His eyes snap open and I see cold cerulean irises. He squeezes them shut again and curls into a ball gasping sharply with pain. He has disheveled, black hair slightly below his shoulders with ends flipped. His pale skin is smudged with dirt and blood with scrapes and bruises.
He wears a black, long-sleeve, flannel and black jeans. His feet are bare: raw and bloody. A slight lump under the shirt indicates the bandage has remained.
Something catches my eye. A gold string around his neck. I pull out the necklace gently from under his shirt and finger it. A genuine wolf tooth hangs at the end of it. Running a thumb over it, a strange quiet settles over the house.
Suddenly the man growls and snatches the tooth from my fingers, shoving it back in his shirt with a fire in his eyes. He catches my own eyes and freezes.
"Um, hello," I say. "I'm Quinn. Erm, Quinn Lewis." My eyes dart around the room, but the man's are still locked.
There's a long pause of silence before he finally says, "Loki."
I suddenly glare at him, my heart jumping. "Loki?" I inquire suspiciously. Then I double over laughing. This is a joke: a practical prank. There are cameras somewhere filming my every move and reaction to this. This is one of those tricks where the victim freaks out and then the prankers start laughing and admit the whole thing as a big fake.
Until I realize he's on top of me and Sami is crying and screaming at him. A knife is pressed to my neck as the man looks at me with cold, malicious eyes.
"You laugh at me?!" he roars. "I WILL kill you if you laugh again." The blade pushes harder against my throat and I feel a drop of blood.
Sami throws herself onto his back, but he easily shoves her harshly to the floor with his foot where she lies gasping for breath, her eyes fluttering.
"Don't do-" A cold hand clamps around my mouth.
"Shh, darling," Loki whispers evilly. "You'll wake the whole apartment up."
My eyes are open wide with fear as Loki yanks me to my feet and shoves me in my room, locking the door behind him. I hear his footsteps going toward Sami and I pound at the door with my fists yelling at her to run.
"Quinn!" she screams. "Quinn! Help!"
"Shut up!" Loki growls. She falls silent with a whimper.
Repeatedly thrashing against the door, I feel my shoulder bruising and finally give up, falling to the floor as tears stream down my face. I haven't heard anything and can only assume Sami is dead and Loki is gone. I strip my clothes off and put pajamas on and try to fall asleep, but it takes hours of painful sobbing and waking from horrid nightmares to fall completely asleep.
I wake up when the sun is shining though the yellow curtains of my window. I roll over and meet the sparkling blue eyes of my sister.
"Sami!" I gasp and hug her close to me. Her arms wrap around me and she kisses my cheek. "Sami, I thought you were dead!"
"No!" she replies with a quizzical look in her eyes. "Well, Loki came to me and I was really scared at first, but then he picked me up and comforted me. Then we went to Albert's and got ice cream." She grinned. "He's extremely nice, really. He was just scared, but he said I was the only one he felt comfortable around. Ya know, 'cause of the whole 'wolf incident.' He appreciated you helping him, but he said you mean to help, not comfort."
"Oh," is all I can say. She seems to be hiding something, but-
"Come on!" she says before I can get too deep in thought. "I told him we could go get breakfast at Albert's."
I grin as she pulls me out of bed and hands me a plain long-sleeve black shirt and maroon skinny jeans. She goes to my closet and pulls out furry black boots and a necklace with a wolf and moon pendant. She also brings a scarf the color of my pants. I get dressed and we go to the kitchen where Loki waits, looking out the window with his hands clasped behind his back. He looks sharp with a clean face, neat, cut hair a little below his neck, and new clothes: a dark green, long sleeve shirt, dark jeans, black tennis shoes, and a black beanie. I notice the gold cord around his neck and a slight indentation under his shirt. I also notice the bandage missing.
I clear my throat and he turns. "You can't have possibly healed that fast," I greet.
He smirks. "Can't I?" Lifting his shirt, I see a light scar where the gash was. "After all, I am Loki." He drops his shirt.
"Loki!" Sami says excitedly. "The present!"
Loki's face suddenly softens reverently. "You're not supposed to mention anything to your sister about it," he mutters to her.
"Mention what?" I inquire angrily. "Secrets? Not here. Not between us."
Sami looks at Loki with a longing look. "Please? We can trust her!"
He gives her an almost imperceptible nod. "Do it."
Suddenly, I'm looking down into the blue eyes of a grey and white wolf.
