Page 58 of Our Vicious Descent
Just as she thought, the reapers paused in their tracks at the sight of Nicoletta. Layla tightened her fingers around the gangster’s throat as she clawed at her arm. “You want me. I know you want me. You’ll have to kill her to get to me, though. But you can’t do that, can you?”
“Kill her. I changed my mind. KILL THE SAINT,” Nicoletta managed to screech out.
Layla snarled and lifted her foot to kick her in the ribs, but the woman met her attack with a worse punishment. Nicoletta pulled a Saint blade from her belt. The silver hilt winked, sharp and deadly, in the faint light above them before it sank into Layla’s thigh.
Layla let out an agonized shriek and wrenched herself away from Nicoletta. She stumbled across the stage, blood dripping from her leg as she struggled to stay upright against the brutal waves of pain rolling through her.
Already, the reapers were making their way toward Elise. The Saint knelt on the ground, fumbling with something in her hands. A few bullets rolled away from her, and Layla groaned, agony grinding into agitation. “Elise!”
To her relief, the Saint stood right as the closest reaper got within striking range. She fired the gun into his face, and this time the bullet actually tore through his eye. The thing screamed and began clawing at his face, his talons shredding what was left of his flesh. A satisfied smile spread across Elise’s face. She lifted her gun to aim at the next reaper, but it approached her too fast. The thing knocked the gun from her hand and then slammed Elise to the ground. The Saint heiress struggled at first, her arms shaking under her weight before she collapsed. Reapers surrounded her, and Layla felt a rise of pure fear drowning out every logical path in her mind.
“Elise! Get up!” she screamed. But to no avail. Elise had gone still. Layla sensed her slowing heartbeat and the rapid pooling of blood beneath the large cut in her temple.
Layla knew taking the knife out would be a death sentence, but she couldn’t move with it lodged in her nerve. So after heaving out a breath, she tore the thing free and watched in horror as blood gushed from a gaping wound. It pooled around her, which only attracted the evolved reapers.
“Not so strong against Saint creations, are you?” Nicoletta hissed. She pulled herself into a standing position as Layla continued to limp to the edge of the stage. “All this devotion and affection for one Saint has gotten you what, exactly?”
Layla threw herself from the stage. The moment her injured leg touched down, it buckled, sending her sprawling on the floor. She was met with the warmth of her own blood as it spread beneath her. Still, Layla dug her fingers into the floor as she dragged herself along the grimy carpet, tugging herself toward Elise. The light reflecting off the powdery shimmer on Elise’s outstretched hand drove her forward, its distant glow a mocking reminder of how far she still was. Crimson smeared behind her, leaving behind a trail of mutiny. She didn’t have to look behind herself to know the reapers crept along. They moved slower now, as if they knew she was barely alive enough to be prey worth hunting down. Each blink sent her into a longer and longer stretch of darkness no matter how hard she pushed herself forward. Even her heart began to beat slower, and soon all Layla had dragging her toward Elise was spite.
One reaper wrapped his talon-tipped hands around her throat and hauled her off the floor. Layla used the rest of her strength to kick at him, trying to put some distance between herself and theviolence in his eyes. Her neck strained beneath his grip and every muscle in her body ached as he held her up.
Nicoletta stood behind him, her own expression ripe with amusement. A wicked smile split her face, and she stepped closer. In her hand, the Saint blade still sat, dripping with Layla’s blood. “The one you love will be what kills you. How have you not realized that yet, Layla? You have already met your fate, when you were turned all those years ago because of her. Just because you love her, that will change nothing. You are a tragedy in the making.”
Layla wheezed out a breath. The reaper clenched his fist around her throat, and black spots flickered over her vision as he cut the rest of her air off. “Rot in hell,” she managed to choke out.
The gangster only shook her head. Her smile fell into a bitter frown, and she spat out, “You first.”
Never had Layla wanted to fight more than in this moment. But she had been bled dry. Her heart slowed as she took her last breath and fell into darkness.
27
Elise pulled herself from the darkness with little strength. Sharp pain pounded through her head, and warm, sticky blood spilled down the side of her face as she sat up. The room around her had been torn to pieces. Curtains hung in tatters over the stage, and gangster bodies littered the floor amid blood and chunks of flesh. Elise struggled to her feet, the world swaying as her head pulsed. She found her gun several feet away, smeared in blood just like the rest of the room. It held only two bullets while the others remained scattered across the floor. Her foot crunched on an empty glass vial and splintered wooden remains of tables and floorboards as she continued to move around the room.
The fight that had ended in this carnage flashed through her mind like bloody pictures from a horror show. All she heard was Layla’s screams over and over, each reminder of her pain digging into her heart. The reaper was nowhere to be found now, and withthe amount of blood that covered the floor and the walls, Elise could only assume the worst. It was as if hell had broken loose and rampaged through the room. What disturbed Elise the most was the blood that stretched from one side of the room to another, before it ended in a puddle, still damp with heat and ripe in scent, just feet away from where she had woken up. In the middle of it, Elise recognized the silver hairpin she had given Layla. Crimson covered almost all of it, but a tiny patch of silver peeked out from the slaughter. The pin Elise had placed gently in Layla’s hair and gazed upon with admiration only a couple of hours ago now sat in a pool of enough blood to stop her heart.
Tears threatened to spill past Elise’s eyes, but she blinked them back, turning to look for any clues as to where Layla could have been or been taken to. The only hope she held that kept her moving forward was knowledge that Layla was no human. She had survived worse. What might have killed a human would have had to be doubled to even wind Layla. How devoted Elise must have been to throw herself into uncertain danger for Layla—the blade of understanding twisted deeper in her chest. Layla never would have let Elise get in between her and a fight that was her own.
Elise bent to pick up the hairpin, and the sound of a door opening nearby had her swinging around to aim at the intruders. She lowered her gun when she saw Josi, quickly followed by Jamie and Sterling. They wore matching expressions of torment, their faces pale as they looked around the room. It was Josi, little Josi, who bounced up to Elise in a state of frenzied excitement, her teeth gleaming while shegrinned.
“My venom worked!” Josi cheered. She gestured to the dead gangsters, whose bodies had been ravaged by advanced reaperhood.
Elise’s heart stuttered in her chest. Eyes dull and tired, she slid her gaze to Josi and demanded, “What did you just say?”
Josi’s smile fell. “It normally takes a few hours to work, but this time it worked right away. I poisoned them so they wouldn’t help Nicoletta. I…”
Elise’s expression hardened.
“I wanted to help. Karine always says I can use my venom to help… I thought I was helping.”
Silence filled the room for what felt like an eternity. Eventually, when the quiet of the night became too still and suffocating to bear, Elise moved forward. She wiped at her face, where her hair had fallen into her eyes. Blood smeared over her cheek, and she couldn’t be bothered to acknowledge who it belonged to. She focused on Josi, her lips trembling. “You did this?” Elise’s voice came out flat and lifeless. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Sterling burying his face in his hands and Jamie turning to rake his fingers through his hair. Only Josi remained in her spot, still and with her gaze trained on the pool of Layla’s blood.
Josi sniffed and finally lifted her eyes to Elise. True guilt shadowed the usually warm brown of her gaze. “I’m sorry, Lisey. I tried to help. They were just supposed to die—I didn’t want them to hurt you,” Josi cried. A heavy breath shuddered out of her, curving her spine and her shoulders until she curled into the fetal position onthe blood-soaked floor.
Even with her words to guide her through her misery, Elise could not find it in her to feel sorry. Not now. Not when her entire life had been upended in a matter of moments just seconds after she thought she had pieced it back together. A calm fury spread through her body, taking to her blood like ice and fire until she could no longer feel the brush of the outside air flowing in through the open door.
Her younger sister continued to sob. She looked smaller than ever. Her newly evolved strength had vanished in an instant with the emergence of her tears. The little girl Elise had remembered before everything had come crashing down slowly returned, yet all Elise could think of was how every bad thing had been attached to Josi’s arrival. She stormed forward and gripped Josi’s chin so hard, the girl was forced to her knees in front of Elise.
“You did this?” Elise screamed. She pointed at Layla’s final struggle marked in blood; her finger, bloody and trembling, was a devastated accusation.
