It had been a month since Valkyrie had died and 3 weeks since her funeral. Her funeral hadn't been attended by many, only Skulduggery, Tanith, Ghastly, Erskine, Dexter, Saracen and Anton and since her parents had died in a car accident the reflection had no reason to live anymore so Tanith had destroyed it and made its death look like a suicide for the cops and the rest of her family. Skulduggery had broken up with Perry, and he hadn't talked to anyone since. He felt responsible for Valkyrie's suicide...and what she said was right...he wasn't paying attention to her when he should of, he didn't even notice her depression or the scars on her wrists or the bags under her eyes from lack of sleep, or even her slimness since she wasn't eating!
Skulduggery had recently been given a case. Dusk had escaped from the gaol and he is conjuring up an army of Vampires and it was Skulduggery's duty to stop him, but since Valkyrie wasn't around Ghastly had volunteered to go with him to help, so they planned to set of to Roarhaven where they suspected the attack was going to happen. The car ride there was silent like any ride now days, but Ghastly understood why. Skulduggery was the same when his wife and child died, on the outside he looks sad and calm but inside, he was bubbling with rage and anger, and Ghastly knew what he was like when he was angry...it wasn't a pretty sight.
They arrived in Roarhaven and they decided to drive around and scout out the area for any strange behaviour or happenings. They had been driving around for a while but as they were about to head for the sanctuary they saw a young girl screaming and running out of a building with tears streaming down her little face, so Ghastly and Skulduggery jumped out of the car and ran over to her and she immediately jumped into Ghastly protective arms and cried into his shirt "Shhh, its ok, we'll protect you! Whats wrong?" Ghastly asked and the girl looked up at him with a blotchy face "T..the V..vampires killed...my...my mummy!" she managed to get out before she broke into tears once again and Ghastly looked at Skulduggery who was giving the what-do-you-want-me-to-do look and Ghastly rolled his eyes and butted his head in the direction of the building and Skulduggery nodded and walked of into the building while Ghastly put the little girl into the van "Ok, will you stay in here while I go into the building for me sweetie? I promise ill be back in a minute for you." Ghastly asked and wiped the tears away from her cheeks and the little girl nodded and sniffled. Ghastly smiled and was about to walk of when the little girl jumped on him and wrapped her little arms around his neck and whispered "Thank you." into his ear and Ghastly smiled and wrapped one of his strong arm around her tiny body and whispered back "Your welcome." the girl jumped out and climbed back into the back of the van and Ghastly locked it and ran into the building after Skulduggery.
Skulduggery heard talking from the inside of the building so he put his ear against the door and listened in and he heard muffled voices "What do we do about the girl?" a weak voice asked
"Leave her here! We will not release her!" said the unmistakable voice of Dusk
"Well what do we do if Pleasant finds out about her?"
"We will do what we always do! We will fight! We will prepare for a war, if he wants her back! We will do everything and more to make sure she doesn't not set foot outside this building!"
"Yes master. I shall tell the others to prepare" Skulduggery heard footsteps fade away and all that was going through his head was 'Who was they talking about?' he walked away from the door and made his way back to the van but before he even reached the door he heard a yell and a cry of pain from the other room. That voice was unmistakable, it was Ghastly. Skulduggery sprinted down the hall way and followed the cry's and yells until he reached a big wooden door, so she went back a few steps and ran into it, but it didn't work, he wasn't strong enough, so he reached into his pocket and brought out a lock pick, and worked on the door. Every scream making him work faster until the lock made a click and he burst in to see Ghastly chained up against a wall with a huge chunk of flesh missing from his side and cuts all over his muscular body, looking weak, with Dusk standing infront of him with a knife in his hand. But he wasn't paying attention to him, he was mostly paying attention to a living, breathing Valkyrie chained on the wall next to Ghastly, looking at him with her angelic face.
