RISEN
(book #6 of the Vampire Legends)
emma knight
Also by Emma Knight
SWORN (Book #1 of the Vampire Legends)
TAKEN (Book #2 of the Vampire Legends)
BITTEN (Book #3 of the Vampire Legends)
CHOSEN (Book #4 of the Vampire Legends)
AWAKENED (Book #5 of the Vampire Legends)
Copyright © 2013 by Emma Knight
All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior permission of the author.
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return it and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places, events, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictionally. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER ONE
Rachel held Benji’s face in her hands as he leaned in to kiss her, and she had never felt skin so smooth. His eyes opened, and in those eyes, she could see all the love shining out towards her. She felt hypnotized. As their lips met, she felt herself transported to another world, his lips so smooth, the kiss magical.
She opened her eyes, and looked at him and he said, “I love you with everything that I am.”
She looked into his eyes and tried to remember. She was confused.
“Who are you?” she asked. She felt deep inside her soul that she knew him, but somehow she could not remember.
“Don’t you remember?” Benji asked.
She tried with everything that she had, but she just could not remember.
Suddenly, Benji started slipping away from her. Falling backwards, over a cliff. She reached out to grab him, but she felt him slipping away and watched horrified as he went plunging down, disappearing into a cloud.
Rachel blinked and found herself standing in front of her grandmother’s house. She lifted her finger to ring the doorbell, but saw that it was broken and hanging from its socket. She then made a tight fist and knocked loudly on the stained glass front door, waiting for her to open it. She heard the pitter patter of footsteps coming towards the door and as she opened the large door, which creaked on its hinges, there stood an old lady with long straight gray hair, staring back at her with fierce eyes.
Before she knew it, her grandmother, who looked nothing like the woman she’d remembered grabbed her and threw her into the dungeon of her house. There were other kids trapped in there, screaming for their freedom. She heard the door slam behind her and watched the woman, who she thought to be her grandmother walking away coldly, screaming, “You will stay here until you die my kiddies!”
Rachel’s body jolted and then she started to see her body shaking in front of her. She was no longer in the dungeon, but now she was a top a grand castle somewhere, she couldn’t make out where though. She stood there watching as an outsider her body morph into something she couldn’t quite make out. Her fingernails grew long talons, and her teeth grew into fangs, her skin became sensitive and the small tiny hairs stood on their ends at the sight of the animals roaming around down below. She felt the shirt she was wearing begin to tear on the back as her wings protruded out of them. Her wings were big, bigger than any bird she’d ever seen and they were clear and scaly, she could see through them all the way down to her bones and the blue blood vessels flowing through them. Then, as if she couldn’t wait one more second to taste the blood of the animals below she leapt high into the air, higher than she’d ever leapt before and waited for her wings to spring into action, but they didn’t. Rachel let out the loudest scream as she fell down to her death on the ground far below and then started twitching and convulsing.
She woke sweating and with a jolt as the train came to a halting stop. “Last and final stop of this train is Simmesport. Please check around you seat for all your personal belongings and make your way to the front of the train. I repeat, this is the last stop on this train. Everyone must get off.”
Rachel rubbed her eyes and looked around her. The once jam-packed and crowded train was empty with not a soul in sight. She peered out the window and saw that it was pitch black outside and there were no lights to be seen. She looked down at her watch and it read 1:05am. She couldn’t believe that she’d been sleeping on the train for so long. It was as if she just boarded and now, all of a sudden it was already her stop. She was excited to be here, yet she felt incredibly groggy from her sleep. It was as if she couldn’t fully wake up, she splashed water on her face, but that didn’t help. She knew she had to find her grandmother’s house and get into bed.
She started to pack up all her belongings when the train came to a screeching halt. The lights started flickering on and off on the train as the conductor came back on the loud speaker, “Everyone must get off the train. I repeat, get off the train now.”
She didn’t know