On the ground was Seraphina, holding her cheek as Juniper screamed at one of the guards. Her nose bled steadily.

She had taken off her heels and pegged one of them at the guard, sending her foot into his crotch. As he crouched in pain she kicked him in the head.

"Fucking!" She kicked him. "Asshole!" Another kick.

Raphael stormed over as her eyes watered from the pain, although her nose didn't look to be broken.

She was obviously trying to keep herself from crying when she made eye contact with him. Phoenix ran to help Seraphina up, openly snarling when he saw her bruised cheek.

"Your stupid guy hit-" Juniper's voice cracked as she stumbled back from his fast approaching form.

"He wouldn't let us leave without permission," she patted at the blood flowing from her nostrils.

On his beeline towards her, the guard lay between their figures. Pausing for only a moment, Raphael reached and gripped the guards shoulder and the hair on his head.

Inhaling sharply, he tore the man's head off of his body. Juniper's eyes widened as Seraphina cried harder at the grotesque sound.

The shadow demons eyes were torn from the headless corpse, she stumbled a little as Raphael stalked towards her.

"No," she pointed her finger at him as tears welled at her eyes. He sneered openly as he reached at his shoulders.

Taking off his jacket, he grit his teeth as he began dabbing at the blood on her lower face with the expensive cloth.

When she tried to jerk away from his touch, he thread his hands through her hair and forced her still.

"Don't ruin my hair," she hissed stubbornly.

He only grunted, "Zane and Felix. Take care of the body."

Juniper's eyes were only focused on him, her pupils shrunk as adrenaline coursed through her. Her breaths were ragged, having just watch the man cleaning her blood up tear a head clean off effortlessly.

This was the true Saint everyone feared.

She wanted to look around and see what else was going on but she could only focus on the man dabbing the blood from her face. His eyes were focused on what he was doing, but she couldn't stop staring at his brown orbs.

They were both silent as Raphael finished up, his hand cupping the back of her neck tightly.

"Are you using some type of magic? It's forbidden for everyone except the witches we employ here," he growled suddenly.

Juniper furrowed her brow, shaking her head confusedly.

"You're lying," he snarled. "There's no other explanation for why my demon is reacting to you like this."

Juniper's eyes widened drastically, darting over to Warren and away from Raphael. He felt her breath hitch.

The berserker didn't like this, shoving her back against the car she had been trying to leave in. She sucked in a sharp breath, meeting his glare.

"Don't look at him, you've looked to him this entire fucking time!" Raphael's tone, dare she say it, dripped in envy.

"Look at me," he demanded in a voice that only she could hear. He bent to her level, hovering his face above her own. Their breaths mingled as tensions ran high, bodies pressed against one another.

His eyes were hardened, but kept darting down to her plush lips. He visibly got more and more frustrated as he couldn't seem to focus.

Juniper could barely process what was going on. Because the mate bond was affecting her more, this was all overwhelming. Raphael wouldn't feel it as intensely until he accepted the bond.

Which she has done subconsciously apparently.

"I haven't used magic," she whispered hoarsely. "I swear, Saint."

She swallowed, hoping he'd believed her. Juniper wasn't prepared to make him aware of the bond.

"Then what is this feeling?" he snarled. "It's pissing me off."

Trying to act dumb, "What feeling?"

He could hear her voice shake and her eyes darting down to his lips before back to his eyes.

"Don't play fucking stupid with me."

"You don't like me, you wouldn't like the answer either way," Juniper admitted breathily.

Raphael suddenly shoved off of her body, snarling at her.

"I know you're messing with my head. Whatever the fuck it is, you can stop while you're ahead. You're just another demon I've had the misfortune of meeting!"

Juniper reached for her other shoe quickly before Seraphina leapt to grab her hands. She barely managed to throw the shoe at him, he knocked it out of the air with a growl.

"Remember that I'm just another demon down the line you dickhead," Juniper spat as she tried to grab a rock.

"No, no, no, we have to go. You need ice, Juni. Get in the car," Seraphina ushered her friend into the car.

"Warren," the nymph tossed him the keys.

"I fucking hate him!" Juniper choked out quietly to her friend as she couldn't stop the hot tears, Seraphina cooed gently as she shut the door behind the both of them.

Raphael had stiffened as the words struck him more than he had expected.

Phoenix was shocked as Zane and Felix returned- all of them looked at him as Warren slammed his own door shut and peeled out of the driveway.

"What the hell was that?" Phoenix held out his arms.

Raphael was ready to rip his hair out, "She's fucking with me!"

"The girl hasn't done a damn thing to you, you moron!"

"My demon won't shut the fuck up around her. She won't get out of its mind, her smell is burned in my god damn nose-" he cut himself off before he could admit she was taking over his thoughts.

He rubbed his face before tugging on his hair, slowly he sat on the steps leading up to the entrance. The breeze from the night air didn't even cool him down.

"You say that shit like she's your mate," Zane scoffed.

Everyone froze.

Raphael glanced over at him slowly, "What the fuck kind of demon is she?"

Phoenix gnawed on his lip, "She's got the gray eyes. Shadow demon."

Raphael felt as if he couldn't breathe, "They confirm the mate bond through touch... she fell into me when that asshole blew up the club."

"I was joking about the mate thing..." Zane trailed off.

"Fuck!" Raphael roared and pounded his fist through the cement wall before storming through the doorway.

"Raph!" Phoenix called after him and followed.

"This is a good thing!" he ran to keep up.

"No the fuck it's not!"

"She's a beautiful woman with a backbone- why focus on the negative shit?" Phoenix scoffed as he finally cornered Raphael.

"This chick falls into your lap out of nowhere, by the grace of gods. And here you are complaining."

"We've got enough on our plate and obviously she does as well."

"I think your mate being in a life or death situation takes precedence over the Order of Elements. As if they're any actual threat."

"We don't know she's my mate," Raphael pointed at him.

"Look, I know Juniper is staying with Seraphina. They're over on the east end, I'll call her and we can figure this shit out."

Raphael didn't disagree, only glared at the ground. "I need to think," Phoenix took the hint and left the head berkserker to himself.

By himself, he thought over what he knew about shadow demons.

They were stronger in the night, often what the humans mistook for their 'boogey men'. Dark masses that could capture people easily when shifted into their demonic form. But female shadow demons didn't shift.

They weren't an offensive or particularly strong supernatural race. They were defensive and sneaky, Raphael didn't have a lot of experience with them.

They were the most solitary creatures out of all supernaturals, in his opinion.

If he remembered right, they often committed to their mates. In their culture they didn't wait to solely date their mate but once they found them they settled down.

Settling down, his chest tightened as he sat down on his bed. Did Juniper want to settle down with him?

Was that even possible for him? He'd never thought it was an option for his future.

"Holy shit," Raphael inhaled sharply.

~

"I don't even- I don't even think he's that hot," Juniper scoffed before sniffling into her ice pack.

"June," Warren sighed.

"Warren I can't believe you were about to pass up that job," the bluenette banged her hand against the table. "Never do that shit again."

"What? Give a shit about you?" Warren shot back with tightly crossed arms.

Seraphina came over to tilt Juniper's head back, rubbing cream onto the cut across the bridge if her nose.

"You know what I can't believe, that you decked that giant man for my little old cheek."

"The day I let some dickhead put hands on you is the day I die," Juniper was high strung on anxiety and every small thing was close to setting her off.

Seraphina sighed quietly and sat down next to her, tugging Juniper's hands into her own.

"How he treated you was wrong," Sera started slowly.

Juniper's face immediately fell. She turned her head away as if her friend wasn't speaking to her.

"Are you feeling alright? I know the bond can be painful with certain... strains."

Juniper's head fell, her hair fell in her eyes as the two looked at her.

"My chest hurts," she whispered reluctantly. It wasn't a type of ache she'd ever experienced before and it wasn't something she was fond of.

Seraphina frowned tightly and rubbed her back soothingly.

"I think I should leave the island," Juniper announced quietly.

Warren and Seraphina both shot up in disagreement. June shot them a sharp glare to let her finish.

"This is exactly what we've been trying to avoid. Even just being around him puts a bigger target on my back. Let alone you guys. I wouldn't know what to do if something happened to either of you. He doesn't need this bomb dropped on him either," her manicured nails trailed over the ceramics of the table.

"It's safest here for you," Warren's voice was stern even if he knew Juniper took orders from no one.

"Just- Just give it two days of thought. Please," Seraphina held her hands up to plead.

Swallowed slowly, she nodded. "48 hours."