Ingram shoved him hard enough that he stumbled.“Don’t be a fucking idiot.You took on way more than you should have, and you’re gonna be feeling worse as you start to heal.This is why we have a guide.”
“What about you?”I tried to examine Ingram, but it was too hard to tell anything with all the monster blood.
“I’m fine.Shear and I know how to stay away from the claws.Carter here, he decided to go fucking ham on it all.Serves him right since the little outing was his idea.Just focus on him for tonight.”Ingram looked down at himself and clicked his tongue.“I’m gonna go fucking shower.”
Shear said nothing, just followed Ingram up the stairs, leaving Carter and me alone.
And fuck did that feel strange.
It hadn’t been that long since I’d guided an esper, but it always seemed awkward at first.Even if there was no physical contact, even if it was all professional, there was an inescapable intimacy that occurred during such an exchange.
So doing that with a stranger felt like having to walk up and immediately kiss someone I didn’t know a thing about.
Even as difficult as that was, as strange and uncomfortable, I’d done it time and time again over the years.A person could get used to about anything, including something as absurd as guiding strangers.
“You don’t have to do this,” Carter said, his voice surprisingly gentle given the way he stood there, covered in blood.
“It’s why I’m here, isn’t it?”
“Sure, but that doesn’t mean you’ve gotta start now—or with me.”
I stood, my entire body having grown heavy—probably from stress rather than my impromptu nap—and tried to force a smile.“It’s fine.Should we do it here?”I peered around the large room.
“I think I’d better at least shower, don’t you think?”
What an oddly considerate gesture…
Few espers thought about that, and honestly, few guides did, either.What did a bit of gore matter?Usually, the drunken sensation from the exchange made little else matter.Even if one of them cared at first, they sure as fuck didn’t pretty quickly.
It was why there were so many privacy trailers around for espers, to help prevent them from accidentally banging in the middle of the street.
Which meant Carter—even with those wounds and those signs of corruption—managing to think about something like that, to hold himself back, was even more amazing than I’d realized.Few espers would have been capable of considering it, let alone resisting long enough.
“After my shower, I’ll meet you, okay?”
His question was interesting, given he offered it as a real question.If I said no, he’d accept that.
Which made no fucking sense to me.
I nodded, my throat far too tight to manage any response.
Carter headed up the stairs without another word, and I found myself unable to tear my gaze away from the floor where the three had stood.Purple gore sat in piles and fat droplets—some blood and other flesh, all signs of exactly what Carter had done.It remained, forgotten on the tile, and it made me wonder just how much of that had been here before, how many times the floor had been covered from previous fights.
After the portal to a dungeon closed, the beasts would slowly die, disintegrating until nothing was left.It sometimes took a few hours, sometimes a few days or weeks for the bigger dungeons, but eventually, all signs disappeared.
At least, all outward signs.
I knew better than most that those couldn’t be fully believed or trusted.
So I turned to head up the stairs, wishing like fuck it was that easy to get rid of the deeper wounds, the things that hid beneath the surface, because ten years hadn’t been nearly enough time to wipe that shit clean for me.
Chapter Eleven
Carter
I scrubbed at the blood, amazed at how much it stuck.Human blood dried and turned brittle, flaking off the skin in tiny patches, but monster blood didn’t do that.Instead, it congealed until it turned to slime, thick and difficult to remove.It would disappear in a few hours, of course, dissipating, fizzling out of existence, but that wouldn’t help us right now.
I wasn’t the type to give a damn about putting on a good front for a guide.It wasn’t like I felt the need to woo them, to romance them in some strange way.It was a business transaction at best, a physical need at worst, but either way, I didn’t care to dress up and make a good impression.
