(A/N)
Guess who had a little surprise... I DO! The next chapter is up and readable; why, if you cast your eyes downward you will in fact see it!
To alysha813, I know I that I said you would have to wait a few days, but my dad dropped my laptop off while I was out and now you have the next chapter.
Please review!
Larten's heart hurt as he walked further and further away from Darrien; he wasn't sure how she was going to handle being trapped in a mountain for an unknown amount of time, but he was sure she'd adapt. The red haired vampire marched proudly though the corridors with his head held high, greeting the ones who waved to him. Unfortunately for Larten, word spread quickly about his mysterious message from Mr Tiny to the Princes and soon he had a small group of curious vampire trailing behind him.
The mountain had changed since the last time he was here; new paths had been built while others had been blocked off and deemed unsafe. There was only one room in which nothing, not even Mother Nature could harm and that was the Hall of Princes. It was built by the Little People under Mr Tiny's instructions as a gift to the Vampire Princes; nothing could penetrate the walls, though many had tried, all have failed. It was said that the only person who could bring the walls tumbling down was Mr Tiny himself. Larten has always felt that accepting the gift just meant that the vampire population would owe Mr Tiny and he wasn't the kind of man you wanted to be in debt with.
After a small outburst, the small group of vampires who had followed Larten through many of the mountains winding passages were now gone. Larten quickly brushed down his clothes and straightened his cloak before continuing towards the Princes.
The door to the Hall of Princes was guarded by two large and well built Vampire Generals, both holding a spear and a short sword in their belts. The Vampire Generals both said their hellos to Mr Crepsley before inquiring about his visit to the Princes; everyone needed a legitimate reason before they were allowed access to see the Princes.
"I am here to deliver a message from Mr Tiny," Larten spoke calmly, "I was told that the message was for their ears only, but once it has been received they may do as they wish with the information."
"Mr Tiny? What does that meddler want now?" The guard on the left asked.
"You could always let me in so I may tell the Princes and a meeting will most likely follow." Larten was getting impatient.
"Alright Crepsley, but you know the rules; no funny stuff." The guard on the right said as he moved aside and let Larten walk through the tall wooden doors.
There was one reason why Larten liked this part of the mountain; it didn't have the same stale air as the rest of the giant, cold rock that he would be living in for the next…
"Larten Crepsley, and what do we owe the pleasure of seeing you here?" Larten's thoughts were cut short by a familiar voice of Paris Skyle.
"I am afraid that I have come baring bad news Your Highness." Crepsley stooped down into a low bow before glancing on the other faces in the room.
Paris Skyle is the oldest vampire in history and it was showing; the old man looked weak and dark around the eyes, but there was still a hint of adventure in his step. To Paris's left sat Mika Ver Leth, a stern looking Vampire Prince known for his black dress sense and constant frown. On Paris's right was a hulk of a vampire; Arrow's wife was killed by Vampaneze and he himself has killed more than any other vampire. Larten always looked up to the Princes and even though he may question some of the things they say, he has learnt to keep quiet about his opinions.
"We haven't seen you in twelve years and when we finally are blessed with your company you tell us it is because of bad news?" Paris smiled despite his words. "This had better be the apocalypse Larten."
"I am afraid you are not that far off." Larten hung his head a bit.
"Well spit it out boy, if it's that important, what are you waiting for?" Arrow shouted as he stood from his chair.
"Mr Tiny had sent me with a message." Larten was holding off on telling them for as long as possible in hopes of avoiding the situation with Darrien for a bit longer.
"Mr Tiny hasn't spoken to us in years, why choose now to send a message when he invites himself in every other time?" Mika asked.
Larten lifted his head and spoke directly to the Princes in a calm and clear voice, "The Vampaneze Lord has been found."
"What?" Arrow almost lunged at Larten.
"Are you sure Larten? Could you have forgotten a part of the message?" Paris asked.
Mr Crepsley's eyes narrowed, "The message has burnt itself into my mind You Majesty; I regret to tell you that I have not forgotten anything."
"This is an outrage; we must find him and kill him as soon as possible!" Arrow was turning red with anger.
"Please Arrow, calm yourself." Paris laid a hand on the shoulder of his fellow Prince who slowly took his seat, "Now Larten, did Desmond have anything else to say?"
"His final words were, 'let the war begin', and that is all." Larten hung his head again as the Princes began to argue amongst themselves.
Although his expression remained calm, Larten's mind was racing, jumping from one subject to the next and tugging at his heart strings for the first time in a long time. It was a further ten minutes before Larten was addressed again which had given him time to mentally collect himself.
"Larten, is there something more that rests on your conscience?" The eldest Vampire Prince asked with concerned eyes.
Crepsley sighed, knowing that now was the best time to bring up the worst subject, "Yes Your Majesty, there is something that weighs me down terribly."
"Go on." Paris smiled warmly at the young vampire in front of him.
"I am sure that you have been informed of my actions," Larten sighed, "My illegal actions."
Paris's smile faded slightly, but he still held a calm tone, "There have been rumours, but we thought that they were just that; rumours. Are you telling us that you have in fact blooded a child?"
When Larten didn't answer Mika spoke instead, "Silence only means it's true, at least have to respect to say it allowed."
Larten's head snapped up and he glared at Mika, "Yes, I have blooded a child."
An eerie silence filled the Hall of Princes; Larten continued to stare at Mika, his body shaking with anger. How dare he question Larten's level of respect in front of the other Princes? The deafening silence was broken when Paris once again spoke; there was a hint of sadness in his voice.
"Larten Crepsley, you have broken one our most important laws, for this you will stand trial and the child you have blooded…" He paused and looked down on Crepsley with raised eyebrows.
"Her name is Darrien Shan." Larten said after the wordless question.
"You have blooded a female?" Paris asked, almost in shock.
"Yes." Larten didn't hang his head in shame for he would not change a thing, "Tomorrow will fall on her eighteenth birthday, and she has been my assistant and a half-vampire for close to three years."
"Then it is worse than I thought." Paris cleared his throat. "Larten Crepsley you will stand trial for breaking our laws and the child you have blooded, Darrien Shan, will be brought before the Princes to be questioned. I hope you have amazing luck Larten, because you're going to need it."
With this, Larten's case was dismissed and told that the date of the trial will be decided at a later time; first they needed to discuss the matter of the Vampaneze Lord. After being shown his seat, Larten sat with the Vampire Princes and for many hours he was questioned about what Mr Tiny had said and if there was any reason he might lie.
"What reason does Desmond Tiny have to lie when the truth will hurt us more?" Mika asked at one point.
After five hours of solid discussion and arguments, a break was declared and Larten was told to remain with the Princes; although a very frantic Artem was finally allowed to speak with him.
"Artem, what are you doing here? I thought I asked you to remain with Darrien." Larten asked when the tall Russian came to talk to him.
"You did and I have only left her momentarily with Arra." Artem said.
"Arra? Why is she with Arra? Artem, what's happened?" Larten's heart began beating hard in his chest.
Artem explained about Darrien's battle with Arra in great detail; constantly sharing his feelings at the time and straying from the story. Larten laughed more than once at the amazing story and Darrien's stupid bravery; at on point Artem could barely speak he was laughing so much, telling Crepsley about Darrien swinging around like a monkey.
"I blame Evra, that boy was fascinated with the high wire and acrobatics; I could not count the number of times I had to pull Darrien away from the performance tent to get her to do work." Larten smiled widely.
When it got to the part about Arra's anger and slight over kill with beating Darrien, Larten stopped smiling and began asking a lot of questions.
"Why did so not just knock her off?" Larten stood and paced a few times, "And you say that she has broken bones?"
"Yes, her left arm and I think about three ribs. She knew what she was getting into when she accepted the challenge; I didn't think Arra would be so hard on her, hell I didn't think Darrien would last that long!" Artem tried to explain.
"Is Darrien okay?" Crepsley turned to Artem at looked at him in the eyes, "You said you would protect her, is she okay?"
"When I left her Arra was changing her into some robes; her clothes were in tatters, I had to wrap her in my own robes to stop the men getting a good look at her." Artem said, "She has been unconscious for five hours and coming in and out of consciousness for a further two, but she is a strong fighter, I bet that by tomorrow she will want a rematch."
"She can be quite stubborn as well; you would not believe the fights I had with her about drinking human blood." Larten's smile returned, "So she will be fine?"
"Right as rain by sunset or sun rise; I can never tell in this place." Artem patted his old friend on the shoulder, "I better go back to your sleeping beauty and explain that her prince charming will be with her soon."
"If I ever get out of here, by the looks of things this questioning may go for another day or so, but tell her I will try and see her." Larten managed to keep his voice steady, even if all he wanted to do was to run up to Darrien and never leave.
Artem nodded and left Larten standing alone with a mixture of guilt and worry pushing down on his chest. Before long, the betrothed vampire was called forward again. Question after question was thrown his way, but now Larten could only answer them half heartedly; he was constantly having to ask for a question to be repeated for his mind was else where.
Many hours slowly stumbled by and it was only when Paris had to be shaken awake after falling asleep midsentence that the Vampire Princes called it a night and allowed Larten to leave, get some food and rest. Not having to be told twice, Crepsley was about to start his trek back to his sleeping quarters when a voice called him back. A very tired Paris Skyle hobbled over to the red haired vampire and asked one final question.
"This young girl, I take it from what Artem had said and the way you reacted, is it fair to say that you two are involved?" Paris's friendly smile returned to his wrinkled face.
"Yes Your Majesty, Darrien and I are together." Larten smiled back weakly.
"You might want to mention that to the jury when it comes to your trial."
"Pardon me asking, but why would I mention my personal attachment to Darrien when it does not play a part?" Larten asked.
"Because love conquers all and we are all hopeless romantics at heart." Paris winked and stumbled back over to the other Princes.
Confused, but slightly reassured, Larten Crepsley began to run through the passages that made up Vampire Mountain. He rushed past vampires who merely stood there staring at him with worried looks. Within moments he burst through the door to his sleeping quarters to find it seemingly empty; for a long time Larten just stood in the doorway looking at every corner of the room. He was about to leave and ask Artem which room Darrien was staying in when he hear and cry of pain followed by a rather rude curse word coming from the coffin in the middle of the room.
Quietly closing the door, Larten made his way over to the coffin; he could sense Darrien inside, something he had only just learnt recently that he could do. Leaning over, Mr Crepsley opened the lid to the coffin to find Darrien tossing and turning and trying to get comfortable inside the faintly larger, silk lined coffin. He tapped her on the right shoulder, making sure to avoid her broken bones and laughed as Darrien's eye opened and she jumped up to hug him only to fall back down hissing in pain.
"You will soon become annoyed with broken ribs, they make life difficult." Larten chuckled.
"I'm already annoyed with them." Darrien's nose turned up as she mouthed another curse word.
"Maybe you will think twice before challenging a full grown vampire to a fight in a sport they are the best at, hmm?" Crepsley laughed again when Darrien just poked her tongue out.
Larten removed his cloak and shirt and helped the young female out of the coffin.
"Take off your robes so I can see the damage." Larten instructed.
"Yeah, I bet you're only looking at damage." Darrien teased, but did as she was asked.
With a little help, Darrien removed her robes to reveal nothing underneath and she could see that Larten was surprised. Arra had used a cloth to get rid of most of the dirt, but now the bruises that stained her flesh were more prominent and have had time to come to the surface. Large patches of dark purple, blue and brown covered Darrien entire left side of her rib cage and Larten feared she had broken more than three ribs. There was a distinct line where Arra's staff had connected with Darrien fragile body with swelling and bruising surrounding it. Across he nose was a line where the butt of the staff had broken it and spilt the skin on the bridge of her nose, luckily Artem had corrected it and said it would heal straight.
Darrien's arm was swollen and darkly bruised, but looked like it was a clean break and with the help of her vampire strength and if she continued to drink human blood, she would be completely healed in a week. She was such a strong girl, one with a sparkle in her eyes that distracted Larten from his thoughts. But Larten knew that even though the young girl in front of him wore a smile, inside she was screaming in pain.
Crepsley licked his thumb and ran it across the cut on her nose to heal it, "You are a silly girl going off and doing this." Darrien went to argue, but Larten raised his hand and she fell silent. "It was unnecessary and careless, but I know that you already know that and I do not feel like giving you a lecture at the moment so I think it is time for bed."
Darrien smiled and allowed Larten to help her put back on her robes and get back into the coffin. The older vampire climbed in after her and was careful not to knock her broken bones or bruised skin; so when Darrien was the one to pull him closer, Larten tried not to object. Deep down inside, Larten knew that Darrien was in extreme pain, but he also knew that she would still be in that pain if he wasn't here and it was best that he was here so he was able to watch over her.
"Larten?" Darrien whispered, trying to mask her pain, "I love you."
Without a moments hesitation Larten Crepsley replied, "I love you too."
(A/N)
I know it's a bit short, but you know what that means... the next one will be longer, probably in both ways; length and time it takes for it to be available. These facts are sad, but true, but that doesn't stop you from reviewing and favouriting and all that other nice stuff you can do like sending cookies... Fanfiction should make a cookies option...
