Skulduggery Pleasant_ Death Bringer - Derek Landy [161]
She clutched at his hand, but couldn’t prise it off, and her head was pounding and lights danced before her eyes.
Suddenly the grip was released, and Valkyrie slumped to a sitting position. A moment passed, and then a hand stroked her face tenderly.
“I’m sorry,” Caelan said. “I’m sorry, Valkyrie. I didn’t mean to strike you. I would never hurt you, you know that. But sometimes… sometimes you just have to listen to me, and do what I say. Now, if you tell me there is no one else, then I believe you. Of course I do. Because I love you. Do you understand me?”
She nodded. He smiled, took her hands, and raised her slowly to her feet.
“Are you all right?” he asked gently.
“I’m OK,” she said.
“I love you,” he smiled.
She snapped her palms and the space between them rippled and Caelan flew backwards. He managed to land in a crouch, and leaped at her, but she sent the shadows to intercept, pulling him from the air and driving him head first into the ground. He got to his hands and knees, dazed, and Valkyrie ran up, went to kick, but he batted her foot away and his fist crunched into her belly. She doubled over with a cry of pain that turned into a strangled wheeze.
“Why do you do this?” he raged. “Why do you defy me? I love you, Valkyrie! Do you know what that means?”
She dropped to her knees.
“I love you,” he said in her ear. “We’re meant for each other. Can’t you understand that? I’ve tried to be patient. I’ve tried so hard. But you just don’t get it. You continue to fight.”
His hand closed around her jaw, and lifted her face to him.
“You think it’s easy for me?” he asked, tears in his eyes. “You think it’s easy to give my love? I’ve tried, in the past. Girls, women, so many, they each stole my heart. But each time it ended I lost a piece of myself.”
Her hand went to her pocket, fumbled with the phone.
“But you,” Caelan said, “you’re different. The others, they couldn’t keep the monster away. As much as I loved them, our love just wasn’t strong enough to keep them alive. Sooner or later, the monster would emerge. That’s when Dusk found me.” He sneered. “He said I was endangering everyone with the things I did. He tried to stop me, but he couldn’t kill me. He was living by the code. We don’t kill our own kind. The vampire he had with him, he was even worse than Dusk. He talked about living in darkness, in solitude, keeping away from the mortals. One day I’d had enough of his lectures, and I slit his throat and took his head. And because of that, I was exiled, cast out to an existence of loneliness. Until I found you. We’re meant for each other. And if you can’t understand that, I’ll have to make you.”
Moonlight made the sweat on his brow glisten. He opened his mouth, his fangs growing.
“Caelan.”
Caelan snarled, and turned. Fletcher stood there.
“Get away from my ex-girlfriend, you moany little whinge-bag.”
Caelan took a breath, like he was in pain, and straightened up. His voice was low, guttural. “I was hoping I’d get the chance to kill you.”
“You won’t be killing anyone, you sad little emo git.”
“You’ve stood in the way of our love for long enough.”
“Just listening to you makes me want to top myself, you self-pitying Paranormal Romance reject.”
Caelan glared. “Stop insulting me.”
“Why? If you cry, will your mascara run?”
“You’re just making me angrier. And I really should have taken my serum tonight.”
Caelan’s fingers dug into his shirt, into his flesh, and he ripped it off, revealing the bone-white skin beneath. A suddenly clawed hand went to his face, tore it from his head, taking the hair with it. The vampire shook off the ragged remains of its human form, its black eyes gleaming as it advanced.
Fletcher licked his lips nervously and backed off. Valkyrie did her best to sit up, watching the muscles move beneath the vampire’s pale skin. A creature made for killing. She wanted to shout out, to warn Fletcher, to tell him to go and get Skulduggery, but all she managed was a moan.
Fletcher teleported, reappearing a moment later with a baseball bat in his hands. He teleported behind the vampire, swung,