Chapter 30

The location Ryker had given her was farther away than Jo realized. It took a few hours to get there, especially since the roads were terrible, full of potholes and covered with fallen branches. The inches of ice and snow they had to pick their way through didn’t help any either. If the vehicle they had was the high-end sort the team had instant access to in the past, they might’ve made it in half the time, but dreams of what used to be were nothing but a distraction, and Jo didn’t need any distractions at the moment.
Zane brought the Jeep to a halt on the side of the road in a wooded area. The wind whipped between evergreen branches, blowing the snow off of the needles and sending it spraying up off of the ground so that it appeared to be snowing, even though it wasn’t at the moment. “This is it,” Zane said. “As close as I can get us by road.”
“Where’s the actual location?” Ping asked from the seat behind him.
“About three hundred yards that way.” Zane pointed into the woods.
“What the hell is it? A goddamn treehouse?” Leo wanted to know.
“No, I don’t think so,” Jo replied. She’d been keeping an eye on the terrain out the window and also following along on a map using her IAC. “I think it’s probably a cave of some sort.”
“A cave?” the young man behind her echoed. “What the hell? Are we fighting Vampires or Neanderthals?”
Jo bit back the idea that she might be fighting alongside a Neanderthal. “I’m not sure if it’s a manmade cavern or natural, but I think we’ll find our informants in the ground beneath a mountain. It’s just a guess. Let’s go scout it out.” She opened the door, knowing she was fully armed with a couple of Glocks and a Beretta strapped to her back, not to mention her various knives and extra rounds. She wasn’t anticipating a confrontation at the moment, but a person needed to be prepared.
The others followed as she crunched through the snow, trying to keep her footsteps light. “It makes sense that it would be a cave or something like that,” Ping mused, keeping his voice soft. “Otherwise, if it were a house, wouldn’t Ryker have given us an address?”
Jo had no answer for that question. Who knows what Ryker might’ve done? She was just glad he hadn’t moved. Cass had an eye on him as she went about her day, planning to go back to speak to Eliza and Lukas again that night. If Ryker moved, she’d let Jo know.
Zane was polite enough to answer Ping’s question the best he could. “Probably so,” he said.
“Let’s switch to IAC, just to be safe,” Jo reminded them. All three confirmed they’d gotten her message. It was evident none of them were used to communicating that way since it didn’t come naturally to any of them, but they’d make it work. If it meant the surveillance would be quieter this way, Jo was all for it.
Following the compass in her IAC, Jo approached a clearing. It didn’t surprise her at all when the trees parted to reveal a rise in the ground that eventually led to the mountain chain she’d been tracking as they drove in. Satisfied that she was right, that the location was a cave of some sort, she slowed down. They were covering open ground now, and even though there was a good chance the Vampires were hiding away during the day time, as most of them tended to do, there was also a chance they would be seen.
Deciding it was better to stick to the trees for now, Jo signaled for the rest of the team to find cover and headed for one of the scraggly pines dotting the landscape to her right. The others did the same, scattering and finding as much cover as they could.
“All right. I’m going in. I need to see where the opening is so that when we come back, there are no surprises,” she informed the others.
“Be careful, Jo,” Zane said, only to her. “Are you sure you don’t want me to go?”
It made sense that he would be concerned. She was a Hunter, after all, and could be killed by a Vampire. Whereas, he was a Guardian, and a Vampire couldn’t kill him. Only a Hunter could do that. “I’ll be fine.” She wasn’t sure why she felt so confident in her answer, but she did. With a deep breath, she focused her eyes on a spot on the rock wall in front of her, a few bushes on either side that made it appear as if there could be an opening there, and sprinted off at full speed. At this rate, she wouldn’t even be visible to a human eye and would be difficult to track by the near immortals around her as well.
There was an opening here; she’d been right. Between the two thick hedges, a small opening in the rock face was visible. It was narrow and low to the ground, just the sort of crack Alice in Wonderland might plummet through on her way to some bizarro world full of Vampires. Jo took a deep breath and crouched down next to the hole. There was no way in hell she was going in there--not right now, anyway.
X-ray vision was a gift the second shot of Transformation serum had given her, but she hated to use it. Most of the time, she forgot she was even capable of seeing through objects because using the skill often made her lightheaded and nauseated. Not for the first time since she’d started this adventure, Jo wished her dad was there. He was so much better at using that particular talent. Even Cadon would’ve been better than her. But neither of those people were there, so Jo crouched down and took a look at the mountainside, hoping it would all come together for her.
The shift in her vision was intense, sending a blinding light through her field of vision as she attempted to concentrate on looking through the wall and not at it. Once the light dissipated, she could see inside of the mountain. Without a doubt, someone was using this natural shelter as a home.
The opening led to a slanted entryway that dropped about ten feet quickly into the earth and then opened up into a large room with several halls that led off into different directions. These appeared to be manmade. If they were tunnels or hallways, Jo couldn’t say for sure. All she could see was that there were passages inside, several of them, and it was dark.
No human forms were visible to her from this angle. That was disappointing. She’d hoped to have some idea how many Vampires they’d be facing. Without that information, this trip hadn’t really served much purpose. At least they’d know exactly where to enter, and she could designate ahead of time which halls to send her teammates down. She’d need more than just the three LIGHTS members she had with her now, though. With that many hallways or passages to traverse, no indication of the enemy’s number, or any idea how far down into the earth the paths may lead, she was in a precarious position.
Deciding she couldn’t get any more useful information at the moment, Jo sprinted back toward the tree she’d been using for cover. Ducking behind it, she took a second to calm down before she said, “All right. I’ve seen everything there is to see. Let’s go discuss.”
“That’s it?” Leo asked. “We aren’t going in?”
“Now? In the middle of the afternoon? Are you shitting me?” Jo replied. She’d thought she’d been clear that this was a reconnaissance mission, but maybe not. “Hell, no. We’ll regroup and come back later.”
“Later? When the Vampires are up and about?”
“Just shut your pie hole and head back to the vehicle.” This guy was starting to annoy her, and Jo didn’t exactly know how to get along with people who annoyed her the way that her father knew how.
Leo didn’t respond, only did as she’d said. That was something at least. Once they were back in the SUV, she told Zane to head back toward town. Jo spent a few minutes going back over images of the interior she’d taken using her X-ray vision preparing to explain to the rest of her team what she’d seen. She also sent messages to everyone else to meet them in the nearest town, except for Cass’s team. She still needed to finish her mission. The rest of them would have to come up with a strategy for infiltrating the cave later that night. While it would be helpful to have her aunt’s skill set and her uncle’s experience, she’d have to do without. Getting Lucas and Eliza to cooperate was also important.
Overwhelmed, Jo propped her elbow on the window and slumped against it. Zane’s hand on her leg was comforting, even if she’d rather he didn’t touch her in front of the team. “Are you okay?” he asked, not for the first time since this had all begun.
“Just peachy,” she replied, dripping with sarcasm. If anyone would help her figure this out, it would be him.
“We’ve got this.”
His reassurance did help, slightly. But Jo’s pessimistic disposition didn’t allow her more than a headshake. She might not have any idea what she was doing leading this team, but she did have capable teammates who had been doing this for hundreds of years. Hopefully, he was right, and tonight’s hunt, the first one she’d ever lead, would be a success. She’d settle for no teammates dying, but even that was a long shot with her at the helm. “Mom--where are you?” she asked the universe. The resounding silence echoed back at her the answer she’d held in her heart for years--dead.