Page 85 of Our Vicious Descent
44
This ends in blood.
Layla’s presence in Hart Island was greeted by a dark laboratory, in which the only sounds were the sea crashing over the salt-slick rocks it sat on and the wind howling over the roof. Every cell that had once held a human or reaper was empty now, save for one in which a sole human crouched beneath shadows in dirtied robes. Though the others’ absence could have meant they were off terrorizing Harlem in their new forms, Layla was glad they would at least know liberation before they died. It was more than most reapers could claim to have experienced in their lifetimes.
The essence of the ancient reaper she had come for washed over Layla before her light footsteps graced her ears. Layla turned, finding Karine standing in the small pool of moonlight being decanted through the high windows around the open entryway. “Your girlfriend will be upset with me after this ends,” she said in a perfectly neutral voice.
At this, Layla almost smiled. “You have no idea.” Elise had come to be so much more than that. From the moment Layla knew she would always be her best friend, to the time when they were both sprawled out on her bedroom floor with blood covering them, to their reunion, to now—their souls were tied together in ways that went beyond just words.
In the quiet of the main room, she closed her eyes and listened for the approaching and receding sounds of the waves outside. It was hard not to imagine Elise’s face and the rest of her clan mates’ faces when they realized Layla would not reunite with the rest of them later. She could still hear the hope in Dr. Gray’s voice now, despite their conversation having taken place the previous night.The lab is full of good research I left behind. Continuation of my and my daughter’s work toward a cure. Preserving it would be wonderful, but the destruction of the evil that shrouds that place would be for the best.
Layla could not help but wonder, when this place did fall, would the wonders within it bloom like corpse flowers? Would the rare treasures of knowledge sink to the ocean floor, not to be discovered for the next hundred years? Would the unsuspecting life residing in the water adapt to the new toxins that overtook their home?
“I know you think what I am doing is pure evil. But with the help of Dr. Gray and Julius, both curious and inventive scientists in their own rights—I have made my body a vessel for greatness. My blood can wake the dead and give life to those who never got to fully live. What can you say for yourself?” Karine said in a low voice.
Slowly, Layla opened her eyes. An ancient reaper faced her withcenturies of anger behind her stormy eyes, and yet Layla had never felt calmer. “No amount of suffering and sacrifice can take from me the great love I have experienced. The difference between you and me is that I am prepared to die for the cause. My cause is her. Your cause is destruction,” Layla said.
Karine’s face fell, but she let out a low chuckle and smiled. “You might be a reaper, but you are still so young. You have no idea the things that could await you in the future if you allowed yourself to be what you were made to become.” Karine leaned forward, clasping her hands behind her back. Her hazel eyes almost glowed in the low light. In them, Layla saw years of ire and pain, something she might never know until she had lived as long as her. “You have not experienced the turmoil and pure humiliation of being owned as a pet. Whenever a human takes a liking to anyone like you or me, it is never with pure intent. I have been forced onto my knees for hours on end, put on the stage as a spectacle while people watched and cheered as my skin burned from my flesh beneath the sun. Even if you have experienced none of that, surely you understand that reapers were never created to be equal with humans. You must never forget that we werecreated, Layla. They made us like this and punish us for it.”
Karine tapped a finger along her jaw. “What does it mean that we did not come from hell but they still curse us and call us demons? If man made us into monsters, then why are we the representations of God’s worst evil? I did not emerge from hell as much as I clawed my way away from it, desperate to live and desperate to love. Perhaps then hell is empty and we are surrounded by the makers of its fires.Forged by their flames of suffering. Ruined because they cannot stand to be alone in their desolation. Humans enact cruelty with no reaperhood in their veins to blame.”
“I just want the cure to turn those who wish to be human back and for all of this to end,” Layla said.
“Since you love humanity so much, then you will face me as a human in a fight,” Karine drawled.
Layla remained standing in the middle of the room, her thoughts racing into oblivion in her head. She had never wished for something—someone—to ground her more than in this moment. Her thoughts circled Elise so much, Layla began to smell that beautifully sweet blood of hers along with her perfume. All parts of her that Layla had memorized consumed her now, and she had to bite down on her lip, drawing her own blood to focus on anything else.
Even that stopped helping. Elise’s scent emerged again, fresh and windswept like the damp rocks outside. Too real to be just a figment of her imagination—
Layla whirled around to see Elise standing in the entryway, carrying her rifle. Despite intruding on a tense moment, Elise still managed a lovesick smile of relief.
Layla bristled. She choked on her own air and stepped closer to Elise. “What are you doing here?”
“I told you, Layla. Laisse-moi mourir en premier,” Elise said firmly.
Layla stopped breathing altogether. “I said no.”
“A lover’s quarrel?” Karine returned one of her hands to behind her back. “It seems unfair to be outnumbered in this fight.” She leaned her head to the side and gave Elise a smile, though it brimmed with cruelty. “Is this what I deserve for destroying your home?”
Elise appeared wounded, the darkness in her eyes increasing in depth, but she said nothing.
“If you love her, you will walk away. Only then will I give her the cure. Allow her to return to the world of the living—to the light. Do not let your emotions ruin such a momentous occasion. Trust that she will survive this fight and emerge after you as a changed woman.” Karine spoke carefully. “But the fight must be between me and her only.”
Layla saw the conflict in Elise’s eyes. Her thoughts fought back and forth against one another, and all Layla could think about was how lucky she was to be loved by someone who stared death in the face with such conviction.
Finally, Elise spoke up again. “And if I don’t walk away?”
Karine did not even hesitate. “I will kill you both.”
Though Layla had been on the other end of death threats and promises time and time again, the finality in Karine’s tone, paired with the true fear shining in Elise’s eyes, made a chill shoot down her spine. She swallowed her rising nerves and gave Elise the most assured look she could manage. “Trust me.”
Elise’s face went blank. It became impossible to tell exactly what she was thinking in the moment, and Layla desperately wished to be able to read her mind if only to know she was not upset with her.With her jaw tight and her eyes downcast, Elise whispered. “You’ve lost every fight against her.”
Layla’s lips parted. “Well, you certainly did not have to bring that up now.”
“You came here to die,” Elise said flatly.
A painful lump rose in Layla’s throat at the sudden emergence of bright anguish in Elise’s eyes. “I cannot live like this, Elise. She’s promised me a cure. But I will not go without neutralizing her first and stopping the chaos back home.” She touched the Saint’s cheek, her finger brushing over a new cut in her skin. Layla kissed Elise and smiled as she tasted Elise’s blood for the last time. “Do you trust me?”
