Disclaimer: I do not own any of the character is this story, except for the OCs, the others belong to Darren Shan, the true master of horror.

Chapter 26

"Destiny has always had things in mind for your mother," Evanna started by saying.

Amber was sitting on the floor and Larten was sitting in what was starting to become his normal spot on the couch. Both of them were listening intently to what Evanna had to say and while he would never admit it, Larten was about as curious as Amber was about the things that had happened. Evanna continued as she looked at Amber.

"You were told at some point that Vancha hadn't been born in the same village as your mother, didn't you?" Amber nodded. "Vancha's parents had been killed when he was a baby and I took care of him for a while before finding him a home in your mother's village. Even at a young age Vancha and your mother were close. Vancha has always been wild but he was even wilder when he was younger. He constantly getting into trouble, but he was cleaver enough to figure his way out of any mess he got himself into, that was one of the things that drew your mother to him."

"And who was she?" Amber asked. "Who was my mother?"

Larten glanced at her and saw that she was hugging one of the pillows from the couch. He hadn't seen her this insecure since he had first met her and he tried to imagine what she was feeling right now. Larten himself knew the dangers of looking back on the past, he had a troubled and dangerous past himself, but he couldn't even begin to try to understand how she felt or what was going through her head. All he knew was that she was tired and that fact alone was taking its toll on her.

"Your mother had a twin sister," Evanna explained, though she ignored the 'no duh' look Amber was giving her. "And both of them had feelings for Vancha, and even though Kayla loved Vancha more, he asked Carolynn to marry him. Kayla was beside herself with jealousy. She felt that she had been betrayed by both of them. She felt that her sister had stolen her rightful place and she set out to ruin her sister's life.

"Kayla knew that Mitch had wanted to marry Carolynn, and she used that knowledge to her advantage. Kayla set things up so that way Mitch knew when Carolynn was alone and he could make his move to kill her. The plan would've worked if I hadn't stepped in when I did. It was one of the few times I could have an active role in someone's destiny, and I prevented Mitch from killing her.

"I transported him to a different point in time, to a place I thought he couldn't do any harm, but apparently I was mistaken. I took Carolynn with me and I brought her to a safe place between times, a place where time flowed slowly, so she could have her baby, have you, in relative safety and at that point, Kayla went into hiding."

"Well, it obviously wasn't safe," Amber said with a complete lack of emotion. "I was taken from Carolynn after all."

Larten looked at her with an eyebrow raised but she ignored him and kept looking at Evanna, waiting for her to say something. Larten had been watching Amber for some time now, trying to judge her reaction to what she was being told, but the more she was told the less any kind of expression surfaced, she didn't even show any kind of body language.

"Besides," Amber continued in the same flat tone. "If this really was so traumatic for them, why didn't Vancha even try to find out what happened to Carolynn? Did he even care?"

Larten looked back at Evanna, as he too, waited for an answer. Evanna was silent for a while, like she was deciding how much to tell.

"Vancha did care," she said slowly. "He searched for Carolynn, for both of them, for a while, but his attention was forced to focus in a different direction before too long. I believe you know the cause of this Amber."

"Yeah I know," Amber snapped. "But if he really cared, not even that would've stopped him. He turned his back on us. He should've been more eager to find answers now that he had more time."

Larten was confused as to what they were talking about, but he decided it was safer not to ask. The last thing he wanted right now was Amber turning her rage against him. Evanna regarded Amber with a calm expression but that only seemed to make her angrier.

"What about Kayla then?" Amber demanded. "If you and Carolynn were in such a safe place, how did she find you?"

"I'm afraid I can't tell you that."

"And why the hell not?!" Amber demanded leaping to her feet.

Evanna just shook her head and Amber looked like she was going to attack her. Larten got ready to step in to prevent that from happening but instead of attacking, Amber just stormed out of the tent. Larten sat there slightly confused and he moved to get up.

"Leave her alone Larten," Evanna said. Larten looked at her. "She needs time to be by herself and think about everything she's been told."

Larten wanted to ask if all of that was really true, it was hard to believe that Vancha would turn his back on something like that. The Vancha he knew would always dedicate himself completely to whatever he was doing, regardless of what was happening around him. The only thing that stopped Larten from asking was that he knew that Evanna only spoke the truth whenever she talked.

Instead, he decided to ask, "Are you sure it is wise to leave her be? Even if we are currently out of danger for the time being, trouble always has a way of finding her."

Evanna nodded. "She needs to carefully go over all the things that have happened to her lately. She needs to decide how she's going to proceed from here, how to come to terms with the past and the decisions she's made."

Larten nodded. He had gone through the same thing at one point. It was a necessary evil that almost every vampire had to go through at one point or another in their lives, some more than others. It helped them get a better understanding of themselves and their choices. It was a path that can only be walked alone, no matter how much one just wants someone to tell them what the next step was. Something else became clear to him.

"The first time I met you, you started to tell Vancha that he should never have turned his back on something. Was this what you were talking about?"

Evanna nodded silently. "That was one of the biggest regrets in his life. Vancha blamed himself for not being able to do anything for Carolynn sooner and for not knowing about Amber. He felt that if he had known, he would've tried harder to find them."

They both sat in silence for a long time and it started to get light before Evanna spoke again.

"I will leave you to get some sleep, I have things to do today but before I go I will tell you this," she said. He looked at her and waited for her to continue. "You're going to need to keep a close watch on her for a while. Amber will do things you would never expect out of her."

Larten didn't understand what she meant by that and he tried to get her to reveille more but she would say nothing else about the matter and soon she was gone, leaving him with the only option of getting some sleep.

In the weeks that followed, Amber was talking less and less. She no longer looked at Larten when he talked and when he asked her a question all she did was shrug in response. They had left Evanna not to long after Amber had returned two nights later, not even saying where she'd been, but she was already starting to withdraw into herself. Amber, when she'd returned, looked like she was trying to make sense of something and while he wanted to ask what it was about, Larten knew that if it was important, Amber would ask in her own time. Larten just had to wait until she was ready to talk.

When they had left, Evanna again told Larten to keep a close watch on Amber and as the two of them walked down the small deserted road, he couldn't help but wonder what he was supposed to be watching for and why Evanna had told him, not once but twice, to keep an eye on her. Larten had glanced at Amber but she was too lost in her thoughts to even notice that he was watching her.

They reached a small town to rest in for the day. They stopped at the small inn, it was more like a small hole in the wall, and it didn't have many comforts or an inviting atmosphere. They got two rooms that were connected by paper thin dividing walls that didn't block out any sound.

Somehow able to block out the noises from the two humans in the room next to him, which was a miracle given the amount of noise the two of them were creating, Larten fell asleep only to be waken around mid-day by Amber as she paced around her room for about ten minutes before her door opened and she crept down the hall. Larten wondered where she was going, seeing as she was now more or less under his care, but when she returned that night she offered no information as to where she had been.

For the next few weeks, Amber settled into the pattern of sleeping for a few hours before pacing around and then leaving wherever they were staying and returning at night without a word. Larten also noticed that she had taken to walking ahead of him and, though it seemed like she was just going to random places, she seemed to be looking for something. Larten tried to get her to talk to him, but she would either look blankly at him or she would just flat out ignore him entirely. After a while he just gave up. If she wanted to talk, he decided, she would do it in her own time. He just had to be patient and wait for her to open up.

One night, as they walked down a large busy road, Larten decided he was going to follow Amber to discover what she did when he slept. Lately she had been returning to her room before he had a chance to see her and thought she tried to hide it, she smelled like blood and lots of it. At first Larten had thought it was because she was feeding, but he soon discovered that this wasn't the case. Amber was starting to get really pale and she was starting to lose her strength and stamina. She was avoiding feeding and it was time he found out why.

When they stopped for the day, Larten went to sleep as soon as he could and when Amber woke up about two and a half hours later, he waited until she had left her room and started to walk down the hall before he got up and followed. Larten moved silently so as to not give himself away, an easy feat for him because of his training as a General. Larten had momentarily worried about having to be in the sun for a long period of time, but his mind was soon put to rest as he saw Amber walk down a dark ally. Amber stuck to empty allies. Larten stayed as close to the sides of the buildings as he could, trying his best to ignore how bright and painful it was, but he forced himself to endure it as he trailed behind Amber.

After a while, Amber led Larten deeper into town. The buildings around them started to wither and decay until all that was left were the shells of what the buildings had once been. The windows were dusty and dirty while others were cracked and broken and others yet were missing sections of the structures themselves. It was amazing that many of these buildings were still standing on their own and while many had signs that forbade entry, there were some that were inhabited by the humans that were unwanted by society. The poor and the deformed mostly resided here, but there were also drug users and dealers as well as some thieves and wanted men and women from everywhere and from all levels of society, all banding together to survive.

Amber ignored them as she walked through the streets and continued on for another block and a half. Larten stayed in the shadows as she examined a building before walking through the once boarded up door. Larten waited a few moments before he entered the building as well. The interior was as bad as he exterior, if not worse. There were holes everywhere making walking hazardous, there were support beams everywhere, and there was even shattered glass from windows and bottles. Larten carefully stepped over a large pool of water that dripped from the many holes in the ceiling and skirted around some of the beams before he became aware of the fact that he had lost sight of Amber. Before he could curse himself for such a careless mistake, he heard the rise and fall of voices nearby. Moving carefully along a wall, Larten got as close to the voices as he could.

Judging by the sounds of movement in the room, there were four people plus Amber and they were trying to talk each other into doing something. After a few moments of arguing with each other, though Amber stayed quiet the whole time, a girl spoke up: "Fine then. I guess I'll start seeing as the rest of you are too afraid too. Who has the knife?"

There was some slight movement, like someone leaning forward and Larten looked around the corner to see what was happening but there was a boy blocking his view. He did however catch the reflection of the knife the girl was holding and soon there was a slight scent of blood in the air.

"That's better," the girl sighed contently. "Alright, who's next?" No one answered. "Come on you cowards. We all agreed to do this. Now, who's next?"

"What about the new girl?" asked the boy in front of Larten. "She still has to do it to prove that she's really one of us."

"Butt out," Amber said in a dark voice. "Every time you even look at the knife you get all pale and sweaty. You have no right to judge me Keith."

"Shut up!" the boy, Keith, snapped.

"Are you afraid of the knife," she taunted. "Or are you afraid of the blood?"

"I said shut up!"

Larten tried again to see around the corner, and this time he was successful. Keith had taken a step towards Amber, who was standing near a window, and he could see the grin on her face from where he stood.

"Go ahead," she continued to taunt. "Hit me. Just remember that it'll be the last thing you ever do."

"I'm not afraid of you," Keith said.

"Sure you're not," she agreed. "But then why did you stop? Why are you trembling? Pale? Sweaty? Why aren't you looking me in the face anymore?"

Keith didn't answer, he was paralyzed with fear and he couldn't move even if he wanted to.

Larten couldn't understand why Amber was acting like this, this wasn't her at all. Amber never liked to be around people she didn't know, either human or vampire, but even when she had to be, she was never like this.

Amber stood in the light of the window grinning like a psychopath. The way the light fell on her, half of her face was covered in shadows and Larten could almost feel how the atmosphere had changed around her.

"What do you want?" a boy asked.

"Information," Amber said plainly, not taking her eyes off Keith. "You give me the information that I want and in return you get to keep your puny miserable lives."

"Why should we tell you?" a different boy asked. "What's the worst you can do to any of us?"

Amber looked at him and tilted her head slightly. "You really don't want to know the answer to that," she said.

"I doubt that," the girl said as she and the two boys circled Amber. "In case you haven't noticed, you're clearly out numbered."

"Yet you're the ones who are clearly out matched."

To the humans, it seemed like Amber had just turned around, but Larten saw it all. Amber lunged at them with all of her speed and, using just her nails, she killed all three of them in a second and Keith was the only one still standing. He looked at the bodies of those around him, at his so called friends, and at the blood that was starting to pool around them before he raised his tear filled eyes back up.

Amber turned back and looked at him with a blank expression on her face before she started walked towards Keith. Keith tried to take a step backwards but his legs could no longer support him and he fell to his knees. Amber stopped in front of him and picked him up by the front of his shirt.

"Start talking," she said. "Or you'll be next."

"I-I-I d-don't kn-know what y-you wa-want." The boy was completely terrified of the girl, of the monster, that had a hold of him and he desperately looked around for help.

Larten couldn't believe what he had seen. Amber killed those humans for no reason, at least not one that he could see. He had never seen this side of her before. So devoid of emotion, of anything, and he didn't know what to do. If he just ran out there, Amber would more than likely kill him on the spot, but if she continued, word would reach Vampire Mountain. It would reach the princes and they would send someone to pass judgment on her and most likely kill her.

Since she was more or less his responsibility right now, his good standing would be destroyed and everything he had worked for and accomplished would be ripped away from him. He would be cast out in shame, forbidden to ever step foot in the mountain ever again. Larten shook his head. He couldn't think of himself right now. He had to stop Amber no matter what happened.