Fight For Me

by K. A. Last

  “I don’t need you to remind me how screwed up everything is,” Lilith said.

  I ran a hand through my hair. “What the hell are you talking about? Would one of you please give me an answer that doesn’t involve a riddle? Assume I’m stupid and spell it out for me.”

  “I told you, the truth won’t change anything,” Lilith said.

  Anger boiled inside me to the point where it exploded, and I launched off the couch into a backflip and landed behind Lilith. I locked my arm around her neck and pulled her against my chest.

  “If you say that one more time, I will kill you.”

  “That wouldn’t be the best idea,” Charlotte said. “You’ll make Lucas very angry.”

  “Big deal. He’s already out to get me.” I loosened my hold on Lilith. She pushed me away but didn’t leave my side.

  “Maybe we can talk him around,” Lilith said.

  Charlotte laughed. “You can’t talk to Lucas. You can’t trust him, either. No one knows him like I do. He has a plan, and it doesn’t involve letting any of us go.” She concentrated on Lilith, and her eyes narrowed. “Why do you want to protect Josh?” she asked. “You don’t agree with what Lucas wants to do?”

  “What exactly is Lucas planning?” I asked.

  Lilith ignored me and went around the couch to face Charlotte. “No, I don’t agree with it. But you already know that, what with your mind-reading skills.”

  “You can read minds?” I asked. “As if.”

  Lilith scowled before she continued. “I think Lucas has gone mad. I like this city the way it is. It was my city, until you came along and ruined everything. I was the one with the power. Those are my vamps he’s leading down there, so no. I don’t think what he’s doing will benefit anyone except him.”

  Charlotte put her hands on her hips. “You don’t want to walk in the sun? I find that hard to believe.”

  “Then look inside my head! You know it’s true. It’s not the way it’s supposed to be,” Lilith said.

  “Most vampires would give anything to be able to walk around during the day.”

  “What are you talking about?” I said. “Would one of you look at me and tell me what’s going on?”

  Charlotte glanced from Lilith to me, and back again. “Have you told him nothing?”

  “I’m trying to protect him.” Lilith scowled.

  “Using my blood, Lucas plans to build an army of vamps who can walk in the sun,” Charlotte said. “And the only thing Lilith and I agree on is that it’s a bad idea.”

  Lilith clenched her fists. “Walking in the sunlight would be wonderful, but not if every vampire in this city could do it. Imagine this place after a few years. There’d be no humans left. If we could take them when we wanted, where we wanted, how long do you think it would be before our food supply dried up? Word would spread about Wide Island. No one new would come here, and we’d be out in the open, myth thrust harshly into the spotlight of reality. Then what? The city would be taken under siege. Humans would try to destroy Wide Island, and everything in it. We could leave, and take over other cities, but what good would that do? Imagine a world populated with nothing but vampires. We’d turn on each other because we’d be mad with thirst. We turn on each other enough as it is without making the problem worse.”

  I stared at the two most frightening women I’d ever met. They were both right. What vamp wouldn’t want to go outside during the day? But Lilith seemed to have her head screwed on when it came to the future. No humans meant no food. A city populated entirely with vampires, going mad from starvation. I didn’t particularly want to witness that, or be one of the starving.

  “Lucas would say you think too much,” Charlotte said.

  I snorted. “Funny. Lilith tells me the same thing.”

  “You do think too much,” Lilith said. “And Lucas doesn’t think enough.”

  “Since when do you care about people?” I asked.

  “I don’t. I care about myself, and the survival of my kind. If Lucas gets hold of Charlotte, she can supply them with enough blood to dose up an army,” Lilith said. “They’d string her up and bleed her continuously to maintain their power.”

  “The only problem is, if a vamp has too much of my blood, the effect can be permanent.” Charlotte tilted her head slightly and stared through me.

  The thought of anyone doing anything to harm her made my blood boil. I couldn’t explain it. It was like a protective urge came over me at the mention of harming Charlotte.

  “It’s because we’re connected,” she said.

  “I didn’t say anything out loud.”

  “You didn’t have to. She read your mind.” Lilith moved to my side. “Once you know, you get used to it. I have lots of fun telling her where to go in my head.”

  I massaged my temples with my fingers. “You know each other better than either of you led me to believe.”

  “We have history.” Lilith smirked. “And most of it isn’t very nice.”

  I looked from one girl to the other, then at my wrist. The crescent-shaped scar taunted me. Charlotte had told me she used to be an angel, or still was one, or something. She had to be part angel if she could go outside. But she hadn’t answered my other questions. How did she know me, and did she know my creator?

  My gaze rested on Charlotte.

  “You have the urge to protect me for a reason,” Charlotte said. “I wouldn’t know where your scar was if I didn’t know you.”

  “You’re my creator?”

  Charlotte nodded. “And Lilith is Lucas’s. We’re all one big happy family.”

  “Which leads us back to the real problem here,” Lilith said. “As much as I hate you, I don’t want Lucas to have you. He can’t execute this plan. I won’t let him take my city. Of course, I could try to kill you, but we both know I’d come off second best.”

  “Yes, you would. And no matter what happens, the hunters would keep it under control,” Charlotte said.

  Lilith’s shrill laugh reverberated around the room. “Look what happened to the last hunters.”

  “Hunters?” I remembered what Charlotte had said about the girl called Grace, who I was apparently in love with. The girl whose name was engraved on the inside of the ring I wore on my right hand, and who had called me several times.

  “Grace called you?” Charlotte asked. “And you didn’t talk to her?”

  “Stop doing that, it’s freaking me out. And no, I didn’t talk to her. I don’t remember her.”

  “Who is Grace?” Lilith asked, glaring at me.

  “How many times did she call?” Charlotte asked, ignoring Lilith.

  I shrugged. “I don’t know, a few, maybe.”

  “Have you listened to those messages?” Charlotte asked.

  “Why? What’s the point?”

  Charlotte stepped towards me. “Because even if you can’t remember Grace, I can, and after the last time you two saw each other, there would have to be a very good reason for her to be calling you.”

  I fished my phone from the pocket of my jeans and swiped the screen. The tone rang through to my voicemail. “You have twenty-seven new messages.”

  Charlotte gave me a questioning look.

  “My dad keeps calling me.” I deleted the first lot of messages that were all from him then put the phone back to my ear. “At first I talked to him, then I …”

  I stopped at the sound of the voice that travelled through the phone. I remembered it from the first message I’d listened to. It was beautiful, and it stirred something in me, making me more and more frustrated with every word she said. I wanted to crush the phone in my hand and hurl it across the room. Why couldn’t I remember? Surely if I were in love with someone who had the voice of an angel—who apparently was an angel—I’d remember.

  Grace’s last message said she was worried, she missed me and she was going to come and see me. I ended the call and looked at Charlotte.

  “When was that call made?” she asked.

  “Yesterday a
fternoon.”

  “Then she’s probably already here. We need to find her.”

  “Why? What good will it do if I don’t remember her?” I asked.

  “It doesn’t matter if you don’t remember,” Charlotte said. “What matters is that she’s coming to look for you. She can help us fight Lucas.”

  “She’s your ex, isn’t she?” Lilith folded her arms over her ample chest, a look of pure hatred on her face.

  “So what if she is? I don’t remember her,” I said.

  “She better not get in my way.”

  Charlotte laughed. “It’s you who’d better not get in her way. Grace is a very good hunter.” She headed towards the front door and looked back over her shoulder.

  “I know someone else who used to be a good hunter,” Lilith said.

  “What does that mean?” I asked.

  Lilith stared at me but didn’t answer.

  I followed Charlotte. For a moment, I didn’t care if Lilith wanted to come or not. She obviously wasn’t who I’d thought she was, and I didn’t know her well enough to trust her. Which made me ask myself, would there ever be a vampire I could trust?

  I didn’t think so.

  There was so much I didn’t know, and it seemed Charlotte had at least some of the answers, even if she wasn’t being straight with me. Lucas wanted us to take her to him, and Charlotte seemed willing to try and stop him. It looked like we’d both get what we wanted. I wanted to be free of Lucas, but maybe Charlotte was right. Maybe even if I did what he asked, it wouldn’t make a difference. All I cared about was remembering my past, and if that involved looking for some girl called Grace, then I’d do it. I was tired of walking around not knowing who I was.

  “So you’re coming with us?” Charlotte turned to Lilith.

  “That depends,” Lilith said. “What’s in it for me?”

  “I won’t kill you.”

  Lilith scowled, and from the look in Charlotte’s eyes, I didn’t doubt for one second she’d kill whoever tried to get in her way.

  FOURTEEN

  Grace

  Saturday night

  We needed the sun to be entirely down before heading out. I didn’t want our informant bursting into flames the moment we walked out the door. He was no good to us dead. After manhandling the vamp downstairs and securing him to a chair with a heavy chain Archer had found in the garage, we cleaned the house up while we waited.

  The dining table wasn’t salvageable. We put it against the wall and stacked the chairs in front of it. I scrubbed the blood-stain on the wall to take my mind off Josh’s room upstairs. I had memories of that room I’d rather forget, because as good as they were, everything that happened afterwards tainted them with sadness and regret. Giving myself to him had been amazing—at the time—but being with Josh sat at the top of the list of stupid things I’d done, right beside becoming a fallen angel.

  “I don’t think it’s going to come off.” Archer placed his hand over mine and gently pulled it away from the wall.

  “I hate looking at it.”

  “What happened between you and Josh, Gracie?”

  “I don’t want to talk about it. And don’t you dare force me to,” I said.

  I was good at blocking Archer from my thoughts. He hated that I did it sometimes, but there were some things I didn’t want to share with him. Our link was supposed to help us in battle, not screen the soap opera of our lives.

  “Should we make this our base?” Ryan asked. I loved how he knew when a change of subject was needed.

  “We’ll have to be careful,” I said, glancing at the vamp chained to the chair. “They were guards. If they don’t check in, more will come. I’ll get our stuff.”

  I left Archer and Ryan to watch vamp boy and went out to the car. A yellow glow from the lampposts filled the street. The rain had stopped, but patchy clouds covered the dark sky.

  When I reached into the back of the car to grab our bags, my necklace fell free from my top. The diamond tear swung like a pendulum, glinting under the streetlights. I grabbed it and tucked it away. Seth was the last person I wanted to think about. I needed to concentrate, but it was hard when the image of him standing on the forest path wouldn’t leave me alone.

  The hairs on my neck prickled, and I glanced down the street. A few cars went past, and people came and went on their way to wherever it was they were going. A figure stood at the mouth of the next lane that separated the blocks of terrace houses.

  I froze.

  Not again. I took a step around the car, trying to make out the person’s face in the dark. When I reached the front of the Defender a group of people came out of the first terrace in the row. They passed the figure standing in the shadows, obscuring him from view. When they’d moved along enough for me to see, he was gone.

  It couldn’t be Seth. Angelica had him locked up.

  I returned to the back of the car and fished Annie’s ring from the velvet pouch in my pocket. Her soul moved around inside the tiger’s eye, bouncing off the edges like a pinball. Usually she was a lot calmer.

  “What’s wrong?” Talking to the ring was something I did on occasion. I wasn’t sure if Annie could hear me, but I guessed it didn’t really matter. I cupped the ring in my palm and held it at chest height. “Do you know what’s happening?” The light swirled around inside the stone. “Who am I kidding? You probably know everything that’s happening. Why am I seeing Seth?”

  “Talking to yourself again?” Archer stood in the doorway to the terrace.

  I jumped and dropped the ring. It made a clink as it hit the ground, rolling behind the rear wheel of the car. I was grateful I hadn’t parked next to a drain.

  Archer chuckled. “Why so tetchy?”

  I dropped to my hands and knees, the rough bitumen digging into my skin through my jeans, and retrieved Annie’s ring. “I think I saw Seth again.”

  Archer stepped onto the footpath and glanced in both directions along the street. “Nope. No Seth.”

  “I’m not crazy.”

  “I know.” Archer came to the car and shouldered one of the bags. “Were you asking Annie about Seth?”

  I grabbed the suitcase and a backpack before slamming the back door of the Defender. “Maybe.”

  “And you think she can hear you?”

  “I don’t know.” I shoved the backpack into his arms. “It’s possible.”

  “What are you going to do with her?” Archer followed me into the house and along the hall.

  “Set her free,” I said. “Seth will know how.”

  We stopped in the kitchen and I let the suitcase drop to the floor. The mention of Seth again stirred all sorts of feelings inside me, and I looked at my hands. Ryan took the bags, and busied himself with sorting out the arsenal.

  “What are we doing here, Gracie?” Archer asked.

  “I don’t know what you mean.”

  “You know exactly what I mean.” Archer rested his hands on the bench. “You need to choose.”

  “I don’t want to.” I picked at my fingernails.

  “I don’t care if you don’t want to. There are a lot of things we don’t want to do. But this … this you have to do.”

  “How, Arch? I don’t know how.” A tear slipped from the corner of my eye and I swatted it away.

  “That’s something you need to work out. But you can’t keep going on like this. You love both of them—I get it. But you can’t have both. So what’s it going to be? Are we on this search for Josh because we’re taking him home, or are you going to break his heart again?”

  I stared at my brother, overwhelmed by how much I could hate him and love him at the same time. He hated Seth. Archer had seen how much hate I had directed at Seth over the years, and it had rubbed off on him. I had a very overprotective brother, and whether I liked it or not he was right. I did have to choose, but I wasn’t going to do it standing in the kitchen of Charlotte’s house with bloodstains on the walls, and a vamp in chains giving me the evil eye.

  �
�Are we going any time soon?” the vamp asked. “These chains are really heavy.”

  “I will choose,” I said to Archer, ignoring the vamp. “But you have to let me do it my own way.”

  Archer shook his head and pulled me into a tight hug. “What am I going to do with you, Gracie?”

  I pressed my forehead to his chest and took a deep breath, squeezing my eyes closed to hold back the tears. Archer rubbed my back before letting go and inspecting the weapons Ryan had lined up on the marble bench top.

  “Let’s concentrate on getting both of them back first.” Ryan handed me a dagger. “Then maybe it will be easier.”

  If only having them standing in front of me would make the situation easier. I was determined to find both my boys, but in my heart I’d already decided who I was fighting for—I just didn’t want to admit it to myself, or anyone else.

  The three of us took quick showers before arming up and preparing for a fight as we would any other time we went hunting. I strapped the dagger to my ankle before rolling my jeans over my boots. I ditched my red top for something a little more appropriate in order to conceal the stake belt strapped around my waist. Five stakes sat snugly in the loops. The loose-fitting, black off-the-shoulder top hid them nicely.

  Archer and Ryan looked like regular street kids in jeans, T-shirts and hoodies; you’d never guess they had an arsenal hidden on them as well. I made sure Ryan was kitted out like us; even though he wasn’t a fighter, he needed to be armed just in case.

  What we didn’t need we put back inside the bags and stowed them behind the couch.

  “What do we do with him?” Archer nodded towards the vamp. “He’ll try and run the moment we’re out the door.”

  “I could probably persuade him to stay with us and not try any funny business.” I stood in front of the vamp and stared him down, smirking.

  “No, he’s right. I’ll probably run,” the vamp said.

  My smile widened. “Even if I told you this would be on your tail?” I opened my hand and conjured a fireball. It swirled above my skin, the flames curling around each other, and I flicked it into the air before catching it on my fingertips. The vamp flinched.