"You think, she's not human?" Erik asks skeptically raising an eyebrow standing behind Darcy one early morning while Darcy scribbles away in her notepad, looking up occasionally at the computer screen that had a strange website up about elven creatures. Erik had always been somewhat of a father figure to Jane and didn't wanna believe Jane was terribly sick or had something happen to her without telling anybody. But, problem is, that is Jane.
"She's...something!" Darcy says exasperated not finding the words waving her hands with a deep sigh slouching back in her seat. "I can feel it, in here." She swirled around in her seat to face Erik pointing to her stomach and Erik cocked his head to the side glancing at Darcy's stomach then back up at her worried face. "Your intestines?"
Darcy shoots him a playful annoyed look. "Noooo, my gut, come on Erik get your head in the game." Erik chuckles at her high school musical reference and nods. It was always an adventure spending time with Darcy, you were never bored.
"Okay, i named off things i've noticed about her," Darcy turned briefly to grab her notepad and cleared her throat.
"One, her hair is darker than I remember it, way, darker." Darcy lowers her voice for dramatic effect but keeping her face serious. Erik presses his lips in a line.
"Maybe she just dyed it, ya know, trying something different."
Darcy shakes her head with a soft sigh, then said her tone tinged with such sadness it makes Erik's heart tug.
"Jane never dyes her hair. She loved the way it was before, a light chestnut brown, now its like dark brown, she's not into changing herself. Plus she's allergic to dye."
Erik considers leaving. He doesn't know if he can take the possibility of something seriously wrong with Jane. She was too small, too gentle, too smart for her own good sometimes. She was innocent.
"What else?" Erik asks reluctantly crossing his arms.
Darcy looks down at her writing, clucking her tongue. "Her voice is different, it still sounds like her but it sounds more...Whats the word? Musical."
Before Erik could come up with an excuse Darcy held up a finger. "Annnd, her skin is clearer, not that she had pimples but a few blemishes...it's like they're just, gone. I swear it's almost as if she walked out of a photo shoot. It was off-putting."
Erik bites his lip, taking in all the things Darcy has named off so far. He swears his heart almost stops as he thinks about one possibility.
"What do you think she...is?" Erik asks with a weary sigh, Darcy narrows her gaze at her notepad. "I've narrowed it down to three things: Elf, dragon, vampire."
Erik tenses at the word, he doesn't wanna believe it but, he has a feeling he's seen crazier things. But he blinks at Darcy's past two suggestions.
"Why on earth would she be a dragon?"
Darcy bit the inside of her cheek looking around as if something inside the house would help her. "Well, because what if she got bitten by a dragon bat and- I don't know I was running out of stuff to link her too." Darcy sighed out setting her notepad on the table. Then she looked at Erik from under her lashes biting her lip, her eyes widening.
"Our friend is a vampire, isn't she..?"
Erik looks back at Darcy and swallows hard which is all Darcy needs for her answer, a sudden surge of determination going through him, and the fatherly instinct to protect his friend.
"We gotta find her, now."
"Hey Loki?" Jane asks as her legs lay across Loki's lap, him engrossed in another of his books, concentration suits him. He looks up at Jane with a smile tugging at his lips just at the sight of her. Jane smiles glancing down then back up. "Do you ever get the feeling that you know or seen someone before?"
Loki blinks at her question, of course he's gotten that feeling...alittle more than usual..
"Yes I have, do you get the feeling you know me from somewhere?" Loki asks back playfully tilting his head. Jane nods quickly. "I do, it's so weird. Like my brain is insisting I do know you.."
Loki keeps his eyes on her, unblinking and his expression unreadable that Jane fears she's said something wrong. Loki leans in slightly, speaking lowly, his eyes piecing hers. "Perhaps it's the strange game of fate."
Jane for a moment forgets to blink and does breaking out of the trance he's put her in. Suddenly the shrill noise of Jane's phone goes off and she reaches over picking it up, realizing its Darcy Jane anxiously presses 'answer' and holds her outdated phone up to her ear.
"Hello?"
"Jane! I mean, Jane you have to come over right away, it's really important. And Erik's here too." She hears Darcy say hurriedly before Jane could even get a word in.
"O-Okay uh, I'll be there as soon as possible." Jane presses the end call button and looks at Loki who has the same troubled look on his face.
"Jane, I wouldn't go over there if I were you."
Jane presses her lips in a line now caught in-between cross-roads. She loves Loki and wants nothing more than to stay and have more of these quiet nice little evenings with him reading and talking, but Darcy's her best friend, more like a sister. And Jane fears Darcy's in trouble as well.
"I have to go, Loki. But I'll come right back." Jane says apologetically reaching out to take Loki's hand and squeezing reassuringly. Loki keeps his gaze on hers, his just as apologetic as he holds her hand and brings it up to his lips kissing her knuckles softly. No, you won't..
"Don't do anything bad while I'm gone?" Jane teases with a light smile hoping to ease his worry, Loki smiles but, more sadly. "No promises."
Jane rolls her eyes with a breathless laugh and swings her legs over to stand up, turning around she leans in and closes her eyes capturing Loki's lips with hers. Loki kisses back with just as much as enthusiasm, his hand on her arm as if to yank her back into his arms. Loki breaks the kiss slightly to whisper. "I'm sorry."
Jane furrows her eyebrows confused and leans back, she opens her mouth but Loki raises his palm, silencing her. "Go."
Jane hesitates biting her lip but grabs her coat nodding and making her way out the door.
"Okay, I'm here. And I still can't change the ringtone on this phone whenever you text, me..." Jane trails off as she walks to Darcy's house but Darcy and Erik are standing outside with grave faces. "What's, going on here? Erik, it's so good to see you." Jane says looking at Erik who smiles slightly nodding in her direction.
"We know, Jane.." Darcy says in a bit of a whisper, but Jane still hears and she freezes. She considers playing dumb and asking innocently what Darcy knows, but Darcy can see though anything, she can see through her.
"How did you find out.." Jane said, more of a demand than a question. The two scientists exchange a look and turn back to Jane. Darcy steps forward hesitantly opening her mouth to speak. "That, day you came over...you looked different, not the Jane I knew, you look, weird." Darcy said in a frustrated tone, as if trying to put together a puzzle piece that won't fit, shaking her head in a way that makes Jane's unbeating heart-break.
"I'm sorry, Darcy," Jane says softly, her throat hurts. From hunger and from the tears that will never surface anymore. Jane's mind briefly flashes to Darcy's pulse point, but she quickly diminishes the repulsive thought. She takes a step forward making Darcy take a step back, Jane feels as though she's been punched in the gut. Erik put both his hands on Darcy's shoulders, reassuring her. "I never meant for this to happen, truly. I should've just told you what happened, all of it." Jane admits wraps her arms around herself, partly trying not to break down here in public, and to hide her growing panic.
"Why didn't you? Why did you just leave me wondering and worrying sick that you got abducted and possibly killed?" Darcy says exasperated her arms waving in the air, Darcy's always been an expressive talker.
"Who would believe me?! Would you actually have honestly believed me if I had told you I was a god-damn vampire?" Jane suddenly shouts, tightening her arms around herself, her fists curled into balls.
Darcy falls quiet and Jane raises her eyebrows. "See? God, I sound crazy. And I'm the one here that's not human." Jane mutters with a hollow laugh rubbing her face tiredly sighing deeply. Darcy looks down at the dewy grass for a moment, gathering her thoughts and questions before speaking once again, keeping her tone steadier. "Where were you this entire time?"
Jane takes her hands away from her face to look at her friend, clenching her jaw. "I met a guy while I was on my way here at first and he offered me a drink with him," Jane starts when she hears Erik make a disappointing scoff shaking his head. "Jesus Jane, what did I tell you about strangers?"
Jane sticks the heel of her boot into the dirt, absorbing his words before continuing softly, ignoring him. "And we talked and actually had a really nice time, then he brought me back to his flat and.."Jane trailed off with a light shrug. "All I remember is us kissing and then, it was black."
"Who is this son of a bitch?" Erik demands stepping up but Darcy grabs his arm holding him back. Jane opens her mouth to say but gets cut off by an entirely new female voice. "I believe that son of a bitch is my friend, Loki."
They all turn to see a woman with long blonde hair and the greenest eyes Jane's ever seen dressed in a dark green leather jacket with black jeans sporting a satisfied smirk walking through the gate and over to them. "Who are you?" Jane asks narrowing her eyes at the strange woman who gives her a doubtful look that reminds her of Loki's, and Jane could swear ice went down her spine at the similarities. "Names Amora, and you must know Loki here." Amora gestures to her right when Loki strolled in, his face stone and grave.
He turns his head to stare at the blonde woman named Amora.
"You promise you won't hurt her?"
Amora's red lips turn into a insincere smile. "Now my dearest Loki, you and I both know I'm untrustworthy. Hell, you're untrustworthy. And I've had a change of plans." Amora walks towards Jane with a deadly smirk, her hair bouncing with her step.
Jane looks between them confused preparing to asked really what the hell is going on when she hears whispering voices, whispering her name. Jane turns to look at Darcy who has just as a shocked face as she does. "Darcy, did you say something?"
Darcy shakes her head, her lips in a tight line and shifting from one foot to the other.
Jane...Jane..Jane!..Jane..Jane..Jane...Jane..
Jane winces and covers her ears in hopes to drown out the voices but they only seem to get louder and more familiar. Her eyes are wide and frantic as she looks to see Darcy and Erik are beside her, trying desperately to calm her down. Jane suddenly feels as if all the energy has been drained out of her, she feels light-headed and she has a pounding headache that of a migraine. For a moment Jane feels as if she was gonna die from the stress of all of this, if she could die. She thinks of Loki, desperately wanting him to hold her and tell her it's alright, but she can't hear anything.
"Make it stop!" Jane cries holding her head, but she can't even hear her own voice as she collapses on her knees in the wet grass, the worry of her outfit out of mind, if she can even think straight anymore.
Loki..
His face is the only think she imagines when the pain has stopped and the whole world goes black.
Jane sees red, behind her lids that is. But she feels no warmth, no sun. She can hear her heartbeat again, it's faster than normal. Beating eagerly to supply all the black blood that has stilled in her veins turning it back to the normal human red color. Jane wakes with her eyes snapping open and a gasp of air, she coughs and sits up alittle too fast holding her now turning stomach. She blinks trying to clear her foggy mind and takes in her surroundings. She's in a room, a stone-like room with two golden twin doors with two huge bowls that hold fire in them, she looks to her left to see an open balcony with the wind blowing softly and warmly.
Slowly getting up she feels something against her legs and realizes she's in a dress. A blue royal looking dress with a silver breast-plate that goes all the way to her shoulder. She furrows her eyebrows and slowly walks to the balcony to see that she is no where on earth anymore, that much is clear. It all swims back to her in a way that makes her head ache from the amount of information to take in all at once. She breathes out softly in awe of how beautiful it looks at night with the glowing lights. But her view is quickly interrupted by a burning in her arm. Jane looks down to see a red glowing fluid in her arm that makes Jane wanna throw up. The Ather.
It all dawns on her.
Asgard.
Plot twist!