I haven't updated in AGES! Sorry by the way . . . well here it is!
Valkyrie had taken the serum and returned to her normal self, luckily, but there was still the mystery of Damien and Hazel. They all sat in a circle in the middle of the green hill, no one spoke. Valkyrie decided to break the silence.
"Okay you two, no offence, but who the heck are you?" she asked Damien and Hazel.
Nyx looked horrified, "Valkyrie! You can't just ask someone who the heck they are!"
"This is quite uncivil," Skulduggery interrupted.
"Oh shut up you!" said Valkyrie. Hazel rested her head in her brother's lap and clasped her hands over her ears.
"Now look what you've done, she's upset," said Skulduggery. Valkyrie ignored him and spoke to Damien instead.
"So, how did you end up there, captured?"
"Well, our parents killed Trent's wife. They despised vampires, and sought out Trent and his wife so that they could slay them. They only managed to get his wife, Margie, before they got themselves captured. Trent was going to kill them, but they swapped their lives with ours. They made an agreement with him that if he let them go, he could have us. He mostly feeds on us, drains us a bit, but makes sure that we don't turn into vampires," he said sadly.
And to think that I disliked vampires, she thought, how must he feel?
"I'm sorry," she said.
"It's okay, we've escaped him now," he said.
"What about those awesome powers of yours?" she said.
"Well, I can turn into any object that is close to me. It's really not THAT cool," he said.
"It's amazing," Nyx said, "You're amazing." And then she clasped her hands over her mouth realizing what she just said.
"Uh, um, I mean, that power is really cool," Nyx said.
He smiled warmly at her and then blushed, "Thanks. That singing power of yours is so loco crazy! Amazing! But please, don't sing Baby by Justin Beiber, we'll all turn into babies!"
This made Nyx laugh and Valkyrie smile. She has a crush on him, and he probably has a crush on her too.
"So what about Hazel?" Valkyrie said.
Hazel looked up and smiled. She lifted up her hands, palms facing down and then BOOM. Valkyrie was rising off the ground, so was every one. The loose rocks were floating in the sky and they were going higher and higher. She dropped her palms and they all fell back down to the ground.
"Well you certainly don't see that every day," Skulduggery said brushing the dirt off of his suit.
"I can't do it under pressure," she said, "I can only reverse gravity when I'm really concentrating."
Once they were all properly introduced, Skulduggery filled them in on their current situation. He asked them whether they would join them, and help fight Mevolent. Valkyrie saw Nyx breathe a sigh of relief when they accepted.
Suddenly, there was a huge explosion coming from the local library just a few blocks down. The ground shook, and smoke billowed out from the building and a ball of electric blue light formed above the old library.
"Mevolent, no doubt," Valkyrie said.
"Or one of his minions," Skulduggery said, "Let's go."
They took off at a sprint but then stopped abruptly when they realised that Damien and Hazel weren't following them.
"Hazel can't come, it's too dangerous," Damien said.
"Everywhere is dangerous at the moment. Besides, she can help from the sidelines. She'll be perfectly safe," Skulduggery said so surely that Valkyrie almost believed him.
"Okay then," Damien mumbled.
They kept going, Nyx at Damien's side, Valkyrie at Skulduggery's.
"Do you really think it's safe? Taking a 10 year old with us?" she whispered to Skulduggery.
"There's no need to whisper Valkyrie, just lower your voice. Of course it isn't safe, her coming with us. But neither is leaving her there. She could be useful," he said in a lowered voice.
"I hope you know what you're doing," she said.
"Of course I don't. If I did, we'd never win anything. Improvisation is so much better than a plan sometimes. It works more fluently, don't you think?" he said.
"You're the boss," she sighed.
"Yes, yes I am," he said grinning.
"I'm just stretching that ego further aren't I?"
"Mm hm, it used to be as big as Ireland. Now, it's stretched over America."
She smiled, "Calling you a boss, gave you the ego the size of Ireland and America?"
"Coming from you it did. Here we are," he said.
They had reached the partially blown up library. It was covered in ash, and all this blue jelly. They crept in quietly and Valkyrie brushed her hands along the wall. Her fingers stopped as she felt a large bump in the wall. It was squishy. She pressed her finger into it and the outline of a door appeared.
"How stereotypical can you get?" Damien said, "Secret room?"
There was no door handle on the door and no way of opening it.
"Kick it down," Skulduggery suggested.
Valkyrie lifted up her leg and booted the door as hard as she could. The impact didn't even make a noise.
"You try then," she huffed at Skulduggery.
He took off his hat and passed it to Valkyrie, who put it on her head.
"You aren't going to get this back you know," she grinned evilly.
He booted the wall and got the same result as Valkyrie. She poked her tongue out at him and he shrugged.
"This isn't a normal door," he muttered.
"Look!" Hazel cried, pointing at one of the blue jelly blobs. The jelly blob was eating away at the floor like acid.
"Can't Damien turn into one of them and burn the door down?" she said.
Skulduggery knelt down to Hazel's height, "You, are very clever."
Hazel smiled and suddenly there was no Damien. A blue jelly ball bounced off the ground and flew at the door, burning a hole right through it. Damien returned and they congratulated him and proceeded through the door, Valkyrie first.
When she stepped through the door, she stepped on nothing and fell downwards toward the inky blackness. The others followed her, every one screaming except Skulduggery.
She used the air to cushion the fall and levitated Damien and Hazel down. Skulduggery landed gracefully and Nyx sung her way down. Skulduggery snatched his hat off Valkyrie's head.
They were in a dimly lit room with a huge, bubbling cauldron in the middle.
"What the heck is that?" Damien said.
"I don't know, but I don't think it is good," Nyx said shaking her head.
Hazel ran up to the cauldron and peeked inside it.
"Hey! It's full of that weird blue stuff!" she exclaimed.
Skulduggery took a look himself, "Mevolent must be using this for something. But what?"
Valkyrie didn't know, Mevolent had the Magic Mirror, he just needed another sorcerer with his amount of power, like Darquesse to be able to use it to kill all the mortals. Why did he need the blue stuff?
She noticed another squishy lump in the wall and pushed it. This time, a door appeared and opened itself. She walked in slowly turning around to tell Skulduggery what she had found.
She screamed as a hand pulled her back. She tripped over, just as the door snapped shut. She whipped around to see what had pulled her back and almost fainted. It was a pale creature, human, but not entirely. It lashed out at her and bit her arm. She screamed in pain and despair. There were many of them in this new room.
They were breathing in and out incredibly fast, like bizarre zombies preparing to feast on human flesh. They all snapped their heads at her and jumped at the same time. She became buried in a pile of zombies. They pressed down on her, and she found it more difficult to breathe. They were pulling at her arms and legs, sinking their sharpened teeth into her flesh. She was sticky all over and she could not push them off her. She screamed as a zombie tore out her hamstring. The door was locked, Skulduggery didn't know where she was, and she was trapped with a room full of Gollum like zombie creatures.
Okay, I know it's a bit confusing but it will all be cleared up in the next chapter. Also, I love your reviews, but I'd love it even more if I was getting more faves. Love you all!