Valkyrie sighed heavily and pushed the hair out of her face. Despite her heated temperature, she still pulled the sheets up to cover her chest.
"Why you gotta cover yourself like that?" I mumbled. "Ain't like I haven't seen it."
"What, are you comfortable laying out like that?" She gestured to me, pointin' at the sheets that just came right below my hips.
"I pretty much don't care, li'l darlin'."
"Obviously," she muttered and stretched.
For a while we sat in silence. Valkyrie shot up in bed when the house phone rang once but then didn't again. I watched her creep from bed and slip on some pants. She grabbed my shirt just to have a temporary coverin' for her chest and opened the door a crack. She listened carefully for a few seconds. When Valkyrie turned away from the door, though, we suddenly heard a door from downstairs slam.
"Valkyrie! Sanguine!" It was Bespoke callin'. I instantly panicked and climbed from the bed.
"What do we do?" I whispered frantically.
"There's no way you can get to a different room without him seeing you! Hide in the closet! And for God's sake, put on some pants!"
I stumbled and managed to grab my pants and yanked them on. "I'm not hidin' in the closet, Valkyrie!"
"Whatever, but just hide."
"You're wearing my shirt!" I pointed to her and dashed into the bathroom quick and, in all honesty, pathetically hid in the shower; I also closed the door in case Bespoke could see the curtains movin' or somethin'. I could hear Valkyrie rushin' around to put on a different shirt. Hopefully she had the brains to hide mine…
"Valkyrie?" Bespoke called again.
Valkyrie crossed the room to answer the door. "Ghastly, what is it?"
"Has Skulduggery called you recently?" His voice sounded grave.
"My phone is downstairs," she answered. "The house phone rang once but then didn't after that. Why? What's wrong?"
"We think that Scarab may have kidnapped him."
"Kidnapped? And by Scarab? Do you have any proof?"
"No, but he's the most likely suspect, wouldn't you say?" Bespoke sounded tired, like he didn't want to talk about it anymore. "Where's Sanguine? We need to get out and start searching before they get too far. If they make it to a different country we can't do much more; everyone's very rigid with jurisdiction and such, I've learned."
"I'll get Sanguine and get dressed," Valkyrie answered. "You head out and we'll meet you outside."
That was it. I heard Bespoke movin' out of the room and closin' the door.
"It's okay now," Valkyrie whispered, pokin' her head into the bathroom.
I stepped out from behind the shower curtain. Valkyrie handed me my shirt lazily and changed her own. Her hair was a total mess from our rendezvous in the sheets, but she still tried pullin' it into a huge ponytail. I noticed the clock by her bed said it was almost three in the mornin'. Awesome.
Valkyrie flew from the door and pulled me along with her. She hit the lights off downstairs and made sure the doors were locked tight. Bespoke stood outside by some bushes with a cell phone in his hand. He gestured for us to follow him. He climbed into the driver's seat of a giant black van. Valkyrie took the passenger seat next to him, while I sat in the back.
"Where are we going?" Valkyrie asked while watchin' the trees and landscape breeze by us.
"No one knows where Skulduggery was last. I figured you would have said where he was if you knew, Valkyrie. But anyway, we're heading to the Sanctuary to get everyone on track and send out search parties everywhere. Hopefully Scarab hasn't gotten too far." Bespoke looked in the rearview mirror at me and asked, "Does Scarab have any hiding places here? Any places he's most likely to go to? Or even places we'd least likely find him?"
I shrugged. "I can't think of any. He wasn't ever here for a while, ya know? We had our little headquarters for that stupid club he came up with, but ya'll searched that a while ago, right?"
"We had it destroyed," he muttered. "But you can't think of anywhere?"
"No, not at all. But he'd probably pick some dinky little buildin' not totally out in the open, but in a place ya couldn't easily find. He's good at hidin', I guess."
No reply. Bespoke turned down some windin' roads and eventually stopped at the Sanctuary buildin'. He rushed inside and was immediately bombarded with shouts and questions. He managed to wrangle everyone's attention and explain the situation. He said to split into groups of four. Bespoke would direct exactly where everyone would go. So for a few moments, we all grouped together. Valkyrie had wordlessly worked it out with Bespoke that he'd join her. Valkyrie grabbed my hand and dragged me over to Hair Boy.
"Why are you here?"
"Friend of the victim," Hair Boy replied cheekily. "Yourself?"
Valkyrie hit his shoulder and sighed. She stood straight and waited for Bespoke to keep talkin'. I looked down and noticed her hand still gripped my own. Slowly I pulled away; Valkyrie shot me a worried glance. She muttered somethin' under her breath and crossed her arms. Bespoke began directin' everyone on where to go. Groups shuffled out in packs and then separated. We waited for a minute before Bespoke approached us.
"We'll head down to southern Ireland," he simply stated and turned and sped over to his giant van. Valkyrie jumped to the front seat, Hair Boy and I had the middle. Bespoke drove all through the city and finally stopped at the side of an old road. A few buildin's were scattered around and all were fallin' apart.
"Valkyrie and I," Bespoke said, "will head down to the left. Fletcher, you and Sanguine can take the right side." He got out and popped open the trunk and pulled out a bag. He opened the bag and grabbed another one and began fillin' it with a fine powder. "This powder will turn a color depending on what type of magic was used. If it doesn't do anything, then obviously there was no magic."
He chucked at bag at Hair Boy and set off with Valkyrie next to him. I could tell she was scannin' the skies for anythin'; Bespoke kept an eye on the ground. They quietly and carefully entered the first buildin' they came across.
"Well let's go find a skeleton, then!" Hair Boy said happily and marched along.
I jogged to catch up to him. "Ain't you and Funny Bones friends?"
"I guess, yeah. We don't have manly chats together or anything. If I were dying, he'd he sad, let's put it that way."
"Well why are ya so happy-go-lucky 'bout his disappearance?"
"It's Skulduggery Pleasant," Hair Boy replied. "He can manage pretty much anything he wants to, so I'm pretty positive he'll be found in no time. I'm sure when we get back he'll be waiting at the Sanctuary with some joke to crack and his kidnapper in hand."
"What if he ain't?"
"Don't you hate him?"
"I wish fiery death upon him, yep, but why ya so confident he'll be there?"
"Because Valkyrie will not stop until she finds him. If he doesn't show up himself and if no one has any clue where he is, she will die finding him. The opposite goes as well. Those two are so close you'd wonder if they had some type of secret romantic relationship. But that'd be a bit strange, now I think of it."
"What? Do they have one?"
"No, not that I know of. Of course, it's a secret, right? And Valkyrie I think can keep a secret pretty well hidden."
Yeah, but with that hand-holdin' business earlier makes me nervous…
As it turns out, Funny Bones wasn't there like Hair Boy said he'd be. We four searched through that street and those buildin's for hours and found absolutely nothing. I had figured that daddy dearest wouldn't pick any of these buildin's; he at least likes a buildin' that won't fall on him. We returned to the Sanctuary and already groups were there. Bespoke directed a few people to stop and rest and then others were forced to head out again. Stupid China Sorrows and her stupid pretty face showed up, and she practically melted Hair Boy into a puddle of goo.
Bespoke took away China though and tried to get her to find him Funny Bones. She didn't have any luck like the rest of us.
Though Hair Boy was right about Valkyrie not givin' up and all that. She refused to go home when Bespoke told her too, and the worst thing is that she keeps draggin' me around. Her excuse is that since I'm charged to her as the "assistant criminal" I need to go everywhere with her. Well, she did say I could stay in jail while she searches, but I figured that'd end poorly.
As it hit twenty-four hours after the first news we got 'bout Funny Bones, Valkyrie became more frantic. She gripped hard on my hand when she pulled me to new and isolated places to go lookin' for him. And every time I tried to get a word in she'd shout and tell me to shut my mouth. Hair Boy had to practically jam food into her mouth, while Bespoke wouldn't shut up if she didn't drink anythin'. Though they didn't try and stop her crazy search; I guess they knew it'd be useless to try and stop her.
When it got to forty hours, though, I dug my heels into the ground and refused to go searchin' anymore. I had been dragged around what felt like all of Ireland, and Valkyrie was still goin' around to comb over areas again.
"I ain't gonna go with you anymore," I said and crossed my arms.
"Fine!" she shouted suddenly and whipped around to stare at me. "Go back to jail! Rot in a cell for all I care!"
"I know you wanna find Funny Bones, but killin' yourself doin' it doesn't help you at all. You'd work better if you slept and had some type of food in your stomach besides stale toast. I dunno if you think Funny Bones'll think you traipsin' all over Ireland lookin' for him is healthy, but it ain't. Not in the slightest. And he can take care of himself. Ain't he a good deal older than you?"
She rolled her eyes. "Whatever. Like you care about my health."
I almost shouted that I did care, but I caught myself. Can't let those feelin's get in the way then…
"Yer just so pathetic like this, li'l darlin'. And I'd hate to see you die like this. You need to go out with a fight."
Valkyrie sighed deeply and hung her head down low. "Fine, take me home."
I hugged her tightly and sunk into the ground slowly. I felt her grip my coat and shoulders tightly as we advanced along in the dirt. Her head rested against my chest, but I could feel her slippin'.
"Valkyrie, hold tight," I said over the rumblin' and grumblin' of the earth around us. I stopped movin' and noticed she had actually fallen asleep. I steadied myself on some rocks and brought her hands to her chest and swung her legs up, so I was carryin' her bridal style. I kept movin' a second later and popped up onto the surface a few minutes later. I woke Valkyrie up enough so she could unlock the front door.
"Where have you been?" Uncle Ghost demanded.
"Skulduggery was…kidnapped…" Valkyrie yawned wide and brushed past her uncle and ascended the steps.
"Kidnapped?" he asked, turnin' to me.
"We've been out searchin' ever since Bespoke came and got us two days ago."
"Yes, after another night."
"Hey, never said you had to listen in on us."
I slipped past him myself and followed Valkyrie. Her room was dark and clothes were sprawled everywhere. The stuff she had been wearin' just before was sittin' in a pile, and I could hear the shower runnin'. I guess I'd want to shower if all I'd been doin' was marchin' around lookin' for a skeleton.
I collapsed on Valkyrie's bed and waited for her to get out of the shower and make sure she doesn't just fall asleep on the floor. After a while, the water stopped runnin', and I could hear her movin' about in there. Valkyrie stumbled out of the bathroom dressed simply in a t-shirt and underwear.
"Didn't feel like goin' the extra mile to put on pants?"
She blinked at me and that was it. Valkyrie slowly made her way over to the bed and she let herself fall down on it, face first. I flopped onto my back and watched her breath for a while.
"I'm cold," she eventually whispered.
"Pants might fix that."
Valkyrie sat up and moved closer to me, placin' her arms all over my chest. "Keep me warm. Please."
She's never been this…vulnerable. I've never seen the great Valkyrie Cain so pitiful lookin'.
Gradually I felt her hands slide up my chest and reach for the buttons on my shirt. By the fourth button I asked what she was doin'.
"Removing your shirt," was her simple reply.
"Yeah, and why?"
"I want you to keep me warm."
"Like that?"
She didn't answer at first, but eventually squeaked out a, "Please."
Despite her total exhaustion, she forced me to roll over onto her and comply. And comply I did.
Sorry it took so long! I've been kinda busy with a week long Vacation Bible School at my church, playing multiple Harvest Moon games like a lunatic, and visiting my grandparents. Also my summer reading as gotten in the way. I still have a bit over a month to finish the last book I gotta read, but hopefully it won't be too bad. I also have to write a paper on one of the books, but we'll see how well that goes…
ALSO. The week of July 31st – August 6th I'll be in Tennessee with my youth group at church. I'll be there for that whole week and will have no Internet access whatsoever. Just a heads up in case I don't finish the next chapter by then!
So yeah! Thanks a whole ton for reading and sorry for any mistakes! :DDD