“Can we just go, little Miss Judge-a-lot?” Erin asked, pushing Kera toward Vig, his Raven brothers, and the Protectors.

As the small group landed on Catalina Island, Vig prevented Kera from crashing into the rock wall. Clearly she hadn’t nailed her landings yet.

The Protectors—a less fun group of males Rolf had never known—led the way to a small cave buried away from the more populated areas of the island. They walked inside and down a long, dark path until they reached a cavern. Torches mounted on the walls were lit, and Rolf let out a breath as he looked around.

In the center of the room was a stone altar. It was covered in copious amounts of blood. Some fresh. And painted on the floor in gold were runes.

That’s why they’d insisted Rolf come. He was known among the Clans for his knowledge of runes and rune lore. Most of it was the kind of information one could get in any metaphysical book about Nordic runes. But there was a small part of him that understood runes on a deeper level than any book. Because the runes spoke to him. They whispered. They told him things that they told no other.

But this time, the runes didn’t speak. They didn’t whisper. They screamed.

Rolf closed his eyes and worked to block out the screaming. But it only became louder.

He closed his eyes and covered his ears with his hands, and someone pushed him out of the cavern. There he was greeted with wonderful silence. The runes no longer screamed at him. When Rolf opened his eyes, he saw Erin standing in front of him.

“Are you all right?”

“I’m fine. Thanks.”

“What did you see, Raven?” Ormi Bentsen, leader of the L.A. Protectors demanded.

“Back off, Ormi,” Erin told the older man. “Or I’ll tear your wings off.”

“We don’t have time for him to be a sensitive flower.”

“Give him a minute.”

Once Ormi returned to the cavern, Erin’s lip curled. “God, that guy irritates me.”

“Everyone irritates you.”

“That’s very true.”

Rolf leaned his head back, blew out a breath.

“That bad?”

“That loud.”

“I guess whatever they’re raising is powerful.”

“That’s just it. I don’t think they’re raising anything. I think they’re drawing something in. Pulling it from another world into this one.”

“They’re trying to open a doorway.”

“And let something god-awful in.”

Kera walked around the altar. There was so much blood on it.

She turned to Vig, who was taking pictures of the runes with his cell phone. “You don’t do this, do you?”

Vig glanced up. “Do what?”

“The Crows, the Ravens . . . they don’t do . ..” She gestured to the altar.

“Are you asking if we do human sacrifices?”

“Any sacrifices.”

“They were outlawed in all Clans back in 1908.”

“That’s a little more recent than I was hoping.”

“Cut us some slack. At least we got there.”

Kera continued to study the runes and the altar until something shiny caught her eye.

“Vig?”

“No, we don’t kill animals.”

“Vig.”

“What?”

“What?”

She motioned him over, and he crouched down next to her. After staring at each other a moment, Vig walked around to the other side of the altar. Together, they lifted the heavy stone up.

“Holy shit,” Siggy murmured.

He reached forward but Ormi caught his hand. “No, Raven. Leave it.”

Vig and Kera moved the altar over to the side and dropped it. They went back and studied the gold and diamond jewelry and artifacts that had been lying under the altar.

“That has to be worth . . . a fortune.”

“It’s a sacrifice.”

“Along with the human ones?” Kera glanced around at the others. “Does that seem excessive to anyone else? I mean . . . really excessive?”

Vig took her hand. “Let’s get out of here.”

“We’re just going to leave all this?” Siggy asked.

Vig sighed. “It’s tainted, dumb-ass. Cursed. Leave it.”

“Whatever.”

Kera watched Siggy walk out of the cavern. “He’s not the brightest—”

“He’s my friend,” Vig said quickly. “Great in a fight and does a great job on our taxes.”

Kera gawked. “He’s an accountant?”

“Numbers and hand-to-hand combat . . . Siggy’s the best. Anything else . . . Siggy’s our friend.”

Kera laughed. “Fair enough.”

Ski watched Jace Berisha feed that funny-looking puppy with her hands. She didn’t speak to anyone, not even her sister-Crows. She didn’t seem to notice anyone. But she seemed really happy with that puppy.

“Watcha staring at?” Leigh Matsushita asked from Ski’s right side.

“I’m just waiting. Quietly being a hostage.”

“She is cute,” Maeve noted from his other side, and Ski turned his head to look at her. “But a little out of your league, don’t you think, Protector?”

“And you never want to make her mad,” Leigh added. “You really couldn’t handle that.”

“Really?” Ski turned his head nearly 360 degrees to look at Leigh and both women screamed, dashing away from him.