Vampire Mountain

Shan, Darren. Vampire Mountain. Book 4 of the Cirque du Freak series. 2002. 199p. ISBN 9780316605427. Available at FIC SHA on the library shelves.

Six years after the death of Murlough in Tunnels of Blood, a Vampaneze who had been sucking dry humans, Darren hasn’t shown much aging. As a vampire he ages very slowly so he still very much looks like a teenager even though Evra, the snake boy and Darren’s best friend, is now in his early twenties and more interested in women than hanging out with someone who still looks like a teen.

When Mr. Crepsley announces that they are setting off to Vampire Mountain so that Darren can be introduced to the Vampire Princes, Darren is not surprised. Vampires gather in the mountain once every twelve years, and Mr. Crepsley does not want to wait another twelve years before he faces his peers and account for what he did to Darren. Mr. Tiny, however, tells Mr. Crepsley that he is to take two of his little men with him, as they are to deliver a message to the Vampire Princes.

Vampires maintain old traditions, and one of them is that they must walk to Vampire Mountain. Thus, a trip to the wilderness that would have taken less than a week stretches out for a month. Along the way Darren encounters wolves and an angry bear he must fight, and they meet an old friend of Mr. Crepsley. They also discover that the vampaneze are lurking around the mountain. Once inside, Darren feels much better, and he finally encounters the pomp and tradition of vampire life. That is, until he appears in front of the Princes. Their decision on Darren’s status will literally mean his life, or his death ...

This story continues in book 5, the Trials of Death.