Dark Days

by Derek Landy

  “Anyone? Did he mention it to anyone?”

  No one answered. One of them started to growl again.

  “Where’s the door?” she asked quickly, before she lost them completely. “The steel door out of here, Moloch told me to find it. Where is it?”

  The skinhead’s eyes were once again locked on to her, but she managed to nod her head to the next apartment over.

  “OK,” Valkyrie said, preparing herself. “OK.”

  The first Infected came at her like a bullet, and she sidestepped and slapped her fist into his back, sending him into the wall behind her. The skinhead girl charged and Valkyrie kicked her knee then kneed her face. She whipped the shadows at the next Infected who came close and sent a wave of darkness into another. She clicked her fingers and threw fireballs and manoeuvred over to the unconscious man.

  The moment there was a break in the attacks, she squatted down and lifted him by his collar. She snapped her palms, sending his ragdoll body across the room, knocking down the Infected like bowling pins.

  Hands reached for her as she ran after him. The air shimmered and she cleared a path, reaching him and dragging him through the hole in the wall. She glanced over her shoulder and saw the outline of a door in the darkness. Now all she had to do was hold them off until Skulduggery did what he tended to do – arrive in the nick of time.

  The unconscious Infected murmured.

  “Hey,” she said into his ear. “Moloch wants to know where Dusk is.”

  He groaned. She slapped him across the face, hard.

  “Where is Dusk? Where were you taken?”

  “A castle,” he muttered, as a dark shape came through the hole and collided with her.

  They went sprawling in the mess on the floor. She grabbed a chunk of debris and smacked it into the face of her attacker. She rolled, now she was on top, and punched him with her left, and it felt like her hand had broken. She got up and he kicked her legs from under her.

  Light flooded the room as the door opened behind her and hands grabbed her. Suddenly she was being hauled out.

  “No!” she cried. “That one knows where they are!”

  She was outside now, pressed against the concrete railing, looking out at the other tower blocks and the grey sky and the eleven-storey drop beneath her. She spun round to tell Skulduggery to get the Infected man she’d burned. But it wasn’t Skulduggery.

  Dusk lifted her and threw her over the railing.

  26

  KIDNAPPED

  The tower tilted away from her, and then there was nothing but the grey sky and the sound of wind rushing in her ears.

  The other towers veered into view then the ground swept in and out again, and Valkyrie was turning over as she fell. There was the sky and heavy clouds and her hair, and a shape, Skulduggery, dropping towards her. She turned again and saw the ground and his arms wrapped around her.

  Their plummet slowed and now they were merely drifting. Then they stopped and Skulduggery let her put her feet on the ground.

  “Are you OK?” he asked.

  She couldn’t answer. She could barely breathe. She just gripped his shoulder to make sure she didn’t fall over.

  There were people looking at them. The ordinary tenants of the building had stepped out of their apartments and they were looking down at them silently.

  “Dusk,” she managed to say. “He’s up there.”

  The only floors that didn’t have a line of people at the balconies were the eleventh and the thirteenth, but now she could see movement on the uppermost floor. People were climbing over the railing. Eight of them.

  They let themselves go.

  They fell gracefully, three stories at a time, balcony to balcony, pausing only momentarily before allowing themselves to continue down. Then half of them sprang, propelling themselves away from the building, and the others waited a heartbeat and then dived. All eight vampires flipped and landed in a perfect circle surrounding Skulduggery and Valkyrie.

  The vampires smiled at them, not even out of breath.

  Moloch came down last, carrying something big over his shoulder. He got to the fourth-floor balcony and let it drop. It tumbled and spun as it fell, and she saw that it was Caelan. He hit the ground hard and lay there, unconscious and bleeding.

  Moloch landed. The ring of vampires parted and he walked through.

  “Give Dusk to us,” Skulduggery said.

  “He’s already gone,” Moloch responded.

  Skulduggery nodded, considering what he was going to say next, and then his gun flashed from his jacket and Moloch batted it from his hand. Another vampire caught it. One of them laughed.

  “You won’t kill us,” Skulduggery told Moloch.

  “Really?” Moloch said. “Why not?”

  “Because you won’t be able to. And then we will come back with an army of Cleavers and tear these towers down around you. We want Dusk.”

  “I’ve helped you all I can,” Moloch shrugged.

  “Helped us? You tried to kill Valkyrie.”

  “No, I didn’t. I put her in a situation where she might die, yeah, but I didn’t try to kill her. Did you get what you needed, young one?”

  Valkyrie met his eyes. “He just said a castle.”

  “There you go then. He was brought to a castle. That’s a clue, isn’t it? I mean, how many castles are there around here? Not that many, I’d wager.”

  “When we take down Dusk,” Skulduggery said, “we’re going to take down everyone who stands with him.”

  The amusement left Moloch’s face. “We don’t stand with him, skeleton. He made us an offer and if certain things go certain ways, we’ll be considering it. If you happen to take him down before that, so be it.”

  “Then what was he doing here?”

  “Requesting some of the Infected to bring home, to replace the lads lost in the Sanctuary raid. Apparently, he can’t afford to be waiting the two nights it takes to turn vampires on his own.”

  “And did you give him your Infected?”

  “Of course not. He wasn’t exactly happy about it, but there you go.”

  Skulduggery held out his hand to the vampire with his gun. Moloch nodded assent and the gun was returned. Skulduggery slid it into his holster.

  “We’re going to be watching you,” he said.

  “Of course you are,” Moloch replied, bitterness in his voice. At an unseen signal, the eight vampires left them, walking silently from the square. “Take Caelan with you when you leave,” Moloch continued. “He’s used up any good grace I have left. Tell him never to come back here.”

  Skulduggery nodded and they watched him go.

  They’d left Caelan at the storage facility, and he had limped from the car without looking back. Valkyrie felt bad – he’d been hurt because of them after all. But they couldn’t bring him with them to see Kenspeckle Grouse, not with the Professor’s vampire phobia at an all-time high lately.

  They parked at the back of the old Hibernian Cinema and walked in. Now that the adrenaline had worn off, the pain from the hand Valkyrie had broken while punching was shooting through her. She cradled her arm as she followed Skulduggery up on to the stage and through the door projected on to the screen.

  They took the first corridor to their right, almost bumping into Clarabelle. She held two long test tubes, one in each hand, both filled with a clear liquid.

  “Hi, Clarabelle,” Valkyrie said. “Is the Professor in?”

  Clarabelle’s eyes were moving between the test tubes. “Safe, unsafe. Safe, unsafe. Left one safe, right one unsafe. Left safe, right unsafe.” She looked up and smiled brightly. “Hello, Valkyrie! Hello, Skulduggery! I haven’t seen you in ages!”

  “Well,” Skulduggery said, “I’ve been—”

  “It’s been weeks, hasn’t it?” Clarabelle continued and laughed. “It’s probably only been a few days, but it feels like it’s been weeks! I’d take that as a compliment if I were you!”

  “I’ll try,” Skulduggery murmured.

/>   Clarabelle looked back at the tubes. “Left safe, right unsafe. Safe, unsafe.”

  “What’s that you’re holding?” Valkyrie asked because she had to – there was really no way around it.

  “Oh, these?” beamed Clarabelle. “They’re nothing.”

  “Oh.”

  “They’re not really nothing though. It’s just another of the Professor’s experiments – you know how he is. But the important thing to remember is not to drink either of them. That’s what he told me. He said above all else, do not drink. So I asked him, if I did drink, which one would be worse for me? And the Professor said don’t drink. And I said yes, but if I did, and he said why would I, since he’s just told me not to? But I said yes, I know that, but just say I did drink one of them, which one would be worse for me? And he said the one in my left hand.”

  “But that’s the safe one,” Valkyrie said.

  “Sorry?”

  “You were saying left safe, right unsafe, just a moment ago.”

  “Are you sure? Are you sure it wasn’t the other way around?”

  “The left one is the safe one,” Skulduggery said. “That’s what you were chanting.”

  Clarabelle frowned. “I don’t really know my right hand from my left hand though.”

  Skulduggery pointed. “That’s your left hand.”

  “But this is the unsafe one.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “Practically. I’ll check.”

  Before they could stop her, Clarabelle sipped from the tube in her right hand. She sloshed it around in her mouth, swallowed and nodded. “Yes,” she said happily.

  “Was that the safe one?” Valkyrie asked.

  “No idea,” Clarabelle said and walked on.

  Kenspeckle Grouse hurried into the Emergency Room ahead of them. They walked in after him. He was brushing his white hair, his back to them. He saw them enter in the mirror he was using.

  “I don’t know why I bother,” he grumbled. “I never neaten my hair. I just move it around on my head.”

  “Hello, Professor,” Skulduggery said.

  “I heard you were back.” Kenspeckle turned. He was wearing slacks, a blazer and a yellow bow tie. “I said to myself, it’s only a matter of time before he arrives in here, Valkyrie beside him, with another injury for me to fix. What is it this time, Valkyrie? Broken arm?”

  “Just the hand.”

  “Oh, that’s much better,” he said scornfully. He picked a leaf from a bowl on the table and folded it. “Open,” he ordered. She opened her mouth and he popped it in. He examined her hand while she chewed and immediately the pain lessened. Pleasingly, it also blocked off another headache that was threatening to emerge.

  “We passed Clarabelle,” Skulduggery said. “She drank from one of the test tubes she was holding.”

  Kenspeckle’s head drooped. “That girl,” he said. “One of these days she’ll learn. I don’t know what she’ll learn, but she’ll learn and it will be a good day.”

  “Is she in any danger?”

  He started searching drawers. “Not really. Both tubes contain mineral water. You’d be astonished how many times I’ve given her water and told her it was something else and not to drink it. She always drinks it though. Always. It’s a compulsion.” He showed them a huge uneven bowl that looked like it was made in an idiot’s pottery class. “She made this for me, as a token of her appreciation for employing her when nobody else would.”

  “It’s nice,” Valkyrie lied. “Colourful.”

  “It was meant to be a mug,” Kenspeckle told her. “How big does she think my mouth is? I could fit my whole head in there, for God’s sake. It doesn’t even have a handle. And look at this.” He put the bowl on the table and it tilted drastically. “It’s so off balance it’s in danger of falling off a flat surface.”

  He poured various liquids and powders into the bowl and checked his watch.

  Valkyrie frowned. “Are you going out?” she asked.

  Kenspeckle started stirring. The bowl rocked rhythmically. “I am.”

  “You’re all dressed up. You never get dressed up. Are you…? Do you have a date?”

  “Why do you sound so surprised? Because I’m old, is that it? Because I’m an old man and old people shouldn’t go out on dates? Because we don’t need love or companionship, and we don’t get lonely? Is that it? Is that why you’re so surprised I have a date?”

  “No,” she said. “It’s because you’re really grumpy.”

  “Ah. Yes. I am rather grumpy. But what can I say? Some women like that.”

  “What women?”

  “Women with low expectations.”

  “So you have a date now? It’s not even lunchtime. Where are you going?”

  “Bingo.”

  “Bingo?”

  “Bingo. Everyone’s playing it apparently.” He motioned Valkyrie over and nodded to the bowl, which was now full of brown sludge. “Put your hand in,” he said.

  She did so. It was cold and gritty sludge.

  “Keep it there for three or four minutes, until the tingling stops. Do not flex your fingers, do you hear me? Once you’re done, wash your hand in the sink. And wash it well – I don’t want you ruining the towel. There will be some mild bruising, but by this afternoon you won’t even know it was broken.”

  “You’re going?”

  “I have a date, Valkyrie.”

  “Right. Yes. Sorry. You go on, I’ll be fine.”

  “Your medical opinion means so much to me, you have no idea. Detective Pleasant, please make sure she doesn’t break anything else while she’s standing there.”

  “I’ll do my best.”

  “That’s all I can ask.”

  He bowed to them both and swept from the room.

  “He’s in a good mood,” she said.

  “He is,” Skulduggery agreed. “It’s disconcerting.”

  “And a little gross.”

  “That too.”

  Her phone rang and she answered with her free hand. It was Fletcher. She told him where they were and Fletcher said he was going to get Tanith. A minute later Fletcher and Tanith appeared beside them.

  Tanith arched an eyebrow at Valkyrie’s sludge-covered hand that she was washing in the sink. “What happened?”

  “Vampires,” Valkyrie said. “We learned that Dusk’s lair is a castle.”

  “How did you do?” Skulduggery asked.

  “I couldn’t find Remus Crux anywhere near Haggard,” Tanith told them, “and none of the seals had been broken, so he hasn’t been trying to break through.”

  “Myself and Ghastly went looking for friends of Sanguine,” said Fletcher. “Turns out he doesn’t have any. Can’t say I’m surprised.”

  “So our only lead is a castle,” Skulduggery said. “Well, at least it is a lead.”

  Then they heard Clarabelle shouting for help. She ran in.

  “They’ve taken the Professor!” she cried.

  Valkyrie and Tanith gripped Fletcher’s arms and Skulduggery put a hand on his shoulder.

  “Outside, Fletcher,” he said and then they were standing in the rain beside the Bentley as Billy-Ray Sanguine threw Kenspeckle into the back of his car.

  Something moved overhead and Skulduggery grunted and went flying over the bonnet of the Bentley. A man landed in front of them and immediately flipped, catching Tanith with a kick that sent her crashing back into Fletcher.

  Springheeled Jack whirled to Valkyrie, smiling. He doffed his hat and leaped backwards when she pushed at the air. He dropped on to the top of Sanguine’s car and slid in through the open window, and the car sped out of sight.

  The Bentley beeped as the alarm deactivated and the locks sprang open. Fletcher and Tanith got in the back seat and Valkyrie clicked her seatbelt into place. Skulduggery turned the key and stomped on the accelerator. The Bentley roared out on to the road.

  They followed Sanguine’s car round the corner, swerving to avoid an oncoming van. The roads were slick with rain and the ba
ck of the Bentley swung wildly, but Skulduggery kept it under control. They overtook a car on the inside and then overtook another by crossing to the opposite lane. Half a dozen drivers blasted their horns as Skulduggery nudged the Bentley back into their own lane, and now there was nothing between them and Sanguine except a whole lot of road.

  “Fletcher,” Skulduggery said, “can you teleport over? Grab the Professor?”

  Fletcher stared at the car in front, gripping the headrest of Valkyrie’s seat.

  “It’s moving too fast,” he said. “A moving target’s too hard.”

  The speed piled on. Valkyrie never had any idea that the Bentley could go this fast. They were gaining and they were gaining easily.

  The car in front took a right and took it hard. The tyres squealed as the car drifted sideways, but Sanguine was good and with a sudden burst of speed it leaped onward.

  Skulduggery turned the wheel and tapped the brake, his hand working the gear stick, and the Bentley growled in appreciation. He straightened the car out and brought it to a roar again and Valkyrie felt herself being pressed back into her seat. The streets whipped by. She saw Springheeled Jack open the passenger door of the car in front and move out slightly. He looked down at the road passing beneath him, like he was judging their speed.

  Fletcher leaned forward. “What the hell’s he doing? He’s not going to jump, is he?”

  But he didn’t jump. Defying all laws of inertia and velocity, Jack planted his foot on the ground and simply stepped out, and now he was standing on the road as they hurtled towards him.

  “This is not good,” Skulduggery murmured.

  Jack leaped before the Bentley hit him, landing on the bonnet without even swaying. He looked down at them, his ragged coat flapping in the wind and his hat staying on.

  “If there is one thing I cannot abide,” Skulduggery said, pointing his gun out of the window, “it’s hood ornaments.”

  Before he could fire, Jack stepped up on to the roof.

  “I’ve got him,” Tanith said, handing her sword to Fletcher and opening the window. Moving with unerring grace, she slid out of the car.

  “We can’t do this,” Valkyrie said, glimpsing the astonished faces of people they passed. “We’re in public, for God’s sake! People can see us!”