Skulduggery Pleasant: Raising Cain

Chapter 143 - Bye-bye

Chapter 143

There was a moment of shock and then Nadia made a noise, not one of pleasure or humour, but of 'I-can't-get-away-help' and Valkyrie had had enough. She jumped up, stumbling a little, grabbed one of Vasuda's hands, pulling it away from Nadia. Except, she had a grip on Nadia's hair and when Valkyrie did that, it pulled on Nadia's head. Nadia's cry of pain got the others to start telling Vasuda to stop and she gave up trying to kiss Nadia.

"Get off of me!" Nadia immediately cried when her mouth was free to use again.

Vasuda's face darkened and she tried to lean in and force Nadia to kiss her again, but Valkyrie was still quick enough, and probably stupid enough, to grab Vasuda by the throat and pushed her back. It worked as she let Nadia's hair go, but she also flailed and fell to the ground in a heap and gagged violently. Valkyrie supposed she had used more force than necessary, as she was a very strong, tall young woman and Vasuda was a small, weak little piglet.

Nadia burst out crying and Valkyrie turned in time for Nadia to throw herself onto Valkyrie and sob on her shoulder.

"I should have believed you!" She kept saying, as well as "I'm sorry!" and "Why did she do that?" Valkyrie just tried to calm her down, rubbing her back and telling her it wasn't her fault that Vasuda was a disgusting idiot.

Charlotte, Dhiya and Prema were rubbing Nadia's back and telling her it was alright, trying to comfort her, while the others either looked away out of embarrassment for what Vasuda had done or outright glared at Vasuda. No one said anything to her and she had stopped gagging and was just quiet now. Valkyrie didn't care and after a few minutes trying to calm Nadia down unsuccessfully, she decided it was all to do with Vasuda being in close proximity and told the others they were going and just left with Nadia. She didn't know that the others planned on doing but she did not care at that point, especially as the last half hour of drinking had hit her system all at once and she knew for a fact she was stumbling and slurring her words and was really not sober in any way.

She kept her head enough to go into the kitchen where Tanith, Erskine and Dexter were once more and sat heavily in a chair, Nadia following onto her lap heavily and still crying uncontrollably.

"What's happening?" Dexter immediately asked, putting his mug down and rushing over.

"Vasuda practically assaulted Nadia!" Valkyrie immediately said, then felt very lightheaded and swayed a bit before continuing. "Nadia was challenged to eckemo kiss Vasuda, so she did, and then Vasuda grabbed Nadia and kissed her and Nadia couldn't get away and got hurt and Vasuda pulled her hair and now she's crying."

"What happened to Vasuda?" Dexter asked.

"I grabbed her by the throat and probably hurt her. She fell over and was just sitting there when we left," Valkyrie said, trying to say everything as not-drunkly as she could. "I hate her stupid face."

Dexter sighed and rubbed Nadia on the back. "Nadia? Honey, will you calm down and talk to us?"

Valkyrie was almost surprised by his change in tone but put it down to her being too drunk to understand how to talk – sober-her would have thought that was stupid but drunk-her didn't know how to form proper thoughts anymore – and it actually worked. Nadia very quickly started to breath better and stopped crying so badly and within five minutes of Dexter talking softly to her, Nadia was still upset but much better. She even sat in her own seat.

"Come on, talk to us," Erskine said, sitting down too and trying a smile. "Tell us what's got you so upset. Other than being kissed."

"She kissed me," Nadia just said sadly.