Sean (SJ) (Valens Heritage Book 2), page 1
Sean (SJ)
Published by Jan Stryvant
Copyright 2021 Jan Stryvant
Copyright Jan Stryvant 2021
Cover Credits: eBook Launch (http://ebooklaunch.com/)
No part of this eBook may be reproduced in any form without expressed, written consent from the author. The material in this story may feature graphic depictions of a sexual or adult nature and is intended for a mature audience only. All characters in this story are fictional and of the legal age of consent for any activities they engage in. For those who are extremely sensitive to stupid crap, the role of Mihalis was played by forty-two year old Mark Levin, on loan from PPP studios. So there. Any resemblance between characters, places, or things in this story, and people living or dead, actual places, or events, is purely coincidental. It's fiction; I made it up.
License Notes
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be copied and given away, or copied and sold, to other people. Got that? No copying, please! If you would like to share this book with another person, it would be really nice if you purchased an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use, please consider purchasing your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
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Jan Stryvant Books:
The Valens Legacy:
Black Friday Book 1
Perfect Strangers Book 2
Over Our Heads Book 3
Head Down Book 4
When It Falls Book 5
Stand On It Book 6
Vegas Rules Book 7
Desperate Measures Book 8
Secret Treaties Book 9
It Ain't Easy Book 10
Red Skies Book 11
Demon Days Book 12
Simple Things Book 13
Trying Times Book 14
Firestarter Book 15
Times Like These Book 16
No Regrets Book 17
Everyday, Including Holidays Book 18
Wives Tales Books 1, 2, 3, & 4
(Assorted Short Stories)
The Valens Heritage:
Mihalis Book 1
Sean Book 2
Dan's Inferno:
Cursed! Book 1
BeDeviled Book 2
Heritage Book 3
Vengeance Book 4
Shadow
Table of Contents
Start
Maintaining An Even Strain
In The Quietest Moments
Press Play
Family Ties
One Day at a Time
Back to Work
Hell to Pay
Now What?
Unexpected Gifts
A Brand New Day
Quick, Painless, and Easy
Bait
Ready to Go
Right Here, Right Now
Gathering Storm Clouds
Hold The Line
Composure
An Unexpected Development
Fire on the High
High Point
Afterword
Start
SJ was sitting up front in the second van with Demon, who was the team leader. Technically he was now in 'charge' of all the teams, but his father had made it clear to him that he was very much on probation. He still remembered that little argument! At twenty-one, his father had been leading a revolution with a hell of a lot less training than he, SJ, had.
"That may be," his father had admitted, "but I had the First in my head, and if you think I can be an asshole, trust me, Sean, I ain't got nothing on him!"
SJ had had to relent on that one. He knew his grandfather, the First, well enough, and had heard enough stories from Sampson, his step-grandfather, to know that, yes, no one could be a bigger ass than the First. He ruled with an iron fist and could be quite unforgiving.
Still, there were times it chafed—but at least his father was honest with him about it. He'd told SJ more than once that giving up control wasn't easy for him after all these years, and it wasn't so much that he was worried his son would fuck up as that he was worried he might be expecting too much and something bad might happen to SJ.
He'd heard some of the stories from his mom, as well as Mom Jo and Sampson. His father really had been thrown in the deep end and expected to swim.
But what his father didn't seem to understand was, as his oldest son, SJ was constantly having to fight to prove to everyone that he was qualified to follow in his father's footsteps. He'd done two years in the infantry out at the forts, learning to fight djevels and lead soldiers.
Oh, he and his dad had had a few literal knockdown, drag-outs over that! Especially when he'd asked to be sent to the fort with the most fighting and casualties. His mom had actually come in to dad's office, smacked him upside the head, and told him to let his son do what he was meant to do. He'd never seen his father look so embarrassed, before or since.
He'd wisely kept his mouth shut about it, as well. His mom, Roxy, and Mom Daelyn were probably the only two out there who could shut his father down in a heartbeat when he was angry. The others could talk him down or get him to see things their way—eventually—but with those two, the effects were always immediate.
"So, worried about your brother at all?" Demon asked as their van turned into the 'prep' area.
SJ shook his head. "The only reason I'm not taking him inside with us is because our father put that 'eighteen years old' limit on the teams. Mike's got all his mom's talents, and she and Estrella trained the hell out of him."
"Yeah, but he's always so quiet and subdued."
"Yup, like I said, he takes after his mom. I mean really, Demon, who'd you rather face in a sword fight, Cali or Dad?"
"Ummm… Neither?"
"Just because he's a lot more chill than I am, don't think he can't kick-ass in a fight. He's just embraced the whole dark elf philosophy."
"Which is?"
"Don't lose control; you might kill fewer people if you do."
Demon gave him a look. "Seriously?"
"Estrella spent a thousand years learning the sword; Cali mastered it in I think twenty? And I do mean mastered it. I'm sure you've seen Alska and Celeste fight; well, I've seen Mike take them both on. He really loves fighting. He can't wait to be allowed onto the teams."
"It's just weird seeing a lion who's so…sedate?"
SJ snorted. "Mtawala and Nguvu are not typical."
"Oh? And what about you?"
"Too much time being corrupted by Mat and Nug, that's what!" SJ said with a grin. "Look, don't worry about Mike; he's staying back with the vehicles, anyway. I just brought him along so he could get an idea of what he's going to be dealing with in a couple months when he turns eighteen.
"Now, let's get everyone out of the vans, head on over, and see what we're dealing with today."
SJ opened the door and got out as their driver shut off the van, the local scouts already getting out of the van they'd followed there. SJ checked his equipment and made sure he had his sword in the right spot. Sitting in those car seats always caused it to slide out of position. The fae swords were wider than the sleek, katana-like blade his dark elf brother and sisters carried, and he preferred the bigger fae swords. He found the magic in them to be a lot more useful, and that was what he'd trained with since he was a child.
He watched as Demon went over the op with the team, and then went over to his brother Mihalis, who was staying back with the vans.
"Demon doesn't have a problem with my being here, does he?" Mihalis asked in a low voice.
"Nope. I just made you ride in one of the other vans so we could talk shit about you the whole way here!" SJ said with a grin.
Mihalis snorted. "This is like the tenth one I've gone with you on. How much longer before I get to go inside?"
"Until either you turn eighteen, or I'm willing to lie to Dad," SJ said with a laugh. "But yeah, I get it. I was chomping at the bit when I was your age as well. Hell, Dad almost made me wait until I was twenty-one, but Mom talked to him. Just be happy I've got him all nice and broken in for ya!"
"It just annoys me that I can beat Mat and Nug in a fight, but Dad still wants me to wait. Hell, they were going out when they were sixteen!"
SJ sighed and nodded. "Trust me, I had the same argument with Dad in fact, that was when I first tried to punch him."
"And missed," Mihalis teased.
"True, but I got him the next time! Still, Mat and Nug are tens of thousands of years old. Once they reconnected with their memories, it wouldn't have been fair to treat them like children anymore."
"I think Dad was just afraid they'd teach Troy more of their tricks."
SJ laughed. "Yeah, that too. Anyway, I need to go. Keep an eye out. It's rare that anything happens out here, but if it does, I can't afford to lose the drivers I'm leaving here with you."
"What, not worried about me?" Mihalis asked with a smirk.
"You're too pretty to die," SJ teased, then dodged his brother's playful swipe. Turning, he trotted over to Demon and the two local scouts who would be taking them over to the infestation. They'd gotten the report last night and flown out this morning, then been briefed at the local 'Bryson's Automotive', and waited for midnight before heading out.
"Now, you guys are sure this is just a small one, right?" he asked in a soft voice as they carefully followed the scouts in single file.
"A dozen, tops. We know they've got one possessed, a råge, a few bonde, and the rest are all gnashers and the small ones, the diamondbacks."
"What's the worry?" the other scout asked.
"I'm the only magic user today, our usual one is down with the flu, and I'd rather be up front fighting than standing in the back lobbing spells."
"Well, don't worry. We had more than enough time to get a good, long look at these guys before you were called in. They were such a small group, the intel folks wanted us to see if we could figure out where they were coming from, but after a week, there weren't any more of them, and they were startin' to range out after humans."
SJ just nodded and motioned for him to lead on, and they passed the next hundred yards in relative silence. When they got to where they were going, he saw that it was an old, collapsed barn, just as they'd been told in the briefing earlier. Going around to the side, he saw there was a concrete stairway leading down to a tornado shelter that had been built under the barn.
"That door looks new," Demon said, looking back at two of the members of the team, who immediately ran up, put four small cone-shaped charges on it, hooked the wires on them together, then clipped them to a small device, and ran back.
"Hit it!" Demon growled, and there was a loud 'BANG', then the door disintegrated, flying inward.
SJ was the first down the stairs, with Stu and Chet right behind him, side by side. Demon and Carli were next, then came the rest of the team, stacked in pairs.
The moment he stepped into the room, SJ cast a one-way light spell, which was meant to temporarily blind those on the receiving end, while at the same time lighting them up for the attackers.
SJ targeted the possessed first and took him down with a short burst from this rifle, then worked his way left, stepping just far enough into the room to let the others fan out to the sides. Stu started on the far left and Chet on the right, and by the time two more had come into the room and SJ moved forward so they could assume their typical fighting positions, all the djevels were dead.
"What the hell?" the scout said, coming into the room last. "Quick, get a head count!"
"Why?" Chet asked.
"I don't see the råge or any of the bonde!"
"There's two gnashers and six diamondbacks," Demon said, looking around the room. "Stu, Chet, Carli, search the room; Frank, Hale, and Dia, cover them. The rest of you, back upstairs, we need to prepare an ambush for when they return."
They'd just gotten to the top of the stairs and were looking around when one of the drivers came over on comms.
"We got djevels!" he called.
"How many?" SJ called as he ran back to where they'd parked.
"Six? Me and Slav are pulling back!"
"What about Mike?" SJ called over the radio.
"He just killed the råge…and one of the bonde…no, both of the…damn! There's like one left…nope, he killed that one, too!"
As he trotted up, he saw Mihalis changing magazines on his rifle.
"Damn! You didn't leave any for the rest of us, Mike!" Demon laughed as he joined them in the clearing.
Mihalis shrugged. "There was only six of them, not like there were enough to go around."
SJ sighed and shook his head. "Well, let's backtrack 'em and see if we can figure out what they were up to. Demon, we'll call you if we find anything. Come on, Mike."
"You want me to go?" Mihalis said, looking happy all of a sudden.
"I only promised Dad not to take you inside on the op. I never said anything about cleanup," SJ said with a grin.
Slinging their weapons, they both shifted into lions and loped off into the night.
"Way to go, you two," the lead scout growled, looking at the other two drivers.
"What'd we do?"
"You got out-shot and out-manned by a seventeen-year-old. That's what you did."
"But he's a lion!"
"And you knew that when you two panicked and he was dropping bodies?"
"Ummm…"
"Yeah, you're both going to be doing a ton of remedial training this week. You should have at the very least been backing the kid up."
"We didn't have time! He was way too fast!" the other one grumbled.
The scout just sighed and looked at Demon, who grinned.
"That was a nice piece of work you did back there," SJ said to Mihalis as they walked back to the vans. They'd found where the djevels had gone, but there hadn't been any bodies there, so they'd turned around and headed back.
"Thanks," Mihalis said, ducking his leonine head in a nod. "I felt it when I killed the råge. Even a little bit when I killed those bonde."
"Yeah, the bigger they are, the more you get. With anything bigger than a ridder, you'll often get some of their memories or knowledge—not that it lasts long. Mom said it was different in the other realm."
"Yeah, Esti told me about it once, what it was like over there. I'm just surprised it still happens. They can't go home, so they die here, right? That's what Dad says at least."
"Has to do with why we were created. Dad mentioned it once. We're the only things on Earth that can eat a soul, and the only souls we can eat are djevels."
"Why's that?"
"He told me that's a conversation for when we're older. A lot older. Apparently it's one of those F1 things."
"Well you're an F2, and according to those lionesses, I'm an F3, so I guess that lets us out."
"Oh, I think Dad'll tell us eventually. Now, let's get in the vans, go back to Bryson's, get some food, clean up, and see if our ride is ready to take us back home."
"Thanks for bringing me, Sean."
"Don't thank me; those two you were with panicked. If you hadn't been there, it would have been a mess!"
"Oh, please. There was only six of 'em!"
"Dad once told me the first time he saw a bonde, he damn near freaked. No, it was a big deal. Your first solo fight, and you didn't even hesitate. Your mom is going to be proud. Hell, I bet Dad'll even be proud!"
He watched as Mihalis smiled. His younger brother hadn't been doing as much of that these days as he used to. He and Mike were Dad's only two lion sons; Mtawala and Nguvu—'Mat and Nug', as he called them—really didn't count, being reincarnates. So in the last few years, he and Mike had gravitated towards each other and become close. It didn't help that all Mike's full sibs were girls; even all Deidre's kids were girls, so Mike had ended up the only dark elf boy in the family. He was also the only single male lion offspring of their father's, since SJ had taken Dania and Rania as his wives.
There were a lot of lionesses hot for their father, and while he'd enjoyed it a little, he didn't miss it now that they were gone. He'd told Mike more than once that he needed to get a non-lion girlfriend. He kept hoping he'd take the advice.
The trip back to the automotive shop was quick. Everyone showered, then ate while they were debriefed, not that there was much of one. Mike got a standing round of applause for his first confirmed kills, as well as for keeping the vans from getting trashed. Folks on the teams really didn't care what you were, as long as you pulled your own weight. Turnover on the teams could be pretty vicious at times.
An hour before sunrise, their Goshawk picked them up from the roof, and it was back to Carson City.
When they got back to base, Mihalis stopped him as they were getting off the plane.
"You're not going to tell him, are you?"
"Tell him what?"
"That I was in combat?"
"Your killing a couple of djevels that just happened to walk by hardly counts as combat, Mike. All my report will say is that the team guarding the vans shot a couple of stray djevels after the fight was over. Don't worry about it."
"Thanks, SJ."
"You should go hang with the rest of the team, let them get used to seeing your face."
"Eh, Rose wants me to come by when I'm back."
"Mike, are they really worth it? Seriously, those lionesses aren't relationship material."
Mihalis sighed. "Unfortunately, it seems like none of the lycan girls around here are interested in me."
SJ shook his head; that couldn't be right. Whenever he got away from the clutches of the lionesses who were all so hot for 'Sean Junior', the lycan girls were definitely interested in him.
"Maybe if you stayed away from them more, the others would think they had a chance?"
