Salem Falls

The Malik’s home was filled with coven members meeting in light of Yaser Malik’s deatk, some paying their respects, others talking coven business. Siren was one of those people, draped across the furniture dressed in black and staring at people as they passed by. She could not deny that Yaser’s death effected her, but she showed no ounce of emotion save for boredom. Not only were there people she didn’t feel like talking to in the room, but it was incredibly boring. She had things to attend to.

Standing up from the couch, she brushed her dress flat, strolling through the house as she did so. Her mind was drifting back and forth to the note that she had found on the hood of her car two days ago. It did not take a genius to discover it was from the blonde boy in the woods, Niall. He had asked her to meet him.

At first, the girl laughed extremely loudly at the attempt to speak to her. The thought that he wanted to talk to her was amusing because he probably wanted to talk to her about coming to Lunar Circle, or ask her all sorts of questions. And she just wouldn’t have that.

But as she thought on it more, Siren wondered if maybe there were other reasons for writing the note, if maybe there was some sort of information he had about her mother and why she had left. Though Siren did not care to talk about her mother, her curiosity was getting the best of her. So she decided she would meet him, and if he disappointed him… well the only people that would miss him would be the trees.

Siren strolled up to Zayn, who gave her a somber look. His face was about as emotional as a rock as he turned to see what she was doing. “I’m leaving,” she said flatly, glancing around. “This party is really dead. Pun intended.”

Anger flashed in Zayn’s liquid gold eyes and his mouth formed a very thin line. “Yeah, okay you’re right,” she said quickly, sighing and giving him an apologetic look. The last thing she needed was a friend and leader of her coven to be mad at her. Especially when he was set to marry Lucie, who was what Siren considered a close friend. “That was uncalled for and very mean. Strike me with lighting, if you’d like.”

“Just go, Siren,” he sighed, rubbing a hand over his face. “I have business to attend to.”
“Which is why you’re the leader, not me.”

“I’m the leader because you’re a complete psycho.”

“I take that as a compliment.”

Moving like a dark feline, Siren weaved towards the door of the home. Her eyes spotted Lucie talking to coven elders, and Siren could not help but smile slightly. Lucie would make an excellent match for Zayn. She was very strong in both magic and will, and she had a very logical head on her shoulders. Siren knew that she herself was far too reckless for the job.

Lucie caught Siren’s eye then, excusing herself from whatever she was saying and coming over to Siren. Both girls gave small smiles. “Escaping so early?”

“When have I ever respected the rules?”

“Hmm, never, I suppose. Where are you off to?”

“I need a bunny sacrifice, or something of the sort. I’m trying to seal my fathers old spell book so that sneaky eyes can’t get into it,” Siren lied easily. Lying came easily to her, though not lying to Lucie. If the girl noticed, she didn’t say anything. “The usual.”

“Hmm. I’ll see you later. Be careful out there.” Siren hesitated, giving Lucie a strange look. She knew that her friend meant it because their coven leader had been killed, but it was unlike Lucie to show that sort of affection. Her hesitation was swiped at the next comment. “Fuck off already, yeah?”

Siren smiled.

Exiting the house, she skipped down the steps, moving to her red car and sliding in. Peeling out of the drive, she glanced at the address scribbled on the note Niall had left her. She shook her head at his hardly readable scrawl. Apparently they only taught about saving bunnies in Lunar Circle and not penmanship.

Following the directions, she arrived in front of a small shop. Getting out and closing the door, it seemed that she had been directed to an antiques shop. Frowning, she moved towards the door and opened it, wondering what in the hell he could possibly doing in here. She didn’t take him as the collect a grandfather clock type.

Siren was met with the sound of voices as she walked around a shelf. Niall was sitting in front of the register of the shop on a stool, talking lightly to a girl behind the counter. The girl was extremely pretty, and her eyes glanced up, falling on Siren with a curious glance. Siren froze in her spot, a million different defensive spells coming to mind. Why the fuck did he bring her where there was another one of her coven members? He was trying to get them killed.

Niall turned to face Siren and a look of surprise came on his face as he stood, giving her a kind smile. It had no effect. She stood statue still, glaring full force with all the hatred that she could muster. She knew it must have been a lot, because the girl behind the counter looked uncomfortable.

“I didn’t think you would come,” Niall admitted, walking towards her in a very easy, casual manner. Siren took a step back, making him stop. They were not friends. He needed to stop acting like they were. “I’m surprised that you did.”

“Yeah, well I’m regretting that choice,” she answered, venom seeping into her voice. Her eyes flicked between the two of them, trying to figure out their relationship. Though she was unsure why, the idea that they could possibly be dating bothered her. “I wasn’t aware that we were all having a group play date.”

“Neither was I,” the girl agreed, looking at Niall with a glare. She obviously knew that Siren wasn’t from one of her favorite clans. Siren was not sure if that made her intimidated, or just annoyed. Or both.

“Siren, this is Evelyn.”

“I don’t care.”

“Evelyn,” Niall continued, ignoring Siren’s comment, “This is Siren. She’s why I had the erm, burn the other day. She likes fire. At least, I think she does.”

“You’re on the verge of seeing just how much I like it.”

Niall laughed like it was a joke. Siren stared, unsure if he was just stupid, or if he was just trying to ignore the fact that she was radiating with hate. If she had a heart that wasn’t made of obsidian, she would have found that trait about him adorable and nice. Instead, she found it rather annoying.

“Come on,” he beckoned, walking past her and out of the shop. She looked at him doubtfully and then back at the girl, Evelyn who looked at Niall just as doubtfully. Her eyes fell back on Siren, who gave her a nasty sneer before turning and following the boy out of the shop. “Don’t want to talk in there, do we?”

“I don’t really want to talk anywhere.”

“Then why’d you meet me?”

“Because I was bored. Being amazing get’s kind of tiring sometimes. So I like to distract myself by talking to commoners and peasants.”

Niall looked at her as they approached her car, his brow raised. “Do you always talk like that?”

“I don’t know. Do you always ask questions?”

Niall fell silent as they both got into his car. Siren turned onto the road and hit the gas, making him press into the back of his seat. He looked at her like she was absolutely crazy, weaving in and out of traffic and doing things that would surely get any human killed. But that was just it: she wasn’t human, so the laws of physics and morals didn’t apply to her. At least, that’s how she saw it.

Siren pulled up to the place that she had when she originally parked that first day she met Niall. Sliding out, she walked right into the line of trees, not looking to see if he was following her. She knew that he would be, since he was the one who had asked her to meet in the first place. She had done her part, now he could do hit by following her.

They settled in a small clearing, sitting down in the grass facing one another. Siren sat a few feet back from him, not wanting to sit particularly close. If he noticed her aversion to him, he said nothing. The distance also made it easier for her to study the handsome contours of his face.

“So, did you bring me out here to teach me the ways of mother earth?” Siren asked in a snarky voice, leaning backwards on her hands. “Or did you bring me here to stare at me all day? I’ve got things to do, bad spells to utter.”

“You are very sarcastic.”

“It’s in the job description.”

He chuckled. She wasn’t trying to be funny, but his laugh was nice. “I wanted to apologize, first and foremost, for mention what I did the other day, when you burned me. It wasn’t my place. It’s obviously an emotional subject.”

Her lip twitched. “It’s not that emotional, I’m over it already. In fact, I had gotten about it until you brought it up.”

That was a total lie. It was all Siren could think about, that someone knew who she was because her mother had talked about her. Was her mother alive? Did she know that Siren had inherited her talent for fire? Or was she long gone, somewhere else.

“Right,” Niall countered, not buying it. He seemed to see through her lie, which was usually very difficult to do. “Not emotional. What do you dark coven people do, anyways?”

“Excuse me, green peace, we have a name.” Siren leaned up, crossing her legs. She was enjoying this banter. “We’re called Sixth Circle. And we do real magic. You know, sacrifices and all that good stuff.”

“We do ‘real’ magic too, you know.”

She raised her brows. “Do you also paint with all the colors of the wind?”

Niall seemed stumped. The boy was obviously unable to wrap his brain around the being that was Siren. She was mean, and sarcastic, and definitely fire incarnate; she was everything he should avoid. But it was the way she talked, and the wit that he was met with that really intrigued him. Something told Niall that Siren was not all she cracked herself up to be.

“No. Do you all have a dark mark on your arm?”

She scanned him up and down. “Huh. Touché.”