Chapter 7

Andrea was aware that she was being lifted from the bed, but her mind was focused entirely on the pain in her leg. She screamed as she was carried into the elevator and down to the lab for the fourth time that day. She felt herself being laid down on a steel table and soon the frozen metal around her thigh was removed, revealing violent blue skin beneath. Then she was aware of warm metal being bent around her and she relaxed into it. The pain soon subsided and she could bring herself back to reality, which entailed six worried faces. Tony was the first to speak, but not to her.

"What part of 'guard the door' didn't you get, Capsicle?"

"I didn't hear anything until I opened the door! How was I supposed-"

"God forbid you check occasionally!"

"I did! That's how I found her when I did!"

"Oh, yes. Quite the hero, aren't you."

"STOP!" Andrea's yell caught all attention as they turned to face her just in time to see her skin fade back from being a pale blue. "He put some sort of spell on the door. There was no way anyone would have heard him."

Before anyone could start arguing, Bruce noticed her neck. "What did he do to you?"

He walked over and looked pointedly at the bite marks located there and everyone's attention was on it. Suddenly Andrea felt very self-conscious. She tried to shift away but Tony's hand held her where she was. She looked up and met two chocolate brown eyes. The billionaire's cold glare told her just how angry he was. "Andrea, what did he do?"

"Loki-" His name tasted like poison in her mouth and she took a deep breath to steady herself before continuing. "He came into the room and…he told me to kneel."

"Might as well be his only word," Tony muttered and received a harsh shushing from Natasha.

"But…I felt like I had too. I fought it but it was like being pushed on the head until I fell to my knees." Thor shook his head slightly and solemnly. Andrea picked up on this and looked down at her knees, now pulled up to her chest. "Then he got angry."

This caught everyone's attention, Thor's especially. "Why?"

"He was muttering something about twelve seconds." Everyone turned to look at Thor, hoping for an explanation which he seemed willing to give.

"This process had been done before to other races as well as you Midgardians, peacefully and consensually. However, as far as my knowledge goes, it has never taken longer than twenty-four hours."

There was an intake of breath by almost everyone in the room, clearly shocked by this new information before they all turned back to Andrea.

"Then what?" Obeying the Captain, Andrea continued.

"Then he pushed me up against the wall and…" she ran her fingertips over the bite marks. "And he BIT ME!"

Looking around the room, Andrea gained that the general reaction was horror; stunned horror. Taking advantage of their silence, she carried on with her tale. "He tasted my blood and threw me back onto the bed. He asked me why I was still…human. When I didn't answer he pressed his hand to my thigh and I think he felt this…metal you've put on me. Then his hand glowed dark green and it felt like the metal was freezing. The pain came back and I was screaming but he wouldn't let go and he was laughing. His eyes were so joyous and I just-"

She put her head in her hands and let a sob pass her lips before inhaling sharply, pulling herself together. She looked up and turned to Steve. "Then Steve walked in and Lo- He was gone."

The Avengers all looked between each other, none knowing quite what to do. Then the scientist in Bruce lurched and he spoke, pushing up his glasses as he did so. "It would seem that Loki is growing impatient and wants to speed up the process."

"From what Point Break here said, it sounds like he thought she'd finished cooking." Tony's remark earned him glares from everyone in the room, Andrea included, which he shrugged off with nonchalance as Dr Banner continued.

"With your permission, Andrea, I'd like to take some more blood." Much to everyone's surprise, she laughed.

"Do I have any left? You took four vials off me earlier and, based on puncture wounds, six more while I was unconscious." Natasha and Clint both looked at each other, fighting back a smirk as Bruce scratched the back of his head awkwardly and Tony pressed his tongue to his cheek. Thor laughed loudly and even Steve chuckled. She knew the scientists were still waiting for an answer, and so she provided one. She held out both her arms. "Take what you want."

Bruce moved in to start when Tony's head suddenly snapped up. "Blood."

"What?" Bruce mumbled, not really paying attention.

"She needs blood."

"I was joking about you taking too much, Stark," Andrea said with a smirk but Tony waved her comment away, standing quickly to face her.

"No, I mean your blood is being changed to quickly, so what you need is more uncontaminated blood." He ran over to the computer hastily. "What blood type are you."

"Uh, A…A positive," she responded, concerned about what was about to happen. Tony entered this into the computer and soon spun around in his chair and pointed at Bruce.

"You're A positive."

Bruce shook his head. "Yes, but I doubt you could call my blood 'uncontaminated'."

"True," Tony said, turning in his chair to face Clint. "But Legolas here has also got straight A's in his blood."

Clint groaned but Natasha punched him in the shoulder. He turned to her and she smirked. With a sigh, he stepped forward and rolled up his sleeves. "Fine."

Bruce motioned for him to sit in a chair beside the steel bed Andrea was on and he did so without complaint, despite his hate of authority. Immediately the doctor took his blood pressure before pushing a butterfly needle into a vein in his inner elbow. Clint looked across and saw Andrea with the same thing, but neither of them had anything connected. They both turned to look at Tony who was rummaging through a drawer.

"What are you doing?" Andrea inquired before being answered by a triumphant look from tony as he pulled a long, thin, plastic tube and some various other tools from where he'd been hunting. "Shouldn't he be hooked up to a bag or something?"

"No, takes too long," Tony said, connecting one side of the tube to the butterfly needle in Andrea's arm. "Direct transfusion's faster."

"Wow, no." Tony looked up to see Clint shaking his head. "That means her blood could get mixed with mine. One drop of her blood and I might end up like Loki, too."

"Relax," Tony said as he attached the other side of the tube to Clint. "That's what this is for."

He pointed to a small, clamp-like device around the base of Andrea's butterfly needle. "That will stop any of her blood leaving her body. As long as neither of you have HIV you'll be fine. Now," he said, flicking a switch on a small device connected to the tube. Blood started to flow from Clint into Andrea. "Fill'er up."