Skulduggery Pleasant: Books 1 - 12. Derek Landy

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