well hello my faithful followers ( if there are still any) well any way if there are then here is the long awaited next installment of my story okay the lowdown on this chapter is something happens between skulduggery and a very pretty female... she lives in an appartment building... well thats all im giving away i don't know if the two of them will go any where but i wanted to create some special bond before the knife comes down on her when skulduggery finds out what she did to his wife and child.

well anyway way if you don't like it then don't read it and if you do id love to hear from you!

enjoy!

He had called back up, but didn't realise it would be just one person. He was glad none the less that that person was at least china sorrows. She he figured at least knew how to fight. So when china finally did arrive at his house to help, her hair perfectly done, clothes perfectly picked out to suit the occasion he was just thankful he was still alive to interrogate her later. Seeing skulduggery in a bit of muck she quickened her pace not wanting to miss out on some fresh fighting. She slipped smoothly out of her jacket letting it fall gracefully to the ground and stepped forward. Skulduggery's attacker looked up and in an instant fell in love with the women he had never meet but heard much about.

"China, you are much more beautiful than your file pictures shows you, it just doesn't do you justice my sweet heart." He sighed

"Such a shame" china spat back "but I'm afraid Regan that no justice will be shown to you either" stepping forward she tapped the various markings on her forearms. A bright blue flash flew out towards Regan and skulduggery and shot them off their feet and into the wall. Being just bones and no flesh skulduggery was the first to jump up. He looked down at Regan and smirked.

"Ha justice, good one china" he said turning back to where china stood.

"Why thank you skulduggery, I'll take that as a…." She didn't get to finish because at that very moment Regan shot a full stream of fire towards her. Her clothes caught alight screaming and yelling curses in his direction china dropped to the floor and rolled over and over. She had almost put all of them out when a jet of water fell on top of her, steam rose from her body and she looked up grumpily.

"Thanks lot skulduggery" she grumbled

"No problem china my pleasure. Oh and thank you for arriving exactly when I asked you to." He said sarcastically cocking his head to the left amused

"Well not my fault I had to change." She protested but then gave up when she saw his tilted head and sighed. "So why was this guy after you anyway?"

"He's part of our new case, he has been chasing after some kids trying to find them, wants to get something of theirs. So obviously he figured that Valkyrie and I would be protecting these two and came after us. No doubt he'll be after Valkyrie soon if we don't get rid of him." He turned his head and gestured to the crumpled heap on the floor it began to stir. Skulduggery prepared himself for a fight. But after a few moons escaped regan's lips he turned back around. Just one of the two mistakes that would be made that evening. A blast of air hit his back sending him flying head first into the wall. He collapsed to the ground unconscious.

China had put up a protective shield but it hadn't been big enough to cover skulduggery. She watched helplessly as he flew towards the wall cracking his head on it before crumbling to the ground out cold. She shot a red blast into Regan and he withered in front of her falling to the ground and jerking about on the floor. Next she shot a yellow stream of energy that would have killed any normal person. But she figured that Regan was probably a bit stronger than any normal person. Finally she flung her hands up in front of her and let go a jet of green light right into his middle. He screamed crouching on the ground and when she stopped he lay there whimpering. When he got up he had a scared look in his eyes he watched china bring her arms up but just before she could touch any more markings he ran. China figured there wouldn't be much point in perusing him so she flopped to the ground exhausted, then she remembered her unconscious friend lying crumpled in a heap next to wall. Slowly walking over she knelt down beside him and shook his shoulders. Nothing he was out cold, she would have to call her assistant and get them to kenspeckles. She figured she'd do that soon just after she had a little rest. Drifting into sleep china only vaguely knew what she was doing.

Skulduggery groaned and lifted his arm to his head. It hurt and badly. He eye sight was slowly coming back to him, the light was bright and hurt but there was really nothing he would be able to do about it except turn it off. So he decided might as well it was probably so where around midnight anyway time to meditate. He started getting up but something was weighing down on his waist he looked down and saw an arm. Not any arm either it was a perfectly scratch free and mark free arm, an arm that reminded him of a very similar arm. His wife had had scratch free and mark free ones almost like this one. He lost himself for a moment back in time but suddenly he remembered where he was. Following the rest of the arm he came to the body it was connected to. He paused confused. China. He was lying on his floor china sleeping on her stomach beside him with her arm strewn across his waist. What the hell had happened here? He moved a bit too suddenly and this brought china back to the real world. She sprang awake in an instant and looked up to see skulduggery looking down at her his head cocked at a questioning angle, and then she noticed her arm. She quickly snatched it back off him and sat up.

"Ahh yeah sorry about that" she said uneasily "sort of fell asleep you know and must of tossed and turned a bit" she was Turing red and she knew it. How stupid she was to have fallen asleep next to Skulduggery of all people and then putting her arm on him. Oh this is so embarrassing she thought.

"So what happened did I get knocked out or something? Where's Regan?" Skulduggery asked looking around and avoiding her face.

Grateful for the change of subject and some privacy form his sight. China began to calm down and she explained the whole thing to skulduggery.

Half an hour later she was getting ready to leave when skulduggery poked his head out from the hall way.

"Oh and china, what happened tonight no one else needs to find out okay." He said looking at her. Blushing furiously she smiled back and said "yes defiantly no one needs to know and I'm… sorry."

Skulduggery waved the apology away and called out behind her as she walked out the door "don't bother apologising it wasn't your fault just make sure it doesn't happen again." She nodded and got into the car which quickly sped away and breathed a sigh of relief.

well wadya think hmmm? did you like it?

oh and if any one is listening at the moment and you are someone who has been following this story since the begining then yuor a legend really you are and i love having you around oh and pls review it's been quite lonley ( mainly cause i hadn't updated for like millions of days so no one had anything to review to) but please have heart and review.

thanks Vanity storm!