Gluttony and Greed Walk into a Burger Joint

Chapter 13 - Blood

 The gunshots rang louder than anyone could have ever expected, because in a safe establishment such as an outdoor eatery, no one expects guns to fire in the first place.

Screams welled up. Everyone at the BurgeRama ran in the opposite direction of the commotion except those who had been shot, Detective Reynolds -who was ducked down and returning fire- and the Twins who sprinted towards the danger.

Reynolds had a bench flipped up, his back against the tabletop. The gunman didn't appear to be discriminating between one body and the next. He was male with pale skin, but a mask over his face. He was young, generously built. Arek didn't look at him any longer to discern much else before he ducked behind the bench next to the detective.

Alus ran past the bench and didn't look the gunman's way either, because his eyes were scouting for someone else.

A bullet to the shoulder helped change Gluttony's focus.

Alus stumbled back and barked out a sound. It was something between a snarl and an enraged laugh. His right hand reached over to touch the front of his left shoulder, quickly welling blood, painting his fingers. Alus took the moment to stare at the blood, then laugh again between fits of coughing. His teeth speckled with red. The bullet had gone through his lung. His voice was a wheeze, but no one could take the vindictive smile out of Alus's voice as he walked straight towards the man holding the pistol. "You had a good run, Champ."

"Alus!" Arek screamed it from over the bench while he watched his brother zero in.

The masked figure fired again, his next bullet hitting Alus right below the first. It went through and through, skidding past his heart and piercing more lung on the way. The injured demon reached up and snatched the gunman's left hand, Alus's blood painting his skin. The man screamed in pain at the scalding heat, blisters forming wherever the blood touched. He tried to yank away. Alus pulled the man tight against himself, fiery Hell's blood from Alus's front pressing against the man's back, and turned him towards detective Reynolds. The gunman raised his dominant hand, pistol still in tact, and pointed it towards Alus's temple.

"Say hello to Little Sis for me." Alus had enough time to whisper it in his ear before Reynolds reacted and let all of his bullets fly into the gunman's chest.

The two figures dropped.

"Frenzied Hells." Arek snarled the curse and pushed over the bench.

Alus was coughing and shoving the gunman off himself, but his eyes were focused elsewhere. Arek switched his own focus and trained it on the gunman's soul. It was a swirling, opalescent thing. No matter how ugly a person was in life, their soul always managed to appear pure, simple. Every now and then, it embodied his likeness, how he appeared without the mask -the normal and harmless college frat boy. Then in a wash of liquid grace, as though moved by the wind, it would push its way elsewhere. His soul's destiny was already sealed. The Twins knew exactly to who it was dancing towards. Runeak couldn't have been far off. Runeak had timed the attack perfectly.

"Dani." This from Alus as he stood, fighting off another fit of angry coughs.

Detective Reynolds was on his cell phone, kneeling next to a victim and checking for a pulse. Arek vaguely heard him calling for an ambulance and backup. They could already hear distant sirens.

Alus spotted Dani's boots first, laying partially behind the shack, blood under them. He bolted for her.

Just before he touched her prone body, Arek caught and pulled his brother away from her by his unhurt shoulder. "Stop!"

With a barking growl in return, Alus shoved his brother off.

"Alustar, STOP. Your blood!"

There was a breath where Alus paused, then with an assenting growl, he ripped his t-shirt off over his head, using it to put pressure on his wounds at the same time he wiped his hands as clean as he could manage. The bullet holes were already healing, but not fast enough to his liking without a fire to help the process. He knew the blood would burn Dani. He had forgotten in his rush to get to her.

The brothers always looked out for one another.

Kneeling down, Alus gently turned Dani over and wiped her hair away. He didn't need to check for a pulse; He could see her soul swirling under the surface of her skin, a sure sign she still lived. Once turned, the waitress took in a sharp gasp when her shoulder touched the ground behind her, eyes opening wide. The front of her apron was crimson. She'd taken a bullet to the abdomen.

"Arek..." She glanced over his shoulder to where Alus stood, pressing wine-colored cloth against his left shoulder and chest. "A-Alus..." There was too much white around her hazel irises. Her skin was so pale, it was starting to turn a sickly shade of almost-yellow.

She had barely gotten their names past her lips when Arek reached to her stomach and pressed down on where the blood was coming from. She gasped, eyes losing focus with the intensity of it, and Alus had started to pace above her, unable to help and unable to get any closer. "Heat, Bro, use heat."

"Shut up." Arek grit his teeth and found the bullet hole with his fingertips. Dani shrieked when he pushed his pointer finger into the wound.

It was the sound she made that had Alus reaching for the washrag in Dani's apron pocket. Quickly, he wrapped it around his left hand and got to his knees next to Dani's head. With the shield between his blood and her flesh, he gently pushed a strand of hair away from her lips where it stuck and tried to talk to her as she gasped and screamed. "Dani, Dani, look at me. Look at me, Dani."

She blinked and focused, tears coming out of the corners of her eyes, down the sides of her face and into her hair. For just a moment, Alus flashed to his soul-sight. Again, he was almost blinded before he had to shut it down. Her breathing was quick, but Dani was fixed right onto Alus's face. "Dani, what color are my eyes?"

"G-Grey. They're...gr--" Her sentence was broken off into another scream as Arek pulled his finger back, cauterizing her wound shut with his inner fire, quelling as much of the bleeding as he could for the time being. The bullet was still in her. There was no way of telling how many of her internal organs had been damaged.

"Dani!" The waitress whimpered and opened her eyes again to see Alus yelling at her, but her gaze was no longer clear.

The sirens drew closer.

Dani's eyes fluttered.

"Dani!" Alus shook her and Arek stopped him with a hand on his arm as she passed out.

"She is meant to die now." Runeak's voice was hollow behind the Twins.