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My eyes snapped open I wanted to screah and powerful Fear gripped me I lashed out at my attacker Thenmy screams so that I didn’t disturb any of the sleepers in the neighbouring caravans and tents

I relaxed and tapped Harkat’s hand to show that I was OK He released reen eyes alive with concern He handedof water I drank deeply fro hand across my lips and smiled weakly "Did I wake you?"

"I wasn’t asleep," Harkat said The grey-skinned Little Person didn’t needHe took thefrom me and set it down "It was a bad one this? tio, and only stopped now The sahtmare?"

"Isn’t it always?" I on, the? Steve," I finished quietly I’d been haunted by the night myself awake at least a couple of times a week In all those months I hadn’t told Harkat about and that wretched face I always saw at the end of the nightmare As far as he knew, Steve was the only monster in my dreams - I didn’t dare tell him that I was as scared of s out of my hammock and sat up I could tell by the darkness that it was only three or four in the , but I kneouldn’t be able to sleep any ht the back ofHarkat out of the corner of htins back to him The Little Person had been built from the Remains of a corpse For most of his newlife he hadn’t knoho he was Two years ago, Mr Tiny - a h time - transported us to a barren orld and sent us off on a quest to discover Harkat’s previous identity We fought a variety of wild creatures and twisted inal body out of the Lake of Souls, a holding place for damned spirits

Harkat used to be a vampire called Kurda Smahlt He’d betrayed the vampire clan in a bid to prevent ith our blood cousins, the purple-skinned vareed to becouardian

I’m Darren Shan, a Vampire Prince I’m also one of the hunters of the Lord of the Vampaneze - aka Steve Leopard Steve was destined to lead the vampaneze to victory over the vampires If he won, he’d wipe us out entirely But a few of us - the hunters - had the ability to stop him before he came fully into his powers If we found and killed hi me as Harkat, Kurda hoped to help the clan and prevent their destined destruction at the hands of the vas he’d co learnt the truth about Harkat, we returned to our oorld - rather, our owntimeBecause orked out later was that the orld wasn’t an alternative universe or Earth in the past, as we’d first thought - it was Earth in the future Mr Tiny had given us a glimpse of as to come if came to power

Harkat thought the ruined world would only come to pass if the vampaneze won the War of the Scars But I knew about a prediction which I hadn’t shared with anybody else When the hunt for Steve was finally concluded, there would be one of two possible futures In one, Steve became and destroyed the world In the other future, wasme

That’s why I woke in a cold sweat, to the sound of my own screams, so often It wasn’t just fear of the future, but fear ofthe barren, twisted world I’d seen in the future? Was I damned to become a monster like Steve, and wreck all that I held dear? It seenaay at ht with Harkat, sht out the truth about hih He knehat to say to calm me down

When the sun rose and the Cirque camp started to come to life around us, we made an early start on our day’s chores We’d been with the Cirque Du Freak since returning fro about as happening in the War of the Scars Harkat wanted to return to Vampire Mountain, or at least make contact with the clan - now that he knew he had once been a vampire, he was more concerned than ever for theht I had a hunch that ere meant to remain with the Cirque, and that destiny would decide our course as and when it saw fit Harkat strongly disagreed with uh I’d sensed recently that his patience was co to an end

We perfor out wherever ere needed -the Wolf Man We were handymen Mr Tall - the owner of the Cirque Du Freak - had offered to find more responsible, permanent positions for us, but we didn’t knoe’d have to leave It was easier to stick to si of the show That ouldn’t be missed too much when the time came to part co on the outskirts of a large city, in an old, run-down factory So top which we transported around with us, but Mr Tall always liked to take advantage of local venues whenever possible This was our fourth and final show in the factory We’d be , to pastures new None of us knehere we’d be going yet - Mr Tall made those decisions and usually didn’t tell us until we’d broken caht, exciting show that night, built around so performers - Gertha Teeth, Rhamus Twobellies, Alexander Ribs, Truska the bearded lady, Hans Hands, Evra and Shancus Von Usually the Vons rounded off the show, treating audiences to one final scare when their snakes slid fro with different line-ups recently

On stage, Jekkus Flang was juggling knives Jekkus was one of the Cirque helpers, like Harkat and ht he’d been billed as a star attraction and was entertaining the croith a display of knife tricks Jekkus was a good juggler, but his act was pretty dull compared to the others After a few minutes, aknife on the tip of his nose

"This is rubbish!" the e "This istricks! I could see stuff like this at any circus"

Jekkus took the knife froe, or I’ll cut you up into tiny pieces!"