CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVETessa stood in front of them, protective fingerless leather gloves on her hand that a boxer might wear. Busy stretching her neck and shoulders, while they stood in the backyard, she gave them a quick rundown of their job. “Shouldn’t be too hard. Some joker in the Valley has gotten his hands on an item of Skuld’s. He’s probably got it on him somewhere.”“What has he got?” Leigh asked, wrapping her hands with tape, also like a boxer.“I’m not exactly sure. But whatever it is, it has given him great power. Look for a ring or necklace. One of those big, Rhine-gold necklaces would probably be a fan favorite of some tacky scumbag. Erin, I want you close to Kera. And Kera, you listen to Erin. I don’t think this will be some benign witches we can have Alessandra spook. You’ll have to be ready to step up.”“Okay.”Tessa unleashed her wings and shook them out. Kera didn’t know how to shake out her wings yet, so she just did some hamstring stretches instead.Before they set off, another Strike Team walked out of the Bird House. Their leader, Rachel, waved at Tessa.“What’s going on?” Tessa asked.“Chloe wants us backing you guys up.”“Seriously?”The tall, big-boned blonde who’d won three bodybuilding world championships according to gossip-loving Leigh shrugged massive shoulders and cracked her thick neck.“Yeah,” Erin whispered to Kera. “Her entire team is made up of Venice Beach bodybuilders. When they’re bored, sometimes, they lift a Buick.”“All right,” Tessa said, clapping her hands together. “Let’s get going, ladies.”Kera unleashed her wings—this time, there was no pain in her back except for her healing tattoo—and followed after the rest of the Crows. Erin was right by her side, then ahead of her, leading her away from the Bird House and high into the sky above them.The other Crows laughed and called out to each other. Teasing and joking as they tore through the air. Kera wondered what all that noise sounded like to the people below. Like a bunch of squawking birds? Or a bunch of chatty women flying overhead?Going by air meant they traveled to the Valley in a tenth of the time it would take by car. For once, the nightmare traffic on PCH and, eventually, the 101 Freeway was something she didn’t have to worry about.There was a freedom to seeing all those L.A. cars below . . . beneath all that smog. To not being trapped inside a vehicle that was trapped with a bunch of other vehicles on a roadway.The only thing Kera had to watch out for were other birds . . . and the occasional plane. They were even above the police and news helicopters. There was a high-speed car chase going on, and she could see the news and cops trying to get the best angle for completely different reasons.But Kera was above all that. Literally. Just her, the birds, and the Crows.The Crows began to dive down and Kera followed. But they didn’t immediately land on the ground. Instead, they landed on tree branches surrounding an ordinary-looking house on a busy street. Even the ones who looked like they had more muscles than brains rested easily on the branches, their weight not seeming to affect the thin wood at all.Kera followed Erin and perched on a branch right below hers but closer to the trunk. She didn’t feel as comfortable putting her body on the end of the branch.She looked up at Erin and the redhead pointed her forefinger toward the ground.Kera’s gaze followed where Erin pointed and she silently watched.At first, she thought the Crows were just watching two people make out. Something she had no interest in doing. But when the man pulled away, the woman was swaying and Kera quickly realized that she was drunk or high. And naked.The man backed the woman up until he could stretch her out in the middle of some kind of display drawn in the grass. From this distance, she could see symbols and they reminded her of—the runes! Like the ones in the cave she’d seen with Vig and the Protectors.Kera glanced up at Erin, who motioned to the pair below with a tilt of her head. Kera didn’t know what the redhead was trying to tell her, until she made the same motion two more times. That’s when she understood that Erin was telling her to get in there.No. Just . . . no. Kera wasn’t falling for that. The old “let’s fuck with the newbie” move that nearly every military unit did at one time or another. She’d been smart enough never to fall for that bullshit when she was in the Marines; she wasn’t about to start falling for it— 

Erin watched Kera fall headfirst off her tree limb. She did a very nice forward somersault before landing lengthwise over the sacrifice’s body.Looking up at Leigh, who’d slammed her feet into Kera’s back, Erin shook her head. “That was mean.”“Yeah,” Leigh agreed, grinning. “I know.” 

“Are we going to the club now?” the naked woman beneath Kera asked.Kera lifted her head and the man standing over her lowered his sacrificial knife. That thing was horrifying, covered in dried blood, with a snake’s head as part of the handle. Was this the thing Skuld wanted back? Somehow Kera doubted it.Since Kera didn’t know when the rest of the Crows were going to step in to help her—or if they were even going to bother stepping in to help her—Kera pushed herself to her knees.“Yes!” the man cried out. “She’s sent her demons to us!”Kera didn’t know what he meant until she realized her wings were still out. It was her wings that had probably broken her fall.“Sorry,” Kera apologized, although she didn’t know why. “Not a demon. Just here for something you have. Something that doesn’t belong to you.”The man backed away from her and that’s when she saw it. A thick gold rope bracelet he had on his wrist, which Kera knew, instinctively, belonged to Skuld.Kera stood and reached for it, and the man grabbed her hand. He had a lot of strength and he pushed her hand away. Kera grasped his wrist with her other hand, twisted, and snapped.The man screamed out as bone tore out of his forearm. Kera pulled her hands away and yanked the bracelet off his arm.Once she had it in hand, she moved away from the man. But she hadn’t gotten more than a step or two before his broken arm twisted one way, then another, and the snapped bone knitted back together so the skin could close over it.He made a fist, moved his arm around, and grinned at Kera. Reaching over with his now-healed arm, he snatched the bracelet back.“Kill her,” he ordered and Kera quickly stepped to the side as a blade slashed mere inches past her face. She grabbed the arm holding that weapon and pulled the man wielding it forward while she brought her elbow back. She shattered most of his face and flipped him over and into the leader.That’s when more men appeared from the shadows and many more came pouring from the house.Kera tried to move to the far corner of the yard, but something had hold of her leg. She looked down to see the naked woman glaring up at her with blood-rimmed black eyes and a mouthful of black fangs.“A Crow,” the thing said, gazing at Kera. “Kill it!”“Fuck—” Kera gasped out, but then the other Crows were landing around her, shielding her.Erin stomped on the thing’s claw until it released Kera; then she yanked Kera back.“Stay behind me!” Erin ordered as she lifted her leg and pulled out her two blades. Erin slashed and stabbed the men who got near her while the other Crows did the same.Kera felt completely useless as she stood there, watching. Until she spotted the man with the bracelet heading toward the fence. The other Crows, busy with the leader’s men, didn’t see him. But Kera did. So she moved, jumping over and around the two battling crews until she reached the man with Skuld’s bracelet.She grabbed his arm and spun him around to face her. He had a blade in one hand and tried to ram it into her chest. Having already been stabbed to death once in the past few days, she wasn’t about to go through it again. Kera caught hold of his hand and the blade in it, turned her body while securing his forearm under her arm, then pulled. The man screamed as she yanked his shoulder from its socket. Then she kept pulling until she’d nearly torn the whole thing off.She took hold of the blade and turned back to the man, shoving him into the high wood fence behind him. Kera raised the blade and pulled it back, about to plunge it deep into his heart.About to. But she didn’t. She couldn’t. In that instant, she froze, unable to make the killing move. Unable to bring herself to go that final step.It took a moment, but the man realized she couldn’t do it. She couldn’t kill him.He grinned and with his good arm, grabbed Kera around the throat and tossed her back into the main battle.Unfortunately, Kera landed near that fanged thing and it was coming for her, charging at her on all fours. Gasping, Kera crab-walked back from it. But it caught hold of Kera’s leg and began to drag her close. That’s when a steel-toed booted foot landed against the thing’s back, pinning it there. Then big hands reached down and twisted the head one way. Then another. Then back the first way until it was ripped off.Rachel lifted the cursing, screaming head and held it up for everyone to see.The remaining men bolted out of the yard, disappearing into the night. In the distance, Kera could hear sirens. The cops were coming.Scowling down at her, Rachel growled, “Erin . . . burn it all.”Rachel tossed the head aside and pointed at Kera. “Then bring her.”The Crows took off, Annalisa stopping long enough to help Kera up and get her to the safety of the trees.As Erin used her wings to lift her body in the air, she unleashed flames from her hands, spraying them across the yard and house until everything began to burn.Erin caught up with Kera in the trees as the other Crows took to the air, heading back to Malibu.“That fire—” Kera began.“Will turn everything to ash. The cops won’t have any evidence to process.”“But the rest of the houses. The neighborhood.”“It should be all right once the fire trucks get here.” Erin tugged on Kera’s arm and they both took to the air. “I admit it, though, I hate doing that during fire season. A lit cigarette tossed out a car window can easily destroy three thousand acres of land, so who knows what my angry-flame might do.”When Kera gawked at her, Erin shrugged. “But I’m sure it’ll be fine. Besides,” Erin went on, “at the moment, you’ve got bigger, more muscular things to worry about.”Jace wished she could say something, do something to help Kera. But what was there to do? Especially when big-boned Rachel was on one of her tears.And boy, was she pissed. Her muscles were all natural now, given to her by Skuld. But before that, she’d been quite the steroid user. And although she’d been clean since her death, her steroid rage was, unfortunately, still with her when she got angry enough.And sadly, at the moment . . . she was really angry.“She couldn’t kill him,” Rachel snarled at Chloe. “I saw her. She could have finished that fucker off and taken that bracelet but, instead, she just stared at him. Now he’s gone and he still has the bracelet.” She pointed a damning finger at Kera. “Her fault! And you,” she accused, looking at Tessa, “don’t even care.”“Of course I care. But I think we have bigger things to worry about. Like no matter what Kera did to that guy, he kept . . . healing himself.”Chloe’s head jerked. “What did he have?”“Just some bracelet of Skuld’s. And it wasn’t all that powerful.”“Plus,” Maeve added, “he turned his girlfriend into a demon without actually sacrificing her. Which seemed weird, because you usually have to do one to make the other happen.”“Unless she was already a demon in the first place.”“Leigh,” Chloe ordered, “look into that. That’s definitely not normal.”“Okay.”“Oh my God,” Rachel cut in. “Are we really ignoring the weak link in our very strong chain?”“Are you done?” Chloe finally asked the team leader. The funny thing about Chloe, she could flip out on a dime, but when she was faced with screaming and hysteria, she became incredibly . . . calm. So calm it drove the rest of the Crows kind of crazy. But that calmness was needed now.Poor Kera. Jace hated that she had to go through this. Not being able to make the kill was a big problem in the Crows because that’s what they did. They weren’t a rescue team like the Ravens usually were. The gods didn’t call on them when they wanted a damsel in distress saved. Or needed the end of the world stopped. They were a Strike Team. They came in, they destroyed, they left. That’s what they did.But Kera hadn’t been able to kill. That would make her a liability to the team.“No,” Rachel shot back at Chloe. “I’m not done. She didn’t even—”“You’re done,” Chloe told the team leader. “So very done.”“But—”“Quiet!”“Don’t you see?” Rachel continued. “She could get her teammates killed. She’s a liability, Clo.”“Don’t you think I know that?” Kera softly asked. “Do you really think that I’m not painfully aware what my hesitation may mean?”With her big arms folded over her big chest, Rachel leaned down until their faces were close and she said in a mocking little girl voice, “Oh, are you ‘painfully aware’ of what your precious hesitation may mean? Are you, sweetie?”Jace didn’t know if it was that annoying voice. The mocking tone of that annoying voice. Or Rachel being so close. But whatever it was had Kera ramming her head right into Rachel’s.Rachel stumbled back, her hands over her face. “That bitch broke my nose!” she screamed as Kera stalked out of the room. They all heard a door somewhere in the house slam shut and Chloe turned to Rachel.“You really did deserve that, you know.”“I did not!”“Yeah,” all the Crows in the room said together, “you kind of did.”“I’m going after her,” Rachel announced, turning toward the doors.Tessa grabbed Rachel’s arm. “Leave her alone.”“Someone’s gotta talk to her. And since you bitches seem unwilling, that leaves me.” She yanked her arm from Tessa’s grasp and again moved toward the doors. That’s when Kera’s dog jumped between Rachel and the exit.“Even the dog thinks it’s a bad idea,” Leigh muttered.“One of you get this goddamn mutt out of my way before I kick it.”And that’s when Brodie did what she’d been able to do all day—she unleashed her wings.Rachel stared down at the dog, eyes wide. “This is . . . new. Right?” she asked, pointing at Brodie.“Yeah,” all the Crows said together, “this is new.” 

Vig didn’t have a job tonight, so he was sitting on his couch, reading a book when he heard someone land outside his house. He waited for whoever it was to walk in but they didn’t. After a bit, he closed his book and opened his front door.Kera sat on his porch. She was in her battle gear, her shoulders slumped.He eased out, softly closing the screen door behind him. He walked down the porch stairs and faced her.“I couldn’t do it,” Kera said, her voice soft.“Couldn’t do what?”“I couldn’t kill. I had the guy. But I couldn’t do it.”“Why not?”“When I was in Afghanistan, I knew what I was fighting for. I knew what I was fighting.” She shrugged. “He had a bracelet. I’m supposed to kill him over a bracelet?”Vig sat down beside her. “You’re supposed to kill him because he won’t give you that bracelet. He can’t have it. It gives him unreasonable power that upsets the balance of the world.”Kera scratched her eyebrow. “Yeah. I know. Plus,” she softly admitted, “he kind of turned his girlfriend into a demon or something. She had black fangs. It was not pretty.”Vig winced. “That wasn’t a clue that he needed to die?”“No, it was.”“Then what really stopped you, Kera? Tell me.”“Crazy’s in the bloodline. What if all I need is one little . . . push, to send me over the edge? To turn me into her. Running around, telling my six-year-old daughter that the tutus she wears in ballet class make her look like a whore.”“You’re not your mother, Kera.”“Aren’t I? Aren’t we all extensions of our parents? You are your Raven father and Katja is her Valkyrie mother. So I’m my Marine father and my crazy mother.”“We’re parts of our parents, Kera. But do you think I’d let some god waltz off to another country with my children? Because that’s what my father did. I still love him, but I never forget.”“It doesn’t matter. Whether I am my mother or just afraid I’ll become her, my problem is the same. My fear makes me a liability. The Crows will be so busy protecting me, they’ll get themselves killed instead. I can’t be responsible for that.”“You can’t decide anything right now. You need sleep.”“I’m not tired. Besides, I’m worried I’ll start having that recurring dream again.”“What dream?”“When I was in the military. I used to have this dream that there was a firefight at the base, and all my guys were dying around me, calling out for help, and I couldn’t get the goddamn safety off the gun. That’s what tonight felt like.”“No one died.”“Not yet.”“Okay, Kera, you’re being way too dramatic. For you, I mean.” He stood and held his hand out to her. “You’re tired. You need sleep. Stay the night. Here.”Kera winced. “Vig, I’m not sure I can—”“Just sleep, Kera. I promise. I missed you last night.”When she hesitated, he reached over and took her hand with his. “Let’s get some sleep and let me hold you while we do. Maybe I can protect you from the bad dreams.”Kera looked away but Vig waited. He’d wait forever for Kera if he had to.Thankfully, though, that wasn’t necessary. She slid off the porch and moved into Vig’s arms. He held her tight, kissed the top of her head.“Come on.” He led her into his house, but instead of taking her to his bedroom, he took her to the couch. There they cuddled together, forced by the size of the couch to be as close as possible so neither fell onto the floor.She fell asleep on his chest, her hands resting on his biceps, her legs between his legs.Vig held her all night and wondered how he could fix this for her.