Skulduggery Pleasant_ Death Bringer - Derek Landy [114]
Valkyrie walked to the back door, which hadn’t been closed properly, shut it and locked it. There was now a baby in the house, after all. She couldn’t take the chance that a wild animal might wander in and make off with Alice, like those dingoes in Australia. She was probably being unfair to both dingoes and Australia, but she couldn’t risk it. Locked doors kept the dingoes out, and that’s all there was to it, even if she didn’t know what a dingo actually was. She took out her phone, searched the Internet, found a picture of a baby dingo and now she really wanted a baby dingo for a pet.
Valkyrie sighed, putting the phone away. She really needed a hobby. She walked out of the kitchen and someone grabbed her, smashed her head against the wall. White light exploded behind her eyes. She wanted to drop to the ground, but there were hands on her, someone speaking, and then the hallway blurred as she was thrown the length of it. She hit the ground, banging her chin and biting her tongue. Blood in her mouth, thunder in her head. She felt fingers in her hair, heard herself cry out as she was wrenched back. More talking, but the words slipped by. Her ears were buzzing. Her head snapped. Someone had hit her. She was on the floor again, on her back this time. Someone sitting on her, straddling her. A hand at her throat. She tried to push at the air but she couldn’t focus. She clicked her fingers but couldn’t find the spark. Her head was splitting.
She blinked, the man on top of her becoming less hazy. For a moment she didn’t recognise him. All she saw was the snarling mouth with the cut lip and the spittle that flew as he spoke. She saw the eyes, wide and bruised and burning with anger. A name drifted to her. Moore.
“You thought I wouldn’t come back at you?” he sneered. “You thought you could do that and get away with it?”
His hand at her throat was cutting off her air. She realised she already had her hands up, trying to release the pressure. She brought her knees in so they were pressed against him from behind, and then she hooked her left foot to the outside of his right. He didn’t notice.
“They had to let me go,” he said. “Cops can’t have someone beaten up in their own cells, not without a lawsuit.”
He pulled his right hand back, cracked it against her cheek. Her head swam but she fought through it.
“I saw your mother’s address on one of their files. I thought to myself, the moment I get out of here, I’m paying that girl a visit. I’m going to give her some of what she gave me.” He leaned down, his face mere inches from hers. “I don’t know how you did all that crazy stuff, but I can do some crazy stuff of my own. I can beat that pretty face of yours right off you.”
She waited until he started to lean away, then she trapped his right hand at her throat and smacked her own right hand up into his chin. She didn’t even give him time to feel it. Her hand went to his shoulder, fingers closing around his jacket, and she snapped her body off the ground, bridging him up and over and now she was on top, smashing her elbow down into his face, again and again while he attempted to cover up.
He tried to push her off but she kept bringing the elbow down. He started shouting, cursing at her. Somewhere in the distance she heard a baby crying. Alice had woken up.
Her head felt light and for a moment she thought she was going to faint. Moore seized his chance, started to push her off. Her head cleared as he turned over, tried to crawl out from under her. She fell on to him, right arm wrapping around his throat, the other searching for a sleeper hold. He gagged, raised up to his hands and knees, but she stayed on his back, hooking her feet into his legs. He launched himself sideways. She tucked her head against him, clung on like a limpet. He rolled, gasping and gagging, doing everything he could to throw her off. Her left arm snaked closer to that sleeper hold. They crashed into the hall table. The vase toppled, smashed on the ground. Flowers and water went everywhere.
She found