Vampires and Witches have been roaming around the Earth since the beginning of times, living alongside humans without making their presence known.
Jungkook and his brothers had been doing just that. Moving around from place to place, trying to go un...
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“Who stole your powers?”
The question had everyone looking at Amelia immediately.
Amelia slapped Emily’s hand away from her and almost growled when speaking.
“Leave, Emily.”
Emily tried to interrupt Amelia as she went up the stairs, ending up ignored. She finally turned to the seven other people in the foyer, brows creased and blue eyes going around everyone.
“You guys knew she was a Witch, right?” She asked, making everyone look around, lost and confused, until all their eyes settled on Jin.
Not that Jin wasn’t confused. He just didn’t look as lost as his roommates.
“Amelia’s a Witch?!” He asked, tilting his head, a bit dumbfounded.
“What the hell?!” Emily exclaimed, throwing her hands up in the air.
Jin rubbed his hands over his eyes and finally took a deep breath before speaking.
“Alright, Jimin, Taehyung, please go do what I asked previously. Emily, into the office, please.” Jin commanded, with Jimin and Taehyung following the orders given and then Emily frowning at Jin suspiciously “Will you hurry?”
She rolled her eyes one final time and moved elegantly towards the French doors of Jin’s office. The space was all in cream tones and gold. It looked dainty and not at all like Jin, but, according to him, he didn’t really have a say in the decoration.
Emily settled on the couch to the right of Jin’s desk, crossing her arms and looking fairly annoyed. Jin asked for Jungkook to not go up yet, since he wanted everyone to hear this explanation. And Jungkook didn’t particularly seem to mind at all, even if he looked up the stairs where Amelia disappeared not long ago, a little distressed.
“So?” Jin demanded, looking at Emily.
“So… What? I’m the one confused. How did she end up in your house, anyway?” Emily bit back, looking around the room, to the five other people “Not only it’s a house full of vampires, it’s your house.”
Jungkook frowned. So Emily also realized they were vampires very quickly, much like Amelia had. But his brain was doing so many flips that it was starting to hurt. How could Amelia be a Witch?
“We found her, in the forest.” Jin started “The whole of the forest behind the mansion is my territory. We happened to be hunting there when Jungkook smelled her blood. And then he found her on the brink of death, cuts all over her body, broken bones, internal bleeding. If it hadn’t been for Jungkook’s blood she wouldn’t be alive. She’s been basically bed ridden ever since.”
Emily looked fairly pale, now, surprised to know how Amelia’s state when she had been found.
“And you couldn’t tell she was a Witch, then?” She asked, voice a bit shaky.
“She smells like a normal human.” Jungkook was the one who spoke.
Emily looked over the tall man, evaluating his black hair, his creased eyebrows, worried amber eyes and tense shoulders. She instantly assumed this was the Jungkook referred by Jin just now.
“Thank you for saving her.” She murmured, nodding to Jungkook softly in thanks.
Jungkook nodded back and then leaned on the wall besides the window, still paying attention to the conversation.
“So, when you found her she already didn’t have her powers.” Emily turned back to Jin, who only nodded.
“I would have noticed it. Even they would have noticed it, the smell of her blood is different. If you’ve grown up with her, you are more familiar with her scent than I am. Would explain why you picked it up” Jin continued, leaning back on his chair.
Come to think of it, Jungkook thought, Emily didn’t particularly smell like other humans. He could pick up the scent of peaches and thyme, from her perfume, but the smell of her blood was completely different. There was a hint of spices, like a fine, fruity wine, with herbs around her. Not the regular smell of blood. It was Witch blood.
“Did you find out who did it?” Emily suddenly asked, her tone a little more urgent “The people who did it? Do you know who it was?”
“We found trails of demons near the place she was found and Amelia confirmed demons did it, but that’s it. We couldn’t find anything else. And Amelia’s scent was already vanishing when me and Yoongi went to try to find the trails again.”
“Oh, no… No, no, this has to be nightmare! You couldn’t find them?!” Emily whined, her hands coming to her face in distress.
Jin shook his head while frowning “No, we couldn’t- ”
“I need to call Mina.” Emily rushed, getting up to leave the office but being stopped by Jin again.
“Emily, be clear! What’s going on?”
The woman sighed, the stress evident in her blue eyes. Her hands either went to her hair or her face, giving away to the tense state she was in.
“Do you know what happens when a Witch’s powers are taken away from her?” Emily asked, looking around the room for someone who knew.
Just then, the pale man with a silvery white hair that had been at the door answered. His voice was gruff and raspy, deep, in a sensual way. If the situation wasn’t so problematic she would have melted right then and there.
“Don’t they become… normal humans? If they don’t have powers they’re normal people.”
Emily was struck stupid. So these seven vampires had absolutely no knowledge of Witches? Of the occult being that was supposed to be their mates?! Not even Jin knew, what the hell?
“A Witch’s powers lie in the soul. It’s part of their being. Once they’re removed, the Witch’s body begins to shut down.” When Emily said that, Jin straightened in his chair and Jungkook uncrossed his arms “It’s a race against time… Amelia’s body is going to slowly die from the inside out.”
Everyone reacted a little surprised then, Namjoon standing up and Hoseok frowning. Yoongi wasn’t pleased to hear that either, face crunching in a wince.
Emily looked at everyone’s reactions and was a bit surprised to see these men so upset. What made her a bit perplexed though was seeing the man that had been near the window, Jungkook, the one that had found Amelia, hurriedly leave his place and take very hurried strides towards the door of the office and then leave. He set off at a sprint towards the stairs, that he took two steps at a time.
Emily was dumbfounded.
“What just happened- Oh, no! Did he…?”
By the way Jin was rubbing his temples in annoyance, her theory was true.
“Why do you need to call Mina?”
“Well, I think we can still try to find the demons that stole her powers in time and retrieve them to her. We need to be quick though.” Emily explained.
“What can we do to help?” The pale vampire asked, standing up next to the dimpled taller brunette.
“Uh… nothing. This is between me, my sister and Amelia…”
“Emily, don’t try to solve things on your own. Now’s not the time to be proud about this. If calling Mina is going to help, call her, but we’re helping.” Jin’s voice was demanding and authoritarian when speaking and Emily had no real way of saying no to him again.
Crap, she was only hoping Jin wouldn’t straight up call Lucy.
Upstairs, right after leaving the office at a dead run, Jungkook burst through the door of his room, eyes hurriedly trying to find Amelia. She was sitting on the armchair that he had used to sit by the bed when she was unconscious. She had moved the chair so it was facing the floor to ceiling windows. Her legs were pulled up against her chest and chin resting on her knee, her eyes focused on the view outside.
“You’re dying?” He demanded, seeing her pretty eyes flutter closed at the same time.
Amelia was silent for a minute, still not looking at him.
“And you knew. You knew you were dying, didn’t you? Why did you lie to me?” Jungkook slammed the door shut, walking inside the room, and he could barely stop himself from yelling.
“I didn’t lie to you…”
“No, you hid things from me. That’s supposed to be better? I thought your health was improving- What?” He racked his fingers through his black hair, starting to pace around the space in front of the bed “Why didn’t you tell me you’re a Witch, in the first place?”
Amelia deflated a bit on the chair.
“I didn’t even know if I could trust you, Jungkook, how was I supposed to just let it out- “
“You should have told me! I never gave you any reason not to trust me, damn it.“ Jungkook stopped himself.
The feeling of betrayal was slowly clouding over all sorts of judgement. His logical sense. He had started to fall in love with her. Even without knowing much about her, with the mysteries her arrival implied. Everything around her was a damn secret and yet he grew fond of her. He always felt the need to be with her, to protect her… He felt complete with her around.
This was a nightmare, it had to be. Just as he was finally finding the piece of himself that had been missing… she was going to be gone.
“Why did you stay? You could have gone back, couldn’t you? Why didn’t you get in touch with that woman downstairs? You clearly didn’t trust us, Amelia, you could have gone to your family- “
“They are not my family!” She suddenly said, between clenched teeth, hands coming to meet her head now in frustration.
Jungkook released a deep breath. His stomach was clenching at how Amelia had started to sweat uncomfortably again. By the unhealthy flush in her cheeks, her temperature had most likely spiked from all the distress. The bonded male in him needed to make sure she was alright, but then again he also needed to understand her better. He would go mad if she didn’t at least try to explain things.
But he expected resistance from her. And Amelia surprised him when she started to speak slowly.
“All of my life I was told my mother was dead. Lucy, the Witch that raised me, she always said my mother died at birth. She never spoke of my mother, no hints, no stories… nothing. Even when it came to relatives, I had none. No parents, no other relatives, nothing.” Her head leaned back on the armchair and a hand came to rub at her forehead, cleaning the sweat “So, one day, I decide to find if I have any relatives. I stole Lucy’s book of spells when she was out of town and did this ritual, to find blood close to mine.”
Jungkook frowned, now. He was still mildly confused at the way she had begun to explain things, but he tried to keep quiet and let her talk either way.
“She lied to me. For years, she lied to me. The ritual showed me there was next of keen near me. It could only be my mother, a relative of some sort. I was angry, pissed beyond belief. I don’t particularly know what came over me, I know I wanted to get away from there, so I took the book of spells with me and left that house.”
She sniffled. That’s when his attention turned to Amelia again. His eyes softened, seeing the tears flow down her cheeks. Slowly, and now a bit calmer, Jungkook took slow steps towards her sitting figure.
“The plan was to go meet up with a friend, Luna. She lives around here, in Seattle. I never got there, that was when the demons found me. I had just gotten out of the bar and it seems they felt my presence there. They managed to surround me; I was alone, so I didn’t really stand a chance.”
Jungkook reached the chair, his hand hesitantly moving to touch her hair.
“They… had fun. You could say they had a lot fun with me first. Only then did they took- “ She paused again. Her voice cracked and she covered her face with her hands again and Jungkook thought Amelia would break down like she had a few nights ago.
But she raised her head instead and cleaned her tears.
“The ritual lasted for a whole of two days.” Her voice hardened “It was slow and painful and by the end of it I wished I was dead. It still hurts, now.”
There was a moment of quiet, in which she avoided Jungkook’s stare, keeping up that tough girl façade.
“Why don’t you want to go home with Emily?” Jungkook finally asked.
“I needed space. I still do. I feel like my whole life has been a lie, I was raised by them. I’ve been with them my whole life, it’s only natural I feel betrayed, right?” Amelia threw her hands up, frustrated “When I woke up here, the only thing in my head was to get away from you! I had just gotten out of a hell hole and then I wake up and I’m inside a cage again? I couldn’t just explain things to you, not when all seven of you are vampires and could drain me dry!”
In a way, it made sense she would be on edge about saying anything. Witches’ blood was better than a human’s. Sure, vampires could survive on human blood for their whole life with no problem. But, genetically and biologically speaking, Witches were supposed to mate with vampires, so, their blood was prepared to feed their mates.
That being said, Amelia waking up in a house full of vampires, that could then bloodlust over her, after just getting out of a demon’s den, was horrifying.
“I’m sorry for lying and hiding things from you. I’m sorry I’ve been such a bother, all this time. Yes, I am, or was, a Witch and never told you. And yes, Jungkook, I’m dying. I haven’t been healing because my body can’t heal anymore. Each and every one of my organs is going to slowly start to fail until there’s nothing left.”
His heart broke, seeing her try so hard not to cry again and keep up a strong façade.
“Your fever got worse.” He mumbled, the back of his fingers grazing her forehead.
Amelia dropped her gaze and nodded meekly, her skin breaking into goosebumps at the coldness of his fingers against the warmth of her own skin. He finally crouched in front of her, his hands then settling on her arm and ankle.
