When we finally arrived at Mr. Tall's van Evin and I were exhausted. When I woke up this morning all I wanted were answers, I thought. "Would you like anything to drink before we begin?" Mr. Tall asked.
"No thank you," we replied in unison.
"Well then Larten take it away."
Larten Crepsley started to explain how he and Darren were vampires and that what I saw Darren doing was feeding. He told of the split between the vampires and vampanezes. That vampaneze felt that it was wrong to drink from a victim and not kill. He told us how the vampaneze's appearance had change. He told us so many things it made my head spin.
Mr. Tall glanced at the vampires, as I finally accepted what they said was true, "Well you two are welcome to stay here at the cirque until you make your decisions of what to do next."
I glanced at Evin she'd been crying silently the whole time. "That would be wonderful, thank you," I said putting on the best smile I could muster. I hadn't cried the whole time, so I had a lump in the back of my throat making it hard to keep my voice even. "May I please have some water?"
"Of course," Mr. Tall said fetching a bottle of water.
"Thanks," I murmured. Then Evin and I followed Mr. Tall to where we'd be sleeping. Once I was sure he was gone and Evin had fallen into a deep sleep I let myself cry. I cried non-stop until about 3 when I fell asleep exhausted.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Darren's POV~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
When Hibernius (A/N Mr. Tall) returned I finally spoke, "it was my fault."
"What would make you say that Darren?" Larten asked.
"If I hadn't attacked the one and left a flyer behind they would have been with their mothers tonight," I explained. "Then there could have been two outcomes a) the vampaneze that that attacked their mothers would have given up, or b) they would have attacked the girls too."
"There's always the c option," Larten said.
"Oh, and what is that?" I asked coldly.
"C) The vampaneze could take them away and offer to change them into vampaneze. Also if Mr. Tiny had a hand in this it is quite possible that he would force them to become vampaneze," Larten said.
"I wouldn't doubt that my father had a hand in this," Hibernius said at last. By this time it had reached 4, "well gentlemen I am going to bed."
"Hibernius, where did you put the girls?" I asked quietly.
"Next to the Vons," he yawned.
I nodded in thanks and left. I then headed towards the newly erected tent next to the Vons. When the entrance to the girls tent I saw a figure exiting, holding another smaller figure in its arms. More importantly the larger figure was purple, a vampaneze. "No!" I roared, I could not, would not lose her when it was my fault that she was in this situation. The vampaneze saw me and ran soon he would hit flitting speed, so I ran faster, we hit flitting speed at the same time but I was faster. I was gaining on him then he vanished I looked at the grown and saw a manhole uncovered. My heart sank, even though I knew it would be a fruitless attempt to follow him knowing that I was bound to lose him in the maze like tunnels of the sewers.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Evin's POV~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I awoke to the roar of 'no'. I sat up alarmed, "Madison," I said, sitting up looking to where Madison was sleeping or at least was supposed to be. Madison was missing. My heart was racing as I ran out of the tent, and what I saw made my heart stop Darren chasing a vampaneze and in the vampaneze's arms was Madison.
To my left was the snake-man and Shancas, "Evin!" Shancas exclaimed. "What are you doing here?"
"Never mind that, we need to get help Darren is chasing a vampaneze that kidnapped Madison," I explained hurriedly.
"Evin go tell Mr. Tall," the snake-man said. "Shancas go find Mr. Crepsley and tell him."
"Right Dad," Shancas said. I just nodded and ran to Mr. Tall's van.
Mr. Tall answered his door right as I reached it panting, "What's happened?" he asked exhibiting his knack of reading minds.
"Vampaneze. Kidnapped Madison. Darren chasing." I panted.
"Which way?" he asked more alertly.
"That way," I pointed.
"Right," he said and dashed in the direction I was pointing.
By the time I reached the Shancas's tent Mr. Tall and the snake-man were standing outside the tents talking. "Then the one girl, Evin I think, said that a vampaneze had kidnapped the other one."
At that moment Mr. Crepsley arrived. "What has happened?" he asked. "Shancas said something about Madison, a vampaneze and Darren."
"Darren's chasing a vampaneze that kidnapped Madison!" I shouted for what felt like 10th time.
Mr. Crepsley looked at the sky, it was getting I pinkish tint to it. "There is about an hour until sun rise. That is not enough time to find Darren and your friend. I apologize, Evin but all we can do is have faith that Darren succeeds in recuing her," he said and turned to walk away.
"Coward," I muttered under my breath.
"What did you call me?" he asked coldly.
"Coward," I said clearly.
"Insolent little girl do you think that if I thought that I could find Darren and your friend that I would not try?" he yelled furiously.
"I suppose not," I said losing the fight I had a moment ago.
"You must rest," said Mr. Tall. "Evra," he continued addressing the snake- man, "may she stay with you?"
"Of course," Evra said. "Evra Von," he said to me.
"Von what?" I asked.
"Just Von," he replied, then led me into his and his family's tent.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Darren's POV~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
When I finally found them I saw Madison unconscious the vampaneze crouching over her, his fingertips on hers. He was blooding her I thought furiously. "No," I yell, tackling the vampaneze.
"What the-?" he said.
"I challenge you to a fight," I said as the vampaneze scramble to his feet. "Hand to hand no weapons to the death."
"I accept your challenge vampire," he said, and seeing the look on my face he added, "You have my word no weapons."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Madison's POV~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
When I came to the first thing I realized was that I was bleeding from my finger tips. The second was that there was a battle raging in front of me. I put this out of my mind instead focusing on trying to stop my fingers from bleeding. I only looked up when I heard a loud crack and saw Darren holding a lifeless vampaneze by the throat in one hand and his head in the other. He then walked over to me.
"Let me see your hands," he said crouching down. I show them to him, he took them each in turn and spat spit into the cuts and rubbed it in. When I looked at them I saw that they had closed leaving 10 scars 1 on each finger. "Come on let's get back to the cirque before sunrise or we will be trapped down here. Clime on my back we'll move faster."
I must have fallen asleep while on Darren's back because I awoke to Shancas yelling, "Dad I finished milking and washing the snakes!" Then he spotted me, "Madison you're awake."
"Is that some surprise?" I asked, "What time is it?"
"4:30," he replied. "You have been out for almost 12 hours."
"What?!!? Where's Evin? What happened?" I was panicking now. I had awoken to find out that I had been out cold for 12 hours and that I now have 10 scars on my fingers and no recollection of getting them.
"Relax, I can take you to Evin right now," he said in a soothing tone. "She's helping to prepare dinner; in fact it should be done soon. Come on follow me."
I slid off the bed and started to follow him out when I realized that my t-shirt had blood all over it, "Shancas is there a clean shirt I can change into?"
"Oh yeah, sorry I forgot here," he said tossing me a shirt. "Come out when you're finished."
After I changed I went out and followed Shancas to where a group of people were putting out plates and silverware. I kept my head down not wanting to draw attention to myself, all the while noticing that everything looked a little brighter.
"There she is," Shancas said, pulling me out of my reverie. Yes there she was talking to Cormac Limbs.
I started making my way towards her when I was intercepted by Mr. Tall, "Good to see you're awake."
"Good to be awake," I said.
"Darren wants to see you after dinner."
"Okay, where?"
"He said he would meet you in this area so don't wander off," he said then walked away.
On that confused note I ran to Evin, noticing that I was running faster than usual. It was all very confusing, yesterday it would have taken me 3 minutes to get to Evin but I got to her in 1. "Evin!" I yelled.
"Madison!" she yelled, hopping up and giving me a hug. "You were asleep for so long I began to think you'd never wake up. Oh here meet Cormac Limbs."
"Pleasure to meet you-," he began, extending his hand.
"Madison," I said coldly, ignoring his hand.
"Now you aren't still bent out of shape about the whole hand thing are you?"
I glared at him.
"I will take that as a yes," said Cormac letting his hand fall down by his side.
"Come on Mad," Evin said, "you can't blame him for where his hand landed."
"Can't I?" I asked glowering. I shook my head, "sorry I'm just really hungry. You know me I get moody."
"Hey I don't blame you. You missed your midnight snack, breakfast, and lunch. Anyone would be moody," she said.
I was thankful that at that moment dinner was being served because I didn't realize how hungry I was. I ate two servings of stew, all the while listening to the conversations around me.
As the sun set Darren showed up carrying a bowl of stew and an empty glass, he sat down next to me and pulled out a vile of dark red liquid and poured it into the glass. "Cormac please leave," he said interrupting his and Evin's conversation. Cormac obliged without arguing. "Madison I am about to deliver some bad news so decide now if you want your friend there to hear it too."
"Evin," I said. "Do you want to hear bad news with me?"
"Sure, why not?" she said and sat next to me facing Darren.
"Want some?" he offered, tilting the glass towards me.
"No, I don't want any blood," I said realizing that that was what his drink was.
"Hm," he chuckled. "I can tell now," he said to himself.
"Tell what?" I asked kind of rudely.
"That you're going to have the same me."
"What do you mean?"
"I'm going to be bunt about this," he said and drew a deep breath, "the vampaneze blooded you."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~-~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A/N the end ^.^ yes I am evil.