Sorcha's Secret World, Part one.

Chapter 16, Suds and guts.

The apartment wasn't as small and as awful as we remembered. It was worse. The Incubus had lured other men into the apartment with the promise of sex, and whatever he had done to them afterwards... well let's say there was a lot of blood everywhere in the apartment and... chunks.

Nothing had been cleaned as the Templar cleaning crew had not been around yet, and after more than a week it was pungent, to say the least.

"Are you sure you want to live here?" I asked Loki, trying not to gag at the sight and smell.

"Not really, but I had a distinct impression they weren't going to be willing to put me up in a penthouse apartment overlooking the Thames," Loki said dryly, covering his mouth and nose with a handkerchief.

"You open a window and start getting rid of the broken furniture," I said briskly, "I'll go home and get us some buckets and cleaning supplies."

We spent most of our day on our knees, (dear reader, get your mind out of the gutter, yes, you there) cleaning. To Loki's credit, he was willing to roll up his sleeves and get down and dirty with me. (darling reader, I can hear you thinking! Stop that, it wasn't like that!)

There was no hot water, and the water from the tap was disgusting, but we did the best we could. Most of the furniture had been broken during our fight with the Incubus, and the carpet was ruined and need to be pulled out as well.

"Can't you just, you know, magic it clean?" I asked Loki hopefully while scrubbing at a stain that was merely getting larger rather than disappearing despite my best efforts.

"Magic it clean?" he scoffed at me, wiping a strand of hair out of his face and leaving a dirty smudge. "Can you?"

"No, I can set it on fire, that's the best I can do," I admitted.

Loki sat back on his haunches, looking around him. "I'm starting to think that might not be a bad idea," he suddenly grinned.

I grinned back. "But, really, can you?"

"I can make it appear clean, or at least I would have been able to once upon a time, but it would still be disgusting underneath. You might not be able to see it, but I would know." he wrinkled his nose at the thought.

"You are less powerful now than when we fought. Was it the sword that made you so powerful?" it came out of my mouth before I could stop myself.

Loki stood up and looked out of the window. I held my breath.

Today had been such a rollercoaster. Something had happened between us, I felt like had caught a glimpse of what lay behind the mask, and I was worried he would put that mask right back on again if I said the wrong thing.

"I don't know." He admitted in the end. "Before I acquired the sword I was more powerful than I am now. It was a powerful artefact, that's certain.

When I lost it, I could feel something change. It took something from me.

I don't know. The loss of the sword, the near loss of my life. It could be either, it could be both."

"Do you know who Casandra is? Where she might have taken the sword?"

"No, I don't. I thought she was merely another desperate soul, joining the Morninglight in the hope to become more than she truly was."

Loki turned around and looked at me.

"I am not easily deceived. Whoever she was, she was smart, powerful and cunning. I did look for her, but she hid her tracks well."

Loki picked up a rag and began wiping at the window.