B008GMVYA4 EBOK (24 page)

Madison stood in silence, unsure what to say and confused
about Gabby’s reaction. She knew Gabby was referring to Brendan, but she didn’t
know how to respond to her statement.

“I want you to leave Brendan alone!” Gabby spat.

“I don’t know what you think is going on, but Brendan saved
my life. If it wasn’t for him, I would be dead now” Madison said sincerely.

“Well that’s Brendan’s mistake!” Gabby growled.

Madison blinked several times in shock, Gabby’s lack of
remorse and bitterness towards her cut like a knife.

“You are well out of your depth here, kid and if you’re not
careful, you’ll get bitten by a shark!” Gabby teased, a smirk twitching the
corners of her lips.

“What do you mean by that?” Madison asked suspiciously.

“I think we both know...”

Madison fell silent. She stared into Gabby’s judgmental,
stunningly green eyes. Did she know that Madison knew her secret? Had Brendan
told her?

Brendan had made it quite clear last night that under no
circumstance should she make any other Vampires aware that she knew about their
existence, but now Madison doubted whether Brendan had adhered to his own
warning.

“I wouldn’t tell… anyone?” Madison said carefully.

“Tell anyone what?” Gabby asked suspiciously, a satisfied
smile spread slowly across her face as she realised Madison had just walked
straight into her trap.

“Umm… I didn’t mean…”

Madison tried to backtrack, but it was too late. The wide,
toothy smile on Gabby’s face proved she had gotten what she had come for,
confirmation that Brendan had revealed their secret to her...

“Brendan’s been a very, very naughty boy. You know, I would
have thought he would know better than that! But people do surprise you” a hum
of satisfaction in her voice.

“He didn’t, Bernie told me” Madison protested.  This
statement was true, Bernie had told her Brendan was a Vampire; Brendan had only
confirmed it. 

Gabby took a step towards her, closing the distance between
them even more. Her eyes locked onto Madison’s and she took a deep breath -
blowing her cool breath out over Madison face. Goosebumps spread out rapidly
like a plague over the surface of her skin, causing every hair on her body to
stand on end.

“Bernie?” Gabby asked, scanning Madison’s face for a flicker
of deceit.

“Bernie lived in the same house as me, he was my neighbor
and a Skin Crawler” Madison said sincerely.

“Skin Crawler? Where did you learn that word?” Gabby hissed
in disgust.

Her body twitched towards Madison as if she were about to
pounce on her. Madison flinched in response, her body becoming more eager to
distance herself from the angered Vampire before her.

“Brendan… said... he… umm… saved me from them. They were
going to kill me! If Brendan hadn‘t been there…”

“Still… Brendan knows this is the most vital and enforced
rule, never tell a human of our existence. You have no idea how many situations
like this have gone hideously wrong in the past. How do you think Bram Stoker
came up with the idea for Dracula? One of the most famous poor examples for a
Vampire that has been swayed by a human!

Dracula fell for a human girl called Mina and her fiancé
didn’t take to kindly to Dracula’s actions, having him killed, and telling his
friend, Bram Stoker, of his encounter with the Vampire. It was too late before
the Coven were made aware of the situation and before they would do anything
about it, the book of diary entries and ship logs was published for the whole
world to read about the encounter. It was published in great secrecy so that
the evidence was not
removed
before publishing.  It caused such
outrage and scandal throughout all the different Covens in the world. Over the
years The Story of Dracula which had once been feared by thousands of people
became nothing more than a myth. Obliviously, the Coven would have preferred a
story of such scandal to have never been released, but sometimes people don’t
notice what is right in front of them. And if anything, it made Vampires a
fictional phenomenon.

It took years for the hype of Dracula to settle down. During
that period we were more
exposed
then ever. Brendan really should
know better than to expose us in such a selfish and reckless fashion…

In these types of circumstances, when a human becomes aware
of the existence of Vampires and Demons, we are instructed to neutralize the
suspect swiftly and promptly” Gabby said.

Madison froze – fear began to take hold of her, her blood
pulsing around her veins. Panic erupted within her, clouding her judgment and
sending her thoughts swirling out of control. She didn’t know if Gabby was
intending to cause her harm or whether her threats were an attempt to scare
Madison enough that she would no longer pursue Brendan, but she knew she
couldn’t trust the beautiful, green eyed Vampire.

“The normal procedure is to take you quietly to The Coven.
They would deal with you in a convert manner, we tend to make too much mess if
we do these things ourselves, but…I think I would enjoy this a lot more if I
did this myself” Gabby whispered, leaning towards Madison as if she was telling
her a juicy secret.

“What? Why would you? I would never tell anyone!” Madison
protested in desperation.

“Oh sweetie, it doesn’t matter. I was going to kill you
anyway, make it look like a suicide or something. Anyone can see that you’re
unstable, running away from home, moving into a Skin Crawler infested bedsit
that has now consequently burnt down. You were just asking for trouble. Everyone
will think you started the fire that killed your house mates and then you
couldn’t live with the guilt so you committed suicide. It’s quite poetic
really… I doubt anyone would even notice you were gone until they eventually
find your lifeless corpse. I really must thank you. You have made everything so
much easier now…I don’t even have to hold back!” Gabby said, her red lips
curling around her perfectly, white teeth.

Gabby’s blood lust towards Madison was clear and terrifying.
Her hungry for revenge was like something she had only seen in horror movies.
Gabby gained a certain sense of sickening satisfaction out of causing human’s
pain. The hunger and longing for the kill burned like fire in Gabby’s eyes, her
face was twisted and it begun to appear unnatural and hunger stricken.

Madison bottom lip quivered as her blood ran cold and the
colour drained away from her face. She felt as if she was having an out of body
experience, her soul, essence, had floated up out of her body and was looking
down upon her empty shell and the angered Vampire.  The past 24hours had
been like a dream, something Madison’s subconscious had manifested into an
elaborate story full of demons and mythical creatures and it didn’t matter how
real it seemed – she still had a hard time believing it. Now though, the dream
seemed to be coming to erupt end and all that was left was for Madison to wake
up in the dark, dingy bedsit, the base of Bernie’s loud music thumping in the
background and the swallow raised voices of Rich and Suzy arguing in the
distance. The detailed landscape around Madison and the very angry, dangerous
Vampire stood before her only confirmed that this was not a dream and the
pending danger was very real. Fear swirled around in her mind like sharks
circling it’s pray before the strike. Her stomach did somersaults as it tried
to counteract the swimming motion of her head.

Gabby began to edge eagerly towards Madison, the same
spiteful grin plaster across her flawless face. The smell of smoky burnt wood
invaded Madison nostrils causing them to tingle and inch. Gabby’s scent was
bitter compared to Brendan’s naturally sweet warming scent. Gabby had attempted
to cover up her scent with huge amounts of a sickly, smelling, designer perfume
which was a tad too overwhelming.

Gabby’s smile grew larger as she continued to close the gap
between herself and Madison. Her head lowered towards the ground and her eyes
stared up at Madison from underneath her brow as she stalked her pray. Her body
movement was motionless and her foot steps were silent, but her determination
resembled that of a terminator and Madison half expected John Conner to turn up
at any moment.

Before Madison had made a conscious decision to move she
found herself sprinting towards the fire exit on the far side of the corridor.
Her mind was blank but chaotic at the same time. She found it difficult to pin
point a thought or feeling. Every sensory was thrown out of balance and her
instincts had taken over, turning her body and throwing her forward across the
few feet of dance floor towards the entrance of the corridor.

A flash of colour caught Madison’s eye as she approached the
entrance of the corridor. Gabby was at her side - she had moved so quick
Madison saw nothing but a blur of black and a pale flesh.  Her small, manicured
hand clutched onto Madison’s right upper arm – grabbing her tightly. She was
lifted off the ground becoming air born in the same fashion Rich had picked
Madison up and thrown her into his bedroom at the bedsit; Gabby was now
throwing her towards the fire exit in the same manner. Madison saw the corridor
pass in an instant and then there was the pending impact of the large green
fire exit doors. Instincts took over; she threw her arms up over her face and
closed her eyes tight as her already weak body impacted with the metal
doors.  Her arms Impacted first followed by the rest of her body and then
there was nothing but the motion of her limp body falling through the air
downwards towards the floor. Her eyes flew open just in time to see the black
wet concrete from the alleyway outside growing closer. Her body impacted on the
concrete with a loud thud, her knees slamming into the hard wet ground. She
screamed in pain; her scream echoing down the long dark alleyway. Tears
streamed down her cheeks as her whole body shook violently from shock and
immense pain. Madison slowly rolled over onto her back to examine her injuries.
The tights on her knees had torn back revealing 3inch deep gashes on both her
knees. Another gash about a foot long on the back of her right lower arm had
begun to seep blood over her clothes and onto the concrete. Tears caused her
vision to become blurry and rain poured down over her wounds giving the
appearance they were bleeding more than they actually were the blood diluting
and running faster. Painful cries erupted from her throat; she struggled to
catch her breath, gulping down large mouthfuls of air.

The slender frame of Gabby’s silhouette appeared in the
doorway of the fire exit. Madison caught her breath, the pain she had felt a second
ago had ceased at the sight of the pending danger approaching. Her face was
shadowed in darkness but her posture was still, slumped forward, stalking her
prey.

She shuffled on the ground pushing the weight of her body up
with her hands and stumbling to her feet. Her legs were numb; wobbling like
jelly beneath her and the skin around her knees tingled and throbbed as blood
began to run down her legs soaking her tights. The heavy rain soaked the rest
of her clothes and hair as she tried frantically to push the strains of wet
hair away from her face allowing her to see more clearly. All she could do
nothing but stare up at Gabby, tear continuing to pour from her blurry eyes.

Gabby’s curly blonde hair flowed out from behind her
shoulders and her bright green eyes became cat like, reflecting the light from
a dim street lamp at the entrance of the alleyway. The pale, smooth skin of her
arms appeared flawless under the orange glow of the alleyway. Her hands were
stiff in preparation, but her body seemed relaxed and still.

 “You are nothing but a pet to Brendan, don’t fool
yourself by thinking you could be anything more. We can have a little game of
cat and mouse… two guesses who the cat is?” Gabby laughed her voice dark and
cold.

“Please…..don’t!” Madison cried her voice breaking with sobs
of desperation.

Gabby cocked her head to the side, through the darkness her
brilliant white teeth shone as a smile of satisfaction spread across her face.

“Welcome to my world” she hissed.

In one quick motion Gabby threw her head back as if she
mimicking laughter, but no sound of amusement erupted from her throat, instead
a deep animal like growl erupted from her within her. As her mouth opened wide,
her canine teeth began to grow an extra two inches as she continued to howl unnaturally.
The sound echoed down the alleyway and in that moment everything became still
and quite apart from the unnatural animal-like howl. Even the rats that had
crept across the concrete down vanished in fear and desperation.

The howl lasted no more than four seconds, but to Madison it
had seemed like hours. She had forgotten what anything else sounded like in
those seconds, like that was the only sound that existed in the world up until
that point. Her surroundings moved in slow motion, the droplets of rain slowed
taking what appeared minutes for them to hit the floor and splash off again in
rebound. Every muscle in Gabby’s body seemed to vibrate and ripple, allowing
Madison to see every movement as her body began to change.

Clear strings of salvia hung from Gabby’s enlarged canine
teeth onto her jaw, like something you expect to see from a wild animal. Her
powerful green eyes shone in the moon light, even more cat like then before.
The animal like howl began to fade slowly as she lowered her head to make eye
contact with Madison once again.

Madison eyes were wide - horror stricken. Her lips parted
and for the few seconds while the unnatural howl had lasted she had stopped
breathing. They stared at each other for a moment. Time had stood still. Only
the sound of the rain beating down onto the concrete filled the alleyway.

A sudden bolt of electricity jolted Madison back into
reality, her instincts took over again and before she realised what was
occurring, she was running deeper down into the dark alleyway. Adrenaline
pumped through her veins pushing her forwards and causing her heart to pump
erratically in her chest. Tears streamed continuously down her cheeks but they
were masked by the heavy rainfall that fell down over her.  She sprinted
past bit of sodden paper and old newspapers which were scattered along the
edges of the alleyway. Broken glass crunched beneath her damp Ugg boots as she
tried to sprint over the broken bottles. A dark green dumpster stood against
the wall of one of the neighboring buildings, she sprinted pasted it without
giving it a second glance.