Chapter 62

The trip back to the hotel went much faster since Jo had work to do on the way. She couldn’t help but wish Lucas had an IAC so she could call him directly, but instead, she had to go through Eliza. Or she could go through Cassidy, who could speak to him directly with her telepathy, but that was also a pain in the ass. Essentially, she told Eliza that they’d found an email that said that Cervene was headed to Skyrty Palac, and she wanted to know if he could figure out what that might be. Then, she was forced to wait on a response.
She’d checked in with Elliott as well and found out he was finally in Russia, just at the southern border, so it would still take a while for him to catch up to them. Something told her that they’d be moving soon, anyway.
Hattie was already working on trying to decipher as much information as possible from the email. While that was important, Jo was more excited to see what she could glean from the laptop. It wasn’t like the Vampires to make these sorts of mistakes. They had to have underestimated LIGHTS to think that after the attack, the Vampires would be walking right back into their mine.
Either that or all of this was another trap.
She didn’t think so, though, and while it wasn’t possible for Cassidy to get to the thoughts of the Vampires closest to the queen because they were all shielded, she could gain a consensus. From the vibes she was picking up from the Vampires she could get a feel for that were associated with the entire mining undertaking, she got the impression that there was now a sense of panic setting in, that there was concern that they had not covered all of their bases.
When they returned to the hotel, she wanted to go to bed, but there were lots of other things she needed to do first.
“Why don’t we all gather in the bigger room and go over what happened?” she suggested as they got out of the vehicles and headed across the snow covered parking lot.
“Sounds like a good idea,” Brandon said on behalf of everyone.
Since there was no way to send Ping’s body back home to his family under the circumstances, they had buried him in the forest, far enough away from the cave opening that they knew the Vampires wouldn’t likely find him, not that they could hurt him now. The remaining two members of the team who had stayed behind were aware of what had happened, having watched on the IAC. At least she wouldn't have to explain to Meagan and Dax why they were coming back one less than they’d left.
As far as Ryker was concerned, he’d probably have some sarcastic comment to make about her leadership skills, but he could go screw himself.
Getting the whole team in the same room was only slightly easier without Ping. Before she began the meeting, Jo’s eyes lingered on the chair where he’d been sitting only a few hours ago when they’d had their initial planning meeting. She had to look away.
“All right, you guys,” Jo began, as soon as everyone was assembled. Hattie was attending from the other room, the one where Ryker was being held, so she could start working on the computer and keep an eye on him as she watched the meeting through the IAC. Jo figured she couldn’t leave him completely unattended, he didn’t need to hear the meeting, and if anyone had a reason to be excused, it was the tech girl. “We definitely need to talk about what happened.” She was sitting on the armrest of the couch, next to Cassidy, who still needed to take a shower to wash the dust off, but other than that, she looked nearly the same as she had before she left, which was remarkable considering she’d just had a mountain come down on her head.
“Those fuckers certainly took us by surprise,” Leo said for all of them, shaking his head.
“Yes, they did,” Jo agreed. “Twice. I should’ve seen at least one of those situations coming.”
“Which one? The bomb or the waiting assassins?” Brandon asked, clearly being sarcastic.
She shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe both.” She thought her father would’ve likely been ready for one or both of those situations.
“Jo, what happened was not your fault,” Mikali said in his thick accent. “These things happen. We know that you are blaming yourself for what happened to Ping, but there’s nothing we could’ve done differently. We needed to go in there to get the information necessary in order to find the queen. Hopefully, we have that now. Even if we don’t, and we have to go back in, that doesn’t mean that this raid was a waste. Also, we all understand that there is an element of danger involved here. We have all seen people die. Ping knew what he was getting into before he joined the team.”
“And…” Mila continued, “just because he volunteered to stay here with the prisoner, that doesn’t mean that he didn’t accept the potential of his own death. He could’ve walked away.”
She didn’t agree with that. Just because he’d followed her order and gone on the mission, that didn’t mean that he was choosing to accept the risk. But she wasn’t going to say any more about Ping’s responsibility versus her own. Instead, she said, “If anyone would like to call for a vote of no confidence….”
“We don’t want to,” her brother said. He didn’t look around the group to gain a consensus, just looked right at her and made the statement as if it was the gospel truth, and he spoke for everyone.
Not accepting that answer, Jo cocked an eyebrow and did the surveying herself. “Anyone? I won’t hold it against you.”
“Shit, Jo. Do you have any idea what it looked like when you were attacking those motherfuckers?” Shayna asked, not caring that her mother was sitting beside her and looked repulsed at her language. “Damn, girl. No one else could’ve done that.”
Jo cleared her throat, uncomfortable again at the mention of the attack she had launched. “Well, I’m sure that--” she began but half of the crowd cut her off with a resounding, “Nope,” and the rest shook their heads.
Satisfied that they actually did not want her to step down, and resolved to the idea that she was going to have to continue to lead this team, at least for the foreseeable future, she decided to dismiss them for the night. “We could sit here and go over what happened, but I don’t think that’s necessary, is it?” No one spoke up to say they thought it was. “Just be ready to move on tomorrow or the next day. If Hattie is able to get us some information about where Holland might be hiding, we’ll have to move quickly.” She stood and dropped her hands on her thighs dismissively. “Have a good night, guys.”
Several team members stopped by to tell her they thought she’d done a good job or wish her a good night, but all Jo could think about was getting into bed. She was exhausted, and even though she had a million problems to solve, one thing she was certain of was that the problems would all be there when she woke up--and that they’d probably bring some of their friends, too.
Most of the Guardians headed downstairs to the bar while the Hunters figured out where they were sleeping. Jo already had her eye on one of the two beds in the room, and before anyone else could call it, she went over and sank down on the edge, thinking she could fall asleep with her shoes on and be just fine. What everyone else did, she didn’t care. She was sleeping--now.