127. Destroying the First Part of Power

127. Destroying the First Part of Power
Trigger Warning: this chapter is going to be extremely dark, and graphic. If you want to skip the part of the after the ritual, please do so. I will make a note when the ritual starts and is done by way of an asterisk.  

I had made my way through the stone door that Teddy had opened to me. We entered the black stone mausoleum. The only light was that coming through the door, I examined the witting for each family member until I saw the one I was looking for. My eyes narrowed as I pulled the coffin out; it clattered to the floor. There was what I had been looking for inside.  

A wave of power filled the room. This was it. This was the dark relic; I knew better than touching it with bare fingers. My fathers had detailed what would happen if my bare skin touched it, before the ritual.  

“Alright so what do we need to do Beatrix, what do you need?” Teddy asked me. I turned and looked at him. I took a deep breath. “I need 20 people, and they all need to be.” My voice choked “pure, as in virgins”.   

Teddy didn’t bat an eyelash at my request. He nodded, “Do you wish to retrieve them with me, or do you need to do something else?” He asked. “I need to set up, how long do I have, for you to get that many people?” I asked. “Not sure but um just do your thing, can you do it here in the cemetery or do we need to move this somewhere?” I shook my head.  

“No, for the first time I can say we caught a break. The ritual needs to be done with the dead around; the next one might have to be moved.” I said, almost detached from myself at the prospect of what I was going to have to do. It would be disturbing. “Teddy, I need all of them here alive and by midnight or we will have to wait until tomorrow.” I told him.  

Maybe I had been wrong, and it was good he was here, If I was alone certainly it wouldn’t be done so swiftly. He nodded. “Do you need to get anything for the ritual, you know besides the humans?” He asked and I shook my head. I had a knife on me as this particular ritual needed my blood as well. “Alright then, I will just be hunting.” He spoke.  

He gave me a deep kiss before he disappeared. That was when I began to cry. I had not divulged what this would mean. I had told him nothing about what would happen during the ritual. I told myself to “Get a Grip” Because I knew what this meant.  I took a handkerchief out of my dress pocket and picked up the necklace that lay in the coffin, making sure I wrapped it carefully before putting it in my pocket.  

This is where you want to skip 

I took a deep breath after I pushed up both of my sleeves. I needed access to my veins. Then the little knife that I had in my boot was pulled and I dragged it down my left arm, letting my blood spill straight from my vein. It was a tedious task, having vampiric abilities I would heal and have to slice myself open again to get more blood and I needed a lot of it.  

I let my blood fall to the cemetery ground making a twenty-pointed star; my blood coated both the stones and ground as well as over some of the mausoleums. I almost wished I chose a mass grave instead of Pere Lachaise; it would require less of my blood. The twenty-pointed star had to go unbroken and therefore I had to bleed a lot to get it to drape over various things. Next time, I told myself, my stomach coiled at that thought, I would have to do this over and over again, until all the dark artifacts were gone.  

Hours passed and I was feeling drained. I had to make sure the points were on flat ground to ensure the humans could be placed there.  The amount of blood I lost made me tired, but my inner will had to live out. I knew what would happen after all of this. It was almost 11 Pm when Teddy came back, 20 young souls in tow. They were chained together as if they were in a prison chain gang. How had he done it, did it even matter?

I didn’t say a word taking each human one at a time and placing them at the points of the star. Teddy was off to the side silently watching. These youth were at least not resisting; they would soon though, and I knew it. “Teddy, you will help me keep them from running off” I told him and added “But don’t enter the star.” He nodded and the knife I had used to make myself bleed was drawn. I started with the one who looked to be the oldest and then I dug my blade into his chest. When he screamed, I could feel it down in my bones.  

I cut his heart out and then moved to his head and did the same, pulling out his brain. I set it in the center and moved on down to the next person, moving in a counterclockwise direction as I killed them removing heart first then their brain. All of them were dead when I finally went to the center. I pulled the relic from my pocket and placed it in on the first heart; I had carved.  

“I take this power using the pure of heart and mind to take what is rightfully not mine. I reverse it and will consume it.” I said softly, hoping Teddy didn’t hear it. Then in reverse order I picked up the heart of the last person I butchered, and I bit into it, next I bit into the brain. One bite from each organ of all 20 people.  

Then and only then did I touch the cursed necklace, and power swarmed me, and I fought the scream and bile burring its way up my throat. I felt Malachar infiltrating me. My body was taking in his power the one he had locked away should he need it. It was now mine. The last part was to destroy the relic, as it was now just a necklace I could do it. I called lightning using my own gift and blasted it to oblivion. It was done; the dark artifact was gone.  

Ritual is over.  

The Relic was no more, but his power remained it lived inside me now; it had to be this way. There was no way to destroy that, instead I had to claim it myself. My father had documented this extensively, and it made my skin crawl knowing I had a part of that monster inside me. I couldn’t look at Teddy, I was ashamed. Suddenly I felt it, my mouth ran dry and all I could think of was Blood.