Valkyrie dropped from her window and displaced the air beneath her. Skulduggery was standing a ways off by the road, casually leaned against the gleaming black Bentley. His disguise was on. The jeweled sky cast shadows everywhere, and Valkyrie shivered in the cold, snappish night air. She had left her special black coat up in her bedroom in anticipation of the warm night her father had randomly predicted. Obviously he needed to research weather forecasting.
"Cold?" Skulduggery pushed himself off the car and drew off his coat. When Valkyrie was within arms reach he draped it over her shoulders. She pulled it closer around her body and sighed in contentment.
"Thank you," she told Skulduggery. He tilted his head in - she knew it - a smile.
"Just another aspect of my charm, " Skulduggery responded.
"Can we stop with the egotistical comments and get in the car?"
Skulduggery pretended to sound offended. "I want my coat back."
Valkyrie laughed, slid the coat off and proffered it to him with a teasing eyebrow arched. Playing along, he took the coat, but he didn't put it on, instead opening the driver's door and throwing it in the back seat. He got into the car and took off his disguise.
Seeing this, Valkyrie hesitated before getting in as well. "Are you going to drive through town without your disguise?"
"No," Skulduggery replied. "I'm going to see how many people know it's me. It'll be amusing."
"What on earth are you talking -"
Skulduggery interrupted her. "Watch." He removed his tie and unfastened the first button below his collar.
Valkyrie recognized the symbols instantly as they flashed on Skulduggery's white collarbones, set off by his glove-clad fingers. She gaped as the transformation began.
Tanned, healthy, real skin travelled outwards from the etched symbols. It spread beneath his shirt and converged up his neck, and Valkyrie noticed a pulse throbbing there.
'Real blood...Real organs…' thought Valkyrie, dumbstruck.
Skulduggery's facial features took form. A sharp jaw line, handsomely high cheekbones, thin but full lips, a straight, narrow nose, misty grey-blue eyes, and - best of all - a head of sleek, shiny, jet-black hair.
Valkyrie immediately clapped both of her trembling hands over her mouth in shock and awe. She felt like fainting, like she had when they had first met.
This gorgeous and unfamiliar man smiled, dimples sinking into his cheeks and pearl teeth flashing.
"Hello, Valkyrie," the voice was velvet as ever but had more of a human purr to it. It was unbelievably sexy. "Just in case you don't believe it - my name is Skulduggery Pleasant. It's me."
