Skulduggery – Crow
Anton – Bear
Ghastly – Panda
Dexter – Wolf
Saracen – Weasel
Erskine – Snake
Solomon – Raven
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Chapter 37
"Wolf!" Valkyrie shouted, running out the house and hugging him. "I missed you!"
Wolf squeezed her tightly and kissed her cheek. "I missed you too Cub. I heard there's been some trouble for my baby girl?"
She wrapped her legs around him and he carried her, his two bags, a large gun and himself into the house. He threw down the baggage and sat on the sofa, letting her remain on his lap.
"Crow's just being an idiot," she said, rolling her eyes. A while ago she had come to accept it – now it was mid-November, three weeks since then, and she was bored of studying, so was Tanith, and Fletcher was really, really getting on her nerves because he was bored too. Saracen wasn't even turning up in the mornings for them, Bear had taken over the Irish lessons to give Panda a break. Her family loved her and all, but even she could imagine how her childish complaining over schoolwork was getting old. Tanith was mostly just sliding worksheets to her and reading Gordon's books again, or else they analysed his work. They had substituted geography for talking about Tanith's dating escapades across the world just so they could laugh about it, and they'd switched chemistry for making a bomb they set off in the back garden. That had been fun.
And although she and Crow had shared several short and polite conversations, they had not made up even a little. She explained everything that had happened to Dexter, and he nodded along until she finished and brought her in for a hug.
"You know what we should do?" He asked after a minute. "We should see Nadia."
Valkyrie grinned and shook her head. "I'm not allowed."
"Have you spoken to her at all since you were 'punished'?"
"Yeah," she whispered. "Tanith lets me use her phone before bed."
"And Skulduggery hasn't noticed?" Wolf asked.
She shrugged. "If he has, he's not done anything. I would imagine he knows but he was pretty angry with me, so I sort of thought he would have done something if he knew. Maybe he doesn't want to get in trouble with Tanith."
Wolf thought about it, then shrugged and grinned. "Let's see Nadia."
"Wolf, if I get caught, I might be in even worse trouble," she explained. "I'd rather just do the punishment and then go on cases again. I just want to go back to normal, but I won't let Crow's anger at the situation upset me or make me do anything. If I do, I'll just prove I can't be trusted to take orders."
"Val, I never take orders, I do what I want and I'm still here. Don't worry, I'll say I forced you to go. I am very big and very evil after all. Now do you want to see a lovely, beautiful girl or not?"
"What's happening?" Fletcher asked, coming into the room with wide, hope-filled eyes. "You're seeing friends? Can I come?"
"Ahh, why not?" Wolf said, not yet knowing that Valkyrie hadn't told him about Nadia – she hadn't wanted Wolf's protective side to show itself at Valkyrie's caution but now he was being too kind. Darn. "The more the merrier."
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Skulduggery Pleasant: Raising Cain
Fanfiction(This story is written as a fanfiction, but can be read as a story without having read any of the books.) Valkyrie Cain, the adoptive daughter of the Dead Men, has had a life full of love and magic. But as she gets older, times become scarier and sh...
