It was Halloween. Little 5-year-olds were toddling around dressed as pumpkins; their moths glued shut with toffees and sugary sweets. On the opposite end of the scale tall, skinny teenagers lurked in dark hoodies and tracksuits pinching the little kids' sweets-far more scary than a walking fluorescent pumpkin. In this instance, the little kid was called Billy. The hooded teenager was Ben. His whole name was Benjamina Mary Winters-due to a mistaken sex identity at birth-but the mistake was covered up and nowadays anyone who made fun of his name ended up lying on the floor with a pain down under and wishing that they had been born girls instead. That is, when he caught them. This was hardly ever.

Ben lurched out of his shadowy corner and moved across into the path of the moving pumpkin. The pumpkin stopped. Even the smiling face paint didn't cover the fact that Billy was scared.

"Alright kid, give me the sweets, and no-one gets hurt." He drawled in what he thought was a rakish, devil-may-care tone which really made him seem sick. He pulled out a knife. Billy brightened at once.

"Hello Benjamina!" He said brightly. "Have you got the stomach bug? You sound awful!"

"I'm warning you kid-"

"If you do, you ought to stay at home. Mummy says it's contagious."

"Kid, if you want to live-"

"You're funny!" Billy laughed cheerfully. "You act really scary, but you are really a really stupid sausage."

"I AM NOT A STUPID SAUSAGE!" Ben couldn't believe this was happening. Again.

"Yes you are, otherwise you wouldn't be outside threatening me with a plastic knife!"

Ben looked down. It was indeed a plastic knife, the sort 3-year-olds use to make mud-pies and suchlike. He angrily cursed his mother for forbidding him to use real knives.

"You shouldn't swear." Billy said seriously. "The nice skelly man said only complete professionals should swear."

Ben froze. "What. What nice skelly man."

"The one that wanted to see you. He was wearing a great costume. He had a girl with him. She is pretty." Billy smiled chubbily as Ben looked around frantically. "They wanted to see you. They gave me these so's I said I'd bring them to you." He held up his haul. "Do you want one? You'll have to say please!"

"OH, BUGGER THAT!" Ben reached into the basket and picked out a handful of sweets. He turned around and came face to face with a grinning skeleton in an Armani suit and hat. "Oh, naaaw…" He had time to groan just before the skeleton punched him. As the struggle progressed-Ben making feeble attempts to hit the skeleton, the skeleton inflicting a lot more damage-a slim girl with dark hair and even darker eyes stepped beside the watching Billy.

"I'd get going, kiddo." She smiled, giving Billy more chocolate. "This could turn nasty."

"OK." Billy beamed up at her. "What's your name?"

"I'm Valkyrie." The girl said finally.

"That's a silly name." Giggled Billy. He ran off laughing at the girl's stupid name.

Valkyrie allowed herself another smile and then turned back to the fight. Skulduggery had finally pinned Ben down and he was whimpering. He was actually crying.

"P…please don't h…hurt me!" He sobbed. "I told you everything last time, what else do you want?"

"The actual truth, maybe." Skulduggery Pleasant snapped. "I don't even know why you tried lying, you're so hopeless at it I didn't even believe your name.

"B…but it is Ben Winters!" Ben gasped.

"I meant your real name, Benjamina." Skulduggery gave a snort and looked up at Valkyrie. "Cracks me up every time, that one." Ben sensed an opportunity and struck up with his hand. Skulduggery was faster and slammed his down on Ben's head. Ben groaned. "Stop playing around and tell us, where is she?"

"I…in the warehouse." Ben croaked. "I'm meant to be meeting her here soon. S…she said that she'd be here after her appointment."

Skulduggery nodded grimly and stood up. Ben cowered on the ground, expecting more retribution. "Get up and go home. We'll handle it from here."

"B…but…"

"NOW."

Ben scrambled up and legged it. Instead of making his way home however, he hid in a bush nearby to wait for his mistress. Unfortunately, it happened to be under a streetlight. Skulduggery clicked his fingers and hurled a fireball in the direction of the bush. It smashed into the wall about a metre from it, but Ben squealed and ran for home. Skulduggery and Valkyrie watched him go.

"Was that really necessary?" Valkyrie asked Skulduggery. "We already knew all that stuff.

"He didn't listen to my advice: don't swear unless you are a professional, like me."

"But you don't swear!"

"I am so professional that I can choose not to. You have to be a real pro to do that." They stood in silence for a while. Valkyrie looked at Skulduggery from out of the corner of her eye. His hat was pulled down low so she couldn't see much of his face-sorry, she thought, skull-but she could tell that he was thinking. She wasn't sure how she could tell these things about him, but hey. That was what 3 years of partnership did to you. She could tell that her partnering up with necromancers to get him out of the gateway irritated him, but he was still delighted that he'd caused so much of a fuss.

Arrogant git. She thought affectionately.

She would never know it, but Skulduggery was, at that time, thinking basically the same of her. Honestly, she brings him back through the gateway through suspicious means because she misses him, and then she starts trying to hit him.

"Oi, you'll rip my suit!" He'd yelled.

"I don't give a damn about your precious suit!" Valkyrie had yelled back, still trying to hit him. And then she'd hugged him, crying and laughing hysterically.

Honestly. Women.

The reason they were there on this dark, chilly Halloween was on account of a female assassin. She had struck around 10 times in the past fortnight-and those were only the cases that the Sanctuary was letting them know about. Skulduggery suspected that there had been a lot more, but Thurid Guild-the guy that ran the Sanctuary-was adamant. He also forbade them to go on the case, saying that Remus Crux was 'completely capable of running the investigation himself'. They still may have changed his mind if Skulduggery hadn't burst out laughing at that point. Remus Crux may have been the detective for the Sanctuary, but he was-as Skulduggery pointed out-completely hopeless. And that wasn't just because he had replaced Skulduggery's job. In between his helpless laughter, Skulduggery voiced that Remus Crux was also an arrogant-Valkyrie mentally erased the language-and they were only keeping him off the case because they knew that he could do a better job than Remus, but they were to embarrassed to as they'd used Remus to replace him in the first place. They had ended up escorted out of the building by Cleavers, with Skulduggery in a very bad mood and Remus with a black eye after he'd told Skulduggery to sod off and let him sort out matters.

Thurid Guild thought Remus was handling the case.

Actually, he was dead. The assassin had got to him the very next day.

So Skulduggery and Valkyrie were doing the work for him.

Of course, Thurid Guild didn't know Remus Crux was dead. He wouldn't know until after the whole investigation was over-whenever that would be. Until then, Kenspeckle Grouse was 'body-sitting' for him.

A rustle of leaves. Skulduggery turned but wasn't fast enough; a hand shot out and snatched the gun he'd only just taken out, pointing it speedily at Valkyrie.

"No magic." A voice; female, hard. "It won't heal a bullet."

Skulduggery was unwilling, but gave in. "Fine." He growled. He was unhappy with the fact that he'd been caught out.

Valkyrie slowly turned. She was expecting to see a grizzled, hard-eyed woman of around 40, but instead she saw a 20 year old girl, maybe not even that. Her eyes were as black as her waist-length hair, but where her hair had the smooth, shimmering texture of a mirage; her eyes were as hard as black pearls. She wore a tight black T-shirt and jeans, with black, studded high heeled boots. The light black overcoat she was wearing floated behind her, its many holes telling tales of guns, knives and cold-blooded murder, paid with blood money. Her porcelain pale face showed no wrinkles, but she had no emotion to be shown either. A black adder, waiting to strike.

"Who are you?" Valkyrie finally asked.

"I am Angel DiFaro, Valkyrie Cain." The girl smiled humourlessly. "Forgive me for being late, I had some, er, business to attend to."

"Who was the poor sucker this time?" Skulduggery asked quietly. Valkyrie could tell that he was angry at the change in events.

"Some guy called Sanguine." Angel scanned Skulduggery's face, a smirk on her black, painted lips. She was wearing rather too much mascara and eye pencil, her eyebrows in a perfect arch above them. "I would be surprised if you weren't happy about this. He was planning to kill Stephanie here."

Valkyrie felt a jolt of fear-she knew her real name! "It's Valkyrie, actually."

Angel turned her head to Valkyrie. She was still smiling. "Your name means nothing to me. I know better secrets to be shared…"

Skulduggery acted. Clicking up a fireball, he flung it at Angel. But she was too fast. She seemed to shimmer through the air and then she was by Valkyrie, the gun against her head. Skulduggery swore-well, that's new. Valkyrie thought-and grasped at the air, but Angel got there first and threw him backwards, making him land in the same bush Ben had just fled from. He got back to his feet, but Angel-and Valkyrie had vanished. The only sign that they had been there was the tip of a black overcoat disappearing over the roof.

Valkyrie was surprised at how strong Angel was. The fact that she was carrying a 14-year-old girl didn't seem to bother her at all, and she moved unhindered over the rooftops like a black ghost. However, Valkyrie didn't have enough time to ponder on those things. She was too busy worrying for her own life. She dared not struggle now-she could just fall off the roof-but neither did she want to know where she was being taken. She had a feeling that at some stage she would find a knife stuck through her ribcage.

Dammit, Skulduggery. Hurry up and get me out of this mess. She thought, glaring up at Angel. To satisfy her feelings, Valkyrie gave Angel the finger. Angel didn't respond.

When Angel finally set Valkyrie down, she was surprised to find herself standing outside her own house.

"W…wha…?"

Angel burst out laughing. "You really thought I was going to kill you didn't you?"

Valkyrie was annoyed. "How was I meant to know?" She snapped, realising this made her sound immature. This made her even angrier.

"OK, OK." Angel was still smirking. "I just thought you might want to know more about the wonderful Skulduggery Pleasant."

"Why didn't you say anything back there, then?" Valkyrie asked grumpily, but she was intrigued.

"You think its stuff Skully would want you to hear about him?" Angel shook her head slowly. "Man, that guy did some big bunch of-"

"I don't want to hear." Valkyrie did want to hear. She was just scared about what she might find out. And they both knew it.

"Well, I'd better start." Angel said. The smirk had gone.

"As you know, Mr Pleasant-before he was a skeleton-fought against Vengeous and his armies. But what most people don't know is that he worked on Vengeous'side for more than half of the war. He committed a great many atrocities against the Sanctuary and, indeed, Vengeous nearly won through him. But Vengeous killed his wife and child, and Skulduggery switched sides. That's why the Sanctuary don't trust him." Angel was blunt, straight to the point. She held out a yellowing photograph. "That's them. Skulduggery, Emily, and Rose."

Valkyrie looked at photo. Without realising it, she had been thinking of Skulduggery the skeleton, not Skulduggery the man. It sort of shocked her seeing him in his human form, although she had to admit that his claims of good-looks were well-founded; almost like Johnny Depp. The woman next to him had a waterfall of tissue-red hair falling down her back, bringing out the best of her green, green eyes. She was laughing at something, her bow-shaped lips parted, showing perfect teeth. Valkyrie felt an irrational stab of jealousy for her, and was shocked. The child looked at the camera, her brown eyes wide, curious. She was as perfect as a china doll; flawless skin, dark hair, full mouth. Something about the girl looked familiar…

"He loves you, you know." Angel remarked casually. Valkyrie looked up at her; she'd been so lost in thought that she'd forgotten all about her.

The child…

Angel DiFaro…

It all clicked.

"OH MY GOD!" Valkyrie screamed.

"Keep it down!" Hissed Angel DiFaro. Or Emily Pleasant. But it was too late-the time for talking was gone. Skulduggery was sprinting round the corner, shouting Valkyrie's name.

"Gotta fly!" Angel grinned. She leapt onto the roof of Valkyrie's house.

"Wait!" Yelled Valkyrie. She had so many questions to ask yet. Angel just smiled.

And she was gone.

Skulduggery caught up with Valkyrie, panting.

"You'd better be glad I'm here," He finally huffed. "I had to leave my Bentley behind running after you, and if it's gone missing-"

"I am." Valkyrie meant it. She hugged him. "Thank you."

Skulduggery was nonplussed. "Ooooooookaaaaaaaayyy…" He said slowly. "Who are you and what have you done with Valkyrie Cain?" She laughed and tried to hit him. "That's better!" He grinned. "C'mon, I just got a call from Kenspeckle-he's in a mood; he wants the body off his back ASAP. Apparently it's starting to smell."

"What did you say?"

"I told him to use air spray. He didn't like it."

As they walked back down the street, Valkyrie glanced back over her shoulder. He'd been that close to his own daughter…

"Come on Valkyrie!" Skulduggery was impatient. "The guy's having a hissy fit, I swear!"

She abandoned her thoughts and followed him.