Skulduggery Pleasant: Books 1 - 12. Derek Landy

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 use her powers. Adrenaline was pumping through her system. Her powers probably wouldn’t even work.

      She took Billy-Ray Sanguine’s 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 Valkyrie turned and lashed out. The razor opened up the vampire’s face as she fell backwards. The vampire that had once been Dusk roared in pain, hit the ground and came at her 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.

      “Seatbelt,” Skulduggery said. Valkyrie reached for it as he turned the wheel and her head hit the window.

      “Ow!”

      “Sorry. Wear your seatbelt.”

      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 seatbelt 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.

      “OK,” he said. “Out.” He opened his door and got out, hurrying to the Bentley. 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’.” 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.

      

      alkyrie 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 on 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 gut twisted as real, raw terror spread through her.

      “I’ll burn you,” she said, but the sound of rockslide 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?”

      Valkyrie 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 realised she was clinging tightly to Sanguine, terrified he was going to let her go and leave her here. She felt him move, 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 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.