Page 61 of Our Vicious Descent
Reminders of the two guards at the port immediately recognizing her Saint heritage made her chest tighten. Elise pushed a stray piece of hair behind her ear and continued working on the lock. “I’m going to free you because I need your help. We’re a little way away from the dock by now, but if you’re a strong enough swimmer, we can make it back—that’s if things go wrong. If they go right, we can figure out how to turn this boat around. I just need you to promise me something first.” She held his gaze, her heart rate kicking up when she noticed the light leaving his eyes.
“What’s that?” the reaper asked.
“Help me find Layla,” Elise whispered.
Shock flickered across his gaze. He lifted his head from the wall and frowned. “You’re a Saint. Here you are, freeing a reaper, asking us to help you.” The reaper shook his head and laughed slightly—or tried to; it came out as a cough.
Elise pulled back, her brows furrowing. “I’m hardly a Saint anymore. And how do you even know?”
“You look just like your father.”
Every muscle in Elise’s body tensed, and her heart sank. Her blood might have gone cold and her surroundings wavered as she processed his words. Elise had never seen herself as a reflection of either of her parents, but now, with her mother’s death still fresh on her mind and every complicated emotion under the sun plaguing each thought of her father, she could not figure out how to embrace having her father’s looks. Her voice came out like a whisper, the words barely clawing their way out of her throat: “Don’t say that.”
The reaper continued, seemingly unfazed by her adverse reaction. “I’ve seen him all over the papers and in town with his buddy Stephen. Or at least I used to. The man is more mad widower than business mogul now…” His eyes grew glassy, and after a long beat of silence, Elise’s shoulders seized with panic, thinking he had died.
She leaned forward and slapped his cheeks until he shuddered awake. “The Saint empire is done. I’m not with him anymore. I’m here for Layla. Do you know where she is? Or do you at least know what’s going on here?”
The faint sound of footsteps and shouting voices arose nearby. Elise looked toward the door, where thankfully no gangsters had yet to pass by. But she knew it was only a matter of time before they discovered her freeing these reapers.
“They’re taking us somewhere,” the reaper breathed.
Elise stuck her hairpin in the lock and began turning it. “Yes, I got that. Where are they taking you?”
“I have heard…some island. For testing.”
There was a sharp click, and then the lock opened. Elise tugged itoff the chains and helped the reaper up just as a commotion exploded across the ship. Loud voices emerged even closer than before, this time accompanied with the ship’s alarm. It blared as Elise made her way to the other reapers and freed them as well. Her hairpin grew jagged, the jewels already scraping off as the scratches wore down the true silver. She cursed as the final lock challenged the weakening pin, but she eventually got it free. Once all the reapers had struggled to their feet and looked at Elise for direction, she nodded.
“Find Layla for me.”
She followed them out of the holding room and kept her gun clutched in her hand the whole way down the corridor. Gangsters slammed down nearby hallways, shoving open doors and shouting at prisoners. Elise winced every time their noises got closer and each time they opened a door. All she could do was hope and pray that she got to Layla first. Her confidence waned as they approached the end of the corridor and the last door. She prepared herself for disappointment when the reapers pushed the door open. But the moment they stepped back and looked at her, her heart nearly fell into pieces.
There was Layla, chained and pale inside. Elise ran right to her, dropping her gun on the floor between them. She kneeled before Layla and cupped her cheeks in her hands, her eyes already welling with tears of relief. Layla looked at her and tried to smile, but her head, heavy as it was in Elise’s hands without the proper strength to hold it up on her own, lolled to the side. Still, her eyes seemed to smile and shine as Elise held her and grinned through her tears.
“Lisey? You came,” Layla said in a faint voice.
Elise rubbed her thumbs over her cheeks and nodded. “Of course.” She quickly assessed Layla’s body, noticing the bloody tourniquet on her leg and the chains still holding her down. “I’m going to get you out. Just do me a favor and stay alive. I cannot have come this far just to have you die on me.” When she dropped her hands and moved to take hold of the chains, she felt blood seep into her dress around her knees and slip between her fingers. The wound on Layla’s leg still wept. Surprisingly, the reaper’s face was void of any pain, though she was frightfully pale. Elise knew they had only so much time before either Layla bled out or the gangsters found them all. She looked up at the other reapers she had freed, still standing by the door.
“How do you get a reaper to stop bleeding after suffering a wound from a Saint weapon?” Elise asked. She stuck her hairpin into the lock and began working it against the gears.
The other reapers looked at one another, mumbling.
Layla cleared her throat and nudged Elise with her good leg. “You can’t stop the bleeding. That’s the point of the Saint weaponry.”
Elise hissed as the hairpin snagged on something in the lock and got stuck. “I know, I know. But isn’t there anything that will help? If we move you, you’ll bleed out.”
Layla leaned her head against the wall. “I need more blood.”
The hairpin snapped in Elise’s hands. Half of it remained between her fingers, while the other half sat, still stuck, in the lock. “Fuck,” she muttered. Before Elise could figure something else out, gunfire went off around the ship.
One reaper at the door looked out at the hallway, then back at Elise. “They’re coming. You need to hurry.”
Panic seized Elise’s chest like a fiery fist. Her heart thudded so hard and fast, she thought it might catch on fire or explode. She leaned over Layla, searching for a release, or something to use behind her where the chains were bound to a bar set in the wooden floor.
Layla swallowed and shifted uncomfortably. More blood poured from her wound, her leg trembling as she adjusted her position. Elise felt Layla’s face by her throat and a sharp wince before she turned away. “Don’t do that.”
Elise sat back on her heels. Her brows furrowed at Layla’s twisted expression. Her fangs dug into her lips, but only a thin stream of blood ran from the new cuts in her mouth. “Don’t do what?”
“You can’t be this close to me right now. I’m…” Layla swallowed, and her pupils dilated while her chest heaved with a deep breath. “I’ll kill you.” She watched Elise with a gaze that went beyond hunger. She had moved past ravenous and now regarded Elise like a downright predator eyeing their prey. Her eyes, black and glassy, no longer had a trace of her familiar gold.
