The Love Chapter
Chapter One
Corinthians
...
"Tighten the restraints," said the skeleton detective. Dr. Nye did as it was told as it wheeled its patient into its quarters.
The patient, a blond woman, jerked and twisted about on a dissection table. She shouted curses at her captors. She was furious. Her lips were black.
"Stop moving," said Nye. It pushed the dissection table into its operating room then left to gather its tools. The blond women's wild-eyes focused on the only other person in the room.
"Detective Pleasant!" she spat.
"Skulduggery, if you please."
"What are you doing to me? I thought I was a friend!"
"No," Skulduggery corrected, "Tanith was a friend. You are a Remnant."
"But I am Tanith!" her voice echoed in the dank room.
Skulduggery was silent. He gripped tightly to the weapon by his side. Tanith couldn't see it but she knew it was her sword. Finaly the detective spoke, "You killed Tanith," he paused, "but she wasn't the only one to be lost. You have also murdered countless others, including Britain's Grand Mage. And as I'm sure you know, Britain's Sanctuary wants you and Sanguine in custody."
"Then why not ship me off now?"
"The shipping off bit is going to have to wait," Skulduggery said, lifting Tanith's sword for her to see. Tanith's sword gleamed. "But," he said slowly, "for the time being-"
Slice!
Tanith yelped. He had charged at her, raised the sword and cut open her belly. Blood gushed. Tanith's life dripped onto the floor. Their clothes were both soiled.
"W-what're you-?" she coughed, causing more gushing.
"What isn't the question," Skulduggery grumbled, "but rather why. Why is an excellent question." He pressed her sword to her inner right thigh.
"Why?" she moaned.
He pressed harder, "Simple, the Irish, British, and American Sanctuaries want you dead. I figured I'd save them the effort."
Slice!
Her leg was bleeding. Her black veins popped. She thrashed about, attempting to get loose, but to no avail. Her blood continued to spill.
"What-," Tanith coughed, "What will Valkyrie think of this," her chest jolted, trying to maintain her voice, "You killing her friend, no, her sister in cold murder?" she laughed, "Or Ghastly, for that matter, that poor soul still has feelings for me." The detective knew she would play that card.
"You've already done enough damage to them, I'm sure they will get over it," Skulduggery retorted, glancing at the scarlet covered sword.
"You don't know that," Tanith rasped.
"Actually, I do. I am a detective after all," Skulduggery cleared his non-existent throat, "Now, while you're dying," he jeered, and moved to her left shoulder, " I'd like you to be aware of my motives. Ever since you were let out of that room in the Midnight Hotel you have been nothing but a bloody pain."
He paused. It was impossible for Tanith to tell if the detective was pondering how to cut her or if he enjoyed watching her tremble.
"Bloody pain!" Skulduggery spat, "your death will be exactly that; messy and unbelievably painful!"
He cut off her left arm.
She screamed. Her cries sounded like a riot, a variety of voices. This wasn't the real Tanith.
Skulduggery was relentless, he paced around and around the dissection table, making new openings in the possessed woman's skin, only leaving her neck and head untouched.
She arched her back, gasping for air, the detective took this chance to slide the sword under her and create an enormous cut on her dorsal.
He knew when he had done enough. He turned and stormed off, leaving Tanith there to bellow curses at him. He slammed the door so hard that the latch didn't catch and the flimsy door slowly creaked back open.
Tanith was losing blood, and she knew she would be dead within an hour, but she knew this was bound to happen. She knew Skulduggery would come after her, eager to put an end to her.
But she had been prepared for this day.
She coughed and sputtered; any onlooker would have though she was trying to breath. No, that wasn't it. A small black figure struggled to escape from Tanith's mouth. The Remnant. Once the Remnant was free it peered down at the now destroyed woman that it had once used to be. It would miss that body; it was so strong, so beautiful, and so flexible.
Just as the Remnant started to rise, a skinny, gloved hand appeared beneath it and forced it into a glass jar. Sigils and signs were carved into the glass, but they could only hold a Remnant for a short period of time. Skulduggery appeared, tossing the cloaking sphere aside and gripping the glass jar tightly.
"Get to work, Nye!" Skulduggery barked. He ran to the other side of the operating room, heading straight for a large curtain. The detective pulled it back to reveal a man strapped to a dissection table. The man looked content, prepared and ready for the detective's next move. Skulduggery reached into the jar with the same hand he used to capture the Remnant. A sigil, similar to the ones carved on the jar, was drawn onto the glove. Skulduggery grabbed the Remnant, pulled it out of the jar and forced it down the man's waiting throat. The man writhed as the Remnant took over his body.
Skulduggery stepped back to grab a strip of leather. He wrapped the leather around the man's jaw, covering the man's mouth, and then buckled it tight.
"Welcome to your new body, Remnant," Skulduggery said, acting rather cheeky. The man settled, absorbing new memories; he then glared at the detective. The detective cocked his head. The man grumbled loudly, unable to open his mouth.
"I," Skulduggery said proudly, "am so clever."
Silence.
"I didn't even see that coming," Nye said, busying itself with Tanith's destroyed body.
Skulduggery began to walk, or rather, swagger, away, "You will be reunited," he said to the man without turning, "with your lovely Texan boyfriend in four days, Mr. Corinthians." The man twitched slightly when his new name sunk in.
Prime Corinthians the Thirteenth.