Page 30 of Our Vicious Descent
Blood rushed out of Elise’s face, and she stopped struggling against him, her body going slack with shock. “You—”
“Let her go.” A stern voice boomed nearby.
For a moment, Julius’s fingers only strengthened their hold on Elise. She saw her own death flash in his eyes, and as the darkness began to encroach on her vision, Elise went willingly into its depths. But then he released her and light returned to her eyes as well as air to her lungs. She slumped against the wall, her chest heaving while she struggled to catch her breath. When Elise looked up, she found an unfamiliar woman had approached. She wore lengthy garments that covered her from head to toe, leaving no skin exposed—as if she was afraid of the sun itself. Shadows hid her face beneath the massive hat she wore, rendering her completely unrecognizable.
Julius shot a fiery glare at the woman and snarled, “What are you doing here?”
“I do appreciate you finding her for me, but let’s not forget we cannot make this look anything less than human,” she said. Her attention turned to Layla, who had gone eerily still on the ground,surrounded by a puddle of her own blood. “Shame, Layla. You could have been so good by my side if only you’d listened to me.”
Panic clawed up Elise’s throat. She tried to keep herself together, but pain split her open, second by second, the longer Layla lay there unmoving.
The male reaper backed away from Elise, though he kept unwavering watch over her as the other woman moved closer.
“You will be happy to know that your mayor approached me the other day with an enticing offer. He wants to make good on his promise to you. Fewer punitive measures and more rehabilitation efforts to keep reaper and human relations stable. He understands that it takes a reaper to understand their habits and learn the best ways to…manage them. I am quite tempted to take him up on the partnership opportunity, though I do remember how the last attempted cooperation between reapers and humans ended up.” She tilted her head to the side, and a flash of scarlet revealed itself beneath the shadows of her hat.
Elise lifted her gun again, this time alternating between aiming it at the woman and Julius. “Who are you?”
“I could say I’m a friend of Layla’s, or I could say I’m a friend of your sister’s. Either answer, I’m sure, only raises more questions for you,” she murmured.
Elise narrowed her eyes. She remembered hearing about this reaper woman; Layla had mentioned her after Valeriya died. This must have been Karine—the one who had come all the way from France to be close to Valeriya. Elise’s finger moved over the gun’strigger on instinct. She pointed it right at the reaper’s heart, thinking only of the awful things Valeriya had said and done to her family. All the poison she had spilled and left in her absence. “Where is Josi?” Elise seethed.
“Surely you are not considering making the same mistake as last time? Killing an ancient reaper who is full of information that would only be useful to you. Granted, you will soon learn those Saint bullets have no effect on creatures that wear the night like armor.” The reaper spoke slowly and with a calmness only immortal souls could possess. “My old friend is gone, Elise. And despite the reaper lair codes prohibiting reapers from killing one another, Layla seems to be protecting her murderer. I find it incredibly hard to believe. I do think, however, that you know more about it.” She drew closer, her movements fluid and inhuman. “I can’t help but notice how comfortable you are walking around unchaperoned. You are unafraid. You’ve seen what reapers did to your sister Charlotte, yet you are so unburdened by the lingering threat. Why is that?”
Elise ignored her, keeping her gun arm steady. Even with the gun between them, Karine pressed forward. She moved in so close, the gun sank into her chest, but she remained unbothered by its barrel resting right over her heart. The reaper swiped a finger down the column of Elise’s throat, where it had grown sticky with blood. She lapped at the drying substance and grimaced. “You’re poisonous. You know death is never the end for a reaper and things in Harlem never really stay dead. Between your siblings and Layla,you should know that better than anyone else. You should be angrier about what happened.”
Conflict had never tasted so bitter. Elise swallowed past her unease and deepened her glare. “You have no idea how angry I am.”
“Not angry enough to stop Layla from coming around and to keep the Harlem reapers from threatening you.” Karine placed a hand on top of the gun, the pressure forcing Elise to relax her own stance. “It is time you learned reaper strength has no business being manipulated by humans.”
As the final embers of the sun’s glow retreated behind the alley’s makeshift rooftop and darkness covered the space like a veil, the ancient reaper removed her hat. Golden eyes roamed over Elise, calculating and cruel, yet warm with intense hunger. Her lips split into a crimson smile that sent chills down Elise’s spine. “Did you know that in France, reapers cannot survive the sunlight? Humans banished us to the darkness, yet they become weak when there is no light. Now shadows are less of a convenience and more lethal for you. When the world falls dark, you become blind, while we are stronger than ever. You have rendered half the time you spend alive dangerous to you. Your sister was remade in the shadows. She belongs to me now.”
Julius made his way over to Layla. He reached down and grabbed her hair, pulling her head up. Blood covered the reaper’s face; even her eyes had turned to a lethal shade of red. “All this starvation has made you weak. But I know you cannot resist the taste of a Saint. When you feel the blood fury, you’ll have no choice but to kill her.”Julius pressed his fingertips, still drenched with Elise’s blood, into Layla’s mouth.
Elise watched with horror as Layla stirred. At the same time, she heard a scraping and saw the cover of a nearby maintenance hole being pulled back. A long gray arm reached out, and a beastly reaper hauled itself from the darkness beyond. Julius rolled a vial of some strange substance across the ground toward the reaper as more crawled from underground. He held a few more vials out, taunting the others. They each took a swig from the mysterious liquid, and almost instantly, their bones began to stretch beneath their skin, extending their limbs, growing their height.
Layla shot to her feet, a new ravenous strength driving her forward. Even with the chain still digging into her flesh, she continued to move as if it had no effect on her. She yanked the metal away from the reaper holding her captive, then pulled it off her throat.
The moment the new monstrous reapers stepped toward Elise, she pointed her gun upward and fired into the tin roof covering the alleyway. Bullets blew several holes into the cover, allowing the remaining sunlight of the evening to break through. It landed on the reapers’ flesh like fire, burning right through them. They shrank back, shrieking in pain. Elise did not wait to see how long her assault would hold them. She sprinted down the alley and back into the dying sunlight, away from the darkness hunting her down.
Layla thundered after her, her snarls filling the frigid air behind Elise. The Saint heiress did not stop until they were close enough to Jamie’s apartment. She screamed for him, hoping he had finished hisduties for the day and was safely inside. Just as his window cracked open, Layla crashed into Elise, tackling her to the ground. The reaper’s blood poured over Elise while venom dripped from her torn mouth. She hissed, sending more of it spraying into Elise’s face. “What did you do?”
Elise winced as her nails dug deep into her shoulders, pinning them to the ground. “Whatever the hell is in you,” Elise gritted out, “it’s in me too.”
The reaper’s face went slack. Even with the black veins spider-webbing across her cheeks and up her bloody and ruined throat, the devastation in her eyes looked painfully human in the dying evening light. She could only let out a whimper of realization before her eyes rolled back into her head and her body gave out on top of Elise.
17
“Where did you get this?” Jamie examined the vial of strange fluid Elise had handed him.
She looked over from the bloody mess of rags piling up in the bathroom sink. Layla continued to bleed out on the white tiles, crimson seeping into the grout and filling in the dusty corners of the room.
Elise pressed a clean rag to the wounds on Layla’s throat, trying to ignore the fading beat of her pulse. “Julius and Karine had it. I think it might be karma.”
Jamie’s expression twisted into a doubtful frown. “Youthinkit might be karma? And you want to try this on Layla?”
“It’s either that, or she dies. The wounds from the Saint steel won’t heal properly, if at all,” Elise snapped. “If you want to leave while I give it to her, then fine. I’ll deal with the consequences.”
The gangster scoffed. “This is my house. I’m not going anywhere.Frankly, I’m a little peeved you brought your problems here. Now there’s a big mess—do you even know how hard it is to clean blood out of grout…?”
