Disclaimer: Cirque du Freak and its characters are Darren Shan's property. Not mine. I don't make money from either of them. yada-yada-ya.

Info: This takes place seven years after the events of Bonds:Separation Anxiety. Not really any potential spoilers for the books, except for characters from later books will be used, abused, and, generally, toyed around with. But it's all for you so...I'm sure I can get away with it. XD

Warnings: Mentions of sex; mentions of sexual arousal; gore; vulgar language/cussing; disturbing(not graphic) mentions of rape(very minor nameless people); extreme OOC(will be explained later)

P.S. Remember to tell me about any spelling mistakes or grammar usage if you come across them. Please!

Anyway: Let The Story Begin!

The moment the sun passed through the western skyline, darkness engulfed the land and the things that dwelled in the darkness awoke, ravenous. Steve eyes were a brilliant red when he opened them. His throat felt like it was on fire. His body felt as dry as sandpaper. He was starving. Last night was filled with bloodsucking(from Darren) and mutual grinding. Steve was drained in more ways than one that night, leaving him dehydrated and positively famished as a consequence. However, the blond regretted none of it. In fact, if anything, he regretted the fact that once the sun dipped above the eastern horizon(vampires know the position of the sun and how long until it rises/sets instinctively), Darren blacked out like a light. The brunet's fangs slipped out of Steve chest and retracted. His once hard cock became ice cream soft almost immediately. Soon after, Steve himself drifted off into the dreamless sleep of the dead.

Now he was wide awake, hungry as hell, and lying under the object of his lust/love. Darren yawned awake on top of the blond, his human life fresh enough in his mind for him to wake up groggily. Steve smiled at Darren's face as he woke up. He just wanted to hold Darren close, sink his teeth into the boy's neck, and fuck him raw. The blond's needle-point teeth poked out from under his upper lip. Steve started to slowly buck his hips up against Darren, a low moan escaping through his lips.

Darren lazily yawned as he woke up. He rolled off of Steve and stood up before stretching and, then, sitting down. He wasn't sure where he was or even what had happened to him, but for some reason he just didn't care. The last thing he remembered was being hauled to some building with Steve by a couple of brutish-looking guys before he felt a sharp prickling sensation in the back of his neck. He only remembered darkness after that. However, that seemed so long and faraway and there was a fuzzy type of darkness that seemed to be so much closer. Maybe, yesterday. But it could also have been a week ago. All he got from that fuzzy darkness was a stiff dick and thirst. His dick made a rather big tent in the dark blue material of his boxers.

"What happened? Why do I fill so cold?" He asked, his voice perfectly monotonous. His head felt sleepyheaded and it felt like he was in a dream. Steve sat up. He remembered when something similar had happened to him. The second time he Awoke as a vampire. The first time he Awoke when he wasn't blinded by a hunger that blocked out everything, but the next viable food source(which turned out to be some human male in a maid outfit and one eye, but that's another story).

"Everything's fine. You just ascended from your paltry human life to an immortal one as a superior creature." Steve said ecstatically, moving over to where Darren sat on the left hand snaked into the opening in Darren's boxers. "You're a vampire," Steve whispered before stroking the brunet's cock and kissing said brunet on the cheek. His tongue trailing down to the nape of his neck. "Even as a vampire, you still taste excellent. I love you." Despite Steve's continued stroking of Darren's cock, the brunet wasn't paying any attention. His attention was more focus on working through the fog that gripped his mind. When Steve's fangs poke his neck, he lazily turned his head down to look at the blond. Darren was expressionless. If anything, he looked bored.

"You raped me," Darren said in the same sleepy-sounding monotonous voice as before. Steve looked up into Darren's dark eyes, his fangs still poking Darren's neck.

"Some would say that," Steve admitted, raising his head. "But I did it because I love you so it's more like rough sex than rape. Plus, I turned you into a higher being so it more than makes up for any...um, bad stuff on my side, right?" Steve said, his tone and eyes looking truly apologetic for the first time in perhaps several years. Darren looked at him. Then, he licked Steve's forehead, tasting some blond hair on the upward lick. Steve was taken aback. Literally. He fell backward on his back in surprise. He was expecting whining and screaming and maybe some type of attack, but not that.

"You taste good. Do I taste good? Is that why you ate me? Why you ate my neck?" Darren asked with the same apathetic voice as before. He stood up slowly, seeming to float to his feet. He kind of drifted over to a particularly stained wall. Dark red splotches decorated the wall from ceiling to floor in a scatter point pattern. Darren's eyes tinted a dull red color as he licked the stains.

"This tastes good also. What is it?" He said lazily before continuing to lick the stain.

Steve got up and walked over to him. What's wrong with him? Malachi warned me that making someone into a vampire could change them, but this is too much. He should at least have some semblance of his original se-

"I'm hungry," Darren said with no emotion, unknowingly derailing Steve's train of thought. He had moved while Steve was worrying about his complete personality change. Now the vampire was over by the windows. The blackout curtains were pulled back to expose a two feet wide expanse of floor-to-ceiling windows. His eyes were a brighter red than before, almost matching the radiant scarlet of Steve's own pupils. "There's so much noise. It leaks into my ears, my eyes, my skin. It calls me to devour everyone down there." Darren said with sudden force. "THRUM-THRUM-THRUM!" He mimicked the nearly deafening sound of the myriad of heartbeats that pulsed so enthusiastically in the people on the streets below.

Steve moved to where Darren was standing. On the ground below were what had to be hundreds of people dancing, singing, eating. The roads in both directions for as far as Steve could see(and as a vampire he could see far)were filled with tasty humans. The only cars in sight were parked next to sidewalks, in parking lots, and, a few, in the street. The cars in the street had people dancing on top of them, selling food and drink out of them, or just sitting on them watching the beautiful fireworks in the sky. It must be the Fourth of July. Steve thought absentmindedly. He didn't bother with knowing the days or months as well as he probably should, but he knew that it was still summer and that the only summer holiday he could think of was the Fourth of July.

"I wonder how they taste?" Darren thought outloud with a slight emphasis on the "they", but otherwise no emotion.

"Would you feel better if you found out?" Steve asked indulgently. Darren just looked at him, but there was a flicker of hunger in his eyes that revealed he wasn't completely soulless. (A/N:Well, you know what I mean) Maybe some food will wake up the real Darren. Steve thought hopefully. Steve smiled a little nervously. "Come on. Let's celebrate. Fourth of July only comes once a year." Steve, with a firm hand on Darren's arm, leading them both to the forest green door that led into the hallway that led to the elevator that led down to the ground floor and to the buffet that awaited the two vampires.

Director Bella Dohn was laying in an apartment that was only several miles away from her job, the FBI HQ, strategically disguised as a Best Buy. Her bed was silky and smooth beneath her naked body. She was laying awake as she heard the noise of celebrations-fireworks, drunken, off-key singing, excited screams, sexual grunts/moans, etc.- in the distance. Even through all the noise and clamor, the Director could hear a scream. A scream that was quickly cut off right before thousands more joined it. The screams seem to drift from the direction of one particular apartment building. Before she could stop herself, Director Dohn smiled. She would still need to check to make sure that her assumption was correct, but she was already almost 99.03564621% it was and she was never wrong about anything over 95.36472103%. Soon Director Bella got dressed in a pair of dark blue body hugging skinny jeans, a black tank-top, and black sneakers. She put in some lapis-lazuli earrings just and a dash of violet eyeshadow just for fun. She planned to have her own little bit of fun along with doing her job before the night was out.

Steve was the first of the duo to walk across the dark lounge and out into the fully supplied buffet, I mean, street that was ahead of them. Darren trailed along after him rather slowly. He would have went even slower if it wasn't for Steve's hand on his left arm. There were throngs on inebriated people everywhere. All with blood rushing, albeit slowly, through their alcohol-drenched veins. Steve's mouth watered. Darren moved forward, reaching out to catch one of the men that were walking-or rather, wobbling-passed them.

"Whey! Wha you dwoing?" A man with bright green hair and caramel skin slurred. He was obviously either drunk or very close to being so. Darren leaned forward and licked the man's cheek. The man tried to back away, but Darren's vice-like grip on his shoulder was impossible to break.

"You taste good" And with that Darren's fangs extended and he attacked without a sound. The man screamed as Darren's teeth sunk into his neck. A moment later, the screams of the one man died down, but not before it lit the screams of the thousands of people who, just seconds earlier, were chaotically partying and had ten gallons' worth of alcohol pumping through their veins. Now there was pure adrenaline pumping through them and the chaotically partying just became chaos.

"Still hungry?" Steve asked, fighting the urge to just run out into the crowd of people and eat as many as he could. Darren dropped the green-haired man to the cement sidewalk. Darren drifted toward the direction of the people who were desperately trying to run away and find some type of sanctuary. "Good. So am I," Steve said with a devilish smirk, his eyes bright red and his fangs apparent and thirsty for blood.

Bolduric was woken up by something wet and crimson being poured into what used to be his lower stomach, right above where his belly button would've been if he still had one. All that was left was a ripped open belly with viscera and blood spilling out. Only a little bit of the blood actually stayed in the tattered remains of the burly vamp. And that was a small puddle that threaten to spill over and join its siblings on the rock floor any second now.

"Be strong now. This may hurt," A calm, comforting voice murmured from somewhere by Bolduric's head. A head in which looked like no head a human could have and still be alived. The mouth was literally sewn shut with several paper clips. The eyes pulled out of their sockets, dangling from the nerves that they were attached to. Two silver spikes were nailed into the skull itself. One in his chin through the roof of his mouth, sealing his entire jaw together. The other in the forehead and right through the brain. A little silver point could be felt just on the back of Bolduric's shaved scalp. A leather gloved hand reached down toward each of the spikes and grasped the separate lengths. The ghastly white forearms of the gloved arms tensed as the hands pulled on the spikes. Soon a sick pop-pop-popcould be heard as both spikes were being drawn out. The one in the chin came out first, followed by the one that was in the brain after almost ten seconds. Bolduric didn't even grunt in pain, but that was most likely because he was too numb or out of it or both to really feel anything except a slight pressure being pulled from his body. Both spikes were covered in muck and gook that would have easily made any normal living person vomit up everything that was in their stomach. Luckily for the furniture-and what furniture it was stalactites and stalagmites that dropped thousands of feet down and rose thousands of feet high, respectively-the people there weren't living: normal or otherwise.

When both spikes were safely out, the person with the gloved hands threw them to the side. "Now the mouth. Be quiet now. We can free you if you stay quiet," The calm, comforting voice from before spoke before a pair of hands gripped an end of a paper clip and pulled, ripping the metal out along with some flesh from Bolduric's lips. The flesh-smeared paper clip was discarded right next to where the spikes were. This was repeated over and over again: gripping n end of a paper clip, ripping it out, pieces of flesh stuck to the thin piece of metal, and tossing the paper clips away. In the end, there were twelve paper clips in all. Some of them were interwoven with each so that when one was pulled out the other was, too, taking even more flesh with it. Bolduric's lips were a travesty that only a cannibal could love. The whole middle section of both the upper and lower lips were torn away with jagged, noticeable chunks taken everywhere else. In the right crease between the two lips was a jagged line that made it look like Bolduric had some sort of a twisted smile permanently on his dessicated face.

Bolduric tried to speak, but only intelligible mutterings came out, which was understandable seeing as Bolduric had a big hole through his brain, his tongue, and his jaw.

"Don't worry. The blood in your gut was only to wake you up. We have something better back at...the place," The person's voice was still calm, but now with an edge of uneasiness. Even in a room full of the tortured remains of Bal's playthings, it was still unwise to give away information that someone could tell Balthazar. Getting over the sudden case of paranoia, the now completely soothing voice directed the other people who were probably just standing around plus the one who poured the blood. Some people pulled up several metal spikes that trailed all the way from both of Bolduric's knees to the middle of each foot. While two others each got one of Bolduric's arms. They were laying next to the burly vamp's intestine and were, therefore, cover in a great deal of blood. At last, the person with the calming voice scooped Bolduric up in its comforting arms and whisked him away from the caverns of sorrows, pain, and despair toward an unknown future. The other people followed quickly behind the soothing one's back, careful not to make any noise or alert anyone to their presence who weren't alerted already by what they just did.

Director Bella Dohn was watching on top of an abandoned building that used to be an apartment building across from another apartment buildings that no longer served humans(Well not in the obvious way, anyway.She thought with a short chuckle). The image below was like a scene out of hell. The exits were blocked on both sides by several people's cars. People fought each other-mother against father, sister against brother, old man against old woman-as they tried their best to save themselves, more often than not damning themselves and the people they were pushing against. Fireworks still shattered across the sky, shining its faraway light onto this crammed picture of hell. There tens of vampires moving through the crowd. Some raced to the exits-the end of the blocks-and hid and ate the ones that came running out, hope swelling in their chests in time for despair to swoop in and take its place. Bella Dohn couldn't help but laugh at this, the lovely sound lost among the screams and fireworks.

While she was laughing she spotted what she came here for. A blond killing people left, right, up, down with a brunet never more than a foot from him at times. To Bella Dohn, the brunet looked bored as he fed from his prey. From Bella Dohn's perch, she couldn't see the shimmer of hunger in his eyes or the decent bulge that all too often poked through the opening in the boxers, revealing Darren;'s cock to the word. That is, until Steve spots it himself and tucks it back in. Even if she did see and know all that, it would have mattered to her as much as a little girl screaming for help and crying out for her mama before being brutally sodomized and exsanguinated(like what was happening down in several areas in the square now except with some little boys, grown boys, and grown girls thrown in, too). In other words, she didn't give a shit. All she cared about was that she found what she sent to find and that her time away from her family was finally coming to a close. Her eyes became a bright red.

With a cry of passion, hunger, and overwhelming desire that would have made Bacchus himself proud, Bella Dohn jumped off the roof and into the fray of slaughter, caving a thirty-something man's skull in when she landed. She stepped out of his crumpled body and regarded who she knew were going to be her first real food in so very long. There was a woman, a ardently crying baby in said woman's arms, and two little kids that couldn't be older than ten each around her.

"Oops! I'm sorry. I didn't mean to kill your da like that," She apologized, sounding genuinely sorry. "I would have rather ate him with all of you. Oh well, one short of a full course meal, but-" She flashed the petrified family, too scared to speak-except the baby who continued to scream like there was no tomorrow which for it was true, a toothy grin."-I'll make do." She attacked, breaking the mom's knees with one swing of her right foot and clamping down on children's shoulders with her hands. The baby-still in the mother's arms-cried even louder if that's possible as Bella Dohn made short work of the kids, its siblings. "Now on to, sweetie." "Don't fret. I'll save your baby for last. That's the most I will do," Bella Dohn grinned kindly when she noticed like protectively the mother held her doom infant to her bosom.

I hoped you like it. Yes. Darren's emotions are a bit...buried. The how will eventually be explained.

But anyway, how did you like the carnage and the way I'm skipping whole events with nothing but my WILL(I'm awesome, I know XD)? But srsly, the gaps in what happened with/to Bolduric will be revealed later as also who Director Bella Dohn is(even though I'm pretty sure everyone knows by now).

The next update? Most likely September(early-ish).

P.S. I'm thinking of making a Steve/Darren oneshot fanfic series based on people's prompts. What do you think? Should I do it? Should I just focus on the stories I already have? Should I climb to the tippy-top of Mt. Olympus and live among the Gods? You can even send in prompts if you want. I may not pick them, but I also may will.(bad grammar, I know)

P.S.S. So, reviews, critiques, flames? I'll take them all, but please remember to at least give me something to help me improve my stories if you decided to flame(which is kinda the opposite but...).

Love you all!

08/22/2010