Karizma

Ryleigh groaned as she opened her eyes. Her arms were pulled tight above her head by the chains that were connected to the ceiling. She was suspended high enough off the ground that the tips of her toes barely grazed the concrete, as if taunting her with the possibility of freedom, yet keeping it just out of her grasp. The shackles on her wrists constricted her, which only added to the numbing sensation that death’s icy hand was beginning to wrap around her body. Blood had stained down her chest. She had relished in the warmth of her own blood very briefly as it countered the frigidness of blood loss, but her blood itself began to cool as it settled on her skin.

Ryleigh fought against the urge to look around the dark room. Her throat and her neck had been penetrated multiple times by her ancestor, and the pain from it was the only reason that she was still conscious. She was positive that her ancestor had ripped her skin at some point, but she was too numb from the cold to even feel if her blood was actively flowing. Her ancestor had fed for what felt like hours. Ryleigh knew that the only reason she was not dead yet was because her ancestor wanted her blood to regenerate; more blood, more magic that could be claimed. Ryleigh’s magic was beyond petrified, the paralysis now a cocoon in her body where it was trying to protect itself. She could feel her magic within her, but it refused to communicate any further.

Ryleigh felt her own strength abandon her as death attempted to serenade her into the abyss, an abyss outside of the pain that she felt. It would be so easy to follow the reaper, to go from this black room to another dark abyss that had no pain, she thought. Ryleigh inhaled sharply. But her ancestor would not allow her to die, not yet. I need to fight, she reminded herself for what felt like the hundredth time since the feeding had ceased. I need to get out of here and run, run and hide. She reluctantly lifted her head, and her eyes observed the chains that imprisoned her. She had no idea how long she had been left in the darkness, how long since the feeding had ended, but enough time had passed for her eyes to adjust to the darkness. Looking at the chains, Ryleigh felt tears of frustration well in her eyes. I am nowhere near full strength, she reminded herself. This is useless. I am only a human, so close to the verge of death that one wrong move would kill me. Then again, what do I have to lose?

Ryleigh went to thrash her body against the chain when the door to her prison swung open. Ryleigh hissed and instantly slammed her eyes shut as bright light blinded her. She heard two sets of footsteps and cocked her head curiously. “You have done beautiful work on her my love,” a male voice purred, and Ryleigh froze. The Master Vampire. It has to be him, she thought. She battled against the restraint of her eyes and slowly opened them. She squinted as her eyes adjusted to the light and observed the two figures before her as they came into focus. Naomi stood beside a male vampire whose black aura was the darkest that Ryleigh had ever seen. The man’s aura was so dark that it looked like a thick, black shadow had leeched itself onto the man’s back and spread against his body. The man was breathtaking. Kristopher was stunning, but he was nothing compared to this man. The man was easily taller than Kristopher, and defined muscles ripped against the man’s loose-fitting shirt and jeans. His chiseled jaw tensed briefly as his fangs descended, his red eyes bright as they fixated on Ryleigh. The man’s black hair was the same darkness as his aura, his light-colored skin damn near glowing against the black that attempted to consume him. The man was stunning; at that moment, there was no doubt in Ryleigh’s mind. This was the Master Vampire, the Alpha Vampire. Holy shit.

“She hurt our Karizma Killer, darling, I had to do something,” Naomi said sweetly.

“You don’t need an excuse to feed, especially from your own kin,” the man replied nonchalantly.

“She is more than that, Nathan, she—”

“I know,” the man snapped suddenly. “She hurt Kristopher, I heard you.” Nathan studied Ryleigh intently as he approached her. He gripped her chin between his fingers and jerked her head forward. She growled in protest as pain rippled down her body at the force of him. Nathan growled deeply in response and squeezed her chin tightly between his fingers. “You have no right to growl at me, witch. Your kind is a stain in our world, and your stain extended to a vampire of mine that I care very deeply about.”

“You’re the Master Vampire. Shouldn’t you care about them all?” Ryleigh spat. Nathan snarled and released her chin from his grasp, only to strike her across the face.

“Do not dare question my care for my children,” Nathan snapped. “I care for all of them.”

“Clearly not,” Ryleigh retorted. “You’ve been supplying them to her like they were cattle.”

“Those were children of sustenance, not of necessity,” Nathan said. “All of my true children are protected. Sustenance is sustenance. What my queen needed to survive was non-negotiable.”

“She didn’t need them to survive!” Ryleigh snapped. “You fueled an addiction. She’s just a drug addict, and you allowed it.”

“For her power, yes,” Nathan said. “As I allowed her to continue to kill descendants, and she will kill you. Your kind has been a stain on this world for centuries, and I found someone who can benefit from your extinction. Everyone wins.”

Ryleigh struggled against her chains as rage boiled her blood, the ice of death loose against her skin. She loathed this man, and this woman who falsified herself as a Karizma. Karizmas were pure and strong, and protected all creatures. She only cares about herself, Ryleigh thought. She is not a Karizma, just another vampire that is jeopardizing all of the living creatures in the world. Nathan smirked as he observed her. “You will never get free. You are not the first Karizma in these chains.”

“But I am the last. That’s why you are both dragging this out, right?” Ryleigh spat. “How long will you keep me on tap? Without my magic free, I will wither and die.”

“But that will be, what, another fifty years at least?” Naomi asked as she stood beside Nathan. “Fifty more years of your magic maturing.”

“It won’t, not while it’s locked away.”

“We will make sure that it does,” Nathan answered Ryleigh. “Naomi has already bested you. We’ll take you out of the warding once a month, allow you to fight, and bring you back. Your magic will continue to mature and grow, and you will fuel my love’s growth in all of it. We will take back this world. Vampires were cast into the shadows over the years. We hide amongst the humans, for Christ’s sake. I remember when the humans hid from us. We will take the world back from the humans and the wolves and what other entities inhabit it, and it will all be with your help.”

Panic jumpstarted Ryleigh’s heart, and Nathan grinned as her heartrate spiked. No, god no, Ryleigh thought. The world that her kind had spent so long trying to protect would be obliterated over the course of just a few decades. And it would all be because of me, she thought. My blood is the strongest of the Karizmas, and it will continue to grow stronger the longer that I am alive. I am the strongest Karizma and I don’t stand a chance against Naomi now, Ryleigh thought. If she takes my magic at the absolute peak, after another fifty years of growing and maturing, people will only need to look at her wrong and she will kill them before they can blink.

“Don’t just linger, come in,” Nathan said as he turned around. Ryleigh followed his gaze and her panic escalated to pure terror as Kristopher’s figure came into focus. Ryleigh fought against the tears that threatened to fall. He should not be here, she thought. They will kill him. Kristopher’s jaw was clenched as his eyes settled on to Ryleigh. His brown eyes swirled red as he struggled to restrain his vampire, to fight the instinct that she knew he was feeling. He wanted to fight them. If he fights them, he will die.

“What are you doing here?” Ryleigh asked. She laced her voice with venom, which added to her story of her lack of emotion toward him. Pretending to hate him will keep him alive, she thought. I need to keep him alive. Kristopher looked at her in surprise. “I wanted to bring you home.”

“Why?” Ryleigh snapped.

“What?” Kristopher asked.

“You are missing something, Kristopher,” Naomi said softly. “Your dear witch here does not want you near her. You repulse her, you see.”

Kristopher growled lightly. “There is nothing that you can say to me that will make me back down, Naomi. She is mine. I will take the punishment from either of you, but she lives.”

“You know that cannot happen,” Nathan said. “Her death is inevitable, but you will be spared.”

“What the hell are you talking about?” Kristopher asked in surprise as he looked at his Master. “I allowed a Karizma to live. I didn’t finish my mission. Just kill me, take your pound of flesh, and let her live her sorrowful life knowing that she killed me.”

“You are missing something,” Naomi repeated. “But, like you said, there is nothing that I can say. Ryleigh,” Naomi said as she shifted her gaze toward Ryleigh. “Tell my poor vampire what you have done to him.”

Kristopher’s eyes slowly shifted to Ryleigh’s. Ryleigh felt her body threaten to shatter, to convulse in a heap of tears at the knowledge of what she had to do. Kristopher’s eyes were so filled with worry and concern for her that it broke her. If he hates me, he will survive, she thought. His hate will guarantee his survival, and his survival guarantees Bailey’s. And that is all that matters to me, she reminded herself. The two people that I love most in this world will be alive. All of this ends with my death; they will live, and the vampires cannot rule the world without my blood. “I never loved you,” Ryleigh said as she concentrated on steadying her heartbeat. She forced herself to speak the false truth that she repeated to herself every single day, the false truth that tricked her heart into thinking it was pure truth, therefore making her heartbeat regularly. “I bewitched you once I knew of you, my first night as your DJ. I never loved you, Kristopher. You’re just another vampire to me. You’re nothing.”