Hellsbane Hereafter by Paige Cuccaro Read Free Book Online Page A

describing dark handsome strangers they’ve already met is pretty easy. The fact that I can read the dark handsome stranger’s mind, too, just means I can actually give helpful advice.
    But since demons and Fallen might drop by my house whenever, I decided it was probably best to move my business somewhere less demonically accessible.
    I parked my Jeep Wrangler three spots down from the Isle of You Hair Salon & Consciousness Exploration Café on Butler Street. It was kind of a rundown area but on the rise, even more so since a local celeb had moved in.
    The shop wasn’t mine, at least not the hair salon part. It belonged to a good friend, Sadie, who I’d met at a trade show years ago. There were two things about Sadie that proved our arrangement was a match made in Heaven. One, she had awesome skills at picking business names, and two, she was Wiccan.
    Sadie was a sweet, charismatic platinum blonde who’d said yes before I finished the question: can I do readings in your shop’s back—
    Hell, she’d already protected the place with spells and hung mirrored balls at every door and window to ward off evil before I’d even thought about moving my business there. It was perfect. Plus, Sadie was totally open to all things supernatural, despite having never actually seen any evidence. She didn’t blink an eye when I told her my house was being visited by demons. She just sent me home with some herbs, candles, and a cleansing spell then offered to help kick the bastards to the curb on the weekend after her coven’s drumming ritual. Sadie rocked .
    I had my hand on the doorknob to the shop when a freakishly hard wind kicked up, pounding at my back. I glanced over my shoulder into the gated parking lot of the Allegheny Valley Bank across the street. A giant eddy of dust and debris spun around the half-empty lot, triggering car alarms, bending the little tree on the sidewalk, and rattling the tall iron fence. It wasn’t random.
    I could see the angels battling at the center of the wind funnel, moving so fast they were a blur to human eyes. I didn’t need my illorum senses to know one was a Fallen and the other a seraph. Battles like this had been breaking out all over the city, all over the world, for months, ever since the war restarted.
    Thankfully, the news reported them as weather phenomena like microbursts brought on by global warming, freaky jet stream currents, El Niño , La Niña, or whatever. There was always a logical explanation.
    Instinct stirred inside me, my palm tingling for the leather-wrapped handle of my sword. I should go help, get involved like Tommy had said in my dream, do something. But for which side? I’d managed to avoid getting sucked into any fights since I’d started taking orders from Jukar. But my luck would run out sooner or later. It always did. And then I’d have to choose.
    My brain screamed at me to get inside before the angels noticed me, but everything illorum inside me, everything that was warrior, held me to the spot. The creatures battling in the parking lot were captivating, even in the throes of a deadly fight. I couldn’t look away.
    Gleaming hair the color of ripe plums fanned out like the petals of a flower as the seraph spun, swinging his sword, attacking then defending. The bright, unearthly shade and the white, karate-style Gi uniform were all further clues that he’d come to Earth for no other purpose but to fight the Fallen. The bare feet were a pretty big tip, too. Most seraphim who’d only come to Earth to fight weren’t the slightest bit concerned with Earthly trappings. They didn’t give a thought to blending in. Not that they had to. Humans just didn’t seem to notice them.
    The other angel was the total opposite. A Fallen could either live in seclusion or become as human as angelically possible. His business-short, sandstone-brown hair and his neatly fitting suit only added to the average-Joe impression.
    There was no humanizing the long and deadly sharp