Page 79 of Our Vicious Descent
“We jump now.” Josi pointed out the window. Several yards below, ocean waves crashed against rocks. The sea was a pit of blackness, drowned out only by the angry spray of sea-foam. Jumping to avoid the rocks would be difficult, but not impossible. Continuing to swim after being impaled by a rock or shattering a bone on one was what concerned Layla. She already hated water. Not to mention the last time she had been in the ocean, she had been on the brink of death.
She nodded to Celie. “You first.”
The younger reaper gave her an incredulous look. Blood stained her face, and her fangs emerged on impulse, but the fear in her eyes betrayed any lasting intimidation.
Layla sighed. The storm of guards was deathly nearby now, their shouts only seconds away. She glared as she gestured to the window. “You stay here, you die. You jump far enough out, you only have toworry about swimming.”
Celie gave one last shake of her head before cursing beneath her breath. She stepped onto the stone ledge and launched herself from the window. Layla did not look to see if she landed well. She only helped Josi onto the ledge before hauling herself up next. Right as the men broke onto the landing they stood on, they jumped.
The fall felt endlessly long. Layla was aware of the wind whistling by her ears enough to reconsider her decision to jump. By the time she thought better of it, her feet were slicing through the water and the ocean had swallowed her whole. She kicked around to bring herself to the surface, but her leg caught on something in the murky depths. As Layla peered down through the water, she tore her leg free of the black thing clinging to her. The murkiness cleared briefly, and her eyes widened at the sight of an evolved reaper staring up at her. She startled at first, trying to back away from it, but went still when the thing did not move. It remained frozen, a chain circling its body and holding it captive to the ocean floor. Talons stretched up toward the surface of the water, and its mouth hung open in an agonized silent scream. Layla could only watch as its eyes moved toward her. Then it lunged, the chain rattling while it tried to reach for her. She moved back once more, waiting for the sand to settle so she could be positive she was not imagining things. When the water cleared, Layla found a nightmare one could hope only to imagine.
Hundreds of evolved reapers sat chained to the ocean floor. All of them alive and screaming in their watery prisons.
Among the newer, more sinister beasts, Layla found morehuman-looking faces. One of them, a reaper she thought she would never see again.
She kicked back to the surface and found Celie and Josi waving down Jamie and the rest in his boat. “Laure is here!” Layla called.
Celie snapped her head back. “What?”
“I need help getting her free. Make sure Josi gets on the boat first.” It was the last thing she said before diving back beneath the water. Layla narrowly avoided the swipe of the evolved reapers’ talons as she swam to Laure. The reaper’s eyes were closed, and she floated at the end of the chain binding her to the ocean floor. Layla tried not to think about the air squeezing out of her lungs as she grabbed the chain. The Saint steel burned through her flesh, sending her blood flowing into the water. She gritted her teeth against the blistering pain and continued tugging on the metal, to no avail. A new presence swam up next to her, and to her surprise, when she looked over, she saw the younger Saint reaching for the chains. Josi pulled them apart with relative ease, though she grimaced as Laure’s wrists and ankles became visible without the chains. They had been worn down to the bone. The messy flesh had been cauterized by the metal, but as it shifted off her, old wounds reopened, spilling her blood and bits of her skin into the water.
Josi grabbed one arm and Layla the other. Together, they hauled her to the surface. Jamie waited with his boat, both Elise and Sterling leaning over the edge to help pull Laure up. Once everyone was in, Elise brushed Josi’s hair from her face and pressed her palms to hercheeks. “Are you okay?”
Most of the blood had been washed away in the sea, but some still stained her mouth and her throat. Josi grinned, revealing her blood-soaked fangs. “I am great. That was amazing.”
Layla might have shared her joy if it weren’t for Laure, still unconscious and bleeding on the boat floor. Celie kneeled by her as Jamie propelled the boat toward shore. “What did you do to her?” Celie asked, her voice small.
A shadow crossed Dr. Gray’s face. Wrinkles formed by her eyes as her brows furrowed, and she gave Celie a dismayed look. “Whatever Karine wanted. Saint associates and reapers who refused Karine’s orders became this. You shouldn’t have moved her from the water.”
Layla remembered the Saint associate who had stumbled to the club, soaking wet and panicked all those weeks ago. Then the one who had emerged from the water to attack that man who’d purchased her venom and the ones who now acted as guards for Karine’s new lair. With the Saint empire crumbling, they had been forced to choose between guarding a reaper or a fate worse than death in her army.
Celie frowned. “Why not?”
Dr. Gray looked up at the sky, where dawn was just beginning to break across the horizon. “She’s not been remade for civilized living.”
Layla opened her mouth to speak, but Laure was suddenly coughing up water, her body heaving as she came to. Whimpering, the older reaper shot up. She glanced around at everyone, her eyes settling on Celie the moment she found her. Celie went right intoLaure’s arms. Despite her smaller size, she still almost knocked her over with the force of her affection.
“I thought you were gone forever,” Celie breathed into her hair.
Laure wrapped her arms around Celie and pressed her face into her neck. “I’m here now. You all saved me.”
“We have to do something about the others,” Layla said. “Karine has a whole army on the ocean floor.”
Elise shook her head. “I don’t even understand how she’s funding this. And who in their right mind would trust a reaper to conduct such experiments?”
Dr. Gray cleared her throat. “Previous partners have been rather dangerous and inconsistent. I promise you, I let her take me here only because she insisted she wanted to help reapers. I wanted to help you. I did not know she was planning on abducting reapers and humans. Or planning on violently overtaking the city. My commitment as a physician researcher is to advance scientific knowledge and medical education, but never at the expense of other souls.” Her voice went thick, and she pursed her lips, her eyes filling with tears. “I made a mistake. You have my endless apologies. I will spend the rest of my life making it up to you—to everyone.”
The boat slowed as they made it back to the dock. Far behind them, the island sat in the thick fog, lights still glinting through the mist as if they were winking at those who had caused chaos and managed to escape. Clouds overhead parted and sunlight spilled into the atmosphere, lighting up the dock and the boat.
Celie reached back to help Laure out of the boat. With one handraised, she waited for the other reaper to take it in her own.
“What are we going to do—” Laure stopped midsentence as she stared at her still-raised hand, her eyes widening. Black veins spider-webbed across her skin. They crept along her arm, then exploded across her throat and her face. Laure collapsed with no more than a whimper and a choking sound fighting out of her throat. Celie and Dr. Gray dropped to their knees beside her while Elise covered her mouth with her hands.
“The sun,” Dr. Gray muttered.
There was nowhere to go, nowhere to shield her from the light. They were out in the open, with nothing but water and a deserted shipyard around them.
All the blood drained from Layla’s face, and she faced the doctor with true horror darkening her expression. “Save her,” she demanded.
