Angel of the Damned

AotD - 8

           Nathan ran his fingers over the cross of a rosary made of synthetic ruby on a leather strap. He looked back at Ebony as she stared at an apple with confusion in her eyes. She held it delicately in her hands, turning it over and over and over in them like she had never seen one before. It was the freshest fruit Nathan had seen in a long time and he thumbed his monthly allowance from Drake with a few extra clips that he got as his cut of their jobs.

       “I don’t think she wants another,” Drake said clapping him on the shoulder.

       Nathan put the rosary back on the tray and turned away, catching the eye of a cute girl selling jewelry at a stand across the aisle. She offered up a smile and her cheeks flushed red as he waved to her. Her attire gave her away as a traveling merchant. Her blonde hair was amazingly clean looking and pulled back into a braid. She wore a nanosuit, which gave away the fact she wasn’t from here. Nathan walked over to, her pretty pinkish eyes smiled back at him.  He surveyed the necklaces and various pieces other of jewelry.

       “I made it all myself,” she said.

       “Really?” Nathan asked.

       “Yeah. Why do you have to wear a mask?” She asked, “The air in here is pure, well as pure as it can be with that jackass in charge.  I don’t understand why you would need one.”

       Nathan gritted his teeth, he hated lying.  The fact he had feelings for this girl, made it worse. “I was with my father, well he’s not my father, but he raised me and its close enough.  Well he took me hunting with him and my filter failed.  I can’t breathe anything but nearly pure oxygen, hence the mask.” He picked up a small chain with a piece of smooth pinkish glass wrapped in metal wire hanging from it. “How much for this piece?” he asked.

       “Forty four calibers,” she said.

       Nathan pulled out a magazine of 9mm rounds and held it up. “I only have nine millimeters,” he said. He slid a single round out and held it up.

       She reached out and took it from him, taking the necklace as well. “I’ll get your change,” she said. She knelt down and vanished below the stand’s counter and there was a few clinks and she reappeared with a small black box in one hand and three .22 caliber rounds in the other. “Here we are, one necklace and sixty six calibers,” she said as she handed each part over. Nathan smiled to her, knowing fully that she didn’t see it, and nodded.  With a wave, he left and scanned the area for Ebony.

       Ebony wore a better fitting pair of jeans and the blouse. She continued to flip the fruit over and over, marveling the fruit.  Nathan cringed and looked around; she was drawing a hell of a lot of attention.  Despite her changing from the ripped, blood soaked dress into more appropriate clothing for the city, her long black hair and pristine, angelic face ousted her as not from Arkane, or any of the human cities for that matter. When she walked, her back was stiff as a board, her head held high and she walked with an aura of confidence like that labeled her as someone of upper echelon society outside of the human race.  Drake walked over to Ebony and took the fruit from her, looking at it and then turned to the merchant, placing two 9mm’s in the jar in front of him and returning the apple to Ebony. She took a tentative bite of the apple and a perplexed look crossed her face as the sugary juices ran down her chin.

       Drake began to lead Ebony in Nathan’s direction, so he stood and waited for them and caught the last part of their conversation. “Ebony, it’s supposed to be sweet, it’s an apple.”

       “It’s too sweet,” Ebony argued.

       “Ebony.  Once again, it’s an apple, it’s supposed to be sweet,” Drake told her.  He reached over and took the apple from Ebony.  He took a bite of it, “Ebony, you are insane, this isn’t too sweet.  This is perfect.”