I'm so sorry! PLEASE DON'T KILL ME! I've been distracted :( I read Last stand of dead men again and was waiting for the title of the next book :D I'm torn. I'm so excited to read it, really sad because it's the last book and terrified that my favorite characters will die.
CURSE DEREK LANDY'S AWESOME WRITING! I've become attached to the characters :( I'll cry if he kills them…. Onto the story….
BANG
BANG
BANG
BANG
BANG
BANG
"SKULDUGGERY!"
The last things he remembered was the gun going off and Valkyrie screaming out to him and everything had gone black, black, black, black? Like before? Black!
VAMPIRES! THE CLOCK! VALKYRIE!
Skulduggery's eyes flew open and the poor paramedic screamed and scrambled away from him. He sat up. His head pounded like crazy and his façade was hanging off at the bullet holes. He was still lying on the road so he couldn't have blacked out for long.
He quickly looked around but Valkyrie was gone like he'd expected. He spotted Sherlock and John sitting on the gutter and he ran over to them.
John swore and Skulduggery grabbed Sherlock roughly by the collar.
"Where did they take her? I know you at least have an idea." He hissed at him.
"I think around Bicester." Sherlock answered.
xXxXxXxXx
Valkyrie's head pounded harder than it ever had before. She felt like it had been split open and everything had been taken out.
The world around her was black, everything just darkness, impenetrable, unmovable darkness. Was she blind? Panic filled her but she realized her eyes were closed.
Her head was resting on cold concrete by the feel of it. The air was slightly damp and she could feel two presences in the room with her. Her wrists were annoyingly cuffed.
She could hear muffled talking. She twisted to try and hear it better but everything went silent. She frowned and moved her head the other way so her right ear was pressed into the ground. Suddenly she could hear them perfectly.
"I told you that we needed her alive." Ryu's voice hissed.
"She is alive." A voice she'd never heard before answered.
"Hardly. We need as much blood of hers as we can get out hands on. You splattered it all over the road." He snapped angrily.
"She put up a fight."
"Agh, you are an idiot. Why do you think I'm in charge? Because I'm smarter than all of you put together!" Ryu took a deep breath.
"Miss Cain, do you really think I wouldn't notice your breathing rate change?" Ryu whispered in her ear and she jumped, flinching away from him.
She couldn't hear from her right ear.
"I'm glad you're awake. I'm also very sorry my minions spilt half your blood on the road." He continued. The vampire in the room rolled his eyes.
"It was hardly my fault." He growled.
She'd lost the hearing in her right ear.
"I'm sorry?" Ryu asked. "You accidently slammed her head into the road?"
"What does it matter she's here and fine. Enough blood in her for the ritual." The vampire dismissed the comments.
She was deaf in her right ear.
"Enough for everyone," Ryu smiled and rested his hand on the younger man's shoulder, 'but not for you."
With strength he shouldn't have possessed, Ryu broke the vampire's neck. The body slumped to the ground like a rag doll. Valkyrie had seen this vampire step out of the car that had slammed into them and then slam her face into asphalt. She wasn't sorry to see him die.
"What are you going to do to me?" Valkyrie demanded and looked straight at Ryu.
"My dear, I'm not going to do anything to you. You're going to do something to us." He told her. "Hunter! Dreggor!"
Two men walked in. They moved with grace and had not a single tiny expression on their faces. Vampires.
"Take her to the cavern. This is it. Tonight we'll be free, gather the others while you're at it." Ryu ordered them and the left.
The vampires took one arm each and pulled her up and out the door.
Valkyrie felt something she hadn't felt in years; fear. She feared these vampires and what they were about to do to her.
xXxXxXxXx
"You're a skeleton?"
"Yes."
"You're a skeleton?"
"I have been for some time now."
"You're dead?"
"Yes, I died a long time ago."
"But you're a skeleton?"
"GOSH! Yes John, he's a skeleton. He died, came back to life and became a detective for the Irish Sanctuary." Sherlock snapped at his partner.
John nodded slowly. "So, Ryu and Alexandar are vampires?"
"Yes." Skulduggery sighed and overtook another car on the road.
"As in, 'I'll suck your blood'." John held up his hands like claws and hissed.
"No, as in 'I'll rip you to shreds and eat you'." Sherlock answered and rubbed his temples. Skulduggery had already told them all this and explained it quite well. Why John didn't understand, he didn't know but it was annoying.
"So they're dead too?"
"YES!" Skulduggery shouted.
"Is Valkyrie dead?"
"No but if we don't come up with some sort of plan then she'll be dead." Skulduggery snapped.
John was quiet, but not for long.
"What is our plan?" He asked, a frown furrowing his brow.
"Sherlock tell me more about where Valkyrie's been taken." The skeleton turned to Sherlock.
"What I have are just theories. Things I've observed." Sherlock warned.
"Tell me."
xXxXxXxXx
The cavern was massive and it was full of vampires. Night had fallen outside but they all remained human. There was at least forty, probably more. They snarled and sneered up at her. They seemed restless, moving amongst themselves, whispering, looking around as if scared to be there.
Valkyrie was on a raised stage. The kind of makeshift stage at schools or for mini bands trying to take off. She was on her knees with her hands cuffed behind her back. The two vampires who'd brought her there was standing behind her.
She shivered as wind blew through the big space. Her jacket had been taken away from her exposing her bare arms to the elements.
Ryu was nowhere to be seen.
Three vampires moved through the crowd. They walked carefully onto the stage, carrying something between them. They placed it softly on the stage and uncovered a skeleton.
It wasn't an old skeleton, but it wasn't new.
Kuro Ryu appeared at the entrance to the cavern. He wore a long black robe that draped over him, falling to the ground in waves, and he held the clock in his hands. He walked towards the stage, the vampires stepping out of his way. They were finally silent.
Valkyrie gulped nervously. She didn't know what was about to happen but if it involved her blood it wouldn't be pretty. She ignored the butterflies in her stomach and held her head higher as Ryu stepped onto the stage.
He didn't even look at her. He turned to the crowd and lifted the clock high.
"This is it my brothers and sisters!" His voice easily reached every corner of the cavern. "Tonight is the last night. Thanks to Miss Cain we will be whole again. There are a lot of us but you know that. Be patient, be patient like you all have. A few minutes more and everything will be well again."
Valkyrie looked desperately for an escape. She wriggled her wrists in the handcuffs but nothing helped. She briefly wondered if she could make it out if she ran but seriously doubted it.
"This is it! The countless hours of planning and trouble will be worth it." The vampires cheered in response and Ryu smiled. He turned to her and pulled out a knife.
"Are you ready?" He asked.
Her mouth had gone dry but she still sent a glare at him.
The handcuffs were removed and the vampires held her securely with her right arm out. The clock was a blue crystal surrounded by a thick bronze metal covered in symbols. He fiddled around a bit and the metal ring folded out. He twisted the metal until the clock was now a goblet. The goblet was as long as her forearm with the blue crystal forming the base.
"What are you going to do with that? And what's with Mr Dead?" Valkyrie asked as Ryu produced a knife from his robes.
"Miss Cain, the skeleton is just a practice. To ensure it works properly." He smiled and sliced vertically down the blue vein in her forearm.
She clenched her teeth as blood slid down her hand and off her fingers. Blood trickled into the goblet. After it was sufficiently full Ryu placed a cloth over her wound.
He stood up and raised the goblet/clock high. He began mumbling, just slowly. He turned to the skeleton and poured her crimson life blood over the skull.
When the last drop slid from the goblet he stepped back.
The whole cavern was silent, nothing moved and everything held its breath. And then it happened.
It looked like bugs were crawling on it but it was soon obvious that it was cells beginning to rejuvenate. Ligaments reached out to bones, muscle tissue began to grow, tendons attached muscle to bone and organs began to grow. Slowly the process sped up until she could hardly notice the individual changes. Finally skin grew over the top and a man was lying there with his eyes closed.
Valkyrie's own eyes were wide. From a skeleton a person had grown. Magic she'd never thought possible, magic that shouldn't have been possible. But she stared for another reason. She knew the man and he was meant to be dead.
He was tall and broad shouldered. Muscles bulged beneath the skin. Black hair hung around his ears and a rugged beard had grown.
Lying on the stage was Mr Bliss.
DUN DUN DUN DUN! Don't hate me! Bliss is too great to kill :D please review and I'll update soon instead of taking a long time :D review review review