The smoke cleared to reveal a tall, svelte feminine figure whose amethyst-colored eyes were fixed on me. "Well. You are the first neo angel I have encountered in several millennia."

Her voice was cold and robotic, just like Michael's was. Just like Michael, I could sense no emotional resonance from her. Despite her words, I couldn't feel surprise or even mild curiosity. She was as still and as remote as the farthest star in the heavens. Her silver hair was bound at her nape by a cord strung by metallic beads, a perfect contrast to her olive skin. As with every other angel I had encounter so far, she was beautiful. It was like looking at a sculpture carved in ice that the sun was glinting off. She was so gorgeous it was actually painful to look at her. The Mediterranean looking skin set off her amethyst-colored eyes perfectly. Again with these angels and the weird eyes.

She tilted her head as she studied me, like I was something she just found on the bottom of her shoe. "Even were I inclined to let your very existence, which is an insult, continue on its own, the fact that I can smell Tzadkiel on you tells me that he and Michael have already gotten to you. Which means you definitely need to die."

Move, Tracy! My brain screamed when she flung her hand towards me. I jumped to my feet and ran, the energy bolts bouncing off the shield made of shimmering white light that moved alongside me. Bless Stephen and Loki's insistence on training me to shield until it became an unconscious reflex! I would have been barbeque a long time ago.

I dove behind a parked car, and then exhaled in relief when I heard thunder rumble then saw a streak of lightning rend the sky.

"This is none of your concern, Asgardian," the angel stated coldly.

"You are attacking a Princess of Asgard," Thor's voice responded. "That is very much my concern."

I peered over the car as I stood. The angel was staring at Thor, her violet eyes betraying a very miniscule bit of confusion. Then Loki appeared in a flash of green light, and her nostrils flared. "Her scent is all over you, and yours is all over her. Fascinating," she observed in that clinical, sterile voice. Then she shrugged. "Princess of Asgard or not, I cannot allow her to live, for she is an abomination. Move aside."

I didn't particularly give a shit what she called me, but I knew the moment she called me an abomination that Loki got even more pissed off than he already was. Oh, that was the wrong thing to say to my husband. Even if I weren't his wife, Loki had spent his entire lifetime as an outsider and knew what it was like to be branded a freak, an abomination. Calling someone else that was a major trigger for him.

Calling his wife that?

Big fucking mistake.

He didn't blast her for it though. At the same time, he was barely able to hold back from doing so. I could tell. But I was begging him through our bond not to do it. I had a bad feeling that the result wouldn't be pleasant.

Unfortunately, the angel was not cooperating, and she raised a hand, readying a blast to aim at me. Loki acted before she could let it go, the punch of emerald-tinted power sending her flying right through the building behind her.

That blast had been very impressive. Loki had put a long of oomph behind it. But as the dust started to clear away, I could see the angel's silhouette, her slender and shapely figure now framed by a pair of wings that curved around her form, then spread to carry her into the air. The primaries were a shimmering shade of bronze, the moonlight reflecting off the filaments to make the appendages sparkle.

All Loki had managed to do was piss her off. Well, she would be pissed off if she were capable of feeling any emotion.

And now that buzzing was starting in my ears, filling my head. I couldn't think. I took one look at those wings unfurling around that body and I couldn't think. My heart was racing. I think my heart was racing. But it wasn't possible for me to think that my heart was racing, because I couldn't think.

I saw Thor raise Stormbreaker out of my peripheral vision and charge towards the winged being, then saw Loki spin around and knew he saw me, knew that he could feel me losing it, felt his rage and worry and desperation through our bond. My vision was blacking out.

Everything blacked out.

"Breathe, Pet, breathe...look at me, no not them, look at me," Loki's voice penetrated the fog, coaxing me out of the fugue I was in.

"Damn it, Loki, you need to let me deal with her! This is exactly how she was when she first arrived here, and I know..."

"You be quiet, Brother." Loki was using his calm and quiet voice. The one he used when he was really, really mad. I flinched. "No, not you Pet. But you can hear me, that's good...focus on me..."

I became aware of tension seeping from multiple individuals around us, but at the moment I let it fade into background noise as I focused on my husband. There were his eyes now, his gaze locked with mine, bringing my vision into focus. There was the rest of his face. He looked slightly rumbled but otherwise alright. I felt no tension rolling off him. From him I only felt concern, desire, and love.

He reached for my hands and I let him take them. His hands slowly traveled up my arms to my shoulders as I continued to stare at him. "L-Loki?" Then I realized my hands weren't completely empty.

I looked at my right hand, which was holding something. My fingers were curled around a mass of some sort. It was a metallic bronze color with splashes of bright red. I stared at it for several minutes before convulsively forcing my fingers opened. The thing fell to the ground and I saw that the bronze were feathers. The splashes of bright red revealed what they were when I scented that organic iron tone that blood carries, the smell that never failed to make me nauseous.

I realized I was splattered with blood, and I could see scratches and bruises on myself that were healing as I watched. I shuddered. I was going to freak out.

Loki knew it, because his arms went around me and he pulled me close. "Shhh...you're alright, my Pet, my love. You're alright." His hand smoothed over my hair and I could feel the tingle of magic. He was casting a soothing spell on me. I didn't want to be soothed. I wanted to know what the hell I did.

But I was feeling shaky, so I wrapped my arms around him and clung to him, using him as my anchor. I was getting all manner of crap on him, but he wasn't giving a crap about his armor at the moment. My vision finally straightened out and I saw Thor's concerned face, saw Sam landing nearby, heard a motorcycle approaching at high speed, and then I saw...

Of course, Michael was here. This was angel business, why wouldn't she be. At least she didn't have her wings out.

"D-did I..." I swallowed. I was having a hard time getting the question out. "Did I...h-hurt..."

"Just Hektaniel," Michael answered. "And you tried to attack me once I arrived to aid in apprehending her. Unfortunately, she escaped...despite your best efforts to tear her to shreds."

That would explain why her wings were tucked away. I must have seen wings and lost it even more. Michael didn't feel wary however. As usual I couldn't feel anything from her. But her gold eyes were fixed on me, and I could feel her studying myself and Loki.

I was relieved that I hadn't hurt anyone else, but at the same time the fact that I blacked out had me worried, not to mention humiliated.

"This is why we prefer newborn angels stay in the Silver City, with us," Michael pointed out. "They are prone to these fits, especially in the first centuries of their new existence. We have the means to help them through these episodes." She gave Loki a considering look. "You handle her well. She can still be dangerous to you however."

Loki's arms tightened around me. "You are not taking her to the Silver City," he told Michael in a tone that made it clear that she was better off not bringing it up again.

By now Bucky had pulled up on his motorcycle, and I could feel him, Sam, and Thor all tense upon hearing Loki's words. They were all shocked at discovering that was ever an option. Great, just what the situation needed. Two pissed off gods, one pissed off super soldier, and one unhappy Captain America.

I was so done with this shit. I wanted to go home, take a long shower, curl up somewhere dark, and shut down for several hours. My limbs felt like rubber and my vision still wavered. Being crazy was fucking exhausting.