Page 91 of This Ravenous Fate
Sterling arrived with Layla in tow, shoving her beside Elise. Dr. Harding followed closely, and when he caught Stephen Wayne’s eye up above, he glared.
“What do you have for me, gentlemen?” Mr. Arendale asked. He was a heavyset man, with wide shoulders and a torso stiff like a tree trunk. His saggy forehead puckered when he saw the blood trickling down Layla’s wrists from the cuffs she wore. “Something better than this, I hope?”
Mr. Wayne nodded, smiling. “My partner here has come up with what could be a weapon to change our world. Any war that occurredwould be in our hands.”
Layla breathed so hard, Elise half expected to see steam coming from her nose. She scowled right at her, the vitriol in her eyes nearly as palpable as the blood that dripped from her hands.
“Consider me intrigued,” Mr. Arendale said.
Elise barely paid attention to the activity around her. She was too focused on Layla. So when a Saint associate moved behind her and Layla’s eyes darted up, she could only stare. Until Layla barreled into her, tackling her to the ground.
She gasped, pushing at Layla’s shoulders. And as Layla sat up, rolling off her, Elise saw the needle and syringe poking out of her neck. Her heart dropped. “No,” she whispered. “No, no, no, no, no—”
“Run,” Layla rasped. She looked at Elise, blood already spilling over the whites of her eyes. “Run. And don’t look back.”
Elise hesitated. She watched as Layla’s hands braced against the ground, massive talons tearing from her fingers and sinking into the floor. It wasn’t until she looked up again, eyes bloodshot and fangs dripping blood, that Elise did as she was told.
She ran.
41
Two minutes. That was all Layla had before the poison would stop her heart. She felt lighter with her body under the influence of such a powerful drug and the way everyone stared at her like she was the world’s greatest horror, only spurred her on. Heavy rage crashed over her and she grabbed the closest person to her.
Dr. Harding cried out in her clutches. Layla snarled. Even as Tobias Saint, Stephen Wayne, and the mayoral candidate watched her with a sick sense of hunger in their eyes. They wanted a monster. So she would be one. Until every last one of them was red with each other’s blood.
Layla wrapped her chains around Dr. Harding’s throat and pulled. Saint bullets rained against her back, but the poison in her newly enforced body prevented them from sinking in. The chains dug into Dr. Harding’s skin, tugging until his flesh tore open, tendons and muscles splitting to reveal his vertebrae. She yanked the chains further, cracking his bones apart and pulling his head from his body.When it tumbled to the ground, Layla turned, blood drenching her front, and pulled her arms apart, snapping the Saint metal. Cuffs still encircled her wrists, but the chains between them were gone, rendering her completely free.
Beyond Stephen Wayne and Tobias Saint, all Layla saw was crimson. They thought they were safe on the balcony, but she would become their nightmare soon enough, once the Saint members scattered about the ballroom floor were destroyed. They tried to step in front of her, but she blew right past them. Blood sprayed as her talons tore into them, their organs spilling through the split flesh. It was an entirely new sensation for Layla: she did not crave blood as much as she just craved death. She truly felt invincible, death incarnate.
Other reapers would not be able to resist so much spilled blood, however. The moment the thought cracked into her mind, Layla sensed movement outside the windows and doors of the theater. Rogue reapers appeared, fangs already bared and bodies braced for a fight as soon as the rest of the armed Saints noticed them. Their arrival had most of the other Saints distracted. Layla knew now was her chance if she was to get to Tobias Saint and Stephen Wayne. They were already beginning to squirm in their seats. Security approached the mayoral candidate now, rushing him out of her line of vision. But the spark of intrigue in his eyes told Layla he was intent on making the wrong choice. Just like Mr. Wayne and Mr. Saint.
She took one step toward them and stopped, her heart thundering in her chest. When she looked down, the talons were already sinking away, her own hands returning to her. That buzz of strengthshe was getting used to ebbed, leaving her with a sense of dread and immediate panic. Everything in her body seemed to slow. Her vision swam and Layla’s eyes rolled back as she began to collapse.
But someone caught her.
That familiar sweet scent of gardenia and vanilla filled her nose and Layla clutched Elise, knowing if she had to die, she could do so happily in her arms.
“Wake up.You hardheaded beast—I told you not to come,” Elise snapped.
Layla would have laughed if she had the strength. But she could barely muster up a whimper when she felt a pinch in her neck. A rush of adrenaline and relief flooded her body and Layla pulled back to see Elise standing before her with an empty syringe. The antidote Sterling had given her earlier. “You…?”
“We don’t have time. They’re getting away,” Elise said, panicked.
They both turned to see rogue reapers surrounding the entrance Stephen Wayne and Tobias Saint were running toward. Layla sneered, “No, they aren’t.” By now the Saints were greatly outnumbered by the reapers. As Layla approached the crowd of her bloodthirsty allies, she wondered if Elise had anything to do with this. She had told her to run and not only had she come back, but there had been an entire flood of reapers in her wake. Even just opening the doors would have allowed for the blood to seep into the air outside. Perhaps it was just the bloodshed that called the reapers to the scene. Or maybe the Saint girl had more misdeed in her than Layla previously thought.
“Stay here,” Layla commanded before bolting toward the Saintpatriarch and his philanthropist partner. The rogue reapers stopped when they saw her, hissing and baring their fangs as Tobias Saint turned a gun on her.
“Do not touch the Saint girl. You can go. I will handle them,” she said to the reapers.
Mr. Saint watched as the rogue reapers backed away, disappearing into the slowly growing fog that crept through the city. Stephen Wayne noticed his distraction and shoved his shoulder into the Saint patriarch, catching the gun when Tobias Saint dropped it.
“We can talk about this, Miss Quinn,” Stephen Wayne breathed. His blond hair was messy, a few strands covering his forehead, which glinted with nervous sweat. “I will be close with the mayor of this city. I can offer you immunity. I can offer you anything you want.”
“Really?” Layla asked. She crossed her arms and smirked. “Will you offer me your death?”
Stephen Wayne paled. He swallowed hard, and his gun arm actually trembled. Of course it did; he stared an agent of hell right in the eye. Blood covered Layla, and her eyes glinted with a wild need for violence. She thanked her reaperhood then, for putting this man in his place, even if it was just for a moment.
“I will give you the actual cure,” Stephen Wayne said quickly.
