A/N: Chapter ten! woop! aha, anyway, please enjoy :) And leave me some reviews? They really help me out :3
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Darren Shan Saga whatsoever.
It wasn't the vampaneze who had made me feel like this, no, but bullies. I was bullied every single day at school when I was a human, making me feel like nothing. No one stood up for me either, not even my best friend. I always wondered why I classed her as my best friend, because she really wasn't up to that much - she was hardly ever there for me when I needed a friend.
So when I joined the vampaneze clan, Trevor noticed this. Being the sweet guy he was, he allowed me to groan and complain about the bullies at my school, and curse to them as much as I wanted. He never seemed to be bothered by any of my complaining, not even when I complained about him some of the time. He learned that the scars on my wrists were going to haunt me for as long as they were there. He told Gannen about it, and yes, my mentor did take it seriously, but those who had found out didn't.
After quite some time, the scars had began to fade, which I was very pleased about. Then something I really didn't expect, happened.
When I was in my room preparing to go to bed, there was a knock on my door. Naturally, I opened it, only expecting it to be Gannen or Trevor, but no; two other vampaneze were standing at my door. They didn't have a good reputation around the clan - they were known for being idiots and others were betting that they would leave the clan and become "mad" vampaneze in a few years. Their names were Klaus and Adron. They both had a devious smirk on their faces, so I didn't allow them into my room. When I tried to ask them what they wanted, they only pushed their way into my room, closing the door behind them.
They pinned me to the floor, and I laid there frozen, thinking they were going to do something else. I was wrong. They both drew knives from their pockets and closed in on me. I tried to scream and wriggle free, but Klaus straddled me before I could escape, placing one hand on my mouth to shut me up. I tried to bite him, but his skin was tough and it didn't bother him. He was the first to hurt me, to bring back the horror of the pain I put myself through when I was human. The physical pain I used to take away the emotional pain I was feeling. They cut my wrists, replacing the scars that had faded off my skin.
Then they left me after that, but luckily enough, Gannen had came in to speak to me not ten minutes after that. He was a very respected vampaneze, so when he found out and demanded banishment on Klaus and Adron, his wishes were granted. Though, it didn't take long before I got my revenge on the two. I tracked them down out in the wild and slaughtered them during their sleep. No one cared that they were dead, in fact, no one found. Up until Steve, I was the only one who knew. Somehow, Steve had found out. How he knew, I needed to find out.
Steve pulled the knife away from my wrist, a dark chuckle coming from the depths of his throat. With a tear rolling down my cheek, I slowly opened my eyes to see the Lord smirking down at me. I swallowed and frowned up at him, meeting the purple eyes of a monster. I often wondered if I was a monster - I kill to survive, I've killed for my own inner peace. Was I a monster like the boy standing in front of me?
With a smirk on his face, he leaned down so that he was eye level with me, but he kept my hands pinned against the wall. He pressed his lips firmly to mine and demanded a kiss from me, which I didn't respond to. When he didn't get a reply, he bit at my lower lip, hard enough to draw blood. I winced slightly and tried to move my head away from him, but he removed one of his hands from keeping my arms up and grabbed my chin, twisting my head so that I was facing him.
"You will look at me, Jones." Steve growled and pulled both of his hands away to punch me in the stomach. I keeled over at the harsh contacted and let out a muffled scream as he once again pressed his lips to mine. My wrists were to sore to allow me to try and attack him back, so I lifted my knee quickly to hit him in his manly pride. He growled and stepped back, looking up at me with his evil, purple eyes. Then I ran at him, knocking him to the ground with my shoulder. I stumbled and almost fell to the ground with him, but I managed to keep myself on my feet.
Seeing my chance to escape, I made my way to the door and pulled it open, causing pain to flood through my tender wrists. A groan escaped my lips, followed by a tear from the corner of my eye. I allowed the tear to roll down my cheek because I didn't have time to wipe it away - I needed to get out as soon as I could. Where I was going to go didn't matter, just as long as I was out of the reach of Steve.
To avoid any stares and questions from the vampaneze around the headquarters, I pushed myself to flit away and rush outside with all of my speed. Blood continued to drip from my wrists, so the drops would have given away a trail, leading anyone who was to follow it to me. To prevent this, I pressed my wrists against the fabric of my shirt - my pyjama shirt. It hurt my wrists at the start, but eventually I got used to the pain. I didn't even think of a place to run to, I just let my feet carry me to anywhere.
Eventually, after a while of running, I stopped and collapsed down onto my knees. I had lost a bit of blood from what had happened, and it had been a while since I had fed - I was weak. My eyes fluttered closed and I soon found myself lying on the ground, the blood seeping into the small blades of grass. The emerald green soon changed into fierce red, which soon came into contact with my hair and other parts of my skin.
I didn't know how long I was lying there for, but it felt like forever. My breathing had slowed down as sleep began to take over, and I knew it would be best to try and collect some sleep (I didn't want to be even weaker) but somehow, I couldn't bring myself to drift off. Instead, I remained between consciousness and sleep. The sounds of the quiet forest zoned out as echoes of my screams filled my ears, reminding me of each dreaded moment the blade of the knife touched my skin. I began shaking at the memories and fears as I continued to lay on the cold, bloody grass.
Crunching and the snapping of twigs didn't alarm me enough to get me moving, so I remained lying where I was, prepared for whatever was heading my way to destroy me if that were it's purpose. If it was human, I would have used my remaining energy to jump out and drain it of its blood. But when I heard my name spoke in a familiar voice, I knew that I shouldn't be alarmed.
Warm arms wrapped themselves around my body and scooped me up from the ground, cradling me close to the body. I didn't bother to move, but I gave a small huff to allow the person to know that I was alive. They gave a small sigh of relief and started to carry me away from the area. In the comfort of these warm arms, I drifted off into a light sleep, relaxing into the person carrying me.
With a small groan, I sat up from where I was lying, my eyes opening slowly, sleep trying to keep them closed. Slowly and carefully, I moved my hand and brushed it away with the back of my hand. My arm flopped back onto the bed which I was on, a sudden rush of pain reminding me of the previous night's events.
I looked around the room with narrow eyes, trying to figure out where I was; it seemed like I was in a tent. The sunlight was shining through a crack in the flaps, telling me that it was day. Looking around the place, I saw another bed beside the one I was lying in and there was someone sleeping in it. I decided not to go and wake the person, but as I felt something slither up my leg, a loud gasp that came from my mouth woke up the sleeping boy.
His first words were all jumbled as he had just awoken, but when he saw me sitting on the bed, he raised a brow. He was starting to ask me some questions, but I didn't listen to what he was saying - I was too busy concentrating on the snake that was crawling up my leg. When he saw what was going on, he jumped up out of his bed and took the snake into his arms, whispering something to it, but I didn't catch what he was saying; I wasn't paying attention. I was too busy wondering how on earth I was in the same tent as Evra Von. Was he the person who had picked me up the previous night? I guessed not, as he wouldn't have been surprised when he found me in his tent.
Before I got a chance to even ask any questions, Darren walked through the flaps of the tent with a smile on his face. A smile threatened to creep onto my lips as I stood up from the bed, but a sudden shoot of pain from my wrists blocked it. I closed my eyes just for a moment and gave a soft whimper, but nothing else. That was all Darren needed to see that I wasn't alright, as he came to my aid straight away.
"Are you alright?" He asked with a concerned tone, gently taking my arm into his hand. I wanted to give him a nod and say that everything was fine, but of course it wasn't. I knew that I didn't have to lie to Darren, he was a nice boy and would probably find a way to clean up the scars, but something told me that it would be a bad idea telling him what happened. After all, he was Steve's ex-best friend and now that they were on different sides, that wouldn't help. They hated each other, from what I'd heard when they last collided.
Though I couldn't lie to him and pretend that nothing happened, he could clearly the see the scars and my wrist, and there was a frown on his face which told me he knew something was wrong. I didn't say anything, I only looked up at him, meeting his eyes as I done so. We shared a glance, as if I was silently telling him what had happened. In all of the silence, there was a quiet whistle which came from the snake-boy, soon followed by the footsteps of him leaving. Though Darren and I never looked away from each other. Even though he didn't know what had exactly happened, he had worked out that it was Steve's doing.
"You can't go back there," he sighed, lightly dropping my arm back to my side, "He could hurt you again. I know Steve, and he won't stop until he's fully satisfied."
"I need to, though, my mentor will go insane if I don't return for my duties." I sighed, sitting back down on the bed, Darren soon joining me. He wrapped an arm around my shoulders and pulled me close to him. I didn't pull away and rested my head on his shoulder, inhaling deeply.
"Does he know that this has happened?" His voice was quiet as he spoke to me, and quite relaxing as well. I only shook my head as an answer. "Then you should tell him." He said in reply.
"I don't see what good that will do. Steve's at a higher power than he is." I sighed and swallowed back tears that I felt forming. My head was slowly lifted from Darren's shoulder by his hand that cupped my chin, my purple eyes meeting his brown ones.
"Then stay with me."
Before I could even argue against it, he leaned in closely and softly pressed his lips against mine.
A/N: Thank you for reading! Please review, they really do help me out ^o^