Playing with Fire (Skulduggery Pleasant, Book 2) (16 page)

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"Um, since you're not going to be using it, can I?"

Vengeous almost laughed.

He punched, and Skulduggery darted low and to the side, but Vengeous was expecting the maneuver, and he brought his clenched fist down on Skulduggery's shoulder blade. Skulduggery tried to move in for a throw, but Vengeous shifted his weight slightly and stuck out his foot, and Skulduggery went tumbling. His leg hit the crate, and he fell onto the Grotesquery.

Vengeous roared and reached in, grabbing Skulduggery and hauling him out. He sent out a right hook that cracked against Skulduggery's jaw. He followed it with a left cross, but Skulduggery managed to raise his arm in defense. The block turned to a strike to the throat, as sudden and savage as a snake. Vengeous coughed and fell back, and Skulduggery kicked the inside of his leg.

Vengeous kept his guard close, protecting his head, but dropped it low when Skulduggery kicked for his ribs. The kick was a feint and turned to a step, and Skulduggery swung a punch, but Vengeous caught it, his left hand closing around Skulduggery's right wrist. Vengeous surged upward and in, his right elbow hitting Skulduggery's right

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shoulder like a bullet. Vengeous torqued his body and took Skulduggery off his feet and threw him to the ground, landing heavily on top of him.

Skulduggery's left hand came up to Vengeous's face, the fingers flexing, and Vengeous swatted the hand away before Skulduggery could push at the air. Vengeous punched, again and again, and grinned down at him.

"I'd hate to be you," Vengeous said. "A skeleton who feels pain. None of the advantages of a flesh-and-blood body, and all of its weaknesses. Whoever brought you back should have left you where you lay."

Skulduggery groaned.

Some of the Infected were back on their feet, and they looked at Skulduggery as he lay there. Vengeous stood and brushed the dust from his clothes. He picked up his cutlass.

"I'm going to cut you," Vengeous said, "into little, tiny pieces. I'm going to take a small part of your skull and turn it into some dice. Maybe I'll use the rest of you as keys on a piano. I wonder, skeleton, would you still be alive? Would you be conscious, if you were dice, or keys on a piano?"

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"Always wanted a life in music," Skulduggery mumbled.

Valkyrie couldn't watch any more. She got to her feet. "Hey!"

Vengeous looked up to the collapsed roof and saw her.

"Heard you've been looking for me," she called out.

"Miss Cain," Vengeous said with a smile. "So you
are
here."

"That girl," Skulduggery muttered, "never does what she's bloody told."

"You want me, Baron?" Valkyrie shouted. "Come and get me!"

And then she stepped back, and Vengeous started running up after her, and she went to the battlement and flung herself over.

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Chapter Nineteen

ON THE RUN

T
his is so stupid
, Valkyrie thought to herself as she ran.

Her foot hit a rock and she almost fell. She didn't know where she was going or what she would do. She had no plan at all, whatsoever.

She ignored the trail and ran deeper into blackness. She could hear her pursuers now, the commands being shouted to the Infected.

She could hear the van, and when she looked over her shoulder, she glimpsed its headlights, bobbing like crazy over the uneven ground.

Then the world left her and she was falling.

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She hit the side of the hill and started to roll. The ground leveled off and she hit a patch of briars that tried to get in at her through her clothes. The headlights came around the bend and she flattened herself, the briars tearing at her hands and hair. She dragged herself through as the headlights hurtled toward her.

Missing her by a handbreadth, the van roared by.

Valkyrie stayed a moment to catch her breath, then ripped the briars away and got up.

There were shouts from all directions. The Infected almost had her surrounded, and the only reason she was still free was because they hadn't realized it yet.

She set off, limping slightly. There was a road ahead. If she could get to the pitch blackness on the other side, she might have a chance at escape.

But now there was another set of headlights. The black Jeep. She had to get across the road before she was cut off.

And then there was somebody standing in her way.

Dusk grabbed her and she tried to hit him, but he threw her down. "Finally," he said, as though he was bored of a game. He was about to continue

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speaking, but she saw his face twitch, and his hand went to his belly. His fingers dipped into his coat, brought out a syringe.

This was her chance, and she couldn't afford to mess it up.

Forcing the fear and the panic from her mind, Valkyrie splayed her fingers. The air shimmered and the syringe flew from his grasp, vanishing into the darkness.

He cursed, tried to run after it, but lost his balance and stumbled.

Valkyrie was up, already moving fast in the other direction.

"That was a mistake," she heard him mutter. "That serum was the only thing keeping me under control. ..."

She glanced back as Dusk took hold of his human form and tore it off, like a snake shucking its skin. The vampire beneath the flesh and clothes, the creature within the man, was bald and alabaster white, and its eyes were black and its fangs were jagged, and she knew Dusk hadn't been lying. That
had
been a mistake.

Valkyrie sprinted, and the vampire bounded after her.

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The Infected were all around her, and the black Jeep had picked her out with its headlights. Baron Vengeous could plainly see her, but she didn't care. Vengeous would keep her alive until he decided it was time to kill her. The vampire, on the other hand, would rip her to pieces right there and then.

It was bounding after her and gaining fast. One more leap and it would be on top of her. She couldn't afford to try anything, couldn't afford to try her powers. Adrenaline was pumping through her system. Her powers probably wouldn't even
work.

She took Billy-Ray Sanguine's straight razor from her pocket, unfolding it as she ran. Over the sound of the oncoming Jeep, she heard Vengeous trying to call off the vampire, but she knew the beast wouldn't listen. A vampire, after it's shucked its skin, has no master. Skulduggery had called them the most efficient killers in the world. The only thing a vampire cared about was blood.

The bounding stopped and she felt it in the air, felt it descending, and she turned and lashed out. The razor opened up the vampire's face as she fell backward. The vampire that had once been Dusk roared in pain, hit the ground, and came at her

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again before she even had time to roll to her feet.

The Jeep was still approaching, and it wasn't slowing down.

It swerved and swung around in a cloud of dust and smacked right into the vampire, flinging it back. The passenger door opened.

"In!" Skulduggery yelled.

Valkyrie jumped in and the Jeep shot off.

"Seat belt," Skulduggery said.

Valkyrie reached for it as he turned the wheel, and her head hit the window.

"Ow!"

"Sorry. Wear your seat belt."

The van was right behind them, filling the inside of the Jeep with yellow light. Skulduggery braked and turned, gunning the engine, and the yellow light withdrew sharply as the van missed the hidden turn. They left the van in their dust and followed a trail through the hills.

Valkyrie grabbed the seat belt and tugged it a few times before she got it to work. She settled into her seat and clicked it in, just as Skulduggery braked.

"Okay," he said. "Out."

He opened his door and got out, hurrying to the Bentley.

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Cursing his name, Valkyrie followed.

The silence of the night was eerie. And then the ground ahead of them cracked and crumbled, and Skulduggery pulled out his gun as Billy-Ray Sanguine rose to the surface.

"Well, I do declare," Sanguine said with a smile. "The great Skeleton Detective, in the flesh-- figuratively speakin', of course."

Skulduggery regarded him warily. "Mr. Sanguine, I've been hearing so much about you."

"That so?"

"You're quite the little psychopath, aren't you?"

"I try."

"So tell me something: Why wait eighty years before you helped your old boss escape? Why didn't you just bust him out the day after he was caught?"

Sanguine shrugged. "I suppose I had what y'all might call a crisis of faith, and my faith lost. These past eighty years, goin' it alone, it's been good, but somethin's been missing, y'know?"

"You're under arrest."

"Speakin' of which, and I don't mean to be rude, but I just popped by to pick up the li'l darlin' there. I'll be out of your hair in a moment-- again, figuratively speakin'."

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And then he passed down into the ground with a smile on his face.

"Oh hell," Valkyrie said, and Skulduggery reached for her but it was too late. The ground exploded and Sanguine grabbed her and Valkyrie didn't even have time to cry out before he took her down into the ground with him.

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Chapter Twenty

UNDER THE GROUND

VALKYRIE GASPED for breath as she plunged down into the darkness.

The earth shifted around her. It scraped into her back and crumbled at her feet. Dirt flew into her eyes and the sound of a rockslide roared in her ears. She clung to Sanguine as they moved.

"Scared?" he said in her ear. "What if I were to just ... let go?"

He was right in front of her-- she could feel his breath on her cheek-- but she couldn't see him. It was impossibly dark, whatever tunnel they were making filling up above them as they moved. Her

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gut twisted as real, raw terror spread through her.

"I'll burn you," she said, but the sound of rock-slide drowned out her small voice.
"I'll burn you!"
she shouted. She heard him laugh.

"You burn me enough you might kill me, and then what would you do? You'd be stuck here, buried alive under the ground with only my corpse for comfort."

They slowed, the rockslide lessened, and they came to a stop. Valkyrie was shaking. Sweat drenched her. Panic caught at her throat.

"I can see you, you know," he said. "My eyes were taken, but my sight remains. And here, in the dark? I can see best of all. I can see the fear on your face. You can't hide it from me. So here's what's gonna happen. I'm gonna put some dainty li'l shackles on those wrists of yours, and then we're gonna go pay a visit to Baron Vengeous. That sound like a nice way to spend the rest of your life?"

She tasted dirt in her mouth but didn't answer. It was too dark. She could feel the rocks all around her. Despite her loathing, she realized she was clinging tightly to Sanguine, terrified he was going to let her go and leave her here. She felt him move,

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heard the earth shift, and felt something cold and metal close around her wrists.

"Oh, one other thing," he said. "My blade. Where is it?"

"Coat pocket," she whispered.

His hand dipped into the pocket, removing the straight razor.

"So good to have it back. It's like a part of me, y'know? Like a little piece of my soul."

He could see in the dark, so she made sure he could see the contempt on her face. "Is there somewhere we need to go, or are you going to keep us down here and bore me to death?"

He laughed, the rock shifted, and they moved again, fast. She tried to work out how Sanguine did it, but it was as if the ground just parted for him, then closed up when he'd passed. It was impossible to tell what direction they were going or even if they were headed up or down, and then suddenly the earth gave way and their momentum carried them through into the fresh air.

The moon, heavy and low in the dark sky. Trees and hedges and grass. Valkyrie fell to her knees, spitting dirt and sucking in air. The sweat that coated her body now chilled her, but the ground

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was solid and the roar was gone from her ears. She raised her head, looked back.

"Your chariot awaits, ma'am," Sanguine said, opening the door to the car that had been parked there. She tested the shackles, but they were on tight. She clicked her fingers but no spark came. Her powers were bound.

Sanguine helped her to the car by gripping the back of her neck and forcing her in. Even if she managed to get away, there was nowhere to run. There were meadows in every direction.

He closed the door, walked around the car, and got in behind the wheel.

"Is it fun?" he asked suddenly. "Doin' all that detectin'? I always wanted to be a detective. I
was
one, for about a year. I liked the romance of it all. The suits, the hats, the dark alleys, the femme fatale, all that quick talkin'. But I couldn't stop
killin'
folk. I mean, they'd hire me, I'd try to solve their mystery, but halfway through I'd get bored and end up killin' them, and then the case'd be over, and that'd be it. I solved one single murder that whole entire year, but I don't think that really counts, seein' as how I was the killer. I think that's kinda cheatin', in a way."