Lara pushed open the door and sighed deeply, letting the events of the day rush out of her. Raziel, who stood behind her, looked down at her worriedly.

"Are you all right, Lara?"

She rolled her head from side to side, letting the neck crack before answering, "Yes, I am all right. Just a bit tired, that's all."

"Lady Croft?" Lara looked up to see Hillary coming into the main hall. "You have a guest. Mr. Nigel Foxsworth is here, and he is asking for you."

Lara's eyes widened in surprise as Raziel's eyebrows knit together. She hurriedly moved down the hall toward the reclining room while Raziel glanced at Hillary in confusion. Seeing his bewildered look, Hillary stated simply, "Lady Croft's current suitor and possible fiancé."

Raziel's eyes flashed and his claws curled in on themselves, the knuckles cracking ominously as he made his way after Lara. So was this the problem that had stood between them for so long . . . ?

Lara quickly went into the room and found a man sitting in a chair, Rose on his lap. He had gray-blue eyes and dirty-blonde hair which was gelled back. He looked up and smiled at her, and the smile was dazzling. She felt it sneak into her body and warm her to her core. Then a light clawed touch on her back caused that warmth to become freezing ice as she realized she had Nigel, her potential fiancé and husband, and Raziel, her lover, in the same room. She bit her lip as she walked toward him. She had a feeling this was not going to end well.

Nigel looked up and his eyes glittered in happiness. "Lara!" Rose squiggled out of his arms and ran toward her.

"Mummy!"

Lara leaned down and picked Rose up as Nigel stood and walked over to her. Raziel had moved back and was watching them both. Nigel kissed her on the lips in greeting and she noticed out of the corner of her eye that Raziel's eyes had began to flare white in anger. She could see the pupil beginning to fade and the gold shrinking, being replaced by that all-encompassing white that she had grown used to during her trip to Nosogth.

'Oh bugger . . .'

"It's a pleasure to see you again," Nigel commented, completely oblivious to the growing hostile air around the other male in the room. "I was afraid you were avoiding me. You didn't return my call yesterday."

"I'm terribly sorry, Nigel. I wasn't even aware you called. I have been quite preoccupied."

"What could make you so preoccupied as to forget me?" His expression was mock sadness and hurt, being really more amused than anything.

Lara sighed. "An old friend dropped in with some problems and I've promised to help him."

Nigel turned to glance at Raziel and in surprise didn't turn away. He took in the strong, sharp angles of his face, the dark hair, and the golden eyes (which the white had thankfully bled out of, Lara noted), and Nigel's eyes narrowed in jealousy. She had spent the entire day with a man who looked like this? He breathed in deeply and released it.

'It doesn't matter,' he assured himself mentally. 'He looks far too much of a pretty boy to keep up with her, and that'd be the only way she'd involve herself with him over me. And he certainly doesn't seem like the type to be left at home with the children like I am. God only knows Lara isn't going to become my wife out of love.' He glanced back at her. 'I don't think there's anyone alive who she can safely love and share her full life with. So she'll have to settle with one part.'

Nigel smiled brilliantly at her again, sheer melt-in-your-mouth. He reminded her much of a saint in his behavior, but there was always something there that hinted he was thinking more dark thoughts.

"If you can tear yourself away from your friend, I planned a lovely little picnic for three." He poked Rose on the nose and she giggled as she grabbed his finger. Lara smiled sadly.

"As much as I would like to, I'll have to take a rain check. I have several things still to do today, and you," she looked pointedly at Rose, "have to go to bed now. You've been up all night and all this morning."

"But Mummy, I don wanna—" She interrupted herself by yawning. Raziel stepped forward and held his claws out for her.

"May I?"

Nigel watched as Lara handed a sleepily blinking Rose to Raziel. Rose rubbed her eyes, then wrapped her arms about his neck and snuggled against him as he headed out toward the stairs. Nigel's eyebrows knit together in concern. Rose rarely took to people like that. She would usually antagonize them, but she wouldn't allow them to pick her up. He suppressed another wave of jealousy. He turned back to Lara, silently wishing he could take her into his arms and kiss her, but he knew she didn't like to be held and wouldn't appreciate the gesture. There was no love between them, but he had developed an affection for her. He stood looking at her for a time.

"What are you helping your friend with?" he finally asked gently. "And, speaking of which, I never did catch his name."

"Raziel," the baritone voice rumbled from the doorway. Raziel walked toward them and Lara recognized the anger and rage barely contained in each step. She recalled her analogy between him and a violent thunderstorm, and decided it was quite apt.

"And you are?"

"Nigel Foxsworth," Nigel answered, absolutely ignorant of the doom baring down on him. Lara thought it time to intercede. She moved between Raziel and Nigel, facing the latter.

"I'm very sorry, Nigel, but I do have things to do and—"

"All right, all right," Nigel nodded, a smile on his face. "Say good-night to Rose for me."

"Of course."

Lara and Raziel watched him go, Lara with a nonchalantly blank, if worried, expression, Raziel with a murderous one. After he was gone, silence fell for a time until Raziel broke it.

"Why?" It was very short, very cut and to the point.

Lara shrugged slightly. "I want to go back out into the field, and Rose is too young for me to leave here alone. And I want someone who will look after her should anything happen to me. There's no love between us. It's just a mutually beneficial agreement."

"Why him?"

"Because I know he isn't trying to marry me for my money, and he likes Rose. And Rose loves him. That's what important, that the man be liked by Rose herself."

'So why not me?' But he knew the answer without having to actually ask it. He was not of this world and could not stay here.

"Lara?" He took hold of her and pulled her against him, moving her face so he could look down at her.

"Lara . . ." He hesitated, seeming to be on the verge of telling her something very important to him.

The phone ringing interrupted him. Both looked, surprised, over to the appliance. She slid out of his arms and picked up the phone.

"Hello?"

"Lara!" It was Jials' voice. "For God's sake, get out here! There are . . . there's something coming out of the portal. I need— Oh heavens, they're here." There was the sound of movement, and Jials' voice, softer, as if away from the phone, shouting, "Get the weapons and get them fast!" Then the phone went dead. Lara hung it up, then looked at Raziel.

"We have to go check on Jials. Apparently something came through the portal. I wonder if it's these Hylden Kain spoke of." She blinked a moment, realizing they had been in the middle of something and turned her head toward Raziel.

"What was it you were going to say?"

"Nothing." He shook his head in negation. "Let's just go find out what's going on over there."

It took them a slightly longer than she'd like trip through the Spectral Realm, but it greatly cut down on the time in the real world, and for that, she was grateful. The buildings surrounding the Pillars seemed to take on darker shades as the sun sank below its horizon. They walked toward the doors and shoved them open. Several people came rushing toward her.

"Oh thank heavens!" one cried. "Lara Croft! There's a green-skinned monster out near the Pillars holding Jials hostage! We think he's going to kill him!"

"Wait a moment. What does this green-skinned monster look like?" Raziel asked calmly from behind her.

"Um, it's about so high," he held his hand up about a foot above Raziel's head, "dark green skin, weird, kinda pointy things coming off its chin, and the largest ears I have ever seen."

Raziel chuckled softly and walked past him, saying, "Come along, Lara. We needn't worry about Jials too much. I know who this is."

"And who is it?"

"An old . . . friend of mine."