That’s when more men appeared from the shadows and many more came pouring from the house.

Kera tried to move to the far corner of the yard, but something had hold of her leg. She looked down to see the naked woman glaring up at her with blood-rimmed black eyes and a mouthful of black fangs.

“A Crow,” the thing said, gazing at Kera. “Kill it!”

“Fuck—” Kera gasped out, but then the other Crows were landing around her, shielding her.

Erin stomped on the thing’s claw until it released Kera; then she yanked Kera back.

“Stay behind me!” Erin ordered as she lifted her leg and pulled out her two blades. Erin slashed and stabbed the men who got near her while the other Crows did the same.

Kera felt completely useless as she stood there, watching. Until she spotted the man with the bracelet heading toward the fence. The other Crows, busy with the leader’s men, didn’t see him. But Kera did. So she moved, jumping over and around the two battling crews until she reached the man with Skuld’s bracelet.

She grabbed his arm and spun him around to face her. He had a blade in one hand and tried to ram it into her chest. Having already been stabbed to death once in the past few days, she wasn’t about to go through it again. Kera caught hold of his hand and the blade in it, turned her body while securing his forearm under her arm, then pulled. The man screamed as she yanked his shoulder from its socket. Then she kept pulling until she’d nearly torn the whole thing off.

She took hold of the blade and turned back to the man, shoving him into the high wood fence behind him. Kera raised the blade and pulled it back, about to plunge it deep into his heart.

About to. But she didn’t. She couldn’t. In that instant, she froze, unable to make the killing move. Unable to bring herself to go that final step.

It took a moment, but the man realized she couldn’t do it. She couldn’t kill him.

He grinned and with his good arm, grabbed Kera around the throat and tossed her back into the main battle.

Unfortunately, Kera landed near that fanged thing and it was coming for her, charging at her on all fours. Gasping, Kera crab-walked back from it. But it caught hold of Kera’s leg and began to drag her close. That’s when a steel-toed booted foot landed against the thing’s back, pinning it there. Then big hands reached down and twisted the head one way. Then another. Then back the first way until it was ripped off.

Rachel lifted the cursing, screaming head and held it up for everyone to see.

The remaining men bolted out of the yard, disappearing into the night. In the distance, Kera could hear sirens. The cops were coming.

Scowling down at her, Rachel growled, “Erin . . . burn it all.”

Rachel tossed the head aside and pointed at Kera. “Then bring her.”

The Crows took off, Annalisa stopping long enough to help Kera up and get her to the safety of the trees.

As Erin used herwings to lift her body in the air, she unleashed flames from her hands, spraying them across the yard and house until everything began to burn.

Erin caught up with Kera in the trees as the other Crows took to the air, heading back to Malibu.

“That fire—” Kera began.

“Will turn everything to ash. The cops won’t have any evidence to process.”

“But the rest of the houses. The neighborhood.”

“It should be all right once the fire trucks get here.” Erin tugged on Kera’s arm and they both took to the air. “I admit it, though, I hate doing that during fire season. A lit cigarette tossed out a car window can easily destroy three thousand acres of land, so who knows what my angry-flame might do.”

When Kera gawked at her, Erin shrugged. “But I’m sure it’ll be fine. Besides,” Erin went on, “at the moment, you’ve got bigger, more muscular things to worry about.”

Jace wished she could say something, do something to help Kera. But what was there to do? Especially when big-boned Rachel was on one of her tears.

And boy, was she pissed. Her muscles were all natural now, given to her by Skuld. But before that, she’d been quite the steroid user. And although she’d been clean since her death, her steroid rage was, unfortunately, still with her when she got angry enough.

And sadly, at the moment . . . she was really angry.

“She couldn’t kill him,” Rachel snarled at Chloe. “I saw her. She could have finished that fucker off and taken that bracelet but, instead, she just stared at him. Now he’s gone and he still has the bracelet.” She pointed a damning finger at Kera. “Her fault! And you,” she accused, looking at Tessa, “don’t even care.”

“Of course I care. But I think we have bigger things to worry about. Like no matter what Kera did to that guy, he kept . . . healing himself.”

Chloe’s head jerked. “What did he have?”

“Just some bracelet of Skuld’s. And it wasn’t all that powerful.”

“Plus,” Maeve added, “he turned his girlfriend into a demon without actually sacrificing her. Which seemed weird, because you usually have to do one to make the other happen.”

“Unless she was already a demon in the first place.”

“Leigh,” Chloe ordered, “look into that. That’s definitely not normal.”

“Okay.”

“Oh my God,” Rachel cut in. “Are we really ignoring the weak link in our very strong chain?”

“Are you done?” Chloe finally asked the team leader. The funny thing about Chloe, she could flip out on a dime, but when she was faced with screaming and hysteria, she became incredibly . . . calm. So calm it drove the rest of the Crows kind of crazy. But that calmness was needed now.