The Unleashing

  It was completely disconcerting.

  But Erin had known from the second she’d seen that tacky script tattooed on Kera’s body exactly what she wanted to do. It was as clear to her as anything.

  Of course, that didn’t mean Kera would like it.

  As Erin pretended to confidently put her bottles of ink away, she sensed that Kera was now standing beside her.

  She glanced up to find Kera just standing there, glaring at her. At least it looked like a glare.

  “You’re not going to throw up on me, are you?” Erin asked. “Because every time you get freaked out, you start throwing up.”

  Kera’s eyes narrowed even more. “Don’t piss me off when I’m trying to gush.”

  “You call that gushing? Because it looks like you were about to start stabbing me.”

  “If I did, it would be because of your attitude and not because of the tattoo you’ve given me. Because I love the goddamn tattoo.”

  “You do?”

  “I do. A lot.”

  Erin let out a breath she didn’t realize she’d been holding. “I thought you might like Filipino tribal art, even though you seem to hate your mother.”

  “I didn’t hate her. I just didn’t like her.”

  “I had to go bigger to cover up the old piece.”

  “Yeah. I’m fine with that.” Kera cleared her throat. “I also appreciate the use of Crows within the lines.”

  “You noticed that?”

  “Yes. And I like it.”

  “Thank you.”

  “You need to cover this up with a bandage, right?” Kera asked, motioning to her new work.

  “Yeah. But it’ll be healed by tomorrow.”

  “It will?”

  “Do I really have to keep explaining your new life to you?”

  “Again with the tone? And I didn’t realize faster tattoo healing was part of all this.”

  “Thankfully it is.”

  “Well, I can’t wait to show this off.”

  Erin smiled. “I really am glad you like it.”

  “Yeah. Me, too!”

  As they laughed, Erin’s phone pinged and she glanced at the text message.

  “Everything okay?”

  “Another job tonight.”

  “You seem surprised.”

  “There’s definitely been an uptick in jobs lately. It’s kind of weird. I mean, we get an uptick around a vernal equinox sometimes, but this has been extensive. Because, keep in mind, we’re not the only team going out on jobs. And the other Strike Teams have been working more than usual, too.”

  Erin’s phone pinged again. It was a one word message from Annalisa that said, “Okay.”

  “What’s wrong?” Kera asked.

  “What makes you think something’s wrong?”

  “Because you just sighed deeply and rolled your eyes all the way to the back of your head.”

  “Oh. That.” She shrugged, not willing to tell Kera that her sister-Crows had lost her dog. “It’s nothing.”

  Kera sat back down so Erin could put the bandage on.

  “Are you going to be ready for tonight?” Erin asked.

  “Sure.”

  “Good.”

  “How much am I going to owe you for this? I don’t have any cash on me, but—”

  “Kera, I only charge people when I actually give them a say in what their tattoo will be. You didn’t have that, so it’s free.”

  “That’s big of you.”

  “I know. Isn’t it?”

  “They’re coming!” Annalisa said, charging back into the kitchen.

  Jace continued to towel off Brodie until she heard Kera’s footsteps coming down the hallway.

  They never did get ice cream or yogurt because they hadn’t planned for the pileup on the I-10 or the protest near the 101. They ended up trapped in traffic for ages. And even though they texted Erin again, asking for more time, the difficult woman adamantly refused. So by the time they got back to the house, all they could do was hose poor Brodie down—and, boy, had she hated being hosed down—and do a quick dry before the town car that Erin had called pulled up to the front.

  Jace threw the towel to Annalisa, who tossed it into a cabinet, shutting the door just as Kera walked in.

  “Brodie Hawaii!” she cheered, going to her knees as Brodie charged across the room to her.

  Kera hugged her dog as if she hadn’t seen her in years, laughing as Brodie licked her face and neck.

  Erin walked in a few seconds later and she immediately sniffed the air, eyes narrowing on Jace.

  “We have a job tonight,” Erin reminded Kera. “You better get dressed.”

  “Okay.” Kera kissed the dog on her giant pit bull head, scratched her behind the ears, and stood. “Don’t feed her. I’ll feed her after I get dressed,” she told them.

  Annalisa nodded. “No problem.”

  Kera smiled at her dog once more before walking out of the room. When she was gone, Erin looked at them.

  “What happened?” she asked, her voice resigned.

  Jace opened her mouth but nothing came out, so Erin turned to Annalisa.

  “There was an incident. But it was handled. Nothing to worry about.”

  “Uh-huh. Why did you have to bathe the dog?”

  “Because of the blood. She was covered in it.”

  “Why was there blood?”

  “Well,” Annalisa began, “we’re just guessing, but it seems that Brodie decided to get revenge on the guy or guys who abused her in her past. Before Kera.”

  “The guys who . . . ? You mean in Kera’s old neighborhood?”

  “Yeah.”

  “She went all the way back to Kera’s old neighborhood? How did she manage that without being seen or picked up by Animal Control?”

  Annalisa glanced at Jace but all she could do was shrug. Might as well tell her.

  Annalisa leaned down a bit and said to the dog, “Show her, Brodie.”

  “Are you talking to the dog?” Erin asked. “Why are you talking to the—aaaaahhhhhh!” Erin screamed, scrambling back several feet when Brodie’s wings came out and the steel slammed shut over her muzzle. “What the holy fuck?”

  “Keep your voice down,” Annalisa whispered.

  “Keep my voice down?”

  Brodie stood and walked from one side of the kitchen to the other, wings up, head held high. There was even a little prance to her step.

  “What is with this dog?” Erin demanded. “She’s acting like a stripper with new tits.”

  “She’s proud,” Annalisa said.

  “She’s one of us,” Jace added.

  “She’s a dog.”

  Brodie stopped in front of Erin and snarled.

  Erin pointed a finger. “Don’t you dare threaten me—and you are a dog.”

  “Are you going to tell Kera about all this, Erin?” Jace asked.

  Erin let out a little snort. “What are you? High?”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

  Tessa 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 B
ird 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.