Skulduggery – Crow

Anton – Bear

Ghastly – Panda

Dexter – Wolf

Saracen – Weasel

Erskine – Snake

Solomon – Raven

Corrival – Pa

Chapter 108

Valkyrie tried not to fidget and attempted to concentrate on the meeting she was in with some of her brother's, the detectives from her failed mission and Corrival. Corrival was heading the meeting and trying to tell them pointers on the Spider's, war, getting prisoners, and some other incredibly important stuff she really needed to listen to.

But she had a feeling, that gut feeling that told her something was going to happen, and it was really distracting her.

She waited because Pa had another meeting and was wrapping this one up. Painful minutes went by as Valkyrie focused just on the feeling, trying to work it out, but luckily enough Pa sent the others on their way with no more than a wave and they shuffled from the room quickly. Wolf grunted, moving his body into a strange position that seemed to be the only one that was comfortable for his ribs, and the others were more than worse for wear.

"Something's happening," she said quietly, and they looked at her silently. "I don't know what, but it's not a good feeling."

Pa nodded. "You've always had good gut instincts Cub," he said. "I have to get going, but this would be a good time to use those Co-Head powers and take action yourself. You're more than capable."

"What if I'm wrong?" She asked, standing.

He shrugged. "People think you're ridiculous. But they already think that about all of us, so I wouldn't worry." He left the room, shooting her a small smile. In his eyes, though, she could see the hard preparedness in there. He believed her. Maybe he felt it.

She looked at her brothers. "The most secure place in this building is the ballroom. Go there."

"Cub, we're injured, not incapable," Wolf said. "We're helping."

"Maybe if Weasel was here, but he's still out. So no. Get safe, I'll get the wards up, round people up, do a search, find nothing and come for you. Okay?"

"No can do," he said, got up, made a whining sound and fell back in a very tense, uncomfortable way. "Oh God," he muttered.

"Yeah, exactly. Get to the ballroom," she told him and kissed Bear's cheek goodbye on her way out.

.*****.

Craven's POV

The skeleton walked fast, so fast Craven was jogging to keep up with him. Stolen, the assassin, walked just fine behind him, bring up the back in a very stalkerish way that made Craven uncomfortable.

"How much further?" Stolen whispered harshly. He had an accent, perhaps Nigerian, but Craven hadn't asked. The more he thought about the man, the more he felt sick. He'd be glad to get out of this tunnel.

"It's right here," Pleasant said in a flat, dead voice. In Pleasant's hand was a suitcase The Torment had Wild Brother's make specifically for this plan. Pleasant stopped and Craven nearly went into the back end of him before pulling himself to a grinding halt.

"Come on then," Craven harshly said, giving Pleasant no time to do anything. He still needed to make sure he knew who was in charge here!

Pleasant said nothing, but he did carefully open a grate to look out into the Sanctuary. Craven stretched to see too but Pleasant's shoulders were in the way, but it didn't truly matter because a moment later, he opened the section of wall and the three of them made their way out. They stood quietly behind a stack of boxes and Craven looked at Stolen as he got out his crude, handmade and incredibly enhanced Cloaking Sphere. He turned it, pressed the half together and it stayed there, no clicking, no sounds. They were invisible. They were in. Craven grinned.

All he had to do now was make sure things ran smoothly. "Let's move," he said commandingly, and Pleasant broke out of whatever stupor he was in and led them through the Sanctuary, past the Cleaver's, the busybodies, the paper pushers and young assistant's, moving quickly through the place until Pleasant stopped moving altogether.

Craven glared at him. "What are you waiting for, imbecile?" Pleasant did nothing and Craven wrapped shadows around the skeleton's neck. "Do you want me to kill Wreath? The only thing stopping me is your usefulness, and if you think you'd rather stop now, I'll be happy to oblige."

Pleasant tilted his head, the shadows having no effect so long as he didn't crush his vertebra. "They know we're here."

Craven dropped the shadow's and looked around. "How?" He asked quickly.

"The Cleaver's aren't where they usually are. They're on alert. Everyone's moving, patrolling, the worker's getting to safer places to continue while they wait for an actual attack."

"How could they know?" Craven spat. "You must have told them."

Pleasant moved his head so slowly it unnerved Craven all by itself. "I haven't had a chance to do that. If they knew I was here, they would have just evacuated the building and attacked us. No questions asked. I know too much about the Sanctuary for them not to worry considering I'm at The Torment's mercy."

Craven could see the reason in that, unfortunately, but didn't want to look stupid, so he didn't stop glaring suspiciously. "I'm watching you," he warned. "Get moving. Faster this time."

The skeleton looked away and kept walking, going down staircases and taking detours around whole sections of the Sanctuary to avoid mages, and when he got to the room he wanted, he turned to them.

"When I open this door, a wire will trip," he told them. "I'll set the bomb. I can't guarantee a way out."

"What?!" Craven shouted. Pleasant looked at him with his bony face. "What do you mean you can't get us out? What are we going to do?"

Pleasant shrugged. "I was told to set it off. Nothing else."

"I must complete my mission," Stolen said, and turned away.

"Wait!" Craven shouted, but Stolen left them there, taking the Cloaking Sphere with him. He felt himself go pale and turned back to Pleasant. "Quick! Before there's no time to escape!"

Pleasant got on his knees and began unpicking the lock, taking all the damn time in the world and not caring in the slightest that they were vulnerable.

This had to be Pleasant's plan. If they saw them, they could attack and stop the bomb. He nodded to himself, comforted by his ability to shadow walk away if things got sketchy. The Torment wouldn't be happy with him though. He needed this to go well.

The door made a click and as soon as Pleasant put a hand on the handle a high pitched, incredibly loud alarm began to warble. It got Craven's heart jumping like crazy as his fear set in. He was a King, he didn't fight! He was meant to have people for that, and the only person likely of killing for him had run off to do his own mission, leaving him with a skeleton he didn't trust! Pleasant backed out of the now bomb-armed room and closed the door, and though Craven wondered what the point in that was, there was no time. He could hear Cleavers in the distance.

"We'll go through a window!" Craven hissed, taking off after Pleasant when he began running.

"No," Pleasant told him, barely audible. "We go through the front door. They know we're here, so the windows will electrocute us."

Craven was going to say something, but Pleasant ducked out of sight so he did also. He could just leave, but he needed to stay with Pleasant. Pleasant had the detonator, and if he didn't detonate the bomb, Craven had to get it and do it himself. It risked death, but The Torment hadn't been subtle in his threats, and Craven believed him. It's what he'd expect of his own people.

He cursed himself and started off after Pleasant again when the Cleaver's had run past them.

.*****.

Valkyrie's POV

"Who was it?" She asked harshly into the walky-talky, trying to communicate with the Cleavers. So far she'd had no response, but she knew they could tell her. She growled in frustration and glared at the monitor, looking carefully for any movement that shouldn't be there. So many people were moving from the high alert it was hard to tell.

"Wait," she said. "Flick that back."

The man at the desk went back to the previous camera that looked to the front of the Receptacle. There were two Cleaver's, but something about them looked off. She picked up her walky-talky again. "I need a unit to take a look at the Receptacle doors."

It took a moment, but two Cleaver's ran to the doors and stood for a moment looking at the odd Cleaver's. "Cleaver's on the door, stand down," she said. There was no movement at all. "Cleaver's on the Receptacle door, stand down!" Nothing again. "Unit, move the Receptacle door Cleaver's."

They moved but could not get a grip of the Cleavers. Valkyrie's heart jumped.

"Full lockdown!" She shouted into the room, and the staff jumped out of their seats and started pressing buttons and slamming things shut. "Those Cleaver's are holograms!" Into her walky-talky, she said, "All unit's to the Receptacle. I repeat, all unit's to the Receptacle, this is a code black."

In the monitor she could see the Cleaver's running and the wards coming up, one by one, closing doors, activating pressure pads, setting off alarms. Worker's ran for the ballroom where she could see her brother's sitting in, looking worried but too injured to do anything still. Even Bear, the one she relied on to be strong even when he wasn't, was sitting hunched and in pain.

She took a deep breath. She knew there wouldn't be an attack on its own. She had to be prepared. She had to be ready for anything. While the Cleaver's went to the main attack, she had to be elsewhere. Ready for the real thing.

She went to keep watch out the front.

.*****.

Craven's POV

Craven's heart jumped when he saw the front entrance, almost keeping pace with the skeleton as they made their getaway run out the door and he jumped right over the steps, panicked, and used his shadows to get down safely. Pleasant used the air, jumped himself and shot like a bullet away from the building. Craven had to shadow walk a distance to catch up to the skeleton, and for a moment, thought he'd just keep using the air to get away.

When he stopped, Craven glared at him for making him run so hard, but mostly he was wishing the mission were over. "Do it!" He snarled, glancing at the Sanctuary. Wards were going up like no one's business, which was bad news. "Now!"

Pleasant reached into his torn-up jacket and got out the detonator, looked at it in his hand, and turned to the Sanctuary. Craven clenched his fists.

"If you don't hurry up, I might kill Wreath anyway," he growled.

"The assassin hasn't left," Pleasant said.

"Who cares? He knew the mission," Craven said, quite happy for that creepy man to be dead and gone. "Do it before they see us!"

Pleasant removed the lid from the little, red button. He looked at it.

"Skeleton, if you're having second thoughts now..." Craven warned.

Pleasant put his hand over the device, ready to detonate, and Craven got his shadow's ready to shield from the debris. They looked at the Sanctuary.

Valkyrie Cain ran to the front door.

She shouted in the distance and dived behind the door.

"It's too late," Pleasant said quietly, and they both saw her body fly back even from how far away they were and begin to convulse. All the wards started to shatter away.

"See, Stolen's done his job," Craven said. "Now do yours or I'll take it from you."

Pleasant looked at the Sanctuary, and with the smallest of movement's, replaced the lid.

Craven growled and dived for the detonator, but Pleasant ducked out of his way. He already knew he had no hope in a brawl, so Craven used his shadows in one swift move and wrapped them securely around the skeleton and squeezed, hearing the man scream and scream from within. He didn't have long enough to play with him, though he really wanted to give him a lesson, so he let the mage fall to the floor. Even with his obviously broken body, Pleasant tried to grab for the detonator. Craven respected that part of the skeleton. He really did.

He pressed the button and a shattering BOOM shook him to the ground.

Bet you weren't expecting that.

Lonelygiel702: I'm imagining China used that healing magic she does on herself in book four (?) when she was shot and heals herself. I don't know, it's fanfiction, we can pretend. And excuse me, no Poodiepie hmmmmm-ing around here, thank you! Anyway, he already did hahaha! I have finally shown my evil side! My inability to make things sad and difficult is no more, I will kill all happiness from now on! (But I might let Valkyrie have a puppy, we'll see. So not all happiness, obviously) :D