death&disease: With added sprigs of mistletoe

[believeinthis]

Loki had been busy.

In truth, he was always busy and sometimes, every now and then, he took a moment to feel sadness for that. For as long as humans sinned, he would be around to bring about Judgement.

He didn't question his Father's Orders, nor did he shy away from a job. But lately? Lately he was busier than usual. Not because people were sinning

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[apoxuponyou]

Pestilence had been thinking about dinner, debating whether Loki ever actually ate anything or wanted to drink French red wine.

Then all Hell broke loose.

Ten figures in her apartment. She took a brief moment to feel smug that they'd sent ten - then realised her sword was half a room away.

She upturned the coffee table and leapt. Someone seized her ankle as her fingers closed on the sword, and she brought it down to cleave the arm from its owner.

Three of her attackers met their ends before she was finally overcome, too many hands and gleaming knives, her blood mixing with the broken splinters and cushion feathers on the living room carpet.

In an instant, they were elsewhere, and she was forced to her knees, arms pulled behind her painfully and strapped into irons.

Then, she was left alone.

Slowly, she began to realise what this was. They could have easily ended her in the apartment. And now they had the perfect opportunity to torture, to attempt to discover what she knew.

But they were simply standing there. Waiting.

Then, Pestilence's blood began to boil. This wasn't an attempt on her. This was a trap.

And she was bait.

[believeinthis]

Having to calm himself down somewhere over the Atlantic, because it was interfering with his Grace (and that was the point he knew he was in way too deep), he finally locked onto her location. Paris. The underworld.

Demolishing a manhole cover and descending down into the darkness, he managed to end two guards he found before finding himself careening out into a single room, the energy of the Horseman he was here for so strong he almost overdosed on it.

"Pes?"

[apoxuponyou]

Oh, Darkness, he was here.

She felt his Grace from across the room, reaching out to her with frantic fingers. But she was out of sight of the door.

If she could just keep him from seeing her, there was a chance he would leave. That he would save himself.

"Loki!" she yelled, voice cracking. "Get out!"

[believeinthis]

The second he heard her voice he was inside the room, not planning on going anywhere unless she was with him. This wasn't a time to start being heroic, he thought as his eyes searched out her form. Except his emotional reaction had made him relatively slow, and what he didn't expect was the blade that slashed at his heels, weight tipping forward as he dropped to his knees. Normal weapons didn't hurt like that. That? That was a blade forged in Heaven.

[apoxuponyou]

Pestilence heard him rush in. Like a giant feathered idiot.

She struggled against her bonds, but they did not shift an inch. The metal scraped against her skin, but she refused to stop fighting. He had come because of her and she could not let him die alone.

"LOKI!"

[believeinthis]

They were on him in an instant, cutting but never deep enough to kill him. And where they'd found that blade... he didn't understand. He didn't understand anything until he saw the circle of fire take to life around him. He was trapped, stuck inside the fire until someone came to his aid. And that made him angry. He just couldn't quite get to his feet, ankles slashed to pieces.

[apoxuponyou]

She could hear knife rending flesh - and that was enough.

The bonds could not hold her. She would not let them.

Releasing every poison her body could hold, she sent infection and despair and attack in every direction. The iron warped beneath the force of evil and she pulled against the metal.

One arm came free, then the other, the skin flayed around her wrists.

She ran.

[believeinthis]

Grace not able to reach past the fire, Loki was quickly becoming less responsive to everything happening around him. He could hear shouting and choking. He could hear screams and the crackle of the flames all around him.

[apoxuponyou]

Anger driving away the pain, Pestilence ran into the fray without a moment's thought.

She grabbed one wretch and threw him, wrists screaming with the agony, as she sent him careering into the fire.

Breaking the circle.

[believeinthis]

Still seriously injured thanks to that blade, Loki pressed himself up again, still kneeling but this time moving. He used every last reserve of his strength to fly out of the fire, stance dropping once again to his knees when he realised he couldn't support his own weight.

[apoxuponyou]

Throwing herself in front of Loki, Pestilence snatched a blade from one of the fallen and stood to protect him.

Her bloody twisted around her arms like ruby vines, but she would not let go of their only defence.

[believeinthis]

"Pes," Loki coughed out, eyes dully fixed on her back. This was a lesson, he thought. A lesson in knowing when he should be separating his emotions aside when trying to get a job done.

[apoxuponyou]

Pes backed up, reaching behind her, hand searching for Loki.

There were six remaining. And she could sense reinforcements on the way.

If she could take out another three, maybe he would survive.

[believeinthis]

The second he could feel her hand on his shoulder, he made a grab for it, doing what he should have done the second he could feel her. He flew both of them away, but not back to her apartment. He couldn't make it that far yet.

[apoxuponyou]

Pestilence felt her body jerk backwards, flown by strong wings away from Paris.

Falling through the roof of a barn in the English countryside.

She took a breath. Then another.

Forcing herself to stand, she would not look at Loki until she had splattered her blood around the barn, drawing every sigil she could remember that wouldn't instantly launch her angel out of sight.

[believeinthis]

Curled up on the floor, Loki was frowning at the pain in his legs, the pain everywhere. He knew it would take longer than usual to heal, but he knew he needed to retrieve that weapon as soon as possible. He just didn't have the energy yet.