A/N: I don't own Valkyrie, Skulduggery, Darquesse, Lord Vile, Ghastly, Tanith, Erskine, Dex, Jack, Gordon or Saracen.
I managed to pick up my mobile and spoke into it. "Sweetie, sweetie? Where are you?" I asked, but by this time Val was crying helplessly. I heard a muffled sound then Cain's voice came on the line.
"We're at the mansion, mom. Please hurry." He sounded terrified.
"We will." I managed, then rang off. I looked at Skulduggery, rage starting to mix with my sadness and panic. I knew it would kill me to go to them right now by shadow-walking. But it wouldn't kill Darquesse, would it? Darquesse could not only go to her children, but find Tesseract and paint the walls with the blood of whomever took him.
I started an angry growl and could feel myself giving in, becoming Darquesse, but Skulduggery had risen when I'd stood and he took me in his arms. "No, Valkyrie. Not like this. We don't kill anymore, not like this." I heard the pain in his voice and saw the tears streaming from his eye sockets. I totally lost it then and sobbed, burying my face in his shirt front.
Skulduggery soothed me. "Valkyrie, you would have killed yourself, you know you would have. So would I at this point, we're not strong enough yet. Do you really want to let Lord Vile loose on a mindless rampage? Because that is what will happen if I loose you again. Come on now. Be brave." I laughed through my tears.
"I hate 'be brave'. It always means you have a rubbish plan." I joked weakly and he smiled at me. "What is it this time?" I asked, hoping he had a good one.
"We drive to the mansion and stay with our kids. Then we'll see from there. We'll get him back, Valkyrie, I promise." I nodded, hoping he was right. Then I gave myself a mental shake. He was right. One way or another, Skulduggery was rarely wrong. I had to be strong now for him, and the kids.
I managed a shaky smile as he drove as fast as possible. "You're right, as always, Skulduggery. I just remember how hard loosing you to the Faceless Ones was. I blamed myself. I still do." I shrugged and he looked shocked.
"Never, Valkyrie! I chose the kind of life I lead. You were no more responsible for me than Val is for Tesseract. But we'll get him back, don't you worry. He's too determined to see his bride again to give up, I can tell you that much. Knowing my best friend would save me one day, that's what got me through." He said, smiling at me as he took my hand.
I smiled back at him, feeling a sense of calm and soon enough we'd arrived to find every light in the mansion blazing. "I hate being an adult some days. I hope they're OK." I said as we pulled up in front of the mansion and Skulduggery braked smoothly.
"They will be." He promised, bringing a gloved hand up to caress my face. I wanted to loose myself in the sensation but our babies needed us. We got out and Cain was already running towards us.
"Mom! It's Val! She's just curled up in a ball and is rocking herself." He was crying and I hugged him briefly then handed him off to Skulduggery as I continued to charge into the mansion. I didn't even hesitate to barge into Val's bedroom as scoop her into my arms. I staggered slightly, but carried her into the kitchen, roaring at the top of my lungs for Uncle Gordon to get downstairs and help and get down there NOW. I wanted to deactivate his Echo Stone. How dare he leave my baby alone and afraid?
"Mama, mama, don't let go." Val said faintly as she refused to let me seat her. So I sat in the chair with her in my lap and asked the men to see to some coffee and food. Melody joined us, wide-eyed, and started to help with the preparations. I thanked her and Skulduggery nodded his thanks. Cain made sure Uncle Gordon's Echo Stone was brought down and I frowned. He should have been able to make the kitchen without the stone being brought. Unless something was wrong. He looked woozy and I was worried about him. I rocked my baby, crooning nonsensical loving words to her over and over. What a time for Jack and Charles to be on vacation. I thought.
Skulduggery took command, treating our case as our first priority. "Val? Val, honey?" He asked and she turned her skull towards him slowly.
"Daddy?" He voice was a pathetic squeak.
"Yes, daddy, angel." He agreed. "Did you see the bad guys?" He asked, speaking in the soothing way he had with terrified witnesses.
"No, but there's blood in the RV and there was a note. Daddy!" With that she was off my lap and into his arms. I stood and helped Cain with the food and coffee he'd silently taken over.
"You're the best son ever, you know that?" I asked and he nodded glumly. I pulled him into a tight hug. "Sweetheart, what is it? Is everything all right?" He started shaking uncontrollably. Melody answered for him.
"He's terrified. Val went out right before she called you to spend the night with Tesseract-sorry, Val-and that's when she found the smashed up trailer and the note." Val growled in reply and I smiled. "What are you smiling at?" Melody asked, clearly dumbfounded.
"If she's growling, she's ready to fight back." Cain and I said at the same time. We all gathered around Val and she looked stronger. Her jaw was set in determination and I swear there was an angry glint in her eye sockets. It made me glad that we'd never encouraged the children to shadow-walk or I knew she'd be off fighting on her own.
Gordon turned out to be OK and Skulduggery insisted he come with us as we investigated the trailer. We abandoned our food, in a hurry to get the case rolling. Val had been wise enough not to touch anything at the crime scene and I praised her foresight. Skulduggery drew his revolver and motioned to open the door to the RV then crept in. I followed, watching as his head swiveled slowly, reading the air currents to look for cloaked intruders.
I called my armour to me and joined him in the search, letting my dead senses flow over me. I didn't like what I saw. The ghostly traces of blood that had been cleaned away were everywhere, and the whole trailer looked like a warzone. There was a note, but at an angle so Val couldn't have possibly seen the contents and now as she tried to squirm past me I regretted listening to Skulduggery's insistence that we might be being watched and safer as a group. "Baby, don't touch it." I said as Val at last managed to slither past and reached for the note.
She looked hurt but listened. Skulduggery went to the note, which none of us could see and got out his mobile with a sigh. "I'm calling the Sanctuary. He's been abducted. And we've been told to stay out of it." I backed the kids and Melody out of the trailer. Val looked upset, way too rigid.
"We'll get him back." I assured her and she nodded, but I knew she was shutting down, that she could go so far inside herself that we'd never get her back. I remembered doing it too when Skulduggery went missing. Then Melody started to sing to her and Val looked entranced. Melody's Taken name made sense now. Her sweet voice soon lulled Val, and my poor daughter suddenly swooned into Melody's awaiting arms.
"She's asleep, she'll be out for hours." Melody assured me and I flashed her a grateful smile. Because there was always the possibility that we were wrong. I hated to think it of a good friend and Val's true love, but what if Tesseract had betrayed all of us and the hunt for him would lead us straight into a trap? I ordered them all back into the house and reentered the trailer. It wasn't smart to split up, but abduction or not I had sensed the intruders were long gone.
What I didn't like is that one of the people Tesseract had fought was a woman. I could see the ghosts of her delicate booted footprints and smell her perfume. Skulduggery was calmly bagging a blond hair and he turned to me grimly. "Erskine will be in contact with the Russian Sanctuary, but it doesn't look good. What did you see that you sent the kids away?"
"This place was a bloodbath, but it was cleaned up. One of his attackers was female, light in build, muscular like Tanith. You can tell from the depth of her footprints, their small but there's some mass to the body. The hair you found indicates she is a blond. Since they cleaned up the blood and left a message and all this chaos, we're meant to stay out of it, aren't we?"
Skulduggery smiled, clearly pleased. "Well done, anything else?"
I nodded, not wanting to say it. "His masks are missing, indicating he might already be reinfected. Whoever did this wants him as a weapon. He could be brainwashed and homicidal by the time we reach him." I cursed and Skulduggery let it slide for once.
"Indeed. Sorry this had to be our first case, Val. I'd imagined bringing the kids in with us eventually." Skulduggery said as he stuffed his hands in his pockets and shifted nervously. "And Gordon was acting, I'm sorry to say. I hate to tell you this, but he never trusted or liked Tesseract."
"I figured as much. I just hope that when Val figures out she doesn't smash his Echo Stone. He let me date a vampire after all."
"Yes." Skulduggery said dryly. "And how's that working out for you? Sorry, that was catty, even for me."
"I always said you're a cat in a detective suit." I teased as we left the trailer. Soon the sounds of approaching vehicles let us know vans of Cleavers and techs had arrived. So had Dex, Erskine and Saracen, all with packed bags. This case, I realized, went a lot deeper than I thought.
We got the men settled into rooms and still more people were streaming in. Forensics swarmed the RV and ground, and Ghastly and Tanith had arrived, no doubt called by Erskine. "Sorry to pull you into this, dad." I said as I enveloped him in a tight hug at the front door.
"Nonsense, Val is my granddaughter and we're all family. Whether he was liked or not Tesseract was one of our own. Although-" He trailed off and I nodded. Once I was sure Val was out for good I left Melody and Cain guarding her along with Uncle Gordon. None of them needed to hear what else I'd sensed.
We all met in the kitchen, our new arrivals digging into the food most of us hadn't had an appetite for and Skulduggery set about making coffee and tea as the Dead Men and Tanith gathered around us, the Dead Men also setting bags and cartons and boxes of take away everywhere. Exactly how long do they expect this to go on? I wondered.
"What didn't you want them to hear?" Skulduggery asked, handing me a steaming mug of coffee.
"Tesseract knew his attacker. She was an assassin like him. They were lovers at one time and the interest is still there for her." I said and several of the men cursed.
"Then we leave him where he is." A bitter voice said from the doorway. I looked over to see Val standing there and wondered if she'd faked her reaction to Melody's voice. Her supposed bodyguards lurked sheepishly behind her.
"Sweetheart, you don't mean that." I said reassuringly.
"I agree with her, we leave him." Ghastly said, then calmly sipped his tea.
I crossed my arms and stared at them both. "We're the good guys, remember? And we don't get to pick and choose whom we rescue. Or do you forget helping me rescue Skulduggery all the times when the rest of the world wanted him to stay where he was?" Ghastly sighed and nodded.
I looked at Valkyrie. "I had a chance to abandon your father before we were married. In fact I was tempted more than once to leave because I was sure China would come back and ruin things for me. But I didn't. As hard as it was to stay when I felt that I'd lost him, I did. I trust your father with my life and now, as scary as it is, and as much as it hurts, you have to trust Tesseract the same way." She came and cuddled into me then.
I managed to get her to eat, thanking the heavens that the Dead Men apparently lived on take away and had brought even more they'd stored in the fridge. It occurred to me that more and more of my dreams were coming true, even if the events were out of order and didn't exactly match up. I just hoped as I watched her eat that the part where she and Tesseract would have a happily ever after would as well.
Early the next morning we were all up. Val was eager to get on with the case, but Skulduggery had different ideas. "Val, we stand back for now. We aren't abandoning Tesseract, but we are letting the Sanctuaries negotiate. And what Russia is telling us isn't good. He's been taken by a group we would call Father Winter."
"Father Winter, that's it? That doesn't sound very impressive." Val said, but my heart almost froze over. That was the only name for the magical world's most powerful crime organization. They could make mages and mortals disappear completely and if they had Tesseract they only wanted him as a weapon.
"Baby, remember hearing at the Sanctuary a few years ago how over a hundred criminals had been taken out all in one night?" I asked and she nodded. "Who do you think did it?" I asked and she paled.
"Which is why you two need training." Skulduggery said firmly. "You'll train with Darquesse during the day and Lord Vile and night, and they are going to push you, and you are going to hate them for it, but it's your only chance at surviving if we have to go to their home base, the Winter Kingdom. And make no mistake, this is no fairy tale and these people won't hesitate to kill any of us on sight."
The children looked dumbfounded, but so did everyone else. "We need to give the Sanctuaries time to negotiate." I explained calmly after exchanging a quick glance with Skulduggery. "That buys us time and they can't complain then when the Dead Men mount a rescue mission. I know he's there, but it's too soon to mount a rescue. We both need to be at full strength." I let myself become Darquesse so they'd know exactly what I meant. Val stayed cuddled into me, burrowing in deep.
I stroked her skull soothingly as I continued. "But they're finding him a lot harder to program then they thought it would be, Val. His love for you is what's keeping him strong." She looked up hopefully and I continued. "When we do get there, and we will, if anything goes wrong the rest of you will be evacuated by one of the Dead men. Lord Vile and myself- Well, that particular group of criminals won't be bothering anyone ever again if we have to show up." I said, my voice soft. I realized Lord Vile was now standing beside me and I hoped our kids would be up to the challenge of training with us.
Early the next morning I conferred with Lord Vile on the side lawn, two very nervous children watching us. They were used to us being affectionate, even as we were, but there was no time for the warm fuzzies right then. I looked at him, exchanging thoughts without words. We both knew the layout of the castle and that most of the criminals were highly accomplished mages. Winter magic sounded like a stupid Elemental focus until your opponent could spear you with ice spikes at a whim or freeze your blood instantly.
They might even be watching in a way we couldn't detect. Good, I thought darkly, let them watch.
Lord Vile tilted his head at me in amusement then flung out his hand suddenly, sending both kids flying backwards. I suppressed a snort of laughter.
They got up, a little dazed, and angry too. That was good, we needed angry. I snapped my fingers and the ground opened up beneath them. Not far, but enough to send them screeching into it. I sighed. "For people who are half me and half Lord Vile you should react better."
"You never taught us like this before." Cain said, watching me warily as they managed to climb out and the ground resealed. I knew he thought we'd both gone insane and were going to kill him, but he had to be tough to face the battle ahead. Neither I or Vile had softened but we didn't want to do something that might lead to a mindless rampage if we didn't have to. As it was, unlocking the inner Vile and Darquesse in our kids was incredibly stupid and a lot like making bombs that could go off at random, but we had no choice.
Lord Vile stared at Cain hard. Cain seemed to get the message. "What are you fighting for?" I asked, starting to circle the kids. "What drives you to fight?" I knew the instant she thought it Val wanted revenge. "Wrong answer." I said, flinging a wall of shadows at her, she barely massed her own shadows in time to protect herself and gave an indignant squeak.
I walked close, looking deep into her eye sockets. "You sure these are our kids?" I asked Lord Vile, not breaking eye contact with her. "Because I sure don't see either of us in them." I made sure to sound disgusted and with a roar Val came at me, shifting so that her armour was on. I flipped her over me easily and she landed on her back stunned. Cain bellowed in rage and used his shadows to ram into me.
Then Vile was beside me, peeling him off, pinning him to the ground, but Val was already getting up, trying to club Vile senseless with her shadows. He glared at her and stood up. Uh-oh. But she laughed at the challenge and stood to meet him. "Find me inside you. He's the enemy holding Tesseract, torturing him. Destroy him." I murmured, leaning close. There was no actual way she could hurt him, but it gave her the boost of rage she'd needed.
She soared off the ground then power-dived towards him, correcting herself when he shadow-walked out of range. Val had only meant to distract him, and as soon as he appeared Cain managed to shadow-walk to Vile and punched, his armoured fist swirling with shadows. If Vile hadn't massed his own the blow would have taken his head off. I whistled sharply and all three of them froze, then looked at me. "All right, enough for one session, provided you can give me the right answer. What are you fighting for?"
"My sister." Cain hissed angrily.
"My brother." Val said, sounding surprised that he was her real cause.
"Good." Skulduggery said, having returned to normal. I joined him, happy to put being Darquesse aside for a while. "We obviously changed your training. Both of us, or both Vile and Darquesse or a combination of the two once a day, or night. Tanith wants a go with you two later, and Ghastly. Consider yourselves in training. Now go eat, Mrs. G as you both call her switched her deliveries here without being told." The kids smiled happily and were taking off when they looked at me.
"You did good, both of you. I'm very proud of you, we both are." I assured them and at that they ran off. I turned to Skulduggery.
"Now I know what you felt like, training me. It killed me inside to do that to them, but they need it." I said shakily.
"I thought the same thing. Not even Vile wants to toss his offspring around, but the thing is to remember that we love them. We'd never hurt them in training. Oh, I'm sure they're sore all over, but they seem to love it like you did." There was a fond note in his voice and he smiled at me as he took my arm and led me inside.
Mrs. Gintlíocht was holding them in her arms, listening to their excited updates. She was well aware of the marriage and looked rather surprised that Tanith and I would make the cakes ourselves. She shook her head as the children sat down to devour her pastries. "I insist I be allowed to make something at least. How many people are you having?" She asked and sighed at my shrug.
"Well at least nine, including the official or whoever marries them. But it depends." I admitted.
"I'm marrying them." Erskine said, joining us and taking a jelly doughnut and coffee. "And you are inviting the Dead Men, right?" He asked hopefully.
"Now just wait a minute-" Skulduggery protested. "This is their wedding. They choose who comes and who marries them. They don't have to invite anyone if that's what they want. We didn't have guests." He pointed out.
"Will you marry us?" Cain asked and Erskine nodded. He exchanged a look with his sister. "Don't hate us, but we wanted a slightly bigger wedding. All the Dead Men as guests, and you too, Mrs. Gintlíocht. And grandfather and aunty Tanith too, of course. And you dad, and mom."
Val nodded, already tanked on sugar and caffeine. "And Jack and Reba and Charles and Sean. Our brother and sister are settling in, but if Anton comes, Tanny should too and Lee (her name For Ghastly Jr.) would show up with Calico Jane if they come, I bet. Pleeease?" She grinned hugely at me and I nodded. I was just glad she had Skulduggery's easy-going nature and didn't hold a grudge over being swatted around.
I snagged a pastry and some coffee, then sat beside Skulduggery. Ghastly and Tanith shown up as well and soon it seemed like everyone was in the kitchen, It took me a moment, but I realized Mrs. Gintlíocht was staying and that wasn't like the baker. She smiled at me. "Let me make the cakes for them. You have a design?" Ghastly handed her his mobile and she nodded.
"I already know what you were going to make, can even taste it, I won't disappoint and I refuse payment. The Sanctuary pays me very well for the deliveries and they always seem to want more." She said with a satisfied nod. "Besides, my grandson is very happy there."
"Will he come too, to the wedding, I mean?" Val asked excitedly. "I like George, Mrs. G, he's cool." She said and Mrs. Gintlíocht laughed cheerily.
"Of course, he will come. He misses seeing the two of you in the weight room and hopes you've kept up your training at home. She said, then pecked both kids affectionately and left.
"Wait, you quit training?" I asked and they both looked guilty. "Look guys, weight lifting is one of the best things for you both, and you know you were both making progress. You were lifting huge amounts, Cain. And you were coming along too, Val. You can't let that slide, you know I still work out every day." And I did, too.
Val tried to grumble something about skeletons not needing to lift anything to be strong and Skulduggery looked at her. "Your mother is right. I don't know how or why, but if we didn't spar all the time I'd be in terrible shape."
It was one of the mysteries about living skeletons. Skulduggery was naturally much stronger than any man, but having watched me lift dumbbells he tried it himself and soon found he was making massive progress. I had to keep protein powder on hand and made sure our diets, aside from the sweets were packed with nutrition. We still ate a lot of junk, I guess, but we were getting there.
Just what the bad guys want to hear, Lord Vile pumping iron. I grinned to myself.
Later that afternoon we both watched Tanith train the kids. They'd figured out to work as a team and she had her hands full. Though she was smart enough to train them one on one as well. When Val complained Tanith's eyes narrowed. "The place we're going to is more like a twisting series of tunnels, and they won't want us together. Fighting as a team is important, but you have to be able to fight on your own as well." She said, then rushed Val, who was training with my sword.
She managed to rap her a good one as she went past, which made Val angry. Again and again Val got hit until she blew her stack and dropped my sword, launching shadows at Tanith, then took off into the sky for an aerial attack. I deflected the shadows with my own and raced up after her, thankful the grounds had been warded and we wouldn't be spotted. Higher and higher we raced and I started to spiral tightly around Val, manipulating the air to spin her like a top.
At first she was angry, but then she got dizzy and spun out. I dove after her, grabbing her with my shadows, then power dove towards the ground. It rushed closer and closer, and Val was screaming and clinging tightly to me. "Mom! We're gonna crash, are you crazy?" She yelled.
I just grinned and corrected at the last second. Going faster and faster as we swooped back up into the sky until I stopped abruptly and threw Val from me. She screamed and uttered a lot of curses I didn't know she knew, but then she was flying on her own. She came back to me, clearly ecstatic. "Mom, I'm flying!" She enthused.
I laughed gently. "Yes, Val. You did it twice already today. Now are you done getting angry?" I asked and she blushed. "It's OK, Val. That's why were training you, so you can learn to control your anger and use it when you need it. Come on, I'll give you a ride down." I invited, holding out my arms. Val abruptly realized she was standing in midair and yelped and clung to me.
I grinned and drew her into a waltz, floating back to the ground in a lazy spiral. She grinned back, relaxing, and by the time we touched down she was enjoying herself. I just gave Skulduggery and Tanith a lunatic grin so my baby could run for it and Val made good her escape. "Was that Darquesse or Valkyrie who did that?" Skulduggery asked. I shrugged and he nodded. "Good enough for me."
At dinner that night in one of the dining rooms, everyone was crowded around a table of take away, listening good-naturedly to Val's breathless account when Jack and Charles walked in, dropping their bags in surprise. "What's goin' on, then?" Jack asked, sounding slightly hurt and Charles looked grieved as well to be left out if the children were involved.
"Dad!" Cain yelled, excitedly, rushing up to hug first Jack, who grinned with pleasure, instantly forgiving him, then Charles, who melted into putty when he was called dad too. "It was my idea. You've both done so much for both of us, and it took you years to get into that exclusive magical resort, so-" He shrugged.
Val had gotten up more demurely than her brother and went for her hugs as well. They'd adopted her as a daughter which made me happy. They happily crowded into the table, accepting heaping plates of take away and listened to her continued account of training with interest, then grunted when they heard Tesseract had been abducted. In fact, Jack laughed, then patted Val's hand. "Listen, love. If your Tess got abducted, he wanted to be. I won't be tellin' you stories about your sweetheart, but it's a plan he's used before. Still, the mission's a good one, we could all do without them on the planet."
"Jack, that's a bit harsh." Charles said in dismay and Melody snorted.
"Ever seen the unrated version of Hostel? Where do you think mortals got the idea from, Charles? The only reason we haven't been attacked is because they don't see us as a threat or of any use. If they did, they'd have us all in cells and break us down into what they wanted. Oh, sorry, Val." She apologized at Val's frightened whine. "But you know something? Anyone Darquesse helps gets a bit of her inside them. Not enough to go Darquesse, but somebody got her regenerative powers when she healed him." She finished amused. Val looked up at me and I nodded.
"Everyone I've helped got it, in relation to what I did for them. It took a lot to help Tess, so I'm sure he's got a lot of healing reserves right now, and don't you worry sweetie, he knows that woman who's got him isn't the one for him. I touched minds with him briefly, he's hanging in there. He knows it will take time, and he'll wait for you. Don't ever forget, he is Tess. If they make one mistake he's perfectly capable of killing every last one of them. I-" I paused and looked at Skulduggery. "This is where you remember you love me. I'll take longer to be back to normal. I'm forever linked to those I heal and I willed some interesting upgrades to Tess. Real interesting."
Well, well, well. Will they need a rescue mission or will an upgraded Tess go nuclear winter on Father Winter? Stay tuned for the next chilling chapter. Yes, I learned summary from Stan Lee. Sue me. Comments welcome!