Chapter 35: Chapter 35

There was an arm around her waist. It was an odd way to wake up, but as Jo came back to consciousness, it was the first thing that registered. Before she even opened her eyes, she was aware that she was being held. It wasn’t a strong grip at the moment, nothing to be leery of. No Vampire had snuck in during the night and waited patiently for her to open her eyes before squeezing the life out of her. No, whoever it was, they were being kind with their loose grip, not trying to end her.

A few more seconds of wakefulness quickly led her to the conclusion that this person was also male. Again, she didn’t have to be fully conscious to know that. For a moment, it entered her mind that perhaps Ryker had felt badly for being such a jackass the night before and climbed into bed with her, but then she realized she knew the scent well. It wasn’t the human--and as interesting a conversation about why he was there as it might’ve been if Ryker had been the one with his arm around her--she was glad that it wasn’t.

Rolling over, Jo finally opened her eyes and found herself staring into Zane’s. His were wide open, and she doubted he’d ever even been asleep. Like most Guardians, he didn’t sleep much at all. Hunters could usually get by with three or four hours a night, but not Jo. Like her mother before her, she needed a full six hours, at least, to function.

“What are you doing here?” Jo asked, her voice just above a whisper in case there were others still trying to sleep in the room. She hadn’t bothered to look.

“You asked me to come here. Don’t you remember?” His voice was soft, but not as quiet as hers had been. “Last night, you sent me a message, around 3:00, asking me to come… hold you.”

Jo’s eyes were wide open now. She did not remember doing that at all. Her forehead crinkled as she held her head away from him, searching her memory. “I did?”

Zane laughed at her expression and moved his hand, but not fully off of her hip, just a little more onto her leg. “Yeah. Check your IAC log.”

She already was. Sure enough, there it was. “Well, I’ll be damned.” Jo shook her head. She had no recollection of that whatsoever. Her only explanation was that she was so upset about Ryker being a jerk, she’d felt all alone.

Thinking of the human had her sitting up slightly to peer over Zane’s shoulder. “He’s downstairs with the others, eating breakfast,” Zane assured her.

Despite his implication that they were, in fact, alone, Jo turned and looked over her shoulder. Meagan’s bed was empty, too. She turned back to Zane.

He was so hot. He always had been, but now, with that crooked smile on his face, wearing a black T-shirt and that pair of jeans that made his ass look so great, Jo had to agree with her subconscious mind that it was a good idea to have invited him into her bed. She just couldn’t foresee what might happen should she intend to keep him here much longer.

Zane had to realize now that she hadn’t been aware of what she was doing when she sent the message. He put some space between them but didn’t get out of her bed. He was lying on top of the covers, though. “How are you doing?”

Jo shrugged and dragged a hand through her hair. It had to be a mess…. “I don’t know,” she admitted.” Running her tongue along her teeth reminded her that she had some serious hygiene issues she needed to take care of. Maybe for dating couples it was okay to breathe directly into someone’s face when your mouth smelled like a garbage disposal, but not under their circumstances. She kept her distance, too. “I’m making it work.”

“You are,” he agreed. “Ryker was in a foul mood this morning--even more so than usual. Did you two…?”

Her eyes went wide. “Did we what?”

“Have an argument.” Zane realized too late what she had assumed he was implying and then laughed at himself--and her reaction. “Did you have a disagreement about something?”

“Oh, yeah.” She relaxed, her heart returning to her chest cavity. “He knew what reserve de sange was. I wanted to know why. He wouldn’t tell me.” She shrugged as if that was all that had happened. Maybe it was--on paper. But in real life, the situation was more complicated than she was making it out to be.

“And that bothers you because?”

“I don’t know,” she said again. “I just can’t figure him out. And it’s driving me crazy.”

Zane nodded, possibly recognizing more in her frustration than he was willing to admit. “Cass and the rest of that team should be here in a few minutes. Scott said he talked to Elliott earlier in the day, and since he still hasn’t heard from Aaron but can’t find Heather anywhere, he’s decided to pull himself off of that mission and head this way. Also, Scott said that his aunt heard back from the US Embassy.”

It was all a lot to take in, but the last statement had Jo holding her breath. “And?”

Zane lowered his eyes and shook his head. “They refuse to compromise. Australia has declared war on the United States.”

Her mouth dropped open. That was huge. “Wow--that’s… I can’t even.”

“I know. The Aussies are amassing their troops at the moment. The navy is prepared to launch within the next few days. Since the Australian forces are so much larger than what’s left of the US military, Mexico has agreed to allow Australia safe passage. It’ll be… an invasion no one would’ve ever thought could happen even a few decades ago, all because they won’t release our people.”

Jo dropped back onto her pillow, imagining what that might look like if the US was invaded by Australian troops. They’d be careful not to kill civilians, she was sure of that. Really, it was all because the US government wouldn’t release one man--Scott’s dad. If they’d let Dr. Joplin go, then maybe his sister would back down. But right now, she was clearly at the helm of the Australian army, the entire Australian government. “I hope… everything works out.”

As interesting as it was, and as monumental as the consequences would be, Jo had other matters to attend to. Zane had helped her put things into perspective though. While she was trying to figure out how one inconsequential man happened to know about Vampire feeding habits, Scott’s aunt was waging war to free his dad.

“I should… go take a shower,” Jo said.

A flicker of disappointment crossed Zane’s face, and Jo hated herself for being the cause. She knew he still had feelings for her. Clearly, she still had feelings for him, too, or she wouldn’t have called him here--into her bed or on this trip. But there was no sense in complicating things now.

He must have felt differently. Slowly, Zane tipped his head down toward her mouth. The memory of his warm, soft lips made her breath catch. She wanted him to kiss her. She wanted to kiss him, to wrap her arms around his muscular back and pull him close to her, to hold him there, to hide beneath the blankets with him and do all the things they used to do that made her toes curl and made him make that purring sound in the back of his throat he’d said only she could create. She wanted all of that.

But she couldn’t have it. Not now. Not.. any of it. “Dragon’s breath,” she whispered, making him stop in his tracks and lift an eyebrow. He’d kissed her thousands of times with morning breath, with onion breath, and everything else one might imagine a person could have in her mouth, but he understood what she was saying. Jo darted out of bed toward the bathroom, pretending she didn’t hear his sigh of consternation. It wasn’t fair that he felt that way, upset and dismissed by her, when in actuality, she was just saving him--from herself.

* * *

Aunt Cass looked pissed. In Jo’s experience, her expression was never particularly friendly. She always wore a scowl on her face, as if it had been part of the Vampire curse that had afflicted her when she was a teenager. But when she got out of the passenger side of the vehicle and started walking through the snow to join Jo and the rest of the team, Brandon and the others who had gone along with Cass to see Eliza also filing out of the SUV, Cassidy looked like she was ready to explode someone’s head.

“Where the hell are we?” Cassidy asked, looking around. “I thought the X was in a mountain. We’re in the middle of a fucking forest.”

“The X is that way,” Jo said, thumbing over her shoulder. “I didn’t think we should get together right in front of the place we’ll be raiding in a few hours.”

Cassidy didn’t argue, as if that explanation was good enough for her. She was clearly upset at having failed in her mission. She didn’t like to fail. No one in their family did.

Brandon looked relieved. Jo imagined he was happy to have someone else for his wife to take her anger out on. A glance at Lucy and Scott let her know the two of them were happy to see other faces as well. Lucy headed straight for Emma, who had her arms open in anticipation.

Scott headed over toward Cadon, not even looking in Jo’s direction. Her brother was sitting at a campfire with several other members of the team, mostly male, exchanging stories. Jo was content to let them be until Cass’s team got back. Now, the real work would need to begin. This raid wouldn’t be like the last one. This time, they’d be expected.

“Well, we’re glad you’re back,” she said, forcing a smile. Cassidy raised an eyebrow, as if she didn’t buy it. She was right to be skeptical. Jo wasn’t good at sounding like she was enthusiastic when she was really just trying her best to say things leaders were supposed to say. She was too cynical to be able to pull it off.

“What’s the plan?” Brandon asked, sounding slightly more fervent than was necessary. “We going in tonight?”

“Yeah, may as well. They know we’re coming. Why not get in there before they have too much of a chance to get a plan in place?”

“Probably too late for that.” Brandon sounded a little bit too much like his dad with that comment, biting off her eagerness. “But we still need to get in there and find out what we can from this location.”

“I hate that I can’t get into their heads.” Cassidy crossed her arms. “It’s like… having a gun with no bullets.”

“I wish you could read their minds, too,” Jo admitted. Everyone else was over by the campfire now. They didn’t need the warmth or the light, but a few of the girls had thought it would be fun to roast marshmallows, so they’d decided to build a fire. And Ryker could’ve used it. Except he was inside one of the tents, still angry that he’d been forced to come. Jo had thought long and hard about her decision. She probably should’ve left him behind, but the fact that he didn’t want to come made her even more determined to make sure that he went along with them. She’d have to leave a couple of Guardians behind when they went into the cave to make sure nothing snuck up on him from the forest, which sucked, but seeing him so pissed off would make it worth losing a couple of her numbers.

Jo led the way over to the fire, not exactly sure how to stop the idle chatter and get them ready to talk about the upcoming hunt. Whether it was luck or the fact that they were all ready to get into the fray, as soon as she found a spot next to Mikali and sank down onto one of the logs they’d gathered as seats, everyone went quiet, their attention focused on her.

Taking a deep breath, Jo said, “Okay. Unlike our last hunt, there’s a good chance these Vampires know we’re coming.”

“Could that be because you sent one off to tell them we were?” Cadon snorted as he spoke, but no one laughed.

“Possibly. They would’ve known anyway. Just because Cass can’t pick up on their thoughts at the moment, that doesn’t mean they aren’t using telepathy to communicate. Chances are, there were some signals sent out before the last group was killed off.”

“That’s a good point,” Brandon chimed in. Whether it hadn’t occurred to him before, or he was just trying to ease the tension, she appreciated his vote of confidence.

Jo gave him a nod of thanks and then went on. “We can’t assume that they’ll only be covering the front entryway. There are a ton of rocks and trees around the cave opening, as you can see in the Google Earth images I sent you earlier.” Google Earth was no longer operating, thanks to President Crimson shutting down most of the larger industries in the US, but they still had archives, and she’d been able to find a fairly clear picture of the exact location, according to the coordinates, from overhead. While it didn’t tell them exactly where the opening was from the perspective they’d have moving in, at least they could see how well it blended with the surrounding landscape. “It’ll be a lot harder to make entry this time than last time.”

“Do we have any special weapons to blast our way in?” Scott wanted to know.

Jo nodded. “We have several silver nitrate grenades. We’ll use three or four of those to toss into the entry once we are close enough to do so. Hopefully, that will create enough of an opening that we can pour in before they can recover, but since we’ll have no idea what sort of defenses they’ll have inside, other than what we can see with our X-ray vision, which isn’t always clear, we’ll have to act quickly. For all we know, there are layers of protection in there, and since we don’t have any idea how many Vampires we’re facing, we’ll have to assume any that we blow out with the silver nitrate will be replaced almost immediately.”

“Sounds fun,” Leo muttered under his breath.

Ignoring him, Jo continued, shifting her weight from one boot to the other as smoke from the campfire blew into her face. She didn’t feel like moving to the other side. “We’re going to forego the tradition of Hunters being the primary attackers under these circumstances. I want a fresh wall of Guardians going in first, since the Vampires have no weapons that can take them out. Hunters will follow, with Healers at the rear. That way, we’ll still have some Guardians batting clean-up, but we aren’t sending our Hunters in there to get shot up without anyone to keep them safe. Does that make sense to everyone?”

Nods all around the circle let her know she’d made herself clear. Jo took her time looking at each of them, meeting their eyes. From the old pros like Mikali and Mila to newbies like Ping and Sun, every one of them looked determined, ready to go in there and meet their opponents head on. She just hoped that enthusiasm held and the numbers they were fighting were not overwhelming. A sensation in the pit of her stomach told her this wouldn’t be easy, and she had to assume it was because she had no idea of the opposing force, no clear picture of what lay beyond the cave entryway, and no idea how many snipers they might have on the mountainside.

But that wasn’t all. There was something else bothering her, something she couldn’t quite put her finger on. In times like this, it would’ve been great to have her parents there, especially her dad. He could puzzle through anything so much faster than anyone else. He’d know exactly what it was that had her worried without even needing to think about it.

He wasn’t there, though. It was just her in charge. Jo shook it off and went about giving assignments. It was pretty cut and dry. The Guardians would lead, Hunters would come in next, and anyone with any Healing power would stay in the rear, which was mainly Scott and Cale. Simple enough. She made sure the silver nitrate grenades she had available were handed off to people who would know how to use them, keeping one for herself just in case she needed it, and then headed out.

At the last minute, she’d decided to pull Ryker’s guards. He was in the tent, not sleeping. She stuck her head in to give him the news. “You’re expected to be here when we get back,” she said with as much authority as she could gather. “If you decide to leave, there’s a good chance a Vampire will get you. If they don’t, well, you already know you can’t hide from us. So… don’t do anything stupid.”

“Don’t worry. I’ll be here. There’s enough stupid going on right now, I don’t need to contribute.”

Jo was bent over talking to him, and he had leaned up on one elbow to meet her eyes. It was uncomfortable to stare at him in such a position, and she just wanted to leave, but she had to ask, “You think what we’re doing is stupid?”

“No. I think what you’re doing is suicidal. I think what you’re ordering them to do is stupid. Maybe you don’t see a difference, but you will. Good luck, kid.”

Her mouth dropped open as he fell back onto the sleeping bag. No words formed. What was the point? Why would she care what he had to say anyway? More angry than she’d been in a long time, and hell bent on proving him wrong, Jo pulled her head out, zipped the tent, and went off to find some Vampires to desecrate.