Skulduggery – Crow

Anton – Bear

Ghastly – Panda

Dexter – Wolf

Saracen – Weasel

Erskine – Snake

Solomon – Raven

Chapter 34

Valkyrie spoke for hours with Nadia on Tanith's phone, all through the time her friends were going to arrest Batu and the Diablerie. Finally, Nadia's parents requested she join them for dinner and Valkyrie realised how hungry she was, so they let each other go with an 'I love you' and overly cutesy air kisses because they were quickly descending into that type of couple. Valkyrie went in search of food.

She made herself some pizza, putting on a large one since she was pretty sure she had to feed Peregrine and Fletcher too. They were still practising and getting along a lot better. She hoped they stayed that way. It made her life easier.

Smelling the food, they both teleported into the kitchen, almost giving her a heart attack.

She was silent but they talked about small things, commenting on how many hours the Dead Men had been gone and when Wolf would be back from his own trip in the Arctic. Looking at the clock, Valkyrie was sort of concerned herself but without a phone to call on, or rather, when she wasn't meant to have a phone to call on, she didn't have any way of contacting them.

A small part of her, the nasty, bitchy part, really hoped something bad had happened and Crow was wishing desperately he could contact her. It was his fault after all. She mentally smacked herself after as it would be the rest of her family that suffered, but it didn't take away the hope of him regretting his actions. She placated her conscience with the fact she was fourteen, she was allowed to be mean and bitchy for at least a few more months. That's what everyone said about fourteen year olds anyway.

Sighing, she sat back in her chair and rubbed her eyes.

"You look tired," Peregrine said after a moment. Both of them were looking at her. "I assume Pleasant is still mad about whatever happened yesterday?"

"Yeah," she said after a moment. "He's overstepping the line. Grounded me. He said he can't trust me because I spoke to someone he doesn't like."

Peregrine laughed grimly. "I never liked Pleasant. Always thought he was too hot-headed, too vindictive, too quick to judge and always too certain he's right. I had hoped he wouldn't do that to you when I heard he got himself a kid to raise. Too much power for a man like him."

"He's never done it before," she suddenly defended. "He's usually great. I think he's mad at the person I talked to and was afraid they would hurt me. But his fear and anger got mixed up and he's overreacting to teach me a lesson. Doesn't make me less mad but I think that's where his head is. Idiot."

Peregrine didn't look convinced, but Fletcher nodded agreeably.

There was a buzz from the alarm and Valkyrie let out a sigh – they were back. The door was closed, and the alarm shut off. Standing, Valkyrie put her plate in the sink and went to greet her friends, intending to ignore Crow.

But it wasn't the Dead Men standing in her hall.

She threw herself back into the kitchen before they saw her, knowing immediately it was Rose, Gallow and Krav. The two males sat up and looked at her with alarm.

"It's them," she whispered. "You need to leave."

Peregrine didn't need telling twice and attempted to leave only to give a strangled cry they surely heard and shook his head. "They put up a ward. I can't teleport out."

Valkyrie sucked in a breath and knew what to do. Gesturing, she got them to follow her and they did, quietly walking around the kitchen and out to a hall, moving on to the side where the garage was. She quietly shut the door behind them, noticing they hadn't been followed, and if they had, it was very well.

Almost shivering with fear, she pulled the spare key off the door frame and opened up the side door.

"Drive?" Fletcher whispered stupidly, looking at the many cars, quad bikes and Tanith's motorcycle stored in the garage. It was useless though because not only had Crow taken away her phone to contact him, he had also taken away their escape.

Idiot. She was going to take away his jaw when he got back. Take away his talking privileges.

They left the room and Valkyrie shut that door too and then carefully moved around the house, going over to the front of the building. Carefully and quietly, she looked around the house. Hollow men were standing there, surrounding two cars. Fletcher couldn't fight, and the thin arms of Peregrine showed he barely could either. She couldn't take them all on. She needed to get them into the woods.

Looking around, she made her decision. She pulled the two in to tell them the plan.

"When I say, you two need to make a run for it. Get into the trees. Keep running until you can teleport away, far away. Stick together and go to another country. If anyone is still alive, they'll find you. Okay?"

Peregrine didn't look happy with that plan, but Fletcher was ready to bolt. "I can't leave a little kid–"

"Shut the fuck up and get ready to move. Get Fletcher to another country and keep him safe, it's him they want. Listen - do that and then come back and find Skulduggery and punch him and tell him he got me murdered and it's all his fault. Okay?"

He looked less happy than before, but Valkyrie turned away from him and looked out on the front again. She wished she had taken Tanith's phone down with her now. Idiot. Idiot. Idiot.

Taking a deep breath, Valkyrie stood and pulled opened the office window that was ajar. Getting inside, she heard immediately footsteps walking around outside and very, very quietly, went over to the cabinet. She quickly got it open and grabbed the large gun within, pocketing the magazines. Popping one in, she aimed the gun at the door. She waited, one, two, three, four steps and then a pause… the door opened and Krav stepped in.

Valkyrie opened fire, killing him instantly with at least twenty bullets all over.

The noise got the other two murders shouting and they could be heard running so Valkyrie jumped back out the window. "Run!" She said. "Send the Sanctuary!"

They were both pale and started running for the trees just as Murder Rose came through office door, looking at Valkyrie outside the window. She screamed at her and Valkyrie ran for the hollow men outside her front door, making them all turn and look at her.

Valkyrie shot at them, watching as several fell with each bullet, one going through the window of a car. She tripped and rolled to her feet, miraculously dodging the energy Rose had vomited at her.

Turning, Valkyrie shot blindly at her, missing several times but getting the window which set off the house alarm with red lights and a painful screech.

Rose stalked closer to her. "You little bitch," she said, reaching for a knife just under her breast. "I'll rip your eyes out and shove them through your ears."

"Is that even possible?" Valkyrie frowned at her. Rose rolled her eyes, dropping her guard at Valkyrie's stupid question, forgetting with the sight of Valkyrie's somewhat childish face and question that she had just killed her friend. Valkyrie opened fire on her, getting her in the leg but she was too bad a shot to do anything else and Rose got away. Gallow came out of the front door then and Valkyrie shot at him, and he jumped back into the house.

Reloading the gun before Rose got back up, she shot down a few more hollow men that had been about to get her.

"Fuck," she said. Fletcher and Peregrine probably wouldn't out of the warding yet, let alone calling for help, getting her back up. "Fuck."

Rose jumped on top of the car and threw a knife at her then, and it struck her chest, grazing her hand. She screamed in freight, the coat stopping the killing blow but not saving her hand from bleeding profusely.

Backing up quickly at the sight of Rose's manic smile, Valkyrie raised the gun and shot at her but she had started to shake and every bullet hit something other than Rose, taking out the wing mirror, windows, hollow men, she was sure she had even heard Gallow cry out but never once did Rose stop walking towards her or look any less confident.

The gun suddenly stopped spitting bullets and Valkyrie knew the magazine had run out. Almost panicking, she turned tail and ran, throwing herself through the broken house window and kept running without stopping. She ran through the house with Rose on her heels, quickly formed a ball of purple energy and threw it behind her, hitting Rose but only enough to make her fall and pull herself up immediately, nothing more.

It gave Valkyrie the precious seconds to change magazines and burst through the once locked, now broken, back door.

She felt Rose's hand brush over her shoulder and put on a burst of speed, but it was nothing to the laughing Rose and she suddenly grabbed her shoulder. Valkyrie jolted but gritted her teeth and slammed the butt of the gun into Rose's face two times and got herself free. She kicked the woman down and went to shoot her, only to be confronted with Gallow punching her in the face.

She went flying back, already knowing her nose was broken before she hit the ground, but thanks to her intense training, she was ready and bounced back to her feet. She needed to give Fletcher and Peregrine enough time to escape. She doubted they had been gone even five minutes, and they were probably awful runners. They would need at least fifteen minutes she guessed, maybe twenty considering they were so out of shape. It was hopeless.

Swallowing back bile, she raised the gun again and shot at Gallow, only to miss and get Rose in the knee. She screamed in agony and Gallow began to cackle. He got a gun out of the back of his trousers and pointed it at Valkyrie.

They both stood still, pointing a gun at each other. She could have cried.

"Drop the gun, sweetheart," he said, aiming unwaveringly at her head. She didn't know where she was pointing. "We just want the boy teleporter. You can go free."

"He's not here," she shouted without meaning to. "He left this morning. Teleported away. I don't know were. The man, Emmett Peregrine, he's searching for him now."

"I think you're being a liar. Are you telling a fib, little girly? Perhaps you need some incentive to give them over. Maybe I should get your little girlfriend over here–"

Valkyrie roared and let the gun loose, thankfully shooting Gallow in the head before he could shoot at her more than once. The bullet was deflected by her clothes - it hit her collarbone and it surely broke but she was alive by a miracle - and he fell to the floor spasming.

Rose was sitting up by them, staring at her with wide, insane eyes. "I'll kill you," she said, hopping backwards. The hollow men were standing around, stilled by her hand command to wait. "I'll kill you, your girlfriend and all your family."

Valkyrie waited and opened fire one bullet at a time at the hollow men, carefully shooting down row after row, and they suddenly leaned forwards and ran for her. She was so shocked and scared from the other attacks and her collarbone she didn't move, just kept shooting them down – it went against her training, she knew she should move, but she was glued in place.

By the time she had finally shot down the last one, Rose was gone and she was one shot away from genuinely peeing herself in fear. Her knees were shaking so much her legs were bowing together.

She took a few seconds to breathe with her eyes shut and forced herself to stand straight. She ran clumsily to the front of the house, almost choking on the toxic air, and watched as one of the two cars Valkyrie had somehow not shot the life out of drove out the grounds. Valkyrie cursed and ran into the house, getting the house phone from the living room, the place she couldn't get before that. Quickly, she dialled the Sanctuary.

The Administrator answered.

"Irish Sanctuary, state your business," he said.

"It's Valkyrie Cain," she said quickly. "I was just attacked by the Diablerie. You need to send people quickly, I'm alone."

"Miss Cain!" He said in alarm. "Are you alright? Are they still there?"

"No, Murder Rose got away, but I shot her in the leg. Krav is dead in the house and Gallow outside. I shot on sight as per requirement," she said too loudly, too panicked. "I'm alone."

"I'll send someone right away, and a clean-up crew. Can you get a hold of the Dead Men?"

"I'll try. Just be quick, I need to find the Teleporters, I told them to run but now they might end up crossing paths with Rose."

She hung up and threw the phone on the sofa, taking the razor she had once stolen from the dead Texan Sanguine and running out the house. She had to be quick.

She grabbed one of the quads, remembering now she wasn't panicking so much that there was a key for it on the shelf. Using the wind, she manipulated it into her hand and got it going. A moment later she was out on the road and diving in the direction Rose and the Teleporters had gone. Hopefully they weren't in the same place right now.

The drama! Please review and tell me in it if you expected this to happen - I'm not sure I did! I love your thoughts and feedback :) fyi, I'm listening to the Jacksepticeye Monthly Livestream and it made writing even more fun than usual!