Chapter Two
"That wasn't very nice. It was kind of rude, actually." Darcy said. Loki was lucky she hadn't tased him. As if that would work on a God. Thor hadn't exactly been a God when she'd tased him.
She was here again? Why? Loki refused to acknowledge her, staring ahead as he stood there. He took note of the time and knew night was too far away. At least, too far away for him. With this bickering female, it was by far too far away. Nice? He'd made no intention of being 'nice'. Why did she think otherwise? His arms tensed behind his back when she moved to sit down by his feet on the pedestal.
"Thor is off showing his lady love the vast lands of Asgard and beyond and I so didn't want to be in on their love fest. I did get a chance to see that floating...castle? Now that was cool." She whipped out her Ipod; she'd been idly toying with it ever since they'd arrived. Who was too say if she didn't fiddle with it enough it wouldn't work? With all these Gods around you'd think some of that energy would be put to good use.
"...gold here, gold there, gold everywhere." Her words droned in on his ears, but he didn't know what she was talking about. "People would have a field day with this place, especially all those gold diggers. But hey, you don't have to dig here." She perked up a little bit. "Ah, you see what I did there? Good one, Darcy."
He rolled his eyes. Why was she here? She was an irritating chit.
"You'd think that with all these God's together, something would power up this thing with a signal. Or at least keep the battery going." She finally thought out loud before putting the Ipod away. She needed something to touch, something to fiddle with—it was just a coping mechanism that came natural to her for no apparent reason. She tugged on one end of her scarf. "I met your Dad and I so get y'alls Daddy issues. Dude freaks me out. Huh, guess that's where Thor got it from. He totally freaked me out the first time I met him."
Loki almost said, 'He's not my Father.' but remembered he couldn't speak past the thread.
"But hey, daddy issues, you gotta deal with them. What do I call him anyway? I was just like, ugh, yea and all that, but I didn't exactly call him anything. I've heard 'Odin-Father' but that's just so long, ya know? 'Odin'? Mr. Odin? God? No, not God. That just isn't right."
He could imagine rendering her mute with a spell. Or perhaps make her think she was choking. Perhaps if he cut out her tongue...but no, that would undo everything he'd accomplished so far with the Odin-Father. Humans were humans...but he was still a God. A God that domineered over humans. More powerful.
Yes, this Darcy as a mute would would be most pleasurable.
He glanced down when he felt the hem of his outer jacket being lifted. Darcy slid her fingers over the material. "While this isn't like, fashionable or anything, I like it. Green, hellooo-o. I'd so wear something like this. Is it leather?"
'Release me.'
She was so startled to hear those words, his voice, that her head jerked up. "Whoa! I thought you couldn't talk." Her gaze dropped to his lips, as if expecting to find them thread-proof but low and behold, his lips were still sewn shut.
'Release me.' The words came in his haughty voice again, but his lips didn't move. But the words were there, very clear and very, very in her mind.
"Are you..."
'Are you deaf, girl?'
There went the idea that she was going crazy. Because he'd definitely spoken in her mind. It was so cool it was freaky. Now why wouldn't she have thought of that? He was a Trickster God, or so she'd read. "Are you playing me?"
Loki did not understand the meaning of this 'playing her'. All that he knew was that she was not heeding him. Was she not paying attention? If he could have frowned, he would have. The only emotion he could show was his eyes. 'Remove. Your. Hand. Release me.'
So he wasn't playing her. "Alright, alright, so you don't like being touched. Geez." She removed her hand but didn't get up. That was so, so cool. She stared up at him for a few moments and when he didn't reply, she spoke again. "So you didn't hear that? Guess it doesn't work like that."
His brows furrowed.
So the telepathic thing was a one way thing. Bummer.
He was ignoring her again, she saw. Just staring ahead. She didn't get how he could stand so still. She couldn't do that for even three minutes. She went back to playing with her scarf. "Those multi-colored flowers over there—" She said, motioning. "—are pretty cool. You know what they're called?"
Silence.
"What about those?"
Silence.
"I saw some green ones on the way over here." He liked green, she was sure of that.
Silence.
His head snaked down when he felt a sharp tug on the hem again. 'You are a most irritating female.' He snapped out.
"Been there. Done that. Heard it plenty of times." She was counting that one as a compliment from the God of Mischief.
'Your voice irritates me.'
"Compared to the never ending silence here, I'd think you wanted a change of scenery."
'I've not had a moments silence since you arrived.'
He wasn't looking at her, but he was talking. This telepathic stuff was talking, right? This was just too cool! The hem slipped out of her grasp when he shifted, no doubt, purposefully. So he didn't like to be touched, eh? She'd have to remember that.
Score, Darcy!
"Trust me when I say it's better than the poetry that Thor quotes to Jane. Now that could use some trickery, because it's just so lame." She felt his eyes on her at that and when she looked up, bingo, he was staring down at her. "What?"
Silence.
She poked his leg and felt him stiffen. "Yo. I'm good at this. I need some human, ah, God contact. Talk."
She was met with silence. Man, she wished she could tase a little bit of talk out of him. She almost laughed. That'd be kinda funny. She poked his leg again and then gave a sharp tug on his pants leg—leather? She was right about earlier, because he responded, or was it because she was human? There was a sense of accomplishment knowing that she was egging the God of Mischief on.
Only Darcy would do that, she thought.
'Cease your foolishness.'
"I may talk a lot but trust me when I say I'm not foolish. Geez, maybe you need manners."
His eyebrow lifted at that. 'You do realize that I could render you mute?'
"Really?" Darcy said. "You can do that?" She tilted her head to the side. "Wait a minute, are you playing me again? If you could do that, you'd already have done it. Admit it, dude."
Oh, the foolish human. Did she not know? He almost snickered. She was an annoying, if not amusing chit. 'You know nothing.'
"Hey, I'm pretty smart."
Dense. He looked up to the sky, his internal clock working. The time couldn't come fast enough. He felt her studying the length of his overcoat again but this time, he ignored her.
She noticed. "I don't think this is leather." He didn't snatch it away this time. She meant what she said, this jacket was beyond cool. She so wanted one. But maybe a little smaller. Well, maybe a lot smaller. After a few minutes of silence from him and ignorance of her "chatter" as he'd referred to it, he finally moved. He didn't move briskly away. He took one step down from the pedestal and then her hands were empty. His hands moved and then he was turning, his lips bare. He hunched down so that they were level, face to face.
This time when he spoke, his words were clear and vocally spoken. "Do not assume to know what I can and cannot do, Darcy."
She had absolutely no clue what he meant until she opened her mouth to make a retort. Her throat worked, but her vocal cords didn't. There was nothing but silence when her lips moved. His lips curved into a devilish, mocking grin. He ran a finger down her cheek. "Never have I heard such a beautiful sound as I have now." He said mockingly.
It wasn't until after he disappeared that she was able to speak with a sudden, "HEY!"