Pale hair, and even paler skin. Skin on skin, intimate, and arousing.

Images flash before Lilith's resting eyes.

Feline eyes, determined and confident. Speaking silent words with the set of his jaw, he reaches for a pale hand, and slips the fingers of his other hand into silken blonde tresses.

His white witch.

There is genuine affection in his gaze.

Shifting fingertips trail delicately against the skin of a feminine neck, tracing the pattern left behind by the contract with his witch. A lunula. A crescent shaped mark in white upon her skin. 

Sweating, Lilith awakens with a start. The contents of her dream come rushing into her waking mind, and she realizes that it must have been a vision about the witch she seeks. 

Her mark is the Lunula.

More than ever, she needs to meet Shownu's witch.

Something niggles at her though, and gives her pause. Kihyun had begged her to come up with another solution, one that does not involve summoning. He isn't certain that Shownu will help defeat the inevitable entities that will piggy-back the summoning.

Kihyun is unique amongst familiars, as he has a hundred percent success rate in summoning what is asked of him. He always, and without fail, will summon what or who he is ordered to. But, that success rate comes with a cost.

Kihyun is not a combatant. And he expends so much magic in summoning his target, that he is less capable than other familiars in keeping unwanted ride-alongs at bay. He will not be able to stop it. And the beings that might latch on to Shonwu?

Well, he knows the cat. And he knows just how strong Shownu is. She truly believes him when he says that, in regards to raw power, Shownu tops the charts. And the more powerful a summoner's target it, the more powerful are the creatures who notice it.

But, as Lilith recalls, he's ancient; and he's been without a witch for the majority of his existence. 

Familiars are meant to be brought into existence by a witch's birth, so theoretically, Shownu should not be older than his witch. And yet, it's been years since she heard of a white witch in the area. She's had tabs on every witch to come in and out of Raven's Knoll. And yet if not for these visions, and Kihyun's run in with them at the store, Lilith would not know that this white witch was under her very nose.

And she also had no idea that Shownu has been in town, nor that he'd finally found his witch.

Somehow she doesn't believe it's a coincidence.

However, Shownu's current situation should be impossible. Kihyun always said that Shownu, while incredibly powerful, and incredibly old, was considered a kind of defunct familiar. An accident of some sort. Many among the familiar community liked to theorize that maybe the cat familiar's witch died before she was old enough to call for him. 

But the most curious part of that theory, is that this would likely make something fundamentally wrong with Shownu, because he should never have survived his witch's death. A familiar's life force is tied to that of their witch. A witch dies, her familiar dies too. It has always been that way, for as long as Lilith can remember. And she's been alive for a very long time.

They must be living in, or at the very least near Raven's Knoll, she surmises. At least, to her, it would make the most sense for them to live in Raven's Knoll directly; most people shop within their own neighborhood. And while that might possibly narrow down their location, it might also not. It would be tedious to search the old fashioned way. She could do it. Search for articles on the internet featuring young blonde women from predominate families in Raven's Knoll.

The store she'd sent Kihyun to was in, what many in Raven's Knoll lovingly refer to as, the royal side of town. The people who live in that section are ridiculously wealthy. Old blood. If Shownu's witch is from that side of town, someone will definitely know something about her arrival.

However, this method could waste precious time, and even prove to be fruitless in the end if her intuition is correct.

This choice, unfortunately, is not an easy one. And the seer witch is afraid Kihyun might not like her decision very much at all.

"Shownu!" Luna shouts, frightened.

Apparently, the house had been sitting unoccupied long enough for certain guests to have made their way inside. The white witch is currently eye to eye with the biggest spider she's ever seen in her life. And she's not sure if she's ever been more frightened than she is now.

"Shownu!"

"What's wrong?" He hollers in return, bounding down the stairs three at a time. "What's going on?"

"There's a spider!" Luna wails pitifully. "I'm terrified of spiders!"

With a groan, he rounds up the freakish creepy-crawlie, and then turns it loose outside. He then strides back into the kitchen with a small, amused smile.

"You know that the spider was likely far more terrified of you than you were of it, right?"

"I don't care!" Luna exclaims. "That doesn't make me fear it any less!"

Shownu begins to laugh, eyes bright and lips pulled into an infectious grin. Despite the fact that Luna honestly wants to be a little peeved at him for dismissing her fears so lightly, the sound of his laughter makes her smile too. It's incredibly difficult to remain upset when he smiles like that.

And Shownu, well… he decides on the spot that he rather likes it when Luna smiles. She's pretty, like this, in a gentle sort of way. Angelic, almost. Her blue eyes twinkle, and he finds that he likes that too.

He isn't sure what compels him to do it, but as he steps forward and into Luna's space, the laughter in her eyes dims. Something inexplicable passes between them, feeding the sudden tension in the air as he leans down and pushes a strand of hair from her eyes. Her pale blonde tresses feel like silk between his fingers, and the blush rising in her cheeks is incredibly endearing. 

Suddenly he is beset by a train of thought so utterly foreign to him, that it almost takes him by surprise. If he were to kiss her, would she let him? Or would she pull away?

A part of him, a rather large part, wants to find out.

As he closes what little distance is left between them, he notices that though her face breaks out into another of those oh-so-appealing flushes, she doesn't try to scoot away from him. Through his connection with her, he can feel her confusion, as well as something that feels a lot like anticipation. And when her eyes flutter closed, exotically pale lashes resting so innocently against her cheeks, he finds that he can wait no longer.

The first touch of her lips against his is like static. Electrifying, and pleasantly intoxicating. He's heard stories, from other familiars who have become intimately entangled with their witches, but nothing could have prepared him for the way this feels. It's like a quickening in his blood, and for the first time in over a hundreds of years, he feels truly alive.

And when Luna wraps her arms around his neck, attempting to anchor herself to him and his lips, the careful, tentative nature of the kiss is utterly destroyed.

He can feel her pleasure, her enjoyment, as he lifts her up and sets her down upon the kitchen counter. The tile beneath his hands is cold, but the warmth of her body persists. He relishes in the feel of her against him, delights in the way that her taste melts on his tongue. His head is spinning as he is ensorcelled by her lips.

"So you refuse to heed my advice?"

Kihyun stands before Lilith with an aggravated look plastered upon his face. It isn't as if he's trying to be difficult, rather, just as always he is simply trying to fulfil his duty as the seer witch's familiar. Though, to be fair, she hasn't been just his witch to him in such a long time. For Kihyun, this is even more reason to want to keep her safe. Though she's refused his advances, and chosen the simple relationship of just a witch and her familiar, he still cares for her. And he knows that he won't be able to protect her if she chooses this path.

Nor can he disobey her should she command him to summon the cranky cat familiar.

"It's not like that Kihyun, " Lilith replies, exhaustion written clearly upon her haphazard face. "I agonized over this. I truly did. So please don't take it personally. This method is quickest, and we don't have a whole lot of time. We can't afford to dawdle."

"Quickest, yes, " Kihyun argues passionately, "but not the safest! What good will it do to find the answers you seek if you die before you can make use of them?"

"I won't die, " she counters softly, "I'm not incompetent."

"I never said you were!"

With a frustrated sigh, Kihyun pinches tersely at the bridge of his nose.

"Neither of us have much in the way of offensive capability, " Kihyun insists, "and you know it. The spirits, or demons, who may attach themselves to Shownu will not be pushovers. And there is every chance that Shownu might leave us to fend with them ourselves."

"But weren't you and he friends once?" Lilith questions. "Would he really just leave you to die?"

"You're counting on him helping, aren't you?" Kihyun voices his exasperation with an agitated sigh. "You really don't understand? Whatever friendships or relationships a familiar might have prior to finding his witch, mean very little after the fact. Witch's aren't exactly famous for getting along, as you well know. When loyalty is demanded of us by the very contract that we form with your kind, how could we value old friendships with our own kind? Especially once that friend also finds his witch?"

"So, you're saying because he's found his witch, he won't help us?"

"I'm saying that because he found his witch he's going to immediately distrust us. And summoning him doesn't exactly give him the impression that he should trust us."

Most creatures do not like being summoned and familiars, especially the ones who have already formed a contract with their witch, even less so. By summoning Shownu, they'll be forcing him to leave his witch unattended. And this is something that the mercurial cat will not appreciate. This is a matter that Kihyun understands all too well. Honestly, he wouldn't appreciate it either. And if someone did it to him, he'd likely be furious.

And Kihyun's famous temper is nothing like Shownu's. Nothing compared to Shownu's.

"You do know what's at stake don't you?" 

Lilith's question makes Kihyun want to scoff. Of course he knows what's at stake!

"Believe it or not, " Kihyun growls angrily, "I don't want the world to end anymore than you do. But I also don't want you to die playing the hero!"

Leaning forth, Lilith allows her hair to cascade before her face, shielding her delicate features from her avian familiar's view. She doesn't want to look at him right now, doesn't want to see the concern that she knows will have his lips flattened into a grim line, or the fire in his eyes. She'd made her decision a long time ago, and no matter how much she might regret it, she still believes it to be the right call.

It might not be uncommon for witch's to become romantically involved with their familiars, after all, who else's arms could hold you for an effective eternity? Who else could understand the world that witch's live in, or the way of life that her people so desperately cling to? But she is different. Scarred. Not whole. He's so tempting, but she could never have given him her heart. Not after what they did to her.

"Lilith, look at me."

But the seer witch resolutely shakes her head.

"I know you don't like it, " she asserts, "but I've made up my mind. We will summon the cat familiar, and hope for the best."

Gritting his teeth, and hands clenched painfully to either side of him, Kihyun swears vehemently.

"As you wish, " he all but snarls.