Three is a Crowd

It didn't take long for it to become a night time ritual for the pair, every night, resulted in either Evra being in Katie's tent, or Katie being in Evra's tent, where they spent an hour practicing their guitar playing. It didn't take long for Katie to learn the basic chords, and the most basic songs, so Evra started teaching her songs that were more complex.

"You're really good at this Katie." Evra told her one night, as they played, he had gotten less and less shy around her with each time they met up.

Katie looked up at him. "Thank you." She looked back at the guitar, they played for a few minutes, before they decided to take a break and stop, and they walked out of her tent laughing and joking. Then Katie suddenly stole Evra's beloved Beanie hat, and as she slid it on, he laughed. His shedding time was over, so he wasn't worried about her stealing his hat and getting covered in loose scales, though the reason why he laughed was because she looked really cute when she was wearing it.

"You look really cute in that." He told her, but suddenly slapped a hand over his mouth realising what he had actually said to her.

Katie looked at him. "Um, thanks Evra, I think."

"Well done Snake boy, now you've just made things awkward between the pair of you." Evra thought to himself, as they carried on walking to the others.

"Hey, Katie!" They turned around at hearing someone calling her and saw Darren walking over. "You're father wants you to join me and him on a hunt."

"I'd rather stick pins in my eyes." She told him.

"Awe, come on Katie, please if you do come, then it will be more fun for me." Darren pouted, trying to make her give in.

Eventually Katie sighed. "Fine, I'll go with you." As Daren beamed, she slid off Evra's hat, and handed it back to him. "I'll see you, whenever?"

"Yeah, see you whenever."

Katie watched him walk away, before she flitted off with Darren to do some hunting, they eventually met up with Crepsley and started looking for a food source. They eventually found a group of campers, though there were only three, which was enough for the group.

"Remember; only take as much as you need." Crepsley reminded Darren. "The blood lust should be easy to ignore now."

Katie shuddered slightly, as she remembered the exact same speech that she used to receive from her father when she first became a vampire. Then, she gathered up her courage, and walked towards the group acting like she was lost.

"Excuse me, I need help." Katie told them as she walked to him, her voice shook with fake fear.

"What's the matter miss?" One of the campers asked, a burly man with dark hair and amazing muscles, and he walked up to her.

"I was with my father and a friend, and then we got separated, and now I'm lost and I can't call either of them." She started to cry.

"Awe, hey now, don't cry, we will help you look for them." The man told her, as he slid an arm around her shoulders. "Now, which direction did you last see them?" He and the other two walked in the direction that Katie pointed, which happened to be right towards a now hiding Darren and Crepsley.

"Are you sure that it was this way?" One of them asked, before the three of them suddenly hit the floor unconscious.

"Well done Katie." Darren told her as he looked at her after knocking out the humans.

"All you need is a pretty face, and men are putty in your hands." She shrugged, before she knelt down and bit into one of the men's neck, drinking only some of his blood. She waited for them to finish, before they all walked back towards the Cirque. As they got close enough to see the entrance, Crepsley flitted off to find Madame Trusca and Katie and Darren walked more slowly.

"How are you settling in?" Darren asked her.

"I'm sitting in pretty well, you Rebecca and Evra are really nice people." She told him, pulling her hood up.

"That's a good thing." He laughed. "You're a really good friend to Katie, Rebecca and Evra love having you around."

She smiled at his words. "Thank you."

The minute they got to the edge of the Cirque, they felt uneasy; there wasn't the usual laughter and joy that was normal at this time of night.

"Rebecca?" Darren called, looking around.

"Evra? Rebecca? Corma?" Katie called, looking around, not expecting the Wolf Man to suddenly run at them. "Darren, look out!"

They both turned and ran, but as they went past a still lit fireplace, she stopped. However, this turned to be a bad idea, because when she stopped the Wolf Man bit her jacket, forcing her to the ground, but she let him rip her jacket off as she got to her feet and ran to the fireplace.

"Darren, get behind the fireplace!" She shouted at him, and she stood in front of it, as she watched the Wolf Man come closer.

When he got within distance to bite her again, her hands ignited in fire and a wall of fire went between them, causing him to move away from her and as he went for Darren, she made the wall follow him, protecting Darren. She ended up moving out of the fire, and she watched the Wolf Man stalk her, this time when he went for her, a rock hit him and knocked him off of his feet, before he was suddenly encased in a rock like prison. Darren watched as the fire went out, and he looked over at Katie, worried when she suddenly fell to her knees.

"Katie!" He ran to her and knelt in front of her. "Katie, are you okay?"

"I'm fine, I'm just tired, there wasn't much fire there to use, I had to create the rest."

Darren looked around. "Guys, where are you?"

"Darren, Katie!" Rebecca suddenly ran to them, hugging Darren.

"Rebecca, what's going on?" Darren asked, hugging her back, watching her hug Katie.

"Mr Tiny is here, and somehow Wolf Man got out, and then you two appeared, but there's something wrong."

"Like what?" Darren asked her.

"Madam Trusca was injured somehow; Mr Tiny says that he can save her, for a price." Rebecca explained.

"What's the price?" Katie asked.

"He will save her, if he gets to keep you." Evra told them, looking at Katie as she stood shakily, to which he gripped her arm to steady her.

"I need to see her." She told them, and when Evra let go of her, she disappeared in a flit and into Madam Trusca's tent. "Father?" She looked at who was there, and it involved: Mr Tall who was standing with Corma and Alexander near the entrance, Mr Tiny who smirked at her as he sat on a chair, Steve standing at his side, and Crepsley who was lying beside his lover – Madam Trusca – on her bed of pillows. The sight of Madam Trusca, almost made Katie cave into tears, her skin was blooded, her hair matted, her clothes stained with her own blood and a deep and ugly wound in her stomach.

"What happened?" She asked, looking at them.

"The Wolf Man attacked her..." Mr Tall started.

"But my assistant managed to stop him from doing any real damage." Mr Tiny told her, gesturing to Steve.

Katie looked at Steve, and raised an eyebrow. "Why?"

Everyone looked over at Katie in confusion, as to why she was asking a man why he had decided to save on of their own.

"Why did you save a freak, since you despise them?"

"I wanted to show you that I cared." He told her, looking at her as he walked over to her.

"And yet for him to heal her, I was his price?" She asked him, moving away from him. "I will not be used as a bargaining chip." She said this to Mr Tiny. "But because she makes my father happy, heal her and then I will think about it." She turned on her heal and left the tent.

As she left, Steve looked back at Mr Tiny who nodded, and he ran after her.

"Katie, wait." He eventually grabbed her shoulder, but soon found himself on his back with Katie standing over him.

"What more can you want from me? You master uses me as payment, I am no prize to be won." She told him.

"I don't think of you like that." Steve told her as he stood. "I want to join the Cirque Katie; I want to be around you more."

"Why, why could you possibly want to be around me?" She asked him, looking at him as they were suddenly facing each other, their bodies almost touching.

"Because, I think that I have feelings for you." He told her honestly, looking into her eyes. "Wow, her eyes are beautiful." He thought to himself.

She allowed her eyes to hold his as they stood there, but as she was about to ask him something, Evra suddenly shouted her.

"Katie, move!"

As she turned around, the Wolf Man was suddenly running towards her, however she suddenly found herself on the floor as Steve pulled her to the ground with him.

"Wolf Man, go back to your cage!" Mr Tall thundered at the freak, and Katie watched him return to his real cage.

"Are you okay?" Steve asked her as he looked at her, as he held her to him.

"I'm...I'm fine." She quickly got up, pulled her hood up of her inner jacket that she still wore, and walked away to her tent, Rebecca and Evra soon following.

Darren walked over to his former best friend, his arms folded across his chest. "What are you playing at Steve?"

"I have no idea what you're on about?" Steve told him, acting innocently.

"Why are you trying to be around Katie?"

"I'm trying to be a friend to her; she obviously doesn't have many as it is. And anyway, maybe I can get into her pants since that snake freak obviously isn't good at it." He jeered.

"Stay away from Katie, Steve." Darren warned, though Steve just laughed it off.

"Does it bother you that I want to be close to her Darren?" Steve asked. "You never know, maybe she would want to join me and Mr Tiny eventually."

"Not likely." Darren told him. "Just stay away from her, alright?" He walked away after that, going into Katie's tent, where he found Evra and Rebecca leaning against her coffin as she sat in it, now in a pair of silk short pyjamas.

"Are you okay?" He asked her, and then when she nodded, he looked at Rebecca and Evra.

"Evra and I are fine; we took shelter in my cabin." Rebecca told him as she helped Katie to settle.

"Did Steve do anything to you?" Evra asked her, the echo of jealousy was clear in his tone, despite his best attempts to hide it from her.

"No, he didn't...He saved me..." Katie told them as she lay down and Rebecca pulled the blanket over her. "Thank you Rebecca."

"You're welcome, now get some rest it's nearly morning." She shut the lid for her, and made sure no light could get in, before she blew out the candles that hung around the room.

"Night, guys." She called through.

"Night, Katie." They all called back as they left her tent.

As they walked to Rebecca's cabin, Darren looked at them. "Steve wants to be close to her, I think he actually likes her."

"Well that's obvious Darren, he thinks that she's hot, it doesn't take a genius to work that out." Rebecca told her boyfriend as they stopped at her door, Evra remaining painfully silent.

"But why does Mr Tiny want her?" Darren mused.

"I don't know." Rebecca sighed.

"She's unusual, and I mean really unusual." Evra finally spoke. "A vampire who's also a freak, that's pretty unusual even by a freak's standards." He explained. "He could want her for her gift, because she's not just unusual, she's dangerous. That power over fire she has, as well as the other elements, it can be used n a pretty dangerous way."

"Yeah, you have a point Evra, she is powerful and Mr Tiny likes power, so does Steve." Rebecca told him. "I hope she doesn't end up going with him." She sighed.

"She has until tomorrow night to decide." They all nodded at Darren's revelation, before the boys bid good night to Rebecca and went to their own tent, going to sleep.

Meanwhile, Steve and Mr Tiny were sitting in Mr Tiny's car, so that they couldn't be overheard as they talked.

"I want you to try and get close to her, get her isolated in any way that you can." Mr Tiny told Steve, an evil edge to his voice.

"I will, it will be funny to see them turn on her and then her on them." Steve told him, but he didn't seem to be very enthusiastic about their plan.

Mr Tiny smirked, but Steve looked out of the window towards where he could see Katie's tent.

"What is it Steve?" Mr Tiny asked him. "Usually you're excited about all of this, and now you're not."

"I don't know, I guess I just don't want to hurt her." Steve sighed.

"Is this love I hear young Steve?" He asked in almost mock disbelief.

"No, of course I'm not!" He told him. "She's a freak; I couldn't ever like one of them freaks really."

"Good, now I want you to join the freaks, just for a while and when I give you the all clear, bring her to me."

Steve nodded and got back out of the car. "I hate you! I want nothing to do with you!"

"You are nothing without me Boy!" Mr Tiny shouted back, glad that Steve had decided to try out his acting skills. "You wouldn't even exist, poor little Steve, no family, no friends, no one to care." He drove off; leaving Steve, covered in the mud which came from the wheels as the car sped off, standing alone in the dark.

Mr Tall watched the whole scene, and he sighed but decided to go against his conscious thought of leaving him there, bringing him into a tent and finding him some fresh clothes and a coffin.

"Stay here tonight." Mr Tall told him.

"Can I stay for longer than tonight?" Steve asked him. "I have nowhere else to go; no one else cares about me."

Mr Tall sighed and nodded. "Steve, as saviour of a fellow Cirque, I would like to know if you would like to join the Cirque."

Steve looked at him, and despite wanting to say no and throw it back in his face, he found himself nodding, his mind only on the fact that he could get closer to Katie if he stayed. It was almost like he had completely forgotten his and Mr Tiny's plan at that moment, and it actually made him happy. The next night, he was standing with Mr Tall by a fireplace, as the other freaks walked over to see what was going on, and he could point out Katie standing with Rebecca, though he frowned slightly when Darren and Evra walked over, Darren sliding his arms around Rebecca and Evra and Katie sharing a smile to each other, though Steve saw a much deeper emotion in the eyes of the half man half snake next to her.

"Everyone, listen up. This is Steve; he has decided to join the Cirque, as another vampire."

The whole group went silent, and Katie looked at Darren, Rebecca and Evra, before she looked back at Mr Tall when he silenced a few of the complaints that started up.

"Now now, I want everyone to give him a good Cirque welcome, and Rebecca and Katie can show you where your tent is." Mr Tall told them, before he left them to it and Steve walked towards Darren, Katie, Evra and Rebecca.

"Looks like I'm here to stay." He smiled.

"Oh hells help us." Evra muttered, before he watched the girls take him to a spare tent. This wasn't going to be very enjoyable.