The Coven: Book 1

Chapter 61 - Zhyao Wu

Poising the now flowery lavender pot, she sighed, content with her work. The patio where the pool was, on the right of the garden, was now beautifully decorated with pots of the most various herbs, teas and flowers of all colors and shapes. She still hadn’t been able to fix the garden, but hey, at least the patio looked nice and proper.

Luna was on cloud nine for having all her plants growing so fast and healthily. She was biased, though.

Amelia went down the stairs, towards the open garden and looked around. She did feel stronger, maybe it would be a good idea to attempt to call forth her familiar again. It felt a little strange without him showing up. Zhyao Wu was way too large in size to be walking around the house, but he loved being outside in the gardens. Much like Amelia did, Zhyao adored to be among nature.

Two weeks more had passed. Time was starting to be somewhat of an abstract concept. It was like she was back in France, in Mina’s manor, the garden’s to be precise, practicing her magic like a good student.

Much to Amelia’s displeasure, she had to ask for help barely a week ago.

She had stalked all the way to the living room, where some of the guys were watching a movie, with the twins sitting down on the floor, Emily paying more attention to the book on her lap rather than the suspense movie playing in the large screen. Amelia had stood at the entrance of the room, looking quite vexed, glaring at Lucy and huffing with impatience.

“Alright, fine, I need help! You happy, now?” She finally piped, annoyed beyond belief, before she turned and left to go back to the garden.

Lucy had smiled smugly, her eyes darkening in amusement as she smacked her spell book closed.

“Quite!” She mumbled, getting up from her place and slowly making her way to follow Amelia, while the twins snorted and Luna shook her head.

Quite embarrassing, but Amelia did need the help. Apparently, as she had been reciting the enchantment she’d been tried to practice, one of the words had been wrong. Which only made her a bit more annoyed at how she completely got the words wrong. Amelia always took a lot of pride in how she was so good at Chaos Language. Something Emily had been quite annoyed at.

Lucy had spent the rest of the night with her, going through spells, incantations, rituals and all sorts of enchantments. By the end of it, Amelia had been exhausted.

Looking through the garden, she spotted Jungkook laying down on one of the benches, asleep. Thankfully, the guy had brought one pillow with him, because that bench didn’t look particularly comfy. He had the current book he was reading open and on top of his chest, one hand on the cover and the other arm over his forehead.

Amelia had discovered Jungkook seemed to like crime fiction books, which was what he was reading this time too.

He also started to feed from her, now. And that made her happy.

Deciding to not put it off anymore, Amelia placed herself in the center of the big garden, determined to meet her familiar once again that instant. Five weeks since she had gotten her powers back had already passed and she refused to go another day without meeting her familiar.

So, as usual, she took a deep breath in and opened her palms to allow the magic to flow, as the chiming tune of her magic moved around the air. Her voice blended with the golden magic, the butterflies forming out of the gold and red sparkling orbs and fluttering around her in almost clumsy motions.

Only, this time it was perfect.

This time, Amelia felt no pain whatsoever in her chest as she allowed the tattoos inside her wrists to appear and glow against her skin. There was only that rush of excitement and power, the magic making her feel airy and light. For the first time in a long while, Amelia finally felt like herself. She hadn’t felt this peaceful ever since leaving Lucy’s house almost five months ago. This was the rush of magic she needed to live, what she enjoyed doing more than anything in the world.

Zhyao Wu’s melancholic wail resounded in her head, his shape becoming more corporeal in her mind. He was part of her being, of her very core, a materialization of what her magic could potentially be, but much more than that. He was the connection to nature itself, the exact feeling of what it felt like when she placed her feet on the fresh grass or when her lungs took in the cold air.

Zhyao was an extension of her very soul.

A fluttering in his nose woke Jungkook up and he brought one hand to his face to itch it. When his eyes blinked a few times, he saw, above his head, the shape of a butterfly floating. The creature seemed like it was made of gold, leaving a trail of dust behind it.

He would’ve been startled. He would have, if not for having seen this happen a few times now. When he looked beside himself, he saw Amelia. She was performing another spell. Jungkook didn’t think he would ever get over how beautiful her magic looked. Like straight out of fairytale, or something.

But something about this particular spell was different. She wasn’t just reciting the spell’s words, like he had seen her do many other times through the past weeks.

Well, the few times she would let him out in the garden, because, when she was frustrated with her practice, Amelia would straight up kick him out of the garden and into the house again.

This time she was slowly moving her hands in front of her, the spell sounding more like a song than an actual spell, really. Her hands were glowing at this point, tattoos all the way to her shoulders and eyes a stark gold. Amelia looked like the woman he had seen fight that massive sentient demon, back in the old refinery factory… Only, she seemed particularly peaceful.

The sound of a low growl startled him, coming from the gold dust that had formed around Amelia like a cloud. It spiraled largely around her, the loose golden specks that were left behind seeping into the ground. Jungkook had seen several times how the plants moved under her hands, growing as if their growth had been accelerated. He was now watching calmly as the grass, that Emily scorched through her fury, a few weeks prior, grew back. The small green blades of leaves peaked from the earth and grew into a beautifully green patch of healthy grass again. Next were the flower beds, where each flower started to grow back slowly, their petals making their colorful appearance. The trees that had been raged by the storm and Emily’s powers were now turning greener, their trunks growing sturdier in their now bent form, new leaves and fruits growing on them.

Jungkook was a little overwhelmed to see the difference, finally understanding why Amelia kept insisting that Jin didn’t call a gardener and garden designer. No wonder, she was perfectly capable of gardening herself.

But unlike the work of a designer, the nature that she had just grown was wild and untamed, with no actual perfection, but beautifully so.

His attention was brought back to the Witch at the center of the magic when he heard another animalistic growl. It was low and not threatening, so he could only assume it was Amelia’s familiar coming forth. The gold dust around her swirled again, slower, like it was dancing around her, and then the massive shape of an animal started to form among the gold dust.

“Holy fuck…”

Those were the only two words that came out of his mouth.

He was too frozen to make sense of things anymore. What? Amelia’s familiar was a dragon?!

From within the gold clouds, a long and swift shape appeared, the head a long nuzzle, shaped like a wolf’s, with what looked like a pair of long whiskers flowing from the nose. His ears were long and pink on the inside, seeming like he was covered in fur there. Jungkook could distinguish a pair of long horns growing from the top of the creature’s head, sharp and hard. His horns and eyes were honey colored, much like Amelia’s eyes were, and his neck, body and tail flowed into one, like the body of a snake, covered in a beautiful bloodred fur. All along the body, the creature was covered in fur, except for the stomach, that seemed a lot like a snake’s. The tail culminated into a soft fluff of fur, honey colored as well, and that swished around slowly.
Amelia sang the last of the spell, extending her glowing palm towards the nuzzle of the dragon, that closed his eyes and softly touched the woman’s palm with its nose.

The dragon finally placed his paws on the grass, and Jungkook finally noticed them. They looked like the feet of an eagle, rough brownish skin in them with long, sharp, black talons.

The sound of his mate cooing at the creature brought Jungkook back to reality. Or whatever this was, because… a dragon. There was a dragon in Jin’s garden.

Amelia spoke in the foreign words he now knew as Chaos Language and the creature seemed to respond with a soft coo of his own. When he did, the Witch smiled and placed her forehead against the dragon’s, closing her eyes.

“I know, baby, I missed you too.” Amelia mumbled, her hands reaching for the fur on the dragon’s cheeks.

“Amelia…?” Jungkook called, eyes wide at the scene in front of him.

She opened her eyes again and allowed them to fall on her mate, as he was getting up from the bench.

“Oh, you’re awake! Jungkook, this is Zhyao Wu, my familiar.” The woman announced, a cheerful tone on her voice.

Well, he knew that… Or, at least, he had assumed it.

“That’s a dragon.”

“Yes. Zhyao is a Chinese dragon. His element is Earth, so he likes nature like me.” Amelia explained, caressing the wolf like nuzzle of the creature.

“Okay… Why is your familiar a dragon?”

“Oh, Lucy doesn’t actually know. She said it may be related to my ancestry and blood, but our familiars choose us, so, really, it may not have anything to do with that.” The girl cheerfully explained, her smiling face a bit of a contrast to how stupid he felt.

His brain was still trying to assimilate the information. A fucking dragon?!

“You don’t have to be afraid, you know, Zhyao won’t hurt you.” Amelia said, her eyes finally softening when she saw how Jungkook was still struggling to move.

Well, the point was he wasn’t scared. Not necessarily. But, to make a point, that was a dragon. A mystical creature that didn’t actually exist, only heard in the fairytales of Asia and in children’s songs. And it was Amelia’s familiar.

“Sorry, I’m just… Holy shit!”

He watched, still in a daze, as the dragon moved swiftly, his nose nudging Amelia’s arm to lift it and then rub himself on her torso, wrapping his long, slender body around the woman, closing his eyes in satisfaction. Zhyao moved like he was floating on air, his neck, body and tail forming waves as he circled around Amelia’s body.

Amelia giggled lively, hands reaching for the fur on the dragon’s body and caressing it. It looked soft. It was also a little funny to see the similarities of the dragon’s features to those of a wolf’s, like the shape of the head and nose, the ears, that pointed back and gave him a gentle look, and also the length of the fur and how soft it looked.

“You can come touch him. He’s harmless. Well, as long as I tell him to be.” Amelia said, rolling her eyes but waving Jungkook over.

“That’s very reassuring, baby, thank you.” He mocked, earning another giggle from her.

Jungkook finally took a small step towards the familiar, brushing back his hair in nervousness. Of course, he knew familiars were only dangerous if the Witch they belonged to wanted so. And he knew Amelia didn’t mean any harm to him, he trusted her blindly. But, still, he couldn’t help the nerves.
Zhyao Wu looked him dead in the eyes, a beautiful gentleness in those deep honey eyes, eyes that looked almost too human to belong to a dragon, staring back at Jungkook. Seeing that the man wasn’t taking any more steps, the dragon moved his head forward, sniffling the air around Amelia’s mate and taking a few steps in curiosity. Jungkook was a bit startled when the dragon rubbed his nose on his palm and nuzzled.

“Uh… what do I do?”

“Just pet him.” Amelia piped, shrugging.

Right… Cause that’s the first thing you wanna do in the presence of a dragon.

Jungkook finally extended his palm, carefully allowing Zhyao to smell his hand, just like he had for Raksha when he met her. The dragon sniffed his hand and fingers, getting closer to him, until finally Jungkook poised his hand on top of the massive head. The fur was soft and silky, the bloodred a stark contrast against Jungkook’s pale hand. Zhyao sighed loudly when he felt the long caress on top of his head and then moved to ask for more, head bumping against Jungkook’s legs.

Amelia was smiling at Jungkook’s panicked expression when the dragon moved swiftly to wrap around his body like a snake, closing his eyes in happiness and purring like a feline. It was a bit funny to see how Jungkook was almost always so stern and serious and now he kind of looked completely out of place with that massive dragon wrapped around him.

Someone’s voice from the patio side of the garden brought her attention towards that direction.

“Amelia? Lucy fixed your bracelet, I have it right here!” Emily called, now coming down the stairs.

When the woman saw the big dragon on the garden, her eyes went wide and it didn’t take long for a big smile to form on her face.

“Shit! Zhyao’s back?”

“I was able to bring him back not too long ago.” Amelia explained, receiving her small bracelet from Emily and starting to place it on her right wrist.

“Well, he seems to like Jungkook!” The brunette commented, smirking at the panicked Jungkook in the middle of the garden with the red dragon wrapped around him as he stretched his neck to be able to smell Jungkook’s neck and face now “Hoseok is gonna flip.”

“He is… Wanna go call him?”

Emily smiled, her foxy smile making an appearance as the mischief in her eyes glinted before she turned and went back inside the house to go call the poor dude.

A shout brought Amelia’s attention back to Jungkook and she did nothing to stop her loud snort. Jungkook was now on the ground with Zhyao laying his head on the guy’s chest and happily licking his cheek. The dragon’s mouth was large enough to be able to bite off someone’s head in one single bite.

“What the- Dude! Amelia, do something!”

“I think he likes you!”

Zhyao gave one long last lick over Jungkook’s face before he raised his head, body now laying on the floor very regal like. His ears perked up, picking up a sound somewhere, and he huffed through his nose.

“I don’t want to meet her familiar! It’s probably some lion or some dangerous animal, again, I don’t need that in my life!” Poor Hoseok shouted from the patio, clearly not amused.

“He’s not bad, Hoseok, you know our familiars would never hurt you!” Emily insisted, with Mina’s obnoxious laughing in the back.

“It doesn’t make it any less scary!!”

Hoseok and Emily finally appeared near the stairs and Amelia turned towards Zhyao, speaking to him in the Old Language, requesting for him to be gentle, since Hoseok could be frightened of him. Ever since Zhyao had resurfaced, he seemed to be very aware of how others reacted to him. With Emily, for example, because she had been so angry at Amelia for getting her familiar so early, the dragon had tried his best to be on her best side. Now, Em was his favorite person. He was a gentle giant, not actually that scary.

“Oh, my God, what the fuck is that?!” Hoseok shouted, recoiling as soon as he placed his eyes on Zhyao’s form, all regal in the middle of the garden.

“This is Zhyao Wu.” Amelia announced.

Some of the other guys appeared behind him as well, everyone going a little awed and dumbfounded when they saw the creature laying in the garden. He was attentively studying the vampires, eyes curious and calm. Jungkook had tried to get up at one point, but Zhyao had stopped him by keeping his paw on top of Jungkook’s legs and then nuzzling the guy’s neck to keep him in place. So Jungkook had given up and now he was sitting on the grass while his hand scrubbed at the dragon’s neck.

Getting Hoseok close to the creature was a chore in itself. Taehyung and Jin were the ones that didn’t really hesitate to go closer and touch the animal, carefully approaching him and then touching the soft fur.

“It’ll be fine, Hobi, he won’t hurt you. Just don’t touch his tail and you’re set.”

“Why?! Does he bite?!” Hoseok recoiled again, panicking in alarm.

“No, he’s ticklish. He moves around too much and doesn’t know what to do with himself.” Amelia explained, grabbing Hoseok’s hand to bring him closer to the dragon.

Zhyao could feel Hoseok was afraid, hence why he wasn’t moving at all when the man brought his hand down to the creature’s furry head.

Among the guys, it seemed Jungkook and Taehyung were the animal’s favorites, seeing how Jungkook was still locked in place beneath his paw, so he could nuzzle his nose in his neck when he wanted.

“See? You made it!” Lucy said in a mocking tone, sitting beside Amelia on the garden bench.

The guys had gone inside. After a while, Jungkook had finally gotten free from Zhyao’s hold and managed to get up and go get a shower, considering now his face was all drooled and his clothes a little dirty from being rolled on the grass. Right now, the beautiful dragon was rolling around on the green ground, stretching his legs and yawning widely. A few huffs and happy grumbles could be heard every time he sighed.

When Lucy had come out into the garden, Zhyao had dropped everything he was doing and got up in a hurry to greet the woman, head nuzzling into her neck and purring loudly as his tail wrapped around her legs.

When they finally sat down, Amelia noticed her mentor giving her a smug smirk and side eye.

Amelia scoffed “Alright, thank you! Thank you for helping me, I’m sorry I didn’t ask for help sooner and you were right. There, I said it.”

Lucy snorted and chuckled, shaking her head.

“You’re a lot like your mother when it comes to pride, I’ll give you that!”

Amelia froze.

“Really?”

“Yes. Definitely.” Lucy smiled sadly, now, her eyes dropping to her fingers that were fiddling with the ring on her pinky “There’s so much I’d like to tell you about her… and I can’t.”

“That’s okay. I understand, so it’s okay- “

“It’s not. You deserve to know everything about her. Well, with the way things turned out you will find out, eventually. Secrets and oaths are meant to be broken, the truth always comes out, whether we like it or not.”

Amelia couldn’t help the frown in her brows, finding the woman’s talk a little strange. Lucy was never a negative person, always trying to keep herself impartial and neutral about everything. So, hearing her speak so ominously, was a little disconcerting.

“It’ll be fine.” Amelia said, more to herself than to Lucy “I’m sure it will be fine.”

Lucy smiled, that sad glint flooding the grey in her eyes once more.

“I believe you.”

~Sass ✌🏻😚
The final Chapter, only the Epilogue to go!!