Chapter 11: Gillian

The House of the Shans was at the other side of town.
Gillian glanced at the sky and gave a curse. The sky was too bright, until the twilight it would be one hour still. The quickest way would be to flit. But it was unwise to move with supernatural speed of a vampire in broad daylight.
What if she would be seen?
Therefore Gillian only flit through the forest to the road, where she stopped a taxi.
She named the address, and slammed the door shut.
"And quick, I'm in a hurry!"
The fat man behind the wheel gave her an amused look, whereupon Gillian took a handful of dollars from her boot shaft and threw them on the dashboard.
"As you wish, young lady," muttered the driver. "But buckle up, please."
Gillian impatiently tugged the belt out and clicked it on.
The man stepped on the gas, and as they flew through the city, Gillian stared morosely at the bank notes fluttering gently in front of the air conditioner.
She had wanted to buy new boots with them.
The vampire and she lived on the small money, which they got for their performances in the circus. And that was not much. Of course, they needed neither money for food or for rent or electricity, and paid no taxes. But sometimes the money was very scarce, and Gillian longed for one or the other little comfort.
Like these boots she had seen in the city a few weeks ago, and since then she diligently saved her few dollars.
The taxi driver kept his word and wriggled the cab through the dense evening traffic, ignoring the angry honking behind him.
Faster than hoped, they arrived in the neighborhood in which the house of Darren's parents stood between similar looking middle class apartments.
Gillian made the driver stop in a side street, because she did not want to stop directly in front of the house, and jumped out of the car. "The rest is for you!"
Then she slipped through the neighbors gardens to the house of the Shans.
It was still too bright to wrap herself in shadows, even while narrow stripes of gray appeared at the horizon. She did not know whether she wished the darkness to come fast or not. On one hand she felt very helpless and naked without- she was used to make herself almost invisible in darkness – on the other hand nightfall meant, that others could be on their way here.
Mr Tiny's servants.
Or even vampaneze.
The house was quiet, no car was in the driveway.
No trace of Darren.
Gillian circled around the house, and found an upstairs window that was open. She looked over her shoulder, and when she was sure that no one was watching her, she slipped under the porch, and climbed on the railing to pull herself up on the roof.
Quickly, she glanced back over her shoulder before she swung over the sill into the room beyond.
She remained crouched where she was, until she was sure that no one was in the room.
It was a bathroom.
The door was ajar, and Gillian tried to hear anything.
When everything was quiet, she darted into the hallway and glanced into the adjoining rooms.
There she found Darren.

He sat on the bed in his room, staring at an old plastic toy in his hand.

Gillian slipped quietly into the room, and shut the door behind her.
Darren looked up startled as the door clicked softly.
"Darren," she hissed. "Are you stupid to run away, just to come here?"
Darren put the toy aside and slid off the bed nervously. "You don`t understand! For you it's all cool to hang out in dark basements and such, but I have not wanted this! "
"You can not go back. They think you're dead "
"I know that! But I couldn`t resist. I had to see, if they're doing fine. "He made a helpless gesture, which included his room and the sleeping room of his parents next door.
Gillian listening to any sounds in the house.
"They are not here."
Gillian eased off a bit, but wanted to leave as quickly as possible.
Darren went around the room.
"They have everything left here like it was on that day," he said in a choked voice, and ran his fingers over an open book on his desk.
"We must go now, Darren." Gillian sounded harsh.
"This is not easy for me, ok? You and Crepsley, ye do always so cool, but you've also have had friends and even parents once. How was it for you, when you had to separate forever from your father? "
Gillian looked at him coldly with black eyes. Her face was expressionless, as she said: "I've never known my father, and I hate my mother. I had always to stand on my own. If anyone has ever been anything like a father to me, then it is Larten Crepsley. "
Darren stared at her.
"And how would it be for you, to have to leave him?"
Darren saw that his words had stroked her, turned away from her, and wanted to go to the door, but Gillian grabbed his wrist.
"Where are you going?", she hissed.
"To my sister Annie. She comes home back soon, I will wait for her in her room. "
Gillian increased the pressure on his wrist.
"Ow! Don`t worry, I `ll hide in the closet, I will not show me. "
"You're just making everything worse. It will just make it more difficult for you to say goodbye to them finally. "

Gillian and Darren stared at each other like two cats in a duel.
Finally she let go of his wrist and said: "Also, you bring them in danger. What if the house is under observation and they just wait for you to come back here? Mr Tiny's after you. And perhaps the vampaneze, too. "
The sundown cast long shadows in the room, bathing everything in a blue glow.
"What are vampaneze?"
"Dangerous vampires. Vampires, who have no control. Come on now. We better go."

She left Darren, and went to the window to open it. She jumped on the window sill and looked through her long black hair back to him. "Are you coming?"
Darren nodded.
Gillian let herself simply fall, followed by her dress like a fluttering wing.

Darren had not yet taken the few steps to the window sill, when he heard a thud and a muffled groan.
He rushed to the window and stuck his head out. "Gillian?"
The garden was already in the dark, and Darren came just in time to see how Gillian was thrown by an unknown force hardly against a tree, that it gave a loud crash, and shook the tree up to the top.
"Gillian!"
A man emerged from the shadow of a bush and looked up to the window.
Darren flinched and ducked under the sill. Who was that? The man had looked wild and dangerous.
Darren jumped up and ran across the short hallway, skidded down the stairs and rushed out the front door on the other side of the house. He ran around the corner into the dark garden, and just came in time to see how a figure plunged with sharp teeth and claw-shaped hands on the girl, who was still lying collapsed at the foot of the tree.
But Gillian was not unconscious. She had waited until the man lunged at her and gave him at the last second a kick with both her legs. The attacker flew away, though not as far and hard as she had flown. She immediately got to her feet and took a combative position, but the stranger picked himself up so fast, that Darren could hardly see the movement.
He immediately realized that the attacker was not human. The man was a vampire.
Or maybe even one of this terrible vampaneze, Gillian had mentioned to him?
His blood froze in his veins, and he stood as if paralyzed.
A black shadow shot towards him, and somewhere deep inside him, he realized that now the moment had come, to use what he had learned from Gillian. But he was still paralyzed and his muscles would not obey him. A hard blow struck him on the shoulder and he fell to the ground.
Black silky hair whipped him in the face, and he realized that Gillian had thrown herself over him to prevent him to be caught by the man.
Gillian screamed and as she rolled away from him and sit down panting beside him, crouched on her knees, he saw, that she pressed her hands to her right side.
She was hurt.
The sharp claws of the man made several deep cuts in her side, and Gillian drew a sharp breath between her teeth, before she hissed: "Run."
And when he did not react she repeated: "Run away!"
And Darren did run.