The lights had gone out in the stairwell they hurried down; Logan and Caddy were dragging a pale Emily along. Cora felt it first, holding her hand up causing them all to stop.

There was a low vibration starting and then all their words erupted into pain as a voice spoke deep within their skulls.

"Send out Cora Harvey and you will go free." The voice was indescribable; it was so deep within their heads they couldn't decipher whether the speaker was male or female.

A terrible twisting and stabbing sensation, as if nails were being plunged into the back of their eyes.

"Failure to do so and you will all die." The more the voice spoke, the sharper and more intense the pain became.

Cora was only dimly aware that her body had collided with something. The pain began to recede as rapidly as it had come, and Cora's world flooded back into focus.

She was still on her feet but had been relying on the wall to support her, and almost everyone else was on their knees holding their palms to their eyes.

Only Emily lay on the floor with her face pressed against the concrete, a trickle of blood leaking from her mouth.

Cora moved to her quickly, kneeling besides her and pulling her into her lap.

"You all need to get out of here." She said quietly and used her sleeve to wipe the blood from Emily's lips. "If I go out through the front doors, it'll give you all time to get to the barrier from the back."

The group were slowly getting to their feet around her, grimacing and trying to shake the horrible feeling from within their heads.

"No way," Taylor replied helping Caddy up.

"They will have this place surrounded, it's the only option."

Cora stood up lifting Emily into her arms, and Harriet moved forward offering her shoulder to carry her. Cora nodded in appreciation manoeuvring Emily's lifeless body carefully to Harriet.

"Cora, we won't make it without you. We should fight." Logan said looking determined.

"I've already told you, we can't win."

"We don't have to win, we just need to get to that barrier."

"It's too dangerous." Cora replied shaking her head and moving towards the stairs but found her way blocked by the group.

"You're not going to sacrifice yourself for us!" Poppy almost shrieked.

Cora felt frustration building up inside her, but they were running out of time to leave.

"OK, but you will do exactly what I say."

Everyone nodded.

By the back door Cora could sense a lot of movement but it was unorganised.

"On my signal," She whispered and opened the door, moving on her own into the clearning outside the door.

"Hi there!" Cora called and flashed them a fanged grin.

"We're leaving now so we'd appreciate if you would all just move away." The vampires began to flex their muscles and move towards her while the demonic creatures send waves of black energy towards her which she dodged easily.

"Thought I'd ask." Cora said and dropped the grenade to her feet, kicking it hard into the centre of the approaching group before dropping quickly to the floor.

The heat from the explosion made her wince as she felt her skin burn but it began to heal instantly. As she stood up she could smell burning hair but she would worry about that later.

She was surrounded by various limbs and blood, the demonic creatures had also been blown apart but Cora could see that various pieces had begun to draw to each other as if being pulled by magnets.

She put two fingers in her mouth and let out a short, sharp whistle.

A slight path had been formed in the stunned crowd revealing the street ahead, at her whistle everybody burst from the doors and surged through the slowly reforming crowd.

Cora hung back letting them all pass whilst Taylor lead the group towards the turn in the road.

They managed to outrun the crowd easily with a good knowledge of the streets but Cora could sense vampires waiting on the surrounding rooves, along with dark pulsing energy which could only be the demons.

"Watch your backs!" She shouted diving forward and grasping a wooden bullet from the air before it struck Harriet who was running slightly slower than everyone with the added weight of Emily over her shoulder.

Cora put all her concentration on keeping everyone safe, grasping bullet after bullet. The wall was in sight when it happened.

"Once we're over the barrier we need to make sure that nothing gets throug-." The screaming filled her ears for a few seconds before Cora realised they were hers.

She was only vaguely aware she had a body; the pain was swelling inside her head, tearing more involuntary screams from her lungs. Blood was pouring from her mouth, nose, eyes and ears.

Someone was grabbing her tensed arms and attempting to pull her along.

They had a strong around around her waist and she felt herself lifted from the ground.

The screaming still filled her ears and mingled with shouts and panicked crying from all around her.

Someone had grabbed her hand tightly. She could hear the barriers siren now.

She opened her eyes a fraction and could make out James' silhouette holding her and looking terrified.

The stabbing feeling from behind her eyes had spread through every nerve ending, her blood felt like acid in her veins and she could feel hot, searing blood running down her face and neck.

James jumped onto the barrier wall in one good clean jump and then leapt down landing gently on the other side.

He lowered her to the ground and moved to stop anyone coming through, as she had ordered.

The siren slowed and silence fell, the pain subsided instantly, she could feel her body shaking violently and had to swallow the urge to be sick.

Moments later she was surrounded by her team.

As she gazed up through hazey eyes she could only make out Poppy and Taylor who were both closest to her, their faces were wet with tears.

They were speaking words she could no longer understand.

She could feel her body slowly starting to heal itself, butin order to do so it began to shut down, her vision blurred and she blinked rapidly but was lost in the darkness.

I've had to type this up in wordpad as we can't afford to get microsoft word. Capitalista Gates. Apologies for grammar, spelling etc. but this doesn't auto-correct anything so just a warning.

Reviews would be useful at least to let me know someone out there is actually still reading.

Thanks! (A) (E)