"Kitania, is it?" Loki chuckled, cloned himself, and switched places to behind Demetri. "Quite the pretty lost lamb, isn't she? Hiding in your corridor while you make idle threats." He tossed a glance in Kitania's direction, and she ducked back behind the doorframe.
Idiot, he read her thoughts. Why didn't you wait for Drake? This is not your area of expertise!
So, Paige's former lover was alive indeed. Loki smiled, turned to fully face Demetri's back, and waited for the man to respond to the sudden shift in the status quo. Yes, this fight could end well. All he needed was Demetri out of the way. He wouldn't allow the man to lead a revolt that would crush Paige altogether. He lifted his chin, preparing for the worst. And, of course, keeping an ear out for the girl in the hall.
Demetri gasped when he heard his enemy behind him. He knew Loki was fond of tricks and perhaps this was one of them. Demetri glanced over his shoulder, listening for the sound of Loki's breathing. The trickster might have been able to project his voice, but he wouldn't be able to mask everything. After a moment, Demetri realized that Loki was behind him after all. Upon regaining his bearings, he turned to face his enemy once again.
That's when he heard it. Kitania cowering out in the hall.
"No, she wouldn't. She wouldn't do that." Demetri turned his head toward the open office door and listened for her frightened escalated breathing. When he heard it, he turned back toward Loki. "No. This is a trick. One of your stupid little tricks. Stop this. Immediately. Get out of my head. Last I saw her, she was with Drake. He took her away, and this place is under lockdown. Kitania isn't here."
"Oh, but how wrong you are. You hear her. I have not become well enough acquainted with her to replicate her breathing patterns. No, no. She is quite certainly here." Loki tilted his mouth to throw his next question over his shoulder. "Aren't you... Kitania?"
He heard her stop breathing for a minute and then suck in a large gasp of air. She would not reply, of this he was certain. But no matter, he hadn't come for her anyway.
Demetri heard her stop breathing, and then her gasp of air. He growled. "Stop this! If she is here, let her come to me." He held his hand out toward the doorway. "It's fine, Kitania. He won't hurt you. I'll make sure of that. Come here. Let me know you're here. Why did you come back? Is Drake here? How did you get past the security?"
Just then, a shade appeared behind Kitania. "Don't trust him," it hissed softly in her ear. "Stay here. Allow me to protect you."
Kitania shrieked and rushed into the room. She flattened herself by the door, on the inside now. That Loki character turned slightly to grin at her. She shivered. Loki and Demetri, or creepalicious shadow? Loki it was.
"Drake's trying to rewire the elevator," she confessed. "I put my minimal cat burglary skills to use and climbed through a duct. There's a shadow in the hallway and for Pete's sake just get this over with and get me out of here!"
Loki scowled at the mention of the boy's name. First he was dead and now he was here to avenge his beloved? A shadow in the hallway. It all made sense now. The Shadow Lands that had come to pervade his humble hideaway. He would need to make quick work and be off before this Drake arrived.
"Paige sent me after the Avril staff," he addressed Demetri. "Give it to me immediately, that I may be on my way. Do so, and I swear I shall leave all herewithin alive and in good health."
Demetri turned back toward Loki. "My staff?" He gave a humorless laugh. "No way." He gripped the silver blade tighter, took a step back, and spun it, releasing his full staff. "Paige knows how much this staff means to me. It's nearly indestructible. And, she has no need of it herself. I don't believe your lies."
Demetri took a step forward again and glanced toward Kitania. "You might want to go back out in the hall. If Drake sent that shadow, it's to protect you. Leave! I don't want you getting hurt."
Loki watched the girl blink incessantly.
"Are you kidding me?!" she blurted. "I can't stand the things! First one he sent after me almost killed me and him, or don't you remember?"
With a brief roll of his eyes, Loki shot the girl a warning glance.
"On the other hand, maybe they're not so bad." She sidestepped to be fully in the doorway.
Loki chuckled at her easy willingness to obey and turned his attention to Demetri. "I assure you, I do not lie when I tell you she needs it. She is in grave danger and if she does not have it I dread to think what will happen to her if I am not there to protect her. Though I wish it so, I cannot be a hundred places at once. Give me the staff before I do something I sorely regret." Let him think what he would about that statement. He had never tried to hold off Earth's Avengers and protect an innocent telepath before.
Demetri tightened his grip on his staff, considering Loki's words. "Answer me this first: why do you care so much about someone you hardly know? You would not believe the hatred she has toward you for killing her father. You're right, she does need to be protected... from you and whatever you plan to do to her. Also, why not give her any other weapon? Knives, a gun, anything really. Why my staff? I don't believe you." Demetri spun and struck at Loki, aiming for his neck.
Out in the hall, the shadow guard grabbed Kitania's shoulder. "Stay here," it hissed. "If they get too close, I will protect you. My master is on his way."
Kitania saw the fight begin, and didn't know what to do. She couldn't fight, so she couldn't protect De. But she didn't want to stay with the shadow recruit either. She sighed and resigned herself to the fact that for now she was stuck with the dark one. Helpless to help anyone.
Loki easily side-stepped the blow Demetri sent his way and pulled a knife from a concealed sheath. "I know her better than most. Better than you ever could." He ran a finger along the edge of the desk, noting a cylindrical object atop a stack of papers. "Is this the mysterious staff?" he asked. "It does not look as dangerous as you predict it to be." He waited for the next attack.
Upon realizing that he had missed his target, Demetri turned and faced his opponent again. "Ha! What do you know about her? Do you know of the countless hours she spent swearing her revenge on you? The days she spent crying herself to sleep? Do you know how much you have consumed her life these past years?" He scoffed. "Here's something I bet you didn't know. With a press of a button, I could control her. I already have, once. I'll say this now, before Drake shows up. Paige is an excellent lover. It's a shame she doesn't remember." He laughed softly. "Tell me, Loki, has she fought you yet? Made you bleed? I pretend like I don't know what happened to all of us while we were asleep, but I do. We're soldiers now. Super-solders."
Demetri smirked and leaned against the edge of his desk. "That staff is a prototype. A display piece, about a foot shorter on either end and made out of a titanium-steel compound. The real staff is here, in my hand." He gestured with the long, duel-bladed, silver rod in his hand. "Tell you what, she can have that one. The perfect weapon for a woman. It's as short as she is. Tell her it's a gift. And give Paige these gloves here as well. She gave me the idea for them anyway; it's only fair she gets a pair. Perhaps she can use them to keep your blood off her hands when she kills you."
Loki squared his shoulders and lifted his eyes to the wall beyond the desk, hoping to calm himself. To forget that this man, the one whom Paige seemed to trust, had taken advantage of her when she was most vulnerable. Had lied to her and taken the one thing Paige would never have given freely.
Unfortunately, Loki had never been one to let go of his anger easily. "Your claim is a strange one, as it cannot be proven. However, I will take you at your word as Paige has for so long now. Let it be known that you will only pay for the travesties you have bestowed upon one who so dotes on you. As for the staff..." He turned and lifted his chin. "I will have to take it."
In a split second, Loki had cloned himself and switched places. He ran his spear up through Demetri's back, slicing his heart in two.
"And you were wrong about one thing." He removed his spear and let De's body slump to the floor. He knelt for one moment, to whisper one last thing. "She adores me." He ripped the staff from Demetri's fingers and returned to the desk as a piercing scream carried in from the hall.
The shadow flinched ever so slightly when the female screamed. It watched as the human boy dropped easily to the ground, spilling his delicious blood all over the floor. The shadow's red eyes glanced up at the half-breed, knowing a fight with the sorcerer would leave it badly wounded. So, instead, it opted to slip into the female's shadow, clinging to her.
Loki hid his spear and the staff, then turned to the stack of papers with the second staff. He'd take it all, just in case Paige needed any of it. He heard rapid footsteps behind him, but ignored them as well.
"You! What did you do?!"
It was only then that he turned to see the girl from the hallway. Kitania, wasn't it? She stood, staring him down. Her hands clenched at her sides. And, oh, was that light seeping through the cracks of her fingers? Perhaps fate had smiled on him after all.
"You idiot moron!" Kitania screamed, taking a step toward him. He surmised it was fueled by anger rather than bravery. "You didn't have to kill him!"
"What will you do about it?" Loki asked, advancing on her quickly. "What can you offer to make his life... worth living?" He shot up a shield to keep anyone on the other side of the door out, and reached out to grab her arm with one hand as she backed away.
"N-nothing. Nothing."
The shadow followed obediently as the female marched in the room and confronted the half-breed. A shield shot up behind it, but it was safe in the female's shadow. Upon seeing her lumen, however, it quickly slipped up her back and into the hood of her jacket.
"Stop lying to me!" Loki pulled her close and buried the fingers of his other hand in her hair, tugging hard. He noticed that she didn't unclench her fists, and the light seemed to grow brighter. He ran the fingers that had clenched her arm lightly down the length of it, clasped her wrist, and turned it so her palm would face him. "Open your hand like a good little pet," he cooed.
Kitania winced as he pulled at her hair again, then slowly uncurled her fingers and let the light shine forth.
Loki smirked at the light that nearly blinded him, then turned his head to look down into her frightened eyes. He could hear her ragged breath. She shouldn't have come in if she could not control her power. The power he had seen only once before.
"You are a healer. Just what I need."
The slight parting of her lips and the gasp that escaped them were enough to tell him he was right.
He leaned closer and cast one last glance to the door. "Do as I say, and you will be safe. I won't tell your secret if you don't."
/
Drake fought his way through the red sands of the Shadow Lands, fighting hard to keep up with his servants. Everything seemed to move so slowly, as if life itself struggled to escape the sands. He recognized the rooms and equipment around him, but saw it all as if it was only a shifting mirage.
Suddenly, a piercing scream forced its way through the silence. Drake broke into a sprint, his body forming in the material world out of the shadows around him. Soon, he gathered his bearings and found that he was running down the hall that led to Demetri's office. With a loud thud, he ran smack into Loki's barrier.
He saw Demetri lying on the ground in a pool of his own blood. Loki had Kitania by her hair and forced her to show her lumen. As the bright light filled the room, a hiss escaped Drake's lips. He growled low in his throat and bared rows of sharp teeth at Loki, his now red eyes flaming with vengeance.
"Let her go!" He snarled, his voice distorted, as he pounded on the barrier. He tried to slip through it, but the shield extended even into the Shadow Lands. "When I get a hold of you, I'm going to rip you apart! You hear me, half-breed? You will die and will stay dead!" Drake released an inhuman roar as he threw himself at the barrier, attempting to break it with brute force.
Loki heard the boy in the hallway. Interesting, that this shadow-walker who supposedly loved the telepath could so swiftly turn his attentions to another woman. But, then, Kitania – this healer – was special. Never as special as Paige, but he could see the attraction. He tightened his grip in her hair.
With a flick of his wrist, Loki let down the barriers. And then he teleported before the boy could reach him. He was sure the boy was inches from having a grip on Kitania. Parting was such sweet sorrow.
Drake snarled as Kitania was transported away before he could reach her. He had been so close.
With a sigh, he returned to normal and glanced at his old friend. Blood still pooled out of the young dead man.
Drake pulled his phone from his pocket, knowing he had to alert the others. He quickly dialed a number. "Eric, it's Drake. You got that message earlier, right? About the facility being under attack? Demetri was killed. Tell the others and... bring Minna."
/
They landed in the grand hall at Boldt Castle, and Kitania's scream was muffled only by Loki's hand over her mouth. He shot up a barrier to lock the doors and windows, then dropped her to the floor by the piano. She scurried toward the instrument's leg and whimpered as she wrapped her arms around it.
Loki stood over her, not giving her much personal space. "I am in need of your services, and you will do as you're told. If not, there will be dire consequences. Do you understand?"
The girl nodded enthusiastically.
"Good." Loki turned on his heel and headed toward the library. "Follow me, then."
