Heart of Glass [manxman]

Chapter Seventeen

"You just had to piss him off? You just couldn't take the goddamn deal and secure the school. Fuck's sake, Blanc."

Louis and I were back to back, guns out and picking off the demons that just kept on coming. From the double doors, from thin air, every demon in the complex had made their way to that room. Rainier had vanished after Louis fired the first shot, hitting him in the upper arm. And now, there we were, the entirety of Unit 01, drowning in demons.

"Well, I'm sorry for trying to save your dumb ass. Look, I'm not leaving you behind. You're part of the team."

I glanced back at him, grimacing. "Oh, is that the only reason?"

"Now is not the time, Rivian."

"I wasn't initiating the discussion. I'm just saying if you're going to start spewing stupid shit at least make it honest." I glanced back again and huffed, turning and shooting a demon on his left. "Watch yourself, Blanc. I'm not covering both of our asses."

"Will you please just shut up?" Louis sighed, leaning a little more against my back. His gun cocked loudly as he switched out magazines.

"What? Not appreciating the witty banter during your demon slaying like you used to?" Had over half my brain not been distracted by demons coming at us, as well as covering Louis, because the bastard wouldn't know how to check his left side if it shot him in the ass, I probably wouldn't have said that. Anything I said now set the precedent for how the discussion would be handled later, and I sure as hell had no intention of discussing it like it was no big deal. Louis was hurt. It wasn't right to make light of it, not when I'd fucked him over the way I had.

"Right now? Not so much."

"Fair enough." I looked around, trying to gauge where the others were, how soon it would be until we could regroup, make a better plan, maybe get the hell out of there. But, when I took a look at them, they had all started coming toward us, chasing after the demons... "Okay this—"

"Alexei, I told you—"

"Shut the fuck up, Blanc. I know. This isn't banter. Look around for a second."

"They're all coming for us."

"Uh huh. They need your blood to do the resurrection."

"What?"

I sighed, having to turn again and cover his left. "Rainier was trying to resurrect the Aquireign emperor. I just put it together earlier. For a demon of that caliber, he's gonna need our blood to do it, the blood of two people that were responsible for his vanquishing. I'd bet everything I have that Rainier's already got his hands on my blood, which is enough for a partial resurrection, but if they get yours, we're fucked."

"Well, they haven't yet," he grunted, changing magazines again.

I groaned, covering him. "They're going to if you don't start covering your damn left."

"Either way, we probably need to get out of here. If they get me, we're going to have a bigger problem, but if they get you, this entire operation was useless."

"We're just going to bail?"

"Do you have a better idea?"

"Not really. Besides, we're going to need everyone back at the school to start prepping barriers and shields until we can either resolve this or temporarily evacuate the students. As much as I fucking hate it, Rainier got me. He knows he can use me by threatening them, so that's the first place he's going to go if he wants to lure me back, which by the way this shit show played out, it exactly how he's going to lure you back."