Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters in this story, except for the OC. The others belong to Darren Shan, the true master of horror.

Chapter 21

After Mitch called me "bait", I bit his hand as hard as I could. He howled and punched me in the face with his free hand. I had to let go because he broke my nose, the pain was unbearable and it was impossible for me to keep my grip on him. I quickly spat out the taste of his weird tasting blood and Mitch quickly kicked me in the stomach, the impact forcing me to double over. His kick had a lot of power behind it and I was surprised by that.

The kick made me lose my breath and by the time I got it back I had already been thrown over someone's shoulder. I struggled for a little bit but my captor was stronger than I thought and he was easily able to keep his balance and handle anything I did. When that failed, and without anyone noticing, I quickly cut my wrist with my nails and I let the blood fall to the ground. I reasoned that if enough blood accumulated I could leave a trail for Vancha and Larten to follow, assuming they were even anywhere close to me, but as soon as we began to move people were stepping in the blood and grinding it further and further into the ground and I could feel my hope fading as each person walked over the blood. I prayed that there was still enough blood on the surface for Vancha to pick up on, otherwise I was in major trouble.

After an hour we came to the remains of a small village and I looked around, wondering why everything looked vaguely familiar. The one thing that stood out was a sad looking little house that looked like it could fall over at any second. I was dumped onto the ground and I managed to somehow get back on my feet before being lead into the house. The inside of the house was nowhere near as bad as the outside made it look. It was actually still very sturdy and there was a fire blazing in the fireplace and because of it, the room was nice and warm.

I continued to look around and, though I couldn't believe that I hadn't realized it until now, I was shocked when I remembered that this was my home, my village. I was so focused on my shock and disbelief that I didn't notice someone walked up behind me until it was too late. The floor behind me creaked and I turned just as someone swung something big and heavy at the side of my head.

The object connected and my head felt like it was going to explode. My vision darkened and I fell to the floor, unconscious before I even made it halfway through my fall and completely register my surprise.

The next time I opened my eyes the sun was rising and it was shining in my eyes. I tried to raise my hand to shield them but I couldn't move, except for my head, and I looked to see that my arms and legs were tied to what I was laying on and I discovered that I was in the shape of a cross. I also discovered that I was in nothing more than my bra and underwear.

I'm a vampire on a crucifix, I thought. How ironic.

I tried to snap the rope that was holding me down, while I could move it a little, I was unable to get free.I couldn't believe how pathetic I was, it was bad enough to be captured by humans but being unable to escape was worse. Everything that I had worked for, to prove I could handle anything the world threw at me was just a sick joke now.

I hated how weak I was, how pathetic I was, and I knew that if I stopped fighting I would not only be letting myself down, but I'd also let Vancha down. I wanted him to see what I was capable of, that was why I had left the mountain in the first place, and I wanted Vancha to be proud of me for once. No matter what happened, I had to keep trying. I spent the next few minutes trying to get free but no matter what I tried I couldn't get lose.

"Look who's finally awake," Mitch said as he entered the room. As soon as I saw him I stopped and glared at him.

"With you being a vampire, I'd have thought being in the sun would've killed you by now."

"Sorry," I said sarcastically. "I can't be killed that easily."

"No matter," he said. "I'll just find some other way to kill you."

Mitch walked towards me and reached out to touch my face and I turned my head away from him as much as I could.

"Would you like some blood?" he asked.

"Sorry but your blood would probably make me sick."

"And why is that?" he asked somewhat curious.

I broke out into a sadistic grin. "Because I can't drink snakes blood," I said.

Mitch's features twisted with hatred.

"You'll regret that," he said.

"Oooh I'm so scared."

"You should be," he said was he walked over to the fireplace.

He beckoned for someone to enter before he disappeared for a second as he bent over to take something out of the fire. When Mitch stood up two people entered the room. One of them crossed the room and stood by Mitch while the other stood by my left hand. I saw that he had a mallet and I wondered what he was doing with it. I looked back at Mitch and saw that he had a pair of tongs in his hands and he was fishing something out of the fire.

When he had grabbed what he was looking for he turned towards me and I saw that at the end of the tongs was a red hot nail. At first I was confused as to why he had that but then it hit me. My heart stopped and I broke out in a sweat as Mitch walked back towards me and I prayed that what I thought was about to happen was wrong. But as usual my prayers went unanswered. Mitch positioned the nail about a centimeter above me left hand, I could feel the heat against my skin, and he nodded at the guy with the mallet. The man raised the mallet and he brought the mallet down as hard and as fast as he could.

Now I've been in some extremely painful situations before but this was the worst. Think of how painful it would be to stick your hand in boiling oil and tar then set the whole thing on fire. Now multiply that pain by twenty, and that still doesn't cover the level of pain I experienced. And because I received the same training as some of the Generals at the mountain I was able to ignore the pain for a brief time, until the nail got hammered again.

I could hear and smell the bubbling flesh of my hand and that was it. I screamed. While I was screaming the second man came over with another nail and proceeded to do the same thing to my right hand. The second nail was even hotter than the first, the nail was almost white, so the pain was more extreme. It was amazing that I was able to stay conscious the whole time. When they were done Mitch leaned over me.

"I told you, you would regret what you said," he whispered.

"And you're going to regret doing this to me," I said softly through my tears. "Vancha's going to kill you for this and so am I."

Mitch's face twisted when I mentioned Vancha.

"Vancha's the whole reason I'm doing this, in case you couldn't tell," he sneered. "He ruined my life and now I'm going to ruin his."

"You're going to have to wait in line," I said. "Someone's already beating you to it."

I never saw Mitch's fist until it connected with the side of my head. I saw stars and I heard one last thing before I plunged into darkness.

"Put her outside in the village center," Mitch said to his two lackeys. "She's going to be the center piece for when Vancha arrives."

The lackeys grinned at each other and grabbed the cross lifting it off the ground before carrying it outside to put it in the center of the village for everyone, both the living and the dead, to see.