Requested by lily_writes_words

Warning: This entry contains graphic depictions of murder, mayhem, and cursing. Reader discretion is advised. 

The metallic smell of blood hung in the air. Bodies, most of which were dismembered, laid on metal tables. Some were chained to the wall, sitting with lifeless eyes transfixed on nothing in particular. 

"She's using Dark Magic..." Katherine whispered as she looked down at one of the surgical tables. 

"You think so?" Alec asked from the opposite corner of the room, "I thought she was becoming the next Jack the Ripper!"

Demetri growled at his coworker silencing any other sarcastic comment from being directed towards his wife. The tracker surveyed the carnage his daughter had created in the rundown morgue. Organs, such as eyes, tongues, and even livers laid in basins or suspended in jars waiting to be used and bloody medical instruments laid in disarray on tables or still in the bodies. The sight alone made Demetri sick to his stomach.

It had been three months since since Maria had runaway, taking the spell book with her. To say tracking her had become a hassle was an understatement. His childe, like any other hybrid of gifted vampires, had inherited the opposite of her fathers abilities. Instead of being able to track anyone, she was able to deceive and cloak herself beyond detection and with the magic she inherited from her mother she was able to hide herself from her mothers attempts to locate her with tracking spells. She was mostly untraceable...until she was in need of more fuel for her powers and rituals and that was when people would start to go missing.

 It was only then could her family find her. 

Demetri turned away from the rotting corpse of an infant with its chest ripped apart and heart and lungs missing. "Why would she do this?" Felix asked, sidestepping a bloody summoning circle.

Katherine was the one to speak up. "The Liber Noctis corrupts," she continued, "It calls to young witches and warlocks when they're at their weakest, offering them what they truly desire."

"Which would be?"

Katherine shrugged and crossed her arms. "For each its different. Some want wealth, others power, there's even been cases of witches wanting immortality."

Jane set down the jar of blood she found. "But Maria has all three of those." 

Katherine focused her attention onto one of her daughters victims. The woman was no older than twenty-four. Her hair was blonde but it was hard to detect with how much dried blood hid its natural color. The woman had defense wounds on her arms and legs, even her once manicured nails were pushed back at unnatural angles showing how hard she fought. Katherine dared herself to look lower to the woman's abdomen. 

Her body was newer than the others, if Katherine was to put a time of death she would say around a day or two old. The woman was cut open much like the others Katherine had seen before but there was something off about the woman in general. Katherine took a step closer and that was when she saw it. Although Maria had put the woman's organs back in place, she had failed to tuck her intestines back in properly. 

A memory of Maria when she was younger stirred inside her mothers mind. Katherine, against her better judgement grabbed a pair of gloves from the nearby glove box. 

"Kat?" Demetri called as he watched his wife pull the gloves into place and dive into the woman's stomach.

"She wouldn't have..." Katherine stopped, "The uterus is missing..."

Alec turned his head to the side. "The what?"

Jane sighed and shot a glare at her brother. "Try reading a science book instead of playing The Sims every night."

Felix looked at Katherine. "And what does a missing uterus mean here exactly?"

"That I want to be a mother."

Everyone whirled around to see the now grown hybrid. Long gone was her was cheerful and bubbly demeanor, now she was cold and calculating. There was no warmth in her eyes but ice had taken its place. She reached a hand up to move a piece of hair that fell out of place revealing her own black bony fingers. She was skin and bone, with prominent cheekbones that could easily cut glass.

As a precaution Katherine threw up an invisible barrier separating herself from her only child. Maria, as if sensing the use of her mothers magic, smiled and reached a hand out causing the barrier to flicker as she made contact with it.

"Mother," Maria cooed, "there is no need for the barrier. If I wanted any of you dead, you'd be dead by now."

"Like your victims?" Katherine spat back.

Maria smiled once more but there was no warmth to it. "They gave their lives for a greater purpose."

Katherine took a step forward. "Witches don't bend nature to their will, you know this."

Maria circled the small group, dragging her hand along the forcefield. "But we do. I can freeze time, turn water into wine, turn people into animals and animals into people. Mother, we are gods amongst men."

"Maria-"

"-I'm not listening."

Maria snapped her fingers and in a puff of black smoke the skin bound book appeared and hovered in the air. 

"Magic will not give you what you want."

Maria's gazed hardened. "It can and it will."

Katherine's field of vision misted over. "I will be forced to stop you."

Maria nodded and collected her spell book. She turned to the door and moved to leave. She paused in the threshold and turned back. "You can't stop me, not when you're so busy with them."

Katherine felt her heart stop as Maria extended a blackened hand and red foul magic sprouted from her fingertips. "Vivere." 

Katherine watched in horror as one by one the corpses began to move. Maria watched on as they rose, waiting for their command. "Kill them all." Maria ordered before she vanished into a black smoke.

Katherine tried to recast her barrier but it was no use, her barrier could only keep out the living not the undead. "We'll hold them off!" Demetri shouted as he and the other guards swooped into action. "Find Maria!"

Katherine casted a ball of fire at one of the zombies and took off out the doors and into the hall. She ran down the hall as quickly as she could trying to locate her daughter. She heard one of the zombies scream and raced up the stairs before it could reach her. 

At the top of the stairs Katherine looked back to see not one but three zombies after her. 

"Fuck." Katherine cursed and quickly froze one before throwing the other two backwards.

She took the next set of stairs two at a time, crashing through doors only to barricade them with binding spells. "Maria!" she shouted as she ran again.

She crashed through another set of doors to find her daughter on top of an alter with runes adorning her body.

"Maria, stop this madness!"

Maria looked down at her mother, her eyes a vibrant shade of red. "You'll have to kill me to get me to stop."

Katherine shook her head. "Maria, baby, let me help you!"

A set of invisible hands shoved the woman back and pinned her to the ground. Katherine watched on as her daughter began to levitate and begin her ritual. 

"Maria!" Katherine screamed as the wind around them began to whip into a violent storm. "Maria, no!"

Maria didn't listening instead her chanting grew louder and her runes began to glow. Katherine, in a fit of desperation grabbed her locket and tore it from her neck. She opened the locket to see a smiling her and younger Maria. She pressed her thumb over the picture and began her own spell.

"Bind two souls as one, let one hold power over the other..." Katherine looked up at her daughter, "let them live as one or die as one..."

Tears fell as Katherine thought of her mate and family. "Let them live as one or die as one..." she repeated. 

Maria felt a tug in her soul and looked down at her mother holding the locket and chanting. 

"NO!" Maria screamed as her soul fought to remain independent.

Katherine's heart broke as her daughter continued to scream for her to stop her spell. Katherine could feel their souls being tied together. The final pull let her know the spell was completely and she manifested a dagger in her hand. 

"Mom, stop, unbind me!" Maria shouted.

Katherine took a deep breath to calm her nerves. "I love you."

Maria screamed in agony as Katherine plunged the blade into her own chest and twisted the opening even more open. Blood pooled from both of them. Maria collapsed on the floor withering in pain , wishing her healing powers would hurry and close her wounds. Katherine was ahead of her daughter though and with her final breath casted her last spell. 

"Igna." 

Fire erupted around the pair, engulfing them flames and ending their lives.