Chapter 22: Chapter 22
With Lucas’s help, it wasn’t difficult to find a house for the team to occupy, instead of trying to fit into a cramped hotel room. After the scouting mission was complete. Lucas called in even more Souled Vampires to assist them, so the extra space was even more useful.
It took some of her teammates nearly a full day to arrive from the caves they’d been deployed to. Lucas left a few of his colleagues near Skyrty Palac to keep an eye on the situation. While they reported some cars coming in the day after the expedition, no one left, as far as they could tell. Jo was worried about tunnels they couldn’t see, and about portals, but she knew there was nothing they could do about that. If Holland stayed put until they had a chance to move in, there was a possibility they might actually have her this time.
She didn’t let herself get too excited. It wasn’t as if things usually worked out for her the first time, especially when it was something like this, something complicated and uber important. The logistics of getting a team inside of the palace before Holland could simply disappear seemed daunting, if not impossible to Jo. She wasn’t sure it could be done.
In the hours she had to contemplate the situation before everyone got together in the large cabin in the woods about two hours’ drive from Belogradchik, she had plenty of time to think about it. She would rely on the expertise of her team to help her come up with any alternatives she had yet to consider, but nothing was coming to mind other than using Cassidy’s powers to sneak a team of assassins inside of the palace while the larger team created a diversion at the gate and another group came down the mountainside. If anyone had a better idea, she’d be willing to listen, especially since she wasn’t crazy about the idea of going down that chimney herself, but she’d be the first one down under her current plan. The thought that some of the people she’d like to have with her wouldn’t fit--like Elliott and Brandon—was frustrating. She wasn’t sure that Zane would either, and she didn’t think the time to find out would be in the middle of the attack.
The thought that Daunator was potentially out there somewhere, just biding his time, as he had for centuries between when he’d allegedly come back through the Blue Moon Portal and the battle between her parents’ team and him just before she was born, was alarming at best. What was his angle this time? Was he content to sit back and let idiots like President Crimson Crotch take the glory while he stayed in the shadows, or was it possible he was actually pulling the strings? The thoughts circulated around in her head over and over again as she sat on the back porch, staring out at the snow. The house was nice, unlike the one they’d originally met in, with plenty of space for all of them to spread out when they wanted to. Leave it to Lucas to take everything up to the next level and make her feel like the generic version of a leader, but then, he did have about a half-century’s worth of living on her to pull knowledge from.
Zane’s boots on the porch behind her were distinguishable before the breeze brought the scent of his cologne to her. Jo tried not to close her eyes and inhale, a flood of memories hitting her before he sat down next to her. She had a feeling he was there for more than just a check-in to see if she was okay, but she wasn’t in a hurry to rush into the house and get the team together either, not when her mind was still rolling around all of the possibilities.
“I’m sure you have an idea about what you want to do. What’s got you hung up?” he asked, reminding her of the good ol’ days when the two of them would take on the world with hardly more than a general idea of what they were up against and nothing to lose.
“Utilize the chimney for an advanced team. Create a diversion. Send as many troops in from as many directions as possible. Pray they don’t have a lot of those damn scandium bullets, even though I know they will.”
“Emma’s not done with her full body armor yet, but she does have several dozen chest plates and helmets. Mikali picked them up on his way here.”
Jo arched an eyebrow. That was good information to have. “That will help.”
He nodded. “Lucas has called in as many Souled Vampires as he can. We’re up to about sixty now, I think. That’s more than we have in our ranks by a long shot. Not sure how you feel about that.”
It did make her uneasy. The idea that they were fighting Vampires with Vampires, that at any moment their allies could turn on them and annihilate them, wasn’t comforting. She had to trust that she’d done the right thing asking Lucas to help. So far, he’d been a major asset, but so would anyone else who was planning to flip on a dime and take their team out. Thoughts of what had happened at Sierraville came to mind. She hadn’t forgotten that it was Lucas’s wife, Eliza, who had been the turncoats’ contact within LIGHTS, and even though Eliza claimed she had no idea Laura, Sam, and the others had intended to kill her parents, Elliott, and as many other LIGHTS teammates as they could, the result had been several injured Guardians and Hunters--and Elliott had died.
“I guess we’ll see how this meeting goes and work from there,” she said, trying to sound as authoritative as possible. She’d have to rely on her uncle’s judgment for this one. If Elliott got the idea that there was any chance whatsoever that Lucas was going to turn on them and throw them under the bus, she’d get the hell out of dodge, ASAP, or make sure Lucas did.
The idea that Cassidy could read their thoughts came to mind. What if she insisted that Lucas let Cassidy take a tour of his inner workings before they left, just to make sure there was no chance that he was planning something sneaky? Would he go for that? Or would she just offend him, piss him off, and lose his support? That didn’t seem like a good idea either.
“Everyone is ready when you are,” Zane said, the gentle nudge she needed to remember she had a meeting to conduct. By now, one might think she was getting used to being in charge of such things, but she wasn’t. It seemed like most of them took on a life of their own and sort-of conducted themselves, but then, there was always the chance her brother or someone would object to her plan and start acting like a dumbass. Then, she’d have to steer things back in the right direction, something she still wasn’t good at.
Zane stood and offered her his hand, not that she needed it, but she took it anyway. He pulled her to standing and then let go. It was fitting. He was always there to help her up but never insisted on leading her anywhere.
The den was large with a huge wooden desk in the middle, which had been cleared of the owner’s clutter and had a map spread over it. Lucas said that the house belonged to a friend of his, someone who had fled the area recently, but he didn’t elaborate, and Jo didn’t ask too many questions, content to have a place to stay near the palace that had a bed she could catch a nap in and a space big enough for the entire crowd to congregate.
There were more Vampires there than LIGHTS members now. Reading the faces of some of her teammates told her they weren’t happy, particularly the older members, like Mila, Mikali, and Dr. Ryan, who was standing in the back with his arms folded--near someone else who looked aggravated as hell. Ryker. What was he doing in the room? She had no idea, but she wasn’t about to stop and ask either. She hadn’t spoken to him since Adrian and Lucas had mentioned that his family had been killed by Vampires. Now, he was standing in a room filled to the brim with the bloodsuckers. The idea that she couldn’t imagine what that would be like came to mind, but then, that wasn’t exactly true. Vampires had killed--or kidnapped, anyway--her mother, and that’s why her father wasn’t here. So maybe they had more in common than she’d previously realized.
She couldn’t think about that at the moment. Hundreds of eyes—the majority of them the golden-tinted gray of the undead--focused on her as she approached the map, something not all of them would be able to see so she’d have to be descriptive in her language as well.
“All right,” she said loudly enough to get most of their attention. “Thank you all for being here. I see we have some new faces in the crowd. For those of you who don’t know me, I’m Jo McReynolds, and I’m leading this mission for LIGHTS. I’m grateful to Lucas for joining forces with us today.” She gestured to the Souled who was standing to her right, and he gave a small wave, an inconspicuous smile on his handsome face. “We realize that what we are seeking to accomplish would be impossible without your help, so thank you.”
A few scoffs came over the IAC from various members of her team who wanted her to know they disagreed with that statement but weren’t calling her out in front of the bloodsuckers. Again, it was mostly the older crowd who thought they didn’t need any help with the attack. She registered their opinions but went on with what she had been saying, not willing to risk offending the room full of Vampires.
“We believe the Red Queen is being kept at Skyrty Palac, a fortress built into a mountainside that essentially has only one entrance-slash-exit, unless there are tunnels that we have been unable to locate.” Part of the duties assigned to the detail Lucas left behind was to scout the area for any potential routes in or out that they had missed. “We are, of course, more capable of scaling the mountain and infiltrating the palace that way than humans would be, so part of my plan is to send some of you up and over the mountain range, but most of you will be assigned to blast through the gates and large wall that surrounds the front of the complex.” She surveyed the crowd and got several nods of understanding. No one seemed lost or confused so far. “And then there’s the detail I plan to send down the chimney.”
“The chimney?” one of the new Vampires spoke up. A large woman with a blunt red hair cut, longer on one side and quite short on the other, her biceps were bigger than Jo’s head. “What do you mean?”
“With the help of our Hybrid, we can levitate above the palace and come down through the chimney,” Jo explained without giving away too many details. “The force I intend to send in this way will be a small one, led by myself, but their primary objective will be to find and capture the Red Queen before she can escape through a portal.”
“A portal?” another Vampire, a large, older man who looked like a stereotypical biker to Jo, asked in a heavy Slovakian accent. “Is that a possibility?”
Jo nodded. “We believe that it is, though we can’t say for sure. Holland spent many years inside of the Blood Moon Portal, so there’s a possibility she knows how to open and close portals at will now. We think that might be how she escaped.”
There was a bit of chatter as Lucas’s people discussed that possibility in what Jo thought must be Russian. She didn’t have time to pay attention to her IAC translator as it attempted to keep up with all of the different conversations going on. She gave them a few minutes because she knew it was important for them to be on the same page, but then she got their attention again. “Does anyone have any other ideas they’d like to share or questions they need to ask at this time?” As soon as the question was out of her mouth, she realized she was probably opening up a huge can of worms wording it that way, but the damage was done now. She waited to see if anyone had any alternative suggestions for how to coordinate the attack.
“If we think it’s possible to open a portal in the palace, why don’t we go in that way?” Mandy asked, her eyes narrowed as she contemplated the potential answer.
“Because we don’t know how to open portals at will,” Jo said, trying not to sound sarcastic. “At least, I don’t. Does anyone here?” She looked around and wasn’t surprised when no hands shot up.
“But Uncle Aaron knows how to, and so does Christian. Why don’t we get one of them to do it?” Mandy continued.
Jo’s eye’s flickered to her father’s face. Elliott wasn’t even looking at her, or at his daughter, as if he wanted to pretend he wasn’t in the room. “Well, neither of them are currently available,” Jo said, hoping that was sufficient. It was strange to her that Mandy called her dad “Uncle Aaron,” because they weren’t really related, but then, she called Mandy’s dad Uncle Elliott, so it was fitting in an odd way that had never occurred to her before. “If we could open portals and travel that way, life would be much easier,” Jo agreed, “but that’s one skill I haven’t mastered yet.” That was one skill she hadn’t even attempted to learn and doubted she ever would. “Any other questions?”
She fielded some inquiries about weapons, including some about the new shields and helmets that Mikali answered for her because she didn’t know exactly how they worked or how they would be distributed, and then the questions about assignments started. “I will let Lucas decide who he wants to send in from which direction,” she said, deferring to him. “As for my own team, Mikali and Mila will be leading the mountain team, and Elliott will be leading the assault on the front gates, so I will leave it to the three of you to divvy people up, but I will be joining Cassidy in the infiltration of the chimney. Lucas if you have someone you think will fit through the narrow chimney that you’d like to have join us, let me know. I would like a couple of other volunteers to go with us, but I will need slender individuals who aren’t afraid of narrow spaces.”
Jo surveyed her team. The few females who were small enough didn’t shoot their hands up, and she didn’t blame them. She didn’t want to do it either. She could tell by her brother’s expression that he wanted to insist that he could do it, but his shoulders were too broad.
When a hand finally did slowly come up in the back of the room, she wasn’t sure who it was at first, not until the crowd parted. “I’ll do it. I’m skinny enough.”
Her eyebrows raised before she caught them and lowered them. “Okay. Thanks… Dax.” He was tall, but he was thin. He could do it. She hadn’t worked with him much before, but she got the impression he was one of those guys who had nothing to lose, and she could respect that.
With nothing else to say to the team as a whole, she left it to the leaders to agree on their individual teams, realizing neither of her parents would’ve been willing to hand that sort of responsibility over to someone else but deciding she wasn’t either one of her parents, so she’d go with it.
Lucas stopped her before she left his side with a cold hand grasped around her wrist. “I have a female I would like for you to take. She is young and impulsive but fights like hell.”
Jo wasn’t sure those were the exact criteria she was interested in, but she wasn’t going to say no. “All right. Where is she?”
He gestured across the room to a small young woman with blonde hair so light it almost looked white. Her eyes were narrowed, a grimace on her pretty face. He was right--she looked vicious. “That’s her. Ingrid. She’s feisty, but she won’t be stopped either.”
“Perfect,” Jo said, giving him a satisfied nod. She knew she should go over to the girl and introduce herself, shake her hand, that sort of thing. Instead, she headed for the door, needing a breath of fresh air and a silent prayer that somehow this ridiculous plan would work, that they’d capture Holland, and by this time the next day, she’d know where her mom was.