#vandf1

Trace, though he did not show an ounce of patriotic sense in his every day life, did not enjoy leaving New York to travel for work. It made him feel out of sorts, on uneasy ground, as though he could not find a proper, steady footing though he had once lived as a nomad in Europe. He had grown complacent and while he knew that he should be somewhat ashamed and attempt to change that, he had no desire to. He would not have travelled to Russia if it had not been for a good reason, and fifty grand, to the relatively young warlock, was a very good reason. it had seemed like a fairly easy job at first - scrying for an item and helping a succubus to recover it (though the offer of some of her blood certainly sweetened the deal).

As it turned out, it had been a colossal pain in his ass and he'd had to recover the item from a vampire den by himself and now he was meeting  the demonic witch who had nearly fucked him over - metaphorically speaking, though he might have softened his attitude if she actually did fuck him. He had nearly been bitten several times, nearly burned down the den and alerted Russian authorities to his activities, and he was tired. Trace could not remember the last time he'd worked so hard on a job and, frankly, he thought it was well worth more than fifty thousand dollars, especially considering the item that he had recovered. If the succubus wanted it, he had thought, then she would have to fork over a lot more cash or add something else to convince him to hand over the artifact.

Unfortunately for Trace she had come prepared and things had escalated between the warlock and the demon rather quickly. They had argued, which quickly became shouting and baring fangs, and now they were both prepared to set fire to the alleyway unless they got what they wanted from each other.

"Demon bitch! I'll send you back to the netherworld with that tail tucked between your fucking legs."

The succubus smirked, her tail waving as though taunting him. "Try it, warlock. I know you don't have as much power as you pretend to have."

His hands ablaze with the demonic magic that ran through his own veins, Trace hurled a bolt at the woman - only for brilliant light, shimmering with shades of yellow and silver to block it. His attack fizzled out and the demon screeched, both looking around for the source of the barrier.