Raguel’s face was impassive. His great affection for Genna aside, this was hardly the first demon he had dealt with, and a far cry from the most powerful. It was certainly craftier than the average fallen, although he had his suspicions that someone - or something - had been assisting this particular nuisance. The confluence of events that had led to his ejection from Erik Lang and Genna’s subsequent unnoticed possession seemed too convenient to be coincidence, even with everything that had been happening around town.
“You think you know me,” he said flatly, his gaze unblinking. “You think you understand my relationship to the girl, and that you can somehow use this to hurt me. This is not uncommon for your kind. You think only in terms of wants and needs, of desires and how they rule men. But I am no man, and I am no mere angel.”
Revealing even a glimpse of his full self was something he rarely did, preferring to leaving such displays to his more prideful brothers. Of course he could not reveal his true nature in full; a mere glimpse would be enough destroy the demon and Genna, a fact he could not change. But a deep shadow swirled around him, darkening his features even as a great light seemed to illuminate the wall behind him, revealing in silhouette the great span of the wings of an archangel. His was an awesome and terrible sight to behold, the dutiful soldier and judge meant to intimidate even his own brethren as they stood before him. Even Lucifer had trembled, despite his defiance to the end.
“Your kind are an unfortunate result of my Father’s need for equilibrium,” he muttered, returning his normal, unassuming self. “As above, so below. But Hell has become too crowded by the sins of man, the souls tortured and bastardized until they become like you. I think not returning you to the masses of the pit is a kindness to everyone, wouldn’t you agree.”
He took a casual step forward, rolling up his sleeves. “I know that what I am about to do will cause you both a regrettable amount of pain. But Genevieve is far stronger than you give her credit for. You will be ground to nothing before she cries for mercy.”
A flick of his wrist produced his angelic blade, its short edge gleaming despite the lack of light inside the shack. He lowered his gaze to it, contemplating the sharpness of it, pressing the point into his palm to test it.
“You fallen are all the same,” he sighed. “You think that you are the standard bearers for cruelty. But you forget that everything you know of darkness, you learned from my brother. And everything he knows, he learned from his Father. From our Father.” His shadowed gaze raised again to meet the Demon’s eyes.
“I am Justice, I am Balance. I am light and dark, right and wrong, love and cruelty. And for every measure that my love falls upon Genevieve, my cruelty will fall upon you.”