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holding hands, laughing. They weren't laughing now. They were pale, as pale as the man in black. They looked sick, and there were bloodstains on their clothes. They watched her with dark, dead eyes. She looked at the man in black, remembered the graceful way he had moved.
    "You're a vampire," she breathed.
    "And you are Valkyrie Cain, and you're coming with us."
    She couldn't fight them. There was no way she was even close to being ready.
    So she ran.
    The young couple were after her, sprinting, feet thudding on the grass. She kept ahead of them. She didn't even have to look back-- she could hear how close they were. But she couldn't hear him.
    The man in black was running at her side, moving without effort. She tried to duck away, but he reached out a lazy hand, his fingers closing around her arm, and stopped suddenly. She jerked to a painful halt.
    She swung a punch, but he moved slightly and her fist connected with nothing but air. She tried to
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    kick and he took a step, the expression on his face never going beyond bored, and he grabbed Valkyrie's arm and twisted it behind her back, and her knees hit the ground.
    "The Baron wants you alive," he said. "Bear in mind, he did not specify unharmed. Do not try to hit me again."
    "How about me?" Skulduggery said as he ran up behind him. "Can I hit you?"
    The man in black released Valkyrie and turned, too late to stop Skulduggery's fist from smacking into his jaw. He staggered and Skulduggery splayed his hand. The air rushed into the vampire and sent him backward, head over heels. Instead of sprawling onto the grass, however, his body moved with an inhuman agility, and he twisted sideways and landed on his feet.
    "Detective," he murmured.
    "Dusk," Skulduggery said. "It's been a while. Still evil?"
    The man called Dusk smiled. "When the mood takes me." He gestured to the young couple. "Allow me to introduce you to my friends. I like to call them Minion One and Minion Two. You can decide between yourselves which one is which."
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    The young couple attacked. Skulduggery dodged their clumsy grabs and threw them into each other's way. Dusk blurred, and in an eyeblink he was beside Valkyrie, pulling her to her feet.
    Skulduggery lunged at Dusk and they went down, and Skulduggery lost his hat and scarf. Valkyrie stumbled back. Minion One, the male, snarled and came at her. He looked even worse close-up. His eyes were dull and red-rimmed, and she could see the bite on his neck beneath his shirt collar. It wasn't the dainty twin pinpricks she'd seen in the movies-- his neck had been savagely torn open. She could smell the dried blood on his skin. It smelled of copper.
    For a moment she panicked. His hands were gripping her collar, forcing her back, and he was strong. His girlfriend, Minion Two, was right behind him, eager to inflict some damage of her own.
    Valkyrie made herself relax, remembering the drills she'd run with Skulduggery and Tanith, conditioning her body to relax when every part of her wanted to scream.
    She allowed herself to be pushed back. Her left hand gripped his wrist and her right hand came up
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    between his arms to his face. She planted her left foot and dug in and twisted her hips into him, and Minion One collided with her and went over.
    Minion Two snarled and punched, and Valkyrie's world rocked. She deflected the grab that followed, tried a lock that didn't work, then stomped on Minion Two's knee and shoved her away.
    She saw Skulduggery and Dusk. Now that he could no longer be taken by surprise, Dusk's supernatural grace and athleticism were keeping him away from Skulduggery's strikes. He swept out of range of the punches and kicks, and every hold Skulduggery tried, Dusk eased out of before it was even completed.
    He kicked Skulduggery and moved backward, and as he did so, something fell from his pocket. He glanced at it and moved to retrieve it, but Skulduggery held out his hand, and it flew into his grip.
    It was a syringe, filled with a colorless