A/N: I cant believe I found the time to write this. I've been so busy it's not funny. I still have another week of band camp but I'm slightly addicted to writing this so I'll probably have another chapter out the end of this week.

Thank you so much for the reviews. I cant believe we're almost to 100. you guys rock.

Disclaimer: Me no own.

Kurda blinked. He opened his mouth to say something but then closed it. The blonde sighed, shook his head, and then asked, "Are you serious?"

Gavner nodded. "A mad vampaneze killed her family and blooded her. For some reason she got left in the house and Larten found her. He took care of her for a while and now she's my assistant," Gavner did a quick rundown on my life.

"You're insane!" The blonde vampire exclaimed.

Gavner shrugged. "I need your help. I have things that need to be done and you have time off. Just watch her and make sure nothing bad happens to her."

"Why on earth are you asking me to help?! I don't want to get in trouble if people find out."

"Kurda, you're trying to make peace between the clans, right? Well if you get people to trust her then maybe it might help make peace. I don't know, Kurda, but I know I can trust you."

Kurda closed his eyes and sighed. "You own me big time, Gavner," Kurda said finally.

Gavner smiled widely and patted the other vampire on the back. "I knew I could count on you."

Nothing much happened the rest of the day. I got to know Kurda and despite his hesitance to take care of me at the start he became a great friend quite quickly. He had a large heart and a good sense of humor much like my mentor. I could easily see how they were friends.

I found out that Kurda barely made it in as a prince. Fifty four present voted for him. It was the closest election ever. Kurda was a pacifist like I was apparently. (I asked Gavner about that. The brown haired vampire said it was so that I didn't have to fight and risk spilling blood.) He believed that it was time for the vampires and vampaneze to reunite and become one clan again. The pacifist vampire believed that war was coming if something wasn't done.

The next day Kurda promised to take Darren and me on a tour of Vampire Mountain. We went around to the kitchens, breeding hall, cremation hall, death hall, and The Hall of Sport.

The hall of death gave a very creepy feel. It had a large hole in the ground with stakes at the bottom. Kurda explain that when a vampire is brought here to be killed he is put in a cage and dropped on the stakes until dead. The vampire wasn't too keen on staying in the hall long so Darren kept most of his questions to himself. As we were leaving we saw some ghostly pale looking people sitting on a bench to the side of the hall. Two women, a man and a child were sitting there but left quickly when they saw us. They didn't look at all healthy and were very thin.

It was almost a race to see who would ask about them first.

"Who were they?" I beat Darren to the question.

"Guardians of the blood," Kurda put simply.

"Are they vampires? And I thought Savannah and I were the only kids here," Darren asked with a puzzled expression.

"You are." Kurda seemed hesitant to talk about them and was walking a little faster to try to get away from them.

"Then who are they?" Darren pressed.

"Just ask me later!" The blonde snapped.

He later explained that talking about them when they were around was considered bad luck but still he wouldn't talk about them until the end of the tour.

The hall of sport was the vampire equivalent to a sports stadium. There were plenty of vampires chancing their luck one of the many sports but there were also plenty of loud, cheering, spectators. From the first look it was by far the liveliest place in the mountain. It was defiantly a nice change from the quiet, lonely hall of death.

Pretty much all of the games had to do with physical combat like wrestling, boxing, and so on. There were a few games I didn't recognize though. One was kind of like fencing except that you had to cut your opponent three times to win. I found out that it had gained the nick name the 'eyeballer' since so many people lost an eye or two playing it.

Just as we were getting ready to leave Kurda spotted someone that he wanted to introduce to us.

"Vanez!" Kurda called to a muscular man with only one eye whom was watching a game on something that looked like a dangerous, handmade, jungle gym.

The ginger haired man turned around to see who was calling. "Kurda, how are things going?"

"Not too bad," The blonde answered then turned to us. "This is Vanez Blane the games master."

"So you're in control of the games?" Darren asked.

Vanez laughed. "Not even the princes could control the games. I just keep an eye on things, that's all."

I smiled grimly at the bad joke.

"He also trains vampires to fight. He's one of the most valued instructors here. He's trained many vampires, me included," Tour guide Kurda explained.

Vanez and Kurda joked about a time when Vanez knocked him out with a mace because Kurda thought it was a bowl of bat broth.

"So these two are your assistants?" Vanez inquired.

"Oh, no, I just got a babysitting job for the day. This is Darren Shan, Larten Crepsely's assistant. And this is Savannah Wood, Gavner Purl's assistant."

Vanez smiled. "Well I'm sure Arra will be happy to have another strong woman warrior in the mountain."

"Yeah, kind of," Kurda mumbled sheepishly.

"Kind of, what?" asked a woman walking up from behind the games master.

"Speak of the devil," Kurda muttered under his breath.

I smiled and listened to Vanez praise her on another great round on the bars.

Arra wasn't the tallest person I'd seen in my life but she was still a little taller than me. She was muscular but not buff like the male vampires. Her dark hair was pulled back in a ponytail with a strap of leather. She didn't look like the friendliest person ever but it was nice to see another woman.

"Kurda," Arra greeted curtly.

"Arra." Kurda nodded.

"And you're Darren Shan if I'm not mistaken. Larten's assistant."

Darren nodded.

"Is this one of your stupid, pacifist, assistants?" Arra asked motioning to me.

"No, I'm just taking care of her while her mentor has things to do," Kurda answered.

"Who is her mentor?"

"Gavner Purl."

As much as I hated listening to people talk about me I didn't trust myself to talk. Arra didn't seem like the friendliest person and the last thing I needed to do was a make an enemy in the first week of being here.

The cold woman's face lit up a little. "Well I'm sure she'll be a great fighter then."

"Yeah, about that . . ." Kurda trailed off.

Arra raised an eyebrow. "Do not tell me that she's a pacifist!"

The blonde vampire bit his lip and looked at the ground.

Arra blew up with rage and started ranting about dumb peace lovers. It was quite frightening to watch and defiantly didn't make me want to befriend this woman. I didn't take much offence to the harsh criticism though. I wasn't a pacifist by choice anyway.

Eventually Arra's rage started to die down.

"I get the feeling Arra didn't vote for me in the election," Kurda commented.

"I didn't vote for you either," Vanez said with a wide grin.

"See what an average day is like for me," Kurda groaned. "Nobody's proud to have voted for me and everyone who didn't vote for me is happy to show it off."

I laughed and before anyone could ask another question Vanez spoke up. "Would either of you like to try out the bars with Arra."

"I refuse to take on that pacifist." Arra spat the word pacifist like it was a dirty word and to her it probably was.

I shrugged. I'd seen some of the people she'd fought and didn't want the same fate as them. Anyway, there were so many ways that people could find out about me being vampaneze if I fail. There was always that blood spillage issue.

"Go on, Darren," I encouraged.

After everyone in the room was looking forward to the match Darren agreed, even though he didn't seem too happy about it. Vanez gave him a short lesson and told him the rules. Darren was shaky and nervous with good reason. I certainly wouldn't want to be in his position.

"She won't really hurt me, will she?" Darren asked getting ready for the show down.

"Of course not. She won't go easy on you but I'm sure she won't set out to seriously harm you." Vanez glanced up at Arra who was already positioned on the bars and said a little quieter, "at least I hope she won't."

Darren show valiant effort but, needless to say, it wasn't that much fun dragging an unconscious Darren all the way back to our room.

A/N: I'm too tired to come up with anything good to say so just please reveiw. Now time to go to bed. Night.