B008GMVYA4 EBOK (42 page)

The twins shuffled behind them, their leather black shoes
shuffling on the uneven floor.

Trace slowly directed his eyes from the doors to Gabby.

Gabby stared at him for a few seconds, studying his features
and reassuring him with her eyes. She nodded slowly answering an unspoken question
between them.

Trace lowered his head slightly in defeat and then looked
back up towards the doubled doors. He squeezed Madison’s arm again and pulled
her towards the doors. Gabby followed slightly behind, the twins trailing even
further behind.

Two large gold door handles stuck out from centre of both
doors. Gold vines wrapped around each door hand, perfectly woven giving the
appearance that the vines were tightening their grip around each handle.

Trace reached for the right door handle, he did not hesitate
– pushing it down gently. The door unlocked with a loud click.

Madison caught her breath as Trace slowly pushed the door
open. She stared into the doorway, a large ball forming in her throat. The room
inside was much dimly lit compared to the corridor outside, the light poured
into the room lighting up a section of red carpet. The carpet was as red as
blood. It was the kind of décor you would expect to see in a Vampire’s layer on
a movie.

Trace’s eyes darted around the inside of the open door, his
posture weary as if he was expecting someone to appear in the doorway.

He took a step forward, pulling Madison behind him.

The colour drained from Madison’s face, she resisted,
digging her heels into the hard stone to stop herself from moving.

Trace spun round and stared at Madison. His eyes were no
longer black and demon-like, they had now returned to their normal colour of
dark brown. His face was blank. He stared at Madison as if he had just noticed
her for the very first time. Her eyes were wide with fear, she stared at Trace
helplessly. She had no idea why Trace had reacted in such away and the
anticipation of what might be in the room before them scared her.

Madison’s bottom lip trembled, still bit down on it to stop
it from quivering. She continued to scare into Trace’s deep brown eyes, horror
spreading across her face. Suddenly Trace turned, pulling Madison with him
inside the room. This time Madison did not have enough time to resist, Trace
had moved too fast.

Trace pulled her in the blind of eye into the dimly lit
room. Madison saw purple spots again as her vision now refocused to the poorer
light.

A large book case stretched round the room covering three of
the four walls, thousands of priceless books and novels filled the bookcases. T

To the right of the door was a small table with two antic
chairs sat either end of the table. A few books and scrolls were spread out
over the table, like someone had recently been researching something. At the
far end of the room was a large dark oak desk with a black leather office chair
that was turned, facing the book case behind it. Two cloaked vampires stood
either side of the desk, guarding whoever was sat behind the desk. Their hoods
hung over their heads, shielding their faces from view.

Madison’s heart pounded in her chest as the guards came into
view. Her whole body began to shake uncontrollably in terror. Gabby and the
twins stood nervously behind as Trace pulled Madison further into the room.

Trace stopped as they reached the centre of the room, Gabby
and the Twins joined him, stopping next to Trace, providing a defensive barrier
between the guards and the Vampires.

Trace pulled down on Madison’s arm, using all his strength
to knock her to the floor.

Madison whimpered as the force nearly dislocated her
shoulder.

“Stay down!” he said angrily.

 Two oil lamps provided dim lighting for the room, one
stood on the dark oak desk and another in the centre of the small table on the
right.

Madison’s eyes widened at the sight of the two guards
shifting their weight from leg to leg. Panic rose in her body, placing all her
senses on standby, her legs flinching for the moment when she knew she had to
make a run for it or fight off her attacker. The end was now here, Madison knew
it was now only a matter of time before the Vampires or The Coven killed her.
She was terrified but clung to the small speck of hope that she might she
Brendan once more.

“Jonas, I come baring a human that is aware of our identity.
It seems Brendan has become over friendly with this human and has disclosed our
identity to her. She must be destroyed before she can reveal our identity to
anymore of her humans kin” Trace said, his voice almost sincere.

“No! I wouldn’t! Why are you doing this?” Madison shouted
her voice broke in fear.

“Lies! She’s only fearful of losing her pathetic life; you
know how these humans are... Fear may overpower her now, but sooner or later
she will let it slip and when she does, the whole world will know of our
existence” Gabby said bitterly, her eyes glued to Madison in disgust.

“I would never say anything! I promise” she protested, a
large ball forming in my throat. Madison was confused, this wasn’t the plan the
Vampires had disgusted earlier in the car. Gabby had been so keen to kill
Madison herself, but they had planned to give Madison to The Coven. She would
be a distraction for them while they stole the scroll for The Black Orchid.

“Your promises mean nothing to us, what makes you so sure?
Human’s have a way of letting the truth slip” Gabby argued.

“Because I love Brendan” Madison spat. Her words rang in her
ears, she was shocked at her own words, but she could deny how she truly felt.
Her heart fluttered and began to beat in a rhyme it had never done so before.

Madison hadn’t thought about it until now, she knew she was
fond of Brendan from the first moment she met him. But the more time they spent
together, the more he grew under her skin, making her smile in a way she had
never smiled before, making her happy in a way she had never been happy before.
She was completely and utter in love with Brendan. Now it had all become clear,
every feeling, every sensation, every time he touched her he made her heart and
skin sing. She couldn’t deny that it was love, unconditional, uncontrollable,
utter heart wrenching love.

“Ha! A human in love with a Vampire? Like that hasn’t
happened before...” Gabby said sarcastically.

Gabby’s eyes flickered from Madison back towards the large
black office chair. Her eyes widened as she waited for Jonas’ reply - nothing.

Jonas wouldn’t be too happy to find out that Gabby had
already killed a human, Stephanie, turning her into a blood thirsty newborn
vampire who resulted in Faye being killed in the process. Madison knew
revealing this bit of information wouldn’t help her; it was too late to save
her.

Madison hung her head in shame and complete surrender, all
hope that she had once had, had now diminished. There was nothing left for
Madison to say, no hope left. Stephanie was gone, so was Faye and Brendan had
run out of time, the end was here.

She stared at the blood red carpet; every inch of her body
was numb. She couldn’t even muster the energy to think. With all hope gone
there was no longer any point to fight it, all she could do now was accept her
fate and die with a little dignity.

Silence flew over the room, Gabby and Trace stared towards
the black leather office chair which was turned towards the bookcase behind.
Both Vampires’ almost lent forwards with anticipation. The twin shifted
nervously on the spot, their eyes darting from guard to guard, watching for any
sign of moment.

“Jonas?” Trace asked suspiciously after a more moments of
silence, his eyes narrowing.

Madison watched as the chair slowly spun around to face the
desk in front. She gasped as a pair of crystal blue eyes came into focus, the
same crystal blue eyes she had been longing to see.

Brendan sat comfortably in the chair, both arms laid flat on
the arm rest.

His silky black hair hung down either side of his face, his
skin pale and waxy but he was even more gorgeous then Madison had remembered
from memory.

He wore the same black jeans and white cotton t-shirt which
he had worn the last time Madison had seen him. Brendan looked tired and
stressed, but just the sight of him brought back a spark of hope Madison
thought she had lost.

“I’m sorry, were you talking to me?” Brendan said
sarcastically, standing up from where he was sat.

“Brendan!” Madison almost screamed jumping up and trying to
dash towards him.

Before she could even make it two leaps towards the desk,
Trace grabbed her around the waist and pulled her backwards towards him.
Madison gasped as all the air was knocked out of her from the force of Trace’s
pull.

Madison struggled against Trace’s retrain, kicking out her
legs and pushing the whole of my body away from his. A cold sensation tickled
on the right of Madison’s temple, it froze her on spot.

“Madison!” Brendan shouted, running around the desk and
stopping five feet away from them.

“Don’t come any closer, or I’ll blow her brains out!” Trace
spat, his voice cold and soulless.

Madison’s heart stopped as it began to dawn on her that the
cold sensation on her temple was the barrel of a gun. She stared at Brendan in
horror, her mouth hung open as the ball became two large in her throat and she
struggled to absorb the oxygen. Her whole body shook violently against Trace,
uncontrollable tears streamed down her face, splashing down onto Trace’s arm
that held her tightly against her chest.

“Brendan” Madison whimpered her eyes wide with fear.

“Don’t you lay a fucking finger on her” Brendan said
angrily, his voice loud and clear.

“That’s funny, because I have five fingers on her and a gun
to her head. I don’t think you are really in a position to be making demands”
Trace said sarcastically, pushing the barrel of the gun harder into Madison’s
temple.

She winced at the pressure in her temple. Fear flowed
through her body like magma flowing through a vent in the earth’s crust. Shock
flooded her system and the last thing she had expected was for a Vampire to
carry a gun. 

“How are you here? Where’s Jonas?” Gabby asked furiously.

“I got a tip off from a little birdie who told me you were
heading over to The Coven to collect something very old and valuable. All I had
to do was arrive here first and stay ahead of the game. Of course, I wasn’t to
know that you wouldn’t kill Madison before you got to the Coven, but some old
friends caught up with me when I arrived in London, they sent a false message
to The Black Orchid, giving them the impression that I was only a few miles
away, heading directly for you. But of course, I was here……with Jonas. Telling
him exactly what was going on…

He knows about Madison, and he knows about the arrangement
you have with The Black Orchid - Madison for the scroll. As you can probably
imagine, my Fathers not very happy to hear a few of his trusted members are
plotting to give The Black Orchid such a treasured and powerful weapon” Brendan
said.

“And where is Lord Jonas? Hiding in the closet?” Gabby
laughed, but fear crippled her voice.

“Father decided to sit this one out. You know, turn a blind
eye and all. It found it all too messy and thought it was probably best to stay
out of this one. It’s funny; he didn’t seem to care less when I told him about
Madison. It seems that he trusts my judgment, although he did say that he
didn’t feel it was necessary to inform any of the other Coven members about
Madison. Or the fact, a few forbidden guest turned up unannounced. He was quiet
understanding, on my part anyway. Don’t you agree, Leon?” Brendan said his eyes
shifting towards the guard on his left.

The guard raised his hands and threw back the hood of his
black robe. Leon relieved himself from under the black monk-like robes. His
forehead was damp, beads of sweat clung to his hair line from the warmth of
being hidden underneath the thick black robe. Leon looked pale, big dark
circles hung underneath his eyes from lack of sleep, but he appeared to be in
high spirits – prepared for the fight.

Madison was completely taken aback from Leon’s appearance,
she never expected Leon to assist Brendan knowing how dangerous it was for him
or why he would put his life on the line for her when she had done nothing but
cause unnecessary doubt for him and Fred.

Madison stared in shock as her eyes darted from Leon and
back to Brendan, in total amazement.

“Leon” Trace hissed, followed by a deep inhuman animal like
growl.

Gabby and the Twins shifted nervously, lowering their heads
and arching their backs in a defensive posture. Readying themselves to strike
encase of an attack.

“Hello mate, miss me?” Leon asked in a mocking tone.

Trace screwed his face up in disgusted, he unknowingly
jabbed the gun harder into Madison’s temple. She winced at the force, her head
jolted slightly to the right.

 “Where’s the whore? Left her in that twisted dimension
of yours?” Gabby hissed bitterly.

“Actually, Gabby… I couldn’t give up the chance of kicking
your fat, unattractive ass!” said the cloaked guard on the left. The guard
raised its hand and pulled back black thick hood, revealing a slightly smug
looking Fred.

Madison watched in astonishment as all her new friends
risked their life for hers.

Her thoughts trailed back to the last time she had seen
Stephanie at the club, her eyes a deadly red, the paleness of her skin and the
vicious ordeal Gabby had inflected on her. As Brendan had never gone to the
club, it meant that Stephanie could still be there, a lethal newborn vampire
alone, possibly, by now, loose in London. She almost burst into tears at the
thought of Stephanie lost on the streets of London, afraid and alone. She could
have been in danger or worse, preying on some innocent human. Faye’s lifeless
and cold body discarded in the VIP area of the club.