Youngjae was disgusted at the amount of mud Jackson had made him clean. He gagged as his finger accidentally came into contact with the brown substance.

"You can kill a bunch of creatures and get their blood on your bare hands no problem, but you can't handle a little bit of mud?" Bam Bam asked Youngjae, eyebrow cocked up.

"YAH!" Youngjae yelled, flicking mud at the younger boy. "Don't be a cheeky , that's Jackson's job."

Bam Bam squealed and ran, laughing. The boys had been cleaning their mess for quite some time already, with Jackson 'accidentally' knocking over the bucket of water containing a weird concoction, forcing them the take longer on the job. 

"Seriously, Jacks?" Yugyeom complained when Jackson's foot came into contact with his bucket. "It's gonna take hours!"

"Hey, you caused the most damage. Don't do the crime if you can't do the time, boy!"

Yugyeom rolled his eyes and continued his work.

JB and Jinyoung worked together to clean like they had for years before becoming acquainted with the other four. They had met when they were hunting the same shape shifter, and worked together when JB was caught. Like JB, Jinyoung had been forced into the life. It was family legacy. 

"You okay?" Jinyoung asked.

JB looked up and smiled. "Of course. Just want this to be over with."

Jinyoung nodded and went back to cleaning. They all wanted the thing with Herodias to end. They could finally have some peace after this war.

All of a sudden, an incessant scratching on the door began. The hunters stopped their mundane duties and covered their ears. Annoyed, Jackson finally opened the door. Before him, stood a little Greyhound. It was a skinny little thing, probably had been living alone for a few weeks. It seemed scared. Jackson allowed him in. The Greyhound whimpered and followed Jackson into the living room where the four hunters were working.

"Awww!" Youngjae exclaimed. 

Jinyoung quickly made a makeshift bed for the dog to lay in. It jumped onto the couch and went to sleep. The men quietly shuffled into the kitchen, their backs turned to the dog.

"We have to keep him!" Youngjae said.

The others looked at him. He was so unlike a hunter in his personality, it was hard to believe he was one of the best  in Korea. But it was true; the man was a beast on the battlefield. 

"Youngjae, no. It's someone's pet. They probably miss him." Jinyoung said, putting on his mum voice. 

"It has no collar, Junior!"

Jinyoung sighed at the younger boy. Really, it was one thing to call him by his nickname, but to not add hyung at the end? He shook his head. He opened his mouth to say something, before being cut off by a sound of a man crying. All six men whipped their heads back, and gasped. Where they had left a possible new pet was a man, dressed in grey with dirty hands and short brown hair. He was hunched over, crying, and rocking back and forth.

"Where the hell is the dog?!" Shouted Youngjae, betrayed.

The man on the bed flinched, and looked to the six in the kitchen. His eyes were red from tears, and his lip was trembling. 

"The hell are you?" asked JB.

The man shook. New tears sprouted from his eyes. "I'm... I'm... I'm a familiar. I-I-I belong to a witch. But she set me off here without coming with... I don't know why!" He bawled. 

"I can think of a reason why," Bam Bam muttered under his breath. Yugyeom nudged his ribs, to which Bam Bam welped and rubbed the bruised area. 

Youngjae, bless that boy, moved to comfort the crying dog-man. He hugged him, and sang a little to help ease his tension, but the dog-man just wailed more. He hugged back, weeping into the hunter's shoulder. The other four looked on bewildered. What was happening? Another noise came at the door.

"What is this, lose your pet day, and then it turns out to be a man?" Jackson muttered, but stopped dead in his tracks when he saw the person at the door. Behind him, the dog-man was crying about his master. 

It was a young girl, about 19, dressed in black pants, shirt and jacket, complete with black heels. Her long hair was grey, curled and framed a pretty little face. She was pale, and short, even with heels, Jackson approximately measured her to be just over 150 cm.  Her brown eyes were JB cold. 

Jackson turned to look at JB. Is this your relative? He mouthed. JB mouthed What? back, his hands in the air, confused by the other man's own confusion.

"That's her!" Shouted the dog-man. He ran toward the girl, excitedly.

"Tyler?" The girl asked confused. The man hugged the little girl, an awkward moment as he was at least three times her size but acted like she was his mother. "I thought you left me!"

"Of course not, silly! I let you out for one second, and the next thing I know you're gone! It took me a while to track you down!" 

Tyler nuzzled the girl. Now the boys were confused. JB stood forward, clearing his throat, interrupting the reunion. "Okay, so... Who are the two of you, what is all of this?"

The girl looked at him, taken aback, as if just noticing he was there.She studied him and the four hunters. Underneath all that dirt and silver paint, they didn't look your average hunters. They could've been doing some home renovations or something. Their clothes didn't suit hunting either. It was all fashion, with cotton and Timberlands. Really, she was beginning to wonder is she had walked into the famed Hunters of Seoul and their Angel who was evidently missing.

"Are you okay, Miss?" Asked Youngjae. How polite, and cute, the girl made a mental note. He had an innocent face, smiling at her. 

The girl started, the dog-man's hair. "Sorry, I was just wondering where my dog was... He has a tendancy to run off."

"I hate to tell you this, but you're your dog. It may look a man, but we're pretty sure it's a trick." Jackson told her.

Yugyeom rolled his eyes. "Roll back the attitude, dude."

The six hunters looked at the girl, comforting the what-was-supposed-to-be Greyhound. It was an odd sight, JB figured that Tyler looked like he could be her big brother and she was comforting him like a child that was spooked by the Bogey man. That comparison made him chuckle. He remembered when he told his father about the Bogey man under the bed. He gave his son a blade to take care of it. In the end, there was nothing under the bed, just a child's imagination gone rogue.

Tyler whispered something to the girl. They looked at each other, nodding. Tyler ran off out the door, fast, and when they looked, all they saw was a Greyhound, racing like the rest of its breed was raised to do. The girl looked back to the hunters. She half smiled at them. 

"Really, really, sorry about that. I was supposed to be taking care of him, and he got away... I hope he didn't cause too much trouble." She looked back at the direction the dog ran. 

"Are you his master?" Bam Bam asked her. 

"I'm sorry?"

"He said he was a familiar."

"Oh. Right. Well... Okay... How much do you guys know about the lore of witches?" The girl shrank back from the men, appearing to fear them.

"A whole lot, sunshine," Jackson replied. Wow, he really did need to roll back the attitude.

The girl inhaled deeply, nodding. "Okay... So... Hunters, I'm guessing?" 

"The best Korea has to offer." The sass man replied her.

"Well... Then I guess I'm in trouble. If it's any consolation, I think we have a common ground."

The six looked at each other. She basically told them she was a witch, with a weeping familiar that really surprised them. Every nerve told them to fight the girl, who knows what she was capable of doing? She could bring forth a whole new cloud of disaster. They really didn't need that. Not now. Not when they had the freaking most evil creation since Lucifer himself to deal with. Jinyoung's hand crept to the blade he had behind him. He spoke to the girl first.

"What makes you think we have common ground?" He spat the last words, they were poison in his mouth. His history with witches was complicated; needless to say he hated the damn es.

The girl looked at him, took a shaky breath and looked him in the eyes. He wanted to retreat, fear of his memories flushing back. But he was a hunter, and hunters don't run from the things that want to kill them. They march straight up to their enemy, shout, and act as bait. Then, when the time was right, they killed the monster, earning no thanks from the people who they saved. They learned that a long time ago. Like not having any happiness, ungrateful people were part of the hunter code. Without that, you weren't a hunter. 

"Herodias. She's number one enemy right now, we can all agree. Good thing Tyler came here, to the lair of hunters. Because I may or may not have a way to defeat her."

The boys' eyes widened. This was what they were waiting for. An open idea to finally find out more about Herodias, what she was all about, and how to shove her back to where she came from. But coming from a witch? Something was wrong. If a witch needed a hunter's help and was willing to work with them, the problem was bigger than they originally thought. Could they trust her? Probably not. Were they desperate for the help? Very. 

At the back of his mind, Jinyoung screamed at himself, his instincts telling him to run. He scolded himself for what he said next. "Alright, let's hear it."

I promise Mark is definitely going to appear soon as the loveable angel he is ^^ I'm thinking of bringing him in next chapter... Also, there will be more plot twists in the future, I'm sorry for making it seem that the plot is being rushed, but trust me, I am not done with the surprises (if you can allow me to call them that)

BTW, thank you so very much for subscribing to the story ^^ 

oo (as in xoxo)