Sorcha's Secret World, Part one.

Chapter 13, Spank and pray.

We had been on several missions together, mostly simple stuff. Loki had stopped trying to kill me after the first day, as I hoped he would. He was smart enough to realise it was not going to get him anywhere.

We worked well together, to both our surprise. Loki was smart, observant and charismatic. He had far more knowledge of the occult than I had too. It helped he liked to show off his knowledge and while he usually sounded belligerent as he did so, I learned a lot from him.

I also realised quickly that Loki responded well to praise. And since I am not shy of letting people know when I appreciate their help, he got plenty of it. On top of that, he was genuinely funny, if at times in a sardonic kind of way, and I found it was easy to forget sometimes who he truly was.

"Today we've got a simple "Spank and Pray", I told Loki as we left London. He was wearing the same suit as before, it didn't seem they allowed him an extensive wardrobe.

His eyebrows shot upwards. "A what now?"

"Spank and Pray," I grinned.

He looked at his feet while he bit his bottom lip. When he looked up again his eyes were crinkled up as he tried to bite back his laughter.

"That sounds rather kinky", he blurted out with a grin.

"Oh, it is," I answered immediately," you dress up as a priest, I wear a sexy French Maid uniform that is not much more than an apron and a feather duster and..." to my own annoyance I couldn't finish the joke without blushing bright red.

Loki threw back his head and laughed.

"Oh, my, you are truly adorable at times, you know that?" his laughter was infectious. "But really, what are we doing today?" he asked.

"A Spank and Pray," I repeated while laughing, still rather red-faced.

"Usually it refers to a haunted building or item. We'll have to fight the spirit, or demon, or whatever entity it is first..."

"That's the spanking part," he interrupted. He was still smiling, but listening intently. He always paid careful attention when I was explaining a job, he did not like going in unprepared.

"Exactly," I confirmed, "And then once we are done we perform an Exorcism."

I suddenly hesitated. "Is that going to be a problem?"

"What is?" Loki looked at me, uncertain what I meant.

"The Exorcism part," I wasn't really sure how to say it. 'That you are a pagan god'? 'That most religions would probably see you as being closer to the devil than anything?' It felt a bit rude to me.

"That you are well, you know, you," I said lamely.

Loki chuckled.

" I won't burst out in flames if that's what you are asking. I might break out in hives though," he winked. He was making fun of me.

"Listen, I'm still not sure how all of this works," I said a bit annoyed, "with you being a god and all."

It still felt incredibly strange to me. Most of the time I'd forget about it and saw Loki as just another magician, albeit far not as powerful as before I defeated him, but every now and again I was reminded he was a god. The god of Mischief. Whatever that meant exactly.

He sighed and took pity on me. He was far too good at guessing what was going on in my mind if you asked me.

"If your Christian god had the power to smite me, certainly he would have done so a long time ago. I can safely set foot in a church, or take part in any Christian ceremony you can imagine. I can even perform certain rites myself and have done so in the past when I was leading a Christian cult."