Skulduggery stood up and ran after the shadow that had taken Valkyrie. He just had time to jump out through the broken window before he saw how both disappeared in a wave of shadows. "Necromancer... No wonder I could not see the person. He or she used their shadow magic to hide their true identity. Clever, I gotta admit…"

Skulduggery held up his hand and read the air in hopes of being able to feel if Valkyrie were close by, since not all necromancers could shadow-walk that far. Unfortunately, this particular necromancer could shadow-walk far enough for Skulduggery to not be able to sense anything. He instead decided to search the area around the house to see if the necromancer had left any traces behind him- or herself that could lead Skulduggery to him or her.

At first glance everything looked as usual. He could not see any broken branches, moved stones, foot- or other imprints that could prove someone had sneaked around the house and had eavesdropped on them. Skulduggery crossed his arms and let his head slide down to the chest. If the necromancer had not looked at them from the ground, there was only one other option and that was from above.

He looked upward toward the trees that loomed up in front of him. It was windless and nothing moved, giving Skulduggery a sense of a pair of invisible eyes that watched him. He did not move, just listened for the slightest little noise that could tell him if his gut feeling was right. He also did not want to arouse suspicion in case there really was someone above, watching him.

After all, the less suspicious you were, the easier it would be for you to fool someone.

Nothing happened for a few minutes. Just as he decided that he would go in among the trees and examine them one by one, he perceived a movement among the tree leaves that made him again stand as still as a statue. In the brighter parts where the last rays of the sun penetrated, Skulduggery could see a male figure looking down at him. The figure did not move, just looked at him with hate in his eyes. The man had black hair, green eyes, and a beard.

"I suppose you're here to prevent me from looking for Valkyrie and whoever it is that has kidnapped her. Tell me, are you a bodyguard who will protect the necromancer, or are you also involved in this?"

The man continued to give Skulduggery the silent treatment as he jumped down from the branch he had been sitting on. He got up and before Skulduggery had had time to react, he had the man in front of him. He got a severe blow in his chest, which made him fall to the ground where he rolled around a few times before he got up again.

Skulduggery put his arms in front of him in a guard the moment the man came to him again. This time he was prepared for the attack and could parry while waiting for an opening to appear. However, it turned out that it would not be as easy since this man was very skilled in close combat.

At the same time as the man took a second to recover, Skulduggery took his chance and gave the man fisticuffs in the face that caused the man to back one step. Skulduggery did not give him time to breathe, he immediately followed up with a kick against the man's knee that made him stumble. Quickly, Skulduggery ended it all with a blow to the throat that caused the man to fall unconscious to the ground.

"That takes care of that," said Skulduggery to himself, and corrected his suit jacket that had been wrinkled during the battle. "Now it's just to wait till this fine gentleman wakes up so I can...interviewhim a bit."

Skulduggery carried the man into the house where he tied him to one of the kitchen chairs. He put another chair opposite the unconscious man as he sat down and clasped his hands while he waited. As he waited, he noticed that his mind wandered. He wondered how Valkyrie was doing. Was she unharmed? Where was she now? Far away or near? Had the kidnapper shown their face to her? Had he or she said anything about their plan?

So many questions, but so few answers... he thought to himself and was surprised to hear the deep sigh that escaped his non-existent throat. When had he last worried about someone in this way? Not for hundreds of years, which was for sure. The last time must have been when Serpine...

Skulduggery clenched his fists hard and found himself clenching his jaws. Despite having his revenge 13 years ago, the idea of what Serpine had made towards him and his family got him to relive some of all the anger he had felt that led him into the road that made him turn into Lord Vile.

"NO!" He roared and embezzled all the thoughts of anger, revenge, and bloodshed to that part deep inside of him that consisted of all his negative feelings. "I willnotlet these feelings take over me when I as least need them. I'm stronger than this. I'mbetterthan this."

It's just what you think, Skeleton Detective...whispered a voice from the depths of himself.

Skulduggery flinched and stood up in an unsuccessful attempt to make the voice disappear. He knew it was not that easy, as the voice was a part of him. All he could do was ignore it and hope it would give up. Unfortunately, it was in a very talkative mood today...

Why don't you just confess it to yourself, detective? You miss the power I give you. Let me come out and I'll probably get this guy to tell youeverythinghe knows for you. You are fully aware that the longer the time goes without you getting information, the more chance it is that Valkyrie gets tortured or at worst...

"Do not say it," Skulduggery growled-whispered.

Killed.

Skulduggery shouted in rage and rolled over the chair he just had sat down on. He wanted to kill someone, or at least seriously hurt someone. He turned to the unconscious man in the second chair and gave him such a powerful slap that the man fell on the floor. This in turn caused the man to wake up with a jerk. It took a while for him to focus, but when he got his eyes on Skulduggery, his countenance darkened, and the hate could once again be seen in his eyes.

"The Famous Skeleton Detective. I'll admit it's a glory, even if it receives. I've heard a lot about you, even things that I know you want to keep secret. For example, I know what you did during the war.On both sides." The man's voice was hoarse with an accent that Skulduggery could not place at first, but after a while he got it.

The man was German.

"If you try to scare me, you're doing a bad job."

The man laughed mockingly. "If you think that was my intention, you are mistaking. I'm just a bodyguard and a messenger. My only tasks are to protect my master and give you a message."

"And what's the message?" Skulduggery asked with such a cold voice that a shadow of fear went across the man's face.

The man swallowed as if he had to lubricate his throat before he could speak again. "It doesn't matter how much you try, you still won't be able to find your partner and my master. My master is particularly good at hiding. My master also wants you to know that this is revenge for what you did during the war."

Skulduggery crossed his arms over his chest and seemed to think. He had his suspicions about who it might have been that kidnapped Valkyrie at the same moment she was taken from him, but it was not until the German man was telling him that this whole thing had occurred because of revenge and a war he had been participating in several hundred years ago, that he understood that his suspicions were right.

"Elizabeth Gregory... I thought she had been dead for a long time, but I should have known better. She has always been tenacious and hard to kill."

The German smiled at Skulduggery. "So, you have finally remembered now? Believe me, my master has told me a lot about how you were when you fought on Mevolent's side in the war. How you were a remarkable sight wherever you went. How everyone was afraid of you since you were a commander who by his own will volunteered into the fighting and did not hesitate to kill both male and female magicians as well as mortals. I wish I had seen it with my own eyes... It must have been a sight for the gods..."

Skulduggery said nothing for a long time. He was silent for so long that the German thought he had fallen asleep when Skulduggery lifted his head. Even though he had no eyes, muscles or skin that could show him the skeleton's mood, the German man got the impression that the skeleton detective was angry.

No, not angry. Furious.

"You say that? So, if I'd let out Vile here and now would you be happy? Would you have one of your highest wishes fulfilled?"

The man nodded, not daring to do anything else for fear of angering Skulduggery further. He had heard of the detective's anger, and it was something he did not want to be directed at him if he could avoid it.

Shadows began to sip out from Skulduggery's suit, and it did not take many seconds before they surrounded him. The shadows changed shape and soon became the blackest armour that the German had ever seen. It was no longer possible to discern the slightest trace of the detective under the armour since it covered him from head to toe. The one that now was standing before him was none other than the one and onlyLord Vile.

Vile said nothing but just looked at him through the gap in the helmet. At least that's what the German thought he did, because he could feel Vile's gaze on him. It felt like it could see right through him and like it tried to read his mind. Like he tried to figure out what his motives were and how he could make him spill all his deepest, darkest secrets.

The feeling of seeing the mighty Vile standing in front of him was something he could not have imagined even in his wildest dreams. If he had not been stuck in the chair he would have bowed. Instead, he had to do the second best: bend down his head in a respected nod. Not once did it occur to him that he was in deadly danger…

When he looked up again, Vile had moved. He was now standing right in front of him. Their faces were no more than a couple of centimetres apart. Sweat pearls began to form in his forehead and at first, he could not understand where they came from. This was what he had been waiting for his whole life ever since the day he first had heard the many stories of the greatest Necromancer in the magic society: seeing Lord Vile in the flesh. So why did he suddenly become so nervous? He should feel happy, no,blessedto have experienced what many others had not received! And that's when he understood.

He was scared.

As if Vile could read his thoughts, he made a noise that could be a laugh, but he was not sure, since the armour dampened the sound. Before he had time to think more about it, he felt a horrible pain in his stomach and when he looked down, Vile had stabbed him with one of his shadows. It had drilled a bit into his midriff and the pain was so huge that he could not even scream. He felt how hot blood poured out of the wound and ran down his legs. His body was pierced by spasms, and he was close to falling into the floor, but thanks to Vile's shadow he remained upright.

"Are you happy now?" Vile asked, leaning so close that the German man's nose and Vile's helmet touched each other. "I hope so since all you have done is make me angry. As Elizabeth probably already have told you, nobody escaped mealive. The only thing I live for is to see other people suffer, preferably in the most horrendous ways. Best is whenI amthe one who can distribute that suffering."

Vile twisted the shadow and now the German couldfinallyscream. Vile laughed again while the blood ran out of the deep wound and the German understood that he was dying. He noticed that the insight did not scare him, but on the contrary, he welcomed its cold arms. The only thing he was sad about was that he would not be able to see his master torment the Skeleton detective. He could have paid, in principle, anything to see his facial expression when he would see what condition his partner would be in after his master were done with her.

"You will... regret... that you..." the man coughed blood in his already soiled knee before he could continue. "That you abandoned Vile and... became your old self again... When you see... what has happened to your partner... you will wish you... had remained as Vile and never... had met her..."

Vile growled and let his shadows wrap around the man. One of them cut off the rope that had tied the man to the chair and before he fell on the floor, the shadows that had wrapped around the man grabbed him and lifted him up in the air above Vile. Once there, Vile tilted his head and watched the man for a few seconds before he hissed "Your master will pay deeply for what she has done and will do towards my partner. Unfortunately, you will not be there to witness when I take my revenge."

These were the last words that the German heard before his body became pierced from all directions by giant, sharp shadows. He only had time to take one final, shallow breath before his body was teared to pieces by Vile's shadows.

Body parts, blood, muscle tissue, skin, pieces of organs, brain matter, and other body fluids flew all over the kitchen and over Vile, which his shadows quickly shoved away from him as soon as they fell on him. He stood with the German's heart in his hand and watched as it took its last beat, before he smashed it to a bloody lump between his fingers.

Everything became deadly silent. No sound was able to penetrate through the bubble that was Vile. He could not hear anything, not even the everyday sounds like the noise from the fridge, the cracking of the house or the noise of cars that occasionally drove out on the road. It was as if Vile had lost his ability to hear.

If he still had been human, the only sound he would have heard would have been the hard beating of his heart and his ragged breathing.

After a while, after standing completely motionless and looking at the point where the German had got teared to pieces, Vile was penetrated with such a deep shiver that he had to take a step back. A moan escaped him before his shadows began to retreat into his armour. It did not take long before the armour disappeared completely and Vile disappeared deep into Skulduggery where he waited until next time when Skulduggery would call for him.

Which Vile knew he would do. He always did eventually…

Skulduggery put his hand on the sink and used it as support to avoid falling to the floor. He felt drained of energy, and it took a second for him to focus and find out where he was. As he looked up, he saw the remains of the German that lay scattered across the table, the chairs, the floor and on the kitchen window. He froze before he flung himself out of the room. He felt nauseous and would probably have vomit if he had been human. Instead, he sat down in one of the sofas in the living room and put his hands in his face.

What had he done? No, correction: what hadViledone? He remembered that he had become angry and wanted to hurt someone, but had he really wanted tomurderthe German? Now, in retrospect, he understood that he could have received valuable information if he had only pushed the man enough. Instead, he had let his anger and murderous rage take over, which had given Vile the chance he needed to come out and do what he did best:

Mutilate.

All he could do now was to hope for two things: that he found evidence of where Elizabeth had taken Valkyrie in the area around his house or that China had some information about her that could be useful.

"I will never forgive myself if the only thing that stood in the way of finding Valkyrie was my weakness regarding Vile and the overly enticing powers he possesses," muttered Skulduggery to himself and got out of the couch.

He picked up his phone and dialled a number. While waiting for a response, he went back into the kitchen and inspected the destruction Vile had accomplished. "China, I'll be quick. Valkyrie has been kidnapped by a necromancer named Elizabeth Gregory. I want you to provide me with all the information you have about her and can get your hands on. … Thanks. Oh, one more thing. Can you ask a cleaner to get over here? I was visited by Elizabeth's bodyguard and things... got out of hand."

Skulduggery hung up and was about to put the phone back in the pants pocket when it ringed. On the display it stood "Valkyrie." At the same time as he answered and heard Valkyrie's pained voice, which she tried to disguise but since he had known her for such a long time he could hear it without difficulty, he took a firmer grip on the phone.

"Skulduggery..." Valkyrie gasped for breath in a painful breath before she continued "She has me. Elizabeth Gregory has me... and she will not stop until you... until you come here and..."

It went quiet. "Valkyrie, are you still there? Answer me! Valkyrie?!"

Skulduggery heard how someone else took the phone from Valkyrie and soon he had Elizabeth's voice next to his non-existent ear. "She's still here. Unfortunately, she is a little too weak right now to speak. If you would like to meet her again, you only need to find me, Skulduggery..."