Skulduggery Pleasant: Raising Cain

Chapter 158 - The finishing blow

Chapter 158

Tanith's POV

It was cold, wherever she was. She gritted her teeth, mad at herself for getting into this situation. She was a trained assassin, she was an ally of the Dead Men, she should be able to take down three stupid people without a problem. But no, now she was in a cold room with thin clothes and no idea where she was. God knew where Nadia was.

She was in luck though, and she sensed it before it struck. She lay down on the floor where she'd woken up and stayed still. The door to her black room opened and a dull yellow light came in. She kept her eyes only slightly cracked open. In the distance, she could hear gunfire.

"Oh gosh," a woman fretted, her voice shaking. She came shuffling into the room. "Oh gosh, oh gosh. Miss? Oh, no no no."

It was tough to stay still, but she did. The woman, obviously quite elderly, came close enough to shake her shoulder, and that's when Tanith jumped up, grabbing the lady by the mouth, forcing her jaw shut. Her eyes widened in fear, but it only took a moment for Tanith to choke her of oxygen and she took Tanith's place as the unconscious female on the floor.

Standing too quickly, Tanith suddenly swayed and she felt nausea build quickly. She threw up in the corner, breathed deeply, thought about her daughter and stood back up. She had to get back to her daughter. Thank god she'd had Myra to leave her with, she'd have hated it if Laila were with her.

She glanced out of the dungeon door and looked around. There were only six cell rooms, and a quick tug on the doors found that she was the only one held prisoner. The light came from a bare bulb in the ceiling that hung over a lush, expansive office cross small library, which was held in a round room in between the stairs going up to the fighting and the corridor that led to the cells and whatever else was down that hall. A quick hop up to the ceiling proved she had her magic and that her body was even more bruised than she had thought. In fact, she was pretty sure she had a broken rib, but it didn't hurt too badly.

She decided to go down to the end of the hall. Most likely chance was her friends had found she and Nadia were missing, probably finding Myra and Laila and getting her story, and now Valkyrie had used her detective prowess to find them. So, instead of going up with her broken rib, she'd find what was down the hall on the other side of the cells and give them the heads up or clear it if she could.

Nodding to herself, she crouched and ran. The more she shuffled along the ceiling, the dizzier she felt, but it was progress and she wasn't getting shot at least. Through a door and–

It was a room of chains, blood and semen covered sofas, leather straps, metal cages, electric dog collars, a couple of coffins. Everything had blood on it. And there were people too. There was someone in a coffin, dead, naked and used – Tanith almost threw up when she thought of the word. There were five others. Someone very elderly was tied up and chained to a wall, although he seemed to be a willing participant. The middle-aged looking woman in a box with a dog collar on so tight she was red in the face and one tug on the lead from passing out didn't have the same look of pleasure on her face. The other three were enjoying themselves. Two men and a woman. The woman was beating the chained up old man. The other two men were naked, legs splayed and talking in low voiced. Tanith was fairly sure they were high.

Three people. Only one armed, that being the woman. Could she take them even when she was nauseous, dizzy and had a broken rib?

Of course she could, she was Tanith Low. She dropped on the man with the lead, making him drop it, and another kick to the second man head and he was out. She turned back around as the first tried to lunge at her but she easily kicked him to the floor before hissing in pain and holding her side. The woman threw a knife at her and it burnt like hell to drop and roll. The woman obviously wasn't a real fighter because she had small, unmuscular arms and even when she whipped Tanith it barely hurt. Tanith moved through the pain and punched the woman in the face. She fell straight to the floor.