A/N: I don't own Valkyrie, Skulduggery, Erskine, Ghastly, Anton, Lord Vile, Darquesse, Tanith, Saracen, Tesseract, Dexter, Dusk, Springheeled Jack or Bily-Ray.
As we gathered in the cabin that night Cain and Val took me aside. ""We want to fight." Cain said.
I sighed. "That's not how the Dead Men do things, Cain. First there will be a meeting, a leader elected, then we will see. You're very young."
"But you were younger when you went to war." Val protested. I was going to respond but Erskine walked over to us, clearing his throat.
"We're ready." He said gently. I nodded and we all gathered in the now crowded living room. Erskine called for order. "All right, if there are no objections I move that the Dead Men reunite for this battle." We each got to vote, well, those of us who were Dead Men, then elected a leader. "I nominate Skulduggery for leader in the field." Erskine said and we all agreed. I watched the others carefully. Anton looked tense and I knew he was well aware he may be leaving a young woman behind forever.
Skulduggery looked at all of us. "Thanks to my superior hearing I know my offspring wish to fight in this battle. They've been trained by both of us and by Lord Vile and Darquesse as well." I arched a brow at this, but said nothing. Everyone there know that's who we were, but they made no comment. "This will be their first war." He continued, "But then Valkyrie fought in a war with us at a younger age and somehow managed to survive."
There were snorts of laughter, then it was put to a vote. Ghastly voted yes with a sigh. "You are my grandchildren, you know." He said, looking at them wearily.
Erskine also voted yes, adding that he remembered holding them as babies and I caught the theme. Soon we'd all agreed, but added such fond memories that we were sure the children would be guilted into backing down and spare us from burying them. They didn't.
Skulduggery's vote was last and he stared at them both for the longest time. All it would take was his refusal and they'd have to go home. But we all knew the truth. They'd be safer with us on the battlefield than anywhere else and at last he nodded yes. A sense of relief filled the room and battle plans were drawn. Cain looked faintly bored as the meeting wore on and Val swatted him. "Save it for tomorrow." I growled.
They seemed about to object when all the Dead Men stared at them, their expressions stony. Anton spoke. "I wasn't aware we were taking children into battle." The icy tone from the man they loved like an uncle did the trick and they settled down.
Anton turned to Skulduggery. "Are Lord Vile and Darquesse making an appearance? And if we have them, why bother with anyone else?"
Skulduggery answered. "Because they work like scatter guns. And if they missed the vampire or even one wendigo in their attack, as unlikely as that might be, the enemy might have a response we don't know about. Remember, they can both still die, supposedly immortal or not." He shot me a glance of apology and I shrugged.
I'd thought as Darquesse I'd made Tanith and Ghastly immortal, that I myself was immortal, but who really knew? Anton nodded. "Fair enough. And you're right. We're expecting them to show up and solve all our problems, but even they can't, can they?" I heard the slightest tremor in his voice and he excused himself to call his fiancee, Tanith, daughter of the elder Tanith and Ghastly. Ghastly sighed.
"War is Hell." He said. "I could use some tea, any takers?" We all nodded and I rose with him. I knew who'd rather have coffee. I looked at Melody as I rose and she smiled wanly. She and Tesseract would help, but the Dead Men tended to be clannish. We hadn't even welcomed the children as members and I didn't think we would.
The next day at dawn we arose and saw to breakfast. The children, still cowed from Anton's harsh words were unusually quiet, but he'd done the same thing to me during the war. He hadn't meant to be cruel. They needed to toughen up and be ready for anything and if some hurt feelings made them better fighters than so be it. But he seemed disturbed when they only solemnly nodded when he greeted them in the morning.
"Cain, Val." He said gently. "If you two are going to fight in wars and go on missions as Dead Men you have to be tough and have discipline. We all tore into your mother one one occasion or another during the war, but we had to. There's no room out there today for not having heard something because you were goofing off." They nodded.
"We apologize." Val managed, then she squeaked happily and started digging into her breakfast with gusto. I knew it had to be Skulduggery's idea to elect them as Dead Men to boost their morale and it worked. I looked at him and he smiled and shrugged. The happy mood at the table might have seemed strange to other people, but we were glad to have new members.
They children were welcomed in with the usual hugs after breakfast, and both Cain and Val clung to me tightly. I think it had hit them how dangerous the day would be. "You'll do fine." I assured them, but the truth was I wasn't sure any of us were coming back alive.
We walked into the woods, Loquacious joining us. "You know, we're all calling you Prolix from now on." Skulduggery muttered. "It's easier to fit in edgewise. Maybe you can talk the vampire to death." He grumbled. Saracen, walking behind them by my side smiled at me.
"Now he has someone else to be nasty to. I seem to remember you two fighting all the time. Those we're the days." He said with a grin. Prolix as we were now calling him was nattering back at Skulduggery. Kitted out in about the same black clothes for battle they looked like the twins they were.
"Brother, there's something I've been meaning to tell you-" Prolix began, starting to fish underneath his clothes but Skulduggery held his hand up, his skull cocked. He was listening attentively to something and with one glance he got Saracen's nod. The group had stopped dead, right outside of...what?
We couldn't see it, but Skulduggery turned. "He's using the air for a forcefield and giving us an illusion to cloak his troops. He wanted us this close to launch his attack." He cursed them shrugged and walked forward. Instantly the illusion dropped and we saw the truth.
The vampire had gathered an army just as Tesseract had feared and now our opposing sides were running towards one another, and the cursing and screaming began. The wendigos seemed to be everywhere at once and I barely got my armour up in time to protect my throat as one rounded a tree and leapt at me. Incredibly strong, he clung on even after decapitation.
A blast of fire hit him and the corpse went up with a whoosh. I looked over and smiled at Ghastly then summoned my shotgun. I took out two wendigos with the Necromancer magic it blasted, then the loads burst into shrapnel and found four more targets, but it was too slow and there were too many of them.
I was grateful that we were clashing deep in the woods, shielded by magic from mortal eyes. My armour alerted me to a danger I hadn't noticed and soon I was turning and charging towards a wendigo who'd been sneaking up behind me. He launched himself towards me, clawed hands outstretched, teeth ready to delver a killing bite and I met him in midair and we tumbled to the ground as the battle raged around us. All of the Dead Men were fighting, so were the children, Tesseract, and Melody but we knew it was a loosing battle.
There were simply too many of the enemy and two few of us. I saw Tesseract behead three of them with a whirling dance and his machete, but only Val's slicing shadows protected him from a wendigo that had leapt from behind the growing pile of bodies. We hadn't dared call the vampires in for fear they would side with the enemy and now it was too late. Neither Lord Vile or myself could launch massive attacks from above to take out the enemy without killing allies and I made a mental note for us to go into battle alone the next time the world was ending.
I at last managed to kill the beast on top of me using my shadows and rose as quickly as possible. The wendigos were starting to scale the trees to drop from above and if they did that it would be all over. I called to Vile and he nodded and we started blasting the creatures with shadows. They screamed as they fell, only to be ravaged and eaten by their ever-hungry comrades.
Loquacious called to me. "Valkyrie! As Darquesse you can do what needs to be done! Remove my pendant!" I was surprised, but he was tugging a strange pendant out. I shifted into Darquesse and ripped off the pendant. Immediately Loquacious started to shift into something bigger, stronger. Transformation complete he threw back his lupine skull and howled. A werewolf, great. Now we had a werewolf loose.
There were answering howls and wolves and werewolves came hurtling into battle from God knows where, savagely taking down the wendigos two at a time. More allies poured in, blurs that hurtled too fast for me to see even as Darquesse. Dusk and the other vampires had arrived. I had no idea how they knew we needed help but I nodded my thanks to him and his mate as they launched themselves at the vampire known to us only as Count Orlock. But I had to worry about recalling my armour to me more than anything else.
The tide slowly seemed to be turning in our favor but too slowly. As I impaled several more wendigos on spikes of shadows I saw Prolix savagely tearing into several at a time with his claws. I didn't have time to admire him as more wendigos seemed to surge out of nowhere and out of desperation I took the orb Lord Vile had given me and tossed it into the air. Higher and higher it flew, pulsing a hellish green light that could be seen even in the day, then blasts of energy hit ever wendigo present and they were simply gone. I risked a glance at Orlock who threw Dusk and his mate off as if they were mere ragdolls.
Snarling he withdrew a black staff from his ebon robes, pointed at Cain, and fired. My son screamed and dropped. He'd been hit with Necromancy but on a level I'd never seen. I rushed over to him, desperate to help, but knowing as he lay dreadfully still it might already be too late. I pushed back the visor of his helmet and could see his bones were already getting weaker, starting to crumble into fine dust. My son was dying. "Mother, it hurts." He gasped and I laid my armoured hands on his plated chest, willing him to live.
I was pouring as much healing into him as I'd done for Tanith, but he was still dying before me. "He needs Darquesse." I looked up at the otherworldly voice and saw Vile beside me already kneeling. "And me, we do this together." He said, and I nodded grimly, knowing what our sacrifice would be.
I let my darkness flow over me and I was Darquesse for one final time and I and Lord Vile sacrificed all that was us to save our son. I doubted either of us would live but it would be worth it to know Cain would. As my vision started to blacken around the edges I realized I couldn't see Melody anywhere. She and Count Orlock were gone. Then the blackness took me and I didn't care about anything.
I came to in stages, so weary I felt like dying all over again. I was being carried on a litter beside Lord Vile who laid dreadfully still. I blacked out again and when I came to we were in the living room of the cabin. Prolix was talking soothingly while Cain and Val sobbed so hard their bones were shaking. The Dead Men all were grieving. I tried to sit up but groaned and fell backwards, too weary to move.
There were yells and suddenly the children were kissing my face and hugging me, their tears of joy blending with my own. "It figures they love you best." A wonderfully velvety voice grumbled from my left. I turned my head and saw Skulduggery. He smiled weakly at me and the children turned to fuss over him as well. I smiled at him then closed my eyes, only wanting sleep.
When I came to again I was hungry and able to sit up with help from Ghastly and Prolix. We were still in the cabin, which made me blink in surprise. "How long?" I asked groggily.
Ghastly answered. "Two days, but you're both back now. So is Mel. She helped heal you, along with Prolix." I looked at her and she smiled shyly. "Not to get you too excited but Dusk and his mate took the vampires after Orlock and literally ripped him into little bits. He's truly dead now, his remains destroyed." I sighed in relief as I accepted coffee from Dexter. He looked terrified.
"Only one question." I said. "You all had a chance to kill Lord Vile and Darquesse. To make us pay for our crimes. Why didn't you?" I asked. Saracen answered.
"Every man here has done terrible things, Valkyrie. If you must die for your crimes, we must die too. It would never end. Besides. Lord Vile and Darquesse helped save the world. Had the contagion spread or Orlock created a vampire army as well-" He shrugged helplessly. Dusk's mate came forward and for the first time I realized the vampires were in the room.
For once Dusk didn't seemed inclined to kill me and I noticed his scar was gone. His mate spoke. "All of what he told Melody were lies. He was a super vampire of sorts, created in a lab. He could pass his powers onto her because that is what he was designed to do. He was, shall we say, deactivated by an electronic implant, but reactivated himself. But now the beast is gone."
Dusk came to her side. "Vampires must be taught by those who turn them. How to resist change, how to prevent mindless rampages that would get us all hunted down and killed. Orlock planned to simply create and release vampires. That could not be allowed. Also, we like our allies." I highly doubted that and was happy when they left the cabin shortly after and I simply rested, eating when I could with Skulduggery beside me.
Several days later we were carried into the van. We could stand, but barely. Tesseract had promised to drive us home and the Dead Mean were leaving. We made our goodbyes and Ghastly carried first Skulduggery, then me to Tesseract's massive bed. The children sat across from us on Val's bed and Prolix, having agreed to leave the woods now that his secret was out rode shot gun.
"We're planning a nice leisurely trip, you two. There will be stops for meals and food and you will have attendance danced upon you." Prolix said as we started out. Skulduggery grunted beside me. The only thing he cared about was that the Bentley was safely secured in a trailer attached to the rear of the RV.
"Thank you, Prolix." I replied. "Tesseract, this isn't a problem?"
"Nyet. I mean no, no problem. My little Kyrie came up with the idea, I highly approve. You two are still as you are, by the way. You can't give up who you are anymore that I can loose this mask."
"Mom, how did you two-" Val started and I smiled over at her.
"Honey, immortal really means we will live for such a very long time that it will seem like forever. Even we can die. Didn't I explain that?" I asked and she shook her head, scared. "Don't be sad sweetheart. Those of us who chose will live for thousands and thousands of years, the rest still have centuries more to be with us."
"But why did they all refuse?" Cain put in.
"Anton misses too many people already, and Dexter and Saracen feel death being part of life is what makes it so special. We have no right to force a choice on them." I said gently. Val nodded sadly. I knew what she was thinking. Her best girlfriend was going to marry Anton shortly and he'd refused the gift. But that was his choice. He'd reasonably pointed out that it would never end. That there would always be a new Dead Man, or girlfriend or lover, or whomever and I'd be forever creating immortals as Darquesse. If I could.
I had wondered about that myself. Skulduggery had voiced his doubts often enough that I no longer believed it myself, really. But it had seemed real and I knew I'd gifted those I'd helped in some way. The only way to tell would be to wait thousands of years and see.
"We're being followed." Skulduggery said beside me, drawing me out of my thoughts. He'd sat up enough to see out of the window and I followed his gaze. We were leaving the woods at long last, but all the Dead Men stayed on our tail. Erskine leading with Springheeled Jack beside him grinned and waved cheerfully. Jack looked an unpleasant shade of green.
"What happened to him?" I asked, alarmed.
Cain laughed softly. "A wendigo attacked the cabin and fought him shortly after we left for the battle and he killed it. Being Jack he tried to eat it as well and gave himself a terrible stomachache. He'll be OK." I smiled over at him in relief. Jack had been left behind with Charles in case we didn't return. They knew they would have had to go for help. I hadn't even though of the wendigos bothering them, but they had.
The drive was indeed leisurely. We hit a place for breakfast and although we wanted to go inside to eat, the others insisted on bringing our food to us. "I'm not that blessed tired." Skulduggery mumbled sleepily from beside me. I grunted my agreement, though in truth we had to be awakened to eat our take away.
Tesseract and Loquacious ate with us and the kids. It felt cozy, like we were a family, and in reality we were. We gathered around the table that lifted from the floor and ate slowly, Prolix watching over Skulduggery and Val keeping a watchful eye on me. There were so many things I wanted to say as I sipped my coffee and ate my eggs, but like Skulduggery I was too tired to talk much.
Only when Cain looked guiltily at us did I find the strength to respond. "This is all my fault." He said, looking between us, worriedly.
"No, Cain. This is Orlock's fault. He chose what he became, he chose to attack you so he could take Melody. Once you have your own children you'll understand what we did. Our lives meant nothing if one of you died." I said and he nodded, tears streaming from his empty eye sockets. "How is Mel?" I asked and he shrugged. I made a mental note to talk to her and soon, but sleep was calling me and soon Skulduggery and I were in the bunk, dead to the world.
We were awakened at the next rest stop by Melody herself, performing a healing on us. "Hey!" She beamed down at me. "Let's stretch our legs, OK?" I nodded. She walked with me while Skulduggery walked with the children. We felt a lot stronger and I knew we had her to thank.
"Mel-" I began to thank her, but she cut me off.
"No thanks needed. It's the least I could do. I feel so guilty about letting him take me in like that." She shivered.
"Mel, if the situation had been reversed, and Cain had been the one lured away by a vampire, would you blame him?" I asked.
"No-" She said doubtfully. And I knew she would have and didn't blame her. Jealousy was normal in humans. Not logical, but normal.
"Mel, you had a terrible thing done to you. You had your free will taken away from you. It was no different than if he'd raped you. He was going to kill you. Don't you dare feel guilty for what he did to you, ever." I said firmly and she stopped walking and hugged me.
"Thank you." She whispered as she hugged me tightly. I met Skulduggery and he gave me a smile as we watched Melody drift over to Cain.
"They're going to be all right if they don't make the same mistakes we did." He murmured and I nodded absently. Something was bothering me, something from a long time ago, before we were married but what? I felt something shift in my pocket and dug out the old Nissan emblem Leap had given me. He said it would be useful some day, but here and now? Skulduggery looked at it, then looked away guiltily and it clicked.
"This emblem was never meant for me, was it? It was meant for you. Skulduggery, what does it mean?" I asked and he stared at me sadly.
"It means you are either going to love me for all eternity or hate me forever. Let's get into the trailer, there's something in the boot of the Bentley I should have shown you before we got married." Tesseract let us in happily enough then left us in privacy. Skulduggery hesitated before opening the boot. He stared at me. "Just remember that I love you, and I never told you the truth before because I know you. You aren't going to take this well at all."
At first I thought he was joking, but he opened the boot and got an old wooden box out of a hidden compartment. There was a grooved depression on it that must have been a lock that the car emblem would fit perfectly. But the box looked centuries old. Skulduggery shrugged helplessly and handed both over to me. "That was made for me a long, long time ago to keep the things I treasured most. Once you see them I know you'll remember and I know you'll leave me, but I couldn't tell you, I still don't want to."
"Then destroy it, Skulduggery." I said, offering the box back to him. "I don't have to know if it is going to ruin our marriage. I love you so much, you know that." But he shook his head and insisted it was time. Fearfully I put the emblem in the depression and twisted. There was a soft click and the box opened slightly.
Frightened of what might be inside I lifted the lid and stared at the contents. I knew I should say something, but I was close to hyperventilating. No. I shook my head in disbelief. It wasn't possible. Skulduggery would have told me. We were partners and best friends. He would have told me. I would have understood. I reached inside and touched the contents, a million memories joining those already flooding my mind. It was too much and I felt dizzy and staggered backwards. I barely managed to shut the box and looked at him. "Why, Skulduggery? Why didn't you ever tell me? Why?" I asked.
"Because I knew you'd hate me for it, Valkyrie. And before you ask, yes, I recognized you. Not at first of course, and then when I had- I wanted to let you go in the worst way, to let you live your own life without me. But I couldn't. And there was always the possibility that I had gone entirely insane. That it wasn't possible that you were who I thought you were. Your alter ego? That's who you were before."
I breathed and sagged back against the wall. Then I laughed and he looked up in surprise. "So you married a homicidal maniac twice?" I asked and he grinned sheepishly at me. "Then how did China manage to beat me? Oh, right. I was pregnant with- Lord, they came back too, didn't they, Skulduggery?" I asked and he flashed a fragile smile. "But how?"
"Lord Vile may or may have not had something to do with it, but that's all I'm saying. And it hurt him to fight you, you know. In his defense he was more angry with himself than anything. He loved you so much that having to fight you, well, he does have anger management problems." He smiled and helped me up.
"Moron." I said gently, then pulled him into a searing kiss. "Shall we tell the others?" I asked as we walked back outside to join them.
"Not yet. I think Ghastly knew somehow. I really think he did. Sorry I didn't tell you, but I expected it would repulse you more than anything to be honest."
"Never. I'll admit it is the strangest thing I've ever heard of, but- Oh. It was me who gave you your Necromancy abilities, wasn't it? So I made Lord Vile in a way." I grinned at the thought and Skulduggery nodded, smiling. "I'm surprised you didn't shoot Fletcher or Caelan then. Sorry about that." I apologized but Skulduggery waved me off cheerfully.
"Think nothing of it. Well, shall we rejoin the others?" He asked offering me his arm, his grin absolutely wicked.
"We shall." I agreed and we walked out further into the bright sunshine, barely able to restrain ourselves from letting our shadows writhe in anticipation.
No, it wouldn't be worldwide slaughter, but the two are now sort of dark good guys, but they always have been, more or less. Yes, I made a major edit to the chapter, but this always made sense to me. Comments help greatly, you know.