CHAPTER SIXTEEN

CHAPTER SIXTEENLeigh and Jace landed and released the new girl, who started swinging at pretty much everybody, missed everybody, then went and vomited in a clump of trees.That was two times Erin had been forced to watch this woman throw up. Was that a medical problem? Should Kera see a doctor?Once Kera was all vomited out, Tessa handed her a bandanna from her back pocket to wipe her mouth.“You okay?”“Fuck off.”“Calm down. Letting Leigh and Jace carry you was the easiest way to get you here.”Kera stepped in close to Tessa. “Could they not have carried me from the ground in the same manner, rather than you throwing me off a building and hoping they caught me?”“Probably. But this was more fun.” She held up a small tin canister. “Mint?”Kera snatched the tin, took two mints, and threw it back at Tessa.Erin didn’t know why Kera was so pissed. It wasn’t like they’d flown her all the way to the Valley or something. In fact, they were still in Malibu at Solstice Canyon in the Santa Monica Mountains. They were barely in the air ten minutes. So why she was freaking out, Erin didn’t know.Tessa motioned everyone to come close. “This should be an easy job. We’re after a necklace held by thirteen women. Easy-peasy.”“How did you find out about it?” Kera asked.“Chloe gave us the job.”“How does she know?”“Skuld told her.”“Does she appear to her? Like the burning bush did to Moses?”Tessa blinked. “My father was a stone-cold atheist, so your babble is meaningless to me.”“You didn’t see the movie The Ten Commandments?”“With Charlton Heston? I love that movie!”“Yeah, well, the burning bush stuff was in there.”“Does any of this really matter . . . to anyone . . . but you?” Erin finally asked, flashes of her Catholic school education coming back to haunt her.“I like to know where your information is coming from,” Kera answered. “Wouldn’t you like to know that?”“I don’t care. I never care. I just do my job.”“You know, Kera does have a point,” Annalisa cut in.“Does she?”“The other night we all left the house based on information we got from Chloe, and the Killers used it to raid the place.”“What happened doesn’t change the fact that the information was good.”“Shut up,” Tessa said calmly. “Everybody just shut up. We have a job to do, and we’re going to just do it. Understand? Now let’s go.”They followed the scent of burning incense and patchouli oil.As they approached, they could see figures through the trees. It was a coven. All women. Thirteen. Many of them naked. Unfortunately.The team crouched behind some boulders and Maeve shook her head. “They have a campfire . . . it’s wildfire season. That is so reckless!”“Really?” Erin asked. “That’s your big concern?”“This is how things get out of hand!” Maeve shot back.“Would you two stop it?” Tessa asked. She pulled out her weapons. “Okay. On my count . . . kill everybody. Get the necklace. Three, two—”“Wait!” Kera stared at Tessa. “Kill them? They’re a bunch of hippy witches.”“And the one in the long robe is wearing the necklace.”“So we take it from her and leave. Why do we need to kill anybody?”“I told you!” Leigh accused. “I told you she was going to choke when the time came.”“I’m not choking. I think I’m being reasonable. For all we know, she picked up that necklace in a pawnshop or antique store.”“The reason we’re here,” Erin said, “is because they’ve used that necklace. Not simply because someone’s worn it.”“Yeah. They used it. To dance in circles under a full moon and call on some pagan gods. This isn’t exactly world-ending behavior.”Leigh began to argue that point but Tessa held up her hand. “Calm down, hear her out.”“I’m just saying, I don’t think they’ll put up much of a fight. I don’t think it’s necessary to go in there and massacre thirteen women to retrieve a fucking necklace.”“Okay. What would you suggest we do instead?”Watson watched the women for a bit, then said, “They’re high.”“So?”She looked back at Tessa and repeated, “They’re high. Let’s use that to our benefit.”“How?”Kera looked over the entire team, her gaze finally settling on Alessandra. “You. You can get the necklace. I bet they’ll just give it to you.”“What makes you say that?”“You’re a beautiful Mexican woman with long curly blond hair. You’ve got otherworldly written all over you.”“Oh honey, thanks,” Alessandra gushed, and the rest of them rolled their eyes. “I usually go with a lighter brown, but my stylist Gino suggested the blond a few weeks ago and I’m so glad I went with it!”“Are you done?” Tessa asked. She pointed at the twirling women singing along to an old Loreena McKennitt song. “See if you can get the necklace from them please.”“I’m on it.”“Flying in would probably work better,” Kera suggested.Alessandra laughed and nodded, unleashed her wings, and shot off.“They even show a twitch of putting up a fight,” Tessa warned, “and we kill every last one of them.”“Again . . . seems excessive,” Kera muttered, “but okay.” 

The Ravens didn’t have a favorite weapon the way the Crows and Giant Killers did. Instead, they were trained from childhood to handle every possible edge or blunt weapon that they might come in contact with. They were also trained how to unarm anyone. That way they could take someone else’s weapon and kill them with it. If they couldn’t unarm their prey, they were also taught to turn things into weapons. Chairs, glass, TVs. Anything could be used to kill.And Vig Rundstöm was a master at all of that.More important, he kind of enjoyed it. He enjoyed battle. He enjoyed taking on a true challenger. If he had to give fighting up for some reason, world peace or whatever, he could. But since world peace was probably not on the horizon anytime soon, he allowed himself to enjoy his current job.Vig caught the forearm that had been trying to thrust a sword into him, twisted that forearm until bone fractured, blood spurting out of the open wound he’d created. Using that arm, Vig lifted his prey up and over, slamming him into the floor. He rammed his foot against his enemy’s throat and pulled at the arm he still held. The hand and part of the forearm tore off, so he tossed it aside and grabbed what was left. He pulled until he’d torn it out of the socket. His prey was screaming, of course, but Vig had learned a long time ago not to even hear all that. What was the point? It wasn’t going to stop him.It probably seemed as if he was heartless, but these people deserved no sympathy. No quarter for what they’d done.Vig had no time, no patience, for these people.It was bad enough they’d stolen a ring of Odin’s. But in an attempt to make the ring “active,” they’d taken young boys off the streets for sacrifice. They’d already strapped down one by the time the Ravens had arrived, ready to tear the kid’s heart out. It was something that bothered Vig greatly.Which was why he was making his prey suffer so.Nothing pissed him off more than harming innocents. And when he said innocents, he didn’t mean just virgins or babies. He meant anyone who wasn’t part of this life. For Vig, “innocents” could be well-used street hookers. But being hookers didn’t mean they deserved cruel deaths and tormented souls for eternity. Not to Vig.But taking kids . . . nothing was lower in his book. Absolutely nothing.To show his high level of loathing, he slammed his foot down again and again until his prey’s face was no more than a pulpy mess with a caved-in skull.Breathing heavily, Vig turned and found his teammates watching him.“What?”“We were done five minutes ago,” Stieg informed him. “We’ve been waiting for you.”“What do we do with the kids?” Siggy asked.“We take them to their homes.”“They’re not babies and they’ve seen us. They’ve seen our faces.”Vig walked over to his teammate until they were nose to nose. “And your point?” he asked as he stared directly into Siggy’s eyes.“No point. Just stating a fact . . . you know . . . before we get these little tots home! Yeah. Let’s get them home right now!”Siggy quickly walked around him and began to let the boys out of the cages they’d been kept in.After Stieg rolled his eyes, something he always felt necessary to do, he went to help Siggy. Rolf, however, was busy staring at the altar.Vig stepped up next to him. “What is it?”“Runes.”“Is it a Clan’s altar?”“No. I think these idiots made it themselves.”Vig studied his friend. He knew when Rolf was analyzing. It’s what he did. In battle and business. He analyzed.Rolf could also read runes. Not just read them like any well-trained pagan witch could, but look deep and see true meanings. But, at the moment, he seemed to be having a problem doing so.“Something’s not right,” Rolf finally admitted. “But I don’t know what yet.”“Do you need this for anything?”“No.”“Good.” Vig walked over and studied the blood-and-gore-covered altar. He crouched down and lifted one side. It was made of solid stone and was heavy as hell, but he didn’t care.Then Stieg was on the other side and he lifted. Together, they faced the stone wall of the hidden Catalina cave where they’d found the sacrifices being performed.With a nod at his friend, Vig counted, “Ett, två, tre.”On three they both threw the altar at the wall. The power of their throw and the immovability of the cave wall broke the evil thing into multiple pieces. They then took those pieces and crushed them with their bare hands.Once done, they led the boys out of the cave. Vig put one on his back and picked up two more in each arm.“I’ll see you back at the house,” he told the others.Rolf still appeared distracted, but Vig knew his friend would figure it out. That’s what Rolf did and he did it well. 

Kera watched Alessandra slowly lower herself into the middle of the coven. She was dangerously close to the fire, but she kept her wings up and her long hair swept over her shoulder. That’s when Kera noticed that Alessandra wasn’t wearing jeans like the rest of them. She was wearing a long denim skirt with thigh-high slits on both sides.The look suited her better than jeans somehow.“Sisters!” Alessandra called out, arms thrown wide. “I come to you from the gods!”Kera heard Erin snort and Jace giggle.“Oh my God,” Annalisa complained to Kera. “This is like that one-woman performance she put on a couple of years ago. She called it, ‘My Angry Vagina.’ ”Kera bit the inside of her mouth and kept watching.“You have broken the sacred covenant!” Alessandra accused, and the witches all dropped to their knees around her. “You have stolen what has belonged to the gods! Now you must return it or suffer their wrath!”“It’s like a feminist Lord of the Rings,” Erin whispered.“Give me the holy necklace,” Alessandra ordered, holding out her hand.The witch wearing the robe removed the necklace and handed it over to Alessandra, keeping her eyes downcast. “I am so sor—”“You will never speak of this!” Alessandra warned them. “Or your nightmare will have only just begun.”With her arms raised, Alessandra screamed out, “The gods call to me!”“She’s going to burn her hair,” Leigh murmured. “And then she’s going to bitch about it.”“What is she doing?” Tessa snarled.Maeve shrugged. “Shootin’ for that Tony Award?”Tessa leaned forward and whistled twice. That seemed to snap Alessandra out of her award-winning moment.She looked down at the thirteen witches. “Okay. Gotta go. Bye.” She took to the air. The witches watched her with their mouths opened, some crying and wailing.Because that was a normal response.Kera followed Tessa and the other Crows as they headed away from the witches. They stopped when Alessandra landed.Smile wide, the Crow did an elaborate bow as if she was expecting them to hand her a dozen roses for her performance.Instead of roses, Tessa reached over and snatched the necklace out of Alessandra’s hand.“What is wrong with you?”“I had a little fun. You’re always so uptight.”“I want to go home. I have a husband. And kids. I don’t want to spend all night out here with you bitches.”“Is this where she says no offense?” Kera asked.Erin shook her head. “No. She won’t say that.”Leigh and Maeve each grabbed one of Kera’s arms.“Wait—”But they didn’t, both taking to the air, dragging her along.And yes, it was as unpleasant the second time as it was the first. But at least this time she didn’t vomit when it was over. 

Erin watched Leigh and Maeve take off with Kera. Then she looked over at the witches.“You going back for them?” Annalisa asked her.“No.”“You worried the kid’s wrong?”“I’m worried she has a lesson to learn.”“Maybe. But we’ll be there for her if that happens.”“If she lets us.”Annalisa smiled. “Give her time. She’ll figure it out.”Vig dropped off the first two with no problem. One in San Fernando Valley. One in Pasadena. The last one he took back to the kid’s home in Arcadia. They dropped into the giant yard, and Vig lowered the boy to the ground. But unlike the other two boys, this one didn’t immediately run inside to go looking for his parents.That’s when Vig heard the yelling. Two people yelling at each other. They sounded drunk.And based on the boy’s expression, this was not new.“Hello, Bobby.”Vig closed his eyes at the voice that came from behind him. “Odin . . . no.”But, not surprisingly, the god ignored him and crouched down in front of the boy.Odin was in a custom-tailored suit with custom-made Italian leather shoes. Kind of necessary when one was nearly eight feet tall in his “safe” human form. His long gray hair was pulled back into a braid and the eye patch that covered the sacrifice he’d made eons ago for knowledge was gunmetal blue to match his expensive suit.“Bobby,” Odin began, “you don’t want to go back in there, do you? With all their arguing and complaining.”“Odin—”“You want to be strong and great, don’t you? You want to be like him.” He motioned to Vig with a tilt of his head.“Can I have wings like him?” the boy asked.“You already have those wings. They are already inside you. Your daddy has them, too, but he is weak and stupid and not worthy of this honor.”“Odin. Stop.”“But you’re worthy. And I can take you away from here. To some place where you’ll be safe. Where no one can ever hurt you again.”The boy glanced up at Vig, back at Odin, then nodded.“Would you like to come with me?”The boy nodded again.“Odin, you just can’t take the boy.”“Why not? He’s made his choice.”“He’s eight!”“They haven’t even realized he’s gone yet.” Odin picked the boy up. “And he’s nine.”The god faced Vig, one blue eye staring at him. “We all have to pay a price for honor and glory. But this boy has made the right decision. And we both know it.” He looked at the boy, smiled. “Come, child. Let’s get you to your new home.”“I can take him,” Vig offered, hoping he could perhaps reason with one of the Elders at the house.But Odin only smiled. “He’s not staying here. I have other plans for him.”“O—” But the god was gone.Vig let out a breath and glanced back at the house. The couple inside were still yelling at each other. Accusations, drunken threats. And completely oblivious to the fact that they’d just lost their son forever.