Shan, Darren - Cirque Du Freak 08 - Allies Of The Night

Hooky whirled on him. "Are you crazy?"

"Beware," the vampaneze warned him. "If you cross me on this, I'll kill you where you stand."

Hooky stepped back, stunned. The vampaneze faced the vampets. "Drop your guns," he commanded. "We'll fight with our traditional weapons. Withhonour ."

The vampets obeyed the order. Vancha turned and winked at us while they were laying their weapons aside. Then he faced the vampaneze again. "Before we start," he said, "I'd like to know what manner of creature this thing with the hooks is."

"I'm a vampaneze!" Hooky replied indignantly.

"Really?" Vancha smirked. "I've never seen one with mismatched eyes before."

Hooky's eyes twitched exploratively. "Damn!" he shouted. "It must have slipped out when I fell."

"What slipped out?" Vancha asked.

"A contact lens," I answered softly. "He's wearing red contact lenses."

"No I'm not!" Hooky yelled. "That's a lie! Tell them, Bargen. My eyes are as red as yours and my skin's as purple."

The vampaneze to Hooky's left shuffled his feet with embarrassment. "Heis a vampaneze," he said, "but he's only been recently blooded. He wanted to look like the rest of us, so he wears contacts and …" Bargen coughed into a fist. "He paints his face and body purple."

"Traitor!" Hooky howled.

Bargen looked up at him, disgusted, then spat into the dust of the floor as Vancha had moments before.

"What has the world come to when the vampaneze blood maniacs like this and recruit humans to fight for them?"

Vancha asked quietly and there was no mockery in his voice — it was a genuine, puzzled query.

"Times change," Bargen answered. "We don't like the changes, but we accept them. Our Lord has said it must be so."

"This is what the great Lord of the Vampaneze has brought to his people?" Vancha barked. "Human thugs and crazy, hook-handed monsters?"

"I'm not crazy!" Hooky shouted. "Except crazy with rage!" He pointed at me and snarled. "And it's allhis fault."

Vancha turned and stared at me, as did everybody else in the room.

"Darren?" Mr Crepsley asked quietly.

"I don't know what he's talking about," I said.

"Liar!" Hooky laughed and started dancing. "Liar, liar, pants on fire!"

"Do you know thiscreature !" Mr Crepsley enquired.

"No," I insisted. "The first time I saw him was when he attacked me in the alley. I never—"

"Lies!" Hooky screamed, then stopped dancing and glared at me. "Pretend all you like, man, but you know who I am. And you know what you did to drive me to this." He held up his arms, so the hooks glinted in the light of the candles.

"Honestly," I swore, "I haven't a clue what you're on about."

"No?" he sneered. "It's easy to lie to a mask. Let's seeif you can stick to your lie when faced with—" he removed the balaclava with one quick sweep of his left hooks, revealing his face "—this!"

It was a round, heavy, bearded face, smeared with purple paint. For a few seconds I couldn't place it. Then, putting it together with the missing hands, and the familiarity of the voice that I'd previously noted, I nailed him. "Reggie Veggie?" I gasped.

"Don't call me that!" he shrieked. "It'sR.V . — and it stands for Righteous Vampaneze!"

I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. R.V. was a man I'd run into not long after joining the Cirque Du Freak, an eco-warrior who'd devoted his life to the protection of the countryside. We'd been friends until he found me killing animals to feed the Little People. He set out to free the Wolf Man — he thought we were mistreating him — but the savage beast bit his arms off. The last time I'd seen him, he'd been fleeing into the night, screaming loudly, "My hands! My hands!"

Now he was here. With the vampaneze. And I began to understand why I'd been set up and who was behind it. "Yousent those forms to Mahler's!" I accused him.

He grinned slyly, then shook his head. "With hands like these?" He waved the hooks at me. "They're good for chopping and slicing and gutting, but not for writing. I played my part to get you down here, but it was one with a lot more cunning than me who dreamt the plan up."

"I don't understand," Vancha interrupted. "Who is this lunatic?"

"It's a long story," I said. "I'll tell you later."

"Optimistic to the last," Vancha chuckled.

I stepped closer to R.V., ignoring the threat of the vampaneze and vampets, until I was only a metre or so away. I studied his face silently. He fidgeted but didn't back off. "What happened to you?" I asked, appalled. "You loved life. You were gentle and kind. You were a vegetarian!"

"Not any more," R.V. chuckled. "I eat plenty of meat now and I like itbloody !" His smile faded. "Youhappened to me, you and your band of freaks. You ruined my life, man. I wandered the world, alone, frightened, defenceless, until the vampaneze took me in. They gave me strength. They equipped me with new hands. In turn, I helped give themyou ."

I shook my head sadly. "You're wrong. They haven't made you strong. They've turned you into an abomination."

His face darkened. "Take that back! Take that back or I'll—"