Chapter 74

The plan was for the interior team to have at least ten minutes to get into position and locate the Red Queen before the attacks started outside. Jo had glanced at the clock on her IAC as she’d started levitating toward the chimney. They should have about five minutes left before the shooting began. They rushed down a hallway, Dax, Ingrid, and Jo following behind Cassidy who was moving at such a rapid pace, the rest of them struggled to keep up, she doubted anyone would be able to see her as she flew past, even the Vampires, who should be able to track a lot better than a mere human.
They had made it down two hallways, and Cassidy was about to turn down a third when their IACs came to life with activity outside. The exterior attacks had begun. “Shit!” Cassidy spat in Jo’s head. “So damn close!”
Jo wanted to ask how close they were, but there was no time for that. A barrage of boots on stone let them know troops were coming. Whether they were running to the aid of their queen or on their way outside to help fortify the fortress, Jo couldn’t say, but it didn’t matter. They needed to act now.
Cassidy didn’t need to be told. They turned the corner, racing down a third hallway. Ahead of them, a large double door indicated an important room lay beyond. Before they were halfway down the lengthy hallway, Cassidy used her powers to hurl the double doors open, knocking two armed guards that were standing on either side of the door aside. Jo and Dax fired on the guards, both of them unleashing a round of bullets that should have taken care of both of the Vampires, but Jo knew that it would all depend on what sort of strength Holland had given to these particular minions. They may require beheading with silver to completely do them in.
There was no time for that at the moment. Hoping that they were subdued enough that they wouldn’t be able to stop the planned abduction of the queen, the team threw themselves into what Jo had to believe must be the queen’s bedroom.
She fully expected to find an empty chamber, or at the very least, a fully defended room with more guards in it than they could see through to locate Holland. What she saw as she flew into the room completely took her by surprise.
It was her. Holland. The Red Queen herself, standing near the back wall of the room, in the corner, her red hair flying out around her as if she’d just scrambled from the bed or a chair to her current location. Her arms were wide in front of her, her fingers flexed as she faced off against Cassidy, who was standing several feet into the room in the same position.
Jo’s immediate response was to start shooting, to catch her off guard while she was defending herself against Cassidy’s powers. If she could hit her enough times with the silver bullets loaded in her gun, perhaps they’d have a fighting chance of taking her in.
But then there was the possibility that they might kill her, and that was not the plan, even if it was Jo’s gut instinct to wipe her off of the face of the earth, hopefully once and for all. Instead of following her instincts, she kept her gun trained on Holland and slowly started walking toward her.
The queen’s eyes flickered to her face for a second and then back to Cassidy before she was staring at Jo again, her silver eyes narrowed. “You look like your mother,” she hissed.
“Where is she?” Jo demanded. “That’s all we want to know! If you can tell us where Cadence McReynolds is, we’ll let you go.” It was a lie, of course, but if there was any chance at all that Holland would fall for it, the ruse was worth a shot.
She laughed, a witch’s cackle that grated in Jo’s ears. “No, you wouldn’t,” Holland said, not so easily fooled. “But it doesn’t matter. I have no fucking idea where your mother is. I wish I knew. If I had been the one to get to her first, she’d be dead for sure. Now, I don’t know where she is. As long as she’s not up my ass, that’s all I care about. The fact that you are now, well, that’s another problem.”
The sounds of battle raged on outside. Jo had no idea if they were winning or losing. She didn’t have the time to look at her IAC to find out. Dax and Ingrid had entered the room with her, but they were back at the door now, covering it as Holland would be able to draw her troops to her through her mind, and they could be grossly outnumbered in a matter of moments.
“We’re at an impasse, Holland,” Cassidy said, her face twisted in a scowl as she poured everything she had into keeping Holland’s powers at bay and tried to force her own energy at the queen. “We’re not leaving this fortress without you, so you may as well come along like a good little bitch.”
Again, Holland found this funny. “I’m just humoring you, child. You think you’re strong enough to defeat me all of a sudden? I haven’t forgotten who it was that threw me into that goddamn portal. I wasted years in there! Oh, no. You may think that your powers are enough to defeat me, but I am essentially holding you back with my little finger at the moment.”
“Why?” Jo asked, taking a few steps closer. “Why would you do that? If you can destroy us, why wouldn’t you?”
“Because! Even if I do, there will be more of you coming, following me, tracking me down. I’m not doing anything at the moment! It’s not me you want. It’s the puppet master, the one who is pulling the strings for Crimson and his cronies. He’s the one who’s running the show. I’m just a figurehead.”
“That’s not true!” Jo countered. “You’re the one cloaking everything, at least in the region. You’re the one making the scandium bullets!”
In her mind, Jo received several messages from both fronts, letting her know the fortress had been breached. Help was on the way as the Vampire ranks broke and were taken down, the shields working to protect the Guardians against the scandium, the Souled Vampires tearing their way through their lawless counterparts.
In response to Jo’s allegations, Holland shook her head. “You’re wrong. But it doesn’t matter. I see you have banded with the Souled, which has given you the upper hand for now. It will not last. They cannot be trusted. In the meantime, I strongly urge you to look elsewhere for your answers because they do not lie with me, and if you continue down this course, I can assure you, your mother will not be the last in your family to pay the ultimate price!”
With her final words, a blast of energy shot out of Holland’s hands, hitting Cassidy at full force and knocking her backward into the wall, waves of red light washing over all of them, though Jo only felt a sizzling wind as the brunt of the impact was concentrated on her aunt. Jo ducked, covering her face with her hand for a moment until she realized the gust wasn’t focused on her.
As the wave of energy disintegrated, Jo looked from her aunt, who was practically embedded head first in the wall behind where she’d been standing, the remains of a splintered dresser and broken glass from a mirror all over the floor around her crumpled body, and the Red Queen, who was clearly creating her own diversion. The wall behind Holland opened, and in a split second, she was gone, though not through a portal. It was a tunnel, like any old castle might have, that swallowed her from the room.
The urge to go after her, to fling herself through the closing door, was overwhelming. But if she went, she’d be abandoning Cassidy when she needed her most. Jo’s boots didn’t move, and in that split second of hesitation, she missed her chance.
Dax didn’t hesitate, though. With nothing to lose, the Guardian tossed himself through the closing door just as stone met stone. Jo watched, stunned, and then switched her IAC to his to see him sprinting after Holland through the darkness.
There was no time to watch closely. Ingrid was at Cassidy’s side, but her aunt wasn’t moving, and they didn’t have long. Remembering how quickly Cassidy had recovered the last time she’d been buried in rubble, Jo could only hope she would be okay. But this was different. This wasn’t just an explosion in a cave. This was a direct surge of concentrated Vampire power hurled precisely at her. She had no idea what sort of damage that might result in, but she knew it couldn’t be good.
Brandon’s shouting at her shouldn’t have come as a surprise, but it did take a moment for it to register. Jo had no answers for him as she knelt next to her aunt’s limp body, pushing as much debris out of the way as she could. She could see through her IAC that Brandon wasn’t slowed by any of the Vampires that he met inside of the fortress who might’ve wanted to make a stand against the Guardian. He plowed through several of them as he traced their path to the back bedroom.
“She’s moving her hands a little!” Jo told him, noticing the movement from her aunt. “Cassidy?” she said, ignoring his requests to know how much. “Are you okay? Cass?”
If the head injury had been to a human, Jo wouldn’t have moved her at all, but since Cassidy was a Hybrid, she figured it would be all right to pull her to sitting. Her head rocked a bit as she sat up, but she came back around as Jo got her up, supporting her on one side while Ingrid had her on the other. “Cassidy?”
Her aunt mumbled a few incoherent noises and then started to shake her head, her eyes rolled back slightly as she fought to regain consciousness. Brandon came flying into the room, followed closely by his father, Elliott, and Zane. “How is she?” her husband demanded to know. “Cass!”
“Where the hell is a Healer when you need one?” Jo wondered aloud.
“Scott is coming,” Zane assured her, staying by the door, his gun at the ready.
“Cass?” Brandon implored, kneeling on the floor next to her, cupping her chin to get her to look at him. “Are you all right?”
“What?” the woman asked, her voice gravelly. “Who? What’s going on? Where am I?”
“Are you okay?” Brandon asked again as she fought to free her face. “What hurts?”
“Everything,” she mumbled. Jo checked her aunt’s IAC and saw that it was off again. She needed to turn it back on, but no one could force her to do so.
Cassidy shook herself free from Brandon and recoiled, almost hitting the wall behind her again, or at least, what was left of it. “Leave me alone!” she shouted at him, as if she was genuinely frightened. “Get away!”
“Cass, I’m just trying to help you,” Brandon said, his voice soft.
“What? Who are you?” she asked, pulling her arms up against her chest and bringing in her knees. “Leave me alone!”
“Who am I?” Brandon asked, clearly alarmed. “It’s me. Brandon. Your husband.”
“I don’t… I don’t know you!” she shouted.
“Cassidy?” Jo asked, cautiously. “Do you know who I am?”
“Who? What?” She was clearly disoriented still. “Leave me alone!” she shouted again, this time moving even further away from them.
“Cassidy--” Brandon began.
“Come on, lil girl,” Elliott said, stepping in front of Cassidy. “What’s going on?”
“Get away from me!” Cassidy shouted again. “I don’t know you!” Her eyes searched all of the faces around her. “I don’t know any of you!”
“Cassidy?” Brandon said again, his eyes wide with concern now.
“Why do you keep calling me that?” she asked. “That’s not my name!”
“What is your name?” Jo asked, not sure she wanted to hear the answer.
Her aunt’s face crinkled in confusion as she searched her mind for an answer. After several seconds, a look of horror came over her as she replied, “I don’t know.”