Skulduggery – Crow

Anton – Bear

Ghastly – Panda

Dexter – Wolf

Saracen – Weasel

Erskine – Snake

Chapter 30

They pulled up at a dingy, burnt, falling apart house at the end of a street filled with graffiti. No one had yet graffitied the inside of this one despite being abandoned. Not brave enough apparently.

It was a large house, and only Valkyrie and Crow went in, leaving Panda and Tanith to mind Fletcher. They split up in the house, moving around to find the apparently illusive man. Valkyrie had gone to the large living room, looking around at the burnt sofa, wondering what had caused the fire when she felt someone behind her and turned.

A thin man stood there, gaunt almost, and pale from lack of sunlight. His hair was darker than hers, but his eyes were tiger brown, so bright they almost gleamed. He didn't seem to be a sad man, or malicious, or angry, or mean like she had expected a sick man that hid Serpine to be.

Instead, he looked put together in a black, finely tailored suit. He didn't seem like a warm man, not like her brothers. He seemed to lack companionship, she was sure. She'd seen it before, knew too many of the Dead Men's soldier friends. He carried a slender cane.

"Solomon Wreath," she said, certain it was him.

He bowed his head at her. "Valkyrie Cain. I've heard about you. You were involved in taking down Nefarian Serpine, Baron Vengeous, and Dusk. You stopped the Grotesquery from being reanimated. Such talent. Such potential. But has he corrupted you yet?"

"If you mean, turned me against you, he did tell me you hid Serpine, yes," she said immediately.

"That's not quite what I meant. They say Skulduggery Pleasant changes every person he meets, turns them darker, angrier, more cynical. Haven't you noticed?"

"I've noticed both of you are picking up only on the worst parts of each other," she said, rolling her eyes. "Don't worry, I take a positive hate-everyone-until-they-give-me-cake approach. You got cake?"

"I could get you cake," he said, smiling.

"You have none now though, so you remain the same," she smiled back. "Bring cake next time."

"I apologise. I should have chosen a more civilised spot for our first meeting. First impressions are important of course."

"Don't feel too bad, Valkyrie is my partner," Crow said from the doorway. "You can treat her like you'd treat me."

"That's a shame, I actually liked her. She had a sharp mind. Perhaps a little too smart," he smirked.

"What do you want Wreath?" Crow asked. "Our time is precious."

"All time is precious, but you'll what to hear what I have to say. Unless you'd rather I went to Remus Crux with this information. I've heard he's running all over town looking for anything to give to the Elders before you can. As one detective to another, Crux is a man who values a progress report over actual progress."

Valkyrie snorted and tucked her hands in her pockets, but Crow was unimpressed. "If you're hoping for us to bond over our hate of the man, you will be disappointed."

"That's not all we share. Our cases coincide. I've been running a case on the Diablerie for the past few years. They're looking for Teleporters. They're in Ireland."

Valkyrie bit her tongue to stop herself swearing and raving. She wanted to call Nadia, tell her to tell her parents and leave the country immediately. These people were bad news. Mr Bliss wouldn't even fight them despite being the strongest man in history, but any one of the Diablerie would try them on.

"Who?" Crow asked.

"Jason Gallow, Murder Rose and Gruesome Krav reunited two years ago somewhere in Africa. I have evidence they worked with Billy-Ray Sanguine, that he might have even joined the Diablerie officially once Vengeous was set free by him, perhaps as a reward, but both himself and Baron were killed by the Dead Men several months ago. Which, of course, you know. I believe them to be the ones killing the Teleporters."

"And Batu?" Crow asked. "What of him?"

"I suspect he doesn't exist," Solomon said. "Or else it's a code name. I've heard you've got one."

"Crow," Valkyrie supplied from the side. Crow gave her a look, but he was a skeleton, so Valkyrie couldn't be that offended even if she could see it was meant to be mean. "But while I agree it could be a code name, I do think he exists. Not many people stay under the radar for fifty plus years, and perhaps even know all the victims and the Diablerie, since he must be working with them – I don't think any one of the Diablery would be trusted by all the Teleporters and from what you said, none of them are quiet enough to sneak up and kill them all without a fight or someone teleporting away."

"So, either he doesn't exist and they've learnt new skills, or they have someone working for them doing the killing," Crow nodded.

"Or it's the same as before. Batu hired the Diablerie and did the killing himself. And stayed under the radar because it's a code name. Meaning that's why he's not on any criminal records," she said. "And even if he was, it's a code name so we wouldn't recognise it."

Crow and Solomon nodded in unison. They were scarily similar in characteristics now Valkyrie looked at them. And almost exactly the same height. "Do you know why they're killing Teleporters?" Crow asked Solomon.

He shook his head. "No. I've tracked where they've been but not been able to get close. I'm sure you understand an unwillingness to get close to that. I do believe that their mission hasn't changed from before, though, as they are working with a silent, single-minded determinism."

"Sounds like what we know then," Valkyrie pointed out. "They're looking to use a Teleporter to bring back the Faceless Ones. Don't ask how, we barely understand ourselves."

He frowned. "How many are left?"

"Two. Emmett Peregrine and one other we will not tell you of," Crow said before Valkyrie could. "Both are in protected custody."

Solomon thought for a moment, obviously ignoring Crow's warning. "They must be young," he said. "The other Teleporter. I didn't know there was another. They only need one for what you mentioned I suppose. Someone young and untrained, easily manipulated."

Valkyrie nodded. "Sounds about right."

"Valkyrie," Crow said sharply. She looked at the floor in annoyance.

"And they will want to kill Peregrine before taking the other because otherwise, Peregrine could undo whatever the new one does by their instruction. That would make sense," Solomon continued. He grinned suddenly. "Look at us three. Working as a team. A unit. Three detectives working in harmony."

Crow growled in anger. "I don't trust you, Wreath."

Solomon looked at him slowly with something Valkyrie couldn't – perhaps didn't want to – place. "I know. But you know why I did it. You all do. And I'm sorry. If it helps, I have found three others as well as myself who are willing to fight the Diablerie with you and the Dead Men. We don't want them in our country no matter what they are after. No matter the cost to ourselves."

Crow hit Solomon so hard and so fast Valkyrie didn't even see him punch; she just saw Solomon slamming against the wall. She turned to see him struggle to pull himself up. "You certainly hit as hard as you ever did," he groaned, wiping blood from his lip.

When Crow spoke it was even and without anger. "Solomon, it's good to have you aboard. Welcome to the team."

"A delight, sir, as always."

Crow said nothing, just turned and left the house. Valkyrie waited until he was gone and had slammed the car door closed before turning the Solomon and helping him up, walking carefully around his cane that was smoking shadows, looking for its owner.

"You can pick it up," he told her, dusting himself off.

She grinned and grabbed it, feeling the power within. She immediately tried using it, drawing shadows towards herself. They wrapped around her arm and felt incredibly cold.

"Impressive," Solomon commented, holding a hand out. "You have some natural talent."

Valkyrie shrugged and gave it to him. "Maybe. You seem to know him well. I feel like a lot of this story has been left unsaid. Like a lot, a lot."

He looked the cane over and she took his hand. He looked at her hand for a moment, obviously considering pushing her away, before nodding shortly. "Yes. We don't talk about it. Me and Skulduggery that is."

"You were friends?"

"Something like that. But I don't want to overstep my place. It was my fault things ended this way."

"Like supporting Serpine?"

He smiled sadly, and Valkyrie suddenly saw the handsome man behind the pale, gaunt face, the thin frame and taunting smile he'd been giving Crow. "Valkyrie Cain," he said slowly. "Skulduggery is over four hundred years old. I'm almost exactly the same age. We were born on the same day, in the same room, by the same midwife with just a year between us. We grew up together. But don't tell him I said that or he really will kill me."

"You can trust me," Valkyrie smiled up at him. "I might be young, but I'd never betray my friends."

"I'm your friend?" He raised an eyebrow.

"I give almost everyone code names, you know. You can be Raven," she said softly. "An omen of death, black, a counterpart to the Crow but a little bigger."

He chuckled and suddenly brought her in for a hug. Maybe Valkyrie was just used to older men hugging her, but she hugged him back anyway. He smelt of coffee, books and something musky. It was a nice smell, not something she expected.

"Thank you, Valkyrie. Skulduggery was my closest friend. He was everything for me. He supported me in learning Necromancy, helped me when I had nothing to eat, kept me company. It wasn't for many years that I accidentally pushed him away. I thought I was trying to protect him, pay him back for helping me our whole lives… I just hurt him. He's heard my reasons a thousand times. It was the same reasoning that made me hide Serpine. I wanted Skulduggery to make a decision concerning Serpine when he was less angry, was in control. Instead, I pushed him further away, maybe forever. I should have supported him, picked him up when he broke. Not held him back."

"It's done now," she said, looking up at him. They were still hugging. He was holding her tightly, like a man desperate for any type of comfort. She wondered when his last hug, any embrace, had been. "I'll see if I can make him think about what he's doing. It might be he needs someone to blame rather than actually hate you. He does that sometimes."

Solomon nodded. "There's a good chance of that. I like to imagine he still likes me underneath it all, but it's been two hundred and fifty years since Serpine. It's easy to forget the positive in favour of the most prominent emotion. I hope I haven't caused you problems by you staying to talk with me."

Valkyrie sighed and pulled away. "Don't worry, I can handle his idiocy."

He nodded and gave her his business card. His number, name and address was on it. "If you need to call, a place to go or need someone to be with, don't hesitate to call or come to my house."

"Thank you," she said, putting the card away. "I'll call you if anything happens."

He nodded. "Go. I'll wait for you."

Valkyrie went to leave, turned, hugged him quickly and gave him a kiss on the cheek. "See you again, Raven."

Were you expecting that? Because I wasn't when I was writing, it just kind of came to be. I'm not sure why Valkyrie decided she needed to be best buds with Solomon/Raven immediately either, not my fault! The story held me at gunpoint and force me I guess :D