Read Playing with Fire (Skulduggery Pleasant, Book 2) for Free Online Page A

liquid.
    Dusk shrugged. "You can keep it," he said. "I've got plenty more."
    The Minions were regrouping.
    Valkyrie clicked her fingers but failed to ignite a spark. She tried again, and this time she felt the
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    heat of the friction. She focused. She curled her hand, let the energy pour from the center of her body into her arm, into her palm, and she took the spark and made it into a flame.
    "Stay back," she warned.
    The Minions didn't answer. She didn't even know if they were capable of answering.
    The flame grew fiercer, grew into a ball of fire in her hand, and she hurled the fireball right at them.
    And then Skulduggery was shouting something and running forward, his arms sweeping up, and a rush of wind hit the fireball and knocked it off course even as the flames extinguished.
    Then he was at Valkyrie's side, holding her arm, walking backward with her as the Minions stalked them.
    "They've been infected," he said, "but they're not lost. Not yet. We don't want to kill them."
    Dusk strolled after them. "It's not their fault I chose them, after all."
    Skulduggery glanced at her. "It takes two nights for an Infected to become a vampire. Until then, they're innocent victims."
    "But in two nights," Dusk added, "this will all be over."
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    Skulduggery took out his gun, aimed it straight at Dusk. The Minions stopped and snarled. Dusk's smile never left his face.
    "This is your chance to leave," Skulduggery said.
    "Why would we do that? You 're the ones backing away. You can't kill my friends. You are losing this little altercation."
    Skulduggery thumbed back the revolver's hammer. "I said we don't want to kill them. I didn't say we won't."
    "If you fire that gun," Dusk said, "you will have a whole town running to see what's going on, and you've dropped your disguise."
    "That's the only reason I'm not putting you out of our misery right here and now."
    Dusk considered his options, then shrugged. "Minions," he said, "we're leaving."
    The Infected couple snarled their displeasure but did as they were told. They joined Dusk as he backed away.
    Skulduggery didn't lower the gun. "Tell Vengeous I expected more from him. Going after my colleague to get to me is the sort of thing Serpine tried. Tell him if he wants me, then be a
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    man and come and get me."
    "The Baron is an honorable man."
    "The Baron is a coward."
    Dusk smiled, but didn't respond.
    Valkyrie stood by Skulduggery's side, and they watched Dusk and his Minions fade into the cover of the trees.
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    Chapter Seven
    UNWELCOME VISITORS
    THE HIBERNIAN Cinema stood like an old man, stoop-shouldered and gray-faced, squeezed in on either side by taller, broader, and healthier buildings. Its facade was a decaying remnant of a forgotten time, and most of the vowels were missing from its name. Fifty years ago, this cinema had thrived, its Dublin audiences flocking to it every weekend. Skulduggery himself had first visited the Hibernian to see High Society, and he'd had a crush on Grace Kelly ever since.
    He parked the Bentley in the lane at the back, and Valkyrie followed him in. The carpeted surroundings
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    absorbed their footfalls. They passed framed posters for obscure movies starring dead actors. No paying customer had been in this building for decades.
    The cinema was quiet, as usual, and empty. They walked down the steps between the rows of seats. The screen had a heavy red curtain in front of it, musty with age. As they approached, the curtain parted and the screen lit up, showing an old black-and-white film of a brick wall and an open door. The soundtrack was of a city at night. Valkyrie followed Skulduggery up onto the small stage, and they walked to the door, their shadows falling onto the image. Then they walked through the screen.
    They took the stairs that lay on the other side, and gradually the artificial light swept the gloom away. They reached the top floor, where all signs of the old cinema had been replaced by gleaming corridors and laboratories. The owner