B008GMVYA4 EBOK (44 page)

Brendan eyes shifted over to Leon who was now on his feet
and wrestling Andy onto the dark oak desk. Leon’s face was red from the strain
of keeping Andy retrained. Although Leon was semi-human, he could hold his own
against the Vampires.

Brendan’s eyes finally flickered around to meet Madison’s
and they stared at each other for a moment.

His eyes gentle for a moment, as he tried to relay a feeling
of reassurance to Madison. He stared at her with complete love and devotion,
but also concern and fear. For a second Brendan looked like he was about to
step towards her, but Gabby’s body suddenly blocked his view as she delivered a
flying punch to his face.

Madison suddenly became aware that she was crying
hysterically, tears spilled out over her cheeks and splashed down onto the
sleeve of Trace’s jacket. Her face was hot and flushed and she strained to see
through her watery vision. Madison wriggled under Trace’s hold as she watched
the room fall apart before her eyes. Madison knew that if anyone died here
tonight it would be on her head. The reason everyone was at The Coven was
because of her, and she felt it was her fate to sacrifice herself for the few
people left that cared about her. So, she would go out fighting beside them,
protecting them as they had protected her.

“Brendan!” Madison screamed as Gabby kicked him hard in the
face as he lay on the floor.

“Shut up!” Trace spat in her ear angrily.

Madison struggled against his chest, kicking out her legs
and scratching at his arm.

“Stay still. You are going to watch as we kill your friends”
Trace whispered in her ear and shaking her tight.

Madison watched as Brendan struggled off the floor, his nose
bleeding and dazed from where Gabby had repeatedly kicked him in the face.

Leon and Andy danced around each other, Leon throwing
unsuccessful punches only to be deflected by Andy.

Fred lay face down on the floor, Alex kicking her down every
time she attempted to get up. She was weak and hurt. Her body stiff like she
was in pain, blood ran down the side of her face from a cut on the right side
of her forehead. The shape of Fred’s wound fitted the shape of Alex’s canine
teeth perfectly.

Anger surged through Madison pushing the emotion back down
and allowing her to overpower it. The tears stopped instantly, her face
hardened as she watched Fred fight for her life. A large bubble erupted inside
her giving her a new found confidence and strength that she had never felt before.
She would not watch more of her friends and possibly the love of my life die
before her.

“No I won’t!” Madison spat angrily, raising her left leg up
into the air and slamming her heel down with all her strength into the tip of
Trace’s toes. Trace shouted out in pain releasing his grip from her.

She froze for a moment, in complete disbelief and shock that
she had been let free. Trace shouted profanities at her as he hopped up and
down, trying to relieve some of the pain in his foot.

Madison’s eyes flickered back to Brendan who had risen to
his feet and was now holding Gabby in a head lock. Gabby’s silky blonde hair
had come loose from the neat little bun it had originally been in, her curly
hair hung down either side of her face in a mass mess from where Brendan had
pulled on it.

Andy had Leon pinned up against the bookcase behind the
desk, Leon struggled to free himself, an amused smile across his face. Books
slipped off the shelves of the bookcase, hitting the floor with a muffled bump
from the padded red carpet. Although Leon looked like his was struggling under
the weight of Andy’s body, he looked more coherent then Fred, who was laying
face down on the floor. Her body motionless and still, blood dripping down the
side of her face onto the already blood stained red carpet.

Alex lent over Fred, a smug smiled stretched across his
face.

Out of Brendan and Leon, Fred needed the most help and
Madison would not let another of her friends die at her hands.

Suddenly Madison sprinted across the room, her legs straining
beneath her as she forced them to move fast. Adrenaline ran through her veins,
accelerating her heart beat even faster than what she thought was possible. All
of her surrounding seemed to melt away and the sounds of the vampires shouting
and bodies hitting the ground faded away into the background. All that was left
in Madison mind was her and Alex – she was focused on him.

Alex did not hear Madison bee-lining for him over the noise
of the room. She was by his side before he even noticed her, slamming into him,
knocking him sideways into the bookcase on the left. Alex’s head bounced off
the shelves and he landed on the floor with a tremendous thud. The bookcase
shook violently sending large journals and novels tumbling down onto him as he
lay unconscious on the floor.

Madison’s eyes widened in shock as she realised what damage
she had caused the Vampire – she had been unaware of her own strength and it
surprised her greatly. Madison bent down over Fred, rolling her over onto her
back to see if she was alright. Her eyes rolled back into her head as she
slipped in and out of consciousness.

“Fred? Oh my god, Fred. Are you alright?” she asked, wiping
away the hair that was stuck to the blood on her face.

“Uh…….” Fred murmured, her eyes flickering open for a second
then rolling slowly back into her head.

Madison watched her as she slipped back into
unconsciousness, panic and anger flowed through her as she stood up quickly,
spinning around to face the center of the room.

“Madison!” Brendan shouted, surprised at her reaction.

A sparkle from a shiny object caught Madison’s attention;
she turned towards where Trace was stood. His arm stretched out towards her,
the silver gun grasped in his hand and the barrel of the gun pointed at
Madison.

She gasped, her eyes widening in horror, her seemed to pause
as she held her breath. She was too scared to move, all she could do was look
down the barrel of the gun and watch for the black cloak of death to catch her.

Madison watched helplessly as Trace’s finger moved down to
the trigger of the gun. She closed her eyes, waiting for the loud bang of the
inevitable.

BANG! 
The gun shot echoed throughout the
room. Time seemed to stop. Madison felt light headed and sick as she waited for
the pain to hit her and then the dark curtain of death to creep in.

Nothing came. There was no pain or darkness that threatened
to banish her from this world. There was just silence.

Madison inhaled; suddenly realising she had held her breath
for some time. She opened her eyes to see Brendan holding Leon’s hand up
towards the ceiling. A small bullet hole now penetrated the plaster of the
ceiling of where the bullet had escaped too.

Trace stared angrily at Brendan. Brendan returned his stare
flashing his razor sharp teeth at him. She inhaled quickly, taking in as much
oxygen that my lungs could possibly hold. Caught her breath, she coughed as the
fresh oxygen tickled her throat.

Madison looked down at her torso – checking for any bullet
holes. There was no bullet wounds visible, Brendan had saved her for the third
time in a short period of time. She stared up at Brendan who had wrestled Trace
up against the wall; Brendan’s eye caught Madison’s, panic and anger flaring in
his fiery eyes.

“Run… Madison. Get out of here!” Brendan ordered.

Madison jumped to attention. Leaping into the center of the
room and running towards the door. Her legs were like jelly and her mind was
blank, dazed. She was shell shocked, hardly able to make the conscious decision
to run. At this moment in time she was in survival mode. The thought that
Madison was abandoning her friends and loved ones, niggled at the back of my
head, but she was barely capable of pulling the thought forward or justifying
her death by staying.

Madison shot a look at Brendan as she ran towards him, his
face was flushed and dried blood stained the sides of his nostrils from his
attempts to wipe the blood from his nose.

“She’s going nowhere…” Gabby spat, grabbing Madison’s arm in
mid sprint.

Gabby span her around so quickly she hardly realised what
was happening before she screamed in pain as her back slammed into the edge of
the desk.

A cold sensation tickled her right cheek, the same cold
sensation she had felt earlier when Trace held a gun to her temple.

Gabby stood above Madison, a silver gun which she had pulled
from the waist trousers pressed into her cheek. The gun had been concealed by
Gabby’s mid-length coat up until this point. Madison eyes widened in horror as
she stared down the barrel of a gun for the third time in the last 15 minutes.

Gabby’s beautiful green eyes flickered brightly in the dim
light, her face was calm and a smug smile stamped across her face. Her flawless
skin looked radiant in the dim light of the oil lamps.

“Madison...” Leon said behind her, his voice crackling.

Madison didn’t move her back arched backwards over the desk
bending her spine and her hands gripping the edge of the desk tightly to stop
her from falling backwards altogether.

“Gabby….. Don’t!” Brendan shouted.

Trace’s body rebounded off the stone wall as he struggled
against Brendan who continued to hold him back.

Madison whimpered, a tear rolled down her left cheek, but
she did not cry out or beg. She would not lower herself to that, so Gabby could
get some kind of pleasure out of it.

She took small shallow breaths, panic now flooded through
her, causing Madison to hyperventilate. Her eyes flickered over Gabby’s face
and around the room. She bit her bottom lip, took a deep breath and waited –
calming herself.

Madison knew that out of all the Vampire’s in the room,
Gabby would pull the trigger on her without a moment hesitation.

“Goodbye Madison” Gabby smirked happily.

Madison swilled as Gabby’s fingers squeezed at the trigger.

BAM!
Gabby’s head flew sideways, her body followed in
slow motion, becoming limp and her hand falling away from the handle of the
gun. Her whole body fell sideways until she landed on the floor with a loud
thud.

“I have waited a long time to do that” Fred voice bloomed
from next to Madison.

“Wow, Fred. Thanks” Madison stuttered in surprised.

Fred smiled at Madison awkwardly, slight dazed and dizzy
from her head wound. Older Vampire’s like Fred and Gabby, didn’t heal as
quickly as evolved Vampire’s. They healed faster than humans, but evolved
Vampire’s healed in seconds compared to older Vampire’s that healed in hours.

“Go… get out of here!” Fred ordered, blood dripping from her
head down onto her clothes.

“But…” Madison began.

“Now!” Fred ordered, caution in her eyes.

Madison slipped off the desk quickly and nodded at Fred
before glancing back at Brendan who was in mid punch with Trace who had somehow
slipped through his clutches. Even after all this time Brendan’s beauty still
overwhelmed Madison, the smooth, waxy skin off his face, his perfectly shaped lips,
the straight line of his nose and his breath-taking crystal blue eyes. He was
truly perfect, outside and in.

Madison sprinted towards the door, grabbing the door handle
in haste and pulling it down until the door clicked open. She did not pause to
close the door behind her or even look back; her mind was now focused on
getting out of The Coven.

Her legs were at high speed, the corridor quiet, muffled
noises floated down the corridor from the commotion that was still occurring in
the vine room.

The bright lights that hang from the ceiling hurt her eyes,
purple spots floated around the corridor as Madison’s eyes adjusted. Grabbing
the rocks that stuck out of the stone walls she used them leverage, pushing her
weight off them to move faster along the corridor.

Suddenly the building shook violently almost throwing
Madison off her feet.

The stone ceiling and walls shook wildly. Shards of stone
came away from the ceiling, falling to the floor missing Madison by center
meters. Dust and small specks of rock showered down on her, covering her hair
and dirtying her face further. The building was moving on its foundations,
large cracks appeared on the stone walls and concrete floors – cracks growing
before her eyes. Bracing herself, Madison tried to slowly continue down the
corridor. She looked back and forth down the corridor checking she wasn’t being
followed. The floor vibrated beneath her feet, her whole body shaking violently
with the building.

It was as if an earthquake had shaken the UK, tectonic
plates colliding together underneath her feet. Although the violently shaking
building gave the appearance that it was a natural occurrence, something told
Madison that this wasn’t quite right. And the fact that it was incredibly rare
for an earthquake to be felt at a high scale in the UK only gave more evidence
that this was more supernatural then natural.

Madison head urged her to turn back, some unnatural was
occurring and she was caught in the middle of it yet again. The shaking was
becoming so violent Madison was now frozen on the spot, she could not continue
forwards nor could she turn back. She had now travelled halfway down the
corridor and was completely stationary, covering her head as bits of rock and
dust showered down upon her.

She whimpered and screamed quietly as the corridor shook
even more violently before it suddenly stopped. The corridor was silent and
still as if the shaking had never occurred. Only the dust and rock filled
concrete floor made the shaking seem real. The dust began to settle allowing Madison
to slowly flicker her eyes open. Madison found herself crouched on the concrete
floor, her face covered in grey dust. She looked towards the vine door at the
end of the corridor, it was still. A few muffled sounds spilled out of the room
into the corridor, the Vampire’s and Leon continued to fight as if they the
shaking had not interrupted them at all.