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The Kanima was circling the pool and Derek was limp and useless by his side. Even with what he was he didn’t know how much longer he could hold out -it had been over two hours. Luckily the pool actually allowed him to use the gifts his supernatural status gave him. After all, a siren without water is basically just a human, granted with one or two small added bonuses.
Sirens were becoming more and more rare by the year. The reputation their ancestors had given them had stuck around for centuries and endangered them every day. Most sirens nowadays couldn’t do the whole ‘lure men to their deaths with a single song’ thing anyway. Like all supernatural creatures, Sirens are either connected to magic or born from it. And just like with most supernatural creatures, primarily the humanoids, that connection had faded with time, so anyone that could do the magical singing voice shtick was either really powerful or had a magic user on the side. It was usually the latter.
This was also one of the many reasons his mom made him promise to never reveal his true identity, not even to other supernaturals. And this was one of the many times he’s questioned agreeing to that promise. Because while he couldn’t lure people to a watery grave with just a few musical notes he could likely scream the roof off the school.
When he called Scott the Beta never even answered so he had to drop his phone in the pool, and unlike him, his phone couldn’t survive underwater. Neither could Derek so he had to save the sourwolf’s ass and basically abandon all hopes of getting out of there without somehow revealing to Derek what he was.
“Dude, I don’t know how much longer I can hold out,” Stiles voiced.
“Well maybe next time if you didn’t let me almost drown, I would be able to help a little more,” Derek growled.
“Oh, would you shut up about that? I was trying to get us help,” he pointed out. “Besides you’re fine.”
“What did Scott say anyway?” If he wasn’t too tired Stiles would have cringed.
“He- He didn’t say anything. He never answered.” Derek growled again.
“So you mean you dropped me for nothing!” the werewolf almost roared.
“Not nothing, big guy. That just let me know I need to use my last resort,” the siren sighed. He almost wanted to laugh at the irony of the last time the statement was used.
“What last-” Before Derek could finish his sentence Stiles let out an ear-splitting scream. If he wasn’t paralyzed, Derek would have covered his ears and honestly he wasn’t surprised when he felt some kind of liquid running down the side of his face that was warm instead of cold like the pool water they were sitting in.
The scream shattered windows and mirrors and any other item that it had the capability to. The Kanima screamed back at the pair (though nowhere near as powerful as when Stiles had) before scurrying away and out of one of the newly shattered windows. After the lizard was gone Stiles used the last of his strength to swim to the edge of the pool and pull Derek and himself over the wall and onto the tile that surrounded it.
Derek, who seemed to have finally gained some control of his upper body and looked very concerned about what had just occurred, asked “Stiles what the hell was that?”
Stiles went to answer but the next thing he knew everything went black.
BREAK
Stiles groaned as he woke up, his body sore and achy due to the activities of the past few hours. He didn’t know if he was still at the pool or not, but he wasn’t soaking wet anymore so he assumed not. He went to open his eyes but closed them again at the light that flooded his senses making his already bad headache even worse. He was glad for the cushions of what Stiles was pretty sure was a couch that was there to help soothe him.
Not long after that, he heard a door -or at least what he assumed to be a door- slide open before sliding closed again. Whoever came in the room was clearly waiting for Stiles to make the first acknowledgment of their presence if the silence was anything to go on. But honestly, with that light still on and his head hurting as much as it did, he was perfectly fine with just waiting out the silence until the other person decided they were tired of it.
Apparently, he didn’t have to wait that long. “Open your eyes. I know you’re awake.” It was Derek’s voice. Of course, it was Derek’s voice, he had just been in the school pool with the guy for the past two hours give or take. And revealed himself as a supernatural creature to the dude. This was just great, amazing really.
“Turn off the light. It’s too damn bright and I already have a migraine,” Stiles told him.
“Open your eyes,” Derek repeated, enunciating every word and sounding like someone had just done something to offend him. Probably Stiles, he usually did something to offend Derek.
“Turn off the light,” Stiles responded, doing his best to mimic the Alpha.
“Fine,” Derek growled before the room became dimmer. “Now get up and open your eyes, not your mouth.” Stiles wondered if Derek heard how wrong that sounded. “Yes, I did. Shut up.” And, he said that out loud.
Stiles sat up with another groan before opening his eyes. He had zero clue where Derek had taken him. It wasn’t the train depot nor was it the old Hale house, it was too clean for that, also too empty. There was a bed off to the corner, a large wall of windows showing it was still night, and a random spiral staircase that made Stiles want to get up for the express purpose of finding out where it led to.
“Where the hell did you bring me?” He wanted to know, and after that, he wanted to go up the stairs. “And why is it not abandoned like your usual hangouts?”
“It’s my apartment,” Derek grunted. “Did you think I just lived out of places that don’t have any running water or plumbing?”
“Yeah, pretty much” Stiles responded quickly, earning a glare from the werewolf.
“What are you?” And straight to the point.
“Would you believe me at all if I told you I’m just a plain old human?” Derek, like the Sourwolf he was, just gave him a look saying, ‘are you kidding me?’. It was really amazing how well his eyebrows spoke for him. “Right, of course not. Before I tell you just try not to react like I’m about to, like, bleed you dry or something.” Stiles let out a sigh. “I’m a Siren.” Derek did a good job at hiding it but Stiles could tell that the man was ready to defend himself or attack him as soon as Stiles made anything that could be considered a wrong move.
“Why didn’t I know till now?” Derek asked, his voice tense. Derek tilted his head, clearly trying to protect his throat, and Stiles rolled his eyes at the display.
“Because a siren without water is basically a human. The only thing we can really do is that screaming thing I did in the pool and, even so, it’s nowhere near as powerful as when we are in or underwater. And you can stop hiding your throat dude, just because Sirens feed on blood doesn’t mean we can only get it from humans. Or well in your case human-looking people. Personally, I prefer fish blood.” He didn’t change his stance but Derek did become slightly less tense.
“I thought sirens lured people to their death with a song. Not that they scream loud enough to burst eardrums and destroy any shatter-prone objects in the vicinity.” Derek wasn’t technically asking a question but Stiles knew what he meant.
“We used to be able to. But over time that ability has faded and only a select few of us can. Kind of like werewolves being able to turn into actual wolves, over time our connection with the earth’s magic has faded so only those with a strong enough connection to it can do the whole death song thing. We all still have killer singing voices, though.” Derek just shot him a ‘really’ look at the pun. “Nowadays we’re more like the banshees of the sea, just without the whole connection to the dead thing. But our screams are also a lot stronger as it’s our primary defense mechanism.”
“No shit,” Derek grumbled. “My ears still hurt, you asshole.”
“Hey, it saved your life.” That’s when Stiles remembered he and Derek weren’t the only ones there. “What happened to Erica?”
“She’s fine. Your scream woke her but she doesn’t know it was you that screamed. I told her it was the Kanima.” Stiles let out a sigh of relief before quickly turning confused.
“Kanima?”
“Before it escaped it got confused by its reflection in one of the mirror shards that you happened to create. It was brief but enough that I noticed it. It’s how I figured out it was a Kanima,” the man informed him.
“Does Scott know?” Derek asked, confusing Stiles again. “Scott, does he know what you are?”
Stiles shook his head. “No. Until today the only person who knew was my dad.”
“Why haven’t you told him?”
“Because I promised my mom I wouldn’t tell anyone. The reputation my ancestors gave Sirens hasn’t exactly helped us out in the survival department. Hunters and most supernaturals see us as mindless killing machines and we often end up dying because of it. So we usually try to lay low.”
“I’m sorry,” Derek said.
“Why are you apologizing?”
“My pack we… Before the fire, there were a couple of sirens living in one of the lakes in the preserve. My mom ordered them to be killed before even giving them the chance to leave,” the alpha told him. “I figured if I can’t apologize to them, the least I could do is apologize to you.”
“You also immediately assumed I would hurt you when I told you I was a siren.”
“I’m sorry for that too.” Derek had the most sincere look on his face and it made Stiles want to swoon. A feeling he fully intended to address later. Or, you know, never. Never was good too.
“It’s alright, dude,” Stiles said before slowly pushing himself off the couch. “I have to get going. I no longer have a phone so I should probably go home before dad starts to worry too much.
“Speaking of which, is my jeep still at the school?”
Derek nodded. “I’ll take you there.” Stiles was about to protest but shut up at the look Derek threw him.
BREAK
Derek pulled the Camaro up next to the jeep. Stiles moved to exit the car but Derek stopped him. He was about to ask why when the werewolf just dangled the keys in front of his face. Stiles made a silent ‘oh’ sound before snatching the keys and leaving the Camaro. Instead of going straight to the jeep, Stiles made his way to the driver’s side door of Derek’s car and bent down to put his arms on the already open window.
“Um, I’d appreciate it if the whole me not being completely human thing stayed between us for now, if that’s okay.” Derek simply nodded and Stiles gave the man a slight smile before moving to get to the driver’s side of the jeep.
“Hey Stiles,” Derek yelled, causing the siren to pause. “One last question.”
“Uh, yeah, what is it?”
“Do you have a tail?”