I woke up and realized no one was sleepin' next to me. I looked and noticed Valkyrie had piled all my clothes on a chair to the side, but all of her clothes were missin'. I got dressed quickly and meandered downstairs. I could hear Valkyrie gigglin' from the kitchen, so I went to investigate. She was sittin' with her legs to her chest, and Hair Boy sat right across from her.

"Good morning!" Hair Boy called happily. "Someone looks awake."

"Hush, Hair Boy," I groaned.

Valkyrie shot me a glare. "Be nice to Fletcher."

Hair Boy shrugged slightly and took a sip of…milk from his glass. I sat down in the chair next to Valkyrie and rested my head on the table. Hair Boy kept talkin' about somethin', but I wasn't listenin' to what he said. No, all I could hear was Valkyrie's continuous gigglin'. She just laughed and laughed at everythin' he said! What's he sayin' that's so funny? It ain't like I ain't funny. Why doesn't Valkyrie laugh at the stuff I say? Somethin' wrong with me? With her?

I groaned at my thoughts.

"You all right, there?" Hair Boy muttered.

"Peachy," I replied.

Oh dear Lord, I was jealous. I had hoped that it wouldn't come to this. When I get jealous, that can only mean one thing: I'm –

"What's that on your neck?" Hair Boy suddenly asked.

I looked up and noticed Hair Boy was pointin' to a giant red blotch on Valkyrie's neck, a bit below her jaw. She stroked the red spot and shrugged.

"I guess maybe it's a rash…?" She shrugged again. "I'll get a look at it later, though."

Hair Boy nodded in agreement and chugged the rest of his milk. Valkyrie shot me a horrible death glare and whispered angrily, "Good job on the hickey."

"Ain't like I wanted it there," I growled back.

Hair Boy set his glass down and stared between the two of us. "I'm glad you two are getting along."

"Hmm? We're gettin' along?"

"I wasn't aware of that."

"Well," Hair Boy explained, "you're not constantly at each other's throats – for the most part. You're tolerating each other, which makes everything work out so much nicer. Good job putting aside those differences or whatever you have."

Valkyrie raised an eyebrow. "Thanks, Fletcher. I guess." She took a drink from a mug of coffee in front of her. "Speaking of work, I need your help with some stuff."

"What can I do?"

"Since you basically deal with the world's biggest magic shipping service or whatever you want to call it, are you able to ship around, like, animals?"

"Like cute little doggies? Or like giant Hell Hounds?"

"More like Hell Hounds."

Hair Boy frowned and bit his lip for a second. "I'm not supposed to breath a word about this to anyone, but we do have a rather elite and secretive service for those particular orders. Regular mages don't want Hell Hounds or the like, so the only people who know about this are shady and have questionable motives."

"Could you get in there and see if anything came in a while ago for giant green flying monsters?"

Hair Boy gave Valkyrie a strange look. "I guess I can. It'll probably be a while before I can get someone's attention down there, since I'm pretty low in the ranking in the business. I can try though."

Valkyrie beamed. "You're the best, Fletcher!" she shouted and stood to hug him. He laughed and hugged back. I gripped the table hard to restrain from yellin' at Hair Boy and blowin' the cover. He placed his glass in the sink and grabbed a ring of keys from the counter. Valkyrie gave him a more detailed description of what this stupid little monsters look like, and he left pretty shortly after that. Valkyrie looked at the clock and sighed. She said she was gonna go up to her uncle's study to try and find anythin' 'bout these things. She said I looked cranky, so I didn't have to join her. And she was right. I was cranky. Stupid Hair Boy with his stupid smile and stupid jokes made me peeved. All I wanted to do was kick somethin'.

But I only wanted to since I knew I was gettin' jealous. Jealously is a big ol' weakness for me, and when it comes around, I know I'm about to go totally crazy…with God-awful feelin's that I don't particularly wanna be feelin' for Valkyrie Cain! Ya know? I can't start thinkin' she's more beautiful than the stars or the moon or some crap like that!

Ah, God, I'll kill myself before I fall in love with Valkyrie FREAKING Cain.

I wallowed in self-pity for the three hours she was upstairs readin'. I tried to distract myself with horrible images of me suckin' the life from her body, but that only lead to much more…eh, well, I'm just gonna say these images rather had to do with creatin' life than endin' it…

Valkyrie came down stairs a while later. She paused when she noticed I hadn't moved from when she last left me, but sat down anyway. "I didn't find anything up there," she said. "Gordon wasn't much help either. He kept berating me for whatever kind of relationship we have."

"I will smash that stone of his if he blows the secret," I grumbled.

"I'll be there with a few hammers to get it down," Valkyrie added.

I smirked and looked up at her. Her shirt looked old and worn but fit her nicely. Her hair went down both sides and went past her chest by a few inches and rested in very straight columns. She looked...attractive.

"Why are you looking at me like that?"

I stopped my starin' and said, "No real reason, li'l darlin'. I'm just admirin' your…" I trailed off and waved my hand at her in general.

She rolled her eyes, but I still managed to catch the vague colorin' on her cheeks. She folded her arms and propped her legs onto the table.

"I should probably go to China's to see what she has on these things," she muttered more to herself than to me.

"Ugh, again? To China's? She freaks me out."

Valkyrie laughed. "Why?"

"She just gets me the wrong way. I dunno."

"That happens a lot with her," Valkyrie said. "You get used to it after a while. And she'll eventually stop using her powers on you so you can actually think straight when you're around her. Although Fletcher still falls for her every time, even though she's not trying it."

"Hair Boy has a very limited mind, from what I can tell."

"He's sweet, so let him be."

I sighed and rolled my eyes, but didn't say anythin' else. Valkyrie got up and made to grab her keys. She waltzed right by me, so I shot my hand out to grab her forearm. She stopped in her tracks to look at me, but she didn't say anythin'.

"Stop workin', would ya?"

Valkyrie still didn't say anythin'. Instead she wiggled from my grasp and stepped closer to my chair. She placed her hands on my thighs and bent down so we were level with each other.

"What should I do instead?" she asked quietly, her eyes burnin'.

I didn't answer, but instead stood up and pinned her down to the table. Valkyrie didn't seem to mind this, so I carried on for a while.

"Not in the kitcheeen," she groaned at the feelin' of one of my wanderin' hands.

"Where then?"

"Upstairs."

I backed away and let her sit up. Valkyrie shook her head to clear her mind slightly. She looked at me, and then jumped from the table and managed to wrap her legs around my waist. I instinctively went to hold her up by supportin' her backside. She kissed and sucked at my neck while I tried to make it up the stairs.

"If you keep doin' that," I panted, "I will forget all about the bed and just settle for the hallway floor. I will drop you and take you here."

"Have at it," was her simple reply. I inhaled sharply at her answer and placed her on the ground. Ten minutes later, with her whole chest uncovered and my pants unbuttoned, we heard the front door begin to unlock.

Valkyrie threw me off of her and tried to cover herself.

"For God's sake!" I growled. "Why the hell do people just burst into your house without warnin'?"

"I keep telling them to stop!" she answered. "Come on, hurry up."

Valkyrie raced down the stairs right after I had finished puttin' on my shirt. She checked herself in the mirror to make sure her hair wasn't too messed. She glared at the red marks I left on her neck but figured she had to just leave them alone. I stepped off of the last stair just as Bespoke and Funny Bones entered the house.

"Hello," Funny Bones greeted. "Did you get Fletcher to search around for anything?"

Valkyrie nodded; her breathin' was erratic from our activities. "He said he could try but that it would probably be a while before he got anything."

"Why are you panting?" Bespoke asked. He looked at me and back to Valkyrie.

She looked panicked for a second, but she quickly composed herself. "Sanguine was running like a coward from me, since I was mad with him for continuously insulting us all. That's it."

Bespoke chuckled quietly and stepped around us to head upstairs. "Mind if we speak with Gordon?" he asked.

Valkyrie shrugged. "Go right ahead. I feel you like him more than you do me."

Funny Bones breezed past her and stated, "Well, we do."

She lashed out and hit his arm playfully. "Oh whatever."

Once they climbed the stairs and shut the door to the study, Valkyrie turned to me and said, "Nothing like that can happen again."

"Agreed. Put some kinda spell around your house so people can't barge in or somethin'. I bet there's somethin' like that."

She nodded slowly. "I'll look into it, then." Her eyes slid to stare straight into my own. She advanced closer and kissed me softly. She started to pull back, but I placed my hand on the back of her neck to keep her grounded. She didn't resist and kept kissin'. A few minutes later, someone knocked on the door.

"Seriously!" I groaned. "They all do this on purpose! I hate your friends!"

Valkyrie smiled and ran to get the door, since whoever was knockin' wasn't stoppin'. She wrenched open the door, and there stood Caelan.

"Oh!" Valkyrie was surprised. She noticed that the sun was kinda beginnin' to set now. "What's up?"

"I've seen Scarab around here," he simply groaned. He was incredibly tense; I guess the vampire-ness was settin' in just then. And then suddenly I realized what exactly he said.

"What!" I shouted. "Where!"

"I saw him lurking around the Necromancer Temple. I think he saw me because he bolted immediately. He's back in Ireland." He glanced back at the still settin' sun. "I need to go. I didn't take the injection."

"Be careful!" Valkyrie nodded and shouted as he bolted away like a scared animal. She shut the door and gripped my hand and dragged me upstairs. She entered the study and explained the new situation to them. Almost mechanically, Funny Bones and Bespoke got up and left the house, sayin' they'd alert others.

Valkyrie groaned, "I'm beginning to really hate your dad."

I replied, "Oh, I've hated him my entire life."

Hey there! I'm back from a great week in Tennessee! Most of the work we did there was physical labor, and that isn't really my strong suit XD I got a horrible bug bite that swelled to mountainous sizes upon my leg as well. The talks we had at night weren't all the good, but the worship time (all the singing) was really powerful. Like, I can't describe it. You had to be there to feel it. I had a really good time there, but I'm glad I'm back at home :)

Anywaaay. So yeah. Here's this chapter! I'm getting pretty excited because after the next chapter, it's some confrontations and battles and injuries and yaaay~

Thanks so much for reading and sorry for any mistakes! :DDD