The Bentley pulled up to the Roarhaven Sanctuary, and Skulduggery got out and slammed the door behind him. The air was crisp and cold, the moon still up and the night still out. Tipstaff waited for him in the foyer.

"Elder Bespoke awaits you in the medical bay. He has instructed me to bring you there when you arrived"

Skulduggery ignored him and blew right past, Tipstaff huffing and puffing as he tried to keep up with the skeleton's stride.

"Where is he?" He asked when he arrived. Fletcher was there, standing next to Ghastly, and he was the one who answered. "Rave is in there," He gestured to one of the doors lining the hallway. "He hasn't had anything useful to say so far, though. We already questioned him. All he can tell us is that he was held in a warehouse."

Skulduggery paused. "What are you doing here?"

He looked a little sheepish. "I asked Ghastly to call me if there was anything you guys needed help with."

Skulduggery's head tilted. He turned to Ghastly.

Ghastly shrugged and grinned. "Don't tell me you didn't miss his smiling face."

Skulduggery grumbled under his breath.

Ravel came shuffling in at that point, rubbing sleep out of his eyes and yawing. "Have we found her yet?"

Everybody stared. Nobody answered. Ravel blinked at them. "What?" Clarabelle walked out of the room Rave was in, holding a clipboard, and humming under her breath. She looked up and stopped, staring at the Grand Mange. A smile spread across her face. "Bunnie!" She cried, pointing.

Ravel looked down at his feet. He looked back up and scowled and glared at the rest of them. "These are official Elder slippers, for your information, so you can stop smiling. Ghastly, you get a pair, too, so stop snorting."

"They are very. . . . pink." Fletcher pointed out.

"Real men aren't afraid to ware pink."

"They are pink Bunnie slippers."

"Is this really the time to comment on my foot ware?" He complained. Ghastly's phone rang, and he stepped out to answerer it, still chuckling under his breath.

Tipstaff glared at Fletcher. "The Grand Mange is to be respected in all things, young insolent youth! What are you even doing here? Your not an employee."

"No, but you are." Fletcher said wisely.

"What dose that have to do with anything?' He asked.

"Everything has to do with anything." Fletcher smiled and nodded.

"What?" Tipstaff asked, confused.

"What what?" Fletcher looked at him.

A moment went by. "Never mind."

Ghastly walked back in, phone in hand. "It's for you." He passed it off to Skulduggery. Skulduggery took it and held it to his skull, he listened for several moments. He nodded. "I'll be there." The phone snapped shut and was returned to Ghastly.

"Fletcher, have you ever been to the University?"

"Uhhh...well, not in the place you might be thinking of-"

Skulduggery sighed impatiently. "Can you take me there or not?"

"Yes, but-"

"Do it."

"OK." Fletcher said uncertainly. Skulduggery placed a hand on his shoulder, and the Sanctuary dissolved around them to be replaced by...

"Fletcher. Why are we in the Laddies changing room?"

Fletcher blushed a little. "It's the only part of this place I bothered to remember. Everything else had too much learning."

Skulduggery stared at him a long moment. Fletcher looked uncomfortable. "Are we going to be leaving soon?" He asked, gesturing to the door. Skulduggery stared at him some more, then turned and began walking out to the gym, a somewhat relived Fletcher trailing behind.

China was still there. She didn't look up as they walked in. The Public Relations Officer was standing by her side, trailing after her with puppy dog eyes. Finbar was in the middle of the teleportation circle, both fingers stuck in his ears and his eyes screwed shut.

"What is he doing?" Fletcher whispered to Skulduggery as they approached.

"LALALALALALALA!" Finbar began shouting.

"Something clever." Skulduggery shouted, stopping just outside of the circle, waiting.

Finbar's eyes snapped open, his pupils wide, his shouting abruptly cut off. He was shuddering violently. "I can't do it, man."

"Can't do what?" Fletcher asked, looking between the two of them with some confusion.

"Finbar," Skulduggery said, kneeling down to eye level with the trembling man. "Please. Valkyrie needs this. Valkyrie needs you to do this."

"I haven't had one vision sense last Christmas. I tried, Skulman. I can't see her. I can't see where she is. I can't see the thread that connects this circle to where it lets out." He closed his eyes and sagged. "I can't see."

"You can do it, Finbar." Skulduggery said. "I've seen you pinpoint a fly a continent away. You can do it. For Valkyrie. Remember Valkyrie? She's your friend. You can help us save her."

Finbar remained silent for so long, skinny shoulders hunched in on himself. Despair filled the atmosphere.

Skulduggery's head dropped into his hands. A another long moment of silence dragged by. "Please." He said. "Please try."

Finbar's eyes opened slowly, and he blinked at them, then he gave a long sigh. "I'll try. A street name. I should be able to do that, at least" He closed his eyes and held out his hands, fingers splayed and searching through the air. It took a moment, but then they froze and his face screwed up in pain.

"It hurts."

"I know, Finbar. Look harder. Find her."

Finbar's neck twitched. His eyelids fluttered.

"South...she is south, to the left. No...no..to the right."

"I need you to be specific, Finbar. Look just a little bit harder."

Finbar's head snapped back and his eyes opened wide and staring, the whites running blood red. A final shudder ran through his body, and he was still.

A moment went by. Then two. "Finbar." Skulduggery said. No reaction. "Finbar." He snapped his fingers in front of his eyes. The man remained still. Then his head napped around and his sightless eyes fixed on them, a maniac smile on his face.

Skulduggery slapped him. It was shocking, and sudden, and violent. Finbar's head rocked back on impact, and his skull rolled back around until his bloody eyes focused on them again. He smiled. "Horrible things will happen." He said.

"Where is this circle designed to take people?" Skulduggery demanded.

Finbar's smile grew. "A warehouse on Westside Road. You can't miss it. It's the one with a magical storm cloud hovering over it." His eyes narrowed. "You won't make it though. Your going to die first."

Skulduggery nodded. "I thought so."

"You will parish horribly."

"Of course."

"Valkyrie Cain will be tortured and brutishly murdered."

"It was bound to happen eventually."

"A daemon from another dementon will tear your apart."

"I'd be insulted if it didn't."

"Your car is going to be totaled."

Skulduggery froze. "You bastard!" He shouted. His gun whipped out and aimed itself at Finbar's head. "You have ten seconds to un-posses that physic before I kill you and him both!"

The thing inside Finbar's body rolled Finbar's eyes. "No need for threats." It complained. "Like I want to be a bloody meat bag anyways." It's eyes rolled back in it's head, and Finbar's body shook and convulsed, as red smoke rose out of him and dissipated into thin air. Finbar was left slumped on the floor, very much unconscious.

A shocked silence went by.

"What," Fletcher asked. "Was THAT?"

"No idea." Skulduggery said, tucking his gun away. "Something unpleasant, probably. It possessed him. That happens to physics."

Fletcher blinked at him. "Can we go find Valkyrie now?" He asked.

"Of course." Skulduggery's voice smiled.

"You coming?" Fletcher called to China. She looked up, and glanced at Skulduggery.

"Defenetly not." Skulduggery's voice was NOT smiling now.

A slow smile spread across China's face. "But Fletcher, you wouldn't leave me here, would you?"

Fletcher hesitated. Skulduggery made a disgusted noise in the back of his throat. Fletcher just looked confused. "Is there something going on between you two?" He asked.

Neither answered.

"Uhhh. . . .I'm kinda having a little emergency here." Finbar called weakly from the floor. "My eyes are still bleeding."

Fletcher just looked at him. "Who are you, again?"

"I'm the man that was slapped and threatened with a gun while his eyes were bleeding."

Skulduggery sighed. "Fine. Come on, you over spoiled little brat with a perfectly capable car outside. We have to drop Finbar off at the Sanctuary, then we're off to get Valkyrie."

China approached warily, placing a hand on the shoulder farthest from the one Skulduggery was near. Fletcher seemed to like her hand on him a little too much. Skulduggery bent down and picked up Finbar, throwing him over his shoulder with a groan.

"You reminded me of that other bloke just then, while you were interrogating me, you know." Finbar muttered sleepily.

"And who is that?" Skulduggery asked, placing a hand on Fletcher's shoulder.

"Solomon. Solomon Wreath." Finbar yawned. Skulduggery remained silent.

They teleported, and they were in the medical bay, Clarebelle and Ghastly and Ravel and Tipstaff all there. Skulduggery laid Finbar down on the ground, a little less than gently, and straightened up as Clarabelle stepped forward and began wiping the blood out of his eyes with a tissue. She pulled a band aid covered in rainbow smily faces out of the pocket of her lab coat and carefully pulled the wrapper off it, placeing it over one of Finbar's bloody eyes.

"All better." She smiled.

Skulduggery walked off a few paces from the group, still and quiet. He observed them talking and chatting, asking what had happened,and then when he thought no one else could hear him, he whispered, almost without thinking, "Whatever has to be done."

And of course, that is when the daemon struck.