Darren Shan - Lord of The Shadows

Prologue

My name is Darren Shan, and I am a half vampire, I know you probably don't believe me, though I doubt if I read this I'd believe it myself but it is true. My tale all started long ago when I went to Cirque Du Freak a freak circus with my best friend Steve Leonard. There my friend met a vampire, his name Larten Crespley and Steve actually asked him to make him a creature of the night.

But the vampire wouldn't, he said he was evil, it was then I should have known the truth, when I foolishly stole the vampires pet tarantula and when she bit Steve I asked him to help me as my friend lay in his death bed. However, Crespley only agreed to help me if I became his assistant!

So that's how it started. I had to fake my own death, be buried alive! Listen to my own funeral and then in the middle of the night was dug up by Crespley and had to leave my parents and my little sister Annie and probably never see them again. Then aswell I had to learn the way of the creatures of the dead.

That was about 20 years ago, I was 14, so I look like a 16-year-old (we only age one tenth so every ten years we age one!) Which is more annoying than you can imagine. Now my demons have caught up with me, I did save Steve, but he found out my becoming a vampire and swore to kill the two of us on the very night I was dug up from my grave.

Steve Leonard grew up just like me, now a man in his thirties, now having accomplished his first promise, killing my mentor. He is after me, and what makes it worst is that I am now supposed to be out to kill him because he is the lord of the Vampaneze. Who are Vampires distant cousins, who kill their victims they drink from, where vampires do not and the Lord is supposed to bring our vampire rule to an end.

Since my friend Larten's death I have been at Cirque Du Freak. Harkat has kept me company all the way through my grief, as have all of the performers there. Harkat Mulds is a Little Person, a soul which has died and brought back to the living by the infamous Mr Tiny who brang the prophecy of Steve's reign. Harkat is poisoned by our air and uses a mask to stay alive; he wears a blue hooded cloak and has more scars on his grayish face than anyone I know of.

Therefore at the end of our last adventure, I sat there with Harkat who before he had died was Kurda Shamlt a to-be Vampire Prince like myself, who killed my best friend Gavner Purl and betrayed the vampires. When Mr Tall the owner of Cirque Du Freak head my way, he showed me the map of where they were heading next and after he had gone my face was pale.

Harkat walked up to me noticing my pale like stance. "Darren…what is the matter…"

I sighed thoughtfully, my mind wasn't in Cirque du Freak or even around the vampires at that moment, only the thing that scared me and thrilled me at the same time. I leaned back against the door of Mr Tall's caravan. I looked at my friend Harkat and gave a weak laugh.

"I'm finally going home…"

***