Chapter Twenty-Eight: The Last Thing

Loki noted as the boy's fingers moved away from his communicator. He detected a flicker of confidence, maybe some hope, after he spoke. Why did these people have to be so painfully easy to read? It made tricking them simple, but no less fun. It became clear to him almost immediately. The kiss was a trap, a ploy to get him into the building. Even more shocking was that he had fallen for it without a second thought. When he'd checked in on her an hour before, he'd seen them talking and laughing. He ended up watching them for a while, his eyes hovering in the room as his body rested in a vacant hotel suite he'd appropriated.

The kiss may have been a trap. But the way they spoke to each other, with so much comfortability, that was real. And the fact that she let him kiss her-that was real too. "Was that a code of sorts? For your boss?" Loki asked calmly, not at all concerned. Sam was unsure how to respond, but his eyes betrayed him as they darted to the door for a moment. "Are they going to come and get me?" He stepped toward Sam and curled his lips into a devious grin. "You'd better call them again, I think. Put a rush on that order. Do you think they can get here before I can kill you?" He reached out and took the earpiece from his ear. And then he put it in his mouth.

Loki drank in his observers' confused looks and calmly stated, "Your earpiece is a piece of candy." He then promptly spat in into his hand. Sam and Eve leaned in curiously and found it resting in his palm-a lifesaver. A green one.

"You…" Sam paused, taken aback, "turned it into a lifesaver?"

"Not quite. You've actually been wearing it in your ear like that all day."

"What-well, that's impossible! How would that go unnoticed?"

"Magic. I made the candy resemble it, and it's a similar shape already minus the hole in the center. So I cast a simple tactile spell. This was earlier in the day, I was hoping it would supply a cheap laugh. Turns out it's ruined your little plan as well! Ugh-" he grimaced and stuck his tongue out. "-now all I can taste is earwax." He pulled the sleeve of lifesavers out of his pocket and popped another in his mouth, casting the old one aside. When it hit the ground, Sasha ran to it eagerly. Eve promptly picked it up and threw it away.

Loki sucked on the sweet and still managed to have an air of seriousness about him. "I suppose I was mistaken in saying you were no longer bold. The opposite, in fact. You are bold to the point of foolishness. Not unlike this one, here," he shot Eve a knowing look. "Trying to trick the God of Mischief? Unwise."

Eve was lagging behind a bit. Her brain was muddled and busy. Each time Loki implied Sam was trying to trick him, she wondered what he meant, but was quickly distracted by the next development.. This time she was given a solid chunk of silence to try putting the pieces together. The thing that struck her hardest was the fact that Sam was not objecting or trying to disprove these claims. When it clicked at last, her mind resumed racing. "You used me, then?" She barked in Sam's direction. Her head steadily flooded with emotions and it was difficult to concentrate. "You didn't actually want to spend time with me-you just wanted him!"

She gestured to Loki, who smiled. "It's good to be wanted," he said.

"You're never going to be over this, are you?" Eve realized out loud. Her friendship with him would always be tainted. Even years later, if things were mostly back to normal, if Loki was around or not-Sam would never look at her the same way. Ever.

"Eve, it wasn't like that. Fury-"

"Oh! Your boss told you to take advantage of my trust. That's much better. That makes it all okay!"

"Stop it," he challenged with a surprising amount of authority. "Stop and open your eyes. Look at the bigger picture here. That man is a murderer, a criminal in every sense of the word. Do you really think he cares for you? You are his property. That's why he came."

"How would you know-"

"Because it's fucking obvious!"

Loki pointed an accusing finger at Sam. "Of course you think that. You want her for your own. I could be just any other mortal and you'd say the same." Sam opened his mouth to protest, but Loki turned away from him. "And you!" He addressed Eve. "Dying for his approval, terrified to harm him. Clearly you want him as well." Before she could object, and frankly his tone made her scared to, he pushed her into Sam's chest. They bounced off each other and looked unsteadily to him. "Go on, then. Put on a show for me. And make it good because it's going to be the last thing you ever do."

Eve's eyes filled with hesitant tears that hung without falling. She dared not blink. She mustered the calmest voice she could manage to say his name, try to bring him away from his anger. "Loki," she stared into his eyes and waited for some semblance of a positive reaction.

He took a step toward the pair, who were standing close but not touching. "Go on and kiss him," he bit in a low, even tone, "I won't stop you-just like you didn't stop him."

"No," Eve resisted as one tear escaped and fell to the floor in a hurry.

Sam reached out and held her loosely. Not to advance, not to do as Loki asked, but simply to console her. It quickly occurred to him that his decision to do so had not been wise. Loki grabbed him by the shoulders and threw him clear across the room. His head collided with the door and he remained, motionless, in that spot.

Eve twitched to run to his side but Loki held her back firmly. He pushed her relatively gently in the opposite direction and went himself, warning with his eyes for her not to move a muscle. He crouched down next to the body, laying on its stomach, and placed two steady fingers on his wrist. "He's alive," he reported and snapped his free hand's fingers in front of the boy's face. "Unconscious, but alive." He stood and took in Eve's mix of relief and worry. "And if I had said he was dead?" He placed one foot on Sam's head, covering his ear. "Should I just finish the job? Is that what I need to do to keep you?"

"As though you could still have me!" Eve shouted, at the end of her rope. Loki stared back at her, looking mildly hurt, and removed his foot to approach her. "Is what he said true?" She asked as he got closer. "Am I your property?"

Loki grit his teeth. "Am I to live in a realm where his word is law?"

"Answer me."

He took a moment to ponder, leaving the question hanging heavily in the air. One word came wafting lazily into his mind-love. Because that was the line. That was the difference between plaything and soul mate. It hadn't been long enough to know for sure. And that meant he did not love her, not yet. But the potential to someday feel that way was there. And it was, in fact, why this event caused him such upset. But he could promise her nothing. "You should be honored to be my property."

"So that's how it is? All that shit about running away with you and being your queen…"

Out of the blue, he kissed her. He was inclined to prove the way he felt instead of endlessly explaining something rather inexplicable. Passion spilled from from his lips but she was resistant, tentative. She yanked herself away and he used a forceful hand on her hip to brace her against the wall. "I'm fairly confident you knew what you were getting into here."

She caught his eyes, her own a little misty from the powerful kiss. He wasn't wrong. She knew who he was. She just needed to think, but he wouldn't let her. He came in close and pressed his fingers into her hip, kneading and keeping her in place. "Do you want him?" He asked, almost sounding vulnerable. If it was fake, she chose to ignore it.

"No," she answered honestly.

"Did you want him to kiss you?" His other hand came up to her shoulder and massaged it, applying pressure in spots that made her head swirl.

"No."

"Then why did you let him?" His hands stopped moving and she grew antsy. Anxious to turn the motion back on.

"Do you remember when you told me that I had claimed him as my property, that I wanted him to hang onto his dream, as my fallback, forever? I've had that in the back of my mind since that moment. And I think you were right about me."

"I am rarely wrong," he seemed satisfied by this answer as his hands resumed groping, now traveling to more and more sensitive areas of her body. He kissed her neck and her head turned out of habit. When her eyes me the bottoms of Sam's shoes, she shuddered and felt ashamed.

Loki took her chin in his hand upon noticing where her attention was and turned it to him. He quickly invaded her thoughts and saw her running back and forth between how fucked up it was and how good it felt. "Say you don't want me and I'll go."

Eve said no such thing.

A/N:

Okay. I think this might be my favorite chapter so far. Eve's sanity is taking some big hits, and she's discovering a few similarities between herself and Loki-which isn't really a good thing XD Looking forward to feedback on this one! I was really able to let Loki roam free and show his true colors here.