Chapter 217
Valkyrie's POV
She was back in the same office as the last time she was at the Sanctuary. Militsa had just left after giving her version of events to Bernard Sult, the American Administrator, and Quintin Strom, one of the English Elders. Both of them there on the behalf of the Supreme Council. Meritorious and Elder Feie were also there, along with Skulduggery and herself.
"About how many Necromancers," Sult said slowly, "do you believe died?"
"There were twenty-eight present when we were brought in, and only left with us alongside our companion," Skulduggery said in deep monotone. "We were told by the other prisoners that there were more before we arrived but they had been recently removed from the cell and hadn't been brought back. They believed they'd been killed and I agree."
"And what evidence do you have of that?" Sult asked, looking down his nose at Skulduggery.
Skulduggery tilted his head. "I was there. As was Valkyrie and Miss Gnosis. You just heard her account. We brought Miss Kage back with us also and she had a spider's claw in her stomach, one from a Child of the Spider."
"The doctors have not confirmed–"
"It's barely been ten hours, they haven't had time to confirm its authenticity. Where else in Ireland would we encounter a spiders' claw of that size, a spider with that strength?" Skulduggery asked rhetorically.
"Perhaps not here, but there are in Australia."
"We weren't in Australia when it happened. It was in Ireland. We brought her straight to the nearest doctor I knew of," Skulduggery said tensely.
"Mr Renn," Strom said casually, "could have helped you though, hmm? He's a friend of yours."
"I wouldn't say friend," Skulduggery said darkly. "Acquaintance, maybe. Someone I wish to know less, definitely."
"He took us to Australia," Valkyrie said before Skulduggery could blow it, "after we called him and asked for his help so we could meet Militsa. He left immediately after taking us to Australia. I have the call logged on my phone. Neither of us called him again until we got to Doctor Synecdoche. That was after we handed off Erembour for surgery. Doctor Synecdoche can confirm that and it's probably on her security footage."
The Supreme Council men sat up slightly, thinking of their next absurd rebuttal to try and find some reason to bring their armies to Ireland and kill them.
"If," Strom said slowly, "we believe you, and you truly did end up in Ireland with a Child of the Spider as an enemy – how is it you allowed so many of these people to die? Your job is to stop that happening, Pleasant, and by your own admission you failed."
"We did the best we could at the time," Skulduggery stated. "There was a long way to go and a lot of people to protect. At each turn people were split from the main group, and both of us had to fight and people had to run. There wasn't a lot we could do."
Valkyrie clenched her jaw, carefully keeping her face from sneering at him.
"That's not acceptable," Sult said promptly. "Twenty-nine people needed bringing out alive and you barely managed two, and one of those is in critical condition! How do you plan on telling the public?"
Skulduggery shrugged. "That's not my job. In fact, saving hostages is rarely my job. We were never meant to be put in that situation, but considering we were, we did the best we could. What else would you have had us do?"
"Save more people," Sult said as if it were obvious.
"How?" Valkyrie questioned.
He paused, expecting her to say more, and then soured when he couldn't think of a way. "That's not something I know about, I just know you haven't done well enough here today. Considering Miss Kage is in hospital, we'll make sure to tell the Supreme Council what happened here today, and we'll see what the next step for her is. Until then–"
"This is an Irish matter now," Meritorious said simply.
Both men scoffed. "It is an international problem," Strom said, "when an Australian minor is critically injured on Irish soil."
"And is it an international problem when international criminals are responsible for her being held prisoner?" Valkyrie asked. "We were captured in Australia, they're a part of your Council. They refused to help the Necromancers even when they asked for help and they knew a minor was missing. Are they going to face any consequences?"
Strom looked at her levelly. "It will be investigated. Until we confirm if Children of the Spider are responsible for Miss Kage's injuries, I don't want to hear of this again. And to make this clear, if we hear anyone attempts to move on any sort of Child of the Spider home in any country without permission, it will be counted as an offence. You can't attack possibly innocent people to prove a point. It won't be done and it isn't legal. Grand Mage Meritorious, am I heard?"
"I hear you," he said, mouth pinched.
"I'd also suggest having Miss Cain and Mr Pleasant assessed psychiatrically," he continued, standing up. "Regardless of whether their story is true, their results are unacceptable, and it shouldn't be allowed. I've been saying this for years, and as have many Sanctuaries around the world, remove the Dead Men from your service. It's not an acceptable use of Sanctuary power and shouldn't be done. You're on thin ice, Meritorious. I want to see changes."
He took his leave, Sult standing up quickly, tripping over his chair leg in his hurry to follow Strom. Valkyrie tried not to glare at the table too hard.
When they were gone, Meritorious sighed and stood. "I think it's best you make yourselves scarce from the Sanctuary for a few days. We've had a suspect missing person's report, take that and run with it. Okay?"
He didn't wait for any type of reply and Valkyrie had to hold in an apology. He was tired, had lost weight, wasn't himself. He was getting war ready and Valkyrie hated it. Feie followed behind.
They left the Sanctuary in silence. At the doors, Militsa waited for them. Valkyrie jogged ahead and pulled her aside from the door to talk.
"I'm sorry," Valkyrie said instantly.
"Don't be," she replied. Her voice was soft and quiet but strong. "You tried very hard, Valkyrie, and I appreciate it. I'm sorry I was in the way of you fighting. All of us hostages were. We held you back."
"It's just how it went," Valkyrie said simply. "Um, I was wondering what you wanted to do next? You can go back to Australia and I can take you back to your Temple, or I can arrange a safe place for you to stay or get you legal documents to pose as a mortal. Or you're welcome to stay with my family. Solomon can help you with breaking your ties to your bracelet so you can have a new object and you can stay with the baby and Nadia when they go into hiding. Don't tell her I said this, but she's a shit fighter and I know you're a lot better, so it would be good if anything happened."
Militsa hesitated. "I'm not sure, Valkyrie. It's hard to know so quickly."
"That's okay. How about I take you to see Solomon and you can go from there?" Valkyrie suggested kindly.
She smiled. "That'll be nice. Maybe I'll meet the famous Nadia Robin as well."
Valkyrie smirked. "Why do I get the impression you two are going to gang up on me?"
"I'd never do that," she said, stepping away. "Are we going with Skulduggery?"
"Yeah," she sighed, following her slowly. "I saw Tanith's bike but she might be using it. I'll introduce you and I think I'll have to leave for a crime scene after. I'm not looking forward to that."
"Is it a bad one?" Militsa asked.
"No, it's a boring one. Missing person. Not to be uppity and all that but we do big jobs, not one missing person jobs. That's a small thing. That's someone running off with their side piece and telling no one. Not nearly the same."
Militsa sighed and tried a smile. "Try to stay positive."
Valkyrie wasn't sure how to reply so she didn't. They didn't have a car so they waited for Fletcher, who seemed slightly more rested this time, but he popped to them, took them to Corrival's, and disappeared again.
"Someone needs to make sure he's getting days off," Valkyrie muttered, going straight through to the living room without looking at Skulduggery. "Nadia? Where are you?"
"Baby?" Her voice called in the distance of the large house. "I'm in the kitchen." Valkyrie thought she might have heard "If that's you," but it was too quiet for her to be sure.
Valkyrie went through to the kitchen and smiled at what she saw – Nadia in a loose top and shorts, Laila on the table covered in red goo and the counter she was sitting on equally messy.
"Hi sweet baby," Valkyrie grinned. Laila out her arms out for Valkyrie to take her but Valkyrie did not. "I can't pick you up, you're a messy girl. What were you eating?"
"She had tomato soup and then strawberries and raspberries," Nadia smirked. "Ghastly'll be taking her when he's out of the shower. He just got back from work. I think he was out for thirty hours."
"Fun."
"Who is this?" Nadia asked, glancing at the doorway where Militsa was standing.
"This is Militsa," Valkyrie smiled, waving her in. She took a few steps into the overwhelmingly large and outdated kitchen. Other than the fridge-freezer, she didn't think Corrival had updated anything in sixty or more years. Not even the microwave. She wasn't even sure microwaves were around sixty years ago but it was still at least that old. "We had a big mess up with our case and ended up in Ireland. I thought it would be fun for you two to meet since Mil's here."
"It's nice to meet you," Militsa said immediately, sticking out a hand.
"And yourself," Nadia smiled, shaking it. "Are you both okay? What happened on the case?"
Valkyrie sighed and began, but let Militsa take over when she got more comfortable and started adding things in. They ended up passing off the baby to Ghastly silently and not stopping in their story telling at all. When it finished, Nadia was horrified and she and Militsa were sitting closely on the sofa and Valkyrie on an armchair on the other side of the room.
"That's awful," Nadia said. "I can't believe that happened to you. And poor Erembour in the hospital, I hope she can recover."
"I think it might be a good idea for me to stick around for her," Militsa said quietly. The more she spoke, the more it felt like she was letting a great burden out by speaking it. It had probably exhausted her. "It's awful waking up in hospital with your whole life changed. I want to be there for her."
Nadia put a hand on her knee. "You're welcome to stay with us. As long as you don't mind crying babies, that is."
Militsa smiled at her joke. "I can cope with that."
Valkyrie smiled behind her hand. "Come on," Nadia said, "let's go upstairs and I'll find you a room and set it up for you. You must be really tired."
Militsa silently followed Nadia away, giving Valkyrie a small smile before disappearing. Valkyrie waited and some half an hour of silent musing later, her fiancée reappeared.
"Baby," Nadia whispered and rushed over to her. She jumped and straddled her and they hugged tightly. "I'm so sorry all that happened. Are you okay?"
"No," she whispered into Nadia's shoulder. "Erembour might die. She's so young and small. It's not fair."
"She might be fine yet," Nadia tried to comfort her. "You never know. What did Militsa mean when she said you and Skulduggery had a fight?"
"He just kept disregarding everything I said even though I was right. And every time I was right, he just didn't care and told me to focus on the work, which I get, but he didn't even apologise past a 'well I'm sorry this happened but it doesn't matter now' type of thing. He left us there. He left me. I don't know what happened but it was like I've been pretending for the last two and a half weeks that everything's okay but it's not. I'm still upset and all that forgiveness and progress we had is just ruined."
Nadia tutted and stroked her hair sympathetically. "I'm sorry honey."
"I know. It's not your fault. I don't even know if it's my fault or his. I'm just upset. Because he does have more experience and he isn't entirely wrong in some of his plans, but they never work Nadia, you don't even know some of the crap he's said as a plan before. They're just ideas of how he wants things to end and then he expects that we just work it out. And when I suggest an actual plan, he veto's it. But he doesn't even have a worthwhile plan in the first place. And this time, he did have a plan, but my plan was better and when he just brushed me off and told me off in front of everyone, it was just humiliating. And then he left me with the Spiders and the prisoners and fucked off. And he didn't come back for hours. He was just 'scouting around' he said. What does that even mean?"
"And then you had to get everyone out without him anyway," Nadia finished for her.
"Exactly. It's not okay," she whispered. She closed her eyes and took a deep, calming breath. "How have you been? I'm sorry if I worried you."
"Other than being utterly distraught you broke your promise, I'm just normal bored at home and tired of babysitting," she smiled.
Valkyrie frowned and pulled back to look her in the eyes. "What do you mean?"
"You promised me on the phone you won't get into trouble or get hurt when I said about my dream. And then you went and got into a lot of trouble," she said softly before leaning in and kissing her lips.
She tried to think of a response at first, but when Nadia's gently sucked her bottom lip between her teeth and pulled on it, she lost all her thoughts and kissed her soundly. Their moments together had been so short and rushed, peppered with steaming kisses between their time alone that it barely took anything to make Valkyrie desperately want to take Nadia away for a night. Even if they just hid in their bed under the sheets naked so she could feel Nadia's body against her own. But they couldn't do that, so their kisses were turning into make out sessions that no one wanted to walk in on quicker every time their lips met.
There was a cough at the door. Nadia tried to pull away but Valkyrie was sick of Skulduggery and didn't care less what he thought anymore, so she followed Nadia back and kissed her, putting her hands up the back of her loose top and feeling her skin. Nadia couldn't help but moan when Valkyrie kissed her with just the perfect amount of force and leant her back, and Valkyrie honestly forgot Skulduggery was standing there entirely for a whole moment.
"Christ," she heard Ghastly whisper, and she did pull away this time.
"I swear to God," she said, glaring as he walked passed Skulduggery and into the room to settle, "you people need to learn what boundaries are or I'll find some way to punish you."
"Seeing you two like that is a punishment to me," Ghastly said melodramatically, getting on his knees so he and Laila could play with some of her toys now she was clean. "This is a living room, not your bedroom. And it's Corrival's house anyhow." He was more insecure about calling Corrival Pa except with only a few of his brothers. "He doesn't like that."
"He's not going to know," Valkyrie said. She gave Nadia a pleading look as she got off of her. "Now look at what you've done."
"You say that as if you think I'd care," Ghastly quipped. Laila let out a shriek and he gave her the toy in his hands. She threw it.
"And what do you want?" She asked darkly, scowling at Skulduggery.
"We have a case to work on. I was wondering if you wanted to accompany me or if you needed to rest," he said.
She sagged and closed her eyes. "Did you call about it?"
"I did. Patrick Xebec. Elemental. Last seen Friday afternoon. His wife spoke to him–"
"Guys, take the detective stuff elsewhere," Ghastly interrupted disapprovingly. "Laila's old enough to understand some of this stuff now and it's not okay to talk about with her around."
Valkyrie could see some reason in that so she got up and took Nadia's hand, and took the conversation through to the next room. Skulduggery immediately continued. "His wife spoke to him on the phone while he was driving and said there were lights in the sky, someone using magic. He told her he was going to talk to the people, assuming it was kids, but no one's heard from him since."
"Do we need to talk to the wife?"
"She apparently knows the place he was in when he disappeared and she wants to only speak with a high level detective or us."
"Even though we're not detectives anymore and it has nothing to do with us."
He shrugged. "We're the best. And everyone else is busy at the Sanctuary whereas we are both in timeout and can pick our schedules better. So I needed to know, do you want to join me or do you want to sleep?"
"If it's just going to be a job of talking to someone right now, I think I need to pass," she said, squeezing the arm around Nadia. "It's been a long few days, a long few weeks actually. I need to sleep. Call me if something happens."
He nodded once and wished her a happy sleep before leaving. Nadia took her hand and they went up to their guest bedroom. It was all in dark red, even the walls and ceiling, and it was far too much dark. It made her feel as if Corrival's house was on the extreme end of dark and old, her newly renovated house was going to be as good as the extreme opposite, and the old version of her house had been nicely in the middle.
She sighed and pulled her clothes off. She'd had a shower at the doctors after her check-up while no one had been watching. Once naked, she pulled back the covers and sprawled out. "What time is it?"
"Barely four in the afternoon," Nadia said.
"Fuck," she replied, putting an arm over her head. "Where's everyone else?"
"I don't know about Anton, Saracen's currently asleep but he stayed at his Dublin apartment. He texted me and said he was literally on the same street after he handed off the magic mortal he found so he stayed there. Tanith, Dexter and Erskine had to take a big mission that came up because you and Skulduggery were gone. They're not in the country right now, but I don't know where they are, it's a top-secret thing. I overheard someone mention it being to do with the mortals with magic powers and I heard Elder Deuce's name."
"What?"
"Yeah, we all tried reaching you," she said, throwing her clothes on the floor, "but we couldn't get through so they had to go. I'm sure they're okay."
"Yeah but if they wanted me and Skulduggery it's because it's a detective thing. And if they sent someone in the last two days it must have been important."
Nadia shrugged and straddled Valkyrie's hips. "This scratch is new."
Valkyrie paused and looked down at her body. There was a mark on her ribs where she'd been kicked by Syn. "Yeah. Militsa sort of brushed over the bit where Syn came in and kicked me. He beat me really bad."
Nadia looked at her worriedly. "Did you see a doctor?"
"Yeah, I was healed baby. I know it's scary for you, but I'm really tired," she said, opening her arms and inviting Nadia to lie comfortably on top of her. "I promise I'm okay. Just a few deep muscle bruises a bath and a healing stone will sort for me. I swear."
"And he only hit you?"
"And kicked, but yeah. I swear, he didn't even use a weapon on me," she said. "The doctor fixed me up immediately, I'm just fine."
"If you say so," Nadia whispered into her neck. "Did anything else happen there?"
Valkyrie was quiet for a moment and then spoke. "I thought he was leaving me. At the end. I thought he saw me and was running away and abandoning me. But he led me to a window and helped me out. But I didn't think that was what was happening. And I know he was helping me escape. But I feel... I have the feeling he was abandoning me. Even though I know in my head he wasn't."
Nadia stroked her neck. "Do you want to talk about it? It sounds horrible."
"No," she said instantly, surprising herself. "I want to lie here."
Valkyrie let a few moments go by, slowly relaxing her body using Helena's meditation tricks to untense her muscles and enjoy the feel of their skin pressed together.
Nadia broke the silence. "Are we going to get dressed?"
"No," she whispered. "I want to feel you against me."
"It's not allowed."
She smirked. "Since when has that stopped me doing anything?"
"You're bad," she said, a smile in her voice.
"I'm yours."
"You're so cheesy," she chuckled.
"Are you okay with Militsa staying here?" Valkyrie asked.
"No, it's fine. She was a lot nicer than I thought she'd be," she admitted. "I was imagining someone more like Emily. But I think I can be friends with Militsa."
"I'm glad. I sort of offered for her to stay through the war. I was hoping she'd keep you company in case it's you and Laila end up alone," Valkyrie said, running her fingers up and down the curve of Nadia's spine. It was entirely fleshed out now, no longer pronounced and skinny. It suited her better and Valkyrie genuinely preferred her fiancée's body now she wasn't worried she was too thin. Not that she wouldn't be attracted to her in any shape, but fear of a loved one being ill wasn't a massive turn on for her. "She's really nice."
"She is. I can see why you dated her."
Valkyrie hesitated. "That sounded off. Are you actually okay with this?"
"Of course. She's lovely. It's just, I guess, a bit confronting to suddenly meet her. But it's okay, she's nice. And I don't mind the company I suppose," Nadia said, shrugging. "It's just not what I expected."
"If you don't like it then I'll change it. My only real priority is you, Nadia. I don't think Militsa would be anything but nice, but if she isn't, you don't have to worry what I'll think if you send her away. I'll always take your side."
Nadia smiled and placed a kill on Valkyrie's neck. "That makes me feel better."
"Good. I want you happy."
"I love you."
"I love you too. So, so much," she whispered, holding her tightly, grateful for the chance she had to do it again.
I know! Before anyone says, I know her trauma over this hasn't been addressed. It's coming. But right now, before a war? Where's the time. Trust the process.
Remus Crux: my 169th and 200th reviewer, you are a hero in my eyes! You're a good friend! Livin' La Vida Loca and the last sex scene is a fun combo, I do appreciate that.
Jagster99: Very naughty indeed.
xQueenValx: I love the new name! For your question of if Val is an official Dead Man or not: the answer is yes, but actually no. She's working with them and considered a part of the Dead Men group, but not an actual Dead MenTM, you know? She will only be considered that if she works with them at wartime as part of the Dead Men, but to be fair, no one is part of the Dead Men like the original eight. Thats how life is. So I'd say no she isn't officially, but if someone said in passing she was, neither the Dead Men or her would correct them.
