'I think you're making that bit up, Dad.'
'Boys are horrible,' he said. 'I should know--I was one.'
Someone rang the doorbell. While her father looked for his passport and her mother finished the packing, Valkyrie went to open the front door.
'Hello, Stephanie,' said Remus Crux.
She froze. He was wearing his usual slacks and blazer, but today he had finished off his outfit with a sickly little smile.
Her mouth went dry. She kept her voice low. 'What are you doing here? You can't be here.'
'I have a warrant for your arrest,' said Crux sweetly. 'What, you didn't think I'd be able to work out who you were and where you lived? If your quite obvious connection to the late Gordon Edgley wasn't enough of a giveaway, there were a dozen vampires chasing you through the streets of this lovely little town last summer. I am a detective, Miss Cain. Working things out is what I do, and this particular mystery wasn't exactly taxing.'
'My parents are here. You can't do this.'
'You have a choice. Either I arrest you now, or you tell me where the skeleton is, and where he is keeping the Grand Mage.'
'The Diablerie have Guild. Batu has Guild.'
'From what I've heard over the course of my investigations, there is no Batu. Valkyrie, no one is blaming you. You understand me, don't you? Skulduggery led you astray. It happens all the time. None of this is your fault. But now you have to do the right thing.'
She glared at him. 'You can't come to my house and threaten me.'
'Are you going to tell me where he is?'
'No, I am not.'
'In that case, you are under arrest.' Valkyrie tried to close the door, but Crux caught it, held it open.
'Get away from here,' she said, her rage cracking her voice. 'There are rules. You can't demonstrate a power in front of civilians. My parents are civilians. If you take me away, you will be exposing all of us.'
He pressed his face through the gap. 'You're under arrest.'
She glanced around when she heard her mother approach, wheeling her suitcase after her, and when Valkyrie looked back, Crux was gone.
'Who was that?' her mother asked.
'No one,' Valkyrie answered quickly. 'Wrong house.'
Her mother nodded, then saw a passport on the table beside her. She shouted up the stairs. 'Desmond, I found your passport. Time to go.'
Valkyrie opened the door wide, like she was making room for her mother's suitcase. She stepped out of the house and looked around, making sure Crux couldn't be seen.
Her dad came down the stairs, picked up the passport, and opened it. 'This isn't mine,' he said. 'This belongs to an ugly man wearing a stupid expression.'
Valkyrie's mother sighed. 'Get in the car.'
'This is my anniversary gift to you' he protested.'And that means I'm in charge.'
'Get in the car.'
'Yes, dear,' he mumbled, picking up his bag and shuffling out the door. He stopped to give Valkyrie a hug and winked at her. 'You behave, okay? And be nice to your cousins. God knows someone has to be.'
He continued on, and her mother came next, giving her a hug and a kiss.
'Beryl is expecting you for lunch,' she said. 'It's not going to be as bad as you think.'
For a single moment, Valkyrie managed to push all thoughts of Crux out of her mind. She looked at her mother and wished she could warn her of what might be coming.
'Hope you have a great time' was all she could say, and she watched her parents throw their bags into the back of the car and reverse out of the driveway. Her dad was driving and her mum was waving. Valkyrie forced a smile onto her face and returned the wave until the car was out of sight.
Then she broke into a sprint.
It was a few seconds before she became aware of Crux behind her. She turned sideways, slipping between a fence post and a wall, to run across the grassy embankment that bordered a field of cauliflowers. She heard the fence rattle and glanced back in time to see him squeezing through.
Valkyrie left the embankment and ran across the field. Her feet were heavy, her running shoes picking up great clumps of muck. It wasn't easy keeping her balance, but she used to do this all the time as a kid--her friends and her, racing each other home from school and taking all the shortcuts imaginable. There was a certain kind of rhythm required to traverse the deep cauliflower rows--a rhythm that Crux didn't have. He had only crossed ten rows when a thick stalk snagged his foot and he sprawled into the dirt.
'You're under arrest!' he screeched.
By the time he had pushed himself up, Valkyrie was halfway across the field. Running like this, with her feet so heavy and having to lift her knees so high, was rapidly draining her energy. She turned and ran up one of the rows, heading for a break in the hedge. She looked back and saw Crux go sprawling once again.
She reached the edge of the field and ran straight for the gap. When she was eight, she had tried this jump and had ended up waist-deep in ditch water, her skin slashed by thorns and briars. But that was a long time ago.
She pushed at the air behind her to add distance to her leap, and landed on the other side, her tired legs stumbling slightly.
This field was mercifully free of cauliflowers, and Valkyrie ran diagonally across it. By the time she hauled herself over the gate to the narrow road on the other side, she was exhausted. She looked back, saw Crux jump the ditch and then stagger to a halt, bending over with his hands on his knees. He looked like he was about to collapse.
She scraped her feet against the ground, shaking loose the remaining clumps of muck, and took off, heading away from town. She needed somewhere quiet and isolated to hide, and then she'd call Skulduggery and get him to pick her up. She really wanted to be there when he got his hands on Crux.
She reached the part in the road where it split into two, heard an engine, and looked back. A black van had stopped by the gate, just as Remus Crux was climbing over it. Even from this distance, Valkyrie could see the state of him--covered in muck from head to toe. He was saying something, gasping out his words probably, to whoever was inside the van, and then the side door opened and a Cleaver got out.
'Oh hell,' Valkyrie breathed.
Crux pointed, and the Cleaver's gray helmet turned to look at her.
She ran.
She knew Cleavers were fast, but she had never been chased by one before. He was like those athletes she'd seen in the Olympics, the hundred-meter sprinters, and he got faster and faster as he came. She'd never outrun him, and if she tried to fight him, she feared he might use the scythe strapped to his back.
A tractor with a rotary tiller attached rumbled out from a nearby field. Valkyrie ran to it, relief washing over her. Cleavers were the Sanctuary's police and army rolled into one, and she knew they would be more mindful of alarming civilians than Crux seemed to be.
The tractor stopped and the farmer got out. She knew him--he was a friend of her dad's. He stepped between the tiller and the tractor and tightened the chains that connected them. She checked behind her, but the Cleaver had disappeared.'Heya, Steph,' the farmer said when he saw her, half smiling and half frowning at her filthy jeans and shoes. 'What have you been up to?'
'Hi, Alan,' she said, trying to catch her breath. 'I'm just out for a run.'
'Ah, I see. Right then.' Satisfied that the chains were tight enough to stop the tiller from swinging as he drove, he wiped his hands on his trousers. 'It's just you're not exactly dressed for a jog, are you?'
'It was a spontaneous decision. Didn't really think it through.'
'That's what I said about marrying Annie.' He nodded. 'Everything's okay, is it?'
'It seems to be,' she said.
'Your folks away for the weekend?'
'They just left.
'And you're in trouble already?'
