The Age of Temptation

A/N: Yay! I’m back. Sorry for the awfully long wait. I had two jobs and no time, but I finally got rid of one of the jobs so that I now have more time to do the thing I love - write.

First, for anyone who has come here from fanfiction.net, yes, this story was taken off the site by the moderators because of the sexual content. I have a feeling it was due to a certain reviewer I was having problems with who most likely reported the fiction to the mods. Thank goodness adult fan fiction has no problem with smut, so you can always find this fiction here. Though, I’m going to really miss the chapter update alerts of that site. I know it’s not as convenient.

But, if you managed to find me here, I’m very happy and I hope you let me know in your review.

Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own the Covenant and make no money from the writing of this fiction.

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Chapter 29

Madison decided to stop by her dorm room before leaving the school with Pogue that morning, feeling as though she needed to talk things over with Raina if she was ready. She opened the door cautiously, looking around.

“Rai?” she called out. Then she sighed, turning to face Pogue behind her. “She’s not here.”

They walked further into the room and Madison began packing a weekend bag.

“Maybe she went to a friend’s room,” Pogue suggested.

“She doesn’t have any other friends yet. Well, except maybe Reid and Tyler. But I don’t think she’d go to them after all she said last night.”

“We can stop by their room and check anyway,” Pogue replied.

She finished throwing the last few items in her bag, biting her lip with worry. “I hope… I mean… god, Pogue, what if she…”

Pogue put his arm around her. “Shhh… don’t even think that. Come on, we’ll find her.”

They made their way to Reid and Tyler’s dorm. They didn’t bother knocking as Pogue’s eyes flashed once and the door clicked open. Madison pushed on the door with her palm and called out, “Reid? Tyler?”

Madison was startled by the quick movement of covers and a large THUMP on the floor. Then a girl’s whine hit her ears. “Damn it! What the hell is wrong with you? Why did you push me out of bed?”

When her eyes adjusted to the dim light, she could see an angry blond girl sitting on the floor next to Tyler’s bed. Tyler had shoved a pillow at her to cover her lack of clothing. Then he swore a very loud, “Shit”, as he sat on the edge of the bed, his head bent in the palm of his hand as if he had a terrible headache.

Reid’s face then popped in front of her face, blocking her view of Tyler and the furious girl. “Madi!” Reid smiled, “Nice of you to come by. But, it’s kind of a bad time…”

Madison could hear the girl screeching in the background. “Madi? Who’s this Madi, Tyler? You didn’t tell me you had a girlfriend.”

Reid turned his head to the girl for a moment. “Ex-girlfriend,” he told her, emphasizing the Ex. Reid slipped outside the door, shutting it behind him, looking guiltily at Madi. Pogue was frowning at him behind her. “Sorry, Madi. You weren’t meant to see that.”

Madison knew she didn’t have a right to be so possessive, but it was the first time she had seen Tyler with another girl and, yes, it did hurt. It hurt more than she cared to admit. This left her at a loss for words.

Reid stepped closer to her, pushing a strand of her hair back behind her ear. “You all right?” he asked.

“Who is she?” She finally said, her voice cracking a bit.

“She’s nobody. Some girl from a party we went to. She doesn’t go to Spencer. Some townie…”

“Was Tyler drunk?” Pogue asked.

Reid shrugged, “Yeah, a bit, maybe.” He was still concerned with Madison’s look of hurt and he stepped closer, bending his head next to her ear. “She doesn’t mean anything to him, Madi. In fact, it was my idea to go pick up some chicks because all he could think about is you.”

“Chicks? You got one in there for you, too?” Madison asked.

Reid shrugged.

“Man whore,” Pogue laughed.

Madison slapped Pogue’s chest. “It’s not funny. It’s gross. I don’t want you passing along any STDs to me. The more partners you have, the greater the chances. I hope you always wear condoms.”

“With everyone except you, babe,” Reid grinned. “No glove, no love. So, um, why did you decide to grace us with your presence this morning? Need us to give old Pogue some pointers on pleasing you?”

“Oh, fuck you,” Pogue commented, “everything is fine in that department, I assure you.”

“We were looking for Raina, actually,” Madison replied.

“Haven’t seen her since class yesterday,” Reid said. “What’s up?”

Madison glanced at the door behind him. “We’ll discuss it later. This is not the right place to have this conversation.” She noticed Reid taking a quick look at Pogue. “But, then, you probably can already guess what it’s about since all of you knew before Rai and I.”

“I might know,” Reid nodded slightly. “And I’m sorry about that, Madi. Is she going to be all right?”

“I don’t know. She’s pretty upset. And now she’s gone.”

“She didn’t leave any messages?”

Madison pulled out her cell phone, wondering why she hadn’t bothered checking it before now. There was nothing from Raina, but there was a text from Caleb late last night.

It said: Raina is spending the weekend at my place. My mother has convinced her to stay to discuss matters further. Do not worry, baby. Have a good time with Pogue and call me if you need me. Love, Caleb.

Madison sighed, relieved. “Mrs. Danvers invited her over for the weekend.”

Reid smiled. “That’s good. Evelyn can calm her down and help her see things rationally.”

“I suppose. I hope she can convince her not to be so pissed off at me too.”

Pogue put his hands on her shoulders from behind, pulling her against him. “It will all work out, Madi. You’ll see. You want to get going? I was thinking of taking you out to breakfast before we head over to my place.”

Madison nodded. “Yeah, o.k.” She leaned forward and kissed Reid on the cheek. “Be good.”

“You know me.” He grinned at her.

“Just… take better care of Tyler… all right? Tell him that I love him.”

“Yeah, all right,” Reid replied. Then he looked at Pogue and said, “And Happy Birthday, you lucky fuck. Hope it hurts like hell.”

“I’ll remember those words when your time comes,” Pogue stated.

OOOOOO

Reid had to drive Tyler’s truck as Tyler had a pounding hangover. Tyler hadn’t even wanted to go with Reid to drop the girls off at their homes, but Reid started to give him hell over it and he gave in for the sake of peace.

Now he sat miserable in the backseat with the girl, Krissy, or something like that, sitting close to him with her head leaning on his shoulder. He shouldn’t have gone to that stupid party last night and hooked up with this chick. He didn’t want to have to deal with annoying demands. He had gotten drunk and Reid had invited these two back to their dorm room. One thing led to another…

And worst of all, not only did he wake up sober with this girl taking up his bed space, but Madi had seen what he had done. He felt like an asshole, like everything he never wanted to be in Madison’s eyes.

“Give me your phone.”

“What?” Tyler replied, shaken out of his groggy thoughts.

“Give me your phone,” the chick demanded. “I want to program my number into it.”

“I left it back in the room,” Tyler lied. He noticed Reid’s glance at him in the rearview mirror.

Krissy sighed, frowning as she pulled out her phone from her jacket pocket. “Then give me yours.”

“Um, yeah,” Tyler began, rubbing a tired hand over his eyes. “It’s 849-2943.”

“Let’s try it out, shall we?” she grinned.

Reid turned his head slightly to the left as his eyes flashed black. He knew he had to help Tyler out of this one as Tyler was too far gone to care. Tyler had given her the wrong number and was going to get hell from Krissy if he didn’t come to the rescue.

The sound of Tyler’s voice on his voicemail message could be heard coming over Krissy’s phone and Reid smirked inwardly at his cleverness. He glanced again at Tyler in the rearview mirror, but Tyler was just frowning as he stared aimlessly out of the window feeling like shit. Krissy seemed satisfied.

“Cool,” she grinned, putting her phone away. “We should do this again soon. I had fun. Well, except when you pushed me out of bed,” she laughed, pretending outrage as she pushed Tyler’s shoulder.

Tyler spared her a glance, only now realizing that she was talking to him. “Yeah, whatever,” he replied.

She looked offended at his words, her mouth hanging open. “Did I do something wrong?”

“It’s probably that girl,” Krissy’s friend offered from the front seat. “The one that came over this morning.”

“Hey, man, don’t even go there,” Reid warned.

But Krissy needed to know if her new squeeze was still stuck on someone else. “You still like that girl, Tyler? Is that why you are pouting?”

“I’m not pouting and that’s not your business,” Tyler replied.

“Well, it looked like she moved on. She’s together with that guy she was with, right?”

Tyler didn’t respond. Why should he? Why couldn’t Reid drive faster. He wanted to get rid of these chicks as soon as possible. He almost had to endure going out to coffee with them, but he faked barfing, so Reid suggested that he should just take them home.

“The best way to get over someone is to start seeing someone else,” Krissy continued, jabbing him with her elbow as if he couldn’t see her obvious hint. But there was no way in hell.

Reid dropped off the other chick first, unfortunately, and Tyler was left for a bit more time with Krissy. When they pulled up in front of her house, she said, “Aren’t you going to kiss me goodbye?”

“I barfed not too long ago. Do you really want to kiss me?”

“I guess not. But you owe me!” She smiled, poking a finger into his chest. “I’ll call you later. I hope you’re in a better mood.” She kissed his cheek and slipped out of the truck.

Tyler slipped out too, but did not walk her to her door. Instead he got into the front seat with Reid and shut the door. “Drive,” he ordered.

Reid shook his head as he pulled away from Krissy’s house. “Man, you just gave up a perfectly good booty call. Could have gotten a few more months out of her before you told her to hit the road.”

“I’m not like you,” Tyler grumped.

“Whatever.”

“Was she upset?”

“She wants you too badly to be upset. They think they’ve landed rich dudes.”

Tyler huffed in frustration. “Not her! I’m talking about Madi. Was Madi upset after she saw me?”

“Yeah, maybe a little. But she was more worried about Raina.”

“Fuck!” Tyler swore, his elbow propped against the car window and his forehead in his palm. “Why the hell did you invite those two back with us?”

“Get over it, baby boy. You plan to stay celibate while Madi and Pogue are fucking their brains out? Or are you going to wait for the her to have some time to spare for you? What? Live your life, my brother. Caleb’s got Sarah and I got my chicks to fill in the lonely nights with. What do you have? Stop mooning over Madi all the time. You can’t have her to yourself. You’ve never had her to yourself. None of us can.”

Tyler stared out of the window in angry silence for a bit and finally said, “Let’s just go get some coffee.”

OOOOOO

Pogue put his arm around Madison as they made their way from the car to the guesthouse on the Parry estate, their overnight bags slung over his other shoulder. They had just enjoyed a big breakfast out and decided they would spend this cold, frosty day cuddled up together before the big event.

As they walked down the cobblestone driveway, they were intercepted by Pogue’s mother who waved to them as she approached. Madison felt Pogue stiffen as his mother drew near. His mother pulled Pogue into a hug and said, “Happy Birthday, darling.”

“Thank you, mother,” Pogue replied, stiffly.

She turned her smiling face to Madison. “And Madison, it is so nice to see you again. I’m so happy you’ll be here with him tonight.”

“Thank you,” Madison smiled. “I wouldn’t miss it for the world.”

“You both must come for dinner tonight. Pogue, I’m making all your favorite things. And there will be a cake.”

“I don’t think…” Pogue began.

“That would be lovely,” Madison spoke, cutting off Pogue before he could refuse. She could feel Pogue’s disapproving expression boring into her.

“Wonderful! I’ll see you both about seven?”

“Sure,” Madison nodded. “Sounds great.”

As his mother turned to go back to the mansion, Pogue let go of Madison and turned toward the guesthouse in a huff. Madison followed behind him, sighing.

“It’s your birthday, Pogue. She wants to celebrate it with you.”

“Exactly, Madi. It’s my birthday. Why can’t I celebrate it the way I want? And the last thing I want is to be with her.”

Madison stood behind him as he unlocked the door. “She’s your mother, the one who is actually responsible for your birthday in the first place. Don’t you think it’s important to her?”

Pogue glared at Madison over his shoulder. “You don’t know everything, Madi. You don’t know what it’s like between us.”

They walked into the guesthouse, which was much bigger than the house Madison and her dad had shared in Boston. Pogue waved his hand at the fireplace and a cozy fire sprung up instantly.

“From where I stand, it looks like she loves you and cares about you very much. But it seems like you are punishing her for something. What are you punishing her for?”

Pogue turned to face her. “I’m not punishing her. And you are only seeing her as ‘nice’ because that’s all you’ve seen. Yes, she can be ‘nice’, as long as we don’t spend much time together. As soon as I’m around too much, she changes. She get’s neurotic.”

“Can’t you handle a simple dinner with her? She’s your mom.”

“I don’t hear you singing praises about your mom. Why is that, Madi? Have you got the market cornered on bad moms? Why don‘t you make excuses for her, too? You won‘t even talk about her.”

Madison turned to the fire, staring into the flames. He had certainly found a way to shut her up. Bring up dear old mom and Madison went into avoidance mode.

She felt his hands slide up her arms to her shoulders from behind as he said, “Sorry, Madi. I shouldn’t have brought that up.” He sighed heavily. “I didn’t imagine spending this day arguing.”

“It’s o.k.,” she finally said. “You’re right. I need to face it. I shouldn’t be such a hypocrite.”

“Come on,” he said, gently, pulling her to the sofa in front of the fire and settling her next to him with his arm about her. “We don’t have to get into this.”

“No,” she shook her head, “we should. It’s time that I talked about it. I think I’m ready to.”

“O.K.,” he replied, pulling her closer.

After a few moments of fire gazing, Madison began. “My mom… was always a perfectionist. I’m not talking about details, like making the bed without a wrinkle or something, but of life in general. She always had this stupid picture in her mind of how perfect things had to be. She wanted the perfect family in the perfect home. And most of all, she wanted all her friends to envy her and declare how perfect her life was and how they all wished they could be her.”

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“My dad, he was the total Type B guy. Got up, went to work, and left all the details of making the perfect life to my mom. And because he didn’t share her ambition of creating this façade of perfection, she nit picked and nagged at him quite a bit. But he took it all in stride and didn’t let it get to him.”

Pogue wrinkled his brow. “So… you don’t like her because she was a nag?”

Madison rolled her eyes. “I wish that was all it was.”

“Go on.”

“Her rules of perfection… of course, applied to me too. She wanted me to be the most popular and the most liked. She threw parties for any little occasion so that it seemed I was friends with almost everybody. I hated those parties. Everyone came, ate your food, and didn’t give a damn about me. And there was my mother in the middle of it all, acting like the belle of the ball. I wanted to fade into the woodwork. I don‘t think anyone would have noticed if I did. Maybe Raina and Ben would have. They were my only true friends.”

Pogue squeezed her and placed a kiss on her forehead.

“Anyway,” she continued, “the real bad thing happened when I turned thirteen.”

“When you got your powers,” Pogue stated, starting to understand.

“Yeah, except I didn’t get the cool powers like you guys. I got the visions. And, to my mother, I was no longer her ‘perfect’ daughter. Suddenly she had an imperfect family, one with a secret she had to hide from all those ‘friends’ she had built her perfect reputation with. She thought I was going crazy. It made her angry every time I wanted to talk about my visions or the things that were happening to me. She would yell at me to shut up and stop lying. She said I just wanted attention so I was making all of it up. I mean, I was crying and shaking after a vision and she actually had the gall to accuse me of just wanting attention!”

“I’m sorry, baby,” Pogue whispered, hugging her. “I wish we had found you sooner. I wish someone could have explained what was happening to you.”

“Yeah, me too,” Madison nodded. “I was so frightened and scared. And as the months went on, the visions started happening more and more frequently. Sometimes I had to get up and leave class and go to the principal’s office. When my mom would get calls to come and pick me up, she would be mortified with embarrassment that the school knew about my ’problems’.”

“So, one day she couldn’t take it anymore. I heard her telling my dad that she was leaving. That she couldn’t be the mother of a… special needs child. It was just too much for her, meaning that it was too hard on her ego that everyone now knew we weren’t the ‘perfect’ family and no one envied us.”

“And my dad was devastated when she left. I blamed myself, of course, even though my dad kept telling me that it wasn’t my fault. He knew I couldn’t help what was happening to me. He began taking me to different doctors and we experimented with different medications until we found the right ones that would help keep the visions down. All in all, it took a few years after she left for us to feel like there might be some sort of normalcy to our lives again.”

“That’s why I don’t like bringing her up, Pogue. A part of me still blames myself for her leaving.”

“She sounds like a cunt, Madi, and you should say ‘good riddance’,” Pogue replied.

Madison’s face swung to Pogue’s in shock. “Oh, my God. I can’t believe you called my mom a cunt!”

“Because that’s what she is - a pretentious, insensitive, self-serving cunt,” Pogue said, matter-of-factly.

Madi stared at him in shock a few more moments before laughter burst out from within her. “You know what? You are absolutely right! She was all those things.”

“I’m glad you’re finally seeing that,” he praised. “And she’s missing out on a wonderful daughter.”

Madi’s smile faded and she put her head on his warm chest. “I just wish she would have accepted me and loved me no matter what. And, I guess when I see other moms, like yours, who actually want to be with their child, and accept who they are, I can’t understand why that’s not precious to you.”

Pogue sighed. “I love my mom and I know she loves me. And I am grateful for all she’s done for me. But my father’s death… it changed her. When I was still living here, all she did was talk about him and compare me to him. Every time she thought I was using, whether I was or not, she would place photos of him on his deathbed all over the house. She would harp on for days about how I was going to end up like that and how I had to forget my powers and become like Tyler and Reid’s dads.”

“She was scared for you.”

“Yeah, but it drove me crazy every day. At every dinner she would drill me about my day, trying to find out if I used any powers whatsoever. I was so relieved when high school started and I was able to move into the dorm. I probably was the first one who signed up.”

Madison hugged him. “It might be different now. Now that I’m here, she probably doesn’t worry as much about you getting old too fast. Have you ever thought of that?”

“Yeah, I know. But I still feel angry about all that time she gave me hell. He died right before I turned thirteen. So I not only had to deal with her grief, but her neurosis as well. It was a lot for a kid that age to handle. I guess I never completely healed.”

“I’m sorry,” she said, stroking his hair.

He smiled ruefully. “Don’t worry about it. Sorry I got upset earlier. We’ll go to the dinner, all right? But we are cutting out shortly after cake. I plan to be drunk off my ass on witches’ honey before I ascend at midnight. I can’t imagine it hurting as much when I’m feeling so damned good.”

Madison laughed. “Is that the plan?”

“Oh, yeah,” he growled, sexily, pulling her onto his lap. “Be prepared for multiple O’s, babe.”

OOOOOOO

A/N And there you have it. I guarantee Pogue’s ascension will be in the next chapter and I’m sorry it’s taken me so long to get to it. I felt that filling in a little more background on Madi was necessary in this chapter. One good thing about all this time passing is that I have been able to make the ascension so much better than it was going to be because I’ve mulled around a lot of ideas during this time.

So, please, if you are still reading this story and enjoying it, review. It would be nice to know that I still have an audience. And I hope some of you from fanfiction.net were able to find me here. Let me hear from you, please.

Until next time…