The Hunter Games

Part 7

Xxx

As the hunters brought in unconscious witches through the portal, Sonya stood on an elevated platform overlooking their efforts. The witches she had marked as targets were being drained of a vial of blood before being transported to their holding cells. As she counted the numbers in her mind, she suppressed a victorious smile. Of the nine magical bloodlines she required, she now had access to eight of them through her partnership with the hunters. She had obtained blood from the Marks and Phillips lines, the Montana and Callaway families, the Bakshi and Kaplan lines and lastly the Ricciardi and Jenkins families.

These lesser witches had no idea of the true power dormant in their blood. It was an ancient power that Sonya had been seeking for centuries. All of her divination, calculations and manipulations had led her to this moment, where all the bloodlines were within her grasp. Only one bloodline was missing, but it was the most powerful and troublesome, which was why she saved it for last.

Sonya turned her attention back to the portal and saw two hunters carrying in the last witch, Billie Jenkins. She appeared to have put up a decent fight, but had fallen in the end. Sonya waved her hand and closed the portal, after which she headed down the stairs to Makayla.

"You succeeded." Sonya noted. "Congratulations."

"We almost succeeded." Makayla corrected her. "A few witches got away."

"I saw." Sonya replied. "Two worthless half-breeds and your niece. They do not matter in the grand scheme of things."

"It matters to me." Makayla snapped at her. "I want to cleanse my family legacy of my brother's mistakes. I have the boy, I need the girl as well."

"She'll come." Sonya said. "She'll try to save her family and friends. She is like her mother that way."

"You talk as if you know her." Makayla noted curiously.

"Not personally." Sonya replied. "We have never crossed paths, but I know of her."

"It doesn't matter anyways." Makayla said. "She lost and soon she'll burn with the others. My men have already begun to set up. My brother will finally be avenged."

"Burning the witch won't erase your own guilt, girl." Sonya remarked. "That will weigh on you forever."

"Careful." Makayla replied with a glare. "Our business has concluded, so what's stopping me from throwing you on the stake with the other witches?"

"We're not done." Sonya countered. "You still have the blood vials and we have one more target."

"What are you talking about?" Makayla asked.

"I'm talking about the most powerful witch family in existence." Sonya explained. "The Halliwells are the final target."

"So what are you saying?" Makayla asked. "That all of this has been a practice round? I lost good men to capture these witches."

"And you did great. With all the witches you captured, you have weakened the wiccan community." Sonya replied. "The Halliwells are simply the last cornerstone that remains. Take them down and you will effectively end witch threat. All that will be left will be scraps."

"And you, Sonya." Makayla replied suspiciously. "What are you going to do with that blood?"

"That is not your concern." Sonya said. "Think very carefully about your next move, Makayla. I'll retreat to my room, I expect the blood vials to be delivered to me. Once we're done with these witches, we'll plan for the Halliwells."

"And my niece?" Makayla asked.

"She'll come." Sonya replied. "Sooner than expected."

Sonya turned around and walked toward her room, or her prison cell as the hunters believed. She walked past the captive witches in their cells without looking at them. They did not matter anymore, she already had their blood. She would soon unleash the dormant power within and return witches to their rightful state. They would go back to very beginning and start anew.

Xxx

A column of smoke appeared in the living room of the Jenkins house, forming into Lexie, Izzy and Liam. After seeing her mom facing the hunters on her own, home was the first place Lexie had thought of. She needed a safe place, as she had lost everything else. It was just the three of them now, everyone else had been captured by the hunters.

"We need to call for help." Liam said.

"Who do you want to call?" Izzy asked.

"My parents, your parents, everyone." Liam replied. "We're way out of our league. We need to let others handle this."

"That would only put more witches in danger." Izzy noted. "Besides, my dads are hardly the fighters they once were. Their forties hit them hard."

"Then we'll call the Halliwells." Liam said. "Maybe we should have called them in from the start."

"No, Izzy is right." Lexie said determined. "Calling in anyone else will only put everyone in danger. This is our fight and I intend to finish it."

"I think you might be too personally invested." Liam countered. "I'm sorry Lexie, but this isn't just about you wanting to go after your aunt."

"Excuse me?" Lexie asked angrily. "This isn't about my aunt. We are all personally invested here. Or have you forgotten that the hunters have your sister?"

"Of course I haven't." Liam replied. "I'm just trying to do the smart thing."

"And a small strike is smarter than a full-on assault." Lexie said. "If we go to war with the hunters, they'll kill our family and friends before we can even reach them."

"I… I hadn't thought about that." Liam admitted. "Sorry."

"Don't worry about it." Lexie replied. "We're all under stress, but we need to work together."

"Maybe I can break the tie." Izzy noted. "Lexie is right, we need to be stealthy. If we can break into the hunter's base, we can free the witches and fight them from within."

"What if we get caught?" Liam asked.

"That's a chance we have to take." Lexie said. "So are you with me or not?"

"I'm in." Izzy replied.

"Alright, under one condition." Liam said. "We send word to Magic School where we're going. If something goes wrong, our families will have a second chance."

"We can send a magical message like my dad taught me." Izzy noted. "It will only trigger if we get in trouble."

"Good, you take care of that." Lexie replied. "Liam, we have emergency magic supplies in the basement, use what you can."

"What will you do?" Liam asked.

"My mom has a chest of my father's things in the attic." Lexie said. "I have to go see if there is anything I can use."

Her friends seemingly understood that it was something she needed to do on her own, so they simply nodded and went to work. Lexie headed up the stairs and entered the attic. She quickly found the chest underneath some other boxes and used her telekinesis to call it toward her. The chest was locked, though a simple wave of her fingers broke the lock. She kneeled down and took a deep breath. With everything she had learned, her dad had practically become a stranger to her, despite the fact that she still loved him.

"Please give me something I can use to save mom and Charlie, dad." Lexie whispered.

Lexie opened the chest and found a variety of items that belonged to her father, such as journals, tools and weapons. There was even a leather jacket that still had a whiff of his cologne. She remembered her dad always smelling like that, so she put it on to feel his presence. She began flipping through the journals and saw notes about various demons, as well as instructions to draw symbols and runes to block magical powers. That could come in handy if the hunters used those symbols at her base, so she put the journal aside.

As Lexie opened another journal, a bunch of pictures fell out. She picked them up and saw it was pictures of their family. She smiled as she looked through them, noting how happy her mom and dad looked together. Makayla was wrong, her dad wasn't put under some spell, he truly loved them. She put the pictures back and noticed a small box on the bottom of the chest. When she opened it, she saw a silver ring with a green stone inside. It glowed for a moment when she touched it, so she decided to take it. As it was too big for her fingers, she put it on her necklace, hiding it under her shirt. Somehow, having the ring made her feel safe.

There was knock and Lexie turned to see Izzy at the top of the stairs. "We're ready." The brunette said. "Did you find anything useful?"

"I think so." Lexie replied.

"How are you holding up?" Izzy asked. "After hearing about your family past, it must be killing you that Makayla has your mom and brother."

"I was scared at first, but I feel better now." Lexie admitted. "Makayla was wrong back then and she's wrong now. We're going to stop her."

"Good to hear, I like the badass Lexie a lot better." Izzy said. "She's the one I grew up with."

"And I'm glad you're here to remind me of that." Lexie replied. "I missed having you around."

"Sorry about that." Izzy said. "I know we grew apart but we're still friends, including Liam."

"Even though he can be a dork." Lexie remarked.

"Yeah, he's like an annoying brother." Izzy noted. "But I guess he balances out our little group of misfits. Just don't tell him I said so."

"I won't." Lexie replied with a smile.

Lexie walked over to Izzy and hugged her. She took off her father's jacket and put it back in the chest for safekeeping. The two girls headed downstairs and rejoined Liam in the kitchen. Lexie saw he had unpacked the emergency supplies on the kitchen table. There were several potions with different effects and a little black book of spells. After dividing the supplies, Lexie turned on the tracking device her mom had given her, which started to bleep and showed her location in a warehouse district of Boston, Massachusetts.

"Are we ready?" Lexie asked.

"Ready as we'll ever be." Liam said. "But we started this, so we might as well finish it."

"Let's get our family and friends back." Izzy added.

Lexie nodded and threw a teleportation potion on the floor, teleporting them away in a puff of smoke.

Xxx

When the smoke cleared, Liam and the others were standing in an alley outside a large warehouse complex. While he still had his doubts about entering the base with just the three of them, he did see the valid point about using stealth instead of power. Overrunning the base with an army of witches would cause the hunters to panic, which would make them even more dangerous. As he looked at the dark and scary building, he hoped that Margot and the others were alright. The group circled the building looking for an entrance, but found it to be heavily guarded by both armed hunters and a security system.

"We're never getting in there without drawing attention." Liam noted.

"Since we can't find a way, we'll just have to create one." Izzy replied as she held up the small spell book. "This book has some pretty useful spells in it, including one to create a door."

Izzy walked over to the wall and used some white chalk to draw a door. She was about to cast the spell when Lexie stopped her.

"What?" Izzy asked.

"Look over here." Lexie replied.

Liam and Izzy turned to where Lexie was pointing and saw a strange symbol drawn on the wall. Lexie revealed a leather journal and showed them a drawing of the same symbol.

"It's a symbol used by hunter families." Lexie explained. "It will raise an alarm the moment magic is used. My dad wrote about it in this journal."

"Good thing you found it." Liam said. "Does it say to disable it?"

"It does." Lexie replied as she took the chalk and started drawing over the symbol. "In order to disable a symbol like this, we have to draw a counter over it. Try the spell now."

"Luckily it's short and snappy." Izzy remarked before casting it. "When you find your path is blocked, all you have to do is knock."

Izzy knocked on the wall twice and the chalk drawing of the door magically swung open. The trio stepped through and the wall sealed itself again behind them, which meant they were now trapped in a building filled with witch hunters. Luckily, they had entered a supply closet.

"Alright, we need to find out where they are keeping everyone." Lexie said.

"Well, this place is huge." Izzy noted. "We might need to split up."

"No, splitting up is never a good idea." Liam replied. "We're stronger together. Besides, I can only replicate and boost your powers if I'm close."

"I have to agree with Liam this time." Lexie admitted.

"Alright." Izzy said. "Luckily your mom was smart enough to put some invisibility potions in her emergency supply. That will help us sneak around."

"They'll only last about half an hour, so we need to hurry." Lexie said.

The three young witches took out the potions and drank them, instantly turning them invisible. They snuck out the supply closet and made their way down the long metallic hallway. When two hunters approached, Liam pressed himself against the wall as much as he could and held his breath.

"Man, I hate having to patrol." One of the hunters said. "I want to watch the sentencing."

"I know what you mean." The other hunter replied. "After all this work, I want to see those witches burn, especially that kid that caused the explosion. My ears are still ringing."

"They won't be able to burn them all at the same time, not enough stakes." The first one noted. "Hopefully we get to see the second round after our shift is over."

The hunters continued talking as they passed a corner and Liam finally felt he could breathe again. However, their words had filled him with a sense of dread. They were already starting to burn their family and friends, which meant they were running out of time.

"We need to hurry." Lexie's trembling voice sounded. "We can't let them to be burned."

"We will find them." Izzy replied. "It sounds like the hunters are making a big spectacle of it, so we need to find a large room."

'We should look for a floor plan." Liam said. "All buildings should have them for safety reasons, in case of a fire for example. And yes, I know how ironic that sounds."

"Let's keep moving." Lexie replied.

The trio continued down the hall and Liam spotted a floor plan on a wall close to an emergency exit. When he got closer to it, his invisibility suddenly faded away. He turned to the others and saw they had become visible as well. Lexie pointed to the door, where another strange symbol had been drawn, resembling an eye. She opened her journal and flipped through it, while Liam began studying the floor plan for clues.

"I should have known." Lexie noted. "This symbol is known as the hunter's eye. It reveals things that are hidden. They're probably all over the place."

"Those were our only invisibility potions anyway." Izzy said with a shrug. "From this point on, we're going to have to fight."

"And I think I know where we need to go." Liam added. "Look, there is a large round chamber over here. Right next to it is a hallway filled with smaller units. Those could easily function as prison cells."

"That has to be it." Lexie said. "Let's go."

Lexie began running and Liam and Izzy followed her. It wasn't long before they encountered another patrol of hunters, though Lexie slammed them against the wall before they could call for help. They headed up a flight of metal stairs, where they were spotted by another patrol. This time, they were too late to stop them from raising the alarm, though Izzy quickly knocked them down the stairs with light darts. A moment later, the alarm sounded through the entire building.

"So much for stealth." Liam noted.

Xxx

Confined in her padded prison cell, Billie felt more helpless than she had ever felt before. The cells were designed to block magical powers through the use of symbols and amulets in the walls. She recognized the symbols from Jake's journals and knew she couldn't disable them from in here. She didn't care about what happened to her, but she hated the feeling of being powerless to save her children. The cell had a small window in the door, but she couldn't see where they were keeping Charlie. The cells were soundproof as well, meaning she could not even talk to him, which was torture. The door opened and Makayla stepped inside. She was followed by two hunters, who grabbed Billie and roughly handcuffed her.

"It's time." Makayla said. "You and the others witches are going to burn for your crimes. I'm going to enjoy watching you scream."

"It's not too late, Mac." Billie replied, using the nickname her brother used to call her. "Jake wouldn't want this. You can still let us go."

"Are you really playing that card now?" Makayla asked laughing. "You must really be desperate."

"Maybe you're right." Billie admitted. "I was hoping at least some of his humanity was inside you, but you're nothing but a monster that killed her own brother."

Makayla glared at her, though before she could speak, the alarm sounded. The leader of the hunters cursed and turned to her men, who whispered something to her. Billie didn't need to hear them to know what was going on. She smiled proudly knowing that Lexie was coming.

"You can smile all you want, but they won't reach you in time." Makayla said as she looked her nemesis in the eyes. "I'll make sure you burn even if it's the last thing I do."

Xxx