Skulduggery Pleasant fan-fic: The Cradle of Magic (UNDER EDIT)

Last Hours...

-Gracious

"You shall not pass!!!" Bliv cupped her hands together and swiftly bought them down upon her lap, in one vast movement.
Laughing a little, I caught Valkyrie's confused gaze, "Oh, my T-shirt, see?" Taking my top by the rim, I displayed the Gandalf silhouette warped to a larger size on my shirt to her. She rolled her eyes and preceded in glaring out of the car window as the Australian landscape rolled by beside her.

On a lighter note, everyone seemed to be immensely satisfied with the aspect of an air conditioned Land Rover that I had conveniently hired beforehand rather than facing the Sanctuary sponsored Aldi that circulated no form of air and had absolutely no idea of the phrase 'leg room', which was probably down to the fact it only supplied four seats out of the nine of us, so at least that was something to be optimistic about.

We had been travelling for two and a half hours under Donegan's careful driving (because apparently our road trip through Australia last Spring qualified him enough to 'know the roads' in this country), but the journey time didn't seem to be the problem on this occasion.

Ghastly had spent the last hour heavily lecturing Bliv about the importance of this meeting with a healthy amount of input from Elder Storm; how she must act and speak in the committee, but after some time he had developed neck strain from looking back at her too much and so the conversation halted; much to Bliv's wholesome satisfaction.
Nobody liked these occasions and I still wasn't entirely sure why, if everyone found them equally as tedious, why they hadn't become extinct; why the couldn't just have a massive international Skype call?

I stopped thinking and looked around a bit to find something to distract myself; Vex was to the far right of me, tapping away eagerly at his apple laptop, Bliv sat in the middle of us both, her head rested lightly on his shoulder, a look of boredom on her face. Tanith lay asleep behind us, an extra chair made up for her. Ghastly was to the fore of me, obviously asleep, Skulduggery in the centre of Valkyrie and Bespoke with Elder rider at the front and Donegan at the wheel. Sighing, I stuck my thumbs under my arms and glared at the back of the seat. That was when a tall bottle of coke preoccupied my wandering eye.

I jabbed Bliv hard in the ribs and passed a quick grin before taking out the large bottle and holding it aloft to the fore of her confused gaze. Placing one hand on top I shook it lightly, watching as her eyes widened and her head shook. "what the hell are you doing?!" She whispered, Dexter raising his head a fraction and immediately repeating her characteristics.
I put a singular finger to my lips, evading a smile and stopped shaking; the bubbles inside fizzing dramatically.
"Let's see if I can try and open this without it spilling over!" They both shook heir heads in disbelief once more, Tanith's head popping through the gap; a bemused look on her sleepy face, "what are you...?". I laughed lightly, unscrewing the cap tentatively.
Squeezing the bottom of the bottle, I got the lid to bursting point and twisted...

Suddenly the car jolted, the bottle escaping my grasp and as if in slow motion releasing the cap and spraying an endless cascade of bubbles over the fore of the leatherette seat.

And onto Skulduggery Pleasant's back.

***
-China

Thick, syrup like scarlet drank into the carpet, I watched it travel like a stream across the floor, seeping into the gaps between the wood; dripping into the darkness between the beams.
My mind went black, I had watched it; the bullet.
It came fast from the gullet of the gun as if in slow motion into my chest, blood instantly spluttering from the newfound wound like a broken pipe. It hadn't hurt at first, they never did. I wasn't concentrating on the bullet anyway.
All that lay to my attention was the eyes that stared at me from across the room. Those blue eyes, the eyes of my beautiful daughter.
"Valiance..." A strangled sound parted from my throat with much discomfort, my lungs too short of air.
I dropped to my knees, the harsh floor creating no impact to my already wounded body.
Bliss' figure created quite a shadow ahead of me, his hulking mass penetrating my sight towards the small girl in comparison that he now blocked.