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He's not come this way. We're doubling back to cut him off.
Robin's blood froze as she read the worst possible text she could receive.
Her reaction shouldn't have been as severe as it was. She'd known what she was here for: to distract Spencer, a Vampire she'd been trying to kill, and who'd been trying to kill her, for years. He'd always been susceptible to her 'charms', to the point where the group of active Hunters made up of her former colleagues and friends hunting him had called her in to distract him so they could finally stake the bastard.
She wasn't here to help Spencer; she was here to help kill Spencer.
Just warning him that they were lying in wait had been way out of line - she'd literally just betrayed her friends and former colleagues, all for a Vampire who'd tried to kill her every time they crossed paths.
It was ridiculous.
She shouldn't have done it.
She certainly shouldn't double-down on her ridiculousness by doing something as stupid as chasing after him and warning him about the Hunters waiting to spring their trap, betraying her former peers again in the process...
You're such a fucking idiot, Robin berated herself, even as she took off after Spencer.
There was literally no logic behind the decision.
It was dumb. It was reckless. It was border-line insane.
But she was doing it anyway - because if dropping off the face of the earth for three years, against her will, had taught her anything: it was that life was short, and sometimes she just had to do what her gut told her to do...even if her head was telling her it was fucking stupid.
The long and short of it was that Robin had got a strange feeling when Spencer had hugged her in that parking lot - and that was just seconds after she'd recovered from the feeling she'd gotten when she'd seen genuine joy and relief on his face when he'd seen it was here...even after she'd called him 'Sparkles'. Spencer hated her calling him 'Sparkles', almost as much as he hated the Twilight books and films, but he'd still seemed so happy to see her...
Robin couldn't just let him die.
Even though there was every reason to let the Hunters go through with their plan, and no logical reason to stop them, Robin still jogged off in the direction Spencer had headed, determined to save him from getting a stake to the heart.
She rounded the corner just as Gregory, the leader of the little pack who'd gone after Spencer tonight, raised a stake above his head, while two of his goons held Spencer's arms behind his back and, as Robin watched, forced Spencer to his knees.
No!
Robin didn't think - she drew the pistol from the holster under her arm, and shot Gregory twice in the head.
Blood, brain, and bone fragments sprayed over the pavement as Gregory's men turned to see who had just shot their boss. They're eyes fixed on Robin just as she fired again: hitting the done closest to her twice in the chest and once in the head.
There was no time to go for the third one; Spencer used his distraction to spring to his feet and attack. He ripped the man's throat out before Robin could blink, drinking deeply - probably to recover from the various wounds Robin could see littering his torso. It looked like it had been a bloody fight before Gregory had gained the upper hand, and no doubt Spencer was ready to rip into anything that remotely resembled a Hunter, but before Robin could calculate just how much danger she was in, Spencer was throwing away the body of the man he'd just drained and was stalking towards her.
She didn't think the mistletoe talisman she was wearing was going to cut it this time, even if Spencer was no longer approaching her as a friend.
Robin ducked when Spencer reached for her, dancing under his outstretched hand and throwing her gun aside, and coming back up with a wooden knife she'd pulled from her boot.
Far from being further enraged, Spencer grinned at her: "You haven't missed a step, little bird."
She'd missed more than he knew, but that didn't stop Robin from raising an eyebrow at him: "You ready for me to kick your ass again?"
"Pretty much always." Spencer laughed: "But I wasn't actually trying to start anything this time. You have some blood on your cheek - I was going to wipe it away."
Robin hadn't noticed anything like that...but now she thought about it, she could feel something slowly slipping down her cheek.
She didn't reach up to touch it - it wasn't like she could take her eyes off of Spencer to see what came off on her hand - but Robin did slowly straighten out of her defensive stance. Spencer didn't seem like he was going to lunge at her any time soon, even though he was quick enough that just because he looked relaxed didn't mean Robin could relax herself, so although she didn't put her knife away yet, she did offer him a teasing smirk:
"I told you years ago - if anyone was going to kill you, it's going to be me."
Incorrigible as he was, Spencer just smirked back at Robin - only wider: "It's okay, little bird, you don't have to say it aloud; I know you care about my wellbeing."
"Whatever," Robin rolled her eyes...but didn't bother to fight the smile tugging at the corner of her lips: "But in the interest of your wellbeing, we'd better get going. I don't know if they called for back-up."
Spencer abruptly turned serious: "How much trouble are you going to get in for this, birdie?"
Robin shrugged: "I'm not a Hunter anymore, no-one has any authority to give me trouble."
"That doesn't mean they won't."
Robin could only shrug again.
Spencer was right, to be fair; just because she wasn't a Hunter after what had happened over the past few years didn't mean that active Hunters wouldn't come after her if they found out what she'd done. Her main hope was that they assumed Spencer was responsible for all of it and didn't look any deeper into the matter...and if that didn't work, Robin had been gone for three years. Disappearing wouldn't be all that hard, at this point.
It wasn't like she'd be leaving much behind. Not now.
"Come with me."
The words were so unexpected that it took Robin a few seconds to register them: "What? Why?"
"You've been gone for three years, Robin." Spencer's response was unusually solemn...and Robin couldn't remember the last time he'd used her real name: "I...I missed you. I was worried about you. I'm not sure what I'd do if you were gone again."
...It...it was a big admission. Huge. Robin never would've thought Spencer was invested in her continued wellbeing, but he'd basically just admitted to preferring her not only being alive, but also close to him.
Robin couldn't barely make herself understand the information she'd just been given, let alone try and make any guesses about what implications it could have.
She didn't even have time to start thinking about it; before she could, Spencer was right in front of her, close enough that she could smell the blood on his skin, and lifting his hands to carefully cup her cheeks.
In this position, he could break her neck. He could grab her hair to wrench her hair back and tear her throat out. There was evan a chance he was strong enough to just...crush her skull between his palms. But...Robin didn't think he would do any of those things...so even though the part of her mind that she'd trained for years to keep her alive was screaming at her to break Spencer's hold on her and move, to get away, Robin didn't so much as flinch. She just looked deep into Spencer's eyes and tried to make sense of the unfathomable look in them.
"Let me keep you safe, Robin."
She shouldn't...but then again, if she was considering the shoulds and shouldn'ts of her life, Robin knew she shouldn't be standing her now. She shouldn't be breathing at all. She should've died three years ago, in that hole she never should've woken up in.
What was one more time doing something she shouldn't?
"Okay. Keep me safe."
Spencer smiled, the expression shockingly...gentle and soft, before reaching down to sweep her off her feet that she didn't even see him move. One minute she was standing on blood-slicked conflict, and the next she was being carried bridal-style as Spencer hurried away from the scene, melting into the darkness like a shadow, and taking her with him.