Maddie sipped at the tea Polly had made her as she sat at the table with her and Ada in Polly's lavish yet distinctively dark living room. The décor screamed Polly all over; gothic and elegant and Maddie couldn't help but admire the odd little flourishes of style and taste that decorated the room. She had never visited Polly's house before today, the only Shelby house she hadn't set foot in, and she was extremely grateful to finally have an invite.

'It's a shame you cut up that painting Pol,' said Ada regrettably. 'It was a masterpiece.'

Maddie's ears pricked at the mention of the grand portrait of Polly that had hung in the Shelby Company office for an unfortunately short time before Polly had destroyed it the day Charlie was abducted. A fact she hadn't learnt until just now and raised her eyebrows in surprise. Distracted by her childlike awe at Polly's home, she hadn't paid much attention to the conversation and had missed the reason why she had destroyed the beautiful painting; but it didn't take much wondering to deduce it was because of her painter lover, Mr Oliver's, betrayal. Even if it was Alfie who had given up the most crucial information to their enemies, not Mr Oliver in the end.

'I know,' agreed Polly with a sigh. 'But that woman in the painting wasn't me.' There was a silence as she looked down into her teacup in solemn thought before looking back up at Ada and Maddie again. 'I told him I wanted a life with him. Away from this one,' she admitted calmly and evenly.

Ada blinked once and sat back in her chair with an intake of breath, sharing a look with Maddie who could feel her eyebrows raising again.

'And do you?' asked Ada.

Maddie tried to imagine her life with the Shelby's without Polly and found it extremely difficult. The steadfast matriarch had seemed like a universal constant, a figure of security and warmth, in the tumultuous world of the Peaky Blinders; and a circumstance where she wasn't around seemed uncertain and scary. Would she leave the family? Really? Maddie knew that this life had taken a lot from Polly and that part of her would want to escape and be happy. And that was something that she and almost certainly Ada wanted for her as well. But from the expression on Polly's face, she wasn't sure herself if that was what she really wanted.

'Part of me does,' admitted Polly, confirming Maddie's thoughts. 'But that part of me is that same part that he painted in that picture. My younger self that was assured and certain, and that is not the woman I am anymore.'

Ada and Maddie looked back at Polly with sad expressions, wishing that things could work out better for their life-toughened mother figure, but Polly smiled back at them genuinely, shaking off her self-pity with one expression.

'It's alright,' she said. 'My place is here with my family. I would dread to think what would happen if I weren't around to keep Thomas' ideas in check.'

The three of them laughed at Polly's joke and continued to sip at their tea and nibble on biscuits as the topic of conversation turned to much more light-hearted things. However, the mention of Tommy's name soon caused Maddie's mind to drift to him and what he must be doing in London at that very moment.

It was now Friday afternoon, with any luck Tommy might return by tomorrow afternoon, although deep down Maddie knew that was wishful thinking. When he had called the house on Wednesday afternoon, she had initially expected good news, that he had magically sorted all their problems caused in the aftermath of the train explosion and that he was about to leave for home. However, she had known it hadn't worked out quite so well when she heard his voice on the other end of the line. He had sounded tired, no, exhausted was more accurate, maybe more so than he did the day after the robbery. His voice lacked it ususal volume and authoritative tone and she had felt her heart sink as soon as he spoke, even if she didn't let it creep into her own voice. She still hadn't expected for him to say he'd be in London until the weekend, and she felt a wash of disappointment spread through her, as well as a sense of doubt which yet again had squirmed its way into her mind.

Was this an excuse to avoid her, after the nightmare he'd had the night before he took off for London at the drop of a hat? He had told her himself that he was avoiding her to have some space to think alone; did it turn out that the space from Birmingham to London was what he meant? Maddie had spent more time that she cared to admit debating this idea over that last couple of days, hence her relief when Ada and Polly had invited her out of the house for a much-needed distraction. Did I do the wrong thing in getting Tommy to talk about his past? She was sure her support of listening and comforting him had been loving and considerate, and even though what he had said had been difficult for him to say and for her to hear, she had been confident that it had helped him mentally. But his nightmare that night, and more importantly his reaction to it had turned that certainty into doubt.

Maddie felt an uncomfortable pain in her stomach as she thought about Tommy sleeping alone in London and more than likely having to deal with the terrifying dreams on his own. He had been vague about what he had dreamed about that first night. She and Charlie were'gone'he'd said. She had heard people use that term enough to know that what he really meant was 'dead' and he was attempting not to worry her with that particular detail of the nightmare. Maddie couldn't shake the feeling that Tommy was currently trying to force his way through tedious meetings on little to no sleep, the ghost of the nightmares haunting him all day as he worked. When she had awoken Thursday morning, she had debated the idea of getting on the train and surprising him in London but had been talked out of it by Ada. She had phoned Ada that morning to run the idea past her and Ada had quickly quashed it again.

'I think you need to give him the space Maddie,' she'd said after Maddie's long recount of nightmare-gate. 'Trust me, if I know my brother, he'll be missing you but you just showing up will just make what he has to do in London more difficult.'

Maddie felt deflated but smiled at Ada's reassuring words, she did know Tommy well, probably the best out of everyone. 'You're probably right, as usual.'

Ada's laugh tinkled down the phone line. 'Of course I am. I have some good news for you though, I'm coming up to Birmingham tomorrow to see Polly, I'll come and pick you up on the way and you can join us for the gossip, eh?'

'That would be lovely,' thanked Maddie, grateful for the excuse to get out of the house, and not on patrol.

'I'll be there for eleven Mads, ta ta,' said Ada, hanging up the phone.

Although Ada and Polly had both reassured Maddie again that Tommy would be alright when they had settled into their tea and cakes, she still couldn't stop her mind from thinking about him. She pictured his tense frame walking around the Houses of Parliament, making the effort to look awake and put together despite the sunken dark circles under his eyes. The sooner that business was over the better and the sooner he would return home and ahw could find out just how bad the nightmares were getting.

Maddie sighed and took a sip of her now tepid tea. Was there ever going to be an end to the stress and suffering in this family? Just as they seem to solve one problem, another crops up. Just like the Hydra and it's heads, she thought, although don't two heads usually sprout up from the first? She quickly shook off this notion as she thought back to the madness that was the past few days. She didn't even think it was possible to feel the full range of human emotion in such quick succession and in such a short space of time, but it turns out it was and it was something that she wasn't keen to experience again any time soon.

That moment when Tommy had returned from the tunnel, sprinkled with dirt, and he scooped her and Charlie into his arms and cried, Maddie had managed to feel overjoyed at seeing him unharmed and heartbroken at his tears at the same time. Then the jarring transition to the emotions of betrayal and despair at his revelation of kissing Tatiana would have been enough to break her heart completely if he hadn't in the same minute transformed her feelings again to ones of vengeance and fury. Just when Maddie thought she couldn't despise the Russian whore more, she throws in a curveball by drugging her boyfriend and attempting to rape him. Maddie hadn't said this to him of course, she knew that Tommy didn't see Tatiana's actions as something that extreme, it was 1924 after-all, the idea of a man being raped was an absurd idea. But she knew better, he had been blindsided and had narrowly avoided being taken advantage of and she remembered seeing nothing but red as he got deeper into the truth behind his indiscretion. When Tommy left to meet Tatiana, she at first regretted not being more insistent on going and thinking up some creative death for Tatiana on the way. But in the end she admitted that killing Tatiana would only make her feel better for so long until the guilt of killing a human knowingly, albeit a despicable one, would replace that satisfied feeling. Although, that didn't stop her silently wishing for a car crash or other convenient disaster that would ensure Tatiana would never be seen again.

If that drama wasn't enough, the meeting in Tommy's office was the most uncomfortable Maddie had felt and the most emotional she'd seen him around his family. The thought had occurred to her before that moment that maybe the Shelby's business would run better and involve less risk of death if things were done differently, although she had never voiced that thought. So, when Polly and the other women in the room united to express their interest in a new direction for the company, Maddie for the first time had let her feelings known with them. It was a surprise that Tommy hadn't brought the incident up with her afterwards, but it was a certain impossibility that he had forgotten about it. The following day, the day spent on the lawn in the hot sun, had turned their emotions in a complete one-eighty to total joy and contentment. She felt a sheen of sweat build under the neckline of her blouse as she pictured her and Tommy frolicking on the lawn in full view of the house and had to wipe away the moisture on her skin discreetly so Ada and Polly wouldn't notice. It was a miracle that she hadn't gotten seasick after another one-eighty back to anxiety and nervousness after waking to Tommy screaming in his sleep. A feeling which she hadn't be able to shake since then, even when she managed to get the charm to work more efficiently, since Tommy had up and disappeared with it whilst she had been out riding.

Maddie smiled to herself at the memory of reading Tommy's impeccably written note. She had seen his handwriting before and had remembered feeling that hers was awfully inferior to his elegant curved, and slanted writing. She had laughed at how he had managed to make a simple note sound formal, like how his day-off clothes still consisted of a formal shirt, trousers and vest. She noticed that her note she'd left with the charm had gone and guessed he must have taken it with him, so she too decided to keep his and had kept it folded in her pocket since then.

'What are you grinning at Mads?' asked Ada, jolting Maddie out of her daydream with a start.

'Oh, nothing sorry, I was in my own world,' she chuckled apologetically, returning her attention to the two women sat across from her.

'Nothing new there,' smiled Polly followed by a short pause as she scrutinised Maddie with a tender expression. 'What's going through your mind? That last few days have been hard on all of us, but you've been in the thick of it all, are you alright?'

Maddie blinked; she didn't expect such tender concern to come from Polly out of the blue. She had assumed that, because she was the slayer, hardened by the supernatural world, that the Shelby's had felt confident in her ability to shake off adversity when it hit but as it turns out Polly was of course more astute than that.

'I'm fine, for the most part,' began Maddie with a meek smile. 'The Russian business is over; Charlie is safe and no one died but… I've realised that this life is just as drama-filled as my slayer life, if not crazier. I just hope that we get some time without some secret organisation trying to ruin our lives or god-forbid anything worse.'

Polly and Ada glanced at each other with knowing smiles and looked back at her with identical looks of sympathy and understanding.

'We know how you feel,' said Ada with an ironic scoff of a laugh. 'We've been asking that same question since the boys came back from France. Did we ever tell you the Billy Kimber story?'

Maddie shook her head although she knew the name and the incident which she was referring to well. Billy Kimber was the man Tommy had killed in 1919 so they could assume control of all the northern racetracks in the country, an event which kickstarted the rapid growth of the Shelby Company in the years following. Of course, in school, she hadn't been told that Tommy had murdered Billy Kimber to gain his power; but everyone in Birmingham in the future knew that was what really happened. The truth is difficult to conceal, especially when juicy murder is involved.

Despite her knowledge, Maddie realised that a first-hand account of such an event in history was far better and indefinitely more entertaining than a tale passed on and warped over ninety years of Chinese whispers. She had no idea that Ada had marched into the middle of the two small armies, pushing along Karl in a pram as a way to deter them men from shooting each other to bits. It had worked, apart from Tommy getting a bullet in his shoulder and Billy Kimber a much more fatal bullet between the eyes. A win-win situation compared to the outcome of Tommy's most recent venture. Ada and Pol recounted amusing anecdotes to Maddie through till teatime, which Pol insisted she and Ada stay for. The story telling was a welcome distraction from Maddie's own mind and it had cheered her up considerably, laughing with the Shelby women and lifting her spirits, allowing her to stop worrying about Tommy for a while. When she noticed the hour approaching eight o'clock in the evening however, the happiness receded slightly as she realised that she and Ada would have to leave soon, the prospect of sleeping alone in Tommy's bed looming in the near future. Polly was quick to notice her glancing at the clock and pursing her lips in disappointment, and she stood from the table as if to make an announcement.

'Well!' she began, a wide mischievous smile stretching her lips. 'It's getting late. Too late for the two of you to drive home.' Ada and Maddie looked at each other with amusement and bafflement as Polly went to carry on speaking. 'Which means that you're both staying the night here,' she trilled. 'And I can break this out.'

Polly turned and headed toward a wooden cabinet on the other side of the room before crouching down and rifling through one of the cupboards as Maddie and Ada watched in anticipation. A couple of seconds later, Polly stood and turned to face them, holding up a large bottle of wine with both hands, one of those extra-large bottles that was three times the size of an average one. Maddie and Ada laughed together, half with excitement and half with trepidation at the thought of drinking the aged looking wine. Something that will likely lead to drunken revelations and fits of giggles that will last until the early hours of the morning. A sleepover with Ada, Polly and some good wine however was ten times more preferable to going to bed before ten alone, waiting impatiently for tomorrow to see if Tommy would manage to return home.

'I'll get the glasses,' said Maddie with a smirk making Ada shrug her shoulders with a sigh.

'Looks like I don't have much choice,' Ada commented sarcastically, her cheeks blushing as she laughed.

The three of them migrated over to the sofa, removing their shoes and stockings and curling their legs underneath them, full wine glasses in hand. They talked and laughed for hours, each sharing amusing stories which the other two listened to with fervour. As always Pol and Ada were entranced by Maddie's stories of her own time, both the grand kick-ass slayer stories and the mundane stories about the twenty-first century which to them weren't mundane at all. Maddie nearly choked on her eighth glass of wine when Pol told a hilarious story about how she stole her cousin's horse in the dead of night when she was a child and blamed it on a girl who'd stolen her favourite hairpin.

By midnight, as the strong wine began to mix with their blood to the point where almost every sentence that was uttered was found hysterical, more stories that Maddie wouldn't have originally shared started to bubble to the surface involuntarily. This included telling Pol and Ada about the sex she and Tommy had had on the lawn before she could stop herself. Ada looked almost sick at the thought of the image of her brother in that situation, whereas Pol looked impressed and smiled widely, laughing at Ada's embarrassment. Maddie blushed bashfully, hopefully they would forget the story by tomorrow morning and Tommy would never find out that his aunt and sister knew anything about it. It wasn't an impossibility, as Ada and Pol, not being slayers, had become drunk before Maddie and were already nattering about something else and had already forgotten about it. They may have been completely sloshed, but the two Shelby women could still hold more drink with a surprising amount of grace. Polly even had to open another (thankfully smaller) bottle of wine once the original one ran dry. The strength of the first bottle then began to catch up to Maddie, taking her from tipsy to flat out trashed with one sip from the new bottle. However, they continued to chat for a few more hours, all three of them slurring their words to the point where they were unintelligible, until finally Ada stood up, teetering precariously.

'I think… it's time for bed,' she slurred with a half laugh. 'It's bloody four in the morning!'

Polly and Maddie also got up and also swayed from side to side causing them to grasp onto each other for balance.

'You're right Ada,' replied Polly. 'I'll show you to your rooms.'

Giggling together at their poor coordination, they stumbled toward the hallway and to the stairs. Pol lead the way, grasping the handrail for dear life as Ada clung to Maddie's sleeve and began to follow Pol upstairs. Half-way up however, Ada's foot slipped on the edge of the step and she and Maddie fell forward onto the stairs, bursting into a fit of giggles. Pol turned to check on them and succeeded in falling on her own backside with a thump, making them laugh more. The next ten minutes was spent crawling up the steps slowly, holding each other's hands and pulling each other along. Maddie could feel her throat becoming sore from the amount of laughing they were doing. They eventually stopped for a break three quarters of the way up and Ada turned to her, face bright red with the effort of laughing.

'Can't you just carry us up Mads?' she asked, tears in her eyes.

'Only if you want us to end up in a heap at the bottom, then we'd have to start again!'

Another round of cackling ensued before their mission continued and eventually the three of them reached the summit of their enormous staircase mountain, rolling around on the landing together, now barely able to breathe. Polly then led them crawling down the corridor to their rooms for the night and pushed the door to Maddie's room open as they all struggled to get to their feet again.

'Sleep well Maddie love,' slurred Polly with a drunken smile.

'Sleep well,' said Maddie as Ada and Polly reached their own rooms.

Maddie shut the door and stepped slowly toward the bed, the room spinning dangerously. Urg... shit, I'm going to regret this tomorrow for sure, thought Maddie as she attempted to wrestle her blouse over her head unsuccessfully. The buttons on the blouse got caught in her hair and she huffed in frustration before deciding to flop onto the bed in defeat, skirt still on and blouse still tangled in her hair. After almost knocking the lamp off the bedside table, she turned the light out and as soon as her head came to rest on the pillow she fell into a deep drunken sleep.

Bang, bang, bang!

Maddie fumbled for a pillow next to her on the bed and squashed it over her head to drown out the noise that was making her head throb painfully, squeezing her eyes shut stubbornly.

Bang, bang, bang!

This time the noise was louder and more urgent and was definitely the sound of angry knocking. Still Maddie ignored it and buried herself into the bed even more, refusing to fully wake up.

'Mads!' came the shout of a familiar voice. 'You awake in there? Open up!' Maddie groaned agonisingly; her head felt like it was splitting from one ear to the other. What the hell was in that wine anyway? She huffed angrily but still didn't reply, refusing yet to admit her rude awakening as more loud knocking shook the room around her. 'For fuck sake Mads! I'm coming in alright!' She turned and curled herself into a ball, her back to the door as she heard it open and a frustrated sigh echoed around the room. 'Fucking hell, you ladies had yourselves a great time last night didn't ya?'

Maddie puffed out a non-humoured sigh and rolled herself over again to finally look at Arthur in the gloomy light of the room, who was looking back at her with some frustration, but mostly humour. A look which only made her grumpier at being woken up.

'Ha… bloody… ha,' she mumbled, making to sit herself up slowly. She wasn't hungover, she was still drunk, although she was well on her way to the hangover that was approaching. Her brain felt like liquid in her skull, and she pressed her palm to her forehead as it began to throb again. Arthur chuckled and approached Maddie with a twinkle in his eye.

'At least your alright,' he said. 'How much did you drink?'

She felt Arthur touch her head and she looked up as he untangled her blouse from a strand of hair for her as she blushed with embarrassment.

'Too much, evidently,' she replied, now noticing the croaky tone to her voice and how dry and sore her mouth felt. Arthur must have also noticed as he went to the doorway and called for Finn to bring a glass of water as John appeared, looking extremely amused at the whole affair.

'At least your awake Mads. Pol and Ada are still unconscious,' he sniggered.

'Your sure they're okay?' she asked, worried that the other women's livers hadn't dealt with the alcohol as well as hers had.

'They'll be alright, we Shelby's are built to take our booze, even if it knocks us out,' joked John.

'Why are you even here?' asked Maddie as Finn arrived with the glass of water which she took an eager swig of.

'Because it's two in the afternoon and we hadn't heard from any of you all day,' said Arthur.

'Two?!' exclaimed Maddie with a pained huff as Arthur nodded.

'And Tommy sent us to look for you when he got back home an hour ago and you weren't there,' added Finn nonchalantly.

Maddie snapped her head up at this news and groaned even louder as the movement made her head and neck ache. Tommy had managed to make it home earlier than he'd said, and he had expected to find her at home, instead and she had been lying in Polly's spare bed, burning off the stupid amount of alcohol she'd drunk the night before. She hadn't planned on still being at Pol's so late into the day, but that's what happens when that amount of wine is involved.

'If you're up to getting dressed I'll drive you home,' said Arthur, a soft streak of brotherly affection in his voice.

'Thanks,' nodded Maddie and the three brothers left her in privacy to get dressed.

She downed the rest of the water before getting up and beginning the struggle with her blouse. At least she hadn't managed to get all the way down to her slip as that would have only meant a greater struggle this morning. Maddie could smell the wine still on her breath and clothes and grimaced. What a lovely state for Tommy to see me in, she whined to herself. Once dressed semi decently, she ambled her way downstairs with difficulty, emerging into the living room where the brothers were waiting. They all turned to look at her as she entered and all smirked at her dishevelled state. She squinted at them all threateningly and crossed her arms across her chest.

'If any of you bring this up again, I swear there will be…' Maddie faltered, her drunk mind still struggling to form words. 'Dire consequences!'

She blurted the last part out, wagging her finger at them threateningly, issuing laughs from all of them but they raised their hands in up in submission.

'Come on Mads, let's get going,' announced Arthur, standing from the armchair.

'Enjoy your drive,' said John, looking slightly bitter. 'We'd better stay here and make sure them two are alright.' John jutted his thumb up to the ceiling and shook his head before adding, 'I'm going to have to deal with the storm when Pol realises that we have a spare key to her house.'

Maddie agreed she didn't want to be there when that happened and wished John and Finn good luck.

'Thank them for the great evening for me, eh?' asked Maddie.

John nodded and she and Arthur left the house together, Maddie struggling to keep up with his fast pace. As she stepped out into the daylight, she squinted and covered her eyes from the blinding sun; it was another scorching July day and she had spent the first half of it in bed. The heat only made her feel more dehydrated and a nauseous feeling began in the pit of her stomach, making her sweat uncomfortably.

During the drive, Maddie opened the passenger window as far as it would go and let the wind blow on her face to cool her down and clear her head. She was no longer drunk, but the hangover had come into full swing, and she desperately tried to fend off the vomit with cool air, keeping her eyes shut the entire way home. Never again, she thought to herself, never again. Thankfully though, once Arthur reached the driveway of Arrow House, she had begun to feel slightly better, her stomach and head no longer swirling. This allowed for some excitement to creep in, the thought of seeing Tommy after several days making her heart flutter like it had the first day they met.

'Send Tommy my regards,' said Arthur as Maddie exited the car. 'Maybe keep off the booze for tonight, eh?'

Maddie rolled her eyes and responded sarcastically. 'Aw, and here I was planning to drink a whole bottle of whiskey before bed.'

Arthur laughed heartily and pulled away, Maddie waving to him before heading in the front door. No doubt Tommy would have seen the car pull up and she found it odd that he hadn't come out to meet her. However, once in the foyer, no Frances in sight of course, the door to his office down the hall opened and he appeared, spotting her with a sigh. She smiled at him guiltily as he walked down the corridor towards her, and she noticed the relieved expression on his face.

'Fun evening?' he asked rhetorically once he was stood in front of her.

'Gee, you go away for four days, and that's the greeting I get?' taunted Maddie with a cheeky smile before looking down at her feet guiltily. 'Sorry, we got a bit carried away. I wasn't expecting you to get back until later.'

A faint smile flickered over Tommy's lips and Maddie finally inspected his face properly and noticed how sunken in it looked. He had dark circles under his eyes, even darker than ususal; his skin looked pale and dry, and his hair had lost its shine. His face also looked slightly slimmer than it had before, and she immediately knew that he hadn't eaten much over the last few days. More than likely his body had been sustained by nothing but cigarettes and whiskey.

Maddie couldn't hide the shock on her face at his appearance and she stepped forward to place her hand on his cheek. Tommy's eye's closed with the contact, a relieved look spreading across his face and his body relaxing slightly, letting her know that he had been missing her after all, just as much as she had missed him. She reached up and pulled him into her arms and his arms snaked around her waist and held her tightly to him.

'You look terrible,' she whispered into his ear. It may have been a little harsh, but she couldn't help but say it, knowing he wouldn't take offence. He sighed into her shoulder before releasing her from the hug and looking her in the eye.

'I know,' he said before smiling and looking Maddie up and down. 'You also don't look your best.'

Maddie looked down at her scruffy form and laughed. 'Agreed.'

There was a silent pause as they looked at each other affectionately before Tommy stepped forward and planted a kiss to Maddie's lips. At least he's not mad that I got drunk at Polly's, she thought thankfully. The kiss was soft and gentle, a true lover's kiss that she didn't want to end, despite the taste of cigarettes and whiskey being stronger than ususal. When he pulled away, he cleared his throat and smiled.

'Why don't you get some more sleep, and you can come and find me later,' he said brushing her hair behind her ear.

Maddie scoffed and shook her head. 'If I go back to sleep, I'll stay that way until tomorrow. But I could definitely use a bath.'

Tommy blew some air out his nose in amusement and nodded. 'After your bath then, I'll fill you in on what happened in London.'

Maddie nodded eagerly, keen to know the outcome of Tommy's efforts in parliament. Hopefully it was good news. She gave him a peck on the lips before making her way upstairs as he returned to his office. She swallowed back the concern that had built in her throat at seeing him look so gaunt and exhausted. She was now certain that the nightmares had been preventing him from sleeping as she'd feared and she found she wasn't sure how she was going to talk to him about it, fearing that he would try to revert back to keeping his feelings to himself.

Frances had decided to make herself scarce it seemed that afternoon and was nowhere to be seen, so Maddie accepted that she was going to have to run her bath herself. Tommy's bath luckily had running taps, so the job didn't take any effort and she sank herself into the scented water with a pleasured sigh and let the rose scented soap soak up and overpower the lingering scent of wine on her skin and hair. She let herself relax there for a good hour until the water lost enough heat that it was no longer to her liking. She climbed out and towelled herself off before brushing her teeth at the sink. Shedressed in clean clothes and sprayed herself in some perfume for good measure, now feeling almost back to normal. It's times like these that she was thankful that she was called as the slayer, her beast like metabolism something that she definitely took for granted. She left the room with the spring back in her step, excited to find out what she'd missed over the last few days. Maddie hurried to Tommy's office and knocked on the door, awaiting his reply which came instantly, and she stepped inside and shut the door behind her.

'Hey,' she greeted making her way toward his desk. 'So, what's the news on the rial-.'

Maddie stopped short of completing her turn of phrase as she looked up at Tommy and laid eyes on him, halting in the middle of the room. He was looking up at her silently with an indifferent expression, a pair of circular wired spectacles balanced on his nose. She didn't expect to see the glasses, and she didn't expect how well they suited him, making him somehow look more menacing than before.

'You got glasses,' she stated dumbly.

'Yes,' replied Tommy, looking back down at the papers on his desk. 'I had them made whilst I was in London.'

Maddie then vaguely remembered Tommy complaining of blurred vision whenever he tried to read something since his head injury and how Alfie had given him a name for a good gasses making person; she forgot the name of the profession exactly.

'They suit you,' complimented Maddie, feeling the aroused sweat around her neckline building again.

They really did suit him, in an old 1920's man sort of way. They made his cheekbones and jaw more defined, if that were possible, and his lips suddenly more appealing. Maddie felt the urge to go over to him, sit on his lap, and kiss his gorgeous spectacled face. Four days was a long time for them to go without sex or any physical contact, and something as simple as a pair of glasses was already making Maddie hot under the collar. However, she was just as desperate to find out if the Shelby Company Ltd would be able to get back up and running and she decided to sit on the corner of his desk rather than his lap, at least for now.

'So, how did it go?' she asked when Tommy made it clear he wasn't going to respond to her compliment. He put down his pen and looked up at Maddie again, making her wait anticipatedly for an answer before pulling the charm out his pocket and handing it to her.

'You did a good job with that,' he said with a smile. 'It got us our licences back and the warrants for the arrests written off.'

Maddie's jaw dropped open in shock. It sounded too good to be true, even a perfect charm couldn't get them out of all that scott-free surely? There must be more to the story.

'Just like that?' questioned Maddie. 'We're in the clear?'

Tommy's jaw tensed slightly although his expression remained pleased, 'In a manner of speaking.'

'What does that mean?' she probed with a nervous laugh.

He sighed and peered up at her through his glasses. She crossed her legs slowly to suppress the tingling between her thighs, hoping he wouldn't notice. He paused before replying and she awaited his answer attentively.

'In return, the men I spoke to will have some jobs for us in the future. Jobs of a confidential nature. Jobs they don't want their own operatives getting caught doing.'

Maddie swallowed, understanding the implication of Tommy's words. More killing, more assassinations on behalf of the crown and the unquestionable obedience of Tommy and the Peaky Blinders in the process.

'I guess it never does end with you does it,' said Maddie followed by a weak laugh as Tommy gave her a confused look and she explained her odd comment. 'Just something I said to Pol and Ada yesterday.'

'What did you say?' asked Tommy, leaning forward and wrapping his hand around her calf and squeezing tenderly, making the aroused drops of sweat return on her skin.

'That I hoped that we'd get some time without big scary organisations controlling or threatening us.'

Tommy looked into Maddie's eyes, the blue of his iris' piercing her soul as they so often did. She could see the guilt in them, the guilt of constantly getting his family into these situations over and over again. However, he shook his head confidently and brought a hand up to cup her face.

'It won't last. I won't let it. Just these last few things and it's back to regular business and nothing else.'

Maddie let her head nod in agreement, she wanted to believe him, but if her history education had taught her anything, trouble always seemed to find the Shelby family. Or maybe it was Tommy who had an unconscious need for seeking out trouble. More than likely, it was a combination of the two and she knew that these assignments wouldn't be the last of the trouble, even if he was trying to convince himself otherwise.

'Did they tell you what our first assignment is?' asked Maddie apprehensively.

'No,' said Tommy shaking his head. 'They'll be in contact when they need us.'

Maddie nodded and bit her lip nervously before sliding across the desk closer to Tommy, 'When do we reopen the office?'

'Monday,' replied Tommy who, in response to Maddie sliding towards him, slowly snaked his hands up under her skirt to her thighs.

'That soon?' Maddie hadn't expected all the paperwork to be back in order so quickly and was both excited and apprehensive about returning to the office. However, the return to a normal routine would probably be the best thing for Tommy and his nightmares, she realised.

Tommy didn't offer an answer to Maddie's question and instead stood up in front of her and began to coax her to the edge of the desk by pulling her legs towards him with his hands in the crooks of her knees. She followed his silent instruction and inched forward and allowed him to part her legs so he could stand in between them. He brought his head down to hers, torturously close so that their lips were only a breath apart as he glided his hands further up underneath her skirt to meet the hem of her stockings. Pins and needles made her skin prickle where he touched her, leaving a buzzing trail under the surface of her skin as he made his way further upwards. She had to fight to keep her breathing even, trying her best not to let on that he was making her so hot and bothered with a simple touch. It was amazing what a few days apart could do, maybe there was something to the phrase 'absence makes the heart grow fonder'.

Maddie couldn't help but watch Tommy's lips eagerly, waiting for them to connect with hers with bated breath. Of course, this didn't go unnoticed by him, and she watched as an infuriating smug grin turn up the corners of his mouth.

'You've missed this,' he muttered in a dark, husky whisper as his hands reached the bones of her hips. He pressed the pads of his thumbs firmly into the flesh of her hips and brought his body in closer, so their chests were almost flush against each other. Maddie could feel the moisture pooling between her thighs that confirmed that he was right, she'd missed this a lot, but her pride wouldn't let her be teased so easily and she gritted her teeth in defiance. She reached a hand forward and raked her nails up the inside of his leg, smiling as she felt him tense slightly, until she felt the already solid erection underneath the thick fabric.

'So have you,' she whispered back with a triumphant and seductive chuckle, which was quickly quietened.

Tommy smashed his lips to Maddie's aggressively, quickly drawing her bottom lip into his mouth and biting it roughly. If it wasn't already obvious that the last few days had put a lot of stress on him, then his sudden display of animalistic passion was enough to confirm it. He gripped her hips tighter to the point where it hurt slightly, making her whine in pleasure, and pulled them flush against his. He continued to kiss her roughly and she began to kiss him back just as forcefully, nipping his lips with her teeth which elicited a deep growl from his throat. He grabbed a handful of her blouse and yanked it to the side, ripping it open and popping the buttons off which clattered onto the desk and floor. Maddie gasped slightly in surprise, a sound which was mostly muffled by Tommy's lips, although he still heard it as she felt him smile in response to her little noise. But before she could respond by doing the same to his shirt and vest, he then grasped the underwear underneath her blouse with both hands and ripped that open as well. With a loud tearing sound, she felt the cool air caress her nipples as her breasts were exposed and couldn't help but yelp when he immediately followed by grabbing one of her nipples and pinching it hard.

Tommy withdrew from the kiss to look down at Maddie as she tried to keep her expression even as he slowly began to twist her nipple between his thumb and index finger. She grappled with her composure, her pussy throbbing desperately, as she tried to think of how to get him back, but she couldn't help but look up at him hopelessly as he gazed down at her through his sexy fucking glasses, a hint of a smile tugging at his lips again as he continued to twist. Eventually, the twisting became too painful, and she gripped his wrist to stop him before grabbing the back of his neck and pulling his lips back onto hers. She pulled her weight forward and up so he was forced to wrap his arms around her and pick her up, letting go of her breast reluctantly.

Turning away from the desk, Tommy walked Maddie over to the bookshelves briskly and she soon felt her back hit them, the ridges of the shelves digging into her back awkwardly, not that she cared. He hoisted her skirt up to her waist before moving to her underwear and tearing them down the seams on either side so that they fell to the floor as she barely contained her moan. Barely a second passed before she felt his fingers on her pussy, lightly touching her clit just enough to make her eyes fall shut and a pleasured groan escape her lips.

'You've missed it more,' taunted Tommy into Maddie's ear as he began to gently massage her clit.

Maddie wanted to retort and push him away and begin teasing him the same way he was doing to her, but her head was a thick hazy fog. Maybe the alcohol from the previous night was still in her system; but whatever the reason all she managed to do was open her eyes and give him an annoyed look that only confirmed his words and made him smile victoriously. He brought his head back down and into the crook of her neck to begin kissing it as he slowly slid a finger inside her followed swiftly by another. She fisted a handful of his hair with one hand and held the shelf above her head with the other, her jaw dropping open in ecstasy. Soon, she felt him begin to undo his trousers as he pushed another finger inside her, making her whimper uncontrollably, begging him to push himself inside her. Once he freed himself, he pressed the head of his cock against her clit, keeping it purposefully still until she couldn't control herself any longer. She began to roll her hips slightly against him, his fingers still inside her, so his cock was massaging her clit making her whine even louder. Tommy, after a few seconds of this, bit down on the soft skin of Maddie's neck, no doubt bruising her before pulling his fingers out of her and replacing them with his cock. He didn't push himself all the way in with one quick stroke as he usually did, but slowly inched his way inside making her moan in protest. At least this tactic was also difficult for him as she could feel him tense against her and hiss with the effort not to fuck her with reckless abandon as she was sure he wanted to.

Tommy pulled back again to look down at Maddie and she met his eyes hazily, noticing his black, blown pupils. She could feel her breath shaking as the pleasure rippled through her with his slow pace. He continued to watch her as he slowly pushed himself inside her all the way and slowly back out again with control, her arousal building to breaking point and receding again each time. Eventually, she couldn't take it anymore and she looked up at him with a pleading look, squeezing her legs around his waist to make her point. However, he continued to stare her down and didn't change his pace one iota and she suddenly realised he wanted her to beg again, beg for him to fuck her. She had learned that Tommy tended to do this after periods of intense stress, probably as a way to help him work out the tension and angst he had been building up. She was too desperate for release, her clit pumping with blood and pussy dripping with need to protest and she sighed in defeat.

'Fuck me harder Tommy, please,' she said in a strained mutter. 'I need you to fuck me harder.'

His eyes closing and a moan leaving his chest, Tommy obliged immediately and thrust into Maddie with a grunt. He load moans filled the quiet office as Tommy picked up the pace to his usual quickness. He may have looked exhausted from his time in London, but he wasn't showing it now as they fucked against the bookshelf, making the shelves shake and creak slightly. The familiar tension soon began to build in her abdomen, and she could feel her blood rushing around her body, making her skin flush with heat and her head spin. She couldn't stop the moans that escaped her lips as her climax approached and he only quickened his pace to her signals.

Swearing loudly like sailors, the two of them finally came together, the hedonistic pleasure drowning them like a waterfall before they slumped into each other, catching their breath. Maddie rested her head on Tommy's shoulder and smiled as the post-sex warmth began to tingle under her skin. God forbid what their sex would be like if they spent more than four days apart, they would probably have to replace most of the furniture in the house. He gently lifted her off the bookshelf and planted her back on her feet, her legs feeling like they were made of jelly. He righted his clothes as she let her skirt fall back to her shins and attempted to wrap her ruined blouse around her with a giggle.

'This was my favourite blouse,' she teased as she used the one surviving button to loosely hold the ruined fabric together so her breasts weren't on show.

Tommy chuckled and led Maddie over to the sofa by her hand and they sat there together in silence for a while as she rested her legs on his lap and leaned her head on his shoulder. He pulled out a cigarette and began smoking it as he wrapped an arm around her and lovingly caressed her arm with his thumb. She waited patiently for him to finish smoking, peering up at his chiselled face with his glasses still on his nose. Now that the sexual tension had been dealt with, she wanted to address what was really worrying her and hoped that he would be receptive to it.

'How are you feeling Tommy?' she asked as he stubbed his finished cigarette out in the ashtray. He turned to look at her with a neutral expression and she fumbled to elaborate. 'I mean… how are you feeling about the nightmare the other night now that you've had time to think about it?'

The tensing of Tommy's jaw to the question told Maddie all she needed to know; she was right it hadn't been a one-off nightmare as part of her still hoped. He swallowed and looked into her eyes steadily although she could see him calculating his answer before he replied.

'Scared,' said Tommy simply and honestly. 'I haven't slept.'

Maddie swallowed thickly. She wanted nothing more than to suck the dreams out of Tommy's brain, but she knew it wasn't that simple. She thought back to when her nightmares had given her the same kind of problems back when she was first called as a slayer and what she had done to stop them. The prophetic dreams as well as the horrific reliving of her experiences had overwhelmed her at first, but the latter eventually stopped when she realised that the only way to rid herself of them was to accept them. She removed their ability to frighten her and as a consequence the nightmares lost their paralytic power, even if they were still a little terrifying at times.

'When I was seventeen, after I was called as the slayer,' began Maddie. 'The dreams I had stopped me from sleeping. I'd wake up shaking and petrified. Eventually, I learned that to stop them I had to accept them. Face them head on every night. After a while the dreams got less frequent, and I was sleeping better.' Tommy listened to her quietly, not making any indication as to what he thought about her story, and she paused to see if he would say anything. When he didn't, she carried on. 'Maybe you should try the same? It's not easy but maybe it'll help?'

Tommy exhaled through his nose as he looked ahead at the wall and Maddie waited nervously for his response, hoping she hadn't overstepped her bounds. After a few seconds he turned to her and pulled her in to place a gentle kiss to her lips before pulling back and caressing her face tenderly with his thumb.

'Will you help me?' he asked quietly, as if there was someone else in the room who might hear him.

Maddie smiled and nodded eagerly, glad that Tommy hadn't rejected her idea, 'Yeah, of course.'

They fell into silence again as they gazed at each other, Tommy softly brushing Maddie's hair with his hand. She could feel that the mood needing lifting a bit after that conversation and reached up and plucked his glasses off his face with a mischievous smile, making him look at her with annoyance. She turned the glasses over in her hands and felt the thin malleable wire between her fingers before lifting them up to her own face and resting them on her nose. Her world went from crystal clear to blurrily out of focus as she looked through the lenses. The act triggered an ache to start behind her eyes and she squinted through the glasses at Tommy whose fuzzy expression she couldn't make out.

'You can see through these?' she asked in disbelief.

'That is the idea,' he responded. She could tell he was trying to sound unamused but there was a definite hint of smile in his voice.

'Another underrated slayer perk,' said Maddie as she took the glasses off, restoring her world to full clarity. 'Is twenty-twenty vision.' She handed Tommy his glasses back and she noticed his lips were pursed together in an attempt not to laugh.

'That's good,' he said. 'They looked ridiculous on you anyway.'

Maddie let her mouth drop open and placed her hand dramatically against her chest in fake offence to his light-hearted insult before punching him sharply on the arm in retaliation.

The first two nights that Tommy was back went as well as Maddie expected: not very. He awoke both nights in a cold sweat and struggled to do much more than doze for the rest of the night. Of course, she didn't expect her proposed advice to work straight away, but it was hard to see him in such a state nonetheless. Even though it didn't work that first night, he still went to bed the second night as determined as the first; placing his head on his pillow and shutting his eyes, knowing full well what was to come. Maddie hoped she was right and that she wasn't making the situation worse for him but decided to stick to her guns for the time being. As a result of this poor end to the weekend, the first week back at the office was a welcome one.

The Shelby's were all in high spirts at being back in the office. Maddie had never known people to be so happy about working in her life. Luckily the damage done from being out of business for almost a week was minimal and they soon had everything back up and running in a way that made it hard to believe it had ever stopped. The process however meant that she was laden with more paperwork than she was used to. The week off hadn't done her typing skills any favours and it took her some time to get back in the swing. This was much to Lizzie's amusement, who made a scene of pointing out her inability to keep up in front of everyone, before pointedly demanding to take half of her workload to make up the slack. Maddie often concluded that the woman deserved a good slap to put her in her place but instead agreed with a sweet smile and slid a pile of papers, which included John's almost unintelligible notes on a meeting with the racecourse owners, toward her. A job which would take hours, even for Lizzie, to type up.

Arthur and Linda, in the time that they weren't allowed to leave the country, had begun to question their desire to move to America. Maddie didn't admit it to him, but she was glad that he hadn't decided to move an ocean away just yet. She wasn't ready to not have her big brother figure around. Linda was only a couple of months away from having the baby and Maddie hoped that she would decide to have it in Birmingham, making it even harder for them to move to America once they settled into family life at home. Maddie also got to meet John's new son, Daniel, who Esme had brought along much to her and the women's excitement as she hadn't had chance to say hello during the meeting in Tommy's office a week ago. His tiny little face and hands made her smile and giggle; newborn babies managed to somehow be cute despite looking like aliens.

However, Maddie noticed whilst she was holding Daniel that Tommy was watching her from across the room with a serious look on his face and she had an immediate suspicion as to what he was thinking. It was a thought that had already occurred to her before as she had grown closer to Charlie in recent weeks. He's wondering if I want children with him, she admitted. The thought no longer disgusted her as it used to, but she still felt her stomach flip at the thought of becoming pregnant. After she handed Daniel back to Esme, she discreetly pressed her thumb into the fleshy part of her inner bicep where she felt her contraceptive implant still securely in place. It was sat quite deep between her muscle, a fact that was usually bad news if it needed to be removed, but in this case had meant Tommy had never noticed it. It was something she thought wise not to tell him or even Ada and Polly about, the concept of birth control would probably blow their minds and prompt many questions she didn't want to answer. It was evidently working though; her periods had been regular since she arrived in 1924, much to her relief. And with the amount of sex she and Tommy had been having, it was entirely possible for her to have fallen pregnant by now if it weren't for the implant. It was actually surprising that he hadn't noticed her lack of bun in the oven.

Maybe that's why he's looking at me like that, thought Maddie with a sudden panic. It was very unusual for a woman not to have gotten pregnant by now and maybe seeing her holding a baby had caused that realisation to dawn on him and his suspicions to be roused. There was also the topic of marriage. Their relationship, even by modern standards, would have manifested the expectation that they would get married at some point. Tommy hadn't mentioned it to her at all. Maybe the death of his last wife was still too fresh. But Maddie knew that he must have thought about it and that look he gave her only meant it was a matter of time before he breached both topics. However, she wasn't ready to figure out how she'd deal with that scenario and decided to push the issue from her mind. Along with the fact that her implant only had just under a couple of years left before it would stop working and it would be impossible to get it replaced.

During that week, Tommy's nightmares continued much the same but by the end of the following week there was finally some light at the end of the proverbial tunnel. One night he awoke as he usually did only this time much later and afterwards had manged to fall asleep again and slept through to the morning. Maddie had jumped up and down on the bed when she woke up to find him still asleep, thereby waking him up and making him considerably grumpy. It was working! Her idea was starting to make a difference, all be it small. He was sceptical at first, but he eventually admitted it was progress when the same again happened the following night, informing her that the nightmare or the sound of digging didn't return after he fell back to sleep. This made Maddie so happy, that it gave her confidence to stay out patrolling much later some nights, having previously been coming home early so Tommy wouldn't have to fall asleep alone. He encouraged the idea, and she was elated to come home around one in the morning one day to find him fast asleep, his face peaceful for the first time since the nightmares started.

Maddie settled into this new routine with relative comfort and before long a month had passed since the robbery and Charlie's abduction. The company was thriving again, and everyone seemed relatively happy; it was all 'tickety-boo' as her mum used to say. However, this usually meant that something, some dilemma, was waiting just around the corner to keep her and the Shelby's on their toes. And with the deal Tommy had made with the blokes in parliament and the fact that Maddie was still the slayer, it was likely about due to make its appearance.

'Mads, can I ask you something?'

Maddie turned towards Finn who was sat next to her in the small private room of The Garrison where she and the Shelby brothers along with Michael and Isiah had gone for an evening drink after work. He looked back at her nervously and his freckled cheeks began to blush when he realised his question had been overheard by the rest of the group and they were now all looking at him expectantly.

'Yeah?' prompted Maddie as Finn fell silent.

'Go on Finn lad,' teased Arthur. 'Ask Mads your question, don't be bashful.' The room sniggered at Arthur's teasing and Finn looked down at his lap and shook his head.

'Never mind, forget it.'

Maddie looked around the room at the other men sternly. Their bullying of their little brother was most of the time amusing, but this time she found it annoyed her. 'No, Finn ask away,' she encouraged, looking around the room threateningly. 'Just ignore them.' She cracked her knuckles on both hands for emphasis that she wanted them all to remain quiet and everyone looked down quickly in response.

Finn hesitated for another moment before finally asking his question. 'Can I come patrolling with you tonight?' Maddie nearly choked on the mouthful of beer that she had decided to sip in that moment, and despite her threat, the question was unexpected enough to make the others do the same followed by no short amount of laughter. He looked around the room angrily at everyone before turning back to her with a resolved expression. 'I'm serious!' he exclaimed. 'I want you to show me how to kill vampires.'

This only proved to elicit more laughter from the room and Maddie did her best to keep a straight face. Where on earth had this come from? No-one had expressed more than observant fascination in her slaying before now, especially since the incident with Juliet which she had assumed had put them all off experiencing too much of her world. She looked at Finn and tried to deduce from his expression what had brought this on, but he just looked back at her steadfastly.

'Why do you want to go patrolling?' asked Maddie. Finn sighed and looked around the other men before turning back to her.

'I've been thinking about it since that lady vampire, Juliet, nearly killed you a few months ago,' admitted Finn, making Maddie shiver slightly at the memory. 'I want to know how to kill them in case more show up and you're not around.'

'That won't happen,' said Maddie. 'And she didn't nearly kill me!' Maddie glanced around the room and noticed everyone raising their eyebrows at her sceptically and sighed. 'Yeah, alright maybe she did!' she huffed. 'But I'm not so sure taking you out patrolling would help.'

'The kid has a point,' came the voice of John on the other side of the table causing her to turn and look at him. 'If there had been any more of them that night we wouldn't have stood much of a chance.'

Maddie had tried not to imagine what would have happened if she hadn't won the fight that night, about the slaughter of her new family that she would have failed to prevent. Maybe teaching Finn a thing or two couldn't hurt.

'Thinking about it,' said Arthur. 'We could all use a bit of experience with the er… demon world.'

'Yeah,' agreed John. 'Know your enemy and all that.'

Maddie could see where this was going. She had only ever considered taking Tommy out patrolling before, and even then, it was only a half-hearted fantasy. Thinking about it, she didn't know why she had excluded the Shelby's from her patrolling duties when, back home, her friends would help her all the time on patrol. She was trying to protect them, she knew, but shielding them too much would only prove detrimental. She turned to Tommy now, who had listened to the exchange silently with his whiskey in hand up until now, his face neutral.

'What do you think Tommy?' she asked, causing everyone to swivel toward him.

He inhaled once through his nose before taking a sip of whiskey and placing the glass on the table. 'I think it's a worthwhile idea.'

Maddie sighed again and shut her eyes. Teaching them all a few things about slaying was all well and good, but at the same time, leading a small inexperienced group into a graveyard at night was asking for trouble. Oh… what the hell, she thought, its not like they are completely inexperienced fighters, they fought in the war for god's sake! Well, except for Finn. She opened her eyes and nodded; her decision made.

'Alright,' she said. 'It's a slaying party. A slay-fest!'

Arthur, Finn and John smiled widely and sat up straight with excitement as Tommy lit up a cigarette, seemingly unbothered. Then Isiah spoke up from the corner of the room.

'Can I come too?' he asked timidly, looking to Maddie and Tommy for approval.

Her small group was quickly becoming an entourage. This amount of people would most definitely be difficult to bring along without attracting the attention of every demon and vamp in a ten-mile radius. The fact that they were all Blinders; loud, disobedient and reckless, was already enough to doom the mission to failure before it even started.

'Your call Maddie,' said Tommy in response to Isiah's request.

'Okay, fine,' she conceded, throwing her hands up in an exasperated gesture as her eyes fell on Michael who had also been sat quietly through the entire conversation. 'Michael? How about you?'

The room turned their attention to Michael who took a drag of his cigarette and inhaled it through his nose slowly. 'No, I'm alright,' he said calmly. His voice didn't sound scared, but assured, like he felt he didn't need a night on patrol to teach him anything. Maddie had noticed this change to Michael's demeanour over the past month and guessed that it was a result of his killing of Father Hughes.

'Okay, so five of you it is,' announced Maddie.

Everyone, except Tommy and Michael, looked at each other excitedly and began to plan what they were going to do.

'I'm gonna take one of them vamp's heads clean off,' laughed Arthur.

'Fuck that, I'm gonna torch one of them and watch them burn,' countered John with a smirk.

'Are we going to make stakes?' asked Isiah hopefully.

'Can we take the crossbow Mads? I want to learn how to use it!' said Finn, his voice gaining volume with the excitement.

Maddie could feel anger and frustration simmering quickly beneath the surface of her skin. They weren't taking this seriously. To them, it was all one big adventure. An adventure that in reality could easily get them all killed. They should know better, she thought, after what happened with Juliet. She decided she needed to nip this attitude in the bud, and fast.

'Enough!' she yelled, surprising herself with the volume of her voice. The room fell deathly quiet in an instant, everyone turning to look at her in shock as she shook her head at them disapprovingly. 'This is serious fucking shit guys,' she said. 'If we are going to do this then this attitude ends now. Vampires and demons are like nothing you've ever encountered before. They will be stronger, faster, hell maybe even smarter than you lot at this rate. I'll only take you out there if, and only if, you do exactly what I say when I say it. No ifs, buts or"oh Mads can I have a go with the big axe?"If I tell you to hide, you hide if I tell you to run, you run. That goes for all of you.' Maddie looked at the three eldest brothers in particular with the last statement. 'Understood?'

The room stared at Maddie agape for several seconds speechless. All except Tommy who smiled for the first time that afternoon and nodded. 'Understood,' he repeated as he looked pointedly at everyone in the patrol party and they all one by one nodded their assent, now looking a little deflated.

'Good,' sighed Maddie, now feeling a little awkward and glanced at the clock. 'Now drink up, we need to get back home and get kitted up.'

Leaving Michael at The Garrison, they drove back to Arrow House in a small two car convoy and Maddie took the time to plan the evening's patrol. There was no way in hell she was going to take her little gang out patrolling without weapons. And not just guns but actual weapons. She rarely found guns useful, but she admitted that letting them all take one just in case they needed to injure a foe so they could get away was the wisest course of action.

When they arrived home, they started by having some dinner in the dining room before Maddie went and got changed into her ususal slayer attire. She then led them all down to the training room and began rifling through her weapons cabinet which she had managed to expand a little since she first got it. She divvied out the weapons in a way she guessed suited them all best. The only one who she was confident could handle the crossbow was Tommy as he had already killed a vampire with it, the one and only vamp that had been killed between the Shelby's and handed it to him along with some bolts, a stake and a cross. To Arthur she handed another cross with a pointed end as well as one of her swords. Then she passed John the largest axe, as he had the largest build out of all the men. Unfortunately for Isiah and Finn, their inexperience meant that she couldn't trust them with any heavy weapons and so handed them both a stake and a cross, much to their disappointment.

'Why don't I get a sword?' complained Finn as his brothers proceeded to snigger at him.

'Because you two aren't as experienced as they are,' said Maddie, picking out another sword for herself. 'Now, all of you put some bottles of holy water in your pockets and we can get going.'

The holy water was probably overkill, but she didn't want to take any chances. Despite her trepidation, Maddie was beginning to feel excited at the prospect of patrolling with some company for a change, even if five was the beginnings of a crowd. They headed back out to the cars, weapons in tow as the sun was starting to get low over the horizon. Sunset would be in less than an hour and then the fun would begin. She instructed Tommy to drive to the largest cemetery in the centre of Birmingham, which was where she had found most of the vamps to gather and they soon parked up outside it, the journey seeming to take no time at all. They all got out and followed her through the iron gates of the graveyard and without going too far in, she stopped and turned to address her proteges.

'Okay, so we'll start with a loop around the perimeter. Everyone follow me and keep the noise down,' she whispered quietly. Everyone nodded and Maddie started to walk around the graveyard, keeping a few feet between her and the fence. The graveyard was large and on a hill so it was impossible to see the whole thing from the perimeter, but it ensured that there was no one lurking on the other side of the fence.

Once they did one lap, taking about half an hour, all fairly normal and quiet, Maddie started working inwards up the hill toward a mausoleum she knew she could use to begin some actual tutoring. Once there she checked for any sign of activity before turning back to face the group.

'Good, looks clear so far,' she said. 'So does anyone know what we do next?'

The group looked around one another before John stuck his hand up the air confidently. 'Whistle and hope the vamps come to us.'

Maddie sighed despairingly; she knew it was too much to ask that the Shelby boys be completely serious. Especially John.

'No, John,' she replied as her audience snickered quietly. 'We'll work our way inwards in a grid, cover all the areas one by one.'

The group nodded their understanding just as a noise came from behind the mausoleum behind her, like a twig snapping, and a second later a figure emerged from the shadows.

'Great plan,' taunted the figure as it emerged into the light of the moon. A vampire, all bumpy and fangs. Perfect, thought Maddie, now I can really teach them something. 'Too bad you'll be dead before you can-.'

Maddie stopped the vamp in its tracks by lunging for it and grabbing it by the throat before throwing it over herself so that it landed on its back on the grass with a grunt. The group, who had all taken a step back with the appearance of the vampire, all flinched with the speed of her movements and raised their weapons readily. But she had it under control, she slammed her foot down hard on the side of the vamps head to keep him floored and he growled as he clawed helplessly at her leg.

'Finn, why don't you do the honours,' said Maddie, beckoning him forward. Finn's eyes widened in fear before John shoved him forward, nearly making him stumble over the vamp. 'Just aim for the heart with the pointy end.'

He gave her a look to indicate that he wasn't entirely sure where the heart was and she poked him in the chest just to the left of his sternum to indicate where it was. He looked down at the vamp apprehensively as she kept it pinned to the ground and he adjusted the stake in his hand, holding it tighter. With an intake of breath, Finn lifted the stake above his head before bending down and plunging the stake into the vamps chest. Unfortunately, his aim wasn't the best and he went in too high, meaning the vamp didn't dust but instead growled in pain. Their onlookers laughed heartily amongst themselves, and she threw them a warning glare.

'Try again, a little lower,' encouraged Maddie.

Finn, his cheeks bright red with embarrassment, withdrew the stake and plunged it in again, this time hitting the mark. The vamp disintegrated into dust and Maddie's foot fell through the air where its head had been and hit the grass with a thump. He recoiled slightly and fell onto his backside in shock before a proud pleased grin painted his face.

'Don't worry, we all miss the heart the first time,' said Maddie smiling, offering him a hand up from the grass.

'I didn't,' commented Tommy with a smug expression and Maddie remembered that he had indeed got the heart the first time, with a crossbow no less. She gave him a frustrated look which he ignored, and she huffed in annoyance.

'You don't count,' she said. 'You're already a good shot anyway.' Tommy smirked again to indicate he didn't buy Maddie's poor excuse for his natural competence at using a crossbow, making her grumble silently to herself. 'Come on, there should be plenty more where he came from,' she said, marching off between the headstones as everyone else followed.

Maddie led her slayers-in-training deeper into the graveyard, listening closely to the ambient sounds around her and prompting them to do the same. Before too long, they were rewarded with more vampires. She spotted them first; two figures, a man and a woman, stood beneath a large tree about thirty yards away, looking at what looked like a new grave at its foot. She held her hand up silently to instruct everyone to stop before turning to face them, placing a finger to her lips and pointing in the direction of the tree. They all peered into the darkness and spotted what she had seen and they all crouched down behind a tightly lined up group of headstones to remain hidden.

'What are they doing?' asked Arthur in a hushed whisper.

'Looks like they're waiting for a new friend to wake up,' replied Maddie before peeking over the headstone again. 'They probably sired the poor sod who's in that grave.'

'So, they have to dig themselves out?' asked Finn, his face going white at the thought of waking up in a coffin six feet under.

'Usually,' she nodded. 'Depends on the amount of time between their death and the burial.'

'What's our move then?' asked John, looking slightly inpatient. Maddie could tell he was dying for some action and this opportunity would make the perfect training exercise.

'We have the element of surprise on our side, so distract and flank,' she began before flitting her gaze around the immediate area for more hiding spots. 'Tommy and John, you two circle around to the other side of the tree where they're stood and wait for the signal.' She then turned to Arthur, Finn and Isiah who were waiting expectantly. 'You three spread yourselves out behind the gravestones on this side.'

'What about you?' asked Tommy.

'Well, someone needs to be the distraction,' replied Maddie, smiling confidently.

The group smiled back at her before nodding to each other and beginning to move into their instructed positions. John and Tommy set off in their wide arc to circle around the vamps as the other three spread themselves fairly equidistantly in a straight line behind the vampires. Maddie watched patiently where she was until she could see the outlines of Tommy and John appear behind the gravestones on the other side of the tree and settle into position, awaiting their signal. Time to make my appearance known, she concluded.

Maddie placed her sword down behind the gravestone and stood up to begin walking toward the two vamps quietly so they wouldn't hear her approach and stopped a few feet away before clearing her throat loudly. The two vamps span around to identify the source of the noise, their gazes landing on her before fanged grins painted their faces. The man was tall and stocky, dressed in what looked like factory worker's overalls, a tattered jacket and a flat cap. The shadow of which hid most of his face although she could still see his bared fanged teeth. The woman in comparison was dressed much more elegantly in a well-tailored dress and heels which were all clean, her waved auburn hair perfect without a hair out of place. An odd-looking couple if ever she saw one.

'Nice night for staring at graves,' commented Maddie sarcastically before wincing at her poor attempt at wit.

The two vamps looked at each other, slightly confused before looking back at Maddie again, this time with more hunger in their eyes. 'She'll make a good meal for us when he awakes,' said the woman as the man nodded his agreement. 'You shouldn't have come here tonight little girl,' she hissed at Maddie.

'Oh, but it was such a lovely night,' sighed Maddie, feigning disappointment.

The man laughed venomously at her, obviously not picking up on Maddie's sarcasm. 'It is. It's not every night you find a pretty young thing like you walking alone in a graveyard at night.'

Maddie quirked up the corner of her mouth in a smug smile. 'Who said I was alone?'

The smiles on the vampires' faces disappeared just before a clunking noise sounded from behind the tree and a bolt pierced through the male vamp's shoulder, not going all the way through but wedging itself in place. Ha! Tommy isn't that good of a shot with a crossbow after all, thought Maddie. The vamp growled and grabbed the pointy end of the bolt with his hand before the two of them turned to look behind them as Tommy and John emerged from the shadow of the tree, weapons wielded.

With frightening speed, the male vamp yanked the bolt out of his shoulder with a grunt before starting toward Tommy who was reloading the crossbow as the woman advanced toward John who marched up to meet her. Maddie couldn't help it as her stomach lurched at seeing the two vamps head toward Tommy and John and looked at the two of them to assess who needed her help most.

Tommy, seeing the vamp approaching fast, abandoned reloading his crossbow and pulled his stake out of his inside pocket, backing away to keep distance between him and the vamp. John and the woman vamp however reached each other within a few steps, John readying himself to swing the axe at her neck with his first strike. As he swung, the woman blocked the axe with one arm before elbowing him in the nose, making him drop the axe at his feet and stumble backwards. Concluding that John was in the most trouble, as she should have expected, Maddie ran forward to help him as she heard Arthur, Finn and Isiah emerge from their hiding spots behind her and run forward to join the fray as well. She looked to her right to see Arthur and Isiah run to join Tommy meaning Finn must be just behind her.

The woman was exceptionally observant and fast and Maddie watched her whip her head around to spot her approaching before turning back to John and grabbing him by the lapels of his coat and throwing him toward her. She had no time to react, and John's large heavy body collided with hers before she could dodge him, throwing her backwards into Finn who had run up behind her and the three of them landed in a heap on the grass. Maddie was quick to wriggle out of the pile, noticing the woman advancing back toward them already. John was still holding his nose in pain whilst Finn gasped for air after having the wind blown out of him. She grabbed the two of them by their collars, one in each hand and heaved them onto their feet. She turned to John with urgency, shaking him slightly to recover his wits.

'Get the axe!' she ordered to him before turning to face the woman again who was now closing the space between them fast.

Maddie quickly glanced over to Tommy and saw that Isiah had been floored by the male vamp and was trying to get back up, but Tommy and Arthur were sufficiently fending the vamp off together for the time being. John fumbled over to where he had dropped the axe as she turned her attention back to the woman and stepped forward a few steps to meet her. The woman made to slash Maddie across the face with her sharp nails, but Maddie dodged her easily, ducking under her arm before side kicking her in the stomach. The vamp stumbled backwards and snarled angrily at her before attempting to hit her again to only have Maddie catch her arm and twist it behind her back, making her growl in protest.

'Slayer!' she hissed loudly, the realisation of who she'd gotten into a fight with finally dawning on her.

'That's right,' confirmed Maddie. 'You chose the wrong night to be in this graveyard.' She looked around for John and his axe, keeping the woman in her grasp, and saw him approaching with fresh blood trickling from his nose from where he'd been elbowed in the face. 'John! You ready?'

John nodded and held his axe up ready to swing and decapitate their foe when Maddie heard a noise from behind her. She looked over her shoulder to the grave under the tree and saw a hand reach up out of the soil and claw at the grass followed shortly by the other hand. Shit, it's awake. Soon, the fight would go from two versus six to three versus six unless Maddie did something quick. She turned her head back to face forward and felt a great force hit her nose as the vamp in her grasp threw her head back. Maddie lost her grip on the vamp as she recoiled backwards, and the woman swivelled to face her again. She threw herself at Maddie who recovered quickly from the headbutt and began scuffling with her.

Out of the corner of her eye, Maddie could see the new vamp pull its head and shoulders out of the earth and look around at the scene in front of him in momentary disbelief before going to wrestle himself out of the ground fully. In her distraction, the woman vamp caught Maddie across the face with her fist, her nail slicing a gash into her lip which stung like hell. Okay, enough of this!

'John, now!' called Maddie before bringing her foot up and front kicking the woman in the chest with enough force to send her flying backwards. John luckily was paying attention and still had the axe raised in anticipation. As the vamp flew backwards through the air John swung the axe with what looked like his full force, aiming squarely for her neck. The axe's blade sliced cleanly through the vamps neck, taking her head off in one stroke. Her body thumped to the ground as her head spun through the air and landed near Finn's feet who up until now had been watching the fight nervously with his stake in hand. He jumped back from the head as it landed at his feet before it and the body burst into dust. However, Maddie only had chance to take one breath before she felt strong arms wrap around her and lift her off her feet.

'Mads!' yelled John and Finn in unison as Maddie writhed around and looked to see the newly awoken vamp clutching onto her. She looked to her side to see that Arthur, Tommy and Isiah were still fighting with the other vamp, Arthur and Isiah struggling to hold the vamps arms so Tommy could stake it.

'Help them!' she called to John and Finn, jerking her head in their direction. 'Don't worry about me!'

John and Finn looked at each other hesitantly before nodding and running over to join the others, leaving her alone with the new vamp. She struggled for a moment in the vamp's grasp, trying to wrestle free as he began to laugh arrogantly in her ear. Maddie huffed angrily and lifted her legs up above her head suddenly in one swift movement. This was enough to upset the vamps balance enough that he fell backwards, Maddie landing on top of him. His grasp on her was released, and she used her momentum to reverse cartwheel back to standing, raising her fists defensively as the vamp quickly got back to his feet himself. Shecould hear the men shouting and grunting behind her as they continued to try and subdue the vamp who was proving stronger it seemed than most average vamps. She couldn't however look to see that they were all okay as she couldn't afford to take her eyes off the other vamp who was already advancing toward her.

The two of them brawled violently, Maddie only getting glimpses of the others here and there until she managed to knock her vamp over with a sweeping kick, lending her enough time to briefly take her eyes off him. She turned just in time to see their vamp, held still finally by John, Finn, Isiah and Tommy, two on each arm, as Arthur plunged his sharpened cross stake into the vamps chest. The vamp disintegrated into dust in the other's arms and a look of victory crossed their faces before Tommy looked over to Maddie and called out to her.

'Look out!' he shouted, pointing behind her.

Maddie turned swiftly to see the last vamp stepping toward her again, quickly back-kicking him away just before his grasp closed on her again. She could feel the eyes of her audience fall on her as she began to punch and kick the vamp, now with her full concentration and attention with the others taken care of. She fought with unrestrained force yet perfect technique, blocking and countering her enemy's strikes with ease. This was the best her form had been for a while, she thought. Maybe having people that were looking to her as an example was giving her reason not to be sloppy; not to miss the odd punch or deflection that she might have done if she'd come alone as she usually did. Feeling the smile that was contorting her lips, she made the decision to showcase to her audience exactly what she was capable of, and to show off, just a little.

The vamp leapt toward Maddie again, now thoroughly riled up and hungry for blood. She landed a perfect spinning reverse kick to the vamps head, knocking him back, before following with a tornado kick to the head again. It was surprising that the vamp's neck didn't snap with the amount of force she put into the kicks, but it was enough to almost knock him unconscious. The vamp fell onto his back on the grass, blinking and discombobulated, but his ass-kicking didn't end there. Maddie marched over to him and stood over him before bending to lift his upper body of the ground with one hand before proceeding to punch him in the face several times until blood started trickling from his nose. Eventually, the vamp managed to block her punches and shoved her away so he could stand up, this time deciding to keep his distance. He jittered about opposite her for a second, stepping backward whenever she took a step toward him until eventually, he dropped his hands before spinning on his heel and taking off into the darkness.

'Crossbow,' ordered Maddie, holding her hand out toward Tommy who quickly threw it to her. She swiftly loaded it with a bolt before lifting it up to look down the sights, finding her target efficiently even through the darkness. She took a deep breath in and released the trigger. The bolt whistled through the air and made a satisfyingschlunksound when it hit its target; a short delay following before it was followed by a just as satisfyingthupftwhen the vamp hit the ground as a cloud of dust.

A stunned silence hung in the air for what seemed like an eternity as a small smile painted Maddie's lips. Now that was fun! She turned to face the others with her triumphant grin and was met with a mixture of looks ranging from disbelief to awe. Including Tommy, who by now she had assumed had maybe even grown bored of seeing what she could do. Maddie could also see a hint of jealousy creeping into their eyes. It had taken five of them to stake one vampire whereas she had walked all over this one with ease. The Shelby's and Isiah weren't typical men, but men they still were, and part of their egos couldn't help but feel jealousy when a woman could outperform them to such a degree. This realisation caused a laugh to rise out of her chest which she tried to stifle poorly.

'So, what did we learn from that fight?' she asked, turning her teacher voice back on.

'That was amazing,' breathed Isiah, ignoring the question but gathering his words before everyone else. Maddie approached the group with an amused smile, thanking Isiah for his compliment.

'And you just knew how to do that when you became a slayer?' asked Finn.

'Kind of but not entirely,' replied Maddie. 'Perfecting my abilities has taken years of training. Sure, the enhanced strength and speed helps but it still takes discipline.'

'Never mind that!' chirped John, suddenly breaking out of his awestruck trance. 'I decapitated a vampire!'

'And I staked one,' added Arthur, punching his brother on the arm. 'Harder than it looks though.'

Maddie nodded at them, her serious face back on. 'Exactly Arthur. So back to my last question. What did we learn from that?'

'That no vampire stands a chance against us!' said John, earning him approving smiles and laughs from all except her and Tommy.

Maddie rolled her eyes exasperatedly. 'No, John,' she sighed. 'No vampire stands a chance against me. You would all be dead if I weren't here.' This shut John and the others up and they looked down awkwardly at their feet. 'Okay I'll rephrase. Who did we learn has the power?'

This earned her a few confused looks before Finn offered an answer. 'You do?'

'Yeah, obviously but apart from me,' prompted Maddie. The group fell silent and scratched their heads. All except Tommy who was starting to look particularly inpatient with everyone's lack of common sense.

'They do,' he answered simply. 'They have the power.'

'Yes!' trilled Maddie happily. Trust Tommy to get what she was hinting at. 'Gold star for you, Tommy!'

Tommy raised his eyebrow at her with an amused smirk. 'Gold star?'

'Oh yeah, that's not a thing yet,' mumbled Maddie with a blush. 'Forget the star thing, but yes that's what I was looking for. They have the power, remember that.' The rest of the group looked at Tommy then at Maddie confused, evidently not getting her point, so she began to elaborate. 'If they have the power then you need to learn how to use it against them. So, on that point, rule the first: any of you see another vampire when I'm not around, you run.'

Disappointed and deflated looks were passed around the group before demands for more training and instruction were bombarded at her, the thought of a Peaky Blinder running away from a fight an impossible scenario.

'You heard what I said,' said Maddie firmly. 'You all did well but none of you are ready to face them on your own or even together yet. But listen to what I say, and you soon will be.' This was enough to satiate the men's boiling egos and passion for violence for now and she instructed them to rest for a minute and gather their weapons so they could all move on.

'Your lip alright?' asked Tommy softly after following her to the gravestone where she left her sword. He cupped her face with his hand and gently brushed his thumb along her cheek and under her bottom lip which the woman vamp had cut.

'Stings a bit but it'll be fine,' admitted Maddie, inspecting Tommy for any injuries, not finding any that she could see. 'You in one piece?'

'Vampires hit hard,' admitted Tommy. 'They'll be some bruises but no broken bones.'

'Good,' she sighed with relief before looking up at him nervously. 'Am I doing good?'

Tommy smiled his half smile. 'You're doing fine.'

'Thanks,' smiled Maddie with a sigh, thankful for the reassurance. 'Come on, we'd better get going if we want to sweep the whole graveyard tonight.'

Maddie and her eager followers patrolled the rest of the graveyard for a couple more hours, coming across plenty more vampires to slay. Everyone got an opportunity to slay a vamp and she demonstrated some useful evasive moves that they could use if they needed to get out of a pinch. Toward the end of their patrol however, most of them still had something that required work.

John, as expected, was too overconfident and kept running into fights without thinking, earning him a black eye on top of his bloody nose. Arthur was less confident but proved too unrestrained once he got going, earning him a few minor injuries. Isiah was more level-headed but lacked the experience and skill to take on a vamp alone. Finn was both nervous and inexperienced, meaning he stuck close to Maddie the whole night and only got involved when she gave him safe opportunity.

Tommy was the only one who managed to stake a vampire on his own, making Maddie very proud. She beamed widely as she watched him stand his ground as a vampire ran toward him and he pulled out his stake and efficiently jabbed it into the vamp's chest once it was close enough before brushing off the vamp dust that landed on his coat nonchalantly. No messing about, the best way to take out a vamp unharmed. He was the only one she could currently trust to defend himself against a vamp alone if needed but she was still hesitant to give him that privilege just yet.

Once their circuit was finished, the graveyard fell quiet and eerily peaceful as it should, and Maddie announced it was time to get home and they started to make their way back to the cars. She hoped silently that Esme and Linda wouldn't be angry at her for taking their husbands out slaying but realised that it was highly unlikely that John or Arthur would have told their wives the details about their little excursion anyway. As they began to walk down the side of the hill that lead to the exit, Maddie caught a sound that was carried on the wind, almost like chanting. She stopped abruptly causing Isiah to bump into her and looked around suspiciously, trying to pinpoint the noise.

'What is it?' asked Tommy as they all looked at her curiously.

'You guys hear that?' she asked as she strained to locate the source of the sound.

Tommy and the men all looked around, now on high alert as well. Maddie peered into the darkness and her eyes eventually landed on a dim light at the bottom of the hill in amongst some trees where the noise was coming from. She knew the spot where the light was well, a small, wooded area near the perimeter fence with a clearing in the middle with an old sarcophagus. She remembered them checking that spot on their initial sweep at the beginning of their patrol when it had been unsuspiciously empty, only now it wasn't. Maddie felt her slayer-senses tingling, her skin lighting up with electricity as it sometimes did. The others followed her gaze and strained to see what was going on in the trees.

'What going on down there?' asked Arthur quietly. Maddie remained silent as she tried to listen closely to the chanting that was echoing up the hill but couldn't make it out. Her instincts were telling her this wasn't good. She'd patrolled this graveyard multiple times over the last couple of months and hadn't seen anything unusual like this until now.

'I'm going to check it out,' said Maddie taking a step forward.

'Shouldn't we come too?' asked Finn hopefully.

Maddie let out a small laugh. 'Good idea, because we want the bad guys to hear your heavy footsteps and alert them that we're coming.' Finn blushed and nodded as the others sniggered. 'Best I go alone. You all wait here for me, stay out of sight.'

'Be careful,' warned Tommy softly as Maddie went to start down the hill. She nodded at him and began to run swiftly but silently down the hill, leaving her little group behind. She weaved through and leapt over gravestones as she got closer to the trees, the chanting now becoming clearer.

'in eius nomine.in eius nomine.'

Maddie recognised the language straight away as Latin but couldn't immediately translate the phrase, the little Latin knowledge she had rusty from lack of use. The phrase continued to be repeated over and over again as she hit the treeline and slowed down to creep stealthily through the trees toward the clearing. She stopped by a large tree on the outskirts of the clearing and put her back against it, listening but not yet peeking into the clearing.

'in eius nomine. in eius nomine.'

The name is something? No, that's not it. What is the name? No, no don't be stupid Maddie. His name? Ah-ha!

'In his name,' mouthed Maddie as she successfully translated the phrase. But, who'she?

As slowly as she could, Maddie leaned out to peek around the trunk of the tree where she was hiding to finally survey the scene in the clearing. In the middle was the sarcophagus as before only now there was a vampire, a woman, lying on it in a long black dress. The light she'd seen from a distance was coming from a lantern that had been placed on the corner of the sarcophagus that emanated a fair bit of light. Surrounding the woman were a total of six other figures in long dark blue cloaks, the hoods covering their faces although Maddie suspected that they were also vampires or demons. They were knelt on the floor a few feet away as they chanted, rocking back and forward rhythmically. What the hell is this? Some kind of cult? She ducked back behind the tree before she could be spotted, trying to process what she had seen and whether it rung any bells in anything she had read but drew a blank. Then the chanting suddenly stopped, and Maddie peeped out again to investigate.

One of the figures on the far side of the sarcophagus had stood up and was approaching the woman with a large book in his hands and as he got closer, the other figures stood as well but remained on their spots. There was a brief silence before the man with the book finally spoke.

'servito domini obscuri sacrificium facimus et retribuit nobis magna. in eius nomine.'

Fuck, more Latin, grumbled Maddie to herself. Something about a sacrifice that was for sure, but her Latin ability stopped there.

'in eius nomine,'repeated the other figures.

The cloaked man put the book down on the sarcophagus before reaching inside his cloak and slowly withdrew a stake and Maddie clocked as to who the sacrifice was. She wasn't one to usually save vampires, but she wasn't sure she wanted to see what would happen if this one was sacrificed to whoever, or whatever, thishewas. The man began to raise the stake above his head and, thinking fast, she picked up a small stone by her foot and lobbed into the trees to her left and heard it hit another tree with a loud thud. The man froze a moment along with everyone else, including the woman who sat herself up, and they all tensed on the spot and looked around for the source of the noise. He lowered the stake to his side and removed his hood, revealing that he was indeed a vampire. He indicated for one of the others to investigate whilst the rest of the cultists also lowered their hoods and began peering into the trees. Maddie spotted that three of the cloaked figures, including the man were vampires. The rest were all various species of demon which she couldn't name off the top of her head. She'd stopped whatever ritual they were doing, for now. But if she wanted to stop this completely, Maddie knew she needed to eliminate them all here and now. She hoped that the Shelby's had listened to her and stayed hidden up the hill. She had a feeling that these enemies would be more difficult than the last and having them stumble in might not be ideal. She sucked a breath in through her nose, gripping the hilt of the sword she'd thankfully brought with her, in preparation to make her move before stepping out from behind the tree.

The six figures spotted her immediately and recoiled, signifying they recognised her as the slayer as soon as they laid eyes on her. Perhaps they were expecting that she might appear? Either way, they would soon all be dead. The nearest demon to Maddie approached first and she got out of the box strong, running her sword through the demon's stomach with frightening speed. The demon collapsed to the floor, causing the rest of the cloaked demons to growl loudly at her. The growls echoed loudly through the clearing and the trees behind her, and she knew that there was no way that the Shelby's wouldn't have heard it. Fuck!

Maddie launched herself at her next target, swinging her sword with purpose as the rest of the figures, including the vampire in the black dress closed in on her. Her target narrowly ducked under her sword and joined a circle that had enclosed around her. She fought off her enemies in the middle of the circle, surrounded at every angle. She could feel her heart pick up pace, this wasn't good. She span around and deflected her enemies attacks but was unable to make any strikes in return as the next attacker made their move. It would only be a matter of time before her defence would be broken and they would gain the upper hand and she needed to stop that if she wanted to live.

Finding a small window of opportunity, Maddie aimed a kick to the side of one of the vampire's knees, causing him to stoop and drop to his knee. She then rolled over the vamp's back and out of the circle, turning to face the vamp as he stood back up before slicing her sword through his neck. As the dust settled, a silence fell upon scene as her enemies stepped toward her again, backing her toward the sarcophagus when a sound of footsteps running caused them to pause. Maddie looked up to the dark treeline as Tommy and the others burst into the clearing, weapons at the ready. The five remaining enemies whipped their heads around and snarled angrily as her saviours emerged. The male vampire, the leader, turned back to her and swiped at her furiously but she jumped up and back onto the sarcophagus with the grace of a cat and kicked him in the head, knocking him back into the demon stood behind him.

'Maddie?!' called Tommy as he emerged into the clearing, spotting her stood on the sarcophagus. He raised his crossbow and took a shot, this time recovering his accuracy. The bolt hit the female vamp in the chest and a shrill screech left her mouth as she melted into a pile of dust. The remaining cultists now turned their attention to the Shelby's and began toward them with speed.

'Don't let them corner you!' yelled Maddie, jumping off the sarcophagus and catching up to the leader and throwing him backwards. He was most likely the biggest threat so keeping him occupied was the priority. The others began fighting with the other three demons in two small groups as Maddie turned her attention to the head cultist.

'You killed our sacrifice!' he hissed furiously as they began to slowly circle each other.

'I'm sorry, did I mess up you plan?' asked Maddie tauntingly.

'You joke now. But our master will have his time.'

'And who is your master?'

The vamp didn't reply and instead jumped forward to close the gap between them. They exchanged blows vigorously, the fight much more difficult than all the others Maddie had had that night. They were well matched, the two of them receiving punches from the other that nearly floored them, but she finally got the upper hand as the vamp was distracted by one of his friends, a demon, being sliced in two by John. She swung her sword yet again and finally took off their leader's head before turning to check on the rest of the group. The five of them were still fighting the last vamp of the group, no other enemies in sight. Wait, there should be one more, thought Maddie as she felt a foot hit her hand, knocking the sword out of it and it landed several yards away.

Maddie turned to face her remaining attacker. A tall pale skinned demon whose eyes and teeth were entirely blue who snarled at her and loomed over her threateningly. It turned out that this demon was the one she should have worried about. She threw the first punch, aiming at the demons head which he blocked easily before backhanding she across the face. She was lifted of her feet from the force and tumbled across the ground, hitting the side of the sarcophagus with a huff and coming to rest on her stomach. She whipped her head up to look at the demon who was closing in on her and quickly stood to meet him.

This time he swung first, and Maddie blocked his fist, but with difficulty, nearly losing her balance and falling from the force. This demon was strong, stronger than most, and he outlook was looking increasingly grim. The demon threw his fists at her in quick succession, and she held her arms up in a blocking stance, taking the hits which pushed her back against the cold stone of the sarcophagus. She attempted to parry the punches but without much success, feeling her body becoming more bruised and battered as the fight continued. Maddie glanced to her left and saw the Shelby's finally stake the last vampire and turned their attention to her as she looked back up at the demon just as he aimed another punch to her stomach, causing her to hunch over in pain.

'Maddie!' shouted several members of the group as the demons fist next connected with her chin. She was flung up and backwards to land on her back on the sarcophagus, vision blurring slightly from the hit. There was no use, this demon was too dangerous up close. Shouting for help would only get the others killed as well unless… Guns! They still all had guns!

'Shoot him!' Maddie managed to scream just as the demons fingers wrapped almost all the way around her throat and pinned her down onto the cold stone. Her airway was immediately blocked, and she desperately began to claw at the demon's arm which felt more like solid steel. She struggled to suck in air and could hear her heart in her ears, her head feeling like it was going to pop with the pressure. The edges of her vision started to blur just as the saving gunshot sounded.

The demon's head popped like a grape, blue blood splattering in every direction and showering Maddie from head to foot. The death like grip of the demon's hand relaxed and she kicked its body away and she heard it thump to the ground. She gasped for air, sucking it in hoarsely and coughing it back out again, remaining on her back as she caught her breath.

'Maddie?!' she heard Tommy shout as footsteps approached and she slowly sat herself up, rubbing her neck painfully. Tommy was there in an instant, placing his hands on Maddie's bloodied face and looking down at her with a panicked expression. 'You alright?' he asked worriedly as she noticed a dark bruise forming on his cheek.

Maddie nodded, still rubbing her neck and spluttering with each breath. 'I'm okay,' she said, her voice slightly raspy as she gently inspected his bruise.

The group looked around at each other in shock, all gasping to catch their breath as the adrenaline began to subside. Maddie had nearly lost, again, and they had all watched it. And it looked like she'd been saved by Arthur who was still holding his pistol in his hand. That's a bloody first, she thought, saved by a gun. I'm never living this down. She wiped some of the blue blood on her face away with the back of her hand and sighed.

'I think it's time we call it a night.'

'Urggg it's no bloody use!' huffed Maddie angrily, throwing her pen onto the table which bounced off and clattered across the floor to the other side of the room. She sighed with exasperation, her lips buzzing loudly like a child.

'Let me hire a translator,' said Tommy who was sat at his desk across the room. He was looking at her through his glasses, a mildly annoyed look in his eyes in response to her outburst. She huffed again; they'd already been over this.

'I told you, asking a translator to translate ancient demon texts is not a good idea,' she said, rubbing her eyes to suppress her headache. 'It'll spark too many questions.'

It had been two weeks since the night Maddie and the boys had been on patrol in the graveyard, and she had spent the best part of those two weeks trying to translate the book that the demons at the ritual had been using. She had picked up the book before they went home, a feeling that it had some important significance compelling her to look into the reasons behind the strange cultists and their ritual in the graveyard. However, the entire thing was written in a variety of different ancient languages which she couldn't make head nor tails of. She had brought a small collection of books from the magic shop in the hope that it would help her translate some of it, but so far all she'd managed to do was translate the Latin passages, which at least meant she had translated the incantation from the ritual:

'In service of the dark master we make this sacrifice in return for great power. In his name.'

Since then, Maddie had not managed to translate anymore passages despite pouring over them at every opportunity, including when she had a spare moment at the office. This particular night, Tommy had said he was staying late to finish drawing up the bill of sale for the wharfs at the Boston Docks which was what he planned to use the Russian money to buy. She had taken it upon herself to sit at the small table in his office and continue her hopeless endeavour whilst he worked which was seemed to be pissing him off. Maddie admitted it was a pointless venture at this point, but her stubbornness and pride wouldn't allow her to back down, much to Tommy's frustration. She had even gone back to the ritual site a few nights later to investigate again, just in case any more cultists might make an appearance, but the place was how they had left it, no sign of anything unusual.

This was the first mysterious supernatural occurrence that had happened in Birmingham since Maddie was transported through time. Well, more mysterious than ususal anyway. It had been so long that she had forgotten what it was like to sit and do research when something less run of the mill came along. Maybe it was that fact which was making her so determined to get to the bottom of the reason behind the ritual. Or maybe it was that fact she had nearly been killed by one of the cultists, a good sign that this group were bad news. More than likely, it was a combination of the two. Either way, she wasn't going to let this thing go without a fight. She missed her friends, more than ever. They were much better at the research when they had worked as a team; but now she was on her own in that respect. Not to mention the lack of computers or usual stockpile of books was having a huge impact on her progress, which was currently at zero. But she wasn't going to give up, not yet.

'I can pay them not to ask questions Maddie,' added Tommy tersely. She could see he was beginning to lose his patience with her, and she couldn't exactly blame him. Her new obsession had meant that she had been spending most of her free time in her training room or staring at her books, meaning they hadn't been intimate with each other since that night and she could tell it was beginning to grate on him. 'You're not getting anywhere on your own.'

Maddie opened her mouth to argue but faltered with the words, snapping her mouth shut with a huff and slumping back in her chair. She folded her arms over her chest in a sulk, pointedly looking away from Tommy. He had a point, she admitted. With enough money and with the threat of the Peaky Blinders looming over them, anyone would keep their mouths shut, even if they had to translate text related to demon mythology. There was of course the option of consulting the watchers, something which Maddie had seriously considered. She hated their guts but if she gave them one hour with this book, they'd have the whole thing translated no problem. The main drawback was that they'd undoubtedly want to be involved in solving this mystery and she wasn't entirely prepared to let them in on it.

The sound of Tommy's chair legs scraping across the floor echoed across the room and was followed by his footsteps approaching which Maddie pretended she didn't notice. He came and sat on the edge of the table in front of her, forcing his way into her vision like he knew she was trying not to look at him.

'Maddie,' he coaxed gently, his voice deep and velvety. She hated when he used that voice, she couldn't resist it, and he knew it. She sighed and looked up at him reluctantly, giving him a'what?'expression which caused him to smirk. 'Give this a rest for a while, eh? Come back to it with a clear mind and decide what you want to do.'

Maddie shut her eyes for a moment, fighting with herself internally. Part of her didn't want to waste any time, but the rest of her knew Tommy was right. Her brain was already fried well past well-done at this point so taking a rest sounded like the sensible thing to do.

'Alright,' she nodded with a guilty smile. 'I suppose you're right, as ususal.'

Tommy didn't respond but instead took Maddie's hand in his and pulled her up to stand in front of him. He cupped her face with his hand, a gesture which she never grew tired of, before placing a soft kiss to her lips. The fresh taste of whiskey from his tongue lingered in her mouth after they broke apart and she couldn't help but lick more of the taste from her lips. He glanced down at her lips to watch her tongue, his eyes darkening and a devious look passing over his features. She felt her pulse quicken at the familiar look and failed to conceal her grin. He pulled her toward him firmly before pressing his lips to hers again, his hands sliding down her backside to her thighs before grabbing her skirt and dragging it up to her waist. Maddie could feel her excitement building, sex in Tommy's office was always the most enjoyable, the possibility of being caught adding an extra element of risk.

However, a loud knock on Tommy's office door shattered that possibility, and they broke apart, Tommy sighing angrily through his nose. He dropped Maddie's skirt and they stepped apart just in time as Arthur let himself into the room followed closely by John.

'Sorry to interrupt but we have a problem,' he announced, the two of them coming to a stop next to the table. Tommy gave his brothers an irritated look, silently waiting for Arthur to elaborate. However, Arthur looked down at the table as he passed it and inspected the hundreds of sheets of paper on its surface. 'Still struggling with the book, eh? Thought you would have figured it out by now.'

'No such luck I'm afraid,' sighed Maddie.

'Arthur,' interrupted Tommy tersely. 'What's the problem?'

'Oh yeah,' said Arthur. 'Remember those blokes I told you about from the races the other day, the ones taking bets on our turf without licences?'

'They're in town,' said John, looking pissed. 'One of the men saw them drinking down at The Garrison, running they're mouths off about us Tom.'

Maddie looked up at Tommy in mild surprise. It was shocking that anybody had the gall to trash talk the Peaky Blinders in their own city. These men were either really brave or really stupid. Almost certainly the latter. Tommy nodded, his expression unphased.

'Then deal with it,' instructed Tommy. 'Give them a warning, no need to kill them yet.'

John and Arthur glanced at each other then back at Tommy and nodded. 'We could use some back up,' began Arthur before glancing at Maddie. 'Mads?'

Maddie raised her eyebrows in surprise. It had been a while since she had done much Blinder work and the job sounded like a good distraction from her current headache inducing project. She looked up at Tommy, who's expression didn't look too keen. No doubt he had been planning on having his way with her as soon as his brothers left, a scenario which was now ebbing away. She admitted she wanted the sex, but they had plenty of time for that later once they got home; this job offer was only available now. Anyway, if she stayed for the sex, she'd be doomed to sit in quiet boredom afterwards, waiting for Tommy to finish his work before they could go home.

'Sure, sounds fun,' agreed Maddie before realising'fun'probably wasn't an appropriate word for this kind of job and smiled apologetically.

'Alright,' said Arthur. 'Get your coat on, this shouldn't take long.'

John and Arthur turned to leave but before Maddie could follow, Tommy grabbed her arm and she tuned back to face him, a devilish look on his face. 'Meet me back here when your done and we'll head home.'

Maddie recognised that look. It was a look that said that she was in trouble for denying him what he wanted, and she felt a familiar tingle between her legs, making her shuffle on the spot awkwardly. Smiling provocatively, she nodded her understanding before turning to grab her coat from her chair and running to catch up with John and Arthur, silently hoping Arthur was right that the job wouldn't take long.

The three of them walked the short distance to The Garrison through Small Heath, the evening sun setting an orange hue over the sky. The evening commuters dashed about on the streets, making their usual effort to avoid passing too close to them as they walked by. Maddie had grown used to this since living with the Shelby's. She was obviously recognised as one of them because even when she was on her own people kept their distance.

Five minutes later they arrived at The Garrison, the outside already heaving with drunken workmen who had only finished their shifts an hour or so ago. They marched inside, stopping silently in the threshold to the pub to survey the bar with imposing stances. As ususal, the place went almost silent as they entered, all the locals knowing to keep their heads down when the Blinders entered a pub in this manner. All except for three men sat at the bar who continued to laugh raucously, oblivious as to who just walked in. They were dressed in scruffy versions of the suits the Shelby's wore, and they reminded Maddie of younger versions of them. She guessed that these were the men they had been informed about and she looked up at John who nodded his head discreetly to confirm her suspicion. Then Arthur led the way forward, pacing slowly over to the men to stand behind them before speaking.

'Well, look who's here!' he said loudly, making the three men jump slightly in their chairs and turn around. One man's face went pale, a look of regret painting his face as the other two looked up at Arthur indignantly with smirks on their faces. The pub went eerily quiet, the attention of all its patrons now fixed on them. The three men eyed up Arthur, John and Maddie silently for a second as they did the same back before the silence was eventually broken.

'You shouldn't have come here,' said John, giving the men a dangerous look.

One man, who looked like the leader, looked back at John with an amused smile. 'We drink where we want,' he replied followed by laughter from him and his friends.

'Heard you've been saying some things about us,' said Arthur, a long silence following where the three men all spotted Maddie and gave her an amused look but didn't say anything as she stared back at them sternly, keeping her Blinder mask on. 'Let's take this outside,' said Arthur once the silent staring had gone on for long enough.

The men nodded to each other, two of them looking particularly overconfident making Maddie sure that they really didn't know what they were getting into. The three men got up and they all left the pub silently, the crowd watching them leave with nervous expressions. Once out into the open, they walked around the side of the pub to a small alley before the men, who now looked more like boys on closer inspection, turned to them with cocky expressions and demeanours. The leader went to open his mouth to speak but before he could, John drew his fist back and socked the man in mouth, knocking him over. The other two paused a second before one of them went to swing a punch at Arthur who caught his fist and pinned him against the wall as John descended on the leader, kneeling on his chest making him wail. The third man gave a look of freight before making to run away past Maddie, an unfortunately foolish error.

'Oh no you don't!' called Maddie, grabbing the man by the arm before throwing him harshly against the wall as well and pinning him there with her arm against his throat. He grasped at her arm desperately, trying to pull her off to no avail and gave her a look of disbelief, like she couldn't possibly be real. Shelooked over to John who was holding onto the leader by the scruff of his shirt with one hand, holding the razor blade of his cap up close to the man's eye with the other. She noticed the large bruise that was blooming on his lip and the now terrified look in his eye as John shook him roughly.

'You lot don't seem to have understood something,' spat John menacingly, making the man yelp. 'This city and all the racetracks belong to us.'

'Which means no taking bets on our pitches,' continued Arthur. 'And any wise talk in our pubs will not be tolerated.'

The three men nodded frantically, offering their apologies profusely. Well, this was annoyingly easy, thought Maddie, I didn't even get a punch in!

'If we see any of you in our city or on the racetracks again, expect to be leaving without your eyes,' threatened John in a low gravelly voice, reminding Maddie eerily of Tommy. 'By order of the Peaky Blinders.'

John pushed his man down harshly into the floor as Arthur and Maddie shoved their men over to join him. The three men scrambled to their feet, looking up at them with petrified faces before running off down the alley. Arthur snorted a laugh and shook his head in disbelief. Maddie had to agree, those three were pathetic.

During their time in the pub, the sun had finally set and night had set in, covering the city in darkness and Maddie's mind was taken back to Tommy's office and what she had left to come on this frankly disappointing job.

'We gonna head back?' she asked, looking in the direction of the office.

'John and I need to have a word with a few people inside first,' said Arthur. 'We'll catch you up.'

'Alright,' nodded Maddie.

She turned and began walking in the direction of the office as John and Arthur went back inside The Garrison, picking up a brisk pace as she thought about what antics awaited her once she and Tommy got home. However, when she reached the end of the street, she felt an icy chill ripple down the back of her neck and along her spine, making her stop in her tracks on the street corner. She looked around the large crossroads where she stood, the feeling of someone watching her making her skin begin to itch uncomfortably. She inspected the area suspiciously, watching the few remaining commuters and locals hurry past to their homes, none of them giving her a second glance. Maybe she was imagining things? Then again, her slayer sense was rarely wrong.

Maddie started walking again dubiously, taking a few more glances around her before picking up her previous pace and continuing her route back to the office. She didn't like this, every nerve in her body was screaming at her to be on her guard, the hairs on her arms stood up as if the air was filled with static electricity. Something was wrong, very wrong. She needed to get back to Tommy; not only to make sure he was okay but to get the stake which she kept handy in her desk. Her pace quickened even more until she was practically jogging along the street, looking over her shoulder every few seconds but seeing no one behind her. Soon she rounded the corner to Watery Lane and saw the light to the office still on in the distance and Tommy's car parked outside. Maddie hurried down the road toward the office, her heart racing nervously. Then the light inside the office turned off and soon after the front door to the building opened and Tommy exited before shutting the door behind him.

'Tommy!' Maddie called urgently causing him to whip his head up to find her. His posture immediately shifted, hearing the tone of her voice and he began to walk briskly toward her.

'What is it?!' he called back.

Maddie opened her mouth to respond, only a few yards between the two of them, when a high-pitched buzzing noise rang out, filling the air around them and a man dressed in black materialised out of nowhere behind Tommy who had covered his ears in response to the noise. Before Maddie, who was also covering her ears, could react, the man hit Tommy in the back of the head, and he fell to his knees.

'No!' yelled Maddie, taking a step forward to run to Tommy as another buzzing sound rang out and Maddie felt a fist hit the side of her face with inhuman force. She flew through the air and landed on the cobbled ground, sliding a few feet to stop on her side. Clutching her cheek which was stinging painfully, she looked up to spot her attacker, another man dressed in black who looked down at her with a satisfied smile.

On first guess, she would have said vampire, but that punch was unusually hard, even for them. His fist had felt as hard as diamonds. Then Maddie noticed the faint yellow glow, like an aura, that floated around the man, and she realised that it must be magic, which explained why she felt like she was being watched and why her slayer senses were going haywire. They had obviously used spells that made them invisible and enhanced their strength and then her brain clicked, recalling Mr Travers mentioning spells that could do just that back at the Watcher's Council all those months ago and the penny dropped as to where these very human men were from.

'So, you're the slayer from the future,' said the man, a thick cockney accent contorting his voice. He walked over to Maddie and loomed over her threateningly. 'To be honest, I was expecting more.'

Maddie heard the sound of a struggle off to her side and looked over to see the first man restraining Tommy's arms behind him as he struggled helplessly against him, and she noticed that this man also emanated the same yellow glow. He had taken Tommy's gun out of his holster and was holding it in one hand as he restrained him easily with the other.

'Maddie!' yelled Tommy as looked up and spotted her on the floor and she looked back at him nervously.

'You're going to regret coming here,' threatened Maddie, turning back to the cockney man and getting back to her feet. 'Let him go before I reduce your friend to a bloody pulp.'

The cockney man scoffed loudly, laughing heartily at Maddie who could feel her blood begin to boil dangerously.

'You can give me your best shot girl,' he leered. 'But you'll be coming with us back to London tonight. And it's up to you how easy or how hard this goes.'

'I'm not going anywhere with you,' spat Maddie, lifting her fist to finally punch the dickhead in the nose. However, the man had evidently used a spell to enhance his speed as he blocked her punch easily, her fist hitting what felt like solid marble. She tried to counter with her other fist but was blocked again before he punched her in the chest, making her stumbled backwards a couple of steps, winding her in the process.

Another, buzzing noise deafened Maddie again, ripping through her body like an electric shock and before she could regain her senses and look for yet another attacker, she felt two sets of strong arms grab both of hers and she looked up to see two more men behind her, holding her fast. She immediately tried to wrench her arms free from the men's grasps but it was no use. It was like being held still by thick iron restraints and she heard Tommy call out to her again, a chilling fear in his voice, but she couldn't turn her head enough to see him.

'Looks like we've chosen the hard way,' said the man darkly as he reached into his pocket and pulled out a black velvet case. 'Hold her still,' he instructed the men holding her arms.

Maddie watched, her heart racing frantically, as the cockney man opened the black case and pulled out a large glass syringe filled with amber coloured liquid, at least half a pint's worth. A long thin needle was fitted to the valve of the syringe, glinting menacingly in the light of the streetlamps. She furrowed her brow at the syringe confused until her memory finally came back to her, and her stomach tightened into an agonising knot as she realised what it was.

'No,' she said, beginning to shake her head frantically. 'No!'

Maddie dug her heels into the cobblestoned street, pushing her weight back against her attackers, desperately trying to free herself from their grip, but her heels just slid over the slippery mud and the men held her still as the cockney man began to approach.

'Her arm,' he ordered the man on Maddie's left.

The man on her left straightened her arm, despite her resistance, and grabbed her sleeve before pulling it, causing it to tear at the seam at her shoulder, before tossing it aside. The cockney man held the syringe up in front of his eyes to ready it before stepping even closer and now Maddie was beside herself.

'No! Please, no!' she screamed, the sound echoing down the street as tears formed in her eyes. 'Please don't!'

'Hold her still!' ordered the cockney man once he was stood in front of her. She tried one last ditch attempt to kick him away, but her foot connecting with his stomach didn't even make him wince and the other two men quickly used their legs to pin hers back.

Maddie continued to struggle, sweat beading on her forehead as she watched the cockney man lower the needle to just above her arm before feeling the skin for a vein just above her elbow with his thumb. Finding what he was looking for, he aligned the needle and pushed it into her flesh as she screamed again.

'Maddie!' screamed Tommy from somewhere behind her, a terror in his voice which she'd never heard before.

The cockney man took a moment to smile evilly at Maddie as she looked back at him pleadingly before he finally pushed the plunger of the syringe, emptying its contents into her veins. A sickening wave crashed through her body, making her muscles burn like lava and her breath catch in her chest, stabbing her lungs like razors. Her head went sickeningly dizzy, her vision blurring, and she moaned loudly as the horrific sensations overwhelmed her. Maddie felt herself go momentarily limp and the two men let go of her arms and she dropped to her knees on the ground, pressing her palm to her head to try and recover her senses. Then the men began to laugh cruelly, like bullies laughing at their victim and she gritted her teeth as fury began to replace the other sensations in her body. She got to her feet shakily, lifting her head up to look at the cockney man before drawing her arm back for another punch. She threw her fist in the direction the man's face, her muscles however feeling limp and jelly like as her knuckles connected with his jaw. She felt the bones of her hand, wrist and forearm shatter and burst before she heard them. The splintering and cracking sound clearly audible followed by her agonising scream as the intense pain shot across her hand and up her arm. She collapsed to the floor again, clutching her broken hand to her chest as hot tears streamed from her eyes and a sob escaped her lips.

'Maddie! Fuck!' shouted Tommy. 'I'll fucking kill you all!'

The men laughed again, even more viciously than before as the cockney man crouched down next to Maddie, chuckling darkly.

'Let's get her in the van,' he said loudly. 'She's no threat now her powers are gone.'