Sorry for this chapter being a bit short but it seemed like a good place to end it. I have tried to improve my formatting and grammer errors so hopefully this will read easier than previous chapters. Please let me know if it has improved and any ways I can make it better.

DISCLAIMER - Harry Potter and Darren Shan aren't mine so please don't sue me.

Chapter 3. The Consequences of Disobedience.

Darren had now returned to the Cirque du Freak for some reason he no longer felt angry, he was unsure as to why he had run away in the first place and now all he felt was deep confusion. It was still daylight and Mr Crepsley wouldn't be up for another few hours at least. Somehow Darren could tell his memory was incomplete. He remembered storming away from the Cirque after Mr Crepsley had gone to sleep. There had been a loud bang which had made him jump. He had fallen backwards, then he had been bound and carried away by a gigantic hairy man and then he had found himself standing in the same place he had been kidnapped from. There were no signs of the trap he had fallen into and judging by the position of the sun in the sky most of the day had passed but Darren could not remember what had happened in the missing hours no matter how hard he tried. He was also very tired, and once again he couldn't remember why. So he lay down in the hammock that was set up next to Mr Crepsley's coffin and fell asleep.

After Darren had been kidnapped and he had been informed of it Mr Crepsley had immediately used the training in tracking he had learnt in the generals and followed the boys trail. Said trail had disappeared abruptly but there had been a strange smell, which had Larten did not recognise nor did it do anything to put him at ease, and there had been signs of a fight on the ground. He had spent all the available hours that night searching fruitlessly for his lost assistant before facing defeat at the rising of the sun and returning to the Cirque to consult the one person he thought might be able to point him in Darren's direction. All Mr Tall had been willing to tell him was that Darren was in no immediate danger and that Larten would be reunited with him in the future. Mr Crepsley had pressed for more information but Mr Tall would not give it even though Larten had been sure that the mysterious man new more. Tired from his fruitless search Larten had retired to his coffin for the day in the hope that sleep would bring him ideas, what it actually brought him was far better than a simple idea. His assistant was returned to him as he slept.

Larten awoke as soon as the sun was fully set and arose to continue his search. He didn't know how he was going to have any more success today than yesterday but he was still going to try. He looked wistfully over at the empty hammock that Darren should have been sleeping in and sighed. He started to leave, but stopped quickly to look back at the empty hammock only it wasn't empty. Larten was full of mixed emotions, hope that Darren was in the hammock, anger at Darren for running away, sadness that his assistant had been kidnapped in the first place, and more anger at the thought of someone else in Darren's hammock. Whoever was in that hammock was going to be getting a beating for one reason or another and when he saw the shape of the twelve year old boy he realised it was indeed Darren. Larten's mind now only held two emotions, relief and anger in equal measure. He reached for a glass of water on the shelf above the hammock and threw it across the sleeping boys face, Darren was getting up whether he wanted to or not, the boy was going to explain what had happened even if Larten had to beat it out of him!

"So, you see fit to waltz back in here and simply go to bed like nothing has happened do you boy. I … think … not! Explain yourself now!" Larten roared. What little colour that had been in the boy's face drained away instantly as he looked up and saw his mentor standing above him physically shaking from pent up anger. Oh crap Darren thought I'm seriously for it this time!

"Some random bloke tied me up in the forest, then I was back here, I can't remember anything else," Darren stated.

This was quite obviously the wrong thing to say as he felt a sharp pain as Mr Crepsley's hand made contact with his left ear. "What the heck was that for," Darren wailed.

"If you did not wish to beaten then you should not have disobeyed me," Mr Crepsley shouted,

"You know you are not leave my company at the moment." He roared,

"you went out during the day whilst I was asleep thus you wilfully disobeyed my command. Now Darren you are going to tell me where you have been, whether you want to do so or not is completely irrelevant!"

"I told you I was in the woods," Whack. Mr Crepsley had cuffed Darren around the other ear this time.

"Do not lie to me!" he roared

"I followed your sent, you were not in the forestry you say you were in. I would have found you. I have been searching for two days now. Darren's face was now a picture of confusion, which did not go unnoticed by Mr Crepsley. From Darren's point of view he hadn't been anywhere other than the forestry and he certainly hadn't been gone for two whole days, but Mr Crepsley was not known for exaggeration and normally he was perfectly truthful. Darren hadn't noticed Mr Crepsley's features soften at his obvious confusion so he saw no way to escape a severe beating for lying. He bolted for the door, in an attempt to escape being beaten.

As fast as Darren was he was only a half vampire which meant he had never had any hope of outrunning his full vampire mentor. Had he been thinking clearly he would never have even attempted to do so, but a side effect of the memory charm placed upon him was that, Darren wasn't thinking straight! As soon as Darren started to run Mr Crepsley moved, with the speed of a full vampire, to block the exit. To anyone watching it would have appeared that Larten Crepsley had simply vanished and reappeared in the doorway. Darren tried to duck under his mentor's outstretched arm and as he did so the vampire stuck his leg out. Their was a loud crack as Darren's legs were swept from under him, causing the boy to land flat on his face. The speed with which Darren had collided with Mr Crepsley's outstretched leg caused the bones in Darren's lower leg to break.

Larten Crepsley had not intended to injure his assistant merely stop him from running away again. But in doing so he had broken the boys leg. This was more than punishment enough for Darren's misdemeanor so the beating he had planned to give the boy later was now out of the question. He scooped the shocked child off the floor and lay him back in his hammock before drawing up a chair beside it. His expression was soft now and when he spoke the anger in his voice and was all but abated.

"Why did you try and run Darren? Yes I would have beaten you for disobeying me, and for lying to me, but you would not have ended up with a broken leg, or any broken bones for that matter." There was warmth and kindness in Mr Crepsley's voice now.

"I panicked." Darren said.

He knew that Mr Crepsley had not meant to injure him, and that it had been his fault his leg was broken. The pain of the injury had brought him back to his senses, although the memory charm had not been broken the side effects had lifted. Darren now realized his best course of action and now his only course of action had always been to tell the truth as he saw it.

"I was angry that you won't let me be alone anymore, so I tried to run away." Darren said,

"There was this big bang in the forest and I jumped back, I fell and was tied up and then suddenly I was standing again like nothing had happened. It was evening now, not morning like it was when I was running away. I had calmed down as well, so I came back here. Then you woke me up and started having a go at me." The last sentence was uttered in the unmistakable whine only a child can manage.

"If that is all you recall I will not ask any more questions something has obviously affected your memory since you cannot recall the last two days." With a sly smile Mr Crepsley added "Obviously it also affected your reasoning. You should have known you had no hope of outrunning me."

Mr Crepsley did something he had never done before and gave Darren a hug like a father would if his son had been hurt. He then splinted Darren's leg as he did so he thought had Darren not realized why he was keeping him so close at the moment?

"You do know why I haven't be letting you go out alone do you not Darren?" Mr Crepsley asked as he wrapped bandages around Darren's leg.

"No, I didn't dare ask. I thought you'd beat me for questioning your decisions," Darren replied.

"Do you really think that lowly of me?" Mr Crepsley sounded slightly hurt that Darren was thinking that he would beat his assistant unfairly. "Where a decision I make relates directly to you, you have a right to know why, I would not punish when you had done nothing wrong. I had not told you because I assumed you had smelt them too. Darren the reason you were, and still are, to stay with me at all times is someone with a near human sent, not a vampire or a vampaneze but not a normal human either, has been following us for quite some time. I wanted you close because I feared for your safety and as you have just been kidnapped it is clear that my fears were not unfounded."