Page 84 of Our Vicious Descent
Elise turned before her tears could fall. She walked through the haunted halls of the cathedral, searching for the one thing that would bring her peace at the end of the hour.
***
The day Harlem was meant to be destroyed and Layla was meant to die, she watched the sunset from the roof. Everything the light touched turned gold, the sun’s rays brushing over each building and street to make itself known. Down below, delicate piano notes floated up to her. Layla did not listen to much music, but she would recognize Elise’s playing anywhere. She hurried back inside, following the sound until she found the Saint in the front of the cathedral, sitting at the grand piano before all the empty pews. It was an eerie sight to behold—Elise wearing the shadows of the room like a shroud, her hands moving gracefully over the piano keys while the instrument rang out with dark notes. Elise’s frame was relaxed as she played, and the music helped Layla breathe easier. It was the most either of them could ask for: some peace in the face of approaching gloom.
Once she finished playing, Layla draped her arms over Elise’s shoulders and whispered, “I want you to stay here and hold down the lair while I go to the island to face Karine and set off Nicoletta’s emergency-detonation system. The dead will come, but you will be safe with plenty of my clan mates and gangsters protecting theterritory.” She expected pushback. But she knew Elise understood the time for conflict between them had long since passed.
The Saint heiress turned and stood, allowing Layla’s arms to wrap around her waist. Elise gripped the edge of Layla’s coat and twisted the black fabric between her fingers as she let out a shaky breath. “Are you sure?”
“I cannot live like this,” Layla murmured.Not knowing I did not do everything possible to keep you safe. The moment tears welled in Elise’s eyes, Layla wanted to look away. But she could not. To memorize her face, and all the beauty and love she found within it, was all Layla had left in the face of the inescapable war standing before them.
The tugging at the end of her shirt stopped only for Elise to lift a hand and wipe her tears. Layla caught her hand and, stroking her fingers over her knuckles, leaned in to kiss the wet streak on her cheek. Elise sighed, her shoulders relaxing. “My love,” she whispered. “Promise me you’ll come back.”
“There is no one I’d rather come back to but you.” Layla smiled and stretched onto her tiptoes to kiss her. She was grateful when Elise bent to meet her, pulling her closer. Her arms draped over her shoulders and Layla kissed her harder as Elise gripped her waist. They clung to each other like they stood at the end of the world and letting go meant a certain demise. When they finally pulled apart for air, Layla pressed her face into the crook of Elise’s neck. She inhaled deeply, pulling every essence of Elise into her. If Layla could have, she would have stopped the world to hold this momentfor an eternity.
But eventually her clan mates grew restless, and the imminence of nighttime pulled them apart. Layla held Elise’s hand until the distance separated them. After one last look at her, Layla turned away, her fingers flexing as she departed from the cathedral.
***
Elise rolled a bullet in Josi’s venom. The substance coated the steel until it was slippery between her gloved fingers. She slid it into the chamber of her rifle and propped it up to face the gates at the entrance to the cathedral’s courtyard. From above, sitting among the cathedral’s steeples, the yard looked rather compact and organized. Reapers, both rogue and Harlem clan aligned, spread out with Jamie’s gangsters, Nicoletta’s Diamantes, and Sterling’s Saints.
It had been nearly half an hour since Layla’s departure, and Elise still felt the press of Layla’s fingers against her wrist and the nape of her neck. Whether it was the weather or the general lack of hope setting the mood for the night, no one could tell. All their other fights had ended in nothing but death and destruction. Who was to say this one would not be the same?
The rush of feet stampeding on the sidewalk outside brought Elise back to the present. She peered through her scope and found a horde of newly risen reapers heading straight for the cathedral. A few of them had funeral shrouds draped over their decaying bodies, along with pins and glass-embedded jewelry. Elise noddedtoward Jamie and Nicoletta, who waited outside the gate with their explosives.
The screams started before the bombs even went off. All around New York, the dead terrorized the living. Screams of terror from various blocks filled the air as the final rays of sunlight faded from the sky. Some of them, to Elise’s horror, sounded so young. No one was safe tonight.
Anger pinched her face, and she lifted her hand, closing it into a fist as she nodded at the gangsters awaiting her call. Shouts rang out, and Elise braced herself with her gun as the entryway exploded. Several evolved reapers flew back in the blast, but many of them continued forward. Some were on their hands and knees, crawling with missing body parts and their faces half blown off.
Elise’s finger hesitated on the rifle trigger. Already, several gangsters and Saints were firing into the settling dust. She had only so many bullets, and she had even less of Josi’s venom to coat them with. There would be worse as the night went on. Elise intended to save her most brutal arsenal for those who refused to fall.
More reapers filled the courtyard, but the combined efforts of rogues, Saints, and gangsters held them off. Elise watched as bodies piled up around the territory—most of them being members of Karine’s undead army. It was too much. Layla should have found Karine by now and been able to set off the island’s detonation system or at least incapacitate her enough to stop the hordes of reapers leading a bloody attack against them.
She stood and hurried down the stairs to ground level. Themoment she touched down, a faint rumbling started beneath her feet, just a few yards from the entrance of the cathedral. No one else seemed to sense it, but for Elise, the sound was all-consuming. She stopped in her tracks.
“Elise? What’s wrong?” Sterling asked.
Elise was watching the ground. It had begun to shake, finally drawing the attention of her companions. She looked as cracks slithered through the courtyard, finding Jamie standing right at the center of where they met. Elise’s eyes widened. “Jamie—”
Disaster came in the form of the earth falling out from beneath them. Elise threw herself into another unsuspecting gangster while Nicoletta pulled Sterling away from the blow. Those who narrowly managed to avoid the destruction got back to their feet, coughing and waving the dust out of their faces.
A hole had torn open in the heart of the holy ground.
Elise approached the edge of the earth, her vision piercing through the mist of blood from those who had fallen. Countless figures moved below, each and every one of them bearing red eyes and talons that dug into the earth to haul themselves up out of the gaping hole.
Gasping, Elise backed away. She faced Sterling and Nicoletta, who were frantically calling for Jamie nearby. “I have to go to the island. Something is wrong. It should not be taking this long—”
Sterling spoke through breathless devastation and tears. “Elise, you can’t—”
“We’re losing,” she cried. “If I don’t go, we’ll all die.”
After a long beat, Nicoletta gave a sad shake of her head. “One of my men can take you. We have a backup plan.” She reached into her pocket and pulled out a vial of Dr. Gray’s poison. Her eyes softened on Sterling as she lifted his hand to her mouth, sinking her fangs into his wrist for a deep but quick draw of his blood. When she lowered his hand and spoke, scarlet glistened on her lips, “All of us were supposed to make it out. Do not add yourself to the body count.”
Sterling’s fingers curled over hers as he accepted the vial. “Ditto, Roma. Catch you on the other side.” He gave her a soft smile and dumped half of the vial’s contents down his throat before hanging it back to Nicoletta so she could do the same. Sterling turned back to the remaining members of their offense before Elise could see the poison work. His commanding voice trailed off as she faced Nicoletta, whose eyes were beginning to darken with the effects of the toxin. She waved for one of her men nearby, calling to him in Italian.
“Ready?” Nicoletta asked, turning back to Elise. Blood swam in her eyes like snakes and when she smiled, her fangs glinted in the moonlight
Elise nodded. “This ends now.”
