Risen (Book #6 of the Vampire Legends) (10 page)

Sarah
walked alone, the gravel crunching beneath her feet, down the dark and isolated
road, finally turning a bend and coming to a stop before the huge and sprawling
prison complex, its floodlights lighting up the night. She looked up, and read
the large intimidating sign:
Hudson
County Prison
.

Sarah
could hear the buzzing coming off the electrified barbed wire, and she saw
several guards standing outside the gate, guns in hand, scowling into the
night. For a moment, she felt afraid. But she knew that was the old human part
of her, the old Sarah, that was feeling that fear. The new Sarah, the vampire
Sarah, was invincible. Fear was a thing of the past, a thing she had shed, had
left behind with her human body.

Sarah
recalled what Benji had said, when he had left her on that island. He had told
her to stay put, to wait for him. She was grateful to Benji for helping her,
and she wanted to obey him, she really did. But she had waited and waited, and
no one had come for her, and while she was there, she had sensed, deep inside
her, like an electric shock, that her brother, Marc, was in trouble. She had
never had such a strong feeling before. And she could no longer ignore it.

Without
thinking, Sarah had launched into the air, had left the island, had allowed her
senses to lead her as she had flown this way. They had brought her here, to
this lonely road in the middle of nowhere, and now, to this prison complex. Was
she crazy? Was Marc inside? Was he a prisoner here? What could he doing here,
in a human prison?

Sarah
needed answers. Most of all, she still felt that Marc needed her. As much as
she tried, she could not ignore the feeling. She had to find out for herself.
And if he was in danger, she had to rescue her little brother.

As
she approached the prison, Sarah thought back, reflected on her relationship
with Marc. As brother and sister, they had never really been that close. He was
younger than her, and when they interacted, it had mostly been arguing,
fighting.

Yet
strangely enough, now that she was a vampire, Sarah felt a deeper kinship
towards Mark. She could not understand why, but she felt that maybe, he was
like her now, too. Was it possible? Was her brother Mark turned? By whom?

“Don’t
come any further,” a guard shouted out into the night.

“Stay
where you are!” another guard yelled.

“Don’t
move! yelled another guard.

Sarah
just ignored them, walking closer, casually. The guards tensed, several of them
reaching for their guns. The lead guard, a huge man, twice the size of the
others, instead looked at Sarah with a different sort of look. As if she were
someone to take advantage of.

“How
old are you sweet thing?” he asked with an evil smile. “Old enough, I bet. What
are you doing out here, all alone by yourself?”

He
walked towards her, and reached down, and began to unbuckle his belt. He looked
her up and down, as if deciding how exactly he was going to attack her.”

“I’m
talking to you girl!” he yelled, and he took several steps closer to her.

Sarah
continued to walk, right towards him, never hesitating. As he placed his big,
beefy palm on her shoulder, suddenly, her vampire reflexes kicked in.

Sarah
moved with lightning fast speed, reached out, grabbed his wrist, twisted it
around behind his back, and broke his wrist, then his arm, with a sickening
crack. He collapsed down to the ground, shrieking.

The
other guards, eyes open wide in shock and amazement, rushed forward, reaching
for their guns. Before their hands could even draw them, though, Sarah was
already in action.

She
leapt through the air, elbowing one across the face, striking another in the
throat, kicking a third in the chest, sending them all flying backwards,
bouncing against the chain-link fence, and to the ground. In moments, all was
still. They all lay there, unconscious.

Sarah
surveyed the situation, the now empty and unmanned prison complex, reached up,
grabbed the huge gate, and tore it off its hinges with an awful metal crash.
She held it high over her head, and hurled it, high over the barbed wire,
hundreds of feet, until it landed on the prison building, smashing the glass
front doors.

Alarms
sounded everywhere.

Sarah
waited no longer. She rushed forward, threw her body through the glass doors,
shattering them, and into the prison complex, racing at lightning speed down
the halls.

Guards
screamed in every direction, and she raced past him, until she reached a huge
set of iron bars. A guard sat there, reading a paper, and turned and looked up
as he saw her coming. His eyes opened wide in shock, as he began to stand.

Before
he could even reach his feet, Sarah kicked him under his chin, and sent him
flying back down, crashing onto the stool. It broke and he landed on the floor,
unconscious.

She
glanced down at his keys, but then realized she didn’t need them.

She
lunged forward, grabbed the thick iron bars, and tore it off with her two
hands. The sound of groaning metal echoed in the halls. She glanced back over
her shoulder, saw dozens of guards racing towards her, and turned and threw the
heavy iron gates behind her, like a Frisbee. It spun over and over, and smashed
into them and sent them all to the ground, unmoving.

Sarah
rushed into the prison’s main hall.

Alarms
still sounding all around her, Sarah stood in the main complex, the ceilings
rising to hundreds of feet, rows and rows of cells everywhere. Hundreds of
prisoners milled about in the open area, and Sarah rushed right into the
center. As cacophonous as this hall was, they all stopped and turned and stared
as she burst into the room. They fell silent, stunned. She was the only woman
in the place. And certainly the most attractive person in there.

They
all stared at her, as if all getting ready to pounce on her at once.

“Hey
foxy lady!” one yelled out.

“Hey
she’s mine!” one yelled out.

“No
she’s not. She’s mine!” another yelled.

“I’m
taking you into my cell, and you’re never coming out!” another yelled.

They
also began to close in on her, and Sarah do not hesitate: she released her
wings and flew high up into the air, hovering above them all, higher and
higher, dozens of feet, floating in the air. She looked around at all the
cells, looking for any sign of her brother anywhere.

“MARK!”
she shrieked.

The
prisoners all looked up at her, eyes opened wide in amazement, clearly never
having seen anything like this before. Sarah tried to ignore them as she
scanned the huge room, looking to see if there was any cell door shut. She
looked left to right, and all the doors were open, all the prisoners milling
about.

But
then, in the far corner, she saw one cell door, closed shut. She saw a prisoner
lying in the bed, under the covers, unmoving. The only one. And she sensed,
with all her might, that it was her brother in there.

“Mark!”
she shrieked.

Sarah
flew through the air, racing right for him, and soon landed on the upper
balcony of the prison hall.

She
reached over, grabbed the black iron bars, and tore them off their hinges.
There came a sickening sound of metal on metal as it opened.

Sarah
heard screaming beside her, and saw the entire population now upstairs, racing
towards the cell, wanting to grab her.

“Get
her!” one yelled.

“She’s
a witch!” yelled another.

Sarah
did not wait. She turned and hurled the iron bars at them, knocking out dozens
of prisoners, sending them collapsing down to the ground.

Sarah
rushed into Mark’s cell, and, shaking, she threw back the blanket, praying it
was her brother in there.

“Mark!”
she cried out.

She
turned the body over, and her heart raced with relief to see that it was indeed
him, her brother. He lay there, very pale, ice cold to the touch, and she
wondered what happened to him.

Slowly,
his eyes fluttered open, and she cried out in relief.

“Sis?”
he asked.

The
sound of the prisoners was getting louder, and Sarah wasted no time. She leaned
over, grabbed Mark, slung him over her shoulder like a sack of potatoes, and
turned and raced out of his cell.

All
the prisoners were closing in now, from both directions.

Right
before they could reach her, Sarah leapt over the railing, and then released
her wings. They floated softly down to the floor, a hundred feet below.

Sara
looked and saw more prisoners stood by the door, blocked their way out. She had
no choice but to confront them.

Sarah
let out a great cry, charged forward, leapt into the air, and kicked one after
another prisoner, creating a domino effect, all the way to the main cell door.
She elbowed and kicked and punched, creating a passage, knocking out one
prisoner after another.

Finally,
she reached the main door, and burst outside.

Waiting
to greet them were dozens of correctional officers, racing down the hall.

“Hang
on!” Sarah screamed, realizing there was no way out but through.

Sarah
lowered her head, and covered Mark’s face with her arms, and flew, head first,
like a bullet, right into the guards. She barreled right through them.

Finally,
she burst out the prison corridors, and back into the night.

As
Sarah felt the cool night air, she released her wings further and flew higher
and higher, gaining speed, away from this place.

Shots
rang out, and she could feel bullets whizzing past her. They missed by inches.

They
had made it. They were free.

Rachel
walked and walked in the black of night, beneath the light of the full moon,
through the swamps of Louisiana. All around her, animals screeched out into the
night, their cries punctuating the moonlight air. She was terrified. Her legs
were aching, her feet were tired from all the walking. She had been marching
for hours—it felt like days—ever since she’d left her grandma’s house, on this
desperate mission to find the graveyard and mausoleum of her ancestors.

Rachel’s
grandmother had told her the graveyard was well-hidden, had given her an
ancient map to its location, and she had been following it, rolled up in this
old scroll, trying to find her way through the unmarked back swamps of
Louisiana.

But
now, she was exhausted. There was no sign of a cemetery anywhere in sight, and
she was starting to wonder whether it even existed. Who were her ancestors
anyway? And what did this all have to do with her?

As
Rachel walked, she wondered once again what all these feelings were that had
been coursing through her. She felt as if she could not remember a big part of
herself—and yet she had been seeing flashes of it coming back to her in pieces.
She could see a face, hear a name in her head.

Benji.

It
kept repeating in her mind, over and over. She could see his face, yet she did
not quite understand who he was.

Also
ringing through her head was another name: Rob. She saw his face, too—a very
different face. But again, she did not understand who he was. She did not know
why she kept thinking of him. Other names ran through her mind too: Sarah,
Mark, Violet, Hunter, Penelope, and she knew she knew all these people somehow,
but she could not really remember. Slowly, it was as if she was piecing
together the fragments of her life.

Rachel
felt there was some major piece of her own identity missing. As if she was not
only Rachel, but also someone else. Someone bigger, stronger, ancient,
powerful. Someone mysterious. She did not understand who or what. Was this all
just a fantasy?

Rachel
walked and walked, so confused, feeling waves of heat rush over her, as she
could start to see flashes of things, things that made no sense. She saw
herself flying through the air with Benji. She did not understand. It was like
pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, like flashes of a life she once knew, coming back to
her. They were invading her mind, forcing her to pay attention. She still did
not understand why. Was she losing her mind?

Suddenly,
there came a snarl. Rachel screamed and jumped, and she saw an alligator,
charging, jumping from the waters, and charging right for her, its jaws wide
open. It came faster than she could imagine, the moonlight glistening off its
scales, and as it lunged for her, its jaws open to snap off her leg, she found
her reflexes kicking in.

She
leapt into the air, fifteen feet high, then hovered there, amazed at what she’d
been able to do. She hung in the air, over the alligator, and as she looked
down, she could see the whole world in slow-motion. She saw the jaws of the
alligator, opening slowly, saw herself, frozen in the air, and felt an
incredible amount of control. She didn’t understand what was going on. Who was
she?

Rachel
summoned a power, dove back down to the ground, landed atop the alligator, and
with her feet, crushed it, sending it into the ground. The alligator sunk all
the way into the moist earth, feet below the ground, until it was no threat to
her.

Rachel
hurried away, and glanced over her shoulder, and saw the alligator’s feet
sticking out above ground, kicking, helpless. How had she done it?

Rachel
hurried, faster and faster, deeper into the swamps, feeling lost, desperate,
hopeless. She was beginning to feel that she would never find the cemetery.

Rachel
ran, scratched by branches. She wanted to get out of here.

Crying,
Rachel ran and ran through swamps until eventually, out of breath, exhausted,
she stopped running and slumped beside a huge tree.

A
thick fog rose up, and she could no longer see in front of her.

Rachel
slumped down against the tree, leaning back against it, a huge ancient oak
tree, ten times as wide as her, and she lay there, and closed her eyes tight.
She listened to the sound of the bats and the alligators, and God knew whatever
else, and she cried and cried, willing for it all to go away. She curled
herself up in a ball, clutched her knees, and wished for the whole world to
disappear.

*

Rachel
dreamt troubled dreams. She saw herself running through fields of flowers, and
as she looked down, the flowers all turned tombstones. Dozens of them, then
thousands. Stones turned to crosses, ancient rotted wooden crosses, all
crooked. Then the crosses grew hands, impossibly long hands, and reached up and
began to grab her.

She
screamed and screamed, fighting her way out of the thicket of claws.

Rachel
blinked and found herself descending steps, deeper and deeper, beneath the
earth. There was a soft glow at the end, and as she reached out, she saw a lone
figure standing down there. His features were obscured.

As
she came closer, her came into view. It was the boy she had been seeing in her
dreams.

Benji.

Something
was happening inside her mind, and she was beginning to remember who he was.
There was something important about him. She knew he was important her. She
just did not know how.

“Rachel,
my love, it’s me,” he said. “Benji. Don’t you remember?”

She
reached out and touched her fingers to his face, felt his features, his
delicate skin, his strong cheekbones, his high forehead. His skin was so
smooth, pale, perfect. The touch of his skin electrified her. She ran the back
of her hand along his cheeks, then leaned in to kiss him.

But
as she did, suddenly Benji disappeared, collapsing into a ball of light. She
kissed the light, and he was gone.

“Benji!”
she screamed out.

Standing
before her now was a boy, with very different features than Benji. Another boy
she recognized. She knew his name immediately: Rob.

Rob
held out a hand for her, and she reluctantly reached out and took his hand. He
pulled her the other way, back up the stairs, in the opposite direction of
Benji.

“Come
with me,” he said. “It’s okay.”

“But
who are you?” she asked.

“Don’t
you remember? I’m your first boyfriend. The one you loved first. I want to take
you out of here.”

Rachel
looked up the stairs, then turned and looked back down.

Benji
was gone, just a ball of light now.

She
wanted to go after him.

But
Rob was yanking her up the other way.

She
pulled her hand away from Rob, away from his fierce grip.

“I
don’t want to go with you,” she said.

Rob’s
face suddenly collapsed into a ball of tears, and as she let go of his hand,
she found herself falling, backwards, screaming, into the ball of light.

Rachel
woke screaming.

She
jumped up to her feet and sat upright. She looked all around, wondering where
she was. She realized she was still leaning against the tree. It was still
night, and she was covered in sweat.

Rachel
heard a weird hissing noise, and she looked down, saw a huge snake, slithering
right towards her, it’s long tongue but inches away from her feet. She quickly
retracted her shoe, and sat there very still. It slithered faster.

Rachel
slowly stood to her feet, and backed up. She watched as it came right for her.

Something
strange happened. Time slowed down, and she could sense the vibration of the
snake. She sensed its anger. Its intent. It was about to strike her. She could
feel it. Before it even did.

Rachel
suddenly leapt up into the air, high above the ground, faster than the speed of
light, a second before the snake struck.

It
struck where she had been, but it just missed, striking air instead, as she
hovered high above it. From up here she could see it was a huge snake, twenty
feet long, as thick as her leg, and she realized that she would have been dead.

She
hovered in the air, and grabbed a branch. Hanging right beside it was a vine,
and she reached out and grabbed it, and held on tight as she swung, hurling
through the air.

Rachel
swung through the fog and the mist until finally she saw dry ground. She dropped
and landed, far away from the snake, and hurried off again, setting off at a
quick pace.

Finally
she pushed through the trees and reached a clearing in the swamp. It was dry
ground, solid, and she was shocked to see there before her, glowing beneath the
moonlight, dozens of ancient graves. In the center was a gigantic marble
mausoleum, rising up, twenty feet from the earth. It looked ancient, as if it
had been there for centuries. Her heart leapt. She could not believe it.

She
had found it.

Rachel
hurried through the cemetery, towards the huge marble structure, torches around
its gates. She knew she had to go inside, sensing that whatever she needed to
find was behind those Gates.

As
she reached out to grab the handle, suddenly, she heard a voice:

“And
just where do you think you’re going?”

Rachel
spun to see a girl standing there, facing her. It was a girl she hated. She did
not know why.

“That’s
right,” the girl said. “It’s me. Violet. You thought you could escape from me.”

“What
do you want?” Rachel asked, on guard.

Violet
did not respond. Instead, she stepped up and backhanded Rachel hard.

Rachel
cried out in pain, as she felt the back of Violet’s hand smacking her so hard
across the face, it made her spin.

Rachel
collapsed to her knees, blood in her mouth, the sting of it ringing in her
head.

Rachel
looked up, shocked at the girl’s strength, but she had no time to react.

Violet
reached down, grabbed her by the back of the shirt, and threw her.

Rachel
found herself flying through the air, landing face first in the mud, rolling,
smashing into a tombstone. She spun, breathing hard, and saw Violet bearing
down on her, leaping through the air, sprouting wings, fangs and claws
extended, and diving right down, to pierce her.

Rachel
sensed that this girl was going to kill her. She raised her hands, and braced
herself for the attack, sure she was going to die.

There
came a shout, and suddenly, Rachel saw another vampire flying through the air.
It was a boy, one she recognized from her dreams.

Rob.

Rob
swooped down, and grabbed Violet in midair, right before she attacked Rachel.
He grabbed Violet, picked her up above his head, and spun her and sent her
crashing down to the ground.

Rob
landed on top of her, pinning her down.

“You
will not touch Rachel!” Rob snarled, threatening Violet.

Violet
stared back in shock.

“How
dare you interfere!” she said. “You answer to me. Why would you try to save
this girl’s life?”

“Why
does not matter. You will not harm her. Understood?”

Rachel
gained her feet and watched as Violet slowly nodded, defeated.

“I
promise,” Violet said. “She will not be harmed. Just let me free.”

Rob
slowly nodded, satisfied, and stood.

Violet
sat up slowly.

Rob
turned around and faced Rachel, a look of love in his face.

“I’m
sorry,” he said. “I realize now, I was a jerk. My whole life. As a human and as
a vampire. I was stupid. I just did not know the right way to act. I want to be
with you now. Please, forgive me. I’ve changed. I promise.”

Rachel
looked at him, confused. Slowly, it was all coming back to her. Who he was.
Flashes of their time together. High school.

“Rob?”
she asked.

Rob
smiled at her, and recognition flooded her.

He
took a step towards her.

Suddenly,
Rachel was horrified as she saw Violet leaping up from behind, raising a long
silver dagger high overhead.

“NO!”
Rachel screamed out. “Rob look out!”

But
it all happened too fast. Violet leapt into the air and brought a dagger down
with all her might, into Rob’s back.

Rob
shrieked out, as Violet plunged the dagger deep into his back.

He
sank to his knees.

“Rachel!”
he gasped, reaching out for her.

But
it was too late. Violet stood over him, scowling, digging the knife keep into
his back.

“I
told you to never betray me,” Violet said.

Rob
collapsed to his face.

Rachel
stood there, staring, horrified.

“ROB!”“
she screamed again and again.