Chapter 79

“The way I see it, we’ve got three problems we’ve gotta solve, and only one of ‘em has to come first.”
Jo tried to listen to what her uncle was telling her, but her mind was wandering back to what had just transpired with Zane a few hours ago. It was nearly the middle of the night again. This was the time she should’ve been sleeping, but she wasn’t. Instead, she was sitting in the same den where she’d had the conversation with Ryker earlier. He wasn’t present--probably fast asleep since he seemed to make a hell of a lot more sense most of the time than she did. Instead, she was joined by both of her uncles, Elliott having pried Brandon away from Cassidy’s bedside for a few moments, as well as Mikali, Mila, Cadon, Lucas, and Heather.
“The first one we’ve got to solve is how to fix Cassidy,” Brandon said, getting a nod from his dad. Jo figured that was their first major concern. She was on board with that. Even though Heather was here now and had agreed to help them with Holland, for the time being anyway, she could leave whenever she wanted to. Besides, they’d be stronger with two Hybrids.
Jo turned her attention to the blonde cowgirl. She’d given a preliminary report on what she’d been able to fix in Cassidy’s head, but she said it was slow going. “She knows who she is now, and she understands that she’s married to Brandon and that everyone here is a friend, but she doesn’t remember her history. She don’t have no clue what she’s capable of. I think it’ll come back in time, as long as I continue to dig around in her head and shore things up, but it took me about three hours just to get to that point, and by then, she was exhausted.” Heather paused, shaking her head. “And so was I.”
Elliott reached over and put one of his giant paws on her leg. “Thank you, Heather. We can’t tell you how much we appreciate it.”
Heather waved him off, like it was no big deal.
Lucas jumped in, a ball of energy at any hour, including this one. “Adrian’s people have tracked Holland to a mountain range near one of the mines, but that’s where she was lost to us. Still, she must be in the mine or in the area. It shouldn’t be hard to move in on her. The way her forces broke the last time--”
Jo couldn’t help but interrupt him. “I don’t think that was because they are afraid of us,” she said. “How many of them did we actually capture or destroy? Not many, right?”
Wide eyed, Lucas shrugged. “I haven’t counted how many we destroyed. We captured a handful.”
She nodded, knowing his people were taking care of the interrogations since they could use their minds to do so. “I think… they broke on purpose.”
“What?” Practically the entire room echoed the sentiments exclaimed most loudly by Mikali. “Why would they do that? Why would you say that?”
“Have you watched the recordings?” Jo’s hands were wide, palms up as she looked at the much older, much more experienced Guardian. “It’s like… they wanted us to get to her. But not to take her, not to harm her. I have to think… she wanted to tell us that she isn’t the one in charge of this, and she doesn’t know where my mom is.”
“And you believe her?” Mila asked, sarcasm dripping from her voice.
Jo wasn’t sure how to answer that. “I believe she isn’t pulling the strings at the moment. I think someone else is doing that. Though, she’s capable of doing everything this other entity is doing, or at least most of it. I don’t think we should just let her be, but I think she’s just the first objective here. That’s what you were getting at, isn’t it, Elliott?” she asked, remembering how he’d started the conversation.
“Yeah. I don’t think she’s the one manipulating Crimson Crotch. I don’t know if I believe her about your mama, though.”
“I don’t either,” Jo said, but in her gut, she had a feeling what Holland had said about just killing Cadence was true, that she wouldn’t have just tucked her away somewhere for safe keeping. She would’ve slaughtered her right then and there in front of her daughter. Whoever took her either intended to kill her nice and slow like… or she wasn’t dead.
“So… we get Cassidy back, go after Holland, catch her, using force this time so that she’s wounded and dying before we try to take her in, and then make her tell us who this other person is and where to find him?” Cadon asked, his eyes moving rapidly as he thought through what it would take to do each of those things.
“Sounds simple enough,” Lucas said. Jo still couldn’t read him well enough to tell if he was being sarcastic or if he meant it.
“All right.” She had a plan--a sketch of a plan--and that was something. “Lucas, are we clear to stay here for as long as we need to?” She still had no idea how her Souled Vampire counterparts had acquired this particular sanctuary.
“Of course,” he replied quickly. “This is Adrian’s home.”
Jo’s eyebrows shot up as she studied his face, once again wondering if he was joking. He wasn’t. “This is Adrian’s house?” And yet, he wasn’t there to enjoy it, choosing instead to run around all over creation looking for Holland.
Lucas nodded. “He was quite successful in his former life, and even more successful now.” He laughed, the kind of chuckle that showed he was completely at ease, despite the difficulty of the objectives they’d just outlined.
“I had no fucking idea,” Jo muttered, hoping it wasn’t one of his children’s beds she’d been fornicating with Zane in earlier. Did he have children? Where was his family?
Those were questions she wouldn’t be asking at the moment, maybe not at all. It didn’t matter anymore, did it? A person’s family, their belongings, they ended up being the people they were with in the moment and the place where they laid their head at night. Everyone and everywhere else had to be compartmentalized for sanity’s sake.
She got up. The discussion was over. “We’ll have a meeting in the morning, after all of the Hunters are up, let them know the new plan. Heather, just get back to Cassidy whenever you feel refreshed enough to do so.”
“Yes ma’am,” Heather said with a nod of her head, her tone conveying she was already feeling more enthused about her new project than she had been a few moments ago.
“Where are you going, Jo?” Elliott asked, a bit concerned, as she headed toward the door.
“Out,” she said, finding a reassuring smile for him. She was glad that he was there and that he’d brought the rest of his team with him from Africa. The fact that they’d wasted so much time and energy searching for someone who just showed up whenever she fucking felt like it was neither here or there now that Jo had two more indestructible weapons on her team.
But then, Heather was destructible, just not killable, like Cassidy. Her aunt might not be dead, but she was not what she had once been. Not yet. And it was impossible to tell how long it might take to get her fixed up so that she could be a weapon again. Holland had to know that and had done it on purpose to slow them down.
Moving on without Cassidy would be a mistake, even if they located Holland again and thought they had her cornered once more. They needed the Hybrid’s skills. Beyond that, she owed it to her family not to push her aunt aside and move on without her, even if Heather was just as capable of doing everything that Cassidy could do.
Jo made her way through the hallway and out the back door to a large covered porch that overlooked a mountainous area covered in evergreen trees. She looked up at the star filled sky and breathed. The moon hung low on the horizon, but it was still visible, not much more than a sliver showing.
“I always end up back here,” she muttered, her breath a cloud of crystals as she exhaled. No matter where she was in the world, what she’d faced and overcome, everything always came back to her standing outside looking up at the night sky wondering what was next and asking the same damn questions she’d been asking for years.
The only difference was, this time, she’d been so much closer to bringing Holland in and possibly finding out once and for all where her mother was. If Holland knew… she’d get it out of her. If she didn’t… she’d get enough information from the bitch to find someone who did know. Then, it would be that person’s turn to run.
But they couldn’t hide. One way or another, Jo would hunt them down and figure out what they knew. Because, if her mom was alive, she was going to find her.
For now, her path was clear. It was time to switch mind sets and totally commit, to block out everything else and just focus on one thing. With her eyes on the sliver of moon, Josephina McReynolds morphed from Vampire Hunter to Queen Catcher.


End of Book 2