Anything more, she could never give. Her life belonged to the Gathering. It always would.
“Look, Yager. I’m not trying to hurt your feelings or anything.”
“I know. You’re just scared.”
Neecy slowly turned around. “Excuse me?”
“Want me to spell it out for you? Or would you prefer I write it in some ancient text? Maybe then it’ll be a little less threatening.”
“I am not threatened by you. I’m just not having a relationship with you…or anyone.”
“Fine.” He reached down and snatched up his jacket. “Then the war is on.”
Fuck. She couldn’t afford this shit. Didi would have her ass in a sling if she started some major shit between the Crows and the Ravens. “What war?”
He walked to the door, glancing back to smile at her. “The war for your heart…and in case you’re wondering, I never lose.”
At first Neecy couldn’t move. The war for her heart? Was he kidding?
She watched him walk out her office door. Then she charged across the room, snatching the door open. He sauntered down the hallway of her school like he’d just gotten laid.
“You know,” she yelled after him, “only white people come up with that kind of trite bullshit!”
He turned, blew her a kiss, and walked off.
Neecy growled, turning her head as one of the other professor’s doors opened.
She nodded. “Dean Eggert.”
The elderly man who recommended her for tenure years before, nodded back.
“Dr. Lawrence.”
Without another word, she went back into her office and slammed her door shut so hard, several books hit the floor. Three of them she wrote herself.
Jesus, Mary, and Joseph! What the fuck did I get myself into now?
Chapter Ten
Arri met them in the backyard and appeared seriously panicked, if her pacing and hand wringing were any indications.
She did have on the standard Crow fighting outfit—white racing-‐back tank top, black jeans, black steel-‐toe boots, wool sleeves for her arms—and possessed the minimum amount of weapons. Long, steel blades shoved in the holster wrapped around her right leg. But Arri being Arri had also dyed her hair dark blue for the occasion. It was a good color on her, but still couldn’t hide the shaking of her hands or the trembling of her small body.
Neecy put her arm around the girl. “It’s gonna be okay, Arri. Just remember to stay near me and if things get really bad…find a corner and stay in it.”
For two hours Didi had argued with Neecy about this. She didn’t want little Arri out with the team. She even tried to call on Skuld herself. Like that was ever a good idea. But it was too late. Neecy received her orders for a hunt while sitting at a traffic light on her bike. One second she was sitting there trying to forget Yager and trying to remember who came to her office door earlier in the day and the next…she knew it was time. That’s how it happened for all the team leaders.
Skuld simply uploaded them with the information they needed and expected them to take care of it.
In employer terms—she only hired “self-‐starters.”
Arri took a deep, shaky breath. “Okay.”
Neecy winced at her squeak. She hated doing this to Arri. She really did. If she had her way, she’d let Arri handle everyday admin stuff for the Gathering. There were all sorts of things that needed taking care of that Neecy never had time to handle and Didi never wanted to bother with.
Yet, for some unfathomable reason, Skuld was making Neecy do this instead. Put this poor, defenseless, terrified little girl out in the middle of a Hunt.
Janelle walked up, her tattooed arms crossed in front of her chest. She stared down at Arri and Neecy wondered if she was going to again voice her complaint that this was a bad idea.
Instead, she said, “Keep your eyes on me and Neecy. Okay? You’ll be fine.”
Arri nodded. “Yeah, I will.”
Neecy was relieved to hear Arri say something other than “okay.”
“Then let’s go, ladies.” Neecy looked at her team. “The quicker we get this over with, the quicker we can get something to eat.”
Katie and Connie took off, Janelle right behind them.
She turned to Arri. “You’re not going to pee on yourself, are you?”
Arri snorted a laugh. “What?”
“I just wanted to make sure…so I’m not flying behind you or under you.”
“Aw, that’s disgusting, Neecy!” But she got her to smile.
“Disgusting, perhaps…but possibly a little accurate?”
“No! Ewwww!” She slapped Neecy’s shoulder. “I’ll be fine. Yuck.”
Arri spread her wings and flew. Neecy blew out a sigh of relief. To be honest, she was kind of worried the girl couldn’t even fly.
Yager wiped blood from his cheek. The little asshole cut his face. Grabbing him around the throat, Yager lifted him off the floor. “I love it when you guys make it easy for me.”
This was what the Ravens did best. Interrupt some weird religious rite usually involving the sacrifice of some poor schlub. Save the “sacrificee” and “manage” everybody else. He liked saying “manage” because that sounded a hell of a lot better than “kill.”
It wasn’t Yager’s favorite part of the job, but at times it was the most fulfilling.
Yager didn’t know who these guys were. Maybe Satanists, but he doubted it.
They kept their stuff pretty quiet and often the Christians handled them. But anything involving the Norse gods belonged to the Ravens. Unless, of course, that invisible line was crossed and the Crows were called to clean house.
Gripping the man tighter around the throat, Yager slammed him against the wall three times until he stopped wiggling. He dropped him and turned to find the others had been “managed” by the rest of the team.
Tye moved up behind him. “We may have another problem.”
Yager turned, facing his friend and saw that he held one of the prey in his big hands. “What?”
Tye shook the man—once. “Tell him.”
“We were paid to hold this rite,” the man choked out desperately. “Paid to make sure the right people knew about it.”
“So that it would get back to me,” Tye growled.
It was a well-‐known fact among the Clans that Tye had some rather…unholy connections. He could find out stuff that no else—absolutely no one—could ever find out through normal mystical means.
“So what does that mean for us?”
“If this is a decoy,” he snapped the neck of the man in his hands and let his carcass drop to the ground. “Then they’ve opened up a doorway somewhere else.”
Shit . “We need to find that doorway.”
“Bet you money it’s already been found.”
Slamming the door to the Hoboken butcher shop, Janelle pushed her back against it and desperately looked at Neecy.
“Portal to hell! We have a portal to hell!”
Neecy threw the biker up against the alley wall. “How bad?” she yelled over the fighting and the unholy screams coming from the other side of the door Janelle stood in front of.
“Uh…straight to the very pits of hell. So we do have a problem here, ladies.”
As Janelle finished her statement, heavy bodies threw themselves against the door from the other side. Pushing on it harder, Janelle gasped out, “If you’re going to do something…do it quick!”
Neecy knew how to close mystical doorways leading to alternate dimensions, but portals to hell…that was something different all together. Way beyond her skill-‐ set.
Yeah, this was getting seriously out of control.