Hunters of the Dusk by Darren Shan Read Free Book Online

visit and prophecy were debated at length. The vampires agreed that Mr. Crepsley and me had to leave on our own, to meet up with the third hunter — whoever he might be — but were divided as to what the rest of them should do. Some thought that since the clan’s future rested with three lone hunters, they should forget the war with the vampaneze: It no longer seemed to serve any purpose. Most disagreed and said it would be crazy to stop fighting.
    Mr. Crepsley led Harkat and me from the Hall shortly before dawn, leaving the arguing Princes and Generals behind, saying we needed to get a good day’s rest. It was hard to sleep with Mr. Tiny’s words echoing in my brain, but I managed to squeeze in a few hours.
    We woke about three hours before sunset, ate a short meal, and packed our meager belongings (I took a spare set of clothes, some bottles of blood, and my diary). We said private goodbyes to Vanez and Seba — the old quartermaster was especially sad to see us go — then met Paris Skyle at the gate leading out of the Halls. He told us Mika was staying on to assist with the night-to-night running of the war. He looked sick as I shook his hand, and I had a feeling that he didn’t have many years left — if our search kept us away from Vampire Mountain for a long period, this might be the last time I saw him.
    “I’ll miss you, Paris,” I said, hugging him roughly after we’d shaken hands.
    “I will miss you too, young Prince,” he said, then squeezed me tight and hissed in my ear: “Find and kill him, Darren. There is a cold chill in my bones, and it is not the chill of old age. Mr. Tiny has spoken the truth — if the Vampaneze Lord comes into his full powers, I am sure we all shall perish.”
    “I’ll find him,” I vowed, locking gazes with the ancient Prince. “And if the chance to kill him falls to me, my aim will be true.”
    “Then may the luck of the vampires be with you,” he said.
    I joined Mr. Crepsley and Harkat. We saluted those who’d gathered to see us off, then set off down the tunnels. We moved quickly and surely, and within two hours we had left the mountain and were jogging over open ground, beneath a clear night sky.
    Our hunt for the Lord of the Vampaneze had begun!

CHAPTER EIGHT
    I T WAS GREAT TO BE BACK on the road. We might be walking into the heart of an inferno, and our companions would suffer immeasurably if we failed, but those were worries for the future. In those first few weeks all I could think about was how refreshing it was to stretch my legs and breathe clean air, not caged in with dozens of sweaty, smelly vampires.
    I was in high spirits as we cut a path through the mountains by night. Harkat was very quiet and spent a lot of time thinking about what Mr. Tiny had said. Mr. Crepsley seemed as gloomy as ever, though I knew that underneath the façade he was as pleased to be out in the open as I was.
    We kept a steady pace, covering many miles over the course of each night, sleeping deeply by day underneath trees and bushes, or in caves. The cold was fierce when we left, but as we wound our way down the mountain range, the chill lessened. By the time we reached the lowlands we were as comfortable as a human would have been on a blustery autumn day.
    We carried spare bottles of human blood and fed on wild animals. It had been a long time since I had hunted, and I was rusty at first, but I soon got back into the swing of it.
    “This is the life, isn’t it?” I said one morning as we chewed on the roasted carcass of a deer. We didn’t light a fire most days — we ate our meat raw — but it was nice to relax around a mound of blazing logs every once in a while.
    “It is,” Mr. Crepsley agreed.
    “I wish we could go on like this forever.”
    The vampire smiled. “You are not in a hurry to return to Vampire Mountain?”
    I pulled a face. “Being a Prince is a great honor, but it’s not much fun.”
    “You have had a rough initiation,” he said sympathetically.