of himself. Instead, he was essentially the same person as he was before. He just needed blood to survive. Most Souled Vampires had more of a conscience than the kind that didn’t stop to think about ripping a victim’s throat out.
“Why wouldn’t we want to talk to her?” Jo asked, surveying the faces around her.
“Are you kidding? After everything she’s done? She’s betrayed all of us,” Cassidy said, shaking her head again.
“Yes, but if she has information that can be of use, or a weapon that can help us track Holland down, who cares?” Scott argued.
“We can’t trust her!” Cass stood, her arms still crossed.
“But… you can read her mind,” Jo pointed out. “Isn’t it at least worth talking to her? Hell, she might not even want to help us.”
Cass threw her hands up in the air. “You’re the boss. You do what you want. I wouldn’t touch her with a hundred foot pole.”
“We won’t send everyone after her,” Jo said, studying the map again. “But Cass… I want you and Brandon to go hunt her down. Take Scott and Cadon with you.”
“Are you shitting me?” her brother said. “No fucking way. I’m going after Holland.”
Jo glared at him. Was he really disobeying her on the first decision she’d made. “No, you’re not. You’re going with Aunt Cass and Uncle Brandon to find Eliza and Lucas and see if they’ll help us.”
“Fuck you,” her older brother said glaring at her.
The rest of the room seemed to be watching to see what she would do. Jo took a deep breath and imagined what her dad would say in this situation. Her mom would probably pull a gun and shoot him--okay maybe not…. But her dad would definitely keep his cool. “Fine. You don’t want to go, that’s fine.” Cadon raised an eyebrow, like he couldn’t believe she was caving so quickly. “You can wait here at the cabin for the rest of us to get back.”
“Jo….” His eyes narrowed, and his mouth opened, but then he closed it, and she imagined someone had to have intervened, sent him an IAC message to tell him now was not the time or the place. She scanned the room. Was it Cass? Brandon? She couldn’t tell.
“We’ll discuss it later, Cadon,” she said. The only reason she’d wanted to send him with the other party was because she wanted him away from her, but maybe she could send him on another mission.
Her dad would definitely not let someone defying his orders get to him, so Jo couldn’t either.
She cleared her throat. “Okay. We’ll divide into three different groups to search the two mountain ranges and the lowlands,” she said, pointing to an area on the map that seemed to be calling her. “Mikali, I want you to take a team and go back over Verkhoyansk. You were there already, so you should be able to find out if there’s any place that was overlooked. I’ll let you pick your second, but Mila, would you mind taking the team that goes to Chersky?”
Mila raised an eyebrow but nodded.
“Great. Thanks. Now, my understanding is that Nha has some healing capabilities. Is that right?” She searched the crowd for the girl’s pretty face, one of the many she’d been studying since she got on the plane so she’d know who was who, but didn’t see her anywhere.
She was standing behind someone else. Stepping around Ping, she said, “Yes, Miss Jo,” giving a little bow.
Jo smiled. “Not necessary—just Jo. You’ll go with Mikali’s team, and someone else has some healing powers. Who was it?” She rubbed her forehead, wishing it would come to her before the person spoke up.
“It’s me,” Leo said quietly, off to her left. “But… it’s not great. My grandma was an esthetician.”
A few people giggled, but Jo kept a straight face. “Awesome. I want you to go with my team, okay?” She had planned on taking Cale with her, but she didn’t feel right leaving Mila to depend upon someone with such questionable skills. “So, Dr. Ryan, you’re with Mila.”
Cale was still mad at her for deciding to get Eliza involved, so he only nodded.
“Now, as far as tech is concerned, Cass, I wasn’t planning on sending any technicians with you because of your abilities. Do you think that’ll work? We only have two specialists, right? Emma and Hattie?”
“I was, uh, training for that. Before… everything went crazy in my homeland,” Ping said, raising his hand. “I don’t know everything, but I’m not bad.”
“I don’t need one,” Cass said. “Besides, I won’t be gone long.”
“Okay. So… Ping will come with me. Emma, you’ll be with Mikali, and Hattie, you’ll go with Mila’s team. Everyone else is fair game,” she said to Mikali and Mila. It didn’t leave a lot of people, but she’d already established Cass’s team.
“I’ll take Sergio as my second,” Mila said.
Jo agreed. She knew they’d been working together a long time.
“If I may,” Mikali began, speaking slowly, “I have heard that Cadon is a good shot. I would appreciate having him with me in such treacherous territory.”
It was obvious what the man was trying to do. Give her an out and keep Cadon from having to go on a mission he didn’t want to go on.
Drawing in a deep breath, Jo nodded. “Fine. Lucy, will you go with Cass, Brandon and Scott then?”
“Sure thing,” the other Hunter said with a nod.
“Who is your second?” Mila asked Jo.
She hadn’t even thought about who she wanted on her team because she’d just assumed it would be her and Zane with the other people she’d named, but she hadn’t said that aloud, had she. “Oh, uh, Zane,” she said, as if it was not a big deal.
“Right.” Mila’s mouth pulled up slightly on one side, like she had a secret.
“You guys divvy up everyone else. My team is set. Any other questions?”
“Yeah, when do we leave?” Cass asked.
Jo sucked in a deep breath. “Whenever you’re ready.”
The team dispersed, and she took a few steps away, her heart racing faster than she’d realized.
“You did good,” Zane said in her head, though he was still standing with the others, getting to know the two team members they’d be taking with them.
“Uh, my brother just tried to start a mutiny,” she reminded him.
“But he didn’t.”
“Thanks to Mikali.”
“You handled that very well, babe. Take some credit. You did good. Your dad will be proud when he hears.”
“Thanks. Now, I’m going to get some air.”
As the others continued to establish their teams, Jo backed out of the room, backed through the kitchen, and backed out the door.