They continued driving along when Skulduggery turned down a deserted road. They drove in silence for 5 minutes, Valkyrie was smiling to herself. She knew she'd still be upset if Skulduggery hadn't told her about his "misfortune" (if you could call it that) with magic. Skulduggery shifted slightly in his seat and as he did so the rain started falling heavily. They were just rounding a corner, and by now they were quite a few miles away from any kind of civilization, when Valkyrie spotted an old man walking along the side of the road, he seemed to be huddled up and to have nothing but a long sleeved shirt on and some ¾ length jeans..

"Shall we give him a lift to wherever he's going?"

"What if he's going somewhere different to us?"

"Then we'll drop him as close to it as we can."

"Valkyrie, do you not think he'll notice I'm a skeleton?"

"You keep your head down and I'll do the talking!" she put on her best "persuading" smile and he sighed.

"OK then." Skulduggery lowered the window and the man looked in through the window.

"Do you need a lift?" asked Valkyrie.

"Indeed I do"

"Hop in" Valkyrie said, smiling.

The man tried opening the door but it seemed to be stuck yet the lock was definitely open.

"Can you give me a hand please?" the man asked Valkyrie.

"Sure" Valkyrie got out of the car and went to open the door. An arm wrapped around her neck and tried to hold onto her. She stood on the old man's foot and twisted so she could get out of the headlock. It was as she turned that she noticed that the old man's face had turned to that of an young man's. He had emerald green eyes, Black hair with streaks of blue in it and very prominent cheek bones. Skulduggery was jumping out of the Bentley, gun in hand and was aiming at the man. Valkyrie lashed a kick at the man's kneecaps to see if she could make his legs give way. Unfortunately he foresaw this, but she realised that he had noticed so she quickly sent her leg up high and caught him in the face. This angered him so he reached into his jacket and grabbed a piece of rope, it could have been no longer than Valkyrie's arm. The man wrapped the rope around Valkyrie's neck and he flew up into the air and hovered about 6 feet up with Valkyrie struggling to get out of the rope which had now tightened rather a lot around her neck. Skulduggery looked about as worried as was possible for a living Skeleton.

"Let go of her now…" he walked a bit closer and the man flew another foot into the air.

"Why are you after Valkyrie? Why is she so special to you?"

"Thanks" Valkyrie managed to get out whilst trying to struggle against the rope that was tied around her neck. She had managed to get her hands around the rope and so that gave her a bit of space to get a few short breaths every now and then.

"Why is she so special to me? I could ask the same of you detective, but that would make things slightly awkward, wouldn't it?"

"Just let go of Valkyrie Cain now. Don't harm a single hair on her head."

The man flew up another 2 foot, by now they were hanging 9 foot in the air.

"You want me to let go of her?" he asked menacingly, a sick evil grin starting to etch it's way onto his face. "OK"

He dropped Valkyrie and she hit the ground with a sickening 'thwack'. She didn't move.

********************

Skulduggery thought for a moment that she was dead. Suddenly Valkyrie raised her head and looked the man, who was still hovering in the air, in the eye. She stood up and cracked her back and neck, then to Skulduggery's surprise she rose herself into the air and spat blood at the man. It landed on his shirt and he looked at it in disgust.

"If there's one thing you should never do," she said with an evil smile. "it's think that you can drop me on the ground and that I won't get back up again" and she hurled a fire ball at his face which definitely wiped the smirk off his face. In fact it wiped everything off his face and by the time that he had stopped screaming and Valkyrie had put out the flames all that was left was his skull. The mouth still hanging open in agony.

"Do you fancy taking that skull as your own?"

"No, I'm ok thank you Valkyrie… that Skull looks a little… well, suffice it to say I don't think it's a good idea."

"Ah well" she smiled a weak little smile and promptly fell into the bony arms of Skulduggery where she lay unconscious. He then proceeded to lift her properly and carefully placed her in the back of the Bentley before getting in the front seat. He glanced back at her. She had a deep cut in her head and her throat had a deep purple bruise from where the rope had cut into her. Her face had a few bruises on it from where she had landed on it in the fall. No doubt she would have broken a few bones during that. Skulduggery got out his mobile and dialled a number. His call was answered after 2 short rings and he muttered something to someone on the other end and promptly hung up and, after bringing the engine to life, set off in the direction of the Hibernian cinema.

***********

If you've been reading this on DeviantArt you may have noticed that a few words have been changed. Sorry about that but my original cpy has gone missing from my system :(

Please R&R as they are golden.

I'd also like to say sorry ofr taking os long to update. Thanks for sticking with it. x)