Hi! I'm here to finish the anticipation of the last chapter over to this one, and add some more for this chapter over to the next! Hehe! I'm so evil! =

Chapter 7

There had only been six bullets in the first place, and only one had been used. That meant that there were five left. Once again she was thankful that she was wearing the clothes made for her by Ghastly, completely bullet proof, and had saved her life many more times that she was able to say.

Bursting into the landing, she ran straight for the stairs going up, besides the room she had lead them into first off. She when straight up, taking the stairs three at a time, glad for being taller than average, for having longer legs.

She ran onto the second-floor landing, turned left, then right, and up the stairs again. She heard the man running up, and used the air to blast the door off its hinges. Going straight onto the roof top, she ran to the flower bed made of concrete, dead bushed and what once were flowers, or maybe it was just leaves, shrivelled up in the middle. She didn't care. All she cared about was the man who was almost at the top of the stairs, with a gun, and five bullets. She went around the side of the Flower Bed of Death, and ducked down behind it.

The man suddenly burst out from the door. She could hear him. To get a better idea, she used the air to feel where it was being disturbed, to find where he was. She started to consider the possibilities of what might happen. They didn't look to good. She could stay here, and hope he went away, fight him, slip past leaving him on the roof and get Skulduggery, or run away. But she couldn't stay here, she decided. He would find her eventually. She couldn't get Skulduggery, because as long as he was standing there, she couldn't slip past.

So she could break her promise to Skulduggery and fight him, or swallow her pride and jump off the roof, to run away. Stupid promise, she thought. Stupid, stupid, stupid. She couldn't break it. He would prefer her to run away that break it. But now she needed to get to the edge before Banal could shoot her in the head, resulting in her death.

She damned all to Hell, with Banal at the front line. She got up, and ran straight to the edge, a bullet hitting her arm. Her jacket absorbed the impact, but it still made her stumble, and then she felt a pain in her left foot. She when down, again, in agonising pain. This time, however, the pain stayed in just her foot instead of spreading. Banal strode up to her, taking his time, gun in hand, concentration and confusion in his face.

"How did you do it?" he queried. "No one ever lives, unless I let them. If I leave the pain there, then it spreads and kills. If I stay, I can focus it in one place only, if I wish to. I can take it way completely. I left you in pain, and you survived. How?" She didn't answer him, both because she was in pain and she didn't know how she had done it.

"HOW THE HELL DID YOU DO IT?" He suddenly screamed at her, furious. She jumped.

"I don't know! I have no idea how. I blacked out and was unconscious for ages," she said, and the pain suddenly increased, and she screamed.

"I think you lie. Tell me or I will kill you," he threatened.

"If you killed me then I would never be able tell you, cause I'll be dead," she pointed out.

"Whatever," he snapped.

"Well it is. And I'm in too much pain to even think straight anyway, so whatever to you."

He seemed to compensate for a moment, through the focus, and then in cleared, and the pain subsided. She didn't get up yet, even though her leg felt like normal, like there had never been pain there in the first place. He flexed his hand over the gun. Four bullets, she reminded herself.

They looked at each other for a few moments, and then he said, "So what did happen then? You didn't die, because you're here. You're not hurt, because Pleasant wouldn't let you come here like that," he paused, frowned, opened his mouth, closed it, and then, "Why did you leave him? You're supposed to be inseparable. But you ran away and-" he stopped suddenly. In fact, he was quiet so long that she had to try not to shuffle.

He started to smile again. "You're afraid, aren't you?" saying it like it was the best thing he had heard in years. "You're too scared to get him back, because I'm here, stopping you. You're afraid of me. Good job, really. I am a scary person after all!" and he started to laugh, throwing his head back. She used this opportunity to get into a crouching position.

"Oh, my God. You're really not too bright are you?" she said to him, trying not to just throw herself at him. He had called her 'afraid'. He said she ran away. Well, OK, she thought. Maybe I did run away, but that was because I had to. I'd promised, really trying to let her mind calm her - before she throttled him.

He stopped laughing when she said that. Without speaking, he raised the gun, and pulled the trigger, but she was faster, launching herself towards him. The bullet missed her, going through where her throat had been moments ago. She probably would be dead, if she hadn't already started moving before he had fully raised the gun.

She wrapped her arms around his neck, holding on as hard as she could. She wrapped her legs around his waist, his head on her shoulder, trying to throw her off. She didn't let go. Not this time. Not now. He only had three bullets left. If she could just get him to use up the rest of them, then she would have a much better chance of defeating him, if it came to it.

Banal was getting weaker. She was strangling him, and he was running out of air. If he thought she was going to kill him, he would start making rash decisions.

Right on cue, he shot blindly. It didn't hit her. In fact, it was such a bad shot; he was left with a graze on his own leg. He cried out, the sound muffled by her shoulder. He dropped to his knees, his hands clawing at her clothes, refusing to let a teenage girl beat him. She clung on, even when she felt him scratch her back under her clothes, making her bleed, even when he hit her, and made her bruises. She would not let him do it.

Then they fell to the floor. He was still conscious, because he was moving on top of her. Then she flipped them over, so she was on top, and he now had her weight on his lungs as well. He shot again, accidental, and it went somewhere into the sky. She heard its echo a second later. And then he stopped moving. He was alive; she could feel his heartbeat, just unconscious.

She suddenly heard a vibration and jumped. She recognised it, and realised it was her phone. Checking her pockets, she noticed that she had dropped it, and walked up to the dead shrubbery, bent and picked up said phone. She checked the missed call and walked back the way she had come, knowing it would be better to get Skulduggery first.

She started to text back, and then stopped short. There was a shadow in front of her, and it was Banal's. He had the gun in his hand, his face red with rage.

"You can't beat me," he growled.

"Oh, yeah?" she said.

"Your just a girl. A stupid little girl."

"A stupid little girl who just beat up," she said with a half-smile. His face started to turn purple.

"You just think this is a game, don't you? You actually think you can beat me. Well, I still have one bullet left, and I'm a million times more powerful than you," he turned to a whisper, "I'm going to kill you, and drag you down the steps by your hair. Then I'll put you in front of the Skeleton's cell, and he won't be able to not look at you."

She stopped smiling; imagining the agony it would course Skulduggery. She should have run like she'd promised. "You kill me, he'll kill you."

"He's in a cell, love," he said. "I kill you, he stays in that cell, and I leave your body in front of the door for ever. Maybe I'll burn your body when the smell becomes too much, and he can keep the ashes. Would you like that?" She watched his face slowly turn back to normal as he said this, and her anger level elevated higher than ever.

"I'll kill you. Now," she said. She could see amusement in his eyes. She continued in a voice of exaggerated calmness, "You have two options. Drop the gun and let me put some shiny cuffs on you, or fight me, and end up with no gun and in cuffs. The same outcome, but you keep some dignity with one of the options. I'll let you decide which."

"That's ever so nice of you for giving me the option, and I think I'll pick… none of the above, thank you very much," he said. "I'll never be in a cage, like an animal. I'm a feared enemy. I'm more than anyone else. I'll never go in a gaol."

He brought up the gun and Valkyrie yelled, "No!" milliseconds before he pulled the trigger.

= Keep reviewing! I want guesses on what the secret will do! (I don't even know yet! I NEED someone to guess!) =