Waiting
After vanquishing the final cave feeder, Grey's gaze fell upon Mark. Valeria had relocated his lifeless body to a cleaner spot nearby, where she intended to honor and cremate him.
"Don't pity him," she demanded. "He's a warrior; warriors don't want or need pity."
Valeria reached into the pocket of her black jean shorts and retrieved a pack of cigarettes and a steel wind-proof lighter. She opened the pack, extracted a third of a cigarette with tobacco spilling out, and placed it in her mouth.
Chick! Chick!
"You might not believe it, but this guy had a temper like something out of the Bible," Valeria said as she inhaled sharply, chuckling while embers fell from her disintegrating cigarette. "Real bad. I watched this fucker crack a man's skull against a granite tabletop for catcallin' his wife."