A/N: I don't own Skulduggery, Tanith, Ghastly, the Faceless Ones, Lord Vile, or Valkyrie. Val is still 24, story is still in her POV. Please note: If you find hunting offensive you'll want to skip this chapter.

I woke several hours later in the late afternoon to a feeling of warmth and the familiar scent of wool and bone. Skulduggery had apparently rolled over in his sleep, and was still in deepest meditation on top of me. I managed to stifle a giggle, and slid out from under him, grabbing my now cold coffee. He awoke a short time later as I sat in the chair and seemed to realize what side of the bed he was on. He folded his arms around the pillow seeming to breathe in deeply before he laid his skull back down to give me me a contented look.

"Planning another great Irish migration anytime soon, Detective Pleasant?" I teased. He grinned, and blinked slowly at me. Skulduggery lazily turned on his side and crooked a finger at me, inviting me back to bed, his grin broadening. I joined him, and he wrapped his bony arms around me, nuzzling into me. Skulduggery started to nip at my neck, but I pushed him away gently. "We have a case to get to, Skulduggery."

"I'm sure we don't." He pressed in gently to nip at my collarbone. I caressed his skull, then remembered we were supposed to be waiting. He would have to have remembered his virtue when something truly enjoyable was involved. I gave a grunt and pushed him back firmly.

"Yes, a case. That is if our detectives have come back yet after the tongue-lashing you gave them."

"I did no such thing. I merely told them to leave before I shot them all. They left quite quickly too, good lads."

"Skulduggery! You're lucky you didn't get arrested."

"Nonsense. I was having a purely logical reaction to misunderstanding you. It isn't my fault they couldn't appreciate that."

"Tell me this didn't involve drawing your weapon."

"No, drawing is one of the few skills I lack. I did however unholster my gun an point it at random people as they fled."

"You weren't even speaking English at that point, were you? Not that I like the idea of you being upset, but the sight of you roaring something in Gaelic must have been breathtaking."

"Gaeilge, and yes, I was breathtaking. I'm glad you appreciate all the hard work I put in for you, Valkyrie. Being so attached to you is a lot of hard work. They're lucky I couldn't think clearly enough to find my armour, to be honest."

"Skulduggery!"

"I'm joking. The book must have affected me as well. I knew you weren't judging me, but I was helpless to fight against how thinking you were made me feel. But the important thing to remember is I'll all better now and that dreadful book is gone. I knew the idea of my eating again was too good to be true."

"We don't know that, Skulduggery, we might find a way in time if it is what you want. If we can be given children, I'm sure that can be arranged too. How are we not talking about the case? Because we really need to."

"I suppose." Skulduggery sighed and got out of bed. "You were a lot more fun when you had less sense of responsibility."

I smiled and said nothing.

After making me coffee in the kitchen Skulduggery checked his mobile and contacted Ghastly, but I gathered from his side of the conversation that we still weren't allowed back at the Sanctuary. He turned to me, pleased with his latest bit of news. "Apparently one detective marched in to Ghastly's office and threatened to quit. Ghastly of course told him to if he wasn't man enough for the job. This of course led to all sorts of screeching and hand-wringing, and numerous complaints to Ghastly about emotional abuse and worker's rights, and all other sorts of things. Then of course the man implied Ghastly had no loving mother figure in his life and that's why he had no value for emotions."

"Ghastly punched him, didn't he?"

"Indeed he did."

"Ghastly got fired, didn't he?"

"Not fired, per se, but he is cooling his heels in his shop. Tanith was well enough to go with him, so it all works out for the best. Would you like to go for a visit?"

"I would love to, I've missed seeing Tanith."

"She has also missed you. Quite loudly, apparently. Well, come along then. I'm sure Tanith is going to ask you all sorts of inappropriate questions I don't even want to think about. Ghastly even suggested we come, so they are expecting us. Perhaps we'll get lunch afterwards, unless of course you'd rather I make a quick stop and then amaze you with my cooking skills once more."

"I'd honestly rather see you cook again, if you don't mind."

"I thought as much, it's because I'm so very impressive at it, isn't it?"

"Yes, yes it is."

Skulduggery asked me to leave the garage open and the key under the mat on the driver's side of the ivory Bentley so his mechanic could pick it up and I agreed. I knew he already loved that car as much as his own, and the loving pat he gave her as we left only reinforced the idea. Inside his own Bentley he sighed happily as he grasped the steering wheel before checking his disguise in the mirror. "Seat belt." He murmured. I complied even though he made no move to put the Bentley in drive. At last he turned to look at me. "This isn't a dream is it? I'm not still with the Faceless Ones and dreaming, am I?"

I hugged him tightly. "No you're not, Skulduggery. You're here with me now, and we're going to see our good friends, one of whom has about as much of a job left as you do. On the plus side, it isn't wartime or Ghastly would have shot the detective for desertion of duty. Tanith and I got some fine men for ourselves, and don't think we aren't aware of it." Skulduggery kissed me through the disguise, and I could feel his smile, I sat back as he turned on the radio and we enjoyed the music on the way to Ghastly's shop. We got there to see the Westering sun reflected off the windows, making the shop seem snug and secure.

Ghastly met us at the door, pulling me into a fatherly hug and ruffling my hair, then shook his head before allowing Skulduggery to pass him. Ghastly brought his hand up and gave Skulduggery a Gibbs slap to the back of the skull, drawing a yelp and an annoyed look. Skulduggery turned around in the hallway, clearly not enjoying the slap as he rubbed his skull after shedding his disguise. "That hurt, and what was that for?" He grumbled.

"Improving morale, my morale feels improved already." Ghastly said, beaming back at me. I laughed and followed him into the shop where Tanith sat snuggled on a couch in one corner. She tapped the seat beside her and I went over, accepting the tea she had ready for me.

"Couch is new, you seem to be a good influence on him." I teased.

She laughed softly and nodded. "He's a good influence on me too, I'm glad you made me go get treatment. Things are so much better now, I don't feel like running any more. I'm actually happy to be here, in one place, with him. He's seriously thinking of stepping down as an Elder, he knows he's not suited to it. I think that's what he's going to tell Skulduggery now."

We watched the two good friends disappear into the back room, closing the door after them. "Man talk." I snorted, bringing fresh laughter from Tanith. I laughed with her, then continued. "I hope he does step down, you two deserve the time together. You don't even have to say how serious things are now, Tanith, I can feel it."

"Very serious." Tanith agreed, bringing he hand forward to show me a golden band with delicate scrollwork. I admired it, realizing a sword had been worked into the pattern. I hugged her happily, and of course she admired the ring from Skulduggery as well. "Am I imagining things, or did Skulduggery have a ring on under his glove?" She asked.

"You're not imagining things. He more or less demanded something in return."

"You're marrying a very strange man."

"But a good one, and so are you, sis."

"True. But he won't spar with me. Says he refuses to hit the future mother of his children."

"Skulduggery's the same exact way. After everything settles down you and I have to start training together."

"Sparring, at your level you aren't training any more. Poor Skulduggery knows as much and he was proud when he told Ghastly. Broken-hearted too of course, since he likes being your teacher."

"He'll always have something to teach me. You should have seen his face when he saw the Bentley."

"You showed him? Good, it is about time you did. I'll never say a word about knowing first. But if you got her out Christine is gone, I'm guessing."

"Yes, she tore up a good chunk of the Sanctuary lawn. I'm not exactly welcome back there right now."

"None of us are, but that's what makes us exciting. Would you like to have a go? I moved all my stuff here when Ghastly invited me and your great grandmother's sword is here. Let's have a go, just some fun up on the roof." She grinned at me eagerly and I nodded, only too happy to go with her. I hadn't fought in what seemed like ages and I missed it.

Tanith led the way to the roof and gave me the sword. We fought lazily, more play fighting than anything, circling around one another. Tanith was very excited to see I no longer blocked with the sword. "I wondered when you'd drop that habit. I wondered too why Lovegate never said anything. I should have known then something was wrong with her. Still, this is impressive. Don't tell me Skulduggery taught you."

"He did actually. He's a far better swordsman than I ever realized." I was telling the truth too since Skulduggery was Vile, but I wasn't sharing that tidbit of information with Tanith when she was armed with a sword. I knew her temper and that she acted before she thought at times. I knew too I'd choose Skulduggery over her and didn't want it to come to that.

We started moving faster as the sun set, the cover of night granting us a certain freedom. Tanith got up on some pipes running the length of the shop, taunting me, to join her. "I know you can't get up here." She jeered. I simply stepped up through the air, then stood in midair right above the pipe, as surefooted as if I'd been on solid ground. I gripped my sword firmly, and nodded at her. Tanith gave me a crooked grin. "Come on and have a go, if you think you're hard enough."

We went for one another at the same time, swords flashing in the moonlight. The fight was joyous, if you could ever call any fight joyous. We spared, blocked and feinted, leaping as easily and agilely as cats and we moved across the rooftop. Tanith laughed and danced away at one point to run up the wall of the roof entrance and I leapt up to meet her. We were playing like this, tumbling back down to the roof, swords abandoned in a friendly tussle when the door to the roof opened. Ghastly just looked down at us as we grinned up at him.

"Most women get together and try on makeup or something." He grumbled good naturedly.

We both giggled and grinned like total gits as we got up, retrieving our respective swords. I handed my great grandmother's back to Tanith. "That was a lot of fun." I told her. "We have to do it again sometime." She agreed and hugged me. I went downstairs to leave with Skulduggery, leaving Tanith wrapped in Ghastly's arms, kissing him deeply on the moonlit roof.

We drove back home sedately, Skulduggery stopping at a store as promised, refusing to let me see what he'd bought. "I want you to be surprised." He teased, stroking my chin with his gloved hand. Skulduggery was extra attentive the entire drive home, and he ushered me into the living room instead of the kitchen when we arrived. "No coming in before I call you, agreed?" He tilted his head, and I nodded. "I'll get you coffee then."

He brought a cup and went back into the kitchen, telling me I could come back in when he had everything ready. I sat there sipping my coffee, enjoying the sounds of preparation from the kitchen, then he called me and I went in to see yet another new addition on the stove. It was a cast iron grill that covered two of the burners, and he had several steak skewers loaded with thick chunks of steak, sliced peppers and onions, and tomatoes going nicely on them. He basted as he cooked, and soon had the meal ready, some chopped potatoes he'd seasoned and put on the back of the grill on the side.

I could feel his pride as he sat me at the table and was able to present the food to me, and he watched me take my first bite attentively. "Skulduggery, this is amazing! You have to teach me how to cook."

"But you can cook, you do it all the time. I learned how to grill from you, don't you remember? I was visiting for no good reason and you had the grill going. You told me what to put in the marinade, how much, you showed me how to do this."

"But you never touched anything, you have a true gift for cooking, Skulduggery, you honestly do. Most cooks, myself included barely limp through a recipe the first time they try it. Even the best cooks are unsure. But you, nothing phases you."

"Well, I am good at everything I do, so when I wanted to cook at last it makes sense I was this good."

"You never wanted to cook before?"

"I've never minded feeding you of course, I like to. But having to cook to do it always seemed like too much of a bother. I could cook when I hunted of course, but there's hardly a spit and an open fire here. Thought we would get one, couldn't we? You should have rabbit off the spit, Valkyrie, you really should."

I grinned at his enthusiasm. "I like seeing you this excited, Skulduggery, so yes, we certainly could. I could even have the outdoor brick oven and grill moved over from the mansion if you like. I can't wait to see what you can do with a pizza." He preened, and I enjoyed it. When I was finished he happily collected my plate, putting the leftovers away in the fridge. We went to our office, neither one of us interested in TV or just lounging. Ghastly had smuggled what new leads and paperwork he could out of the Sanctuary, so we read over the reports.

It was an odd sensation. We knew our killer, we knew the cave well enough, but the detectives still dutifully searched for any additional information they could find. They still had nothing on the killer, but the cave system was apparently far larger than Gordon's book hinted. There were no reports of cave or killer doing anything, and at five days out both Skulduggery and I were restless for action. We finished reading the reports, batting around the sparse information lazily. "So, we know the cave is bigger than first excpected, but that's neither here nor there until we find out if it means anything." Skulduggery said, and I could hear the boredom in his voice.

"Right. How did you handle the boredom on cases before now?"

"I would call and annoy you, or come visit and annoy you."

"Annoy away."

"Did you enjoy sparring with Tanith?"

"Yes I did, she's fun to be with. Not as much fun as you, but she doesn't mind batting me around." I teased.

"But you two were play fighting, correct?"

"Yes, and it was fun too."

"You realize you handled a sword outside the armour?"

"I what?" I sat up, surprised.

"You didn't even realize it, did you?" He sounded amused. "You have the actual ability now, magical sword or not. I'm guessing you showed other abilities as well. I'd liked to have seen that." Now he sounded wistful.

"Mmm, I did walk up to her through the air, but it just seemed natural."

"You what?"

"I stood in midair too, but I've seen you do it before."

"Do you realize how few people can do that? We'll have to spar then, and soon. I want to see what else you can do, and I mean outside the armour. Do you think you can fly yet?"

"I doubt it. I had to walk up to her and stand on the air. I don't even understand the concept of flying to be honest."

"Then I'll teach you. But only if you agree that when we fly somewhere you let my carry you, I like that."

"Agreed."

We drove to the field, Skulduggery clearly eager to learn what else I could do. He was as gentle as when he first taught me, barely manipulating any of the elements and he tested to see what I could do. As we continued he curiosity increased, and he shot a fireball at my feet, causing me to leap up and automatically grab onto the air, hoisting myself higher as if a wall had been there. He cocked his head, utterly delighted.

He leapt up effortlessly to stand in midair across from me, walking back and forth, the wind catching his black duster and fanning it out around him. I knew he was using the impressive sight as a distraction, and I stood, ready for his attack. But he merely turned and cocked his head at me. "Flying isn't really so much different you know. It is more about pushing yourself forward as if you were swimming. I don't think you're quite ready yet, but you've certainly picked up a rare talent."

He flew over to me lazily, his head titled to one side in thought. "But can you maintain this with a distraction?" He asked, then snapped his palm out toward me, completely drenching me with the water he gathered. I used the air to push myself back out of range, then up and higher, Skulduggery rising to meet me. "You're flying, you know." He said, amused. I looked down automatically and would have fallen at the distraction, but he caught me easily. "So I'm still useful after all." He purred as I clung to him. I nodded and he gently landed.

"I think that is enough for one night, I'm very impressed you can do that out of your armour. Some sorcerors never learn to do half of what you can do now in an entire lifetime, I'm impressed, Valkyrie. But then I shouldn't be, you're my combat accessory, so of course you'll be impressive." He obligingly manipulated the water off me, a definite smirk on his skeletal features. I rolled my eyes and said nothing as we walked back to the Bentley. Skulduggery paused at my door, looking at me endearingly.

"It is evening you know." He said. I took him happily in my arms, initiating the kiss, thinking it was a fine tradition for us to have. Skulduggery responded then insisted he deserved a second kiss because we had been separated the night before. I agreed and we only separated when I heard an amused bark. "Cú Sídhe!" I called happily, kneeling down and the huge white dog galloped towards me, his red eyes glowing in delight. He licked me eagerly in greeting, then reared up to meet Skulduggery, his massive paws resting on his friend's shoulders.

Skulduggery chuckled in delight, rubbing the massive head stroking his muzzle to elicit whines of pure canine pleasure. Cú Sídhe got down, then looked at us before running back into the tall grasses on the side of the field. Then was a rustle, a sharp scream like a woman's, then silence. He trotted back out, the largest hare I'd even seen clamped proudly between his jaws. He laid it at Skulduggery's feet, then put a massive paw on his knee. Skulduggery laughed and nodded, turning to me.

"You get to taste wild game sooner than later, Valkyrie. Cú Sídhe adores anything cooked over an open flame. If you'd be good enough to help me find a suitable spot and clear away the grasses, I'll see about finding dead wood and something to craft a spit out of." We soon had a suitable area cleared to the bare earth, Skulduggery reminding me of the importance of not starting unwanted fires. One the wood was ringed with stone he showed me how to use two sticks to draw a spark to start the dried grasses, blowing on them gently to fan the flames. I watched him, wondered how he could even blow on anything, and he just looked over at me obviously enjoying my reaction.

Skulduggery got the spit set up then walked to the boot for a hunting knife I'd never seen before and came back. "You might want to look away, unless you want to learn how to skin a hare?" He cocked his head at me, his voice hopeful.

"If you're taking me hunting, I better learn, right?" Skulduggery nodded happily, showing me how to both skin and clean the hare, leaving the insides to Cú Sídhe who happily started in on them. Skulduggery set the rabbit of the spit, then settled down one the stone he'd found for us, looping an easy arm around my shoulders.

"You'll have to clean your first kill yourself of course, I'll insist. Be glad I have no intention of blooding you." He teased. Cú Sídhe heard him and came over, an insulted look on his face. He leant forward rubbing his bloody muzzle on me, than sat back on his haunches in pride.

"Thank you, Cú Sídhe, I appreciate the initiation." I said, resisting the temptation to wipe the blood off. Cú Sídhe growled happily then licked my face clean, trotting back to his meal, but not before giving Skulduggery a baleful glare.

When the rabbit had been turned enough and was at last ready it was deepest night, but I was content to lean back into Skulduggery and eat the rabbit he hewed off for me, Cú Sídhe eating the head with many crunches and gusto sat across from me. Skulduggery held me as I ate, and afterwards as the flames warmed me and I drowsed, he began to sing to me in Gaelic, and I soon fell asleep in his comforting arms.

Note: Blooding is an almost worldwide tradition. Depending on the area either the blood of the first kill seen or the first animal killed by the novice hunter is rubbed on the face "blooding" him or her into the tribe of hunters.