Page 77 of This Ravenous Fate
But Layla was already gone.
***
The thought of blood consumed Layla. It didn’t help that the Cotton Club still reeked of old blood from the crime scene and sneaking into the closed-down establishment for a bit of peace and quiet to calmdown had been achoice. But certainly better than staying in the lab while she had a breakdown about her inevitable fate. In front of a Saint, nonetheless.
She twisted an old Saint bullet from the attack in her hands. The steel burned her fingers, but the pain distracted her from her frightening thoughts of the reaper at the lab. The rancid stench of the old blood did keep her from feeling especially feral. But it only helped for a few long minutes before the scent of a blood so sweet Layla would recognize it anywhere filled the dressing room where she hid.
“Saint,” Layla muttered. She came out from beneath a dressing room table and saw the Saint heiress standing in the middle of the room. Her cheeks looked warm and dark with blood, her curls messy, no doubt from running through the city after Layla.
“Considering how deadly you are, I was surprised to see you break down like that at the lab.” Elise smoothed her hands over her windswept hair and took a step toward Layla. “I didn’t think you were afraid of anything. But that reaper certainly—”
“Why are you here, Saint?” Layla gritted out.
Elise pursed her lips. “We’re partners. I cannot do this without you. And this place is probably full of important evidence we should go through.”
Something warm crossed through Layla and she almost forgot about her fears having nearly overcome her earlier. Fighting back a smile, she asked, “Does the blood not bother you?”
“What blood?” Elise placed her hands on her hips, frowning.“The crime scene here has been cleaned rather thoroughly…” She gasped. “You canstillsmell it?” She brushed a stray curl behind her ear and looked away, lips pursing.
Layla caught her scent. “Yes. And I can smell you too.”
“What do you smell on me?” Elise breathed, vaguely stiff.
All four immediate notes of her perfume, specifically. Gardenia, vanilla, coconut, and sage. There might have been a hint of bergamot too. But beneath all of those luxurious scents, Layla could sense Elise. And it wasn’t just the essence of her skin and the natural scent she gave off. But Layla also sensed the warmth that radiated from her and whatever emotion tainted her aura in that moment. Right now it was unease, coupled with a bit of unbridled excitement.
The corner of Layla’s lips ticked up into a faint smile. Oh how she loved bringing the Saint girl to the edge, forcing her to reach out for stability, inevitably afraid, but helplessly, hopelessly engaged and eager.
Thrill sprung up between both of them.
At the quickening of Elise’s pulse, Layla’s smile widened. And when Elise finally turned back to look at her, expectancy heavy in her eyes, she saw the glow of her heated blood in the curve of her ears, outlined gently by the sun filtering through the windows.
Layla wanted to reach out and touch her ear, feeling the softness of humanity beneath her fingertips. “I can smell your blood too,” Layla muttered.
The heat in Elise’s cheeks went cool. As much as Layla deignedto feel that human fire, she wasn’t sure she could bear the loss of its warmth when she had to draw away.
Her mind switched instinctively back to the topic of the cure, which made her tear away from Elise. “The blood in this room is rancid. Someone here was infected.” She crossed the room, expecting Elise to follow her. But the Saint girl did not budge. “Saint?”
Elise looked up at her and swallowed. Something shifted in her eyes and for a moment, Layla thought she might back down. Nothing could have prepared Layla for what actually came out of Elise’s mouth.
“Did you like my blood?” she asked.
The question caught Layla so off guard, she choked on her own air. Layla, blinking and inhaling past the lump in her throat, nearly shouted at Elise. “What?”
Elise’s face brightened a bit at Layla’s tone. “Was my blood good?”
“Why do you want to know?” Layla asked. “If this is about feeding your superiority complex, I’m going to tell you it was disgusting.”
Shock crossed Elise’s features. The second a smile began to curve her lips, Layla knew she had made herself too obvious. She was practically transparent at this point, begging for Elise to see right through her and notice how her heart beat for the chance to cycle Elise’s blood through her body again. “My blood was disgusting?” Elise asked, unconvinced.
“So disgusting. It was actually unbelievable,” Layla said strongly. It was a lie. She wanted to wonder if Elise could see through it, but she feared that thinking about it too hard would give her away.
“You would never want to taste it again, would you?” Elise asked.
“No. Never. Not a day goes by where I don’t think about how wrong you felt on my tongue and how you poisoned my mouth.” If blood could intoxicate, drinking from Elise probably would have bewitched Layla. And in moments like these, when her veins closed up and breathing became hard because her senses felt so overwhelmed by her immediate surroundings, Layla wondered if she really had been bewitched by this Saint heiress.
It was like she transcended body and soul. Just as she tasted, like the dust between planets coated Layla’s tongue, Elise Saint contained the whole universe in her when Layla felt her.
Layla wondered why Elise couldn’t see that in herself.
