He looked back into the yard. There was nothing there except several large bags of trash tied up and waiting to be removed. A goat—he didn’t want to know why there was a goat on their property. And some birds.
A whole flock of black birds sitting on the lawn. A few took to the air and he watched them fly up and over until they landed . . . in front of him.
He knew this would sound crazy, but it was like they were trying to block his way. Three crows? Seriously.
Good Lord, what was wrong with him? He was getting paranoid. It was probably because of that goat. He knew they must be using that goat for something evil.
Yet he trusted the Great Prophet and their mighty Lord would protect him. He had nothing to worry about.
He started walking again, but the crows squawked at him and flapped their wings violently. He stopped again. More crows landed in front of him and he looked over his shoulder once more to eye that pile of birds. That’s when he saw the pile begin to rise from the ground. These birds weren’t flying but they were all moving up and up until they finally took off, leaving a very large and very angry-looking pit bull.
He stepped back, the goat and birds forgotten; the puppy in his arms whimpering and writhing, trying to get out of his arms.
The pit bull began to walk toward him, then it was trotting, then it was flat-out running.
“Wait . . . oh God! Oh God!”
Ski walked into the room to find Erin with her arms around a bleeding Alessandra. An elderly woman stood beside Jace. And a middle-aged woman smiled at them all.
“What’s going on?” he asked.
At the sound of his voice, Jace’s head snapped around to look at him. Her eyes had turned red, her body was vibrating—from rage.
“Jace, no!”
But she was already moving, flashing across that room until she had her hand around that middle-aged woman’s throat and had pinned her against the wall.
Ski and Vig ran to her, both attempting to pry her off the woman, using all the strength their gods had given them. But it was useless. Jace wouldn’t let go.
She was already lost to the rage. Absolutely nothing but blood and death would bring her back. And she was intent on making the woman she had under her hands the sacrifice.
“Jace! Let her go!”
Kera also reached in, trying to separate her friend from this woman who was having the life choked from her while Jace spit at her in what Ski guessed was Russian.
The woman was seconds from dying. She was turning blue.
But then Vig was gone, yanked back by the hair, and the elderly woman stepped in to replace him. She pushed Kera away, as well. Then she slapped her hand flat against Jace’s chest and like that . . . the rage was gone.
It didn’t leave, it was vanquished. Jace’s body stumbled back into Ski’s arms.
It was the damndest thing. Not because Jace’s rage was gone but because the aftermath—the sobbing or the sleeping—didn’t immediately come.
Instead, she just seemed stunned, gazing up at the elderly woman who now had her hand against the other woman’s throat.
“I should have killed you when I had the chance, but you were necessary. Now, go,” the elderly woman ordered, throwing the other stranger toward the door. The woman rolled across the carpet until she landed on her knees, choking and drooling, her color flooding back. “Get out and do not come for my granddaughter again. Because if she doesn’t kill you . . . I will.”
Gundo was standing out in the backyard, where most of the remnants of last night’s party had been removed except for several large trash bags waiting to be dumped.
A goat ran past him and into the house.
He decided not to think about the goat because he was too busy figuring out why he was standing out here in the first place. He also didn’t know why he felt he couldn’t go back inside yet. It was the strangest thing.
And crazy! That old woman had no control over him. He was going back inside!
Gundo started toward the house but stopped when he heard rustling in a large bush. He moved closer as that winged dog and his bird friends suddenly began moving off around the side of the house.
As he stepped closer to the bushes, Bear suddenly sat up.
Initially, Gundo thought his friend had simply had too much to drink and had passed out in the bushes. Except, he noted that Bear was naked.
“Where is she?” Bear asked.
“Where’s who?”
“The dog?”
Gundo recoiled. “Oh . . . Bear. The pit bull?”
“No! That’s disgust—” Bear closed his eyes, took a breath. “The woman. The shifter? Who could turn into an African wild dog?”
“Oh. Yes. Well, thank Tyr for that. Because there would be no explaining away—”
“I don’t even want to discuss that.” He looked around again. “Guess she left me.”
“It happens. Especially with shifters. They’re a very love-them-and-leave-them form of human being. As most wild animals are. But if we were Ravens or Giant Killers I would just congratulate you on getting laid.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know, it’s just something they do.”
Bear nodded and then, abruptly, his head tilted and turned. He was tracking a sound.
Gundo heard it, too.
They gazed at each other for a moment, then followed what they heard around to the side of the house. The crows were in the trees, silently watching as the winged pit bull, her maw wrapped around the thigh of a man, dragged him all over the grass, shaking him.
Most likely attempting to get him to release the puppy he held. Jace’s puppy.
Gundo didn’t know this man and he wasn’t Clan. So who was he? And why was he holding Jace’s puppy? She wouldn’t like that; he knew that much. She was quite protective of that animal.
Bear started to move but Gundo held him back with his hand on his shoulder.
“Let me. You’re naked and might spook him.”
Gundo stepped close, and although the pit bull didn’t release the man, she did stop shaking him.
“She wants you to release that animal you’re holding. Here.” He held out his hands. “Give it to me.”
Sobbing and blubbering, the man handed the puppy over to Gundo.
“Thank you,” he replied before stepping away with the puppy tucked into his arms.
“Wait!” the man begged when the dog began to yank him again. “You said she’d stop.”
“No, I didn’t. I said she wanted you to release this puppy. You did.”
“You have to help me!”
Gundo shook his head. “No. I don’t. I can tell just by looking at you that you don’t belong here. And to be honest, you’re much better off getting your throat ripped out by the dog than being found by one of the ladies. They can be . . . unreasonable when it comes to invaders.”
The puppy licked his chin and Gundo smiled. “Come on, little one. Let’s get you back to the human who feeds you.”
As they walked toward the back of the house, ignoring the screams coming from behind them, Gundo held the puppy close to Bear’s face and asked, “Does seeing it make you forlorn for your lost doggy love?”
“I hate you.”
When the woman didn’t leave fast enough, the elderly one snapped her fingers at Leigh and the Crow immediately got the woman up and out into the hallway.
Ski put Jace on her feet. She’d already rebounded from her full-blown rage, something Ski had never seen before from her, and he turned her by the shoulders, leaning down to look her in the eyes. All he saw was the beautiful clear blue he adored. “Are you all right?”
“I’m fine.” She pulled away from him, faced the elderly woman. “Don’t do that to me again,” she ordered.
“Then learn to control yourself. It’s been two years.”
“Oh! You are—”
And then Jace was yelling at the woman in a language Ski did not understand. Albanian? Romanian? He had no idea. But the elderly w
oman was yelling back in the same language and he couldn’t deal with it. There was just too much going on.
“Everyone, stop it!” he barked.
Both women turned from each other, arms folded over their chests, each tapping one foot.
“By the missing hand of Tyr,” he gasped, suddenly understanding, “this is your grandmother, Jace?”
The elderly woman turned her head toward Ski. She sized him up with cold blue eyes before she reached out and placed her hand against his chest. He felt a jolt of unadulterated power shoot through him and his wings burst from his back, ramming into an already wounded Alessandra. She screamed and hit the wall, cursing up a blue streak as several Crows went to help her.
“Another Protector,” the woman sighed. “Just wonderful.” She pulled her hand away and Ski’s wings disappeared.
“How did you do that?” he asked.
“She’s obviously a witch of some kind,” Erin accused.
“Not a witch and watch your tone with me.”
“Or what?” Erin pushed, stepping forward, arms thrown wide.
“Are you really about to fight an old woman?” Ski asked, before adding, “No offense.”
“I am leaving,” the elderly woman replied, not sounding angry or upset so much as just annoyed by it all.
“Good!” Jace snapped back. “Go!”
If the woman heard her granddaughter’s tone, she ignored it. “In two weeks,” she said, “I’m having a family dinner. You will come, little inat. Bring this one.” She gestured toward Ski.
“Oh,” Ski said, truly pleased. “Thank you.” But his smile faded when Jace spun around to glower at him. “What? That was really nice of her to invite me.”
“I never said I was going.”
“You’ll come, little inat, or I’ll be back,” her grandmother warned. “And we wouldn’t want that, would we? And where’s that other Protector so he can take me back home.”
Before Ski could ask for more information, Gundo rushed in holding Jace’s puppy. He placed the animal in Jace’s arms and then charged after Jace’s grandmother, who’d already walked out.
That was around the time he noticed Bear standing there. Naked.
“Where are your clothes?”
“No idea. I think the dog took them.”
Kera, who’d been examining Alessandra’s poor face, asked over her shoulder, “Brodie took your clothes?”
“No. It was a human dog.”
“I don’t know what that means.”
“Well, get some clothes.”
“I thought you could just drive me to my house.”
“You do know that you’re not getting into my car naked, don’t you? You’ve known me for years. I should not have to explain that to you. That being said, we’re not going home. Yardley needs our assistance.”
“I do!” she said cheerfully. Way too cheerfully for a woman about to go to a funeral. “We have to leave soon.” She looked at her gold diamond watch. “Yeah. Soon. Although I don’t think Alessandra should go.”
“No,” Kera agreed. “She shouldn’t. Her nose is pretty bad and I think her cheek is broken.”
“I’ll take her to the medical room. You guys get ready.” Yardley placed her hands lightly on Alessandra’s shoulders, then looked at Ski and Bear, smiled, and said, “Thanks!” before she walked out with her sister-Crow.
Ski had to admit . . . her cheeriness was off-putting.
“I still need clothes,” Bear pointed out.
“I don’t think even Rachel’s clothes will fit you,” Erin replied. “At least not the pants. But her stuff might fit you in the shoulders.”
Kera pointed at her boyfriend and ordered, “Vig, give him your clothes.”
“I already gave the geek my clothes. Let me call some of my brothers to go with us, and the bookworms can go home.”
Erin smirked. “Most of your brothers are passed out in our basement by our Fate’s statue. And I swear to God, if even one of them pissed on her—”
“No one pissed on her,” Vig snapped back, but then he quickly muttered, “And we’ll clean it up if we did.”
“Clothes, Vig.” Kera smiled at the Raven. “Please.”
Growling, he walked out of the room.
“I think he wants you to follow,” Ski told Bear.
“He does? He didn’t say that.”
“Would you come on! Idiot!”
“Well,” Bear sighed, “I hear it now.”
He followed, and that was when Ski noticed that Jace was no longer standing there.
Ski looked around the room. “Jace?” He hadn’t seen her leave. So where had she gone?
Lips pursed, Kera stalked across the room and using her fist, banged on the top of a large wood cabinet. “Get out of there right this second!”
Kera reached down and snatched open the door to the cabinet, and that’s exactly where Jace was. Huddled inside with her puppy in her arms. The dog seemed to be handling the forced imprisonment quite well.
Ski crouched down and gazed at Jace. “What are you doing?” he had to ask.
“Just . . . relaxing. With my puppy.”
“Jace—”
“I don’t want to talk to anybody!”
“Most people just walk out of the room. They don’t stuff themselves and their dog into a cabinet as if they’re attempting to be smuggled out of the country.”
He held his hands out. “Give me that animal.”
“Can’t you call him by his name?”
“Jace.”
She handed Lev over and Ski held the dog in one hand and offered his other hand to Jace to help her out of the cabinet.
When she was standing, her fingers nervously brushing her curly hair behind her ears, Jace said, “Soooo . . . that was my grandmother.”
“Interesting lady,” Erin said softly.
Without even looking at her, Kera reached back and slapped Erin on the shoulder.
“Let’s understand,” Jace went on, “and I’ll only explain this once. My grandmother is not a witch or any variation thereof.”
“How is that possible?”
“Witches derive their power through worship, rituals, and sacrifice. My grandmother doesn’t. Instead, she’s an obtainer of knowledge. And what she obtains, she uses for power and control.”
“How?”
“With the power of her mind and sheer will. She worships no one, but knows practically everyone.”
Kera took a step back. “Is that why those archangels knew you?”
Erin smirked. “Archangels know you?”
“They called her Jacie-girl.”
“That’s so cute. Can I call you Jacie-girl now, Jace? I have wings.”
Jace held up her hand in front of Erin’s face to shut her up. “My grandmother is . . . unusual.”
“If she has so much power,” Erin asked, pushing Jace’s hand away, “then why didn’t she just come get you from the cult right away?”
“Because my mother said that if anyone tried, the first thing she’d do would be to slit my throat. She’d rather I die in her arms blessed by the Great Prophet than live in evil purgatory with my grandmother.”
“Nothing like a battle between a true believer and a true user.”
“Erin.”
“Don’t be mad at her, Kera. She’s right. My grandmother is a user. A very brilliant user. And exactly what the gods hate. She can use the power they dole out to others without ever giving them her love or fear. And she only uses her power when it benefits her or the family, never to help others. I love her, but this,” she said, gesturing to everyone in the room, “she does not and will not ever understand.”
“Why?”
“Because I chose.”
“She thinks you chose the cult?” Kera asked, flabbergasted. “You were ten!”
“No. My grandmother doesn’t blame me for any of that.”
Erin studied the spot where Nëna had been before guessing, “It was because you chose to be a Crow. To be
one of us. You chose a god.”
Jace shrugged, feeling a little sad. “And for that I’m not sure she can ever forgive me.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Yardley adjusted her black sunglasses, smoothed down her black dress. The designer silk outfit ended just above the knee, but wasn’t so short that anyone would be able to see her blue thong when she stepped out of the limo.
“Ready?” she asked her team.
“You sure about this?” one of her girls asked.
“Don’t worry. We’ve got the easy part. And you guys are all set?” Yardley pointed to her own ear and her team nodded. Each of her sisters had in an earpiece so they could hear what was going on with Chloe and the others. Yardley didn’t have one in, though. She was afraid Brianna would see it.
“You hear me, Tessa?” one of the girls asked. “They’re ready, Yardley.”
“Great.” Yardley nodded at her team. “Performance time, ladies.” The driver opened the door of her limo and Yardley stepped out. Cameras went off and people filmed her with their cell phones. It was Los Angeles, so there was no sense of proper grieving. Instead, journalists and fans called out her name, acting like this was a movie premiere rather than a man’s funeral.
A man who’d lost his skin.
Although that bit of information had been kept out of the news. Most likely by Brianna herself.
Yarldey’s team surrounded her and walked with her to the church stairs.
Brianna waited at the top, wearing a sparkling designer gold dress and designer, six-inch gold pumps. Accenting that already bright outfit were diamond earrings, a diamond necklace, and multiple diamond bracelets.
The woman managed to stand out in a crowd of megastars.
That was not by accident.
When Yardley reached her, Brianna threw her arms wide, tears pouring down her face.
“Are you okay?” Brianna asked, hugging Yardley tight.
“I’m . . . okay.”
Brianna pulled away and Yardley suddenly had the worst feeling. As if dread and foreboding had been wrapped around her entire body.
She didn’t know why she felt that way. Brianna hadn’t said or done anything to cause it. Her tears seemed real.