Savages

There was a sense of urgency that surged through my veins as I filtered my way through the heavy mass of bodies toward the stage. After ridding the Savages of their weapons, vaporizing their guns into piles of dust in their fingers, they swarmed me.

Now it was a matter of making sure that I didn't harm a hostage versus breaking the arm of a grown man that reached for my neck.

"Elle!" Harry's voice cut through the chaos and I whirled my heard in that direction spotting several Savages closing in around him and Louis.

Throwing a harder than necessary punch to the face of the man I was currently battling, I brought my arms into my center and focused on the burst of energy coursing into a little ball in the middle of my hands. Stepping forward I pushed my arms out and sent the ball of energy shooting across the room and watched it explode, gripping onto the four men surrounding the boys and sending them to their knees.

Whipping back around I stopped a guy from slamming his arm into my shoulder and shoved my hand into his chest. Somewhere across the room I could hear the grunts and yells of Meghan as she fought hand-to-hand against men twice her size with the aid of Niall watching her back. Paul came barreling out of a hall swinging the leg of a broken chair into any person that stood in his way. Liam and Zayn grouped with Harry and Louis and did the best they could to kick, punch, and take down whoever came at them.

Carefully I focused my attention on the bleeding body hiding behind the stage, her hand pressed against her side to try and stop the mass of blood pouring from her wound. Slapping my hands together two Savages rammed into each other and slumped to the ground clearing a path for me.

As I approached I watched her free hand reach under the curtain of the stage and grab something, my eyes narrowing to spot a remote now resting in her stained fingers. A small scream left her lips when I jumped over the stage to land directly in front of her, the eery picture of my own face staring back at me. But when her face morphed from shock to serene, I grew confused.

"You're too late, thirty-seven." She pressed a button on the remote and I half expected the shriek to erupt into my skull only to have the chaotic sounds still swirling around. "In three minutes, this whole place is going explode, and there's nothing you can do to stop it."

As soon as the words left her mouth I picked up the sound of the timer and looked straight up, my blue eyes settling on the mound of explosives attached to the ceiling with blinking red numbers counting down. She started to laugh and I felt rage instantly overcome my senses, my foot shooting out and colliding with the side of her face. With a sickening crack her head lolled to the side and her heart stopped, leaving a ghost of a body crunched up on the ground.

Within the blink of an eye I had my hands on the back of one of the Savages' vests and tossed him away from Meghan like he was a rag doll, using my mind to throw another body away from Niall.

"You have to get out of here, now," I demanded. Another Savage came running forward and I flicked my hand, hearing his scream until his head impacted against the wall.

"What are you talking about?" Her eyes were wide in fear and I shook my head.

"Just get the others and run as fast as you can," I ordered.

"But El-"

"Just go!" Not giving her another chance to argue I rushed forward and slammed my fist into the tiled floor, cracking the foundation, and causing three men to stumble backward away from Paul. "Get them out of here." His nod was all I needed to continue forward without worry and I took care of two more men.

"No! I'm not leaving without her! Not again!" I felt my chest tighten when I heard his words but didn't look back. "Elle! No! ELLE!" Once I had delivered a deadly blow to the back of someone's head, I took a chance and glanced over my shoulder.

Paul was pushing the group down a hall that would lead to a side entrance, using all of his upper body to block Harry from running back inside. His green eyes were frantic, his face red, and it took all of my control not to stop fighting and just run to him.

"I'm coming back," I called out to him, blocking an arm that swooped down from behind. "I promise!" Throwing my elbow into the stomach of the man I gave him a pleading look before Paul successfully moved him down the hall.

Glancing up to the ceiling there was just under thirty seconds left before the floor above would come crashing down. The hostages that weren't seriously injured had managed to find a way out of the building and I could hear police sirens wailing down the block. When the timer hit ten seconds, the shriek I had expected earlier slammed into my eardrums with a vengence, my knees buckling under the sudden pressure.

Meghan and the others were all piled into a vehicle and speeding away from the building when they heard the explosion. Harry whipped around in his seat and bit back tears as a big ball of smoke rose up toward the sky.

"She'll be fine, Haz. For all we know she got out and is following us right now back to the flat," Liam tried comforting his friend. Harry put his face in his hands and leaned forward, his stomach churning at the thought of 'what if.'

"She promised," Meghan said quietly from the seat in front of the two boys, turning so she could look Harry straight in the eye. "She promised she'd come back. She won't break it."

"I hope you're right," was all Harry could mutter out before the tears started to fall.

......

"I'm just going to get cleaned up and I'll be over," Meghan explained to the blonde haired boy when she turned to her door. Pushing the door open she let out a squeal when two arms snaked around her waist from behind. Turning to face the culprit she barely had time to register his clear blue eyes before his lips were mashed against hers. Kicking the door shut with his foot he backed her up against a table, his hands breezing across her skin and tangling in her long brown locks.

Getting lost in the moment Meghan dug her fingers into the hairs on the nape of his neck and tugged, earning a soft moan from the boy she was attached to. Breaking away from her mouth his lips trailed down her neck tasting the mixture of sweat and her skin as he went.

"Niall," she breathed out when he bit down on a particular section of her neck. "Niall, babe, I need a shower." The look in his eyes when he met her gaze had her insides rolling like a tidal wave and a heat immediately spread between her legs.

"You'd just be wasting water. I want you, and I want you now." His voice was husky and she felt his hands grip onto her hips roughly and lift her on top of the table. Her breath caught in her throat when his fingers grabbed the side of her dress and ripped it away from her, leaving her in nothing but a strapless bra and lacey pair of underwear.

Harry could barely take it. He was pacing back and forth in the living room of the flat trying not to listen to the sounds and noises drifting from across the hall. Pulling at his chocolate curls he let out a strained sigh before climbing the stairs to his bedroom. Grabbing a change of clothes and a clean towel he locked himself into his bathroom and turned the water as hot as he could handle.

Scrubbing his skin nearly raw was easy. Trying to scrub away his thoughts was an entirely different situation. He continued to picture the worst scenario playing out, that he had missed his chance one more time, and it was silently tearing him away at the seams. He couldn't help but resent the Irish boy having his way with the girl he loved across the hall or resent his best friend for calling up his girlfriend and being able to tell her that he loved her.

Once the water started to run cold he it off, pulling the curtain back slowly and wiping his eyes. Forgetting the change of clothes sitting on the edge of the counter he merely wrapped the towel around his waist and shut off the light. Throwing himself down on his king sized mattress he buried his face into one of his blankets and let out a gargled cry, his heart pounding against his chest.

A crash from downstairs had him up and out of his room faster than any other time in his life, his eyes searching the shadows as he passed for one person. But when he came to a sliding stop in front of the living room a frown overtook his features. Niall popped his head up from the other side of the couch as Meghan gave Harry a small wave in the middle of the room, her body covered by only a large t-shirt.

"Sorry mate," Niall muttered.

"No, it's fine. Just keep it down," Harry grumbled. Walking away before either person could say anything he pushed his fingers through his still dripping wet curls. Mindlessly he once again climbed the stairs and padded down the hallway, listening to the giggles and hushed whispers of his friends, before slowly turning into the doorway to his bedroom.

His green eyes locked onto a shadow that stretched the length of the carpeted floor from his balcony door while a slight breeze sent goosebumps crawling up his arms. Slowly his gaze followed the shadow until they landed on a pair of bare feet that stood in the threshold of the balcony. His heart suddenly began to race so quickly that his vision got blurry the second his eyes landed on a pair of pale blue ones.

"Elle?" He didn't care that it came out as a high pitched squeak or that he looked like a deer caught in headlights.

"Harry," I stated quietly. We each took a tentative step toward each other before he rushed forward to close the gap between us. My eyes fluttered shut when his arms curled around my body and pulled me into him, my face buried in the crook of his neck. I took a deep breath through my nose, relaxing almost instantly when his familiar scent wafted through my senses. Slowly I brought my arms up from my sides and wrapped them around his bare torso, welcoming the electric vibes that shot through me from the touch.

"I thought I lost you again," he whispered pulling slightly out of the embrace to brush strands of my hair away from my eyes. "God, Elle, it was torture." His thumb grazed my cheek and he pursed his lips, studying my features in the dimly lit room.

"They tried to get me to break, to tell them where you guys were," I explained meeting his intense gaze. "But I kept telling myself that if they have to keep torturing me that you were still alive." I took a step away from him to run a hand through my tangled locks, letting out a shaky breath, and looked at him again. "Then they showed me pictures. All dated by how many days I had been missing. They told me how that clone was going to kill you, that she was blending in among you so well you couldn't tell the difference, and something deep inside of me snapped. How everyone hugged her, accepted her, how you kept an arm around her, I couldn't control my emotions any more."

"Elle," Harry began but I shook my head. I needed him to know.

"Rage is a dangerous emotion for me Harry, a very dangerous emotion. It blinds me with red fury and I do things that I'm not proud of, that I'm scared of." I stood in front of him again and slowly reached for his hand, wrapping my fingers around it and letting the jolt shoot up my arm. "And then there's you. Nobody makes me feel the way you do, Harry. I was afraid of it at first, steering clear of you as much as possible, until you started to avoid me. I craved your touch and the sensation it creates inside of me. I wanted you to look me in the eye and stare into the depths of my soul with an intensity that only you bring." I lifted his hand and pressed it to my chest where my heart pounded rapidly, his eyes watching intently as he felt the pace it was beating. "You're the only person I've encountered who has my heart pounding for a feeling completely foreign. My stomach is in knots, I can't think straight, and I realized it wasn't the idea of her killing you that sickend me the most."

With my free arm I lifted my hand to his face and traced his jawline with my fingers, grazed his lips, and let my fingers fall to his exposed chest. "It was the thought that I'd never get to tell you how you've made me feel more human in the last few months than I have in 19 years."

"I love you too," he whispered with a small smile. Moving his hand from my chest up to my neck he leaned forward and pushed our lips together in a kiss that made my knees weak.