Morgan Rice - Desired

She turned and went inside, not liking the feel of this. Everything was too quiet. Everything seemed too easy.

Caitlin looked inside the church, and was blown away by its size and scope. Here, the pews stretched as far as the eye could see, and the aisle seemed endless. On either side were enormous stone columns, the size of tree trunks, reaching high into the sky, culminating in a series of arches. Between them were enormous candle chandeliers.

At the end of the aisle sat an immense altar, crowned with dozens of statues. Caitlin wondered how anyone could worship in here – it was so large, it seemed like it could hold an entire city.

Caitlin reached down and felt the dagger in her hand, and wondered where on earth she should begin her search. She sensed danger again, and spun, but saw no one. She suddenly felt that time was of the essence.

Caitlin closed her eyes, and summoned her inner power. She allowed her senses to take over, to lead her. She willed herself to get calm, to get quiet, and to tune in to where the key might be. She knew that there was a key to be found, from the letter, and she knew that the dagger would play a part in it. But other than that, she had no idea where to look.

After several moments, her senses began to take over, and she felt a strong sudden impulse to head into the lower levels of the church.

She found herself walking to her left, through a large marble corridor, then turning down another corridor. She followed a series of statues along the wall, until she found herself led to a small, narrow staircase.

Caitlin descended, twisting and turning, and finally, it lead her into a wide-open, low-ceiling, underground crypt. It was even more solemn down here, with only a few candles burning, and Caitlin could see that this was a mausoleum of some sort. All along the walls, as far as she could see, were sarcophagi. It looked like the perfect place for an ancient vampire coven.

Caitlin let her senses take over, and felt herself being led. She walked down the long corridor, in the dank, musty air, passing one sarcophagus after another. Finally, she felt herself wanting to stop before one of them.

She examined it, and saw nothing out of the ordinary.

Caitlin was about to look elsewhere, but Ruth sat there, whining at it, not letting her leave. Caitlin looked again.

As she examined the intricate design of the lid, the small figure of a knight carved into it, the folded hands outlined on the stone, the armor, the belt, she realized something. There was a slot in the belt, notched into the stone. Just wide enough, she realized, to hold a dagger.

Caitlin held up the small, jewel-encrusted dagger, and gently inserted into the slot. It fit perfectly. Encouraged, she pushed it all the way in.

A stone lever suddenly sank down, and a small compartment opened on the statue’s palm. Caitlin was amazed. A small, gold key was now sitting in the statue’s palm.

Caitlin held it up, inspecting it, thrilled to have found it.

But she was also stumped.

This could not be the second key. This key did not look anything like the other one: it was small and gold, not large and silver. It appeared to be a key to something else.

Caitlin suddenly heard a noise somewhere, high above, in the upper level of the church.

She quickly stashed the key into her pocket, grabbed Ruth, and hurried out from the crypt.

She ran up the steps, and onto the main floor of the Notre Dame. She checked both ways for danger, but saw none.

But suddenly, as she watched, the main front doors of the church were kicked open. To her shock, there suddenly rushed in a huge, unruly, screaming mob.

Caitlin sensed immediately that this mob was different from the other. These were vampires. And at the center was a figure she recognized from the history books: Napoleon. She was surprised to discover he was of her kind – and that he was leading an entire coven, hundreds of vampires, charging right for her. She was vastly outnumbered.

It had been a trap, she realized. They had been waiting for her to come here, to find what it was they needed. And now that she was boxed in, they were determined to kill her off for good. She had been setup.

As the crowd charged, Caitlin thought quick. She closed her eyes, and focused on summoning her primal energy. Her rage. She focused on her new powers, and she knew that she could fight off an army. She knew it.

As the hundreds of vampires charged, Caitlin suddenly charged them . At the last second, right before they collided, she leapt high into the air, higher than she ever imagined possible, and grabbed hold of a huge, dangling chandelier, fifty feet off the ground. She immediately climbed its chain, scaling it faster than she could have imagined possible, heading straight for the ceiling. From there, she figured she could break her way through one of the huge stained-glass windows, and escape through the roof.

Just as Caitlin was getting close, suddenly, one of those huge ceiling windows shattered.

She looked up, and there before her, looking down, snarling, was one of the most evil looking creatures she had ever seen.

Six more stained-glass windows suddenly shattered, and she saw that there were seven of these creatures – huge, enormous, disfigured vampires. They blocked her access to the roof.

Caitlin was cornered in from both directions. She had no choice but to stand and fight.

She didn’t wait a moment longer. She grabbed hold of the chandelier’s chain, and snapped it off from the ceiling. The huge iron chandelier, twenty feet wide, plummeted straight down to the crowd below, Caitlin plummeting with it.

It landed on dozens of Napoleon’s vampires, crushing them beneath its weight.

Caitlin activated her wings at the last moment before she hit the ground, hovering in the air, and landed softly. On the ground, she then took the enormous candelabra by the end of its chain, and with her Herculean strength, she swung it over her head as a weapon. She swung in larger and larger circles, and as she did, the enormous iron knocked out dozens more of Napoleon’s men. She was a one-woman wrecking machine, and no one could come within fifty feet of her.

But then she heard an unearthly screech, and saw the seven evil creatures plunging down towards her. She took hold of the chandelier and with one last swing, hurled it, aiming right for one of them.

It was a perfect shot, and it took him out, sending him flying backwards and embedding him in a wall.

But that left six more of those things, and before Caitlin could react, one of them came down hard and kicked her, sending her halfway across the church. The creature had strength unlike anything she had ever fought. She smashed against a wall hundreds of feet away, the wind knocked out of her.

Caitlin felt that she could handle Napoleon’s men. But she didn’t possibly see how she could handle six of these things on her own.

Still, she jumped back to her feet, ready to fight. And just in time. One of them was already in the midst of swinging for her head, and as she ducked, his large fist went right into the wall. Caitlin reached over, grabbed the sword off of his belt and decapitated him.

Sword in hand, Caitlin faced off with another of those things, which was already lunging for her. She ducked just in time, then swung around and chopped him in half.

But that still left four of them, and she was just not quick enough to handle all four at once. She felt herself being kicked hard from behind, right in the kidneys, and she went flying through the air, and smashed headfirst into a wall.

She got up, but now her world was blurry, and those things were bearing down on her, along with dozens of Napoleon’s vampires. She needed some time to regain her strength, but there was no time to be had. They were closing in fast, and she just didn’t have more left in her. It was one of the few moments in her life when she felt that it was over. And she resigned herself to her fate.