I was not going to have a sense of smell by the time this was over. That wouldn't be all bad. At least from now on I would be spared the odor from Bucky's gym bag on laundry days. Hell, I wish I didn't have a sense of smell now.

I was reclining in Thor's living room, a cold compress on my head and a line of Vicks above my upper lip. The compress was because of the headache the sulfur and acid fumes had given me. The Vicks had been suggested by the Kronan sitting on the sofa wearing a headset and wielding a game controller. It had been a nice thought, but the eucalyptus aroma wasn't doing shit except making my eyes water even more. I shut them against the glare of the television screen. They had Fortnite on this world. They didn't have that little Greek café that had the best baklava I had ever tasted, and they didn't have doppelgangers of my parents, but they had fucking Fortnite. Go figure.

"Try some water," a glass bumping against my hand accompanied Loki's voice.

"If I swallow anything now, it's coming back up, and if you don't leave me alone, it's coming back up on you," I growled. Ok, he didn't deserve that, but I was not in a good mood, and he was hovering. I hated being henpecked.

"What you need is a little iron to fortify you some more," Thor's cheerful voice following the sound of the kitchen door open, and my stomach curled up into a ball at the smell drifting into the living room in his wake. "Liver?"

"Only if it's yours." I tossed the compress off my face, and was out of the chair and out the door before anyone could react, although I did hear Loki's incredulous voice go "Liver? Really, Brother?"

I made it about a hundred yards before I began pacing.

They had let me check out the other three dwellings. I had found all of the bodies. All of them had been eaten, as well as exsanguinated. Every single drop of blood had been drained from them before they had been carried out of their homes. All of them had been killed by whatever was exuding that disgusting sulfur and acid smell. All of them had been dumped on the cliffs by the sea, and I lost the scent of the culprit at each and every site right at the water's edge.

It hadn't been just three more bodies, it'd been five. One of them was a kid.

And I'd been unable to track down his killer. I felt fucking useless.

I paced, wanting to hit something, wanting to hunt down whatever this was, and annihilate it. I was not a violent person. I hated fighting, I hated killing anything. Hell, when I had a small kitchen garden at my home on my Earth, I would plant marigolds to keep the beetles away from my tomatoes instead of using more lethal means to do pest control. I would scoop spiders up in coffee mugs and take them outside rather than using a shoe. The only reason I hadn't been vegan was because I had been anemic and I had landed in the emergency room after the one time I tried it. To this very day, I had to be all but bribed into going to the gym at Avengers HQ to practice my fighting forms. Bucky had promised to invite me over to watch the new Godzilla movie the last time, while Steve's "reward" was a pinky swear to pick up the phone and call the next time he needed a file on whoever the Villian of the Week was instead of rummaging through my computer and accidentally deleting software I'd spent days working on.

But at this moment, I had an overwhelming urge to hunt this monster down and do what I could to destroy it. Oh, there was no way I'd be able to. Whatever it was would kill me first, but hot damn I wanted to try. Only we needed to find it first, and I was no help.

I felt company approaching before I heard him. I should have known he wouldn't just let me storm off like that. I sat down on some lawn furniture someone had left out. Loki sat down in the other chair. "He really should have known you needed no 'fortifying'."

"Your brother has a tendency to forget sometimes that I'm no longer mortal, and after today the last thing I needed was a blood-soaked piece of organ placed before me."

"I will save the beef heart for another evening then."

I shuddered. "I hate you."

"You love me. Even when you threaten me to soak me in bodily fluids." Loki paused. "At least, bodily fluids other than those I would prefer."

"Stop trying to make me laugh." I couldn't suppress the small grin though. He smiled at my smile, and I sighed. "I'm sorry I snapped at you. Today was...that was rough."

"I know." He watched me and added in a low voice. "I would hold you if I could."

I wished he could too. "I'm alright, Loki. I just needed some air. It was a little crowded in there, and the smells from whatever Thor was doing in that kitchen weren't helping. Neither was the swearing and shit-talking I heard coming from the other end of Korg's headset. I wasn't a fan of teenage boys who wanted to prove whose was bigger before I was abducted. I definitely have no patience for it now. How could Korg be so...so..."

"Polite? I keep wondering that myself. There is most certainly something wrong with that Kronan. No one can be that nice." Loki reached out to brush a lock of my hair back from my face. "But you do look like you want to kill something."

I explained how I was feeling regarding wanting to hunt down and tear whatever it was that was killing the Asgardians to pieces. I told him I'd never experienced such violent urges before, and wasn't used to it. At all.

"Perhaps it has to do with your change?"

"You mean I might have to deal with this the rest of my life?" I was not whining. Even if I were, considering that we were pretty sure the rest of my life could be hundreds, if not thousands, of years—or even eternity—I felt I was entitled to whine.

"You won't be alone, Pet. I will help you learn how to channel those aggressions. We can start now with something physical." I looked at him, and he grinned. "Not that, although I would scarce complain if you expressed the desire to test if focusing that rage into those activities with me would help."

"How generous of you."

Loki was still grinning. "I meant work on your combat skills."

I groaned "Not you, too..." Okay, that was definitely whining.

"It will help, I promise. Get up, let's see what you have learned so far, and then I will teach you some real moves instead of the ballet dancing Rogers calls fighting."

The God of Mischief wasn't above playing "whose is bigger" either. Honestly, I was sure men never grew out of it, mortal or otherwise.

We had attracted an audience.

I was staring at the grass, hands on my knees, sweat dripping off my face and soaking my clothing, cooling down after three hours of having my ass handed to me by the sneaky, conniving, vicious sadist who was my lover. And he hadn't even laid a finger on me.

He could have demonstrated the moves. Just demonstrated. Nope. In true Loki fashion, he went about ten steps further than that, first animating the lawn chairs into the most bizarre golems I had ever seen (not that I'd seen many, except for the pictures in the D&D Monster Manuals) to put my limbs into the positions he wanted, correct my posture, and then test my newly gained knowledge as he explained, corrected, and encouraged on the sidelines, his hands behind his back as he watched and instructed. I actually got to see how hard I could punch when I sent one of his golems flying through the trees and almost into someone's door.

He was patient and thorough, and did more to help improve my techniques than the self-appointed gurus at the manor had done in weeks, although to be fair to them they had been lucky to get me into the gym more than one hour a week. He taught me to take advantage of my smaller size, and tested my agility and speed. From that he decided to teach me some flips and spins with the aid of the golems, and not only did I pick up fast but I had fun doing them.

At one point Thor came out. He stood on the sidelines, and I felt him wanting to pipe in with his own input. And when it became clear that Loki was teaching me his unique style of fighting, and not the traditional Asgardian way...well, if Thor had bitten his tongue any harder, he wouldn't have been tasting any liver for a week. I had thought I would have to break up a fight when Loki argued that yes, I was strong, but was also quick and agile and that therefore his style of fighting would be much more compatible for me than Thor's "neanderthal head-smashing and bellowing".

Valkyrie had joined us at that point to investigate the lawn chair flying over the trees, and she and I had shared a brief moment of comradery in both of us wanting to deck the two brothers if they didn't stop rumbling at each other like two buffalos in rut.

When Loki was satisfied that I had absorbed what he wanted to teach me, I had thought we were done. Then he decided to up the stakes.

I didn't know where he had found all the other chairs to make more golems, but I suddenly found myself getting ganged jumped. I had no idea how long I spend fighting them off. Loki had not skimped on creating the things, and they were tough. I put up a good fight, I think, but I'm pretty sure I would have been toast if things were real.

Now I was collecting myself after he had decided that I'd had enough. I was sweaty, which meant I needed a shower and a change of clothes, which made me hope someone had a washer and dryer I could use since I hadn't packed that much. On the plus side, I was feeling better and no longer felt the need to beat anything to a pulp.

I glanced up at Loki. Actually, it might be prudent for him to sleep with one eye open tonight.

He had the nerve to flash a knowing smile at me with a glint in his indigo eyes.

Asshole.

"Feeling better?"

I wasn't going to admit it and give him the satisfaction. "I will after I wash up. You're doing my laundry."

"It's not my fault you have yet to master the fine art of changing your clothes." Loki decided to show off by magically changing from the black jeans and cashmere sweater he was wearing to the fine tailored black suit he had worn in Pennsylvania and back.

It would probably be a good idea for him to plan on not sleeping at all tonight.

His smirk deepened as though he knew what I was thinking, and I realized he would likely enjoy it. The man was incorrigible.

"Get a room, you two. But not before Loki cleans up his mess." Valkyrie pointed at a lawn chair on the roof. As he sighed and used his magic to put the lawn furniture back where it had been, I made my way to his cabin. By the time Loki made it to the dwelling, I was already out of the shower and drying off. He was leaning against the bedroom wall, arms crossed, providing an appreciative audience as I stepped out of the bathroom naked. I noticed the lighting was low, the room bathed in a warm glow from a softly glowing lamp. The result was a romantic atmosphere that made me mildly nervous, and I eyed Loki with suspicion.

"I discovered something today," he crooned while wearing the most shit-eating grin I had ever seen.

Uh oh. "That Thor likes liver, or that lawn chair golems can do a lot of damage?"

"That you have no problem with non-sentient beings touching you. You were perfectly fine when those golems touched you to correct your forms. It has me thinking, and I am eager to test this theory..."

I blinked, having no idea what he was getting on about. Then I gasped as I felt tongues lick my nipples. I jumped and looked down, but I didn't see anything, and Loki was still halfway across the room from me. He hadn't moved at all and his arms were still crossed.

He had a wicked smirk that did all sorts of things to heat my body up. "Well. Well, well, well." I squeaked as I felt those phantom touches again.

"Loki," I gasped. "We really should get back to the others...we're supposed to be making plans for dealing with-" He cut me off with a phantom caress to my clit that made my knees buckle. I ended up on my back on the thick carpet as more touches and invisible kisses assaulted my labia and other areas of sensitivity I didn't know I had.

"That can wait, and besides you have done your job, finding the missing Asgardians and giving everyone an idea of what to look for." He stepped over to me and looked down. "Do you honestly expect me to wait now that I have made this discovery?" He leaned down as he went to his haunches. "I stated when we first met that I would see how many times I could make you climax before you fell into sleep. I now have a way to make good on that promise," he whispered, his breath brushing the side of my face.

It was then I realized how much trouble I was in. "Loki," I breathed. "If you think I'll let you ge—AH!" I cried out as more phantom tongues descended on my nipples and one lapped up through my slit all the way to the nub at the apex of my lower lips, where it turned into light suction. "FUCK!"

"Not for a while, but this will do wonders to entertain me in the meantime." With that Loki summoned a chair, got comfortable, and watched as his new toys nibbled, licked, sucked, torturing me until I screamed in the most powerful orgasm I had ever had. He wasn't satisfied with just one. He brought me to climax again and again, watching as I rolled and writhed on the floor, demanding I look him in the eyes the whole time, his intense gaze my focus as he brought me to my peak more times than I could count. He was enjoying every moment of it, ecstatic that he finally had a way to give me pleasure even if he still couldn't touch me the way he wanted to. My cries and screams were music to his ears, and the fact that it was his magic doing this provided at least some connection between us along with the constant eye contact. Even without physical touch it was mind-blowingly intimate, and the fact that he was watching me as I clawed at the carpet and twisted at his feet made me feel vulnerable as I had never experienced before.

It made me feel beautiful. There was no disappointment from him. No sense that he was wishing my tits were firmer or my butt were smaller. Just pure enjoyment from watching me, arousal so intense that he was in physical pain, and a primal hunger that almost scared me with its ferocity.

There were a few breaks during which he would let me catch my breath, and I eventually managed to take advantage of one break to crawl over to him so I could give him some payback, moving fast and unzipping him, taking him into my mouth before he could start playing with me again. He shouted as he gripped the armrests of his chair, looking down at me as I worked him. To get him back, I used my empathy to feel when he was getting close, and backed off just before his release several times, laughing softly when he growled in frustration and glared at me with those penetrating blue eyes while I kept edging him. I dragged it on for a long time, until I could feel that he was about to lose the battle against the urge to grab me so he could bend me over and take back control.

Things didn't stop even after he spent his seed down my throat. After he finished coming, his head thrown back and his hand gripping my hair, he caught his breath then that evil smile returned as he looked down at me.

Oh, shit. "Don't...Loki, please...I can't take anymore..." Yes, I was begging, and I was not ashamed to admit it.

It had no effect on him. "Liar," he purred, and he summoned the phantoms again, making me scream until I was hoarse. I came over and over...then I fell into an exhausted sleep after what seemed like hours. I knew it had been almost sunset when I got into the shower, and it was pitch dark outside with moonlight streaming through the windows and the Northern Lights dancing in the sky by the time he allowed me to drag my limp body into the bed, with a little help from his levitation spell, and roll over.

It was the first time I had slept since before the abduction. The last thing I felt was Loki's smug satisfaction as he pulled the covers over me and flipped the lamp off.

Something was wrong.

I didn't know how long I slept, but it was still dark when I sat up in bed. I looked around. Moonlight still cast the bedroom in a silver glow, and highlighted Loki asleep in the chair he had conjured earlier. He must have dozed off watching me from there, rather than falling asleep in the bed and risk sending me into a panic attack by grabbing for me in his slumber.

He really was much sweeter than he made himself out to be in public.

His breathing was even, and from what I was sensing his dreams were fairly peaceful. Whatever had my hackles up, it had nothing to do with him. I was silent as I slipped out of bed and reached for a pair of sweats and a t-shirt. Then I opened the door.

I breathed in, looking around the living room. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary there, so I padded to the dining room, through the kitchen, down to the basement, back up the stairs, and stared out the front window. There was nothing in the house, so why was I feeling that something was wrong? My palms itched and my entire body buzzed. I felt hyper-alert, attuned to every smell, every sound. Even my vision seemed sharper, as I could make out every detail of every object and structure around me, which shouldn't have been possible even with the light of the moon and the glow from the Aurora.

On impulse, I opened the front door a crack and inhaled.

Sulfur.

I tore the door off its hinges in my haste to get out, taking off like a bullet down the road and through town. I chased the scent through narrow alleys and behind garages, behind dumpsters, and finally over to a cottage. I finally slowed as I got closer to the scent. It was strongest around the back door.

I crept up to it and placed my ear against the wood. I felt the tingle of something crawl over my skin, and hissed in response. It took a few seconds but I heard it. The sound of a scuffle inside. No wonder no one had witnessed anything. I could barely hear it, and I had the best ears of anyone currently in New Asgard.

I heard someone scream. I grabbed the knob and yanked the door open, barreling inside, following the sounds and smells to a bedroom in time to see an Asgardian man thrown into the mirror attached to the back of a dresser. I didn't hesitate. As the creature turned to the wife, I grabbed a large shard of glass, ran over, and stabbed it in the back.

It roared, whipped around, and backhanded me. The thing had shiny black skin, a gaping maw full of very sharp teeth, beady red eyes, and sharp claws on its hands that hung from a pair of overly long arms. Curved horns protruded on its forehead above its eyes, and it reeked.

The strike was hard enough to send me flying back towards the doorway. I looked up to see the thing coming towards me, when out of nowhere two daggers flew towards it from behind me and landed in its chest with a loud thunk.

"Woman, you are going to be the death of me," Loki's voice growled. "Get Erik and Elisif out of here." He stepped over and headed to whatever that thing was.

"I'll get help-"

"Already done," Loki conjured two more daggers and engaged the monster. Much as I would have loved watching him at work, I helped Erik up and dragged him with me out of the bedroom. Elsa ran past me in the hallway to make sure the way was clear, and I managed to get husband and wife outside just in time to see Thor land, Stormbreaker at the ready.

"It's inside, whatever it is..."

"Demon. Loki said it was a demon. Get away from here with all the haste you can muster." The axe crackled with lightning as he ran into the cottage.

He could have saved time by just telling me to "haul ass". All these years on Earth and he still talked like someone from the Middle Ages. I led Erik and Elisif to the truck I saw parked several yards away, trying to ignore the bangs, booms, and shouting I could hear behind us. I heard a loud crash and the ground shook under my feet while Korg and Valkyrie met us halfway to the road. Korg picked Erik up and took him the rest of the way to the truck with Elisif running to keep up. Valkyrie, sword in hand, went towards what was left of the cottage. There was a gaping hole in the side of the structure, the demon was now outside, and Thor was doing his best to get a blow in with his axe.

The damn thing was fast though...holy shit, it was fast...and it struck out at the Thunderer with its claws. I would only get in the way if I stayed to watch, and there wasn't much I would be able to do to it anyway, so I began to turn...and that's when the wind changed directions.

The demon froze, sniffing the air, and then it fixed its glowing red eyes on me. Fuck.

With an enraged roar that almost burst my eardrums, it launched itself towards me. And I hauled ass. Unfortunately, the creature chased me. I could feel it's hot, stinky breath on my back, felt those huge claws swiping at my heels.

Then I screamed as my left arm and shoulder burned, right as I smelled acid. On instinct I dropped to the ground and rolled just as another glob of acid hit the grass. I looked up, then saw Thor coming down onto the demon's head from above. "What did you to do make it mad at you?!"

"I was running away!"

"You don't run away from demons!" Thor shouted as he smacked Stormbreaker into the demon's face.

"You told me to run away!" I shouted that through clenched teeth because the acid was still eating at my arm and it fucking hurt.

Then Thor went flying after the creature landed a very hard blow. It turned back to me, started to advance again, when an army of Lokis surrounded it. Emitting a head-splitting bellow, it struck out at the duplicates, swiping at air with its claws, until all the Lokis had faded save one. The real one. He threw two more daggers at it, then he had to throw himself out of the way as the demon spat that acid at him. But that gave the thing an opportunity to get on top of him.

No. Rage filled me. I'd already lost too damn much during my life; I wasn't going to stand by and lose someone else I cared for.

I rushed towards them, flinging out a hand by instinct. Everything happened at once.

The demon threw back its head and screamed, an ugly, terrible sound that turned my stomach. It thrashed wildly, turning towards me, but never got the chance to attack. Instead, I had to duck as its head exploded. No warning, no hint of what was happening, it just blew up, brain matter and bony shrapnel flying everywhere as its head was replaced with a column of blue flame. Then its heart burst out of its chest. More black ichor, more bone shrapnel, and more blue flame poured from its chest.

I stumbled sideways, feeling dizzy all of a sudden, and fell to the grass. I watched as those blue flames consumed the monster, eating everything, that horrible screaming slowly fading until there was nothing left.

I trembled, clutching the grass because the ground was tilting and spinning. What...how...what did I do?! I forgot my arm for the moment as my thoughts raced.

"Well, I suppose that's one way to take care of it." Loki's voice was next to me. Out of the corner of my eye I saw his hand hover over my arm, glowing as he worked to get the acid out and begin healing.

"You two didn't tell me she was an angel!" Valkyrie ran up.

"She's not. She's something else, but she can clearly summon angelfire. I for one am not going to complain," Loki responded.

I was getting awfully sick of everyone else knowing more about what I was than I did. But I let out a gusty sigh of relief as all the acid in my wound vanished, and Loki did a nifty little spell that numbed my arm so I wasn't in pain. "We...really need...to have a long discussion..."

"Later. We need to talk to all the magic users in New Asgard. That demon had to have been summoned. After that, you're going back to rest."

"If you put a sleep spell... on me...I swear I'll..."

"You'll do what, exactly?" Loki hissed. I winced. Ok, this was not the time to argue with the pissed off Trickster. I felt it now. I had scared the shit out of him.

For once I decided to keep my mouth shut. Judging from the way he calmed a little, it was a wise move. Loki's spell had also doped me up, because when he picked me up, I didn't protest or panic. I leaned my head against his chest, breathing him in while still trembling. He must have thrown up a shield right before the demon blew up, because he had nothing on him.

I closed my eyes, and I guess I dozed off. The next thing I knew, I heard voices arguing and felt leather under me. I opened my eyes to see that I was lying on the couch. I also saw that Loki had dressed up my arm, which was still healing.

He had decided to wrap it in neon pink gauze. I wasn't sure where he had found neon pink gauze up here. Didn't care. I knew I should be mad, but I couldn't bring myself to give a shit. I blinked several times and let my eyes follow the voices. Things were a little blurry. Loki's spell was still working because I was seriously out of it. It was overkill, and I knew I should be mad about that too. I'd probably yell at him later. Once I stopped feeling stoned.

With slow, gingerly movements I managed to sit up and watch the people in the room arguing. Valkyrie, Thor, Loki, Korg, and six other individuals were having a heated discussion about recent events. "...could have been anyone! What makes you think it was one of us?"

"We're just trying to rule out every possibility we can," Valkyrie was attempting to reason with the angry Asgardian. "Before we start accusing our enemies."

"What about him?" A woman jerked her chin towards Loki. "He was our enemy in the past, who is to say he hasn't fallen back into old habits?" Even though the haze I was in, that made me angry.

"Loki didn't do it," Thor replied firmly.

"Well, it wasn't me!"

"It wasn't me either!"

All six of them protested, and I snapped my head up, which was a mistake because the room swam before my eyes. I managed to focus my gaze on a balding Asgardian and tsked. "Liar, liar, pants on fire," I announced.

Everyone in the room turned to look at me. Then they stared at the guy I was looking at.

Who sputtered, "What do you mean? You have no idea what you're talking about!"

"Mmmm...your nose is growing."

He turned red in the face. "I did not summon the demon!"

"Stop lying to me, you're embarrassing yourself."

He roared, took one step forward, waved a hand, and things went downhill from there. The other five scattered away, Korg rushed and tackled him, Loki made a few gestures to redirect the spell the guy cast, and Thor stepped in front of me, blocking my view of the rest.

Korg had the guy pinned and I heard Valkyrie ask, "Why, Elric? Why did you do this?"

"We were better off dead! We should have perished with Asgard, which was destroyed thanks to our Princes there," I heard Elric spat. "Instead, we have to reside on Earth, living off scraps from the mortals..."

I didn't hear the rest of the tirade because I faded away again. When I opened my eyes, the room was cleared out and Loki was perched on the edge of the sofa, gazing down at me.

"He gone?" I slurred.

"They took him away, yes. He'll be facing Asgardian justice," Loki answered.

"So, you'll execute him?"

"Don't worry about it." He grimaced as he checked my eyes out. "Perhaps I overdid the spell just a tad..."

"Gee, you think?"

"Stop giving me cheek. It's time to go back to my cabin, and straight to bed for you."

"I'm gonna get back at you for this," I told him as he lifted me into his arms.

"Yes, I'm sure you will," he deadpanned.

"We going home tomorrow? I have lots of work to do." Holy crap, I was stoned.

"Yes, we'll be headed home."

"I'm driving this time."

"Sure you are." The door opened by itself to let us out. I went back to sleep snuggled against his chest.