The Valkyrie

1

The shadows that were cast against the walls were demons in their own right, a bottomless evil which could conceal monsters from her ever watchful eyes. Eyes which glimmered silver even in the eclipsing darkness that seemed to engulf the abandoned church. Mya no longer feared the shadows, or the night, or the horrid, rancid smell of death that reverberated around her. It had been a long time since the fear of death had even been a brief deterrent in her actions, now she just existed with no fear at all the agitate her hardened soul. It was with a feeling of emptiness, where fear and hesitation once resided, that she proceeded forward.

The floor creaked under her weight, but she didn't care if her quarry heard her. If they hadn't smelt or sensed her coming in then they were the worst excuse of a vampire she'd ever heard of. The dark whisper of energy across her skin let her know that her quarry was most certainly aware of her presence and not aware of her power or the sentence she brought with her. No respectable vampire would stick around when a Valkyrie was on their land, but a new one, with no knowledge of the long feared guardians would assume that a foolish human had just followed them onto their territory.

"Tsk Tsk, what do we have here? A lost morsel? Oh and what a pretty one at that. You'll taste especially good little morsel." The deranged voice of a man in the throws of his first blood lust called out. Mya felt no pity for him, he'd killed far too many innocents to earn even the chance of redemption. He would not be welcomed by the Rasgat to be trained to assist Valkyrie, he would die quickly at the end of Mya's blade, a luxury his victims had not been granted. Mya rolled her shoulders as the black ink for her tattoos shifted, moved and slithered over her skin, racing toward her hand. After years of fighting she still wasn't used to the feel of her own blood parting to make way for the black ink that signified a Valkyrie. It was the black ink that became their sword, and it was the ink that made them slaves to Zula, their head, a tidbit kept from Mya when she'd been offered a job as a Valkyrie.

There was a shift in the shadows, a subtle shiver in the dark that warned Mya of the vampire's approach. She didn't let on that she knew, but did come to a standstill in front of the pulpit. Mya yawned, she couldn't control her boredom of this tediously average hunt more than the vampire who waited mere feet to her right could ignore the soft, fruit smell of her Valkyrie blood. Blood meant to be more enticing than a human's to ensure a vampire would chose to attack them rather than an innocent.

It was over as soon as he sprung from his hiding spot. The sudden movement drawing a well honed reflex from Mya as her arm shot out, her sword growing from the black ink the leapt from her skin into the air, forming a thin strong katana with a tiger, snake and dragon intricately etched into the blade in an epic dance she'd memorized from the moment she could call her sword.

He impaled himself and then collapsed hanging from the middle of her sword for a moment before his weight sliced him open upon it and dropped uselessly to the ground, split nearly in two. Mya flicked her sword quickly sending his blood scattering across the rows of pews behind her before allowing her sword to regress back into the winged tattoos on her back.

Mya let out a bored sigh and turned towards the stairs, stepping over the carcass at her feet to find the stash of bodies that had fallen victim to the now dead monster. With sure and steady movements she ascended the steps walking regally as some had described her, but what others saw didn't matter to her. As her mind wondered what she was going to do for dinner after work her body roamed through the upper floor of the church going to room to room until she reached her destination.

Blood covered every surface, every inch of the walls, ceiling and floor and the bodies of the innocent were draped all over what once would have been the pastor's office. Mya didn't enter, she knew better as a homicide detective. So much waste of innocent life, so much blood wasted on...just wasted.