It took us no more than five minutes to reach an eerily quiet back-alley, and it seemed, judging from Mr Crepsley's expression, that this was the place in which he was seeking out. Why was beyond me, for he had said nothing else since our conversation earlier. All I knew about was this so-called 'plot' - which seemed so important to Larten that he could not even tell his assistant of it.
Grinding to a halt, Mr Crepsley ran a palm through his hair whilst sighing. It was not from nerves, but from an increasing pressure, or so I would have thought.
"Are you okay?" Asked he, genuine concern leaking into his words. A half-smile played upon my lips at his question.
"Why the concern?" The question was one I did indeed want to know the answer to, yet I asked in it such a manner that would hopefully lead the vampire General to think that I was being cheeky with him as oppose to actual concern. It seemed to work.
"Can I not be concerned of the welfare of my assistant?" Larten asked, his voice differing in pitch as he spoke. "After all, you can be a clumsy bugger!"
Grinning, I walked on past the vampire, purposely tripping over my own feet as I did so. Larten laughed, but midway, breath caught in his throat as his eyes sought after something against the curtain of night. I snapped my head round, losing my balance as I did so. Although I did not fall entirely, I felt my feet pump faster as to hopefully gain some more control. It worked, yet this bought me closer to whatever lurked out of my sight. Whatever Larten Crepsley had seen, I was heading straight for it...
"What a treeeeat you look, young'un," hissed a demonic voice. My mind whirred and my muscles tensed. I was still travelling towards the voice with no sense of balance or control. From what I heard, it was not a pleasant voice, and I could hear an obvious hunger within the tones. Hunger for what; I wished not to find out. So I had to stop myself – and soon!
I was lucky Mr Crepsley was so quick to react. Before I crashed to the floor through panic, he pulled me viciously backwards, restricting the downward force that was acting upon me. Gasping, I kicked out my feet, attempting to find any form of balance I could. It worked, and as Larten let me go, I found my feet and regained any composure that I could find. Not much came my way, but it would make a difference (or so I hoped).
"Oh, so you'ree a spoilsport now, aree yooou?" purred the voice, a sinister tone woven within the words. As it -he?- spoke, I saw the flash of mouldy teeth. Somehow they retained a shine. A deep maroon gunge had built up near the roots of the teeth whilst black mould seemed to spread upwards to the jagged points. A stench quickly hit my nostrils – a stench that couldn't be mistaken by a creature of the night like I. Blood.
I stood still – too scared to move. It was a vampaneze, and one that had a sinister way of speaking. Moving sideways, I crept ever closer to my mentor, hoping he would give me some confidence to face our foe. If he proved useless I could always use him as a human shield.
"Yes." Replied Larten curtly. He stepped forwards sharply – threateningly – hoping to deter the purple-skinned creature away from us. Staying put, I watched innocently from the side-lines, hoping that the two more powerful beings would leave me out of their battle. Yet the vampaneze within the shadows didn't move a muscle; didn't even flinch! Larten stood, panting slightly, keeping a sharp gaze upon his blood cousin. For minutes nothing was said. Eerie silence dawned upon us – tension within in the air seemed to rise with every ticking second.
Simply – surprisingly – the cloaked night-creature strode away. He gave no prior warning as to doing so, and I was taken aback by his actions. Surely he was here to fight us, not to flee? Yet Mr Crepsley appeared neutral with no change upon his face evident. Had he expected this? From the fact that my mentor had now also commenced into a brisk walk, I began to suspect that he had. Picking up my feet, I followed suit, confused and anxious as to what was really going on. The vampaneze in front of us was not running, meaning that I was forced to revise my thoughts of him fleeing.
It then struck me – he was leading us somewhere. Perhaps there were more vamapaneze awaiting us, or Larten had struck a deal with his enemies? Maybe he intended to sacrifice me to them… No. It was ludicrous just to think it, let alone believe it. Mr Crepsley would never betray me in such a manner, even if he had been out of character recently. A vampire of his standing would never stoop so low. I sighed, amazed that I had even considered it as a possibility, and that I had ever doubted my mentor in the first place. He said he had a plan – a plot – and perhaps he had thought of it solo, and it would help rid this town of the murderous, ruthless vampaneze.
After only a couple of minutes maintaining the pace, the vampaneze suddenly jerked into a flit, caught Larten unawares, and managed to escape our presence. Mr Crepsley was just about to flit after him when he remembered I was there too. He invited me onto his back, with every intention to flit after the somewhat mouldy creature-of-the-night, yet I shook my head, seeing sense, knowing that this time he had got away. Cursing, Larten dug his heel into the damp pavement whilst looking about him. He wanted to catch site of his target, but it was all in vain – the vampaneze had left no trace.
"We should have run after him!" fumed Larten, convinced that I was in the wrong.
"He had already gone, it would have been wasted effort."
"We could have tried."
"We've tried already, and he got away this time. We'll find him again another night."
"What if we do not?" challenged my mentor, eyes burning, fists clenched.
"Then… I don't know – you're the one who is supposed to be guiding me!" I retorted, starting to become agitated myself. However hard I tried to make him listen, he just seemed oblivious to anything I had to say. No real change there then.
"So you should have listened to me and allowed me to flit, if I am the one who needs to guide you!" It was evident that he was not going to give up without a proper argument. I sighed, turning my back on him slightly, letting my limbs hang limp by my side. I wasn't going to argue with him anymore – when he was annoyed and angry there was simply no winning. That much I had learnt by now!
