“Captain wants to speak to everyone. We’re meeting in the galley.”
Janice got up to follow after her. That was probably his cue to leave as well. If he had any common sense, he’d have gone the moment Vala brushed him off.
Damn his lack of self-preservation. It’d been getting him into trouble since the dawn of time.
And today that lack of sense found him following after the women to the crew meeting where, for once, he didn’t really stand out with the motley bunch of miscreants who called theSea Witch IIhome. How strangely comforting.
And disconcerting. He was used to being one of the strangest people in the room, but given Rosie with his dark blond dreads and mismatched island wear mixed with a brocade coat, and Cookie, their oversized cook who barely fit into the room, Nibo definitely didn’t stand out here.
Silently, Masaka came up behind him like a shadow to rest at his back.
She dropped her chin on his shoulder and placed a possessive hand on his hip while Oussou stood on his left. There were many who mistook her actions for those of a lover. But they were closer than that. More akin to siblings—they even fought as such. And while Masaka was viciously beautiful, she had never attracted him sexually. Mostly because he knew the darkness of her past equaled his own and feared falling into that bottomless abyss that would suck him in and leave him even more soulless than he already was. The last thing either of them needed was to feed each other’s hatred of this world and those who dwelled in it.
Rather, he chose those like Vala who made him want to see beauty. She was his glimmer of light when the darkness began to close in and he couldn’t see a way out again. She kept him grounded so that he could find his way through the hate and bitterness to something better.
If Vala closed him out and left him adrift …
Pain savaged his heart. He couldn’t bear the thought of losing her love. Of being cast back into the place where he’d lived before he’d found her.
He was an animal and she was the only one who tamed him.
If he had any doubt about that, all he had to do was look about at the others and see the fear in their eyes as they glanced at him. This fearless crew who had faced down the worst of evils.
A crew made up of insidious Deadmen.
They were terrified ofhim.
Except for Devyl Bane. The World-King who had once led an army for the Lord of All Evil himself. Bane feared absolutely nothing and no one. He met Nibo’s gaze as an equal. Because he was as evil as Kadar had been on the moment the bastard had been spawned.
“So what pissed down your leg, Bane?”
Devyl let out an irritated sigh at Nibo’s question. “Why are you still here?”
Nibo shrugged. “Morbid curiosity.”
“Well now, you know what they say about curiosity.”
“It’s the ruin of good men, but I see no such here.”
Masaka bit his shoulder to warn him to silence.
Bane’s nostrils flared as if he were the one she’d just taken a chunk out of.
That was Nibo’s one flaw—well, maybe not one. He did have many. Still, it’d been ever his nature to rankle. He couldn’t seem to help himself.
Today was no exception.
“As I was saying …” Bane cleared his throat. “Vine has taken refuge with the Malachai’s army … at Death’s Door.”
A whisper of protest went through the group at the mention of the infamous gate that had been holding back some of the worst evils of the world, including Bane’s first wife.
Vine.
Rotten to the center of her being, she had murdered him, and in retaliation, Bane had reached out from the grave to capture her and imprison her so that she couldn’t harm any more innocents.
But when the Malachai had escaped, the gate had fractured, and Vine, along with countless others, had escaped, and they were now preying on mankind.
“You’ve got to be japing,” Bart groaned. “For the love of all that’s unholy, tell me you’re joking, Captain.”
