Page 63 of Our Vicious Descent
With a hand pressed to her own weeping chest, Layla laughed breathlessly. It felt as if blood swam in her lungs. She coughed, and more of it spilled over her lips, leaving a sticky, salty taste on her tongue. “Harlem will never trust you to run its streets. You shouldhave just listened to us.”
Nicoletta’s mouth twisted into a frown, her brows furrowing beneath the blood caking her face. The gun shook with her arms, and for a moment, Layla thought she might drop it. “You don’t get it. I have no choice. I have to find the quickest path to power, or I am nothing. My brother is gone and now so is my property. I have only my reputation left, and I will not let you control that too—” Her finger moved to the trigger, and Layla braced herself for the impact of another bullet.
But the voice she had been waiting forever to hear rang out. “I don’t think so.”
Layla looked up to see Elise on the upper deck just a few yards away. Even with the considerable distance between them, Layla still tried to assess her, noting the blood on her hands and her dress and relaxing with relief when she realized none of it was hers. Elise stood strong, holding her own gun with a firmness that only an uninjured person could muster. She faced Nicoletta, though her eyes flicked down to Layla occasionally. With her gun pointed at Nicoletta, Elise scowled and said, “You try anything against her, I kill you.”
“What does it matter? She’ll be dead by the time you even realize I pulled the trigger again.” Nicoletta laughed maniacally. The force of her laughter caused her to stumble back a few feet, but she righted herself against the wall and smiled up at Elise. “That’s the beautiful thing about your family’s invention. The bullets do most of the work for you. Now we just get to sit back and watch her bleed.”
“No,” Elise countered. She reached into her bodice and pulled ahandful of silver bullets out, holding them up for the gang leader to see. “I can’t believe you didn’t realize I had switched out your bullets.” Now Elise wore a smug smile of her own, one that chased Nicoletta’s previous mirth right from her face.
Nicoletta’s mouth gaped. She shakily opened her revolver and poured out the bullets in the chamber. They dropped into the water and rolled along the deck, regular lead bullets in the ocean pouring itself into the ship. “No,” she croaked. Her voice, hoarse and quiet, was so unlike her usual commanding tone, Layla could not help but look up at Elise with a spark of awe in her eyes. Elise met her gaze for a second, mirroring her relief.
The pressure in Layla’s chest lightened, and she knew it was not just because of her wound knitting itself back together. Though when she pulled her hand away from her chest, where the bullet had lodged itself, she found fresh skin already forming over the new injury. She swallowed hard, relief crashing into her in waves that rivaled the intensity of the ones rocking the ship around them. Part of her wondered how much of it truly was the ship versus her own hunger working in tandem with her budding anger. She stood slowly, letting her nerves settle before she faced Nicoletta.
The gang leader dropped her gun. It sank into the water swirling around her legs, and she kicked it off of the ship before holding her hands up in surrender. A gentle look had appeared on her face, but the more Layla watched her, the more suspicious she became. “Fine. You win. Take the compound back. Just let me go.”
Despite her sudden yielding making Layla doubt Nicoletta’severy move, she could not have agreed more with such a bold offer. At the end of the day, that was what they had confronted her for. And all Layla really wanted now was to get off this ship with Elise and go back to their regular adversaries.
But Elise had other plans. “No,” she said roughly, moving closer on the upper level.
“No?” Nicoletta asked, bewildered.
“Elise,” Layla warned.
“You knowingly helped run an operation that exploited my baby sister. How dare you,” Elise hissed.
Nicoletta laughed. It was a wicked, cruel sound that had Layla’s muscles bunching with the urge to silence her. “What can I say? Her asking price was astronomical.” Elise’s gun hand shook, but she let Nicoletta continue. “Reapers and humans paid a pretty penny for her blood and venom. It would have been the same for your mother if only we had managed to keep her alive. I understand your despair, Elise, I truly do. It must be awful, right? Feeling responsible for the death of a loved one?”
Elise sniffed. Layla watched with horror as the glimmer of fresh tears arose in her eyes. She did not wait to hear what Elise said in response to Nicoletta’s cruelty. Layla was already throwing herself into Nicoletta by the time her anger fully registered. She pinned the gang leader to the floor and relished in the strength her blood fury gave her in assistance with her rage. All Layla saw was red. Even as she faced Nicoletta, even as she tore into her fresh wounds, rehashing old pains and turning them into worse pits of hell. She tastedonly satisfaction as she sank her fangs into her own wrist and held it over Nicoletta’s mouth, forcing her to swallow mouthfuls of her blood. Her hunger increased with the loss of blood, but Layla continued, shoving Nicoletta’s mouth closed and then tearing her throat out. She waited for a moment as the gang leader’s breathing stilled beneath her. Eventually, her heartbeat stopped, and Layla noticed her blood flow coming to a complete halt. The gang leader stared up at the night sky with glassy eyes, her face stuck in a permanent state of pure terror. She had died, gurgling and choking on Layla’s blood. While it was certainly one of the most vicious displays of violence Layla could claim, it was not her coldest. This had been an act she had imagined for many years, just not being done to Nicoletta.
Her heart stuttered as she stood and blood rushed from her head. The adrenaline of the night had begun to wear off, leaving Layla a body of sore muscles and aching cravings. She tried to walk away from Nicoletta, but Elise, having climbed down from the upper deck, appeared, her eyes soft and wild at once on Layla. “Are you okay?”
Layla could barely nod. The world spun around her, and she saw three Elises bend down to pick up the keys from Nicoletta’s belt. Even as she pulled the chains around Layla’s wrists into her hands to unlock them, Layla still couldn’t focus on her. While the red haze had left her vision, several black spots danced across it now, and Elise and the sounds of the ships collapsing beneath them sounded impossibly far away. Once the chains came off and fell into the water that quickly climbed up their legs, Layla leaned heavily against Elise. Despite the blood of many gangsters filling the water and covering the interiorof the ship around them, all Layla could smell and taste was Elise’s. The pulse of her blood beneath her delicate skin brushed against her lips, and Layla closed her eyes, imagining the sweet sanctity sliding over her tongue and exploding into her mouth.
Elise pulled back to press her hands to Layla’s cheeks. Her mouth moved, but Layla could barely hear her. Every word sounded like glorified static in her rushing ears. “…Layla…”
Layla’s vision slid back to Nicoletta, whose body now floated in the filthy water around them. She turned to Elise once more, her own gaze fixated on the dead gang leader. “She’ll be back,” Layla whispered.
“I know.” A distinct sadness darkened Elise’s eyes.
Layla gripped her wrist hard enough to feel her pulse flutter beneath her fingertips. “How are you? Are you hurt?”
At this, Elise almost laughed. “I’m just fine, Layla. We need to get you off the ship—” Another explosion interrupted her. The boat rocked violently, but Elise held Layla steady in her arms. Once their environment slowed to a gentle swaying, Elise loosened her hold on Layla. She groaned as she looked out over the black water lapping up against the side of the ship. “I told Jamie only one bomb…”
But Layla did not hear the end of her statement. The world went sideways as she pitched over the edge of the ship, her fading vision catching sight of Elise’s panicked expression among the stars before Layla plummeted into the dark water beyond.
30
Layla woke to a divine being dragging her along the sandy shore. She had been trapped in a nightmare just moments before, where the environment had been a sentient black beast pressing around her like a blanket of ice. It occurred to her that it might have been the ocean only when the divinity pulled her out of the darkness and hauled her onto a steady surface. Layla would have shown her gratitude could she move. But her muscles remained frozen even as lighter, warmer air brushed over her and her salvation leaned over her.
She might have been a lovely siren or an angel pulling her to her death. But Layla would have been glad to die in the presence of such sweet beauty. All she could do was stare as the face came into more clarity.
The siren rolled her onto her back and slapped her cheeks. It was gentle enough to not hurt, but she couldn’t ignore the gesture either.Layla forced her eyes open wider and saw a Saint hovering over her. The night sky surrounded her. She looked as if she wore the stars as a crown, their twinkling lights incomparable to the glow of her pretty eyes. “Layla,” she said sharply.Elise. Her Elise.
Layla tried to smile, but even her face was too tired to comply. “Yes, angel.” Despite the ache of her muscles and the imminent weakness she faced, Layla still managed to sense the quickening of Elise’s pulse and the flush of heated blood in her cheeks.
Water flowed from Elise’s body, and Layla noticed it lapping at her own feet just beyond. The rushing water urged her memories to piece themselves back together. “Did you jump us off the boat?” Layla asked.
