Brotherhood of the Hunters

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"That's really how you plan to live up to the family name?" Lukas Hunter had come looking for his younger sibling late one evening. It had been left to him to tutor the younger man in things their father never did since his disappearance several years ago. He made it seem like a chore for him to do this, but secretly he enjoyed bossing the other man around, and was actually proud of what they did. He was arrogant enough to believe the world was a safer place because of him, blindly following the guild and their rules when it came to witches.

Evan Amber was sat in a dimly lit bar that evening, the stirrer in her drink slowly moving around the glass of its own accord as she read the book before her. It would have strained the eyes of any normal person, but then witches were hardly considered normal. This was a safe haven of sorts, a bar only known of to other witches. Evan liked it this way, it was the only freedom in a world controlled by the witch hunters guild. While her craft came natural to her, Evan wasn't like most other witches. She had no long family lineage to teach her the ways of the craft, having been born into a family of 'norms', she had instead been left outcast by them to struggle until she stumbled upon a best friend to show her everything.

"What?! No, no way are you making me a prisoner in my own home!" Evan insisted hotly.

"What did you do?" Lukas asked wearily, as though this happened all the time. "Upset you lost your girlfriends glass?"

"You're in my home and until I'm sure we are safe from hunters, I will." Belle said firmly. "And I'm going to teacher you not to teether your magic to a liquor glass!"

Simon still didn't speak. His vision swam and he swayed where he stood. He stumbled closer to Lukas before collapsing to the ground, the darkness sweeping over him.

"It wouldn't have happened if you hadn't interrupted what I was doing and smashed the glass!" Evan countered.

"Just great... Now I'll have to drag your ass to the priests!" Lukas muttered as he flung his bother over his shoulder. "Those guys give me the creeps."

"You were dabbling in something that got us right where we are now!" Belle said firmly. She snapped her fingers and a merry fire crackled in the fire place. "Let's hope he lost that glass piece."

The priest came out after hours of waiting and shook his head. "There's a glass shard stuck in your brother's heart. If we try to remove it he will die. It has traces of magic...if we neutralize it it will probably kill him. I'm not sure what you want us to do."

"No, I knew exactly what I was doing! He only found us because you shattered the glass before I could break the connection!" Evan insisted.

"Magic? Inside him?!" Lukas hissed, clearly not taking this news all too well. "How is that even..." Suddenly he shook his head. "Never mind... I'll hand those bitches myself for this!"

"Break the connection now. Before anything else becomes of it." Belle told her, tossing something into the fire. "We need to get rid of those hunters now." 

"Language, sir." The priest hissed. "Tell us what you want us to do about your brother."

"I can't. Not now I don't have the glass I used for the spell." Evan told her friend bluntly. "See, this is what happens when you are so afraid of something you don't even stop to think!"

"Well I hardly want my brother dead, do I?" Lukas growled. "Leave him be, for now. We shall just have to keep a close watch on him. Is he awake?"

"You didn't see the look in his eyes. He was like a wolf." Belle showed her the image of the elder brother in the fire, long honey colored hair and all. "A beautiful wolf." She breathed.

"He's awake." The man confirmed. "Come this way." He led Lukas to where his brother was resting on an altar. "Keep him calm for now, at least until the wound heals."

Evan scowled at Belle and threw another log on the fire to disrupt the image. "And you actually lectured me about spying?" She hissed. "I don't care how cute you think he is, he's still a hunter!" The pastel haired woman took a moment to suck in a deep breath and try and calm herself. "Look, we're just going round in circles here. If they were truly that worried we were going to hurt someone, they would be here by now, wouldn't they?"

"This is how you find fun?" Lukas asked his brother softly, even smiling a little. "You just had to carry that damn piece of glass, didn't you?"

"No. I think I injured the other one." Belle said softly, getting to her feet. "And that wasn't spying that was an image I brought up. There's a difference."

Simon gAve his brother a sideways grin. "You've always wanted a good witch detector." He took in a shaky breath and closed his eyes. "The red head did it when she was trying to get away. I made the mistake of reaching out and she used a force spell to shove me back. I didn't go anywhere but the glass did I guess."

"Great... so not only did we break their law, you now put a target on us!" Evan replied with a heavy sigh as she flopped down in front of the fire.

"She will pay for this, I promise you that, brother." Lukas vowed, as serious as ever.

"The golden one bullied me." Belle said with a pout. "I'm tempted to curse him. At least make him croak like a toad for a few hours." She added, sitting down beside her friend as the teapot hopped over. 

"Some of this is your fault you know." Simon pointed out. "You're lucky she didn't turn us into toads." He laughed softly. "Hell, we could probably start looking for dad in a pond if we were honest."

"You think everyone bullies you." Evan pointed out as she kicked her shoes off and curled her feet up under her.

"No, I did nothing wrong." Lukas sniffed. "If she was startled she could have just yelped, she didn't need to use magic!"

Belle poured them both a cup of tea and pretended to be offended. "If you had lived through what I did, you'd feel the same way." She told her her friend, guiding the tea cup toward her. 

"They are witches, Lukas. That's what they do." Simon argued, placing a hand on his chest when he felt a slight tug. "I still want to find them. I want to see her."

"You don't think it's about time you started seeing people for more than what your low standards expect of them?" Evan chided gently.

"Her? You sound different." Lukas commented thinly. "Perhaps I should have you checked again... You haven't seemed right since I caught you letting that witch spy on you."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Belle asked, frowning at Evan. "You know this is somewhat your fault. I was trying to protect you from him. You need to get in the shower and make sure there is no more glass in your hair."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Simon asked, now frowning back. "You are such an ass."

"Protect me from what? Nothing bad happened until you freaked out." Evan reminded her friend as she rose back to her feet. "I'm not the one who smashed the glass, remember?" She added before ehading to the bathroom.

"It means you've been fixated on this witch even before we ran into them!" Lukas insisted.

Belle was ashamed of her reactions but it wouldn't come as a surprise to someone who knew her well. Her parents had been murdered by witch hunters right in front of her. Her fear was well placed. 
Sighing softly she found herself thinking of the Golden eyed man again. She waved a hand at the flames, watching his image appear.

"You have to admit she looked different than any other one we,ve seen." Simon pointed out. He closed his eyes, easily able to see the slender woman standing in a bathroom. She needed something.

Inside the bathroom Evan was staring at herself in the mirror, unable to shake the feeling that something was wrong. Despite this, she had no idea that something was that a hunter could see her. With a weary sigh she turned on the shower, allowing steam to fill the room as she began to remove her clothing. Evan was oblivious to the fact that the tiniest shard of glass had lodged into her strange coloured eye, so all Belle's worries about glass being stuck in her hair were pointless.

Lukas merely snorted and shook his head. "Don't you see? This is what they do! They cloud a mans mind to twist them into a pathetic puppet!" He huffed, as single minded and hard headed as ever. He was so used to his little brother being the object of women's attention that he didn't even entertain the thought that one would be thinking of him right then.

Belle was watching Lukas' every movement from a tiny flame on the far side of the priest's room. She could only see the side of hum that was facing the other man. And yet she longed for more. The thought that her mother would be ashamed almost had her extinguishing the flames but she simply couldn't stop herself. 

"Sounds like being a woman to me. Geez, Luke you never get out, do you?" Simon asked. Opening his eyes before the strange eyed woman could disrobe. "But then again, being a beast like you are doesn't allow you to understand them, does it?"

Evan put a lot of effort into making people think everything was just fine. It was as she stood in the shower, the black kohl from her eyes and down her cheeks that Evan could be herself. She carried much anger towards those who harmed her as a child, despite telling Belle not to be so mistrusting of people.

"And you do?" Lukas sneered, again acting like his brother's use of the word 'beast' didn't offend him. "You know only enough to have them on their backs for as long as you need to satisfy yourself. You don't know women, you know whores."

It was much later when Belle knocked on the bathroom door, concerned about her friend. "You okay?" She asked gently. "You're not still mad at me are you?"

"You're just jealous." Simon said with his usual devil may caresult grin. "You have to pay them to get near you. Partly because you're ugly and partly because you're a pervert."

"Yes." Was Evan's reply through the door, simply to be irritating. Of course she wasn't mad a Belle, no one ever could be.

Lukas smiled thinly, trying as always to make sure it seemed like he didn't care. "Rest, brother. You are now a tool of the guild. Your days of skirt chasing are over."

"Oh." Belle sounded heart broken. "I made you some cookies. I'll leave them with your tea...goodnight..." she turned to leave her friend alone, sure she'd just lost her forever. 

Simon lost his smile. "What?! No. I wont. I'm not the hunter you are. It's a waste of time. This is bullshit. You're the first born!"

Evan felt awful when she heart the heartbreak in her friend's voice. The young woman was simply sat on the bathroom floor, wearing one of Belle's robes. She didn't know of her link to the hunter who had found them, all she was concerned with was putting her happy mask back in place so as not to worry Belle.

"Perhaps you should have thought of that before you dabbled with witches and their magic." Lukas replied rather icily as he glanced back over his shoulder from the door way.

Belle went to bed and pulled the covers over her head. She tried hard to push thoughts of the Hunters out of her mind. But for some reason it wouldn't leave her. She could see her mother's fate. It had her shivering and pleading for mercy. 

Simon retreated to the priest's bed. The moment he closed his eyes he saw the strange eyed witch's face. He ached for her and he couldn't even explain why.

Lukas was in the archives that evening. Something about that witch tonight bothered him, few of them had enough power to do what she had to his brother, let alone do it without a spell or some kind of potion. He was looking at the journals of older hunters, wondering if they had come across anything like her.

Evan was curled up on Belle's couch now, a heavy blanket pulled all the way over her head. She too could see that beautiful hunter as she slept, and it was when she slumbered that she didn't have full control over her own special ability.

Lukas would find himself in the midst of an extremely long story that involved the murder of a set of witch parents and even a hunter in pursuit of this child. A child that it seemed had been created from a spell involving sea glass...

Simon was more than a little surprised to see the young woman in his dream. He was fishing alone at the beach and oddly enough, he'd just pulled up an old bottle. 
"Well? Are you going to tell me what happened today?" He asked her, as cool as his brother for the moment.

Lukas wasn't even aware of the passage of time as he read the journal. Everything in it seemed so spectacular, like a work of fiction. He was surprised this hunter and the witches he had killed were not the thing of legend among all other hunters.

Evan was standing on the edge of the shore, just close enough that the strangely warm water lapped over her bare feet where her toes were buried in the sand. She wasn't looking at Simon, rather she simply watched the rolling waves. "I don't know what you're talking about." The strange haired woman replied evasively. "You and your beast confronted my friend and I for no good reason."

The witches had created the child for their daughter. She was a lonely, fearful girl with her nose always buried in a book. They wanted her to see the world through eyes that were bright and filled with joy. They wanted the child to protect their daughter. But something went wrong with the spell and the child took power that was not given to her. She took so much that the witches couldn't hide what they were doing. She killed many of those involved in the ritual. The surge of power was enough to warrant the arrival of a Hunter named Solomon Hunter. 
While the fearful bookish child watched on. Solomon murdered her witch parents, finally hanging them and setting fire to the house. It was supposed to have taken care of the family and the Sea glass child. As far as they knew it had... Days later Solomon himself had disappeared without a trace. 

"I wasn't being confrontational. I was trying to talk to you. I needed to see you but... I don't understand why..." Simon confessed. "Your friend is the one who made something out of nothing."