B008GMVYA4 EBOK

by Drake, Rebecca Ann

  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 image
s 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.

  She spent most of Saturday pacing up and down the wooden floor of the lounge, as her stay at Leon’s grew longer so did her anxiety and restlessness. She barely managed to sit still for five minutes without moving or anxiously tapping the arm of the sofa. Also she was sleep-deprived which affected her concentration and mood. After a few decent nights’ sleep in the spare room with Brendan, Madison’s sleep pattern began to change. First she began to have a disturbed night’s sleep, awaking every hour or so. Then, as the end of the week approached Madison didn’t seem to sleep at all and she spent most of the night watching TV downstairs in the lounge while Brendan slept, only sleeping for a few hours now and then when her body couldn’t physically stay awake any longer.

  Since Brendan and Madison shared a kiss on the first night after arriving at Leon’s, there hadn’t been another reoccurrence of the kiss. They cuddled a few times during the night as they shared the same bed in the spare room, but nothing had gone any further. Brendan spent most of his day in the basement of the house with Leon. They would disappear for almost a whole day without rising for something to eat or drink in Brendan’s case. To Madison’s surprise Leon ate human food, so she was not without a decent meal each day and for a Vampire, Fred was an amazing cook who prepared Leon and Madison the most amazingly flavored dishes. For the majority of the day Madison was left in the company of Fred. They had both begun to bond and Fred was beginning to warm Madison. They would spend most of the day together gossiping, Fred loved to talk about the past and all the funny things her, Brendan and Leon used to get up too. Madison liked to listen to all the stories, learning more about Brendan’s life before she knew him. Within a few days Madison knew Fred’s life story. She told her that Brendan had introduced her to Leon and for her it was love at first sight. She always referred to Leon as ‘the one’ when she spoke about how they first met. Fred was passionate about Leon, always exclaiming to Madison what a good guy he was and how she would happily lay down her own life to protect him. She said ‘her life began the first day she met him’. Madison found her enthusiasm for their love both touching and moving, in many ways it was the way she felt about Brendan.

  They talked about Fred’s life before she was a Vampire and how she had found a certain kind of sanctuary in becoming a Vampire - escaping a life of unspeakable abuse and being reborn again. Madison related to this more than Fred knew and the desire to be set free was becoming unbearable for her.

  Madison approached the subject about becoming a Vampire with Fred on several occasion, only for the subject to be changed or for Fred to make her excuses and leave the room swiftly. The hungry curiosity growing inside of her never seemed to be satisfied and the information was not being fed to her as directly as she requested. Frustration had become a key aspect of her anxiety and she had also grown curious to what typ
e of demon Leon was. He ate human food, from appearance he appeared to be very much human, yet he was a lot older then Brendan and had somehow been involved with The Coven. Madison threw various questions at both Brendan and Fred, both of who deflecting the questions with a sharp subject change or more swift exits.

  Madison spent most of her days in constant speculation, frustration, anxiety and nervousness of what was to come in the upcoming days.

  In a quick blink of the eye Sunday had arrived. Madison had still not been able to get in touch with Stephanie and the frustration and anxiousness was beginning to come to a head. Inside, Madison was fighting a losing battle. The morning was spent with Madison pacing up and down the creaky floor boards of the lounge. This was beginning to become a daily ritual for her and she was sure she was beginning to wear the floor boards thin with her obsessive pacing. Like most morning’s Brendan and Leon had returned to the basement where they would spend the rest of the day. Madison had no idea what they did down there but didn’t question it either. A sick feeling grew in the pit of her stomach and she felt as if she needed to vomit but reality was she hadn’t eaten anything since last night and her stomach was empty. Butterflies of anxiety flapped around wildly in her stomach, which didn’t help the sick feeling. Her head was light and fuzzy, but her body was erratic and fetidly.

  A heavy atmosphere hung around the house. Fred seemed distance and hadn’t been pottering round the house this morning like she usually did. She spent most of the morning sat at the breakfast table with a cold cup of coffee in front of her. After lunch she livened up a bit and ran a duster over every window seal of the house. Madison had broken her marathon pacing to help her stack a pile of books that were spread out across the coffee table.

  Bang!

  The front door slammed shut. Madison and Fred exchanged a worried look.

  Madison froze. Her heart beat erupted quickly in her chest - thumping against her rip cage. She struggled for breath and her eyes flickering towards the open lounge door. Had the moment finally arrived where Gabby had found her and would swoop in for the kill before Fred could even lift an arm to stop her?