Chapter One: Finding

Valkyrie Cain stood next to the pier waiting for Skulduggery to pick her up.

She stood facing the sea when she heard the bark.

Valkyrie turned around and saw the puppy.

It looked like a baby wolf and had fluffy fur that was as black as China Sorrow's hair with what looked like a scorch mark all the way down its back. The puppy was a little bit smaller then Valkyrie's knee and a strange pentagon symbol in blood red was on its forehead.

But the strangest thing about the puppy was its eyes.

Usually puppies when they were six months old, which Valkyrie assumed was how old the puppy was, had blue eyes. But this puppy's eyes were a black like a vampire's and had blood red lines in them like cracks.

Valkyrie hesitated then called out, "come here boy, I'm not going to hurt you."

The puppy barked in excitement and ran up to her then stopped in front of her, wagging its tail.

It sat back on its hind legs, putting its front paws into the air and whined.

Valkyrie felt her heart melt and knelt down, picked the puppy up and held it out slightly.

The puppy whined and licked her nose

Valkyrie laughed and hugged it. "Aw, you're so cute!" she squealed.

"Hi Valkyrie," a quiet voice said.

Valkyrie looked up and saw her stalker, Caelan, standing on the shore.

"Caelan, what do want?" Valkyrie growled. She was very annoyed with him.

"I just wanted to say hi is all," he tried a smile but dropped the smile when he saw the puppy.

He took a step back, "where did you find that," Caelan said sounding scared.

"I just found him a minute ago, isn't he cute?"

The puppy started to squirm and Valkyrie put him down.

The puppy got protectively in front of Valkyrie and started to growl. Except it wasn't a cute little puppy growl Valkyrie had heard on the internet, it sounded like full grown wolf growl.

Caelan started to slowly back away, "nice puppy nice pup-"

The puppy suddenly lunged forward snarling and started to chase Caelan.

Caelan ran away as fast as he could, screaming bloody murder.

Valkyrie watched for a few moments grinning then called, "puppy, come back here, I think Caelan has had enough."

The puppy stopped then ran back over to her happily.

Valkyrie picked the puppy up and looked at him again.

"What are you?" she said.

The puppy barked again.

Just then the Bentley pulled up and Skulduggery got out.

Then Skulduggery was screaming and trying to shake something off on his leg.

"GETIOFF, GETITOFF, GETITOFF!" He yelled, hopping around and shaking his leg like a maniac.

Valkyrie looked down and realized that the puppy wasn't in her arms anymore.

Valkyrie ran over to Skulduggery and reached down and yanked the puppy off of Skulduggery's leg.

"Bad, puppy bad," she said. The puppy whined.

Skulduggery composed himself, and straightened his tie.

"Where did you find that puppy?" he asked.

Valkyrie explained everything, including what had happened with Caelan.

"Why did he act like that?" Valkyrie asked when she had finished.

"It's because vampires are afraid of hellhounds," Skulduggery explained.

"What?!"

"Yep, this is a hellhound puppy."

Valkyrie stared at him in shock, "this is a hellhound?!"

"Yep."

"Well can you please explain to me how I ended up with a HELLHOUND?"

"Well," Skulduggery said, "when hellhound puppies reach six months old they leave their mothers to find a master, or mistress in your case."

Valkyrie frowned, "what happens when they don't find a home?"

"That can be a problem," Skulduggery said, "hellhound puppies will wander for exactly two days looking for an owner, but if they don't find an owner within two days they go native."

"Native?"

"Yes, native, they eat everything; they burn everything and just literally flatten everything in their paths."

Valkyrie frowned again, "but if this has happened before, then why hasn't the world been burned to the ground?"

"Because there is a way to kill a hellhound, two actually; one is to get them right in the heart with pure silver and the second is to completely submerge them in holy water."

"Well since I can't get rid of him, what do I do?"

"I have never encountered a hellhound before but maybe China knows what to do."

"Good idea."

They got into the car and went to China Sorrow's library.