Chapter 218
Valkyrie was woken far too early the next morning, just after five o'clock, after a short eleven hours sleep that left her no less tired than before. A short phone call from Skulduggery told her he needed her ready in a few minutes, and she did just that, leaving a small kiss on Nadia's lips as she stretched and groaned awake on the bed.
He let her grab an iced coffee on the way, just a cold black with ice and nothing extra, and they continued in the Bentley to their scene in silence.
"Did the wife say anything useful yesterday?" Valkyrie asked, basking in the warmth of the late May morning sun. It was cold outside, only ten degrees, but the sun was nice and she expected it would get warmer by midday. She was looking forward to it. "Or just an address?"
"Only an address and confirmation that Xebec was in the same area as the lights seen in the sky. Whoever caused the lights made Xebec disappear by all accounts. But we're not going to where Xebec may have followed the lights to."
"No?"
"No. Only a town over from here, there's another crime scene. I am curious over whether the two incidents are connected, seeing as those lights could be from a mortal with magic. Initial theories?"
"It's hard to say. I suppose, some mortal got their random powers. Which is something to do with energy beams or lights. Xebec came to them and they did something to him. If it's the same person, maybe they went home and killed someone there?"
"My thoughts also. The scene is already a day and a half old, and Sanctuary detectives have looked it over but they haven't found anything yet."
"Wonderful."
When they arrived, the house was already cordoned off with official Gardaí tape, but the men and women standing around were Sanctuary employees or Cleaver's in Gardaí uniform. Skulduggery walked in first and Valkyrie nodded to a man she recognised at the door. They stepped into the living room.
"Oh God," he said.
Blood was everywhere. Little bits of flesh and bones, a shred of clothing. And blood.
Feeling an immediate panic, Valkyrie ran from the room on shaking legs, falling into the garden without meaning to and throwing up in the garden flowers. She sat there retching and shaking on her knees until someone ran over with a blanket and bottle of water. It was one of the Sanctuary detectives, and it took her a moment to realise it was Amanda – the woman she'd recommended to Corrival and Meritorious when she left the position of Head.
"Are you okay?" Amanda asked sympathetically.
Valkyrie tried to say something but her whole body was shaking and she couldn't get a word out. She sat on her knees, taking breaths until Skulduggery came out and knelt on Valkyrie's other side. It was probably only thirty seconds later, but it felt like days passed. She couldn't stop seeing all that red.
"You don't have to go back in there," he said softly, putting a gentle hand on her back. She nodded in response. "Thank you, Miss Ó Hallmhuráin. I'll message you with any progress we make on the case to keep you in the loop."
Amanda murmured something about agreeing and gave Valkyrie's shoulder a squeeze. When she walked away, Valkyrie sat back onto her heels and Skulduggery gave her a hand up and passed her the water bottle. She took a mouthful and spat it out before standing and leaving with him.
She sat back in the Bentley and breathed deeply. Skulduggery broke the voice of Helena in her head by speaking. "The house belongs to a Gary and Rosemary Delaney," he said, not driving anywhere, "both of whom were confirmed to have been at work when the murder took place. The blood and tissue inside has been confirmed as their eighteen year old son's, Michael."
She wiped her eyes and looked at her hand in surprise. "That's weird," she said. "I'm crying. I don't feel like I'm crying."
"It was a very shocking scene," he commented, turning on the car. "It's perfectly reasonable to cry. A young man has long his life and we have a very dangerous killer to find."
"Yeah."
"I am working on the idea it's the same mortal that shot lights in the air, and I'm assuming they killed Patrick Xebec. But this might not be a mortal, and it might not be the same person with the lights, and they may not have killed Xebec."
"Yeah. Maybe more than one of them too."
"If it were a mortal, that would be out of pattern."
"Yeah but the amount of mortals infected is getting higher every day. It makes sense that at some point, they'll meet each other."
He thought about it a moment. "I agree."
She took a deep breath and wiped her eyes as he set off from the curb. "You didn't spend long in there."
"I got what I needed. So did you."
"I only glanced in."
"And that was enough. You're a good detective Valkyrie. How was he killed?"
She sighed softly and closed her eyes trying to envision the scene through a filter of green. "He was ripped apart."
"But how? Claws? Was he ripped apart by the killer's bare hands?"
She shook her head as he waited for a family car to pass and pulled out behind it. "No. There were no footprints in the blood. If there had been someone in there, physically attacking him, they'd be footprints. They'd probably leave blood drops leaving the house too, and I didn't see that. So it wouldn't be whoever did the lights."
"Unless the lights explode people."
She stayed quiet at that, not wanting to begin retching in the gorgeous Bentley. She didn't deserve that. But then she frowned. "Well no, if it was a beam of energy like mine, it would have passed through him and left scorching."
He nodded approvingly. "Good, I was testing you."
"So it can't be the same mage or, likely, mortal that Xebec found, so there's two separate killers. And we can't know if they're working together or not."
"I think that's a good assessment of the situation."
"So where to next?"
"I'm not sure. The magic testing came back fairly general, and if it's a mortal… I think it'll be smartest to remain in the area and wait for more information. Perhaps we'll get another light show that'll take us right to them. There's a diner not far from here, we'll get you some real breakfast."
"And hopefully Tanith, Erskine and Dexter get back soon too," she sighed and closed her eyes, letting the gentle movements of the Bentley lull her into some sense of normality. "Having them as backup might not be a bad idea of these people can explode us."
.*****.
Elsie's POV
Doran laughed like a maniac as his brother Tommy shoved passed him to look out of the window next to the front door. Seeing his car engine, which he'd lovingly restored, with more care than she thought he'd ever shown another human, spread out across the driveway and front garden. He'd worked for months on it, Elsie remembered Doran mocking Tommy for it to his friends. It had taken Doran a matter of moments to dismantle it with his powers.
Tommy sagged so quickly he had to grip the windowsill to stay upright. His eyes were wide, his mouth open. He had gone a dangerous shade of pale.
Doran was doubled over laughing. Tommy spun, his face contorted with utter, utter rage. He ran at his younger brother, fist arcing downwards to catch Doran full in the face. Doran fell back, still laughing. Tommy started lashing kicks in, and with every kick Doran would just laugh harder.
Finally, after trying his best to beat Doran blue, Tommy fell backwards, panting hard and confused as Doran sat up like he didn't have a care in the world.
"Oh," Doran said, wiping the tears from his eyes, "oh man, that was funny. The look on your face. I'm going to remember that as long as I live."
He got to his feet without any hurry. Tommy scrambled up.
Elsie felt bad for Tommy. He was horrible and a bully. He had bullied Doran every day they lived together and it was probably one of the reasons Doran wasn't that nice. But he didn't deserve to get what he was about to suffer. No one did.
Tommy shoved Doran again. "What did you do to my car?"
"Same thing as I'm going to do to you," said Doran, grabbing him.
And just liked he had pulled apart the body of the car with his bare hands, he pulled apart poor Tommy's body.
By the time Doran was done, Seán was so still and so pale he looked dead. Kitana laughed as Elsie hurried from the room. She burst out of the back door and threw up in the garden. Tears ran down her face but her mind was strangely calm. Despite the horror of what she had just witnessed, her thoughts were clear.
There was a low wall at the other end of the garden. Elsie climbed over it and walked away. She didn't bother running. It would be another half an hour before they noticed she was gone.
.*****.
Valkyrie's POV
Valkyrie went up for her order at the McDonald's and got her tray with her three hashbrown's, double bacon and egg muffin and a side of pancakes with burger patty's and syrup. She'd gotten a little kid's bag of fruit for the road too, to make sure she remained healthy. It felt almost like a pretty balanced diet when her orange juice was included.
She sat herself down with Skulduggery. She began eating, trying her hardest not to think or look around too much, though her eyes were drawn to some kids sitting on their tablets and eating chicken nuggets, mesmerised and happy while their mother scrolled on her phone in exhaustion. A whole other world to hers.
"How are you feeling?"
"Hmm? Grand, I'm grand," she muttered. "You good?"
"Yes, thank you. You didn't seem alright in the car so I wanted to ask."
She grunted and opened her orange juice.
"You aren't as talkative as usual."
She shrugged.
He sighed. "I am sorry if my actions yesterday and the day before were harsh, Valkyrie, or if I did anything else to upset you. I was focusing on the mission, but I am aware I sometimes brush over your feelings when I'm focusing too hard. Is there anything you'd like to talk about?"
She shrugged again and took a bite of her English muffin sandwich.
He didn't say anything for a time as she chewed. "I would be easier if you spoke to me, you know," he said quietly. "I can understand if I have done something wrong that I need to apologise and work on not doing it again, but if you don't tell me why you're upset, it's difficult for me–"
"Stop," she snapped, putting down her food unhappily. "You're a smart man, Skulduggery, I shouldn't have to tell you that brushing off my feelings upsets me. I'm not saying you can't make good plans or I can't be wrong in the field, because I know that isn't true, but when at every corner you disregard my thoughts, it does upset me. You know that Militsa lied about what Syn did, right? He did," she stopped herself suddenly, wet her lips and leant in to hide her face behind her hand and whisper. "He didn't punch me a bit, he beat me until I could barely breathe. He kicked me hard enough to break bones. And when I do that for you, I sort of expect you to do more than scout the area and think up plans. I expect action. So after I went through all that pain, I then had to stand up and get out as many people as possible without you. So what did you do? How did you really help me? My plan got us out, and barely. I get that you were also fighting The Torment, but if you were with us we might have never even had to fight him in the first place."
He nodded slowly, taking it all. "So the issue is less about me not listening to you, and more about me not being there."
"Yes – no – I –" she tried to say and then stopped entirely. "I don't know." She pronounced her words with forced calm. "I suppose that fits."
He nodded and held his hand out on the table. "I'm sorry for not being there when you needed me, Valkyrie. You were hurt and afraid and I wasn't by your side."
She glanced at him and back to her breakfast before shrugging lightly. "Sure."
He waited to see if she'd take his hand but she picked up her sandwich instead and took a dry, painful bite. She was happy for the apology but something about the situation still hurt. She wasn't even sure what she wanted him to have done differently considering she didn't think he was actively being slow or leaving her to suffer. She was just hurt anyway.
She was halfway through her pancakes when Skulduggery's phone went and he stepped outside to answer it. Valkyrie watched him out of the window as he nodded and thanked the person with his facade in place, before he hung up and came back inside.
"Another scene, like the last."
That was almost a scene or normality at the end. Was that how you thought their conversation about this was going to go or is it not enough? Of course they have a lot to talk about besides this, but this is something!
Remus Crux: You need to work on reading the tone, you're too busy looking for drama haha! Did you think there was any drama this time, or was the tone more clear ;)
Jagster99: Thank you xx
