Yeah. Erin always forgot. The Silent might not speak to those they considered unworthy, but that didn’t mean they didn’t roar.

The man picked Kera up by the throat and lifted her off the floor. Kera tried kicking him in the chest, but he held her so far away that she could only tap at him with the tips of her feet. She gripped his wrist with her hands and tried to twist him off that way. But he only squeezed her throat tighter.

“Who are you, girl?” asked a female voice that sounded like it’d had way too many cigarettes over the years.

Kera couldn’t turn her head to look but someone walked around them to face her. “Someone” because Kera couldn’t see who with that gray cowl covering the face and a long gray robe covering the body.

“What’s your place in this world?” that female voice went on. “Where are you in the Balance?” A clawed hand reached out for Kera. “Show me what ya got, girl.”

Kera watched in horror as the hand reached for her. But before those claws could press against her skin, there was a snarl at the door. Kera moved her eyes and saw that it was Jace standing there. Her entire body shook as she stared at the three of them.

At first, Kera thought the kid was shaking out of fear, and she wished she could speak to tell the girl to run. But then Jace lifted her gaze and Kera realized her eyes were blood-red and the veins in her arms and neck were swollen and pulsating.

Kera had seen this before. Fellow Marines with steroid rage just before they lost it in a bar and started beating the hell out of some Navy guys who pissed them off.

That’s how Jace looked. Like she was about to explode.

Then she did.

She screamed and charged into the room, right into the man holding Kera. They all went down to the floor, Jace on top of the man, her arms swinging wildly as her talons cut his face and throat again and again, while she screamed. And kept screaming.

Panicked, Kera made her way over to her bed and the gun she had under her pillow. She had it out and a round in the chamber when she saw the woman in the cowl suddenly create a blank space in Kera’s bedroom and disappear.

Kera blinked, then refocused her attention on the man on the floor. Jace still had him pinned, her crazed attack keeping him from doing more than attempting to cover his face and throat. But when Jace raised one hand above his chest, her talons growing a little longer, her scream tearing across the room, the man finally moved, shoving the smaller woman off.

He stood and that’s when Kera raised her legally registered . 9mm Glock. She was about to pull the trigger when Vig’s voice stopped her.

“Kera. No.”

At first, Kera thought that voice was in her head, but Vig stood in the doorway. He walked in and Siggy and Stieg followed him, Stieg holding on to another man she didn’t recognize. He had his hand over the man’s mouthand was dragging him along beside him.

Panting, her finger itching to pull the trigger, Kera kept her eyes on Vig.

“We don’t use guns,” he reminded her. “Especially on a fellow Clan.”

His voice was so calm. He was so calm. Kera let that calmness wash over her. And, with great effort, she lowered her weapon and removed her finger from the trigger.

Vig nodded at her, gave a soft smile, and then like lightning he moved. So fast, he was like a blur. A blur that moved across the room, picked up the man who’d attacked Kera, and threw him into the wall.

The man opened his mouth but Vig grabbed his jaw and yanked, instantly dislocating it from the rest of his face. Then Vig slammed him into the wall three more times, before tossing him to the floor. That’s when Siggy and Stieg began kicking and stomping the man. Vig eventually joined in.

Horrified, Kera watched until she saw Vig raise his foot over the man’s fucked-up face. She knew that when he brought that foot down, he’d kill him.

She couldn’t be responsible for that.

“Vig, no!”

Vig and the Ravens stopped and looked over, Vig’s eyes calmly blinking at her as he waited.

“Please don’t. They . . . they were just asking who I was. They were trying to find out who I was. That was all. Don’t . . . just don’t . . . okay?”

Vig glanced at Stieg, then Siggy. Both men shrugged and Vig stepped away from the man bleeding on the floor.

“Just let them go. Please.”

Vig motioned to Stieg and he lifted the man he held in his arms and shoved him away.

The man went to his comrade and put his arms around him. With only a glare at Vig, they were suddenly gone.

Kera, still panting, lowered her head. She couldn’t express how much she didn’t want to see that man stomped to death in her apartment. Even if she was leaving here forever. She just didn’t want that memory in her head.

She looked up and reared back a bit when she found Vig right beside her. He frowned, but before she had to deal with that, she suddenly remembered Jace and the others.

“Jace!” she called out, scrambling off the bed. “Jace?”

She raced into the other room to find Jace on her knees, sobbing, while Erin basically spooned her from behind. She was talking to her, but Kera couldn’t make out what she said.

Leigh grabbed Kera’s arm. “Don’t worry.” She pulled Kera back. “Erin knows how to talk her down.”

“Talk her down from what? What was that?”

“Jace’s gift from Skuld. Pure rage. She’s our berserker.”

“I hate fighting her,” Siggy complained as he leaned against the wall and pulled out a piece of beef jerky from his back jean pocket.