Lover and the Beauty Beast

Chapter 11 You Again

For the whole day, Hunter's sisters have been all over Liesel. Doing her hair, playing dress up, doing each other's nails. At first Liesel felt uncomfortable, not knowing how to react, or what to do.

She'd never had anyone other than Wendy.

But after a few hours, she lost herself in the typical girlish conversations.

"Have you ever been in love?" One of them asked. Liesel shrugged.

"Maybe not. I don't know." The girls looked at her. "What?"

"She meant: do you love Hunter?" Liesel blinked a few times.

"Me? Love Hunter? I ..." She blushed. "I'm not something he should have feelings for..."

"Forget him!" The one with red hair said. "Let's stay focused on you." liesel narrowed her eyes.

"Have you all been in love?" Liesel looked at the three girls. Mary, Nicole and Ariel. All so different yet all so similar: young girls stuck with the idea of fairy tail love. Tough, Liesel thought, it isn't that easy. Mary smiled warmly.

"I'm going to get married soon," Nicole and Ariel grinned.

"Oh, yes. He's very handsome. But he's off to work." Nicole said. She eyed thw window of the room. A small one, really. It was light brown and white, a few flowers painted on the walls. And it smelled like carrots and fresh earth. Liesel smiled.

"Well, to answer your question, yes." All girls turned to Liesel. "He's all my parents could want for me. And so much more. And even you girls are part of that." Liesel was surprised by her words, so much she didn't notice a soft knock from downstairs.

As if on cue: everything went silent. Not like, really, but something clouded over the place. Liesel frowned. She closed her eyes, sensing something disturbingly out of place.

Without opening her eyes, she said, "Were you people expecting someone?" She looked now at the girls. All three of them were also frowning, but not sensing the wrongness as hard and powerful as Liesel is.

"No..." Said Mary, and Ariel shook her head along with Nicole. "But I feel somwthing is wrong by the way you're acting." Liesel stood and spread her arms. Black sparks tinged with purple and pink jumped from her fingertips.

The girls gasped. "No time to explain: I craft, but I'm not a witch, and I don't do witchcraft. Its just my gift. My family runs with it. You should to." Liesel said with urgency. "Get downstairs and be careful. I don't like this feeling."

Hunter peeked up from the pages of the newspaper, he eyed the door. After a moment of thinking he was going paranoid, something tapped on it. He frowned and got up to get it. The tapping didn't stop. He walked faster and opened the door.

"What—?" Before he could talk, something pushed him down, making him stumble, and a black arrow flew past him. The thing sinking into wood. He looked up and gasped.

"Hunter," she said. "Nice to see you once again."

Vanessa.

Vanessa propped her hand on her hip, looking between Hunter and Liesel. Ever-so-Liesel, actually, was glaring at the shorter woman dressed like a warrior and talking to Hunter.

"What do you mean you were engaged to that little peep-sqeak of a woman? Were you mad?" Hunter shrugged.

"It's a long story. Point is: we're nothing anymore. And ... um..." He scratched the back of his head. Liesel threw her hands up.