Jericho Junction (2 page)

The athmae around him were tall and lean, strong, but not so muscular. Not like this guy.

“Lord Seino.” Liam grinned. His smile widened when the dour-faced demon sighed at him.

“Masterson.” Lord Seino wore a black vest and dark trousers, making him seem almost naked since the colour blended into his skin. Cinched to his waist was a demon bone sword, a weapon that could cleave just about anything in two.

Jericho wondered if Lord Seino ever considered he wore a piece of his brethren’s bone, then wondered if the demon would care. Though Liam’s group seemed to have more than sexual feelings for one another, this creature looked positively malevolent.

Jericho released an involuntary growl, and the male shifted his gaze to him. Pure power enveloped the gathering, and he noticed a few of the other athmae move closer to Liam and Anson.

“Who is this?” The deep voice sent shockwaves through him. An intimidating warrior who shouldered contempt for everyone around him, if Jericho read his frown correctly.

Liam shared a glance with Anson before replying, “Your partner, Jericho. He’s the liaison from the Great Clan Anson was telling you about—”

“Partner? This is intended as amusement?” His disdain made Jericho want to bite him. “A Protector hunts alone. What Kin warrior of any worth needs help from a human?”

“Try bear, asshole.” Calling Jericho a human was as bad as calling a raptor a chicken. Not done. Not if one wanted to live.

“His name is Jericho Dark Walker,” Liam said softly.

The male opened his mouth to reply but paused. “Dark Walker?”

“Who the fuck are you?” Jericho was done playing nice with a demon with no manners.

Anson and the other athmae grinned.

The stranger scowled. “I am Lord Seino, Protector of the Seventh Kingdom.”

“Yeah, great. I’m Jericho. Now let’s get moving. We have dead bodies piling up in our forest, Lord Annoying. So if you could take the stick out of your ass, we have an enemy to kill.”

“Oh, well said.” Liam chuckled. When Seino glared at him, he quickly coughed and amended, “About the enemy to kill, of course. We’ll leave you two to get acquainted. Sorry, but the Harvest Festival is in full swing. We have our work to get back to, and you have yours. Lord Seino, Mother sends regards to Master Fel.”

Seino nodded stiffly. “I shall give him your respects.”

Anson waved to Jericho. “Good luck. You’re going to need it.” His glance at Seino spoke volumes.

The prince and his group left as one, disappearing into the night as if they’d never been. The moon chose that moment to rise overhead, illuminating Jericho’s companion. Good night, but this male had power. Jericho could smell it on him. Unlike the sexual vibes he’d sensed from the males accompanying Liam, this demon felt cold, controlling, demanding.

Another growl eddied in his breast. A need to show the demon his place rose up out of nowhere.

“Hmm.” Seino circled him, inspecting him like a prized stallion.

“Look, I’m not exactly crazy about partnering up with you either. I’m here to find out how to kill something that needs killing. We don’t have to be friends to do it.”

“Friends? An interesting concept.”

Ignoring the male’s feigned interest, Jericho snapped, “So are we starting in your neck of the woods or mine?” The lure of tranquillity in the Great Forest sounded like heaven the more time he spent around Lord Seino. No fighting, dull sex with she-bears or she-wolves, and more of the same everyday awaiting his beck and call.

Or he could spend time with Lord Attitude.

He paid no attention to his racing heart and the excitement in his breast, and told himself he reacted to the thrill of the hunt. Not some obnoxious demon with arrogance issues.

“Should I assume you are the best your shifters have to offer?”

“Assume whatever the hell you want. I’m going to track down this monster and kill it. With or without your help.” Jericho marched into Seino’s personal space and met him nose to nose.

Seino didn’t blink. But something changed between them. A subtle sense of acceptance, maybe? In any case, Seino gave him a nod but didn’t back away. So Jericho did, trying not to feel as if he’d lost ground by doing so.

“We should go to my land, so you can see what we’re dealing with there.” Seino blinked at him, his red eyes like ruby pools of promise.

Of promise? What the hell?

“Shall we go?” Seino held out a hand.

“What?”

“Grab my hand and hold on. Our portal to the Seventh Kingdom is difficult to traverse. But you need to see what we’re up against, Dark Walker.”

Jericho reluctantly put his hand in the large palm of the demon’s. It was cool to the touch…at first. But as he stared into Seino’s eyes, the demon gripped him tighter. Heat blossomed and travelled throughout his body, centring embarrassingly in his crotch. He didn’t have the nerve to see if Seino was similarly affected.

“Hold on, Dark Walker, and prepare to travel.”

The world changed in the blink of an eye.

Seino released the bear the moment they entered his plane of existence. He wasn’t used to being near others. The Protector of a kingdom had many duties and no time for socialising. Seino fought, and he fought well. But other than fucking and fighting, he didn’t have much use for others, much to his grandfather’s dismay. The uncanny mage had some fool notion to partner him up with a mate. But this bear couldn’t have anything to do with Master Fel. Could he?

To Seino’s unease, the bear’s touch struck a chord not only in him, but in his sword. He’d felt it vibrate in reaction to the gruff male. And that meant something significant. Not what he needed at the moment, while trying to rout an enemy capable of killing his kind without leaving a trace.

The bear stared at his surroundings. “Holy shit.”

He took a quick glance around him, seeing his world as Jericho might. It looked much like the wooded lands they’d just left, with a few exceptions. An overlay of energy muted the vibrant earthen plane, and the red glow of universal energy tinted the land.

Seino studied Jericho, impressed that he alone hadn’t shown awe or fear when presented with Seino. Then again, the bear might not understand just who he dealt with. Champion of Banathmae, leader of the Kin in the Seventh Kingdom, Seino was the deadliest athmae in all of the seven realms.

Yet he had a feeling Jericho would merely grunt or shrug if he knew the truth. A massive male with muscles aplenty and the attitude to back up his fierceness, Jericho was a fit representative from the Great Clan, Seino had to admit. A Dark Walker. Coincidence or fate?

The Dark Walkers had once made fine Protectors in the kingdoms, where Kin and their pets frolicked amidst rivers of untamed magic.

Seino had heard tales of the rare breed of Kin, but he’d never met one before. Yet that would explain why he felt so drawn to the bear. He would make an acceptable lover, at least. “You’ve never been to my world, have you?”

“No. Until today, I didn’t know there were any kingdoms of demonkind at all. Just pockets of them around the world.”

What most of Seino’s kind wanted others to know. That Liam had shared information with this Shifter, and with Jericho’s alpha in particular, bore investigating. But Seino would leave that for other Kin to handle. He had a job to do.

“Technically, we’re not demons. That’s a human term.”

The bear stewed, but Seino didn’t care. He hated the archaic reference. “We are called athmae, or down here, Kin. Demons are nothing but superstitious myth founded by the ignorant and fearful.”

“Whatever.” Jericho frowned at him and crossed his arms over his chest. Muscle rippled, and his scent promised strength and power. Quite a find, this bear.

But a distraction at present. Resigned to doing this job so he could get back to his regular routine, Seino flexed his own muscles and took a deep breath, then let out a loud hiss. At the sound, a flock of black birds rose from their sanctuary underground and puffed like a cloud in the red sky overhead.

“So I guess it’s daytime here.” Jericho stared at the cloud of birds heading towards them.

“Always. Our king dislikes the night.”

“Funny for a demon. Sorry, athmae.” Jericho shook his fingers. “Feels tingly.”

“Residual power. Here in the Seventh Kingdom, we harvest energy and reseed it into the known world. The dreams the incubi and succubi drain from the humans are recycled here, purified and filtered into potential energy. All the athmae pour into this plane. The Seventh Kingdom is vital to all life, everywhere.”

“To the Great Forest too?”

“Yes. As much as you shifters and humans think of yourselves as isolated, you’re as tightly connected to us as we are to you.” An unfortunate reality. “We serve Banathmae, who in turn serves to protect the greater good.”

“Banathmae.” Jericho blinked at the birds settling all around Seino. “He’s your great spirit?”

“I don’t know that I’d call him great,” Seino murmured, preoccupied by information one of his spies gave him.

“Are you talking to that bird?” Jericho’s eyes widened, the rich dark brown of his irises full of life, and the same colour as the ground beneath their feet. The Seventh Kingdom looked like a mirror image of the place from which they’d departed, Liam’s castle in Germany. Yet only Kin and life in the Kingdom existed here. The athmae and humans they’d left behind in the earthen plane couldn’t touch this existence without a portal.

The bird finished speaking, and Seino frowned. “He tells me there’s fresh kill to investigate.”

“Terrific.” Jericho looked past him at the castle in the distance. “So that’s the athmae stronghold, right? Like Liam’s castle?”

“Yes. Their castle is a reflection of ours. But this place belongs to the Kin. My kind. We and the incubi, as you call them, are quite different.”

“So you’re not another lust demon?”

The suspicion in the bear’s tone pleased him, and Seino glanced down the male’s front, pleasantly surprised to see him hard…and huge. “All demons feed on lust. On pleasure.” Seino made a decision to feed on Jericho’s just as soon as he could. Perhaps a quick fuck would work the bear out of his system, because—Banathmae knew—the shifter affected him like no other creature ever had.

As if encouraging the sentiment, Seino’s sword vibrated, sending a message of acceptance he didn’t want the bear to hear.

When Jericho frowned at it, Seino swore under his breath and stepped back.

“Come bear. Stop flirting. We have work to do.” As he’d meant it to, his comment aggravated the shifter, who stomped after him, more than annoyed.

They followed the cluster of birds to the outer edge of the castle. Uncomfortably close to the king’s own residence. Not good.

“Damn. Looks like you’ve got four dead bodies.”

Seino scowled and crouched by the recent kills. “I’ve been finding them in strange places, but so close to my king bodes ill. No creature may venture this far without alerting the royal guards. This makes no sense.” He whistled to the birds and watched them leave.

Moments later, a dozen warriors appeared around him and Jericho.

“Fuck.” Jericho growled, obviously threatened by the sudden presence of armed Kin.

The energy around him shimmered, and Seino watched with interest as his new partner shucked out of his clothes and turned into a large grizzly bear, one with the bright eyes of a shaman, a priest dedicated to Banathmae, or as he called himself in the earthen world, the Bear in the Cave.

“By the Night. Weir, put down your weapon.” Seino placed himself between the bear and his brethren, not sure they wouldn’t kill him first and ask questions later. “What is going on around here?”

Weir gave the order and the weapons around him dropped to face the ground. “It’s good to see you, Protector.” He bowed his head to show respect. “We feared you might leave before we could request your help.” He glanced at the fallen Kin and scowled. “As you can see, we have a serious problem.”

Behind them, Jericho snarled. The others watched warily as the large bear sniffed the carnage on the ground, then followed a trail into the woods.

“Trust his senses,” Seino ordered, though he couldn’t have said why. He’d just met his unofficial partner. He didn’t know Jericho at all, but he sensed an answering force, a large source of power that called to him on another level. And the bear’s name—Dark Walker. Legendary mages gifted with Banathmae’s blessings. He couldn’t ignore that, as much as he wanted to. “He’s a Dark Walker.”

The others stared at Jericho in wonder and awe. But the bear was oblivious. He stopped several metres away in the woodline and shimmered, changing back into his human form. Seino couldn’t help noticing the large cock swinging between his thighs. Or the raw power emanating from his inner spirit.

Nor could he fail to notice the interest on many of the warriors’ faces with him. Kin, unlike humans, didn’t care about gender when it came to sexuality. It was all about power and scent. And Jericho smelt like the deepest, darkest reaches of ecstasy in waiting.

Seino cleared his throat.

Jericho looked around and blushed when he saw the attention focused on him.

Seino thought the action amazingly cute. Cute—a word he never would have ascribed to a bad-tempered warrior like Jericho. “What did you find?”

“Sorceress. I can smell her clear as day. But at home, I couldn’t scent a thing. You can’t tell?”

Seino forced his gaze from Jericho’s broad chest and concentrated on the empty bed of grass, over which Jericho stood. He frowned. “Nothing. I sense nothing here. Even my birds cannot see this magic. The test will be to walk your lands and look there for the enemy.”

Weir swore. “The Dark Walker sees what we cannot. I must warn the king. Prophecy is at hand once more.”

“Fucking prophecy. It’s all bullshit.” Jericho stood tall and crossed his arms over his chest, pretending not to care about his nudity. Yet he refused to meet Seino’s gaze. Instead, he focused on Weir. “You. You’re leader of this group, right?”

Weir nodded and bowed in deference. “Dark Walker. It’s an honour.” Jericho frowned, but before he could say anything, Weir continued, “Our king has been warned of the danger we will not be able to see. That you’ve come to help us gives us great hope, and great concern.”