I felt somethin' nudge me in my shoulder. I opened my eyes slowly and expected Valkyrie to be wakin' me, but she was still asleep in my arms. Someone cleared their throat from behind me, and I craned my neck to see who it was.

"Good morning," Funny Bones said icily.

"I'd get up and face ya," I said, "but there's a sleepin' Valkyrie over here."

"Wake her up. We need to deal with you two."

"Hey, this was all my doin', Funny Bones. Don't go draggin' her into all this."

He didn't say anythin' and just stared. I reached over to shake Valkyrie awake as calmly as I could. She groaned and buried her face into my shoulder and mumbled a few things.

"Let me sleep," I managed to catch.

"I think it's high time you got up, Valkyrie," Funny Bones added loudly and firmly. Valkyrie's eyes shot open. She bolted upright and clutched her blankets to her chest. Her mouth kept movin' like she was gonna say somethin', but she never did.

"Skulduggery," she muttered after a few minutes of tense silence, "this is-"

"Ghastly's waiting outside," Funny Bones interrupted her. "You need to dress so we can arrest Sanguine again. And do not even think about escaping." With that, he turned and strode from the room and opened the door and left the room, though he stood right outside the door with it still slightly ajar.

I looked at Valkyrie; she was bitin' her lip in concern. Her eyes were wide, and I could tell she was tryin' to think of a way to get us out of this mess. I shook my head at her and silently got up from bed to dress. Valkyrie did the same. I finished dressin' as Valkyrie pulled a shirt over her head, so I went and opened the door wider. Funny Bones turned and faced me.

"Billy-Ray Sanguine," he said, producin' a pair of handcuffs, "you are under arrest for conspiracies against the Irish Sanctuary and for escaping from Irish Sanctuary prison." He turned me around roughly and snapped the cuffs onto my hands behind my back. "Let's go." He prodded me along as Valkyrie came runnin' from the room to try and stop Funny Bones.

"Ain't ya gonna read me my rights?" I sneered at Funny Bones as he led me outside to where Bespoke stood.

Bespoke turned to me and growled, "We figured you've heard them enough."

"Ghastly don't you dare let this turn into some stupid personal conflict!" Valkyrie shouted. "Treat this like a normal arrest, for goodness sakes."

Bespoke shrugged and motioned for me to get into this shady black van. Funny Bones shut the backdoor and climbed into the passenger seat; Bespoke took to drivin'. I looked around and noticed Valkyrie had run to her Mustang to follow us. As we drove, I wondered how far Bespoke would go. So since I've wounded him in the past or whatever, is he gonna make up some crazy sentence for me?

Oh, right. He's gonna kill me. Forgot about that.

Though maybe now since I broke outta jail, he'll abandon the whole killin' thing…Dunno why'd he do that, but a guy can hope.

We got to the Sanctuary pretty fast. I noticed Valkyrie had parked haphazardly behind us as Funny Bones and Bespoke dragged me into the buildin'. Valkyrie looked really worried. Bespoke broke away from us as he got into the buildin', but Funny Bones led me down the hallways, but he didn't throw me into a cell. Instead, he kept movin' down the way, and we were gettin' closer to the interrogation rooms. Funny Bones completely disregarded little ol' Apollo Downs, which seemed a little out of character of him to do. But I didn't wanna say anythin' to him. Funny Bones unlocked a room, flicked the lights on, and shoved me hard into the room.

"Sit," he demanded roughly.

I sighed but did anyway. "What's yer deal, Funny Bones? Why the sudden Sanguine hate?"

He didn't say nothin' for a while. He simply looked at me; he never broke the gaze as he slowly sat down in the chair opposite me. I'd say we had that starin' contest for a good fifteen minutes.

Finally, he said broke away and stood up again. Slowly he paced.

"Okay!" I shouted. "Gettin' a little tired of all this overdramatic crap. Cut it out and just stop bein' so creepy and weird, Funny Bones. Yer freakin' me out."

He stopped and leaned his hands on the table and looked me straight in the eyes and said, "So help me if you took advantage of her at all, I will end you right here."

I was shocked. "Who said anythin' 'bout that, Funny Bones?"

"No one did," he answered. "I had just thought it strange Valkyrie would even initiate it. She didn't, yes?"

I shook my head. "She started this all. She said it'd be a one-time thing. Turned out much more than that, eh?"

He grew angrier. "Do not talk like that."

"Sorry, the southern twang comes natural."

"Joking about this will get you nowhere." He leaned closer. "Did you ever at any point take advantage of Valkyrie?" he repeated.

Again, we just stared for a while. But I was the one to look away first. "I'm not that much of a criminal, y'know. All I do is kill. I don't bother anybody else, except my target. If any others get involved, it's because they got themselves into it. I'm mean and pretty psycho, but Skulduggery, I'd never be that cruel to do that to anyone."

He seemed a little shocked.

I continued, "And besides, do you honestly think anyone could do that against Valkyrie? They'd never make it out alive."

Funny Bones agreed, I could tell. But he didn't seem sold on the fact that I wouldn't try somethin' like that on someone at least.

"Funny Bones, all I do is murder people. That's the most fun I have, and doin' any other crimes ain't as fun. A coupla times they've made me steal some stuff. I did, and it was dumb. Tunnel in, tunnel out. I've never been asked for that, and even if I ever was, I don't think I'd do it. Like I said, I'm not that cruel."

He looked suspicious, still.

"Fine," I groaned. "Believe what yer gonna about me. You can ask Valkyrie if I forced it. Every time we…uh, came together it was by mutual agreement. Ya'll can think that Valkyrie wouldn't go for someone like me, but face the facts, cause she did. All 'er stupid Necromancer buddies probably won't be happy 'bout this, and you alls here at the Sanctuary want to have us both killed for it."

"We won't kill you both," he said sharply.

"Fine, just me." I shrugged. "Whatever. Yer overreactin', really. It was just a little harmless fun."

Oh God those were the wrong words.

Funny Bones whirled around and stalked up to me and hoisted me from my chair. "Is that all she is to you? Fun? You have no respect for her at all?"

I inhaled deeply and couldn't decide what to say next. I could lie, and say yes. But then that would probably end in Funny Bones beatin' me up senselessly. I could also tell him the truth, but that probably wouldn't be too good. He'd know too much, and he'd be able to hold it over my head.

I saw suddenly Valkyrie come stormin' to the door and try to open the door, but it was locked. She pounded on the glass, and I felt a strange little feelin' in me. I ain't no expert on love, and I certainly don't know much about to Valkyrie to know how she'd express it or whatever, but this seemed a bit like devotion.

I smirked and looked straight into Funny Bones' own black holes. "It was just for fun in the beginnin'. Though, to tell the truth, I've fallen in love with yer precious li'l partner. Like it or not, Funny Bones, but I think she's startin' to fall too."

"Would you do anything to protect her?" he asked quickly.

"Yeah," I answered slowly. "Where are you gettin' at?"

Funny Bones released his tight hold on me and said, "She's grown now and can take care of herself, but no one hurts my Valkyrie Cain while I'm around."

I laughed. "Bit cliché but nice anyway."

"Skulduggery open this door!" I heard Valkyrie shout. She looked positively furious.

Funny Bones laughed and went to unlock it for her. Before he did though, I asked quietly, "Does this mean yer on our side?"

"No. I won't be completely against you, though," he answered after considerin' for a moment. With that, he opened the door.

Valkyrie stalked into the room and took one look at me and then at Funny Bones.

"Has Ghastly decided what to do yet?" Funny Bones asked.

"He never said what he'd do," Valkyrie explained, "and even if he knew, I'd doubt he'd tell me. But as he forced me from his office I could tell he had Sanguine's case file out."

"Do you think he'll-"

"We'll be sure to give those Russians a warm welcome," I said happily. I figured if I was gonna die within the near future, I should just be optimistic 'bout everythin' else. Doesn't make much sense, but me fallin' in love with Valkyrie Cain does, either.

You will be pleased to know I did manage to finish this story before summer ended. I have the rest of the chapters typed up. Just need to read through them once more and then this'll be done! Also I got my laptop from my new school and it's super fun :33 Although this site is blocked on their stupid district blocking program...thing.

OKAY. I would have begun to upload these last few chapters the night before. Know why I didn't? HURRICANE IRENE. THAT MONSTER. I mean, nothing disastrous happened, and others suffered worse than my family did, but we were without power for eh, maybe 19 hours. I had every intention of putting these up but never got the chance. So yeah. These should be uploaded over the next few nights. (Did you think I was gonna put them all up at the same time? PFFT SUFFER IN WONDERING WHAT WILL HAPPEN NEEEEXT.) I may or may not have school tomorrow because of the power outages thooough~ (But I probably will.)

Thanks for reading and sorry for any mistakes! :D