No one had ever given a fig about her, and she was done with this wretched world and the callous way it had always treated her.
Thorn had brought her back to protect mankind. Yet at the moment, she wasn’t feeling particularly charitable toward anyone else. Not while her heart was so broken. She might not be able to feel physical pain, but she could feel this splintering inside her that hurt so deep to her soul that she feared she’d never be whole again. And she was tired of aching like this. Of being used and used up.
Of crying while no one cared about the damage they did to her.
At least until she saw Mara surrounded by a group of jumbies—demonic creatures who lived to inflict pain and prey on the life forces of others. Parasitic beasts with no regard for anything save themselves.
With her powers, Mara had fashioned two sets of circular blades for weapons so that she could fight them off. Still the jumbie demons came at her, trying to overrun the pregnant Deruvian who’d protected the Deadmen for all these many months as their mother-ship.
In a weird way, their vicious attack on Mara made sense. She was part of an ancient tree race and the jumbie were part of the silk cotton trees. They were of similar species and probably had a common ancestor somewhere. Perhaps defeating her would give them additional powers and strengths.
Let them have her. What do you care?
For once, she was feelingthatselfish and brutal. Like the rest of the world and like most everyone had been toward her.
But Mara was her friend. She’d never been unkind to her, and that meant a lot to Valynda. Particularly because Mara had nothing to gain by being nice. It was merely her nature to be that way. Such people were so rare that she refused to see her harmed. Nay, not this day, and not while the good captain relied on Valynda to protect the one thing in this world he loved above all others.
Kindness should never be rewarded with betrayal. Such a rarity should be protected at all costs.
By life and limb, and especially those exceptionally rare few who gave it for no reason whatsoever.
Growling with the weight of her betrayal, Valynda rushed forward to join the fight. Not to mention it gave her an outlet for her own pent-up rage at this callous life that seemed to begrudge her every breath. Aye, she needed this!
More, she wanted to taste their blood and let it quench her fury. While she might not have the powers that Mara had, Valynda could cut the heads off any demon who came after her, and she had the added bonus of being an immortal who could feel no physical pain. Let them try their best, for the jumbies weren’t so fortunate. They could be banished back to their hell realms by separating their heads from their bodies or piercing their eyes. And if her mood were foul enough, she could even take their life force and extinguish it entirely.
Which was why she used a long, thin rod to hold her straw hair up from her neck. Made it easy to keep a weapon handy. Sliding it free, she ignored the straw braid that fell forward as she used the long blade to pierce the eye of the first jumbie she reached.
“Take that, you heartless bastard! Pick on a pregnant woman, will you! To the devil, let you burn!”
It made a piercing, horrendous scream, then burst into a shimmery veil of dust. That gave the obnoxious fiend next to it pause as it realized what had happened. And by whose hand death had come.
When the other demon tried to run, Mara threw out one of her “limbs” and wrapped it around him to trip him and haul him back toward them. Now that made Valynda wishshecould turn into a tree and grow her arms at will.
Oh, to have those talents with her straw! But then everyone had their own unique skills.
Hers appeared to be chafing the gods. Why else would they punish her so?
“Val!”
She turned at Mara’s call to see three jumbies headed for her. Valynda barely caught the first she-bitch that reached her before it sank its fangs into her arm. Not that it would have mattered really, given that she couldn’t truly feel such bites the way normal people did. Still, it was nice to be warned. She elbowed the demon in the throat, then caught it with her rod.
“How many of these are there?”
Mara sighed. “Enough to be annoying.”
She’d give Mara that. And they seemed to be multiplying like a hydra. Kill one, find ten more. ’Twould be terrifying to most. But at the moment, ’twas most edifying to her, as she had a lot of pent-up fury she needed to purge.
So she welcomed the extra targets.
“Give me more!” She tore through the demons with a glee that, judging by Mara’s face, must be a bit shocking. And why not? Valynda had always been one of the quieter, meeker members of their crew.
Until now. But then betrayal had a way of bringing out the witch in even the gentlest of creatures. There was nothing more motivating than a need for blood vengeance.
She understood that now.
Especially when all the demons were dead and gone, and she found herself standing in front of Mara, and Valynda took note of the alarmed expression on her friend’s beautiful face as she stared at her as if she were a stranger.
“Are you all right?”
