Risen (The Vampire Legends 6)

She continued heading north west but was beginning to get a sinking feeling in her stomach that this was all wrong. Maybe this was a bad idea after all. Maybe she should have never come down to talk to her grandmother in the first place. She felt more vulnerable than she’d ever felt in her life at this moment and knew that it was all her fault. If she’d just left well enough alone than none of this would be happening. She’d be sitting at school with her friends gossiping and chatting about anything and everything. How she’d wished that were her reality at this moment.

She knew she couldn’t let herself get wrapped up in the what ifs of the situation and had to focus on what was actually going on. No matter how much she wished the situation were different it wasn’t going to change anything. She was in the swamps flying around to find the mausoleum and to find out the truth behind how she became a vampire and what was happening between her and the evil coven. After all, if she didn’t complete this mission, she knew she would surely not live to see the light of day for very much longer. It was no longer a choice. It was her destiny. She had to move forward.

After pushing all the negative thoughts out of her head she finally accepted what she was doing. She knew she had to figure out who she was and what had happened to her and the only way was to find her family’s mausoleum.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

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.