Wanted Man (Loki Fanfiction - Book #1)

Chapter Thirteen

Loki stood frozen, staring in wide-eyed fury as McKenna disappeared in a burst of colored light. At his feet lay two dead Chitauri and beside him, Shannon screamed, "What the fuck?" at the top of her lungs. Again.

"No. You come back here!" Loki shouted at the sky, firing jets of blue-white light from his hands to knock two more Chitauri from the sky. They slammed into their brethren, bones shattering, blood spattering, but it wasn't enough. There were too many of them.

One of the Chitauri must have survived the fall, for it lifted its head and its weapon, but Loki whipped about, and blasted the beast into oblivion. When he looked up, the Chitauri were gone.

McKenna was gone.

He dropped to his knees, barely feeling the jar rattling through him. He wanted to throw up. How could he be so stupid? How could he so foolishly risk putting her in danger?

Breakfast came up. Violently.

"Oh, God, that is rank," Shannon choked behind him. "Here."

He shoved away the bottle of Coke she held under his nose. "Get away from me."

As he rose, he saw the other B&B patrons running out, saw the horror in their eyes when they realized the god Loki stood before them in his warrior's clothing. He didn't care. Nothing mattered now, but hunting the Chitauri down and killing them all.

"Someone call S.H.I.E.L.D.!" someone yelled.

Shannon whirled about. "Shut up! None of you are in any danger. Right, Loki?" She cast a glance at him and waited a beat. "Right?"

No. Everyone around him was in danger. He hadn't felt a rage this powerful since the night of Frigga's death. He'd failed to protect her. He'd failed to protect McKenna.

He failed.

McKenna's phone lay on the ground, the screen cracked but otherwise intact. He swiped it up and glared at it as if it had personally insulted him. A flick of his fingers and the crack vanished, but he didn't know how to work it.

"What do I do to reach son of Coul?"

Her forehead furrowed. "Who?"

"Son of Coul. Little man. Always in a suit. He works for S.H.I.E.L.D."

"Son of Coul. Right." She took the phone from him and swiped to bring up the keypad. "Uh... you wouldn't happen to know his number off the top of your head, would you?"

His temper growing more difficult to quash, he clenched his jaw until it hurt and gritted, "Why would I have his number?"

"I—I don't know. I'll just... Google it. You can find anything with Google, right?"

"I wouldn't know."

Her hands shook but she swiped across the screen and then began typing and a moment later, held out the phone. "I found it. It's ringing."

"Tell him to meet me here."

He didn't wait for her to respond, but spun about to stalk across the parking lot, shoving several people out of his way as they snapped pictures of him with their phones. One guy shoved back, and Loki whirled around to snatch the phone from his grasp. As the guy sputtered with indignation, Loki crushed the phone right in front of him, letting the shattered pieces bounce across the parking lot before resuming his stride without saying a word.

He hit the beach, sand shifting beneath his feet, and as he walked, he shed his Asgardian clothing for his Midgardian ones, as leather was far too hot for the beach in the middle of summer. The sand was warm beneath him as he sank into it and stared out over the water. So calm. If only he could feel that calm again. Everything inside him churned like an angry sea. The Chitauri would pay for taking McKenna and there wasn't a force on Earth or any other realm that would help them if they harmed her in any way. He would make certain of that.