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Everything about the introduction felt awkward, but I sent her a warm smile and looked back to Jericho. “Can I speak with you for a second?”
Nodding, he turned toward Anya. “Would you be so kind as to get both of them settled. And see to it they have what they need for a proper bath.”
“Of course, Master Van Croix.” With a jerk of her head, Anya led the two strangers up the staircase, and I trailed my gaze after the young girl, who smiled as she eyed me warily on passing.
Once they had ascended to the upper level, Jericho jerked his head for me to accompany him and took the lead toward his office. We rounded the corner, and he pushed through the door, heading straight for the liquor tray. He tossed his cape over his chair and poured himself a glass of a strange, glowing red liquor with white bubbles and thick white steam gathered inside the glass, reminding me of something found in a mad scientist’s lab.
With a confused frown, I studied the unusual liquid as I took my seat, momentarily distracted from my earlier irritation. It wasn’t until he sank half the drink back in one swig and gave his head a rough shake, as though it’d burned going down, that I finally broke from my spell.
He held up the glass, tipping it a bit, and I noticed the bubbles intensifying, as if the drink were boiling hot. “Chthoniac. The most infernal liquor that ever existed. One sip would probably kill a human.”
Jesus. He’d just downed half of it in one gulp. I shook my head of the thought. “What is this? You said a bodyguard. And now an attendant? Jericho, I don’t need an attendant.”
“They were going to have her sent to the higher-ranking demons to be raped and consumed.”
“What?” I blurted out and cleared my throat. “Are you serious?”
“She’s a living soul, much like you. Which means, they would’ve made sport of it and reveled in the spoils.”
“How? I mean, I wasn’t supposed to have survived the tea that Xhiphias gave me, right? That was some weird, reincarnation special deal, wasn’t it? How is she living?”
He swallowed back another sip of his drink, that time without so much as a twitch of his nose. “I suspect that she has the ability to astral project.”
“Astral project?”
“Her body remains on earth, while her consciousness crosses planes.”
“So, she’s not physically here?”
“No one isphysicallyhere, except you, me and Vaszhago.”
“So, can’t she go back across planes?”
“Theoretically, yes. I’m not sure why she’d choose to stay and face the punishment of becoming an imprisoned lord’s plaything. And meal.”
Something seemed off. The man had thrown a fit when I’d first arrived at the cathedral begging to be taken in. Suddenly, he was okay with a shady criminal girl?
With a slow shake of my head, I watched him pour another drink. “You’re careful. Too careful. What makes you trust her?”
He sighed, taking another swill of the red bubbly. “Only that I know the integrity of her kind. She was willing to bind herself to you through blood.”
“What? Why would she do that?”
“I’d imagine to save her ass from Infernium, to where she was bound. I believe she’s Dra’Akon. They’re demon slayers whose bloodline goes back centuries.”
The longer I stayed in Nightshade, the more I began to realize my father had only just scratched the surface of this world and all its complexities that went beyond simply angels and demons. Demonslayers? That sounded like something out of a video game.
“I was trained by one as a young boy. Though I suppose we won’t know the extent of her skills until she actually slays a demon.”
“This doesn’t make sense. You and Vaszhago are demons. Why would she go with you? Or trust you, for that matter?”
With a slight shrug, he slid his empty glass onto the desk. “It’s possible she could be here to kill me, or Vaszhago. But whether that’s true, or not, I know for certain that above all else, she would protectyou. Her calling is to guard humans. And that’s all that matters to me.”
There it was–exactly as I suspected. The man wouldn’t have brought a stranger into the house, unless it meant yet another layer of protection to the thick shield he’d begun to build around me. “You think she would try to kill you?”
“Technically, the blood binding won’t allow it, unless I attempt to harm you.”
The man had an answer for everything. “You really bought the whole entourage, huh?”
