I'm not the one whose so far away

When I feel the snakebite enter my veins

Never did I wanna be here again

And I don't remember why I came

Candles raise my desires

Why I'm so far away?

No more meaning to my life

No more reason to stay

Freezing, feeling,

Breathe in, Breathe in.

I'm coming back again.

Hazing clouds rain on my head

Empty thoughts feel my ears

Find my shade by the moonlight

Why my thoughts aren't so clear.

Demons Dreaming

Breathe in, Breathe in

I'm coming back again.

-Lyrics taken from Voodoo by Godsmack. Really awesome song, that a lot of ppl think is a heroine addiction song. He wrote it after watching the Serpent and the Rainbow, a really wicked movie about Voodoo and Witchcraft. The song has so much meaning.

Seagen traveled stealthily through the tree tops, avoiding any mobs of undead that littered the forest floor. She came to the cottage and threw open the door, horrified to see that Loki was nowhere inside. She called for him, but received no reply. The first light was beginning to peak over the horizon and she knew that The Keeper and the Undead would all be back in their tombs, waiting for the darkness to embrace them once again, but still she worried that The Keeper might have gotten to her new found friend…and then she heard someone quietly making their way along the path.

"Loki!" she cried, as she rushed down the hill to meet him. He looked haggard, his clothes were torn and bloody, his face even paler than usual. Dark circles lined the skin under his sea glass eyes. "By the Gods, what happened to you?"

He turned eyes that were haunted upon her and she nearly recoiled. "Seagen?" He asked, his voice raspy. He looked like someone just waking from a dream…and not a good one.

"Yes, Loki." She helped him to the cottage door, and pulled some drying herbs from the rafter of the porch overhang as he shambled inside. Immediately she set to heating water, and soon the smells of chamomile, burdock root, and something rather like anise drifted through the cabin on a light breeze. He stood next to the table looking lost and forlorn, and her heart went out to him. She lit a bundle of sweet grass and wafted it slowly in front of and around his body, and he momentarily looked up at her…and then quickly away.

The tea kettle whistled, causing Loki to nearly jump out of his skin. Apologizing, she gently handed him a cup of steaming liquid, and he sipped it slowly as if he were a man drugged. "What happened to you?" she murmured. He shook his head and squeezed his eyes shut. Reluctantly she left his side and set about heating different herbal waters to clean his wounds.

Loki flinched away slightly as Seagen reached to touch him. "It's alright," she crooned, hoping her hushed voice would calm him. "The Keeper has gone now, Loki. Tis just you and I here. If you will permit me, I can help you."

He nodded and allowed her to peel the leathers from his lean torso. She noted his sharp intake of breath as she untied the tunic. Seagen maintained eye contact, her silver eyes never leaving his pained green orbs. The fabric of the tunic was stuck in the drying blood in many places, and she apologized repeatedly as she had to reopen wounds to remove his shirt. Only then did she look away from his face, and a momentary wince passed her features when she saw the amount of deep scratches on his chest and arms. There were odd pinpricks upon his shoulders that resembled teeth marks…yet on his arm the wound from the Harpy's talons was nearly gone.

At least there is that bit of good news, she thought, wringing out a rag and cleaning the dirt and dried blood from his face.

"Seagen," Loki finally said. "I…I cannot remember how I got back to you…to this place."

"It is alright, Loki. All that matters is that you are here now, and that you are safe. The rest will come back to you in time." She rinsed the cloth and began to clean his arms and chest. A shiver rippled across his skin at her touch, and a low moan rose from his chest as she put ointment on his wounds. She apologized several times, but all the while kept to her task of cleaning his torso. When she reached for the laces of his pants he cried out softly, and she looked up into his lost stare once more.

"I have too," she murmured. "You're hurt, your pants are torn…there's blood, Loki."

"I," he stammered. "I-am not myself, I have not been myself." His eyes went wild and looked quickly around the room. "What has happened to me?"

"It's alright," Seagen said. "Loki, I have you. I always have you…" she broke off then, realizing that the protective barrier around him was gone. She made no mention of it, as he was already very disturbed and seemed to be near panic. Instead she untied the lacings, wincing slightly at his groan, and pulled his pants over his lean hips, making sure to avert her eyes as much as possible. She could feel her cheeks beginning to burn red…growing up from such a young age in this hostile place, the only naked men she had ever seen were dead and many were missing certain…areas. This one was very much alive, and quite possibly the most beautiful man she could ever remember seeing.

Seagen tried to not think too much on this, as she got clean water and assessed these wounds as well. The gashes had continued down his frame, though they were not as deep here, and were more scratches. His thighs were the rock hard thighs of a warrior, the muscles jumped under her fingers. Even through eyes that wanted to wander over his gods frame, she kept an air of professionalism about her movements, was able to clean and dress the cuts quickly. Through all this, Loki had kept his eyes squeezed shut, his breathing labored. She wondered was going on in his thoughts, and was deep inside her own mind when he spoke.

"I am tired. May we sleep?"

Convinced that the damage to his body was not life threatening, Seagen tossed the rag into the basin of water, and took the god by the hand. She led him to the small bed, and bid him to lie down. His eyes searched hers for a moment, as if he was looking for something there, and then he complied. Loki was asleep almost as soon as his head hit the pillow.

Seagen watched him sleep for a long while, listening as his breathing deepened and slowed. She got up and brewed more tea, the thought that something was very wrong nagging at the back of her mind. There was something so odd about the way he was acting, and though she attributed it to The Keeper, the wounds on his body were all wrong. The damage caused by The Keeper would have been much more extensive, if not deadly. Had they been the marks of the undead, they would already have begun to fester. The forest could be to blame, but these marks looked less like the scratches caused by running through brambles or past thorn trees, and more like the claw marks of some wild animal…but in the full moonlight they would have seen to get out of his way, wouldn't they? Or the other way around? She had seen scarcely an animal all night, what with The Keeper on the loose, most denizens of the forest were in hiding…

Her mouth fell open, and she suppressed a gasp. Grabbing her bow and quiver, she ran out of the cottage at a full tilt, heading for the Circle of Stones. It had been a full moon….Goddamn how could she have forgotten?! How could she have been so foolish?! To send him running from the cruelest creature in this world, straight into the waiting arms of the most wanton harlot in this world…the Succubus.

"Bitch!" She shouted, her voice ringing out against the ancient Stones. "Where are you? I know you are here, and I know what you have done! Come out and face me, let me see you, Temptress!"

She stepped into the circle and was promptly grabbed by unseen hands and sent sailing into back into a boulder. Seagen stood, trying to catch the wind that had been knocked out of her, and grabbed for an arrow, but her quiver was gone. She looked wildly around, and groaned when she saw it lying outside of the Circle. Suddenly her bow was wrenched from her body and thrown broken upon the altar in the middle of the great Stones. A cold hand pressed itself to her windpipe, raising her up in the air. The Siren was not visible to her eyes, but she was definitely there.

"Where is your precious one, now? Not here to protect you, fool girl!" The creature snarled. Seagen could feel the icy breath upon her face, smell the rancid odor of a million years of death. "Loki is not what you think he is. He is no mere man, that one! Nor is he an Odinson! Laufeyson that is what he is!"

The hand clamped around her neck loosed itself, and she slid gasping to the grassy floor of the Circle. "I don't understand why you are telling me this," she managed through ragged breaths.

"Son of Odin, Son of Laufey!" The Succubus sounded annoyed, as if she were speaking simple truths that should be universal. "Loki Laufeyson…son of a King! A Prince of the Ice Giants…wretched cruel monsters! See, mortal, see what your beloved god has done to me!"

The inside of the Circle became black as night. Slowly a soft pale light began to illuminate the two figures standing in the center of the ancient stones. Seagen, who had begun to try to find her feet, slumped back down into the grass, her mouth agape as her mind tried to cope with what she saw. Loki stood before a demonic version of…her. The Siren held her arms open, beckoning him to come to her. Their mouths moved but she could not hear what was said. At first he merely stood before her, then she dropped the silken cloth that covered her revealing a body that was much too nude for Seagen's comfort…merely because it was her body. Her eyes fluttered toward the cloth, and she saw with horrid wonder that it changed as it hit the ground, from silken finery to a tattered moth eaten rag.

The sari wasn't the only thing that was changing...Loki too had begun to morph. His porcelain skin took on an azure tone, and raised bumps and ridges appeared along this cheeks and forehead. The Succubus was obviously not expecting this transformation, and realization seemed to cross her features. He reached for her, but she merely danced away on lithe feet. Loki's ridged brow furrowed, yet he made no move to catch her again. Warily she watched him, and made her way around the Circle, seeming to contemplate what he had become. She appeared to size him up, her black eyes running down the length of his body. He said something, holding his arms out as if to beckon her. The demon looked up at the moon, and smiled, just as Loki gripped her by the arm and pulled her into his embrace.

The Siren opened her mouth, her lips withdrawing from tidy rows of razor sharp teeth, and she lunged for his throat. Loki through a hand up in time, but she clamped down on it just the same, and he seemed to bellow out in pain, the blood trickling from his hand to the grassy floor of the circle. Everywhere that the droplets rained down, the grass curled and stretched, turning black, twining in the blood. It grew, wrapping around his ankles. He snarled his lips down at it, and tore a foot free, shoving the Succubus backward, forcing her toward the edge of the Circle. She fought hard, her body thrashing, even as it transformed from Seagen's bawdy double, into a hellishly monstrous woman with fangs and claws…and then back again.

Seagen was not sure which she found more disturbing, seeing her naked double fighting off the advances of a cobalt blue Loki, or seeing the true form of the demon. He had one hand around her throat, the other was trying to pry her hands from of the massive stones. She held fast, keeping them both inside the circle. It was obvious by the harlot's face (which was Seagen's again) that she was screaming and cursing as she twisted in his grasp. One hand, still clawed, tore through his clothing and into his skin, shredding the fabric on the arms of his tunic. She pulled her legs up toward her middle, and lashed out, kicking Loki in the stomach and sending him reeling. Snarling, she flew at him, a wounded banshee, but he stopped her with a backhanded blow that split her lips open and sent her careening into one of the massive Stones. Incensed, she only came at him even harder.

Loki caught her in the air and threw the wretch into the center of the Circle. She landed hard on her back, but immediately flipped over, and on all fours began to scurry around him like an oversized spider. Her back was changing again, the backbone protruding in sharp angles like the fins of a massive fish, leathery skin drawn tight over it. The pointed peaks of her shoulders arched and jerked, and her talons tore into the dirt. Her face was a hideous mask of ancient leather and fury as she leered up at him. The blackened grasses around her curled and writhed, sentient and searching for more blood from her prey. Loki, too, was enraged, and he came at her with a speed that no mortal man could hope to possess. They careened into each other, two supernaturals in a death match, their blood spattering the ground like rain.

Seagen was almost certain that she would have heard the grasses sigh if she could hear the sounds of the memory playing out before her…

Again the Succubus was thrown to the ground. Her skin began to soften, and she curled up on herself, her body that of Seagen's again. Her shoulders shook, whether with laughter or tears was unknown. Loki advanced on her, a devilish leer stretching the corners of his azure lips. His eyes were two glowering embers, blazing red against the coldness of his complexion. Spirals and ridged bumps stood out on his forehead and cheeks, carving patterns through his skin. He stopped just behind the Siren and spoke; turned forward now Seagen she could read his lips, though she instantly wished that she could not.

"Foolish beast! You now regret bringing me here, do you not? You think to gain my sympathy? You know what I am, yes?"

The Succubus must have answered in the affirmative, for he said, "Then you know you will see no mercy from me." Loki grabbed a handful of her obsidian locks, roughly yanking her head backwards. "This will not be pleasant, kvinnelig." (Succubus)

An icy chill came over Seagen as she watched Loki take the demon by the shoulders and bring her up to meet his body. A strange darkness was spreading across her flesh where their skin met in veinish lines, twisting along her skin like an infection. The Siren flailed her arms and legs, kicking out at his stomach, trying to pry his hands off of her. Loki, intent on this vengeful purpose, seemed not to notice the pummeling, nor did he notice the way the grass had become vines, and wrapped itself hungrily around his legs. Seagen wanted to scream at him, to beg him to stop and warn him at the same time even though she knew that it would do no good. The Succubus writhed in his hands, swiping hands that were once again gnarled toward his face, and the Trickster's lip curled in a venomous snarl…and then the creature stopped fighting. Seagen could see enough of her face to know that she was now laughing as she wrapped her legs around Loki's waist, the vines coming swiftly to join her in capturing him.

The wildfire in the depths of his crimson eyes seemed to burn brighter for a moment as if he were accepting her challenge. His hands ran down her front, tearing at her ample breasts, then down further, fingernails digging into her thighs until rivulets of maroon began to spill to the waiting ground. It disappeared into the thirsty forest floor, and Loki greedily licked the remainder of the life fluid from his fingers. The Succubus' claws tore at his back, sharp little teeth biting at his shoulders. All the wounds on her body were soon covered by the bizarre black vines.

The God of Old recoiled, seeing them for the first time. He shuddered and pulled away, but the Succubus was held fast to him. He yelled at her, Seagen could make out, "Call your demonic familiars back!" Just before the back of his hand connected with her cheekbone; Seagen could almost hear the sickening CRACK, and blood splattered across the ground in crimson drops. The demon bared her blood soaked fangs at him, the red running down her face and dribbling from her chin. Black eyes bore into crimson, their breaths coming in ragged pants.

Suddenly the creature changed, a doppelganger again, and pressed her broken and bloodied lips to Loki's. For a moment he tried to recoil, but the fight was brief and his scarlet eyes slipped shut, his mouth devouring hers. She ran her fingers into his hair, their bodies grinding together, as the vines slipped around them, seeming to softly caress their bodies like a lovers fingers. Loki's hands cupped her thighs briefly, and then a bright blue light shone from around him, and her body began to freeze. She jerked away, mouth open in a silent scream. The grasses and vines turned to black glass and shattered as he violently extracted his legs from their grasp.

The tears flowed freely from Seagen's eyes, blurring her vision. She felt bile rising up into her throat, and a moment later she was doubled over, wretching onto the ground even as she tried to crawl away. Her shaking hand stretched feebly for the invisible barrier that she knew to be there, the place past the Stones where the Succubus could not reach…but an icy hand clamped down around her calf.

"No, sweet child, you will stay and watch this. And when we are done here, you will go back and kill your Prince of Frost."

Seagen swallowed hard, and stilled her tears. Her entire body was as poised and tense as a bow string ready to loose it's arrow into the heart of prey. "Fuck you, bitch!" She said vehemently, as her foot shot back, connecting with something that felt simultaneously brittle and hard as stone.

A foul screeching filled the air, and the Succubus began to pull her back into the Circle. Seagen's fingers dug into the dirt, leaving troughs in the ground as she fought to pull away from the awful creature, but the demon was strong…very strong.

"LOKI!" Seagen screamed, not expecting him to hear, but praying that me might.

She struggled against the grip of the demon, writhing on the ground. "Let go of me, you disgusting whore!"

Almost immediately, a blinding indigo light filled the spaces between the Stones. Loki seized her arm with one hand, the other sending a blast of energy into the Succubus. She squalled, letting go of Seagen, as Loki jerked her out of the Circle in one deft movement. He stood in splendor, his leathers restored, royal armor adorned his body, and a helm of golden horns sat on his head. He pulled her shaking body protectively against his own, and she gripped his armor to steady herself. He smelled of leathers and the herbs she had aided his recovery with. His chest reverberated in a proud growl, and he pointed a war staff at the Succubus.

"You will never touch her again!" His voice boomed, full of authority.

"She was almost mine, Liesmith," the demon spat. "She would have done anything I asked…she would have destroyed you, Jotun, and then seeing what she had done, she would have killed herself!"

Loki sent a crackling violet bolt of lightening charging across the ground, and the Succubus wailed in agony once, and then all was quiet. "Hiding in your tomb once again, are you?" He snarled, and making a cutting motion in the air, took them instantly away from the horror she had just witnessed. Seagen squeezed her eyes shut as her stomach rolled from the teleportation.

When she felt the firm ground under her feet again, she gradually opened her eyes. They were not in her cozy cottage, but in some sort of stone building. It was sparse and cold…her eyes flicked over the minimal furniture, and settled on an ornate bed. It looked out of place, and yet strangely right at home…a fact that she found unsettling. It was made of richly dark woods, fur coverlets thrown across it. Even unsettled as she was, the bed looked incredibly comfortable and inviting, in juxtaposition to the unwelcome feel of the stone house.

Loki saw her staring at the bed. "A bit of wood and moss from the swamp, and a trace of magic," he said quietly.

Seagen jumped when he spoke, and did not turn in the direction of his voice. She heard his pained sigh and then, "Your eyes have seen, little one, and now you know what I really am…it frightens you, does it not?"

She shook her head slowly. "No, Loki. I do not truly understand what you are, that is the truth. But I am not afraid."

"You have every right to fear me, every right to never want me near you again. You have seen the wrath that the Jotun side of me rails against women-"

"Enough!" She surprised herself by raising her voice. "I do not know what a Jotun or a Frost Giant is, Loki. Or even if the Succubus was telling me the truth. I saw what you did to her, yes…she showed me some of what happened, but she is a Succubus, bred for fornication and death. She would have taken your soul had you been any mortal man."

"Why did you go there?" He asked, walking around in front of her. The golden helm was gone, the armor replaced by a simple green tunic and leather breeches. He looked weary from the use of magic.

Seagen looked into his pale emerald eyes. "I went there to kill her. I saw the marks on your body. I knew it was her. I sent you straight to her without even realizing…I tried to save you from The Keeper and nearly lost you to the Siren's song!"

His brow furrowed. "To care for my well being is folly."

"Do not tell me that," Seagen replied. "Mischief maker you are…I didn't believe it until now, but you are the one that myths were written about, aren't you? They may have gotten some of it wrong, but you are him."

Loki nodded. "That I am."

"That you are. But I see no monster in front of me."

He glared at her. "Then you truly are a fool." Turning on his heel, he walked away.

She felt panic rising up inside of her. "Don't you dare leave me! The first living person I have been able to talk to, to laugh with, to touch, in years is some kind of God, an alien, a fucking blue Frost Giant! Fine! So be it! That is all well and good with me. I cannot be in the company of ANYONE and go back to being with NO ONE! I would go madder than I already am! So you see, I am selfish. It is my own selfish reason that I cannot believe you do be a monster."

Loki halted, and stood, his shoulders hunched. For a moment Seagen was certain he was simply going to disappear, that this had all just been a dream, or some mirage caused by hysteria. When he finally spoke, her breath caught in her throat.

"The overuse of my powers has weakened me, Seagen." He turned toward her, his pallor no longer hiding fatigue. "I cannot even muster the want to argue with you. All I can tell you is that you are wrong. There is a demon that lives in my soul. And someday, you will meet him. Do you honestly wish that after seeing what you have seen?"

Seagen mulled over his words for a moment, and then shrugged. "I cannot go back to how things were before you came here. I will take my chances."

Loki sighed deeply and then merely nodded, the proposition of dropping their current course of conversation an agreeable one. He watched his little witch turn to the bed, staring at the overstuffed creation. He could practically feel her yearning to feel the depths of softness wrap around her aching body.

Loki recognized the wanton way she looked at his finery, and smiled gleefully, that familiar twinkle once again in his eyes. "I'm afraid I have only one place for slumber…but I do think you will agree that it is quite big enough for two."

She blushed but continued to stare lustfully at the bed. It looked positively royal, a decadent and sinful delight. It looked as if it would feel…like him. She turned a deeper crimson.

"Ah there is the rosy face of my Green Witch that I have come to relish," He purred mischievously.

"And there's my Loki." Was her pleased reply.

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Translation: kvinnelig=Succubus/Demon