Disclaimer: I have no idea EXACTLY how a masquerade would be, so I'm gonna make it up, okay?

"So what do you think?" Malachi asked as they danced. "I'm sure you haven't been to a masquerade since they were popular."

"Actually, I've never been to the party itself. Always work and masquerades are the easiest place to loose someone and not have anyone notice." Selene replied.

"Oh, really?" He leaned in and whispered in her ear. "Well, I'll be sure to show you every possible pleasure a masquerade has to offer." Then he pulled her off the dance floor. "Hungry?"

"Was the growling that loud?" Selene asked, slightly embarrassed.

"No, but I figured you'd be the type to not eat before a date. Come on."

Malachi led Selene to a large table in a corner of the room. Several of the other people were sitting and helping themselves to extravagant choices of food. Malachi seemed unfazed and pulled out a chair for Selene, though she insisted she get her own food for fear of what he might put in it.

"So, how are you tonight?" A rather drunken man in a blue and gold mask next to Selene asked her. "Alone?"

"No, actually, she's with me." Malachi replied before Selene even opened her mouth. She turned to him.

"Awfully protective for a one-night stand."

"Who said this was a one-night stand?" Malachi, amazingly, seemed taken aback.

"Oh, come on. You and I both know that all you feel for me is lust. Hell, you don't even know me."

"A rather frivolous choice of words for an anointed one, don't you think?"

"In all honesty, I don't care. All I'm saying is that you jumped pretty fast for an anointed one who you don't know very well." Selene said, returning to her food. Malachi swung her head back around and kissed her deeply, their masks clacking with the force of contact.

"Screw the party and the food. You're coming with me."

He whisked her back to the dungeon-like room and threw her against the wall, basically ripping off her clothes in the process. Selene cried out falsely, feeding Malachi's ego by putting him under the impression that he was in control. Of course, it was quite the opposite. Selene had put a spell on her "area" that sealed her opening. He'd be dead by the time he figured it out if all went according to plan.

Once mostly unclothed, Malachi drew Selene's hips to his, throwing her skirt up to her waist.

NOW, ELLA! Selene cried out in her mind.

Ella jumped out from behind a rack with a knife, but Malachi had noticed her presence and jumped out of the way, Ella's knife almost hitting Selene.

"Shit!" Ella cried, dodging some shackles that Malachi threw her way before disappearing.

"DAMNIT!" Ella yelled, punching the wall in her room.

"Oh, yes, and that helps everything." Selene remarked, chewing cinnamon gum and spitting it onto Ella's arm with a spell to shock her slightly in an attempt to calm her down.

"Don't do that!" Ella screeched, the gum searing her skin.

"Well, it got your attention, didn't it?" Selene snarled. "Look, putting holes in your wall won't help anything."

"Helps me."

Selene sighed. "If you do that after every failure, you won't have a room left. Just listen, we need to think up something else to do now that Malachi probably has guessed that I'm in cahoots with you."

"Cahoots? Am I also an accessory to murder? Selling drugs? What's next?"

"It's the truth. Deal with it."

"I hope you realize that bantering isn't helping you either." St. Catherine said as she walked in.

"I'm sorry. I don't know if I'm going to be able to work with her, Catherine." Ella practically begged.

"You will have to. There isn't anyone else who can help you and you have proven incapable to handling Malachi. I can have you go elsewhere and take Selene's other work for now if you truly can't handle working together."

"This was my case to start with though."

"And you failed." That hit a nerve, but Ella stayed silent. "I think you need to be taken off this case. Selene, stay concentrated on this. Ella, you will be sent instructions." And she disappeared.

"Now look what you've done! Made me look like a complete incompetent in front of a saint."

"Wouldn't be the first time." Selene shot back.

"Say that again!" Ella screeched, lunging at her sister.

The two women rolled across the floor, fists and spells flying. It was amazing that the people in the rooms next to Ella's weren't alarmed and that the room was still there by the time Leon walked in.

"Woah, ladies!" The brawl paused.

"Well, then, you must be Ella's boyfriend." Selene said, standing and holding out her hand.

Leon took her hand. "I suppose so, yes. And you are?"

"Her... older sister, Selene."

"I thought she was the last anointed one."

"She was. I was sort of sleeping in the next world. I come back every so often." Selene replied, smiling. "And it looks like you won't have anymore Malachi issues. Lucky for you."Selene walked out and Leon turned to Ella. She was fuming.

"What did she mean?"

"I've been taken off the case." Ella snapped. "St. Catherine told me to wait for instructions to take Selene's other cases while she takes care of Malachi."

Then, Ella punched another hole in the wall.

A/N: Sorry it took so long for the update. I've been very busy and it seems that all my characters have abandoned me. I managed to squeeze this out, so I hope you enjoy it.