A/N: I don't own Valkyrie, Skulduggery, Erskine, Tipstaff, Jack, Billy-Ray, Tanith or Ghastly. Cain, Val, Ye Ye, Calamity and Laura Row are all my OCs, though. Chapter is in Val's POV.

I stared at the burning Sanctuary in disbelief. We'd seen this sort of thing done before, it sadly wasn't a new tactic, but we'd failed to get here in time. I had been sure that we would somehow heroically dismantle the bomb in time and save our friends. I chided myself for not donning my armour and just shadow-walking here, but it was too late for regrets now. We had funerals to plan, eulogies to write. So stupid, we could have been here in an instant not the twenty minutes it took us to arrive.

Wait, Twenty minutes, a bomb scare. I turned to Skulduggery. "Skulduggery, what is the normal evacuation plan for the Sanctuary?" I asked.

"We don't have one." He said dully.

"All right then, what would Ghastly do in an emergency? Think, Skulduggery! Tanith and the twins were in danger and we don't have that many employees on any given day, now do we? What would he have done?" I urged.

"He would have evacuated the twins, all the people, then left himself, but do you see anyone?" He asked, so angry that tears were starting to stream from his hollow sockets.

"No, I don't but why would survivors just stand in the open? Everyone had to be in a panic, had to have the instinct to flee, to hide. A bomb isn't something you stay and fight is it?"

Skulduggery shook his head sadly. "No, Valkyrie, no. If there are survivors then why aren't they coming out of hiding?"

"They forgot their magic, Skulduggery! They're most likely still terrified and more than a little humiliated, because I know I am. Why in God's name didn't I shadow-walk here or suggest our bomb techs dismantle whatever it was? I was in a panic, Skulduggery, the same as everyone else." I was angry at myself, but it was Skulduggery I was shouting at and that wasn't helping things much. I sighed. "Skulduggery, I'm sorry. I love you. And yes, I'm scared, upset and terrified that our friends are dead, but we have to at least try and find them, all right? You also have to get any Sensitives here to dissuade the mortals from seeing a burning building OK?" I asked, hugging him tight.

He nodded and dug out his mobile. I turned scanning the grounds. Survivors could have been anywhere. Maybe they had panicked and went below ground, maybe they were someplace else, but where? I looked towards the woods. Could they have found shelter in there? I approached slowly, knowing that any survivors could easily mistake me for an attacker at that point. I came close to the edge of the woods and stopped. There was nothing. No trails, no broken branches, nothing. Maybe nothing I could see with living eyes. I willed my armour to me and let my dead senses expand, easily seeing the many tracks of survivors, the places where they had entered the woods, then turning to the woods themselves to now easily see through the the camouflage of brush and branches.

I could sense the fear they all felt, and although I knew I risked having my head taken off by a magical blast I still called out. "I'd like a report on the number of survivors, Tipstaff, and that's an order!" I barked, and sure enough he came out of hiding to report to me.

"All present and accounted for. Elder Cain?" He asked uncertainly and I nodded. I wondered why he hadn't tripped into his alter ego but didn't mention it.

"What about the prisoners, were they evacuated?" I asked and Tipstaff looked rather helpless but another voice answered.

"The prisoners are safe, Val. The underground part of the Sanctuary is so heavily warded no damage would have been done to it. The cells themselves offer even more protection. In theory at any rate." Ghastly said, then sighed as he came forward to embrace me.

Other people emerged and soon we had everyone, a senseless Erskine included. I put my armoured hands on him, sending healing energy into him and his eyes opened weakly. "Valkyrie." He managed. "You two missed all the fun." He joked weakly.

"Did you see who attacked you?" I asked, and he shook his head no before he passed out. I sighed. Skulduggery had joined me and he and Ghastly were doing the best they could to direct the efforts to put out the fire.

Skulduggery came over to me. "Valkyrie, well, you can heal in that form, could you restore the Sanctuary?" He asked and I pondered his question. The damage wasn't as bad as we feared, in fact the blast had only taken out the Grand Mage's office, and set the Sanctuary on fire. With the flames now out I stared at the gaping hole.

"Let me ask you something first. What kind of terrorist gives everyone a chance to evacuate? Who then also knocks out the Grand Mage but doesn't harm him and blows up his office? Then gives us a hint with a creepy Christmas carol on his mobile?"

"Somebody who doesn't like the Grand Mage or Sanctuary much." Skulduggery said with a snort. "Look, I think it is too dangerous to take everyone back inside until we know more, but a Sanctuary has to be kept running. You might hate me for asking, but the mansion does have a lot of rooms-" He trailed off, stuffing his hands in his pockets. "Rubbish idea, sorry."

"Wonderful idea, Skulduggery. Let's get everyone together, see who wants to go home because I'm not holding anyone here, then offer up the mansion. We'll leave it to Ghastly, all right?" He nodded and we soon told the small crowd our plan.

A few did leave to go be with their families and I understood the reaction. But most stayed and we had people installed in the mansion in short order, much to Uncle Gordon's delight. Detectives and others swarmed in and out, getting things ready the best they could although with everyone except the gaolers forbidden from reentering the Sanctuary there was precious little for them to bring in except food and supplies that had been meant to go into the Sanctuary earlier that day and never gotten there.

Erskine came around and seemed to feel stronger. But I wasn't ready to push him on his past. I personally felt this wasn't about him, not entirely. The caller had had a perfect chance to kill him in the explosion, but in my armour I'd seen a vision of a slender person dressed all in black carrying him tenderly into the woods and laying him down.

I got the briefest glimpse of her pale white face and ruby red lips. She could have been a rival to China but her beauty was real, not magical. She'd kissed Erskine gently, then laid a red rose on his chest, done up in Christmas ribbon.

I hadn't shared the vision with Skulduggery yet, but I got the strongest sense that although they two had a relationship this just wasn't about them. There was something about the Sanctuary, a deep abiding hatred and it all tied into Christmas. Had we somehow triggered her by trying to bring back the old traditions?

Erskine looked at me. "What's the matter, Valkyrie?"

"I feel responsible. This person clearly has issues with Christmas if the call we got was any indication." I told him about the call and he went ash white.

"Oh, God, Valkyrie. I think I know who did this. A long time ago I was a detective at the Sanctuary, surprising, isn't it? I was total rubbish of course, but we had a detective, a brilliant mind, the best I've ever seen. She was a war hero as well and had a beauty to match China. We all admired her and she was always the one to keep things humming, but something went wrong for her. She'd always refused a partner, until she met me."

He stopped talking as Ghastly brought in tea for him and Skulduggery got him a blanket. The men clearly wanted to hover but I gave them a look to let them know he'd talk more without them there. The left, murmuring words of encouragement I don't think Erskine heard.

Erskine seemed to wait until they were gone then turned to me. "Her name was Laura Row. Row as in argument and that is about all we did, like you and Skulduggery. Until the day we realized we had feelings for each other. I was in love, Valkyrie, truly and deeply in love and so was she." He sighed and seemed to shiver, then continued. "We kept our relationship a secret. I wasn't any better a man in my youth that I am now, and I didn't want to ruin her reputation. It was bad enough she'd chosen me for a partner, people talked as you can imagine."

I nodded encouragingly and he continued. "But for her I had stopped, I swear that to you Valkyrie, I did. No more women, no more indiscretions. I stopped going to my usual clubs and spent all my time with her. I wish you could have met her, Valkyrie she would have adored you."

I smiled. "Erskine, I may have to arrest her, but I take it there is more to your story. And before you ask, all it takes is a nod from you and I'll let her go if we find her." He smiled gratefully.

"You're a rare woman, Valkyrie Cain. You understand men, and yes, I'd appreciate it if the case was fouled up. I can't arrest her, not for this, but I think it was a cry for help. I'll tell you why. We were serious enough that we were going to be married. We'd even found a chapel and intended to wed then let everyone know. We were to be married on Christmas Day."

"That was romantic of you and very sweet, but something went wrong, didn't it?" I asked gently.

"I got left at the altar. Oh, she showed up all right to tell me one of my women had shown up and told her I'd spent the previous night with her. She gave Laura a ring of mine that had gone missing just a few days earlier. Laura threw the ring at me and stormed out of the church and I never saw her again. And no, I did not cheat on her, I swear."

"I believe you." I said gently. "Women can be cruel and whatever woman did that wanted you both to pay for her not being with you. I'm sorry you had to go through that. But why is it a call for help?"

He produced the rose from inside his jacket. "I used to get her roses done up in ribbon whenever we had an argument to say I'm sorry. She left me this. I think she is reaching out to me for help. I suppose you want this for evidence." He offered it to me and I shook my head.

"Keep it. We know who she is and her relationship to you. But I don't think she is in this alone, and if she is this is about more than you." I told him about the vision I'd had and tears came to his eyes.

"Do you think she still loves me?" He asked.

"She might. It would explain getting you out of harm's way. But your office still exploded and the Sanctuary still had to be evacuated so I don't want you running off looking for her, Erskine. Unless-"

"Unless what?"

"Unless she was returning to you, to the Sanctuary, but then she would have stayed. We're missing something here. You didn't see who got the jump on you? She was strong enough to carry you, there's no shame in admitting she hit you."

Erskine shook his head. "If it had been her I'd have known. I just suddenly felt ill and slumped forward, like I'd been drugged. Please, Valkyrie, I know her. She was a good woman, if she's behind this she must have her reasons. Please." I nodded and rose to leave. "Valkyrie? You once asked why I'm never serious with women and now you know. After that I shut myself in. I told myself I'd never fall in love again, and I haven't because I still love her, and only her. Oh, Laura."

I smiled sadly at him and left. Ghastly and Skulduggery were busy so I went to the kitchen for some coffee and found Tanith and the twins. Tanith caught me in a tight hug. "What's going on?" She asked, concerned.

"I messed up is what's going on. I should have been there, Tanith. I should have-" But she cut me off with an angry gesture.

"You're not God, sis. You can be expected to be everywhere at once or prevent every bad thing from happening, so stop acting like you can."

I blinked. "You're right, and no one was hurt, but I feel like I should have been at work." Tanith came and took me by the chin making me look at her.

"Do you remember what happened the last time you spent too much time at work?" She asked gently. I nodded and she continued. "Well all right then. You go home now. We'll all get settled in the best we can, leaving a few folks here to let people in and out and the like. Go on, then. We'll be leaving soon as well."

I found Skulduggery and we left. He looked over at me as he drove. "What did Erskine tell you?"

I sighed. "He knows who did it, or we think he knows. We just have my vision and his rose to go on." I told him what Erskine said and he listened carefully.

"Well, well, before my time. But she won't be the first disgruntled lover or ex-detective to show up and cause havoc. I trust you're instincts though, Valkyrie. She isn't in this alone, or if she is she has reasons, more than feeling scorned or she'd have had her revenge in a bloodbath. No, this was thoughtful, planned out, we're being sent a message."

My armour flowed over me without my bidding and I got another vision. Skulduggery to his credit didn't seem to be wrecking the Bentley, but all I knew was my vision. Laura, walking away from Erskine into the woods, watching as two men dressed as Sanctuary detectives came out the front doors. Watching over Erskine as the evacuations started, then retreating to her car on the other side of the woods. She jogged easily. Once there she got out her mobile. "He's out. Thanks so much for letting me rescue him." She said bitterly then rang off and put her head down on the steering wheel and wept.

We were home and I was on the couch, my armour having retracted on its own when I came to. Two very frightened children were looking at me and I held out my arms. "Guys, shh, it's OK, all right? You know all about my armour. It's never done that before but I needed it for some reason."

Cain pressed into me and I realized Ye Ye was right. Although he could be his father's double he was still a terrified baby, not even two years old yet. He clung to me and started to cry and I soothed him as Valkyrie climbed in between us.

"It's OK, sweethearts, really. Mom's OK. I just got a vision, I told you about those. Like a dream, that's all."

"You wouldn't wake up, Mom." Cain sobbed and I stroked his back. Skulduggery and Ye Ye came in the room with strong coffee and food for everyone. Ye Ye cooed and prattled to the children soothing them, giving Skulduggery a moment alone with me.

"What happened, Valkyrie? You scared me."

"I think the armour is almost sentient in a way. Or I was getting a vision and it came to me, either way I needed the protection. But she's in on this unwillingly. Oh, I kind of promised we'd foul up her capture, sorry."

Skulduggery smiled. "I'd planned on it. I've never seen Erskine in love before, I pity the man."

"So do I. I'm sure she still loves him, the way she kissed him. It isn't her after him, it is our mysterious caller. I wish Laura wasn't wrapped up in this. I think she was coming back to us, Skulduggery. But somebody is blackmailing her, I know they are."

He nodded. "Another gift from Lord Vile, I think. He could know almost anything about anyone if he wanted to, it came from his armour and you do have a bit of him in your armour after all, you lucky girl you." He teased.

I snorted, then smiled at him. "Yeah, I am a lucky girl. I didn't mean to yell at you, you're a wonderful husband and partner, not to mention best friend." I said, touching his skeletal cheek tenderly. He smiled in response, then was kissing me deeply. Giggles interrupted us and we both blushed and sat up. It was wonderful to be home with my family and having dinner and I realized how lucky we'd been. Whoever was blackmailing Laura was not overly evil.

He'd let her take a drugged Erskine to safety and although toying with us he'd allowed the evacuation. Whether he waited for our arrival or not I wasn't sure, but he'd wanted to make a statement. I heard a knock on the front door and went to check who it was before opening. Springheeled Jack stood there. I let him in and he doffed his top hat to me. "Evenin', missus. I just heard about the Sanctuary, just now. Erskine wants protection 'cause of it, so seein' as how we're rather short staffed from the scare, we're the best he could do."

He stepped aside more fully and Billy-Ray and Calamity walked in. I looked at them. "Not that you aren't both welcome, but the last time you were here-" I shrugged helplessly.

Calamity laughed and waved a hand. "Them Cleavers ain't worth spit, hon. We got ourselves a real scrapper here this time." She nodded to Jack.

I wasn't sure why or when he and Billy-Ray had made peace but I was thankful then that they had. "Well, come on in then, we're just having dinner we've got plenty."

They came in and the children squealed in delight to see them. I was glad they were there. I didn't sense any danger since the threat had been directed at Erskine, but it never hurt to be careful and it would be great catching up with Calamity. I wanted another woman's view on the case and I hadn't been able to confide in Tanith because she would have told half the Sanctuary. That and although still friendly and loving I knew she resented me hiring Billy-Ray. I didn't blame her.

Calamity and I had left the rest of the family eating and went into the kitchen. I told her what had happened and she whistled. "You reckon this here blackmailer fellah got some kind of thing for Miss Row?"

I nodded. "God only knows what he's making her do, Calamity, but she is tangled up in this somehow. I think they worked together, maybe she's the reason two non-detectives were able to get in and out. We already know he was drugged and the explosives were set, most likely by them."

Calamity seemed thoughtful. "Like that cave spirit thing, can regular people do that? Cloud minds and everythin'? Gives me the shivers just thinkin' about it."

"Indeed the can." Skulduggery answered from the doorway. "An Adept ability or a Sensitive whichever word you prefer. But if that was her doing it will be ever harder to let her get away." He sighed. This of course warranted an explanation so we all went back to the living room and told everyone, the children included the story.

Ye Ye tilted his head thoughtfully but said nothing. Jack whistled and Billy-Ray looked nervous for some odd reason. "What's the matter?" I asked.

He shook his head angrily. "How're we supposed to fight a bomb? What if they'd made a mistake and it was too strong or it went off early?" He growled and gestured to Calamity. She of course cuffed him smartly on the ear and I tried not to laugh.

"Now you just hold on a second, Billy-Ray. You ain't no innocent pup. You we're one of them people that was all set to let the Faceless Ones in. You can hardly be judgin' some poor gal that got herself roped into all this."

Billy-Ray rubbed his ear and grumbled. "Well, it ain't like I ever done nothin' like that. There's limits." I shook my head. Had the kids not been present I'd have given him and earful. He had on many occasions tried to kill me, and I truly did not see the difference in bombs or straight razors but he did. He must have read my mind. "My razor gives people a sportin' chance, little darlin'." I snorted laughter but said nothing. The children adored him and he was a reformed man. I smiled at him so he knew there were no hard feelings.

"Until we know why she is involved we are all to be worse than useless when it comes to her arrest, OK?" I asked and they all agreed.

Val stared at me in shock. She was strictly by they book. I had no idea where she got it from. "Look honey, uncle Erskine was in love with her and she is still in love with him. We aren't saying she won't answer for taking part, but well, to protect uncle Erskine we're letting her go. For now, OK?"

She nodded and was about to reply when my mobile rang. Tipstaff.

"Tipstaff? Is everything all right?" I asked and was met with a shaky laugh.

"Yes, yes. It's just that there's something going on, isn't there? Something I'm not trusted to know about. I want to help, Valkyrie. I'm of no use whatsoever until the Sanctuary is cleared and with the scare I'm afraid we'll be in the mansion a few more weeks."

"I'll give you something I need done. When it is safe I'm going to need you to go through the old case files in the basement. We want a criminal going back to when Erskine was a detective."

"Our Grand Mage was a detective?" Tipstaff sounded surprised.

"Yes, it was news to me too, I want you to protect him too, OK? This might involve just him, I was thinking it was against the Sanctuary, but no, the more I think of it, it is all about him. We want a criminal who would have been transfered and just broken out of a gaol or been released recently. Can you do that?"

Tipstaff assured me he could and rang off, clearly happy to be of some use. I caught Skulduggery's stare and shrugged. "Erskine has a way of ticking people off, mostly men." I said pointedly and he nodded. Erskine had after all admitted he'd been seeing other women up until his partner.

Could an angered man related to a scorned woman be responsible? And what about the woman who had ruined his chance at happiness? We always assumed bad guys were men. But it was easy enough for a female mage to pass as a man, especially if she dressed right.

I had more questions than answers and tried to put the case out of my mind for the rest of the evening as Ye Ye told stories. I knew from the glances he gave me every so often that he was curious about the case. He'd seen me convince the others to foul up finding a woman who could be the ringleader for all we knew. I'd had a vision after all but had jumped to conclusions. What if she was behind everything? What if the call was to a jealous lover? I sighed and tried to let the case go.

That night I had nightmares. Nightmares where no one evacuated, where the bodies of my friends and family lay strewn in rubble all because I had forgotten my magic. Nightmares where Laura laughed as she drove away, having masterminded the whole thing in a jilted lover's revenge. Some mages after all took centuries to get around to revenge. I woke up before dawn not wanting to sleep again. A fierce storm was rolling in and I went to the window to watch as lightning danced across the sky and thunder boomed.

The case weighed on me because I felt guilty, I knew that. I also knew Tanith was right. If I let myself get sucked into the role of Sanctuary guardian and ever-present Elder I'd loose my family. I was only human after all. The thought reminded me of an old song by Level 42 and I went to turn on the computer in our office to listen to it online. The power was out. But it shouldn't be. We had a back up generator. I tensed feeling my armour flow over me.

I opened myself to my dead senses. There was a living being nearby. Not anyone who belonged there either. I stalked through the house following the signal that seemed to get fainter as I approached. I opened the front door, barely able to feel the presence now and was meant with howling wind and lashing rain. Thunder boomed and lightning struck the ground close by as I looked down and saw the limp form of Laura Row on our doorstep.

The plot thickens!