"Valkyrie, calm down!" Skulduggery exclaimed, removing his grip on her shoulder.
Valkyrie whirled to him. "What the hell, Skulduggery?! You nearly gave me a heart attack!"
"Sorry," Skulduggery apologised. Valkyrie took a deep breath, exhaling slowly.
"Did you wake the others?" she asked calmly.
Skulduggery shook his head. "Only one."
Saracen came into the room. "We couldn't wake up the others," he told Valkyrie. "Something's gotten to them. They've been drugged. It was a sleeping gas of some sort."
"How come you're awake?" Valkyrie wondered.
"Something told me I should get out of the room," he shrugged. "I knew it."
"Something's happening, Saracen," Skulduggery said. "Something sinister. Valkyrie, any update?"
"I saw the figure again," Valkyrie said, her throat dry. "It looked at me."
"Are you sure?" Skulduggery asked.
Valkyrie nodded, her face slightly pale.
"Even with the lights off?"
Valkyrie nodded again. "Looked me right in the eye."
"This is bad," Saracen said. "This is really bad." Just as he said that, the banging resumed. Valkyrie and Saracen jumped in fright and surprise. Skulduggery didn't even flinch.
"I'm going to investigate," Skulduggery said. "Valkyrie, you're with me," he added, knowing that he needed to keep an eye on her, as she was clearly frightened and deeply affected by the strange happenings. "Saracen, stay here. Keep watch for anything suspicious."
Saracen nodded. He picked up a ruler from the desk in the room.
Valkyrie raised an eyebrow. "Is that your weapon?"
Saracen contemplated the usefulness of a ruler. He put it down. He picked up a stool. "Nope. This is."
"Stay safe, Saracen," Skulduggery said.
"Nice alliteration there," Saracen grinned. He saluted them as they left the room. He took a seat in a chair in front of the window, and waited.
The banging stopped. Saracen sighed, and sat back. Watching was boring. This was like a stakeout from back in the good old days of the war. And it was boring. There was no Larrikin here to save him from boredom this time, Saracen reflected. Damn.
Saracen sat there for about fifteen minutes, before he heard a noise. Footsteps. Then the door to the room opened with a creak.
"Back already, guys?" Saracen called, to what he presumed to be Skulduggery or Valkyrie.
The footsteps kept coming closer, approaching where he was seated at the window.
"What are you- deaf?" he laughed. "Did you find anything?"
Still no answer. The footsteps came up right behind him. Saracen gulped, and stood up. He turned slowly, and came face to face with a robed person. Recognition flashed in his mind, but before he could react, a fist hit him right between the eyes, and his brain slammed against the wall of his skull. Saracen passed out instantly, collapsing onto the floor. Completely out cold. Completely vulnerable.
The figure pulled back their hood, and smiled the most beautiful smile in the world. China Sorrows looked down at Saracen's body. Such a sweet man. Such a pathetic fool. Like all of them were.
She pulled her leg back, and brought it forward into the side of Saracen's ribs with so much force that cracks were heard. She lashed out again, and again, and kicked him continuously with insane ferocity. A violent kick to the head resulted in a steady flow of blood coming from his cranium, joining the river stemming out of his stomach.
China attacked him with the intention of killing him, but before she could do so, she heard footsteps, accompanied by two voices. One, the voice of the bane of her existence. The other, the voice of heaven. A voice she would gladly kill for. But not tonight. The risk of premature discovery was too high.
She slid open the large window of the room as Skulduggery and Valkyrie approached, and leapt out of the building, using her powers to absorb the impact of her landing. She ran off into the darkness before the detectives could enter the room.
As she ran, she reflected how easy all of this was. It had been so easy to dismantle their stupid little sigils, which they had drawn under the illusion that they had been enough to stop her. She would have been insulted, if she'd cared.
After gaining access to the territory, she had run across and hid in a cluster of trees, which were directly in front of the north side of the warehouse. She had emerged a couple of times, in order to draw some symbols. Some very special symbols. They needed to be drawn at both the front and back ends of the warehouse, so China had started with the front, and had run out of cover a couple of times to get close enough to construct them.
This was when she had seen Valkyrie looking at her from a window. Valkyrie. What an ugly name. And what an ugly girl. For that was all she was; just a girl. Just merely a girl. And she was after the skeleton's heart. Bitch. She was so naive to think that her and Skulduggery had a future together. Skulduggery was perfect for China, not that... abomination. That's what the Torment had called her, wasn't it? Abomination. How fitting.
But China wasn't one to get into a petty cat-fight. And she wasn't going to resort to that with Valkyrie. What would be the point? It's obvious that Skulduggery was truly in love with China. Not Valkyrie. For Skulduggery had loved her once, long ago. She knew that. And then he had met his wife. His. Wife. And they'd had that damn kid.
But China soon put an end to them. She had to admit, that whole event with Skulduggery's family and Serpine was driven purely by her jealousy of his wife. But she had done him a favour, hadn't she? If it wasn't for her, Skulduggery would still be stuck with that god-awful woman that he called his "wife". China shuddered. Yes. It was a very good thing indeed that China had gotten rid of her.
After retreating back under the cover of the trees once again, China decided that it was too inconvenient to complete the front sigils all at once, especially since Valkyrie had seen her already. She would've been suspicious, and China couldn't afford to be rumbled now. Not when she was so close to hatching her magnificent plan.
China had run to the back of the warehouse, and had begun to construct identical symbols to the ones that she had started at the front. She had also released a sleeping chemical into the warehouse, which she had manipulated so that it went only to the rooms of the first floor. This was to serve as a direct attack to the other Dead Men, who would find themselves unable to awaken. It was only a mild gas, though. She had not been able to source a stronger one, but she was sure that the Dead Men wouldn't mind.
Oh, those men. Those men. They were fine specimens. China would have happily settled for any of them. Except for Saracen Rue and Erskine Ravel. They were good for a one-night stand, but that was it. They were a bit too useless. And Ghastly Bespoke was too ugly. Scars? No thanks. His personality was sweet... but she didn't need sweet. She needed dominant. Like Dexter. Oh, Dexter Vex was handsome. He was so handsome. But... there was something missing. Maturity. That was it. Maturity. He lacked the maturity of the others.
Anton Shudder, though. Those good looks and that long hair... And he was most certainly dominant. But he wasn't romantic enough. He wasn't romantic at all. Well, not as far as she knew. Skulduggery was perfect for China. No doubt. They were made for each other. Anyway. As she was saying, China had ensured that the others were fast asleep during her little mission.
In doing so, she had made a noise. Instead of running back behind cover, she'd had the idea to distract them with the noise, and had then proceeded to continuously make a banging noise in order to get them scared. To tease them. Well, to tease Valkyrie. That stupid cow was so easily scared. Awww. Poor thing. Skulduggery's standards really had slipped. But all of that was about to change.
Whilst distracting them with the noise, China had completed the sigil at the back, and had then sneaked round to the front of the warehouse, in order to complete the symbols she had started there. In doing so, she had seen Valkyrie looking at her from the window again. This wasn't anticipated; China had expected Valkyrie to have gone to investigate the noise with Skulduggery. Well, what does this prove? That Skulduggery finds her to be a burden. She'd only get in the way.
China had decided to scare Valkyrie even more, and had turned, and looked up at the window of the front office, where Valkyrie was. The light was off, but China caught a hint of moonlight reflecting off of her gruesome Necromancer ring, so could tell approximately where her eyes were, and had looked into them. That should scare her for a bit.
Once China had finished the sigil, she had gotten a little bolder, and had decided to enter the warehouse itself. She had crept in, and made her way to where she presumed the room that Valkyrie was in to be. China had drawn a few symbols on the doorframe, which bound the power of everyone inside that room. She had planned to attack Valkyrie, however Saracen had randomly been there instead. Oh well. He'd have had to do.
She'd crept up on Saracen, who had been unable to use his power to detect her identity due to the sigils, and she had then launched her attack. Inconveniently, the sigils had also bound her power, but no matter. She liked getting physical now and then.
She'd sent a direct message to the Dead Men in the form of Saracen's mutilated body. She didn't know if he would live. She didn't expect him to, after that. She didn't care. This was a warning to the Dead Men- and they had better accept it.
Now, after escaping from the room, China was running back to her makeshift hideout, which she had established nearby. It wasn't as glamorous as she'd like it to be, but it served its purpose. She wasn't remaining there long, anyway. Just until the sigils had done their job, and their effects were fully known.
And what would these sigils do? They would play with love and confuse emotions. They would alter feelings and wreck what had been so poorly built up on such fragile foundations.
They were going to make Skulduggery and Valkyrie truly and utterly despise each other.
