Calista | Demetri Volturi

A New Dawn

600 A.D.

"Again!" Darius barked, shoving another human across the room into Calista's arms. The human squirmed in her grasp, weeping and wriggling in a futile attempt to escape. Callie gritted her teeth but chose not to argue with her leader, taking a deep unnecessary breath that filled her lungs, focusing in on her powers. She phased out of sight, before reappearing at the opposite end of the room.

"She's dead," Callie muttered, shrugging off the lifeless corpse to the stone tiles where it flopped into a heap. This made seven dead in total just from Darius' 'experiments.'

"I can see that," Darius snarked, pinching the bridge of his nose. He gestured for one of his subordinates to bring in another test-subject, leaning back in his chair. It resembled more of a throne than a chair, a product of his inflated ego; he would drone on and on about how he wanted to conquer the vampire world, and how other covens were weak and puny compared to the one he'd created. It was a disturbing display.

"I-I don't want to do this anymore," She voiced, a nervous edge to her declaration; Darius' face was cold and unmoving, steely red eyes staring blankly at her - or rather, through her it seemed," I-It's tiring, I can't do what you want me to do -"

Her throat was suddenly trapped in his hand, thick fingers wrapped around her neck; like a boa constrictor, he began to squeeze. She scratched at his wrist, barely making any impact - she needed to feed. His top lip curled back, exposing his teeth," You do what I tell you, when I tell you to do it - no matter how tired you are."

"Darius -"

"I took you in, fed you, made you one of the keystones in my coven out of the goodness of my undead heart - and you can't even do some basic training drills?!"

He suddenly relinquished his hold on her, stepping back a few paces, breathing through his nose. Callie reached up, feeling the cracks on her neck jutting out in places, the rigid flesh trying to reseal itself together; her dark eyes blurred with venomous tears. Darius huffed, latching onto her upper arms, pulling her roughly to his chest in a bizarre hug; he was practically crushing her under his strength, only letting up slightly when he pressed the side of his face to the top of her head. It was a warning not to cross him again, she realised.

He leaned back on his heels, hand caressing her jaw as he hummed. Grabbing her face tightly, a tingling sensation flitted across her skin...she felt the will to fight against him drain away to nothing. She blinked once, then twice - looking back at the pile of dead humans in confusion - what happened?

"C'mon, my dear Calista," Darius urged, nose bumping against hers. Callie's dark orbs peered up at him, confused but also too weak to argue; it was as if she couldn't remember being in the room, or even entering in the first place. She felt the cracks in her throat seal up, perplexed. She couldn't remember anything. Why couldn't she remember?

Darius reached to brush a lock of hair away from her face, she lightly shrugged away from his touch. She noted that his hand held a faint amber glow, ethereal almost as it twinkled across his pale skin. She feigned a blank look, all the while her brain raced at a hundred miles a minute. What had he been doing to her?!

"Bring me another human," She forced a smile, which he returned. Unbeknownst to him, that wasn't a friendly smile. She was going to destroy him," This one is dead."

————————————————-
Present Day

Darius hand tightened its grip on the stone balcony railing, mind racing a hundred miles a minute. He hissed a curse under his breath, realising the smooth marble under his hand had been crushed to dust," Fuck."

"Master?" His doting servant asked cautiously, mentally analysing his body language to access his mood. Darius' subordinate swallowed thickly, red eyes practically turning white with fear as he watched his Master turn to face him, face like thunder," We-We've found her."

"Where is she?" He retorted, marching into the room, towering over his servant considerably.

The latter squirmed under his intense stare," A scout caught wind of her from a nomad - a red-headed woman came passing by, she slipped away from us before we could question her - but one of our telepaths managed to get enough information."

Darius grinned from ear to ear, which didn't seem to ease his servant's worry at all," Ah, my Calista - after centuries, you'll finally be mine once again."

To be continued...