Skulduggery – Crow
Anton – Bear
Ghastly – Panda
Dexter – Wolf
Saracen – Weasel
Erskine – Snake
Solomon – Raven
WARNING: No Valkyrie's were harmed in the making of this chapter. But it does contain strong themes of rape.
Chapter 56
As promised, Tanith woke Valkyrie up in the morning for her training session but was nice enough to 'go easy on her'.
Valkyrie disagreed with that.
They had started with stretches as per usual, then she was left to do whatever she wanted for twenty minutes and Valkyrie chose to spend it doing some dancing which she hadn't done since her competition over a year ago. When she was done with that, it was all planking and leg curls and sit-ups and other horrible things that exhausted her. After that was sparring with Wolf, which was fun but difficult because every time she got even the smallest, littlest upper hand on him he would suddenly tickle her and she would lose again.
After nearly an hour of sparring cross tickle-warring, Tanith helped Valkyrie by pinning the man down for her to tickle until he begged her to stop.
"That's what you get!" Valkyrie said loudly over his laughing. "For making me lose!"
Wolf laughed uproariously. "Just because you're lame!" He shouted between his laughing. "I'll always win!"
Valkyrie laughed and tickled him until he claimed he'd pee and they let him go. It was nice for all of five seconds and then Valkyrie was sent outside for a run.
"I hate you guys sometimes," Valkyrie grumbled as the two laughed at her.
She did what she was told and began her run like the good girl she was. It was a somewhat nice day, quite cool and the sky white. There was no wind. A great day in Ireland, especially for time outside, and even with her shorts on, she was fairly happy on her run. She went around the treeline, then began on her favourite route through the woods, following the dirt trail down to the stream at the back. She stopped there for a moment, looking around and breathing heavily.
She went still suddenly, feeling someone come up behind her.
"Valkyrie," Caelan said softly, stopping close to her. Valkyrie turned slowly to see him. She couldn't move back, the stream was quite deep from all the rain they had had recently, and Caelan didn't seem to notice her discomfort as he stopped just inches away from her. "I have been searching for you."
"You could have called," she said, remembering quickly that she owed him a favour after he helped her with the skull. "What do you need?"
"I wanted to see you," he said. "You've been on my mind."
Oh shit, she thought. "Yeah? How about we walk and talk?"
He seemed to consider it and nodded, and Valkyrie's anxious knot of a stomach soothed just a little. They walked very, very slowly down the path the way she came.
"What is it you wanted to talk about?" She said after long moments.
"Us," he said instantly. "The fight yesterday – I had been following Foe and Samuel as I knew they had tortured you and it angered me. As you were not at the party, I did not do anything until that teleporter brought you in and you were almost killed. I intervened and saved your life."
"You did," Valkyrie said slowly, remembering an unknown vampire jump on the one that had been about to do just that. "Thank you."
"You're welcome. I wanted also to ask you why you live with these people?" Caelan asked, staring at her as they walked. She tried not to glance at him too much.
"Well, my Uncle Gordon basically made an agreement with the Dead Men that in the event he died, the Dead Men would get custody and raise me as their apprentice in whatever profession I wanted. I chose to be a detective like Skulduggery. He was also made my adopted father."
"And why do they live in your house? I can smell your scent all over these woods. On every tree, your scent lingers, in all stages of life. On the tree swing at the front of the house, you were a very young child. But around the back of the trees you are older, and by the river, you are at this age, the present Valkyrie. Why allow them in a home that you have made your own?"
"Err, I didn't get a chose, they just sort of moved in."
"You do not like it?"
"I do, but I wasn't asked. It was pretty sudden. They did it for me. They left their homes and belongings to live together with me. They gave up a lot of freedoms to be with me."
He nodded. "When will they leave?"
"What do you mean?"
"Do you want them to live with you for your whole life?" Caelan asked.
Valkyrie hesitated. "I don't know. I haven't thought about it yet. I'd like my girlfriend to move in one day."
He twitched a little and Valkyrie suddenly wished she hadn't mentioned it. "Your girlfriend. Yes. How do you feel about her?"
"I love her," Valkyrie said, staring ahead resolutely.
"Just love?" Caelan asked quietly, coming to a stop. Valkyrie stopped also and looked at him.
"What do you mean?"
"Do you love her? Or are you in love with her?"
"I'm in love with her. She means the world to me. I'd die for her, I'd kill for her. I'd do anything she needed, I'd get her everything she wanted. I don't understand why you want to know," Valkyrie said, frowning at him to cover her glare.
He said nothing for a moment. "It's nothing. I just thought… I have come to have feelings for you."
Valkyrie gaped at him. "We've spoken about three times!"
He took a step back. "I apologise. I didn't mean to tell you quite the way I did. However, my feeling are what they are."
Valkyrie took a deep breath. "I'm sorry Caelan. I feel bad now. I didn't mean to react like that, but I really didn't think you would say that at all."
"You had no idea?"
"Not even a little. I'm sorry, but even if I had, there's nothing between us. I barely know you, and I love Nadia anyway. I'm not interested, and I can't imagine ever being able to."
"Because I'm a vampire," he said, voice filled with self-loathing.
"To be honest, yes, but also because I just don't like men. Sorry."
He licked his lips slightly and gave her an intense look. "But have you ever tried to be with a man? Have you had a boyfriend?"
"Well, no, but I'm pretty certain."
"How can you know if you've never experienced it?"
"I'm certain. I really, really am. Like, one hundred per cent." He took a step forwards and Valkyrie didn't move. She been told never to take a step back if an aggressive animal approached, never to give ground. Did a vampire count as an aggressive animal in human form? "And to be honest, the idea of trying to have a boyfriend, even if I didn't have Nadia, is really not that appealing to me."
"You could experiment."
"I could, but I have a girlfriend and I don't want to."
Valkyrie expected it but she wasn't fast enough to escape him when he pushed her back into a tree and he pinned her forcefully to it as he pressed his face to hers painfully, the bark of the tree scraping the back of her head. With no place to go, Valkyrie pressed her lips tightly together and made no move, just waited for him to stop, scrunching her eyes closed against the pain. He moved his lips over her closed ones, putting a hand on her cheek and another on her hip and moved to fit his body more tightly against hers. He leaned his head back slightly and looked at her with hooded eyes. She squinted her eyes open at him.
"How about now?" He asked.
Valkyrie headbutted him.
He fell back a little and Valkyrie made a run for it but barely got two steps in before he grabbed her and threw her bodily into a tree. She cried out and fell to the floor, feeling the nettles touch her skin and the itch begin to irritate her instantly. She scrambled back and up quickly, pressing herself against another tree. She had no place to go where someone could find her. Caelan could catch her if she ran. She didn't think she could beat him either.
"Do not fight me," he growled at her as he stalked closer. "It is not safe for you to aggravate me."
Valkyrie breathed shallowly and glared at him. "I don't think it's very safe for me right now either."
"It is not night time, there is no danger," he growled to her.
"You threw me into a tree, that's not exactly kind," she spat at him. "Get away from me and off my property Caelan. I don't want to see you again."
"You still owe me a favour."
"Then what do you want?"
He looked her up and down slowly and Valkyrie felt herself get goosebumps and gripped the tree behind her a little tighter. "I want to have sex with you. I did you a favour, a difficult favour with no reward for myself, and again saved your life, putting my own at risk. I deserve you."
"You do not," she tried to growl. It came out as a low whisper. "Don't you dare come near me. I'll kill you."
"You cannot," he said, shaking his head. "You owe me."
"I owe you a favour, but I can refuse if it's not equal to what you did for me. I owe you an item, a connection. You saved my life because you wanted to, that doesn't mean I owe you a favour."
"You do, and I want your body."
"No."
He came close to her and reached out a hand as if he were trying to be gentle and Valkyrie batted it away. He bared his teeth and punched her harshly. She fell to the ground with a grunt and felt her hand wrap around a stick – a sturdy, fairly long stick, dry and rough to the touch. Caelan picked her up by the hair and Valkyrie cried out even as she got her footing, before swinging around and hitting him in the head with the stick as hard as she could.
He let her go and stumbled back. Valkyrie took her chance and the stick, running as fast as she could on shaking legs to the house. By some miracle, Caelan didn't follow but it didn't stop her running like a madwoman for the house. Tanith was waiting for her at the door, ready to start their next exercise, but when she saw Valkyrie she ran to meet her. Valkyrie practically fell onto her sister in the garden, pointing and blubbering at the trees, inconsolable to Tanith's gentle voice and arm around her waist.
Wolf joined them outside a few minutes later, hearing Valkyrie crying.
"Cub? What's going on?" He asked quickly, looking Valkyrie over. "Are they handprints?"
Valkyrie looked at her arms and did indeed find two bruises in the shapes of hands on her arms were Caelan had held her. Her lip waivered and she bit her lip to try and stop her crying. She looked at Wolf and he didn't say anything, just picked her up and carried her inside. He didn't take her to the living room as Valkyrie expected, but up the stairs. Valkyrie pressed her face into his neck and heard Wolf kick someone's door and then move onto the bathroom.
He gently sat her down on the counter and fetched a flannel. A moment later Bear walked into the bathroom as well and stopped short, looking at her arms.
"What happened?" He asked cracking his knuckles.
Valkyrie looked down. "Do you remember when I got Crow his skull back two Christmases ago? I asked a vampire to help me get in contact with the dealer. I spoke to him, like, twice, and I didn't see him again. Then yesterday I saw him in the fight when he attacked another vampire that was about to kill me. He was at the river when I was on my run and he basically told me that he wanted me to sleep with him to make up for the favour and saving my life."
Tanith held her hand in support and Wolf came over to her with the flannel. "Cub… look, I can only see two options here. Either you take it to court and try to get him in jail, or we don't and we kill him ourselves. No one will question a vampire going missing. What would you like to do? It's just, we need to take pictures if you want to go to the Sanctuary with this."
"Before that, what did he do?" Bear said, obviously trying hard to show restraint.
Valkyrie took a deep breath and tucked her hair behind her ear. "He pushed me, punched me, pulled me around and kissed me. He pushed me into a tree and I hit my head really hard a few times. I got away before anything else happened."
Wolf made her look down and looked at the back of her head. "There's a little blood, but I think it's just a little cut. Barely more than a scrape."
He let her go and Valkyrie glanced at Tanith. "I don't want to go to the Sanctuary. Let's just do it our way."
Wolf gave her a smile and pressed the flannel to her skin, using a pre-soaked stone to heal her bruises, then wiping it over her legs to fix the nettle stings. "What's his name?" Wolf asked as he worked.
"Caelan," she said. "All I know is that he is over a hundred and gets easily obsessed. Obviously."
Wolf nodded and threw the used flannel in the sink. He hugged her and pulled her off the counter at the same time, holding her tightly. She almost compared it to the embrace she'd had with Caelan, such as it was, but stopped herself at the last moment. He wouldn't win by upsetting her any more than the cry she'd already had. Wolf was her brother, he was family and his hugs were nice and familiar. Caelan was not ruining that.
"Alright," she said, pushing him away. "I need to call Nadia, so you can start sharpening your swords or whatever. I'm considered busy now."
Wolf smirked, not one to pass up an opportunity. "Oh, and what will make you oh so unavailable Valkyrie? What will you be doing at this time of day? Hum?"
Valkyrie smiled at him and left the bathroom as he snickered. She heard Tanith giggle in the back and couldn't help but grin as she closed her bedroom door.
Caelan would not bring her down.
He will be beaten brutally, don't worry.
