“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.

Keraglanced 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.