Chapter 60

“Get out of the way!” Jo found herself yelling before it even registered with her that Cassidy had only sent the message to her. “Get back!” She grabbed hold of Brandon’s shoulder and pulled back as hard as she could, but he was determined to keep working on the task at hand, moving rocks. “You don’t understand, Brandon! It’s Cass!”
At the mention of his wife’s name, Brandon’s head swiveled, and he was finally looking at her. “What’s that?” he asked.
“She said she’s coming out! I’m sure she’s trying to contact you, too, but you’re so focused on what you’re doing, you’re probably not hearing her.” Unlike the rest of them, Cassidy had telepathy and could communicate with her mind, even when her IAC wasn’t functioning, which still seemed to be the case at the moment.
Something clicked just then. Either Cassidy managed to get a message through to him, or Brandon realized Jo wasn’t just jerking him around. “Everybody, get back!” Brandon shouted. At his order, everyone moved quickly toward the tree line.
“All right, Cassidy,” Jo thought, hoping her aunt was still picking up on her thoughts. “We’re out of the way.”
At first, there didn’t seem to be any change in the opening of the cave. A bit of dust continued to settle around the entryway where they’d been moving the rocks, but that was all. Jo scrunched her face to the side, contemplating the situation. Was it possible she’d misunderstood? Had she imagined Cassidy’s voice in her head?
The ground beneath their feet began to shake again, but this time, it was different. Rather than the force of an explosion, it was more like the strength of a great wind. It came blowing out through the cracks between the larger rocks, gathering strength, blowing dust and debris, and then there was a loud rumble that rivaled the sound of the initial explosion.
When the rocks started flying out, it seemed as if the entire mountain was coming down again. Big rocks followed by small boulders, and then even bigger chunks of rock, came flying away from what had been the entryway. Now, the sliver of a door that had been hidden by an overhang, blew out as well so that a giant gash in the side of the mountain would’ve allowed entry into the mines below, if there wasn’t a continuous stream of rocks flying out.
Most of them landed within a few feet of the mountain. Others, particularly the lighter ones, went further, some hitting the trees that acted as a partial barricade between where the LIGHTS team was sheltering and the storm. A few people ran back further into the forest. Most of them watched in awe at the display of strength. It seemed quite evident Cassidy Findley Kean was not dead.
The entire dislodging of the mountain only took a minute or so at best. When it was over, the wind died down, more rocks and pebbles tumbled through the leaves of the trees to rain down on them, and one lone form, stood amidst the debris, covered in dust, her black leather jacket torn, but she was alive. And she was pissed.
Brandon ran to her, dodging the debris cloud of rocks and boulders that resembled an asteroid field. Within seconds, he had reached her. Despite the fact that she was clearly ready to rip someone limb from limb, when he wrapped his arms around her, she melted, and became human again. He kissed her, the two of them chatted quietly for a few seconds, and then he kissed her again.
Jo had to look away, not because she thought it was icky seeing her aunt and uncle suck face after she’d basically come back from the dead, but because she was both happy that they had each other, and at the same time, extremely jealous. The two of them had been together forever and still loved each other more than anything. She couldn’t help but think it must be nice to have someone like that in this life of uncertainty and one shitty experience after another.
As she was turning to head back to the vehicles, she caught Zane’s eyes. Jo paused. Did he wish they had the same sort of relationship that her aunt and uncle did? The look on his face implied that maybe he did. Jo shifted her gaze. At one point in life, she’d known more than anything that that’s what she’d wanted, too, but since they’d grown apart, she hadn’t allowed herself to even consider what could be between her and the Guardian who cared enough about her to follow her into this cesspool.
Her thoughts were interrupted by the footsteps of her brother, running to catch up with her. “What now?” he asked.
“We go back to the hotel,” she said, not pausing to look at him.
“What about the cave?” he asked. “We need to get in there and see if there’s anything in there that can help us out.”
Exhaustion, adrenaline, and guilt washed over Jo. She’d thought she’d lost Cassidy. She’d certainly lost Ping. Clearly, she wasn’t cut out for this. “Not now,” she said.
“Not now?” he repeated, shouting at her. “When? After the Vampires have a chance to come back and get whatever they don’t want us to have?”
“I don’t give two shits when, but not now.”
“Jo!” Cadon shouted. “We can’t just walk away from here. If we do, Ping died for nothing!” He grabbed hold of her arm and attempted to force her to stop and look at him.
“Ping died for nothing anyway!” Jo screamed, yanking herself free. She was looking at him now, though. “We can’t win this, Cadon!” Her voice was quieter, even though she was still yelling. She couldn’t see any other team members at the moment, but that didn’t mean they weren’t watching, weren’t listening, either through the IAC or with their superhuman senses. “Not with me in command, anyway. If you want to lead a detail back into the cave to see what you can find, go for it. But I’m not doing it.”
Her brother stared at her for a few seconds, his eyes wide, before he asked, “You’re quitting?”
Jo shrugged, folded her arms, stared back at him.
“You’re quitting.” He shook his head and toed the dirt with his boot. “Why am I not surprised?” The noise he made in the back of his throat was a mix between growl and a chuckle. “Good ol’ Jo. If you can count on her for anything… it’s for not being able to count on her.”
“Oh, fuck you, Cadon,” Jo said, spinning around. “I never asked for this job!”
“No, that’s right, you didn’t!” He was on her heels but didn’t reach out for her again. “You took it because Dad asked you to. Because… at least for a few moments, you remembered how shitty you treated him and wanted to make up for it. But then you remembered that you don’t care about anyone but yourself, so the moment it gets hard, here you are, tucking your tail between your legs and running off. Typical Josephina reaction.”
She stopped then, about twenty feet between them. He was right, and she absolutely hated it. But… there was a reason for all of that. And nothing he shouted at her now was going to change the past or the way that she was reacting now. “I thought you of all people would be happy. Didn’t you want me to fail?”
“You think I wanted you to fail?” Her brother’s voice was slightly kinder than it had been before. “Jo, in this case, your failure means our failure, and since I don’t like to fail, why the hell would I want you to?”
She turned and looked at him then. “So you could say you were right, that Dad should’ve put you in charge instead of me. Or anyone instead of me, that’s why.”
He shook his head. “No, Jo, I wasn’t mad that he put you in charge. I was mad that I knew you’d fuck this up, that you’d give up and quit, like you are right now. I hoped that I was wrong, that you’d want to prove me wrong, that you’d stick with this and do it, but now that you’ve proven me right, I can’t help but be disappointed in you. If you would just live up to one tenth of your potential, you would have finished this assignment already, with flying colors. We’d have the queen and be in the process of interrogating that bitch so we could find Mom. But you don’t put any effort into anything. It’s easier that way, isn’t it? To tell yourself you failed because you didn’t really try. If you put some of your heart into something and fell short, it would be a lot harder to accept the fact that you weren’t able to complete the task at hand. But this… this is easy. This is textbook. You get to walk away and say, ‘Oh, well. I didn’t try,’ so that you can sleep at night.”
The anger pulsating through her had to rival the way that Cassidy had felt when she was finished throwing those rocks. Jo closed on her brother so quickly, he took a few steps back before he realized he looked weak and stopped. “You have no idea how I sleep at night, Cadon!” she spat, pointing directly in his face. “Don’t you dare try to tell me what it’s like to know that you haven’t tried and you’ve failed! Every single day of my poor, miserable existence, I have wondered what it would be like if I would’ve tried to help Mom, if I would’ve stood up to those bastards instead of hiding. Not trying does not make me sleep at night, you asshole! It’s a living, breathing, waking nightmare. Something you will never understand.” Since the tears were threatening to fall, and she refused to cry in front of her brother, Jo spun away again, headed for the vehicle. She knew he’d stew for a few minutes before he took advantage of what she said and headed back to lead the exploration of the cave. She would sit it out. If anyone wanted to question why, they could go to hell. They could all go to hell.
Jo opened the front passenger side door of the SUV she’d ridden to the attack site in, sat down, and cried.