B008GMVYA4 EBOK (36 page)

The motion that she was flying through the air was stronger
this time, she was being pulled towards a memory that was further in the
future. The pain disappeared as quickly as it had arrived. Madison’s body was
now beginning to feel weak and limp. It took her a lot longer to focus her
thoughts on the memory that was being shown to her. A ring of darkness seemed
to seep around the corners of the picture, the colours of this image looked
dull and dreary compared to the last memory which was so clear and crisp. 

Madison tried to focus on the picture but the images seemed
to go fuzzy and come in and out of focus. Her eyes were tired and blood shot
even though she hadn’t really been using them as the flashbacks were shown to
her in her mind. Her throat was sore and dry like she had been screaming at the
top of my lungs, but she hardly remember speaking a word. The image began to
clear a little and Madison caught a glimpse herself stood in the centre of the
road where the Lodge had been. This memory was different than the others, it
was on slow rewind. She was pacing backwards to the pavement where she had
stumbled out of the invisible doorway of the lodge. Madison heart fluttered and
jumped up into her throat as she realised the boy had found what he was looking
for. She held her breath as she watched her body stumbled forwards a little
from the force of being thrown through the door way. Guilt and dread washed
over her as she was almost reduced to tears. She was unintentionally allowing
the boy to see where Leon and Fred hid and there was nothing she could do to
stop it. All she could do was watch as her small frame stepped up onto the edge
of the pavement and freeze. Madison gulped, waiting for what was going to
happen next – a burst of bright light, the fog, the large Iron Gate and then
The Lodge, but nothing happened. The image was completely frozen as if
something had pressed the pause button. The blackness at the edge of the image
began to spread inwards, consuming the picture slowly like a rising tide. A
wave of panic erupted in her, she was disoriented, unsure of what was going to
happen – would the blackness consume her also? She felt a need to see the white
fog again and the weathered old wooden Lodge. She wanted to see Leon and Fred
again, although she knew this was selfish apart of her didn’t care. She wanted
to see the people that she cared about again before she died – to see Brendan
again.

 The blackness moved quicker, the surrounding fields
and road was now covered over with a black veil. Madison dug at her memories,
furiously trying to move to a next memory to escape the approaching darkness.
Nothing, she wasn’t strong enough to even scratch at the surface of her
memories and she had been weakened by the pain the boy had inflicted on her to
bring her this far.

The blackness now covered the image of Madison, the gap
between the four walls of the image slowly shrunk until there was only
blackness – the image had been completely consumed. Madison inhaled quick and
deeply as she was overcome with panic. She felt herself being pulled backwards,
like the wind catching an imaginary parachute she was wearing. This time there
was no pain, just the motion of lightness as she was brought through the
darkness in slow motion through a dream. Her heart hammered in her chest as the
adrenaline pumped through her veins.

Madison’s eye lids flew open for the first time in what
seemed like years as a blurry image of the hooded boy’s torso came into focus.
He removed his hand from the top of Madison head and took two steps backwards
towards Gabby.

Gabby stared at Madison in confusion, unsure of what had just
gone on. Madison couldn’t help but stare at Gabby in amazement and complete
disarray, she had experiences something that was completely indescribable and
mind blowing.

Her vision was blurry and doubled and the room rocked from
side to side, but it kind of felt like she was on some kind of amazing high. If
it hadn’t been for the weakness Madison felt, she would have probably convinced
herself that she had taken some kind of illegal drug.

During the experience Madison had unconsciously rose to her
knees and now she was too weak to stay in this position. Her eyes slammed shut
as she collapsed back down onto the hard wooden floor. She was coherent, but
she couldn’t open her eyes – her body was completely drained.

 “What did you do to her?” Gabby asked curiously, as
flicker of shock in her voice.

“Our Master wanted to examine her memories. The memory that
our master wanted to see has been removed or is protected” the boy said in the
same unnatural husky voice.

“What did you see?” Gabby asked, looking from Madison to the
boy.

“The girl stood on the edge of the sidewalk, on a country
road. She stumbled off the curb, but the memory does not rewind any further
then that!”

“Huh, that’s weird” Gabby said deep in thought.

“Our Master shows great interest in the girl. She shows
great strength and potential. He wonders whether he should give her up to you
so easily” the boy said smugly.

“What?! Her?” Gabby snapped angrily, jealously rippling her
voice.

“Her pain is hypnotizing, he is interested in examining her
further” the boy said.

“No! We had a deal…..remember?” Gabby said furiously.

“You did not stick to your side of the deal, it is only
natural that we may stray a fraction from ours?” the other boy said, his voice
just as husky and unnatural.

“No! She’s mine” Gabby snapped “I will not let you have
her”.

“Shame” the boys said together, a slight provoking edge to
their words.

Silence fell upon the Vampires as they exchanged frustrated
and annoyed looks with each other.

“So where has she been hiding?” Gabby demanded, breaking the
silence. She fidgeted on the spot and throwing her hand up onto her hip in
frustration.

“We suspects that she’s been in another realm or somewhere
outside of earth’s time. Her memories can only be accessed in reverse up a few
hours ago and this would suggest that she had been exposed to time
manipulation. Time was moving faster where she was hiding, compared to earth
time. This is why her memories were in reverse, her body clock had been thrown
out by the time difference” he said.

“You’ve got to give it to Brendan, he’s good!” one of the
twins muttered, laughing.

Gabby shot him a dirty look; he backed down at once,
redirecting his eyes to the floor.

“The element of surprise may not be as easy as we hoped”
Gabby said more calmly to the two hooded boys.

They cocked their heads towards her, listening to what she
had to say more closely.

“Brendan may have a seer with him” Gabby whispered.

“A seer?” the boys said together, stunned.

“Leon, he was a seer at The Coven for many years, he was the
most powerful seer that The Coven had ever come across. They found him in 1693
in the town of Salem posing as a traveler. He had the misfortune of being
accused of witchcraft and the town leaders had their suspicions confirmed when
Leon saw his own fate. They sentenced him to hang, but he managed to escape
them. The coven found him hiding out in a cave just outside of Salem. They
granted him refuge and offered a place within the Coven. He is one of the first
Seers of his time; he can see the future and as you know, a Seers ‘talents’ can
be limitless. And Leon’s powers are limitless! He is great friends with Brendan
and Brendan’s father. In 1951, Leon and the few seers left within the coven
were killed, or thought to be killed as the case might be. When a seer comes
into contact with another seer a connection is formed, this allows them to
communicate telepathically. It was said that Leon stumbled across a piece of
information that he should really have not heard, as a result the other seers
became aware of what Leon’s knew. They were killed along with Leon, or as it
appears were not! Fred ran away from the coven shortly after Leon was killed
there were rumours, but nothing was ever proven. The coven never found the need
to have her killed, I guess they never saw her as much as a threat. New seers
joined The Coven they concluded that she was another Vampire that was weakened
by her human and the past was simply forgotten, along with Leon. It’s said,
when a Seer dies their power is distributed, sent travelling towards the
nearest warm blooded human. For some reason Vampires cannot become Seers, not
pure enough I guess?” Gabby said deep in thought.

“A Seer was another term for a physic, but a stronger being.
Human, but granted with eternal life, unfortunately, they have the same
weaknesses as human. People don’t just become Seers they are chosen, the power
that makes you a Seers also chooses whether you are worthy or not, and for most
people they are rejected. Seers are rare, only a few hundred now populate
earth, many in hiding from Vampire Covens that would abuse their powers” she
continued.

“A seer is a no match for us!” the boys said together, their
voice intertwining unnaturally becoming one.

“You don’t understand! Leon is not a normal seer! Normal
seers are only human with eternal life. Leon has none of those weaknesses!
Seers only tend to see events in the future that drastically affect the world,
but Leon can see what he choices. In a fight he is always one step ahead, able
to see his opponent’s next strike. He practices the black arts and there‘s no
telling what kind of power he has! He’s one of the oldest and the rarest of his
kind!” Gabby protested.

“Gabby, Leon’s dead! The coven killed him, everyone knows they
don’t like people poking around in their business” the twin on the left said,
trying to reassure Gabby in her panicked state.

“Then how do you explain Madison’s memories? Leon is the
only one with that much power and know-how, to create something like an
alternative dimension. You have to use all sorts of black magic to open up
portals! And you know as well as I do, that’s what he helped The Coven with.
That’s how they hide all their priceless artifacts!” Gabby replied.

“The scroll…” the boys hummed together.

Gabby rolled her eyes in frustration and exhaled loudly.

“The Seer you talk about, is he the key to the scroll?” one
of the hooded boys said, raising his head slightly to listen to Gabby.

“I don’t know... Leon helped The Coven move the scroll, but the
scroll remains in the possession of The Coven. There were whispers that when
Leon moved the scroll he had time to read it and taking into consideration
Madison’s memories or lack of them. I would think that pretty much confirms
it!” Gabby said firmly.

“Our Master had already come to the same conclusion” the
boys said together.

“Well, it’s good that we’re all on the same page then” Gabby
said a little sarcastically.

“We must leave now! Brendan is approaching” one of the boys
said, his face shadowed by his hood.

“Andy, get Trace. Alex grab Madison, we’re leaving!” Gabby
ordered to the twins.

“What about the newborn upstairs?” Andy asked.

Madison opened her eyes for the first time since her
experience, she had been conscious all this time but weakened from her ordeal.
Hearing Stephanie described as the ‘newborn’ gave Madison the strength she
needed to snap out of her weakened state.

Her chests tighten as she held her breath in anticipation
for Gabby’s order.

Gabby paused, collecting her thoughts. Everyone watched,
awaiting her reply.

“Leave her, we haven’t got time!” she said quickly.

Alex nodded jogging towards the hallway and disappearing
around the corner towards the staircase to the VIP lounge.

The two hooded boys stood motionless their heads bowed down
towards the floor, Gabby stood next to them studying Madison’s face in disgust.

Madison felt slightly relieved with the Knowledge that Gabby
was going to leave Stephanie behind; her only hope was that Brendan would find
her and look after her. A flicker of doubt troubled her though, Brendan had
mentioned during one of their lengthy conversations about The Coven and
Vampires in general, it was forbidden to kill or turn humans into Vampire.
Doing so, gave permission to other vampires to capture the Vampire for trial at
The Coven and kill the newborn Vampire. But Madison was more concerned that
Stephanie was a newborn Vampire, hungry for blood with an easy access to the
town of London. If Stephanie were to find her way out and start feeding off the
helpless people that roamed the street. The Coven would remove the threat as
soon as they were made aware of it. Brendan was unaware that Stephanie was ever
coming to London, it was likely that he would arrive at the nightclub and find
an unauthorised birth of a newborn Vampire and kill her. Madison now worried
what Brendan would do if he was confronted by a newborn Vampire.

She stirred on the floor; heavy footsteps sounded at her
side before two strong hands gripped her upper arms and hulled her to her feet.

Madison’s eyes rolled back and her eyelids shut. Her eyes
fluttered open and close as they protested against her efforts to force them
open.

Andy supported her upright, one hand on her upper arm and
his other hand moved down to her waist - balancing her weight.

“Whoa there...” he said, a pleased smile creeping across his
face.

Her legs just about held her weight, but she was off balance
and her vision still blurry and rocky. She stumbled helpless towards Andy,
falling against his cold hard chest.

“Hello there. I think she likes me!” Andy chuckled,
jokingly.

“Stop messing around!” Gabby ordered frustration and panic
clear in her voice.

Madison pushed herself away from Andy in disgust and almost
falling backwards. Andy grabbed her arm, straightening her upright and stopping
her from crashing to the floor. He placed his left arm around Madison’s back
and rested his hand on her hip -supporting her from toppling forwards. Madison
couldn’t help but feel the urge to fight Andy off; she didn’t like him touching
her. She felt dizzy and light headed standing upright but found little strength
to protest against his grip.