Page 69 of Our Vicious Descent
It was fascinating to watch these newly turned reapers engage in inhuman fighting. The venom, which Layla could only assume was left over from their exploitation of Josi, seemed to give them an extra edge. She remembered what Maria had told her in the blood house weeks ago—increased strength, sharper focus, severe agitation. All things exhibited in the reaper gangsters who tried to take Sena down. None of it was enough.
Sena tore them apart one by one, dropping bodies and spilling blood like it was her calling. With each second that passed, the Saint girl grew hotter and hotter in Layla’s arms. Her skin scorched Layla’s own flesh as if it had been lit aflame. She struggled to keep a good hold on her the more she kicked and fought.
Until something shifted behind Layla. She stiffened and turned to the alley behind them, searching the darkness for the other body that had appeared during her period of distraction.
“How are you finding your new body-turned-grave?” she asked the shadows.
Eventually, Nicoletta stepped out of the shadows. Red circled her piercing blue eyes, and they darted around wildly, her throatbobbing with a roughly contained ire. “If I never see you again, it will be too soon,” the new reaper hissed.
No matter how cruel and malicious it might have been, Layla enjoyed the new reaper scent on her. The slower beat of her heart and the dull scent of her ruined blood—it all reminded Layla of how brutal she had been to Nicoletta on the boat. It felt good seeing the results of her violence speaking for themselves.
“Don’t hold your breath.” She tucked Josi into her chest, trying to ignore the girl’s fevered whimpers.
Nicoletta’s lip curled. Her fangs scraped her lips, and a tiny speck of blood fell into the corner of her mouth. Layla expected her to throw out another thinly veiled threat, but instead, the reaper raised her voice, calling out to Sena: “Your bait is here!” Nicoletta grabbed Josi’s arm, wrenching her from Layla.
Alarmed, Layla tried to pull Josi back into her, but the gangster hissed and shoved her against the wall with incredible strength. Black veins stretched out beneath her eyes and out from her irises, indicating a variable intoxication. Layla stood no chance beneath the weight of Nicoletta’s new strength. With the reaper’s forearm crushing her throat, all she could do was watch, gasping for air, as Sena tossed a gangster’s body to the side and stalked toward them.
The beast peered at Josi with glowing red eyes. Blood covered more of Sena’s gray skin than it didn’t, rendering her a monster cloaked in carnage.
Layla did not recognize the creature that approached her. Her old clan leader had been a wondrous beauty, both devastating andancient. This thing was a manifestation of nightmares and sin. Layla had to fight to keep her eyes open against the gangster’s assault as Josi screamed and kicked in Nicoletta’s grasp and Sena drew nearer.
The beast moved so fast, for a few seconds, all Layla registered was blood after Sena struck. Nicoletta fell to her knees, her hands pressed to a gaping wound in her throat. Finally free, Layla coughed, trying to force air into her deprived lungs as she staggered toward Josi. Sena reached a taloned hand for the little Saint, and Josi whimpered, her hands fisting in the front of her shirt.
A round of bullets flew through the air and sank into Sena’s back. The beast stumbled under the attack, shaking her head. She let out a piercing roar that shook the ground and building they stood beside.
Layla winced at Josi’s pained cry and glanced over her shoulder to find Elise racing down the street with several others following her. Shock loosened Layla’s jaw as she recognized many faces of her own clan members. Celie stood closest to Elise with Jamie and Sterling on either side of her. She shared a worried look with Layla as Sena rose to her feet once more and faced the new arrivals.
“Keep your nasty hands off my sister,” Elise snapped. She lifted her gun again, aiming for Sena’s chest.
The reaper reared back so hard, everyone held their breath, anticipating her final collapse. But she righted herself and dodged the flying bullet. Layla’s heart stopped as Sena rushed for Elise. The Saint tried to escape her advance, but the reaper was faster. She snatched Elise into her grasp and took off with her into the night.
33
In the jaws of a beast, Elise lost all track of time and space. She had fired all her tranquilizer rounds into Sena’s mouth, but the reaper had yet to slow down on her deadly rampage through Harlem. Eventually Sena dumped her into a pile of dirt and, to Elise’s dismay, human remains. She scrabbled against the ground, trying to find purchase to stand, and her hands slipped over various bones. A human skull clipped against her fingers, and all Elise could do was let out a shaky breath as Sena drew closer to her in the darkness. Whatever graveyard Sena had dropped her in, she intended it to be Elise’s final resting place. There was no escape out here—in the middle of a makeshift cemetery with no one around—no one to hear her scream. She faced the beast, her own expression growing sharp.
She did not wear a human face, but Elise could still see the cold rage in Sena’s expression. The essence of the reaper’s character remained through all her vicious transformations. Elise recognizedthe shaking hatred the damned creature moved with and all the spite she carried with her that had lasted centuries. A soul did not live forever and never change. This one had allowed itself to necrotize with time, growing cold and unforgiving. Elise could not fault her for it. If she had been forced to endure the turmoil of her short life and all the pain that came with it for an eternity, she would have let the darkness consume her sooner rather than later.
“I know you’re angry with me. It was an undignified death that even you did not see coming. But I would have done something else had I had more power. For all you did to my sister, you deserve worse than hell.” Elise swallowed past the lump in her throat. Not from nerves but instinctual disgust at her own violent thoughts. They were Saint words—things she had never felt comfortable spewing. A true Saint might have found comfort in degrading their prey, but Elise had only ever mourned hers. Forcing herself as far from her mind as possible was the only way she saw herself making it through this standoff. “I would kill you a thousand times over if it meant my sister was safe. Whatever grave you bury me in tonight, I will be sure to haunt you from it for an eternity. I promise you that.”
The reaper bristled at her words. Such a reaction was enough for Elise to find satisfaction in the final moments she had before Sena lunged for her again, this time sinking her fangs into her throat.
The world became a blur around Elise. She went limp in the reaper’s grasp, feeling her blood leak down her chest and over her face. Consciousness came and went, driving Elise through various forms of darkness until the reaper finally released her. By then, shehad carved out a shallow grave for the Saint. Sena’s venom fought the existing strain in Elise’s body, rendering her stiff with feverish pain. She remained frozen in place as the reaper covered her with dirt and extinguished every last bit of light. The stars above winked out. In just a few horrifying moments, Elise was left in the dark, suffocating pressure and death closing in from all sides.
Elise might have been down in the dirt for an eternity. With her arms trapped by her sides and the earth crushing her chest, her breathing became shallow. She could only hope and pray that the venom was enough to overcome the substance in her system and take her out with a merciful swiftness.
A distant rumbling started nearby. Then the earth began to shake around her. Dirt shifted on her face and her arms, and soon, there was enough alleviation of the pressure for her to move. She reached up, clawing at the earth until she brushed something soft and cool. A brown hand reached into the darkness and gripped her arm. It hauled her out of the dirt with a grace only an inhuman being could muster.
Gasping, Elise broke out of the grave. She coughed up mouthfuls of dirt and wiped at her eyes while it poured over her legs. Sitting up and blinking against the cloudiness in her vision, Elise caught sight of the several beings surrounding her. Reapers, rogue and determined, stared back at her.
She didn’t have the energy to be scared or even startled. Instead, Elise coughed out a broken laugh and shook her head. “You saved me.”
Then she collapsed, falling back onto the grave.
***
“Sena meant to turn her. I think my tainted venom in Elise’s system stopped Sena’s,” Layla muttered. She kept one hand on Elise’s throat, watching her flesh knit itself back together beneath the stream of Celie’s blood. Per Layla’s instruction, everyone had settled in the new reaper lair after finding Elise. In the hour since bringing her back, she had yet to wake up. The steady beat of her pulse beneath Layla’s fingers was the only thing keeping Layla upright and hopeful about the situation.
Once done treating Elise’s wounds, Celie tucked her sleeve back over her arm. She glanced out across the entryway, where a few gangsters had gathered around Nicoletta. The reaper’s blood coated the cathedral steps and pooled beneath her now. Whatever wounds Sena had left had been deep enough to require extensive healing time.
