B008GMVYA4 EBOK (20 page)

“I imagine they were going to turn you, hence why they
hadn’t tried anything before” Brendan said a flicker of disgust in his voice.

What Bernie had said was true then? He had wanted them to be
paired together, living the rest of their lives together as Skin Crawlers?

“In to a Skin Crawler?” she asked, even though she knew the
answer to her own question.

“Yes, but after seeing you with me, they must have thought
you were a too high of a risk to be changed. So, they tried to kill you”

A shiver ran down Madison spine from Brendan’s words.
Madison realised now if she had listened to Brendan and gone with him in the
first instance, she would still be naïve to that part of the world. However, if
Brendan had not come back for Madison she would be dead now. Either way,
Madison knew she would rather be dead than spend the rest of her life as a Skin
Crawler - feeding off the dead flesh of bodies.

“It’s okay! You don’t need to be scared, they won’t come
after you - not now they know you’re with me” Brendan said comforting, noting
her horror stricken expression and her eyes narrowing as she struggled with her
thoughts. He placed his long strong arm around her shoulders to an attempt to
offer her some comfort.

Madison’s eyes widened as a thought popped into her head,
something Bernie had said popped through the haze of her mind. “
Why have you
brought a vampire here?”
If Skin Crawlers existed there was a strong chance
that other types of demons existed as well. Madison had been so consumed with
shock and fear, she hadn’t been able to fully process what Bernie had said. His
question had left her mind rapidly as her three housemates turned into Skin
Crawlers before her eyes. A sudden flash of panic rose as her mind became cloudy
and confused again – now unsure what to do with the new piece of information.
She trusted Brendan - he had saved her life. Now though, she wondered what his
intensions were and whether what Bernie had said was true. There was no real
explanation as to why Brendan had befriended her in the first place and gone to
such lengths to help her. Madison watched loads of vampire films in the past
and from them she knew they only saw human’s as meals on legs. Brendan had
seemed so different if that was the case or was he playing some kind of sick
game with her – preying on her while she was weak. If the Skin Crawler’s knew
how alone she was, he would have easily been able to figure that out from the
moment she arrived in London. He would have been able to tell just by the look
on her face how vulnerable she was. And now she was alone in his apartment with
him. It would be easy for him to kill her and blame it on the Skin Crawlers -
no one would know apart from Gabby and by the reception she had given Madison
when she had arrived it didn’t seem like she cared. If Brendan was a Vampire,
it was entirely possibly that Gabby was too. Both of them had unnaturally
bright eyes – shocking beautiful to be human.  

Madison mind raced with theories and questions. She debated
whether she should try to escape, but Brendan’s arm was tightly wrapped around
her shoulders now. She would be no match for the Vampire if it came to her
fighting him off.

“Maybe I should go?” Madison said trying to act casual, but
practically leaping to her feet.

 “What? Why?” Brendan said stunned, standing up beside
her.

“Well, I think maybe... I should leave. I mean, if Rich and
Bernie wanted to find me, maybe I should be as far away from you as possible?
Maybe leave London, go home, maybe?” Madison said awkwardly, as she tried to
stagger towards the front door. Her legs still resembled jelly and the alcohol
hadn’t helped her co-ordination.   

“Where will you go though?” Brendan asked, sounding hurt.

Madison thought for a moment, there was no answer she could
give him that she wanted him to hear. She smiled weakly at Brendan - being
overly casual. She thought again for an answer, but there was nothing she could
say. She stared at Brendan cautiously. His eyes scanned every inch of her face,
a puzzled expression creasing his perfect features.

“Madison, what is it? You look spooked?” he asked stepping
towards her.

Madison took a step back in response, eyeing him nervously.
Hurt and confusion flashed into Brendan’s eyes as he tried to understand why
she had had this sudden reaction. Madison felt her heart strings pull at the
expression on his face. Brendan had saved her life and now she was hurting him
unintentionally.

“It’s nothing really, I just think it would be better if I
go” Madison said sincerely, but concern still bright in her eyes.

“Well, let me take you? My car is downstairs…” Brendan said
sweetly.

“No! Its fine…” she said trying to sound casual.

“Madison… what’s going on?” Brendan asked sternly, taking another
step towards Madison.

She didn’t respond, but allowed Brendan to close the
distance between them. She searched his eyes for some trace of danger, a trace
of anything sinister, but there was none – only honesty, something that Madison
had not witnessed much of in her lifetime. Slowly, she let her guard down and
the warm fuzzy feeling that overwhelmed her when gazing into Brendan’s crystal
blue eyes returned.

“Bernie said something to me back at the house. I’ve just
remembered what he said - It’s stupid to be honest. But after what happened
with the Skin Crawlers it kind of freaked me out for a second” Madison sighed.

“What did he say?” Brendan asked curiously.

“He said… he called you a Vampire. I know that sounds silly!
And it’s probably some kind of expression Skin Crawlers use for humans or
something, but after tonight… I guess anything is possible” she ranted.

Brendan remained silent, his expression blank. He lowered
his eyes towards the floor, his features turned bleak and dismal as he thought
about what Madison had said. Slowly, Brendan sighed and looked back towards
Madison – studying her expression as she tried to pull the truth from his body
language. She gasped and threw a hand up over her mouth. The air filled her
lungs, causing her to exhale immediately through her bruised fingers. Her heart
thumped loudly in her chest and adrenaline flowed through her veins. Her eyes
became blurry and her brain raced as she pieced together every bit of
information she had gathered on Brendan. The thought about the first night she
had met Brendan in the underground and the two boys in the main hall. Their
hollow black eyes and drawn death-like faces. They weren’t human and Madison
knew it at the time, but she had pushed the thought to the back of her mind - convincing
herself that it was just a hallucination. Anything was possible now and the two
young boys were probably just a different demon.

The signs had been there from the beginning, but she had
just ignored them - how easily Brendan had carried her suitcase through the
underground and how he had sensed the danger in her house before she had even
seen Bernie or Rich standing at the top of the stairs and how Brendan had
entered the house through the second story window which was impossible to reach
with even a ladder - due to the awkward design of the house.

Everything that had occurred since Madison had moved to
London began to slot together like a jigsaw puzzle and the constant fog of
unanswered questions began to life now. Madison knew she wasn’t scared of
Brendan, but the pressing question which now presented itself was
should she
be?

“It’s true, isn’t it?” Madison mumbled through her fingers,
her hand still pressed tightly against her mouth.

“Yes…” Brendan said weakly - almost reluctantly.

“But… how? When?” Madison replied in disbelief, her mind
filling with questions. 

“I want you to understand, knowing this will change
everything and I mean everything! Inheriting this kind of knowledge about our
world does not come without a price. So, before I continue I want to make sure
you understand 100% that this information cannot be passed on. You can never
tell anyone what I am about to tell you. If don’t want to hear what I am about
to tell you for your own safety then you can leave, forget all about this and
continue your life in whatever way you feel is fit, but if you stay then we
will be bound together by what you know” Brendan began.

“What do you mean? Bound together?” Madison repeated,
confused.

“What I am about to tell you will change everything. Our
lives will be intertwined with this knowledge whether you like it or not. It’s
whether you want to accept the responsibility of knowing, can you handle that?
Because should you tell anyone…“ Brendan replied.

Madison thought for a moment, the curiosity was killing her
and her life had been uneventful and normal up until this point. Now though,
something had occurred that could possibly change her whole outlook on life and
possibly give her the purpose she desperately need to get through the days and
nights. She understood that with certain types of knowledge comes a risk, she
just had to weigh up whether the risk was worth her knowing.

She examined everything Brendan had said and all the
warnings he had given her. The prospect of leaving now and forgetting the
conversation and the Skin Crawlers would also mean Madison would have to forget
Brendan – and she knew that was one thing she wasn’t ready to give up. The fear
or uncertainty she had felt towards him earlier had now turned back to lust,
she wanted him more than any other man in the world and the knowledge of what
he was meant little to her. So far he was the best thing that had ever happened
to her and even if that led to danger, she wouldn’t give him up for the world.

“Yes, I want to know” Madison finally said, agreeing more
with her conscious then with Brendan.

He stared at her skeptically for a moment - narrowing his
eyes towards her. Madison nodded reassuringly at him, her eyes determine, eager
to hear the story of how Brendan became what he was.

“It was 1909; I was 24 years old and living in New York
City. I had originally moved to New York to begin a career as an actor. I did a
few theatre productions, but nothing big, not big enough to make a name for
myself anyway. Eventually, like most actors work dried up. No one wants to
employ an actor that had been to every audition and not been successful at
everyone. During that time, plays and theater productions had very little money
to be made in them. They were mainly for the rich, and most of the wealthy
people in New York found the theater eccentric.

 After what felt like a hundred rejections from various
script writers and directors, I took up a job as a bartender in one of the more
local, lower-class bars. It was around this time that I met Gabby and Trace”.

“Trace?” Madison interrupted.

“You kind of met him, tonight at the club? I was talking to
him when you first spotted me - remember? The guy with the long brown hair,
looks like he should be on one of those male hair dye advertisements on TV? Everyone
thinks he colours it! Ha! Have you ever seen a man with natural chocolate brown
hair?” Brendan chuckled.

Madison smiled in amusement, her eyes wide with excitement -
urging Brendan to continue his story.

“Anyway, Gabby and Trace were just a friendly face at the
bar to begin with, someone to talk too. They spent most nights in the bar as I
worked - we had a laugh.

Every six months or so, foreigners would come to the new
world, most of them smuggled over by ships. As normal this caused trouble with
the locals, not all of them take kindly to foreigners on their land. So, like
normal a fight broke out, as a result some of the locals got injured. The gang
of foreigners began smashing up the bar and attacking women. We tried to break
up the fight but people became scattered, running off in different directions.
I chased a couple of men down an alleyway across the street from the bar. They
engaged me in a fight and in the madness, as we all scuffled around in the
alley, grabbing each other in head locks and throwing punches around - one of
them pulled a knife on me. It happened in seconds. I don’t remember quite how,
but I remember looking down and seeing the handle of the knife sticking out of
my abdomen. In that moment, led in the alleyway waiting for death, everything
became clear to me. My life was over and I had done nothing - achieved nothing.

At the very moment I accepted the hand that had been dealt
to me and realised all hope was gone, I heard what I thought sounded like an
angel’s voice at my side - Gabby” Brendan smiled, his expression was thoughtful
but his eyes showed signs of happiness and sorrow at the same time.

Madison couldn’t help but feel slightly envious of the way
Brendan talked about Gabby. A part of her knew she had to be thankful of Gabby
finding when Brendan when she did or he wouldn’t be with her now, but she
couldn’t help but feel a little jealous. Madison was far from surprised to hear
Gabby was a Vampire, from the moment she had clapped eyes on her she had felt
there was something not quite right about her.  

“That night, Gabby saved me and cursed me at the same time.
To be a vampire you have to be near death and an exchange of blood has to
occur. They suck your blood and you drink their blood - becoming one with the
vampire. Creating another vampire is difficult, not everyone holds the genetic
makeup to bond with vampire blood - around 70% of humans die as the disease
takes over their body. There’s also a chance, even though it’s a very small chance,
around 2% can come back…..unnatural. Not human nor vampire – something
completely different”

“And you’re a….normal vampire?” Madison asked carefully
trying not to offend him.

“Yes and No” Brendan replied uneasily.

“What do you mean?” Madison asked, confused.

“What do you know about Vampires? What have you heard in
films or read in books?” he asked.

“Umm…. The normal stuff, death by sunlight, stake through
the heart, holy water, crosses and garlic”