B008GMVYA4 EBOK (28 page)

Madison continued to stare at Fred for a second, dismissing
the jokingly sense of humor she persistently tried to involve the two men in.
Brendan placed one hand on her lower back, breaking Madison’s stare. He ushered
her towards the door and hurried her out of the lounge.

Once in the corridor Brendan took the lead upstairs towards
the bedroom. The first floor landing curved around at the top of the stairs to
the right and overlooked the staircase below.  

Brendan cracked open a door at the end of the landing and
peered in. After a few second, he pushed open the door and flicked the light
switch on.

The room was small but cozy; the walls were bare and painted
a simple white.  An old dark brown cupboard and Chester draws stood
against the back wall next to the bedroom door. A metal framed four poster
double bed sat in the middle of the room against the far wall. The bed looked
over the window out into the large front garden and driveway leading up to the house.
The bed linen was a deep red, matching the dusty old curtains that hung from
the brass curtain poll.

The sun was now up and in full bloom, lighting up the sky in
a dusty grey/blue colour. The clouds looked thick with rain; the weather was
likely to turn at some point today. The birds still sang happily through the
breeze that rustled the leaves on the neighboring trees. Madison was sure of
one thing in life, which was if she died the world would continue to go round;
the birds would sing each morning. The people that knew her would still get out
of bed in the morning and eventually grow old and die one by one - she would be
forgotten. After all, everyone is eventually forgotten.

Brendan closed the bedroom door and turned to face Madison.
His face was sympatric and apologetic for what Madison had heard.

“I’m sorry you had to hear that! Leon has had some bad
experiences when dealing with humans and isn’t very sympatric to their needs,
and Fred is even worse!” he said sincerely.

“It’s fine. Fancy taking me to a household that hate humans!
I guess I had to hear it sooner or later” Madison joked.

“It doesn’t have to be that way, if you don’t want it to be.
We can think of something else” Brendan reassured.

Madison sat down at the end of the bed and daydreamed out of
the window. In all honestly, like all humans, Madison didn’t want to hear the
truth. Even though she had come to the same conclusion of what might happen on
her own - the truth still cut like a knife. She heard a flicker of guilt in
Brendan’s voice when he spoke about what she was going through, but the truth
was Madison only blamed herself for what had happened. She knew that Brendan
helping her would only cause recursions for him within The Coven and he too
would be punished for her mistakes. The reoccurring lump formed in the back of
her throat, it throbbed painfully urging her to cry out to release. Madison
swallowed hard attempting to dislodge it from her throat - it worked
momentarily.

“It will be okay…”Brendan shooed joining her at the end of
the bed and wrapping his arms around her. Madison lent into his chest, she
whimpered slightly but didn’t allow any tears to fall from her sore, swollen
eyes.

“This is my entire fault! I am so sorry!” she exclaimed.

“No! None of this is your fault. It’s mine! I got you
involved in this! I didn’t need to tell you about us, but I did and I’m so
sorry…” Brendan trailed off, guilt stricken.

Madison raised her head from where she had buried it deep
into his chest. The sunlight caused his magnificent crystal, blue eyes to
twinkle like diamonds in the light. His eyes were laced with tears, the tears
and light making them appear the brightest Madison had ever seen them. His
black pupil was tiny in the sun light, allowing the radiant colour to invade.

“I want you to know, I have never regretted a single moment
that I have spent with you. The past two days have been the worst and the best
time of my life!” Madison said with certainty.

Brendan’s face lifted for a split second and then it fell
again as he let out a large sigh. Madison cupped his cheek as his face fell
once again. They held eye contact for second but it felt like minutes to both
of them. Madison’s eyes shifted down to his lips which were flushed pink and
moist. Slowly, tilting her head Madison grew closer to him. Her lips throbbing
to touch his, her heart thudded excitingly in her chest and butterflies flew
wildly in her stomach. The moment was intense and the distance between her lips
seemed to take forever for them to meet. Madison closed her eyes as their lips
touched. An eruption of pleasure, arousal and chemistry exploded between them
both. Madison felt as if her whole life had been waiting for this one kiss. She
had never felt so much pleasure and excitement in her life. She had fantasized
about this moment many times in her head and now it was finally occurring it
did not disappoint her in the slightest. They kissed passionately for a few
seconds, both of them with closed eyes in complete arousal and excitement for
things to go further. Slowly, Madison pulled away from Brendan. She gazed at
his perfect flawless face and he gazed at her with pure excitement and
satisfaction. Madison was disappointed that she hadn’t allowed herself to take
their brief moment of passion further, but she knew this was not the right time
and Brendan knew this too.

“Wow” Brendan sighed. He hung his head letting his shinny
black hair fall over his eyes and nose.  

Madison watched him in silence, she was dizzy. The kiss was
mind blowing and it would take her a few minutes to recover from it.

Brendan flopped back so his head was on the pillow, his eyes
shut tight and his feet perched up on the bed next to her. He rested his hands
on his chest and opened his eyes to stare up at the ceiling. Both of them saw
stars and for a brief few seconds they had both forgotten about the pending
danger or the pending decision of what they would do next to keep Madison safe.
For now they were both in utter bliss and Madison’s lips still tingled from
where Brendan’s cool, soft lips had been against hers. Once the dizziness had
subsided, Madison kicked off her wet Ugg boots and crawled up onto the bed to
lie beside him. Her clothes had dried quickly from the heaters in the car
during the journey to Leon’s, but her feet were still sodden and cold from the
thick Ugg boots.

Shuffling to get comfortable, she lent her head on the
pillow next to Brendan’s. She placed her arm across his chest drawing comfort
from his muscular body. Her whole body ached for his and she wanted to kiss him
again - to feel him inside of her. But the situation was too difficult at
present to even suggest such a thing. Besides, Brendan was a perfect gentleman
and would not allow anything more than a kiss no matter how difficult it was
until they had gotten to know each other better.

 “So you knew I was listening the whole time?” Madison
asked trying to distract herself.

“Yes, I heard you when you opened the bathroom door. I
shouldn’t have let you hear all that, but I thought you had a right to know and
it’s only fair that I don’t keep any secrets from you considering I got you
into this mess!”

“It’s ok. I needed to know and it’s not your fault” Madison
reassured still hurt from Fred and Leon’s comments.

“What is Fred anyway?” she asked.

“Fred’s a Vampire, if you didn’t guess?!”

Madison nodded and rolled her eyes at Brendan’s sarcasm.

“I think you should know though, we used to date!” he said
uncomfortably.

“You dated Fred?”

“No I dated Leon! Of course, Fred! We were young… well
younger and I had just joined The Coven and Fred was… nice to me. She had a
good heart. She’s become slightly bitter in her old age, but we dated for a
little while”.

“How long were you two together?” Madison asked curiously,
jealously streaking her voice.

“About fifth teen years or so…” Brendan said unwilling,
rolling to his side to look at Madison. She allowed her arm that was wrapped
around Brendan to flop down by her side as she stared at Brendan in disbelief.

“Fifth teen years?! That’s a long time” she said sitting up
on the bed from where she was led.

“Yes. In human years, not in Vampire years” Brendan said
propping himself up against the head board of the bed.

She stared at him skeptically Madison mind flooded over the
image of Fred and Brendan together. She screwed her face up in disgust and
bitter jealousy.

“That was a long time ago. I was young and stupid. Besides I
caught her cheating on me with a blood demon and have you ever seen a blood
demon? They aren’t pretty!” Brendan said causally, ignoring Madison’s
expression.

Madison shook her head trying to shake the images that have
invaded her mind.

“Well their disgusting, all teeth and lips” he said quickly
throwing himself back down on the bed.

“So, how did she meet Leon?” she asked more casual, lying
down next to Brendan once again.

“Through me, Fred’s the type of girl that doesn’t take ‘no’
for an answer. I’ve known Leon for as long as I’ve know Fred, he used to be
involved with The Coven but left before things got too heavy. Fred tagged along
with me one night when I came here to see Leon and the rest is history. Been
together ever since”

“So how many other crazy ex-girlfriends have I got to look
out for?” she asked seriously, but masked the question jokingly.

“After Fred, there was no one. I promised myself that if I
were to be with someone else it would be forever. My life was far too
complicated to waste my time with just any girl”.

Madison didn’t respond to that statement, her mind pondered
over this comment. Madison wouldn’t live forever while she was human and she
wondered whether Brendan was subconsciously telling her that he saw no future
for them or whether she had miss read the signals all together. After all, she
wasn’t very experienced when it came to dating. A few minutes past in silence.

Something Fred had said earlier began to play on Madison’s
mind.

“Brendan, I can’t go home. You’ve got to understand, the day
we met, I wasn’t just leaving home……I was running away from it!” Madison said
worriedly.

“My mum died when I was 7 years old. It’s been just me and
my dad since she pasted. My dad has a drink problem and if I’m honest, some
mental problems as well. He’s not….a very nice person”

“Madison……..” Brendan started to say.

“Don’t. Let’s just be quiet now, please?” she said, the
large lump forming in her throat once again.

Brendan lifted up his arm so Madison could snuggle up to
him, once her body was against his side he lowered his arm and wrapped it
around her.

They both laid in silence for what seemed like hours, their
bodies intertwined. The whole house was still apart from Madison’s low shallow
breaths as sleep took a hold of her and pulled her under.

Days and nights faded into one, time travelled quicker in
their safe house. Where ever the safe house was located, Madison begun to find
it difficult to differentiate between night and day. The sky was a constant
grey, cluttered with large black clouds that continuously hung over the wooden
house at all times.

Madison had not seen the sun in so long she had almost
forgotten what it felt like to have warm rays of it on her face or feel the
refreshing sensation of a summer’s breeze.

During the few days she and Brendan had stayed with Leon, he
had gotten in touch with an old contact that had arranged fake passports for
them so they could leave the country. They were to both use alias names as it
was likely that The Coven would be monitoring who was leaving the country.
Brendan had organized for them to stay with some friends of his in America and
eventually they would find somewhere of their own, so Madison could live out the
remainder of her natural human life. Brendan had become defensive about the
prospect of Madison becoming a Vampire, unwilling to allow her to bear the
burden of living a cursed life like him. Madison didn’t press the subject any
further, without Brendan being willing to turn her, she saw no point in causing
unnecessary upset and distress about the matter. The prospect of starting a new
life as a Vampire appealed to Madison, leaving her old life behind and starting
afresh, but Brendan thought strongly about the matter and never asked Madison
whether this was the fate she preferred. She saw hope that once the danger had
pasted and they were out of harm’s way that Brendan may reconsider the matter
and eventually allow her to become a Vampire. The few days she had spent in the
house with Brendan only confirmed that she wanted to spend the rest of eternity
with him. Realising this only made Madison more anxious about the inevitable
and that she would never Stephanie again. The pending move to America was drawing
closer and so was Stephanie’s arrival for her visit to London and so far there
had been no contact. There was little time left to say her goodbyes to her best
friend and give her some kind of explanation as to why she would not be in
contact for a while or possibly never see her again - time was beginning to run
out.

It was Saturday; Madison had one more day left before
Stephanie would arrive on Monday. Over the last few days she had tried to call
Stephanie several times to make up some kind of excuse to why she couldn’t come
down to visit. Every time Madison had tried to call her, her mobile flashed up
with the message stating ‘service unavailable’. She had sent her countless
amounts of messages and each time the message failed to send.

Since their arrival at Leon’s house neither of them had seen
or heard from Gabby. Madison presumed that Gabby had no idea where they were or
who they were staying with. This provided Madison with the perfect alibi to
leave the grounds of the house tomorrow to go in search of signal for her
mobile should she not be able to get hold of Stephanie before then. Brendan was
unaware of Stephanie’s approaching visit to London and Madison didn’t want him
to know under the circumstances. She would have to sneak off when everyone was
busy and slip out without anyone noticing.