A loud knocking at her door awoke Valkyrie that afternoon. She opened her bleary eyes and groaned as a wave of grogginess washed over her. Dear God, she was ill.

Well, this sucks. Darquesse pointed out. Valkyrie couldn't help but agree. She didn't get sick very often but she loathed it when she did.

There was another knock on her door. She forced herself to sit up, wrapping the bedclothes tightly around her as she did so in attempt to stop herself from shivering.

"Come in," she called out. Even to her own ears her voice sounded weak.

Skulduggery Pleasant opened the door dressed in a new clean suit and looking as impeccable as ever. He strode into her bedroom carrying freshly laundered clothes and polished boots in his arms. A faint smell of bleach clung to him.

"You look ill," he noted, as he set the bundle of clothes on the edge of her bed.

"I feel awful," she moaned, "I think I must have caught something in the sewers last night. It's probably the plague. I can feel myself growing weaker already."

"Nonsense," he said breezily, "Have a glass of orange juice and you'll be fine. I think we've still got some in the fridge."

"No juice. I'm going back to bed." she grumbled letting herself flop down back onto the bed.

"No you're not. I just got a call from the Sanctuary; the autopsy's done and we've got a report waiting for us there."

"I'm ill. Don't I get sick leave?"

He gave her a sympathetic pat on her leg, "I'm afraid not. I need someone to help me go through the Santuary's records and see if we find a match to the post-mortem."

"Ugh, fine. But only because I know you can't manage without me."

"Obviously. Without you there would be nobody to appreciate my genius when I crack this case. Now, get dressed and I'll make you breakfast before we head off."

He left the room, shutting the door behind him. She took her time getting ready. By the time she made it downstairs Skulduggery had finished making breakfast and was busy tidying the kitchen. There was a bowl of cereal and a glass of orange juice waiting for her on the table.

"You're impressed with my culinary skills, aren't you? I can tell." he said catching sight of her staring at the food.

"You forgot the milk."

"You're still impressed though, right?" he said opening the fridge and pulling out a carton of milk.

"I'm impressed you forgot the milk."

He handed her the carton and she poured some in her cereal and then tucked in.

"So did you find out anything about this monster while I was asleep?" she asked between mouthfuls.

"I did not. None of the books I checked had anything remotely resembling the creature we saw last night. I did, however, find out how difficult it is to clean your boots."

"Thanks for that by the way, and for the attempt at breakfast."

"You're quite welcome, dear"

As soon as she finished eating they headed off. They didn't talk much as they drove out of Dublin and into Wicklow. Valkyrie's head felt thick and fluffy, like cotton wool. The longer they drove the worse she felt and she half wished she had insisted on having the day off.

Her vision was still off and it was difficult for her to focus on any one thing for long. Grey skies and fields of green blurred together as they drove down country lanes. She lent back, closed her eyes and listened as Skulduggery hummed along with to a tune she vaguely recognized but couldn't quite remember the name of.

The song ended, and Skulduggery stopped humming. The radio host announced the name of the song but the words didn't register. She opened her eyes. All she could see was white. She blinked but her vision remained unchanged. It took her a long moment before she realised she was staring at a blank white wall.

She turned her head and looked around, confusion filling her mind. Her sight was still blurred but she could just about make out the room she was in. It was small and unadorned. White walls, a white ceiling and grey floor. The Bentley's leather upholstered seats were gone. She was sitting on a hard cot instead. The sound of a radio drifted faintly through an open doorway. The whole thing felt surreal.

"Skulduggery?" she called out. The voice she heard was a dry and raspy whisper. Was that her voice? She looked down at her body. She was wearing a white clinical looking gown that left her legs exposed. Except they weren't her legs. Her legs were muscled and well-defined. These legs were frail and twig-like.

She tried to stand up, her vision swimming, but a strap across her chest and waist prevented her from moving. She strained against the car's seat belt. The cot was gone. She could feel leather underneath her once again.

"What is it?" a familiar voice asked. She turned her head towards the voice. It took a moment for her eyes to focus on Skulduggery. He was sitting in the driver's seat of the Bentley, his attention on the road ahead of him.

"What?" she asked her voice riddled with drowsy bewilderment.

"You said my name,"

"I...what...did I?"

"Yes, just a second ago," he gave her a quick glance, taking his eyes off the road for only a moment, "Are you okay?"

She looked around. Her vision quickly regaining sharpness. The radio was still playing. Everything was back to normal again.

"I...I think so. I must have drifted off... I was having this really weird dream."

"Are you sure you're okay?"

"Yeah. I'm fine." she said with more conviction than she felt. She gave herself a mental shake. Just a dream, that's all. She felt silly now. Had she really called out Skulduggery's name in her sleep? That could get embarrassing quickly if she'd picked up the habit of sleep-talking. But he didn't comment on it, for which she was grateful.

The rest of the car ride to Roarhaven was uneventful. They pulled up to Sanctuary, parked the car and headed inside. Valkyrie and Skulduggery nodded in greeting as they passed mages they knew in the corridors, but they didn't stop to talk. The atmosphere in the Santuary was tense, as it had been ever since the assassination of Quintin Strom. The memory of his murder and the tension it brought made the drab corridors they walk seem more unfriendly than ever.

"This isn't the way to the mortuary." She pointed out as they carried on walking past the stairwell that led down to the subterranean levels of the Sanctuary.

"No, it's not." Skulduggery agreed, "Nye preformed the autopsy and it still keeps insisting on using its own lab. So we're heading there to pick up the report."

She scowled. Hearing the words autopsy and Nye in the same sentence brought back unpleasant memories. "Did it have to be Nye? Couldn't someone else have done the autopsy?"

"I asked for the inquiry to be carried out as soon as possible. And It turns out the only one qualified enough and available that early in the morning was Doctor Nye."

Valkyrie was still scowling when they walked into the laboratory. Nye was hunched over a collection of vials with its back to them, but it turned to them as they entered the room.

"Ah, Detectives. Your reports are over there." With a long spindly limb it gestured to a table strewn with papers. Then it turned back to its work and proceed to ignore them, which was fine by Valkyrie. She didn't do small talk with anything that had tried to dissect her.
Skulduggery picked up the reports and handed one to her before he began to read it. She opened her copy and stared down at it. Her head still feeling a bit fuzzy, she had to force herself to concentrate on the words in front of her.

The report covered the basics. The name, age, race and other demographical information of the man who died. Then it went on to list the details of the procedures preformed during the post-mortem. She grimaced and skimmed over the writing until she reached the heading which read: Cause of Death. The section under it was brief:

Exsanguination from a 4.7cm deep puncture wound in the left anterior descending coronary artery. The tear was created by the forcible insertion of a needle measuring approximately 3mm in diameter.

That was it. There were no other mentions of injuries. No more details that could help them. She frowned and reread the paragraph, to make sure she hadn't missed anything. Valkyrie was by no means an expert in physiology but she'd read enough reports like this to get the gist of it.

"So this guy-" she began, wanting to make sure she had understood what she had read correctly. She glanced down at the report, "This Jack Walsh. He was stabbed in the heart and then bled to death?"

"That's what it sounds like." Skulduggery said, "I suspect the spikes on the creature's front legs might be to blame."

She nodded, remembering the pressure over her own heart when it had attacked her with those sword-like appendages.

"It tried to stab me too, but the blade couldn't pierce my clothes."

"Needle," Nye muttered, in a voice it probably thought was too quiet for them to hear, "And more's the pity it didn't"

"What was that?" Skulduggery asked, his voice tense. Nye's head snapped up from it's work at the sound.

"I said 'needle'. My report specified he was stabbed with a needle, not a blade"

"Is there a difference?" Valkyrie asked opting to ignore Nye's earlier comment. She didn't particularity feel like staring a fight right now.

"Of course. A blade refers to a flat cutting edge. Whereas the tool Mr. Walsh here was killed with was pointed, smooth and hollow. In other words a hypodermic needle."

Valkyrie frowned. Her head was getting worse again, and she didn't really understand what Nye was suggesting. Did this mean a person had murdered the man they found? Because it wasn't as if the monster they had seen carried a syringe around with it... Unless, of course, those things on it's front legs were needles... She glanced at Skulduggery, as these ideas filtered through her clouded skull was tilted at a thoughtful angle.

"I wonder if the monster tried to inject something into his body and killed him in the process." he mused. So he thinks it is the monster then...

"It didn't just try. It succeeded. I found traces of an unknown substance in the dead man's heart."

"And you didn't think to mention this in your report?" Skulduggery said. The thoughtful look was gone. His tone a mixture of disbelief and contempt.

Nye shrugged, "You wanted to know how he died. So I told you how he died: Exsanguination. The substance I found had nothing to do with his death. I didn't think it was relevant."

Skulduggery's gloved hands clenched, "You didn't think it was relevant? Do you even know what it is?"

"I'm very busy, Detective. I don't have time to study every little thing that comes into my lab. And you did not specify that you needed to know anything about this man other than his cause of death. As such I did not consider identifying the substance a priority."

"Make it your priority." Skuldugery said coldly. He dropped the report back onto the table.

Nye bowed its ugly head, "As you wish."

Skulduggery left the room without another word and Valkyrie followed him back into the corridor.

"So what now?" she asked.

"I suppose we stick with the plan, see if we can find any trace of this monster in the Sanctuary's records. Hopefully we will, and it'll give us some clue as to what this thing is and how to stop it."

Normally, she would have complained about having to trawl through old paperwork, but today it sounded like a good idea. After all research meant she could sit down. Maybe even sneak in a quick nap.

If you're looking forward to research you're a lot more ill than you think.

As usual, she ignored the voice in her head and instead focused on where she was going. This part of the Sanctuary was desolate. They didn't cross paths with anyone until they turned the corner and nearly walked straight into Ghastly and Ravel coming out of a meeting room.

"Your majesties," Skulduggery said, giving a mock bow.

"Hello Skulduggery. Hello Valkyrie." Ghastly greeted in a tired voice. Ravel merely gave them a strained smile in return. Both men had bags under their eyes and a defeated air about them.

"I take it your meeting with the Canadians didn't go well?"

Ravel sighed, "We've been up hours trying to explain what happened with Strom but they'd rather take Bernard Sult's version of events as the truth. You know how close they are with the Americans."

Skulduggery nodded, "That's unfortunate but not unexpected."

Now it was Ghastly's turn to sigh, "That's just it. We know the Canadians are going to side with the rest of the Supreme Council. But we have to try and reason with them anyway because that's our job. It feels like we're fighting a losing battle, and the war hasn't even started yet."

"It might not come to that," Ravel said quickly, "There's still a chance this might all blow over and we can go back to our normal lives."

"That's what we've got to hold out for," Ghastly grumbled, "But enough politics, how are you two? I heard you found the body of that missing mortal."

Valkyrie found herself leaning against the wall and listening while Skulduggery filled them in with the details of yesterday's encounter and their unhelpful visit with Nye. She nodded and mumbled words of agreement every so often.

The room swayed. Her vision swam. She closed her eyes in an effort to stay upright. Skulduggery was saying something to her. She opened her eyes. She was standing in a corridor, it was empty. She blinked. She was standing in a corridor, next to the three dead men. Skulduggery was saying something again. A question. He was asking her a question.

"What did you say?" she murmured.

"I asked you if you're okay?" He sounded worried. Ghastly and Ravel were looking at her with concerned expressions. She tried to give them a reassuring smile but it was hard when the world was spinning and she felt like she might collapse at any given moment.

"Yeah. I'm fine. Grand." she manged before her legs buckled. Skulduggery and Ghastly moved at the same time. Each one grabbed one of her arms and between them they kept her upright.

"She looks ill," Ravel said as he put a hand to her forehead, "I think she might have a fever. She's very hot,"

"So are you," she mumbled.

"She sounds delirious to me," Ghastly said. Ravel shot him a glare. She tried another smile but then she blinked again and they were gone.

Footsteps echoed on the linoleum flooring. She turned her head towards the sound and saw a group of three hurrying towards her. The woman in the lead was blurry but familiar. It took her eyes a moment to refocus and then another for her brain to process that it was Dr. Synecdoche walking towards her. Worry was evident on her face. She was flanked by two men dressed in nurse uniforms. Valkyrie didn't recognise them but she assumed they were her assistants.

"She's been ill since this morning. But she wasn't this bad earlier." Skulduggery said. Valkyrie blinked and realised she was staring straight as his skull. The doctor and nurses were gone. What the hell was going on? None of this made any sense.

"I think we should take her to the medical bay." Ravel said. She turned her head back towards him but found herself staring at Dr. Synecdoche again. The nurses stood on either side of her, replacing Skulduggery and Ghastly, supporting her weight.

"Stephanie, what are you doing out here? You're not supposed to wander the corridors alone." Dr. Synecdoche said. Her voice was calm and friendly but Valkyrie frowned. Something wasn't right here but she couldn't put her finger on what it was. Her head hurt.

"I don't understand," she whispered. Her voice cracked when she spoke. It sounded as weak as she felt.

"That's okay," Synecdoche soothed, "I'm here to help you. I've got some medicine here with me that's going to make you feel better."

Valkyrie tensed as she reached into the front pocket of her white lab coat and pulled out a syringe filled with a clear liquid.

"This is going to sting a little bit, but you'll be okay in a minute." she said, taking a step towards Valkyrie. She gave a nod towards the nurses "Make sure she stays still."

Their grip on her arms tightened. She wanted to fight or run but she didn't have the energy to move. For a second Valkyrie thought the doctor might try and put the needle in her heart. But instead she reached out with her free hand to brush Valkyrie's hair back and then pushed the needle into side of Valkyrie's neck.

Pain, fear and confusion overwhelmed her. She closed her eyes as the last strength in her body left her.