A/N: And if you read anyway well you better review to make up for it :P This story is not linked to any of my other stories in anyway and it's what I'd think Skulduggery Pleasant would be like if it was aimed at young adults so don't tell me they're OOC.
READ THIS!
This is rated T for a reason. I recommend 14 and under not to read for your own good. This contains swearing, insinuations and let's not forget the sexual innuendos. You know who you are and you are at your own risk.
Chapter 1
This was just how she liked to spend her nights. Clad in tight black leather. Adrenaline running through her veins. Chilled from the Dublin night mist.
In other words, she was hot, badass and she damn well knew it.
But the girl they were chasing after was fast. Lightning Dismal, Skulduggery had called her but for once out of the ridiculous bad guys with ridiculous names, hers seemed appropriate.
She was faster than Valkyrie and speeded round corners so quickly that all Valkyrie managed to see was the whip of her blond hair. Plus unlike Skulduggery who was floating somewhere above them she was dealing with hard concrete beneath her feet and any obstacles that were in her way.
They ran past buildings and quiet streets, Valkyrie could hear the clump of her own feet but she realised that Dismal's feet made no sound at all. Valkyrie kept at it though because obviously Dismal wasn't familiar with Dublin, right ahead of them was a forest which she'd either be trapped in or get too lost to find her way out on her own.
To her surprise Dismal did not at once stop at the sight of the tall trees but kept running straight for them. Valkyrie sped up, maybe she wasn't that unfamiliar after all. Still meters ahead of her Dismal began to climb at the nearest tree, scaling it meters at a time. When she'd reached the top she started to jump from tree to tree.
Oh that's just perfect she thought she's a freaking ninja.
At this rate she was going to lose her. Valkyrie went full speed ahead into the forest branches cut at her arms.
It's what I get for wearing a skimpy outfit she concluded, Damn Karma
But she didn't mind so much after the way Skulduggery looked at her when he came to pick her up that night.
It was now or never. Valkyrie took aim and called on fire in the palm of her hand. It hit perfectly at the branch Dismal was just about to land on. She fell. Valkyrie smiled.
Until Dismal managed to stall her landing and grabbed on to a thicker branch.
And now she's a gymnast.
"Skulduggery!" she called out. If he wasn't going to do anything they were going to lose her.
On cue Skulduggery made a large movement with his arms making a large wind force as Dismal swung herself to another tree. The air hit her and instead of gracefully land on the next branch she hit the trunk of the tree and fell.
Valkyrie arrived at the bottom of the tree in time to catch her and make sure she didn't get away. She took out the cuffs from her back pocket and put them on her.
The cuffs apparently were meant to cancel any magic the victim would try to use.
Let's hope they work
Valkyrie cuffed the girl who now had a large amount of scratches and bruises all over her from her landing.
"Better luck next time" Valkyrie said smugly.
Dismal's blue eyes smiled back at her. Valkyrie saw her reach for a rectangular piece of parchment in the back of her pocket and gently tossed it at her.
Valkyrie was pushed back. She used her arms to cover anything vital and she heard a distinct crack as she hit a tree.
I'm going to kill those guys in the equipment department she swore.
Skulduggery came down on the ground next to her.
Dismal backed away slowly.
"Don't try anything irrational" he warned.
Dismal smiled and then disappeared into thin air.
Skulduggery and Valkyrie were left alone.
"Here" said Skulduggery giving her a hand. She took it. Skulduggery took off his jacket and also handed it to her.
"I'm warm enough" she said, pushing it away.
Skulduggery cleared his throat.
Valkyrie looked down. Her clothes were tattered, it was really an explosive that Dismal had used and it left her with barely anything to wear.
Instead of asking Skulduggery if he'd rather her wearing something like this she took the jacket. She was far too annoyed that Dismal had gotten away to play.
"Those cuffs didn't work" she told him.
Skulduggery shook his head.
"It wasn't the cuffs" he told her.
"What?"
"She" said Skulduggery pointing with a gloved finger at the empty spot where Dismal had been, "Is a witch?"
"A Witch?"
"A Witch" Skulduggery confirmed, "A member of a black art which I thought had died out ages ago"
"So why weren't the cuffs 'witch' proof?"
"They didn't have to be" he answered, "As I said, witches are rare, thought to have died out a few decades ago"
"Apparently not" she said.
"Apparently not" Skulduggery agreed.
Valkyrie's relationship had changed over the years. After she had entered the world of adulthood she had gone few a number of boys, hell she even started dating Fletcher again for a little while. But then there was that crush she had on Skulduggery for a while. A few more years of going through good looking boys she decided she'd stick with Skulduggery.
Now twenty four, better looking than ever she had finally gotten what she wanted... Well almost...
She stood on the door step of Uncle Gordon's house arms wrapped around the bony shoulders familiar hands clasped around her waist.
She had to admit for the first few times kissing the beloved skeleton felt strange but now it was child's play. She loved the smooth texture of his bones against her lips and when he held her in his arms she felt herself almost fly.
Still it would be nice to have a little more saliva, her mouth went dry quickly when she and Skulduggery ever had a make out session.
Skulduggery loosened his grip.
"Goodnight" he said in a husky voice.
God his voice was sexy.
Valkyrie held him back and brushed her lips against his teeth again.
"Stay the night" she whispered trying to pull off a seductive purr.
Skulduggery froze.
"Please" she said and she went on tippy toes to kiss his cheekbone.
In the three months that Skulduggery and her were dating he had refused to do anything more than hold her and kiss her. Clothes would remain intact, only slightly ruffled. Hands would never past her hips though she had made it clear to him before he had the 'all access 'pass.
She had at first guessed if it was because Skulduggery was concerned that under those clothes he was only a skeleton but after a while, especially after a few caresses from the man she crossed out the possibility- no man touches a girl like that while thinking he was incapable of pleasing.
She kissed the other cheekbone.
"Don't you want me?" she asked.
Skulduggery pushed her back a little.
"You know it's not that" he told her.
She knew and understood this as well but after the month to convince to date her, that she wasn't a little girl that she did want to be with him, she really didn't want to have the same trouble with other steps in their relationship.
She stepped in closer.
"Well if you do want me, I'm all yours for the taking" she noted.
She pulled him in for another kissed him again and he complied pulling her in.
She moaned a little as he lifted her off the ground a few centimetres. She was just about to jump him and wrap her legs around him when he put her back down.
She was breathless when he did and she felt the reluctance in him as he pulled away.
"Still a no. Well not yet" he told her.
Valkyrie pouted a little.
"Well when then?" she asked.
Skulduggery leant on the door frame with one arm and closed in on her.
"You'll know" he whispered gently in her ear. Valkyrie shuddered with delight.
She was just about to pull him in for another round but he had found the doorknob and opened the door. Valkyrie fell into the house a little less elegantly that she would have liked.
"Goodnight milady" Skulduggery said with a tip of his hat and turned around back to the Bentley.
Vaklyrie gave a sigh of defeat and watched the car drive away before she closed the door.
Skulduggery was a gentleman. She knew that. But she really wished there was a on and off switch to the certain trait as well.
XOXOXOXOXOXXOXOXOX – those double space things never work for me. Bear with it
Valkyrie met Skulduggery the next morning at the Sanctuary. She smiled as she walked up to him and took the coffee he had bought for her with one hand as she went for a small kiss.
Some of the colleagues turn away. They weren't used to the whole hundreds of years old skeleton sleeping with the 24 year old girl they had known since she was 12.
Well though there isn't any sleeping going on. But they don't know that she noted.
Deciding to let them think what they wanted, Valkyrie held onto that kiss a little longer. Besides maybe if there were rumours about the both of them sharing a bed Skulduggery might cave in. No use holding onto a pure reputation if no one believed you had one.
She let go and they walked together.
"So what are we going to do about this Witch? And what are witches anyway? Aren't they just magic users like us?" she asked.
"No" Skulduggery said taking her hand as they walked.
"Witches are mortal. They live a normal lifespan of a human and the magic they use isn't like the magic we use" he explained.
"Witches aren't able to conjure magic on their own. They need a familiar most of the time a magically gifted animal which they are able to draw magic through. Even then they still need objects to conjure their magic"
"Magic wands?" she half asked half joked.
"Rarely, even when Witches were common, would they use wands. Talismans were the most frequently used- easily made and easily replaced"
Valkyrie recalled the parchment that Dismal had pulled out of her pocket.
"Lockets were use as well to store magic in and call it out when needed and there were such thing as Incantations but gabbling a spell when you're about to be attacked isn't that favourable,
"Witches as you can presume are females and they run through bloodline. The mate has to be magic wielding and only a first born girl will inherit her mother's gift. This made them scarce compared to normal magic wielders"
He continued.
"Also a normal magic user, like you and I have a limit to the magic we can do. It depends on the person, their ability. Since Witches don't draw out their magic from themselves they don't really have limit. If they do it's their sanity"
"And they are gone because"
He looked at her with all seriousness.
"We know power can be addicting. A few decades ago witches tried to take over the Sanctuary. It's wasn't just because they were a minority. Most of them went insane with the amount of power they had. Survivors left their practice, merged in with normal life. I only know one practicing witch, not counting the one we saw last night and as far as I know she has no interest in continuing the bloodline" he finished.
They had arrived where Ghastly was. Valkyrie went and gave him a hug.
"Is this about the Witch case you reported?" he asked Skulduggery as he let go of Valkyrie.
Skulduggery nodded an affirmative.
"Are you still in touch Eris?" Ghastly asked.
"Who?" Valkyrie asked.
"Eris Vulpine" said Skulduggery, he looked back at Ghastly, "Yes she never fails in sending a Christmas card every year"
"And she is?" Valkyrie continued.
"Remember that Witch I told you about a few moments ago that I knew?" he said.
Valkyrie nodded, "The one that was practicing still, yes I remember"
"That's her"
"The Sanctuary don't have any records on her, so you'll have to find her on your own"
"I know where I could get a few leads" Skulduggery said, "But she might not have moved in the last 20 years. Either way it should be easy to find her"
"You friends with this Eris?" Valkyrie asked.
Ghastly gave Skulduggery an awkward look.
Skulduggery cleared his throat a little.
"Eris and I" he said, "Well I guess you could say she was an old flame of mine"
"Oh" Valkyrie said.
"Oh indeed" noted Skulduggery.
A/N: Can't believe I made up all that witch stuff to sound plausible. Why do I feel like this story is going to get flamers? You know you should review.