The Coven: Book 1

Chapter 44 - Shadow Beneath

[WARNING: mentions of blood and violence, read at your own risk]

Jungkook woke up suddenly, his head throbbing with the sudden pull from his sleep. He was a little dazed, eyes not focusing completely for a while. He reached beside him, hand looking for Amelia’s soft skin, but all he felt were the cold sheets.

He raised his head, turning to look at her place in bed, confirming that she wasn’t there.

“Amelia?” He roughly called, looking around.

There was no answer… was she not in the room?

He got up, still drowsy and sleepy. As he was making his way to the bathroom, a little fear creeped up his stomach, thinking that maybe Amelia was there and she was sick. Jungkook knocked twice and waited for some sort of answer. When there was none, he opened the door and almost sagged when he saw that it was empty.

Figuring Amelia was downstairs, he decided to just shower and get dressed to go find her. Jungkook still wasn’t rested, though. The previous day, Amelia had complained of nausea and said she was having more difficulty stomaching her food. So maybe she did feel sick while he was asleep.

Going downstairs, the first thing he heard was laughter coming from the game room. Sneaking into the hall, he peeked his head inside and couldn’t help the grin that formed in his mouth.

Amelia was sitting cross legged on the floor, perked on a pillow with some blankets on top of her legs, while Luna was sitting behind her braiding her hair. The Alchemist was making intricate designs on the woman’s mussy dark hair, while Mina and Emily laughed and talked happily. Lucy was sitting on one of the armchairs, her face no longer the ghostly pale from the previous day, while she was huddled up with a ragged leather covered book in her lap. The older Witch wasn’t paying attention to the old pages, though, her grey eyes attentive to the women’s interactions and a smidge of a lovely smile brightening her features.

They looked like an image from a painting, with Mina and Emily close to each other and Luna intertwining what looked like silk strands on Amelia’s hair.

Jimin was sitting on the couch, reading a book, with one hand touching Mina’s hair as if on instinct, while Yoongi had his feet crossed at the ankles and poised on Jimin’s legs as he napped. Oddly enough, Yoongi was also reaching for Emily for comfort, his hand near her neck.

“Oh, no, no! You started and now you’ll have to finish!” Mina said, holding her finger up to Luna “Were the Vikings hot or not?”

“Well… Hot wouldn’t be the word I would use. Especially considering it was darn cold there.” Luna giggled when Mina huffed in annoyance for not having her question answered properly still “Fine! Yes, they were. And manly as hell too.”

“But what the hell were you even doing there in the first place?” Amelia asked, extending a small elastic to the Alchemist.

“I was learning things. They taught me a lot on the use of some herbs and their food, and their healing properties, too. I stayed with their Oracle, for a while.” Luna explained, smiling like she was remembering the old times.

As Jungkook approached, he noticed Taehyung and Namjoon sitting on the other couch, the latter watching whatever was on the TV. Taehyung, however, had an old book on his lap while he looked at his phone with a serious expression. He didn’t seem to be paying attention, but Taehyung had a knack for seeming like he was distracted while absorbing information.

“And then you just slept with one of them?” Emily asked, frowning as it was a weird concept.

Taehyung raised his eyes for a second to glance at Luna, waiting for her reply.

“I mean, yeah? What do you want me to say, I did. It just happened.”

“That reminds of that one party when I was flirting with one dude for almost three hours, only to find out he had the hots for Em.” Mina said, leaning on the couch behind her and bringing her knees up to her chest.

“Oh! That guy, I remember.” Emily said, nodding.

“I wasn’t even mad, man. Go get that dick, Em!”

Jungkook leaned over the couch Jimin and Yoongi were in, simply staying there and listening in to the conversation. He saw Yoongi creak open an eye, waiting for Emily’s take on what had happened after. She laughed, and shook her head.

“Ah, I didn’t get that dick.”

“WHAT? Why?” Mina questioned, surprised that she didn’t know that.

“Are you kidding? Ew, the guy was married. I don’t know where his wife had been! And he was definitely inside her at one point.”

Mina, Amelia and Luna laughed loudly while Lucy and Yoongi smirked, the latter seeming content with the answer.

“What party was that, anyway?” Emily brought her cup of tea to her lips, now looking at Lucy questioningly.

“Monsieur Toulouse’s. That’s when he hired Mina as his granddaughter’s nanny.” Lucy answered, supporting her chin on her hand “He liked you a lot, you know?”

“Yeah, what a nice guy.” Mina smiled happily.

“You looked like his granddaughter, too. Cosette was a redhead as well.” Emily mumbled.

“Yeah, well, redheads all look the same.”

This time Emily snorted, almost blowing her tea out of the mug “Stupid.”

“Please don’t tell me you hooked with an old guy.” Namjoon smirked and looked at Mina playfully.

Jimin grumbled under his breath, now frowning. Mina giggled and pushed her mate’s leg to make him shut up.

“Shut up, he was like ninety! He treated me like a daughter, actually. Because he had five sons and no daughters, and he really wanted one. His granddaughter was left with him because his older son didn’t want any daughters, and was also a prick. But Cosette was very sick and when she died Monsieur Toulouse asked me to keep him company.” Mina explained “When he died, he left me most of his fortune and his house. Said his sons didn’t deserve a penny of his.”

“Well, they were assholes! How such a nice man managed to have those dicks as kids I will never understand.” Emily bit out, scrunching her nose.

“Shit, he left you his fortune?” Namjoon raised his eyebrows “And you mean to tell me you have a mansion somewhere in France?”

“Mansion? That’s a manor, way bigger than Jin’s house, sir. The gardens are huge! It’s where we started living two years after his death. Amelia grew up there!” Mina smiled up at Amelia, who flushed slightly and nodded.

“How do you think this idiot gets her Channel pieces?” Emily mocked, shaking her head.

“I’m done!” Luna chirped, passing one intricate looking hand mirror to Amelia, while she placed another mirror behind her head.

Amelia raised her eyebrows and gasped at Luna’s work, appreciating the beautiful, intricate design of small braids, swirled around so they looked like little roses. Her hair didn’t look healthy at all, still with that mussy brown color. Luna had, somehow, managed to make it look wavy, her long hair falling down her back.

Jungkook smiled at the sight. Even if her hair wasn’t as pretty as he knew it could be with Amelia having her powers back, she still looked beautiful. Glancing at Lucy, he saw the woman look at her three apprentices lovingly, her eyes a little sad when they skimmed over Amelia’s expression. What made him frown, however, was when he took a peek at Taehyung and saw him now looking at Amelia. His face was still blank, but his eyes were glued to her, a strange melancholy in the ice cold blue of his stare.

Did Taehyung…?

“Holy crap, Luna! Where the hell did you learn this?” Amelia asked, bringing her fingers to touch the braids.

“I told you.” Luna mumbled, smirking, as she got up from the ground “The Vikings!”

“Yeah, yeah. What, the Viking taught you how to braid hair while fucking you?” Emily snickered, earning a snort from Mina.

“No, his wife taught me.”

To Luna’s reply, Mina and Emily went wide eyed, immediately letting out gasps of amusement. Namjoon was now opening his mouth in shock, completely dumbfounded, and Taehyung was raising his head from the book to frown at Luna, a bit disapprovingly. Lucy was now smiling wide at the girls’ bickering and Jimin and Yoongi were pressing their lips not to laugh.

“Luna, you shady lady! You had sex with a married man?” Amelia snickered, shaking her head in disbelief.

“I had sex with the married man…” She picked up her basket of silk ribbons and smiled cheekily “and his wife.”

At this, even Jungkook couldn’t hold his laughter anymore because of Namjoon’s expression and the twins reactions. Mina straight up released a yelp, stunned. Lucy simply smiled wide and nodded, as if in approval of Luna’s secrets, before looking down at her book again. Meanwhile, Taehyung seemed angry at the information.

This guy was getting confusing.

“Oi, I want details!!” Mina hurriedly got up, going after the Alchemist, who was now leaving the room with a satisfied smirk on her face “I need details now! Did he have a big dick?”

“Wilhemina!” Lucy shouted, a little shocked at the redhead’s crude language. She was also ignored, when Mina trailed behind Luna for answers, so the Witch rubbed her temple “Where on Earth did I go wrong…”

“Same place Jin went wrong with Tae, Jimin and Jungkook, over here.” Yoongi grumbled, earning a pillow to the stomach from Jimin and a raised eyebrow from Taehyung.

Lucy, however, released a small giggle, a sound that rarely came out of her and had the vampires looking at her like she was the weirdest creature on Earth.

“Where’s Raksha, by the way?” Amelia suddenly asked, using her fingers to brush the loose strands of wavy hair, only to frown and scrunch her nose, displeased by its texture.

“She… uh, she was hit, two days ago.” Lucy mumbled, now losing any remnant of her smile “The guy knew to hit her to weaken me.”

Amelia raised her eyebrows and scoffed.

“The little bitch. Was she hit too badly?” She looked from her mentor to Emily, a sudden panic raising in her stomach.

“No. She’s healing, now, so Raksha will be fine, don’t worry.” Emily was the one to answer, drawing on a reassuring smile to Amelia “Lucy said you remembered the book, too.”

“Yeah… Can’t say it was the best thing ever to remember that night, but sure. At least they don’t have the book with them.”

Yoongi blindly reached over to her head, patting the couch first and then her head, that he carefully patted three times.

“We’ll fix this, witchy, don’t worry.”

Amelia scoffed out a laugh, trying to snap his hand away from her head, but Yoongi seemed to enjoy teasing her, since he started to poke her cheeks.

“Did you find anything, though?” Namjoon nudged Taehyung, who sighed and nodded.

“Yeah, but it’s a big list. It’ll take at least two weeks to go to each place they own. Plus, they have companies on the other side of the country and all the way in Canada.” Taehyung explained, now looking at Lucy seriously.

“We don’t have that long….” Lucy breathed out.

No one was really looking forward to the time when they would have to get out, since now they were back to where they started. No clue on where to start looking for the leader of the Nidhögg clan and no actual lead to them.

Namjoon and Taehyung went back to town to get in contact with Daesik, hoping he would at least have some sort of information on where the ritual could be held. Lucy explained to the rest where she wanted to check out, saying how she had found the book in the forest and that, by following Amelia’s tracks in the forest and then the old road she would eventually take them to the place Amelia was being held.

Jungkook felt his stomach churn a little when he thought about going to that place, where they had done all sorts of agonizing torture to his mate. Luna would stay behind, once more, even though she pouted, saying her fingers were itching to touch her ‘babies’ again, most likely referring to her guns.

Everyone was silent when on their way to the old road that Jin and Lucy had been at the previous day. Jimin only mentioned that he and Taehyung had lost track of Amelia’s scent when they reached the place. Lucy told Jin to simply keep driving ahead.

“You think she walked all of this?” Hoseok said, wincing slightly at the thought.

“She did. Her memories here are very faint, but she did.” Mina mumbled, looking out the window to look at the dark mass of trees by the side of the road.

“Damn… My house is very far away from here, no wonder her feet were all cut.” Jin bit back, frowning when he remembered the way Amelia had the skin of her both her feet all cut and lacerated.

By car, the trip lasted for at least twenty minutes. For Amelia, who had already been beaten and was weak from the ritual they had done on her, it would have to have lasted over an hour. Jin parked the SUV at the end of the road, just beside a slope of land. A dirt path was leading upwards, to a very old farmhouse. It was made of wood, with broken windows and a lot of broken planks on the porch. It was a miracle on its own that the structure was holding on and still up. It looked as if it would blow away with the smallest of breezes.

Lucy narrowed her eyes and shook her head.

“It’s empty.”

“This is where they had her?” Yoongi, carefully climbed up a step, hesitating when the wood whined under his foot.

“It seems so. Her memories stop here.” Lucy replied, sighing and then looking at Jungkook “You sure you wanna go in? The scent of her blood might be all over the place. It might be a little overwhelming.”

Jungkook nodded “Sure… I’ll try.”

Yoongi approached one window, gun by his thigh, and looked inside. His eyebrow twitched slightly when a whiff of the smell from inside hit his nose. This would be harder for Jungkook than he thought. Confirming that it was indeed empty, Yoongi now came close to the door and turned the knob, finding it open. The hinge creaked horribly, the sound almost ominous of what would be inside.

Everyone winced at the scent that came from inside, the scent of Amelia’s blood almost nauseating as it flowed from inside of the old house. Yoongi went inside, studying the very old and dusty furniture in there. The kitchen hadn’t been used in centuries, it seemed, since it looked like the one area that was unused. The stairs that lead upstairs looked dangerous to climb, some of the steps broken and unusable at all. Jungkook looked very much uncomfortable to be inside the house, but not once did he complain, instead moving to a small place near the fireplace, or what was left of it.
Beside it was an abandoned suitcase, untouched, as well as a messy looking backpack. He could feel a strangely comforting scent of flowers coming from there as he came closer.

“What’s that?” Emily peeked up his shoulder, trying to get a look.

“I think this is Amelia’s.” He mumbled, laying the suitcase down to open it.

And just like he thought, female clothing very messily arranged was inside, along with shoes and a smaller pouch, that Jungkook assumed to be toiletries and such. Emily moved to look at the backpack, her eyes softening slightly when she pulled out a picture of herself and Mina, both in a friendly hug.

“That dingus…” Emily mumbled, shaking her head “Yeah, it sure is hers. Wanna take this to the car? Maybe she wants some of the stuff here.”

Jungkook nodded and closed the suitcase and backpack to move them outside. He decided to take them later to the car, not wanting to leave the group yet. Hoseok was the one to find the trapdoor under the stairs. When he opened it, he let out a breath, clearly uncomfortable because of the muffled smell. More stairs were leading down, so Emily gestured a flame alive on her hand, illuminating the way.

No one really was prepared to look at the gruesome things there. A wide area was there, with a pentagram drawn on the floor, with what looked like blood. Candles had been placed on every point of the pentagram and a chair was on the center. Lucy winced, fingers going to her temple again. She seemed to be in a lot of distress, as if she could tell what sort of things had been done to Amelia just by looking around.

“Fuck… What the hell did they do, in here?” Yoongi grumbled, looking at the blood splattered floor.

“The ritual to remove her powers.” Emily answered dryly.

“I didn’t think it would be this bloody.” Hoseok commented “It’s like a scene from a horror movie.”

Looking ahead of the pentagram, there was a hall that lead to several rooms and Jin was the one to walk towards them. He opened each one, a frown set and a dark look in his eyes. When he came to the last one and opened the door, Mina took a step back and cringed, her hand searching for Jimin’s.

“That’s where they had her… Jesus.” She breathed out, turning away from the door to hide her face in her mate’s shoulder, who placed a hand on her hair to stroke it.

“I don’t think there’s anything here either way. Let’s see if there’s anything else upstairs and then leave.” Jin said, moving away from the door.

Lucy agreed and began to leave as well, following Emily out of the place and up to the living area again.

Mina was the last one to leave, her eyes scanning the place for one last time, burning all the blood in the walls into her brain. She would never forget what had been done to her baby sister. There was no way in hell she would allow those disgusting things to have Amelia’s powers. They would sure pay.

When making her way up, she heard the rest of the guys already talking and moving around, as well as Lucy and Emily. She was about to move to meet them when she heard a small noise coming from the kitchen. It sounded like a small cry, as if from a child. Carefully and hesitantly, she moved around the stairs, away from the living room, and went into the kitchen. Her every step was cautious and her breathing almost nonexistent, making her way into the room and examining every nook and cranny.

Under the table, to her surprise, there was a small, trembling form. It looked like a child…

“Sweetie? Are you here alone?” She asked, keeping her voice low and soft so not to scare the kid.

Dang it, Lucy was better with kids… Mina crouched down, attempting to look at the girl’s face properly but it was hidden in her knees, that she had tight by her chest. A horrible feeling of fear creeped up her stomach then. Her hand reached out to the girl only for her vanish in a black cloud of smoke.

Before her brain could assimilate what was happening, the blackness filled her vision and ears, crawling and sticking to her like mist. It made her weak in the knees and Mina only had a chance to let out a sharp yell for Lucy, before everything went completely dark.

Lucy turned at the sound, frowning.

“Where’s Mina?” She asked, looking around the place.

Jimin looked behind him, freaking out when he didn’t find his mate. He looked at the trapdoor, calling for Mina. When there was no response, Lucy cursed loudly and went around the place frantically.

“What the hell, she was right behind me!” Jimin said, calling out for the redhead again while looking around, looking more and more worried by the second.

Emily was pale as hell, looking around and calling for her sister as well. As she went into the kitchen, a ghastly black smoke pooled out at her feet. That was when she called out for Lucy.

“Lucy! Black mist!!” She yelled out, looking back and then moving her hands.

“Shit!”

Lucy grumbled under her breath and ran to the kitchen as well, shouting for Mina one more time. This time, though, a strangled cry came from the cloud of smoke, Mina’s voice sounding like she was in pain.

“What the hell?!” Yoongi shouted, the black smoke now reaching the rest of the guys, who were coughing nonstop, eyes watering and lungs feeling constricted.

“Do not shoot, you might hit her!!” Emily shouted when her eyes caught both Yoongi and Jimin aiming at the dark smoke.

Lucy fought through the discomfort in her eyes and lungs, casting a spell as fast as possible, trying to break through the shadow that was consuming Mina. She could tell her apprentice was struggling to breathe and break through the mist, the smoke enveloping her figure completely. She was about to reach the inside of the black mass when shots were heard outside.

“Damn it, Yoongi, Jimin, go help outside! We got her!” Lucy yelled, struggling to keep her spell up.

She hadn’t been resting enough to compensate for the amount of magic used and now it was starting to take a toll on her.

Lucy couldn’t tell if Yoongi and Jimin listened to her order, but she was aware of Emily turning her back to the kitchen’s entrance and guarding Lucy as she attempted to break Mina free from the mist.

By now, the clouds of black smoke were pooling out of the house through the windows and open door. When Jin saw Yoongi and Jimin leave the house, struggling to breathe and cleaning their eyes, his stomach dropped a little.

“Where’s Lucy?”

“Still inside. Mina was caught on the smoke.” Yoongi coughed out, eyes focusing.

“Crap, they’re trying to take her- ”

“What?!” Jimin shouted, now turning to go back inside.

A loud crack from inside the house resounded all over the forest, at the same time another shot was heard from up ahead. Jungkook and Hoseok were hiding behind the trees, occasionally shooting against the truck that had parked some meters down the path that lead to the house, where demons were now shooting back at them.

“Damn it, Jimin, take cover!” Yoongi grumbled, grabbing the guy and straight up pulling him down to the porch with himself.

“Oh, no… Jin, the leader is here.” Jimin shouted. His eyes had accidentally turned to the truck where the demons were shooting at Jungkook and Hoseok and his blood ran cold when seeing a second black car pull over by the first and the bulky demon with the scarred face straight up leave the car like he was posing for a magazine. He straightened up his trench coat and began walking to towards the house like there weren’t bullets wheezing around him.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck! Lucy!! Lucy, get the girls out of there!” Jin raged, shouting for the Witch incessantly.

As soon as the demon reached Jungkook and Hoseok’s periphery, his hands moved to the side, as if pushing against a wall, and both vampires were sent flying. Hoseok grunted when his back reached a tree truck, while Jungkook had special treatment, with what looked like vines erupting from the ground where he'd fallen and wrapping around his neck viciously.

The leader of the Nidhögg clan moved fast to reach the house. Yoongi raised himself to aim at the guy but was stopped short when another fit of coughing hit his throat.

Then he stopped into the house unceremoniously.

And when everyone thought things couldn’t get worse… they did.

~ Sass 😘