Fight For Me

  Copyright © 2015 K. A. Last

  All rights reserved.

  First published in Australia 2015 by

  K. A. Last

  The right of K. A. Last to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her under the Copyright Amendment (Moral Rights) Act 2000.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, or actual events, is purely coincidental.

  This work is copyright. Apart from any use as permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, recorded or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

  K. A. Last

  PO Box 457

  Berowra

  NSW, Australia 2081

  kalastbooks@internode.on.net

  http://www.kalastbooks.com.au

  National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry (ebook)

  Last, K.A., author.

  Fight For Me/K. A. Last.

  ISBN: 9780994217509 (ebook: Kindle)

  Tate chronicles; 2

  For young adults

  Young adult fiction

  Fantasy fiction

  A823.4

  Formatting and cover design by KILA Designs

  http://www.facebook.com/KILAdesigns

  Cover images: Dreamstime® ©Bidouze Stéphane ©Woranan Thongkaemkaeo

  Also by K. A. Last

  Sacrifice – A Fall For Me Prequel (The Tate Chronicles, #0.5)

  Bound (The Tate Chronicles, #0.6)

  Fall For Me (The Tate Chronicles, #1)

  Immagica

  For everyone who has helped along my writing journey: there are too many of you to name, but know that I am grateful for each and every one of you.

  TABLE OF CONTENTS

  PROLOGUE

  ONE

  TWO

  THREE

  FOUR

  FIVE

  SIX

  SEVEN

  EIGHT

  NINE

  TEN

  ELEVEN

  TWELVE

  THIRTEEN

  FOURTEEN

  FIFTEEN

  SIXTEEN

  SEVENTEEN

  EIGHTEEN

  NINETEEN

  TWENTY

  TWENTY-ONE

  TWENTY-TWO

  TWENTY-THREE

  TWENTY-FOUR

  TWENTY-FIVE

  TWENTY-SIX

  TWENTY-SEVEN

  TWENTY-EIGHT

  TWENTY-NINE

  THIRTY

  THIRTY-ONE

  THIRTY-TWO

  THIRTY-THREE

  THIRTY-FOUR

  THIRTY-FIVE

  THIRTY-SIX

  THIRTY-SEVEN

  THIRTY-EIGHT

  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Good things of day begin to droop and drowse,

  Whiles night's black agents to their preys do rouse.

  William Shakespeare – Macbeth, Act III, Scene II

  PROLOGUE

  Seth

  The In-Between

  I tumbled through the darkness, fighting something I couldn’t see. When I tried to unfurl my wings, the scars on my back burned with the painful reminder of what I’d lost. My body twisted, enduring the relentless torture. I stopped. For a moment I was suspended in time, not moving with it or through it. Then everything moved around me, forming a powerful vortex that sucked me further into blackness.

  When I came out the other side, thin tendrils of blue celestial fire bound my wrists and ankles. My feet pressed against a solid sheet of black, and millions of tiny lights filled the sky.

  A beautiful angelic face—one I’d come to loathe—split the darkness. Her laughter echoed around us before falling away into nothing. Angelica stood before me, dressed in her impractical white linen. She emanated light and glory.

  “I’m going to haveso much fun with you,” she said, a sweet smile touching her lips.

  I didn’t answer. I didn’t want to give her the satisfaction. Instead, I held her pale blue gaze for a moment, before turning away and staring at the floating lights.

  “Pretty, aren’t they?” Angelica said.

  “Where are we?” I asked, attempting to hide the fear in my voice. For the first time since I’d renounced my god and fallen from Heaven, I was scared. Not of Angelica, but of what she could do to me, and to those I loved.

  “I think you know where we are. In a place you should have been a long time ago … Be thankful you’re not still in here.” She held up my creation ring—an angel’s wing swept around the black onyx stone at the centre. A trace of blood marred the silver band.

  “Why did you strip me?”

  Angelica sniggered, and closed her fist around the ring. “You got in my way,” she said. “And you stripped one of my closest friends.”

  “Then why didn’t you bind me and send me into oblivion with the others?” I concentrated on the lights bobbing in the darkness.

  “Oh, don’t worry, I did bind you. But now I need you to do something for me.”

  “You’re letting me go?”

  “Not exactly. Everything comes with a price; you should know that by now.”

  I clenched my fists in an attempt to control my anger. I’d almost forgotten how infuriating Angelica could be. Even when we were on the same side, when we’d been friends so long ago, she’d still annoyed me.

  “What. Do. You. Want?” I struggled against my restraints.

  Angelica walked towards me and didn’t stop until our noses almost touched. “I want you to get me that ring. You’re the only one who can free her.”

  “No chance,” I said.

  “Then your friends will pay.”

  Angelica conjured an orb of white light. She balanced it on her fingertips, twirled it until it got bigger and flattened out. With both hands, she moulded it roughly into a square, and with a flick of her wrist the makeshift screen stuck itself to the blackness, like a magnet. The kitchen of a terrace house came into focus. The place was a mess. Upturned chairs littered the floor. The table had been split, and the lounge slashed. Blood stained the walls. Angelica twirled her finger again, and the picture rewound, like an old VHS tape. I leant forward, staring at the moving image.

  Charlotte and Josh battled with Angelica and some other angels I’d never met.

  Angelica won.

  Charlotte managed to flee, but Josh lay crumpled in a heap at Angelica’s feet. If it had have been anyone else, maybe I’d feel sorry for him, but Josh was one of my least favourite people.

  “Is he dead?” I asked.

  “Not yet,” Angelica said, smiling.

  She clicked her fingers and Josh appeared beside me, like she’d shone a stage light on him. Celestial fire also bound his wrists and ankles.

  He glowered at me.

  The feeling was mutual.

  Before we had time to verbally rip shreds off each other, Angelica conjured another orb. She hurled it at Josh and it landed in his chest, penetrating his body until it filled him with light. When the light went out, Josh was gone.

  “What have you done to him?” I searched the darkness, but all I saw were the floating lights of fallen souls.

  “Watch.” Angelica pointed to the screen.

  Josh lay on the side of a busy highway. A familiar huge steel bridge loomed over him. It had been a while since I’d stepped foot in Wide Island City.

  Angelica clicked her fingers again and the screen fell away, breaking into glass-like shards before disappearing int
o the darkness.

  “What did you do?” I gritted my teeth.

  Angelica shrugged. “He no longer has any memory of anything that occurred in the past. Only his future is waiting for him. And think of the destruction he can cause, now he doesn’t know who he is.”

  “You are unbelievable,” I said. “You’re supposed to be one of the good guys.”

  She laughed. “The time will come when I’ll need you to unlock Annie’s ring. Then, and only then, will I restore Josh’s memory. You’ll be staying here until then.”

  “What if I couldn’t care less if he remembers anything?” I said.

  “Then I will spend the rest of my existence making Grace’s existence a living hell.”

  I was beginning to understand where all this was coming from, but I wanted Angelica to admit it. I took a deep breath and stood perfectly still, levelling my stare with hers. Then I attempted to get inside her head, and discover what was really going on. Her block was strong. She walked back to me and smiled her sickly sweet smile.

  “What do you really want?” I asked. There had to be more to it than unlocking Annie’s ring. She needed me for something else, the desperation in her eyes proved it.

  “I want you to suffer,” she whispered.

  “Why?” I yelled, making her flinch and step back. “Because I protected her? Because we almost defeated you?”

  Angelica threw her head back and laughed. Her shoulders shook and she spread her arms wide. “Do not be fooled into thinking you could ever defeat me.”

  “Then why?” I asked again.

  We stared each other down, neither of us wanting to be the first to look away. This time, I shoved my way inside her head, but she pushed me out with enough force to rock me on my feet.

  “It’s Grace, isn’t it?” I finally asked. “Why do you despise her so much? What did she ever do to you?”

  Angelica smiled. “It’s actually your fault, really. I hate her because you love her.”

  FOUR MONTHS LATER

  ONE

  Josh

  Early Thursday morning

  Lilith found me in a ditch on the side of the highway, covered in filth and soaked with rain. I should’ve been dead. Actually, I was dead, just not in the conventional way.

  I don’t remember becoming a vampire, and I can’t recall anything before Lilith. She seems to think I have amnesia by choice, but why would anyone want to forget who they are? When your memories are screwed, what do you live for? How do you go on when you don’t know if there’s anyone out there looking for you?

  The driver’s licence in my pocket told me my name was Joshua David Chase. My eighteenth birthday was a little over a month away, so I was forever frozen at seventeen. I came from the small country town of Flats End near Hopetown Valley, but what I was doing so far from home was a mystery. The only other things I’d had, apart from the clothes on my back, were my phone and a silver ring. On the inside of the band was an inscription, one word: Grace. I couldn’t remember anyone called Grace. I couldn’t remember anyone at all.

  I’ve called Wide Island City home for about four months, and I was glad to have Lilith show me the ropes. She’d taught me everything I knew about my kind. Who would’ve thought there would be so many rules when it came to being a vampire? She knows where to go, who to talk to and who to eat. When your food source walks around on two legs you kind of have to keep a low profile.

  Vampires are killers, and I know that’s what we’re designed to do—it’s how we survive—but each time I take a life it’s like I lose a piece of myself. Lilith thinks that’s crazy; we’re made to drink human blood. We’re creatures of the night, your worst nightmare, like Freddy Krueger only prettier.

  Lilith gets a kick out of tormenting her subjects, but watching her do it makes me feel sick. The taste and smell of human blood is undeniably enticing, and when the frenzy takes over nothing else matters. You’re in the moment, thinking it’s so good you can’t possibly get enough, but when you come out the other side, the blood leaves a foul aftertaste in your mouth—the taste of death.

  From my seat on an alcove step halfway down a deserted lane, I watched as Lilith’s long raven hair fell over her face. She had one thick, crimson streak in her fringe, as red as fresh blood. If I didn’t have vampire eyes, the rest of her would have been hard to see in the dim light. Dressed entirely in black, she blended into the night.

  Lilith knelt beside her latest victim, a pretty blonde girl, probably about sixteen, and lowered her lips to the bare skin of her neck. The girl’s eyes glittered under the moonlight, awash with terror. For a second I was excited, perched on the edge of the step, mesmerised by the scene before me. The girl screamed, splitting the night air and tearing me out of my trance.

  Disgust engulfed me.

  No one would come to help, even if they did hear her. In the city so many people surround you, but you’re in fact completely alone.

  Lilith laughed. Blood so dark it was almost black stained her lips, and I shuddered as it trickled down her chin. In that moment I hated her, and myself. I hated that she was all I had, and that she was all that I could remember.

  “How does this not bother you?” I jumped up from the step.

  “Josh, honey, don’t get so worked up. What does it matter now, anyway? She’s dead.” Lilith stood and dropped the girl, whose head hit the asphalt with a thud.

  I cringed and said, “Someone somewhere is going to miss her.”

  “Come on, baby, don’t start with that again.”

  Lilith reached out and took my hand. She twirled herself in front of me and spun into my chest. We danced a few steps, face to face, down the lane. Lilith was tall; her long hair fell past her shoulders and her skin was pale, almost white. Her eyes were dark and haunted, accentuated by the eyeliner she applied every day. A small diamond stud twinkled in her nose, and a simple black velvet choker with a tear-shaped ruby hanging from the centre adorned her neck. A pink flush crept into her cheeks.

  “Don’t you get it?” she said. “We can do whatever we like. We are more powerful than any of them out there.”

  Lilith used to make the rules—not that everyone followed them—and she had been the leader of the city vamps for a long time. But I soon learnt that I’d stumbled into some sort of war. There was one vamp in particular I couldn’t quite get my head around. He’d had a good shot at killing me once, but Lilith had gotten in his way.

  Lucas was another of the city leaders. He and Lilith had some sort of history, but she never let on what it was. She never told me much of anything, really. Sometimes she was too secretive.

  Lilith pressed her body against me then pulled back and ran her hands up my chest and over my shoulders. Unable to resist her, I nipped her on the neck and pulled her to me. She moaned as I ran my tongue over her smooth skin, finding her mouth. Her kisses were always intense, and I licked the points of her fangs. With vampire speed I pushed her up against the wall of the building, and she giggled. Lilith liked to play rough.

  Amidst the passion and the heat, there hung a sadness I couldn’t shake. Right then, Lilith was everything to me, but there had to be more to my existence than killing the homeless and the runaways. There had to be more to life than hiding out in abandoned buildings by day, and roaming the city streets by night.

  “We should move on.” I pulled away. She leant against the wall and sucked her bottom lip, her hair awry and her mouth smeared with blood. “If we stay still too long, they’ll find us.” Other vampires were not the only things we had to contend with.

  The buildings around us muffled Lilith’s laugh. “They don’t scare me, Josh. They make it more interesting.”

  The angels and the hunters we were running from—although Lilith wouldn’t call it running; more like avoiding—had been on us most of the time we’d been together. I wished they would leave us alone.

  I watched Lilith for a moment as she headed down the lane, away from the city noise. I didn’t know how old she was, but she look
ed around nineteen.

  With one last glance at the dead girl on the ground, I followed Lilith up a rickety fire escape and onto the roof of an abandoned warehouse. When I looked over my shoulder, I caught a quick glimpse of something in the lane below—a flash of white.

  The girl had been following us for a while, but no matter how hard I tried I could never catch sight of her face. I paused to stare at the spot where I thought I’d seen her, and willed her to come back into view.

  “What’s the matter, baby?” Lilith came to my side and peered over the edge of the building.

  “It’s nothing.” I took her hand and led her across the roof.

  The arch of the steel city bridge loomed in the distance, and the night darkened as the moon tucked itself behind a cloud. We were in the bad part of town where everything was either rusty, broken or beginning to fall down. It was the way we liked it, though—so many places to hide with no chance of being discovered.

  “We need to get you something to eat,” Lilith said. “Sorry I didn’t leave you any. She tasted too good.”

  I leapt over the next laneway onto the opposite roof, watching as Lilith did the same. She soared gracefully through the air and landed beside me.

  My phone vibrated in my pocket, and I pulled it out. The name ‘Dad’ flashed on the illuminated screen. I couldn’t even remember my own father. The first few times he’d called after Lilith found me, I’d answered in the hope it would spark a memory. I’d gotten nothing. The sound of his voice was like any other human’s. I’d pretended I was okay so he would leave me alone. After a while, I stopped answering. Our conversations never amounted to anything, so I didn’t see the point. I hit end and shoved the phone into my pocket.

  “Your father again?” Lilith asked. “And you still don’t remember?”

  I moved away from her and ran the length of the roof then dropped to the ground. I wasn’t in the mood for the you-must-remember-something lecture. A tall chain-wire fence stood across the small city back street, and I climbed up and over it with ease. Lilith fell into step beside me.