Chapter 36

Crush Crush Crush

Darren tried to hide his blush as he walked into the bathing hall and saw Juliet standing nearly nude before him. He'd given up on ever seeing a pretty girl in Vampire Mountain, and suddenly he was assaulted with one just about every day. It was hard to control his hormones, as he'd never really had the thoughts before he was turned. When she motioned numbly for him to help her into her pants, he averted his eyes, noticing the lack of panties.

"Darren?" she asked as he turned his head from her as she stepped into the black cloth pants.

"I don't think you've ever called me by my name before…" he gave a small chuckle, turning back to her. She slipped the loose-fitting shirt over her head with ease and gave a heavy sigh. She looked tired, but somehow more lifelike, as if a weight had been lifted from her shoulders, only to be replaced by a nagging thought.

"That's because you don't look like a Darren. Maybe a Cole or a Shane. Darren is too handsome of a name for a kid like you." Juliet reached for him then, and despite the mingling feeling of insult and embarrassment, he took her hand and brought her to his side.

"You know I'm older than I look," he said quietly.

"I think you've mentioned that. How old are you?" she asked, looking at him with her ethereal eyes.

Darren smirked. "If I can't ask you that, you can't ask me that."

Juliet rolled her eyes, taking a step and allowing Darren to take some of her weight as they began walking back to her room. "That's because I am a lady, and you," she grunted as they turned a corner, surprisingly unladylike. "You're a little fuckin' brat."

"This brat is the only thing keeping you off the ground, you know." Darren retorted, stopping to let Juliet catch her breath. "How about some respect?"

"Yeah, yeah. Respect the kid in charge, I get it."

They walked in silence for a while, Juliet relieved to feel Darren supporting her with no complaint. The kid was strong, she admit it. He was kind too. Too good for this place. She again wondered how he got to be here. "Did you really become a Vampire to save your friend?" she asked.

Darren nodded. "Yep. It was a pretty hard decision, but… I think it was the right one."

"Does your friend know what you did for him?"

Darren didn't speak, and Juliet sensed the unease rolling off of him. She imagined there was more to the situation than he let on.

"If I answer this question," he said. "Will you answer a few for me?"

"One question for a vague amount of questions? No deal." Juliet shook her head.

"C'mon. You've been so talkative lately, I'm actually starting to think you're pretty cool, Mr. Gatsby." Darren smiled, and Juliet cracked a smirk at the boyish way it made him look. Bald head and scars aside, the kid was pretty cute.

"Alright. But I reserve the right to refuse to answer."

"And I reserve the right to ask a different question if you don't answer the first."

"Deal." She said.

"Deal." He agreed.

As they entered the small medical room, Juliet noticed that the guards were standing on the opposite wall, looking into the room as opposed to blocking the exit. She couldn't help but feel like these Princes were starting to give her some slack.

"So," she grunted as Darren helped her onto the stone bed. "What happened with your friend?"

Darren sighed and began to tell the tale. "We went to see this freak show, the Cirque du Freak, and that's where I saw Mr. Crepsley,"

"Who?" Juliet asked.

"The Vampire with the red hair and the scar on his face." Darren ran a finger down his cheek to emphasize. Juliet nodded her understanding. "He performed with a spider called Madam Octa,"

"Spider and Vampire on stage. What a show!" Juliet mocked.

Darren laughed. "It was more than that. Their act involved Mr. Crepsley playing this little flute and Madam Octa would do tricks. I was amazed. I loved spiders, you could call me obsessed! And my friend, Steve, he could tell that Mr. Crepsley was a Vampire. He knew because he read a lot of books on the lore,"

"This guy sounds like he would make a good hunter," Juliet mumbled. Darren shook his head.

"Steve wanted to become a Vampire, so he asked Mr. Crepsley to turn him, but Mr. Crepsley said no. Something about Steve's blood being tainted, evil."

"He tasted his blood and figured that out?" Juliet looked doubtful.

"Mr. Crepsley has a lot of talents," Darren gave a small laugh. "But after that night I didn't really think about Vampires or blood or anything. I just wanted that spider. So I planned to steal Madam Octa."

"You?" Juliet asked, incredulously.

"Steal a spider from a Vampire? Yeah. I didn't really think it through. And that's where the problems started. Somehow I stole the spider, and of course the spider is lethal, and it bit Steve." Darren frowned. "It was all my fault. Steve was in the hospital and nobody knew what happened except me and my sister Annie. I had let my best friend get hurt and it was killing me inside, so I did the only thing I could think of."

"Tried to give the spider back. Tried to get the Vampire to help you." Juliet looked at the boy before her. He hardly looked a day over sixteen, but she could hear the years in his voice. He wasn't old, not yet, but his experience spoke out through his eyes.

"Yeah, not as easy as I thought it would be. I didn't want to believe that he was really a Vampire, but he said the only way he'd give me the antidote is if I became his assistant. If I became a half-vampire. So I did. I didn't really think, I just wanted to save Steve so badly.

Unfortunately I didn't really think about what it meant to be a Vampire. Mr. Crepsley tried to take me away, but I ran, he said I'd come back, but I ignored him. The next day when Steve was safe and everything was going back to normal, I expected to die if sunlight touched me, but I was able to walk to school with no problems. I thought it must have been some crazy joke that Mr. Crepsley played on me. I was wrong. Soon I noticed I was becoming so strong I could barely contain it. It became hard to keep it in. One day I was playing soccer with my friends and I didn't reel myself in. I hurt my friend, he was bleeding, and something in me snapped. I wanted his blood, I sat there with his knee in my mouth, licking at it before I knew it. Everyone was staring at me. I jumped up and pretended to be a vampire, you know. To make them laugh." He smiled fondly at the memory.

"But that didn't last. I was losing control. I had to go back to Mr. Crepsley. When I did he chided me, told me I should have never tried to escape. I was different and I needed to accept it."

"So you were forced to go with the Vampire?" Juliet asked, he could tell she was unhappy with the way the story was going.

"Forced by my own hand. I made the mistake of thinking I could control that spider. I got my friend hurt, I paid the price." Darren shrugged, trying to make light, but Juliet shook her head.

"So this is punishment? Aren't you one of their Princes? How did all of this happen?" Juliet searched his eyes for the answer, gesturing wildly as she spoke. "Don't leave me hanging, I want to know! That can't be the full story!"

"Wow, I didn't think you'd be so interested in my story!" Darren laughed. "Tell you what, if you answer my questions honestly I'll give you my diaries."

"You keep a diary- no wait. Multiple diaries?" Juliet smirked.

Darren wasn't phased. "I do. It's good to read back on the good times, and the bad times. It helps to… you know, see how far you've come." He smiled again and she was taken back by his boyish charm. "I'll let you read them."

"If I answer your questions. How many questions?" she demanded.

"I don't know… do you want me to get them sorted?"

"I'll answer seven questions. No more than seven. SO you better figure out what you want to ask."

"But remember our earlier agreement, if you refuse to answer one I can replace it with a different one until you have fully answered seven!" Darren looked pointedly at her and Juliet nodded passively.

"I'll expect those diaries in the morning."

"It is morning."

"I mean when I wake up."

"Sure sure." Darren smiled. "Can we begin?"

"Go on."

Darren thought for a moment, trying to organize all the questions he'd wanted to ask her. "This one's kind of obvious, so I'd appreciate it if you went into detail- er- as much detail as you feel comfortable!" he blushed and Juliet could only imagine what he was going to ask. "Erm, what exactly… or how, exactly, do you and Mika ver Leth know each other?"

Juliet sighed. She wasn't surprised by this question. Like he said the answer was obvious from the ways Mika looked at her whenever they were in the same room, but he wanted the full story. "I'll give you the summary," she said. "We met when he tried to feed on me. I'd been recently re-orphand and asked him to kill me. He didn't. We became friends, then more than friends, then waaaaay more than friends. Then he left me naked in my burning house as it collapsed around me. Now I want to rip his scrotum off and stuff it in his handsome mouth."

Darren nodded, understanding everything she said but still wanting more details of how they went from lovers to… well whatever they are now. "Okay, here's my second one… and remember you promised to answer honestly." He looked at her pointedly again, idly rubbing the fabric of his shirt between his fingers. "Do you know why you don't age?"

Juliet straightened, surprised that the kid wanted to know her own opinion on the subject. "I've been to doctors over the years." She began. "Never telling them the whole story. For a while I blamed Mika because I didn't know anything about Vampires, I still barely know anything. So I thought maybe he cast some sort of spell on me. That made me resent him. But as the years passed and I never encountered another Vampire I began to think maybe it was just me. I never knew my family, maybe I was actually a Vampire or something, maybe my parents were Vampires-"

Darren shook his head. "That's not possible. Vampires can't have kids. Male and female vampires are barren. We can't reproduce with each other or humans."

Juliet paled, and her eyes widened in shock. Darren looked at her, concerned, but she shook it off. "Well, that just adds to the question then, doesn't it? Maybe I'm a fairy!" she rolled her eyes. "Next question!"

Clearly something was bothering her, but Darren was trying to become closer to Juliet, and he didn't want the last question to end on such a sore subject for the woman. "What do you think or me?"

Juliet clenched her jaw. "What the hell kind of question is that?" she snapped. "You're the Vampire child who has badgered me every day. You're nice kid. You're freakishly bald. What are you looking for?"

Darren sighed. "I mean what do you think when you see me? Not physically. I know I look like some kid. I mean as a person."

"Are you coming on to me?" Juliet glared at him from her seat. She was becoming uncomfortable. The kid was nice and all but still, he was a kid.

"See that's the thing, what if I was?" he asked. "What if we were two weird people that are older than we look and we lived in a normal world where I could ask you on a date? What would you think if that happened?"

"This is getting weird, kid."

"Stop calling me a kid!" He sounded frustrated, and Juliet leaned back, watching the emotions flash across his face.

"I know I'm in no position to assume anything will ever happen between us," he said.

"Let me cut you off there, I don't know why you think this is appropriate in the least. You're a kid, I'm not. You're a vampire, I'm not. You're one of the people keeping me captive here!" She was shouting and Darren frowned.

"But do you think anything else at all when you look at me?" he asked quietly.

Juliet let out a growling sigh. "Why are you asking me this? WE BARELY KNOW EACH OTHER? Is this for romantic reasons or purely supposition?"

"I find you attractive," Darren said suddenly. Juliet quieted and sighed. "I find you attractive, and it's strange for me because I've only ever had one girlfriend and that was just a few years after I became a Vampire. It's been a long time since then," he shook his head. "I don't know how to be a normal person. I don't know if I'll ever leave this mountain. But here you are, and for all the strangeness that surrounds you, you seem like a normal person. I want that. I want someone like you, someone who knows strange and can live with strange to look at someone like me and see me as your equal. See me like the world sees you."

"Even though I'm a Prince, even though I'm a Vampire, sometimes the older Vampire's still look at me like I'm a child. Even though I'm not, and they know it. And then here you are and my head's going crazy because for the first time in forever I feel like I'm sitting in a room talking to someone who gets me. Who gets what it's like to… lose time."

Suddenly Juliet understood what he was asking from her. "You find me attractive?" she asked.

"Its kind of hard not to, have you seen the people that live here?" he smiled shyly.

"I cannot say the same to you." She said. Darren frowned. "Hear me out! I cannot say the same to you because you look like you're, what sixteen? Seventeen? That's cutting it too close, even for me!"

"I'm not saying I'm in love with you or anything," Darren said. "I just wanted you to… I don't know. I wanted to pretend, maybe, like we were normal."

"You wanted to flirt with me? Maybe take me to a movie, make out in the back of your Pontiac?" Juliet supplied, she was smirking. Darren blushed. "I'm not gonna be your fake girlfriend, kid. Let me get back to the whole 'we barely know each other, captive/captor relationship' thing I was telling you about."

"Can we at least be friends?"

"Don't you have any friends your own age?" Juliet sighed.

"Believe me, I want some. But most Vampires are turned in their thirties, you know, after they've live lives. Had kids. Had sex."

"Oh, you want to be fuck buddies. See you should have led with that."

"No I don't want to be fuck buddies." The words came out of Darren's mouth with distaste. "I want to feel like there is one person in this mountain who treats me like I'm normal. As close to normal as I can be."

Juliet looked at him, his eyes were sad, his shoulders slumped. "You wanna be friends?" she asked.

"Can we?" he sounded hopeful

"Not until I'm no longer a prisoner." She replied. "And then, maybe. You're a nice ki- guy, Darren." She corrected herself and could see his posture lift. "So maybe we can be friends. Maybe one day you'll grow four inches and I'll be begging to be your first time, or maybe we'll never see each other again. You shouldn't throw yourself on the first pretty girl who walks in your, uh, mountain."

"You're uncomfortable." He said, smiling apologetically.

"I feel like the weird aunt telling her nephew about relationships." Juliet sighed. "Point being, you never know how your relationship with a person is going to go. Friends, lovers, soul mates, even enemies. It can all turn… instantly." Her voice dropped. "But. We might be friends. We might be more than friends. I'll let you know once I get out of this room, and you fill out a little more."

"I like you, Juliet." Darren said.

"Romantically?" She asked, exasperated. "Because I feel like I'm about to repeat myself."

"Maybe. My hormones are going crazy, don't get me wrong," he chuckled. "But I think you're a good person. And even though I've only known you for a short time, I know that you've got a kind heart. It's what kept you from attacking a 'kid like me' when I first tried to talk to you. It's what's made you open up to us the past few days. You want to be understood. You want to be accepted. So do I. I think that's why I have these feelings. I've never encountered someone that made me… see myself so much. Does that make sense?"

"Just don't tell me I look like your ex-girlfriend." Juliet said shaking her head. "Cause then we'll have a problem."

Darren resisted the urge to laugh, considering his only girlfriend had had strikingly similar characteristics to Juliet. Tan skin, dark hair, biting sense of humor. But they were very different as well. Darren pushed the thought that he and Mika ver Leth had similar taste in women from his mind.

"Don't hit me." Darren said as he stood and walked over to her. Juliet stiffened. He leaned in and brushed a long strand of hair behind her ear. Juliet allowed it feeling him blush even as he stood and straightened, trying to look cocky and handsome but still looking so much like a boy that her she felt a tug at her heart. "I'm sorry I upset you." He said sincerely. "But you still owe me four questions."

Juliet watched Darren's silhouette out of the corner of her eye as he exited, the light touch of his fingertips on her cheek lingering, but the first thing she thought once his footsteps were long gone was relief to be alone, and a frightening thought caused her heart to beat loud and fast in her chest. Vampires are barren. Ignoring Darren's admission that he found her attractive, that he wanted her to look at him as more than a kid, she focused on the anxious thought that made her want to pace the room and wring her hands.

Four months after the fire, when her skin had finally healed, faster than many doctors had thought… she remembered distinctly the blood and the pain in her lower abdomen. The look of discomfort on her doctor's face as he told her. Miscarriage. She didn't even know she'd been pregnant. She thought maybe Mika had known, maybe that's why he'd left.

Now she was even more concerned. Her agelessness had been a question for years, but she'd found a way to live life without worrying over it. Now it was kicking her in the gut that she'd never tried to research it more. They told her she wasn't a Vampire. Humans don't live for as long as she had… If Vampire's can't reproduce with Vampires, and they can't reproduce with humans, why had Mika been able to get her pregnant? What can Vampires reproduce with? If they knew, wouldn't they be reproducing with them? Wouldn't they be seeking out people like her, knowing what she was? If they didn't know, if they didn't reproduce. Her thoughts swirled and she clutched her stitched-together midsection, feeling nauseated, the same way she'd felt all those years ago when she went year after year with no change to her face.

What the hell was she?