Begin Volume 2/Shadow Stalker
Lenin Street in Magadan reminded Jo of pictures she’d seen of Europe after World War II. Buildings were toppled, some of their brick and stone edifices pouring across sidewalks into the street, metal frames jabbing up into the air as if to serve as a reminder of what could happen to those who don’t heed the new world order put into place by the Vampires after the Revelation. The place was deserted, as abandoned as most towns in the western United States had become, and as Jo McReynolds drove along in the beat up Jeep with the bullet holes riddling the back, she was reminded a little of Denver, Colorado, the place she’d taken to calling home a few years ago when her split with LIGHTS, and her immature berating of her father, had caused her to leave this team, and all teams, behind.
Now, she was back with LIGHTS, though not physically with them at the moment. The only other soul
On the other side of the gate, she began to understand his reason for doubting the level of difficulty. Dozens of armed guards took up positions on either side of the Jeep, escorting it toward the large house at the end of the lane. Their eyes glowed amber, an indicator that all of these people were Souled Vampires. She hadn’t gotten the impression from Cassidy and her parties visit that they’d been quite so amassed, but then, perhaps Jo hadn’t been paying quite enough attention.Slowly, Jo eased the Jeep along, awaiting instructions from these greeters, should they bark them. It wasn’t until she was near the house that one of the men signaled for her to stop and shouted something she didn’t understand. This time, it wasn’t in Russian, but his broken English was uninterpretable to her.“He said turn it off,” Zane said. He always was more attuned than she was.She did as s
Jo paused, waiting to see if Eliza would say more, but she didn’t, so she took a deep breath and continued. “When the Vampire used that name, Asteria, I got chills. I realized then that it did make sense that it could be her, that it almost had to be. She’s one of the only Vampires that’s ever been able to create the sort of shields from Cassidy that she’s experiencing now. The other was Daunator, and he exploded, so I don’t think he could be back.”“God, I should hope not.” Eliza wiggled her shoulders, like she’d gotten the heebie jeebies.“You were there, weren’t you?” Jo asked, straying from the topic slightly, but her curiosity had gotten the better of her.Eliza nodded. “I was there when your mom and Christian used some special grenades he’d come up with to blow Daunator into a billion pieces.”Swallow
“Well?”The sound of Zane’s voice brought Jo back to the Jeep. She glanced at the clock on the dashboard. It had only been about ten minutes since they’d left Eliza and Lucas’s house, but it seemed like she’d been lost in her thoughts forever. The conversation she’d had with Eliza, after the official meeting was over, had revealed much more about the situation than the few minutes of discussion she’d had with the couple in the living room. She thought there was a good chance they’d agree to help her team find Holland, but she wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing.“Well--what?” Rather than just blurt all of that out to Zane, she decided to give him a chance to pull it out, piece by piece, like a dentist in the 1800s trying to extract a shattered molar. That’s how Jo tended to do things.“What do you think?” He had on
The bed next to her was empty when Jo woke up the next morning. She shouldn’t have been surprised; as much as she’d wanted to jump Zane the second they’d walked into the room, to take the passion he’d displayed when he’d kissed her in the Jeep to the next level and let all of her emotions out in one fast, furious fuck, she’d realized that it would be a mistake. He didn’t deserve to be objectified in that way, even if she was beginning to realize her feelings for him were still alive, just buried deep, and he wouldn’t have minded the abuse--on the surface. Eventually, when he saw that it hadn’t meant the same thing to her, he’d begin to regret it, and she didn’t want there to be anything else between them, not if she ever planned on attempting to salvage this relationship. For the first time in months, she was beginning to realize she wanted to.She looked around the room and saw that she w
Hardly a living soul was visible as Jo and Zane walked down the streets of Magadan. The wind was blowing at a sharp clip, sending the snow from the ground swirling and biting into their skin. It didn’t bother either of them, but a human would’ve found it quite unpleasant.Jo was glad for the solace of it. They made their way down the deserted streets, away from the hotel and the mostly closed up shops toward what used to be a city park. Now, the plants had taken over much of the area, the high grass visible above the snow, the tree branches clearly needing a good trim, and the play area rusted, many of the attractions missing key parts. It looked exactly how she would expect a park abandoned after an apocalypse to look, which made her feel quite welcome.A large pond took up the far western quarter of the park. Jo headed there. Her keen eyesight cut through the distance so that she could see the surface long before she arriv
The drive back out to the compound was relatively silent. Jo hated that her relationship with Zane was currently strained. Since she’d arrived in this hell-hole of a mission, he’d been the only one she could consistently rely upon to keep her moving forward. She needed someone like that, someone who believed in her even when she couldn’t see past the fact that she had never been anything but a mess up. The situation needed to be fixed, but if she was any good at correcting her mistakes, she wouldn’t feel like a screw up all the time to begin with.This time, when they arrived outside of the gate, Lucas’s band of Souled Vampires were already waiting for them. Not only were there far fewer Vampires escorting them in, the ones that were there had their weapons slung against their backs, not at the ready as they had been the night before. It was clear something had changed. Whether or not that should make Jo feel better or not r
“A few of your associates?” Jo repeated, her feet not budging from the hallway as she continued to stare into what could only be described as a library or office full of Souled Vampires. Every single one of them was looking at her, amber eyes shining, as they took her in. Just as her intestines were on fire as the enemy sent her bloodstream ablaze, their natural reaction was to see her as the enemy, someone they needed to destroy.“Yes,” Lucas said, his forehead crinkling as he looked at her, gauging her reaction. “Didn’t Eliza tell you that?”“Uh… if she did, I didn’t process it correctly,” Jo stammered.“No, I didn’t tell her that you wanted her to meet with a dozen of your strongest, scariest Vampire henchmen--and women,” Eliza replied, coming up behind them. Jo didn’t dare take her eyes off of the room of Vampires to address
The hotel near the next X the team had decided needed to be addressed was only slightly better than the first hotel they’d stayed in almost a week ago when they’d first entered the area. Zane pulled into a parking space in a nearly empty gravel lot, and Jo hopped out, glad to be out of the Jeep.They’d hardly spoken at all on the way back. She’d done her best to spend her time wisely, checking in with her teammates, including a long conversation with Elliott about how much it sucked to be stuck in Turkey, which is where his team was currently dealing with transportation issues, and an update on the situation in the US where the Australian Army was amassing near the southern border, and President Crimson still wasn’t willing to budge. It looked like the situation there was about to get ugly, and she was honestly glad she wasn’t having to deal with that mess, even if the challenges that lay in front of her were not exact