by K. A. Last
“It’s nice to see you and Lilith haven’t lost your chemistry.” The other angel smirked, and laughter danced behind her jade-green eyes.
I’d first met Harmony when she’d tried to drive a stake through my heart not long after Lilith found me. She was a pretty thing, petite, with short spiky brown hair, a spray of freckles across her nose and that perfect angelic skin. I wanted nothing more than to rip the smirk right off her face.
“Now, Josh, that’s not nice, is it?” Zachary said. His misty, grey eyes bore into me. He was all grunt and muscle, and made the girls look inadequate. I wasn’t fooled, though; they could all pack just as much punch.
“I really hate it when you do that. Don’t you have a privacy policy or something?” I said.
All three of them chuckled and it made my skin crawl.
I glanced around the park and weighed up our options. Three against three were good odds, but we were already at a disadvantage since the new girl wasn’t letting go of Charlotte any time soon. The angel had a small, blue ball of light on her fingertip, and she held it to Charlotte’s cheek as if it were a knife.
Vampires are fast, but I hated to admit that angels were faster, what with the orbing thingy they could do. The way I saw it was we could run and potentially die, or we could fight and still potentially die.
I was always up for a good fight.
Inching closer to Lilith, I put my hand on the small of her back, and locked my gaze on the angel who held my creator at her mercy.
She was dressed differently to the others. My first thought was, she’s going to fight wearing that? White linen was not practical. My second thought was a little less coherent. Her pale denim eyes drew me in, and her silky golden hair framed her perfectly proportioned face. Okay, she was the enemy, but I was still a man.
“Josh, how nice to see you,” she said.
“Who are you?”
“I’m surprised you don’t remember me.” The angel smirked.
Lilith snorted under her breath. “Apparently you have met her.”
I pinched her side and she flinched.
“Why is it that everyone knows who I am but me?” I was really getting tired of the entire situation.
“Amnesia.” Lilith pulled away from me slightly.
“Really? That is convenient,” the angel said.
“Exactly what I thought.”
“Lilith, shut up,” I said.
“I’m Angelica, and I can help you remember, Josh, but somehow I don’t think you’ll like what you see.”
I stared at the beautiful angel. “Show me? My past?”
“Don’t believe her,” Charlotte said. “She’s the one who took your memory.”
Angelica tightened her grip on Charlotte. She gritted her teeth, thrashing around in an attempt to free herself.
“Stay out of this,” Angelica said.
“She might not show you the truth.”
“I’ll take my cha—”
Before I could finish, a sharp searing pain rushed through the side of my head and I doubled over. Lilith lurched as I pulled her with me, and she tried to steady us both. For a moment I couldn’t see anything. Then all I could see was the face of my past. The face of someone who apparently loved me, but had never told me.
Grace.
She was pale and beautiful, with perfect sapphire eyes. Her short, wavy black hair framed her delicate features. Grace was heavenly, with a radiant smile. The photo in my back pocket did not do her justice.
The vision of Grace made the throbbing pain in my temples all worth it. Her smile filled me with happiness, which was something I didn’t even realise I’d been missing, but through it all I remembered I didn’t know this girl, not really. I couldn’t remember anything about her. She was nothing but a beautiful image in my mind. There was nothing else inside me to connect us.
I fell to my knees, and Angelica assaulted me with another image, this one even more painful than the last. I grabbed my hair, twisting my fingers into the strands and yanking in an attempt to rip the memories out of my head.
“What are you doing to him?” Lilith shouted. She put her hands on my shoulders.
A series of images flashed through my mind. People I didn’t remember. Charlotte was in the mix, and then the vision stopped and I saw only one person. I stared into my own eyes.
My chest tightened, the feeling of suffocation engulfing me, even though I couldn’t die from asphyxiation. A scream ripped from my mouth and I dropped to the ground. My cheek hit the grass and a twig poked into my skin, breaking the surface, but the pain was nothing compared to what I felt in my mind. It was as if someone had poked the back of my eyes with burning sticks. All I could see was me, my face when I was human, my bronzed skin and blue eyes—eyes that reflected happiness.
The images flashed again, only this time every picture was of Grace and me. Together, we looked so happy, and it tore my lifeless heart to shreds. My chest ached for a girl I couldn’t remember. I squeezed my eyes closed and tried to wipe the vision of Grace away, but it was no use. Open or closed, they saw the same painful picture.
Angelica laughed, and it stirred a hatred inside of me stronger than I’d ever felt before.
She laughed again. “No, Josh, there is someone you hate more than me.”
At that moment, I doubted it.
“Why are you doing this to him?” Charlotte said. “You have me; leave him out of it. He never did anything to you.”
“You sealed his fate when you made him like you,” Angelica said. “Now you both have to die, but not before I have a little fun.”
I didn’t need to open my eyes to know Charlotte struggled in Angelica’s grip.
“You have no idea what the word goodness means, do you?” Charlotte said.
Lilith tried to pull me off the ground, but I resisted her. Angelica held my mind captive with images of Grace, and movement made the pain more intense.
Then as quickly as the visions had been planted in my head, they were gone.
Air I didn’t need rushed in and out of my lungs. Slowly, I got to my knees and raised my head, staring at the angel who I hated with every inch of my body.
“Like I said, Josh, there is someone else you hate more than me,” Angelica said.
“Then it’s a good thing I can’t remember them, isn’t it?”
I brushed the hair from my eyes and the dirt from my cheek, standing to face Angelica. Zachary and Harmony shifted position, moving closer with their fists clenched. It took all my self-control not to lunge at them and rip their throats out. It couldn’t be done anyway. It didn’t seem fair, really. Kill a vampire with a stake through the heart, or fire, or beheading, but an angel? We were yet to work out how to kill them. They had to have a weakness, but if they did they never showed it.
I wanted to fight them, but Angelica had Charlotte, and any move I made surely meant her loss. I’d seen angels disappear with people before. I didn’t want Angelica taking Charlotte away from me.
“Why did you show me those things?” I asked through gritted teeth. “Are they even real? They’ve told me nothing.”
“They showed you what your life used to be like. You can trust Grace. And more importantly, she trusts you.” Angelica smiled. “The rest you’ll remember when I let you, but first you have to do something for me.”
“He’ll never help you,” Lilith said.
“If he wants Charlotte back, he’s going to have to.”
Charlotte struggled again but to no avail. Angelica ran her finger down Charlotte’s cheek, and the little ball of light cut into her skin, drawing blood.
Charlotte screamed and her eyes rolled back in her head.
“What are you doing to her?” I stepped forward.
“Celestial fire has a better effect on vampires than real fire.” Angelica pushed Charlotte to the ground and pulled her arms behind her back, binding them with a thin tendril of blue light. “Especially when the vampire is half angel.”
Harmony stared at me. “You don’t
look surprised.”
“She already told me.”
“Now!” Angelica clapped her hands. Zachary pulled Charlotte to her feet and manhandled her so she stood behind Angelica. “This is what’s going to happen. I’m taking Charlotte—”
“Over my dead body.” I clenched my fists and growled. My fangs extended, and my gums ached.
“That won’t achieve anything, Josh. You’ll be dead, and you’ll never know the truth. Don’t you want to know why you’re not with Grace anymore?”
I didn’t know what I wanted.
“Even if I help you, you’ll never let me live.”
“What if I said I would?” Angelica asked.
“Don’t, Josh.” Charlotte’s voice was weak, but I heard her.
“Grace has something of mine,” Angelica said, ignoring Charlotte’s plea. “And I have something of hers.”
“So why don’t you go and get it, and leave us out of it,” I said.
“Because I think you can be more persuasive. Consider Charlotte your bond. You’ll get her back when I get what I want.”
“And what is that?” Lilith stepped forward, baring her fangs as well.
“That doesn’t matter. All you have to do is give Grace a message for me. Tell her I have Charlotte, and if I don’t get what I want, she’ll die.” Angelica smirked.
“Why would Grace care what happens to Charlotte?” Lilith asked.
“Because Charlotte is what got Grace into trouble in the first place. Her … and you.” Angelica stared at me.
I wanted to ask what that meant, but I had a feeling I wouldn’t get a straight answer. “We don’t know where Grace is,” I said.
“Then you’d better find out.” Zachary tightened his grip on Charlotte and she whimpered. “She’s already been through here. You’ll run into each other at some point.”
“How do we find you?” I asked Angelica.
“I’ll find you when the time is right,” she said.
“You can’t take Charlotte.” Lilith moved even closer to Angelica. She was braver than I was. The farther away I was from the psycho angel, the better. “We need her—”
“To save your own skin, yes, I know.” Angelica regarded Lilith for a few moments. “I’m aware of the underground situation, Lilith. I know everything that’s going on in this city.”
Their gazes locked and Lilith lifted her chin, but she was the first to look away. There was no doubt Angelica had read her mind, which meant she knew more about what was going on than I did. It left an uneasy feeling in my stomach, but I had to try and trust Lilith. There was no one else.
The park filled with white light. It flashed out and the angels were gone.
“We are so dead,” Lilith said.
I couldn’t have agreed more.
EIGHTEEN
Grace
Early Sunday morning
Michael led us across the street and into the other side of the park. The trees lining the perimeter acted like a buffer, protecting the green oasis from most of the city noise. After passing through the hum of the traffic, the park was eerily quiet.
Archer hung back, grumbling under his breath at how much of a tool Michael was. Ryan walked next to me, his hands stuffed into the front pocket of his hoodie. Hope and Justice eyed me every now and then when they thought I wasn’t looking.
“To what do we owe the pleasure, Michael?” Hope asked, her voice dripping with innuendo. I couldn’t work out if it was sexual, or if she was proud she knew an archangel.
I knew him, too, and sometimes he wasn’t that great.
“You don’t come to the city very often,” Justice said.
“Wait, you’ve come to the city before?” I asked, stopping. “You never came to Hopetown Valley.”
Michael sighed but kept walking. “Yes I did, Grace. You just didn’t know.”
I quickened my pace to catch up with them. I wasn’t about to let prissy little Hope mooch in on my archangel.
“When? And why didn’t you tell me?”
Michael stopped and faced me. He stuffed his hands in the pockets of his jeans. “Because I was there for things that didn’t concern you. Directly, anyway.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” I asked.
“Why is everything to do with you angels so complicated?” Ryan shook his head and walked away a little. He stared at the war memorial. “We need a plan.”
“You should listen to him.” Michael broke eye contact with me and followed Ryan. “His head is in the game.”
“And yours is up your ass,” Archer said.
“Okay, stop.” Hope put her hands on her hips. “Michael, why are you so friendly with a fallen angel? Grace, what the hell do you want? And Archer, what is with the smart mouth? The human is the most normal out of all of you.”
Everyone started talking at once. Michael defended me, I mentioned Josh, and Archer grumbled something about how his attitude was fine. Ryan walked farther away.
“Wait, Josh who?” Justice asked.
“Joshua Chase. Tall, dark, handsome,” I said. “Oh, and very much a vampire.”
“Did he have a girlfriend called Charlotte by any chance?”
“She’s not his girlfriend,” Archer said.
Justice looked at Hope. “The ones we fought with Angelica.”
“Angelica!” I said. “Great, this is getting better and better.”
Michael threw his hands in the air. “See? This is why I’m here.”
“You mentioned Angelica when we saw you at the truck stop. What is she up to?” I asked. “So help me God, Michael, if you don’t tell me I will—”
“What, Grace? What are you going to do to me? I have never done anything but help you. Everything I’ve ever done since you were created was to help you, even when you didn’t want me to. You have to trust me. You have to trust that I can’t tell you everything, or spell it out in black and white, because there is always someone watching. So, are you finished?”
Michael stared into my eyes. Anger flickered behind his, blue tendrils of heavenly fire pulsating behind his brown irises.
“I came here to find Josh, and somehow I’m being dragged into fighting a war that isn’t mine,” I said.
“Josh is at the centre of that war.” Justice twirled his stake around his fingers. “I’d kill him myself, but something tells me I’d have you to answer to if I did.”
“And this war became yours when you chose to take the fall for a vampire,” Michael said.
“Charlotte is good!” I ran my hands through my hair.
“I know that, and you know that. But they—” Michael pointed to the sky “—do not believe it.”
“Who the hell are you talking about?” Justice asked, clenching his jaw. “You fell for a vampire?”
“Don’t you dare judge me,” I said. “You don’t know.”
“That’s right; you don’t.” Archer came to my side.
Michael took his hand from his pocket long enough to touch me on the arm. “After you left the last time you came to see Josh—”
“You knew about that?”
Of course he did. He knew everything. It was his job.
Michael pursed his lips and took a breath through his nose. “There was a battle at the terrace.”
“We know. We saw the aftermath,” Archer said.
Michael started walking towards the memorial again.
Justice shook his head. “I can’t believe we’re consorting with a fallen angel.”
The next second, Justice’s feet were off the ground and Michael held him around the throat. He’d orbed so quickly I’d almost missed it.
“If you want your city to survive, then you will do as I say, when I say.” Michael’s grip dug into the flesh on Justice’s neck, making him gag. “Grace can be trusted. She is on your side, regardless of her status. Got it?”
Justice nodded as much as he could. Michael let go, and the hunter fell to the ground, gasping for air. He rubbed his throat and grimaced as he got to
his feet, brushing the grass from his knees.
Michael resumed his path towards the war memorial and we followed. The night was relatively silent since it was past midnight.
I broke away from the group to get some space.
“Gracie, where are you going?” Archer asked.
I need some breathing room. I kept walking and didn’t look at the others.
“Let her go,” Michael said.
On my way across the open grassed area, I crossed paths with a homeless guy pushing his shopping trolley through the park. He stared at me with glazed eyes.
“You’ve lost your light,” he said.
Apparently I needed to search for it in the darkest of places. His comment distracted me, and I was busy trying to figure out what he’d meant when someone spoke.
“Hi there,” a vamp said from the shadows. “Looking for a good time tonight?”
I really needed to stay focused. I should have sensed him before he’d said anything.
“I’m always looking for a good time.”
The vamp sauntered towards me, turning on his charm. It had no effect. I punched him in the face, breaking his grin, and then waited for him to get back on his feet.
My king hit had sent him sprawling, and he lay on his back in the shadow of a huge fig. His tight T-shirt accented the ripples of his muscular chest, and I cursed the fact that most vampires were good eye candy. Sometimes it was a shame to have to dust them. Angels were great to look at, too, but most of the ones I knew were either not on my side, or not very happy with me. This vamp had strong, brooding features, and dark spiky hair. My guess was he used an entire pot of hair gel, and spent at least an hour in front of the mirror to perfect his look.
Archer came over and leant against a tree, arms folded, with a smirk on his face. Once on his feet, the vamp took one more look at me and turned to run.
“Whoa, not so fast, fang boy.” Archer lunged and grabbed him, pushing him in my direction. Since he was a bit taller than me, I jumped and threw my arm out, clotheslining him, putting him flat on his back again. Then I sat on him. He struggled beneath me and I pinned his shoulders to the ground, kneeling on his arms.
“You’re new. Where’s Hope?” he asked, staring up at me.