B008GMVYA4 EBOK

by Drake, Rebecca Ann

  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 g
un 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.

  The bright chandeliers that hung from the stone ceiling, rocked back and forth from the movement of the shaking building. A few of the bulbs had blown from where small chucks of broken stone had hit them as they fell. Small pieces of glass scattered the corridor and the corridor was much dimly lit then before. A few chandeliers flickered on and off, leaving parts of the corridor in darkness.

  Madison ears pricked at the sound of people talking loudly from the opposite end of the corridor. The noise from the great hall echoed around the corridor, where the elders were deciding Trace, Gabby’s and the twin’s fate. Cheering and boo’s echoed the corridor as an argument erupted within the Great Hall. The Coven and the elders did not seem to notice the violent shaking which had just occurred either.

  Slowly, Madison got to her feet. Her head throbbed as the blood pumped quickly around her skull. She was unnerved, peering cautiously up and down the corridor. Her mind wondered as she stepped down the corridor towards where the corridor veered towards the right back to towards the main hall. The broken light bulbs cracked and shattered under the weak souls of Madison’s Ugg boots.

  Her eyes scanned the corridor ahead as her heart thudded in her chest. She was past the halfway mark, there was no point turning back now – all that faced her back in the vine room was death. At least now she felt like she had a small chance of getting out alive.

  BANG!

  A bulb in the chandelier above Madison’s head exploded. Shards of glass showered down into her hair, Madison jumped forwards quickly as the glass cut at her scalp. She squinted up at the chandelier; the brightness from the remaining bulbs hurt her eyes. One bulb was clearly missing from the four corners of the chandelier were the bulbs stood. There was no sign of loose debris which could have caused the bulb to explode. The rest of the corridor remained quiet; the Vampires seemed unaffected by the loud explosion.

  Madison’s eyes directed back down to the corridor ahead, a strange feeling lingered at the back of her mind – something wasn’t right.

  Madison had been so sure that the end was here and now it seemed like the end was nowhere in sight, that the finale was still to come. The feeling that there was worse to come clouded her like misty clouds hanging around a peck of a stormy mountain. In the past Madison hadn’t been such a perceptive person, but since moving to London and being introduced into a world of vampires and other mythical creatures, her senses had adapted and changed – informing her when something wasn’t quite right.

  She moved slowly ahead, her eyes scanning the corridor, searching for anything that looked out of place.

  BANG!

  She was showered in another down pour of glass. Another bulb in the chandelier above her head exploded. T
his time the explosion definitely wasn’t a coincidence, something very strange was happening here.

  Madison shielded her eyes to prevent any glass from going into them as she shifted her head up towards the chandelier hanging directly above her head when she was sure there was no more glass. Madison scanned the stone ceiling surrounding the base of the chandelier and the metal frame that held the three remaining light intact. It was clear; there was nothing that could have caused the explosion apart from an electrical impulse. There was an empty space were the light bulb had been before it exploded, but there was nothing to suggest that part of the ceiling had collapsed on it and blown the light bulb.

  Her heart fluttered in my chest, she couldn’t control the fear forced its way from the back of her head.

  Madison widened her eyes as the remaining three light bulbs on the chandelier began to dim slowly. She almost rubbed her eyes, unsure of whether her mind was playing tricks on her.

  BANG! BANG! BANG!

  The three remaining bulbs exploded above her head, showering her in more glass shards.

  She screamed in surprise, covering her head with my arms. Quickly, she leaped forwards dashing down the corridor, her arms wrapped around the top of her head.

  BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!

  More bulbs from the chandeliers that Madison passed exploded over her head. The glass scratched at the skin of her arms, breaking her flesh.

  She sprinted down the corridor as more and more bulbs exploded above her head. Gasping as her lungs tightened, forcing the air out just as quickly as I sucked it in as she struggled to quicken her pace under the exploding lights.

  BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!

  Big fragments of glass fell from the Chandeliers onto the stone floor. Her Ugg boots slipped and slid on the glass as she tried to stay ahead of the exploding bulbs.

  Madison tried to lift her head up, she had no idea how far along the corridor she was and where it veered off to the right.

  BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!

  More bulbs exploded. Madison strained to see ahead, covering her head with her arms to protect herself from the glass as she sprinted down the corridor.