Aftermath Read Online Free

bargain bin variety. That didn’t stop him from putting off more than his fair share of arrogance.
    “You want slaves and sycophants,” he said. “The same as these fools who held us captive.” He waved to the bunker. “I will not grovel before you simply because you decided it was in your best interest to—”
    “Then feel free to stick around, chump,” another chimed in, obviously a demon given the sour tang wafting off his essence. He shook his head and put some space between himself and the Nephilim as if the closeness offended him. “Our masked provider clearly didn’t come here for your sorry ass so be grateful to be included in the breakout and keep your yappy mouth shut.”
    The Nephilim sneered but there was no doubt the truth of the demon’s words. The longer I sat there feeling the ping of their essences, the more I realized it wasn’t really the whole group I was registering but just one of them; one that was overpowering the essence of all the rest.
    My gaze zeroed in on an old man sniffing about the edge of the group. He looked to be two thousand if he was a day old. Hunched and frail looking, he appeared weighed down by the world. Long gray hair hung past his ass in ratty, dreadlocked waves. His beard was entangled with his hair and hung almost to his waist. Families of birds would kill for a nest that lush. What I could see of his face was weathered and wrinkled, pale and lined, but his eyes stood out as if they were black wells dug into his skull. Darkness whirled in their depths.
    And both of those eyes looked straight at me.
    “Who have we here…here…here?” he called out, and I recognized the voice as the same one who’d sounded like Chatterbox earlier. The rest of the group stiffened and followed his obvious stare to where I was hiding. “I sense such confusion in you, child. A trace of the Christ sprinkled atop a sour heaping of the Devil and a dash of humanity on top of it all. How interesting you are.”
    I groaned and gave up any pretense of staying out of sight, standing so they could see me without making myself too much of a target. “Sounds yummy, old timer, but I think your sense of smell is a little off.” Despite my lie the demon had caught the barest whiff of me and pegged the lineage of my power without effort. That didn’t bode well seeing how neither Daddy Dearest nor Longinus made a habit of leaving behind people who didn’t want some form of vengeance or another. That shit always seemed to fall on my shoulders.
    He smiled, yellow teeth poking through the chaos of his beard as he stroked it. For all his power, though, he seemed timid enough on the surface. The man in the mask, however, let loose a feral growl.
    “Fate has a morbid sense of humor it seems, Hellspawn.” He stepped past the old man and puffed his chest out. “However, if you have come to stop us you are too late.”
    “Don’t you worry your secretive little head about it, buddy. I left my good Samaritan badge at home.” I raised my hands in surrender. “Just out sightseeing and stumbled across your little Pow Wow by accident. I’ve no beef with any of you.” Of course that had more to do with the fact that I was hungover and was seriously outnumbered than anything else. Calhoun, Buford, the Lieutenant, and all the others deserved retribution for what happened to them, but I really wasn’t in a position to provide it right then.
    Masked boy chuckled. “I’d argue the contrary but we’ve no time for semantics.” Though the balaclava muffled his voice there was something vaguely familiar about the way he spoke, his mannerisms. I didn’t have a clue who he was but he apparently knew me despite the wild hair and scraggly beard obscuring my features. It was damn annoying.
    “How about you take the mask off and we can chat face to face,” I said, stepping out from behind the clump of trees, hoping to get a better look at him while teasing a hint of my power. The element of surprise was long