Page 20 of Our Vicious Descent
The few other Saints who had followed her inside raced for the door.
A grating pain in Elise’s head slowed her down. She headed after them, but blood dripped from her nose, splashing onto the cracked wood beneath her. Elise cursed as her vision doubled, then tripled. Blood continued to stream from her nose. It ran over her hands in brilliant red streaks, staining the sleeves of her satin evening gown. Perhaps the dose of venom had been too much. The room swayed, and she stumbled, her hand coming out to steady her against the wall. Elise cursed under her breath. She should’ve been outside by now, away from the suffocating darkness and whatever lurked within.
“Lisey, don’t let them hurt me.” Her sister’s voice echoed in her head, faint and distraught.
Elise began to wonder if side effects of the venom included auditory hallucinations when Josi’s voice came back stronger.
“Please, Lisey. I’m scared,” Josi whimpered. The quiver in her voice made Elise’s heart drop.
The shock of hearing her sister gave Elise focus as she retreated from her crowded thoughts and listened to her surroundings. Sure enough, she could hear a distant crying just a few rooms over. Abandoning her plan to exit the lair, Elise ran toward the voice.
It led her to what appeared to be a music room. A sleek black grand piano sat in the back of the room by the floor-to-ceiling windows. Along the walls, where various portraits of composershung, bodies of Saint members and police officers lay slumped. At first glance they looked almost normal—like they could have been sleeping off a heavy drug. But when Elise drew closer, she noticed the pink ribbons twisted so tightly around their necks, blood stained the satin.
“You found me!” Josi cried out.
Elise whirled, expecting to see her sister standing behind her, but all she found was a phonograph positioned in the middle of the room. A bow had been wrapped around the golden horn, the end of its tail trailing over the spinning record on the turntable.
Josi’s voice echoed out from the speaker. “You still love me, right, Lisey?”
Even through the static, Elise heard the pain in her sister’s voice. Tears welled in her eyes at the thought of her sister alone, speaking to herself and begging for a response. “Josi…”
“Promise me you’ll still love me. Even if I’m different—” The record skipped, ending her sister’s speech abruptly.
Elise marched over to the phonograph and snatched the needle from the disc. A scream rattled through the speaker, startling Elise so badly, she stumbled backward into one of the bodies. She watched in horror as the man shifted to the side and his head rolled right off his shoulders. The ribbon unraveled into an unceremonious bloody heap at her feet.
Static filled the air, and the record scratched again.
Then: “Don’t let them hurt me, Lisey.”
Elise backed away and broke into a full sprint. As she ran, shecould feel heavy footsteps behind her, shaking the hotel corridor, shifting the floor. The pounding steps drew closer and closer, nearing a thunderous peak, until Elise finally turned and raised her gun. A taloned hand swiped out as she fired, sending her bullet through a stained glass window instead and bright white sunlight spilled into the hallway. The beast shrieked and shrank away, giving Elise enough time to reach an exit door. Outside, she doubled over, inhaling the snowflake-heavy and bloodless air of the alley. Her chest still heaved and her whole body shook with adrenaline.
Elise turned to glance back at the hotel.
Beyond the open doorway, where the sunlight faded into shadows, a massive figure looked back at her. It stood taller than any human, at least nine feet. Through the darkness, Elise could only make out its humanoid shape and long talons as it watched. Red eyes flashed in the shadows before the figure turned and charged out of sight, deeper into the gloom of the lair.
Hot, sticky blood seeped down Elise’s arm from where the talons had sliced her. All Elise could do was press her knuckles against her mouth as her breathing grew heavy. There was no protecting Josi from Harlem—not anymore. Her sister, Elise had found, was the one Harlem needed protection against.
Her veins flared with heat—whether it was from the new reaper’s assault or her abuse of the venom, she did not know. Elise welcomed the darkness that surrounded her as she collapsed on the frozen ground.
12
Blood consumed Layla. Everywhere she turned, it was all she could smell and taste. Humans passed her by with no knowledge that she may as well have been a ticking time bomb, waiting for the perfect moment to explode. Layla could not even remember the last time she’d fed. The longest she had gone without blood had been just over a week. Older reapers could teach themselves to go for longer and withstand the draining side effects of starvation. Layla remembered watching Valeriya function erratically with black eyes and pulsing veins for nearly a month when she deigned to make a point to the younger reapers. If Layla had starved herself for as long, she would have lost control only a week in.
Now Layla fought to keep her vision straight as she rushed through the street. A blood fury chased her waning control, turning her surroundings blurry and casting a red sheen over everything in sight. Her heart pounded so hard, her pulse became the only thingshe heard. In this moment, there was nothing as lovely and delicious as blood, and Layla needed it desperately. Her fangs sank into her lower lip. Blood spilled into her mouth, calming her enough to slow her racing thoughts.
Two younger reapers waited outside the new reaper lair. Chosen and paid for by Julius, the space and all the reapers within were his now. Any other time, she might have stood back to admire the integrity and beauty of the abandoned cathedral they hid in. As their old hotel remained overrun with Saint members and overbearing police officers, it was the perfect location to lie low in.
Both the young reapers looked peeved—Laure especially so, with her arms crossed and foot tapping on the ground. Celie watched Layla with nervous eyes, her gaze flicking back and forth as if waiting for an adversary to spring out of the shadows at any moment.
“Thank you for meeting me. It’s good to know not all of us can be bought out,” Layla said under her breath.
Laure squinted at Layla, then nodded. “Of course. It’s haunting in there.” She nodded toward the cathedral. “I’m not sure how much longer I can keep myself from killing Julius. I have to physically hide Celie to keep her safe from him. I feel like a spy. He’s gotten rid of anyone who remains loyal to you. He cannot know about us meeting.”
Celie squirmed with discomfort, her lips twisting into a pout. “Laure wants to go back to being a rogue again. I convinced her that hearing you out would probably be better than that.”
“I said we’d give you a chance.” Laure’s golden eyes turned moltenas she stared Layla down. “Are you really going to kill the little Saint?”
Layla bristled, her skin growing tight with unease. “I need to find her and return her alive to the Saints. It could give me leverage.”
