Chapter 23

The sky above her was clear, a thousand foreign stars winking down at her. “Russian stars look a lot like American and Canadian stars, don’t they?”
She knew it was Scott behind her before she turned her head. In fact, she’d known he was the one who’d come out even before he spoke. She couldn’t read minds like her aunt could, but she did sometimes get a sixth sense about things.
It was odd how he’d been glaring at her earlier and hadn’t spoken a word to her until she needed someone to help her out with starting the meeting, someone the others would follow. Sure, Zane could’ve stepped up, but they didn’t know him any better than they knew her, and with a last name like his, chances were they wouldn’t trust him until he proved himself to them either.
But Scott was here now, wanting to talk. Jo sank down on a roughly hewn log bench, and he sat at the other end, a couple of feet between them. Neither of them spoke for a really long time, which was fine with Jo. She’d be perfectly content not to speak to him at all, about anything, for at least another year or two--or twenty.
“How have you been?” he asked, his tone a mix of the nonchalant he was going for and the anger he’d been displaying since she’d first laid eyes on him a few days ago.
“Not too good,” she admitted. No need to sugar coat it. If anyone knew her sob story, it was him. “Have you been able to talk to your dad at all?”
“Oh, yeah. The government lets him call home once a week for ten minutes. It’s great. We can talk freely, too, with no fear of repercussions.”
Jo shook her head, hearing the sarcasm drip from every word and feeling anger well up inside of her, too. She’d known Jamie her whole life. He’d been the one to deliver her and Cadon. He’d saved both of her parents’ lives multiple times. It wasn’t right, having him locked up like an animal, along with lots of other members of their team. “I’m sorry, Scott.”
“Yeah, me, too. But then… at least I get to talk to my dad sometimes.”
Jo shrugged. Maybe she’d see her dad more often if she didn’t curse at him when she did see him. “Your mom seems hopeful.”
“She is. She always is. It’s sort of remarkable, actually. I wish I had a tenth of her ability to keep my fingers crossed.”
A smile crossed her face but she looked away. The wind picked up, stirring the snow. Normal people would be freezing out here, but neither of them were normal.
“Zane seems nice.”
There it was. She was waiting for Scott to bring up the mysterious man she’d brought with her from Colorado. “He’s great.” Perhaps agreeing with him would stop the inquisition.
It didn’t. “Are the two of you….”
“No,” she said quickly, like she always did. How many times had she almost been asked that question since they’d gotten into that SUV together? “Not anymore.”
“Oh. So you were.”
“We were a couple for a while. It didn’t work out.”
“Guess you don’t need to tell me about that.”
“Scott….” She shook her head and ran her hand through her hair. She didn’t want to talk about that--their past. How he’d been in love, and she’d been satisfying teenage curiosity.
“No, it’s okay Jo. I’m over it, believe me.”
He turned and looked at her, his green eyes penetrating through the darkness, almost as if they were glowing. They weren’t though. He could make his hands glow blue with his Healer power, but he couldn’t make his eyes do anything like that. It was a trick of the heavens or the lights coming from the house behind him.
“Good,” she said, nodding as she looked away. “Because… I’m really not worth any fuss.”
“I know.”
She turned and looked at him, and he seemed to mean it. Had he finally reached that conclusion? She hadn't been trying to trick him into saying she was worth the fuss. She legitimately meant what she’d said. Still, he agreed quickly enough. “Good,” she said again.
“I just wanted to say… if we have to work together… and maybe we don’t if you keep assigning me to other teams, which is cool, it’s all good.”
He stood and extended his hand. Jo didn’t hesitate to shake it, even though she could tell by his tone he wasn’t being completely honest. “Thanks, Scott.”
He nodded, released her hand, and headed toward the house. “You coming in?”
“Not for a while. I’m trying to read these Russian stars.”
He chuckled under his breath, a sound she’d actually missed the last few years. At least he’d been the bigger person and gone out of his way to speak to her. This assignment would be easier if she was with people who didn’t hate her. Unfortunately, she couldn’t get rid of her brother….
Scott disappeared inside, but a moment later, another form emerged, and she couldn’t help but smile, even if she had a feeling Zane would want to know the truth about herself and Scott, questions she’d eluded for years whenever he’d questioned her past. Now seemed as good a time as ever to come clean. With all the other difficult conversations she’d been having the last few days, why not add one more?
Zane didn’t sit at the other end of the bench; he sat right next to her, his knee bumping up against hers. If that wasn’t comforting enough, he’d also brought her a beer. Now, that brought a smile to her face.
They both sat there, sipping their drinks, staring at nothing, not saying anything. The Russian beer wasn’t too bad, though it was a bit darker and thicker than what Jo usually drank. She wished it had the same effect on her as alcohol did back when she and Scott first started sneaking them out of the “grownups’” refrigerators. Elliott’s was always the easiest to snag a few out of without him noticing. He’d often just think he’d had more than he thought.
“How’s Scott?” Zane asked, aiming for casual and just missing.
“Better than I thought he’d be,” she admitted. “I was expecting another lecture or some yelling or something.”
“What did he want?”
“I’m not sure. Just to see if we could be civil, I think.”
“Well, I guess he got his answer.” Zane smiled and put his hand on her knee.
The feel of his touch brought back memories she couldn’t afford to slip into. “Yeah. We talked about our families a little, and he asked about you. But mostly, I think he just wanted me to know he’s got my back.”
“I think he proved that in there. I would’ve spoken up, but I don’t have any clout with these people.” Zane took another swig of his nearly empty beer bottle.
“No, I know you don’t. It’s okay. I needed him or Cadon to say something if anyone was going to listen to me. Maybe Cass. But she’s already invested more in me than she ever cared to, and Cadon… is an asshole.”
Zane snickered. “I’m sorry. I thought by the time siblings got to be your age, they’re supposed to start getting over that sort of stuff.”
“Yeah, I thought so, too. I guess one of us hasn’t grown up yet.” She knew she could’ve just as easily been talking about herself as opposed to her brother.
They sat there for a bit longer with his hand on her knee and her mind wanting to go to places it needed to avoid.
“Are you ever planning on telling me exactly what happened between you and Scott?” Zane asked, looking at her pointedly.
Jo raised an eyebrow. “No.”
He shook his head and then chuckled. “Why not? Now that the three of us are working together, don’t you think I should know?”
“No,” she said again. “Besides, he’s not working with us. He’s going with Cassidy.”
“I know the two of you had sex--that much is more than obvious. But… were you a couple?”
Jo let out an exasperated sigh. “No. We weren’t. But… he thought we were, I guess, because that’s what he’s so angry about. He was under the impression we were going to get married or something. I was… discovering myself and experimenting. In fairness, our parents had us married before I was even born, so I guess I can’t blame him.” She remembered the look on Scott’s face when she told him she was leaving--and no, she didn’t want him to come with her. It was the same look he’d been giving her since she came back. Until the meeting started a little while ago.
“Wow. That’s rough,” Zane said, shaking his head. “Poor guy. How old was he?”
She shrugged. “He’s a couple of months older than me. It was right before I moved to Colorado. So, like, twenty-ish.”
“He’s spent the last five years feeling like you dumped him and walked away? Like you used him and abused him for his body?”
Jo knew he was making a joke, and she did chuckle slightly, but at the same time, it was true. “Yeah, something like that. It’s no wonder he looked at me like he wanted to murder me yesterday.”
“And yet, his mother hugged you like you were her long lost daughter.”
“Well, I guess she still doesn’t know. I mean, we started fooling around when we were, like, fifteen. It’s not like he would’ve mentioned it then.”
“Josephina McReynolds! Look at you!” Zane said, shaking his head.
She rolled her eyes. “Like you were under the impression I was some sort of goody-two-shoes.”
Snickering, he said, “No, no, I wasn’t, but still….”
“I guess I’ve always been a rebel.” She shrugged and looked away, checking to see how much beer she had left. It wasn’t much. “That’ll happen when your dad literally counts how many hairs you leave in the shower drain.”
“No, he didn’t.” Zane bumped her knee with his, taunting her.
“Okay, maybe not exactly. But he may as well have. It felt like it. And my mom wasn’t much better. She was constantly petrified that something was going to happen to us before we Transformed. And then… when we were finally old enough to do it… she wasn't there.” A thousand thoughts from her childhood flooded her memory, and Jo had to look away to blink back the tears. Zane had seen her cry enough for one lifetime.
“I get it, Jo. I miss my mom and dad, too. I want to get them out, but I don’t know how I can do that. We need to catch Holland, though. If we can do that, we’ve got a chance. The only way this thing ends is if we can find a way to put it back to how it was before.”
“It’ll never be the way it was before,” she said, looking him in the eye, the seriousness of her statement taking away the sadness from before. “At best, we can hope that humans begin to truly fear Vampires again and realize we’ve got to have power in order to defeat them. But… the humans will never go back to how they were before they knew Vampires existed. Which means we’ll never operate completely in the dark again either.”
Zane nodded and then looked away from her. “You’re probably right. Maybe we can’t put it exactly back to how it was, but we need to get rid of people like Crimson, Vampires in power. Then, we should be able to free our people. I know you don’t think you’ll ever see your mom again. I hope you’re wrong. But at the moment, mine is still alive. I’d like to keep her that way. Dad, too.”
“I know.” She reached over and took his hand. “I hope I can help that to happen. If Holland’s out there, I’ll find her. But I can’t promise I’ll bring her in alive.”
“I know you can’t,” he said. “That’s why I came with you.”
Jo raised an eyebrow, but she shouldn’t have been surprised. If anyone in the world could hold her in check, it was Zane. When it came right down to it, though, even he wouldn’t be able to stop her from taking a shot that would destroy Holland once and for all.