Chapter 54

Coughing and spewing, Jo pulled herself up off of the ground and peered through the thick smoke billowing from what had been the door to the bus. She hadn’t been standing that close, but the explosion had knocked her backward at least ten feet into a snowbank. Around her, she saw several members of her team beginning to reanimate, pulling themselves up off of the ground, shaking their heads to clear them.
Remembering that Cadon had been within inches of the door when the explosion had rocked them all away from the vehicle, Jo searched the ground frantically, looking for her twin. Not a trace of him anywhere, she spun around, trying to locate him. Where could he have flown to? Surely, the explosion wasn’t so intense it had torn him apart?
When she spotted him, standing on top of the overpass, at least forty feet above her head, she couldn’t help but let her mouth drop open. He looked perfectly fine, like he didn’t have a scratch on him. Only confusion, and maybe some ringing in his ears, as she was suffering from, seemed to be lingering effects.
“How the hell did you get up there?” she shouted at him.
“I have no fucking idea,” he shouted back, jumping down, and landing on the road behind the bus with a force strong enough to shake the asphalt beneath her feet.
Despite all of their arguments lately, Jo ran to her brother and wrapped her arms around him, so thankful he was okay. He embraced her, too, but quickly let her go. “How is everyone else?”
She hadn’t seen anyone who wasn’t moving, but she also hadn’t counted. Turning around, she quickly did a head count and saw everyone moving, except for Cassidy. Her aunt wasn’t anywhere to be seen either.
“Brandon!” she shouted, running back over to where her uncle was pulling himself up off of the ground a few feet from where she’d landed. “Where’s Aunt Cass?”
“I have no idea,” he mumbled, sticking a finger in his ear like that might help with the ringing. “She’s got to be here somewhere. She can’t die.”
“Cassidy!” Jo screamed, both aloud and through her IAC.
The Hybrid climbed out of the top of the bus, her clothes covered with blood. It stained her hands as well. She fluttered down to the road. “It’s bad in there,” she said, shaking her head.
“Wait--I’m confused. How did you get in the bus?”
Cassidy sighed like she couldn’t be bothered to explain but then did so anyway. “After I tossed Cadon up to the overpass, I flew up into the air and came back down through the opening that the Vampires had left, hoping to be able to guard the humans against that explosion, but I wasn’t fast enough. Most of the force went outward, which makes sense, since they were trying to keep us from getting in, and take out a few of us if they could, but it still got a lot of the people who were sitting near the front of the bus, and a few in the middle.
Jo held her breath, not wanting to ask the obvious question on her mind. Instead, she asked another. “You tossed Cadon up there?”
She shrugged. “Well, I wasn’t gonna let him get blown up. I don’t know what was in that bomb. Could’ve had scandium in it somehow for all I know. Besides, have you ever seen a Guardian after they’ve exploded? They might not be dead, but it isn’t pretty.”
She didn’t have to ask more about that. “Thank you,” she said, still holding on to that other question. “Are there people in there that we can help?”
Cassidy shook her head. “I think Mila and Mikali are gonna get to put the reserva de sange out of their misery, which they seem to enjoy far too much.”
Jo nodded. That was unfortunate, but she had a feeling they were all going to have to be ended anyway. She had to assume that meant Ryker was dead, too. It wasn’t a pleasant thought, despite the fact that they’d been at odds basically ever since the moment they’d met. She hated to think of him dying such a tragic death. He had been trying to warn them, after all. “I guess I’ll send them in.”
Cassidy nodded. “Scott can probably help your friend, though. He was the only one on the bus that knew what was about to happen, so he was able to find some shelter. I don’t think he’s hurt that bad, but his arm is bleeding.”
With her eyebrows arched, Jo studied Cassidy’s face. “My friend?”
Her aunt didn’t have to say anything. A hand emerged from the hole in the top of the bus and then another, the second one bleeding. Jo blew out a hot breath as Ryker pulled himself out of the top of the bus.
Using her powers, Cassidy grabbed a hold of him and lifted him. He didn’t like it. As soon as he lost contact with the metal frame, he began to struggle wiggling against her blue light. If she had let him have his way, he would’ve fallen a good twenty feet to the ground. Ignoring his obvious discomfort, the Hybrid lowered him down near Scott. “Can you patch him up?” she shouted.
“I didn’t bring my medical bag,” Scott said, “but I’ll see what I can do.” Unlike his father, Scott’s healing powers didn’t always work on humans.
Scott kneeled next to Ryker, who clearly didn’t want to be there. Jo decided to ignore him, for now. He had some explaining to do, and the hell if she was going to let him go skipping off on his merry way again.
For the first time since they’d wrecked the bus, headlights lit the road behind them. Jo and her team moved aside, hoping it was just a human driven vehicle passing by. Not aware of any tension in her stomach, Jo didn’t think it was a Vampire, but it was hard to tell.
The car slowed as it neared the crash site. A familiar fluttering in her stomach had Jo reaching for her weapon. There was at least one Vampire in that car; she could feel it now. A steel gray sedan with tinted windows, she couldn’t see a single person in the car, but as it drove by slowly, she got the feeling in her gut that the enemy was near.
Without thinking, her feet started moving in the direction of the vehicle, though she didn’t know why. There were so many Vampires these days, running into one on the road shouldn’t have had her reacting this way. Yet, she had the idea that someone in that car needed to be tracked down and stopped.
“What are you doing?” Zane’s voice brought her out of her stupor. Jo turned and looked at him, not even realizing he’d come with her until that moment. She’d gone at least a half mile, maybe more, away from the bus, but came to a stop now, her eyes watching the car speed up and disappear in the distance.
“I don’t know,” Jo admitted. “Something about that car….”
“Yeah, I felt it, too, but we’ve got to handle this right now. Probably just a random Vampire,” he assured her.
Jo nodded, thinking he was probably right. With a deep breath, she turned to head back to the bus. She could hear Ryker and Scott arguing with one another as she approached. Clearly, the human was a little testy. Any pain he was enduring at the moment, he deserved, as far as she was concerned, but she didn’t like the idea that he thought he could just yell at the person trying to help him.
“What the hell are you bellyaching about?” Jo asked, stopping at Ryker’s boots. He wasn’t wearing his poofy fur coat, only a thinner black jacket. Since the way he’d been identified by their informant and Cassidy was through the coat, she wondered if maybe it was still in the bus. It was odd seeing him without it.
“I’m not bellyaching,” he snarled, staring at her. “But Doc McGoo over here is trying to sew my arm up with a rusty needle and some horse hair, Civil War style, and I’d just as soon let it bleed than get an infection and lose my arm.”
“Yeah, that doesn’t sound like bellyaching at all,” Scott said, rolling his eyes. “It’s a sterile needle I had in my pocket and the same thread we always use for stitches. You’re just being a big baby.”
Ryker glared at him, and Jo put her hands on her hips. “You know what, Scott, if he wants to bleed to death, let him. We have more important things to do than listen to him cry.”