And…. I'm back! The tenth chapter! Whoo-hoo! Big thanks to Melody Luna, for inspiring me to write this chapter (actually just requesting that I get on with it. Sorry it took me so long.)
"Whore." Miss Ray muttered to herself as Valkyrie swept the room. She traced her finger over the surfaces of the furniture where the fighting had taken place and considered the size and strength of a man it would take to do this much damage. The room wasn't that big, with only Skulduggery, Valkyrie and Miss Ray in it. "Man-stealer."
"You, Miss Ray, are a delusional anxious psychopath." Valkyrie drew the conclusion. Skulduggery joined her side, his hands tucked casually inside his professional striped suit, his hat pulled fashionably over where his eyes used to be. "And, more to the point, the victim of a vampire attack."
"That true," Skulduggery said, "any specialist you have come in will confirm it. Explain it to the poor simpleton, my dear partner."
"Don't call me a simpleton, hired-help." Miss Ray retorted back in her high, passive voice. It sounded like it'd taken her a lot of effort to come up with an insult more creative than whore, and the best she could think of was… hired-help.
"Skulduggery, what have we agreed upon about not talking to idiots?"
"I said, don't call me—"
"I know what you said." Valkyrie said coldly. The two women glowered at each other. Skulduggery interrupted in that lovely flowing voice of his.
"She's a victim, Valkyrie, and so there are certain things she must be told. You, Miss Ray, are the victim of a vampire attack. The evidence of that is, well, the very obvious bottle of serum that we found laying around where the vampire fought. Pretty obvious, even for someone who's not a detective."
"That's right." Valkyrie said. "You're probably being stalked by a vampire. It happens to good people all the time: I wouldn't be too distressed about it. Better people than you—and I mean me—have lived through being stalked perfectly fine."
Miss Ray looked like she needed to take a seat on the soft, white furniture of the tearoom where most of the bodies had been found. She looked like she was about to swoon; it was Valkyrie's opinion to let her fall.
"But…" Miss Ray quivered. "I'll be married soon. I'm marrying Mevolent soon, and he's, he's just so fantastic that I can't even bare to imagine what he'd think if he found out I was being stalked by a… vampire."
"He'll probably want to buy life insurance," Valkyrie chuckled.
"How can you even joke about that, prostitute?"
"Ooohh—someone's getting feisty now. What other clichés will you call me next? Slut? I'm desperate to know, just so long as you understand that I am, and always will be, much, much better than you. In everything." Valkyrie said, tossing her dark hair over her shoulder. She had the feeling of the air being off in the room. Forgetting Miss Ray, she turned to Skulduggery with a frown on her face. He stood there frozen, with a gun to his head.
Miss Ray screamed, and Valkyrie cursed, just as another gun pressed coldly against the top of her spin and the bottom of her head. Valkyrie froze, and brazed for action.
"It seems like fate that we should met again so soon."
"Last time you peeped on me in the shower; this time you point a gun to me head. You have a talent for endearing yourself, don't you?"
"I feel no need to endear myself to you. If you want to get naked again in front of me, though, I might be convinced to leave peacefully."
"Might?"
"Well, probably not. Want to wear a maid outfit?"
"I have a schoolgirl outfit at home. I'll slip it on next time you decide to drop by." She muttered, her voice dripping in sarcasm. Dusk purred and slid the gun around to the side of her head so he could smell the back of her neck. "You vampires are so predictable. You always go to for the neck."
"It's delicious, and I'd love to sink my teeth in, believe me, but I'll have to hold back, I think. I have someone to kill. It's Miss Ray."
Valkyrie shifted farther away from Skulduggery and closer to Miss Ray. Dusk cocked the gun warningly, and she stilled. "What could you possibly want with a little girl like her, not hurting anyone?"
"I've been in the business too long to respond to something like that."
"Make a deal with me: school girl outfit—one day, not today—and you tell me everything. Maybe over a pillow."
Skulduggery spoke up, "Valkyrie, I don't think that's how I taught you to be a detective. Dusk, I don't think I can let you do that. I can't let you do Valkyrie, either."
"You're right, I can't do both, actually, and if you try to move, detectives, you'll both get a bullet through your head. Minion 1; make sure they don't move. If they do, kill them." An old man, his throat torn and his eyes shot red, stumbled forward and took the gun from Dusk's hand. Valkyrie took a breath. Skulduggery didn't need to, his hand snapped up and the gun flew away, slamming into the ceiling before spinning across the dark hardwood floor.
It hardly mattered; the gun wasn't close to the most dangerous thing. Dusk snarled, and the infected screamed and Dusk's hand slammed into her back like a freight train, slamming her face first into the wall and Valkyrie felt pain lace up her face. She moaned at first, but then she was back up on her feet, holding her nose into place and moving towards Miss Ray. Skulduggery's hand flashed with fire, and Dusk spun away, tripping over the slower infected. Skulduggery's foot caught his chin and sent him spinning.
"I don't like when Valkyrie flirts with evil people. It makes me angry. I'm going to take that out on you. You. Can't. See. Valkyrie. Naked. Like. I can." As he said it, he was bending Dusk's wrist back with a snap. Dusk hardly flinched, instead reaching up and grabbing the infected with his free hand. He used the infected as a hammer to slam into Skulduggery, throwing him and the infected across the room. Miss Ray began to scream.
"I'm going to need you to look past the vampire," Valkyrie said as she dragged Miss Ray half way across the room, and shoved her behind a stiff couch. "And the joking, and the thing where he's probably going to kill you."
A low, pathetic sound grew in the back of Miss Ray's throat. Her big eyes were filled with tears, and she began to gasp. Valkyrie knew that in a second Dusk would be up and coming at them again. She braced herself against wall and set her feet against the couch. Dusk gave away his position with a snarl as he popped his wrist back into place. Her eyes closed, her hand raised and then the couch snapped out. The bad piece of furniture flew hard into the vampire's face, and Miss Ray began to cry. She slapped the girl across the face, and forced her to her feet.
"Mevolent needs his sweet little wife, doesn't he?" She said, and Miss Ray was beginning to quiet down, as the bullet entered her skull. Valkyrie instantly let go, letting Miss Ray—no, Miss Ray's corpse—collapse to the floor. She felt herself breathing hard, and heard the couch being moved away.
Don't think about it. A soothing voice in her head suggested. If the bullet had been a mere few inches off, it would've been Valkyrie's head. Notice: who did it? Valkyrie dragged her dark eyes away from the fallen girl, and looked up to the staircase, where a younger, infected woman stood. Minion 2. Damn it. They'd assumed, falsely, that Dusk only had had one Minion with him. Valkyrie heard the door slam open behind them, and spun, her hand ablaze with fire. Minion 3 walked in the door, and Valkyrie heard Skulduggery's gun click. She backed up to him, the two of them standing back to back, with Skulduggery facing a minion and Dusk, and Valkyrie facing two minions.
"That's it. We're leaving," She heard Dusk's heavy voice say as he moved the couch away from him, standing up gracefully. "We have no business with these two."
"Oh, but we have business with you. Sure you wouldn't mind staying and chatting with us?" Skulduggery asked, and Dusk bent his neck back into place with a wry smile.
"No, thanks. I'm sure you have a lot of reporting to Mevolent to do."
"I report to the Council of Elders."
"Same thing, isn't it?"
"You have no idea what you're talking about." Skulduggery's gun went off once, twice, and with a hiss of pain and a blur, Dusk was gone. The minions, moving slower, attempted to follow him until Valkyrie hand snapped against the air, pinning one infected against the wall with a thud, and letting the others escape.
"Damn it, she's dead." Valkyrie said woodenly. She hadn't even liked Miss Ray.
"Yeah, she is, and now we have a lot of work to do. Reports to make, claims to throw off, and probably a fistfight or two. Oh, and Valkyrie? Promise me that if you sleep with Dusk this time, you'll at least use protection."
Ta-da! Sorry for the spelling/grammar/use of words errors in here. I'm just too lazy to edit. You understand it though, don't you?