Hellsbane Hereafter by Paige Cuccaro Read Free Book Online

word, if only for an instant, before he shut down the slip of emotion. Too late. I kept my satisfied grin on the inside.
    I knew how much he hated the term gibborim . Eli had coined it before his fall as a way to refer to any illorum who’d turned against the seraphim to fight for Jukar and the Fallen. Gibborim had become a kind of derogatory term. And once we realized Jukar was offering swords to nephilim triggering their power, the name stretched to include them as well.
    Triggering a nephilim’s power was something only archangels could do. The archangel Michael had started doing it forever ago, handing out a piece of himself, fashioning it into swords for each illorum. Through his power, the swords intensified the illorum’s instincts to hunt and kill their Fallen fathers. Jukar figured out he could do the same thing, only he refocused that hunter’s instinct against seraphim.
    “Because it’s not time.” Jukar pushed to his feet and strode the few steps to the wet bar behind his desk.
    I checked my watch, then looked back at him. “Huh?”
    Jukar used tongs to plop one huge ice cube into a thick crystal glass, then poured two fingers worth of scotch on top. “There’s still more the boy must experience as a simple human. It’s too soon for him to discover the truth about his parentage, about his power.” He twisted to offer up the heavy bottle to Eli and me. “Would you like some?”
    Eli totally ignored the offer, and I shook my head. I was too wigged out by Jukar’s protective daddy routine. It wasn’t a good color on him. “Right. Well, as much as I’d love to babysit the little bro, I’ve got a life. In fact, I have a client coming in about half an hour, and I still have to open the shop. So…”
    “This wasn’t a request, Emma Jane.” Daddy Dearest took a quick sip of his drink while strolling back to his desk. “You will protect this young man, or I will not protect those you love.”
    Love? The bastard didn’t know the meaning of the word. “I have to make a living, Jukar. I can’t be with this kid twenty-four-seven.”
    “That won’t be necessary.” Jukar lowered elegantly into his chair and leaned back, satisfied. “I’ve positioned others to guard his daily activities and report back. But I need someone stronger, more powerful, for him to call if the situation becomes dire.”
    I looked to Eli, and he shrugged. “Your half brother. It would be interesting to meet him.”
    I thought so, too. I sighed, pushing to my feet. “Fine. I’ll be his on-call bodyguard.”
    “Wonderful.” Jukar stood, and Eli followed suit. “He’s expecting you tomorrow. I wouldn’t go before noon. The boys tend to sleep late.”
    “Right.” I remembered those days. “What am I supposed to tell him? I mean, I can’t tell him I’m his sister.”
    The archangel smiled, and I could feel it like a wash of sunlight over my chest. I sucked a quick breath and looked away, fighting to keep my reaction to a minimum.
    “You’re his new landlord.” With one quick tip of his glass, Jukar finished his drink and set the thick tumbler on his desk with a hard clonk. “You own the house.”
    “Seriously? I mean, literally? You put the house in my name?”
    “Yes.”
    Awesome! “Oh. Okay. Y’know, whatever.”
    Maturity, it’s a one-step-forward-two-steps-back process.
    …
    I used to meet clients in my home, and then I had to invite Heaven’s most wanted through the front door. Thanks, Dad.
    Being an intuitive, consciousness explorer, otherwise known as a psychic, came sort of naturally. My empathic ability to feel other people’s emotions had gotten me started in the field, but as my illorum powers grew, so did the quality of my readings. I’d built a solid reputation that had gained me at least local celebrity status. Which basically meant I never had to wait for a table at the T.G.I. Fridays in White Oak. Woot!
    When you can read people’s thoughts, predicting trips they’re already planning or