Our Vicious Descent, page 37
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 with centuries 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 were created, 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?”
Elise nodded without hesitation.
Layla dropped her hand, giving her one final smile. “Then go.”
The Saint turned and began to walk back out of the room.
***
Layla watched Elise leave. She took with her all sense of hope and security. Watching her removed every self-preservation instinct Layla had. She had underestimated just how much it would devastate her—Elise Saint turning her back on her.
A thick, bittersweet scent filled the air. When Layla whirled to face Karine, she found the ancient reaper holding a vial of a dark purple substance. Karine bent to roll it across the floor toward Layla, who picked it up once it hit the toe of her boot. She took the full dose in one swallow. Just the taste had Layla hunching over. The ancient reaper smiled through her pain, watching Layla with calculating eyes.
The following sensations took over so quickly, Layla had no time to process having just been poisoned. Its essence was too similar to the bittersweet drug that Stephen had been developing off Thalia Gray’s research all those months ago. The same thing Layla had put all her trust into. From the beginning of the investigation with Elise, when she had still been driven by hate and a darkness only the worst knew, to now, when having her priorities shifted by one person had given her a completely new outlook.
Already, the cure worked in a different way from anything else Layla had been infected with. Her body tensed at first before it slowly relaxed, inch by inch. Her nervous system, once on constant high alert, faded into a passive voice in her body. Any thoughts of blood became more repulsive than necessary cravings. When she ran her tongue over her teeth and felt normal human incisors and flat molars, tears sprang into her eyes.
Above all the other changes to her once-damned body, the thing Layla clung to was the levity. She had not felt this light in years.
There had never been anything as beautiful as her newfound humanity. Layla was almost positive she could die happy in this state. Almost. There was still something missing—a piece of her that she had found only in reaperhood, something she had assumed she would never deserve because of her damned soul.
Her heart pounded more intensely than it had in years, but it did not match the rush of devotion she felt whenever she had Elise by her side.
Layla dropped her hands, noticing the warm blood pulsing in her veins. Once Elise popped into her head, the realization of her new humanity became a dull, secondary thing. It was nothing if she could not share it with the one she loved the most.
With her senses dulled and largely inefficient in comparison to her reaper ones, Layla could concentrate only on what was right in front of her. Her heart skipped a beat when she faced the doorway again and prayed to find the pale outline of Elise.
***
Elise liked to believe she knew better, but her heart always got the best of her. Life-or-death situations had never taught her anything different. Historically, she was not the prime example of self-preservation. So, when she turned away from Layla, Elise could only listen to the voice screaming at her to turn back.
She had never been good at listening to voices compelling her. Especially when they involved Layla. The first one being her father, begging her to forget the girl of her childhood. As if Elise could tear the roots that had grown around the ones that threaded through her life. The second voice being her own when Layla came back into her life in the form of a death-kissed reaper. Elise had wanted to curse herself a few times for falling back into the hopeless depth of feelings stirred up by Layla. Now they were a blessing and something that had kept her going through countless tribulations over the past few weeks. Turning away from Layla had been a choice. The wrong choice.
The only altar Elise promised her devotion to was one that had her facing the other half of her soul.
Some might have called it madness; Elise could only see it as love.
She turned around.
First, Elise locked eyes with Layla, whose expression displayed several breathtaking emotions. There was hope intermingled with relief and pure adoration. All things Elise had found devastatingly beautiful on her, all things Elise knew she deserved.
But then Elise’s eyes found Karine and the taloned hand she held poised for Layla. It had been raised for a while now, as if she was hoping Elise would have turned back for her. But she knew the reaper had always planned to end things this way.
As a human, Elise was not fast enough. She never would have been. But she still tried. Elise lifted her gun and fired it at the lone human crouching in the locked cell. The bullet reached her a split second after Karine’s talons sank into Layla’s back. Blood sprayed between them. It landed on Elise’s face and chest first, seeping into her mouth before Layla stumbled. Elise caught her as she fell. Her knees hit the floor, and she cradled Layla against her while numbness overtook every part of her body. The only thing she felt was Layla’s blood pooling around them, warm and wrong.
Karine cursed and crumpled on top of them just moments after her human anchor fell. The laced bullet would never have pierced Karine’s evolved body, but it had torn through her human anchor’s flesh like a blade through thin ice. Any activity tethered to her blood was poisoned now, a dying war that would end with Karine’s waning ancient strength. She grabbed for Layla with trembling arms, but Layla spat a mouthful of blood into her face, stopping her. With a taste of Layla’s tainted blood in her mouth, the ancient reaper finally reared back and collapsed, all color leaking from her gaze until cloudy white eyes stared, empty, at the ceiling.
Elise tried to turn Layla over in her arms to see the wound on her back, but Layla whimpered, her teeth gritting together. “Don’t.”
“You’re not healing.” Elise allowed Layla to settle back against her chest, her own rising and falling rapidly. “Layla—”
“It worked, Lise,” Layla said softly. All the strength behind her words had gone, but Elise recognized the tinge of joy. “The cure worked.” Layla clasped Elise’s hand in hers and stared up at her with tear-filled eyes. “You see me now. I’m back.”
Human again.
“I’ve always seen you, Layla,” Elise said, her voice breaking.
Layla did not have to say the words for Elise to know what this all meant. The amount of blood pouring from her wound was impossible for a human to survive. But the relief in Layla’s eyes prevented Elise from cursing it immediately. She would have bled for Layla for an eternity if she could have. If Layla had asked her to. This was not how things were supposed to end, with Layla bleeding out on the floor, with only broken possibilities remaining between them.
While the background fell away behind her, Elise heard faint explosions starting in the distance. The building began to shake around them, debris falling from the ceiling.
Layla’s eyes widened, and she tried to sit up, but her body tensed with pain again, keeping her in Elise’s embrace. She hissed through crimson-coated teeth. “You have to go now.”
“No,” Elise ground out. Alarms started around them, but she kept her focus on Layla, sharp and unyielding. “We go together.”
Layla shook her head. “I will only slow you down…” Realization crossed her face. “Elise. Elise, no—”
Elise nodded. Tears filled her eyes, and before she could process the emotion threatening to choke her, words were spilling out. “We share blood now, Layla. I made you a promise. I am not leaving you. So, either you get up and walk out of here with me and we go home and continue our lives together. Or we go. Together.”
Though tears streaked Layla’s face now, she still managed a watery smile and a gentle nod. “Okay.” Her hand tightened on Elise’s as the ground beneath them shook. “When we get home, we’re going everywhere. I’ve always wanted to go to France. I want you to take me to every stage you imagined yourself playing the piano on. And I want to see where you used to spend your time when we were apart.”
Elise no longer fought her tears. They flowed freely down her cheeks, splashing onto Layla’s blood and now the debris from the shaking walls around them. “That’s a lot of places, Layla.”
“I want to see everything with you, Elise,” Layla whispered. Blood covered her teeth. She coughed, and more of it spilled from her mouth. Her grip grew weak around Elise’s hand, but she kept her eyes on her, even as the light dimmed from the once-radiant brown.
Elise’s breath hitched. She leaned forward to cup Layla’s cheek as her head lolled backward. Her vision blurred with tears, but she blinked past them to find Layla’s eyes on her again. “Please stay, Layla. I can’t do this without you. I don’t want to live without you.”
Layla’s voice came out as a whisper against her cheek. “I’ll find you again. I wish we’d had more time. In another lifetime, I would show you my heart sooner. There’s so much of you in my heart, Elise…” Her hand fell from Elise’s.
Elise pressed her forehead to Layla’s as her final breath passed between them.
Even with Layla’s body in her arms now, Elise could think only of every moment that had brought them here together. From two smiling little girls to death and death’s angel. Life had taken them through tragedy after tragedy, never leaving Elise with any clear explanation for any part of it. There had only ever been one thing she was sure of.
So, as the explosions began around her, Elise pulled Layla closer to her heart and let the fire consume them both.
Epilogue
Dear Josephine,
My dove, I am endlessly proud of who you have grown into. Before anything else, I want you to know that I love you and always will. Nothing will change that, even if I am not around.
Love, I have found, does not just vanish. Even if it is overtaken by hate, love still exists. And even in death, when you lose someone, the love you have for them does not leave you.
I’m just ashes in your life now, but I hope to be remembered as something that brings you light and joy. Because it’s what you deserve. Please be happy. Things have changed irrevocably, but you will learn to navigate the changes. It will take time, but I promise you, things will get better.
Still, please let yourself feel everything. Allow the rage and the sadness and the pain. And when you start to see the light again, let yourself feel that too.
Here you can find my last words to you, and I write only the most important things for you to remember. Even when I am not with you, I am with you.
Always.
Elise
***
Josi lowered the letter and glared at the two headstones before her. She felt stupid, leaving flowers on top of empty graves every year, but she did it anyway, knowing the gesture meant more to Sterling than it would have meant to any lingering ghosts.
“It never makes me feel any better,” Josi mumbled as she tucked the letter into her coat pocket. It had grown worn over the past few years, with some of the ink smudged from her tears and the wrinkles starting to give way to full rips.
Sterling gave her a gentle look, his hands in his pockets. He had left a few roses scattered across Layla’s grave while a neat bouquet rested atop Elise’s. Josi knew why he did it; the roses spread out looked like a dancer’s paradise after a successful performance. Layla’s dancing was the only thing he truly knew about her. It was admittedly a creatively kind gesture, but Josi found that most things no longer impressed her these days. Not much made her feel anymore.
