"_, are you okay? Hey, wake up!"

Your eyes fluttered opened unwilfully, but the incessant voice would not leave you alone. Standing over you was Daniel, concern apparent in his dark brown eyes.

"Are you okay?" he asked again. "What happened to you?"

Glancing down, you realized that you were once again laying on your chaise lounge, while having no memory of ever getting there. You were wrapped in a fluffy towel, which slipped slightly, showing a few bruises from earlier that day.

Wincing slightly as you stood up, you answered with a smile, "Of course I'm okay! I just happened to trip while walking over to the bathroom and I fell against the bar."

Daniel glanced at the bar and raised an eyebrow. "Did you happen to tap into some of the booze, too?"

You grinned apologetically and shook your head. "No, I haven't touched it. I just happen to be kind of a klutz."

Daniel shook his head. "Well, I just came by to see if you were all right, considering you never showed up for practice."

"Blast! I had every intention of doing so, but I tripped and fell on the way to a bath, and I must have fallen asleep. I'm so sorry!" You felt badly about missing practice, but the bath seemed to have helped your bruised, achy muscles and felt a little of the guilt disappear. That's when you remembered that you were standing in front of a man in nothing but a towel.

"Well, anyways Daniel, I'll be there tomorrow. But I did have a change of mind about the song," you told him, remembering your last coherent thought you had before dozing off in the bathtub.

Daniel's eyebrow went a bit higher. "Which one? Let me guess, it's something that might piss off his highness a bit."

You shook your head vigorously, which made your head pound. "No, at least I don't think it will."

"And if it does?"

You shrugged, feigning nonchalance. "I've dealt with worse."

Daniel scoffed and put a hand on your bare shoulder. "You have more balls than most men I used to know, _. But remember, we are losing good people more and more each day. I would hate to see you suffer the same fate."

You were slightly shocked at this revelation. After all, Daniel had always given you the impression that he only mildly tolerated you. Either way, you smiled and told him thank you.

"No problem, girl. Just take care of yourself, all right?" With that, Daniel turned and walked leisurely out of your room. As he walked, you studied him: his walking style and casual dress suggested that he was laid-back, but the intensity in which he had spoken to you showed that he hid a lot of his emotions. It made you feel rather strange, having Daniel show you that much emotion, other than impatience.

Sighing, you went to hang up your towel and hunted for some casual clothes to hunker down and read in. After throwing on, what you believed to be silk, pajamas, you hunted for some pain medication for your sore muscles and pounding head. As you glanced around the room, you looked at the hologram window, discovering that the illusion of dawn had not returned after Loki's punishment. It was dark outside and you saw a few lights on in the surrounding area. However, it was probably one-eighths of the lights that used to be on in New York City at night.

"I wonder how Loki did that?" you wondered out loud. You waved your arm in front of the window, but nothing changed. You tried waving your arm from different distances away from the window, as well as wider swoops. You had just finished trying running from one end of the window to another, waving your arms frantically (although not expecting it to work), when you heard someone clear their throat behind you.

For what seemed like the billionth time since you had moved into the Tower, you jumped. This time, however, you started to speak before realizing who was standing there.

"Holy crap, does anyone in this place know how to knock or announce themsel-" you turned and stopped speaking. Once again, Loki had made his way into your room and, quite frankly, it was starting to annoy you.

"I-I'm sorry, sir," you stammered. "I spoke without thinking."

He seemed in a much more pleasant mood than earlier that day and he waved away your apology with a wave of his hand. Which, as it happened, also simultaneously changed your hologram window back to the illusion of dawn.

"You are forgiven, little one," he said softly, a small smile playing about his lips. "But, if you will permit me, may I ask you a question?"

"Of course, sir!" you exclaimed, pleased he was not angry with you.

"What were you trying to do to your window?" he asked, a thin eyebrow quirked.

If it were possible, you would have blushed from head to toe. "I, uh, was trying to do the hand-wave thing you had done earlier, sir. I was trying to figure out how you changed it."

"Ah," he said, seeming to contain his laughter, and doing it somewhat well. "As it is, the hologram illusions are only able to be removed by me, unless otherwise specified. Would you like to be able to see the outside world, instead of just the illusion that was created just for you?"

"Oh, no, sir," you said immediately, unthinking. "I just found it interesting how you were able to do it."

He seemed pleased with your answer and did not remark on it. "I came to see how you were feeling about your punishment earlier. Was the lesson sufficient enough for you to learn?"

"Y-yes, sir, of course it was. You were very," you winced slightly, "thorough."

"Good. I am glad to hear that there was no more mistaking of your station," he said, seeming to be quite content and turned to leave.

As you let out a soft sigh of relief, however, he turned. "I do have one last question to ask you, little one," he stated.

You waited for him to ask, but without warning, he launched himself at you, pushing you (slightly roughly) against the wall, and placing his hands on either side of your head. You felt his leather-clad body pressed slightly against yours and felt your heart begin to race as his mouth traveled to your ear.

"Why was that man in here earlier?" he hissed in your ear.

If it weren't for the situation, you might have laughed. As it was, you deemed it rather risky to do so, and told him the truth. "He woke me up because I missed my singing practice. I took a hot bath after you... after my punishment and I must have fallen asleep."

You looked straight into Loki's eyes as you said this, daring him to read your mind (which you still had not yet confirmed). He seemed slightly pleased with your answer, but did not immediately move away. In fact, it almost seemed like his body was moving infinitesimally closer to yours; you could feel the heat between the two of you intensify. You both stood there for a few moments, neither of you moving, wondering who was going to move or say something first.

"Damn you." He murmured so low that you almost did not hear it.

"Me?" you asked, bewildered.

"Yes," he said, "you."

"What did I do?" you asked incredulously.

His emerald eyes met yours and you repressed a shudder of either repulsion or desire, it was hard to tell which. "It is your innocence," he growled. "Your innocence is going to end up getting you into a lot of trouble in the future."

"I am not innocent!" you said indignantly, causing Loki to chuckle.

"Yes, little one, you are. No matter what you have said, thought, or even done, you are completely innocent and essentially naive."

You frowned, but said nothing. Loki was no longer looking at you, but at the wall near your head, apparently lost in thought. An overwhelming urge to both pull Loki onto and push him off of you had come and you weren't sure which way it was going to go. Instead, you chose to press slightly forward, leaving it up to him to interpret it. Your movement snapped him out of his daze and his eyes seemed nearly black; with desire or anger, it was hard to tell which.

"Going somewhere?" he asked dangerously.

"I was just... shifting," you lied lamely.

"Oh, pet," he grinned wickedly, "you never 'just' do something, do you? You may seem innocent, but you're actually going to try and play a game, aren't you? I hardly doubt that I need to remind you that I am always steps ahead in front of everyone."

You frowned again, this time with confusion. What could he possibly be talking about? You did not have time to think about this, however, before Loki's lips were on yours again. This time, his mouth was nearly ravishing yours, forcing your lips apart and making your tongue dance with his. His hands went to your throat a little roughly, but not causing pain. You both pressed your bodies together, feeling the friction build. When Loki's mouth left yours, you groaned just the slightest fraction, making him chuckle.

"Greedy little one, aren't you?" he growled, his mouth trailing to your throat.

His teeth met the flesh of your neck again and bit down, not hard enough to break the skin, but hard enough to make you yelp. This, however, only seemed to entertain him further.

"Such tender flesh," he commented, working his way around your throat. "Soon you will know both pain and pleasure, and you will be begging me for it."

"What if I beg you now?" The question left your lips before you had time to think.

Loki had finally gotten to your other ear and nibbled it a bit before whispering, "You would not dare to incur the wrath of your sister. And you have much to do before I would even consider letting you beg me."

His mouth finally left your flesh, making you feel feverish and flushed. He took a few steps towards your chaise, and gestured to it. "I do, however, have a requirement of you before I can allow you to continue using the gifts I have given you."

You took a deep breath to steady yourself before asking, "What requirement, sir?"

"Sit, and I shall show you."

You did as asked, but were slightly hesitant. He wasn't going to ask you to harm yourself, was he? Worse yet, was he going to ask you to harm your sister, or someone else? You were shaken out of your thoughts as you felt him grab a fistful of your pajama top and rip it open, exposing your bra-clad breasts.

He waved away your shrieks and unfolded your hands from your breasts. "This is not for any sexual pleasure, little one," he said softly. "Please do not fight me, this will make the pain worse, and if I have to start over, you will be sorry."

Pain? Oh, no, another punishment?

"No, not a punishment," he said, placing a long fingernail just above your cleavage. "I am going to mark you as mine. This is to be kept secret from your sister and the rest of the world. I refuse to have you given away, despite what your sister thinks she can demand of me."

"Wait. Ashley wants me sent away?" you asked, completely dumbfounded.

Loki continued to speak, but your mind stayed lingering on that one fact: your sister wanted you sent away. Tears welled in your eyes and you noticed Loki had stopped speaking, but you payed him no mind. The one person you thought you would always be able to count upon wanted to give you away to some stranger. You barely felt Loki's touch at the beginning of your cleavage, and didn't really notice anything until you noticed that your flesh began to itch. Glancing down, you gave a shriek: about three inches of your flesh was bubbling, warping, and turning an infectious-looking green.

"Do not move," Loki commanded softly.

His emerald eyes were focused upon your flesh intently, softly tracing a pattern into it with his nail. The itching was nearly unbearable for you and to keep yourself from itching and shrieking, you flung your hands to the sides of the chaise and gripped it tightly. The itching was starting to subside, but now it was burning. In fact, you could smell meat cooking, and you knew it was your own skin. The smell made you quite nauseous and you told Loki so.

"I am nearly finished, pet," he crooned. Suddenly, the burning quickly subsided and was replaced with the familiar cooling sensation Loki used on your wrist earlier that day.

With a small grunt of satisfaction, Loki announced that he was done. Looking back down at your skin, you saw that Loki's tracings had formed themselves into a strange, emerald-green symbol traced with black. To you, it looked like two snakes intertwined into an S-shape, with a broken infinity symbol in the middle. You touched it, expecting it to throb like a tattoo would, but instead it felt like normal skin.

"This symbol is mine, and only mine," Loki said breathily. Looking at him, you realized he looked weak and shaky, with a pale sheen of sweat glistening on his face. He had sat down onto the end of the chaise, rubbing his temples with his hand.

"Are you all right?" you asked tentatively. Loki's head snapped up and you saw the strange darkness in them again. After a second, he blinked, and his eyes returned to their usual green.

"I am fine," he snipped, trying to stand up. "As I said, this symbol marks you as mine. No one can buy you, sell you, trade you, or do anything to you that I do not command. If anyone does, wrath will come down upon them, the likes of which they have never seen."

Before you could get the chance to ask a question, he continued with, "This symbol cannot be removed by anyone's hand, except mine. It is impervious to all forms of Midgardian removals, as well as any sort of powers anyone else, except me, possesses. I will remind you that as I can remove it, I also can remove you."

He stated this matter-of-factually, as if he had shut down all emotions and was reciting from a book. He did not seem to find this enjoyable to discuss, for there was no smile on his face, nor any anger in his eyes.

"I would also refrain from telling anyone about the mark, for now, unless your life depends on it. Your sister has never been marked, she does not know that I am even able to do so."

"Why not?" you asked curiously.

It was as if someone flipped a switch in Loki, and his usual smirk came to light. "As if I need to answer to you, servant. Do you need a reminder in what you are to call me?"

You were taken aback at this sudden change in him. Was it possible that he suffered from some sort of godly personality disorder? You quickly told him no, sir, and apologized.

"I must go now," he told you. "You have aggravated much of me today, and since I cannot fulfill certain needs with you, I must do so someplace else."

He strode away from your room; a man, well GOD, on a mission. Unfortunately, you knew all too well what needs he had to fulfill and who was going to be fulfilling them. If it weren't for the fact that she wanted to get rid of you, you would have felt sorry for Ashley.