Salem Falls

Evelyn’s house was very quiet, now that Siren was sitting on the floor, Niall still laying on the couch. Evelyn has vanished after a distressful phone call, and Louis had been sent for elixir for Niall, something that would help him recover from the remains of the dark magic clinging to him.

Siren was unsure how she felt, sitting next to him. Niall wasn’t looking at her, but staring at the ceiling, his face stone and unmoving. When they were alone, Siren had told him what had happened, careful not to leave out any details. Though she knew that he was going to hate her, she felt that she owed it to him to leave out no details. Siren Chevaux was illogical, but not without honor.

Licking her lips, she bowed her head, her dark hair curtaining her face. She still remembered how raw the panic had been, how terror had clutched her as she cowered while Evelyn worked her magic. Evelyn was brave. And smart. Two things Siren did not feel very much in at the moment.

Everything the girl ever touched, always turned it’s back on her or always withered and died. She had that toxic effect on people, and if it had not been for the girl who she relentlessly tormented… Niall would have become one of those things. Niall, who she so viciously wanted to protect.

That was when she decided how she felt. She felt ashamed. She felt ashamed that she had let him get that close, that she had let him into her world, where he so obviously did not belong. Blocking him out, she supposed, was the right thing to do. She was selfish for letting him get too close.

“Niall, I-"

“If you’re going to push me away,” he said slowly, finally turning his face to look at her, blue eyes holding her there, “Then shut up. Because quite frankly I’m sick and tired of you trying to push me away, and just because I walked in on some crazy fucking satanic rituals isn’t changing things.”

Siren’s brows pulled together and she began shaking her head, protests bubbling up to her lips. How could he even say that, when she had just watched someone else bring him back to life, practically. “How can you even think that way?”

“Because there are a lot of things I’ve always been unsure about,” he said he struggled to sit up and she jerked forward, pressing him down gently with her hand on her chest. When she realized what she had done, she went to remove her hand but he snatched it, holding her hand against his bare chest and flattening her palm. “I was unsure of you when I met you, I was unsure of the darkness coming, I was unsure of what my life as a mage meant for me. But I am sure, in this moment, that my heart is beating under your palm, and that means I’m alive.”

“No thanks to me.”

“Who carried me to Evelyn’s door?” he demanded fiercely. Siren’s eyes were glassing over, and her throat was constricting, the muscles winding closed as she fought an urge she had not felt in a very long time. “Who dragged me hear and demand at all costs for help? Who had some weird, freaking demonic shadows protect my house?”

Siren looked down, though she still felt his heart beating under his skin. It was the best feeling in the whole world, to feel his heart beating and pumping blood through him, to acknowledge the steady rise and fall of his chest which meant that he was breathing. “I’m sorry.”

“I know that, Siren.” She was looking at the ground again. Never had Niall had to struggle so desperately with her to look him in the eyes. Siren was a very confrontational person, but now he couldn’t get her to look at him with squeezing her hand hard. “I’m not mad because of what happened to me. At all. I’m mad because I know you’re never going to forgive yourself, and you’re going to push yourself away when all I want is to hold you close.”

Tears spilled from her face. Niall was so understanding and she just could not take it anymore. She could not ruin something that pure, no matter how long she had been ruining things like that for years. Niall was the one thing she did not want to ruin for life.

“No,” she whispered, pulling her hand free of his and shoving herself from the ground. She was shaking her head and tears were falling free from her face, each one felt like acid. She hated crying, and she had not done so like this in years. “I’m not going to ruin you.”

Pain was an understatement as it hit her chest as she bolted from him. Her heart physically felt like it was about to crack in two, as she made her way for the door. In a human novel, she had read something about pain demanding to be felt. She could not remember the author or book, but the human was right. It was demanding it right in that moment.

Wrenching the door open, she found that it smacked shut an electric energy pulsing through it and up her arm, wrenching her hand forward and making her let go in surprise at a crack went through it, black and angry. Siren whirled around in surprise, finding Niall standing- very unstably- next to the couch, shaking slightly.

“Well that was certainly a little excessive,” he admit, nodding tiredly. Siren was not sure if she wanted to run to his side and make sure he didn’t topple over, or if she wanted to turn around and try the door again. But that had spell had been laced with… power that did not feel like it was all green. “I only tried to close it. It didn’t have to crack.”

“Were you trying to rip my arm out?” she asked. There were a million other things she could had said, but the decidedly most idiotic comment slipped out of her mouth like nothing. “Or…?”

He opened his mouth and closed it before a smirk popped onto his lips. “Like I said, Si. I’m tired of you pushing away from me, when right now, right here, I want you to lay on the fucking couch with me and let me hold you.”

Options. There were two of them, as she stood there. Option A was to turn around and walk out the door. Niall could try and stop her all he wanted, but she was the one who had stronger spells. Maybe. Something seemed to have rubbed off on Niall, after he had been attacked by Azazel.

Option B was to march over there and let him take her up in his arms. She remembered how his lips felt against hers, how he sent shivers down her spine and how everything felt extremely hot and tense around him. It was amazing.

So she did the stupid option. She went with option B, marching over to him forcefully and burying herself in his arms, knocking them over onto Evelyn’s couch. He grunted with the force, still in pain and she apologized immediately, but it was silence by him holding her face and tangling his lips with hers.

Underneath her, she could feel his heart beat, the way the thrumming picked up instantly as she moved her mouth against his, feverishly, as if trying to kiss away the pain that she had caused him, trying to kiss away the darkness that had attacked him.

It was during that that something, electric shocked her lips making her pull back in surprise. It was the same crack of energy that had struck the door when Niall slammed it with magic, surprising and forceful, but not painful.

Niall’s blue eyes went wide in confusion and surprise, an apology tumbling from his mouth. “I have no idea what that was, I’m sorry.”

Finger running across her lips, Siren could only think of one thing, and in an instant she was sitting up on him, straddling his waist and giggling into the palm of her hand as she looked down at him. He frowned, leaning up with effort, inches away from her face. “Oh my god.”

“What?”

“You were struck by one of the most powerful types of magic in the world, Niall,” she laughed as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. Lowering her hands from her mouth, she cupped his confused face in her hands, looking at him with nothing but affection. “Do you really think you would come out without some freaking side effect?”

He rolled his eyes. “Great. So you can burn people with fire and I…”

“Have some weird static electricity business going on. You’re electrifying.”

“I don’t get you,” he murmured, eyes searching her face, raising his and to gently hold one of the hands on his face. “A moment ago you were crying and trying to leave through that door, and then you were kissing me like it was the apocalypse, and now you’re giggling and calling me electrifying.”

Siren grinned, bringing his face to hers and placing a kiss on his lips. “I’m crazy,” she murmured against his mouth, kissing him over and over again, as if she would never be able to do it enough times. “Get used to it, Sparky.”

“Oh god.”