I meet with Raphael before school in the morning. I know I need to find out as much about this new threat as possible. I'm not entirely sure how this, whatever is going on, between her, Raphael and I is a war when there's only three people involved on both sides total. But Raphael knows more about the situation than me, obviously. Raphael told me her name is Scarlet and she's the left hand of Lucifer. Apparently Raphael is his right hand. This is going to be one hell of a war.

We get to school early in hopes to get there before her. And we did, but not by much. By the time we made it to the front steps we hear the crowd of students excited over a new face. We turn and watch it all unfold. Scarlet was in the midst of a surprising number of male students. I almost forgot Tony was with us, until he spoke.

"Who's the new girl?" The slightly wistful tone of his voice took me by surprise. I began praying that he would not be caught under her spell as well.

"Hey Raph!" Scarlet calls sweetly to us. Raphael and I snap our attention to her. She detaches herself from the band of boys, allowing us to finally get a good look at her. She's wearing short black heeled boots, a knee-length flowy black shirt and a red blouse. Her long black hair was brushed to a shine and left to waterfall down her back and shoulders.

"You guys know each other?" Tony asks in complete confusion. I can understand why. I look at Tony who is glancing confused between the three of us.

"Yep!" Scarlet says, popping the p at the end. "Raph and I go way back. Don't we?" She turns to Raphael and grins. We all look at him for his response.

"That's one way of putting it," he grinds out through his teeth. Anyone could see he was uncomfortable with the whole situation.

Scarlet lets out a bubbly laugh, "Oh Raph, I don't understand why you keep acting like this. We practically grew up together." There's a beat of silence. I think she's waiting for him to respond, which he doesn't. Unless glaring counts.
This doesn't deter her though. She huffs a sigh and rests her arm on Tony's shoulder. "So cutie," she starts, smiling at Tony, "how's about you give me a tour?"

Tony opens his mouth to respond, but I grab his arm. "He can't!" I exclaim suddenly. Everyone turns to me to explain.
My mind races to think of a valid excuse.

"And why's that, what was it again?" She asks, very blatantly pretending to forget my name.

"This is Seraph," Tony supplies. "And I'd love to show you around-" Tony is cut short again, but this time it wasn't me.

"But he has work to do before classes start. I can show you around instead." Raphael offers, trying to save Tony and I.
Unfortunately Scarlet is relentless. "Oh, but I'd really love to have this cutie here show me around. I mean I already know you Raph, and it was fun and all but I'm thinking it time to move on to a new face." I gag slightly but try not to let it show. Scarlet obviously caught it though because she gives me a glare for a second.

Raphael simply rolls his eyes, "Well tough, he's busy. And taken. I guess you're stuck with me. And we were never an item Scarlet. You tried, but it was never gonna happen." His eyes grew hooded and his tone grew slightly darker with each word.

Scarlet smiled and took a step closer to him, "Never say never darling," she whispers darkly. After a beat of silence her grin grows and her cheerier demeanor returns, "Fine then, show me around Raph." She takes his hand roughly and pulls him along, away from the rest of the students.

"So, we have work to do before school?" Tony asks. I don't know what to say so I just nod. "And I'm taken?" Tony questions. I started to nod in reply and pause. Oh Raphael what have you gotten me into?

I take a deep breath and pray I won't get in trouble for this, "Yes." As soon as I said it I had a sinking feeling that I just tied my own hanging rope. But if that's what it takes to keep him safe from her, so be it. I'll take the consequences if it saves his life.

(A/N: okay so I know this is really really really late. Sorry. I've had a lot going on and been busy. And I didn't like this chapter at first so I had to scrap it like 3 times. Eventually I said forget it and decided to put what I currently have up. Sorry again. I'll try to get a few more chapters up soon.)