Wistful Kisses...Chapter 2...

Here's the next instalment, I'm on a roll right now so I'm trying to keep it going, hope you like it (: The characters in this story still belong to Derek Landy (:

oO0Oo

Tanith penned in some of the information on the profile sheet, loathing her sister even more as she helped Skulduggery lengthen the list of crimes, adding the latest murder of Aurora to the bottom. He had beautiful writing, calligraphic, sloping and looping across the pages. Tanith looked at her own messy scrawl and felt embarrassed; she'd never had much time for writing.

She wasn't just annoyed at her sister; she was annoyed at Erskine too. Not majorly, just enough to get on her nerves. Fair enough, he was upset, grieving at the loss of his lover, and he needed Ghastly to know about Wistful, but did he have to have such rotten timing? Val was literally about to tell Skulduggery she loved him, and then Erskine came in and cut her off. She'd have to tell him off for that later.

"Tanith, you don't seem entirely focussed; are you alright?" Skulduggery asked in his smooth way, gloved hands skimming expertly across the page as he filled in one after another of Wistful's murders. If she ever saw the list, she'd be proud of herself. She wouldn't think of the families she destroyed; she'd think of it as a job well done.

"I'm fine," she answered. "I'm good, just irritated that Wistful had to come back when things were beginning to quieten down a bit round here."

"Irritated?" If Skulduggery had eyebrows, they would certainly have been raised.

"Okay, I'm more than irritated. I'm royally pissed off."

"I thought as much."

"Anyway, as far as distractions go, I believe I've done quite well in staying focussed," Tanith said, deciding right then to talk to Skulduggery about Val. She didn't want to set them up; she just wanted to know how he felt, just in case her little sister was in for a let down. Tanith hated seeing Val upset.

"You, on the other hand, seem to be so ridiculously distracted that you've stopped writing on the paper and continued onto the table." Skulduggery looked down at the pen, which was still firmly on the paper. He tilted his head, turning his eyes sockets on her. "Gotcha," she grinned.

"You, Tanith Low, are as much a mystery to me as Valkyrie."

"I try." She hesitated for a second. "Skul?" He put his pen down.

"Yes, Tanith?" He sounded like he knew what was coming next, but Tanith said it anyway.

"You have been distracted, haven't you?"

"Exceedingly so, yes." He crossed his arms and sat back in his chair. "What's your point, if you don't mind me asking?"

"I wanted to know what was distracting you; it's not like you to be so...unfocussed." Tanith put her own pen down too, and crooked an elbow on the table, resting her chin on her hand. She waited for him to answer, but he just sat there, hollow sockets examining the table top. He stayed silent for a long time.

oO0Oo

"I think you already have an idea about what's distracting me. I'd like to hear it," he said eventually, speaking slowly, carefully.

"I...I think it's Valkyrie that's distracting you, Skul."

"Interesting." His permanent, bone-white grin was as indecipherable as ever.

"Why is it interesting?" She was getting frustrated; she could feel it. Why did Skulduggery have to be so...impassive? That was the word she was looking for. Impassive. That was exactly it.

"Because at the moment it's definitely Valkyrie distracting me." Tanith felt her eyes widen; was he going to admit his feelings so easily? No, of course not. "She sounded like she had something important to tell me before Erskine arrived. I really want to know what was bothering her. If something's troubling her that's going to affect the way she performs, then as her partner, I need to know."

oO0Oo

He was annoying her; he could see it. Tanith wasn't good at patience, and Skulduggery was using that. Already, she was angry because she couldn't crack his shell. He had no intentions of letting her know how he felt, because he simply wasn't ready to open up. He wasn't ready to admit it to the wider public; he'd had trouble digesting it himself, metaphorically of course. He was being deliberately obstructive, too afraid to risk Tanith talking to Valkyrie and ruining the incredible friendship he shared with his partner. Whatever feelings he had were entirely one-sided; Valkyrie would never reciprocate any form of feelings for a man that wasn't really even a man. Skulduggery had all the disadvantages of a human body, and none of the advantages, as Baron Vengeous had so kindly pointed out some five years ago. He could hurt, but he couldn't kiss her. He could meditate but he could never sleep. He could taste, but he couldn't eat. He could talk, but he couldn't smile. On top of that, she was so young, and he was four hundred and twenty-something. No, she'd never love him. He could live with that.

"Skul, stop avoiding my questions. I know Val's been distracting you, but it's got nothing to do with not hearing the rest of her sentence. I know it, and you know it."

"I honestly haven't the foggiest idea what you're getting at, Tanith." She closed her eyes, fighting the urge to use his head as a football.

"You love her." The statement was abrupt, outright, and caught Skulduggery by surprise. Tanith was good at catching people by surprise. He couldn't think of an answer, and Tanith knew she was right. "You do! Tell her, Skul." Skulduggery considered keeping up his pretence, but he could see that Tanith knew she'd scored a bulls eye. He sagged, his arms falling loosely by his sides.

"No."

"You have to!"

"No, I don't." His voice was quiet, devoid of emotion. Tanith pinched the bridge of her nose.

"This sounds so cheesy, but you two belong together, Skul. From the moment I met you both, I saw it coming. It's been waiting to happen for years. Everybody thinks so." Tanith waited for him to process her words, drumming her fingertips on the table. Skulduggery sighed.

"I can't give her what Fletcher gave her, or what any other man could give her. I am a skeleton, Tanith. I will not tie her down to a monster. No."

"Skulduggery Pleasant, do you actually doubt yourself?" She wasn't teasing; she just genuinely could not believe she was hearing Skulduggery say this. He sounded so insecure.

"Yes. Yes, Tanith, I do." He also knew his past, and he knew that Darquesse, lurking somewhere deep inside Valkyrie, was very interested in Lord Vile. The combination was a very bad idea.

oO0Oo

"You can't ignore this," Tanith muttered as Skulduggery refilled his beloved car at the petrol station. Valkyrie had gone to pay with Ghastly.

"I can, and I am," he said shortly, slipping the pump back in place.

"Skulduggery, you will never let her go, and you know it. If you let this slip by, you will never be happy again. You've lost one family; don't let her slip away too." And Tanith turned and hopped in the back seat of the car, face turned away from him. Skulduggery felt like he'd been hit in the face with a tire iron; Tanith was absolutely right. And he absolutely couldn't do a thing about it. He was prepared to face misery, to watch her grow up, marry, have children, eventually drift away from him. He could never give her children.

oO0Oo

Ghastly sat beside Tanith in the back, which meant Valkyrie had to slide in beside Skulduggery, up in front. She hadn't had chance to tell him how she felt; Erskine had left to deal with other matters, and Tanith had sat with the skeleton, filling in the sheets on her psycho sister. Then they came back and Skulduggery had announced they were visiting the murder site. It was in the heart of Dublin, in a flat that looked like any other, until they entered and saw the carnage.

The drive there was almost unbearable; Skulduggery was so close, his long fingers wrapped around the gearstick, right next to her thigh. All she'd wanted to do was reach out and clasp his fingers in hers. He glanced at her a couple of times, or more, he turned his head in her direction, and the gaze was electric. Her feelings had kicked in hard after Aurora wrapped her in the rainbow bubble. And she'd become...attracted to Skulduggery, in more ways than just love. She blushed just thinking about it, and had to look out the window to hide the red glow on her cheeks. She couldn't do anything about her racing heart though.

oO0Oo

The drive was made that much longer by the ridiculous traffic; in the middle of rush hour, Dublin really wasn't pretty. Valkyrie hunched in her seat, fists squashed into her armpits to prevent any contact with Skulduggery. She'd come so close, so close to telling him.

A small fiesta narrowly avoided the front end of the beautiful Bentley; only Skulduggery's nifty driving kept his pride and joy out of harm's way.

"Bloody roads," he growled.

"Somebody's grumpy," Valkyrie chuckled, and then realised she'd initiated a conversation with the man she loved, and her nerves closed her throat over.

"And somebody's quiet. You haven't said much at all, Valkyrie. Are you feeling okay?"

"I'm...I'm fine." She considered just blurting it all out to him, right there, in front of Ghastly and Tanith, even though Skulduggery was in a rotten mood and stuck in traffic, and he probably didn't have even the smallest feelings for her. She needed to tell him, she knew that. It was eating her up inside, not knowing. She had to know if he felt the same, or if it was just her wishful thinking. But not there. Not in that car, at that time, with him in that mood. She let it slide, for now.

oO0Oo

"Well," Skulduggery sighed, "her death certainly wasn't quiet. Or clean." Aurora's remains were scattered around the room, bloody chunks dripping from the ornate ceiling lamp. Valkyrie sidestepped as a piece of scalp fell to the ground near her feet, narrowly avoiding the shoulder of her jacket. She grimaced, feeling sick.

"Yupp," Tanith said. "This was definitely Wistful; she likes to make a mess."

"She must be much stronger than Tesseract ever was," Skulduggery muttered, a fist clenching his soul. What if they came face to face and she hurt Valkyrie?

"How'd you figure that one out?" Ghastly asked.

"Easy. He saw the blood. Aurora's, well, everywhere. Tesseract twisted skeletons inside bodies and got a bit of blood in a few places, but it's like Wistful blew the bones to dust," Valkyrie chipped in.

"Very good, Valkyrie. I'm impressed."

"You mean I was right?" she asked the skeleton, eyes wide.

"Spot on, yes. Well done." Skulduggery was wearing the facade again, and the pressure was back in Valkyrie's heart; she missed his face, his real face. The one with the big empty eyes sockets, the perfect, straight teeth in a permanent grin. She missed him.

"So Tesseract broke skeletons, my sister blows them up?" Tanith asked. Skulduggery nodded, and she wrinkled her nose. "Gross. Why did I have to be related to her?"

"She was stood here," Skulduggery said, pointing to the centre of the room, where a pile of internal organs sat, rotting slowly. Valkyrie gagged.

"How come those bits aren't all over the room too?" she asked when she'd gotten herself under control, brushing her dark hair out of the way.

"Apparently, Wistful likes to blow the skeleton up, but not the organs. It's like everything beneath the skeleton was safe. It was everything on the outside that got damaged," Skulduggery mused, tapping his chin with one finger. "But why Aurora? What does Wistful want?"

oO0Oo

"What were the names of the other two that she killed?" Tanith asked, as an idea lit like a bulb in the back of her mind.

"Erskine said something about them," Ghastly muttered. "Lady Foxglove and Siren Calling, I think. She's targeted Eliza Scorn in the past, too."

"What did Siren and Foxglove do?"

"Siren Calling, I knew her," Valkyrie said. "She would've been seventy yesterday if she were still alive. She made people fall in love with her when she sang. That's why she chose the name Siren."

"And what about Foxglove?"

"She could scent her skin in such a way that would capture the heart of any gentleman to smell her, a little like using perfume, but a lot stronger," Skulduggery said.

"So they all made people fall in love with them in different ways? And Eliza Scorn is even more beautiful than China, so that links her in with the love thing..." Tanith was close, she could feel it right there, on the tip of her tongue. "Wistful had a thing about pretty girls; she hated anybody prettier than her, or people liked them more. Maybe that has something to do with this? This means, if she's already gone for those three then..."

Tanith and Valkyrie shared a look.

"She's going to target China," Val said quietly, eyes on Skulduggery. He tilted his head, face impassive, his now-blue eyes boring straight into her brown ones. She saw pain, and she saw anger in those eyes, though the rest of his face remained blank.

"You want me to help her, don't you, Valkyrie," he said.

"Skulduggery...she's my...I can't...I have no right to ask you to do this. I know I don't, but please. China did terrible things, she killed your family, and she helped kill you. We know this, but you've done terrible things too, so have I, and she's my friend. I can't just let her die."

"So you plan to face Wistful to save China, then?"

"With or without your help, yes. Though without your help, I'll probably get backed into a corner and Darquesse will arrive to save the day, killing everyone in the process."

"Even though Wistful could do so much more than break your back? If Darquesse doesn't save you, you'll die" he said, his voice cold. It hurt to hear him spit the words out like that, but Valkyrie forced a nod.

"Please, Skulduggery. You're the strongest of us; we need you. You know how to keep Darquesse away," she begged. He sighed, took off his hat, and brushed a speck of imaginary lint from the brim, placing it back on his head slowly.

"Let's go then."

oO0Oo

They reached China's apartment in twenty minutes. Skulduggery drew the revolver from his jacket and pointed it at the closed door marked 'Library'. He listened for a moment, and kicked the door in, using the air to lend force to the blow. The door blasted off its hinges and slammed into a blonde woman that looked remarkably like Tanith.

"Did you mean to do that?" Valkyrie asked him, gesturing to the busted door and the woman picking herself off the floor.

"Actually, no; I meant to hit China." Valkyrie blinked, and China tapped two matching symbols on her forearms. They pulsed orange and a solid block of light slammed into the other woman, sending her crashing backwards into a bookcase. China snarled as the shelf of priceless volumes tumbled to the ground, scattering pages everywhere.

Tanith whipped the sword out of its sheath and twirled it slowly, walking towards the fallen shelves, where the blonde woman laid amidst a heap of smashed oak and ruined books.

"Wistful."

"Tanith," the other woman spat back. "How nice to see you again, sissy." The London accent that came out of Wistful's mouth was much stronger than Tanith's, and she had a tattoo over her right eye; a black dragon, breathing shadowy fire across her forehead. She lunged forwards, attempting a surprise attack, but Tanith saw it coming and snapped her boot heel into Wistful's stomach, knocking her back down. She pointed the silver blade at the throat of the murderer, pressing it against the skin hard enough to draw blood.

"You destroyed my books," China said serenely, brushing herself down. "You do realise that they, like most things in this room, were priceless, don't you?" The beautiful woman with the raven black hair and pale blue eyes arched one delicate, beautifully shaped eyebrow. "I'm going to have to kill you as payment, you know. That won't even cover the cost of one book, but it's a start."

"You can't kill her. She's under Sanctuary arrest," Skulduggery said abruptly, and sent a ripple of air outwards, spreading out from around his splayed fingers. It hit Wistful in the face, snapping her head back. Blood sprayed from her nose and she fell back again. Tanith snapped handcuffs around the wrists of the unconscious, bleeding woman.

China was wide eyed; she hadn't expected to see Skulduggery ever again. Yet here he was, in her apartment, surrounded by her books, with his gun, pointed right at her.

"Are you going to try and kill her anyway?" he asked.

"...No," China decided.

"Pity, I would've rather enjoyed shooting you." He put the gun away, tucking it into his exquisite suit-jacket, and strode over to Wistful.

"Skulduggery, I..."

"Don't, China. Don't push me." His voice was icy, vicious, and yet it was dead, void of emotion at the same time.

Valkyrie realised with a shiver of fear, that this was exactly what Lord Vile sounded like. At the back of her mind, something tugged, something rattled at the bars of its cage. Darquesse called out, singing to the darkness hidden within Skulduggery. She called out to the very core of his anger, right to Lord Vile. Skulduggery's head snapped toward Valkyrie, but nobody else seemed to have noticed a thing. Valkyrie didn't care; Darquesse had unlocked her prison door. She was dragging herself closer, fighting with all her strength, to the front of Valkyrie's mind. Darquesse was blotting her out, squeezing her out of the picture. This hadn't happened before; the monster inside Valkyrie had only ever surfaced when her life was in danger. Not this time.

oO0Oo

Darquesse straightened up, her eyes on the skeleton in front of her. There was that light again, that shimmering, changing light. Valkyrie howled inside her, an irritating, insistent noise in her ear, trying her hardest to break free. Darquesse wasn't listening. The skeleton was watching her, wary. Nobody else seemed to have noticed the change in her. She could kill them, all of them, and they wouldn't have a clue. They wouldn't know what happened.

They knew, of course, that Darquesse was hidden inside Valkyrie. Together, Darquesse and Lord Vile had destroyed a large portion of Dublin, locked in battle together. She'd been recognised; her secret had gotten out. The Sanctuary had sorted it, but Tanith, Ghastly, Skulduggery, China, Erskine; they all knew what she was. And yet they were still foolish enough to stay with her.

"Ghastly, Tanith," China said, noticing the difference at last. "Step away from her. Darquesse is in control." They turned, saw the Shadows writhing around her wrists. She wasn't wearing the necromancy ring; Darquesse didn't need to invest her power in a silly trinket, not like Valkyrie.

"You don't look pleased to see me," she said, strolling forwards, dark hair tousled by a non-existent breeze.

"Valkyrie, please," Skulduggery said, hand outstretched. She shot forwards and grabbed that hand, ripping it away at the socket. She tossed it across the room as the skeleton yelled. She was interested to see that the life encircling him didn't follow the separated limb.

"I'm not Valkyrie. Not anymore."

Darquesse was free, and oh, it felt so good...