Skulduggery Pleasant: Mortal Cole (36 page)

Still no answer. Still no sound, apart from that irregular dripping.

“I’m coming in,” she said, and stepped into the room. She poured her magic into a flame and it burned fiercely, throwing light across the countertops and equipment to each of the four corners. A warm, flickering light that illuminated Kenspeckle Grouse as he lay on the table, and Clarabelle, his assistant, as she crouched on top of him, a scalpel in each hand. Kenspeckle’s eyes were open and unseeing, and the work Clarabelle had been doing reminded Valkyrie of her own dissection just a few days earlier. Blood covered him, and dripped to a puddle on the floor.

Clarabelle screeched, her lips black and her skin riddled with veins. She leaped off the old man’s corpse and fell on to Valkyrie. They sprawled out through the door, landing in the
corridor, those scalpels whipping at Valkyrie like snakes. Valkyrie seized one of Clarabelle’s wrists, held the blade away from her, tried to block the other one, but it bit into her face and scraped along her cheekbone. Warm blood flowed. Valkyrie cried out, and anger coursed through her, giving her the strength to throw Clarabelle off.

She got up, grabbed a metal tray and swung it into the back of Clarabelle’s head. She hit her again, and again, and wouldn’t let her up. Valkyrie battered her until Clarabelle dropped to the floor and didn’t move. Valkyrie threw the tray to one side and ran.

The corridors twisted and turned. Valkyrie’s hand was at her face, the blood pouring through her fingers. She slowed, panting, and heard voices. She crept forward, peered round the corner. Shudder and Tesseract were heading her way, followed by several other sorcerers, including Fletcher.

“We’re going to have to break her,” Fletcher was saying. “You don’t know her, not like I do.”

“Leave Darquesse to us,” Tesseract said.

“But that’s it, right there, that’s your problem. She’s not Darquesse, not yet. She’s still Valkyrie. We’ll never convince her to embrace her inner mass-murderer unless we cut off the things that she clings to.”

“And your suggestion?” asked Shudder.

Valkyrie ducked into a doorway as they neared.

“I’ll go pick up her parents,” she heard Fletcher say, and her stomach lurched. “I’ll bring them back here and kill them in front of her.”

“And what will this accomplish?” Tesseract asked. “Apart from making her hate us so much she never gives in? No, Valkyrie must become Darquesse willingly. We leave her family alone, for now.”

Valkyrie stayed where she was, crouched in the darkness as they walked away, trying to get her breathing under control. Her hands were shaking as she took her phone from her pocket. She thumbed a button and called her reflection.

“Take my parents out of the house,” she whispered.

The reflection’s voice was as cold and uninterested as ever. “Why?”

“They’re in danger. Fletcher’s been possessed. Take them somewhere. Not to Beryl’s, Fletcher knows where they live. I don’t care where you take them, just get them out of the house.”

“Hello, baby,” said Fletcher from right behind her.

Valkyrie twisted, but he was already gone. Something hit her hand and her phone went flying. She swung a fist in an arc,
but didn’t catch him, and then he was behind her again and his fist crunched into the back of her head. She dropped to all fours, hair in her face, stunned. He grabbed her and hauled her up, threw her over a table and teleported to the other side as she landed on the ground. He kicked her, the Remnant inside him adding to his strength. She curled up, struggling for air.

“I thought I heard you,” he said. He was smiling. That cute smile she liked so much. “When I said I wanted to kill your folks, I thought I heard something, a little gasp. I knew it was you.”

Valkyrie turned over, gave a moan of pain.

“I’ll bring you to the others in a bit,” Fletcher said, “don’t you worry about that. I just thought it’d be nice if we spent a few minutes alone. I thought you might want to talk or something.”

She moved quickly, pushing at the air, sending the table hurtling to the other end of the room. But not Fletcher. Fletcher wasn’t there any more. She sensed him behind her, but was too slow to do anything as he grabbed her under the jaw with both hands and started dragging her across the floor.

“Knew you were fooling,” he said. “I know you too well, you see. Can’t bluff me, babe.”

Valkyrie grabbed his wrists to ease the pressure and swung her legs up and over in a backwards somersault. Her boots caught him in the face and he let go, cursing. She was up now. She took hold of the shadows in the room and they lifted him up and slammed him to the ground. She glanced at the door, but she couldn’t outrun a Teleporter and she knew it.

She aimed a kick at his head. He moved at the last second, rolled away, tried to come up, but her knee caught him under the chin. He fell back and she pressed in. If she gave him even a moment to recover, he’d teleport. She got behind him and wrapped one arm around his throat, braced it with the other, going for a choke. Fletcher reared back, but she hung on. He heaved forward, lifting her off her feet, trying to shake her loose. She tightened her hold. The Remnant might not need air to function, but the body it was using sure did. Another few moments and Fletcher would be unconscious.

He stopped trying to pry her fingers back, and instead, staggered to a chair that stood against the wall. He put one foot up on the seat. Valkyrie wriggled, did her best to throw him off balance, but didn’t dare loosen the choke. Grunting, Fletcher shifted his weight forward, and slowly stood up on the chair, taking Valkyrie with him.

She screamed a thousand curses in her mind, but there was
nothing she could do, as Fletcher stood on shaky legs, and then propelled himself backwards. They fell in silence, Valkyrie shutting her eyes and waiting for the impact. She hit the ground and her head smacked off it, and stars burst behind her eyelids. She wasn’t even aware that she’d lost the choke. She wasn’t even aware of Fletcher getting to his feet beside her. She just lay there.

“Wow, you’re tough,” she heard Fletcher say. His voice sounded dim. “I’m not mad. I’m not. This is good. Darquesse is going to have to be tough, am I right?”

His image came into view. “But, wow, you nearly got me there. You nearly had me. If I didn’t have all this extra strength, I’d be out cold. I think I like that, you know, my girlfriend being stronger than me. I’d never admit it – well, the old me wouldn’t – but the new me is a lot more self-assured.”

Valkyrie moaned, and Fletcher knelt beside her. He gently raised her head off the ground, then slammed it back down again. His hands moved over her, checking her pockets.

“You know, I fancied you the moment I saw you. I didn’t want to admit it, because you were young and, you know, really annoying, but yeah, I liked you. We had something, didn’t we? A connection? I liked the way you took all of this so seriously. I found that really funny. Ah, here they are.” He dangled her
own handcuffs over her. “I’ve really liked being your boyfriend, actually. I love all the fun stuff we do. But that’s
nothing
compared to the fun we’re going to have.”

He clicked the cuff on to her right wrist, and was going for the left when someone collided with him from behind. They crashed against the chair in the dark.

Valkyrie rolled slowly on to her side. Her head hurt and she felt sick, but she brought her legs in and got them under her. In the dark around her were more crashes, the sounds of struggle. Two figures, throwing each other into walls. She took a deep breath, then another, willing herself not to throw up. Strength was returning with each moment that passed. The world was becoming clearer. She stood.

Fletcher came stumbling from the shadows. There was a snarl and he turned just as Caelan leaped at him, and they both vanished.

Valkyrie frowned, and even as she started to wonder what Caelan was doing here, a wave of dizziness nearly pitched her on to her face. She managed to stay upright and staggered out into the corridor. She slumped against the wall and stayed there, gathering her strength. She took a small key from her pocket, opened the handcuff and put both away. Warm blood trickled down her face.

Her phone was on the floor nearby. She held out her hand. She could feel the air, but it took a few seconds before she could focus enough to pull it towards her. The phone lifted into her hand, and she slipped it into her jacket, then pushed herself away from the wall. Her balance was back. Her strength was back. She was hurting, but she’d get over it.

Valkyrie found her way back to Sanguine, who raised an eyebrow as she approached, but didn’t say anything. He took her underground, and they moved slowly through the earth and under the street. He was breathing hard, straining against the pain.

Finally, she heard shouting. Hands gripped her, pulling her from the ground. They were on the other side of the road, away from the Hibernian. She opened her eyes to see Ghastly dragging Sanguine to his feet, his fist pulled back, ready to punch. She called out and he looked around, puzzled.

“Our side,” she coughed in Skulduggery’s arms. “He’s on our side.”

Ghastly frowned at Sanguine and let him go. The Texan dropped to his knees, exhausted and in pain. Valkyrie heard shouting.

“They’ve noticed us,” said Tanith.

“Everyone get to the van,” Skulduggery ordered.

They ran, the Remnants behind them. Ghastly jumped in behind the wheel and they took off, tyres spinning.

“Are we going to
drive
there?” Tanith asked. “I know this thing is fast, but I don’t like the idea of a five-hour car chase on icy roads. And they have Fletcher now. He could teleport them all to any one of a hundred places he’s been between here and Kerry, and we’d drive right into them.”

“Fletcher’s distracted,” Valkyrie said. “I don’t know for how long. Caelan was there. He helped me. Kenspeckle’s dead.”

There was a moment of awful calm, that Skulduggery quickly dispelled. “We need to stay ahead of them just long enough so we can find somewhere to pull in. We’ll let them overshoot, get to Kerry ahead of us, and we’ll take our time, approach it right.”

“It’s going to be tricky,” Ghastly murmured.

“It usually is.”

V
alkyrie chewed on a leaf to numb the pain as Tanith stitched the cut on her face as best she could. When Tanith was finished, Valkyrie sat back and closed her eyes. After an hour of driving, they turned off the main road and bounced down narrow lanes of potholes and ice for twenty minutes, then headed north, moving perpendicular to their destination. Valkyrie kept her head down. The van was warm, but it was no comfort. After everything she’d seen and been through, she just wanted her boyfriend’s arms around her. Sometimes the most comforting thing in the world was a hug.

It got dark, and Ghastly turned the headlights on. They passed three cars in two hours, and with every one they’d ready themselves for an attack. But the drivers were human, and mortal, and no threat to them.

Skulduggery asked questions. Sanguine answered them in his lazy drawl. Valkyrie didn’t pay attention. She lay down in the back, her head on Tanith’s lap, and fell asleep.

She woke to a conversation Skulduggery was having with Ghastly about abandoning the van and getting another. Ghastly was insisting on speed. Skulduggery was of the opinion that they should pick the first suitable vehicle they came across – there was no telling when this van would be recognised and reported.

Valkyrie dozed off again, only opening her eyes when the van pulled into an all-night petrol station. There was snow outside. Tanith took a few food orders and got out, hurried up to the bored man at the station window. Ghastly activated his façade and went to keep an eye on her, in case the Remnants had spread out this way. Valkyrie got out to stand beside Skulduggery while he filled the tank.

“I know he hid it well,” Skulduggery said, “but Kenspeckle really liked me.”

She surprised herself with a small smile. “No, he didn’t,” she said.

“No, he didn’t. But he liked you.”

“I don’t really want to talk about this. What is there to say? I can’t believe he’s gone? Can’t believe he’s dead? Obviously, it’s a shock. I don’t need to
tell
anyone that.”

“Sometimes it’s not what you say, Valkyrie, it’s just the fact that you’re saying it.”

She shook her head. “We don’t have the time. Fight now, mourn later. That’s our thing, right? If we stop and consider the implications every time something bad happens, we’d never get anything done.”

“Kenspeckle was your friend.”

“When all this is over, we’ll see who’s alive and who’s dead, and then I’ll cry, OK?”

He put his hand on her shoulder. “OK.”

“Clarabelle’s going to feel so bad when this is done with,” Valkyrie said quietly, then shook her head. She had to focus. “How far are we from the Receptacle?”

“We’re less than an hour from the mountain range, but we should wait until morning before approaching. Once we’re there, that golden key in your pocket will guide us to where we need to go.”

“Do we have a plan?”

“Plans are an invitation to disappointment.”

“And yet we’re probably going to need one. The Remnants are going to be all over the place to stop us from reaching the machine. Are you going to fly us in over their heads?”

“They’ll be expecting that. Now that we have Sanguine on our side, we could always
burrow
right under them.”

“I don’t think so. These days he can’t go 3 metres without needing a rest.”

“So we can’t go above, and we can’t go under. Looks like we’re going to drive in as close as we can, and just walk right in.”

“The direct approach.”

“The only approach we have left.”

Morning was slow in coming, and failed to bring with it warmth. Valkyrie’s nerves jangled beneath her skin. She noticed Tanith clenching and unclenching her fists beside her, and Ghastly had gone scarily quiet. Only China and Skulduggery seemed unperturbed by the danger they were about to walk into. Valkyrie couldn’t have cared less about how Sanguine was coping.