Hey guys. Im sorry for the wait, I meant to have this up sooner, but unfortunatly a 12 page Ancient History task came up and I found myself with no spare time to write. But thats done now, and her is the next chapter to celebrate the two weeks of holidays I am about to recieve. Yay!
So just as a warning, there are some mature things in this chapter, and mostly closer to the end. No, Im sorry, it does not involve Val and Skulduggery sex (though I know you all want it), and there isnt much. I just figured it warn you. So I am going to be annoyed in a get a message telling me off for what i wrote. Even though it is nothing major.
So I hope you enjoy it, and Id just quickly like to say thanks to the people who reviewed, I apreciated it greatly, and also thanks to the people who put me on story alert. Don't forget to review this time :)
"I don't understand how you could possibly still be hungry." Valkyrie rolled her eyes and continued with what she was doing. They were currently standing in her kitchen and she was cutting chicken for her dinner. As soon as they were inside she had gone upstairs, got changed into jeans and comfortable shirt, then come to the kitchen and pulled the chicken out of the fridge to make her dinner. "You had a huge lunch, and it wasn't that long ago. Your going to get fat if you keep eating so much." He warned.
She shot a glare at him and threw the cut up chicken into the pan and it started sizzling. "I will not! Fighting makes me hungry, I do a lot more than other people my age, and so I need more food." Valkyrie ate a lot more than people her age, but she knew it was because she did so much physical activity, so she did her best not to feel bad about it. Although Skulduggery made it hard sometimes with the way he always brought it up.
Once the chicken was browned she threw in some vegetables and some sauce and turned it down low to let the flavour sink in. She turned and leaned against the bench, her bare arms folded across her chest. She loved wearing sleeveless shirts now that she worked out, her arms weren't as big as Tanith's were, but they were still nicely muscled, and she was quite proud of it. "It's been a bit quiet recently, no evil masterminds trying to destroy the world. I'm worried something big is coming."
Skulduggery shrugged and sliding off his coat and sitting in in the chair so he was just in his suit pants and shirt. "It always happens this way. Something big comes along, we defeat it, and then something bigger comes." He chuckled. "But with me and you on the good guys team what do we have to worry about."
She shook her head at his cockiness and served herself a bowl of food before walking into the lounge room, skulduggery following her. "We are going to lose one day. I'm surprised one of hasn't already died." She glanced at him. "Or died again." She added.
"No, me and you make too good a team. With your bad attitude and my amazing skills and charm we always manage." She punched him on the arm and sat down, sticking a spoonful of food into her mouth.
"You're such an idiot." She mumbled around mouthful of food. "Make yourself useful and start the fire, I'm bloody freezing."
She watched as he clicked his fingers and summoned a flame into his hand. She could still remember the first time she had seen him do that, in the same room they were in now, 6 years before. She had had no idea then the events she would experience over the next few years, but even if she did, she probably wouldn't have changed anything. The fun she had with Skulduggery, Tanith and Ghastly was worth the pain she felt every time she remembered there was no hope for her and Skulduggery.
He cradled the flame in his hand for a moment before he knelt down and held it to the wood in the fireplace. The flame tripled in size and after a moment the wood caught fire, the orange flames spreading across the surface of the first piece and then spreading to the next and then the next. She loved watching Skulduggery do magic. To most it would seem simple, and unimportant, but she knew Skulduggery loved his magic, and she could see it now, in the way he acted when he used it, the way he gently cradled a flame, or the way he put so much concentration into it when summoning a breeze.
Skulduggery moved to sit next to her on the couch and sat quietly while she finished the food in her bowl. When she was done he asked "So what movie do you plan on showing me tonight?" She smiled. Whenever Skulduggery stayed over for a few hours she would find a new movie and show him. At first he had complained about it, said he wasn't all that interested in watching the movies of this mentally confused generation, but she knew he was joking, and he usually enjoyed the ones she picked.
She walked over to the shelves of movies and looked around for a while before she pulled one off the shelf and held it up. "The Sorcerer's Apprentice." She said with an amused smirk. "It's got Nicholas Cage in it. What a babe." She laughed and slid the disk into the player and turned on her large flat screen TV. "Sort of reminds me of when I met you. Accept with completely different circumstances." She said as the movie started and she sat back down.
They sat quietly watching the movie, laughing whenever there was a funny scene. Well, she laughed when there was a funny scene, Skulduggery laughed when they did magic that seemed stupid. "You know you actually can't use magic to animate mops right?" He asked when she laughed at the moving mops and brooms in the film.
"I'm not stupid." Was her answer, before she went back to laughing at the screen.
By the time the movie was finished Skulduggery was leaning forward in his seat and Valkyrie was laughing at him instead of the stuff on the screen. "See, I knew you'd like it." She said as she used the remote to turn off the TV. He leaned back slowly and cleared his throat.
"It was okay, it was nothing amazing, but I did enjoy it. Nicholas Cage plays a good magician."
She nodded. "Of course he does! It's Nicholas Cage, he plays every role good. I have not yet seen a Nicholas Cage movie that he was horrible in."
He shook his head. "Aren't most girls your age in love with that boy who was in that vampire movie?" He asked.
Valkyrie snorted. She hated twilight. She'd read the books, and although she didn't love them, she had thought they were okay, but she hated the movies, and every time she saw a girl with a twilight t-shirt she had to resist the urge to punch them. "Robert Patterson? Ew, no, that's gross! And I'm not in love with Nicholas Cage; I just think he's an amazing actor. My love is reserved for someone a little more real than that thank you."
He tilted his head and didn't say anything, obviously waiting for her to say something else. She realised what she had said and blushed. 'I mean, I'm not in a relationship or anything, don't get me wrong. But Nicholas Cage is an actor, he's hardly real. If I'm going to be in love with somebody they are going to be real. A gentleman, not some actor who's more in love with himself than anyone else."
She cleared her throat and leaned back awkwardly. Of course she already loved skulduggery, who was a gentleman, and she could look past the fact that he was in love with himself. She opened her mouth to speak but didn't get a chance because there was a loud crash of thunder. She jumped, surprised, and looked out the window. It was dark outside, and she couldn't see the sky, but she could now hear the familiar sound of rain drops hitting the roof, getting louder as the rain intensified. "Oh you've got to be kidding. The news said not to expect rain for four days!"
Skulduggery stood from to couch and walked over to the window, looking out. "Don't trust everything you hear on TV Valkyrie, though I hate to admit it, even I didn't know this was coming, the air didn't even shift like it usually does before a storm." He had been teaching her over the past few months to try and predict weather patterns, he had explained that air changed in pressure a day or so before a storm was going to hit. She wasn't very good at figuring it out, but she was getting the hang of it. She didn't know how Skulduggery hadn't sensed it though.
Valkyrie sighed dejectedly and leaned back into the couch, her arms crossed over her chest. The rain was getting pretty heavy, and she knew skulduggery would want to leave before the storm got any worse. She waited a moment and then stood from the couch, grabbing his hat of the table and holding it out for him. "I'm assuming its time for you to go home?" she asked. As he turned to look at her there was a bright flash followed by a crash, although this wasn't lightning. She couldn't see out the window past Skulduggery, but she heard him mutter something, which sounded suspiciously like a swear word, and then he bolted out the door. She ran after him and stopped in the doorway. A huge tree had fallen on top of the Bentley and crushed it.
Skulduggery splayed his hands and the tree rolled off the Bentley, leaving the bent and mangled car where it was. Valkyrie ran out into the rain after him, ignoring the water that ran down the back of her jacket and rolled down her back. "I don't think you're going to be driving home." She said loudly to be heard over the rain, resting her hand comfortingly on his arm. The Bentley got ruined quite often, and although it always got fixed perfectly it still upset Skulduggery every time it happened.
He nodded and they turned and went back inside, knowing there was nothing they could do for the car with the storm this bad, and getting worse. She closed the door behind them, glad that he hadn't blasted it off the hinges like the first time she stayed in the house alone. The night that changed her life forever. Although the sound of the storm was more muffled with the door closed it was still loud, and the sound of thunder echoed through the house and lasted for a few seconds before fading away to be once again replaced by the roar of heavy winds and rain.
"You can stay here." She said, putting his hat back down after realising she was still holding it. "You can stay in the spare room next to mine. It's the only one that's not a mess right now." She said, her cheeks getting a little pink. Valkyrie knew she was messy, and so did Skulduggery, although it was still awkward. There had been plenty of times when he'd come through the window and she'd had bras and underwear laying around. He never went out of his way to embarrass her about it, but it was still embarrassing. And she'd been spending a lot of time in the other spare rooms, undertaking different projects she felt might be fin before leaving the mess to go start another.
He considered this for a moment before he nodded. "Okay, it is a bit too far to walk, and I don't feel like flying in the rain." He brought his hand up and drew out all the water from his clothes and then let summoned a flame in his other hand to turn it into steam and evaporate it. Valkyrie did the same, although her clothes still felt a tiny bit damp. Six years of doing magic and she still couldn't dry her own clothes properly. "I know you don't need to sleep or anything, but I figure the bed would be more comfortable for your meditation than the couch."
He nodded and looked at the cloth above the fireplace. It was about 1 in the morning. Valkyrie's yes widened in surprise. She hadn't realised it was that late. "Oh my god is that the time." Of course this wasn't really late for her. Sometimes her and Skulduggery would be out all night working a case, but usually when she was home she went to bed early to catch up the sleep she missed. "I should get some sleep. Who knows how late you'll keep me out tomorrow night." She grinned at him and splayed her hand, sending a wave of air to put out the fire. The only source of light in the room was a lamp next to the couch and she turned that off and headed towards the stairs, clicking her fingers and holding a small flame in her hands so she wouldn't trip.
She walked past her room and opened the door to the guest room, flicking on the light and letting out her fire. She was glad she had checked because there was a small pile of clothes on the guest bed, a lacy blue G-string sitting on top, the tag still on. She silently cursed Tanith as he hurried over and grabbed the clothes, trying the keep the underwear from skulduggery's view. "If you need anything then help yourself, you probably know this house better than I do." She knew she sounded a little awkward. Her heart was hammering in her chest. Skulduggery was staying in the room next to her.
Of course she'd stayed at Skulduggery's before, although it had been almost a year since she'd had to sleep at his house, and her reaction had been quite similar then. She'd been so nervous she hadn't even ended up sleeping, she just laid on his couch unable to get even a minutes sleep. She felt a little pathetic when she thought about it, but she tried to keep the thoughts away.
She smiled a little and tried to walk through the door, although she didn't make it all the way through. She yelped as tripped over her own feet, trying to let go of the clothes in time to catch herself. The clothes left her arms but before she could displace the air to soften her landing she felt a pair of hard, thin arms wrap around her, steadying her. She felt her face go red and her body heat up as she felt herself pressed against Skulduggery's hard chest. She could feel his ribs through his shirt, though they weren't uncomfortable.
He helped steady her and then pulled away, and she felt a pain in her chest at the loss, but her body was still hot from the contact, and she knew he could see the blush on her face. He kept his hands on her arms and shook his head. "What am I going to do with you? You can't even walk on a flat surface without tripping over." She glared, knowing the pink on her cheeks would take away and real threat in the expression.
Her heart was beating even faster now, although she couldn't tell if it was from the scare of falling or from being so close to Skulduggery. "I bet you tripped me just so you could tease me." She said, shaking her long hair out of her face, although there was one lock that just wouldn't get out of the way of her left eye. He shook his head again and let go of her arms. He reached out and pushed the lock out of her face with a gloved finger. Her breath caught in her throat at the touch, and then it was gone, his hand sliding into his pocket, as though it had been nothing.
"I think your tired, you should sleep before you fall over and kill yourself." He said, tilting his head.
"You know one day you're going to trip, and I'm going to see it. And you know what, It's going to be the best day of my life."
"That's impossible; I'm much too graceful to trip." He stepped past her into the room and slid his suit jacket off, hanging it over a chair just inside the door. He sat on the edge of the bed and starting sliding his shoes off while Valkyrie bent down and picked up the clothes she had dropped, she stood back up and went to walk out the door but he stopped her.
"Valkyrie." She turned to look at him and he cleared his throat, sounding a little embarrassed. He pointed to the ground inside the door and she swore. The blue G-string.
"Oh for god's sake, I'm going to kill Tanith." She said as she bent down and picked it up, shoving it out of his site. "I'm going to go kill myself now. Goodnight." She said over her shoulder as she walked out.
"Goodnight Valkyrie." He replied. And she saw him moving to sit cross legged just as she closed the door. She walked slowly into her room, dumping the clothes just inside the door. She was tempted to throw the blue underwear into the bin, but she decided against it, she never knew when she might want to wear them, and they were really quite pretty
The walked over and flopped down onto the bed on her back, staring at the roof as she willed her body calm down. Her whole body was tingling with excitement and need. She tried to slow her breathing and relax, but her body would have no part in it. She growled in frustration and rolled over, ignoring the way the tingling increased as her legs pressed together halfway through her role. She hated her hormones. Weren't they supposed to calm down by now? She thought hormones were only bad for younger teenagers, but the older she got the more intense they grew.
The sound of Skulduggery's smooth velvet voice ran through her head, accompanied by the feeling of being held against him, making her discomfort worse, warmth pooling between her legs, making her face heat up and also making it extremely difficult to sleep. She tossed and turned for a while before finally getting up and heading downstairs, a flame held in her hand until she could turn on the kitchen light to pour herself a glass of milk. She was about halfway through the drink when she heard a shout followed by a loud bang upstairs.
She dropped the glass and ran up the stairs, flame in her hand. "Skulduggery?" she called. "Skulduggery?" She reached the top floor and threw open the bedroom door. The bed Skulduggery had been on was on its side, and there was no one in the room. "Skulduggery where are you?" She cried, running down the hall to look out of the open window. She couldn't see through the rain, but she knew he wasn't outside when she heard another yell, this time coming from her bedroom.
She turned, but didn't have time to even take a step before she was punched hard in the face. She felt a numb pain spread across her face and felt the familiar warmth of blood running down her face. Her nose was broken. She pushed out her hands to push at the air but whoever had hit her sidestepped and she felt something cold and metal close around her wrists. She threw herself away and into the opposite wall in terror. The hall was dark and her eyes were watering like crazy so she couldn't see a thing.
She clicked her fingers but no spark was created, and she knew that these were magic binding cuffs. She couldn't feel the air around her, so she didn't see the next punch coming, this one hitting her in the stomach. The air was forced from her lungs and she fell to her knees. She lashed out but whoever was attacking her easily evaded and kneed her in the face, doubling the pain in her nose. She cried out and fell back against the wall, curling her knees close to her to try and protect her injured face.
She could hear yelling somewhere down the hall, and she thought she heard Skulduggery call her name, but she couldn't reply, as a boot hit her in the side, sending her sprawling to the ground and unable to breathe. She was kicked again and she cried out again as her pain grew. She was defenceless, and she had changed out of her magical and protective clothing. She was feeling everything.
"I told you I'd get you one day." Fear shot through her at the sound of the familiar American voice that whispered in her ear.
"Sanguine." She spat, trying to open her eyes to look at him, but they were swollen because of her broken nose, and in the dark she could barely make out his outline. "What have you done with Skulduggery?"
"You'll see him again soon enough." Sanguine answered, hauling her to her feet. The hall was quiet now, and she knew the struggle was over. They'd had no chance. Sanguine had caught them when they didn't expect it, and now they were going to pay for being so naïve. For the first time in a while Valkyrie feared that she would be killed. Sanguine detested her, and had been trying to get his hands on her for a long time. She had always managed to get away, or Skulduggery saved her, but from what she had heard coming from down the hall, they had Skulduggery as well. He wouldn't be able to save her.
"You're going to kill me then?" She asked, trying to be as casual as she could as he hauled her to her feet and led her roughly down the stairs.
"We got more in stall for you than just killin you girly." He said in a very amused voice. "See, I been hired by some people that don't particularly like you skeleton friend, and they've ordered me to torture him in the worst way I could come up with." He chuckled, obviously very happy with himself. "An' everybody knows that the best way to get to the skeleton detective is to get to the people he cares about the most."
Valkyrie swallowed heavily and gagged at the taste of blood in her mouth from her nose. She wasn't going to be killed anytime soon. But she wasn't sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing. They were going to use her against Skulduggery, they were going to torture her to torture him, and there was nothing either of them could do about it.
"You're going to regret this Sanguine." She threatened as he led her through the house to the front door. "He's going to kill you for this. You know that right?"
Sanguine laughed and dragged her into the rain. "I'm not going to give him a chance." She opened her mouth to retort, but something heavy smashed into the back of her head, and the last thing she heard before she fell was Sanguine's evil chuckle.
I know, I'm evil and you all must hate me ^_^ But I had to do it. As annoying as he can be I do like Sanguine, and I feel like this will be important for Valkyrie and Skulduggery, as maybe they will learn they arent invincible.
I warn you, the next chapter will probably be very graphic, and not in a good way.
Please review and tell me what you think, I love to hear your opinions. (Also, hooray if youve watched the Sorcerors aprentice and know what I was talking about)