Skulduggery – Crow

Anton – Bear

Ghastly – Panda

Dexter – Wolf

Saracen – Weasel

Erskine – Snake

Solomon – Raven

Chapter 35

Valkyrie rode the quad bike down the quiet road at dangerous speeds, taking sharp turns to avoid potholes and finally seeing Rose's car in the distance. Rose turned right and left the area suddenly, probably to get away from her, and Valkyrie slowed the bike down. She needed to find Fletcher and Peregrine.

With her Elemental magic, it didn't take long. She located them just before they crossed the property line and got out of what she assumed must be the anti-teleportation radius. After a moment to go over what had happened, Peregrine grabbed them all on the side of the road and teleported them to the Sanctuary.

She almost threw up upon arrival.

Taking deep, heaving breaths, she forced herself back upright and looked around. The Administrator was watching her with exasperation and when she nodded she was alright, he came over.

"Detective Cain, I thought you were at your house?" He asked.

"I was. You need to take these two men into protective custody," she demanded, taking Fletcher by the elbow. "Could we put them in Utility Room C?"

The Administrator nodded and some of the Cleavers came forward and took the Teleporters away to the protected custody room. Meritorious came around the corner and frowned at her.

"Detective Cain, what are you doing alone?" He asked.

"The Dead Men left me alone, grounded and without a phone because I spoke with Solomon Wreath when Skulduggery took me to meet and speak with him. They all left me with no way to leave the house, taking my keys to the house and cars as well as, again, my phone, to meet and take down Batu, or Patrick Hanratty, and the Diablerie which they hoped and assumed to be in the same place. I do not know what happened to them. I don't even know if they are alive. They've been gone for at least six hours without checking in with me now," she explained before rubbing her forehead. "Has a team been sent to my house?"

"Yes," the Administrator nodded. "And a clean-up crew."

She nodded. "That's good. That's grand. Good. Has anyone phoned the Dead Men?"

Meritorious had someone try to ring them but no one picked up their phones until the very last person was tried – Weasel.

The person, on the law enforcement team, had a chat with him and nodded to Meritorious, giving the positive news, or at least that they were alive. There was an instruction left to come straight to the Sanctuary when they were done.

Valkyrie left to sit down somewhere as she was forgotten and people started making arrangements and collecting paperwork.

.*****.

"Valkyrie?" Tanith said softly, shaking her arm. Valkyrie woke up and sat up quickly. Tanith has sad eyes. "I'm sorry Valkyrie. I should have said something earlier."

Valkyrie shrugged groggily. "It's fine. I don't care."

"It's not though. It's not. I'm so sorry," she reiterated, pulling her into a hug. Valkyrie held her tightly.

There was a slow clap behind them. Letting each other go, looking to find Crux in the doorway. Valkyrie wanted to punch him already.

"Look at that," he said, leaning against the doorframe in a bad act of being casual. "The child detective hugging the woman she just blamed for everything."

Valkyrie frowned. "One, I didn't blame her, two I'm allowed to hug her, and three, I'm fourteen, not a child. What are you doing here anyway?"

He stood up properly and glared at her. "I just got back from your house."

Bloody hell, she thought. Nosy idiot. "Meritorious is already aware of what happened. It has nothing to do with you."

"I think it does."

"It really doesn't."

"Crux, go away," Tanith said. She glared at him and he tried to glare back, wavered, and then snarled and went away.

"That's really useful," Valkyrie commented before standing up and stretching. "You haven't said anything about your phone, have you?"

"No."

"Good, it never happened," she said. "I left it in my room. Oh, and Fletcher and Peregrine are here too."

"You did really well. I'm sorry we left you like that," she said again, looking remorseful.

"Tanith, stop. It's fine. I promise. Really. Come on, it's Skulduggery I need to talk to. Damn idiot."

"I don't like hearing you say his name like that," she said, following her out the door. "It's weird."

"You're weird," she smirked.

They wandered around the Sanctuary for a while, looking around for any of the Dead Men, and found them standing around in the Medical Wing getting checks for small scrapes and scratches where the van had flipped, throwing half of them around, and crushing the other half standing around it. When Valkyrie came in, they were all up and trying to apologise.

"Stop it, stop it!" She said, pushing them all back. They all went quiet and stood back a little. "You're being ridiculous."

"We should have said something," Panda said, his arm in a cast. "We should have asked why you weren't coming with us, we all knew something was wrong."

Valkyrie shrugged and tried to forget about it. She could barely think about it when she was still numb from killing Krav and Gallow. Crow was standing at the back of the room, his hat in his hand and looking somewhat upset, but not coming close to her. She ignored his stupidity and with that, the whole of him.

"What happened with all you then?" She asked, trying to seem as if she were over it, sitting on the end of Bear's bed.

"We went up to Paddy's farm," Tanith said, sitting beside her. Valkyrie could tell she was upset as she would never have followed her around like a remorseful child unless she was seeking the sort of comfort Tanith loved – jokes, hugs and happiness. Valkyrie put her arm around Tanith's waist. "Paddy was there, as well as the Diablerie and maybe three hundred hollow men. They had machine guns, knives and grenades. They had us surrounded and at their mercy from the get go."

"We tried to fight back," Weasel said. "But we couldn't get through the hollow men. They started throwing grenades and there wasn't much we could do."

"We escaped to the woods, but it took hours to work out a plan and try to make an escape," Tanith said. "We fought through the hollow men but when we got to the house, Paddy and the Diablerie were gone. We tried to leave in the car, but it was blown up and we found Paddy trying to kill us."

"It was a suicide mission," Crow said darkly from the back of the room. "He didn't want to be held responsible."

There was a brief silence and then Tanith took back up the story. "We couldn't get out without the van," she said slowly. "And Paddy brought out another hundred or so hollow men. It took us hours, but we did eventually get through to him. We tried to arrest him, but he turned the gun on himself. We thought he did it because the Diablerie abandoned him and he realised it was a fool's mission."

"We were wrong though," Bear said from behind them. "It almost got you killed."

"There's only Rose left," Valkyrie said numbly. "I heard the alarm system go off when they came through the front door, but I thought it was just you, so I went to greet you and saw them. They didn't see me, and I don't think they really cared I was there because they weren't trying in the least. I got out the garage door but didn't have a key to drive away with, so I sent Fletcher and Peregrine away through the woods – they put up the anti-teleportation signals – and got back in the house through the meeting room window someone left open. I got the gun out the cabinet and Gallow came through the door and I shot him down. Murder Rose came running, I had to run off, and they had dozens of hollow men with them, so I couldn't get passed. I got around the back of the house and Rose cut my hand but other than that I got away fine. I shot down Krav and got Rose in the leg, but I was out of bullets and she left with the hollow men. I remembered the spare quad bike key afterwards and went to meet Fletcher and Peregrine, and they nearly ran into each other, but she turned the corner just as I got there. They took me here and we got in contact with you."

The Dead Men and Tanith shook their heads, upset she had had to go through that, had to kill two people to protect herself and protect the Teleporters. She was still numb.

"I'm hungry," she frowned. "Can we get food soon?"

Bear stood up immediately and put an arm around her shoulder. "What do you want?"

She rolled her eyes and smiled. "Fish and chips."

They ordered in, Weasel and Bear going to go collect it from a street further away and went to find Fletcher and Peregrine who were sitting away from each other.

"What's up with you?" Valkyrie asked when she sat down. Peregrine stuck his nose in the air and said nothing. She frowned at him and looked at Fletcher.

"Nothing. He's being negative," Fletcher said, trying to be casual.

"Err, sure," she said slowly, seeing the problem with them – too damn up themselves. "Anyway, we ordered food."

Food came almost half an hour later and they all sat around eating quietly, no one getting up or saying anything when Meritorious came in and took a seat beside them on the only seat available, the one next to Valkyrie.

She offered him a chip.

"No thank you," he said quietly. "I came to tell you, the clean-up crew is finished and have also replaced all damaged items in the house."

"Thanks," she shrugged. "It was fine."

He cleared his throat and avoided eye contact. "Well, we didn't realise the extent of the damage. We just received the pictures. Gallow had a gun in his hand and enough ammunition to blow your house up. The found several bombs in your house, we think they were going to be detonated with you in there."

"That would explain why they weren't fussed about me," she said, thinking it over. "I thought they were going to try and use me as leverage."

Meritorious nodded. "That was our assumption too, but it seems they were trying to draw you out, or rather, Mr Peregrine and Mr Renn."

"Hi," Fletcher said.

Meritorious ignored him. "At any rate, it's clear for you to return. Detective Pleasant," he said, standing up, "may I have a word in my office."

They waited for Crow to come back, hat on and just as quiet, before having Peregrine teleport them all back to the house. They only had one of the Diablerie left to deal with. The threat and case of the Teleporter murders just about completed. She could relax, for the most part.

Sighing, Valkyrie looked around the house – they had been teleported into the street where Valkyrie had left the quad bike and had to walk back, Tanith going ahead on the bike to give the all clear.

She really wanted to call Nadia and fall asleep.

She was tired.

Poor Valkyrie-poos! Hope you enjoyed his chapter, but don't expect our favourite detectives to get on for a little while yet ;)