Chapter 44 #2
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.