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One month earlier

My name’s Darren Shan I’m a half-vampire

I used to be human, until I stole a vaed forever Mr Crepsley - the vampire - forced me to become his assistant, and I joined a circus full of weird perfor was hard Drinking blood was harder, and for a long time I wouldn’t do it Eventually I did, to save thefriend (vampires can store a person’s memories if they drain all their blood) I didn’t enjoy it - the following feeeks were horrible, and I was plagued by nightmares - but after that first blood-red drink there could be no going back I accepted my role as a vampire’s assistant and learned to make the best of it

Over the course of the next year, Mr Crepsley taught ht; how to take just enough blood to survive; how to hidewith others And in time I put ht

A couple of girls stood watching Cor his ar his irls, he put the ht hand between his teeth and bit theirls screaers that were growing out of his hand

I laughed You got used to stuff like that when you worked in the Cirque Du Freak The traveling shoas full of incredible people, freaks of nature with cool and so powers

Apart from Cormac Limbs, the perforrown elephant or an arh steel; the wolf-man - half man, half wolf, who’d killed my friend Sarow a beard at will; and Mr Tall, who couldand seemed to be able to read people’s ed the Cirque Du Freak

We were perfor in a small town, caed every night It was a run-down junkyard, but I was used to that type of venue We could have played the grandest theaters in the world and slept in luxurious hotel rooms - the Cirque made a ton of money - but it was safer to keep a low profile and stick to places where the police and other officials rarely wandered

My appearance hadn’t changedhome with Mr Crepsley almost a year and a half before Because I was a half-vaed at only a fifth the rate of huhteen months had passed, my body was only three or four h I wasn’t very different on the outside, inside I was an entirely new person I was stronger than any boyht, and sense of smell had improved vastly

Since I wasn’t a full vampire, there was lots of stuff I couldn’t do yet For example, Mr Crepsley could run at a superquick speed, which he called flitting He could breathe out a gas that knocked people unconscious And he could communicate telepathically with vampires and a few others, such as Mr Tall

I wouldn’t be able to do those things until I became a full va a half-vampire had its bonuses: I didn’t have to drinkthe day

It was daytie du for food for the Little People - weird, small creatures ore blue hooded capes and never spoke Nobody - except maybe Mr Tall - kneho or what they were, where they came from, or why they traveled with the Cirque Their master was a creepy man called Mr Tiny (he liked to eat children!), but we didn’t see ," Evra shouted, holding it above his head "It smells a little Do you think they’llway off, but I could s from here as well as a human could up close - and shook my head "It’ll be fine," I said The Little People ate just about anything we brought

I had a fox and a few rats inthe rats - rats are friendly with vampires and usually come up to us like tame pets if we call thes we don’t like in life

There were a bunch of Little People with the Cirque - twenty of the with Evra and me He’d been with the Cirque since soon after me and Mr Crepsley joined I could tell hi Evra andhioing?" The sure in the blue hooded cape didn’t answer - he never did - but he patted his ston we needed ," I told Evra

"Figures," he sighed

As I prowled for another rat, I spotted a se I picked it up and brushed off the dirt Studying the cross, I smiled To think I used to believe vampires were terrified of crosses! Most of that stuff in old arlic: none of thosewater We don’t have to be invited into a house before entering We cast shadows and reflections (though a full va to do with bouncing atoe shape or fly

A stake through the heart will kill a vampire But so will a well-placed bullet, or fire, or a heavy falling object We’re harder to kill than humans, but we aren’t iround and stood back Focusingit jump into my left hand I stared hard for all of a ht hand

Nothing happened

I tried again but still couldn’t do it I’d been trying for months, with no success Mr Crepsley ers and an object would be in his hand, even if it was several feet away - but I hadn’t been able to copy hi pretty ith Mr Crepsley He wasn’t such a bad guy We weren’t friends, but I’d accepted hier hated him like I did when he first turned me into a half-vampire

I put the cross in my pocket and proceeded with the hunt After a while I found a half-starved cat in the remains of an old microwave oven It was after rats, too

The cat hissed at me and the hair on its neck raised I pretended to turn rabbed it by the neck, and twisted It gave a strangled little cry and then went li

I didn’t enjoy killing ani was part of my nature Anyway, I had no sympathy for cats The blood of cats is poisonous to va from one wouldn’t have killed me, but it would have made me sick And cats are hunters, too The way I saw it, the less cats there were, the ht, back in caain I’d finishedfor another couple of hours, so I had lots of tiht There hadn’t been any snow yet, but it was threatening I was dressed in reen shirt, dark purple pants, a gold-and-blue jacket, a red satin cloth around my waist, a brown hat with a feather in it, and soft shoes with toes that curled in on themselves

I wandered away from the vans and tents and found a secluded spot around the side of the old mill

I stuck the cross on a piece of wood in front of me, took a deep breath, concentrated on the cross, and willed it into the palood

I shuffled closer, so my hand was only inches away from the cross