Nuce sighed happily.

Cordial's. If he had to ever pick one place to call home, this would be it.

It was a comfortable space in an old building, with many nooks and corners to hide into, even though, one did not have much reason to hide once they had arrived here.

Heavy plastic tables had slowly been covered by stickers and flyers of random guests which, over the decades, had turned into blankets of memorabilia. At some point, Cordial had covered them with thick, transparent plastic, to prevent anyone from messing with them in some way.

Old wooden chairs and folding chairs of different kinds were set up around them, as mixed and random as the customers who were sitting on them: Harshly dressed bikers, elegant Sanctuary employees, colorful party-goers, secretively whispering lovers, tech geeks on computers... There is was no one sort of clientele here, except the private sort.

Cordial came waddling from his kitchen with the little service window out to the street. His hair was grey, his body worn, his years evident; an unusual sight in the magical world. Yet, a mage he was, and the wrinkles in his face dug deep as he grinned brightly at them.

He had not taken their orders but both of them smiled as Cordial set down their fish and chips, and drinks of choice.

"Thanks, mate." Nuce said excitedly and sipped at his pop.

"You are welcome, my friend." Cordial beamed. "I would ask if this is a good day..." He faded out, gesturing at Nuce's cheerful face.

"But then, it's pretty obvious," Nobody finished for him and had a sip of his beer.

"Have fun, you boys." Cordial chuckled and waddled off.

"No beer today?" Nobody quipped, rested his elbows on the table, and leaned forward in his usual wooden chair, in the usual corner.

"Nah." Nuce shrugged. "What if we get a last-minute job? I wanna be sharp as a pin." He squinted and poked his finger at a tiny spot in the air.

Nobody mustered him curiously, leaning in too close. He was wearing rugged, long hair today, which was hanging in waves down to his shoulders, and a pointy, stubbly jawline. His voice was scratchy and hoarse from decades of smoking, and his clothes seemed like they needed a wash. "Look at you, being all responsible."

He shrugged again. "Yeah, why not? I love my job."

"Really." Nobody prodded. "You've been doing an awful lot of complainin' for that."

Nuce snorted. "And what personality is that? Old drunk?" He asked as he dipped a chip into mayonnaise.

Nobody gave a hoarse chuckle. "You flatter me, kid."

"Hm." Nuce made positively as he ate the potatoe. "That's a new one, at least."

"Oldest in the book, kid."

He rolled his eyes. "Stop calling me 'kid'."

"Sure, kid."

Nuce nodded impressively. "Wow, barely down one beer, and I already want to shove your face in the planter.

"Oh, shut up and have your soft drink, kid." Nobody waved and leaned back smugly.

Nuce rolled his eyes and drank his pop. "You won't spoil my mood. Today is a day of new beginnings. And adventure. Lots of adventure." He looked at Nobody inquisitively. "Will you have an adventure later?"

"Oh, you know me, I won't be up to no good." He slurred casually. "You'll be hangin' with your girl?"

"My girl? Is that what we're calling her now?"

"Well," Nobody gestured at him, "since you know who I'm talkin' about, I guess we are."

Nuce rolled his eyes bemusedly. "Yeah, I'll probably go back home after this. I'm sure Dye's already cooking up some plan."

Nobody nodded with approval. "Good to see you're all settled in."

"Took me long enough. But, you know, things are good," he nodded contently.

"Let me know when you're bored again. Then, we can finally have beer together again."

Before Nuce could reply, his phone buzzed with a call.

"We have a job, love." Diamond said immediately once he had picked up.

"Right now?" Nuce asked hopefully.

"Right now." She confirmed. "Are you still at the bar?"

"Yep," he cheerfully replied.

"Are you with Nobody?"

Nuce glanced at his bored-looking friend. "I don't need to be."

There was a warning in Diamond's voice now. "Are you sober?"

Nuce grinned. "As a judge."

"Good." He heard her smile. "I'll pick you up."

That evening, Skulduggery came to pick Valkyrie up from her place on short notice.

She quickly emptied out a can of dog food into Xena's bowl and gave the eating dog a head scratch. Valkyrie was ignored; dinner was more important.

She pulled over a warm jacket and, once again, wondered if this would be one of those days where she was going to miss Ghastly's clothes. Valkyrie had just managed to regain the level of fitness of before her departure to the States; lean, mean, muscles if steel. So, by now, those clothes would have fit perfectly, but then, a magical tailor was not necessarily something to easily come by, and it felt odd to went on a search for one, for a replacement.

Skulduggery was no help in this regard either; it was not as if he needed any more suits. Valkyrie found herself wondering if that was a point of his extensive wardrobe, other than the usual vanity; backups for when Ghastly was gone. The thought made her swallow at a thick throat and take a deep breath before leaving the house and walking to the waiting Bentley down her driveway.

After settling into the passenger seat, Valkyrie mustered Skulduggery critically. He was wearing an all-black suit with a red tie and a matching hat with red hatband. The fabric was shiny and, overall, the outfit was too chique for a regular work day. Overtop, he had bundled himself up in a black winter coat and a thick scarf around his jaw, which reminded of his old disguises, and made him seem almost as if he were cold in the freezing weather.

"Good evening to you, as well." Skulduggery said at her look of disapproval.

"Are you running out of good outfits?" Valkyrie asked as she buckled up.

"You don't approve of my outfit?" Skulduggery asked surprisedly.

"I would." She nodded. "If we were at a party for corrupt politicians."

A sour expression grew on his slim, sharp face. Today, his facade had blue eyes and dark blonde hair, with bushy, light brows that furrowed at the thought. "How about we don't talk about parties?" He said distastefully and started up the car.

Valkyrie reciprocated the expression at the recent memories of Perock's 'event'. She crossed her arms and stared ahead, as Skulduggery steered the car onto the street, and tried shoving the images to the back of her head. She was not very successful at it, however. The past nights had been riddled by nightmares of Alison; captured and trapped in that house of terrors.

"Yeah, let's not." Valkyrie muttered and looked back at him. "Speaking of; any news on Perock?"

He weighed his head. "Some. We have the identities of the deceased, and a translator is currently working with the girls for more information. But it has been proving complicated due to the amount of trauma."

"Yeah, no kidding." Valkyrie breathed with bitter irony.

"They are scared of talking to anyone and, to be frank, I cannot blame them." Skulduggery continued. "There are politicians amongst the perpetrators, influential people, and most of all; wealthy people. The richest of the rich, the most powerful of the powerful."

Valkyrie crossed her arms tighter around her aching chest. There was a strain, a tension she could not place. It was as if her heart wanted to escape, wanted to make her jump up and jump out just so she could run. Run, run, run. "Only they can afford this, after all." She said.

"Precisely. These people jump between countries, Sanctuaries, between the mortal and the magical world... they can do and buy whatever their hearts desire."

Valkyrie made a face. "It should have probably occured to me that there is a supercharged Mafia in the magical world."

Skulduggery lifted a finger, moving it around to his words. "As much as I share your distain for these people, we cannot forget to look at this as any other crime group we encounter. If they are selling something, it's about..." He prompted, pointing the finger at her.

"Money."

"Money. Which means, it's about capita, which means it's about supply and demand. In most cases we can resolve the demand and dry out their money pipes. But we can't do that in this case. Why?"

Valkyrie sighed in dismay and untied her arms. "Because they are selling sex. And you can't resolve someone's sex drive."

"Illegal sex, specifically." Skulduggery strung along. "With minors."

She sighed again. This time sharply and tensely.

"I managed to identify some of the men present at the 'party' that escaped," Skulduggery added.

"Are we going to arrest them?"

"You bet we will," he snarled.

"Right now?"

Skulduggery paused as the question seemed to take him out of the moment. "No."

Valkyrie raised a brow at him. "Where are we going?"

"Dublin." Skulduggery replied. "Where we will be meeting Nuce and Diamond."

She nodded slowly. "Ok, and why?"

"I don't know." He said, eyes hopping over the road ahead. "But it didn't sound like an invitation for tea. She said to put a rush on it."

"So, this is work-related," Valkyrie followed.

"That was what I told you on the phone, wasn't it?"

"It was." She agreed boredly, propped her head into her palm, and her elbow onto the sideboard. She watched the road pass them as the Bentley purred and bounced lightly over the side road.

"You are worried." Skulduggery said.

Valkyrie snorted. "Why wouldn't I be? We barely know them, and they could change their minds, at any point. Really, I never realized how annoying this would be."

"Annoying." Skulduggery repeated with a hint of disbelief.

"Yeah, annoying." She confirmed. "Waiting to see if life is going to flip on its head tomorrow. At their mercy." She leaned her head sideways to glance at him. "Aren't you? Worried?"

His eyes continued moving thoughtfully. "I'm undecided."

"What's your gut telling you?" Valkyrie asked.

"Nothing." Skulduggery said. "Guts cannot talk, and even if they could; I don't have one."

She rolled her eyes. "Your head, then."

"Oh, yes, that one has a lot to say," Skulduggery agreed engagedley' "lots of interesting things and, in any case, very clever things."

She raised a brow. "So, you think we're in the clear?" She prodded. "They're going to keep shut?"

"You," Skulduggery emphasised, "are in the clear either way."

Valkyrie frowned in disbelief. "I have known for years. And we had a little fight in public, in case you've forgotten."

"When you were a minor."

"I'm not a minor anymore."

"You cannot honestly believe," Skulduggery said, suddenly sounding angry but staring straight ahead, "that I would leave you behind here to deal with my mess."

"No, actually, I believed we were in it together, until the end." Valkyrie said, lifting an unfazed brow.

Skulduggery grumbled something indistinguishable.

"I hope that means, 'thank you, Valkyrie, for being my wonderful partner'."

"That goes without saying." He attempted to flatter with little enthusiasm.

She smirked teasingly. "I don't mind hearing it."

Skulduggery nodded slowly. "Well... most of the time, you are highly irritating but, I suppose, it's always just as much as I can bare."

"Well," Valkyrie smiled, "you're always too much to bare. That's part your charm."

Skulduggery did not take his gaze off the road yet she thought to see a little smirk play at the corners of his false lips.

"Come." Nuce said soberly, sounding vaguely out of breath, and took them away from the Bentley.

"What happened?" Valkyrie asked as they followed.

"We got a job, a couple of hours ago. A meet, here, to transport a client."

Skulduggery nodded affirmatively. "And you got here, and then?"

"I don't really know what to tell you, honestly." Nuce admitted, speaking quickly, as he led them down a dark path in the outskirts of Dublin.

Left and right, prickly berry bushes lined the dirt road. They had some tiny, dried up, lightly frozen berries left on them.

"It all happened way too fast." Nuce said and took Valkyrie's attention away from the sad berries. "I was looking around the perimeter if anyone had followed us. I was by the meeting spot. But this was, like, an hour before we were supposed to actually meet, yeah? We always get there early."

Skulduggery nodded along to his words as he spoke, which seemed to motivate Nuce to continue.

"Anyway, suddenly this white, unmarked van comes racing at me. They do a last-minute break, and a bloke jumps out. And this guy was terrified." He told them intensely. "Terrified. He runs at me, starts talking all panicked, we need to take them, and he needs to go. And no one can ever know what he did."

"And who are 'they'?" Valkyrie wanted to know.

Nuce lifted a clueless hand, and then pointed it at a large, white van that was coming into view. It was nestled into a corner of hedges along a small, abandoned parking lot.

"He ran off, I chased him, but lost him. By the time Dye got here, he was long gone." Nuce finished his story glumly.

"Do you have a description?" Skulduggery asked.

"Yeah, I think so," he sighed, "but first, you'll want to see this…"

They circled the van, and Valkyrie spotted Diamond, who was sitting on the edge of the trunk of the van, holding a girl in her arms.

The girl had brown hair and was wearing a hoodie and jeans, but her face was hidden against Diamond's chest, her arms tightly wrapped around her midsection.

Diamond was petting her hair and watched them approach with an entirely joyless expression.

As they walked on, another girl came into view, sitting on her other side, staring at the ground. And then another, behind her on a bunk. And then another one, and another one, and another one…

"Oh, no..." Valkyrie muttered, but then stopped walking, taking in with dread, the view of the dozen young girls crammed into the little space in the back of the van, sitting hunched over on bunks.

Neither of them could have been older than fifteen, all of them looked scared and apathetic alike. Some had their arms around each other, but most just stared on the floor of the van. Clean but ruffled hair hung into pale, tired faced; illuminated by the single LED-light on the ceiling of the car.

"Skulduggery." Diamond said softly. She lifted a slow hand from the girl's head and gesticulated at her own face.

Skulduggery reached up and activated his façade; an angular face with short, brown hair, just before the girls started noticing the newcomers.

"Have you talked to them yet?" He asked, speaking equally as quiet.

Diamond shook her head faintly. "They don't speak English. Eastern European, I think."

Skulduggery carefully moved closer, under the watchful eyes of the girls, and squatted down in front of one of the girls that was sitting on the edge of the trunk.

"Hello." He said.

"Hi." She quietly replied.

"What… is… your… name…" He asked slowly.

Her eyes went down to her own lap. "Lina."

"It isn't." Diamond softly told him. "They all have names that start with L."

"I'm asking you a random question?" Skulduggery said, trying to provoke a reaction.

She frowned. "Scuzati-ma?"

Valkyrie could not help but look confused. "What language is that?"

"Rumanian." Skulduggery said. "Ești din România?"

The girl nodded frantically, long, blond hair bobbing along to her movements.

He asked her something that Valkyrie could not follow. She replied, replied again, and then went into an entire rant.

Skulduggery sighed and held his head low.

"What is she saying?" Nuce wanted to know.

"I haven't the fuzziest," he said.

They all joined him in sighing.

"We need a translator." Skulduggery looked back up at the girl, who seemed confused. "Scuzati-ma," he repeated to her.

Now, she looked sad.

Diamond reached past the brown haired girl in her arms, which was still clinging onto her, and grabbed the blonde girl's hand.

Skulduggery looked at another girl, who was holding a friend and watching him with cold, skeptical eyes. He tried talking to her as well, then another, but neither of them replied. Valkyrie assumed, they did not trust them. As Skulduggery had said; She could not blame them.

Once he was done prodding for more information, Skulduggery turned to Diamond, keeping his voice low. "You picked this location?"

She nodded lightly, hand still petting the girl in her arms.

He nodded back, got up and pulled out his phone, while walking a couple of meters away.

"Aren't we going to endanger this guy by calling it in?" Nuce tried to protest.

"Probably." Valkyrie said. "But whatever this is, it's bigger than the one guy. This..." She made a face.

"This is a a human-trafficking ring." Diamond finished quietly. "In the magical world."

Valkyrie nodded. "We found out a couple of days ago. Seems we aren't the only ones."

"Great." Nuce sniffed bitterly.

They waited by the car, where Diamond continued to hold on to the brown haired girl, who was just dozing apathetically, at this point. They were still sitting on the edge of the van, while the other girls remained on their bunks.

Most of them seemed to have a relative hold, some of them started whispering to each other with time, as they realized that no one here was trying to do anything to them.

The rest of them stood on the parking lot by the open back doors, talking occasionally. Once in a while, Skulduggery would ask the blonde girl in the front something, but his Rumanian was never sufficient to understand the complicated answers. Valkyrie was not surprised. It was not like Rumanian was a language that was far spread. In fact, whenever she heard it, it sounded vaguely like Italian to her.

The waiting did not bother Valkyrie. The air outside was relatively mild, the area was quiet and seemed safe and deserted, and her legs were happy to be standing.

"Hey, Valkyrie?" Nuce asked, eventually.

"Hm?"

"Where did you guys go, anyway, last year?"

Valkyrie snorted. "Well, I'm not allowed to complain about Alaska, anymore." She hinted and heard Diamond sniff quietly from her spot by the trunk. Skulduggery ignored it.

"But before that we were in Asia."

Nuce frowned. "Where in Asia?"

She shrugged. "All over. There was lots of walking involved. And lots of good food."

"Sounds like a regular workweek." Nuce grinned and earned another sniff from Diamond.

Suddenly, a girl in the back screamed. Everyone turned to her and she just stared at them with wide eyes and fell off the bunk. By the time she hit the ground, she was dead.

All the girls started screaming in fear and horror, jumped off the bunks, and scrambled to get away. But there was nothing behind them. No attacker, no weapon, not even a sound. Yet they started falling, one-by-one, from the back to the front. An invisible blade opened a deep gash on one of their throats, making the girl gurgle and topple over forwards. The next girl screamed, as something slid through her back, until it petruded out the other side. She blinked at Valkyrie surprisedly before she fell.

They began hectically dragging them out of the van and shoving them onto the lot. A bunch of the girls hurried away, crying, grabbing for each other, and calling out words Valkyrie did not understand.

"Stay together!" She called to them and started pulling them closer, to make sure they did not just run off in their panic. Valkyrie stood between the girls and the van, arms wide, and Nuce joined her in it.

They looked around and spotted Skulduggery, who was searching through the air for movement that did not come from the girls. But for some reason, he did not seem to find anything because, soon after, his gun was in his hand.

Meanwhile, Diamond was jumping into the van, grabbing the girls and pushing them outside. One of them tripped and fell off the edge. Her head hit a concrete devider of the parking lot. Valkyrie could hear the sound of her head splitting over the sound of screaming. She moved to help but Nuce and Skulduggery were faster, moved in, and started pulling the rest of them out. Only six of them made it outside, however, the rest stayed on the van floor and parking lot ground.

One girl cried out and collapsed close to Valkyrie and she started pulling at the others, away from that spot, while they sobbed and held on to their protectors, hiding behind their legs. But the blonde girl they had talked to before was ripped away, and as Valkyrie grabbed for her, another one screamed and fell.

"There're two!" She yelled.

Yet another girl was ripped from Nuce's leg, and he swirled and grabbed her, but her hand came off with the sound of cracking bone. She screeched horribly, was dragged away and stabbed in the chest.

Still, Valkyrie could not see the knife or the assailant, just the blood spraying, as someone invisible pulled out the invisible weapon. The girl sagged, and Valkyrie wrapped her arms around the remaining two. Nuce and Skulduggery were now shielding her on either side.

Valkyrie flinched at a sudden pain in her arm, and she yelped, as something cut through her shirt fabric, into her shoulder. It distracted her, so that she only noticed that one girl was dead, when she slumped into her arms.

Valkyrie gasped frantically, and Nuce snapped a finger, setting off a detonation close to her head. She flinched, but held still, as it went past her, onto invisible space, where blood seemed to spray from thin air.

Skulduggery's gun went off, once, twice, thrice, then blood squirted onto Nuce's shirt and, suddenly, a guy appeared in front of him. The two men locked eyes; the bodyguard and the murderer, and the latter had a hole between his brows. The killer's eyes rolled back inside his head and he fell over, leaving Nuce there, staring at the empty spot in horror.

A violent tug, and suddenly, the remaining girl was out of Valkyrie's arms and she could only scream, when the girl's throat started pouring blood from an even line.

Valkyrie stood there, arms still vaguely held out, as the last one of them fell. She stared at the spot, shaking.

There was silence now. Only Valkyrie's and Nuce's heavy breathing, and the quiet wind that stroked over the girls' and the killer's corpses. But the screams were still ringing in Valkyrie's ears.

"No." Skulduggery suddenly said

She turned. He rushed to the van and jumped in.

Between the four dead girls, lay Diamond, unmoving, the handle of a knife sticking out of her stomach.

Nuce ran over, but it was too crowded for him to join them, so he could only stand by the open trunk and watch on, as Skulduggery held a hand over her mouth. From it, a trickle of blood was running, dropping onto the metal van floor, joining the girls and Diamond's hair in decorating it in red. She looked dead.

"Is she breathing?" Nuce asked hectically. "Is she breathing!?"

"Barely." Skulduggery said and picked her up carefully and carried her out of the van. "But she has a pulse."

"Well, get her to a Healer!" He ordered I a panic, his eyes skipping back and forth between his friend and the dead girls around.

"Stay here. Do not leave the scene." He replied sharply and strode off, Diamond in his arms, her head lulling sideways uncontrolled.

But when Skulduggery arrived by the path that led from the parking lot to where the Bentley was, he stopped abruptly. He turned his head, as if he were listening to something.

"Skul?" Valkyrie called worriedly.

He looked down at unmoving Diamond, then back up, shook his head, and walked on, slowly disappearing from their view.

Nuce turned, rushed over to a hedge and threw up.

Valkyrie just continued standing there. Slowly, she looked at the girls. Some of them had their eyes open. One of them still stared at her in horror. She felt tears come up but they did not fall.

"What the fuck…" Nuce breathed, as he came stumbling back over, wiping his mouth, eyes wide and teary. "What the fuck, Valkyrie!?"

She inhaled shakily to an incomplete sob.

Nuce slowly sank down to his knees amidst a couple of the girls, gasped for breath a couple of times, and then cried for the both of them.