Enjoy!

The woman in white dress sat opposite Skulduggery and Valkyrie on the kitchen table. She smiled to them with beautifully. Valkyrie looked at her and then the picture of Lenore. They looked a lot like each other. Expect the woman was a lot older, about twenty. Skulduggery made his clearing-throat voice.

"So, can we know your name?"

"Of course", the woman said and flipped her red hair. "I'm fräulein Eleonora Schatten. I apologize for my accent. It's schrecklich, totally horrible. But I have lived almost my whole life in Berlin, so"

"Yes, no need for apologize", Skulduggery said.

"Eleonora, you must be Lenore's or Kita's, or both sister", Valkyries said. Eleonora laughed slightly.

"Yes, I'm Lenore's große Schwester, a big sister. But you do know Lenore and Kitia is the same person?"

"I knew in!" Valkyrie muttered.

"Yes, we knew that", Skulduggery said. Tanith was leaning on the worktop and Valkyrie saw how sourly she was looking at Eleonora. Fletcher, on other hand, was looking at her quite lovingly.

"But she prefers to be called Kitia", Eleonora continued. "I could say she hates her old name"

"Why?" Skulduggery asked. "I think its beautiful name. Reminds me of on Edgar Allan Poe's poems"

"Yes, it's beautiful. But it reminds her too much from her past", Eleonora said and Valkyrie saw how her smiled turned sad.

"What is going on in you family? You siblings hunt each other. Why?" she asked and Eleonora looked at her for a while. Then she turned her look to the window.

"I think you need to know. After all you all are now evolved in this thing and saved my little sister. Danke, thank you, for that". She was silent for a moment.

"There are altogether four siblings in our family. First brother is Roderick, then me, then William and last Lenore, or Kitia to you. Roderick was born in the beginning of the Secret War, me and William in the middle and Kitia in the end. Roderick he was always well, a rebel. He joined the group of zealots who worshipped the Faceless Ones. After the war, he stayed as a worshipper". She sighed.

"William always admired his older brother. He wanted to be like him, but he still didn't like the Faceless Ones or Mevolent. When our brother changed sides in the war, he followed him, but came back in a week. He was just a little boy. Then Kitia, my darling little sister was born. I tried to protect her from our brothers. I wanted that she would be happy. She was so cute back then, so innocent. She didn't even understand what a war was", she laughed slightly. Everyone in the kitchen were quiet.

"Soon after her birth the war ended and everything was back to normal. Roderick had left us and we didn't saw him in many years. We all were happy. Years passed and Kitia met the man of her life and they fell in love. They got engaged soon after that and I thought I had managed to protect my sister. How wrong I was"

"One thing that has tormented our family is the royal heritage. Our grandfather was very rich and her left everything to his oldest son, our father. So, now it was time to discus who will inherit him after he dies. The tradition is that the oldest sibling will inherit but my father didn't want to leave the fortune to Roderick. My greedy first brother heard about this and was very angry and swore revenge to his family. So, one night the hell broke loose. My brother released his trolls in our house"

"His trolls?" Skulduggery asked.

"Roderick has the gift to guess trolls names and make them in his slaves. William had the same gift, but with werewolves. Anyway, the trolls killed our servants and almost killed our father too. That was Roderick goal all the time. I remember how Kitia fought that night. It was like she was possessed, like a maniac. She slaughtered the troll with out mercy and in the end her fiancée got her to finally calm down. Roderick ran away and we thought it was over. But no. He sent assassins after us. I almost got killed once. So we decided to make our brother pay what he had done. We went our separate ways to find and kill our brother. Kitia had to leave her fiancée in Berlin and it broke her heart. She changed her name and hid her engagement ring so he would be safe. So, William joined Roderick soon after that and now his dead. My poor little brother. Now, I think he is after me"

"Why?" Valkyrie asked.

"Because I'm the second sibling and I will inherit my father", she sighed. "I couldn't keep my sister safe. She was happy. Her weddings were supposed next month. But I don't think that will happen". Skulduggery suddenly stood up and walked to Eleonora. He took her hand and bowed.

"Fräulein Schatten, I promise to help you restore the peace in your family. I'm at your service", he said politely and Eleonora smiled.

"Danke schön, herr Pleasant". Valkyrie rolled her eyes.

"What an anti hero", she murmured.

***

Kitia opened her eyes and sat up. She yawned and looked around. She was in a living room, it was dark, because curtains were pulled in front of the windows. She tried to remember what was happened. Sanguine had attacked and she had fainted. Again! She hated fainting. Kitia felt strong enough to stand up and she walked to the kitchen. She heard voices coming from there. One voice was new, but still familiar. She peeked in the kitchen. Everyone turned to Kitia and the she saw Eleonora.

"Meine eigene kleine Schwester", Eleonora said almost crying and hugged her. Kitia just stared at her.

"GroßeSchwester What are you doing here?" Kitia asked trying to understand what was happening.

"I came to help you", Eleonora answered and touched Kitia's cheek with her thumb. Then she looked closer at her sister face and shrieked. "You have pierced your face?!"

"Eh, yeah", Kitia said and blushed. Eleonora stood up hands on her waist.

"How could you? You know father doesn't approve that—". Eleonora looked at Kitia's wrist. Now that she didn't have her leather jacket on and only a black T-shirt her razor wire tattoo showed. Kitia put her other hand to cover it and smiled innocently, but it was too late.

"And you have got a TATTOO!?" Eleonora screamed. "Lenore Schwartz, you know that is not allowed! What were you thinking at that time?! Were you drunk or on drugs?!" she roared in and then turned to other's in the room. She cleared her throat and turned to them smiling.

"I'm sorry. I must have lost my temper", she said and laughed. Kitia mumbled something behind her and Eleonora gave her we'll-talk-about-this look and Kitia fell silent

"But now that you have woken up, sister, let's get to the hotel I'm staying", she said. "It's not safe to you to be with out me"

"Sister, I don't like hotels. You know that", Kitia mumbled.

"Well, you don't have other option, little sister", Eleonora said. "Come on. It's too dangerous you to be alone"

"She can stay here", Valkyrie suddenly said from the door way.

"No, I'm sure you have enough troubles with out my sister living here", Eleonora said.

"She wouldn't be a trouble at all. There's lots of rooms where she can stay", Valkyrie tried and Eleonora looked at her and then her sister.

"Fine", she said. "You can stay. But I will gave you my new number so you can call me anytime", she said and gave Kitia her card. "And remember to behave"

"Ja, I will", Kitia said and smiled. She turned to Valkyrie. "Thanks", she whispered and Valkyrie smiled to her.

***

Valkyrie was woken up in a morning by the radio, playing as loud as it could. Valkyrie got up and stormed down stairs and in to the kitchen. She saw Kitia giving Fletcher a slap behind his head.

"Switch that off! You'll wake up Valkyrie", she upbraid him and then saw Valkyrie on the doorway. "Oh, Guten Morgen"

"Morning", Valkyrie mumbled. Three days had passed since Kitia had moved in Gordon's house. Valkyrie was happy to have someone else in the house than Fletcher. Kitia was very good in making food too. She insisted that if she was going to stay in the house, she was going to do all the cooking. Valkyrie was pleased with that, because she wasn't too interested in food making and Fletcher was too lazy to do anything. Fletcher sat on a worktop and looked how Kitia continued frying the eggs.

"Are you hungry?" she asked. Valkyrie sat at the table.

"Yeah", Valkyrie said. Kitia put the fried eggs, toast and bacon on her plate and gave it to her.

"Thanks", Valkyrie said and tasted. "This is so good!" she said smiling. "Where did you learned to be so good cook?" Kitia cleared the work top and smiled to her.

"I'm going to be a wife. In my family it's a condition of a good wife to know how to make her husband pleased with cooking and stuff", she said and leaned to the worktop. Fletcher looked at Kitia with a grin on his face.

"I'm sure you can make him pleased with something else than just cooking", he said and laughed. Kitia slapped his head and he fell silent.

"That sound romantic", Valkyrie said and Kitia smiled to her.

"Romantic? It sounds nice", Fletcher said. "Husbands don't have to do anything when wives are doing everything"

"It's not that simple", Kitia said. "It's tradition that a husband provides the living of his family. He also must protect his family and love only his wife. Wedding vows aren't just some words. They have ruled my family's marriages for generations"

"Now that's romantic. That sounds like some fairytale. Eternal love and everything", Valkyrie sighed.

"Yes, but if someone breaks the wedding vows, punishment is death", Kitia said brightly and continued cleaning the kitchen. Valkyrie sighed.

"That doesn't sound too romantic", she said and continued eating. Afternoon passed normally. Fletcher went out to see some of his friends and Valkyrie and Kitia sat in the living room. Kitia was telling about her fiancée and how he proposed her.

"And then he got on his knees and said: Sie wird mich heiraten?" Kitia said and waved her hand.

"Will you marry me, right?" Valkyrie asked, lying on the sofa listening Kitia.

"Exactly. And so I said yes and the rest is history"

"That sounds awesome. I whish someone would propose me like that", Valkyrie sighed.

"I'm sure that will happen. You're a beautiful girl. There's got to be a man for you". Valkyrie blushed.

"Black hair!" she said anxious to change the subject.

"What?"

"You have black hair, but your siblings have red. Did you dyed them or something because it seems so real"

"You want to know a secret how I dyed my hair?" Kitia asked and Valkyrie nodded. Kitia snapped her fingers and suddenly the black colour of her hair melted away and turned in shadows that melted in a part of her spike collar. Now her hair was same fire red as her sisters and brother.

"You dyed them with your shadows?" Valkyrie asked.

"Yep", Kitia said grinning.

"That's handy"

"It is, isn't it?" Then Kitia's phone stared to ring. She answered.

"Hi, what's going on?" She listened and then her face went serious. "He is? How many? Ok, when they are going to be here? Alright, I start the preparations". Kitia ended the phone call.

"Who was it?" Valkyrie asked.

"It was my sister. Sanguine is coming. And this time his not alone", Kitia said and hurried to the front door. She ran to the front yard. Valkyrie followed her.

"What did you meant Sanguine's not alone? Is your brother coming?" Valkyrie asked and turned looking at the drive way.

"No, my brother is a coward, he wouldn't come and challenge me like this"

"So, who's with Sanguine?" Valkyrie asked.

"One of my brother's trolls", Kitia said.

"What should we do?" Valkyrie asked.

"My sister is coming here as fast as she can. Meanwhile, we must try to fight against it", she said.

"And call Skulduggery and tell him to come help us. And also tell him to prepare for some serious fighting", she said grinning and shadows rose up from her spike collar.