gone at that point so what did it matter?
The smile fell from the old man’s face and was replaced by some awe-inspiring fury that came out of nowhere. He started forward, magic flaring at his fingertips, ready to scrap. Masked boy grabbed him by the scruff and pulled him away like he was a recalcitrant child. “Kalar, Jazl, Aluceel, deal with this would-be upstart,” he shouted and pushed through his followers, dragging the angry old man with him. “The rest of you with me if you value your continued freedom.”
“Gladly.” The mouthy Nephilim stepped forward. His power unfurled as shimmering golden wings, the manifestation of his magic essence coming to the fore. He was definitely more angel than human to pull that stunt off, but he still wasn’t much more than the runt of the litter. “I’ve been waiting over a year to stretch my wings.”
“Is that what you call those limp things on your back?” Scarlett’s wings were twice their size when she was just a toddler. I was pretty sure her balls were bigger then too. “I’m sure there’s a pill for that.”
Two more Nephilim moved to circle me while I bantered with the first; Kalar I presumed. Neither of the other two had his looks or attitude but they seemed to pack about the same level of power as their mouthy leader, which was fine by me. While the alcohol and drugs had been scoured from my system by the blast and subsequent walk across the ruined city, I’d been going at it pretty hard the last several months. Outside of the shield I’d summoned, I hadn’t let my magic out for a walk since I’d run away from Hell. There was no telling how it would respond given all I’d been doing to myself of late.
Masked boy must have decided to err on the side of caution or he simply had better things to do. He and the others stood close to one another while the old man’s magic welled up. I got a menacing farewell glare from the guy, and then they were all gone, the group having teleported away.
“Guess it’s just the four of us then,” I said, turning my attention back to the Nephilim as they surrounded me.
“Not for long, demon.” Kalar pulled back his fist as energy coalesced about it, tiny bolts of lightning glistening across the knuckles. His pals drew upon their magic and made ready to follow his lead. “Soon it will just be—”
I figured then was as good a time as any to test my power. To my relief, it fired up without issue.
Kalar went to swing but my shot got there first. He grunted as my fist collided with his sternum. There was a loud crack when his ribs gave way and my magically enhanced punch ripped through him. It burst from between his shoulder blades like a directionally challenged alien. His eyes went wide and crimson bubbled between his pale lips.
I didn’t bother waiting for him to die before I pulled my arm free of his torso and whipped it around behind me, trailing Kalar’s blood in a wet arc. My will sharpened the blood into a scythe of red razors that cleaved through the necks of the other Nephilim before they’d taken so much as two steps toward me. Their bodies toppled to the charred earth, heads spinning away, and I let momentum turn me around so I was face to face with Kalar once more. Blood spilled from his mouth and trailed down his chin.
“You were saying?”
He gurgled something I couldn’t make out and collapsed, sinking bonelessly to the ground with the last of his life leaking from the hole in his chest cavity.
“That’s what I thought.”
Of course that was when it hit me that I should have kept one of them alive to question. I still had no clue who they were or why they were there in the first place. Shoulders hunched I headed for the door of the bunker, shaking the blood from my hand. If I was gonna get any answers I’d have to get them on my own.
The stairwell beyond the doorway was dark and cool and empty. A second door similar to the first lay on its side on the landing about 100 steps down, torn