Chapter 20
With Layla’s venom rushing through her veins and marking her bite wound, Elise felt safer than she should have walking the streets of Harlem alone.
It helped that she had just been ravaged by a reaper experiencing a blood fury and survived.
The wound in her throat still wept, but she did not wrap it, if only to remind herself of the consequences that might occur if she was not careful executing her plans tonight.
At her destination, an elegant brick building loomed above her.
Jazz music, loud and bumping, trailed from behind the walls, its presence so entrancing, it caused a thunderous vibration in the sidewalk outside.
Elise hesitated as she glanced up at the light bursting from the windows.
Being among people had never been easy for her, but since the accident with Charlotte and all that had happened with her family and every party she had attended between those times, she was especially wary of putting herself among drunken socialites.
Danger thrived in places where the music rose to volumes loud enough to drown out screams and people drank enough to be unable to tell their right foot from their left.
Elise couldn’t tell if she had a death sentence or if she was so far buried beneath the guilt of losing Josi that doing anything to find her had become the only choice.
“Are you looking for the Renny?” someone asked nearby. A young Black couple passed by, the man stopping to look at her.
Elise nodded.
The young woman waved a hand toward the building.
“There’s so much to do, you’ll be overwhelmed the moment you walk in, but just remind yourself you can always come back.
” Sparkles lined her eyes, and they fell into the white fur shrug draped over her shoulders.
The sight of her carefully done makeup and nice dance outfit reminded Elise of nights when she would get dressed up and head out with Sterling.
Those times no longer existed, and even with all her efforts to make things right, Elise feared she would never know a sense of normalcy again.
The way people continued to drown the darkness out with alcohol while monsters in plain daylight and nighttime preyed on the vulnerable made Elise’s stomach turn.
She wasn’t sure she could ever fall into their patterns.
A piece of paper flew across the ground, catching on her heel.
Looking down, Elise found her own face staring up at her.
Her face along with crass renderings of Layla, Jamie, and Sterling sat beneath a jarring WANTED.
Elise picked it up and crumpled it in her fist before letting it blow away with the breeze.
As Elise stepped into the Renaissance Ballroom, she was immediately hit with the aroma of sweat and liquor associated with parties these days.
She craved no part of it. Avoiding stray feathers from boas and the long trains of fabric from people’s dresses proved difficult as she weaved her way through the crowds.
The place had been a prime spot for entertainment for years, with a casino, a ballroom, a theater, and a basketball court.
And wherever a crowd gathered, there was bound to be illicit behavior and activities.
Elise knew the Renny was the perfect place for politicians to meet gangsters—or for any illegal opportunities.
She’d also discovered her father frequented the place, though he had never been a dancer or a gambler, unless she counted him betting on others’ lives.
Tonight, however, she hoped not to find him but his previous partners in misdeeds.
Elise made her way to the casino, the best area for deals to take place under the table.
Smoke weaved through the room as she surveilled the various people at each game table.
Some leaned heavily against their seats, weighed down by liquor.
Politicians placed bets on their cards while whispering to gangsters who stood behind them with loaded guns strapped to their bodies.
Money spilled between fingers just as quickly as liquor flowed from cups into mouths.
Elise might have been the most sober person there and reaper venom still wreaked havoc on her system.
She swallowed past a particularly intense wave of heat that radiated from her bite wound.
Every time she blinked for a bit too long, Elise saw flashes of Layla’s eyes, golden and desirous, gazing up at her in the darkness.
She should have let Layla take her—consume every inch of her.
Falling victim to a reaper’s wants only ever felt right when it was Layla’s desires Elise was satisfying.
Her heart pounded so hard, it threatened to bruise her ribs. Elise steadied herself against a nearby table as her vision blurred, and she let out a rough breath to level out her shallow breathing.
“Drink, miss?” asked a server at her elbow.
She waved him off but kept close behind on the path he cleared through the room until she finally caught sight of the figure she’d come here to find.
Karine sat at the edge of a booth just behind a gambling table. A glass of champagne sat between her slender fingers, and she sipped it slowly with one hand while she played with the hair of a young gentleman leaning against her.
Elise approached the table and sat in the empty seat by Karine.
The older reaper turned a surprised look onto her. “Elise Saint. Back from the dead, are you? You must be kept on a leash by that reaper lover of yours,” Karine said in a low voice.
A few people at the table looked around, intrigued, but they continued their game.
From the gun imprints along their waists and ribs, Elise knew they were gangsters, but it wouldn’t surprise her if they still had some sense of loyalty toward the Saint name because of their quiet business with her father.
“Layla has no idea I’m here. She did tell me you would be, though,” Elise replied. She spoke loud enough for only Karine to hear her above the ruckus of the party around them.
Karine lifted an eyebrow. “Oh? And, pray tell, how did you manage to outsmart a reaper?”
“She thinks I’m with my father. He was deeply upset by the way things ended at the mayor’s rally.
He does not appreciate the way his name is plastered everywhere now that I’m wanted by the police.
I knew he would need to be assured that things would be okay, and Layla, of course, knew I had to be the one to tell him that.
He hates you, and he is soon to hate the mayor as well.
It’s been well-documented what my father does to reapers he hates,” Elise said.
She gave the older reaper a cruel smile, remembering just how powerful she had felt when facing Valeriya mere months ago.
Karine swallowed. Her scowl did not let up, but the nervous gleam in her eye and slight quiver of her lip betrayed her tough facade.
“It’s okay to be nervous. I lived under the same roof as him for eighteen years and his temper never got easier to deal with.
” Elise pressed a finger to her lips and reached into her pocket to pull out the vial of venom left behind by the rogue reapers.
“I won’t lie to you, though. Neither Layla nor I have much experience with rogue reapers.
They are, however, unconvinced by your motives.
I have half a mind to tell them just how dangerous you are to other reapers and subsequently let my father punish you. ”
Karine’s eyes narrowed on the vial and the signature bow that tied it together. “You’re far too involved in a place where you do not need to be.”
Elise tightened her grip on the bottle. “You have made your wrath everyone’s problem. I wouldn’t be here if you hadn’t dragged the ones I love into this,” she hissed.
Karine nodded. She lowered her glass and pushed the young man away from her.
Two red dots lined his throat, and Elise felt her own bite mark hum with pain as if in response to the sight of his.
The older reaper smiled, noticing Layla’s mark on her neck.
“I can smell Layla on you. You must enjoy being a patron for her if you can stand being around her for this long.”
Elise’s lips twisted into a frown. “Don’t change the subject.”
“Ma chère, I think I’ll do whatever I want. Your father has brought much ruin to this neighborhood and state,” Karine said. Ice lined her words, and Elise had to fight to roll her eyes at the feigned concern.
“You just got here two months ago. How could you possibly care about Harlem more than me or anyone else who has been here their whole lives?” Elise hissed.
Karine shrugged. “Because I’m French, I cannot care about countries other than my own?”
Elise coughed out a dry laugh. “Not because you’re French, but because you’re an outsider whose only motivation to come here in the first place was because you needed something from us. You have invited nothing but violence into our streets.”
“You wish for peace in Harlem, but you ignore reapers in your pursuit of it. We have been living in hell for longer than you have cared to believe. Reapers deserve liberation from your mortal surveillance at the very least,” Karine said.
Elise’s brows furrowed in concentration. “If I can guarantee you that, you owe me my sister back.”
The reaper studied Elise’s gaze carefully, watching for every minute reaction. “She’s changed, you know. Would you even like the new person she’s become?” Karine asked. The false tenderness in her voice made Elise want to scream.
“I just want her back. In one piece,” Elise ground out.
Karine leaned forward so she could speak more quietly. “Get me the Harlem reaper clan and Josi is yours.”
Elise’s skin prickled at her proximity and the metallic scent of blood still coating her breath. “Do you not already have it?”
“Not with Julius heading the place. Take his life for me, and I’ll return your sister’s intact.” Karine spoke slowly.