Valkyrie had to muster all her remaining strength to be able to listen to what Elizabeth Gregory said to Skulduggery. She knew she had been extremely fortunate that she had managed to get a hold on her phone and call Skulduggery before her strength had left her. She did not know why Elizabeth had not taken her phone from her as soon as she had arrived at her hideaway, but Valkyrie now suspected it was because she wanted to be given a chance to taunt Skulduggery.
Elizabeth wanted Skulduggery to hear how weak she was and understand that she would be suffering terrible mischief as long as she was Elizabeth's prisoner.
Elizabeth hung up and turned to Valkyrie. In her face, Valkyrie could see a smile so big that Valkyrie could see all of Elizabeth's razor-sharp teeth. "It is now the fun begins, Valkyrie. Now that Skulduggery knows for sure that I am the one holding you captive, he will do everything in his power to find us. He is also probably aware that I will take diligent care of you during your stay here..."
The laughter that came out of Elizabeth's throat caused Valkyrie to shiver, which in turn caused her to moan low with pain from the wounds she had received from Elizabeth's shadows.
When she had regained consciousness after she had been taken away from Cemetery Road, she had laid bound and been wearing only her underwear and bra on a cold stone floor. The first thing she had seen was her clothes that had laid neatly folded next to her, as if her kidnapper thought it was fun to tease her. Something which Valkyrie had not found funny at all. She hated it when people made fun of her.
At the same time, she had gotten up, a door had opened and had emitted enough light for her to be able to see that she was in a room that was not much bigger than a bathroom. Inside the room was a toilet, a sink, and a mattress. A small window emitted a dim light that made her see good enough to move around the room without having to crash into the walls, but not more than that.
In the doorway, the shadow that had kidnapped her had stood. It had looked at her with an evil smirk on its face. When she had asked who the shadow was and what it wanted her, it had laughed and entered the room where it then stood before her. She had tried to get up and succeeded after some attempts. She did not like feeling inferior.
"Welcome, Valkyrie Cain. I understand you're feeling uncomfortable right now, but I'll change that soon. I also understand that you want to know what you are doing here, and I'll tell you. I suppose you think this has to do with Darquesse? That I'm here to get revenge for what she did several years ago?"
Valkyrie had nodded and had managed to get up in a position that was not too uncomfortable.
"Then maybe it will relieve you when I say it's not about you this time? I'm actually looking for Skulduggery. He did something intolerable to me hundreds of years ago, that I've been waiting a long time to avenge. As you probably already know, he is quite good at pushing the right buttons to erect people to the point that they do not see any way other than trying to kill him or injure him in other ways."
Valkyrie had chosen not to answer since she was unsure where her kidnapper was going with her claims. She had not yet realized what she was doing there and why it was so important for Elizabeth to kidnapherand bring her to her hideout, just so could get a chance to get at Skulduggery.
Elizabeth had let the shadows pull away from her and Valkyrie had finally been able to see what her capturer looked like. She had blond, curly hair that flowed down her front and back all the way down to her stomach and which framed her round face. She had eyes as green as emeralds and she was dressed in a simple black dress that concealed everything except her throat. Valkyrie quickly understood that Elizabeth's necromancer powers was concealed in her dress. She could see how the shadows wrapped around it and made it wave in a way that caused Valkyrie to feel nauseous if she looked at it for too long.
"What do you want from me? I have not done anything to you. If you now want your revenge on Skulduggery, why did you not kidnap him instead? I do not think you seem particularly smart. I mean, if it had been me, I would not go for the partner to attract my real target but instead incapacitate the partner to then pursue my real target", Valkyrie said.
Elizabeth had laughed and leaned towards Valkyrie. "Unlike you who choose the easiest way out, I like challenges. What is the point of taking revenge if it ends too fast? Revenge is a dish best served cold and something you want to enjoy, Valkyrie. It's something you strive for, for a long time and, when the time comes, should be enjoyed to the fullest. Unfortunately, you're too young to understand, I'm afraid."
Shadows had wandered around them both and before Valkyrie had reacted, most of them had cut deep, but not life-threatening, wounds on her arms, legs, belly and back. The pain that had went through her had made her scream and she had fallen with a hard thump on the stone floor. Tears had formed in her eyes, but she had not let them come out. She would not cry in front of this woman!
Elizabeth had licked her lips all the while blood continued to flow from Valkyries wounds. She enjoyed watching other people suffering. Valkyrie had understood that based on her facial expression. This had given her one more reason not to cry. She had not wanted to give her kidnapper any kind of satisfaction if she could prevent it.
Soon she had again screamed with pain when more shadows had joined the first and had continued to cut in her unprotected body. If she had only been wearing her armoured clothes and not been bound, she would have kicked the shit out of Elizabeth and then let the Cleavers take care of herafterSkulduggery had had the opportunity to get some alone time with Elizabeth.
"You will... regret this. Wait until... I'm coming... out of these ropes. Then I'll... kick your ass, Elizabeth!" Valkyrie had managed to get out between the waves of pain that had passed through her.
"Go ahead and fantasize about that little girl because that will only make things that much more fun for me. Do you know why? I'll tell you why. Because the more hope you've got the more pain, I can cause you before you break down." Elizabeth had given Valkyrie another evil smirk before she had been withdrawing her shadows and walked out of the room.
Leaving Valkyrie left behind with her pains and thoughts of what would occur in the future.
As soon as the door had closed behind Elizabeth and Valkyrie had managed to collect enough energy, she had begun to crawl towards her clothes. The pain in her fresh wounds had made her moan, but she had continued to crawl stubbornly. She was not going to make it easy for Elizabeth. She would show her that she wasn't a weakling and why she had got a reputation for being a person with whom you did not mess.
In the moment she had reached her clothes, she had had to stop and rest for a few seconds since the pain in her wounds had made her feel dizzy. When the worst dizziness had passed, she had turned her back to her clothes and had begun to fumble her hands over her pockets until she had felt the contour of her phone. Slowly but surely, she had managed to pull it out of the pants pocket.
She now had managed to get her phone out, but how would she be able to call Skulduggery and tell him what had happened? She had remained sitting for a while, while she had been trying to find a solution to her problem. In the end she had realized that if she turned her head and looked back at the phone, she could use her fingers to find Skulduggery's number and dial it.
At the same time as the signals had begun ringing, she had laid down beside the phone and had managed to nail it between her shoulder and her ear. When she had heard Skulduggery answer, she had been close to crying out of relief.
"Valkyrie, how are you? Where are you?"
"Skulduggery... She has me. Elizabeth Gregory has me... and she will not stop until you... until you come here and..."
Valkyrie had interrupted herself when a dizziness attack had hit her and just as she had been about to continue, she had heard how the door to her prison slowly had opened. Before she had had time to realize what had happened, a shadow had grabbed her phone and given it to Elizabeth where she had been standing in the doorway. She had heard how Skulduggery had called for her and had made a failed attempt to crawl to the phone to tell him she was okay, that she was not dead when Elizabeth's voice had interrupted her in her attempt.
"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 tofind me, Skulduggery..." Elizabeth had said before she had hung up and given Valkyrie that smile...
Valkyrie came back to reality from her thoughts by Elizabeth who grabbed her arm and lifted her up as easily as if she had been a rag doll. She tried to resist but noticed that she was too weak to even lift her second arm, which Elizabeth did not hold. She even had difficulty keeping her eyes open. The only thing she wanted to do right now was to close her eyes and get lost in a dreamless sleep where she could get back some of her strength that she had lost at the same moment Elizabeth's shadows had begun to slice into her skin.
A hard blow caused her head to flip to the side and caused a lot of her tiredness to disappear as if by magic. She managed to refocus her gaze, and it landed in Elizabeth's eyes. In them she could see her hatred towards Skulduggery for what he had done to her hundreds of years ago but also the happiness Elizabeth felt every time she hurt her in some way.
Elizabeth Gregory was a psychopath who loved to hurt others.
"Even though I appreciate that you called Skulduggery so that I could get a chance of teasing a little with him, it does not change the fact that you were trying to get behind my back. If it is something I do not tolerate that my prisoners do, it's going behind my back. I hope you understand, Valkyrie?"
Instead of answering, Valkyrie spit Elizabeth in the face.
"How dare you?!" Elizabeth shouted and threw Valkyrie into the wall above the mattress. In the same moment as her bruised body fell on to the mattress, Valkyrie curled up in a fatal position. She was too weak and in too much pain to either moan or scream out the pain she currently was experiencing.
"How dare you spit me in the face?! Do you know who you are dealing with? Do you know who I am?! I could kill you in so many ways right now, Valkyrie Cain. You'd probably be surprised if you knew how many. It's good for you that I still need you, otherwise all that would remain of you would have been a big pool of blood."
Valkyrie did not answer. She was too busy not falling into unconsciousness.
"If you think you are in pain now, you have a lot more pain to look forward to in the future. When Skulduggery is finally able to figure out where you are, there will not be much left of you. You will be like a wandering corpse. You will have forgotten who you are and what you have done in the last 13 years of your life." Elizabeth went to Valkyrie and lifted her head up so she could look her in the eyes. "Did you understand what I just told you?"
Valkyrie nodded with horror shining out of her eyes. She knew that what Elizabeth was saying was the truth. She could see it in her eyes.
"Good girl." Elizabeth let go of Valkyrie's chin and got up. Again, she let the shadows swallow her so that she once again became the shadow that Valkyrie and Skulduggery had seen her as when Elizabeth had caught her.
Without a word of goodbye, Elizabeth disappeared, and the door was closed with a creaking sound. Valkyrie was left in a nearly dark room with only herself and her pain as company. Now that Elizabeth was gone, she could finally allow the tears to come. They ran down her face in a violent stream and landed silently on the bloody stone floor below her.
Skulduggery's P.O.W.
Skulduggery went back and forth in his house while he was waiting for... what? To hear Valkyrie's plagued voice again, only to confirm that she was still alive? Elizabeth's scornful voice in his ear that challenged him to find her before she did something that could not be undone against Valkyrie?
He was interrupted in his thoughts by the sound of a car approaching. He realized that it was the cleaner that came to clear out the mess that Vile had made in the kitchen. "Finally... They sure took their sweet time," Skulduggery muttered and went out to meet the person.
The moment he opened the front door and went outside; a white van was parked next to the Bentley. Out of the car came a dark-haired middle-aged man with blue eyes dressed in a white suit which looked like the ones used by forensic technicians. The man nodded to Skulduggery and entered the house without a word. Skulduggery came to wonder how the man would react when he saw the mess in there but soon realized that the man was probably used to both this and that by now.
Instead of following the man into the house, Skulduggery went to the trees that lay behind his house to continue his search for clues. He stood for a while and only listened to the sounds of nature that became weaker and weaker the darker it became. He knew it would be very dark in just half an hour, which did not give him much time to search for tracks that Elizabeth or her bodyguard could have left behind.
He began his search for clues at the foot of the tree that the bodyguard had jumped down from and then worked his way deeper into the trees. When he reached the end of the tree dune it had become so dark that he was forced to light a fireball to be able to see anything at all.
After a few more minutes of searching, he had to admit himself defeated. Elizabeth had been very smart and had not left anything behind her that could tie her to a place or a person which could eventually lead him to her. Nor her bodyguard had made any mistakes, which allowed Skulduggery to suspect that Elizabeth had been training him hard.
He returned to the house and saw that the cleaner had left. He did not have to go inside the house to know that the job was done and that no trace of what had happened remained. The cleaners always did an excellent job and unless you had been there and saw the devastation they had cleaned up, you could never believe that something terrible had occurred.
Skulduggery decided to take a car trip to see if China had managed to get any information on Elizabeth. He sat in the car and had just started it when a beeping sound from his phone was heard. He picked it up and saw that he had received a message containing an audio file. The sender was from Valkyrie's phone. He opened the file and flinched when he heard Valkyrie screaming with pain and fear while the sound of skin that got cut up could be heard in the background. It all ended with Elizabeth's laughing.
He held the phone convulsively and did not let it go until a cracking sound was heard. He relaxed his grip and noticed that he had been holding his breath, even though he did not even breathe. Despite this, he still released a very deep breath and put his hands in his face while leaning his arms on the steering wheel.
For the first time in a long time, Skulduggery felt powerless. He did not know what he should do. To hear Valkyrie scream that way while knowing very well what she was going through, since he had done similar things to others as Lord Vile, got his non-existent heart to burst. Hearing his partner shout straight out in agonizing pain and horror was something that no one should have to hear...
Skulduggery hit his fist in the steering wheel in frustration and flinched when he got the car horn to honk. He looked around as if he were worried that someone would wonder what he was doing. If he had had Valkyrie next to him, she would have laughed at his reaction and said something that was typical of hers just to get on his nerves.
A sound that could be likened to a sob escaped Skulduggery, but as he had no eyes that could produce tears, this was the closest he could come to crying. Before he had made yet another such sound, his phone beeped again. This time he had received an MMS. He hesitated for a moment since he was afraid of what he would see if he opened the message. Once he had managed to muster up enough courage to open it, he emitted a sound that was something between a moan and a sob when he saw what kind of picture he had been receiving.
The picture showed Valkyrie lying on a mattress with fresh cuts all over her body and a stone floor which was drenched with her own blood...