Page 78 of Our Vicious Descent
Elise turned back and nodded to everyone else, just as Josi lungedfor the medical assistant. She heard the chaos taking place behind her, the snap of her sister breaking free from the metal restraints and the medical assistant’s gurgling screams as Josi tore into his throat. Just as Elise had asked.
***
Karine took off, shrieking for the guards outside.
“We have to go. Now,” Elise said quickly.
Layla did not have time to register everyone’s shocked expressions. All she could do was hope everyone followed suit as Elise grabbed Dr. Gray’s arm and tugged her away from the lab. Alarms began blaring and doors slammed shut, forcing them to a grinding halt.
“Close down the lab and make sure they cannot go anywhere,” another lab assistant breathed to his partner.
Layla looked to the countless imprisoned reapers and humans in the cells. “We have to free them.” She shared a look with Elise, who kept glancing nervously at the door. “Everyone else go. I’ll catch up with you later.”
Elise’s eyes went wide. “Layla, no—”
“I’ll stay and help.” Celie nodded to Layla.
Layla could have cried with relief. “Sterling, cover us from the guards. Jamie, you go with Elise. Make sure Dr. Gray gets out okay. Josi—”
But the littlest Saint was already moving toward the cells andreaching for the chains. Layla gave Elise a reassuring look before her panic could begin. “I’ll keep her safe. Please go.” Relief flooded her tense muscles as the Saint heiress finally took the last exit out with Jamie and Dr. Gray.
The other assistant moved toward Josi, but Sterling pulled a gun out and aimed it right at his chest. “Do not move.”
“I’m just doing my job.” the assistant closest to Josi said shakily. “Please don’t kill me.”
Sterling’s eyes narrowed. “Don’t give me a reason to.”
While the blood drained from the men’s faces, Josi took advantage of their frozen shock and crossed the room to the imprisoned reapers. She grabbed the Saint steel bars with her bare hands, making Layla wince. “You’ll hurt yourself,” she gritted out as blood dripped around the reapers’ wrists from the pressure of the Saint metal against their skin.
Josi shook her head. Her hands, still gripping the metal, had yet to see a single mark of suffering from the specialized metal. Before she could begin to pry the bars apart, the chained reaper closest to her shook her head. “We cannot be free. It’s not safe. Not in the water, not off the island.”
Layla tore her gaze away from where Sterling was chasing down guards by the entrance to frown at the reaper. “You’ll die in here.”
“No. Karine wants us to live. She’s connected us to her through blood.” The reaper winced as she looked out the window towards the cloud covered sky. “We’ll die out there.” Other reapers shiftedaround her, chains tugging at their wounds while they nodded their agreement.
Josi whimpered. “But I want to help—”
“We have to go.” Layla tugged the little Saint up a set of stairs nearby as more guards spilled into the room.
Josi opened her mouth to protest, but gunfire tore their attention away so they could see Celie stumbling up the stairs, her hand pressed to a fresh gunshot wound in her chest. She hissed at the approaching guards holding guns and pulled her hand back. Blood spilled down her chest, but it slowed as the seconds passed and her wound knit itself back together.
Layla rested a gentle hand on Josi’s shoulder. “Forget your impulse training, Josi. I want you to be your worst self, okay?”
The little girl nodded eagerly. Layla pointed to the lab and the sudden rush of guards closing in around the chaos. “Don’t stop until they cannot come after us. Understand?”
Josi gave her a bright smile. “Understood.”
Layla let her go.
A baby reaper tearing into grown men had to be one of the most glorious things Layla had seen in a while. She would have stayed and regarded Josi’s carnage for longer if it were not for the sudden blare of emergency alarms and the repeated command to shut the island down. After shouting at Josi to follow them, Layla pushed Celie out of the room and bolted for the exit.
Several guards, however, had already begun to crowd the entrance to the lab building. Most of them held Saint guns, and theyraised them as Layla came to an abrupt halt with Celie by her side.
“This way!” Josi shouted behind them.
There was no time to question the ten-year-old’s judgment. Layla gave Celie one look, and then they both took off down the hall in the direction of the Saint girl. After scaling several narrow staircases at the back of the building, they found her near the top floor. She stood by a tall window that the glass had been knocked out of. Thousands of shards scattered across the floor and stuck out at jagged angles from the window frame.
“What is this?” Layla hissed. She glanced back down the staircase as the sounds of racing footsteps and panicked shouts neared.
