“Don’t make a big deal out of it? You could have gotten one or both of us killed.”
“Ravens are notoriously hard to kill and it wasn’t that big of a drop. You would have survived. Besides, it worked, didn’t it?”
“You’re an idiot.”
“Me? You’re the one who’s here five minutes and thinks she can just take over!”
“What are you talking about?”
“Asking about our schedules. Trying to organize us into neat little Marine-like teams. Bringing around those stupid clipboards.”
“What is your problem with my clipboards?” Kera yelled.
“I know you miss the boring, organized existence of being in the U.S. military. But those days are over. Just fucking deal with it!”
That’s when Kera just sort of . . . snapped. She stepped over Vig’s prone body, grabbed one of the nearby outdoor chairs, and slammed it directly into Amsel’s side, knocking the redhead to the ground.
“How’s that, bitch?” Kera demanded. “Am I one of you now?”
Bleeding from her face and some cuts on her left arm, Amsel pushed herself up to a sitting position. She pressed the back of her hand against the side of her nose and winced. “You’re definitely getting there.”
Then the crazy bitch kicked Kera right in the crotch and all Kera could do was drop to her knees from the pain.
With Kera’s dog barking incessantly and circling the fighting pair but not intervening, Vig scrambled to his feet. He was about to step in since no one else would, but Tessa grabbed his arm before he could move.
The Viking way applied even to the Crows. You just didn’t intervene in this sort of thing. Logically, he knew that.
He did. But still . . .
Gripping Kera by the hair, Erin pulled back her fist and punched her in the face, twice. Kera responded by slamming Erin in the gut.
Erin grunted, stumbling back from Kera, her arms around her stomach.
Kera stood, wiping the blood from her nose, before charging Erin, ramming into her, and dropping them both to the ground.
Using her leg, Erin flipped Kera up and over. Erin went with her, using her knees to pin Kera’s forearms to the ground. Then Erin leaned in and spit right in Kera’s face.
That’s when Kera lost it.
Using her entire body and her newly developed strength, Kera rolled over with a roar until she was on top of Erin. She grabbed Erin by the hair, dragging her to her knees as Kera stood.
First Kera rammed her own knee into Erin’s face, more than once. Then she threw her to the ground and kicked her. When Erin was facedown, trying to crawl away, Kera picked her up by her T-shirt and flung her about ten feet away.
Cracking her neck, Kera began to walk toward Erin, watching the smaller redhead, covered in blood and developing bruises, pull herself up until she stood.
Erin lifted her left hand, clenching the fingers until the knuckles cracked.
Tessa pushed him forward. “You better get in there.” Then Tessa and the other Crows ran. Away.
Vig knew why, too. Almost every Crow had an extra gift. Some more dangerous than others. Like Erin’s gift.
And Vig only had seconds to move.
Kera saw Amsel flex her hand, like she wanted to pound Kera right into the ground.
Swinging her arms away from her body in a clear challenge, Kera yelled, “Come on, bitch! Bring it!”
That’s when it rolled from the redhead’s hand like a whip. Bright red-and-orange flame. Not only did it move like a whip, but that’s how Amsel treated it. She drew her arm back and the flame followed; then with a scream, she brought her arm forward and the flame whipped out at Kera. She watched it cut through the air, the tip aimed to cut right across her bare chest. Kera started to move, but she wasn’t fast enough.
But Vig was. He jumped in front of Kera with the round metal picnic table and held it up. The vicious flame cut right through the metal, leaving Vig with two distinct pieces.
“Fuck,” he gasped when he saw what Amsel’s power could do.
Amsel pulled back her arm again and Vig pushed Kera behind him, using his poor defenseless body to protect her.
“That is enough!” Chloe’s voice bellowed, cutting through all the bullshit.
She walked across the yard, dark eyes screaming with rage.
First, she focused on Amsel. “I know,” she said, her voice low, “that you didn’t just unleash that flame on a fellow Crow.”
“Chloe—”
“I know”—Chloe now screamed—“that you would never do something that despicable to one of your own!”
Amsel closed her fist and the flame vanished as quickly as it had come, her head dropping as she suddenly studied her feet.
“And you,” she snarled at Kera. “You attack a fellow Crow over a dude?”
“No, it was because—”
“Over a dude!”
Kera stopped talking. She had the feeling that Chloe didn’t want to hear it. Any of it. For her, there were no excuses. No legitimate reason why one Crow should or would ever attack another.
Sadly, Kera still didn’t feel that. She didn’t understand that. She didn’t know what these women were about or why she should feel the need to protect any of them. And, after this, she was sure she would never understand that feeling.
Chloe walked over to one of the deck chairs and grabbed a towel that hung from the back. She threw it at Kera. “Cover your tits, and both you bitches get inside and get your wounds taken care of. Now!”
Tessa and two other Crows that specialized in healing, helped dig glass out of Kera’s back, readjust Vig’s neck, and put Erin’s broken nose back into place. Cuts were cleaned up and salve smoothed on to help with healing. Ice packs were pressed against angry purple bruises, and aspirin was given to each to help with additional aches and pains.
It was all that was necessary for Crows and Ravens. If the fight she’d just witnessed had taken place with normal humans, they’d be in the hospital for a couple of days. Plus, wounds would have to be sewn, and they’d probably get something stronger than aspirin.
While the two Crows sat on the examination tables of the Healing Room, as they called it, and Vig slowly pulled his T-shirt back on, Tessa dismissed her two assistants.
Kera’s freshly unleashed wings sagged sadly from her back, and she still held a towel over her bare chest. Erin pressed an ice pack against her reset nose.
“So,” Tessa began, “what are we going to do with you two? You can’t go around fighting each other.” When neither spoke, Tessa pushed, “Well?”
“Put me on another team,” Kera said.
“What fucking team would have you?” Erin shot back. “You and your goddamn clipboards.”
“You mention my clipboard one more time—”
“Stop it!” Tessa snapped. “I mean seriously. What is wrong with you two?”
“She started this,” Kera barked.
“I was trying to help!”
“Well, don’t bother trying to help anymore. Next time you might get me killed!”
“Oh, get over yourself!”
Tessa slapped her hands together. “That is enough! Holy shit!” She let out a breath and tried to figure out what to do next. When nothing brilliant came to her team leader mind, Tessa decided to separate them for a while.
“Kera, just . . . go take a break. Away.”
Kera slipped off the exam table, heading to the door. But when Erin gave the slightest sneer, one side of her top lip lifting up, Kera immediately responded by giving her the finger.
The new Crow had her hand on the doorknob when Erin suddenly announced, “You killed your dog.”
Everyone in the room froze, Kera spinning around to look across the room at her pit bull, who had been quietly sitting in the corner while her owner got fixed up. Vig immediately straightened up, his eyes wide and locking with Tessa’s.
“What are you talking about?” Kera demanded.
“Kera, just go,” Tessa pushed
.
“Brodie is right there. She’s fine.”
“Yeah,” Erin shot back. “Fifty pounds heavier and stronger. With all her teeth.”
“So?”
“When you said you wouldn’t join the Crows without your dog, that left Skuld with only one option. In order to bring your dog with you, she had to kill her first and then bring her back. She only chooses from the dead. So yeah,” Erin taunted, “you killed your dog. Dog killer.”
Kera dove at Erin, her towel dropping to the ground as she wrapped her hands around Erin’s throat.
Erin fought back by slamming her ice pack against Kera’s jaw.
Tessa caught hold of Erin while Vig grabbed Kera. They both pulled back as the two women threw punches and tried to bite each other. It wasn’t even a proper fight at this point. It was just a brawl between women, one topless.
All that was missing was the liquor and frat boys.
“Take her!” Tessa ordered Vig when he managed to get Kera away from Erin. “Just get her out of here!”
He walked out the door, the once dead and now alive Brodie immediately following.
And, as soon as Kera left the room, Erin immediately stopped struggling.
Tessa released her and walked around to stand in front of the Crow who’d been part of her team since the day she’d arrived.
“Was that bit of information really necessary?” Tessa asked.
“Depends on your definition of necessary.”
“What is wrong with you, Erin?”
“I don’t know. She just pissed me off when all I was trying to do was help her out.”
“She fell out of a window because of you.”
“She survived!”
“That’s not—” Tessa stopped, shook her head. There was no point in arguing with Erin when she got like this. It seemed the woman had come out of her mother’s Irish-Catholic womb contrary. Rumor was that during the baptism, baby-Erin didn’t cry once, but she did slap the attending priest’s face. Twice.
“Even worse than her falling out the window . . . is that you embarrassed her in front of a guy she really likes.”
“Again, trying to help.”
“How is that helpful?”
Erin shrugged. “She’s got good tits. And now he knows she’s got good tits. And real ones. Not fake.”
The worst part about all that . . . Tessa knew Erin was dead serious.
Vig managed to hold on to Kera until they were halfway down the hall. That’s when she pulled herself away, arms flailing, and turned to face him.
Vig leaned back a bit, afraid she was going to turn that dangerous wrath on him, but instead, she asked, “Is what she said true?”
“Kera—”
“Is what she said true?”
Vig had never learned to lie, so he didn’t bother. “Probably. The thing you must remember when it comes to the gods . . . there’s always a price. There’s always a sacrifice.”
Kera swallowed, stepped back, her eyes on Vig. Then she crouched down and Brodie ran into her arms. That’s when Vig realized Kera was crying as she hugged her dog.
He really had no idea what to do then. He wasn’t used to crying.
Yardley King, a Crow for the last three years, was walking down the hall, still wet from the pool, a towel over her shoulder, a tiny bikini barely covering her body. She stopped when she reached them, her gaze moving from Kera and Brodie to Vig.
“What’s going on?” she finally asked.
“I killed my dog,” Kera sobbed.
Eyes wide, Yardley looked at Vig and he mouthed, Erin told her.
Yardley immediately crouched beside Kera, putting one arm around her shoulders. “Oh sweetie, don’t feel bad. You didn’t know. And Brodie’s been so happy here. She’s like our mascot now.”
“I didn’t know.”
“Of course you didn’t know! No one thought for a second you knew. That’s why no one said anything,” she muttered, big blue eyes rolling.
Kera glanced up at Yardley, looked back at Brodie, and then her head snapped up again. “You’re . . . you’re Yardley King.”
“I am! Are you a fan?”
“Isn’t everyone a fan of yours?” Kera wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. “I heard on the radio this morning, your latest movie is number one at the box office.”
“I know.” Yardley’s grin was blinding. “And it’s fabulous! I’m going to make so much money.” She leaned in and whispered, “I got a piece of the backend.” She giggled. “I love my agent. She’s the best! And a Crow. Her name’s Betty. You will love her.”
Kera’s eye twitched the slightest bit. “You’re quieter in your movies.”
“I know. I always play the murderous psychopath, which is so funny, because I’m naturally perky and happy. And I get emotional at the drop of a hat. Sweetie,” she said, her hand on Kera’s shoulder, “is there a reason you’re not wearing a shirt?”
“Yes, but I don’t want to go into it. And the problem now is I can’t get my wings back in. They’re just hanging there.”
“Oh, that’s an easy fix.”
She got Kera to her feet, turning her away from Vig. “Naughty Raven,” Yardley teased. “Trying to see.”
She placed her hands on Kera’s shoulders.
“Okay, first, you’ll pull your shoulders forward . . .” Yardley gently guided Kera’s shoulders forward. “Then you pull them back with a little snap.”
Kera snapped her shoulders back as if some three-star general had just walked into the hallway. Her wings retracted into her body and Kera grunted from the pain of it.
“I know, I know,” Yardley rushed to say. “It hurts. And it’ll hurt the first few times you use them. But before you know it,” she said with that smile, turning Kera to face her, “it’ll be like breathing. Just another part of you.”
Yardley moved her towel, revealing a T-shirt underneath. She handed it to Kera. “It’s a little damp, but should do.”
The movie star faced Vig. “Why don’t you get her out of here for a while? Give her time to breathe.”
Vig nodded. “Okay.” Looping his arm around Kera’s waist, he lifted her up and started to carry her down the hall, Brodie following behind them.
“I don’t mean carry her off like you just pillaged her village, Rundstöm.”
He stopped, glanced down at Kera. “You comfortable?”
“Surprisingly . . . yes. I am.”
“She’s comfortable,” he told Yardley before he continued on.
“You shouldn’t let him get used to that,” Yardley laughingly yelled. “He’ll just keep doing it!”
Erin stared straight ahead, refusing to look at Tessa’s face. She knew the expression she’d see. A cross between disappointment and disgust.
Erin hated that expression from her team leader. Mostly because she hated disappointing her. Although Erin had no idea why. She usually didn’t care how anyone felt about her. In fact, she prided herself on not caring. And the physical fight between her and Kera was no big deal. Crows got into it sometimes. Not usually with the new girls, but it still happened.
“I get why you did what you did, about the wings. I don’t get why you told her about the dog. That was just mean, Erin.”
“She made me mad.”
“What are you? A thirteen-year-old boy? And I thought no one made you mad.”
“She did.”
“Get over it. You’re her mentor and—”
“I’m not her mentor. Not anymore.”
“What? Did you think this little drama was going to get you out of this commitment?”
“Yes. As a matter of fact, I did think that.”
“Well, unthink it. You two are mentor and mentee and that’s not going to change.”
“Tessa—”
“No. I don’t want to hear it. She’s your responsibility. Deal with it.”
“What am I supposed to do with her? She hates me now.”
“Help her. That’s what mentors do.”
“Help her with what? She doesn’t think she needs help. She has all the answers. Remember?”
Yardley walked into the room, three members of her strike team behind her.
“You got into it with the new girl?” Yardley demanded. “You told her about her dog? Dude!”
“I’m out of here,” Erin stated, jumping off the exam table before immediately regretting jumping. Her entire face hurt. A sharp, vicious pain that ran from her nose through her entire head. That girl had a punch like a freight train.
“Everybody’s talking about it,” Yardley went on while Erin tried her best to get steady before attempting to walk. “The whole house is buzzing.”
“I don’t care.”
“What are you going to do?”
“I’ll deal with it. Just leave me alone.”
“How can you deal with it? She’s gone.”
“What do you means she’s gone? Where did she go?”
“Rundstöm carried her away. Literally. It was cute in a Viking-tr ying-to-rescue-his-woman-from-a-crazed-redhead kind of way.”
Erin’s eyes narrowed and she started to walk toward Yardley but Tessa caught her by the waistband of her jeans and pulled her back.
“But,” Yardley went on, oblivious as always, “I think she needed to get out of here for a bit. Besides, he clearly likes her. And I think she likes him.”
“Of course, she likes him,” Erin stated, exasperated.
“Is this you trying to say that was also part of your grand scheme?” Tessa asked.
“It was. He got to see her tits, which are pretty decent for real ones. Now she gets some time with him so that he can ‘comfort’ her,” she said with air quotes.
“You mean like fuck her?” Yardley asked with that goddamn annoying perky voice.
“If that’s what they want.”
“Yeah,” Tessa announced, shaking her head. “That’s not going to happen.”
“Why not?”
“You kicked her in the cunt. Trust me, the last thing that girl wants tonight is some Viking pounding away on top of her.”
With everyone staring at her and looking disgusted, Erin reminded them, “There’s always anal.”
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