The Coven: Book 1

Chapter 46 - Blood Pact



Emily opened her eyes slowly, her mind hazy and sluggish. She could feel her body heavy and fully relaxed, like she had slept for days and was now fully rested. A burst of energy flowed through her veins, now. She was also waking up to her own accord, not because of Yoongi waking her up softly or her phone dinging.

A soft brush of fingertips on her arm brought her attention to her side.
Yoongi was laying on his side, breathing steadily and slowly, eyes closed and hair a complete mess. His fingers seemed to move on their own, as if on instinct. Unlike some other times, instead of trying to pretend to be asleep, he just stayed like that for a long time before saying anything.
It was Emily that broke the silence though.

“What happened?”

“Do you remember anything from last night?” He grumbled, voice husky and rough from disuse.

“Mina… they have Mina, don’t they?” She said, tensing at the mention of her sister.

“And you killed those demons on your own. And then we came home.”

“I lost control.”

The events of last night started to flood her mind and she sighed, feeling a bit foolish. Mina was right, she was supposed to be the smart sister. How could she allow her emotions to control her like that?

She remembered when the demon grabbed Mina and nonchalantly made his way out, leaving with her. Her blood boiled, once more, before she recalled the way her powers had overflowed at the old house, killing the demons there like they were nothing but flies. She recalled reaching home and hiding in the garden to cool off, only to bring herself to a point of corruption by thinking too much about what could happen to her sister.

Her memories brought back the image of Yoongi, kneeling in front of her, talking to her… Confessing he loved her. It all stopped there.

And then everything came crashing down.

She raised herself to a seat, feeling her hair as messy as Yoongi’s, and then grabbed one of his wrists to inspect it. He hummed in response, creaking one eye open to look at her.

“We bonded.” She muttered, fingertips following the design in his skin.

“Yeah… I'm sorry.” He rasped out, closing his eyes again.

“You are?”

“I mean, yeah? You were vulnerable. It feels like I took advantage of it to bond with you. I know you weren’t ready for it.” Yoongi explained, rubbing his face with his free hand.

“Bonding only happens if both parties are accepting.” Emily breathed out, biting her lip and shyly looking at him “If we bonded it’s because we both wanted it.”

Yoongi frowned. Yeah, clearly he didn’t remember that. So, this meant she wanted to bond? Probably not how she was expecting it to happen, but it still felt good to know Emily wanted to bond with him.

“Did you mean it? Last night?” She asked, shrinking in size a tad.

“That I love you? With every cell of my being.”

Em smiled beautifully, her eyes shining like the sky and a soft flush appearing on her cheeks. It didn’t last much, though, as a sigh left her and she deflated a little.

“Hey. We will get her back and Amelia’s powers too.” Yoongi said, moving the strands of her hair aside to look her properly in the eye.

Her little nod broke his heart a little, so he sat up and wrapped his arms around her, bringing her head close to his chest.

“Did I hurt you, last night?”

“A bit, but I've healed already.”

“Do you need to feed?”

“Nope! S'all good. I'll make sure you make it up to me in some other way, alright, babygirl?”

When he said that, Emily groaned, pushing him slightly, embarrassed “Don’t call me that, you'll start something!”

“Awe, babygirl doesn’t want daddy to tease her?”

“Yoongi!”

Luna was confused.

She had slept in Taehyung’s room… again.

At that moment, she was braiding her hair on top of the bed, legs crossed, when Taehyung walked in his room after showering. Luna took a quick look at him. Her body reacted every single time he walked in… like her skin was suddenly hoping for some sort of contact, desperate to have him near. It was ridiculous. Taehyung was clearly not interested in her.

He was just trying to get a full day of sleep, at this point. She felt, consequently, used, by now, but it kept her close to him, in a way. So it was fine!

Thinking of his sleep, Luna frowned. Taehyung had a nightmare that day. He shifted and flinched beside her, stirring Luna awake, eventually. She found him all sweaty and with a distressed frown in his brows, panting slightly. It eased a bit when Luna took the liberty to comb her fingers through his hair, attempting to soothe him. He also still slept on top of the covers, instead of underneath, near her.

It was… odd, to say the least.

“How do you think we’re going to find Mina?” He muttered, slipping his shirt over his head and then grabbing a cardigan to wear on top, pulling Luna out of her thoughts.

Luna looked at him and opened her mouth to speak, only to shut her lips back closed and clear her throat. She looked away, seeming a little baffled, and then finally cleared her throat again to speak. Taehyung frowned at her.

“Emily should be able to help track her sister. Or Lucy, if she’s feeling better. If they didn’t take Mina too far, that is.” She finished messing with the loose strands of her hair around her face and then began to get up “I have to go check on Lucy and Amelia. I'll be going with you guys, if we manage to track Mina, so I have to prepare a few things- “

Taehyung froze and his gaze turned cold.

“There’s no need for you to go.”

“And why is that?” She asked, raising her eyebrows in a challenging manner, blinking at him.

“You’re just going to be in the way. You should stay home, anyways, it might be dangerous, we have no clue how many demons there are.” He said, seriousness in his baritone voice.

Luna smiled and released a giggle, shaking her head “You’re cute when you’re clueless of things.”

And now Taehyung was starting to get a little vexed at her.

“What, is this a game to you? We really have no clue of how many demons the damn clan has, you being in the way might compromise us getting closer to Amelia’s powers- “

“Bold of you to assume I will be in the way, Taehyung. Tell me, how do you reckon I survived these past 400 years?” She dryly said, her tone now resembling the one she had the previous night when scolding Namjoon in the office.

He was starting to understand what Namjoon had felt last night… But he was also a little surprised. Luna was older than him? And that old, too? How powerful was the potion of youth.

“Luna, the twins and Lucy have magic. You don’t. Good aim doesn’t make you powerful.”

At this, Luna scoffed a laugh and went to the end of the bed to place her small feet on the casual sandals she always used, while Taehyung was scowling at her.

“That’s cute. Taehyung, I was the one that saved your ass from being turned into mush by that female demon.” Luna drew on a tight lipped smile, cold in a way he had never seen it in her “I may be just an Alchemist, you know, the one that makes the cool potions, tea… But if there’s one thing my grandmother taught me, is how not to rely on Witches for protection. I've hunted more demons than you think.”

He was silent, not expecting her to lash out like this. He was about to open his mouth and say something when she cut him off.

“I don’t like being underestimated, Taehyung. Amelia is part of my family as much as Mina, Em and Lucy are. And you can be sure that I’m going to bust my arse off to make sure my little girl survives this.”

When Luna turned to leave, Taehyung couldn’t help but reach for her arm, pulling her slightly to himself.

“I’m not doubting your love for her- “

“No, you doubt my ability to protect what I love, Taehyung. Either way, don’t. I’m capable of things you wouldn’t even begin to comprehend when the ones closest to me are hurt.” Luna retorted, her voice like cold knives in his chest.

“I’m sorry…”

She smiled sarcastically. And he didn’t like that smile, much less that it directed towards him.

“Me too.”

And then Luna was out the door, leaving Taehyung feeling like a complete asshole, standing in the middle of his own room.

Everyone gathered in the office, Emily looking much better, Jimin looking like he was dead on the inside and Amelia looking horribly sick. Emily was sitting next to her, urging healing energy into her.

When Lucy walked inside, Namjoon ducked his head and avoided looking at her, feeling horrible and making plans in his head to go apologize to her later. Luna had been right about a lot of things but, majorly, about how he never considered how she was feeling about everything happening to her apprentices.

So, with everyone there, Jin finally leaned on the desk, beside Lucy, and sighed before speaking.

“Lucy isn’t able to track down Mina. Apparently they managed to take her too far from us and it doesn’t allow her to track her.” Jimin winced and rubbed his face, starting to get impatient, at Jin's words.

“Last night I tried to follow the direction they took and came out with nothing. Around downtown Mina’s scent gets lost.” Hoseok explained, looking quite sad too.

“Uh… actually, I might be able to help track her.” Emily said, raising her finger shyly and looking at Lucy, who sighed and shook her head.

“Em, tracking her with your blood is not going to help, she is too far.” Lucy said, looking at the younger woman a little desperately.

“What do you mean?” Jimin asked, feeling a little lost.

“We use people’s belongings to track them, however it only really works if people are within the area. If they are too far, it’s useless. Because Mina and Em are twins, they usually use their link through blood to sense each other and dematerialize to each other.” Lucy explained, making sure her every words were clear.

“That’s how she got to me, that day I discovered Amelia here.” Emily said.

“She teleported here?” Hoseok asked, a little dumbfounded.

“The proper term is dematerialization, but yes, you could say that.” Lucy corrected, smiling tightly at Hoseok “But like I was saying, blood tracking behaves just like tracking someone with their belongings, if they are too far, it’s useless.”

Jimin deflated a little in his spot and leaned back on the armchair he was sitting on. Emily sighed and raised her hand one more time.

“I can help though.”

Lucy frowned “What? How?”

“Okay, you have to promise to not be mad.”

“Dear lord, what did you two idiots do, this time?” Lucy closed her eyes and brought a hand to her forehead.

“Don’t be mad, but, uh… So, me and Mina did something potentially stupid when we were thirteen.” She paused for a second, wincing at Lucy’s dark gaze “We made a… blood pact.”

Lucy groaned, Amelia scoffed, Luna facepalmed and Hoseok and Jimin made a confused face at those words.

“Aren’t blood pacts dangerous?” Taehyung asked, a little confused as he went over the things he knew about spells. He remembered hearing something about this.

“They could get each party killed. Thank God, Emily!” Lucy said, first groaning in annoyance but then sounding relieved all over again.

“What.” The other said, deadpanning.

“You can literally trace her anywhere in the world!” Lucy said, then turning to Luna to ask her for things.

“Oh, so you’re not mad…” Emily sounded relieved for a split second, before Lucy turned her cold gaze towards her again.

“Mad? I'm furious!! Blood pacts can get you killed! You two idiots probably didn’t even know how to perform it well, I can’t even think of what could have happened if the ritual had gone rogue on you two!! You’re lucky this is actually helpful this time.”

After Lucy’s outrage, she left the office to go upstairs and get her spell book, while Luna went to the kitchen to grab something. Hoseok was a little nervous when he saw a small knife among the things she brought. Emily was pressing her lips so not to laugh, crossing her arms over her chest, watching Jin look for a map of the state in his desk.
Amelia scoffed and shook her head in disbelief.

“And then I'm the wild card of the family… These two be doing blood pacts!” She grumbled, rolling her eyes.

“In our defense, nothing good ever happens when you make decisions at thirteen. And, dang it, I really thought I was gonna be left off the hook this time, since it’s useful.” Emily shrugged and drew a side smile “Guess I'm still grounded…”

“Wait till she finds out I was the one that summoned the Leviathan, in her backyard.” Amelia had a cheeky smile in her face when everyone looked at her in surprise “I’ll be grounded for the rest of my life.”

Lucy walked back inside, seeming oblivious to what Amelia had just confessed. When she reached the desk, though, she started to speak.

“I have everything ready, Emily, and the ritual is right here. Also,” Lucy turned to Amelia with a stern look and a hand on her hip “yes, young lady, I do know it was you who summed the stupid Leviathan in my backyard. The only reason you got away with it is because we had to move that same week.”

There were several snorts around the room, because of what Lucy said and also because Amelia looked like a mischievous child, not even sorry for what she did. Jungkook was even smiling like an idiot, even if he felt a little nervous when seeing Taehyung smile slightly as he glanced at Amelia.

“I told you I can get away with anything.” Amelia muttered to Jin, who couldn’t help but chuckle at her words.

Emily finally got up from her place, with Amelia wincing a bit at the lack of contact, and stretched her arms while going to the desk where everything was. Jimin got up from his place in the armchair to inspect the spell book.

Jin decided to ask Hoseok and Namjoon to help get the guns ready in the SUVs, considering they would be taking two to the place where they had Mina. Yoongi instantly volunteered to go help as well, getting up and following the other three.

Taehyung seemed to be the one more interested in the ritual so he stayed behind, seated in an armchair and looking curiously at what Emily was doing.

“What are you gonna do?” Jimin softly asked Emily, looking at the way she was now laying down the map flat on the desk.

Emily looked at him and couldn’t help having her stare soften at his expression. She hadn’t taken a good look at Jimin up close, yet. Deep down, Emily felt a tinge of guilt for being so strung up on her mind and not thinking of how her twin's mate was feeling. Yoongi had told her that he'd checked on Jimin the previous night, saying the guy was having it a little rough…

He had no doubt stayed up that day, crying. His eyes were puffy and pinkish, dark circles under them that only looked darker because of how pale he was. He looked tired and helpless.

After mating, both Witch and vampire couldn’t be apart for too long. It became actually painful for them, since the bond was way too strong. If one happened to die, for whatever reason, the other would most likely either go insane or slowly perish too. The connection between the two was only comparable to the connection Witches had to their familiars. Deep and transcendent beyond this plane.

Her very own father had put an end to his own life due to his mate dying. Nothing mattered, to him… not even his two small children.

And Emily had completely forgot, amidst her pain, that Jimin was suffering as well.

“I, uh… It’s a ritual to help track Mina. Blood pacts link two people together through their blood, so we literally feel each other’s pain.” She started to light up the five candles around the map “Mina hasn’t been hurt yet, since I haven’t felt any pain in particular.”
Jimin seemed to rest a little at that, the words lifting a small weight in his chest and having him release a breath he didn’t know was holding.

“When I perform it, my blood will tell us where they took her, it will move across the map, so try not to freak out.” Em smiled a little when he frowned seriously and nodded “Jimin?”

He looked up at her, eyes a little unfocused and sad. There was an unspoken understanding between the two of them. Emily was desperate to find her twin, the other half of her soul, while Jimin needed to have his mate back, the sole reason he was alive at the moment.

“We'll get her back. I'll make sure of it.” She said, smiling kindly at him but keeping her voice stern.

Jimin’s eyes grew hazy with tears and he nodded, crossing his arms and looking down at the desk and trying to not cry. He was trying hard to play the part of someone stronger, but something was constantly missing. Mina wasn’t there. It was like the breath had been knocked out of him and he was having trouble keeping up with everybody else. Before she arrived at the mansion that day, he was fine. He thought he didn’t need anyone else but his brothers…

He just hoped that she hadn’t been hurt, like Emily said.

Emily was finished preparing the things for the ritual, now just looking over the words of the incantation. It was fairly easy, not the sort of thing she used to do, but still easy. To Jimin’s surprise, she raised the knife and easily made a clean cut on her palm, not too large, only enough for blood to flow easily. She closed her hand into a fist.

Placing the book by her side, Emily raised her closed fist and squeezed slightly, allowing the droplets of blood to fall into the map, and her eyes closed as she sighed. When she opened her mouth to speak, instead of a simple recitation of words like Jimin expected, a slow and peaceful hum of words he didn’t know came out of her mouth.
Emily was singing.

Her voice was soft and choir like, small but with a certain strength in it. He remembered Mina saying that all Witches could sing because of their spells and rituals. He wasn’t expecting it to be this beautiful.

The words that she was slowly and beautifully singing were completely foreign to him, strange and like a mixture of different others in one alone. When the Witch opened her eyes again they were glowing a soft blue and she looked down at the map, stained with blood. Like something out of a movie, the blood that had fallen on top of the map was now moving and morphing, the pool slowly separating and moving so they formed a circle around the area of the state they were in. As soon as the circle was complete, Jimin watched with wide eyes as a pentagram was slowly beginning to form, the five points of it forming first and then all the lines meeting at the center.

It occurred to him that the pentagram had also been in the ritual place the demons had performed to remove Amelia’s powers.

As soon as the pentagram was complete, though, Jimin nearly jumped out of his pants when it caught on fire, blue flames erupting from the blood and staying there as they burned slowly. Small, blue specks of magic were now flying around the office place, a very low hum coming from them and mingling with Emily’s voice.
From the middle of the pentagram, a tiny line of blood made its way down the map and towards the city they were currently in and then moved slowly up.

“They’re still moving. Upstate.” Emily softly said, her glowing eyes looking towards Lucy.

The white haired Witch looked at the map attentively and nodded.

“Think you can keep the altar up until they stop?”

“Sure, it’s easy.”

“If you need rest, just say something, alright?” Lucy insisted, looking the girl over, trying to find anything that would signal her losing control of her powers.

Emily nodded and slowly dropped her bloody hand, grabbing the gauze Luna had previously brought and wrapping it around her wound. The burning pentagram was still there, the small line of blood moving slowly upstate, marking where Jimin’s mate was.

“What now?” He whispered, almost afraid the altar would fail if he spoke any louder.

“We can’t do much for now, while she is moving. Even if we follow her, I need the altar to keep track of her. For now, we wait until they stop.” Emily explained, her eyes still a little too bright.

“Do you need help with that?” Jimin nodded towards her hand and when she nodded he left to go grab the first aid kit.

“Never thought I’d say this, but guess that bad choice you guys made was useful.” Amelia said, now up and looking down at the map.

Emily scoffed with a smirk “At least something, right?”

~ Sass 😘