.ten.

The plane ride back to his home country was shorter than he expected, considering that he had slept through most of it. As they neared their arrival, Michael was then wide awake, his green eyes were absently trained on the window. There was really nothing to look at. It was night already and all he could see was darkness. In their row were three seats and Michael had taken the one closest to the window, Hazel sat in the middle seat, and Jack was sat on the seat near the aisle. Hazel was awake and alert, while her older brother was fast asleep next to her. He had spent the previous hours of the flight watching terrible movies on the small screen in front of his seat.

It was the voice of Hazel Quimby that pulled Michael out of his thoughts. "What are you thinking about?" She asked him curiously. That's right, she can't hear my thoughts anymore, he remembered, looking down at the necklace she had let him borrow when they arrived at the airport. It was a silver rabbit head pendant with jewels for eyes. It fit her so well, he thought to himself. She was elusive, yet had an air of innocence and sweetness to her. Nonetheless, he was the hunter and she was the prey. A prey that reminded him so much of everything he missed back at home. Life was unfair like that many times. He could escape Australia, but he could not escape Harley Quinn. Fate was doing everything in its hands to remind him of her.

Michael heaved a sigh. "My sister Harley." There was really no point in hiding it. Though his thoughts were now a mystery for Hazel, he knew by her question that he was wearing his emotions on his sleeve. It was more that obvious that something was troubling him and that something was the worry for his sister.

"That's weird." Hazel commented, crinkling up her nose in confusion. It was more that she had found the coincidence strange. "Your sister and your girlfriend have the same name."

Now Michael was the one confused at her choice of words. Furrowing his eyebrows, he told her, "I never said I had a girlfriend named Harley." He didn't remember mentioning that he he had a girlfriend at all, much less that her name was Harley.

"Then why did I see so many images and flashbacks of a girl named Harley in your mind? You two were close and you loved her so much. You didn't kill me because I reminded you of her. I thought..." Hazel paused for a moment before continuing. "I thought she was your girlfriend."

The hunter shook his head. "That same Harley you saw is my sister. Well, technically, we're only half siblings."

"Wait." Hazel gasped as the information sunk in for her. She had been taken by surprise at his confession. "You're in love with your sister?"

"Half sister." He corrected her.

"That doesn't make it any less wrong." Hazel pointed out. "How did this even happen?"

"Before you think I'm some deranged pervert," Michael started, keeping his eyes trained out the window out of fear that he would be met with a pair of judgmental green eyes. That was one of the few things that differentiated the two girls. Harley had blue eyes the very same color of the ocean waves back in Sydney, so clear and so blue that they seemed to go on for miles. Hazel's eyes were bright green and matched more with a forest of tall evergreens. Hazel was also a brunette, while Harley was a blonde who dyed her hair dark because she didn't like her natural hair color. "I had no idea that we were related." He defended himself. 

He always seemed to want to justify the fact that he was in love with Harley Quinn, even though he knew she was his sister. But he didn't know of it when he fell in love with her.

"I was living in London, hunting you, and the others." He explained, thinking back to everything that had happened to him in the last few months. "Then I was sent to Sydney to babysit the boss' daughter. Apart from being hot as hell, she was nice to me. When you have a job like this, not many people like you, but she did. She was my friend. Falling in love with her was completely inevitable. Then I kissed her, and it was only then that my boss told me he was my dad and that she was my half-sister."

Hazel was left without words for a short while. When she finally spoke, she said, "This is as dramatic as something out of a soap opera."

He nodded in agreement. "And now I'm fucked because I can't get her out of my heart."

"I could never imagine falling in love with Jack." She looked over at her brother who was sleeping in the seat next to her. "That would be so gross."

"But you grew up together. You always knew he was your brother." Michael pointed out. "Harley and I never knew each other until just recently, and even when we met we didn't know we were related. That's totally different to your situation with your brother."

"I know." She agreed. "I'm sorry. I just blurted something stupidly without thinking."

There was an awkward silence between them until Michael broke it by asking her some questions about her life back in Canada. She had told him about her father, how he had died not too long ago and she fled to England when the hunters were searching for her in Montreal. Her brother Jack had long since left their home country, under the lie that he was studying abroad at some university in Latin America. Jack had really gone into hiding like his sister because they were both aware that the hunters needed to kill them in order to restore balance in the world.

With Jack and Hazel dead, it would mean that all the other shifters out there would lose their powers and would be rendered regular human beings. She wasn't too sure how it worked for the hunters, since she knew from the myths that they had originated elsewhere. Because of that, their mission in the world was to hunt and eliminate all shifters, and to then follow a set of procedures that would eliminate their own kind as well. It was a process that would make the hunters normal humans like everyone else.

The two spent the remaining hour of the plane ride talking and when they finally landed in Australia, it was well into the early hours of the night. Hazel and Jack were well rested, though they still felt the inevitable jet lag from travelling so far away from home. Jack was especially tired, since he had just gotten in when Hazel informed them they would have to be leaving Canada as soon as possible.

Michael led the siblings out of the airport expertly, by now he was well used to travelling. After retrieving their belongings from one of the conveyor belts, he led them out to the loading area where they hailed a taxi. 

The hunter asked the driver to get them into the city, and to the nearest hotel to there. It wasn't a very long drive from the airport and they made it there within thirty minutes, since there weren't many people out at that hour. The driver dropped them off in an area where there were several hotels and Michael paid him in a generous amount of cash, which surprised the taxi driver momentarily. They were three young people, all looked like teenagers, and were loaded with money. He didn't mind that he had gotten paid much more than the ride had been worth. 

Michael walked into the nearest one while Jack and Hazel followed him into the lobby. The brother and sister sat in the lobby couches, in front of a flat screen television set to the local news channel while Michael settled everything for them to stay at the hotel. That took a couple of minutes, but the hunter was finally given two keys. He took one for himself and handed the other to Hazel. 

"I got one for me, and one for you two." He informed them tiredly, a yawn escaping his lips.

He had been the only one of them that hadn't slept much on the plane.

"You guys don't mind sharing, right?" He eyed them for a moment, adding an explanation, "They were all booked and only had two rooms left. The rooms have two beds in them anyway."

"Why can't Hazel sleep with you?" Jack winked at the hunter.

Michael coughed awkwardly, but said nothing.

"I'm joking." Her older brother laughed.

"Months without seeing you, and this is how you treat me, Jack? Offering your favorite sister to the predator." Hazel raised an eyebrow at her older brother. She tried to keep a serious face, but a smile ended up breaking onto her lips. She had found it funny how awkwardly Michael had reacted.

The hunter looked from Hazel to Jack, and he envied their relationship. They actually looked and acted like they were siblings. There was no confusion there. Hazel loved Jack, but she loved him like the brother that he was to her. Harley felt that way towards Michael, but Michael didn't feel that way towards Harley.

"We should probably go get some sleep." Michael sighed a defeated sound and proceeded to walk down the hallway in the direction that the woman at the reception had indicated to him. "I'm taking you two to see my sister tomorrow." 

His sister.

-

i took way too long to upload a new chapter for this. but as i said the last time that i posted something, i needed a few things to happen before i could update on here. one of those things was that i needed to know exactly how much time michael would be staying in sydney with jack and hazel after helping harley. now that i know, i can update without there being any holes in the plot because i wrote the wrong thing.

anyway, i hope you all enjoy the update and i hope you all still read this. i will try super hard to post another update soon because it should be easy. im going to try to shorten their time in sydney into a few chapters here because we all know what happens (if you read phantasm and mortalis).

thank you loads for your support! and have an amazing week!

-clary xx