Tainted (Levi x Reader)

Chapter 44

Levi groaned, feeling sharp pains in several different places on his body from his tumble down the staircase. Luckily, they didn't bother him much due to the adrenaline flooding his veins.

He got to his feet a bit unsteadily, hair falling in front of his face as he glared up at the dark silhouette at the top of the stairs. A dark rivulet of crimson ran down the side of Levi's cheek, painting its way down his neck.

His ears picked up a slight stirring in the gloom to his right, his eyes prodding the shadows in an unsuccessful attempt at finding the source of the noise. The space was suddenly flooded with light as the man at the top of the stairs lit a lantern and began his descent with it in one hand, his free hand keeping a steady grip on a gun. Levi backed up to the farthest wall, blades already drawn, as the man approached. He was at an extreme disadvantage, being cornered like that with only his swords against the enemy's gun.

You stared at him in open-mouthed silence with both hands clutching the bars of your cell, not wanting to say anything that would distract Levi.

"This is the guy who has deluded you?" Your father chuckled as he glanced at you, then back to Levi. "While I have seen him once before, he's so much shorter this close up."

Levi ignored the taunt, working hard to keep his eyes trained on (L/n). Despite the grimness he felt regarding his current predicament, he was overjoyed just to know that you were still alive.

"What, cat got your tongue? Seriously, lighten up!" Without warning, he suddenly hurled the lantern directly at Levi, firing two consecutive shots where he expected Levi to evade as he did so. Levi dodged the lantern, hearing it hit the wall beside him with the shatter of glass. The two bullets hit their mark as predicted.

Levi's back hit the wall hard as he clenched his teeth against the pain. One of his swords clattered to the ground as his hand flew to the bullet wound on his stomach, feeling warm blood slipping through his fingers and wetting his clothes to his skin around the wound. He still held his other sword out, eyes blazing.

"Levi!" you gasped, quickly reaching through the bars to press your own hands against his wound, helping to stop the bleeding.

The lantern had landed next to a wooden chair, the fire slowly creeping up it and maintaining light in the room.

"Even if you kill me," Levi growled, "My comrades have surrounded this place. You're going to die here like a mangy dog."

"Really? Then why haven't your comrades come to your aid? Maybe they've got their hands full with my men." A sadistic smirk split (L/n)'s face. "You speak boldly for looking down the barrel that'll kill you, boy. I'll give you that much." He raised his aim to Levi's head.

"Wait!" you shouted forcefully, looking over at your father with desperation written on your face. "Spare him. Do that, and I'll do whatever you say, go wherever you ask."

Your father only grunted wryly, a bitterness consuming his gaze. "As if that would last."

Growing increasingly desperate as panic tightened your chest, you appealed once again. "I'll take over the company!"

His eyes immediately snapped to you.

"Pull the trigger, and any chance of me ever cooperating goes up in smoke. Let me patch him up, and you and I will walk out of here. Okay?"

Your father only stared at you with an unreadable expression, firelight dancing across his cold features. He slowly reached a hand into his pocket and pulled out a key, holding it up. "Swear on something, so I know you mean it."

You paused. "I swear on his life," you murmured, still trying to hold pressure on Levi's wound.

"One wrong move, any sign of a trick, and it's his life. Yours, too," your father warned in a dark tone, the kind of tone that could freeze one's heart in overwhelming fear, and make a coward out of the brave.