Chapter 2

The next morning I was curled up on my couch in cat form with a book propped up against the arm rest using my magic to flip the pages for me while I was reading. There was just something so satisfying and comfy being curled up as a ball of fluff with a book.

Out the window I saw the unmistakable light of the Bifrost site light up and I knew Thor had just returned home to us. I jumped off the sofa and trotted over to the window to see Thor hold the door open for someone who walked in before him. I only saw the back of the person who walked in first and they had shoulder length black hair and was wearing green armour.

Black hair? Green armour? No. He couldn't be here, could he?

All of my fur puffed up and I hissed in the direction of the door that they would shortly be walking through.

As I heard the others all making their way into the lounge I transformed into a fly to see what was going on because I had a feeling I'd have to get away unnoticed as my stomach completely turned.

I landed close to the air vent that I knew connected to a vent that lead to the hallway that my room was on so I could go through there if things went south.

Everyone was now gathered in the lounge area and Thor walked in with the other man.

"Friends! I have returned!" Thor announced with a huge friendly grin on his face.

"What's Reindeer Games doing here?!" Tony exclaimed with rage as he came to the same realisation that I did about who Thor had brought with him.

Standing next to Thor, looking very unamused was Loki, God of Lies and Mischief, with his raven black hair and emerald green eyes.

When I realised who it was, my heart dropped and started racing. Panic and grief ran through the whole of my small body and I knew I had to get out of there. I couldn't stay there any longer to listen to Thor's explanation. I scurried through the slits in the vent and buzzed my wings all the way to the hall that my room is on, shifted back to human form and ran into my room locking the door behind me.

I had my back to the door and sank to the floor, gripping my knees to my chest and started having a panic attack and bawled my eyes out to myself. I sat like that crying for a good 10 minutes before I could pull myself together enough to shuffle to the bathroom, have a glass of water and splash more cold water on my face.

There was a knock at my door and my head whisked to the side to look in its direction from my bathroom.

"Lady Liz, are you up?" Thor called through.

An anger rose in me at that moment and I stormed over to my door, opened it and yelled "How could you?! How could you bring him here?!" Tears once again threatening to spill down my flushed face.

Thor looked taken aback and stuttered "Lo-Loki?" It wasn't often that Thor was next to speechless.

"Yes! That monster killed my only family!" I screamed in his face.

Normally I loved Thor and we would always spend time together when he was here. But right now, all I could think about was the fact that he had bought his brother, the man who killed my last living relatives in the attack on New York, into our home. My mom and dad had been killed by a drunk driver when I was young on their way home from their anniversary meal and I had lived with my Aunt Beth and Uncle Rich ever since. Until the New York attack where a collapsed building took their lives.

His face saddened at the realisation of the cause of my anger. I hadn't told anyone about it while I had been living here.

"I'm so sorry Lady Liz, if I had realised I would have warned you before bringing him here" he sighed and held out his arms to me to give me a hug which I leant into because the anger had gone back to sadness in me and I really needed a hug. "But you need to know that was not Loki"

I pulled back from him and had a look of disgust on my face. "What? What do you mean 'it wasn't him?!' I saw the news and you all told me about it when I joined not 2 months later!"

"He was under mind control. He was not in charge of his own actions" he pleaded.

"Not in control my arse!" I sobbed and turned away to slam the door in his face and broke down crying again for the second time in less than half an hour.

I thought I'd pulled myself together enough by now to not get this emotional over having no living relatives left but when I came face to face with their killer, I couldn't handle it. And he was stopping with us in our home. Where I'm meant to feel safe.

The anger and frustration built up again inside me and I grabbed the closest thing to me, which happened to be a small cat ornament, and threw it at the wall opposite me.

I flopped myself on my small sofa in my small living room, wrapped myself in the soft grey blanket I kept on it and used my magic to retrieve my book from where I had left it down in the lounge and dove into it to try and take my mind off everything and calm down.