by Darren Shan
During the confusion, Morgan James and Darius regrouped around R.V.
Alice, Debbie, Harkat and Vancha hung back, unable to pursue them for fear that R.V. would kill Shancus.
"Let him go!" Merla screamed, eyes filled with tears of desperation.
"Make me!" R.V. jeered.
"You can't get out of here," Vancha said as R.V. backed away.
"Who's going to stop us?" R.V. mocked him.
Evra was back on his feet and he made to run after the retreating trio. R.V. dug his hooks deeper into Shancus's throat. "No you don't!" he sang, and Evra froze.
"Please," Debbie said, lowering her pistol. "Release the boy and we'll let you leave unharmed."
"You're in no position to make deals," R.V. laughed.
"What do you want?" I shouted.
"The snake-boy," R.V. giggled.
"He's no good to you." I took a determined step forward. "Take me instead. I'll swap for Shancus."
I expected R.V. to leap at my offer, but he only shook his head slyly, red eyes shining. "Stuff it, Shan," he said. "We're taking the boy. If you get in our way, he dies."
I glanced around at my allies nobody was reacting. The vampaneze had us in a bind. Vancha could move with the speed of a full-vampire, and Debbie and Alice both had guns. But R.V. could kill Shancus before any of us could stop him.
R.V., Morgan James and Darius continued to back away. R.V. and James were grinning, but Darius looked the same way he'd looked after shooting me scared and slightly sickened.
Then, as the rest of us hesitated, Mr Tall spoke. "I cannot allow this."
R.V. paused uncertainly. "This is none of your business!" he shouted. "Keep your nose out of it."
"You have made it my business," Mr Tall disagreed quietly. "This is my home. These are my people. I must intervene."
"Don't be a" R.V. yelled, but before he got any further, Mr Tall was upon him. He moved at a supernatural speed which even a vampire couldn't match. In less than a flash of an eye he was in front of R.V., his hands on the lunatic's hooks. He wrenched them away from Shancus's throat, tore two of the hooks off the left hand, and one off the right.
"My hands!" R.V. screamed in agony, as though the gold and silver hooks were part of his flesh. "Leave my hands alone, you"
Whatever foul name he shouted was lost in the burst of a gun retort. Morgan James, who'd been standing next to R.V., had jammed the tip of his rifle hard into Mr Tall's ribs and pulled the trigger. A bullet fired down the chamber of the rifle at a merciless speed then ripped through the ribcage of the defenceless Hibernius Tall!
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Mr Tall's midriff erupted in a fountain of dark red blood and white chips of bone. For a moment he stood, gripping R.V.'s hooks, as though nothing had happened. Then he collapsed, blood pumping out of the hole, his stomach torn to shreds.
R.V. and Darius stared numbly at Mr Tall as he fell. Then Morgan James screamed at them to run. In a ragged unit they fled, R.V. clutching Shancus, James firing wildly at us over his shoulder.
Nobody followed. Our eyes were all on Mr Tall. He was blinking rapidly, hands exploring the hole in his middle, lips torn back over his small black teeth. I don't think anybody knew how old Mr Tall was, or where he'd come from. But he was older than any vampire, a being of immense magic and power. It was mind-boggling to think that he could have been brought low in so simple and violent a manner.
Debbie snapped to her senses first and rushed towards Mr Tall, dropping her pistol, meaning to go to his aid. The rest of us took a step after her
and stopped instantly when somebody spoke from the shadows of a nearby van. "Your concern is commendable, but utterly worthless. Keep back, please."
A small man waddled forward, smiling glibly. He was dressed in a sharp yellow suit and green Wellington boots. He had white hair, thick glasses, and a heart-shaped watch which he was twirling in his left hand.Desmond Tiny! Behind him came his daughter, the witch, Evanna short, muscular, hairy, clad in ropes instead of clothes. She had a small nose, pointed ears, a thin beard, and mismatched eyes, one brown, one green.
We gawped at the strange pair as they stopped beside the gasping Mr Tall and gazed down at him. Evanna's face was strained. Mr Tiny looked only curious. With his right foot, he nudged Mr Tall where he'd been shot. Mr Tall hissed with pain.
"Leave him alone!" Debbie shouted.
"Shut up, please, or I'll kill you," Mr Tiny replied. Though he said it sweetly, I've no doubt he would have struck Debbie down dead if she'd said another word. Fortunately, she realized that too, and she held her tongue, trembling.
"So, Hibernius," Mr Tiny said. "Your time here comes to an end."
"You knew it would," Mr Tall replied, and his voice was remarkably firm.
"Yes," Mr Tiny nodded. "But didyou know?"
"I guessed."
"You could have turned aside from it. Your fate was never directly linked to these mortals."
"For me, it was," Mr Tall said. He was shivering badly, a dark pool of blood spreading out around him. Evanna took a step aside to avoid the blood, but Mr Tiny let it flow around his boots, staining the soles.
"Tiny!" Vancha snapped. "Can you save him?"
"No," Mr Tiny replied simply. Then he bent over Mr Tall and spread the fingers of his right hand. He placed his middle finger in the centre of Mr Tall's forehead, the adjoining fingers over his eyes, and held the thumb and little finger out at the sides. "Even in death, may you be triumphant," he said with surprising softness then removed his fingers.
"Thank you, Father," Mr Tall said. He glanced up at Evanna. "Goodbye, Sister."
"I will remember you," the witch answered as the rest of us looked on, stunned by the revelation. I'd known about Evanna's twin brother, born, as she was, of a union between Mr Tiny and a wolf. I'd just never guessed it was Mr Tall. Evanna bent and kissed her brother's forehead. Mr Tall smiled, then his body shook, his eyes went wide, his neck stiffened and he died.
Mr Tiny stood and turned. There was one round tear of blood in the corner of each eye. "My son is dead," he said, in the same tone he'd have used to comment on the weather.
"We didn't know!" Vancha gasped.
"He never cared to speak of his parentage." Mr Tiny chuckled and kicked the dead Mr Tall's head aside with the heel of his left foot. "I don't know why."
I growled when he kicked Mr Tall, and started towards him angrily. Harkat and Vancha did the same.
"Gentlemen," Evanna said quietly. "If you waste time picking a fight with my father, the killers will escape with the young Von boy."
We stopped short. I'd momentarily forgotten about Shancus and the danger he was in. The others had too. Now that we'd been reminded, we shook our heads and snapped out of our daze.
"We have to chase them," Vancha said.
"But what about Mr Tall?" Debbie cried.
"He's dead," Vancha sniffed. "Let hisfamily care for him."
Mr Tiny laughed at that, but we couldn't afford to pay him any further heed. Grouping together without discussing it, the five of us set off. "Wait!" Evra shouted. I looked back and saw him exchange a wordless look with Merla. She half-nodded and he ran after us. "I'm coming too," he said.
Nobody argued. Accepting Evra into our ranks, we raced away from Merla, Urcha, Mr Tiny, Evanna and the dead Mr Tall, and hurried through the campsite in pursuit of Shancus and his kidnappers.
As soon as we cleared the tunnel leading out of the stadium, we saw that our quarry had split. To our right,
R.V. was running away with Shancus, headed into the heart of town. To our left, Morgan James and Darius fled down the hill towards a river which flowed close by the stadium.
Vancha took charge and made a swift decision. "Alice and Evra with me. We'll go after R.V. and Shancus. Darren, Harkat and Debbie take Morgan James and the boy."
I'd rather have gone to Shancus's rescue, but Vancha was more experienced than me. Nodding obediently, I swung left with Harkat and Debbie and we set off after the ki
ller and his apprentice. My headache had flared up savagely and I was half-blind as I flailed down the hill. Also, the sounds of my feet on the pavement as I ran were torture on my ears. Still, as a half-vampire I could run faster than Harkat or Debbie, and I'd soon pulled ahead and was rapidly closing the gap on Morgan James and Darius.
James and Darius stopped when they heard me coming and spun to face my charge. I should have waited for Harkat and Debbie, rather than face them on my own, armed only with a knife. But rage had taken hold of me. I forged on heedlessly as they fired, James with his rifle, Darius with his arrow-gun. By the luck of the vampires, their bullets and arrows missed, and seconds later I was upon them, wild with fury, intent on revenge.
James swung at me with the butt of his rifle. It struck my right shoulder, where I'd been shot by Darius. I roared with pain but didn't falter. I stabbed at James with my knife, aiming for his half-mangled face. He ducked, and Darius punched me in the ribs as I slid past. I swatted the boy aside and stabbed at James again. He laughed and grabbed me tight, wrestling me to the ground.
My face was pressed up close to the left side of Morgan James's head. The skin was wrinkled and red, his teeth exposed behind the thin flesh of his lips, his eye a horrible glob in the middle of a ruined, scarred mess.
"Lyhk iht?" James gurgled.
"Lovely!" I sneered, rolling on top of him, poking for his eyes with my thumbs.
"Uh'm gonna duh the shahm tuh yuh!" James vowed, breaking my grip and driving his knee up into my stomach.
"We'll see!" I grunted, falling away slightly, then coming back at him. I managed to stick my knife in, but only into his arm. I was aware of the boy battering me with his arrow-gun, trying to beat me off. I ignored him and focused on Morgan James. I was stronger than the vampet, but he was larger and a seasoned fighter. He wriggled beneath me, digging his knees and elbows into the flesh of my stomach and groin, spitting into my eyes. There was a painful white light building inside my head. I felt like screaming and clapping my hands over my ears. But instead I bit into the flesh of James's upper left arm and ripped a chunk away.
James screeched like a cat and shoved me off, lent strength by his pain. As I fell aside, Darius kicked me hard in the head and I lost my bearings for a second or two. When I recovered, James was on top of me. He pushed my head back with his left hand and brought up my own knife which I'd dropped in the fight with his right, meaning to slitmy throat.
I grabbed for the knife. Missed. Grabbed again. Knocked it aside. Grabbed a third time then stopped, tensed my muscles and shut my eyes. James gave a little shiver of delight. He thought I'd given up. What he didn't realize was that I'd caught sight of Harkat behind him, swinging his axe.
There was a whishing sound Darius started to shout a warning then a heavy thud. My eyes opened. I caught a glimpse of Morgan James's head rolling away into darkness, severed from its body by one powerful blow of Harkat's axe. Then blood gushed from the stump of James's neck. I shut my eyes again as I was drenched in a burst of hot red liquid. James fell over lifelessly. I pushed myself up, opened my eyes, wiped blood from my face, and slid out from beneath the beheaded body of Morgan James.
Darius was standing next to me, staring numbly at his felled companion. Blood had hit the boy also, drenching his trousers. I stood. My legs were trembling. My head was filled with white noise. Blood congealed in my hair and dripped from my face. I wanted to be sick. But I knew what I must do. Hatred motivated me.
Snatching my knife back from Morgan James's lifeless hand, I pressed the blade to the flesh of Darius's throat and grabbed his hair with my free hand. I was snarling as I pressed down hard on the knife, neither human nor vampire. I'd become a savage animal set on taking a young boy's life.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Debbie stopped me. "No!" she screamed, racing up behind me. There was such terror in her voice, that even in the midst of my bloodlust, I paused. She pulled up beside me, panting hard, eyes wide with horror. "No!" she wheezed, shaking her head desperately.
"Why not?" I snarled.
"He's a child!" she cried.
"No he's Steve Leopard's son," I contradicted her. "A killer, like his father."
"He hasn't killed anyone," Debbie objected. "Morgan James killed Mr Tall. Now he's dead, you're even. You don't have to kill the boy too."
"I'll kill them all!" I screamed madly. It was like I'd become a different person, a bloodthirsty reaper. "Every vampaneze must die! Every vampet! Everyone who aids them!"
"Even the children?" Debbie asked sickly.
"Yes!" I roared. My headache was the worst it had ever been. It was like red-hot pins were being pushed through my skull from the inside out. Part of me knew this was wrong, but a larger part had seized on the hatred and urge to kill. That merciless part was screaming for revenge.
"Harkat," Debbie appealed to the Little Person. "Make him see sense!"
Harkat shook his neckless head. "I don't think I can stop him," he said, staring at me as if he didn't know me.
"You have to try!" Debbie shrieked.
"I don't know if I have the right," Harkat muttered.
Debbie turned to me again. She was crying. "You mustn't do this," she wept.
"It's my duty," I said stiffly.
She spat at my feet. "That's what I think of yourduty! You'll become a monster if you kill that boy. You'll be no better than Steve."
I stopped. Her words had sparked a memory deep within me. I found myself thinking about Mr Crepsley and his last words to me before he died. He warned me not to devote my life to hatred. Kill Steve Leopard if the chance presented itself but don't give myself over to some insane revenge quest.
What would he have done in my place? Kill the boy? Yes, if necessary. Butwas it? Did I want to kill Darius because I feared him and felt he had to be eliminated for the good of us all or because I wanted to hurt Steve?
I gazed into the boy's eyes. They were fearful, but behind the fear there was sorrow. In Steve's eyes, evil lurked deep down. Not in Darius. He was more human than his father.
My knife was still pressed to his throat. It had sliced thinly into his flesh. Little rivulets of blood trickled down his neck.
"You'll destroy yourself," Debbie whispered hoarsely. "You'll be worse than Steve.He can't tell the difference between right and wrong.You can. He can live with his wickedness because he doesn't know any better, but it will eat you away. Don't do it, Darren. We don't wage war on children."
I stared at her, tears in my eyes. I knew she was right. I wanted to take the knife away. I couldn't believe I'd even tried to kill the boy. But still there was part of me that wanted to take his life. Something had awoken within me, a Darren Shan I'd never known existed, and he wasn't going to lie down without a fight. My fingers shook as they held the knife, but the furious angel of revenge inside me wouldn't let me lower them.
"Go ahead and kill me," Darius snarled suddenly. "It's what your kind does. You're murderers. I know all about you, so stop pretending you give a damn."
"What are you talking about?" I said. He only smiled sickly in reply.
"He's Steve's son," Debbie said softly. "He's been raised on lies. That's not his fault."
"My father doesn't lie!" Darius shouted.
Debbie moved around behind Darius so she could look me straight in the eye. "He doesn't know the truth. He's innocent, in spite of anything he's been tricked into doing. Don't kill an innocent, Darren. Don't become that which you despise."
I groaned deeply. More than ever I wanted to take the knife away, but still I wavered, fighting an inner battle which I didn't completely understand. "I don't know what to do!" I moaned.
"Then think of this," Harkat said. "We might need the boy to swap for Shancus. It makes sense not to kill him."
The fire within me died away. I lowered the knife, feeling a great weight lift from my heart. I smiled crookedly. "Thanks, Harkat."
"You shouldn't have needed that," Debbie said as I spun Darius around and tied his hands be
hind him with a strip of cloth which Harkat had ripped from his robes. "You should have spared him because it was the right thing to do not because you might need him."
"Maybe," I agreed, ashamed of my reaction but not wanting to admit it. "But it doesn't matter. We can debate it later. First, let's find out what's happening with Shancus. Where's your phone?"
A minute later she was deep in conversation with Alice Burgess. They were still in pursuit of R.V. and Shancus. Vancha asked to speak to me. "We've a choice to make," he said. "I have R.V. in my sights. I can cut him down with a shuriken and rescue Shancus."
