Page 54 of This Ravenous Fate
“You two are off to a wonderful start, I see.” Elise crossed her arms and stared up at Jamie, who still gripped his gun in a tight fist while he glowered at her. “My apologies. We’re a bit late because I had to remind Sterling of proper reaper and gang etiquette.” Elise gave the man beside her a quick smile.
Layla couldn’t believe her eyes. The last time she had seen Sterling, he had still been so childlike, his eyes bright, face round, essence overall soft with youth. But now, not only was he several inches taller than he had been at fourteen, but he was rough cut, all previously soft curves hard with experience.
“Etiquette?” Layla asked, still focused on Sterling.
“He’s used to killing trespassing reapers on sight,” Elise said.
Layla had never gotten as close to Sterling as Elise did. She wasalways more fascinated by Elise, the bond between Sterling and Elise one she had never experienced. They were a proper family, like brother and sister.
“Jamie is Vex,” Layla said.
Jamie wrenched his arm free from her grasp and glared. “Wow. Thank you for selling out my alias—”
“Cut the act, Vex. We know you’re supplying for my father. Just tell us what for. This doesn’t have to be a hard game,” Elise said. She stepped closer to Jamie, whose glare seemed to sear more.
“Why not just ask your father?” Jamie spat out.
“Hell, I never thought of that,” Elise snapped. “He’s intentionally keeping it a secret. If I ask my father, he will feel targeted and know that someone sold him out. And that is good for no one. Especially the people who work for him. So if you want to keep your job and if you want your gang to take you more seriously, thenanswer my damn questions.” Elise’s voice hardened at the end of her words.
Jamie, who stood several inches taller than her and had the usual external fear factor a deadly gangster carried, looked small in the face of Elise’s fury. She glared up at him with eyes burning so intensely, Layla nearly felt the tingle of her them on her own face. Seeing the way Jamie’s expression went slack at her demeanor added to Layla’s satisfaction.
This was a man who stared death in the face more often than not and constantly had reapers nipping at his heels. Jamie hardly ever flinched when Layla’s fangs came out and blood sprayed. But Elise had made him shrink with her purely mortal malice.
Layla almost smiled.
Jamie’s shoulders went slack as he sighed. “We’re supplying alcohol for your father. He’s hosting a fundraising ball with Stephen Wayne next weekend.” His expression hardened. “I wonder why he didn’t tell you. He normally throws himself at every opportunity to flaunt hisperfect family.”
Elise’s lip curled. “Something you would know nothing about.” She didn’t stay to watch the light die in his eyes as she finally backed away from him. Her words transcended cruelty. They weren’t even directed at Layla, but she felt them split open a raw part of her that she fought to keep protected; the reminder that her family was gone forever. Even Sterling flinched by Elise’s side.
Layla stilled; her previous awe at the Saint’s aggression suddenly vanished. Her malice instead matched the hand her family had had in the death of Layla’s own parents. She was struck by the much-needed reminder that Elise was not on her side. Everything she did was to benefit her family, whose sole goal was the destruction of Layla’s existence and reaperhood as a whole.
“We need to be at this event,” Elise said.
Layla shot an icy look at Jamie, who still looked shaken by the Saint heiress’s cruelty. He nodded. “I can get you in. It’s a masquerade ball, so it will be easy to go unnoticed.”
Sterling glared as he watched Layla. He touched Elise’s arm. “Not a word of this to your father.”
“Of course not. Layla—” Elise began, but Layla was already withdrawing.
“Send me a message. I’m leaving,” Layla muttered. She started walking away, but stopped, turning to Elise. Confusion muddled her pretty brown eyes as they lifted to Layla. “There is no such thing as reaper etiquette, by the way. It’s the same as all other etiquette rules; just be a decent person.” Layla turned and left.
***
“Was that how things were supposed to go?” Sterling asked.
Elise ignored him. Layla was long gone now, Jamie, too, but Elise continued to hear their final exchange repeated in her head.Just be a decent person.
Never in her life would Elise imagine a reaper telling her this. She certainly hadn’t considered that she had said something wrong until she saw dejection darken everyone’s faces, Sterling’s and Layla’s included.
“Jamie said we need masks for the party,” Elise said quickly. She was a Saint. They prided themselves on purity, on good graces, on proper etiquette. Her father taught her since she was a little girl what would be acceptable as a young Black girl, and what wouldn’t. Elise had suffered too many cruel words from her father’s bitter disappointment to not have gotten something out of his treatment. “Let’s get some now.” She did not want to go home.
Their walk into the city was mostly quiet. Then Elise broke the silence. “I’m sorry.”
Sterling looked perplexed. “Why?”
“I’ve dragged you into this. And I said something so callous about family—”
“We all say things we don’t mean, Elise. Thank you for apologizing, but it’s fine,” Sterling said quietly.
