He observed her where she walked with resolute, determined and strong steps. As if nothing bothered her. As if she had nothing to be ashamed of. As if she had done nothing wrong. As if she had nothing to be afraid of.

The hatred coursed through him and he had to fight it so it would not explode into an uncontrollable force that would tear the young woman's body to pieces. Oh, how much did he not want to lay his arms around her and pull her in among the dark alleys in Roarhaven where he was hiding and do stuff to her body that would make her scream in pain!

Those thoughts got a shiver of pleasure to spread through his body. How long had he not waited for this moment? How many nights had he not fantasized about how her screams would sound like while he lay in his bed and waited for the sleep to appear?

Without him noticing he had unconsciously taken a few steps forward towards the young woman. He quickly stepped back into the shadows and the sound of rocks that rolled against asphalt could be heard. He cursed quietly to himself for his carelessness but quietened quickly when he saw how the young woman turned her head towards his direction.

He stood completely motionless and waited without breathing for the woman to turn away her head. When she once again had her attention turned away from him he dared to breath again. That had been a close call.

Way too close.

Calm down... he said to himself. She is of no use to you if you do not follow the plan. She will get what she deserves when the time is right...

His thoughts were interrupted by another figure that materialized in front of the woman. It was a long, very thin man. Or it at least looked like a man from this distance. It was dark outside and the moonlight did not quite reach all the way to where they found themselves.

The figure wore a darkblue suit and a hat in the same color as the suit. It greeted the woman with warmth in its voice and the woman with the black hair and the dark brown eyes smiled towards the figure before she gave it a hug that the figure answered.

He could hear on their voices through the way they talked to each other that they were good friends and maybe even more than that...? He had not seen any clear evidence for that yet, but the way they talked and interacted with each other indicated that so could be the case. How now a living skeleton and a 26 year old woman could have a relationship surpassed his wildest imaginations, but that was not why he had kept her under supervision for several weeks. No, he simply waited for the right time.

The time when he would capture them both and make them pay for all the damage they had caused him. The time when he would make Valkyrie Cain regret the day she was born and Skulduggery Pleasant regret taking her as his partner...

"Skulduggery!"

Her voice echoed between the empty streets and bounced against the house walls. She could hear how the sound of her voice that called her mentor's and best friend's name disappeared further and further away until it became a whisper before it disappeared completely. She found herself in the outskirts of Roarhaven. More exactly not far from the place where she a few years earlier as Darquesse had slaughtered countless lives. Both good and evil.

"Where is he? It's not like him to be late..."

Skulduggery had called her earlier in the day and said that he would "check something out" and that they would meet on the place where she right now found herself at eight o'clock. The clock had now passed quarter past eight and Skulduggery always used to call if something came in between and that would make him late, but Valkyrie had not heard anything from him for several hours.

She frowned. "Nothing has happened to him, has it?"

"Who has something happen to him?"

The voice made her twitch and she quickly turned around with her hands raised and let her magic flow out of her fingertips as if she was going to give the person in front of her a magical fisticuff. She however managed to stop herself in the last moment when she saw who it was that had addressed her.

"Are you out of your mind, Skulduggery?! I could have hurt you severly!"

"My dear Valkyrie, you if anyone should know that I would've seen your attack come from several miles away and elegantly parry or block it before you even knew what was happening."

Valkyrie smiled. "Your ego is as big as usual, I notice."

"And it can never be big enough." Despite the fact that Skulduggery did not have any lips she could hear in his voice that he was smiling.

Valkyrie gave his arm a gently push with her fist before she turned around and began to walk towards a deserted house that had seen better days. It was that kind of house that adolescents thought were perfect to have Halloween parties in or bet each other of who could spend the longest time in there without fleeing terror-stricken from there.

The house had once been red but since no one had repainted it for several years the house was more brown than red. Valkyrie thought it looked like as if someone had hrown blood on the house and then let it solidify. The smell from the house did not do much to contradict her opinion either, since it smelled rotten, stuffy and moldy. The windows was nailed-up and the weed had grown so high that it reached your knees.

"Remind me of what we are doing here again?"

"We have recieved a tip from an anonymous source that an adept we've been searching for a while now should be hiding in this charming house."

Just as Skulduggery said that, a creaking sound was heard and one of the roof beams on the house front snapped. It fell down towards the ground with a loud crash and in the silence that followed Valkyrie could not help aim a raised eyebrow towards Skulduggery.

"You just said...?"

Skulduggery mumbled something inaudible and Valkyrie could not stop a laugh from seeping out. She got an irritated glance from Skulduggery which made her laugh even more. Skulduggery shook his head and left her where she stood with her hands around her waist while he walked to the front door.

"When you are done making an exhibition of yourself you are warmly welcome to follow me inside and, as you usually express it, 'kick some ass'."

"If we're going to kick some ass I'm all in!" Valkyrie walked up to Skulduggery and gave him a smile that he, despite his irritation, could not help but answer.

In the same moment that they stepped through the door their smiles disappeared and instead exchanged to a more serious expression. Their "work faces" as Tanith once had told her when they've been on a mission together for x number of years ago.

"Have you noticed that when you and Skulduggery gets a mission it's like you transform in front of ones eyes. You get a special expression in the face and you have a totally different posture. I can not explain, but it shows if you know what to look for. It's like you have a special face everytime you work. A work face!"

Valkyrie felt how a twinge of missing build in her heart when she thought back on her friend. How long had it been since she last had talked or seen Tanith? She could not remember... The only thing she was sure of was that she was missing her.

A lot.

She was interrupted in her thoughts of a sound. It sounded like... footsteps. Valkyrie stopped and listened. She laid her hand on Skulduggery's arm to make him stop. He did not say anything, just watched her and waited. Nothing was heard except for Valkyrie's own breath and the creaking from the house. Had she imagined the steps? No... She was sure that she had heard the sounds of another pair of feet then her and Skulduggery's.

"I suspect that we're not alone, Skulduggery..."

"I know. I heard them as well. We must be on our guard. We have no idea of what could possibly await us in here."

Valkyrie nodded and followed Skulduggery when he silently sneaked on through the ramshackled house. From time to time he stopped and listened and Valkyrie thought that she could feel the presence of a third person that sneaked around them. Without she knowing why, a shiver searched its way along her spine that made her body shiver in discomfort.

As if Skulduggery felt her discomfort he took her hand in his gloved one and gave it a calming push. The feeling of their interlaced hands made her calm down and a warmth to spread through her cold body. She was safe in Skulduggery's presence and would so remain as long as he was with her.

They continued their trip through the house under silence and just as Valkyrie thought that she must have imagined that a third presence followed them they stepped into what once must have been the living room. Skulduggery stopped in the doorway and stretched out his hand to read the air. When he could not feel any disturbance he stepped into the room with Valkyrie close behind him.

Ha! They did not see the symbol! Now I got them...

In the same moment that Valkyrie stepped through the threshold she saw in the corner of her eye how a blue light began to shine from a symbol that was carved into the wood around them. She was just about to shout a warning to Skulduggery when she was enclosed by a blinding gleam. She laid her arm over her eyes to protect them and at the same time felt how her grip around Skulduggery's hand was teared away. When she tried to fumble for him she stumbled against a wall. She could hear Skulduggery call her name, but it was as if he stood several kilometers away and not just a couple meters from her.

After a few seconds when she had started to get her sight back she blinked a few times to clear out the last turbid and it was then that she saw that she was trapped in some sort of glass cube. She could faintly see the contours of the cube if she concentrated and looked really carefully.

Skulduggery stood on the other side of the cube and had laid his hand against the glass. She could see that he said something, but the sound of his voice was so faint that she could not hear what he said. She leaned closer in an attempt to try to hear him better but despite how much she concentrated, she could only hear a faint mumble.

She lifted her hand and evoked her magic. A white light lit up her hand and in the same moment that it touched the glass she was struck with a fierce shock that made her fall backwards and hit the cube's other side. The force of the impact was so strong that she blacked out.

The last thing she saw before the darkness took her was how a figure approached Skulduggery from behind and how it turned its head towards her. In its face she could see a smile that was so big that she thought that the figure's face would crack.