Back to the beginning.

Raphael groaned. Christ. He felt like he had been run over by a truck. He shifted and the pain only intensified. Make that ten trucks.

A cool hand pressed against his forehead. He instinctively tilted his head towards the soft touch.

"At least you don't have a fever," a voice murmured in the darkness. The hand fell away from his face. A towel replaced it, dabbing the sweat away. "That's a good sign."

He liked that voice. It was a nice voice. All soft and pretty and melodic.

"Maybe we shouldn't have ruled out concussion so fast."

Had he spoken out loud? He couldn't tell.

He didn't know that voice...where was he?

All at once, the memories of that night came flooding back.

Running into Beliel...the surprise attack...three against one and all he had was an unloaded gun...he fought as long as he could and then ran for it but they had been shooting at him…

He remembered the bullet tearing through his skin.

His eyes shot open and he jolted upright. Bad move. He cursed as his shoulder screamed in protest at the sudden movement. He tried to touch his arm but found his hands and feet duct-taped.

"Easy, buddy. We don't have any more bandages."

Raphael turned to the source of the voice. He blinked.

Midnight eyes. High cheekbones. Raven black hair. Red, red lips that he just wanted to bite.

There was a very beautiful girl sitting in front of him. And that very beautiful girl was currently pointing a gun at him.

Shit.

"Hi," the girl said.

Shit.

"Hello."

His eyes swept over his surroundings. He was laid out on the couch, a blanket puddled over his lap. The girl was sitting on a scuffed up coffee table backed up a good five feet away from him. They were in a sparsely furnished living room, with a kitchen tucked into the corner. The curtains were closed over the windows. The only source of light was a lamp to his left. Raphael tried to ignore how the girl's skin looked luminous in the soft golden light.

He took inventory. Four windows, one too small for him to fit through. Three doors. The one to his right had shoes littered around it-probably the exit. The lamp was too far and too big for him to use as a proper weapon. Still, the girl was tiny and the safety on the gun was on. He could probably overpower her, if he could get out of the duct-tape that had been so generously wrapped around his hands and feet.

He gave an experimental jerk to the ones at his hands. Tight, but not so much that it hurt.

"Please don't do anything stupid."

Her voice was steady, but the gun trembled in her hands. Barely discernable, but her hands were definitely shaking.

"Are you going to kill me?" Was this some kind of twisted joke of Beliel's?

"God, I hope not."

"Then can you stop pointing the gun at me?"

"No thanks."

"I thought you didn't want to hurt me?"

The girl's eyes flickered to the door to the door on his left.

"I don't want to hurt you but I really don't want you to hurt me."

And she really, really didn't want him to hurt whoever was on the other side of that door. Damn. He would have a lot harder time overpowering two people than one.

He looked down. A network of bandages littered his torso.

"I'm not wearing a shirt."

"Nice detective work, genius. It was hard to patch up your chest when you had a shirt on, Raffe."

His eyes narrowed. No one had called him that in years. "How do you know my name?"

"You told us. You were pretty out of it though, so I get why you don't remember. Mostly you just kept telling us, 'no hospitals, no hospitals.'"

Raphael didn't remember that. Then again, he didn't remember much past running desperately and getting shot.

"Thanks." Us...meaning that she definitely wasn't alone. He cleared his throat. "For patching me up, I mean."

The girl bit her lip and stayed silent. Raphael's gaze lingered on her lips for a second before coming back to her eyes.

"What's your name?"

Something flashes in the girl's eyes and for a second he thinks she won't answer.

"Penryn."

"Penryn," he repeated. Weird name. But he liked the way it flowed through his mouth. "It's nice to meet you, Penryn. I'd shake your hands, but…"

He held up his duct-taped wrists. He smiled, trying to give charm a shot. "You could cut me loose and we could introduce ourselves properly."

"No."

"You know, I don't let girls tie me up until after dinner and a movie."

"Yeah, I only dragged you off the street and fixed you up after a beating. Sorry if I forget to give you chocolates."

The corner of his lip twitched. He liked this girl, even if she was still pointing a gun at his face. He really didn't want to have to knock her out.

But he had to get going and soon. Beliel was bound to be looking for him to finish him off. And the Brotherhood was in complete disarray after Gabriel's death. He had to find Michael and Uriel and let them know some of their brothers had turned against their own.

Maybe he didn't have to get the jump on her. It couldn't be too hard to convince her to let him go.

He sat up as best as he could despite being tied up and bruised as hell.

"I promise I'm not going to hurt you, Penryn," he said softly. She bit her lip again. He could do this. He kept his eyes on hers and leaned forward. "No one needs to get hurt tonight."

He tilted his head toward the door to his left.

Big mistake. Whatever vulnerability he saw in her eyes was immediately shut down and locked away.

"I don't put much faith in promises made by criminals," she snapped.

Raphael followed Penryn's gaze and found her looking at the space right above his heart, at his tattoo. It was a bold, black X, enclosed in a golden circle (Gabriel always called it a halo, the cheesy dead bastard). That alone was the symbol for the Brotherhood, although his own tat had two extra rings encircling it. One to mark his blood bond. The other to mark his position as commander.

He raised his eyebrows. Most people knew the name, but not the symbol. "How does a nice little girl like you know the sign for the Brotherhood?"

"Google."

"Seriously?"

"You thugs have your own wikipedia page."

"For someone who's so scared, you sure throw around insults pretty freely."

"I'm not afraid of you."

"Yes, you are. The terrified little girl, scared of the big bad wolf on her doorstep."

Raphael smiled, this time without any humor. He reclined on the couch, tipping his head back as he looked at her. Scared and naive and righteous. Or in a word, stupid. But she wouldn't kill him.

"For the record, you're the one who dragged me off the street and into your home. And it's Bay City, sweetheart. Everyone's either a criminal or a mark. At least the Brotherhood keeps the peace around here."

"Peace?" she hissed. "You call this peace? Three of my neighbors were robbed last week. I walk past a new crime scene every time I go to work. My baby sister has to listen to gunshots and screams coming from outside every night-she's so scared she can barely sleep. What the hell is wrong with you?"

He frowned. She wasn't wrong.

"I know it's bad now, but it's only temporary." With Gabriel's death, not only was the organization thrown into chaos. Outside syndicates, sensing weakness like a wolf sniffs out blood, had descended upon the city in hopes of carving out some territory. Meanwhile, local gangs that had normally been minor nuisances had crawled out of the woodwork to create their own mayhem.

This needed to come to end. The Brotherhood had to be brought back to order so the civilians stopped dying. For his brothers to stop dying.

"Because everything was so peachy before Gabriel died," she said, sarcasm dripping like venom. He didn't know how she could inject so much acid into the word peachy but somehow she managed it. Hell of a girl.

"You're living the alternative, sweetheart. And how do you know about Gabriel?"

"Don't call me sweetheart-" she snarled, but she suddenly stopped short.

Someone knocked on the door.

Once. Twice.

A man's voice floated in from the outside.

"BCPD." The officer barked.

Raphael lunged at Penryn. But the injuries from the night before and his tied hands and feet had his instincts off balance. She managed to dodge him, and rammed her elbow into his throat.

"Shit," he wheezed, or tried to but hardly any noise came out. The bitch got him right in the windpipe.

"You're no one's sweetheart," he rasped.

"Shut up shut up shut up," she hissed. She pulled out a knife, but to his shock, instead of his throat, she went for his feet as she furiously sawed at the duct tape on his feet.

"What the f-"

"Ohmygodshutupshutup." She dragged him to his feet and pushed him towards the third mystery door. Christ, she was small but strong. He stumbled, his feet numb after being tied up and motionless for so long.

She open the door and shoved him inside. "I'll get rid of them. Don't make a sound."

She shut the door as gently as possible. Raphael knew it was stupid but he couldn't resist. He cracked the door open, just a hair, and looked out.

Penryn paused before the door as the knocking continued. She tucked the gun and knife behind her back, under the elastic of her pajama bottoms, and tugged her sweatshirt over her ass. Then she unlocked the door and opened it.

"Hello, officers. What can I do for you tonight?"

"Evening, miss. Can we speak to your parents please?"

"My mother isn't here right now. It's just me and my sister tonight."

"Are you old enough to be left on your own?"

"Yes, sir. I'm eighteen."

Seriously? She had looked young to Raphael, but eighteen?

A voice in the back of his head whispered, Still legal.

As if it mattered anyway.

Penryn was showing the officers her ID.

"Everything appears to be in order." The police officer held up something for her. "Miss, have you seen this individual? He is known to be in the vicinity and is armed and dangerous."

Raphael held his breath at Penryn's pause. He readied himself to bolt.

"He's 6'2? Sounds like a real Sasquatch."

Sasquatch? Raphael nearly snorted. I'd rather be a Sasquatch than a hobbit, you little brat.

"Miss, please answer the question."

"No sir, I haven't seen him."

They asked her a few more questions, but Raphael let some of tension seem out of his body as she deflected them all.

She won't be winning any Oscars anytime soon, but she wasn't a complete idiot.

"Penryn?" The sleepy, high-pitched voice came from out of his tiny field of vision.

"Paige?" He saw Penryn turn her head. "Give me one second. I'm almost done."

She turned back to the officers. "I'm sorry I couldn't be of any help. I'll be sure to call if I see anything. I need to put my sister back to sleep, so good night. Thank you for your service!"

She all but slammed the door in their faces. She spun around and leaned back against the door, pressing the heels of palms against her eyes.

"Penryn?"

"Hey, Paige, baby." Penryn rushed out of his eyeline toward the source of the young voice. "I'm so sorry. Did we wake you?"

"S'ok. I had a nightmare…"

As Penryn murmured words of comfort, Raphael listened for the sound of the police car pulling away. Once he was sure the coast was clear, he skulked out of his hiding spot.

"Thank you for your service?" Raphael scoffed. "Could you be any more obvious?"

Penryn rolled her eyes and put her fists on her hips. "Oh look, I've found me a Sasquatch. I better call the Discovery Channel."

A giggle came from behind her. A little girl in pink pajamas and a wheelchair rolled up to him. She was like a bite-size version of Penryn, except this little girl actually smiled.

Penryn had said she had a baby sister.

"You're Raffe!" She rolled up to him. Penryn stuck close to her sister's back like a magnet. "I'm very glad to see that you're awake. My name is Paige. It's very nice to meet you!"

She stuck out a tiny little hand for him to shake, all smiles and welcomes and sunshine. It was a near comical contrast to her sister's expression, which promised certain and painful death if he pulled any shit in front of Paige.

"Nice to meet you, too, Paige." He shook her hand and smiled awkwardly. He met eyes with Penryn. See, I can play nice.

Her eyes seemed to reply, I will end you if you screw this up.

"Why are your hands duct-taped?"

It's because your sister is a vicious little harpy, kid.

"He kept scratching his bandages in his sleep," Penryn answered for him. "Mom and I decided it would be better if we just tied up his hands for a little while."

That was the worst lie in the history of bad lies. Raphael would have rolled his eyes if he wasn't a little bit afraid Penryn would stab him for it.

"You were hurt very badly when I found you. Are you feeling better now?"

"Yeah, way better. Thanks for asking." His throat still hurt like a bitch though. "You were the one that found me."

Paige nodded enthusiastically. "I was looking for Mr. Wilkens-"

"Her cat," Penryn interjected.

"-but I wasn't supposed to go out alone. Penryn and Mom found me right when I found you in the alley behind the dumpster-"

"With the rest of the trash," Penryn mumbled under her breath.

"-and Penryn took him home and then used my chair to bring you back to our house. She and Mom took care of you and fixed you up."

"Wow, kid. Uh, thanks for your help."

"Penryn did everything," Paige said. She was missing one of her top teeth. She gave Penryn a wide, gap-toothed smile. "She's like a superhero."

Penryn stroked Paige's hair and squeezed her shoulder. "Don't be so modest, little Dalai Lama. He definitely wouldn't be here without you."

Paige blushed and turned back to Raphael.

"Mom said you were shot."

"It just grazed him. It barely hit him," Penryn said.

"Yeah, I'm practically as good as new already," said Raphael. It only hurt like hell.

"Who shot you?"

Raphael bit back a comment about how it was impolite to ask a victim of violence what they did to be attacked. "Some bad guys."

"Is that why the police were here?"

"Sort of. They were definitely looking for a bad guy." He smirked at Penryn, who to his surprise and pleasure, flushed pink.

"O-kay, that's enough for now. Raffe needs to eat and you need to sleep. Off to bed with you," Penryn said.

"Is Mom back yet?"

A shadow fell over Penryn's face. She gave a forced smile.

"No, not yet. You know how she needs a little alone time. She'll be back in the morning."

"Okay. Good night, Penryn. Good night, Raffe."

"Good night, baby." Penryn kissed the top of Paige's head and shooed her off.

"Not going to help her into bed?" Raphael asked when the door shut behind Paige's wheels.

"She's plenty capable by herself," Penryn said. She pulled the gun back out. Hello, old friend. "Besides, I'm not giving you a chance to sneak off."

"Superheroes usually aren't so violent."

"It's a good thing I'm like a superhero and not actually one." She nodded at the kitchen counter. "Sit."

He sat down on a stool while she stood across from him, with the counter in between them.

"You're not going to kill me, you're not going to turn me in, you're not going to let me go." Raphael ticked off the list. "What the hell are you going to do with me?"

"I'm going to feed you." She tore open a granola bar with her free hand and her teeth and placed it front of him. She cracked open a water bottle the same way and gave it to him as well. "I'm going to check your injuries in the morning. And when it's safe for us, I'm going to let you go."

"When it's safe for us?"

"For me and my family." Penryn sighed, looking both too young and too old for her eighteen years.

Eighteen wasn't that far from twenty-four, was it?

"We barely had you inside for five minutes before the patrols started. At first, it was the same three cars going around and around the neighborhood. They were way too nice to belong to anyone who lived around here and they kept circling back. Then the police started circling. But you were already here. Even if I dumped you out on the street still bleeding, which would have a majorly wrong thing to do, my family would still have been screwed. The people who had hurt you might come after us if they connected us back to you. Or the police might catch you leaving and then my Mom and I go to jail for harboring a criminal. So no, you're not leaving until the cops and the goons all stop sniffing around."

Raphael played with the water bottle cap and said nothing.

Not stupid. Scared and naive and righteous, but not stupid.

"And if dirty cops found you, it would have been a toss up between them killing you or arresting you. Probably arresting and then killing you."

Penryn went pale. He couldn't really blame her.

"I thought all the dirty cops belonged to the Brotherhood."

"Yeah, they do." Raphael's fist closed around the bottle cap and he squeezed until his knuckles turned white. The cops belonged to Uriel.

Beliel sure as hell wouldn't have called the regular police on him. And there was only one person who commanded enough dirty cops to conduct a manhunt for him.

His brother was trying to kill him. His least favorite brother, but his blood-bonded brother nonetheless.

He was going to kill him. He was going to fucking kill him.

Raphael bit back his rage and bottled it down. Now was not the time to lose it.

He breathed slowly until he thought he could speak normally.

"You could've told me from the very beginning," he said. He looked up at Penryn. "You didn't need to hold me at gunpoint. Or do so now."

"I got side-tracked at first. And even if you cared enough about my family's safety to wait, you're still a member of the Brotherhood. I'm not going to let a violent criminal wander around my home. You already tried to attack me once."

His lip twitched. "You defended yourself pretty well. Even if you only got lucky."

"That's not an apology."

"Sorry."

"Apology not accepted."

"You're so mean. There are man-eating crocodiles nicer than you."

"I wish I were a man-eating crocodile. It would solve so many of my problems."

Raphael smirked. "You want to eat me up, Penryn?"

"Don't feed you own ego. Pathetic, much?" she shot back. But she blushed again-which had been his goal in the first place.

"You're the one who's been sneaking glances at my chest all night long. Clearly, you like what you see."

"I was looking at your tattoos. I was wondering which ones you got in jail." He didn't think it was possible, but she was blushing even brighter.

"Only one of them. The others I got as a free man. Do you want to see the rest?"

"Eat your stupid granola bar, you perv."

He was tempted to ask her to feed it to him, just to get a rise out of her. Instead, he managed to eat with his hands still duct-taped. He should be irritated that he was still bound. He should be furious that one of his own was trying to murder him. But no, annoying her was surprisingly good for his mood.

Flirting with her, the voice in the back of his mind corrected.

Maybe, but he didn't mean anything by it. Absolutely nothing at all.

"How do you know so much about the Brotherhood anyway?" he asked between bites.

She shrugged. "My dad. He was obsessed with crimes in Bay City, particularly the Brotherhood. I basically learned to read from sitting on his lap while he read the crime reports in the newspaper. You guys tend to keep things quiet, but not secret." She narrowed her eyes as a new thought ran through her head. "If you sic any of your Brotherhood cronies on my family, I will come after you."

"I wouldn't dream of it." She probably would, the little spitfire. She'd probably get herself killed, too.

"Did your dad teach you how to handle a gun, too?" he asked, trying to distance himself from that discomforting thought.

"Yeah, this used to be his." She tapped a finger on the gun that she still had pointed at him. Didn't her arm ever get tired?

"Used to? Is he dead?"

"No."

Again, the shields went up and her eyes went hard. This time she wasn't protecting anyone behind a door. She was putting up the guard for own sake.

"I'll pay you back," he said. The words spilled out of him under her dark, unfathomable gaze. "For treating my injuries and for protecting me." He shook his head when she started to argue. "I know you're looking out for your family, but you're also protecting me. That counts for something. I'll pay my debt to you."

Penryn studied him for a moment.

"You don't need to do anything," she said finally. "Just make sure no one comes after my family once you leave. And stay away from us. We're safer without you."

She hesitated and then added, "And don't get yourself killed."

He grinned. "Would you miss me if I were gone?"

"No."

"It's understandable if you've already fallen madly in love with me. Greater women than you have succumbed to my charms."

"I said don't let anyone else kill you. You're still welcome to trip over your own massive ego, fall into a hole, and die."

"You'd still miss me though."

"You wish."

Raphael just finished the rest of his granola bar in smug silence. At least the darkness in her eyes had gone away, even if there were still bags under eyes.

"Are you going to stay up all night?"

"Plan on it."

"It's a school night. You need to be up bright and early to learn."

"Tomorrow a furloughed day for the teachers. I don't need to go."

His jaw nearly dropped.

"Wait, you're still in high school?" he asked, aghast.

"I'm in my senior year," she said defensively.

"I'm being held at gunpoint by a schoolgirl. This is humiliating." He had asked a high school student if she wanted to eat him.

He never felt like more of a dirty old man in his life. He was definitely going to hell.

"If it makes a dent on your ego then it could only be a-"

The front door opened. They both jumped up and turned.

Penryn sucked in a breath.

"Hi, Mom."

Finally, got around to the first chapter. It's bit of a rush job because I don't know how busy I'll be in the next two weeks.

Ok, now going to address a few points:

-I don't know if this is going to be your typical mafia AU. The way this is working out in my head, it's almost as much a cult as it is a crime organization. But it's still early days, so that might change. Plus, Gabriel's dead so the Brotherhood and the city are basically thrown into chaos. Fun times for Raffe.

-If you need clarification about the world, don't hesitate to tell me. This is not the same world as it is in the original story, so if I forget to explain something, then let me know.

-We've only seen five familiar faces so far, but there'll be more...eventually.

-I kept Raffe a bit older but aged Penryn up one year. When you're thousands of years old, one year doesn't mean much. And it wasn't my favorite thing anyway. When he's in his mid-twenties, it's kind of gross to date a seventeen year old in most circumstances (although eighteen isn't much better). I could've just made them the same age, but a big aspect of their relationship was both their difference in age and experience. I could've just aged them both up, but I wanted to keep Penryn a similar age-she's always been the kid that had to grow up too fast in the books. I wanted to keep that quality in here.

Also, in case you missed it, Raffe is 24 in the story.

-The biggest thing: the dynamic has changed. Big time. There are no angelic rules that will literally send Raffe to hell for being with Penryn. There are a lot of other obstacles, but that's one major roadblock that's been removed. Plus, there's no angel/human hostility and prejudice. Thus, their first meeting is really different from the one in the book. Raffe's more interested and more curious, while Penryn is the one trying to keep him at a distance. It's super hard to keep them both in character when that fundamental dynamic has changed, but I'm doing my best. Let me know if you think my interpretation is way off base.

As always, feedback and constructive criticism is welcome.

P.S. There's a stronger level of initial attraction going on right now than there was in the books. Partly because they're both human, partly because the story needed it, but mostly because I couldn't resist. Sorry.