None would have thought it possible if they had not seen it with their own eyes, Loki, the most morose, belligerent and outright hostile being to enter Stark Tower, had found someone to tame him, in the form of a small, sarcastic, albeit slightly abnormal human. Though abnormality was subjective when it came to S.H.I.E.L.D. as many of its best agents were "abnormal" to the extent the joke regarding Clint was that he was the abnormal one on the grounds that he was the only Avenger that could be accused of being normal.

Loki first met the one to capture his heart in the tower when he was there to assist Thor in the recapturing of the Frost Beast that had come to Midgard during the Convergence. She was one of the ones assisting, as she had a durability and strength that was inhuman, and none knew why, it seemed to be natural, she did not question, and since she used her abilities to assist S.H.I.E.L.D. neither did they, too much. Her abilities had meant having to deal with men with Alpha complexes often, meaning she developed a thick skin as a result and biting words that often silenced them immediately. On their first meeting, Loki witnessed her sharp tongue and immediately found himself interested in her company. The pair swapped words, both acidic and complementary, in that order and before long, Loki sought out the company of Leila, before finally, after a trying mission, being the one she sought comfort in, in every aspect.

'Ignore it,' Loki groaned, hearing her Leila's pager go off on the bedside locker next to the bed.

'I can't and you know it.' She replied sleepily, reaching for the device. She squinted her eyes to read the text before groaning, 'It's that bloody case again, five more agents missing.'

'And that is your concern how?'

'I'm not as likely to succumb to whatever happened them.'

Loki growled, 'I do not want you to take this, I have a bad feeling.'

'Really?' She raised a brow. 'Did you get this bad feeling before?'

'Yes, and it was right then, that is my concern.' Loki stared at her face in the darkness, able to see her features in the dim light. 'Leila, please do not go to this.'

'I have to.' She leant over and kissed him. 'I will call you before I leave base.'

Loki pulled her onto him, 'Stay here, I will make it very much worth your while.'

Leila groaned. 'I wish I could, I would crawl under this blanket and very much enjoy it, but I have to go.'

'You're making a mistake.' Loki pleaded.

'Bite me.' She smiled as she retrieved her work clothes and got out of the bed.

"Bite me." The first two words she ever said in his presence and the first two words she ever said to him. Since then, they were said often between the pair, and always with jest in them.

'I'll be back before you know it.' She promised, before leaving, grabbing her jacket on the way out.

The building was creepy from the outside, and on entry, it was twice as much so. It was the last known location of the missing agents, hence it was the first place the extraction team were sent. Leila stayed in formation, her finger on the trigger, ready to fire should a reason to do so present itself. The commander suggested they split into two groups and search upstairs and the ground floor. The building was not big and was clearly deserted, so they did as requested. Leila's eyes flicked every direction, ensuring that there was nothing near her. On the first floor landing, she could find no sign of life in the house for a while, having helped clear the rooms, she let her arms relax and her gun lower. 'Team Two, Clear?' sounded on her earpiece, along with a confirmation. 'We...AHHHH!'

Leila and her team winced at the sound of the scream in their ears as well as the real one which resounded through the house, gunfire started immediately after and then more screams. Whatever it was fast and apparently bulletproof. Her team descended the stairs, weapons raised only to see the bodies of their co-workers and blood. Leila was taking up the rear of the group and was still on the landing when something flew past her, as she turned to see what it was, she received a blow to the chest that winded her, such was its force and crashed her through the bannister and caused her to fall to the end of the stairs, landing painfully after the twelve foot drop. She groaned as she felt her body tell her that it was less than pleased with events, she knew she would ache after. But her superior strength and durability had its advantages. Where others would have broken limbs, she would only have bruises. She got to her feet and realised there were drag marks and blood on the floor, but no sign of her team. She grabbed her gun just as she felt someone catch hold of her. Using the years of combat training she had studied, as well the training Loki insisted on doing with her, she was able to fight back, giving better than she received, meaning she was the victor of not one, two but three assailants.

The fifth one attacked from behind as she was squaring up to the fourth. She had noticed their attire was not that of a soldier, meaning their ability to subdue her team meant they were not human, but to her advantage, she was hardly one herself, in the strictest meaning of the word. She felt the man bite hard into her shoulder, having been able to move him enough to stop him biting her neck before his teeth broke her skin, she hissed in pain as his teeth dug deep, deeper than she thought human teeth could go. He chuckled as he let go of her and she fell to the ground in pain. 'I want this one.' He declared. 'She has a tenacity.'

Even with the agony in her shoulder, Leila was thinking of what to do next, she noticed a shard of the bannister was piercing into her side, she had not realised it had slipped in under her body armour, bracing herself for the pain, she pulled it out before jumping to her feet and thrusting it into the man's chest. 'If you want to get all Buffy with me, I'll go Buffy with you, batboy.' She hissed as she stood shakily. The man thrashed for a moment before he gasped for breath, blood seeping from his mouth. The fourth man that she had been readying to fight left out a shrill cry that caused her ears to ache. Leila knew from the pitch of it alone, it was not a mortal sound. Soon, three more, two females and a male surrounded her also. Even with the blood loss and her injuries from her fall, she stood, ready to fight.

'She should be down.' One hissed. 'I knocked her off the stairs.'

'Well she's not, is she?' The fourth one snapped. 'Lux.'

The male behind her, a large muscular man stepped forward. As Leila went to ready herself for an attack, the ones to her sides moved forward also. 'Just give up, it's easier.' The red-headed female shrieked.

'Bite me.' Leila growled, noting the stinging pain in her neck getting worse.

The four people around her chuckled, 'With pleasure.' The tall blonde woman sneered, but before she could lunge forward, Leila predicted her actions and did the same herself, tackling the other woman to the ground before using her strength to bang the woman's head as hard as she could off it. She realised it did render her unconscious, which took another blow, the third was what was required to finish her, but by the time she had done that, the large built man had gotten hold of her and she was too tightly held to do anymore.

The fourth man she had readied to fight looking at the now dead female before looking at Leila, who looked him hatefully. 'She is not a normal one. The toxins have not killed her yet and she is stronger than them.'

'What will we do with her?' The red-headed female asked.

'Exactly what she said to do, bite her. Lux.' The man holding her immediately sank his teeth into her neck as she trashed. Blood began to ooze down her throat as she realised that there was too much blood, her carotid was more than likely punctured. Scared and angry, she fought back once more, getting her arms free before gripping the man she knew to be Lux around the sides of the head and tugging fast, snapping his neck and pulling so his head came off. With a screech, she landed and stumbled, her vision blurred, the man and the red-haired woman looking at her as she fell unconscious, her last thought were of Loki's words of warning, and how she wished she had listened to him.

Leila never thought she would wake from her apparent end, but she did. Only to feel as though she had run over by a steamroller and with her head and throat in agony. Slowly, her hand made it's way to her throat, to where she knew she had been bitten only to feel dried blood there, no wound and a heavy metal contraption around it. Opening her eyes, she squinted for a moment at the intense brightness of the room.

'She's awake.' Leila looked around, her gaze coming to the red-headed woman from the house, the bars between her and the woman telling her she was in some form of cage. 'How is she alive?'

'She isn't, per se.' The man grinned looking at her. 'Look at her.' he chuckled.

The woman looked at her only to sneer. 'What'll we do with her?'

'She killed some of the coven, so she'll die for that.'

'How?'

'We starve her. Let's see how long a newly turned lasts without a feed. I would like to consider it a little experiment as well as her punishment.' He sat on a chair and took out a pen and some paper, looking at her from time to time as he wrote. 'Now then, Leila, let's see how this goes.' He grinned, holding up her credentials.

'Bite me.' She gasped.

'It does not have the desired effect it would appear.'

'What…?'

The man rose to his feet again and came closer the cage. 'But you guessed correctly already,' he grinned, squatting down and opening his mouth, revealing a set of elongated and sharp canines. 'You were bitten, the venom did not kill you, it changed you. You're one of us now.' He rose to full height. 'Well, you are technically, but killing your sires, that will mean you are never going to be one of us, you'll suffer for what you did. I hear it is a painful death, be a dear and answer that for us. '

Loki stormed through the building, not caring who he passed, he merely checked to see who they were, when they were not who he was looking for, then he paid them no further heed. Finally, he came to the lounge area for the Avengers, and to where the person he was looking for was situated.

Not caring as to the consequences, he grabbed Nick Fury by the throat and pushed him into the nearest wall. 'WHERE IS SHE!?'

'We don't know.'

'LIAR!'

'We don't, we can't tell where any of them are.' Fury coughed as Loki's grip tightened around his throat.

'Loki, what is going on?' Thor asked as Stark's armour, Rogers and Barnes all tried to pull the God off the director.

'Leila is missing, two weeks and nothing.' He snarled.

'Wait, what?' Stark half demanded, having had a soft spot for the sarcastic woman, even though she had threatened him on more than one occasion with a ballistic castration. 'Friday, scan S.H.I.E.L.D. files.'

A moment later the machine responded. 'Unknown, Sir.'

'What exactly is unknown?' Stark asked for clarification.

'Location and current status, Sir.'

'Is there anything that is known?'

'Of the eighteen S.H.I.E.L.D. agents missing, only three are registered as still emitting heat signatures, none of which are Leila Michaels.'

The Avengers looked to Loki, who after a moment to process what was being said, turned to Fury, his face contorted in anger to the point it was almost ugly, and pressed his hand tighter around his neck. 'Fifteen, dead.'

'We do not know that Loki.' Thor tried to placate him.

'Do not be a fool, Thor, humans emit heat to survive, ergo no heat signature, no life. Leila is dead.' Loki's voice was pained at the admission.

'What is their last known location?' Thor demanded from Fury.

'A house, on the outskirts of DC. We had it surrounded, when there was no response, we sent more in. Nothing was there.' Fury gasped.

'Give us the coordinates.' Rogers demanded.

*

Loki looked around the house, his eyes not needing to adapt to the dark as the other required.

'What's the stench?' Barton scrunched his nose.

'A chemical, to cover a smell.' Thor grimaced.

'It is to cover the blood.'

'Loki, you cannot be sure.' Thor dismissed. Loki kicked over a box covering a grate, there were specks of dark brown dots on it, as well as shards of wood. Something shimmered as Romanov's flashlight went over it. Thor bent down and pulled it out, sighing because he knew what was coming. Sure enough, there on it, was a locket, one he knew to see around the neck of the woman his brother loved, it was broken, snapped, but there were dark stains on it that could only be blood. Looking at Loki, he simply held his hand out with it in it and gave it to him. Loki swallowed as he looked at it, the inscription in her own native language. 'I am sorry.' Loki stormed away from the others only to pause as he readied to go out the front door and looked at the wooden wall to the side. He inhaled and look around again. 'Loki?'

'There's a draught coming through here, and the air is warm.'

Thor came over and checked, sure enough, Loki's words were true. 'What is it?' Loki and Thor looked at one another for a moment before they both took hold of the wall and broke it down, looking down, both noticed a passageway under the house.

'That is how they got out unnoticed.' Stark stated the obvious. 'We're going down right?'

'We are, you stay here.' Thor ordered.

'Like hell, you have no idea what you are going up against.'

'Neither do you.' Thor retorted.

'We are a team, we go together.' Rogers stated.

Loki did not even wait to see what they were doing, he jumped down into the tunnel.

*

Leila silently pleaded for death, it would be kinder than what was occurring to her. She had gotten to four days before the man, she now knew to be called Luther, began to taunt her. First, he brought normal food, which she cautiously tried to eat, but it made her violently ill. Then he brought one of the agents that they had killed in the sweep, his smell was nauseating. They left him in the cage with her for a night, leading to her retching for much of it. Then they brought in one that was bruised but generally unscathed, she knew him to be called Matthews, a racist prick she had little time for. As his heart raced, she noticed she could hear it, then she honed in on the sound of the blood being pushed through his body, she could hear every bit of it, it made her hunger come to the fore, she wanted so desperately to eat. He was tied at the other side of the cage, only a foot from her reach were she to pull on her chain. After another three days, she became weaker, her strength failing, before Luther and Maggie, the red-haired woman, came in and cut Matthews check, a long cut from the corner of his eye to his mouth. Luther watched as Leila's nostrils filled with the smell of the blood trickling down his face before her eyes went wide and she turned to look at the man, she lunged with all her depleted strength towards the other agent, who screamed in terror as she acted like a crazed animal, the once brown of her eyes black and her features feral as she attempted to get to him, her fangs showing, but the chain held fast, and he forever remained just out of reach, her screams of frustration matching his of terror. Every time one cut healed enough to stop bleeding, Luther caused another, and the frenzy continued, not helped by Matthews increased heart rate telling of the blood pushing around under his skin.

Matthews suffered a heart attack shortly after that, his body unable to keep up with the constant stress those holding him captive were putting him under, they did not give him chance to die of lack of care, however, they pulled him out of the cage and tore open an artery to feed, some of which splattered onto the cage, again out of Leila's reach, adding to her torment.

She lost count of the days as she weakened more and more. Leila tried to hold on to thoughts that mattered as she felt reality slipping from her, but after two weeks, nothing of her thoughts survived, all she cared about was blood, and how to try and get it. She had turned so crazed, even Luther and Maggie received frenzied screeches and reactions on entering the room, such was her desperation for food, even their grotesque smelling blood seemed appealing. Others entered from time to time, looking at her and laughing at her plight, spitting at her, spilling blood on the ground in front of her as she attempted to get at it, not once allowing her feed. On one occasion, one flicked some blood onto her hand, she immediately licked at it before her hungry turned to bloodlust and her fangs sank into her own skin, breaking it and forcing her to taste her own blood, which tasted putrid. But without thinking, she had bitten herself when she was on the verge of passing out. By the end of the second week, she could not even rise to her feet anymore when blood was near her, such was her weakness.

When she heard loud bangs and shouts, she did nothing regarding it, but then her ears heard the sound of heartbeats and she looked around from her foetal position in search of it. There, outside her cage, were humans, their hearts beating in their chests, they spoke again and again, but all she could hear was the gushing of blood in their veins, pumping through their bodies, so close. She watched weakly as one entered the cage. As soon as it came closer to her, she used all of the energy she still had to lunge forward, and snapping shrieking like an animal as she bit but was met with metal armour.

'Shit.' Stark watched from outside the cage as Thor withdrew. He watched as her eyes, wild and inhuman remained wide and her long fangs showed as she cried out trying to get at Thor again. 'They turned her into one.'

'Is she lost?' Thor asked as he looked sadly at her. 'The rest seem to be cognitive, but Leila…' Loki entered the room, first looking at Thor and Stark, then turning and staring at Leila. 'Loki, do not enter.'

'She is alive.' He commented before watching her actions. 'What have they done to her?' He snarled. Loki left the room, returning a moment later with a very battered Luther. 'What have you done?'

'She was supposed to die, she had her neck torn, but she lived and changed.' He stated with a broken jaw.

'Why is she like that?' The man chuckled but said nothing. So Loki looked over to Thor, 'Get the girl.'

Thor walked out, coming back a moment later, Wanda Maximoff with him. One look at Leila and she turned to Loki. 'They starved her, she has not fed in the two weeks since they made her like that, she is near death.' She stated.

'If she feeds, she lives?'

'Yes.' Wanda replied, reading the male's thoughts as he silently revealed the answer to Loki's question.

'Does she regain cognitive thought?'

'Yes.'

Loki threw the man to Thor. 'Wait, what are you doing?' Stark asked as Loki walked towards the cage, where Loki was entering.

'She needs to feed.'

'Wait, are you serious, she is a vampire now.'

'She will not survive long enough to get her blood any other way.' Wanda stated. Stark stared at her in disbelief.

Loki looked at Leila, her eyes inhuman as she tried to lunge for him, but she was too weak. 'It's okay.' He stated calmly as he sat close to her. 'Leila?' She gave a small hiss. 'You don't recognise me, do you?' There was no sadness in his voice, merely acceptance. 'I really wish I could say I told you so.' He sighed. He scooted closer to her, causing her to try and rise. 'How many times have you told me to "bite you", well now, you have to bite me.' He undid the armour at his wrist and rolled up his sleeve, showing her the bare skin. 'Here you go,' he moved close enough to her for her to reach his arm.

'Wait, will he turn into one?' Stark asked Thor.

'No, the bite of a Nosferatu Vampiris is non-toxic to him, his blood is too cold, and it replenishes quickly. He is the perfect candidate if there is such a thing.'

'What is a Nos…' Barton asked.

'Nosferatu Vampiris, you call them a vampire. There are actually not of this realm, but another, one you do not know much of, Alfheim. Or the original ones were, they do not procreate well, they can, but it is not often successful, but their venom tends to alter humans to a degree like children to them.' Thor looked to Luther, 'Where is her Sire or Dam?' He said nothing.

'Dead, she was bitten by two, she killed both.' Wanda stated seeing their deaths in Luther's mind. 'It took several of them to take her down.'

'Of course, it did.' Loki smiled proudly as he pulled Leila to him, given her his wrist. In her attempts to get to food, she had never been successful and as such, and did not know what exactly to do, but her fangs quickly bit in and as soon as they pulled out, crimson fluid entered her mouth and she began to drink. Loki said nothing as she did so, watching as she went from feral to calm. He pulled her against him, her complying completely and putting his hand on her forehead as he kissed her temple, grateful that she was not taken from him. 'There you go.' He stated in a soothing tone, 'take what you need.' Leila's sucks became less frantic before she finally let go of his hand, some blood on the side of her mouth. 'There.' Her eyes showing her frenzy was over.

'Loki?'

'You remember me.' He smiled.

'I…' She looked at the wound on his arm. 'Oh…'

'I gave it willingly, do not fret.' He smiled happily, seeing that, though the brown he had loved so much was deepened by the adding of red to her irises, she was returning to herself again.

'I should have listened.'

'Thor or I should have been informed. We have dealt with these creatures before.'

'What happens me now? I am a monster.'

'No, you are not a monster, you are just different now. You can choose to be one if you want or you can choose to remain as you are, though you will not do well in the light.'

'Wait, do I burn?'

'Not as your movies have you think, but it is not pleasant for you.'

'But S.H.I.E.L.D….'

'I will level it before I let them near you.'

'But how will I…'

'I will procure you what you require.' Loki promised, kissing the side of her head. 'No harm to others required, and if worst comes to worst, you can feed from me. I am sure I taste only divine.'

'Bite me.'

'It appears that is my line now.'