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Playing With Fire
Her mum looked up at him. “You forgot your shirt.”
“Oh, yes, the reason I’m here. I don’t have a clean one.”
“Behind the door.”
He turned, saw the crisp white shirt hanging on the coat hook and rubbed his hands together. He took it off the hook and put it on, sliding the collar up beneath the tie as he buttoned it. He didn’t like wearing ties – he owned a construction company so he’d always thought he’d be in work-boots and jeans. But every now and then he had to dress up and pretend – as he put it – to be civilised.
“So Steph,” he said, “looking forward to a great day in school?”
“Oh yes,” she said with mock enthusiasm.
“What do you think you’ll learn today?”
“I can’t begin to guess. Maybe how to subtract.”
He waved his hand dismissively. “Subtraction’s overrated. It’s like adding, only backwards. You’re not ever going to need it.”
“Desmond!” Beryl said sternly. “You shouldn’t take that attitude. Stephanie is at an easily-influenced age, and she needs to be taught that everything she learns in school is valuable. Joking around is all well and good, but some things just have to be taken seriously. How can you ever expect Stephanie to be responsible when all you ever do is set a bad example?”
“I don’t know,” he answered. “Luck, I suppose.”
Beryl sighed in exasperation and looked like she was about to give them a lecture. Valkyrie and her father both pounced on the same opportunity before Beryl could utter another word.
“I’m going to school,” Valkyrie said quickly, shovelling the last spoonful of cereal into her mouth.
“I’m going to work,” her dad said, only a millisecond behind.
Valkyrie slipped her bowl into the dishwasher and made for the door.
“But Desmond, you haven’t had any breakfast,” Valkyrie’s mother said with a frown.
“I’ll get something on the way,” her father said, following her out. They got to the hallway and Valkyrie turned for the stairs as her dad picked his keys up off the small table. They looked at each other and nodded their silent goodbyes. Then they both smiled, and he walked out and she went to her room.
Not for the first time, she wondered how her father would react if he knew that the family legends were true, that they were descended from the Ancients, that his grandfather and his late brother had been right. But she didn’t tell him. If he knew the truth, he’d try and stop her from going out every day, try to protect her from people like Serpine, and Vengeous, and whoever else wanted to kill her. Or worse, maybe he’d want to get involved. She didn’t think she’d be able to cope with her father putting himself in danger. She wanted her family to be normal. Normal was good. Normal was safe.
She closed the door then took off her school jumper and dropped it on the bed. She touched her mirror and a moment later her reflection stepped out. She had forgotten about the logo rule once and the reflection had gone to school with the school crest on the wrong side and the school motto written backwards. Valkyrie hadn’t made that mistake again. She waited until her reflection had pulled on the jumper then handed it her schoolbag.
“Have fun,” she said, and the reflection nodded and hurried out of the room.
Not for the first time, Valkyrie grinned to herself. She’d hardly been to school since Skulduggery had worked his magic on that mirror, yet she was up to date on all the classes, all the gossip, all the day-to-day workings of an ordinary, everyday, run-of-the-mill thirteen year old. Without having to actually set foot through a classroom door.
Sure, there were times when she wished she’d been there to experience something firsthand instead of reliving it through the reflection’s eyes. It wasn’t the same merely having the memories of, say, a joke being told, instead of actually having been around for the real thing. Just another price to pay, she reckoned.
Moving quietly, Valkyrie took off the rest of her uniform, hid it under her bed and dressed in the black clothes that had been made especially for her. She’d grown a bit since Ghastly Bespoke had designed them, but they still fitted, and for that she was thankful. They had saved her life on more then one occasion, and it wasn’t as if she could ask Ghastly to make her any more. In a fight with the White Cleaver he had used the earth power as a last-ditch defence and turned himself to stone. She hadn’t known him that well, but she missed him and she knew that Skulduggery did too.
She slipped into her coat and opened the window. She breathed deep and slow. Checking to make sure she wasn’t being watched, she climbed out on to the sill and paused there for a moment, focusing her mind. Then she slipped off the edge, displacing the air beneath her to slow her descent. It wasn’t graceful, and her landing was still a little too hard, but it was a lot better than it had been.
She hurried down the road to the pier. When she was younger she used to join her friends there. They used to sprint for the edge and leap as far as they could over the rocks right below them, splashing down into the sparkling water. Yes, it was dangerous, and yes, poor J. J. Pearl once shattered his knee on those rocks, but the danger gave the exercise a certain extra kick. These days, J. J. walked with a slight limp and she’d long since drifted apart from her childhood friends. She missed swimming though. She didn’t get to do a whole lot of that now.
The Bentley was waiting for her, parked beside a rusty old Fiat. It stood out by a mile – but then it stood out by a mile wherever it went.
“Good morning,” Skulduggery said when she got in. “Well rested, are you?”
“I had two hours’ sleep,” she said.
“Well, no one said being a great detective leading an action-packed life was easy.”
“You said it was easy.”
“I said it was easy for me,” he corrected. “Was that your lovely aunt’s car I saw outside your house?”
“Yeah, it was,” said Valkyrie, and told him about her brief run-in with Beryl.
“Family reunion?” Skulduggery said when she had finished. “Are you going?”
“And, what, leave you to stop the bad guys without me? No way. I’ll send the reflection in my place, thank you very much.”
“A reunion might be fun.”
“Right. Fun. Because I have so much fun with that side of the family. I wouldn’t mind so much if it was Mum’s side – I have a laugh with them. Dad’s side is just … weird, you know?”
“I do. Gordon spoke of them often. Never forget, however, that you’re weird too.”
She glared at him. “I’m not weird like that. I’m good weird. I’m cool weird.”
“Yes,” he said doubtfully. “Yes, you are.”
“Shut up. But anyway, all of Dad’s cousins will be there, with their families, people I hardly know and, of course, Beryl and Fergus and the Toxic Twins, and it’s pretty much going to be horrible, so there’s no way in hell that I’m going.”
“Well, that’s good enough for me.”
Skulduggery started the engine and Valkyrie sat low in her seat as he pulled out on to the road and started driving.
“So have you found out anything about Vengeous?”
“One of our people at the docks hasn’t reported in yet,” Skulduggery said. He was wearing his usual disguise – wide-brimmed hat, overlarge sunglasses, fuzzy wig and a scarf wrapped around the lower half of his face. “It might be nothing, but …”
“But Vengeous might already be here?”
“Well, yes.”
“That’s bad.”
“It’s not good.”
They were driving down Main Street and Valkyrie glanced out as they passed the bus stop. Five bored-looking teens stood in school uniform.
“My reflection’s not there,” she said with a frown.
“Maybe it got delayed.”
She shook her head. “It left before me.”
The Bentley slowed. “What do you want to do?”
“It’s probably nothing. It could have cut across the Green … although it should still have made it here by now. But no, it’s probably nothing.”
Skulduggery pulled over to the side of the road and tilted his head at her. “You use that reflection a lot more than is recommended,” he said. “You ought to expect some unusual behaviour every now and then.”
“I know …”
“But you want to go and look for it, don’t you?”
“I just want to check that everything’s all right. I’ll get out here, go through the Green.”
“I’ll turn around, head back to the pier, meet up with you there.”
Valkyrie nodded, made sure no one was looking and then got out of the car and ran between two buildings. She climbed the fence and dropped to the grass on the other side. The green was actually a small park, an oasis of trees and flowerbeds and a fountain, tucked behind Main Street. It was the site of many a game of football when Valkyrie was younger.
She could have been overreacting. Her reflection had probably met some people Valkyrie knew. In fact, Valkyrie herself could be the one to ruin things, by running straight into a situation that the reflection was handling with its usual efficiency. And then she heard her own scream.
Valkyrie left the main path, running towards the small clump of trees. Beyond the trees, near the fountain, there were two figures struggling. It was her reflection, trying to break free from a man in black.
“Hey!” Valkyrie shouted.
The man in black looked up. He was pale and oddly beautiful, and way too calm. “There you are,” he said. “I was almost fooled. Almost. But this one doesn’t feel fear. And I can smell fear.” He thrust the reflection from him, and it stumbled to its knees.
“Get to school,” Valkyrie told it. The reflection nodded, picked up the fallen schoolbag and ran past her through the trees, not even glancing back at the attacker.
Valkyrie glared. “Who are you? How did you find out where I live?”
“I followed you,” he said. “I lost you when you came into town, so I decided to wait around until you showed up again. I even made some new friends.”
Now she saw them, a young couple, walking towards her. She knew them. She didn’t know their names, but she’d seen them around, holding hands, laughing. They weren’t laughing now. They were pale, as pale as the man in black. They looked sick and there were bloodstains on their clothes. They watched her with dark, dead eyes. Valkyrie looked at the man in black, remembered the graceful way he had moved. “You’re a vampire,” she breathed.
“And you are Valkyrie Cain and you’re coming with us.”
She couldn’t fight them. There was no way she was even close to being ready.
So she ran.
The young couple were after her, sprinting, feet thudding on the grass. She kept ahead of them. She didn’t even have to look back, she could hear how close they were. But she couldn’t hear him. The man in black was running at her side, moving without effort. She tried to duck away, but he reached out a lazy hand, his fingers closing around her arm, and stopped suddenly. She jerked to a painful halt.
She swung a punch but he moved slightly and her fist connected with nothing but air. She tried to kick and he took a step, the expression on his face never going beyond bored, and he grabbed Valkyrie’s arm and twisted it behind her back and her knees hit the ground.
“The Baron wants you alive,” he said. “Bear in mind, he did not specify unharmed. Do not try to hit me again.”
“How about me?” Skulduggery said as he ran up behind him. “Can I hit you?”
The man in black released Valkyrie and turned, too late to stop Skulduggery’s fist from smacking into his jaw. He staggered and Skulduggery splayed his hand. The air rushed into the vampire and sent him backwards, head over heels. Instead of sprawling on to the grass, however, his body moved with an inhuman agility and he twisted sideways and landed on his feet.
“Detective,” he murmured.
“Dusk,” Skulduggery said. “It’s been a while. Still evil?”
The man called Dusk smiled. “When the mood takes me.” He gestured to the young couple. “Allow me to introduce you to my friends. I like to call them Minion One and Minion Two. You can decide among yourselves which one is which.”
The young couple attacked. Skulduggery dodged their clumsy grabs and threw them into each other’s way. Dusk blurred and in an eye-blink he was beside Valkyrie, pulling her to her feet.
Skulduggery lunged at Dusk and they went down, and Skulduggery lost his hat and scarf. Valkyrie stumbled back. Minion One, the male, snarled and came at her. He looked even worse close up. His eyes were dull and red-rimmed, and she could see the bite on his neck beneath his shirt collar. It wasn’t the dainty twin pin-pricks she’d seen in the movies- his neck had been savagely torn open. She could smell the dried blood on his skin. It smelled of copper.
For a moment she panicked. His hands were gripping her collar, forcing her back, and he was strong. His girlfriend, Minion Two, was right behind him, eager to inflict some damage of her own. Valkyrie made herself relax, remembering the drills she’d run with Skulduggery and Tanith, conditioning her body to relax when every part of her wanted to scream.
She allowed herself to be pushed back. Her left hand gripped Minion One’s wrist and her right hand came up between his arms to his face. She planted her left foot and dug in and twisted her hips into him, and Minion One collided with her and went over.
Minion Two snarled and punched and Valkyrie’s world rocked. She deflected the grab that followed, tried a lock that didn’t work then stomped on Minion Two’s knee and shoved her away.
She saw Skulduggery and Dusk. Now that he could no longer be taken by surprise, Dusk’s supernatural grace and athleticism were keeping him away from Skulduggery’s strikes. He swept out of range of the punches and kicks, and every hold Skulduggery tried, Dusk eased out of before it was even completed.
He kicked Skulduggery and moved backwards, and as he did so something fell from his pocket. He glanced at it and moved to retrieve it, but Skulduggery held out his hand and it flew into his grip. It was a syringe, filled with a colourless liquid.
Dusk shrugged. “You can keep it,” he said. “I’ve got plenty more.”
The Minions were regrouping. Valkyrie clicked her fingers, but failed to ignite a spark. She tried again, and this time she felt the heat of the friction. She focused, curled her hand, and let the energy pour from the centre of her body into her arm, into her palm. Then she took the spark and made it into a flame.
“Stay back,” she warned. The Minions didn’t answer. She didn’t even know if they were capable of answering.
The flame expanded into a ball of fire in her hand and she hurled it right at them. And then Skulduggery was shouting something and running forwards, his arms sweeping up, and a rush of wind hit the fireball and knocked it off course even as the flames extinguished. Then he was at Valkyrie’s side, holding her arm, walking backwards with her as the Minions stalked them.
“They’ve been infected,” he said, “but they’re not lost. Not yet. We don’t want to kill them.”
Dusk strolled after them. “It’s not their fault I chose them after all.”
Skulduggery glanced at her. “It takes two nights for an Infected to become a vampire. Until then, they’re innocent victims.”
“But in two nights,” Dusk added, “this will all be over.”
Skulduggery took out his gun, aimed it straight at Dusk. The Minions stopped and snarled. Dusk’s smile never left his face. “This is your chance to leave,” Skulduggery said.
“Why would we do that? You’re the ones backing away. You can’t kill my friends. You are losing this little altercation.”
Skulduggery thumbed back the revolver’s hammer. “I said we don’t want to kill them. I didn’t say we won’t.”
“If you fire that gun,” Dusk said, “you will have the whole town running to see what’s going on and you’ve dropped your disguise.”
“That’s the only reason I’m not putting you out of our misery right here and now.”
Dusk considered his options then shrugged. “Minions,” he said, “we’re leaving.” The infected couple snarled their displeasure, but did as they were told. They joined Dusk as he backed away.
Skulduggery didn’t lower the gun. “Tell Vengeous I expected more from him. Going after my colleague to get to me is the sort of thing Serpine tried. Tell him if he wants me then be a man and come and get me.”
“The Baron is an honourable man.”
“The Baron is a coward.”
Dusk smiled, but didn’t respond. Valkyrie stood by Skulduggery’s side, and they watched Dusk and his Minions fade into the cover of the trees.
He parked the Bentley in the lane at the back, and Valkyrie followed him in. The carpeted surroundings absorbed their footfalls. They passed framed posters for obscure movies starring dead actors. No paying customer had been in this building for decades.
The cinema was quiet, as usual, and empty. They walked down the steps between the rows of seats. The screen had a heavy red curtain in front of it, musty with age. As they approached, the curtain parted and the screen lit up, showing an old black-and-white film. The film showed a brick wall and an open door. The soundtrack was of a city at night. Valkyrie followed Skulduggery up on to the small stage and they walked to the door, their shadows falling on to the image. Then they walked through the screen.
They took the stairs that lay on the other side and gradually the artificial light swept the gloom away. They reached the top floor, where all signs of the old cinema had been replaced by gleaming corridors and laboratories. The owner of the Hibernian had spent a lot of time renovating the building, developing it into the magic-science facility he’d always dreamed about. Because of the delicate nature of the work done in all the various sections – the medical bay, the brand-new Morgue, the Theoretical Magic (R&D) Department – there were no windows, and the temperature was carefully controlled. Although he had the run of the entire building, shared only with his two assistants, the owner still chose to work in the smallest, darkest laboratory, and that was where they found him.
Professor Kenspeckle Grouse looked around when Skulduggery said his name. “You again,” he said in a voice that was not overflowing with warmth and hospitality. “What do you want?” Kenspeckle was a small, elderly man with a mass of white hair and very little patience.
“We have something for you, Professor,” Skulduggery said, showing him the syringe that had fallen from Dusk’s pocket. “We were wondering if you’d have time to analyse it.”
“Oh, as if I’m not kept busy enough as it is,” Kenspeckle said gruffly. “Valkyrie, I haven’t seen you in weeks. Staying out of trouble?”
“Not really,” Valkyrie admitted.
“Nor did I expect you to,” he said with an exasperated sigh. For all his crotchety behaviour and ill manners, the elderly scientist seemed to have a soft spot for Valkyrie. “So what has he dragged you into this time?”
“I haven’t dragged her into anything,” Skulduggery said defensively.
Valkyrie smiled. “Fights, kidnap attempts, more fights. Business as usual, you know how it is.” Skulduggery’s phone rang and he stepped away to answer it.
Now that Skulduggery was out of earshot, Kenspeckle let his voice soften in tone. “How is the shoulder from last month?”
“Much better,” she answered. “I was barely left with a bruise.”
Kenspeckle nodded. “I used a new mixture. The ingredients are a little harder to find, but for my favourite patients I like to make sure the healing process is as painless as possible.”
“I’m on that list?” Valkyrie asked, her smile growing wider.
Kenspeckle snorted. “You are the list.” Valkyrie laughed.
“Your partner certainly isn’t,” Kenspeckle continued, returning his attention to Skulduggery as his phone call ended. “Let me see that syringe.” Skulduggery handed it over.
“Where did you get it?”
“It fell out of a vampire’s pocket.”
Kenspeckle held the syringe up to the light, examining the liquid within. “Fascinating creatures, vampires. Two completely separate layers of epidermis, the upper layer of which regenerates when the sun comes up. Human by day, gifted with slightly enhanced speed and strength, but essentially mortal. But at night …”
Valkyrie nodded. “I know what they’re like at night.”
“Hmm? Oh, that’s right. You have firsthand knowledge, don’t you? How did you get that I wonder? Oh, yes.” He glared at Skulduggery. “Someone with absolutely no sense of responsibility dragged you in front of a vampire and almost got you killed.”
Skulduggery tilted his head. “Are you talking about me?” he asked innocently.
Kenspeckle scowled and went back to examining the syringe. “I’ve seen this before,” he said, “but only once. It’s a rare concoction of hemlock and wolfsbane. It would be used by a vampire to suppress his bestial nature at night.”
“Makes sense,” Skulduggery murmured. “Dusk is of no use to Vengeous if he loses control every time the sun goes down.”
Kenspeckle loosened his tie and undid his top shirt button. “I had a run-in with a vampire in my youth, and I barely escaped with my life. That’s why I carry this with me everywhere I go.” He showed them a glass vial that hung around his neck.
“Is that holy water?” Valkyrie asked, a little doubtfully.
“Holy water? No, no, no, Valkyrie. It’s sea water.”
“Right,” she said slowly.
“Holy water doesn’t work,” Kenspeckle explained, “and stakes through the heart won’t kill them. Decapitation is effective, but then decapitation is effective against most things. The one vampire legend that does have merit, however, is running water.”
Valkyrie frowned. “OK, and that seems to be the one legend I’ve never heard of.”
Skulduggery spoke up. “There’s an old myth that vampires can’t pass over running water, so they couldn’t cross a bridge that spans a river, for instance. Now, while crossing bridges doesn’t phase them in the slightest, the truth of the myth stems from salt water.”
“Vampires have an extreme allergic reaction to the stuff,” Kenspeckle said. “If ingested, it would swell a vampire’s throat, blocking its air passage. Which is why I carry some with me at all times.”
“But wouldn’t they have to swallow it?” Valkyrie asked.
“Well, yes …”
“And how would you get a vampire to swallow the water before it killed you?” Kenspeckle blinked and didn’t say anything.
“Never mind,” Valkyrie said quickly. “I’m sure, you know, you’d find a way. Like, you could throw the water into its mouth when it’s, uh, about to bite you.”
Kenspeckle’s shoulders slumped, and Valkyrie felt incredibly guilty that she had poked a hole in his plan. “Leave me,” he said a little mournfully.
“I’m sorry …” Valkyrie began, but he held up his hand.
“No need to apologise. I am a medical genius, a scientific genius, but obviously not a tactical genius. And to think, for the last 180 years I was unafraid of vampires because I had a vial of salt water tied around my neck. What an idiot.”
Kenspeckle shuffled off and Skulduggery patted Valkyrie on the shoulder. “Congratulations,” he said. “You’ve just reinstated a 300-year old neurosis. Our work here is done.”
