A/N: So here's your next chapter. I'm going to have an appearance in this chapter from Slytherin Queen 1.0's character Esther Hill. Also, to be joining MissXMagic's character Cassie in the story, will be Kayden, the lovely OC of RoxyPony. So here goes nothing! The update is TWO DAYS before it was planned to be, thank you new ADHD medicine.

A thank you to my beautiful reviewers! Make sure to review, I know you're reading, so let's get to it!

Amela333: Thank you for reading! You're all caught up, but you didn't have to wait too long for an update!

Darren-Shan-Fan-012345678910: Thank you!

RoxyPony: I just adore you're lengthy reviews. You're the greatest sister!

Equify: Thank you for reviewing! That's what I was getting at, trying to get people love their love. They're just too perfect together! You will see soon enough!

Blu-3y3s: Welcome back! You WERE missed!

And a shout-out to people who reviewed Chapter 19 even if they didn't review the last one ;)

ellieranesburg66, Darcy Chambers, and Ferretgirlsz.

And of course, the always awesome MissXMagic!

Disclaimer: So here we go for the... twenty-first time. I only own Ronnie, that's all.

Listening To: "Please Don't Go" Mike Posner and "Shades" Lil Wayne

"Why is it that I always see you two like this? Don't you ever just talk?" Gavner grinned, his hands on his hips. Darren's face flushed, and I doing the opposite, let out a nervous chuckle. It wasn't the best characteristic to have, bursting into giggles in an awkward, nervous or scary situation. But it was how I worked. Darren and I exchanged glances and got to our feet.

"No time so slow down, we're on the home stretch!" Gavner continued with childish excitement. Over the final course of the journey, information about Harkat's message leaked to the surface, mostly from Gavner. The Vampaneze Lord was going to rise and lead them into a war with the vampires. Our only hope? The stone of blood. As we were heading up the trail, Larten spotted a figure on the side of the trail, her black shaggy hair was on her shoulders, and she seemed to be sitting there taking a break. She leaned forward, yawning and taking a cat like stretch, her ears and tail turning towards the floor? I looked to the side, puzzled. Darren leaned close and leaned in my ear,
"What's next, a monkey girl?" he chuckled as we walked over to the figure. To our surprise Mr. Crepsley leaned over cautiously.
"Esther?" he questioned, the girl looking causally over and then taking a double take.
"Larten!" she squealed, jumping onto the vampire and wrapping her legs around his waist. I leaned over to Gavner, whose eyes were wide along with his mouth.

"I thought only vampires could go up to the mountain, I never thought there were... cat vampires? I thought cats hated us?" I said in a hushed tone, Gavner only shook his head and shrugged, still shocked at the affection shown for Mr. Crepsley.

She retreated from her grip, and stood towards us, tail swishing back and forth like a pendulum, her ears twitching slightly every time a gust of wind would come by. She grinned and held out a hand, which surprised me, imagining it would be a paw, or something.
"Hi, I'm Esther Hill." I took her hand into mine and gave it a firm shake.

"Ronnie Dexter." I answered, and then leaned over, sliding my arm around Darren's waist, "And this is Darren Shan." Darren gave his signature boyish grin and a nod.

"Excuse me if I come off as rude, but what're you doing here?" Mr. Crepsley said, fixing his cloak.

"Oh, well there's been some weird stuff going on around here, and normally, they wouldn't allow a non-vampire as you would know." she said, leaning up against the bark of a tree, "but I'm basically here to watch the trails for a little, to make sure nothing... fishy is going on." she finished, chuckling at the remark she had just made.
"Fishy, cats like fish. I get it." I whispered to Darren who only rolled his eyes, "You can be such a dork, you know that right?" Turning my attention back to Esther, she continued.

"Even though the Cirque may be neutral, I'm not. I'm all for the vampires, so I'm going to help anyway I can."

"Very well, I would love to catch up Esther, really..." Mr. Crepsley said, putting on a sly grin. Yuck. I thought, shivering at the fact that my mentor was trying to put some moves on or something. "But we'd have to be on our way." After saying our goodbyes, we were on our way.

Finally, after seeming like endless weeks, we had made it to the mountain.

"So, where's the palace?" Darren asked with a response of Gavner and Mr. Crepsley bursting into side splitting laughter.

"That's a good one, Darren!" Gavner choked, but by the solid expression on Darren's face, they realized it wasn't a joke.

"No, seriously," I began, annoyed at the fact that our confusion was seemingly a joke, "Where is it?"

"Do you really think we would be in seclusion if we built a palace on the side of a mountain?" Mr. Crepsley answered, returning to his regular state after letting out one or two more stray chuckles.

"Oh!" I said snapping my fingers, "it's inside the mountain!" Mr. Crepsley simply nodded. After going through a wrong route, we were finally led to the dimly lit entrance to the mountain. A large vampire stood at the gate, his face overshadowed by a large hood. His knuckled whitened as his grip on his spear tighened.

"I Larten Crepsley, come to seek council."

"I Gavner Purl, come to seek council."

"I Darren Shan, come to seek council."

"I... Harkat Mulds... come... seek council."

"I Ron-" Mr. Crepsley cleared his throat, jabbing me lightly in the ribs. I let out a huff of air, pushing my blade-trimmed bangs out of my eyes.

"I Veronica Dexter, come to seek council." I finished, the guard spoke, his voice booming through the halls.

"Larten Crepsley, and Gavner Purl are recognized by the gate, but these three," he said, pointing his spear at us, "are not, do you vouch for them?"

"I do." Mr. Crepsley answered.

"Very well then, Veronica Dexter and Darren Shan are recognized by the gate, but what is this ugly little thing?" He said leaning forward to inspect Harkat.

"A little person." Mr. Crepsley answered, laughter shook the hall.

"A little person? What would a little person be doing at the Mountain?" the guard snorted.

"He has a message from Mr. Tiny." Mr. Crepsley answered smugly.

"Very well then, Harkat Mulds is recognized by the gate."

We entered the hall, the various places packed with vampires. Darren and I kept receiving strange looks, it was an oddity to be a child in the mountain. Many vampires looked me up and down, another oddity that a female was arriving. Darren reached for my hand, and I smiled, trying not to laugh. I kind of liked when he got jealous. We arrived at the Hall of Osca Velm, many of the halls were named after famous vampires. We finally sat down in the smoky hall. There were handwoven baskets full of shoes on the wall, that I would be visiting soon. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a vampire climb up and write our names on a list of who was attending council. As we sat, another vampire came around offering us a barrel of bread and an assortment of raw and cooked meat, which we eagerly accepted, then the vampire then returned with jugs filled with human blood, wine and water. It was difficult, because you had to drink right from the jug. I had some difficulty, spilling and drowning myself the first times I tried, but it was a little more entertaining than drinking out of a cup. The vampire finally returned with a deep, hot broth. I ripped off a piece of bread, dipping it I the broth.

"This is great." Darren mumbled through a full mouth, already on a third piece of bread.

"The best," Gavner agreed. I looked over at Mr. Crepsley who was picking at a piece of bread,
"Why aren't you having some?" I asked, still eating.
"Bat broth does not agree with me." He answered, I looked into my bowl and saw a small wing sticking out of it, I shrugged and continued to eat but Darren's eyes widened, his hand freezing on the way to his mouth.

"Bat broth?" he yelped.

"Of course, don't be silly, you loved it when you didn't know what it was!" Gavner chortled. Darren just pushed the bowl away, looking at me and shrugging. If it was good, I didn't care, I'd eat it. Another vampire came up, all decked out in red, just like Mr. Crepsley.

"What took you so long?" he said sharply.
"SEBA!" Mr. Crepsley boomed, I widened my eyes, not used to seeing all these sides of Mr. Crepsley. He grinned from ear to ear, introducing us to the vampire. "This is my mentor, Seba. These are my assistants, Ronnie and Darren." he said, showing us off with a wave of his hand.

"Nice to meet you. You Larten, with assistants? And so very young... the princes are not going to approve." he trailed off, before snapping back, "I'm the quarter master here, I make sure everything runs smoothly, even when some abominations walk through those doors, I try my best to suit their needs." Seba joked.

"Darren, show him Octa." Mr. Crepsley demanded, his smile still plastered on his face. Darren reached over and pulled out the huge spider. Seba leaned forward, fascinated with the creature. He took the spider out of the cage, reassuring us that there wasn't a spider that he couldn't charm.
"What a beauty." He cooed, the arachnid moving it's way up his arm.

"I would like you to have him." Mr. Crepsley said, his eyebrows raising.

"I'm flattered Larten, but I have too much business to attend too up here, you enjoy her, Young Shan. She is quite a gem." he said, Mr. Crepsley mumbled something inaudible and Darren tried his best to smile, even though he hated Octa.

"Now, let me show you to where you'll be staying. But stay close, these tunnels can be like a maze." he said showing us to rooms.

"Where are all the girls?" I asked, curious why I seemed to be the only one.

"Women are not usually fit to be vampires, and once they find out they are sterile they normally refuse the offer." Gavner answered.
"Like, can't have children?" I choked out, I never thought of having children, but I thought one day that I would. And now that I knew I couldn't a little bit of sadness settled in my stomach. But I found no use stressing over what was already done, so I quickly pushed it away. Even though the subtle sickness was still in my stomach.
"You didn't tell them?" Seba said to Mr. Crepsley, who shook his head, bitting at the inside of his cheek. The subject was pushed away when we arrived at a long row of halls.

"Would you like separate rooms?" Seba asked.

"You two will be sleeping seperate!" Mr. Crepsley said, pointing at me and Darren, I rolled my eyes when Gavner agreed.

"Ok Dad." I chuckled.

I had finally been at rest in my room, laying in the coffin. I had asked Seba for a bed, since I liked to stretch out when I slept and the coffin kept me in too tight of boundaries, but he had said he would get it for me tomorrow. I groaned when I realized I had to go to the bathroom, peeking out of my door I tried to locate the bathroom, after a couple of minutes of wandering around, I realized I was lost.

"Are you lost?" a feminine voice said from behind. I turned around to be face to face with another girl, finally. She was about the same size as me, her long strawberry blonde hair flowing down and resting on her shoulders. Her stormy blue eyes were framed with thick, dark eyelashes. I continued to look as I saw a long sword hanging off of her belt, slightly hidden under her raspberry colored cloak. I smiled when I saw a hot-pink hair-tie on her wrist.

"Uhm, well, yeah." I admitted, slightly embarassed. "I just need to go to the bathroom."
"These tunnels are confusing, but you shouldn't be wandering around without any idea where you are. I haven't seen you, so you're probably new. So that was a pretty stupid idea." She snorted, walking away as she talked as a signal for me to follow her. I followed and use the water closet, afraid of the fact that I might fall in. When I excited, she was still leaning against a wall.

"I'm Kayden, I guess me and Arra aren't the only fems here anymore." She said with a smirk.

"Ronnie Dexter." I answered.

"Welcome to the Mountain," she said leading me back to my room, "I have a feeling that we might get along."

"I don't see why not. Just don't get me mad, I can be kind of a bitch. I don't really like annoying people either, so I hope there are none of them here." I said honestly. Kayden looked surprised, and then smiled.

"Oh yeah, we're definitely going to get along." She said, high-fiving me. I laughed, I was happy to have a friend here so quickly, after not having Cassie.

"But get some sleep, I'll meet with you in the morning. I'll give you a real tour, not the boring, droning never-ending one Seba gives, where he points out pointless things like legendary cracks in the walls!" she joked, giving me a wave and making her way to wherever she was coming from.

Cassie shivered, something wasn't right. She looked over at Evra who was also on edge. She looked down at her hands, which were shaking unreasonably.
"Something isn't right, at all." Evra said, trying not to alarm Cassie but she didn't take to it too well.

"I don't know why I'm reacting like this- to something that hasn't even happened." She said shaking her head side to side.

"Well, we need to go check it out, of course." Evra smirked determinedly, leading her out of the tent. The snuck out of the Cirque, trying not to wake anyone up. Cassie stopped when she heard a crunch under her foot. She looked down to see a dark, red stained liquid over the white of bone.

"Oh my god." She breathed, turning to see the dispersed bodies that lay over the field, dead.

"What the hell?" Evra said, pulling Cassie close to him who started to breathe in and out sharply, pulling her head to his chest.

"Help... anyone?" A voice cried out from the massacre. Cassie pulled away and Evra followed, searching for the voice.

"Oh dear god, please help me." it pleaded, Cassie finally found the source of the voice.
"Don't worry, we're here. We'll help you and get you to somewhere safe, what happened?" she said looking over the girl, her auburn hair was hard- dried with blood in patches. Deep wounds showing from the rips in her clothes.

"Vampaneze." she answered before letting her eyes close, fluttering soflty. Knowing that she was safe. Cassie looked desperately at Evra, anger in the pit of her heart.

"Let's get her back to the Cirque," she said trying to pick her up. She looked at Evra who was just standing there, "A little help here?"

"Oh yeah, sorry." he answered helping Cassie lift the girl and struggle to get her to the Cirque without hurting her.

"Hey, what do you think you're doing? Thats my dinner!"