Loki seemed able to sniff out contraband everywhere he went.
He found Gregor’s safe under a painting over the master cabin’s bed.
Cracking that open––using a method Lia couldn’t discern, but that definitely didn’t involve the usual safe-cracking methods she knew, or any kind of explosives––the god pulled out a few stacks of important-looking papers, some cash, and an enormous bag of what looked to Lia like cocaine, but Loki informed her was heroin.
Lia worried a bit, watching Loki heft the drugs in his hand, raising his eyebrows at her suggestively. Then the god laughed, presumably at whatever look he saw on Lia’s face. Before she could decide how to react, Loki opened one of the round view ports and tossed the entire bag out the window and into the Pacific.
Once it sank in what he’d done, Lia threw back her head, laughing.
“Just a little test, my dear,” the god informed her, grinning as he leaned over to kiss her on the mouth. Pulling away, he studied her eyes, his lighter green ones holding a faint scrutiny. “I’ve never been one for such substances. Truthfully, I’m not even a huge fan of spirits. Although they are handy to have around when my brothers come calling.”
Remembering the bottle of Scotch she had in her bag, and the one she’d seen Loki swig in the back of the taxi, Lia frowned, but didn’t comment. She was more than happy to donate the aged liquor to getting their butts out of here clean, if it came to that.
If she could bribe either of Loki’s brothers with the Scotch, it was definitely theirs.
Truthfully, the idea of flying gods who could wield lightning and who had a grudge with her current boyfriend––who was no picnic, granted, but hardly evil, as he pointed out––still tugged worriedly at the back of her mind.
“Boyfriend,” Loki said, grinning at her. “You just called me your boyfriend.”
“I said no such thing,” Lia informed him, giving him a mock lofty look.
“Oh, I heard it,” Loki said, tugging on her fingers. “Very clearly.”
He leaned over the king-sized bed in the master cabin, kissing her.
He kissed her harder the second time, using his tongue, his fingers curling into and clutching her long hair. When Lia remembered Maia upstairs and started to pull back, Loki smiled at her, kissing her face, then her throat.
“Don’t worry, little elf,” he murmured. “I won’t molest you in front of baby sis.”
Sliding off the thick duvet on top of the mattress, he motioned towards the three tall closets built into the wall.
“Speaking of which,” he added, walking to the first set of double doors. “You should probably find some clothes to change into, while we’re down here. No reason to put on the dirty ones from Nepal, if you can find something that fits you here.”
He flung open the first set of doors, frowning as he peered inside.
Moving on to the next set of doors, he opened those, too.
Then he bent down, and began opening drawers.
“I think there are things here you can wear,” he said, thoughtfully.
When Lia walked over to join him, Loki stroked her hair back from her face, kissing her mouth again, more sensually that time, then the side of her face.
“You did call me your boyfriend,” he murmured, his voice a soft rebuke. “Does that mean you’ve finally made up your mind about me? I did give you loads and loads of extra time, you know. I’d said before you only had until our arrival on this continent to decide.”
Lia laughed, pushing lightly at his chest.
“That was a few hours ago,” she reminded him, her voice faintly scolding. “Tops. And I haven’t exactly had a lot of quiet time to think since we met. It’s all explosions and flying brothers and kidnappings and car theft. Not to mention us having to escape from the airplane in the first place to get away from Gregor and his goons…”
She looked up at him, grinning into the god’s face.
When she met Loki’s gaze, however, the god’s expression was deadly serious.
“So you need more time, Lia?” he said. “To know if you belong to me?”
Lia blinked, staring up at him. “What?” She frowned a little. “Are you really giving me an ultimatum? Or some kind of time limit?”
Loki shook his head.
“No,” he said, his voice definite. “I am not. I simply need to know where you are now.”
She continued to frown up at him, studying his face.
“Where is this coming from?” she said finally. “You must know I’m crazy about you.”
“But what does that mean?”
Lia blinked again. “What do you think it means? I like you, Loki. I like you a lot. And I trust you enough to risk my life, and more importantly, my sister’s life… on risking trying to leave Gregor so we can be together. I trust you enough to believe you and I are in this together, that we can escape the people chasing us together. That’s more than I’ve ever had. With anyone, Loki. Even my own mother––”
“But do you accept me, Lia?” he said, those pale, leaf-green eyes studying hers. “I know it’s a lot to ask, given who and what I am, but have you made up your mind?”
When she frowned, staring up at him, he took one of her hands in both of his, tilting his head as he looked at her.
His voice grew firm, direct.
“Is this simply expediency for you?” he queried. “A way out of a bad situation, yes… but with the clear thought in your mind that it will not last. That you are sure to find a far better situation, once you no longer need me?”
He paused.
“I trust you to tell me the truth,” he added, still watching her eyes. “I trust you to know the truth about yourself, Lia. To view this realistically. And honestly.”
She studied his eyes back, even more bewildered.
“Are you asking whether I see potential with us?” she said, losing the coyness in her voice. “As in, long-term dating, versus a fling of some kind? Because I thought that was pretty obvious. Do I seem like I’m about to run away?”
“Not just dating.” Loki shook his head, his eyes going even more still. “I’m looking for a trifle more than your human ‘dating,’ my elf.”
“Like what?” Lia said, still more puzzled than anything.
Loki looked away.
She saw his eyes grow briefly pained as he gazed out the row of viewports at the rolling ocean. Lia saw what might have been indecision on his face, right before he looked at her again, his gaze even more intense than before.
“I feel we belong together,” he said simply.
There was a silence.
“You mean as partners?” Lia said, still trying to understand. “Like what you said on the plane? When you said there was a job you wanted me to do?”
“There is no job, Lia,” he said, his voice a touch sharper.
For a few seconds they only looked at one another.
Staring up at those pale green, faintly glowing eyes, Lia felt almost dizzy.
Then, even as she felt she was being tested somehow, and somehow failing, without even knowing what the test was about––her mind clicked into a sharper focus.
What he was asking her felt simple, suddenly.
Simple, and utterly obvious, both in terms of the question and her inevitable answer.
She found herself caressing his jaw, tracing the outline of his features, watching as he closed his eyes, noting how long his dark lashes were. She ran her fingers lightly over his jaw, his throat, the back of his neck, tracing the lines of muscle leading down to the band of gold and black letters over the top of his chest.
“I’ll only leave when you make me, Loki,” she said, soft.
She felt Loki react.
He flinched, but it was more than that.
The green eyes opened, and he was staring at her again, his gaze full, his jaw tight. He leaned down, kissing her tenderly, and something about the kiss caught her breath, making her clutch at his shirt. A few seconds later, he raised his head, looking at
her, then he kissed her again, laying his fingers and hands on the middle part of her chest, just above her solar plexus.
Something about the placement felt exceedingly deliberate.
She swore she heard him murmur something when he kissed her the next time, words in that other language she’d heard him speak a few times before.
As he did, an electric-feeling pulse slid through her, from his fingers to the center of her chest. Whatever it was, it had emotion wrapped into it, a kind of heartbreaking intensity and want that clutched at her chest, making her gasp.
She reached up, gripping his hand where he’d pressed his palm against her.
When she looked up, he met her gaze.
His eyes were glowing.
They glowed like nothing she’d ever seen before, even with him.
She stared at that otherworldly light, mesmerized. She’d never seen it that bright before. She’d never seen so much behind the lights in his eyes before, either, but unlike the times before, she couldn’t quite read the emotion that stood out in those pale irises, either.
Whatever it was, it struck Lia as complex, as utterly guileless, as intense to the point of being difficult to look at.
Something about it also struck her as borderline vulnerable.
Maybe just the fact that he let her see it was a kind of vulnerability.
He left his hand there, in the middle of her chest.
His fingers seemed to grow hotter as he did, the electric current more filled with charge, more intense, more filled with that emotion, until Lia was fighting to breathe.
When Loki finally took his hand away, his eyes were glowing like searchlights.
He smiled at her, and she fell into that smile, lost in those light-filled eyes.
“I had better go up and check on baby sis,” he said gently.
Leaning down, he kissed her face, stroking her cheek with his fingertips.
Then he stepped back, removing himself from her immediate space, disorienting Lia even more when he suddenly felt too far away.
“Take a shower if you like, love,” he said, caressing her jaw tenderly with the same hand.
Lia closed her eyes, leaning into his touch.
Loki’s words and fingers grew lulling, seeming to pull her deeper into him.
“Come upstairs whenever you’re ready.”
He kissed her again, smiling down at her, and she saw that intensity of feeling there sharpen, the raw emotion hitting at her, catching in her chest. The light in his green irises was slowly beginning to fade, but the emotion didn’t dim along with it.
“I won’t let us crash into the shore,” he promised softly, kissing her again. “Or into another boat. Or into either of my brothers, for that matter…”
He began slowly backing away.
Lia watched him leave, feeling almost in a trance.
She jumped a little, startled when he turned at the last minute, and began to walk out of the main cabin briskly. Within seconds, the God of Mischief disappeared entirely from her view, shutting the cabin door behind him without a backwards glance.
Lia stood there for a few seconds, unmoving.
She felt bewildered at first.
Then she almost felt sad.
Well… not sad exactly.
Maybe more worried. Disappointed?
Whatever the exact emotion was, she couldn’t determine the source at first. Then she realized a part of her was startled, maybe more like disappointed, that Loki had left so quickly, given what he’d just told her to do. The god had given her privacy, rather than watch her get naked, offer or ask for oral sex, or just have his hands all over her in the period before Lia got into the shower.
She wasn’t truly disappointed he hadn’t done it… not exactly… but she wasn’t exactly relieved he hadn’t done it, either.
She did wonder if something about Maia being here had cooled his interest in her on that front. Maybe he saw her more maternally now.
Maybe he saw her as more of a friend.
But that didn’t make sense, either.
If he was cooling on the sex front with her, then what had all of that been about asking Lia what she wanted? Trying to determine if she wanted to be his girlfriend? Pushing her to give him some kind of answer, even though answering him now made no logical sense?
She barely knew him.
Loki barely knew her.
Turning all of it over in her head, Lia frowned, shouldering the leather coat off her arms and letting it fall to the floor.
Maybe hoping to distract herself, she walked over to explore the various closets and drawers, just as Loki had done a few minutes earlier. She thought maybe if she focused on something normal, something mundane, something concrete, it might clear her head.
Maybe it would even allow her to think about Loki objectively for once.
She opened every single closet, cupboard, and drawer.
Loki had been right.
She found jeans that looked like they would fit, along with cotton pants, both the straight-legged and the stretchy kind. She also found skirts of various lengths, along with a stack of shorts, sweat pants, T-shirts, nylon vests for when it was cold, a few jackets and windbreakers, and at least six pairs of tennis shoes, all of them roughly a size too big.
Gregor obviously provisioned the place for at least one female guest.
He must have a girlfriend roughly Lia’s size and height.
Just with bigger feet.
In the end, Lia grabbed a pair of loose black shorts, a violet, spandex tank-top in lieu of a bra, since none of the bras she found would remotely fit her, and a faded-pink, scoop-necked sweatshirt with the words “Sailor Baby” on the front, just because some part of her found the caption amusing.
Once she’d settled on a pile of clean clothes, including socks and the smallest-looking pair of tennis shoes she could find, Lia walked around the perimeter of the cabin, trying doors again, looking for the shower.
Within minutes, she found that, too.
Setting the clean clothes on the king-sized bed, she peeled the skin-tight white dress off her body with a sigh. After a few seconds’ back and forth, she chucked the dress out the round view port, like Loki had with the bag of heroin.
The thing was trashed.
Even so, some part of her felt a faint regret, watching it go.
Sighing a bit, she walked, fully nude, to the cabin’s shower.
14
Never Trust A Trickster God
Lia was still in the shower when the lights flickered.
She paused, looking up, soap and shampoo suds running down her back. She held her breath, but the lights stayed on, glowing faintly from the round fixtures above her.
She went back to rinsing off––
When the lights flickered again, longer that time.
Lia looked up and around, still wiping suds off her forehead and hair. She glanced around at the Fiberglas shower cubicle, worried there might be an electrical problem in the bathroom itself, possibly in one of the light fixtures––
When the lights cut out entirely.
Lia blinked, feeling her heart start to pound in her chest.
It wasn’t pitch black where she was, at least. One of those round viewports lived in the bulkhead just outside the shower door, so Lia could see reasonably well from the afternoon sunlight, even inside the translucent shower cubicle.
A shiver of foreboding went through her anyway.
After a pause where she waited to see if the lights would come back on, she quickly finished rinsing the last of the soap and conditioner out of her hair, then spent a few more seconds rinsing her body off under the shower head.
Twisting the silver shower valve to turn off the water, she flung open the door and jumped out, snatching the nearest full-sized towel off the room’s one rack. Rubbing it all over her body quickly, she used it to soak up some of the excess water in her hair, then tossed it onto the bathroom floor.
Feeling her heart thud louder in her c
hest, she opened the door to the master quarters.
She didn’t enter all at once.
Peering inside, she saw no one, heard nothing, and let out a half-exhale of relief.
After a faint pause where she looked and listened a few seconds longer, Lia left the bathroom totally, re-entering the cabin and looking around in the gloomy light, her hair still dripping down her back.
The power was clearly off in here, too.
Like with the shower cubicle, sunlight shone through the row of viewports on either side, filling the captain’s quarters with afternoon sun. Even so, Lia remembered leaving the overhead lights on in here. She could also see the digital clock was dead, and so was the electronic thermostat.
She grabbed the pile of clothes she’d pulled together prior to her shower.
Still staring around, she threw them on as fast as she could.
Once she got on the black shorts, the violet tank top and pink sweatshirt, she sat on the bed, yanking on the low ankle socks she’d found, and then the oversized tennis shoes, tying them up quickly as she felt her heart pounding harder in her chest.
Why hadn’t Loki come down to tell her what was going on?
Why hadn’t Maia?
Only then did she realize the engine had stopped, too.
Cursing under her breath, Lia ran for the cabin door, yanking it open and taking the stairs on the other side as fast as she could. Using the guardrails on either side, she propelled herself faster as she yanked her body up the narrow passage.
She made it up to the main deck and half-ran to the front of the ship, where the enclosed cockpit lived. Lia made it to the base of the Fiberglas stairs that led up to the navigation area, and came to a dead stop, staring up at the sky.
Something was coming towards them.
Something was definitely coming towards them.
It was coming really, really fast.
Whatever that something was, it sparked blue and white electrical charges out like a halo around a dark patch in the middle, like some kind of supernatural comet. It didn’t appear to be slowing, the closer it got.
Lia felt her breath stop when she realized it looked more like it was about to slam right into them… right before exploding the ship in a mushroom cloud of blue-white flames.
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