thank you to eveyone who reveiwed.. you brougt little smiles to my face every time i opened my email account... :)
well heres another chapter to the story, hope you enjoy.
As he walked back the way that he had came, skulduggery looked down upon his mutilated apprentice. He looked at the blood covering her, at the bruises and cuts, and couldn't help but feel guilty. This was in fact, his fault. He was the reason his best friend was lying in his arms, the reason she had tears running down her face. She was the only family he had left, and now she was trying desperately to round up the last threads of life holding her together.
"Skul..." a weak whisper came from her lips,
"Shh... Val, just stay quiet and stay with me okay? I'm not going to have you die on me now. Not after everything we've been through." He soothed her in gentle tones. He hated to see her like this. Why did he have to hurt her? His shining light and beacon of hope. His best friend. She didn't do anything. She didn't deserve to be treated this way. He hated them for hurting her. Hated himself for letting her get hurt. He couldn't see her die; he'd have no reason to live.
She looked up at him and gave him a weak smile, which faltered slightly when she breathed. She breathed out again and her body went limp in his arms as her lids closed. He could feel her pulse beneath his hands and it was growing weaker by the minute. This leant him urgency as he travelled along the dark corridor. It was only when he got back, to the moving floor piece did he see the group of three people rounding the corner. He cursed slightly as the ground started to move up, and they started to sprint towards him.
When skulduggery got to the top he started running. He flew out of the boat house and down the stairs when there was an almighty crash, and he turned to see the remains of the front of the boathouse in rubble, and three people standing on the remains, looking at him.
"Mr. Pleasant, how great it is to see you!" macabre shouted over. "I believe you have something in your possession that, I spent a lot of money, and worked very hard trying to acquire, and I would like it if you would give it back to me."
Skulduggery looked down, at his limp and beaten partner, his rage flaring inside of him. "That thing is far too precious to hand over to the likes of you and I think I'll be taking her away with me. But, please do tell me, why you wanted her in the first place?" skulduggery fought to keep his voice relatively calm, and was thankful for once that he didn't have facial features to give him away. To give away the pure hatred burning from inside his bones.
"The great skeleton detective must know by now? That you are holding in your arms, one of the most destructive weapons in the world? That right there is my ticket to the end of the world."
Skulduggery wanted to tear him limb from limb. He did this to her because of something she couldn't control. Skulduggery hated the way he talked about her as if she was something as lifeless and meaningless as a gun or a sword. He was talking about her as if she was just a piece of metal. Skulduggery growled at him in a fierce tone "she is not a weapon."
"well I intend to use her that way, now please if you wouldn't mind handing her back then we can all be on our way." macabre stared at the skeleton, narrowing his eyes.
Skulduggery felt as if a saw was being pushed through his skull. He gasped slightly at the pain and tried to stay standing. The pain intensified and skulduggery fell to one knee, still holding Valkyrie, his grip tightened as he tried not to cry out from the pain. He wouldn't let macabre defeat him. He wouldn't let Valkyrie be taken away from him. He looked down at her face, and knew she would keep him strong. Her eyes fluttered open.
She knew he was in pain. She could see it in him. She could tell by the slight tremor of his bones. She turned her head and saw macabre and knew what was happening. She turned back "skulduggery?"
"Val... just a ... sec ... I'm ... just ...in... the middle... of someth-"he was cut off by a groan as the pain intensified further.
"Valkyrie." She could hear macabre mocking her; she could hear the laughter in his voice as her best friend fought of the overcoming pain surging through him. "You can make this stop you know, just let our little friend loose and she can make all the pain go away. I know she can hear us and I bet she is eager to come out and play." He was talking about Darquesse and he was right. Valkyrie could feel her pushing at the back of her mind, could feel her dark and twisted thoughts as she was eager to inflict pain. She had to fight her. All the time she was being tortured and Darquesse had not been there, but now, now that skulduggery, her best friend and mentor was in pain, she could feel her trying to break through. She knew what was going to happen before it did. She knew what she was going to do, but no idea how.
"Skulduggery, hold on." He looked down at her with his jaw clenched. He nodded, and shouted something over his shoulder, but Valkyrie missed what it was. She felt an explosion of darkness erupt from her being. She felt it take over and flow out through every pore. She cried out and felt skulduggery's grip on her slipping. Then there was just black.
Tanith rounded the corner to a worrying sight. Skulduggery on one knee, with Valkyrie limp in his arms. She went to run forward when she heard skulduggery shout and then Ghastlys hands around her waist, pulling her to the floor. She covered her head as she saw a dome of black explode out from skulduggery, encasing him and Valkyrie, and reaching out to the front of the boat house and close around macabre and his two Hench friends. Then a white light spread out and blinded Tanith. When it all went back to normal and she blinked the spots away from her sight, she was on her feet, with Ghastlys strong hand on her shoulder to steady her. She looked up and saw macabre and his two Hench men lying on the floor not moving. She hoped they were dead. She looked back to where skulduggery had been kneeling and found him and Valkyrie lying on the floor. They ran over and ghastly lifted up skulduggery, talking to him, trying to see if he was still alive. He wasn't moving. Tanith looked down at the mangled body of her little sister and a tear fell from her cheek. She reached down to check her bloody neck and her heart lifted when she felt a faint pulse. She heard, skulduggery groan. They were alive. Tanith breathed out a breath she hadn't realised she'd been holding.
"Fletcher!" he was next to her within a second.
"Val…" he whispered reaching down to touch her beaten and bloody face.
"Fletch she's alive, she's okay" Tanith spoke softly and with a gentle tone. "She's alive, but not for much longer unless we get her to kenspeckle. Drop her then come back for skulduggery okay? Then wait there, me and ghastly will drive back in the Bentley and the van."
H e just nodded and took Valkyrie's hand. Then they were gone. Tanith looked over to ghastly, who was checking the pulse of macabre. He looked up and shook his head. Thank god they were dead. He walked back over to skulduggery, who gave out another strangled groan. It sounded painful, but at least he was alive.
Fletcher came back and lifted skulduggery up and put his arm underneath his shoulders. Ghastly said something to his friend and then when Fletcher had gone he came over to where Tanith was standing. She was looking out towards the lake. His strong arms wrapped around her waist and she leaned back into him. The sun was going down, and if she could remove the image of Valkyrie from her mind, then it would probably have been quite beautiful. But she could still see her lifeless, bloodied form and a tear fell from her eye. Ghastly turned her around and tiled her chin up. He gently wiped the tear away from her cheek, and lightly kissed her on the forehead. She leant her head against his chest, and he pulled his arms around her tighter. He felt the warmth of her body unite with his. He loved her and would always love her. He hated seeing her cry. it was like a little peice of him died everytime there was a tear on her cheek. he had only slightly seen valkyries injuries as he had gone to tend to skul, but from what he saw he could understand the tears in her eyes. When he got to skul he truly belevied that he wasnt goning to get back up. he had only seen that sort of attack once, in the war. it was a deep form of necromancy which just obliterated everything in its path. he assumed it had been created from valkyrie, since she was still alive, but that didnt explain why skulduggery had survived it. Tanith breathed out heavily, he lent down and buried his face in her golden hair.
"She's going to be okay," he whispered into her ear. She just nodded slightly. They stayed like that for a minute longer when she mumbled "we'd best get driving now, it's a long way back. Do you want to take the Bentley?"
Ghastly shifted back a little and pulled Tanith's face up towards his gently. He cupped her face with his big hands, and his lips met hers. She slid her arms up around his neck and he pulled her into him tighter. When they pulled away, he leant down and spoke into her ear.
"Why don't we just take the Bentley back tonight and we can come back and get the van later?"He looked down into her eyes, and he saw them glistening with tears. She nodded and they walked back to the van together.
so, go on, you know you want to hit the little reveiw button and give me your thougts on this chapter. also if you wanna give me any ideas then ill listen :)