Chapter 12.
I woke up, wrapped in a green and black leather coat and someone holding me tight to them in their arms and felt safe. A bonfire crackling nearby, but everything was cold and my senses slowly took in my surroundings as I stirred a bit more. I shivered and whimpered and saw that it was night and I could hear the ocean somewhere in the background, beyond the heart I heard beating under my ear. I shifted and moaned, my joints aching and the exhaustion so overwhelming.
The arms around me tightened gently and a hand came up and brushed my hair in soft motions, smoothing it to soothe me and I only focused on the cold that wrapped itself around me and moaned again as I heard a voice rumble in the chest beneath me. The fire was almost too bright, and I lay still and continued to listen to the heart beating under my ear. The glow from the fire illuminated the sand and made it glitter and I shifted again. The arms tightened around me and a hand found my cheek and brushed it.
"Lay still." Loki said and closed the coat around me. "You exhausted yourself when you used your powers in a panic."
"Where are we?" I asked him in the darkness and his breathing was calm, my eyes were so very heavy with exhaustion and I yawned into my hand.
"I don't know, you brought us here." He said and I groaned from the cold in me again, he shushed me in the darkness. I sighed and closed my eyes and squeezed them shut as a pain wrapped from my back to my stomach.
"I think it is Earth." I said and I felt myself drift away again as I shivered against the cold and I felt the coat wrap tighter around me as I sat in his lap in the darkness and he made the fire larger using his powers.
"I'm so cold." I whimpered as I drifted back to sleep, he sat quietly and moved closer to the fire as I embraced the blackness of dreamless sleep.
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When they landed in the sand, Loki felt the last of The Presence's mind break with his. Lilliana's body was limp against him with her head back against his shoulder, and her lips and eyes ringed in blue. He felt her cold skin for any signs of life and let out a hesitant breath as he felt a shallow breath against the tips of his fingers from between her lips. He looked at the knife in his hand and put it away, gently laying her out in the sand supporting her neck as she rolled onto her side. Dark bruises had already begun to fade on her jaw, and he shook at what he had almost done. He felt he neck for a pulse, and could not find one and ended up opening her coat in a panic and pressing his ear to her chest and heard a light fluttering beat in her rib cage as the fragile muscle fought to keep life in her.
He left her laying in the sand and walked down the beach to the water where he screamed his throat raw, desperate to rid his mind of the images of suffering that filled his mind moments before. Watched the surf come and go as he paced back in forth in anger. He dropped to his knees and screamed again and was grateful she was unconscious, he knew she would have been terrified of him in that moment and he screamed up to the sky and ripped at his hair as images of her tied and his hands cutting her open filled his head.
Visions he hated himself for having and felt nothing but venom toward the man who put them into his mind as he nearly cut the girl.
Bit by bit, he collected himself and walked back over to Lilliana and he checked her again. Finding the bruises gone from her jaw, but her lips were still blue. Color was coming back to her and her breath came and went in a steady pace. He lifted her carefully, and removed the backpack from her shoulders and laid her back in the sand as he removed his coat, putting her arms into his sleeves and carefully putting it on her shoulders. She was dwarfed by it, and he closed it around her as he lifted her and carried he over to a driftwood log and settled her into the sand on the side away from the cold offshore wind to preserve any warmth that may still be in her body.
He carefully rested her head on her backpack and left her briefly to drag another driftwood log back close to them and looked up at the cloudy gray skies that threatened rain. He worked furiously and made a ring around it, carefully keeping one eye on Lilliana as she lay in the sand and he finished digging the makeshift fire pit, trying to forget what had happened and tried not to think about what could have been.
Finishing his task and exhausted, he sat down heavily on the log above her and groaned, letting his face fall into his hands and looked down at her peaceful form finding that he envied her for it at that moment as he brushed sand off of her forehead carefully. His own thoughts were a storm, and he tried to forget everything as he grew tired from his exertion and fighting an enemy that could invade his mind. He watched as the light dimmed on her face as the soft pink of her lips faded back, knowing that the sun was setting behind the heavy clouds.
With guilt, he opened her eye carefully and felt relief to see it intact but not truly focusing on anything, he leaned forward and let her eye close and tried to shake the guilt of what he had almost done. He slid off the log and pulled her into his lap and cradled her to keep her warmer.
When the sun set, the temperature around them dropped and he used his power to ignite the dry log and he watched it burn with the sleeping girl in his arms. The cold did not bother him in the least, but it would be a problem for her in her weakened state and he worried she would never open he eyes again. He would not loose her though, he promised himself that. He would make deals to keep her alive should he have to, and in the full darkness of the night he sent out prayers to whoever was listening, and begged the fates to favor her.
Hours passed and he fought dozing to keep watch over her, small movements from the bundle of leather made his eyes snap open as she shifted against him and he tightened his hold around her. She was horribly disoriented and her body shivered uncontrollably after mumbling that she had brought them to Midgard. He urged her to go back to sleep, and made the fire higher after tightening the coat around her. He slipped her ice cold hands inside the sleeves and rested his chin on the top of her head and watched the fire carefully until the rhythm of her breathing coupled with the ocean made his eyes drift closed and he soon fell asleep with her.
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In the distance I heard an alarm and a river.
Not an alarm though, an annoying melody that repeated over and over until I opened my eyes and groaned. Something shifted under my cheek and I heard a drum pounding, strong and steady in rhythm and I tried to hide from both sounds. I opened my eyes and the melody stopped. I put my hand out and I felt sand and drew my hand back in and across a chest, I found myself laying on top of Loki and I shifted my head to look up at him from his shoulder and I blinked to clear my head as he tightened his arm around me. His arm was around my back and I opened my eyes wider in shock as his opened and looked at me.
"Hi." He said and just stared at me as I sat up carefully and woke up more and more, trying to put together the puzzle around me. I looked up at the sky and saw thick gray clouds. I looked over the driftwood log that I was against and saw the ocean and looked down to see I was wearing Loki's jacket and I rubbed my face and shook as everything came back to me slowly. I remembered running through the castle, Loki killing Kree soldiers and protecting me, and the knife edging toward my face while an emotionless man stared down at the both of us. I shook and I tried to shrug off the jacket, but my fingertips were numb with cold, and he stopped me.
"You were cold." He said as I looked down at my body wrapped in his coat and he stopped me from taking it off as I sighed and tried to shake off the last of the sleepiness that clouded my head.
"Leave it on, you are still frigid, and you may shock your body." He said and I nodded and I let the sleeves fall over my hands as I sat back on my knees and Loki put a hand out on my shoulder as I swayed and threatened to fall over.
"Thank you." I said and looked over at the burnt log and remembered a bonfire vaguely. He looked at me with deep guilt. I hugged him suddenly and buried my face in his neck as I cried and he tensed again, eventually relaxing and put his arms up around me and his hand rubbed my back in circles.
"I know it wasn't you." I said and he hugged me tighter, the annoying melody started playing from my bag again and I broke the embrace suddenly and crawled over to the bag and unzipped it and started digging for the burner cell. Giving up in frustration, I turned the bag over and dumping the contents in the sand and shifted items around as I looked for the source of the sound.
The Burner Dave gave me was ringing in the most generic ringtone known to man, but it was a symphony to my ears and I braced myself on the driftwood log and answered it quickly. Resting my arms and stomach on the log as Loki sat back on his knees and looked at me.
"What is it?" He asked me and I waved at him, my mind working furiously.
"Hello?...um…..shit, Raven?" I said and Loki mouthed the word 'Raven' back at me and I rolled my eyes and I motioned again for him to be quiet and he rested his back against the log and sighed his annoyance.
"Where the fuck you go girl." Dave responded unusually talkative and his Russian accent more pronounced. "I have jobs, deliveries, but you no answer. You forget you my girl, and you no refuse work from me."
"Dave." I said cutting his rant off and I could see his face in my mind, turning red in anger as I spoke.
"Shut the fuck up and tell me the region the burners have without roaming." I said and checked the screen to see if the roaming indicator was on, it wasn't. Loki looked at me with interest.
"West Coast only." Dave replied, obviously shocked by my open defiance.
"Good, now tell me if it covers Alaska, Canada, or California. And hurry the hell up, I don't have much time." I said into the phone as it beeped to indicate a low battery.
"Fuck you bitch. I have my men find you and you will be fired." Dave replied and I pushed myself up on the log and patted Loki's shoulder to get his attention and motioned for him to hand me my regular cell phone, he picked it up from the sand and I rolled my eyes and cut Dave off again.
"Listen you asshole, I have had a really shitty week and it is not getting any easier, so just answer the damn question!" I shouted into the phone and Loki raised an eyebrow as me and gave me a look that screamed for me to watch my mouth. I rolled my eyes back at him and sighed.
"Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and California only." He replied and I pumped my fist in celebration at his response.
"Yes!" I shouted and Loki jumped a bit. "Stuck the landing!"
"You no work for me now bitch. You are fired, and my men come get you and bring you back, you no work and you are now dead." Dave said into the phone and I laughed as his accent got worse and worse as he talked.
"Get in fucking line Dave." I said and stood up as the phone finally died and laughed into my hands as I walked to the ocean and threw the phone into the waves and cheered as it skipped across the surface four times before vanishing.
"I quit Dave!" I screamed and staggered back to the log where Loki watched me and looked amused, he handed me my personal cell and I stuffed everything else back in the bag and sat back against the log as dizziness swept over me. I picked up one of the candy bars I had and tore at the wrapper and took a bite off of it and chewed.
"Are you going to tell me what all that was about?" Loki asked as I chewed at a piece of chocolate and took another starved bite of the candy and chewed that one. I tried to shake his coat sleeves up higher on my arms to keep from getting melted candy bar on them and licked my thumb free of a smear of the candy.
"Establishing my theories are correct." I said around a mouthful of candy. "If the cell phone can receive calls here, then we are on Earth, because the cell phones work off of the satellite signals in orbit. However, the cheap phone Dave gave me had spotty reception so it tells me that one runs off cell towers, so we are definitely almost out of range, but not far from a town or something, so we are most likely not in Canada or in Alaska. Definitely on the West Coast where I wanted to be. The lack of a roaming indicator puts us in either Oregon or Washington looking at the weather, California would have been sunnier and we would have been surrounded by Beach Bums by now. Also the trees are evergreens, not palms, so most likely northern Oregon or Washington." I said and took another bite of the candy and held the power button as I crossed my legs as I sat, waiting for the screen on my personal cell to load.
"Clever Little Mouse. I am impressed with your deduction." He said approvingly and I blushed a bit. While I waited for the phone to load, I tried making a mouse in my hand and my head swam and I nearly fell over as gray blotches filled my vision. Loki put his hand out and moved next to me and he looked really concerned as I cleared my head.
'I must be really drained." I said and groaned putting my head in my hands and Loki nodded at me.
"You expended too much energy bringing us here, you will need a few days to recover fully." He said and held me upright with his hand behind my back.
"I kind of panicked, sorry. This is the first place that came to mind." I said and he sighed at me. For a moment I thought he was going to chew me out, but instead, he put a hand on my shoulder and nodded.
"Don't be apologetic for surviving." And I looked down at the screen of my cell phone and turned it to him.
"Washington State." I said triumphantly and tapped the Google icon and handed him the candy bar. My thumbs entered my query asking our coordinates using the built in G.P.S and Loki looked over my shoulder at what I was doing.
"This still does not help us here and now." I said and tried not to be dizzy as my search pulled up a map with an indicator on it showing that we were about twenty miles outside Port Townsend, just off Highway 101 and the ocean behind us was actually Discovery Bay. I asked for walking time to Port Townsend, and groaned when I saw the results and took the candy back from Loki and ate another bite.
'Something wrong?" He asked and I hung my head before answering and tried not to groan in dizziness again.
"We are going to have to hitchhike." I said and took another bite of the candy bar as I thought.
"It is twenty miles, we are dressed like rejects from a Renaissance Fair, and it is Fall. So cars are going to be few and far between because Tourist Season is over. Also, I'm exhausted and starving on top of that." I said and took a breath as I shrugged out of his coat and gave it back to him and he tried to stop me.
"I'm getting too warm in this." I said and Loki took his coat back and put it on as I sat back and tried not to cry.
'You forgot one thing Little Mouse." He said and my clothes changed to a pair of dark blue jeans and a royal purple sweater over a black turtleneck. I looked down at the black hiking boots and the black wool Peacoat I had on and smiled at him impressed.
"The wool coat is a nice touch." I said, he looked down at me smugly as I opened the backpack and dug in my it for a brush and untied my hair and began attacking it with ferocity. And then braided it again and I felt a little bit more human.
"What about you though?" I said and he looked up at the sky. 'You are not exactly blending in yourself there."
His clothes changed to a similar style to mine, but his sweater was a green cable knit, and his jeans were black. I looked at it approvingly and smiled at him.
"Is this adequate?" He asked me coolly. "I feel like a fool dressed like this."
"Don't." I said as he stood up and stretched. "It looks good, like really good."
I handed him the brush and stood up myself and dug the wad of cash out of my bag and put it in my pants pocket along with my I.D. and cell phone. I wrapped the rest of the candy back up and shoved it down into the bag and started shrugging it onto my back, but Loki insisted on carrying it to relieve me of some of the burden. I struggled a bit through the sand, and I took the lead as he followed me.
We walked up to the highway from the beach, and I looked both ways down the 101 and sighed, no cars or signs were visible and I had no idea why I was even trying at this point. Every odd was stacked against us. I turned south, putting the bay to my left and Loki followed me and I struggled not to let my exhaustion or hunger show.
"Do you have a plan, or are we to walk aimlessly?" He asked and sighed sardonically.
"Well, unless you feel like swimming across Discovery Bay, shut up and follow me." I snapped at him and kept walking along the side of the hard macadam highway heading south. He glared at me for my scolding, and I did my best to ignore him as we moved on.
The silence already deafening, I kicked an old soda can and watched it as it bounced down the road and into the brush. If I wasn't so claustrophobic, we would have avoided this mess, and would still be secure in the Weapons Vault. I cussed myself out for being a wimp and walked trying to be productive in my self loathing. Loki however, found his own pace and over took me as I struggled to keep up and soon I was huffing and puffing thanks to my being so worn down. Hunger became a coiled monster in my stomach and no matter how hard I tried to ignore it, my stomach felt painful and I held it as I walked.
He would stop at random moments to look around him, his eyes scanning the various evergreens draped in Spanish Moss and listening to the sounds around us with the ocean droning in the background, it was peaceful and beautiful out here. I could see what would draw tourists out here in the Spring and Summer away from the constant noise of Seattle and Bellevue. I took in a deep breath of the salty ocean air, and shivered a bit at the offshore breeze and continued walking, but still enjoying the beauty of the nature that surrounded us.
My goal of finding real food, a hot shower, and a place to sleep, kept me moving forward and I did fairly well for the first few miles or so.
After five miles, my feet started screaming up into my knees and I had to stop and rest but pushed on and started struggling to keep up with Loki. At six miles I hit the wall as the planet spun and tried to kick me off it, I was dizzy and starved and my body decided that I had done enough. I fell backwards, finding every piece of gravel under my butt and put my head into my hands and waited until the dizziness passed so I could keep going. I breathed twenty different ways and put my head between my knees gingerly. I heard Loki run back toward me and I squeezed my eyes shut as I fought the vertigo.
"What is wrong? Are you unwell?" Loki asked me and I nodded as I dug in my bag for the other half of the giant candy bar.
"You need to slow down," I said and took a bite of the candy.
"You are walking too fast, and I am crashing from lack of proper sleep and having just sugar in my system, my stomach hurts too." I said to Loki and offered him some of the candy, he took a bite and chewed, sitting on the ground next to me as I rested. Thirst crawled up my throat and scratched at me, making my dizziness even worse.
"This is good." He said and licked some of the errant chocolate off his lips. "We have gone a great distance, perhaps we should rest for a moment."
I groaned as another wave of dizziness hit me and had to put my hands down on either side of me to keep from falling back. Loki reached out and steadied me against his shoulder and I tried not to feel pathetic.
"I need real food." I groaned and took another bite of the candy. "This is good for now, but eventually I will have a big crash and it will be really bad."
I sighed and winced at a pain in my stomach, trying no to imagine a cheeseburger or a pizza.
"I imagine we will need water or another drink as well." He said and his eyes looked back down the road we had just walked and fixed on something in the distance. I looked back, following his gaze and saw a logging truck rumbling along. It was most likely out of Forks or somewhere in that region, and mentally I did back flips at the sight. Loki however, tensed and a knife appeared in his hand as he began standing up. I put my hand on his wrist to stop him.
"No!" I warned and looked up at him and stood up myself. "Let me talk if they stop. Earth is not exactly Loki friendly after New York, and we really need a ride and to be smart about this. I can get really sick if I don't get someplace to rest soon."
He looked at me and put the knife away, helping me to stand up and steady me on my feet as the truck came closer and closer.
I waved my hands in the air and jumped up a few times, which I regretted as my head swam and nearly grounded me. We watched at the truck passed and I nearly started crying as the truck blew past in anger. But it eventually slowed and pulled off to the side of the road with a hiss of the air brakes, and shuddered to a stop. I ran to the side of the cab and climbed up on the passenger side to talk to the driver, nearly falling over in my hurry.
"Are you both O.K sweetie?" The female driver asked and I smiled wide at her scrambling for a lie mentally and I came up with one quickly.
"Our car died," I said and looked over at Loki who was watching the scene with some interest. "My boyfriend and I need a ride to Port Townsend so we can charge our cells and call AAA for a tow. Can you please drive us? I can pay you for the gas."
The road weathered Blonde woman looked at Loki over my shoulder and adjusted her blue flannel shirt and looked back at me again. She nodded and smiled at me, and I climbed down from my perch as she reached across the bench seats to unlock the door.
"Be civil." I warned Loki in a low voice, as I opened the door and climbed up on the seat and Loki rolled his eyes and followed me up.
"Keep your money hun," She said as she offered me a bottle of water from a flat tucked under her seat and I accepted it gratefully. "I make good money and it is no problem for me to help you both out."
I twisted the cap off the bottle as she waited for us to get situated and took a long drink from it and passed it to Loki while I hooked my seat belt and made a quick motion for Loki to hook his while he watched. He looked at the latching mechanism, and back up at me and I made a bit of a motion to show how to hook everything without arousing the suspicion of the driver.
"Boyfriend?" He mouthed at me and I gave him a look that told him to go along with it.
"My names Cheryl." She said as she put the truck into gear and offered me her hand. I shook it and smiled at her again.
"Lilly, and this is….Lucas." I said and Cheryl regarded Loki as she accelerated onto the 101 toward Route 20. "We are really happy you stopped, I was wearing out so fast, and I didn't think I could walk the entire way to town."
"I figured you were both day trippers." Cheryl said and shifted gears on the rig nosily. Loki handed me back the water bottle and I took a drink and gave it back to him and he raised an eyebrow quietly as he drank from it as well.
"Are you sure I can't pay you for the ride Cheryl?" I asked her and she smiled and laughed at me.
"She always this nice?" She asked Loki and he nodded and looked at the two of us sheepishly.
"You have no idea." He replied and Cheryl laughed as she steered the rig carefully along the road.
"It is only a half hour detour hun, and I was going to stop at the market in town anyways sweet girl." Cheryl said to me and I smiled politely. "You are not putting me out any."
I sat back and drank more of the water she had given me and Loki looked forward through the windshield tensely and became hyper aware of everything for some strange reason. I elbowed him, and motioned for him to relax and he regarded me vaugely.
"We really appreciate it Cheryl. It is a super long walk, and I don't know if I could have made it all the way." I said to her, and Loki cracked the window as the cab became stuffy to let fresh air in and we soon came to the Route 20 interchange.
"You both look like Seattle Tech," Cheryl said breaking the silence and making conversation. "Stark Industries, Amazon, or Microsoft?"
I scrambled in my head for another lie and Loki looked at me and came up with something within seconds. He waited to see how I handled myself before he would have to intervene.
"Amazon actually." I piped out quickly. "I do tech support, maintaining servers and stuff, and Lucas helps to maintain the site and keep it user friendly." I sighed and Loki raised an eyebrow at my lie, I elbowed him in the ribs and giggled. He winced and I looked at him expectantly, and he nodded.
"Yes. My clever Lilly got me the position." He said and my eyes widened in shock that he went along with it, and suddenly panicked again should Cheryl decide to ask him about writing code and how he kept everything up.
"Sounds boring." Cheryl said and I felt an avalanche of relief hit me. "But you two are cute, and I suppose the world needs smarties like the two of ya."
She guided the wheel around and we merged onto Route 20, and I nearly groaned as I felt dizzy again at the motion and gray blotches dotted my vision. Loki put a hand on my shoulder and looked at me concerned and I smiled at him to show I was going to survive.
"Lucas, where you from honey? Your accent says England." Cheryl asked and my heart skipped a beat and I looked at Loki and mouthed yes at him, and he looked at Cheryl and I was impressed to see he was not being arrogant.
"Yes, England." He replied and he put his arm around me as the lack of proper nutrients in my blood started to make me shake. "However, I do take pleasure in the variety that is Washington."
I relaxed into his shoulder and tried to stay focused ahead as Loki dug the last of the candy out from his pocket and gave it to me to eat, I let the tension that built between my shoulders ease a bit. And was grateful that Loki did play along, we would be sunk if he didn't.
"I thought so hun." She said and smiled. "We should be there in about twenty minutes, will you get this girl something to eat other than that candy? She is shaking like a leaf and pale as sin."
Loki looked out the windshield as we began passing houses along the road as he held the Oh Shit handle above the door casually, I ate another bite of the chocolate.
"That is exactly my intention Cheryl." He said and continued to look ahead at the road. "I believe we shall do that before we make any calls to get our car dealt with."
He rested his head against his arm as he gripped the handle and watched the road ahead. Looking casual, but staying hyper aware, which confused me to no end. What the hell did he expect would happen?
"Treat her good Lucas," Cheryl said and looked at me. "She will make you feel like a King."
Loki looked down at me and smiled and watched me closely as the road passed under the truck, and I bounced along in the seat.
"Or just like a deserving man." He said and I ate more of the candy trying not to blush, and wondering about what Loki had just said.