Page 81 of Our Vicious Descent
Though the crowd watching Tobias now had not gone inside, Layla recognized their bright and curious eyes. Many of them journalists, they waited in front of Tobias with their pens poised over their blank notepads. Other lower-ranking politicians and less public businessmen regarded Tobias with less respect and more doubt. They hung around the edge of the crowd, standing with crossed arms and furrowed brows while Sterling and Jamie pulled a chained and bound Sena from inside. A few gasps sounded throughout the yard as the ancient reaper lifted her head to stare them down.
Dark shadows coupled with black veins shifted beneath her green eyes. They were an unusual shade, like they had once been another color and only cruelly forced into this new violent green. Hunger darkened them, and Elise’s mind went to every version of disaster that could ensue if the chains around her wrists were to break.
Josi moved into place beside Elise by Mayor Arendale near the podium. Layla stood behind Sena a few yards away, but she kept flicking her gaze between Elise and the ancient reaper.
“Many of you know me as a family man. A man who came from Texas with nothing more than a dream for the future. Before I even founded my metalworking company—before I even knew what I wanted to do with my life, I found purpose in the love I had for my lovely wife. With her from Louisiana and me from Texas, it was truly fate that we met at all. She followed me through every iteration of my hopes and dreams. She gave me the family I always wanted—my three beautiful daughters, who then shifted everything for me.” Tobias’s fingers gripped the edge of the podium as he let out a heavy breath. “As I stand here now, I have no wife and only two daughters left. One of them has been changed irrevocably by the venom of a reaper. In my line of work, I have seen only death and destruction. No matter how successful my empire was when it was at its best for so many years, there was still no relief from the suffering reaperhood caused. I know it will only get worse. Any choice to further spread that venom and take advantage of its properties is an immoral one.”
The crowd shifted with unease. Some people murmured heatedly to their neighbors, while others scribbled notes in their notebooks, not wanting to miss a word of the commotion.
Tobias lifted a hand to ask for everyone’s silence. As the courtyard fell quiet again, he continued, his face pale and eyes dark with a haunting so severe, Layla wondered if he had truly survived the death of his wife at all. “We must face our mistakes as a nation increating monstrosities and blaming them for what they ended up being capable of after such horrific treatment. That is why I endorse the destruction of these new reaper venom markets. Instead of giving those crooked businesses money, I vow to support the scientific endeavors for a true cure, from someone who has been just as impacted by reaperhood as I have. Dr. Gray is a scientist who specializes in virology and has worked all over the world. She has returned to Harlem, and we hope to use her research for good.
“Previously, Mayor Arendale wanted a working partnership with Karine, an older reaper from abroad, to help steady human and reaper relations here. But since then, we have learned of her desire to use the worst kinds of venom to make reapers more vengeful. Sena, or Valeriya, the old Harlem reaper leader, is an example. She has been terrorizing Harlem for the past few weeks and even took my wife’s life. It is only thanks to my daughter Elise and her partnership with the Harlem reapers, and some rogues and gangsters, that Sena was captured. They have uncovered a diabolical plan Karine has in the works to take over New York by any means. We believe it is necessary for everyone to come together—whether it be reapers, humans, gangsters, Saints. We are better together. It might have taken a few years, but I am grateful to my daughter for showing me that. Maybe we can prevent more deaths and collateral damage in this way. Reapers should have someone they can look to. Someone who understands them and their way of living. If my daughter trusts Layla Quinn to be that reaper, then so do I.”
Mayor Arendale nodded. “And so does the city of New York.”
Pride softened Tobias’s grief. “May Elise and Layla’s legacy better us all.”
Layla watched a proud smile spread across Elise’s face. She caught her eye then, the Saint girl nodding at her. Elise stood just beneath the stage, several yards from the entrance of the estate and even farther from her, but Layla still felt her gaze. She wanted to stay like that, wearing matching expressions of hope.
But a jolt shifted the ground beneath her feet, and as Layla looked past Elise into the house, she saw fire exploding beyond the walls. She moved as fast as she could toward Elise, but not even her reaper speed could outrun the explosion that rocked the Saint estate.
***
Fire licked up Layla’s back, scorching her skin until it melted beneath her shirt. Through the pain, she sensed blood—her own, Elise’s, everyone’s around her. The thought of opening her eyes scared her. Before the explosion had hit the courtyard, Layla had run for Elise and managed to tackle her to the ground as the windows exploded behind her. But the overwhelming scent of her blood beneath her now told Layla she had failed at keeping her safe.
Finally, after a long moment of crackling silence filled only by the fire and the interspersed sounds of the estate collapsing brick by brick, Layla opened her eyes. She hovered above Elise, who blinked debris and blood away.
“Oh my God…” Elise’s eyes widened, and her hands came up to cup Layla’s face. “What happened? You’re bleeding everywhere.”
Layla had not examined her own body yet, but judging by the burning pain raging through it, she had taken most of the blow to shield Elise. Her own wounds didn’t matter, though. Not while she watched blood spill from a gash in Elise’s forehead. “You’re hurt.”
“You’re on fire,” Elise said sharply. Panic brightened her eyes. “Josi.” She pulled herself out from beneath Layla, and the moment she was gone, Layla collapsed. Shrapnel lodged in her flesh sank deeper as she hit the ground. Beyond the burning, Layla felt something stirring in her. It was a feeling she could not ignore, no matter how much her burned back protested with her movements. Poison that had been dormant came to life in her system. Burning, angry, and begging to be fed. Layla smelled the poison before she felt it. The bittersweet scent coupled with its familiarity clued her in to the rush of heat and rage pummeling her system.
Layla watched as Josi ran up to Elise, and then the two of them bent to tend to Layla’s wounds. But she yanked herself away, hissing. “Don’t touch me. There was poison in the explosion. Most likely from Nicoletta’s leftover grenades.” Her voice came out strained and guttural. The veins on her hands darkened and bulged, as if black snakes writhed beneath her skin. Layla winced as her body seized with pain, her vision growing hazy. No matter how much she tried to breathe through it all, her racing heart only increased its pace, coursing whatever poison cursed her blood faster through her body.
Elise took a step back, and Layla glanced around, noticing theflattened crowd of people. Many of them had run for the gates and avoided the worst of the blast, but those in the front had begun to groan and stir. It sounded inhuman; each rumble a pain emerging from the depths of dark monstrosity. Through the ruined gates, a figure emerged. Layla sensed the ancient reaper before she became visible, her eyes golden and glowing through the smoke.
Karine surveyed the courtyard with level contentment. A small smile lifted the edge of her lips when she found the front area, where the blast had freed Sena from her jailors. Layla’s heart dropped as the two ancient reapers eyed each other. A cry of fear shot through the wounded crowd as Sena’s chains jolted with her movements. Sterling and Jamie had been thrown to the side, no longer in control of her restraints. They thrashed under the strength of the venom, their humanity fading as they began to turn. Just like with Layla, Sena’s veins bulged, a strong indication of the new poison battling her system.
Karine watched proudly as people began to rise, their new reaperhood stretching their bones and drawing pained groans from their throats. Sena was barely recognizable by the time Karine made it to her. Her skin had gone gray, and talons erupted through her fingers the longer she stood with the poison taking over. Layla tried to shove herself to her feet, but the pain made her sway, and she could only drag herself a few yards before her talons tore into the ground.
The original ancient reaper yanked the gun from Sterling’s holster and shoved the barrel into her own temple. Karine reached for Sena, alarm widening her eyes, but even she was too slow. The gunwent off, and as Sena’s body fell to the ground, the younger Saint did too.
Elise screamed. It was a wretched sound, tortured and devastated. She rushed to catch her sister and cradled her limp body in her shaking arms.
Layla wished her final moments of clarity involved the girl she loved in any other state. She squeezed her eyes shut, memorizing her face and all the beauty of her as she succumbed to the poison.
The next few moments passed by quickly. Layla rose under her newfound strength and found evolved reapers facing off in the courtyard. While some she recognized as previous human members of Tobias’s crowd, others were complete strangers. They all aimed for the innocent beings left standing. A fresh rage crashed over Layla, and she tore into them. Killing had never been easier. Especially in defense of those she cared about. In her new altered flesh, she was a merciless warrior, driving her talons into anything that moved before her. When her hands became too full with one opponent, she used her teeth. Her larger fangs bit into flesh like it was nothing, tearing throats into brutal shreds and letting the blood paint her face and body. In this form, there was no remorse, no logical thinking. All that existed was the drive to destroy, the urge to kill. Even the thought of her time running out did not faze Layla. She would go until she collapsed—until her heart stopped, gorged on others’ blood.
But Layla never got to that point. Minutes passed, and she eventually stood in the middle of a courtyard covered in bodies. Her final blow came from her fists. When she pulled her arm back, thetalons had gone. Even her vision had returned to its normal scope, all blanketing redness and blurriness gone. Jamie and Sterling stood nearby in a similar state. Both covered in blood and reeling from the recent events. Sterling dropped his gaze and swallowed hard.
When Layla looked down, she found the only body that had not been destroyed by evolved reapers.
Tobias Saint lay beside the podium, dead. He had sustained too much of the blast, and his heart had given out before the poison could alter his body. Staring at his bloody and burned body did not rouse the satisfaction in her that Layla had been hoping for these past years. Instead, she felt nothing.
Mayor Arendale emerged from beneath the podium, bloody but alive and human.
Glass was shattered in the windows behind the stage, and in the reflection of the final shard, Layla saw herself standing among the flames inside. She looked like a normal girl, no more talons, only a regular human back to her usual height. Her breath stilled in her chest, and for a moment, Layla thought the poison might have irrevocably changed her body for the better. But when she stuck a finger in her mouth, she felt the point of her retracted fangs among her teeth. Disappointment had only just begun to darken her expression and squeeze her chest when she heard Elise cry out behind her.
