Lagrius appeared outside of a major club in L.A. He took one long drag on his cigarette before flicking the half-smoked butt into the gutter. His eyes found his reflection in the window and he smiled.

For a demon he certainly was attractive. He had to be of course, to tempt women into infidelious acts.

With his perfectly styled jet black hair, arranged messily around the pair of grey horns that sprouted from his temples, they had grown an inch longer today curling around the ends. His eyes were the colour of coming storm clouds, a medium grey that—paired with his exquisitely chiselled chin and pointy warm smile—captivated his victims and lulled them into a self-sense of trust.

The bouncer didn't even try to stop him as he walked back into the club. He pushed his way through the oblivious mortals to get onto the dance floor. It was easy to find his quarry in the crowd, even though the place was crawling with demons, he'd always be able to find her.

Lorah sat in a dark corner, a glass in her small hands. She was in a tight black dress that barely covered anything. Her pin straight low back length black hair was up in a high ponytail and her orange eyes glowed with a barely contained anger. Lagrius shrouded himself as she had, so they could no longer be viewed by mortals and most Guardian Angels, and sat down beside her.

She tore her eyes away from the Guardian Angel that Lagrius had never see before to look at him. He was a little confused because this Guardian Angel was chatting up a child celebrity that Lagrius was certain had been Lorah's target for the month.

"So how did your higher placement interview go?" she asked.

Lagrius smile widened. That was the whole reason he had come here. He could have been partying in the Under-realm but he had come to the Middle-realm simply so he could celebrate with Lorah who had been helping and cheering him on. He knew he should have been concerned for his friend, but he was just too excited about his own victories to care.

"I got it! I'm promoted!" he cried. "My horns even grew today too!"

Lorah's smile was strained. "That's great, at least one of us is doing well," she sighed, slumping back in the V.I.P booth she had commandeered. Shrouding didn't just keep them invisible to the naked eye, it made the mortals uncomfortable, giving them the natural urge to avoid the area. It was a feeling that most horror authors called that unnatural awareness that caused goose-bumps and the hair of the back of necks to rise.

Lagrius slouched back, casually wrapping an arm around her shoulders. "Bad day?" he asked. She nodded and he gestured to the child star that had been her target. "What about the actor? They're pretty easy to mess up."

"Oh! I had him messed up, I made sure of that!" Lorah cried, kicking the table in her frustration.

"Okay..." Lagrius whispered, he waited for Lorah to continue and when she didn't he added: "Then what happened?"

"Raelyn happened, that's what!" she snarled. "If I were competing with any regular old Guardian, I would have been fine. But Raelyn? No, she's the best of the best. No point even trying. That child star was as good as redeemed the second she appeared in this bar."

Lagrius barely heard what Lorah was saying past her practically screaming that name. His eyes were on the white-haired woman at the bar, the only Guardian in the bar that hadn't even bothered to disguise her glow. She had clouded herself and another younger Guardian that she seemed to be engaged in a heated debated with. The younger Guardian—a small wiry teenage looking boy with periwinkle blue eyes and a tuft of wispy brown hair on top of his tanned head—kept pulling a drink to him only to have it swatted away from his lips. He didn't seem the least bit interested in whatever it was Raelyn was lecturing him about and kept gazing around the bar thoughtfully.

Though Lagrius had just gotten promoted, he hadn't really been in the field very long, he had just accumulated the two thousand hours in the Middle-realm required to go for a higher placement. In all that time, he had never run into Raelyn though he had heard stories.

He expected her to be this big imposing Angel, all scarred and ready to battle, kind of like a female Godyn. So to see a little girl—in a girly little frock, with curly white hair and a childish pout on her perfectly pink lips—in place of what should have been a terrifying being had him nearly laughing. Raelyn wasn't a threat, she was nothing but a child, what was she going to do? Throw a temper-tantrum at him?

Lagrius stood slowly and pointed at her. "That's Raelyn, the most effective Guardian in the field?" he asked and Lorah nodded. "I've never seen her before."

Lorah stood with him, eyeing him suspiciously as he assessed her carefully. They weren't that far from her, but it seemed like he hadn't noticed they were there.

"Yes, that's her, and honestly I don't suggest getting too close to her she's a lot meaner than she looks."

Lagrius waved her off and headed for the bar. Lorah followed after him but didn't get as close to Raelyn as Lagrius did. He leant on the bar behind the younger angel, watching her face carefully as she scolded the younger Angel across from her.

"I'm disappointed in you Andris. I taught you how to save child stars on your first day!" she was saying.

Lagrius smiled to Lorah as the conversation continued. A lower Guardian rarely pick up on higher demons, especially when they were shrouded. By the way she hadn't even looked up as he approached, her soft grey eyes not even once leaving Andris' face to assess his, even though he was so close, meant that the stories of her greatness had been greatly exaggerated.

Obviously the younger Guardian, Andris, had no idea what was behind him, but Lagrius wasn't interested in him, he wasn't even interested when the younger Guardian shot a glare under his hooded eyes to Raelyn before grumbling a low: "I know, but you make it look like an art and that girl I was chatting up was hot."

Raelyn leant over and hit him, square on the shoulder causing him to yelp as if it had actual hurt. Lagrius doubt it did, Guardian Angels weren't allowed to hurt anything, not without serious repercussions and possible banishment from the White Kingdom. In fact there wasn't a lot an Angel could do that wouldn't get them kicked out of the White Kingdom. It was surprising that they could compete with the Abyss at all.

"You're just plain lazy! I can't keep doing your job for you."

Lagrius sighed as the younger Angel hung his head in mock shame. He cocked his head towards Lorah as he said: "I can't believe you lost that child star to her."

Lorah reached in and grabbed his arm, trying to pull him away. "Trust me, she's a lot stronger then she looks," she said as Lagrius swatted her hands away. "Why are you so interested in her anyways?"

Lagrius turned his cocky smiled to her, as Raelyn bid farewell to her companion. He popped away leaving her alone at a bar, in a club infested with demons. He watched her as she sighed heavily and threw her head into her hands as she groaned.

He fought back the urge to put a hand to her, just to see if she'd even feel him. Instead he forced himself to turn back to Lorah.

"To get my next promotion I'll have to corrupt her."

Lorah let him go and took a step back, her mouth hung open in shock. "Lagrius, you can't be serious. This isn't some regular Guardian Angel. This is Raelyn, it just won't be possible!"

Lagrius turned to her, outraged at her lack of faith in him. "Look at her! She's all alone in a dingy establishment crawling with demons. Clearly the stories have all been greatly exaggerated!"

"Keep your voice down, she'll hear you!" Lorah hissed, backing up again. "Besides it's not just her you have to worry about it. Apparently Godyn watches over her like a hawk, do you really want to try something on her only to end up looking down the flaming blade his sword?"

Lagrius scoffed. "Hear me? She doesn't even know we're here. Clearly I'm superior to the great Raelyn," he declared, putting his hands on his hips proudly. "Besides, everyone knows Godyn only cared about Lucrinda and now that she's gone all he does is sleep."

Suddenly the room froze, the music silenced and not a single mortal or demon moved a muscle. Lagrius and Lorah looked around confused, not sure why or how the room was caught in a complete stand-still, but they were fine. A time freeze was a spell that only one of the Big Five knew, and immediately Lagrius was worried that Godyn was there to smite him for talking shite. Honestly, if Godyn appeared beside him he might soil himself even if he didn't have the flaming sword on hand.

"What's going on?" Lagrius asked trying to mask the quiver in his voice.

"I froze time," a small voice said and immediately Lagrius new that it was Raelyn and she was no longer beside him at the bar but behind him.

Lagrius turned and Raelyn was smiling proudly up at him, just like he expected. Okay so she was stronger than he thought, clearly she had to be if the Big Five was teaching her spells only they knew. She smoothed out her white frock and walked towards him. "For the record I was aware of you the second you sauntered through the door, I would suggest better cloaking but I don't think you're capable of it."

Lagrius quickly recovered himself. "Just who do you think you are? talking to me like that..."

It was a rhetorical question, he didn't think she'd answer it seriously but she did anyways. She tilted her head to the side almost confused.

"Why, I am Raelyn. Clearly you know of me as I am your next assignment," she said innocently. "Who are you?"

Lagrius," he declared, jutting his chin out with pride.

Raelyn pouted softly, almost in an apologetic way. "I'm afraid I've never heard of you."

Lagrius' shoulder's sagged. "I just got promoted," he told her. "You may not have heard of me before but you have now and I will become a name to fear!"

Raelyn yawned. "Well good luck with that," she said with a roll of her eyes. "Sorry if I don't seem intimidated, but you must realize that I'm too good for you. You will never be able to corrupt me."

Lagrius' mouth fell open in shock, the utter nerve of that uppity Angel. He wasn't going to let her get away with that so easily. He grabbed her arm and with a quickness he didn't expect Raelyn had turned around and shot a blast of pure white magic at his chest.

He crashed into the V.I.P booth, groaning and spasming from the purity running through his veins like an electric current, but feeling the twitch of something else, like white magic hadn't been the only magic she had conjured to send him flying back.

When he opened his eyes, he saw the air around Raelyn fizzling as if she was radiating a deadly heat, a strange sort of calm on her face as she stood statue still in the middle of the frozen room. Those soft grey eyes he would have previously likened to a bunny's fur were now a pair of steeled daggers, dark and glinting with a fierce challenge he had never seen in an Angel's eyes before.

"Sorry, reflex," Raelyn whispered and the air around her turned back to that normal soft glow that accompanied most beings from the White Kingdom. She turned to Lorah with a confidently smug smile on her face. "Nice try tonight Lorah! Better luck next time," and with a soft pop Raelyn was gone and the room unfroze.

Lorah turned to Lagrius who was puling himself out of the wreckage as onlookers stared at the damage unsure how it happened.

"I told you she was stronger than she looked." was all she said, and all Lagrius did was glare at her.

He had met her now, and that was half thebattle. He now he knew what he had to do, and all he needed was the element ofsurprise.