Page 62 of This Ravenous Fate
“Or what?”
Elise didn’t hear anything after that because she slipped into the crowd. Maybe she should have cared that her best friend was close to a scrap with a gangster, but all she could think about was Layla. Her hands shook as she maneuvered through the revelers, trying to find the reaper. She didn’t realize how stressed she was until she resorted to digging her nails into her palms as a means for distraction.
Crescent moon cuts stung along her hands now and she flexed her fingers, the burn keeping her focused in the quickly enclosing crowd. Why, she wondered, did she get so destructive when she had trouble processing her feelings?
Finally, a relieved breath broke from Elise when she spotted Layla a few feet ahead of her. Even with the mask covering her face, Elise could see the awe that marked Layla’s expression.
“I say we give them a demonstration of your cure, Stephen.” Agasp rippled through the crowd. Dr. Harding was making his way down the grand staircase, hand in hand with a beautiful young woman. She wore a delicate pink gown that covered most of her body, but Elise noticed the golden sheen in her eyes that indicated her reaperhood. Her movements seemed far too graceful and fluid to be human, and the devastating smoothness of her skin made her reaperhood even more obvious.
Stephen Wayne’s eyes widened on Dr. Harding. “Dr. Harding, there’s no need for a demo—”
“Nellie has been a reaper for a few years now. I believe it’s been four years, hasn’t it, Nellie?” Dr. Harding asked roughly. He looked distinctly out of place in his white lab coat against the backdrop of glittering jewels and heavy gowns.
The young reaper nodded. Nellie’s carefully styled curls came loose with her vigorous nodding, but she still looked glamorous.
Dr. Harding let go of her hand and pulled a long syringe from his coat pocket. Nellie’s eyes glimmered at the sight, and when she opened her mouth, her fangs became more pronounced. Chills ran over Elise’s body while she watched the reaper’s visceral reaction to what had to be the cure. She looked the way most reapers looked when they were starved and sensed a feeding nearby. Her eyes went from a faded brown to almost black in an instant.
“With just a simple injection, I will set her free.” Dr. Harding gently lifted Nellie’s chin so they were eye to eye. “Will you allow me the pleasure of making you human again, darling?” he asked in the softest voice.
Bright-eyed and grinning, Nellie nodded again. “Yes, sir.”
Dr. Harding gave her one final smile, then he sank the needle into her neck. The crowd went silent. The soft shuffling of nervous feet and anxious whispers were the few sounds heard in the silence. Elise held her breath as Nellie went stiff. For a long moment, she made no movements, then she suddenly looked up, her back straightening and throat flexing beneath the light.
Her eyes faded from their glowing state to a normal, muted brown. When she smiled, her enlarged canines were gone. Nellie touched her face and laughed. It sounded a bit maniacal, but if the tears and the ecstatic smile were any indication, she was beyond happy. She washuman.
“Doctor!” Nellie cried. Tears flowed down her cheeks as she threw her arms around Dr. Harding.
“My pleasure, Nellie. Please.” He pulled away and gestured to the crowd. “Allow me to present the new you to everyone.”
Nellie spun around, arms extended. A circle opened up around her while the crowd looked on in awe. It was mesmerizing to witness such a fresh, pure joy, all for a Black woman.
Elise turned to regard the crowd’s reaction, but was startled to see Layla moving through the crowd toward Nellie. Her hands stretched out, as if reaching for a highly desired object. The crowd was too engrossed in Nellie’s joy to notice Layla, but she was all Elise could focus on. She began to push her way through the crowd after her.
Then pained cries tore through the air. Nellie’s laughter was no longer lovely, but it instead pierced Elise’s ears, shrieking as it lefther body.
The crowd began to shift with unease.
Layla drew close to Nellie, watching her with wide eyes, hands twitching by her sides.
Suddenly Nellie noticed Layla, and her lips curled into a wicked taunt.
“Kin,” she rasped. And in that instant even though she had just been turned human, she sounded far from it. Nellie reached out toward Layla, her fingers extending to touch her.
At that same moment, a gunshot thundered through the room. Cries rose from the crowd, followed by a cracking sound that filled the air. Elise looked up in time to see the massive chandelier over the grand staircase swaying as if it had been disturbed. Another crack resounded, and then the chandelier was breaking away from the ceiling. The chains holding it together snapped.
As if propelled by a spirit, Elise tore through the scattering crowd to Layla and threw herself into her.
Then the chandelier came crashing down.
27
Layla hit the floor hard as chaos exploded throughout the room. Glass shattered, screams rang out, blood stained the air. But all she could focus on was the beautiful, worried face staring down at her. Elise was fully on top of her, her knees planted on either side of Layla’s hips. Feet stampeded around them, but Elise was gripping her shoulders hard, shouting, “Layla, Layla, Layla—”
Layla couldn’t figure out why Elise chanted her name like a devout person crying out during worship. Her lips moved to form a word, but then the lights winked out around them.
The room was thrown into darkness and for a split second, silence suffocated them all. A small flicker of the shattered chandelier persisted and someone screamed. The cord still stretched from above and a few bulbs had sparked back to life, giving light to the mangled and bloodied body within it.
Nellie was strung up like a puppet, her mouth gaping whileblood spilled over her lips, arms and legs bent into awkward angles amid the shattered crystals. Blood splashed over the iridescent gems and when the light caught the stained decor, it flashed scarlet against the floor.
