Something within me broke at those words. I just couldn't take it anymore.

"Please," I whispered, letting my emotions out for the first time in a long time. "Just tell me what's going on."

Mik rubbed his right palm across his face, letting out a dejected sigh. "It's complicated. Hell, even I don't know what I'm doing."

"Then just tell me. I know I can do something more to help." I took a step closer to him, yet at the same time making sure I was ready to fight back if he threatened to attack. "We all want Et Kar gone. Why can't you nor Cleo trust me with everything?"

"Trust isn't a word you should be using, Lena. You're partly one of them." Mik looked at me with his weary, beady eyes. "Cleo suspected you lied about something. He hasn't told me yet but he will give in soon."

My hands involuntarily shook and my back throbbed when I suddenly remembered Cleo's assault.

He hasn't told me yet. Mik just said the word "yet", which had to mean that Cleo was still alive somewhere. That bastard tried to kill me, or whatever it was that he wanted to achieve. As I began to remember how he had transformed from the Cleo I knew to a monster, anger and a little mix of fear clouded my other emotions. I had to find out what was going on, and it had to be the full story.

Taking a deep breath, I moved back to Lucifer's side and kneeled beside his slow, breathing frame. I took his bloody, slightly broken hand in mine before looking around. The dark shadows were there, deep down I knew it, but strangely they were quiet. I didn't even hear one utter. Just silence. Silence and darkness.

It should've been a good thing. I didn't know why it was so, but I should've been grateful for it. However, it just made fear grip me all the more.

Everything felt wrong now. Nothing was going the way it should've. Everything we had previously planned was useless now. Trying to defeat Et Kar without the Night Witch had been a stupid idea. A very stupid one. And deep down, I knew that as long as she and I were still alive, I doubted that we would ever achieve that goal.

"What were you and Lucifer fighting about?" I asked, gently rubbing my thumb across Lucifer's knuckles so as not to completely peel the already delicate flesh. Watching his slow breathing made something in me twist. The contact we shared faintly burned, made my body shiver and my breathing slightly difficult. "And why is he like this?"

Micaiah was silent for a while before I heard him speak in a soft tone, "I loved someone."

To say I was confused would be an understatement, but I chose instead to choke on the questions bubbling inside and allowed him to continue.

"It was unorthodox and dangerous, but we didn't care." He took a deep breath. Even in the growing darkness, I could see the raw emotion in his eyes, and also hear it in his voice. This monologue probably had something to do with his crazy search for the Night Witch, maybe it was some sort of revenge hunt.

I studied Mik while I thought this. He definitely had the look of a deranged hunter, but at the same time when his face softened, you could see the clear handsomeness and the laugh lines bracketing his mouth. It showed that there was indeed a time when he was just a normal someone.

Trying to find the relation between her and the Night Witch, I questioned him again, "Was she killed by a Night Witch?"

At my question, Micaiah smiled bitterly, "She is a Night Witch."

As soon as those words came out, my blood ran cold. I let go of Lucifer's hand and stood up slowly, not believing what I was hearing.

No. It can't be right. This can't be right.

I must have heard wrong. Maybe he just meant that she was a Night Witch. It doesn't mean she's alive or anything.

Right?

I had no idea, so I asked, dreading the answer, "I-Is she alive?"

Mik held my gaze for longer than I felt comfortable. I could practically see the wheels turning. The way he eyed me, one could easily deduce that he was gauging my reaction, looking for something. Just searching.

I was certain with all my heart that the Night Witch he was so obsessed with capturing was the one he apparently had a thing for. The only pure Night Witch that hadn't been put to sleep.

My mother.

My breath hitched in my throat. Please let me be wrong. Please. Mik couldn't be.

Not knowing the thoughts that were swirling in my mind, the Witch Hunter continued to hold my gaze: watching, waiting, and trying to get something out of me. And Lord help me, I was giving him exactly what he was looking for.

I could bet with my life that Micaiah had the same suspicions that Cleo did. I had no idea what Cleo had done to me – maybe he tried to put me to sleep – but if Mik found out about the truth, I imagined that he would probably do worse.

Micaiah approached me slowly, and I nearly choked on the amount of terror and suspense that was piling up in my throat.

I tried. I really tried to keep my emotions from surfacing. But it was too much. The possibility of the Witch Hunter finding out that I was the daughter of the Night Witch, and that he might actually be my father, was too overwhelming. I couldn't take it. So I tried to get some more answers instead.

"So what does this have to do with the fight you had with Lucifer, a-and why isn't Cleo here?" He could hear it. He could hear the shaking in my voice. Damn it!

I attempted to clear my throat, but unsurprisingly, I couldn't even get my muscles to obey me.

"I knew you were hiding something. There is something about you that I can't put my finger on." He stopped for a second to study my frame. "That something calls to me. As if you were unconsciously trying to tell me something."

My heart rate sped faster. This couldn't be happening.

"So, I told Cleo about it. He told me he saw it rather than felt it. There's something about us that he sensed ran deep," Mik continued his calculated approach. "I guess that's why he wanted some alone time with you, and why he tried to put you to sleep."

A flicker of yellow flashed across his eyes as he spoke, and the same foreboding feeling I felt when I was in that small room with Cleo bubbled inside me once more. Lucifer's sleeping body seemed to vanish from sight – our surroundings along with him. All that was left was Micaiah and I, staring at each other. One with curiosity and the other with wariness.

The feelings were starting to surface again. Not anything like the suffocating and intoxicating ones that arose when I was with Lucifer, but strong all the same. It was weird. The trepidation that sizzled suddenly became faint and a more calming aura engulfed me when Mik halted roughly half a metre away from where I stood.

"Give me your hand," he softly commanded.

For some strange reason, I instantly wanted to do just that. It wasn't like that when I was with Cleo. With him, it didn't feel right. But with those same words escaping from Micaiah's mouth, I didn't feel like I was entering into a trap.

I was probably being stupid by acting like a loyal puppy, but Lord knows I couldn't stop myself.

So I raised my hand – my breathing becoming more intense – and placed it in his.

Big mistake.

A huge mistake. 

But it was too late.

Pain tore through me like a sharp knife. It sliced the hand that was in contact with Mik's and ran straight through my body. I tried to snatch my hand away, but the Witch Hunter held tight. The pain jolted once more, and being unable to stand it, I fell to my knees and shut my eyes, willing it to just end.

Weird thing was, before I blocked my vision, I noticed Mik was also in pain. "Don't let go yet," he gritted out, holding my hand as tight as he could.

Not listening to him, I tried to wrench my hand away again, the sensation unbearable. But he insisted.

"Argh!" I let out a scream when it began to increase in intensity. "Let me go!"

"Maera..."

Immediately, I froze. The agony was still burning, but it didn't manage to cover up the shock that coursed through me that very moment.

"Maera," Micaiah repeated, more clearly this time. When I opened my eyes to find his own, the first thing that caught my attention was his knelt frame in front of mine. The next was that both his eyes had turned fully black, no trace of white anywhere. Identical to mine. They stole my gaze and exposed all the vulnerability that I had no idea Mik hid in him.

I saw everything: the emotions, the thoughts, the memories, and the passion he spoke of.

My sight suddenly became clouded, but I also saw her. I saw my mother. I had never seen her before, but deep down, I knew it was her.

I didn't even notice the tears until they slid down my face. It was all too much. I couldn't breathe normally anymore. I forgot about Lucifer, Cleo, the shadows, Et Kar, everything. All I could think about or see was the Witch Hunter in front of me. My father.

Similar tears escaped through Mik's eyes as he gazed into mine. A surprised sob escaped him. "I can't believe it's you."

☆~☆~☆

The Night Witch watched from the shadows as the scene took place. Something in her twisted; the tinge of vulnerability that had always existed in her.

The shadows taunted her, as they usually did. But this time their taunts flew over her ears solely because she was distracted. Distracted by him. 

Because for the first time in decades, she was allowed to see him. 

Emotions she couldn't describe threatened to spill. And even though she would never permit that to happen, it still haunted her that she could only see, but not touch.

However, before she could fully bask in the beauty of his face, his look, to imagine herself being touched by him again, a powerful presence closed the distance behind her, and a cold hand slid down her naked back.

The Night Witch, in that instant, shivered at the touch and immediately darted her gaze from the Witch Hunter to the girl kneeling in front of him and then to the body sprawled on the ground. Her vision then darkened, and the powerful presence sensing this, grinned against her ear.

For he knew that he would be getting exactly what he wanted that night. And he wouldn't even have to lift a finger.

☆~☆~☆