Guardian

Chapter 14

1493.

The crowd jeered, wanting this demon to know that they were bathed in the light of God. They would not be tempted by her beauty, a woman who did not age had sold her soul to the devil and they needed their town to be purged clean of her sin.

Thomas watched as she was bound to the stake, fear passing through her eyes - those eyes that he had fallen in love with nearly fifty years ago. His heart ached, knowing that he was to be responsible for her death, but at the same time he knew it was the proper thing to do. She had not aged a day since last he saw her; she was a witch.

"You are wrong to cheer my death," Eve spoke, her voice surprisingly even and commanding, causing the crowd to hush. "For you see, I am no devil. I am indeed an angel."

Knowing it was the only way to save her life, she let her wings spread out, gasps percolating through the crowd. She knew that she had to continue making a scene, to stun them into a stupor if she were to make her escape, so she conjured up the first ominous line that came to mind.

"Your day of reckoning is nigh."

Eve's sword materialized in her hand and with it she broke the bonds keeping her in place. But rather than falling to the ground, her wings kept her in place, hovering near the stake. But then she took off, desperate to get as far away from the town as possible.

-

(Olivia's POV):
I got dressed for Tyler's work party, knowing that he needed the support tonight more than ever. He was still afraid that his father was going to fire him, claiming that he liked to let people have a few days in between their failure and his decision of whether or not to keep them on. I still didn't believe that he was going to lose his job, despite whatever worries were flooding his mind. His father was a strong believer of nepotism and I knew that he was grooming Tyler to take his place as the head of the company. Tyler was going to have to do a lot more than screw up one important deal to be fired.

Still, I knew that he needed me by his side tonight and, as much as disliked public functions, I would have to go if I wanted to continue being his girlfriend. Besides, it wasn't all bad, they did have the really expensive champagne available to all of the guests so at least I had that to look forward to.

So I stepped into the silver satin dress that I had gotten for the occasion. It was a sleeveless empire waist dress whose soft material cascaded to the floor. In order to keep it from dragging, I threw on a pair of matching metallic silver open-toe heels. Then I fixed my hair up into a fancy bun so that I could secure an old diamond hair comb from Russia from the late 1700s. To complete the look, I wore a pair of diamond earrings from France from around that same time period.

For my makeup, I coated my face in foundation and applied contour and highlights. I also accentuated my stormy eyes with a thick line of black eyeliner and mascara. I also applied a light silver eyeshadow that made the silver in my eyes really pop out. Lastly, I coated my lips with a deep red to contrast with the rest of the look.

Proud of how good I had managed to look, I left my bedroom and found Loki reading on his bed. I stepped out so that he could see me and asked, "what do you think?"

His eyes widened slightly as they landed on me and a rush of excitement rippled through my body as they softened into a look of pure admiration. He opened his mouth to speak, but then closed it, as though not knowing what to say.

"Lokes?" I prompted, taking a step closer to him.

He cleared his throat, "you look fine."

I raised an eyebrow at him, "I did not just spend a solid hour getting ready to look fine."

"Very well, then you look beautiful," he turned his attention back to his book and I rolled my eyes at him.

"When Tyler gets here, you are going to have to be in your cat form, ok? He knows that I foster a lot of animals and will take home those from the office who need to be watched overnight, so he shouldn't be suspicious that I have another cat out of nowhere. Also, I am going to need you to get up so that I can put away the bed. I don't want him to get suspicious that I have someone staying with me."

He peered up at me and cocked his head, "now why should I do that?"

"Because if you don't then he is going to recognize you and report you to the Avengers. And if you think I am going to stand up for you and get on the Avengers' bad side, then you are painfully mistaken. I will tell them that you were threatening to kill me and everyone you love if I didn't give you medical attention and a place to stay."

"And if I tell them otherwise?"

"Lokes, you are the god of lies, I think they would be more inclined to believe an innocent mortal like me."

Loki slid his legs off of the bed and approached me, causing my heart to skip a few beats as it picked up pace. Even with the heels I wore, Loki still towered above me and, while I knew that that should scare me, it only seemed to arouse me. He cupped my cheek in one of his rather large hands and spoke, "darling, you seem to be forgetting that I can be quite persuasive."

I stared blankly back at Loki, a heat spreading through my body, and a desire to wipe the smirk off of his face by placing my lips on his consumed me. Just as I felt any sort of resolve melting away, there came a knock from the apartment door and I began to panic. My eyes found the bed, still set up for the guest I couldn't let Tyler know I had and I rushed over to it, desperately ripping the sheets from the mattress.

But suddenly it all disappeared in a shimmer of green, leaving nothing but the couch in its normal form. I spun around to find that Loki had already transformed into a cat and I mouthed a thank you to him before running to answer the door.

"I am so sorry for the delay, I was just finishing getting ready," I quickly explained to Tyler as I opened the door for him to come in. "Would you like a drink before we head out? I know that this must be hard on you, not knowing whether or not you will be continuing with the company."

"Yeah, that actually sounds nice," he sighed, collapsing on to a stool next to the island. "God, I wish I didn't have to go tonight, but then I would definitely be fired, so I guess I'll just have to put on a brave face."

I poured him a glass of whiskey and handed it to him as I gave him a reassuring smile, "well, we don't have to stay for long. If you want, you can use me as an excuse to leave early, I don't mind."

He downed the glass without responding and Loki jumped up on the island so that he could hiss at Tyler. My eyes widened at the interaction and I quickly grabbed Loki to prevent him from attacking Tyler.

"Are you kidding me? You got another cat? This is getting ridiculous, don't you think?" Tyler spoke, glaring at Loki in my arms.

I ran my fingers through Loki's fur as I would to calm my other cats and explained, "he's not actually my cat, he's my neighbor's. I'm just watching him for a bit while they're away visiting family. He's not very good around new people."

"Yeah, clearly," he growled, placing his glass on the island. "Let's just get out of here, ok?"

I placed Loki down on the ground and gave him a warning look before following Tyler out of the apartment.

-

(A/N): So I noticed today that I have more than one reader now, yay! I hope you all enjoyed this chapter and Eve being Extra™ but I really could not help myself so there it is!