Chapter 39 #2
Josi fisted the fabric of Elise’s pants in her hands. She peered around her legs with wide, fearful eyes, but she did not break Karine’s gaze when she met it. “I won’t go. Not to you and not to the mayor.”
“That is no longer up to you. You are my experiment and now considered a weapon of the state. I hate to open a new age of reaperhood with such a dehumanizing effort, but you understand that some sacrifices must be made, right?” Karine asked.
Her voice was a wicked taunt that made Josi tremble into Elise’s side.
“You keep scaring her and the deal is off,” Layla warned.
“Let us not delay then.” A sinister smile stretched the older reaper’s lips as she pulled the door open.
***
Elise stared directly at a ghost from her past. Dr. Gray stood in the middle of a lab surrounded by expensive equipment and empty exam tables.
She looked up the moment the door swung open, and her hands fumbled on the glass containers she held.
An almost-fearful recognition filled her soft brown eyes, and her lower lip trembled the longer everyone stared.
She looked just like her daughter, Thalia, with her dark hair and determined brown eyes.
Dr. Gray’s brown skin stood out against her lab coat, and the little mannerisms she exhibited while she cleaned up her area and approached the group only made Elise think she was looking at her old friend again.
The sight nearly brought tears to her eyes.
Sterling gasped beside her, his hand coming up to cover his mouth. “Dr. Gray.” It was as if every emotion from his past with Thalia had come rushing back to him. He lowered his shaky hand and gave her a watery smile.
Dr. Gray stopped in front of the group, her eyes straying to Josi. “I am happy to see you’re doing well, Josephine,” she said in a cool voice.
Josi pressed closer to Elise. The little girl’s hand squeezed her older sister’s, and she looked up at Dr. Gray with anguish dampening her eyes.
Karine nodded. She shot a look at Elise. “Make good on your promise and hand her over.”
Elise knew none of this would be permanent. Not if things went well. But she couldn’t help her hesitation, especially as Josi’s fear began to verge on panic. The little girl shook her head, and her eyes welled with tears.
Dr. Gray held a hand up. “It’s best to not scare her. The way the ancient reaper venom interacts with her nervous system can cause incredible emotional dysregulation. Infected with ancient reaper blood and turned without having to die…her blood properties are different—”
“More valuable,” Karine said. She turned away just as Dr. Gray pursed her lips in disapproval. “She is my most expensive investment yet. I want to ensure her good health before you give her my blood to keep her bound to me and me only.”
Elise’s jaw clenched. “Go.” She released Josi and allowed her to go off with Dr. Gray.
For the most part, Josi seemed okay as long as she was within reach of her.
Though apprehension brightened her eyes and stiffened her body, she did not protest when Dr. Gray lifted her onto the examination table.
While Elise had gone over their plan again and again, she still worried about whether Josi could stick to it.
Elise tried to block out the varying reactions around her.
From Layla pulling away and shaking her head, to Sterling coming closer just to grumble something under his breath.
Celie and Jamie both remained frozen in shock a few feet away.
Elise pressed her fingertips to her thighs to keep her hands from shaking.
An assistant emerged from one of the doors at the back of the room.
Without a word, he grabbed Josi from Dr. Gray, preparing to strap her down to the table.
Shrieking, Josi kicked her legs out and tried to pull away from him.
As much as it pained Elise to watch, she could only breathe through the sharp aches in her heart and do nothing.
“Elise,” Sterling warned.
Josi continued to struggle against the medical assistant. He grunted when her knee dug into his sternum, but managed to snap a metal restraint over one of her wrists.
Karine laughed a bit while she spoke to Dr. Gray.
“Ces Américains sont tellement stupides; ils ne considèrent pas la vérité, ou toute autre option. Ils vont juste pour ce qu’ils pensent être la jugulaire.
” Her French was quick and perfect, but Elise understood it all.
What she meant to be a coded language against Elise and her group had been a second tongue for her for many years.
She fought the urge to roll her eyes as she mulled Karine’s words over in her head.
Dr. Gray said nothing, though her assistant barked out a laugh and replied, “Ils abandonnent l’or pur.”
Elise could no longer hold back. Her words came out sharp as she spoke. “Ou, sang, c’est pareil pour toi, non?” she interjected.
Karine’s jaw went slack, her brows shooting up in shock.
Elise continued. “I’ve got no language of my own because my people were taken from their homes and forced to learn your ways, but that doesn’t mean I can’t turn the tongue against you.” She looked at Josi, who had finally stopped struggling and only watched her sister with an expectant gaze.
“Aller pour la jugulaire,” she told her.
Elise turned back and nodded to everyone else, just as Josi lunged for the medical assistant.
She heard the chaos taking place behind her, the snap of her sister breaking free from the metal restraints and the medical assistant’s gurgling screams as Josi tore into his throat. Just as Elise had asked.
***
Karine took off, shrieking for the guards outside.
“We have to go. Now,” Elise said quickly.
Layla did not have time to register everyone’s shocked expressions. All she could do was hope everyone followed suit as Elise grabbed Dr. Gray’s arm and tugged her away from the lab. Alarms began blaring and doors slammed shut, forcing them to a grinding halt.
“Close down the lab and make sure they cannot go anywhere,” another lab assistant breathed to his partner.
Layla looked to the countless imprisoned reapers and humans in the cells. “We have to free them.” She shared a look with Elise, who kept glancing nervously at the door. “Everyone else go. I’ll catch up with you later.”
Elise’s eyes went wide. “Layla, no—”
“I’ll stay and help.” Celie nodded to Layla.
Layla could have cried with relief. “Sterling, cover us from the guards. Jamie, you go with Elise. Make sure Dr. Gray gets out okay. Josi—”
But the littlest Saint was already moving toward the cells and reaching for the chains. Layla gave Elise a reassuring look before her panic could begin. “I’ll keep her safe. Please go.” Relief flooded her tense muscles as the Saint heiress finally took the last exit out with Jamie and Dr. Gray.
The other assistant moved toward Josi, but Sterling pulled a gun out and aimed it right at his chest. “Do not move.”
“I’m just doing my job.” the assistant closest to Josi said shakily. “Please don’t kill me.”
Sterling’s eyes narrowed. “Don’t give me a reason to.”
While the blood drained from the men’s faces, Josi took advantage of their frozen shock and crossed the room to the imprisoned reapers.
She grabbed the Saint steel bars with her bare hands, making Layla wince.
“You’ll hurt yourself,” she gritted out as blood dripped around the reapers’ wrists from the pressure of the Saint metal against their skin.
Josi shook her head. Her hands, still gripping the metal, had yet to see a single mark of suffering from the specialized metal. Before she could begin to pry the bars apart, the chained reaper closest to her shook her head. “We cannot be free. It’s not safe. Not in the water, not off the island.”
Layla tore her gaze away from where Sterling was chasing down guards by the entrance to frown at the reaper. “You’ll die in here.”
“No. Karine wants us to live. She’s connected us to her through blood.” The reaper winced as she looked out the window towards the cloud covered sky. “We’ll die out there.” Other reapers shifted around her, chains tugging at their wounds while they nodded their agreement.
Josi whimpered. “But I want to help—”
“We have to go.” Layla tugged the little Saint up a set of stairs nearby as more guards spilled into the room.
Josi opened her mouth to protest, but gunfire tore their attention away so they could see Celie stumbling up the stairs, her hand pressed to a fresh gunshot wound in her chest. She hissed at the approaching guards holding guns and pulled her hand back.
Blood spilled down her chest, but it slowed as the seconds passed and her wound knit itself back together.
Layla rested a gentle hand on Josi’s shoulder. “Forget your impulse training, Josi. I want you to be your worst self, okay?”
The little girl nodded eagerly. Layla pointed to the lab and the sudden rush of guards closing in around the chaos. “Don’t stop until they cannot come after us. Understand?”
Josi gave her a bright smile. “Understood.”
Layla let her go.
A baby reaper tearing into grown men had to be one of the most glorious things Layla had seen in a while.
She would have stayed and regarded Josi’s carnage for longer if it were not for the sudden blare of emergency alarms and the repeated command to shut the island down.
After shouting at Josi to follow them, Layla pushed Celie out of the room and bolted for the exit.
Several guards, however, had already begun to crowd the entrance to the lab building. Most of them held Saint guns, and they raised them as Layla came to an abrupt halt with Celie by her side.
“This way!” Josi shouted behind them.