Chapter 67
It was still dark by the time they arrived at their destination, a mountain range on the outskirts of Belogradchik, but that wasn’t because it wasn’t daytime. In most parts of the world, the sun would’ve been climbing the sky overhead as they reached the top of the mountain Lucas suggested they use as their first observation point, but due to the way the earth was perched on its axis at the moment, and the storm that continued to rage, it may as well have been nighttime.
The climb up the mountainside had not been that bad, except for the constant spiking of snowflakes in the face, which felt a little like darts of ice clocking Jo in the soft flesh of her cheeks and occasionally right into her eyeball. The snow itself wasn’t a bother since temperatures were not a factor. All of them were coordinated enough to climb the slick, rocky surface without much need for ropes or picks, and there was no worry that anyone would be out of breath since they were all in excellent condition. Still, the climb took a couple of hours, and when they reached the summit, Jo was confused as to why they’d even climbed up in the first place.
“What are we looking at?” she asked Lucas, staring at a flurry of falling snow and little else.
“The fortress is right over there,” he said, pointing at what appeared to be nothing to Jo. “It was originally built in medieval times but was repaired at the beginning of the Vampires’ reign. There’s a very good chance that is where Holland is hiding.”
Jo followed his finger but saw nothing. For once in her lifetime, she needed binoculars, or a telescope, or something. “Can you actually see it?” she asked Lucas.
He laughed, which she didn’t quite appreciate, and then shook his head. “No, not at the moment. But the snow should stop soon, and then the sun will come up for a couple of hours, and we should be able to see it then.”
“Are we close enough for it to even make a damn difference?” Elliott asked from over her shoulder. The wind was blowing so hard, it was difficult to hear one another, but since Lucas and his team of Vampires, of which he’d brought six, didn’t have IACs. there was no other way to communicate.
“I believe so,” Lucas said, turning to face the Guardian. “We should be able to get an idea of the layout and how best to approach the fortress. It is not a place one can simply sneak into without a problem. I think you shall be able to see that, once the snow clears.”
“Okay,” Jo said, looking down at her feet as she moved aside, hoping she didn’t accidentally take a wrong step and plummet over the edge of the mountain. She turned to see that her aunt, Uncle Brandon, and Scott were sitting together, leaning against a rock formation that somewhat blocked the wind. Zane was behind her, so she tugged on his coat sleeve, and he followed. Elliott did the same so that her entire team was huddled together, slightly out of the wind.
“Why didn’t we just wait until the weather cleared to come up here?” Cassidy asked all of them through the IAC.
“Lucas said he wanted to make the climb under cover of darkness,” Jo replied. She agreed. Even though they weren’t as miserable as humans would be under the circumstances, this wasn’t exactly her idea of fun. Snow was beginning to accumulate on her pants and coat as she sat on the frozen mountainside. She would’ve much rather been back in the SUV or even in a local hotel room, in a nice, hot shower.
The more time she had to sit in the quiet and contemplate the world, the more dangerous she became to herself until she couldn’t handle the thoughts that spun around in her head like out-of-control tops. What if Holland was down there? What if she wasn’t? What if they never found her? What if they did? Jo closed her eyes and squeezed them tight, wishing they could just get on with it already. Perhaps it would’ve been better to sneak into the fortress under cover of night. She understood that Lucas wanted to give them the overview of the entire situation, but at the moment, doing nothing was starting to drag her down.
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