"I hate this heat," Loki grumbled, turning the air conditioner in the car up another notch.

I shivered and started to dig in my bag for a cardigan.

"Did you know that Frost Giants melt under these sort of temperatures?"

I rolled my eyes.

"We do, you know," Loki said glumly. "I hope you packed a mop in that bag of yours because you'll be bringing me home in a bucket. My epitaph will read 'Here lies Loki, once glorious god of Mischief, now a pathetic little puddle.' It is heartbreaking if you truly think about it."

"I'll keep you in a bowl on the mantlepiece," I promised, "I might even get you a little goldfish. I'll call it Fred."

"You are mocking me," Loki accused. "You are not taking me seriously at all. You are a cruel and heartless woman."

I just grinned. It was warm, outside the car. It was June and we were on the road in Louisiana.

Loki had turned the air conditioner up so high that I could see my breath. He was fine, and I doubted he'd really melt anyway.

We had been on a few missions since we had returned from Niflheim. Loki wasn't working for the Templars anymore, but he still came along every time. He claimed it was because someone needed to keep an eye on me and because I was likely to get lost on a straight road if he wasn't there to hold my hand. I was hopeless at the job without him really, or so he said.

I suspected that the truth was more that Loki actually enjoyed the work. Every mission was different, we never knew what we'd face. Loki had many amazing qualities. Whether it was his vast amount of knowledge of both the magical and the mundane, his astute powers of observation, his dazzling charm or his skill on the battlefield both with weapons or his magic, almost every single one of them was challenged on regular occasion and he rose to the challenge with an effortless grace that never stopped to amaze me or, as I sometimes expected, himself either. He was good at what we did, and he enjoyed it.

"You can just stay in the car, and I'll take care of it by myself," I offered. I knew he'd refuse, but maybe it would put a stop to the endless barrage of complaints about the weather I had been listening to.

Pregnant women had been disappearing along the Interstate Highways, not to be seen again. Most of them had been vulnerable women, homeless or living in poverty, and not much of an alarm had been raised until women from a middle-class background had started disappearing as well.

Recently one of the kidnappings was caught on CCTV, showing helmeted men clad in full leather and riding motorbikes dragging a pregnant woman from her vehicle. Local law enforcement chased the bikers to a wooded area, but t when they tried to enter they'd just got turned around and found themselves where they had started.

The Templars had been called in shortly after.

Loki rolled his eyes at me but said nothing. We both knew he'd be right there by my side.

"Do you have any idea what we might be up against?" I asked, now I could finally get a word in edgewise.

"I'm not certain. My guess is that they aren't so much after the mothers as after the unborn infants. A demon-worshipping cult perhaps, looking to sacrifice newborns?" Loki shrugged.

"Loki, that is horrible!"

"Well, don't look at me, that was never my cup of tea. I mainly swindled people out of their money, I never did the whole human sacrifice thing!"

"I never said you did," I hadn't even considered that to be honest.

"I sacrificed a goat once," Loki suddenly confessed, "but it was a really old one. And I felt awful afterwards."

"You make a terrible villain, do you know that?" I smiled.

"What, because I don't like killing innocent animals?" Loki scoffed.

"Because you are a sweetheart, really. A big softy." I said affectionately.

Loki humphed. "A thousand years I spent cultivating a reputation, a thousand years! But you just had to come into my life and ruin it, didn't you?" he looked at me accusingly. "I was doing just fine before you came along!"

A roadblock appeared ahead of us. I held up my credentials and we were waved along. We had no problem driving deeper into the swampy woods. Whatever magic was at play, it was affecting neither of us.

"Perhaps we should go further on foot, we'll have the element of surprise," I said.

Loki sighed dramatically but stopped the car anyway.

"If I melt, on your head be it," he warned.

"I'm willing to take the risk," I said heartlessly.

As I suspected, Loki did not melt, just drooped a bit and complained a lot under his breath as we made our way up the road. The heat was awful, clammy and humid, and my shirt and hair were soon soaking wet with sweat.

We soon came to a compound, with a large main building and several sheds and barns. The windows were closed and the curtains were drawn.

Loki held his fingers against his lips. I listened but didn't hear a thing.

Loki motioned and we slowly made our way behind one of the sheds.

The shed had high windows that were boarded up. Loki handed me one of his daggers and lifted me up. I pried one of the boards open by a tiny gap and peered inside. I could see three women, heavily pregnant, with bound hands and feet.

"Let's not free them yet," Loki suggested. "They are safe enough in there, and they might give us away."

I didn't like it much, but they did not seem in immediate danger and we still had no idea what we were up against.

We snuck towards the main building. Loki could have hidden us with his magic, but without knowing what we were up against it was not without risk, since certain creatures can sense the use of magic.

"Do you smell that?" Loki asked.

I had tried very hard not to smell anything, to be honest. There was refuse laying around the place, and there was a smell like dead animals coming from some of the buildings. I took a deep breath anyway.

"Blood?" I asked.

Loki nodded. "Vampires," he said, "you can smell their stench a mile away."

We snuck around the main building until we found a side entrance, leading into a kitchen. There was no one there, but there were beer bottles and empty blood pouches on the table. The bottles smelled similar to the alcohol bottles that were scattered around Loki's apartment that time I had found him drunk, not meant for human consumption.

Loki hadn't really drank since, not anything that could affect him, and because of my own past, I appreciated it.

The door into the hallway was open, and we quietly moved forward. Loki stood still suddenly, tilting his head as if he was hearing something. I listened carefully but couldn't hear what he was hearing.

He led us past two doors, only to open a third. On the bed in the room lay a woman, deadly pale, her eyes closed. At first, I thought she was asleep, but when I came closer I saw she was dead.

"She was still pregnant," I said softly.

"No. She was not." Loki's voice sounded strange. I turned around. In his arms he held a newborn baby, expertly supporting the tiny head with his hand. He blinked away unwanted tears as his eyes met mine.

"Is it…" I couldn't finish asking the question, not sure if I wanted the answer.

Loki put his ear to the infant's chest, listening quietly.

When he looked up again he still looked sad but smiled regardless. "He's still alive. I thought I heard him cry earlier."

I sighed in relief. Loki looked around the room as if noticing it for the first time, the squalid conditions, the dead woman on the bed, the puncture wounds on her neck, drained of the last drop of her blood the moment she had given birth.

"The first thing he ever saw was his mother's death…" Loki's voice sounded hollow and far away.

"Loki…" I stepped toward him. I was suddenly reminded of how Loki had lost his own mother only a few hours after he was born.

From outside there was the sound of multiple motorbikes revving up and driving away.

"Oh no, they won't!" The anger on Loki's face was terrible, terrifying to behold. For a moment, even I was scared of him. He handed me the infant, and jumped through the window, not wanting to waste any time as he tossed his car onto the concrete of the yard and got in almost before it had fully enlarged.

"Loki, wait for me!"

"Look after the baby and the women," he yelled as he sped away.

I had no other choice but to stay behind, I could hardly go vampire slaying with a newborn baby in my arms. The little boy opened his eyes and began to cry, a thin, piteously feeble cry that broke my heart. I wrapped him in the cardigan I had stuffed back in my bag before we left the car. I thought he was hungry, but there wasn't much I could do about that, so I let him suck on my finger instead.

"I'll look after him, they won't hurt him," I promised the dead woman on the bed and snuck out of the room.

There was no need for stealth though, the vampires had flown their nest. I realised we needed ambulances and a forensic team here as soon as possible, and a trauma counsellor to help question the remaining victims as well. But until I found the source of the enchantment that was hiding the compound from everyone else there was no use calling in for help.

I found what I was looking for in the main room. The room was boarded up, but the lights were on and so was the tv. The vampires had left in a rush it seemed, they must have noticed us entering the building somehow.

In the centre stood a large statue of a woman with long flowing hair. She was pregnant, naked, and posed in a sexual way that seemed grotesque to me. Power was radiating from the statue, dark and evil, and the altar in front of it was covered in old blood. Carved on the altar, with crude letters, was the name "Lilith".

Wasn't that a female demon or something? I'd have to ask Loki later.

"Well, Lilith," I said grimly, "meet Mjolnir."

I held the baby in one arm and held my other hand high as I summoned Mjolnir. With the crash of thunder it appeared in my hand, and crackling with lighting it flew into the statue.

"Mjolnir, meet Lilith!"

The room turned dark as the hammer pounded on the statue, black and red tendrils that reeked of ancient and evil magic spread around flinging away the furniture and lashing out at me, as I half turned to protect the child with my body.

"You will not have him!" I yelled over the howling moans and wails coming from the mouth of the statue, its eyes glowing an eerie red.

My skin was lashed and bleeding, but I ignored it as best as I could, throwing Mjolnir at the statue with all my might.

Once, twice, three times the hammer pummeled the statue until it suddenly shattered and there was nothing left but rubble. The howling subsided and the tendrils disappeared.

I was a bit worse for wear, but my wounds were already beginning to heal. Worriedly I checked if the baby was hurt, but I had taken the brunt of the attack. "You are okay, sweetie," I whispered softly, "you are okay. I won't let anything hurt you."

I waited a few moments, then summoned Mjolnir again and smashed the altar for good measure.

There were times I doubted whether I was truly worthy of wielding the hammer, but I was pretty certain that I had made Thor proud that day.

I called in for aid after and was already making my way down the road, the child in my arms, as I saw the sheriff's car coming down the road. He stopped as I hailed him:

"There are three pregnant women in one of the side buildings, they need help. Do not enter the main building, a special forensic team is on the way, they will need the crime scene pristine. Don't enter, don't touch anything. Are ambulances on the way?"

The sheriff nodded but didn't get a word in edgewise. More police cars came driving down the road.

"Did you see where the bikers and my partner went? Did they pass you?"

"They came flying right past the barricade, we took shots at them but they never stopped, even the ones we hit. They must be on some sort of drugs. Your partner came barreling after them in his fancy car, nearly hit one of my deputies."

"But he didn't hit them? Yeah, sounds about right," I grinned. "Did any of you go after him?"

"We were told not to interfere by your lot, so we didn't."

"Shit. So he's all alone facing a nest of vampires. Bloody great," I swore.

"Get out," I told the deputy sitting next to the sheriff. The deputy looked at the sheriff who nodded. I handed the baby boy to the deputy.

"He needs help, make sure that he is looked at first when the ambulances arrive. And hold him properly!" I barked as I already hopped next to the sheriff in the car.

"What's this about vampires?" the sheriff asked.

"Just drive!" I bellowed as loud as I could. The Sherriff blanched and turned the car around, then chased after Loki and the vampires as fast as the vehicle allowed.

"Well, shit." the sheriff whistled. We both looked at the scene in front of us with horror.

Loki's car was parked halfway up the bank by the side of the road, skid marks indicating he had come to a rather sudden halt.

At least a dozen bikes lay scattered across the asphalt, not much left of the riders then scraps of leather and ashes. I spotted a helmet in a tree.

"Is that a bike?" the sheriff asked, looking above us. Yes, it was. There was a bike in the tree above us.

Loki was standing in the middle of the road. He had the Friezegem in one hand, a dagger in the other, and he was covered in blood. Even his hair was dripping with it. He had his back towards us, his shoulders slightly hunched as he was breathing heavily.

"Who is he? What is he?" the sheriff asked, half in fear, half in awe.

"A god," I said, undoing my seatbelt and getting out of the car.

"God of what?"

"Mischief."

"Looks more like god of Vengeance to me. Or death, I'd buy god of Death…" the sheriff muttered.

"Loki, are you okay?" I asked worriedly as I walked toward him. He turned around, with a grimace on a face covered in blood.

"It turns out that if you blast a vampire with telekinesis hard enough, they get blown to little tiny chunks, and then the sun just does the rest for you. Hehehe…" Loki giggled mirthlessly, his eyes wild. He fell to his knees.

I already had a globe of my own blood in my hands.

"Put that away," Loki waved his hand feebly, "it's mostly their blood. I'm just a bit winded is all."

I looked at the carnage around me. No wonder.

I had never seen Loki do anything like this before. It was horrifying and impressive at the same time.

I handed Loki a bottle of water out of my bag. He drank some and used the rest to wash the blood off his face and hands.

"You really took this personally, didn't you?" I asked.

He shrugged. "A bit, perhaps."

We left the sheriff to cordon off the road and guard what was left of the vampires until one of our forensic teams could make their way to the scene. They'd be having a field day with that bike in the tree, I thought to myself.

Loki didn't say much as we drove back to the compound. I told him I had destroyed the statue of Lilith and the altar. He raised an eyebrow at the name, seemingly recognising it, but didn't say anything.

It was unusual for him to be so quiet and I worried about him.

We arrived back at the compound. The sheriff's men had freed the other women from their bonds, had given them bottles of water and were letting them sit in their cars with the air conditioning on.

Loki practically ripped the newborn baby out the of deputy's arms. Holding the baby gently, Loki listened again at the infant's chest and checked the baby's neck for his pulse.

"Where are those ambulances? Loki barked angrily, "This child is weakening rapidly, he needs help!"

His hair was still matted with blood and his clothes were soaked with it too, he was a terrifying sight. Everyone gave him wide berth.

"What is going to happen to him now?" Loki asked me softly.

"He'll be taken to a hospital I suppose, and then once we identify the mother he will be returned to his family."

"And what if he has no family to speak off?"

I hesitated. He knew the answer to that question as well as I did, so why was he asking me?

"Then he goes into the system, and will be either adopted or go into foster care."

Loki shook his head.

"No, absolutely not. He's not going into foster care. The American foster care system is atrocious. I won't allow it."

"Loki…" I understood this must be so hard for him. "Perhaps the baby has a family that will look after him?"

"Let's just take him." Loki's eyes were suddenly wild again. "No one has to know. I can wipe the memories of the people here, and we'll take him home. I'd make an awful father but you are a wonderful mother, just look at Jess. Perhaps it will even out!"

"We can't just steal a baby, Loki." I shook my head.

"Why not? Odin did!" Loki spat.

'Yes, and look at how well that turned out,' I thought to myself but didn't say it.

"He needs help. Medical attention." I said instead. " You need to give him to a paramedic, he needs to go to a hospital."

The baby was crying feebly again, sounding weaker than before. A paramedic was hovering nearby, uncertain about how to best approach the wild-eyed man covered in blood who was holding a newborn infant.

I gently reached up and took the baby out of Loki's arms.

"Please," Loki's eyes pleaded with me, "who knows what will happen to him if we let him out of our sight."

"I will ask Richard to keep us informed," I promised, "but right now this baby needs to go to a hospital."

I handed the baby to the paramedic who looks at Loki questioningly.

"He's all right," I reassured her, "the blood isn't his."

"It would be better if I'd take a look at him," she said, "he seems to be in shock."

"He'll be fine," I sighed, "unless you have something that instantly cures a really shitty childhood."

The paramedic shook her head and walked away.

"I didn't think you had," I shrugged.

We waited until the ambulances drove out of sight, our fingers intertwined as I held his hand in mine.

"Richard will let us know what happens?" Loki asked softly as I finished my call.

"Yeah," I said.

Loki nodded, looking bone-tired, every single one of his thousand years showing on his face.

"Then I don't see the need for us to hang around here any longer. Let us just go home, shall we?"