Had he screamed first, it would have been hysterical. As it was, Sorcha had to press her lips together to keep from laughing.
Luke tsked at her, then spoke to the door. “Really, Sequoyah? Open the door before you make me angry.”
The door opened slowly. Sequoyah let out a long, tired sigh as he braced an arm against the door and leaned on it while glaring at Luke. “Why are you here, evil spawn?”
“Why don’t you have a phone?”
“Don’t like to be disturbed. You should understand.”
And while they stood on his porch, a group of ravens landed on the white railing to watch them.
Bemused, Sorcha stared at the group suspiciously. “Look. A murder of ravens.”
Sequoyah passed her an irritated glare. “Conspiracy, treachery or unkindness. Murder is for crows. We’re not crows.”
“Sorry. I didn’t know that.” But personally, she’d rather be in a murder than a treachery, unkindness or conspiracy. They sounded awful.
What did the world have against ravens to call them that? Other than the fact that they looked rather scary in a group. Even the half a dozen that currently eyed them.
She had a sudden urge to cross herself.
Sequoyah inclined his head to the group of his friends. “We’re fine. No need to pluck out eyes, right now.” He stepped back to let her and Luke into his house.
Even so, the ravens remained on the railing like silent paladins, ready to attack over any insult they perceived.
Sorcha glanced at them through the window as she moved to the center of a sparsely decorated living room. Her mind kept replaying scenes from Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds.
She forced her thoughts away from the movie that had given her nightmares for a month after her sister had made her watch it when they were kids.
Clearing her throat, she looked at Sequoyah. “I didn’t know Georgia had ravens.”
“We’re a very small conspiracy. Most of our brethren hide north. In the mountains.” He passed a hateful glare toward her as he moved to stand beside his white sofa and crossed his arms over his chest. “We were run off a long time ago.”
She didn’t miss the bitterness in his tone. “You sound like you hold a grudge.”
“I’m a raven. Of course, I do. It’s what we’re known for.”
Yeah, there was something very sinister about Sequoyah. It made the hair on the back of her arms stand up.
“I always heard ravens were playful,” she tried again.
“We can be. Unless you do us wrong. We hold on to that shit.”
Luke cleared his throat to get her attention. In the small room, Luke physically dominated it. “They also mate for life. Sequoyah’s wife was killed by an enemy. It’s made him a bit crabby in his old age.”
Her stomach sank at the thought. “Oh, I’m so sorry. I didn’t know. That’s awful. My deepest condolences.”
Sequoyah shrugged with a nonchalance she could tell he didn’t feel. “Why are you here, Luke?”
“We have a dead college student who’s missing a soul. Any of you been hungry lately?”
“We’re trying not to make any additional enemies so we only go where we’re invited these days. You’re looking for a different circus.” He walked over to the side table to a bottle of water. “Why would you think it was us?”
Luke pulled out his phone and handed it to Sequoyah. “She was severely torn up. Didn’t so much think it was one of you who killed her as much as one of you might have sensed her dying and decided to take an easy meal. Was hoping one of you might have seen who did this to her.”
Sequoyah appeared less offended by those words. He held his hand up to signal one of the birds outside.
It moved from the railing and transformed into a tall, Goth woman. Beautiful, with long black hair and dark eyes ringed in thick black eyeliner. She came in through the front door and passed a bored look to her and then Luke.
