Emerald Smoke

Chapter 1

I gingerly hold up the bloody knife.

What have I done? Where was my control I was struggling to hard to maintain?

Somehow it always ended like this... always some blood shed. A frightening thought crossed my mind. No, impossible. To die in a dream would means I would died in real life soon. A beach slowly fades into view, a sunset casting violet and red shadows, matching the drops falling off the tip of the knife. I shove the knife in the sand, desperately fighting the urge to cry. The red sun rises a bit and darts in my gloved hands. I kiss the miniature flames, and it shifts into a blue baby boy. He ages in my arms, but never grows. Soon, the boy is a young man tiny enough to fit in a backpack. The man's arms reach out to my face and clench my jaw.

I startled awake.

It took a couple of seconds to realize that hands were actually roughly grabbing my jaw. In the dim light the moon gives, I could tell that my attacker was a tall man. I feigned helplessness and started to hyperventilate. The hands didn't relax their grip. He knew I wasn't innocent. I grabbed the dagger under my pillow and scraped it up the man's arm as a distraction. He loosened his grip. One second's all I needed. I jumped out of bed and kicked him in the solar plexus and he doubled over, gasping for breath. I started to kick his knees, but he weakly raised a hand and a green semi-transparent force field stopped me in my tracks. It faded away, but I stayed still, mouth agape.

Golden armor glimmered on him and two horns protruded from his helmet curving backwards. I stared as the man straightened up, horns glinting impressively. The moonlight didn't show much of his features, but I could tell the long haired man was lean.

"What the hell are you doing?" I demanded, my voice not matching my awestruck face. It's way too early for this.

"I am Loki, of Asgard." His relatively deep voice was filled with command. I looked him up and down.

"...Bullshit." I squinted at him for a little while. Was this a huge ridiculous prank pulled by Alex or was he truly the Norse god? Wasn't he supposed to be tied down by the entrails of his son, writhing in agony and sweetly planning revenge until Ragnarok came so he could kill everyone, especially Heimdall, so he could rule over the new world under his hand and make people suffer if they didn't do what he said and whatnot?

Gods, Alex, I swear, I'll kick you in the face so hard, your jaw will fly to Mexico, I mentally threatened. This can't be Loki. The man suddenly flicked his wrist and the lights blazed on. Holy ríða! Immediately, I stumbled back, clutching my hands to your eyes, protesting from the sudden light.

"Goddamnit!" I cussed rather loudly and opened my eyes again, anger radiating from my body. Loki smirked, mischief glittering in his eyes.

I glared into his eyes, wondering how he preformed that parlor trick.

"Come with me," he commanded in a surprisingly suave voice.

"No. Fjandinn þér!" I won't be ordered around by anyone, especially not the 'God of Mischief'. If this really was the god I prayed to every day, he'd know how much I won't back down. "You don't even look like the real Loki, so how can I trust you?"

"It's an invitation to Asgard, not an order," he sighed, ignoring my other question.

"Damn fooled me," I mumbled. Loki smirked again and held out his hand. I blankly stared at it. I wouldn't take his hand if it depended on my life. Anyone who pretends to be the god I love doesn't deserve trust.

"Why are you here?" I asked, going back to his handsome face.

"I put snakes in the wine," he smugly replied. A giggle burst out of me and he stared at me, confused.

"Ahh great. Good job, Loki, pissing off the gods once more..." I cleared my throat. "Aren't you supposed to be tied down by the entrails of your son?" I mentally congratulated myself upon seeing the confused look on Loki's face. "You don't have a son, do you?"

"Not even a wife. Why do you ask such petty things?"

"Having a family isn't petty. Some people don't have one," I snapped. Sighing, I decided I didn't want my monster to come out, and I carried on in a much calmer voice. "There are these pretty abnormal myths going around about you. If you don't even know them, then you're not really Loki. What do you want with me?"

"I don't want you," Loki replied in a strained voice. Wow. Thanks, Loki. I only poured out my heart to you when I was in desperate need of comfort. Doesn't matter, really. "The Aesir wants you. You're special, unlike any other Midgardian we've come across. You have this aura of incredible power about you. We'd like to see if you would like to train our warriors with your unique fighting techniques." He made a point to leave out the part where all the Aesir could sense the overwhelming sense of dangerous power radiating from her.

I froze. Unique fighting? Did he mean the part where the monster came out and totally burned everything to a crisp?

"Karate, I believe it is," he finished. I relaxed and released a breath I didn't realize I was sucking in.

His armor shimmered off him, making him look a lot less intimidating, but nonetheless sexy.

I snorted. Holograms. I didn't know they were already released to the public.

"Well, I didn't want you... until now." Loki added, his eyes travelling down my body. My cheeks burned red and I narrowed my eyes. Pig. If looks could kill, he'd be dead by now.

"Give me time to think about it," I snarled through my teeth. If I was taught anything in Karate when in a hostage situation, it's to try to buy time. If I got some time, I could think of a plan to get rid of him quickly before anything got out of hand.

"Certainly." He didn't sound too happy about that.

"But..." he smirked. "I live with you until you decide."

"What?!" I didn't want anybody living with me! The whole reason why I chose to live by myself is because I didn't want the monster inside of me to get out and hurt anybody! "No!" I protested. It fell on dead ears as Loki shrugged and flopped down on my chair and started flipping through a book.

But what if he's actually Loki? Maybe you'll find a god to help you with your problem. The never-ending fight was tiring me, threatening to make me fall into an endless sleep. I don't know how long I can hold out. It would win, and everyone would be screwed.

I gnashed my teeth together, grabbed a book from my nightstand, and threw it at the raven-haired man's perfect face. He caught it in midair, still looking at the other book. He glanced at the thrown book and smirked.

"Thank you! I've been looking for this rare Midgardian novel. I hear it's quite tragic."

Catching Fire

"LOKI!" I screamed and stomped out of my room. It was one thing to pray to Loki and love him when he's in Asgard, but it's a whole different thing to have a prick in your bedroom claiming he's your god! I'm so pissed, I decide to take a walk outside at two in the morning, barefoot.

He'll go soon, not to worry. If he doesn't want to, then he'll feel my wrath that no mortal can survive.