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 o

“Did she tell you anything at all about your mom?” Ryker asked, his tone sounding more understanding than any she’d ever heard him use before.Jo looked at him for a moment before she shook her head. But then… that wasn’t exactly true, was it? “Only that she didn’t have anything to do with her disappearance. She claims it wasn’t her, that she’s just a figurehead, and that she’s trying to stay out of it. I don’t believe her, though.”“You don’t?” he asked, not necessarily implying that he thought she should believe her, only clarifying.Wondering if there’d been something in her response that gave away that she did sort of believe Holland, she considered what Holland had said and how she’d felt about it at the time, how she felt about it now. “She said someone else was pulling the strings. Called him the puppet m

As large as the house was that Lucas had managed to find for them, it wasn’t difficult for Jo to find a room without an occupant, even though many of the Hunters were sleeping now that the hunt was over, and the meeting afterward had dismissed over an hour ago. She lay on her back staring up at the foreign ceiling, wondering if she should watch the video of the attack from the perspective of someone outside first or sleep first and watch later.It was tempting just to close her eyes and see if sleep would come, but she took a few minutes to go over Elliott’s recording from the attack to see if the Vampire’s reaction was as odd as she thought it had been, considering how quickly her own troops were able to get into the fortress.Her suspicions were right. The Vampires had broken much more quickly than expected. In fact, many of them seemed to run the moment they realized they had been infiltrated. If these were the troo

“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 fir

“I just don’t think this is a good idea,” Lucas was saying when Jo sat down with him to talk about her plan to take most of her squad back to the United States for a mission to save Jamie Joplin and the other Guardians being held captive by President Crimson Crotch and his asshole lackeys.“Why is that?” Jo asked. “I’ve already told you how important this is. We can’t let him execute our people.”“No, I understand that, believe me. I do. I know this Jamie you speak of. He was a friend to Eliza when few others were.” Lucas’s eyes went to Elliott. It was no secret that Elliott and Eliza had never gotten along, but then Lucas’s wife rarely got along with anyone. He refocused on Jo.  Elliott didn’t say a word. He certainly wouldn’t deny that he didn’t get along with