The Vampire’s Assistant

Sighing, I dropped my stick and left, knowing I’d make matters worse if I stayed and waited for grown-ups to arrive. None of the boys tried to stop me. They were too scared. They were terrified of me … Darren Shan … a monster.

CHAPTER SIX

IT WAS dark when I got back. Mr Crepsley was up. I told him we should skip town straight away, but didn’t tell him why. He took one look at my face, nodded and started gathering our belongings.

We said little that night. I was thinking how rotten it was to be a half-vampire. Mr Crepsley sensed there was something wrong with me, but didn’t bother me with questions. It wasn’t the first time I’d been sulky. He was getting used to my mood-swings.

We found an abandoned church to sleep in. Mr Crepsley lay out on a long pew, while I made a bed for myself on a pile of moss and weeds on the floor.

I woke early and spent the day exploring the church and the small cemetery outside. The headstones were old and many were cracked or covered with weeds. I spent several hours cleaning a patch of them, pulling weeds away and washing the stones with water I fetched from a nearby stream. It kept my mind off the hockey game.

A family of rabbits lived in a nearby burrow. As the day went by, they crept closer, to see what I was up to. They were curious little fellows, especially the young ones. At one point, I pretended to be asleep and a couple edged closer and closer, until they were only half a metre away.

When they were as close as they were likely to get, I leapt up and shouted “Boo!” and they went running away like wildfire. One fell head over heels and rolled away down the mouth of its burrow.

That cheered me up greatly.

I found a shop in the afternoon and bought some meat and veg. I set a fire when I returned to the church, then fetched the pots and pans bag from beneath Mr Crepsley’s pew. I searched among the contents until I found what I was looking for. It was a small tin-shaped pot. I carefully laid it upside-down on the floor, then pressed the metal bulge on the top.

The tin mushroomed out in size, as folded-in panels opened up. Within five seconds it had become a full-sized pot, which I filled with water and stuck on the fire.

All the pots and pans in the bag were like this. Mr Crepsley got them from a woman called Evanna, long ago. They weighed the same as ordinary cookware, but because they could fold up small, they were easier to carry around.

I made a stew, as Mr Crepsley had taught me. He believed everybody should know how to cook.

I took leftover bits of the carrots and cabbage outside and dropped them by the rabbit burrow.

Mr Crepsley was surprised to find dinner – well, it was breakfast from his point of view – waiting for him when he awoke. He sniffed the fumes from the bubbling pot and licked his lips.

“I could get used to this,” he smiled, then yawned, stretched and ran a hand through the short crop of orange hair on his head. Then he scratched the long scar running down the left side of his face. It was a familiar routine of his.

I’d often wanted to ask how he got his scar, but I never had. One night, when I was feeling brave, I would.

There were no tables, so we ate off our laps. I got two of the folded-up plates out of the bag, popped them open and fetched the knives and forks. I served up the food and we tucked in.

Towards the end, Mr Crepsley wiped around his mouth with a silk napkin and coughed awkwardly.

“It is very nice,” he complimented me.

“Thank you,” I replied.

“I … um … that is …” He sighed. “I never was very good at being subtle,” he said, “so I will come right out and say it: what went wrong yesterday? Why were you so upset?”

I stared at my almost empty plate, not sure if I wanted to answer or not. Then, all of a sudden, I blurted out the whole story. I hardly took a breath between the start and finish.

Mr Crepsley listened carefully. When I was done, he thought about it for a minute or two before speaking.

“It is something you must get used to,” he said. “It is a fact of life that we are stronger than humans, faster and tougher. If you play with them, they will be hurt.”

“I didn’t mean to hurt him,” I said. “It was an accident.”

Mr Crepsley shrugged. “Listen, Darren, there is no way you can stop this happening again, not if you mix with humans. No matter how hard you try to be normal, you are not. There will always be accidents waiting to happen.”

“What you’re saying is, I can’t have friends any more, right?” I nodded sadly. “I’d figured that out by myself. That’s why I was so sad. I’d been getting used to the idea of never being able to go back home to see my old friends, but it was only yesterday that I realized I’d never be able to make new ones either. I’m stuck with you. I can’t have any other friends, can I?”

He rubbed his scar and pursed his lips. “That is not true,” he said. “You can have friends. You just have to be careful. You—”

“That’s not good enough!” I cried. “You said it yourself; there will always be an accident waiting to happen. Even shaking hands is dangerous. I could cut their wrists open with my nails!”

I shook my head slowly. “No,” I said firmly. “I won’t put people’s lives in danger. I’m too dangerous to have friends any more. Besides, it’s not like I can make a true friend.”

“Why not?” he asked.

“True friends don’t keep secrets from one another. I could never tell a human that I was a vampire. I’d always have to lie and pretend to be someone I’m not. I’d always be afraid he’d find out what I was and hate me.”

“It is a problem every vampire shares,” Mr Crepsley said.

“But every vampire isn’t a child!” I shouted. “What age were you when you were changed? Were you a man?” He nodded. “Friends aren’t that important to adults. My dad told me that grown-ups get used to not having loads of friends. They’ve work and hobbies and other stuff to keep them busy. But my friends were the most important thing in my life, apart from my family. Well, you took my family away when you pumped your stinking blood into me. Now you’ve ruined the chances of my ever having a proper friend again.

“Thanks a lot,” I said angrily. “Thanks for making a monster out of me and wrecking my life.”

I was close to tears, but didn’t want to cry, not in front of him. So I stabbed at the last piece of meat on my plate with my fork and rammed it into my mouth, where I chewed upon it fiercely.

Mr Crepsley was quiet after my outburst. I couldn’t tell if he was angry or sorry. For a while, I thought I’d said too much. What if he turned around and said, “If that is the way you feel, I will leave you”? What would I do then?

I was thinking of apologizing when he spoke in a soft voice and surprised me.

“I am sorry,” he said. “I should not have blooded you. It was a poor call. You were too young. It has been so long since I was a boy, I had forgotten what it was like. I never thought of your friends and how much you would miss them. It was wrong of me to blood you. Terribly wrong. I …”

He trailed off into silence. He looked so miserable, I almost felt sorry for him. Then I remembered what he’d done to me and I hated him again. Then I saw wet drops at the corners of his eyes, which might have been tears, and felt sorry for him once more.

I was very confused.

“Well, there’s no use moaning about it,” I finally said. “We can’t go back. What’s done is done, right?”

“Yes,” he sighed. “If I could, I would take back my terrible gift. But that is not possible. Vampirism is for ever. Once somebody has been changed, there is no changing back.

“Still,” he said, mulling it over, “it is not as bad as you think. Perhaps …” His eyes narrowed thoughtfully.

“Perhaps what?” I asked.

“We can find friends for you,” he said. “You do not have to be stuck with me all the time.”

“I don’t understand.” I frowned. “Didn’t we just agree it wasn’t safe for me to be around humans?”

“I am not talking about humans,” he said, starting to smile. “I am talking about people with special powers. People like us. People you can tell your secrets to …”

He leant across and took my hands in his.