December 7th, 2010. London, England 6:00 PM BST
Because we were bringing Seras, we scheduled the meeting with Shaggy, Scooby, and DB for the next night. Early evening, but after sundown so my vampire wouldn't come down with terminal sunburn. That gave me the whole day to spend with my mom and the girls, and Suzie was over the moon about the quality time.
By the time the meeting rolled around, she and Seras had already more than bonded, and my crimson haired cinnamon roll officially had our Vampire wrapped around her little finger. Seras was being dragged around by the hand, a pageboy cap on her head as Suzie went on enthusiastically about how much she loved muggle London.
"It's so beautiful here!" She squealed in excitement as she stared around us at the restaurants and stores."Hannah's taken me a few places in the muggle world, but nowhere busy like this!" She bounced happily as she tried to head into a nearby store. "Oh, this place looks fun!"
Seras chuckled at the enthusiasm. "We can visit later, we're supposed to be meeting Ryan's friends for dinner, remember?"
Speaking of which, I spotted DB waving from across the street. "Found them!" I said loudly, getting their attention. "Come on, follow me." I grabbed Suzie's other arm, and between Seras and I we practically dragged her with us.
When I arrived, I was surprised to see that Shaggy, Scooby, and DB weren't alone. Tanith was sitting at the table with them, and she waved as I approached. "Tanith?" I said with a grin. "I thought you were in Ireland?"
Rolling her eyes, she grumped. "I WAS. Until your lanky boxy boy here called me down to London for an emergency that turned out to be the fact that he wanted me to introduce him to some people in Ireland. I do NOT appreciate having to come all the way back here just to make my way there again!"
Shaggy looked guilty. "Like…sorry, man. I just realized the next ghost was in ireland, but I don't know my way around there. You said you know people in Ireland so I figured I'd like, give you a call."
"It's fine." I cut in with a laugh. "I can just teleport us there. You mentioned something about a Sanctuary? If I'm being honest I have no clue what that is, so maybe you could fill us in? Some sort of safe zone?" Suzie and Seras sat down with DB and started chatting, waiting for a waiter to come and take our order at the open air patio table, as I sat down across from Tanith. I nodded to them. "That's Seras by the way. She's in the know and has her own powers, so don't worry about her."
Tanith sighed. "Oh good. Last thing I wanted was mortals along." She glanced at Shaggy with a grimace. "Er, no offense. I just prefer people with some firepower as backup when I can get them. You understand?"
Shaggy chuckled. "Like, no argument here. If we could avoid it we'd be hundreds of miles away, probably taking refuge in the nearest hot dog stand."
Scooby giggled. "Reah, rot dogs." Looking quickly around he waited for Shaggy to focus on us again, then flicked out his tongue and somehow pulled all the meat from the giant sandwich Shaggy was absently biting into, swallowing all whole as the tall man bit down on empty bread.
"Anyway." Tanith said, trying not to laugh as Shaggy glared at his innocent faced best friend. "The Sanctuary is like Sorcerer police. They keep the peace and watch out of anyone who might be stirring up trouble. My old connections aren't quite as connected as they used to be though.."
I cursed. "Well, that's less than ideal. Nothing too bad happened to them, right?"
"Not as such." She grimaced. "Or it did but they're ok now. One went missing and we just recently got him back. My friend Skulduggery got sucked into a hell dimension for a while, and my friend Val, she's your age actually, just got him back. They used to work for the sanctuary, but they got replaced, and then THAT guy got replaced and the new girl is a stone cold bitch."
That sounded unpleasant, though the whole hell dimension thing piqued my interest. There were devils in hell, at least sometime. It wasn't the time for that though "Listen, I can take you back to Ireland the quick way, teleportation circle is just about instant, if I do, can you show us around and help us get a bead on this ghost?"
"I can try." She said uncertainly. "But looking for stuff isn't really my bag. Skulduggery is the detective, and chances are good he's the one more likely to be of help."
"Well weird name aside we'd appreciate the assist." I said with a shrug. "Also why DOES he have such a weird name?" Not that Tanith Lowe was exactly John Smith, but at least Tanith's name SOUNDED like a name.
She gave me an odd look, then chuckled. "Right, witches and wizards have their magic naturally sealed. It's why they use the wand. Most of them don't work with the more overt stuff like real sorcerers. Most sorcery opens you up to being affected by certain magics, magics that can be targeted with a name. Sorcerers take a new name to protect their old one."
Interesting. I wondered if that was related to that wizard warlord guy Daphne and Blaise had been telling me about. He'd taken another name too. I just shrugged. "Fair enough. Not my business what people call themselves."
Snickering, she rolled her eyes. "I'm actually a bit worried introducing you to Val after meeting your blonde and then seeing you with these two lookers." She nodded at the others. "She seems like your type, and I don't know if anyone has taught her to stay away from sweet talking pretty boys yet."
"That is slander." I scoffed in outrage. "Or libel. It's defamation either way, and I will not be accused of such spurious and unrealistic wrongdoing."
DB, who had been talking to my girls, chimed in. "Libel is written. It would be slander. But given how often you've been looking down my shirt I doubt it's either." Suzie pouted at me, and Seras just rolled her eyes.
"He's not so bad." She said with a chuckle. "Just likes to look. Ryan is a pretty good friend most of the time." She opened her mouth to continue and froze. I winced internally. She did that sometimes. She'd be talking and having fun and then something would make her think about her parents and she'd just kind of break down.
Ever the sweetheart, Suzie noticed and pulled everyone's attention off her. "If Ryan is making you uncomfortable though just tell him. He'll stop gaping."
That got a laugh from the busty redhead. "I don't care too much. You don't have tits like these for your whole life and not get used to a little ogling." She winked at me. "Plus he's pretty. I'm getting a nice show myself."
"Either way." Said Tanith with a laugh. "One of you will be in for a surprise. If you can give me a lift over to Dublin we'll call it even and I can introduce you to Skulduggery. If anyone can help you track down a rogue ghost it'll be him."
I wasn't sure why that would be, but I didn't look gift horses in their mouths. "We should finish eating at least." I laughed. "Shaggy and Scooby might mutiny if we make them search hungry."
"That's, like, a good idea." Said Shaggy pointedly as he glared at his dog. "My sandwich was much less filling than I was expecting." Scooby just gave that adorable doggy giggle again, and we all chuckled at the tall stoner's misfortune.
When the waitress came back, he ordered another five entrees. DB explained. "We've been picking up some mystery solving jobs here and there to supplement our income. Nothing crazy like the 13 ghosts stuff, just the odd guy in a mask doing insurance scams."
They'd told us some stories about their adventures last time, so I knew what she meant. "I didn't realize you guys got paid for that. Must be pretty well too if you can afford to feed those two." I gestured to the walking hurricanes in human form currently waiting to devour their weight in food.
"Not too bad." She shrugged. "We helped some English noble uncover some guy's scheme to steal his family's fortune at the reading of his will by pretending to be a vampire. Somehow. Not really clear on the details, but it seemed to be working."
Seras, who had just come back to herself after a chat with Suzie, pouted. "Vampires aren't just evil crazies who strike terror into people's hearts. They should be ashamed of themselves."
"Depends on the vampire." Said Tanith with a shake of her head. "We've got some nasty ones back in ireland. Roran Red-Hand is in charge of London, so most of the trouble maker's avoid the place."
I saw the blonde flinch at the mention of the vampire who had turned the vampire who turned her (probably). She hadn't spoken to Roran directly that I was aware of, and given his association with what had happened to her parents she might not be willing to. It seemed that she was displacing a lot of her anger onto Roran, at least as far as my mom had told me.
As long as she didn't do anything stupid like try to kill him, I didn't much mind that. Though I knew we would still have some things to work through eventually. When I reincarnated her I'd need to explain how the pieces worked in greater detail. I couldn't have saved her parents. I'd gotten there too late, but hearing it might have been possible under other circumstances wasn't likely to be pleasant for her.
I'd be saving that for a later date though. For now, we had a trip to take. We all ate (Suzie had ordered for me, beef stroganoff bless her heart) and after Shaggy and Scooby consumed enough food to create a scale model of a city out of dirty dishes, we were finally ready to leave.
Escorting everyone to the back of the restaurant, I had us all gather up together. "Alright, teleportation circles are pretty smooth, so don't worry too much about the sensation. Do NOT let any part of your bodies leave the circle or you will lose it."
Apparition had that risk too, it was called splinching, but it was much more prevalent in the wizard method of teleporting, and I much preferred my circle. Apparition was also apparently miserable, and they tended to teach it at the end of first year and I was debating just not going to those classes.
Tanith gave me directions to where we were going, and I looked up a picture of the place so I'd have a solid mental image. Some old mansion that used to belong to a famous mystery novelist. DB lost it when she heard that, because she was a huge fan of the guy. I'd never read any of his stuff, but apparently he did a lot of Lovecraftian horror and that had never been my jam.
As the energy from the circle faded, we all found ourselves standing on the grounds of a sprawling gothic manor, complete with dead trees and spooky ambiance. I kind of liked it. Tanith chuckled, looking around at the place fondly.
"Val moved into this place after she turned eighteen and Skulduggery has been staying with her since he got back. They're probably here." She paused, hesitating a bit. "Also…there's probably something I should tell you about him. Around our circles they call Skulduggery Pleasant the skeleton detective, and it's not because of his interest in archeology." At this point I wasn't even surprised. What was one more weird thing in my crazy life?
December 7th, 2010. Grimwood House, North County Dublin, Ireland, 7:00 PM BST
We approached the house with the steady gait of people who didn't have to worry about being attacked by living trees or mole people or whatever the fuck probably lived in a creepy mansion owned by sorceress. I of course, being a brave and gallant devil who didn't afraid of anything, walked in front, chin held high and ears peeled for tree monsters.
Tanith was chattering excitedly with DB, who was geeking hard about getting to come to the home of THE Gordon Edgely. The rest of us didn't really get it, but the busty redhead seemed nostalgic for the books, which were shown to her by a friend named Velma.
When we arrived at the end of the winding path, Tanith walked past me to be the one to knock. I figured there might be wards or something. She pounded on the door loudly before bellowing. "Oi! Val, come open the door, I'm freezing my tits off out here."
The was a series of loud thumps I recognized as heavy footsteps in combat boots before the door was flung open and a pretty goth with a serious case of resting bitch face came flying through it. "Tanith!" She squealed in a joyful tone at odds with her tough as nails appearance. "It's so good to see you! I thought you had to go back to London to meet up with some friends."
The blonde swordswoman rolled her eyes. "These are them. Turns out they wanted me to show them around Dublin, and I made the trip for nothing. Luckily one of them is some kind of teleporter."
"What?" The girl blinked. "I thought Fletcher was the last one? If you met another I've got to tell him, he'll be so excited."
Tanith shook her head, glancing at me. "Her ex is a sorcerer with teleportation magic. It's a long story Val, but these folks are witches basically. Lots of weirdo tricks with way less fire power. Pretty boy over there packs a decent whallop I think though. Now can you let us inside, if my nipples get any harder I'll have to open a glass cutting factory."
The goth girl in the dark velvet suit and jacket snickered. "More than I needed to know, Tanith, come on in."
Brushing past her, the blonde shrugged. "What? It's not like any of you missed that I had my high beams on. I'm not wearing a bra and this shirt isn't very thick. Blondie with jumbo jugs would definitely be in the same boat if she wasn't a vampire."
Val perked up as she let us in. "A vampire? I know a few of those. I don't mind them, but Skulduggery isn't going to like having one in the house. He's been a bit…well, jumpy, since getting back from you know where. She might want to wait out there."
"If he tries to put his hands on her I'm going to drag his ass to a dog shelter and give each of his bones to a different rescue dog." I said bluntly. "Seras is with me, and anyone who has a problem with it can bite my ass."
"I rather think she's more likely to do it herself." Drawled a pleasant irish voice. From the dark beneath the stairs. The tall skeleton in the pinstripe suit and the jauntily tipped hat must have been using some kind of magic to remain silent, because even my hearing hadn't picked up any movement.
"Nah." I disagreed. "She's a neck biter. Maybe a wrist in a pinch. But there's barely any blood in the ass. That's just counterproductive."
He stared at me for a minute, and it was kind of unnerving not to see an expression other than 'skull'. Finally he started chortling, and then broke out into a full laugh. "Oh, I like you. Very well, bring your vampire inside, as long as it's alright with Valkyrie. I'm curious what you could be here for."
He turned and walked down a hallway towards a room lit with the flickering glimmer of candles. "So…slightly rude question." I asked as I trailed behind him with the others. "How do you laugh? Or talk? You have no tongue or lips, or even lungs to push air through the voice box you also don't have."
"Haven't the foggiest." He said cheerfully. "Magic presumably. I didn't really have a chance to ask anybody what was going on when I was brutally murdered and mysteriously woke up alive as a skeleton."
"I…have no response to that." I deadpanned. "So, we're here looking for a ghost. We heard you might be able to help."
He shrugged. "Might. Depends on the ghost. You'd probably be better off asking the necromancers." He gestured to Val. "Valkyrie can probably help with that. She's supposed to be in good with them these days."
She groaned. "I've TOLD you Solomon was a huge help when you went missing. We needed to find your skull, and we couldn't have done it without him."
"Necromancer's probably won't be able to help." I said with a shrug. "Vincent Van Ghoul was the one who sent us looking, and he's a necromancer apparently. If there was something he could do I assume he'd have done it."
The skull snapped around, empty sockets focusing on me. "Van Ghoul? That old crow is still around? I haven't heard anything about him since the war. Thought he died. Bastard owes me fifty quid."
"The war?" I said in confusion. "The wizarding war twenty years ago? With lord moldyshorts or whatever the fuck?"
He snorted. Somehow. Seriously how was he fucking doing that? "Not hardly. The great war. The war with Mevolent. Though I suppose your lot would have been fighting Grindelwald. He was the only wizard among Mevolent's generals."
"Grindelwald?" Squeaked Suzie, her voice terrified. "Grindelwald had a MASTER? Grindelwald was considered one of the most dangerous dark wizards of all time. Who could tell Grindelwald what to do?"
"Mrs. Grindelwald?" I asked dryly. "Mama Grindelwald? This Mevolent guy was obviously some kind of uber badass, but since you used the past tense I assume he's dead or gone or preferably both. Meanwhile, we're here looking for a very specific kind of ghost. Can you help us?"
We entered the room, and Skulduggery gestured to the chairs filling the small library. "Please. Take a seat. Not literally of course, we need them here to fill the place out. Personally I think they're ugly as sin, but this isn't exactly my house."
Val rolled her eyes. "I'm not replacing the chairs. They do their job, and yes you can all sit. Tell us all about why you're here. We don't exactly have time for a case right now, but if this ghost you're looking for is easy to find we might be able to spare a day or two. Also why are you even looking for a ghost? Aren't they kind of…useless? Unless you made him?" She looked at Tanith. "Can they make ghosts like warlocks can?"
I shook my head. "I don't know how to make a ghost, nor do I want to. These aren't normal ghosts anyway. They're…stronger. They're made from…demons. You could say that Vincent made them I guess, but they've been locked inside of a chest for a long time. One of them is here and I need someone local to help track him down."
Shaggy's 'sense' of the ghosts was pretty vague, and Dublin was a big place. I didn't know how long they looked to find that ghost in London, but I doubted it was a short amount of time. My break was only so long, and I had Christmas plans. Ideally I wanted to find a way to cure Astoria before my dinner at Daphne's. As a Christmas present.
Once again, Skulduggery perked up slightly. "That's…an interesting story. Not one I've heard, but if it's true we should hurry. There are people who deal with the demonic, and if they get wind of your ghost it might not be there when we arrive."
Devils weren't demons, and it was weird to me that there would be people dedicated to hunting something Vincent described as being so rare, but that wasn't acceptable at all. We needed to find the ghost, especially if it was Rankor. I hoped it was Rankor. I was getting pretty sick of chasing them around.
Reaching into my pouch, I pulled out a handful of gold coins, and dropped them on the table next to my armchair. "I'll pay up front. Tanith trusts you. Find me that ghost, soon, and I'll double it." The pile was only like twenty galleons honestly, the shock value of throwing around big gold coins made them much more valuable in the muggle world, and I guessed with sorcerers judging what was essentially dollar signs in Val's eyes.
"We're happy to help!" She chirped, swooping in to snatch the coins up. At Skulduggery's head tilt, she shrugged. "This place needs to be cleaned, and I want to spruce it up a bit. I don't mind living in a mess, but I'd like it to be a comfortable mess."
He sighed. "Fine. I suppose I can help. We're looking for a group of sorcerers who have a magic bomb, so we're in a bit of a hurry, but tracking down one ghost shouldn't take much time. In fact, I think I know who might be able to get that information nearly instantly." He turned to Val. "We need to take them to see Moloch."
She grimaced. "I hate visiting the vampires. They may not all be so bad, but their lair is creepy. Fine, I can take them. Two cases, two of us. You stay on the Revenger's Club, I'll help them find the ghost. I might even be able to help them catch it."
We mostly had that in the bag, but if she could lead us to the thing quick I wasn't turning her down, plus cute goth girl tour guide was always a plus. I especially liked the accent. Her irish brogue fit her exceptionally well.
"So…what about our vampire?" I said, Jerking a thumb at Seras. "She won't be in danger right? We're pretty sure she's from Roran Red Hand's line. Is there any bad blood between him and this…Moloch?" If I had to I could teleport Seras home. It wasn't worth starting trouble that might get her killed just to see what she could do."
Val's eyes lit up. "Not at all! Roran Red Hand is a legend. If she's one of his that might actually help. Even Moloch doesn't mess with him. He can be…prickly. Or slippery maybe? Or slimy. Whatever you want to call it, having her around should help." She glanced at Seras. "That is, if you're willing to walk into a building full of vampires."
The blonde nodded, taking a deep breath. "I am. I'm not much use as I am. All I do is drink Ryan's blood and live at his house. He's done a lot for me and I know this is important to him."
Val shrugged. "Your call. I get paid either way." She giggled joyfully at that. "I get paid." She looked at her boss. "Hey, Skulduggery I'm getting paid. It's my first paid case." She seemed almost giddy at the prospect.
He nodded solemnly (or as solemnly as a skeleton can). "I find it vastly preferable to working for free."
Tanith rolled her eyes. "Some us have plans in the next week, so maybe we could get a move on you guys? I have a date tomorrow, and if I stay up all night ghost hunting I'm going to look a mess when I show up."
Val snickered. "Right. Off we go then. To the Ballymun Apartments. To meet a vampire. To find a demon ghost." She paused, looking at me. "Why does it suddenly feel like you aren't paying me enough?"
"Oh it always feels like that." Piped in Skulduggery dryly. "Don't worry. You'll get used to it." I smirked a little. I liked these two. They amused me. That was a matter for later though, for now I was focused on making sure Seras would be safe during this little outing. Nothing else was going to hurt her. Not if I could help it. If they did…well I'd have ten minutes to reincarnate her like I planned, and then absolutely destroy the people involved. Sometimes being a devil came in handy.
December 7th, 2010. Ballymun Apartments, Ballymun, Ireland, 9:00 PM BST
"I thought vampires were supposed to be all upper crust and sexy." I said to Seras accusingly. "This place looks like a reference photo in a slum lord textbook." I gestured emphatically to the large run down building. "Do you hear that sound? It's all my illusions shattering. I'm so disappointed right now."
"Piss off!" She snapped, her tone offended. "I've been a vampire for like a month, and I've never even BEEN to Ireland. How the bloody hell is this my fault?"
Val piped in helpfully. "I think he's counting you as the representative for all vampires at the moment. I think americans call that profiling, and they're pretty against it." She clicked her tongue, shaking a finger at me. "For shame."
Suzie sighed. "I think he's been a bad influence on you already, Valkyrie."
"Trust me." Snickered Tanith. "She has plenty of those to begin with. I doubt he made much difference. Besides, aren't you all sweet on the pretty boy?"
"Of course." Sputtered Suzie. "I adore Ryan. But he can be a bit flippant at times. I think it's really cute, but I get enough of it from him. Seras is even doing it, and she's such a sweet girl most of the time."
I didn't have the heart to tell her our vampire was usually pretty acerbic already, she'd just been sort of down since she lost her parents. It was good to see her snarking again. "Well." I said gesturing Seras forward. "You're our envoy, as it were, so you can go first. I'll be right behind you, and don't worry, vampires may be fast, but so am I. Anyone comes at you and I'll put them on their ass."
"Wait." Said Tanith abruptly, calling the whole group to a halt. Well, most of the group. Shaggy and Scooby had been hiding behind the blonde swordswoman so they stopped before she said anything. I had to admit, it was a solid hiding place. Tanith was a badass, also they got to look at her ass in those pants.
"What is it?" I asked, not liking the tone in her voice at all. She'd gotten a text and was reading over it, her eyes jerking up to scan the gloom around us. The streetlights outside the run down apartment seemed to almost brighten, the dark growing deeper. I could still see easily with my dark vision, but something seemed ominous about the night.
Tanith reached up, easing her sword from its scabbard. "My sources at the Irish sanctuary just contacted me. Davina Marr tipped to us entering Ireland. The sensor net triggered when I teleported in. She has a few sources of her own, including apparently one among the vampires. They tipped her off to why we're here."
"What does that mean exactly?" I said carefully. "Are we walking into a trap? Does she have some way to turn the vampires on us?"
She shook her head. "She doesn't need to. The vampire apparently told her about there being possible demonic activity. Remember we mentioned there were demon experts? Well they're here. We wouldn't even know that, except Fletcher is still the only game in town for transportation, and they used him to bring them over."
Fletcher must be the 'source' she mentioned. I was pretty sure she'd mentioned him talking to Val back when we met, the teleporter. "So. Demon experts." I said with a curse. We weren't fucking demons. Did these guys have any way of dealing with a devil ghost? Or a devil wizard? Was I in danger here? "Who are they?"
"They're kind of hush hush." She grimaced. "They were active during the war. Mevolent's people tried summoning demons a few times. But everyone eventually agreed that the cure was worse than the disease and we came to an unspoken agreement banning the practice."
I sighed. "Fantastic. A group so brutal that magic Hitler's even more magic boss was so scared of them he agreed to a tacit ceasefire. That fills me with optimism and glee."
Grabbing Seras, I pushed her behind me. "You're not up front anymore. I absolutely don't want you getting caught up in fighting…whatever the fuck these people are. If anyone is going to take a shot it should be me. Look alive people, if the vampires are the point of failure here they're the only lead these people have."
Tanith finished drawing her sword, Scooby and Shaggy, to my shock, stepped back to take up positions around DB. They were clearly completely terrified, but they weren't going to bolt and leave their old friend behind. I respected the hell out of them for that. Suzie drew her wand, holding it ready at her side as her eyes darted quickly around, and Val's fingers flexed as darkness rose to her hands.
Leading the way, I approached the door to the apartment building, pushing it open, and was immediately hit with the scent of blood. LOTS of blood.
"So…are the vampires here excessively messy eaters by any chance?" I asked grimly. "Because someone either killed a shit load of people in here or opened up a penny factory, and I feel like coin casting would make it warmer."
Val looked wary. "Maybe? Caelan, my vampire…friend, he tends to avoid that kind of thing, but the rest of them are less restrained. They didn't do it in front of me, but that doesn't mean they didn't do it at all. How do you know anyway? Are you a werewolf or something? I've heard they have good noses."
"There aren't any werewolves in Ireland." Said Tanith firmly. "The catholic church killed them all."
"And good riddance to the lot of them." Said a cheerful Irish voice from the hall ahead. I hadn't heard him coming somehow, though I'd been distracted by the scent of blood and Val's answer. The man who stepped out from behind the corner was…big.
He had wild blond hair that stuck up all over, round glasses, a scruffy five o clock shadow, and wide, intense green eyes I could see the whites of all the way around. He was tall, ridiculously tall, like a bit taller than six and a half feet. There was a scar on his left cheek shaped like a wedge, and he was wearing a long dark coat with a huge crucifix around his neck.
"Who the bloody hell are you?" Said Tanith, bringing her sword up to bear. I tensed as I got a better look at the guy. The others couldn't tell because it was pretty dim in here and he was wearing black, but I saw where the blood smell was coming from, he was coated in it.
"Ask of me." Said the man in his thick irish brogue, glasses flashing in the dim light as he approached. "And I shall give thee the heathen for thy inheritance and for thy possession, the ends of the earth. Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron, thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel."
Her eyes widened. "Fuck." She spat. "Iscariot. You beat us here." The man grinned, flicking his wrists and letting a pair of sharp silver bayonets slide into his hands. "Where are the vampires?" She asked angrily. "We had questions."
"And they had no answers." Giggled the tall man. "Only sins. And I have cleansed them of their filth and returned them to their makers. And rejoice, for all the dark will be swept away in God's glorious mercy." His eyes narrowed at Tanith. "The Devil, and ALL his minions."
He blurred, faster than a human should have been able to move. One blade swept up at Tanith, who was more than fast enough to block, but the second sailed into the air, banked off an exposed vent and sang right toward Seras.
I moved like lightning, wings out as I flashed forward to grab the thing before it touched her. I couldn't reach the hilt, so I just snagged the blade, ready to ignore the cut.
Howling, I flung it away as my hand caught fire, white flame consuming the blood flowing from the wound in my palm. I patted it out, gritting my teeth as I glared at the tall man. His wide eyes somehow got wider, his teeth exposing in a wide grin. "Abomination." He almost SANG with excitement. "Man seeks and the lord provides!"
I shook out my hand, drawing my wand. "Ok. I don't care about your weird preacher man murderer schtick, but you just tried to spear my friend with a magic blade. I'm kicking your giant ass until it changes shape."
He reached into his coat, and I blurred forward, ready to dodge the next blade if there was another, but instead of a sword, he yanked out a stack of papers and flung them into the air. The stack scattered, and I reached up to bat aside the papers, but when I touched one it wrapped around me and started to fucking BURN.
"Shit." I hissed, blurring backwards. "What the fuck ARE these." They were everywhere now, floating in the air like rectangular papery mines. I flicked my wand, hissing. "INCEDIO!"
A wave of fire consumed the papers, but a dozen of those fucking bayonets came sailing out of the flames, followed by Tanith, who snapped. "Oi! Watch it! I haven't been burned alive in decades, and I'd prefer to maintain my streak."
Val flicked her fingers at the dispersing flames, and a wave of shadows sailed out, using the flickering remains of the fire to lengthen and curve, and the darkness came off the floor all around the man, trying to pincushion him. They actually DID pincushion him, but when the blades retracted he seemed basically unphased.
"Heathens, monsters, and servants of the devil." He cooed gleefully as he somehow drew MORE of those fucking bayonets from his coat (was it a fucking pocket dimension? HOW did he have so many? Bayonets for days.). "My prayers are answered. For I can scrub the unclean filth from these shores, as is my duty."
I glared at him. "See. This is why no one likes the Catholic Church. You guys suck the fun out of everything. You're like vampires. But for fun. Also you kill vampires. My metaphor is falling apart here, but in my defense, your fucking bayonet SET ME ON FIRE a minute ago!"
Tanith stepped in front of me, sword raised. "You're not even supposed to be here!" She snapped. "Marr shouldn't have called you. She doesn't have the authority. No one is going to care about a few dozen vampires, but you can't kill sorcerers in cold blood. The Sanctuary won't stand for it. You'll start a war."
He grinned wider somehow, and I thought his smile might split his face. "You have been chosen to reveal my existence to the world. You will witness what happens here today, and tell of it later. Except you won't because I'll have killed you!" He crowed.
"Oh my. Brilliant speech." Drawled a familiar voice from the dark behind him. Our eyes all snapped up as ANOTHER tall man stepped around the corner, this one clad in a familiar red coat and sunglasses."And unoriginal." Said Luc as he drew a giant ass gun from his coat. "You totally got that from Boondock Saints."
The blonde man turned slowly, like a hunting dog scenting prey. "Monster." He hissed. "You've got a lot of nerve showing yourself before me. I've waited a long time to rid this world of your taint."
"Honestly I could do without it myself." Luc said with a carefree shrug. "It doesn't serve much purpose except keeping my balls and ass separate. Oh, and speaking of assholes." He drew another gun with a blur and started emptying bullets into the blonde man, ventilating him and shattering both of the bayonets he was holding. It appeared the cavalry had arrived.
AN:// They're in ireland, how could I NOT? I've been waiting to do this since I introduced Tanith actually lol.
December 7th, 2010. Ballymun Apartments, Ballymun, Ireland, 10:00 PM BST
Most of us were pretty shocked by Luc's appearance. Shaggy, who standing in front of DB with Scooby, squinted up at the vampire suspiciously. "Like…do I know you, man?" His voice seemed wary, but Shaggy was wary of most things, so him being worried about the massive vampire in the red coat wasn't shocking.
What WAS shocking was that Luc glanced over, took one look at the lanky hippy, and burst out laughing. "Oh wow. It's YOU. I haven't seen you since that monster road rally thing my ex talked me into. That costume was so dumb, but good LORD could that woman suck."
"RACURA!" Yelped Scooby, leaping clear off the floor and landing in Shaggy's arms in a bridal carry as he stared at Luc in terror.
"Hey pooch." Luc said. "How's it hangin? I'd love to catch up, but Lucky Charms over there is going to be back on his feet in a minute." He reached into his coat, pulling out a small round object. "Here, I'll take care of it. You know what they say, shamrocks, horseshoes, and hand grenades."
"Wait!" I shouted frantically. "You can't use that in here, it'll bring the whole building down. This place is super old."
He glanced down at it dubiously. "Are you sure? I feel like it'll probably be fine. Or do you just want to be the one to pull the pin? Pretty greedy kid, but ok, you can throw it." He tossed me the grenade, thankfully with the pin still in it, and I snatched it out of the air.
While he was waiting he redrew one of the guns he'd holstered and shot the priest casually in the head again. I scowled at him. "Ok, we're NOT using the grenade in doors, either of us, and can you tell us who that is. Also, YOU have some explaining to do, you didn't mention being a devil last time we talked."
He paused. "Didn't I? I could have sworn I mentioned it before the blood orgy."
"There WAS no blood orgy." I snapped in annoyance. "We just did shots and hung out at your club." I neglected the lines of coke we'd convinced Daphne to do off that romanian girl. THey didn't seem relevant.
Luc just shrugged. "That does sound like me, oh well. My bad. Yes, I'm a devil, it's how I met THIS fuckwad." He gestured at the priest with his gun and the thing went off again, blowing a hole in the blonde man's arm. "He's kind of a buzzkill, and those bayonets kind of tickle."
My burned hand twitched slightly, but I ignored it. "So, what, you heard he was showing up and came to help? Did Vincent call you? How did he even know what was going on."
"Oh Vinnie is a total peeping Tom." He said matter of factly. "Those crystal balls get full surround sound and hi def. He gives them out to everyone and then watches for anything good to happen. I hijack the streams sometimes. Porn is way better in a crystal ball."
I noticed he hadn't said Vincent sent him, but I decided not to press. I turned to Tanith, because Luc was giving me a headache. "So, this guy is one of those demon hunter dudes? What the fuck is Iscariot?" She'd mentioned the name earlier when talking to the crazy priest.
"Vatican Section 13. The Iscariot Organization." She said grimly. "The secret military arm of the holy land. Like I said, they were active during the war with Mevolent. Not that one though, I've never seen him before."
A choking wheeze came from the still healing priest. "That's because I'm only twenty five ya dried up old cunt."
"Weren't you just quoting scripture and shit a minute ago?" I asked the still perforated but rapidly repairing holy man."
The crazed priest grinned at me. "I don't owe politeness to heathen trollops. I'll kill you all for consorting with abominations anyway, why bother wasting proverbs and scripture on you despicable minions of evil."
"Shut up." Luc said in an almost gentle voice. Then he shot the healing priest four more times in the face, only stopping when his gun clicked empty. He grumbled under his breath and reholstered it. "Anyway, yes, I came to help, but not with this moron. He's a little out of your depth, but you wouldn't have died."
"Oh." I said lamely. "Well fine, who did you come to help with? Is it the ghost? Because we handled the last one ok, and he was no joke."
"Maldor?" He asked with a laugh. "He was DEFINITELY a joke. But sure, very impressive. Maldor was still just a sorcerer. All the strongest of Master's old peerage were Vampires. Something about Vampirism and evil pieces mixes well. That's why I'm the magnificent beast of a man you see before you."
"We noticed." I said, glancing at Seras, who was pinned in place staring at Luc with an expression of palpable dread, looking like a snake in front of a mongoose. Or a mongoose in front of a snake. One of those. I didn't know animals.
He glanced at her nonchalantly. "Oh, hey, you've been feeding that one devil blood. Nice. You gonna turn her? I could totally show her the ropes. I have this really nice set I use to tie up new vampires so I can leave them in isolation for a few weeks. Really makes them appreciate the lack of hunger."
"I…think we're good." I said slowly. "On the training. Should we do something about him?" I pointed to where the priest was piecing his skull back together.
Luc, or I guess Alucard, groaned and walked over, lifting the man up and literally PUNTING him through the window. The glass shattered and the priest went flying off into the night. Alucard shaded his eyes like a visor and squinted. "Huh. Good air time on that one." He turned back to us. "Come on then, let's get out of here. The others are all dead, so I'll just take you to the ghost myself. Isn't that generous of me?" He sounded very impressed with himself.
I felt a shift in the air as a demonic circle formed, faster and smoother than I'd ever managed. The crest in the center was a dragon with a two hilted sword through it. I hadn't bothered to ever check mine, but before I could wonder what it was, we vanished, appearing instantly in a stone room with a big double seated table at the center.
"Thanks for the save." I said to Alucard cautiously. "That would have been a bitch to handle on my own." I disagreed with his assessment that I wouldn't have been able to take the crazy priest, but it didn't hurt to be polite to master vampire devils who could and probably would eat me alive without a problem.
Snorting, he slumped down onto one of the benches. "Please. I was bored, and helping a baby devil isn't a big deal." He glanced at Shaggy and Scooby. "Been a while since I saw those two though. You still a werewolf?"
Shaggy glared at him. "Like, no man, I got that fixed. No thanks to you." He paused. "Or, I mean, we used the spellbook we stole from you, so it was kind of thanks to you."
"Right!" Said the vampire in realization. "I forgot about that thing. What happened to the blonde you had with you? The one with the big tits and the bimbo voice? She was a smokeshow. Way too hot for you." He glanced at DB appraisingly. "Though I don't hate the new model."
Shaggy's eyes went wide. "No way man! Daphne is like, my childhood friend. As for Googie…we broke up. It's a long story."
"That's a ridiculous name." I said bluntly. "And your name is Norville, so the comparison alone should make it less absurd. What's this about a spellbook though?" I was focused on something he'd said earlier. Alucard was a vampire, so if he had a spellbook it might be blood magic. "Do you think it could help Daphne's sister?"
The tall vampire shrugged. "Probably. I lose track of things. It might be able to break a curse Ralkor came up with. Of course, you'd have to find it."
Val, who had been pretty quiet since the whole 'devil' revelation (Alucard was not great for maintaining a cover, I was pretty grateful no one had brought it up yet) perked up. "If his ex doesn't still have it, I might know someone who can get us a lead. She collects all sorts of rare books."
Tanith groaned. "Oh god, not HER. She's always so smug about everything." She turned to Shaggy. "Please tell me your ex has it in a box somewhere."
He shook his head. "Nah, we like, ditched that thing after we got it. We were worried HE would send his goons after us to get it back." He jerked a thumb at Alucard, who seemed mostly unconcerned with all of this.
"FINE." Huffed the blonde swordswoman. "I suppose after we handle the ghost we can try talking to China. She likes you at least Val. Plus pretty boy over there is kind of a lech, and seeing his reaction to China's magic sounds highly entertaining."
I glowered at her, putting on a faux lofty diabolical tone. "I am NOT a lech. I'm a devil. We're creatures of hedonism and base urges. A lowly mortal such as yourself will never understand the trials of superior beings such as myself."
She gave me a sweet smile. "How about I get my sword out and we see how superior you really are?"
"How about we get MINE and I can show you in detail." I said with a wink. Tanith burst out laughing at that. That was one of the reasons I liked her, she wasn't a shrinking violet. She gave as good as she got.
To my surprise, Suzie stepped between us, face red but scrunched up in annoyance. "Daphne was right, you're incorrigible. We're supposed to be on a mission here right? This book is a possible method to help Daphne's sister, but we still need to get rid of the ghost." She turned to Alucard, her shoulders straightening as she looked him in the eye. "Are you going to help us with that?"
He seemed pensive, but eventually shook his head. "Nah, that sounds boring. You can handle a ghost, even of one of my fellow peerage members. You've got a necromancer with you after all. I'm probably going to bail. I have all of Flapjack DVR'd and I've got a huge marathon planned for later."
I blinked at him. "But…what about the ghost? How are we supposed to find it? It could be anywhere and that priest killed all the vampires." I glanced at Val, who looked unhappy, though less broken up than expected about her vampire buddy. "I thought you would help us track down whichever of the thirteen this was."
Honestly I'd been hoping he'd help us with the capture, he'd be useful to have on side, but then again, he was erratic and pretty obviously dangerous. It might not even be worth it to work with him. I definitely didn't want him training Seras. I was sure we could puzzle out how her powers worked together after the reincarnation. Assuming she even ended up wanting to be a devil, I still had to have THAT conversation.
Alucard stood up, stretching and then walking over to an empty spot on the stone floor as he called up the circle that would take him away. "Find him?" He said lazily as the magic covered his body, beginning to swallow him up. "I brought you right to him. He's in this castle. Did I not mention that? Oh well, I guess not. Happy hunting little devil!" The circle reached the ground, Alucard's form vanishing completely. Fucking vampires.
December 7th, 2010. Malahide Castle, Dublin, Ireland, 11:00 PM BST
The stone floors shook as the temperature began to drop. I exhaled slowly in annoyance. Right. Of course he brought us to where the fucking ghost was. Because how else would he help but in the literal most inconvenient way possible. "Alright people." I snapped. "Get ready for…whatever that is. I can feel its malice. It doesn't fucking like us and we need to get some defenses set up since we have no clue what we're facing."
Tanith nodded. "I got it." She strode over to the door of the room, shoving it closed, then placed a hand flat against the wood and muttered. "Withstand." There was a flash of blue energy across the surface of the door, before the wood faded back to normal. Tanith looked over her shoulder. "Assuming it would have come through the walls already if possible, that should slow it down."
Suzie drew her wand, tapping the table, and the wood began to warp and twist. As we all watched, the table legs started to move, walking the whole thing over to the door before tipping it over to barricade the entryway.
I whistled. "Damn Suzie, that's pretty impressive. Transfiguration is pretty useful, you'll have to teach me that trick sometime."
She gave me a tired smile. "It's nothing much. A temporary animation, and it pretty much wiped me out. It's a slightly higher level version of the dancing teacup spell if you want to be technical. I'm advanced in Transfiguration, but not THAT advanced."
My response was unfortunately cut off by a massive boom as something hit the door of the room we were in. Tanith's blue energy field flashed, nearly collapsing, but apparently held out, at least until the second hit when it shattered and the door was shoved inward, only to be stopped by the table.
"Shaggy, Scooby, where's the chest of demons?" I turned to look at our resident ghost sensors. "We're going to need it."
The tall hippy in the red shirt paled. "Like…we left it in the van." I blinked, turning to look at him blankly. He shrugged. "We were meeting vampires, man. We didn't need it!"
Sighing, I turned to Seras. "Push that thing against the door and hold it. Any of the rest of you who can manage to slow that thing down do it, I'm taking the idiots to get the chest and I'll be right back." Which actually make me wonder why the devil ghost wasn't teleporting inside, but the low chuckle as he hit the door answered that well enough.
Grabbing Shaggy and Scooby, I focused my power, unleashing a teleportation circle to take us back to the Ballymun apartments. We popped up right outside and headed for their red van thing (they called it the mystery machine, which was kind of funny in a lame way, though I was informed it was the second incarnation). When we got to the van though, they both stopped, shaking visibly.
"Hurry up guys." I snapped. "The girls are holding it off for us, but we need to get back before he breaks through."
Shaggy reached for the door slowly, but his hand froze, his head drooping. "Like…I don't know if I can." My head snapped up, and his eyes met mine, and to my surprise, I could see tears gathered in them.
"What the hell man, what are you doing?" I tried to keep my anger in check. As a devil my temper was kind of unstable, but if I scared him too bad I'd be screwed. "Your friend is in trouble too. I saw you get in the way of Daphne earlier with the priest. You care about her right?"
His face twisted in genuine hurt. "Like, of course I do! Daph and I have been buds since we were little kids. She's like a sister to me. But I'm not cut out for this man. Fake masked villains and creepy costumes, those are my thing. But this? This is CRAZY. These are real ghosts, and magic and…you, I don't even know what you are, man!"
I started to get angrier, but I pushed it down. "Look." I said impatiently. "I owe you an explanation I guess. And I'll give it. But now isn't the time. I know this seems like too much, that its scary and disturbing and you feel out of your depth. But I just need you to answer one question. If something happens to DB because of you, if she gets killed because you were too scared to help, would that REALLY be better than dying?"
He froze in place, his breathing stopping. His face hardened. "No." He said firmly. "I'd like, never forgive myself."
"Well there you go." I said. "Grab that chest and lets bounce. Don't worry about the ghost, I'll fight him off. You and Scooby only have to be ready to trap him once I soften him up. Can you do that for me?"
I looked at both of them, and I was proud to see the hippy turn to his dog with a fiery look in his eyes. "He's right Scoob. Daph needs us. We can DO this. We can't let her down."
The dog, who had been watching us from behind his best friend, nodded. "Reah." He said solemnly.
Turning to open the van, Shaggy brought out a box, shaking it until two brown biscuits fell out. "Two Scooby snacks for luck old buddy old pal, and then we go back." He tossed one to the dog, who snapped it out of the air.
The big great dane threw back his head and howled. "SCOOBY DOOBY DOO!" And I couldn't help but burst out in joyful laughter as the two cowards put their big boy pants on. I'd liked the two of them from the beginning, but seeing them like this I was actually starting to respect them too.
Shaggy picked up the chest, and I put a hand on each of them and conjured another circle, bringing us back to the castle.
My good mood met an untimely end when I noticed the giant clawed hand that had punched through the door and was groping around, trying to snatch up Seras, who was dodging while holding the table against the door. She probably would have been caught, except Val had her hands up and was pushing a barricade of tangible shadow against the thing to hold it in place.
Snarling, I whipped out my wand and snarled. "Incendio!" At the hand, and a wave of concentrated fire consumed the grasping appendage, earning a roar from the thing as it snatched the hand back.
As it retreated, I could see the form of the devil ghost, a towering lion headed man with blazing green eyes and rippling muscles. I cursed internally. I didn't know what kind of creature that was, but I could guess what kind of devil. I turned to where Tanith was watching the door worriedly, unable to help with the barricade.
"Is that sword magic?" I asked bluntly. "Because I'm pretty sure I know what that is, and we're going to need something to hurt it."
Rooks, which I was absolutely sure that was, were the bruisers of the devil world. Strong and durable, rooks were the dumb muscle, and dead or not, muscle from someone on Radivan's level of peerage wasn't going to be someone I could overpower with brute force.
"It's made of woven razor." She said with a nod. "It's a magical metal that never grows dull and can shear through bone like paper."
"That, I can work with." I said with a grin. "Pass it to me." She hesitated for a second, but then she did. Gripping the sword, I focused on the enchanted aspect that made it sharper, and then I started to dump in power.
One upside of devil magic being so vague was that it could do ANYTHING as long as I believed it could. While I wasn't convinced I could enchant an item permanently, supercharging a spell was my bread and butter, and I was ABSOLUTELY sure I could do that. I poured in as much power as the thing could hold, but eventually I had to pull back when the metal started to glow a deep crimson.
I'd hit the tolerance level of the enchanted metal, and I passed it back to Tanith, who gingerly took the blade with a look of awe on her pretty face.
"Don't attack until I get you an opening." I told her solemnly. Then headed over to where the girls were holding back the now shuddering door. "Suzie. I have a plan." I pulled her close and whispered to her, then stepped up and murmured in Val's ear. Once then nodded, I turned to Seras. "When I say now, I want you to throw the table out of the way and dive for cover."
She looked confused and a little worried, but she let out a long breath and agreed. I stepped back, waiting for her to do as I'd said. She grasped the corner of the massive wooden table, and with all her strength, hurled it sideways and then threw herself out of the way.
The door burst open, and I brought my wand up, pointing it at the triumphant rook. "ARRESTO MOMENTUM!" I bellowed with every ounce of power I had left. The formerly charging giant lion demon slammed to a stop, held immobile by my magic.
As soon as he was still, Val's shadows snapped up and coiled around him, creating and tether binding him down to the ground. Suzie snapped out an incantation, and the ground beneath his feet transformed into grease up to about and inch, suddenly his attempts to plant his feet and pull free of the necromantic bindings dissolved into a fumbling slipping writhe of confused panic.
His eyes widened in terror, presenting a tempting target, and I wasn't the only one who thought so as Tanith dropped from the ceiling where she'd been waiting using her wall walking power and drove the glowing sword up the hilt in the monster's giant green eye.
"Shaggy, Scooby, NOW!" I bellowed. And I caught a blur as the man and dog came bolting from behind us, leaping high into the air and snapping open the chest of demons as they came down. They swung the box overhand, snapping it down on the lion demon, with Tanith just barely having time to retrieve her sword and dodge as the massive creature was sucked up into the box before it slammed shut with a loud bang.
The chest dropped onto the floor, the eyes of the demonic lock gleaming green as it shook like a fucking pokeball before growing still. Shaggy and Scooby collapsed, the terror draining their energy as they broke into wild laughter.
I joined them, my own laugh echoing off the castle walls. "Ok." I said breathlessly. "That was pretty fucking awesome." To my shock, I felt an influx of energy into me as my demonic power grew. I'd helped them capture another ghost, and I'd been instrumental in the apprehension. I'd accomplished a contract, or at least part of one.
Rolling her eyes, DB, who hadn't been able to do much in this little dust up, chuckled lightly. "You're crazy. But yeah, it was kind of cool. Now that it's over though, do you think you can tell us all what the hell is going on?"
Right, Alucard had kind of blown my cover devil wise. I grinned, then shrugged. "Sure, I guess I can catch you up. Let's get out of here though, we can start heading for that library while I tell the story. That big ass cat definitely wasn't the guy we were looking for, so Luc's grimoire is probably our best bet." And once we got that we could go the fuck home. I still had a christmas vacation to spend with my mom and my girls. Though I had to admit, the demonic energy boost was definitely worth the time investment. Maybe I'd help them out with a few more of these.
December 7th, 2010. China Sorrow's library, Dublin, Ireland, 1:00 AM BST
"That's a big ass building." I commented as we stopped outside a huge two story structure that took up an entire city block. The whole thing was made of brick, with tightly shuttered windows bearing reinforced security shutters. The door was plated steel, and it was clear that the person who lived here took security very seriously.
Val looked up at the place cheerfully. "Is it? I don't even notice anymore. I spend so much time here it just seems normal."
Which was fair, since that was exactly how I felt about Hogwarts. People could get used to anything. Tanith, on the other hand, didn't seem to be particularly fond of this place, or used to it. Her eyes darted suspiciously and she seemed to be waiting for an attack or something.
Our goth guide ignored her, striding confidently up to the security door and rapping on it loudly without a care in the world. "Oi! China! We need to get in!" She called loudly.
After about ten minutes of no response, a few bolts flipped and the door opened, revealing a breathtaking woman in a short white nightgown. She had a shawl over her shoulders that fell over the silky material enough that I could only see her heavily tattooed arms from the elbows down.
"Valkyrie." She said with a warm smile, her voice like melted honey dripping into my ears. "It's so good to see you. Though I'd rather have preferred you brought your friends here at a more reasonable time of the day." She shot Scooby a disapproving look. "And we don't allow dogs."
"Rog?" Said our resident pooch. "Rere?" He looked around frantically, but got distracted by his tail and ended up chasing it in circles.
China's (at least, I assumed) lips quirked up in a slight smile. "My mistake then. No dogs here I suppose." Her accent was thick, but more melodic than most of the irish accents I'd heard since arriving here. Weirdly, there was an undercurrent beneath the words, sort of a slight buzzing in the back of my head.
I felt my heart throb a bit, but not in affection or any kind of lust. In the more literal sense I'd felt back at the welcoming feast. I was pretty sure someone was trying to fuck with my head a bit. It wasn't intense, just a consistent and annoying low level hum, but I had a good idea why the others expected me to humiliate myself with China.
"Stop that." I snapped. "It's giving me a headache. You're already gorgeous, why even bother with the magical whammy?"
She shot me an apologetic smile. "It's not intentional I'm afraid. Merely a side effect of my particular brand of power. I'd shut it off for you if I could. Still, it's impressive you can shrug it off, you're in rare company there. I do hope the sensation isn't too unpleasant."
Her tone was sweet and caring, and I was more than aware that even without whatever coercion magic she had, she was a very dangerous woman. Every single movement was beautiful and appealing, every expression aimed to captivate. I didn't think THAT was on purpose either, just what her power had made of her.
"Can we come inside?" Snapped Tanith, finally getting fed up waiting. "I'm freezing my tits off out here, and you two can bicker inside where it's warm."
China gave her a smile that wasn't really a smile at all. "Miss Low. How lovely to see you again. Just as charming and elegant as ever. Very well, you may enter, I would never turn away dear Valkyrie and her friends then they're in need."
Tanith sneered at her and stalked past, muttering under her breath about elegantly inserting her sword in China's ass to join the stick that was already up there. China just smiled softly, stepping aside to let the rest of us in.
Val hugged her after she shut the door, happily expressing her gratitude before introducing us. "Oh, these are my new friends. Ryan, Susan, Daphne, Shaggy, and Scooby-Doo." She pointed to each of us in turn. "We're here to take a look at the library. Sorry it's so late, but we need to track down a very specific book so Ryan can help his girlfriend's sister break a nasty blood curse."
"Well if you're looking for books this would be the place to check." She chuckled. "Do you know the title? The author? Perhaps the year of publication?"
We all glanced at Shaggy, who flushed. "It was like, kind of an embarrassing title. The leather was some kind of red leather with gold trim, and the title was on the inside. He called it 'Blood, Bats, and Bitches: Sorcery Basics for Fuckmothering Vampires'. It was by Dracula. Or I guess the author was listed as Vlad Tepes."
Her brows went up. "A book on vampiric blood sorcery. How provocative." Turning, she gestured for us to follow. "Well I can only think of a few sections to find that in, if it's even here. The title doesn't ring a bell, but I have a truly staggering collection, and even I can't remember them all."
She led us to a large open room with wall to wall books and a series of dark wood furniture and overstuffed couches. "If you'd like to wait in the reading room, it'll be faster if I undertake the search in your stead. My library can be a bit willful, and it responds rather snappishly at night. If any of the rest of you go searching you're bound to come up empty."
We found Tanith already sprawled out on the couch, snoring loudly from where she'd apparently fallen asleep, much to China's mild irritation. The beautiful library own pointed us to the couches and then turned and stalked out without glancing at the swordswoman more than once.
Val just snickered. "She's gone Tanith. You can stop pretending to be asleep. I don't understand why you feel the need to antagonize her."
"Because she's an insufferable swot who thinks she's the gods gift to the world." Tanith snorted as she sat up. "I find irking her amusing. So…can we talk about all the nonsense that happened in that castle?" She said bluntly. "Because there was quite a bit of it."
I shrugged. I'd been playing things close to the vest, but Alucard had pretty much fucked me there. I might as well tell them what was up. Including Seras.
So…I did. I launched into a detailed explanation, or as detailed as possible without giving away too much of my more dangerous secrets. I didn't mention the evil pieces, just a vague mention of being able to reincarnate people and the different types of devil (I'd already brought up rooks so that cat was out of the bag).
I also mentioned the ability to bring people back from the dead. Seras deserved to know that. Even if I couldn't have saved her parents, she deserved to know that it was a possibility and I fucked it up by not being fast enough.
By the time I was done, her eyes were fixed on me, and I was trying not to flinch back from her gaze. The guilt I'd buried in school and quests to other countries came back full force, and I felt…small. What had happened to her was my fault. I expected her to be angry, to attack me or lash out at me.
To my surprise though, her expression was soft. "You would have brought them back if you could have." She said with certainty. I wasn't nearly as sure, and I think that showed on my face, because her smile got wider. "You WOULD. You're that kind of person. You wouldn't have let me hurt like that."
"It was my fault." I said hoarsely. "All of it. You shouldn't have been involved. I was so cocky about smacking around that baby vamp that I didn't even consider that he might come after someone else to get to me. I felt him following me, but I thought I lost him. I should have just gone home. I shouldn't have come to see you at all."
She nodded. "Yeah, that was stupid. But you're eighteen and have absolutely no tactical training. Doing stupid things comes with the territory, especially when you're high on your own invincibility."
"It felt like a game." I whispered. "Like I was in some RPG. It wasn't…real. It was too absurd, too much fun. Once I thought I lost him that was it. I was a big bad devil right? Just another amazing power I had that made life fun. I didn't take this seriously at all, and your parents paid the price. You paid it."
"So do better." She said, her tone hard. "Look, I was training to be a cop. I expected some danger in my life. What happened to you could just as easily have happened to me. Maybe not the vampires, but being followed to someone's house? You took responsibility for it. For me. And…" She flushed. "I don't know what I'd have done without you and your mum. I needed you guys. Still need you. You're all I have left."
"That's so SAD!" Wailed Suzie, hurling herself onto Seras in a tight hug. "I'm here for you too Seras, anytime you need me. I promise you can always talk to me!"
Her eyes were overflowing with tears, and I knew they were totally genuine. They'd already bonded over the similarities in their backgrounds to an extent, and Suzie was a living teddy bear. She could empathize with anyone, even without the obvious parallels.
The others stayed quiet. The devil stuff had given them a lot to think about, but more than that, I think they just didn't want to interrupt.
Seras pulled Suzie close as the other girl cried, smiling peacefully as she basked in my girlfriend's insane ability to make anyone feel at ease. Finally though, I heard footsteps and my head snapped up as China re-entered the room.
She strode up to the table, ignoring the tearful hugs, and dropped a large book with a dark red leather cover on the table.
"Here." She said smugly. "I had to do a few circuits to find it. It was buried between a werewolf sandwich compendium and dryad tea growing manual." I very carefully did not ask if the compendium taught werewolves to MAKE sandwiches or taught other people how to make sandwiches OUT of werewolves. I was pretty sure I didn't want to know.
I reached for it, and she smacked my hand away sternly. "My library is for friends or those who can pay. This is a rare book. Why should I give it to you?"
Val reached out to put a hand on China's. "Please? This is important. We're trying to save a girl's life. I'll owe you one, or Skulduggery will." She gave me a smile. "They're alright, and I have a feeling we might work together again in the future."
The silk clad woman raised a brow. "Interesting." She said slowly. "You're not usually the type to do things without a reason, Valkyrie. I wonder where this little hunch is coming from." Eventually she sighed. "Fine. You may borrow the book for the remainder of the month. Return it before the first of January, lest I come looking for you personally."
Tanith looked like she was about to say something, but Val covered her mouth with a glare, then shot China a grateful smile. "Thanks, China. I owe you one." She passed me the book, and I popped it open, passing the ridiculous title page Shaggy had mentioned.
As I flipped through, my smile got wider and wider. Perfect. I stood up, nodding my thanks. "I appreciate all the help guys, this is exactly what I needed." I paused, thinking about what they'd just done for me, how much it had helped, and how they'd done it for no other reason than to help Astoria. "Say…are you guys doing anything for Christmas dinner?"
AN:// So next chapter we see