Darren Shan - The Vampire's Assistant

We climbed onto the roof of one of the cars and stretched out to sit in the sun.

"You know what we should do?" Sam said after a while.

"What?" I asked.

"Become blood brothers."

I propped myself up on an elbow and stared. "Blood brothers?" I asked. "What for? And how's it done?"

"It'd be fun," he said. "We each make a small cut on one of our hands, then join them together and swear an oath to be best friends forever."

"That sounds all right," I agreed. "Do you have a knife?"

"We can use some glass," Sam said. He slid over to the edge of the roof, reached down, and snapped a piece of glass out of one of the train-car windows. When he came back, he made a small cut in the fleshy part of his palm, then handed me the glass.

I was about to cut my palm when I remembered the vampire blood in my veins. I didn't think a small amount could do Sam any harm, but then again…

I lowered the glass and shook my head.

"No," I said. "I don't want to do it."

"Come on," Sam urged. "Don't be afraid. You only have to make a small cut."

"No," I said again.

"Coward!" he yelled. "You're afraid! Chicken! Coward!" He began to sing: "Fraidy cat, fraidy cat!"

"Okay, I'm a coward." I laughed. It was easier to lie than tell the truth. "Everybody's afraid of something. I didn't see you rushing to wash the wolf-man the other day."

Sam made a face. "That's different."

"Horses for courses," I said smugly.

"What does that mean?" he asked.

"I'm not sure," I admitted. "It's something my dad used to say."

We joked around some more, then hopped down and crossed the yard to the guard's house. The doors had rotted off years ago, and most of the glass in the windows had fallen out. We walked through a couple of small rooms, then into a larger one, which had been the living room.

There was a huge hole in the middle of the floor, which we carefully avoided.

"Look up," Sam told me.

I did and discovered I was gazing directly at the roof. The floors in between had fallen in over the years, and all that was left of them were jagged edges around the sides. I could see sunlight shining through a couple of holes in the roof.

"Follow me," Sam said, and he led me to a staircase at the side of the room. He started up. I followed slowly, not sure if it was the smartest thing to do — the steps were creaky and looked as though they might collapse — but not wanting to be called a chicken twice in the same day.

We stopped at the third floor, where the stairs stopped. You could touch the roof from there, and we did.

"Can we get out on the roof?" I asked.

"Yes," Sam said, "but it's too dangerous. The shingles are loose. You could slide off. Anyway, there's something better up here than the roof."

He walked along the side of the uppermost room of the house. The ledge was about two feet wide most of the way, but I kept my back to the wall, not wanting to take any chances.

"This section of floor won't collapse, will it?" I asked nervously.

"It never has before," Sam replied. "But there's a first time for everything."

"Thanks for putting my mind at ease," I grumbled.

Sam stopped a little farther on. I craned my neck so I could see past him and realized we had come to a set of rafters. There were six or seven of them, long pieces of wood stretching from one side of the room to the other.

"This used to be the attic," Sam explained. "I guessed that," I told him.

He looked back at me and grinned. "But can you guess what we're going to do next?" he asked.

I stared at him, then down at the rafters. "You don't mean… You aren't going to… You're going to walk across, right?"

"Right," he said, and set his left foot on the rafter.

"Sam, this isn't a good idea," I said. "You looked unsteady on the railroad tracks. If you stumble up here…"

"I won't," he said. "I was only fooling down there."

He set his other foot on the wooden rafter and began walking. He went slowly, his arms stretched out on either side. My heart was in my throat. I was certain he'd fall. I looked down and knew he wouldn't survive if he fell. There were four stories if you included the basement. It was a long drop. A deadly one.

But Sam made it across safely to the other side, where he turned and took a bow.

"You're crazy!" I yelled.

"No," he said, "just brave. How about you ? Dare to chance it? It'd be easier for you than it was for me."

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"Chickens have wings!" he shouted.

That did it! I'd show him!

Taking a deep breath, I went across, moving quicker than Sam had, making full use of my vampire abilities. I didn't look down and tried not to think about what I was doing and in a couple of seconds I was across and standing beside Sam.

"Wow!" He was impressed. "I didn't think you'd do it. Certainly not so quickly."

"You don't travel with the Cirque without picking up a few tricks," I said, pleased with myself.

"Do you think I could go that fast?" Sam asked.

"I wouldn't try it," I advised him.

"I bet you can't do it again," he dared me.

"Just watch," I said, and darted back across, even faster.

We spent a fun few minutes crossing over and back, taking each of the rafters in turn. Then we crossed at the same time, on different rafters, yelling and laughing at each other.

Sam stopped in the middle of his rafter and turned to face me.

"Hey!" he shouted. "Let's play mirrors."

"What's that?" I asked.

"I do something and you have to copy me." He shook his left hand above his head. "Like this."

"Oh," I said, and shook my hand. "Okay. As long as you don't jump to your death. That's the one thing I won't copy."

He laughed, then made a face. I made one, too. Then he slowly stood on one leg. I did the same. Next he bent and touched his toes. I followed his example. I couldn't wait until it was my turn. I'd do a few things — like jump from one rafter to the next — that there was no way he could copy. For once, I was glad for my vampire blood.

Of course, that was the moment when it went and let me down…

There was no warning. One second I was beginning to stand, having bent to touch my toes. The next my head was spinning, my arms were flapping, and my legs were shaking.

This wasn't my first dizzy spell — I'd had several recently — but I hadn't taken much notice before — I'd just sat down and waited for the dizziness to pass. This time was different. I was four stories up. There was nowhere to sit.

I tried lowering myself, thinking I could cling to the rafter and crawl to safety. But before I could get low enough, my feet slipped out from under me… and I fell!

Although my vampire blood was responsible for getting me into the mess on the rafters, it also saved my life.

As I fell, I stuck out an arm — more out of desperation than anything else — and my hand caught the rafter. If I'd been an ordinary human boy, I wouldn't have had the strength to hold on. But I wasn't ordinary. I was a half-vampire. And even though I was dizzy, I was able to grab tight and hold on.

I swung above the four-story drop, eyes shut, hanging on by those four slim fingers and my thumb.

"Darren! Hang on!" Sam shouted. He didn't need to tell me that — I was hardly going to let go.

I'm coming over," Sam said. "I'll be there as fast as I can. Don't let go. And don't panic."

He went on talking as he made his way across, calming me down, telling me it would be all right, he'd rescue me, I had to relax, everything was fine.

His words helped. They gave me something other than the drop to think about. If not for Sam, I would have been a goner.

I felt him inch out along my rafter. The wood creaked, and for one awful moment I thought the weight would cause it to break and send both of us plummeting to our deaths. But it held and he closed the gap, crawling along on his stomach, quickly but carefully.