A/N: I don't own Skulduggery, Valkyrie, Erskine or Ghastly. This is after the novels, so Val is in her 20s. Nuit is an OC. WARNING: This chapter is rather dark and violent compared to my usual fluff. The faint of heart should turn back now.

I was running through the ossuary underneath the streets of Paris, both fists in flame, the voices of those long dead guiding me. They spoke from the skulls, from the bones, leading me on an unerring path through the labyrinth that many mortals had gotten lost in and never returned from again.

They were leading me on to hopefully catch a magical killer and save my partner before it was too late. He'd had Skulduggery for two weeks now and I feared as I raced through the skull and bone-lined tunnels that I'd find Skulduggery truly dead, added to the stacks of bones in a macabre form of art. What I found was so much worse.

I ground to a halt in a large room, the French Sanctuary agents who had been following me going around me in hot pursuit of the killer, one Monsieur Nuit. I stood frozen in place looking at Skulduggery. He was dead, he had to be.

He lay there inert and naked. Every bone in his body had been drilled into then connected to the others with wires, turning him into a fully articulated skeleton. Grotesque metal plates had been jammed into his spine and I could see from his mouth being open in a silent scream that most of his teeth had screws running into him. Surely the killer had killed him and did this with his body.

I approached and knelt down. Too shocked to cry, too numb to go into a rage and join the hunt for the killer. "Oh, Skulduggery." I breathed, and unbelievably, his skull turned to look at me.

"Valkyrie." He managed, and because we'd known each other so long I could read the expression on his skeletal features. He didn't care about the pain. The humiliation of being naked was what bothered him most. I took off my coat and covered him, thankful I was now nearly his height so that it covered him.

"Thank you." He rasped. Then his skull lolled back and I knew he'd passed out. The agents were returning, dragging the killer. They'd obviously beaten the man to death and I didn't much care. He'd killed a lot of their own agents and I understood exactly how they felt. They dropped the body, the leader whipping out a mobile to ring their Sanctuary for assistance.

Then they lifted Skulduggery tenderly onto another agent's coat and we carried him out of the ossuary, up into the blinding light of the streets of Paris. A van already awaited us, and soon we were in the infirmary.

The French doctors were highly skilled, but there was no easy way for them to get the twisted bits of metal out. Skulduggery was coming to as they started to operate, and I stayed, holding him as other doctors did the best they could to try and alleviate the pain.

Mercifully he passed out again and after several hours the doctors had removed all the metal and put healing balms on every hole. He would heal in body, but whether his mind would heal was something they did not know.

When he was at last in a bed someone, I couldn't even tell who after two days without sleep, led me to a Sanctuary room for guests and I fell asleep fully clothed.

By the next day when I went to him Skulduggery had lapsed into state of such deep meditation that the doctors could only hope he was healing himself. Ghastly had arrived and he led me out into the hall. We had wondered why Skulduggery had been in Paris in the first place, and now we knew.

"He was here for you, Val. The hotel room where he was abducted from our agents found a dummy potion. The killer had posed as a mage who had the ability to let Skulduggery live as a man of flesh and blood once more. I never told you this before, but he's in love with you."

I sagged against the wall. "Then this is all my fault, isn't it? I asked dully, and he shook his head.

"No, Val, never! Skulduggery fell for the same trap all the other victims did. Nuit's ability, as his name might imply, is to know whatever the victim most longs for, what they dream about at night. He could enter dreams, that's how he got to them, all of them. He blurred the lines between waking and dreaming. Skulduggery didn't even think to come to him, Nuit found him in his dreams."

I shivered, wondering if a man who could stalk the dreams of the living could ever truly die. Would he be even more powerful now? No. I told myself. Nuit is dead. He is gone and finished. You're job is to watch over Skulduggery now.

"Valkyrie, perhaps I shouldn't have told you. But you had to know. He'd been going to pieces, not being able to tell you how he felt. But this is in no way your fault. Monsters like Nuit pick only on the vulnerable and weak. We weren't even aware of his existence until Skulduggery came to Paris and disappeared." I nodded. He was right of course, but I still felt guilty. I was headed back inside to resume my vigil when Ghastly stopped me.

"No, Val. He's going to need you strong when he comes around. I know you want to be with him, but you haven't been sleeping or eating. Come on then. Let me take you somewhere, get some food into you. Please. He'll have guards here." Ghastly nodded to the two Rippers who walked towards us. "Erskine's orders, come on then." He said gently leading me away as the black clad mercenaries took positions flanking the door.

As we had breakfast at a small cafe I voiced my worries to Ghastly. "Maybe I've seen one too many horror movies, Ghastly. But I don't think being dead is going to stop Nuit. If anything I think we made him more powerful. Think of it. You said yourself he steals the magic and souls of his victims. Where would a soul filled with all that power go when the body dies?"

"Hopefully straight to Hell where he belongs, Valkyrie. This is real life not one of your horror movies. Nuit is not coming back." Ghastly said firmly.

"Skulduggery did." I argued. We went on to other topics but I couldn't help thinking that Nuit would be back. But perhaps Ghastly was right. The majority of the dead never returned. I shook myself mentally and let Ghastly lead me on to more cheerful things.

"Sorry to just tell you how Skulduggery feels before, Valkyrie. But well, when he does wake up he's going to be fragile. It won't be the best time for you to bring up knowing he loves you, but I'd just hoped-" He trailed off with a helpless shrug.

"That I love him too?" I asked gently and Ghastly nodded, looking miserable. "I do and I'll stay with him, you know that. I was thinking of taking him away to a cabin my uncle has in the woods. It's very isolated. No TV or electric, he'll love it. I don't want him working again right away, I hope that's all right."

Ghastly nodded. "Good idea, Valkyrie. He'll fight you on it of course, he'll want to be back to work right away, but the man needs time alone with you. He needs time to heal. The doctors told me that Skulduggery was most likely kept awake for his torture and not allowed to pass out. It's how Nuit fed on the magic of his victims."

I shivered then nodded as he continued. "He couldn't steal Skulduggery's soul only because Skulduggery refused to die. He was holding on, Valkyrie. Waiting for us."

We were quiet after that both lost in our own thoughts. I only hoped that Skulduggery would agree to go to the cabin and we could both heal there, because I knew I'd see the sight of him as we found, naked and tortured, in my nightmares for a very long time.

Told you it was dark. Monsieur Nuit would translate to Mr. Night.