I’m gonna beat Raven and Ambrose back home. I’ll get all dressed up in that darned fussy tuxedo and be sittin’ on the couch when they come in. I’ll be all, “Hey. Took you fools long enough to get back here. I’ve been waitin’ for freakin’ hours.”
Robin smiled as he caught a whiff of something good – broccoli and cheese soup. He licked his lips and pursued it.
***
Ambrose ignored all of the other good scents around him. There were plenty that were tempting, including a vanilla bourbon. He sniffed the air, trying to find that one particular scent.
What if he changed his mind? What if he stayed home? What if—
He snorted in surprise as he found it – hot fudge and whipped cream.
Ambrose didn’t hesitate.
He ran.
***
Robin’s mouth watered as he closed in on the scent.
so hungry
smells so good
He followed it into an alley and stopped short.
The scent came from a young girl in a ribbed tube top and cutoff jeans. Despite her outfit, she didn’t seem to be any older than Sarah. She sat in a huddle against the alley wall, muttering softly to herself.
Robin hesitated.
so hungry
smells so good
He approached her.
She raised her face to him.
He stumbled back in shock.
A long scar ran down both sides of her face, from the middle of her forehead through her eyebrows through her eyes down her cheeks to under her jaw. Her ruined eyes were clouded over.
“Olessa?” Her voice was a fragile whisper.
His good pupil widened.
The blade pierced his skin and dragged down.
He opened his mouth wide and screamed.
Olessa didn’t stop.
The blade sliced his forehead.
His eyebrow.
His eye.
The world around him spun out of whirl. His breathing was too fast and too shallow. He sank down to his knees.
The blade sliced through his eye.
No matter how loud he screamed, the blade sliced through his eye.
“Uhh. uhh. uhh.” he panted.
His vision blurred into red.
He couldn’t see anything but red.
And he couldn’t blink the red away.
“Olessa?” The girl accidently kicked a metal can as she stood. “Is that you?”
He dug his fingers into his hair and doubled over. “no. no. make it stop.”
The blade sliced through his lower lid.
He could feel the lid split wide.
Tears ran down his face, but they were not tears.
“You’re not her. She would have said something by now. Who are you?”
He knew they were not tears.
She approached him, setting her feet down with care like someone walking in the dark. She stopped in front of him.
Her scent overwhelmed him, pulling him back to reality. He looked at the girl’s ruined face. “Are you a vampire?”
“You aren’t Olessa. Olessa is not a guy.”
“Duh. You a vampire or what?”
She shook her head.
He frowned. “Human?”
She shook her head again. “I don’t know what the human word is, but I am what the fey call a nie chee nin. My mom was fey. My dad was a vampire.”
ambroseandelsie 