Their responding smirks said it all. Calmly, “And this is why you bitches piss me off.”
Katie held up her hands in mock fear. “Geez, Neece. Control the rage!”
Connie laughed as Janelle shrugged. “So the Ravens are here? It’s always a good idea to keep them on our side.”
“Which isn’t easy when you keep trying to kill their leader,” Connie muttered.
Katie giggled. “I couldn’t believe you called those goddamn birds of yours.”
Neecy walked away from the three women before she really did lose her temper.
Besides, she’d already put in a couple of hours at the party and had kept her drinking down to two beers and a tequila shot. It was time to go.
Plus, she needed to check in with Didi and let her know they lost the rune to the Idiot Brigade.
She came around the corner and slammed into a solid slab of concrete. Also known as Yager’s chest.
“Hey, Neecy.”
Neecy looked up at Yager. And kept looking up. There were very few men on the planet that made her feel small, but Yager was definitely one of them.
And he was “looking” at her again.
Not like people always looked at her, including her past boyfriends. With a little bit of fear and awe. No. He looked at her like he’d never seen anything so beautiful or amazing before.
She hated that look. It completely confused her and made her all sweaty.
And Neecy Lawrence didn’t sweat.
“Yager.”
She moved to step around him, but he stepped too. A small one, but the man was so huge, he easily blocked her.
“So what are you up to tonight?”
Sometimes the man asked her the dumbest questions. “Nothing.”
Christ, Yager was gorgeous. Really. Just plain gorgeous. His light brown hair reached just past his shoulders and looked as if he never combed it. Ever. His searing grey eyes made her seriously uncomfortable and horny. Those stark Nordic features blended well with his chiseled cheekbones and painfully hard jaw, as her fists could attest to. His shoulders completely dwarfed her, but he needed them that large to support his long, thick neck. His entire body was one sheet of pure rippling muscle, and he had to be at least six-‐seven. For once, a man actually taller than her.
“Wanna drink?”
Neecy sucked in a breath, about to tell him no she didn’t want a drink— and get those goddamn gorgeous eyes off me—when she heard giggling behind her. She knew it was her team. In battle they followed her every command without question. But during their off hours they truly were her family…and she realized now she never wanted siblings. Mostly because they were a pain in the ass.
She raised her knee, giving her access to the weapons she kept holstered to her calf, turned, and threw one of the deadly blades. The women dived out of the way, the sharp steel planting itself in the wall behind where they’d all been standing.
Clearing his throat, Yager slowly walked around her. He pulled the blade from the wall and handed it back to Neecy.
“A little tense, Lawrence?” he teasingly asked.
“Quiet, Yager.” She slid the blade back in its holster, keeping her head down to hide her smile, but unable to stop her chuckle.
“Do you really have to go?” That voice! She’d had wet dreams about that voice alone. Especially when it got all husky and yearning-‐like.
“Yeah. I gotta tell Didi you got what Skuld sent us out for. Then Skuld can duke it out with Odin herself.” She looked up at him. “Unless you want to give it back to me.”
He grinned and her toes curled inside her boots. “Dammit. If only I were the kind of guy who would use that request to my advantage.”
Yeah, but Yager was too nice. A true nice person—probably one of the last on the planet. A big, dumb, gorgeous nice guy.
Whereas Neecy was too smart for her own good and used to deal drugs before she took six bullets to the chest. She was once one of those scumbags she now went about eradicating from the universe. She wasn’t nice. She wasn’t good.
And she got exactly what she deserved when she’d died.
She just thanked Skuld every day for giving her a second chance to make it right.
And she would make it right, if it took her the rest of her second-‐life.
“Well, you’re not. Might as well get used to it. And stop staring at me like that.”
Frowning in confusion, “Like what?”
Neecy shook her head. “Forget it.”
She walked around him and headed to the roof and home.
Chapter Three
Many people were lucky enough to find themselves gently awakened on Sunday mornings by a sweet kiss on the cheek or a soft pat on the shoulder.
Neecy, however, got her ass rolled out of bed by the leader of the Jersey Gathering.
“Wakey, wakey, sunshine.”
Neecy knew she should have returned to her own apartment last night instead of returning to the Bird House. But, stupidly, she’d hoped to catch Didi before she went to bed—she didn’t—and she wanted one of those wonderful brunches the Gathering had every Sunday afternoon.
She thought maybe she’d overslept until she glanced up at the clock on the night table. It was barely ten… on a Sunday!
“What the hell was that?”
“Where is it?”
Neecy looked up into Didi Gowan’s smirking face. More than ten years older than Neecy, the woman still looked great. People barely noticed the jagged scar on Didi’s neck anymore. A remnant from her first husband’s dirty dealings and what brought her to Skuld. He didn’t cut her himself, but the men who wanted him to pay off his gambling debt sure did.
Didi was the first person Neecy saw when she woke up after dying. It wasn’t often a person finds a black woman with black crow’s wings extending from her back standing at the end of their bed.
“Welcome to the party, kid,” she’d said with a smile.
Seventeen years later and Didi still called her “kid.”
“Where’s the rune?”
Neecy sat up and sighed as she pushed her too-‐long bangs out of her eyes. She really needed to get them cut, but she kept putting it off. Sitting in a beauty salon always ranked low on her list of things to do.
“Yager got it.”
“Again? You must be losing your touch, kid.”
“I am not.” She was losing her mind. At least that was how it felt every time she was around Wilhelm “Pain in her ass” Yager.
Didi walked to a straight-‐back chair, spun it around, and sat down. She was in her requisite all-‐black jeans and T-‐shirt. That and her second husband, Harry, were the only “New York things” she allowed herself. Everybody knew Didi hated the East Coast. She was born in one of those states Neecy would never go to because she felt there weren’t enough minorities to make her feel comfortable. Didi only came to New York because of the first husband. But since she died here, she ended up with the Jersey Gathering. Not that Didi minded.
With her attitude, the Southern and Midwestern Crows would have run her ass out of town.
She could be a mouthy little thing.
“Okay. Tell me what happened.”
“What’s there to tell? We were dealing with our prey, and the Ravens showed up.”
“And?”
“There is no ‘and’.” Neecy stood up and flopped back on her bed. “One second I had it and the next second I didn’t. End of story.”
“You let Yager get between you and your prey?”
“No. I let Yager get between me and that stupid rune. I got my prey.” Neecy always got her prey. Always.
“Did Yager say why he wanted it?”
“No. He only said Odin sent him to get it. Which is becoming pretty common.”