Here is chapter 6. Those of you that have been reviewing will be pleased to know that I am going over all of my work with anothers help. I will be improving the narration style, correcting grammer and spelling errors, and generally making all of my stories much easier to read. Because of this new chapters over the next few weeks will be few and far between, but chapters that have already been uploaded will have much better updated versions posted up.

DISCLAIMER - I do not own Harry Potter or Darren Shan.

Chapter 6 – Rescue and Recovery.

The pain caused by drinking the Luna's blood was unbearable. Darren's vision had clouded red and he felt as if he had been run through with a sword. All he could was roll on the floor clutching his stomach whilst screaming in agony.

"What?" Gavner and Larten exclaimed as one.

Larten touched his finger to the young lady's wound, raised it to his mouth and tasted the blood, a second later he spat it out.

"Gavner, I require water now, unless you want to watch me writhe on the floor with Darren." Larten yelled.

He could feel his tongue burning. He knew if he swallowed even the tiniest amount, the blood would poison him as it had Darren. He grabbed the bottle Gavner handed him and thoroughly washed all traces of the tainted blood from his mouth.

A vampire's sense of smell is so attuned that they can smell a person's blood even if it had not been spilled. Now that Larten paid attention to his senses he could smell that, both the man and the women's blood was human but there was an extra sinister undertone to it.

"Her blood is poison. She is human, but her blood is tainted. I cannot be sure but I fear what it will do to Darren. The way the tiniest amount of it burned my tongue it may kill him."

Harry felt very groggy as he came around and he had the beginnings of a pounding headache. This was not in any way helped by the agonised screams someone close by was making. It took a few moments before Harry realised what was going on. They had been seen by the vampires, and it appeared they had all been knocked out.

He opened his eyes to see three shapes in the distance. Two of the shapes were crouched over a third. It was this third person that was screaming in agony. Harry turned his head. Hagrid and Luna were lying on the ground nearby and were still unconscious. Hagrid looked uninjured but Luna's leg was covered in blood. Harry could not attend to it straight away though, the person screaming on the floor, whom Harry realised was Darren, needed his help more. Luna's injury was minor, and judging by the intensity of the screaming Darren was in a far worse state.

Harry rose and walked over to where the two adult vampires were anxiously watching Darren. He cleared his throat to get their attention. Suddenly a hand was grasping his throat. He was lifted off the ground and thrown through the air. He landed in a heap on the ground quite some distance from where he had been.

"You did this!" One of the adult vampires, Larten Crepsley, roared.

He strode over to where Harry had landed, every feature of his body dripped with the anger. The only tool Harry had to defend himself with was his brain, he could not use his wand. Magic would not work on a full vampire such as the one that was approaching him. He was going to have to talk his way out of this one or the vampire would kill them all.

Harry's mind was working in overtime as the vampire approached him. He looked to the screaming boy and then to Luna. She only had a small cut! That was it! Darren must have tried to feed from her, but Luna was no ordinary human she was a witch. The magic in her blood must have poisoned him. If he could get this vampire to trust him he might be able to help Darren and possibly even save the project.

Harry pointed to Darren and then to Luna, making sure Larten saw.

"Did he drink from her?" he asked. The vampire nodded and slowed in his approach.

"Her blood will have poisoned him. I must act fast if we are to save him. You have to let me help," Harry half pleaded

There was a small nod and Harry was on his feet running toward Darren, this time the older vampire let him pass.

"Regargio," Harry screeched.

A jet of violet light shot from his wand. Immediately Darren started to retch, but he didn't vomit. If Darren was going to live the he had to get Luna's blood out of the vampire's stomach.

"Damn it," Harry yelled. Darren's vampire blood had stopped the spell from being fully effective. Thankfully he was only a half-vampire. If he had been fully blooded the spell would have been completely ineffective.

Harry pointed his wand at Luna this time.

"Enervate,"

Luna stirred.

"Don't ask questions just act," Harry ordered, "We have to make Darren vomit, but my spells not powerful enough."

Luna and Harry pointed their wands and together they shouted

"Regargio,"

Two jets of violet light struck Darren this time. He was lifted off the ground retching violently. The two spells combined had the effect that one should have done, Darren threw up the poisonous blood.

"He should be alright now." Harry said.

Strong hands grasped him by the hair and dragged him to a tree where he was tied up alongside Hagrid and Luna.

"Then explanations are in order." Larten purred

The screaming and writhing gradually stopped. As his body calmed Darren started to pant heavily. His gut ached, and his head pounded, but the stabbing pains had stopped. When he had the energy he rose to a seated position. Darren could now see that Larten and Gavner had three people tied to a tree. Two of them Darren recognised, Hagrid and Harry. Hagrid looked terrified.

"If you had no intention of harming us you would not have taken my assistant. Tell the truth or so help me I will cut it out of you." Mr Crepsley was saying. Darren heard the scraping of a blade being sharpened. He tried to stand so that he could get over to the other vampires and let them know what he knew. He didn't have the energy to do so, but pushed on regardless dragging himself forwards using only his arms.

"They…are t…telling… the truth." Darren gasped. Larten whirled around to face Darren and saw the boy crawling towards him.

"Don't… h…hurt… them, they are… telling… truth. School… study… learning about… v…vampires. They… want to be… friends"

It had taken all the little energy that Darren had to say his message and as he passed out from the exertion he just hoped he had been successful.