A/N: I don't own Dexter, Tipstaff, Anton, Valkyrie, Erskine, Skulduggery, Ghastly, Serpine or Venegeous.
"Oh, no, he cannot." Anton said and Dex watched as he went to Valkyrie, looping an arm around her waist and cupping her chin gently with one hand. "I have chosen you, Valkyrie Cain, to be with me." He said softly, looking at her intensely with those strange silvery eyes, then drawing her into a lingering kiss.
Valkyrie returned the kiss, tears streaming down her face and Dexter felt his heart fill with emotion and he watched the pair embrace. It was a truly romantic moment, and Dex found his arm going around Saracen's waist and the two men smiled at one another then watched as Anton bundled Valkyrie into him, a look of utter devotion and protective ferocity on his face. "You're not getting anywhere near any doorway anywhere, ever. I'm never letting you go." He said, looking down at her with that strangely intense gaze of his.
"And what makes you think you're getting near any doorway, Ghastly?" Skulduggery asked, marching up to him, to pin the startled mage to the wall. "I'll always love my family, that's true. But I was in love with you first. I'm not giving you up now because you think it's the right thing to do. Stop being so noble and be selfish for once."
Skulduggery leaned in and kissed Ghastly while the room watched, and soon it was Ghastly controlling the kiss, taking the skeletal mage into his arms. He broke off the kiss to look at the room irritably. "What?" He asked.
"No more talk of bringing anyone back, now or ever?" Dex asked and Ghastly flushed then nodded. "But I'm thinking we need to be there. If you two heard of it, so did a lot of other people. The last thing we need are the wrong people walking through that gate."
"He's right." Saracen agreed. "Anyone could be brought through, I'm guessing, and there's a lot of people I'd rather not see again." So they all agreed to load into Ghastly's van, taking what weapons and supplies they could gather in a hurry and set off for the distant castle where the gate would open.
They arrived about an hour before nightfall, and hid the van, then crept towards the castle. "This place was Serpine's wasn't it? Dex asked and a few of the others nodded. "Figures. He'd like to return, I know that much. Vengeous too." He said with distaste.
They made there way inside then paused. There was no real way of knowing where the doorway would open, only that it would be somewhere in the castle. Dex looked to Saracen. "Sense anything?"
"No, and we're the only ones here. I think the doorway will be in the throne room." He whispered back and the Dead Men slunk through the halls. They had until midnight to be in position, and as far as they knew the doorway wouldn't work if someone living didn't go through it, but they had to be there, just to be sure.
Ghastly and Skulduggery had summoned fire to lead them there, but let the flames die out one they reached the throne room and everyone has positioned themselves. It was definitely creepy to wait in the darkness, and Dex shivered from the cold.
He thought about the doorway as they waited silently. Both Ghastly and Valkyrie were ready to sacrifice themselves, so he'd have to watch them carefully, but the others too. Personally, he agreed with Valkyrie. If the dead could just waltz back into the land of the living, them life itself meant very little.
He was the man he was because of the joys and sorrows in his life. He strongly suspected Necromancers were behind it, and that was how Valkyrie had found out, and he knew that if Necromancers did arrive, she'd be the first person they'd kill.
Midnight was approaching and a dreadful stillness was filling the throne room. Still, no one had come, or they had come so silently that even the Dead Men had failed to notice them. The hour arrived, and Dex could feel the power in the room gather in one spot, but none of the Dead Men dared to make themselves known or provide light.
The door would be open a scant fifteen minutes, and Dex dared to push a button and illuminate the face of his watch. Ten minutes, now five. At one minute to go he touched Skulduggery who sat beside him and the mage answered with twin jets of flame that suddenly illuminated the room.
Not surprisingly, Anton collared Valkyrie, just as she rose to make a run for the doorway, and Saracen and Erskine tackled Ghastly to the ground. The terrible part was the voices. The voices of their loved ones calling from the doorway, which looked like a rectangle of blackness.
Then the doorway closed and Anton was rising, Valkyrie still collared in his steely grip. He actually lifted her slightly off the ground to bring her close as he glared at her. He was kissing her then, intensely, and the mood in the room shifted, the tension broken. Dex found himself in Saracen's arms and he assumed Skulduggery had found Ghastly. But he was too busy reassuring Saracen that he had the man he wanted right in his arms.
This time he let Saracen lead, to show Dex where he wanted to go and he could feel his heart overflowing with how generous Saracen was being. Dex grew dizzy as Saracen took the kiss deeper, and deeper still, and all thought exited Dex's mind and all he wanted to do was show Saracen he wanted the man by his side for all eternity.
He broke the kiss, only to start all over again, determined to win Saracen's heart, and never let his lover go. When at last they had parted and Dex was looking into Saracen's eyes, he knew he had to ask. "I don't care if this has been three days or three weeks. I love you, Saracen. There can be no one else. Marry me?" He asked.
You say yes, Saracen, or I swear to God I'll hurt you!