(A/N)

I have decided that I would bring this chapter to you all early, but that does mean that it isn't as long as I was going to make it. I was aiming for the six thousand word mark, but this is good too.

As usual it is aslways fun for you to read AND review so please keep that in mind at the end of the chatper; I don't even care if you reviewed the last chapter.

Enjoy!

I woke with the sense of forgetting something extremely important. Larten was still asleep and hadn't heard me wake up; which I thought was really lucky because I imagine he slept uneasily due to my constant tossing and turning. I looked across at him, his eyes were barely shut and he wore a concerned expression on his face; even while he rested, Larten could be worried about something. Instead of waking Crepsley or getting out of the coffin I tried to figure out what was hiding in my mind.

"Today was important for a reason, but why?" I quietly asked myself, but that slight noise had woken the sleeping vampire next to me.

"Today is important because it is your birthday," Larten's voice was gravely and low, "Happy birthday Darrien."

My eyes went wide and a big cheesy grin spread across my face; ignoring the pain in my entire body I jumped out of the coffin and tumbled across the floor as I slipped. Luckily my bones were already started to heal and it didn't hurt as much as I thought it would, but I still hissed with pain. Quickly standing and racing over to my bag, I began tearing through it and finding some clothes before running out of the room. I could hear Mr Crepsley yelling behind me about wrapping my robe around my body a bit better, but I kept running until I found the room I was searching for.

The waterfall was roaring and I could already tell it was going to be cold just from the temperature of the room and by the cool droplets of water that splashed on my face as I got closer. I dumped my clean clothes in a corner of the room so they wouldn't get wet then quickly removed my robes and practically dove into the freezing cold water. I think if it wasn't for the fact that I was a half-vampire, I would have gone into a state of hypothermia, but I held onto my senses.

Not seeing the point of buying shampoo, Crepsley had only bought soap and that was only after I had told him that as a female I didn't wish to smell like sweaty, stale, old, male vampire for my entire stay. Using the bar of soap that I had brought with me, I washed faster than I ever had in my whole life. My hair felt like straw wrapped in grease, but that changed the second I soaped it up and rinsed it out; clean at last. Without wasting any time I jumped out of the waterfall and dried myself with one of the towels provided; just as I was walking over to my clothes I saw someone enter the room.

Red cloak and orange hair "Must be Crepsley." I thought to myself.

Just as I suspected the vampire who had entered to room was in fact Larten Crepsley, only he looked more like a lost puppy. When he finally spotted me he ran over to me and stared to rant in a rather our of breath voice.

"Darrien Shan, explain yourself!" He started, "I have been up and down nearly every single hall in this ungodly mountain trying to find where you had raced off to!"

I was only gone fifteen minutes, where was the problem? I didn't say anything because I knew he wasn't finished so instead I just continued to get dressed and let him get out whatever it was he thought he had to talk about.

"I did not know where you had gone nor did I know why you decided that it was a good idea to run half naked through a mountain filled with male vampires who could have easily taken advantage of you." That wasn't what I expected and I looked up to see the worry in his eyes, "I thought you were going to leave me." Crepsley hung his head.

I stood, now fully dressed with my Dracula jacket, I wrapped my arms around his neck and let Larten rest his head on my shoulder. We didn't move for a little while; I let him realise that I wasn't going anywhere.

"You're not getting rid of me that easily." I forced Crepsley to look at my eyes, "Hey, guess what?"

"What?"

"It's my birthday!" The smile spread back across my face and I slammed out lips together.

The kiss was passionate and I didn't plan on stopping it anytime soon, but a small and purposeful cough interrupted out moment of happiness. I looked up and peered around Crepsley to see an elderly man smiling deviously; he was dressed in all red like Crepsley and had kind eyes.

"Larten, it is good to see you again." The elderly man said.

Crepsley slowly turned around, "Seba Nile, is that you?" He walked up to the elderly vampire and smiled before giving him a hug.

"It is not like you to show so much emotion," Seba laughed, "You used to give Mika a run for his money with death glares."

"I have changed over the years," Larten continued to smile and any worry he had before now dripped away.

"How about we move into another hall so we do not have to yell at each other over the waterfall?" Seba suggested and I followed the two vampires into another hall.

We ended up going to get something to eat and once we had our food and were settled into our seats, the conversation began again.

"I can see that you have a young girl with you Larten, have the years changed your manners as well?" Seba asked cheekily.

"This is Darrien Shan; I assume that you have already heard about her from the Princes." Larten's head dropped a bit.

"I have always told you not to assume, but yes; you were not the only one they questioned on the matter." Seba began to eat the meaty broth in front of him.

"They questioned you about me, but why?" I asked, although I felt I should have asked permission first from the look Crepsley gave me.

"I take it you know nothing about me young miss," I shook my head, "My name is Seba Nile, I was once Larten Crepsley's mentor."

I giggled and looked at Crepsley who seemed to have started to blush.

"Did you teach him to talk that way? I mean, I noticed you have the same speech pattern." I asked.

"You would be correct, one day Larten asked if I could teach him to speak the same way I do," He leaned in closer and I followed suit, "Every time he said words like 'can't' or 'don't' I would pluck a hair from his nose."

"So that's why you don't like me touching you nose!" I laughed and Seba laughed too.

"It was not a pleasant experience believe me," Larten rubbed his nose, "I am probably traumatised."

"No more than the people who spend large amounts of time with you." Seba laughed, "Speaking of, how are you dealing with this grumpy old vampire? He is not giving you a hard time about anything is he?"

I laughed, "No, he's fine. He can even be nice at times; when he wants to be that is."

We continued to talk for another hour before Seba explained that he had to get back to his job as quartermaster, "I have a young boy that needs training up, we don't want people starving or the rations running out to quick."

With this the vampire left Crepsley and I to our own devices. I finished off my third bowl of broth although Larten was still playing with his first. We didn't talk for a while; I was too distracted with everyone else's conversations. A few vampires to our left were talking about the fight that me and Arra were in; they seemed to be extremely interested in me which made me slightly uncomfortable. A couple a vampires to my right were chatting about their adventures before they came to Vampire Mountain; the larger of the two had lost his hand to a crocodile while in Egypt, but apparently had got his own back.

I imagined that nearly all the vampires here had more than a few war stories up their sleeves and the scars to prove it. There was one scar that interested me quite a bit and it was located on Mr Crepsley's face; I had asked him about it once, but all he said was that he forgot. How do you forget getting a scar that big? I wasn't going to push it, no matter how badly I wanted to know the answer.

Sitting still in my seat soon became impossible and I kept shifting to get a better look at everything. I continued to wear a stupid grin as I played with the drawstrings on my jacket; sometimes I would put the end of one in my mouth before quickly realising that it doesn't taste any better since the last four times I did it. My stomach kept doing small flips every now and then as if it was expecting someone to jump out at me.

"What on Earth is in your pants that are keeping you from sitting still?" Crepsley finally asked after ten minutes of me fidgeting.

"It's my birthday." I said simply, not completely making eye contact.

"Yes, I am aware of this, but I have had many birthdays and I do not remember ever acting like you are now." I could tell he was annoyed at something.

"I know that, but it's my eighteenth birthday and that's important, plus mum said that I could have a…" Suddenly the feeling in my stomach made sense.

I was feeling anticipation because before I was blooded my mum had said that turning eighteen was a big deal and that she was going to throw me a huge party. For a few hours I had completely forgotten that my family and friends thought that I was dead; for a split second I hoped that mum would barge into the hall filled with vampires and announce that it was time to open presents and cut the cake. Almost three years of being a half-vampire and travelling with the Cirque Du Freak melted away and my body acted like they had never happened; I was convinced that dad would walk in and give me a hug followed by a bad joke.

All my movements stopped, my arms dropped to my sides and I stared off into space; I had done this a month after being blooded, but not since. I suddenly felt like a small child who had lost their mum at the shopping centre and was screaming for her at the top of my lungs. In real life I had become oblivious to the world and the only thing that was being processed by my mind was all my childhood memories on repeat.

"Darrien, are you okay?" Crepsley asked as he waved a hand in front of my face.

"She thinks I'm dead," There was a stabbing pain in my chest; "My own mother thinks I'm dead and yet I'm not."

I know Larten had no idea what to say or do; by now Evra would have had the better box out and surrounded me with presents from the Cirque Du Freak members. Unfortunately, Crepsley had learnt to hide his feeling for a long time and so he probably didn't understand what I was going through at the moment. Finally building up enough energy to move, I turned to Crepsley with tears threatening to spill; once I saw that look on his face all my problems melted away. For the time being anyways.

There he sat with his eyebrows knitted together, eyes wide and a slight pout; Larten Crepsley was pulling a puppy dog face and it had worked like a charm. How could I stay upset when his face made me want to burst out with laughter?

"I'll be fine." I said grabbing his face and gently kissing his pouty lips, "I just need some time to think."

As I stood up, I was reminded of all my broken bones and how much they hated me for my earlier circus act; my entire body was racked with pain as I hobbled back to my sleeping quarters. On my way back I got many weird looks, I guess people still hadn't gotten their head around me being here and I wasn't sure I had either. Once I walked through the door the coffin practically begged we to sleep in it and I wasn't going to deny it, I was finally able to rest my head.

I climbed into the coffin and had closed my eyes, but my thoughts kept returning to my family and friends and how I wouldn't be able to ever talk to them again. Pushing the painful memories back into the depths of my subconscious from whence they came, I took a deep breath and calmed myself. Sleep took hold nearly immediately, but apparently the Vampire Gods were still playing with me because I was only asleep for less than an hour before I was interrupted.

"Darrien," Artem came waltzing in to my room, "I forgot to tell you happy birthday."

"Umm, thank you, but how did you know it was my birthday?" I didn't remember telling Artem about my birthday, but I probably mentioned it in passing conversation.

"I heard you tell Larten just before you left," He started to rummage through the pocket in his robe, "Here."

He handed me a small box with a blue ribbon around it; I gave him a sceptical look, but opened it anyways. Inside the small box was a vile of red liquid that I suspected was blood. I picked it up and examined it intensely.

"Umm, thanks, but I'm not thirsty."

Artem laughed deeply, "You don't drink it, well I guess you could, but I don't think that Vlad Drăculea intended it to be drunk, just passed on."

I was in absolute shock, "Are you telling me that this vial contains blood from the Dracula and you're just giving it to me?" My eyes felt like they were going to pop out of my skull.

"Vlad was an old family friend and when he died he was drained of his blood; some of it was bottled to be passed down our family line," He smiled broadly, "That vial is one of the last ones left."

"I couldn't accept this; I'm not even in your family line." I put the vial back in the box and tried to hand it back, but Artem pushed my hand away.

"You may not be apart of my direct family line, but you are now apart of the vampire community," He placed a hand on my shoulder, "You will do great things Miss Shan."

Artem left me with the box in my hand and a dumb look on my face; I couldn't believe what had just happened. Did it really happen? Of course it did, I've got the vial to prove it, but I couldn't help but feel like I was still dreaming. I decided to go and tell Crepsley about Artem's strange gift, but the second I went out the door I was greeted a group of vampire. There were five of them and they all looked about forty, but were probably over a hundred. Each of them introduced themselves and wished me a happy birthday before piling gifts into my arms.

All of the presents looked store bought, but when I asked how they got them or how they knew it was my birthday the vampire with short black hair and was missing an ear stepped forward.

"Larten told us it was your birthday and as for the presents, there are about seven vampires in the mountain called 'messengers' and they're allowed to flit backward and forward to the mountain whenever they need to." He smiled and opened the present he had given me.

I watched closely as he pulled out a pair of earrings, because my hands were full he took out my cheap old earrings and put the new ones in for me. They felt kind of heavy, but only to the extent that I knew they were there, not to the point where I thought my ears were going to drop off.

"They're so beautiful." I said as I smiled at the vampire before me.

"They are partnership earrings, once you find a partner you are meant to give them one of the earrings and as long as you both are wearing them nothing can harm you." He explained.

After juggling the boxes around for a bit I was able to shake each vampires hand as I said thanks for the presents and they said their goodbyes. As I walked along I reached up and played with one of the earrings; they were long with two small feathers on each, a couple of silver beads and what looked like bits of carved bones.

As I continued my search for Mr Crepsley it seemed that every vampire I came across had a gift for me and the ones who didn't still acknowledged that it was my birthday. It was only when one of my gifts was a bear skin bag that I was able to put all the other presents in a safe place instead of trying to balance them in my arms. I was really happy that I was receiving all this attention and all these gifts, but I still felt like there was something wrong with the whole situation.

I had already made four trips back to my sleeping quarters to drop off armfuls of stuff; I have never said think you so many times in my life. Now I finally was able to pick up my pace and I hoped that the only vampire I would run into would have orange hair and wear a red cloak. The dining hall was the last place I had to check, but as I was making my way there I noticed something very odd.

"Where did everybody go?" I said out loud.

A moment ago the walkway was jam packed with vampires wishing me well on my birthday, but now it was deserted; where could they all have gone? Somewhere deep in my gut I knew that things weren't right, that at some point a serial murderer would jump out and hack me to pieces. Instead of worrying too much about the murderer, I pushed forward and quickly came to a halt when I was shouted at.

"Surprise!" There was a mixture of about three hundred voices followed by party poppers and cheering.

"What the f…"

"Darrien; language please." Through the crown came a very familiar face and for the first time in a long time Larten Crepsley was smiling like he had forgotten how to be sad.

I was suddenly surrounded by many vampires who were lifting me above their heads and moving me to a table in the middle of the room. Once I was place back down and put in a chair a cake was placed in front of me and the whole room started to sing happy birthday. There were no candles to blow out so when the song ended there was an awkward silence that fell through the room; I slowly stood and turned to look at Crepsley.

"Did you do all of this?" I didn't show any emotion in my words or with my face.

"I know it is not much, but you seemed so upset about not having a birthday and…"

His words were cut short by my lips crashing into his as the room erupted into cheers of joy and somewhere in the background folk music began to play and everyone started dancing. From the ages eighteen up until over seven hundred; everyone seemed to be having fun and I had Crepsley to thank for it.

After more cake was brought in and a special meal was prepared courtesy of Seba Nile, the dancing became the only thing anyone wanted to do. When I asked why everyone was enjoying my eighteenth birthday so much, Artem explained it was because they saw it as an omen.

"You are the youngest vampire in history and you are female, they take it as a sign of change and things to come; whether the change is good or bad we don't know. All we know is that tonight is about celebration for a very special girl.

Artem's accent and deep voice made everything have a sense of importance to it; I decided that the change was good, mostly because I didn't want anything bad happening to the people who had been so nice to me. As I sat back and slowly ate my cake I was approached by someone I was yet to talk to all night.

"Darrien Shan, happy birthday."

"Thank you Arra," I smiled, "Having fun?"

"I don't do parties, but I was talked into it." She cast her gaze of to Larten momentarily before turning back to me, "You were quite good on the bars yesterday, I bet with a little bit of training you could even become a decent fighter.

"Thank you, it means a lot coming from you; you're such an amazing fighter, better than any male I've seen." Arra's expression didn't change, but I saw a glimmer in her eyes.

"I didn't want to give you anything useless like jewelry, so I decided that these were better." Arra pulled out two short swords that were a bit longer than a dagger from her belt, "They were mine when I was first turned; they were given to me as a present from my mentor and were great as a first weapon."

"I couldn't accept these, they're too important to you." I insisted.

"They will serve you well once you learn how to use them." Arra forced me to stand then took off her belt and wrapped it around me before putting the short swords back into their sheaths.

"Thank you again and I promise to learn how to use them." I said as Arra walked off.

Once again I sat back down to finish my cake and think about all the great things that were happening, but I still couldn't shake the feeling that something wasn't right.

"With all the good you are receiving, there will be great evil that follows." A voice in the back of my mind told me.

I shook it off and stood when I saw Mr Crepsley walk over to me, he gave me a kiss then asked me to follow him.

"I hope that this celebration is sufficient enough for you." Larten asked as we walked to the far end of the room so that we didn't need to yell over the party.

"It's amazing, how did you do it in such a short time?" I questioned.

"As you already know, I am a highly respected vampire and I have never asked for any favors from my fellow vampires," He stopped walking and looked into my eyes, "When I saw the look on your face and heard the sadness your voice, I knew then that I had to do something to cheer you up."

"You did all this for me just because I was sad?" My eyes started to tear.

"I agreed to be your partner Darrien and with that I also agreed to the responsibility that comes with caring for you. You may not have noticed, but I have very strong feelings for you Miss Shan." And there was that smile again, the one that made the world around me disappear.

Smiling back, I took out one of the earrings I had received as a present and gave it to Crepsley. "It's a partnership earring, it was one of my presents and I couldn't wish to give it to a better person."

I watched as he fiddled with the earring for a moment before pulling a funny face then lowering his arms; I noticed his ear was suddenly red and a bit swollen.

"Your ears weren't pierced beforehand, were they?" I asked.

"They were supposed to be?" Larten tilted his head with a confused look on his face.

"I guess not."

(A/N)

As I said before I know that it's not as long as I intended it to be, but I hope I made up with it for writing an awesome chapter anyways! Please write me something, it doesn't even have to be relevant, I just like recieving messages, but it is always nice to get a review ^.^