ELECTRIC LOVE

“Okay, do whatever you need to do I guess.” Marshall offered, he didn’t really know what this experience was going to be like or how the wolf would inevitably react but if this witch needed his help something inside him felt obliged to help. He’d done so much damage over the last few months, if he could use some of this power to help even one person then maybe he would be able to get some sleep at night. The werewolf nodded, “I’m ready.”

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Miri watched patiently as he began to collect himself, steadying his stance, becoming something as steadfast as granite and marble. Still, she gave his fingers a squeeze— something hopefully reassuring, and tucked in a breath of her own, trying to ward off nervousness. As long as she looked confident, she hoped that it would not give away the fact that she had no idea what it was she was doing. Under her breath she spoke the words inscribed in the book, drawing from the werewolf like a battery, tugging his magic out like silvery strands, letting it weave through her own where it was lacking. Above, a sigil began to paint itself in the same glowing material beneath the window of the apartment, burning brighter and bolder before she said the final words and it faded from view, as though stamped into the building material. Miri pulled her hand free, looking over at Marshall. “That’s it. Are you okay?”

“Oh. I’m sorry.” It’s not an issue she’s created, but Violet empathizes with Miri anyways, reaching a hand out to rub against the other witch’s arm. Being uncomfortable in one’s own home is always awful, but selfishly, she’d be happy to have Miri stay with her. Anything that will give them more time together. “You can come to me, always.” She assures, her smile growing. Violet can think of nothing she’d like better, honestly, aside from all three of them being there. Perhaps they can talk Luce into spending a night or two as well with them both there. “Jakob’s a big boy, he can handle it.” She doesn’t bring up their past history, that would only make matters potentially awkward. The only thing that really matters is the fact that he’s her best friend, and currently her roommate. Anything beyond that would just muddle things. “Besides, technically it was my place first. I think that means I have the run of it.”

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“It’s—“ She shook her head, leaning into Violet’s side. “Let’s not talk about it. I’d rather just spend time with you.” Her mind wouldn’t be elsewhere in the other woman’s company, and she reached over to give the cat’s little head a scratch. “Always?” Miri echoed the words dangerously, forming a curved smile. “You might never get rid of me that way, I’m kind of clingy you know.” She liked the idea of being a permanent fixture in Violet’s life, in getting to know the people that she cared about, in opening her heart to not only one of the girls she had been seeing, but both. Why shouldn’t they all be together? Her lips pressed to Violet’s shoulder and she continued to walk, “I can’t cook and I can barely clean but I’ve got other skills to help me make up for the trouble.”

“A Sphinx? Gods, don’t they know when to leave things dead? Haven’t even thought about one of those things in centuries. Do they still have the funny heads? Or the big wings – those weren’t so bad. I once used a Sphinx feather to create the most gorgeous quill. Aphrodite tried to bribe me for it, but between you and me, I never could get past her incessant need to change her hairstyle every few hours.” When Dorian finally finished his small rant, he nearly looked sorry for Miri. Though he wasn’t going to budge on the fact that he did know what to do, but this witch sure did have the audacity to say she was wasting time in his presence. Didn’t she know it was an honor? “Of course she would. But you’re asking me to do something for you, right? So what on earth do I get out of helping the Delphi Coven? Don’t you know you’ve all been corrupt since the Pythia was in charge? What made you sick in the first place?” Narcissus made his way a little closer to Miri, circling her after a second, “It’s your life essence that’s sick. It’s not like you have a disease. Otherwise I wouldn’t have let you in. So – how and when did this start?”

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He kept asking questions, but left little pause for Miri to answer them. In fact, in the short break that the man took to tuck in a breath, she found herself unable to raise her voice, lips stayed sealed shut until Dorian finally looked over at her, tipping his head to study the way that she sniffled and looked frail. “He looked just like a man,” she offered, “I think he’s dating my sister.” She rubbed at her features, feeling quite miserable as she blinked up at the chatty man, “I’m sure that there’s something that you want that we can provide. A pedestal, your figure cast in bronze? Perhaps a parade, my mother has sway in the city.” Her words had bite to them, but she had grown tired and felt weaker, like a small creature prone to snap its teeth when cornered. “I don’t know what it is,” she admitted, “Or what caused it. My mother woke up from a coma, started to hang out with Hektor all the time, and now I feel like roadkill.” She paused, considering. “A few months ago, when she woke. It started slowly, I barely even noticed feeling unwell.”

Miri snuggled in close and Ade’s arms enveloped her, looping around her sisters frame so she could feel the reassurance of being in someones arms that loved her, looked out for her and would never give up on her. A tender kiss is pressed to the crown of Miri’s head and honestly the bit of vulnerability threaded between them caused tears to gloss over Ade’s eyes, she was always first to react with anger, which was actually a secondary emotion to hurt and confusion, but for so long carrying such heavy grief without anywhere to put it down, it felt like her sanity was hanging by a thread and the idea of leaving her mother alone with such a monster dug deep claw marks into her heart. 

“At your girlfriends house.” She’s quick to follow up, even now wishing to tease her eldest sister about her love life. The quicker the three of them could admit it, the quicker the ‘what are we’ dance will be over. “Dio gave me a key to his place.” Her heart is so heavy as she breathes through rusted lungs. “I can’t believe there would ever come a day where I’d walk out on her, but I have to think bigger. I’m still going to be fighting for her, and for all of you. I’m just going to stay alive to do it.” Leaving Hektor behind was how to do so.

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Miri made a face, twisting in Ade’s arms to look at her features. “We don’t have a label yet,” she pointed out, before sinking further into her sister’s grip. “But I think I’d like it. I’ve only got eyes for them,” she admitted, twisting a lock of curly hair around her finger. “Is that strange? To like two people at once, and in the same way? I don’t think it is, but I don’t know what it looks like from the outside.” Her brows tugged in. “I’d ask mom about it but,” she paused, feeling small again. “It doesn’t seem like the right time.” In fact, nothing felt right anymore and she felt like someone who had swallowed a jar full of bees. They were restless in her belly, humming angrily while she shifted uncomfortably. “I thought he would,” she admitted, “I want you to be safe.” The estate wasn’t the place for it, and with Dio and Orion’s new house built, it felt like a good option. “We can’t help anyone when we’re all in trouble, we have to just keep doing what we’re doing,” she sighed. “One step at a time.”

     Was this really happening? Not that it was the first time something like this happened to Luce – it was just the first time with a girl she liked so much, one who made her overthink her every move. One who made her so nervous her hands felt clammy when they rested against the beautiful curve of the witch’s lips. The shifter was breathing nervously, hot air leaving her mouth in quick hot bursts as she started placing lingering kisses against Miri’s jawline and then down along her neck. “You think so?”, she whispered against the other’s skin, an almost wicked grin appearing on her lips. “Why don’t you help me take it off? I don’t think I can do it alone.”

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Miri reached for the hem of Luce’s shirt, nodding theatrically at the words. “I know so,” she returned, and her jaw lifted to allow the shifter to pay her attention there. It felt nice, to dissolve for a moment, to allow her worries to sink away and find home in the floor boards. Full lips parted before she leaned back, composing herself enough to begin inching the fabric up. “I’m nothing if not helpful,” the witch noted, a smile curving on her mouth, shrouding the other’s features with the garment before she tugged it over her shoulders and off completely. Luce’s braids stayed unmussed, and she laughed, leaning in to press a kiss to her lips once again.

“We’re gonna need a miracle.” Jazz points out, letting out a huff of breath in an attempt to calm down. Tensions are high and it’s to be expected, but they’re capable, they’re stronger together. Maybe she’d consider this some kind of introduction to really being in the coven, some kind of test run. It seems like the kind of shenanigans she’s read about in the archives. And yet, this is an original vampire, supposedly the original vampire, and she had a family back home. She could pack up and-No, no she can’t, not standing there looking at Miri, not thinking of Atlas and Ava, everyone else in Corinth she’s met. So instead of running, she looks to not just another witch, but a friend, and she gives a nod of her head. “Start talking, I’ll help with whatever I can.”

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“Okay so the plan’s kind of half ass,” Miri admitted, carding a hand through her long curls. They were disrupted and messy when they fell back down her back and she offered Jazz a sheepish expression. “The library has to have something there, I was talking to my friend— he used to be a witch and now he’s a fury, he told me to start looking there for information.”  The water witch was pacing, “I really fucking hate doing research, but there’s got to be something there that we don’t know: something that he hasn’t told me about that we can use.” Her brows knit, “Actually, it sort of seemed like he couldn’t tell me about it, which was even more messed up but I don’t know much about being a fury.” A sigh left her and she ceased her pacing, “I don’t know much about anything at all.”

    Miri was right. She knew Levi almost too well, and it caused more tears to well up in his eyes. This time he managed to hold them back, but it still hurt. He wished he hadn’t invested so much of himself into this — then maybe it wouldn’t hurt so much. Instead he recoiled further into Miri’s embrace to find comfort in it. “Okay,” he mumbled, pushing his hair out of his face as he nodded. “Can we have a sleepover? I don’t want to sleep alone tonight.”

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She stroked her brother’s hair and back, tucking him close. They had been born in two different families, but raised in the same one— twins, she called them as they had grown up, hot on each other’s heels, both of the same element. In Levi, water was something calm, a graceful element that flowed with each step that he took on the dance floor: he turned it into beauty. Merym used her own as a conduit, to house the electricity that also settled in her veins, she was a reminder that even still waters could swallow you up, that relentless torrents could wear away even diamond. “Yeah,” she promised, pressing a kiss to his temple. “I’ll stay with you.”

“Demons?” That was a Christian term, surely Anastasia had raised her children better than that. Then again maybe not. The oldest coven in the world was also the most inept, Persephone wanted to laugh but she stifled it to continue the performance of her considerable lifetime. “What happened while I was asleep, Miri?” Anastasia questioned, memory served that the mother had high hopes for this one though as far as Persephone could see she lacked the grit to hold any true power in her hands. “Tell me everything.”

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“Manticores.” She had always been a miserable student and her knowledge of such had come simply from a few pages that she had skimmed over in the library: Tartarus formed, they were Typhon’s pets. Invulnerable, poison. The question made her sigh, reaching to rub at her cheek. “You wouldn’t have been proud of me,” the water witch admitted, and her voice was small. “Ade got into a fight with one of the Argos, I barely got her to keep it together— we all thought that you were dying, that,” Miri paused. “I was so focused on trying to find a way to wake you up. Dio would have died to do it, he and Roman tried to give you his energy, I was so angry.” She shook her head. “There was nothing else, just that you’re back now and that we’ll be alright.”

    It was incredibly hard to focus on anything when Miri was so close, when her lips pressed against Luce’s jaw, and her fingers wrapped around her braids. The shifter felt incredibly hot, and if she wasn’t so good at control, she would have been afraid that she turned into her animal side any second now. Clearing her throat, she tried to focus on the words leaving the other’s mouth. “If you keep this up,” she got out, one hand inching underneath the fabric of Miri’s shirt on the small of her back, “I don’t think I’ll even let you put on another piece of clothing.”

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Miri was already leaning dangerously into Luce, working with intent to have the other woman press against the mattress below her, while her other hand lay against her thigh, inching upwards as she began to feel bolder. Electricity buzzed above them— a side effect from the careless casting of magic, her focus was everywhere and nowhere, and her lips found the shifter’s for a brief kiss. Under her collar her own skin was beginning to feel warm, and the pit of her stomach flipped nervously as she tucked in a breath. “I think that maybe you should just take this one off,” she managed weakly, feeling the pads of Luce’s fingers against her bare spine.

A smile accompanied by relief crossed Nik’s golden features as all at once the air that had built about them fell flat. Light faded and suddenly the diner seemed dark in comparison to the power that had once filled it, there would be no curse, no punishment. Just the answer that Miri had requested as the sphinx’s power faded and Nikandros was left with the solution she had requested. “There is a rift in this city, Narcissus. He alone has the power to save you and your siblings. But you can’t go home, or your soul will decay again.” Nik stood up from his seat, “I need to go see Ava, she has to know.” He needed to find this man, Narcissus before it was too late. “I have to help her.”

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Miri blinked, reaching for a napkin to write the information down. Narcissus, Rift. It was underlined twice, then tucked into the front pocket of her shirt. She would have to find him, to do a locating spell or something, but it was enough information to hopefully save them. Her brows tugged in, and she coughed into her hand, panicked when she saw her palm coated in red. “Find Ava. I’ll figure out where Narcissus is.” She swallowed, looking up at Nik as he started to get up whispering something sincere before she too parted ways. “Thank you.”

Narcissus wasn’t sure he was in the mood for a sob story, but something was off about her. It was like her soul was intact, yet her life was deteriorating. He could sense it with his newfound powers, almost like he could reach out and fix what was ailing her. But that’d take the attention off of him – couldn’t allow that to happen. “Oh – right. The Delphi. Honestly, the garden you have is pretty, but have you considered redoing the flowers? I have so many Narcissus flowers. I could gift them to your mother. I hear she’s lovely. The Pythia way back when were always ridiculous. They were treated like goddesses. Nice to see that everyone realized it was just divination and plenty of witches can do that. Anyway, I don’t know what you mean, Meryem. I’m not actually a doctor – I’m just smart enough to be one. And it’s your whole family? Are you sure you just didn’t miss a plague test somewhere along the way? I wonder if they have those now. Probably. My name is Dorian. I picked one to fit in with the rest of you.”

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Miri nearly looked back at the door, wondering if it would be better to slip through it once again to leave this man’s house, and take her chances with whatever end was bound to come as a result of her ailment. This, she was silently reminded as her mouth opened and she found that she had no words to utter, no ways of cutting him off, was why she hated men. Her arms crossed in front of her chest as she fought back another sputtering cough, but he, Dorian, finally came to an end of his spiel and she let out a breath. “A sphinx lead me here,” the witch said, hoping that he could see a little bit of the seriousness in that— she had risked a curse to find a cure, though more and more of her was sure that this man had difficulty seeing anything that lay beyond a mirror. “My siblings and I, we’re all very sick. It’s nothing that a healer can cure, I’ve tried that.” Miri took a step back, catching her haggard expression in glass. “Maybe I’m wasting my time. I thought you were a rift.” She paused, considering. “My mother would probably love those flowers though, we don’t have a single narcissus plant in our gardens.”

     There had also been others before Aydin. Levi easily developed crushes on hot guys — but this felt different. Going their separate ways had never hurt this bad, and he had turned his back on men who were still in the closet or unwilling to be seen with Levi specifically in public before. Yet none of that had hurt quite like this. “I don’t want that,” he whispered quietly. “I just want the pain to stop completely.” He couldn’t go through this heartbreak in addition to everything else happening around him, but there was no way around it. “Dating sucks,” he whispered, leaning his head against Miri’s shoulder. “I don’t think I want to do it again.”

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She squeezed him harder, as if that would help to piece him together, as if her body could be the sutures required to keep Levi from feeling like a wound. “It hurts because it mattered to you,” Miri said, quietly. “Because you love with everything you have.” She had warned him of such a thing, of how this shifter would do exactly what he had, and she felt nothing but venom in regards to him— but that was something she would process later, instead she shook her head, murmuring by Levi’s ear. “What you need is some water, a hot shower, and to sleep. You’ll feel better about everything in the morning. Or worse, but you’ll be clearer about it.”

“Um, can I do that?” Marshall asked, he didn’t really know much about witches and werewolves, but if she needed his help - if he could help then he wanted to do that. Tentatively the werewolf reached out and placed his hand over hers, palm down so they met, that felt right - everything about this felt kind of right if he was being honest. There was some connection between the two of them that Marshall didn’t really understand, different from what he felt around Kit, or other wolves for that matter. Some alignment clicked and while he could feel the wolf inside of him raise its hackles, Marshall instead focused on the girl in front of him. On Miri. “If I can help, I will. Just… I don’t have a lot of control so please don’t hurt me.”

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“Yes,” Miri confirmed, closing her hand around his. She looked up, catching the uncertainty in his gaze— the worry that tugged at him, and the witch slipped her fingers through his, giving them a squeeze. She was grateful of the help, the call didn’t have to be answered, and for that she wouldn’t draw it out in a way that would cause him hurt. She tucked in a breath, trying to focus on the words and what she wished to accomplish, when his words made her pause, giving him a second look. “It’s not going to hurt,” she assured, despite the fact that she hadn’t done such a thing before it felt like something she could lie about for his sake. “I promise. Focus on the earth, on the runes. Anything steady, it’ll help. Stay centered.”

Narcissus loved having people over to his villa. It was a vain thing for sure, especially because he knew the house was lovely and definitely something to be jealous over. What he was unsure about, though, was unexpected guests. A witch was at his door, one that sounded like she was definitely unwell, and the rift hesitated. Picking up a satin handkerchief, he placed it over his nose. “The one and only, but are you lost? I’m not sure what Theseus told you, but there is no charity here.”

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Miri rubbed at her cheek, looking at the man tiredly as he in turn looked at her as though she was carrying the plague. She wasn’t entirely sure if such a thing was unlikely, and she shook her head. “I’m not looking for charity—“ In fact, she was, but there was more to be said. “I’m Meryem Vidalis, from the Delphi coven.” The brunette sniffled, “There’s something wrong with me, and my family, and I was told that only you could help.” She looked up, “What’s making us sick isn’t natural, and it’s starting to get worse.” He seemed vain, and she was wise enough to appeal to such a thing. “You’re the only person who can do it, there’s no one else with the skill.”