BOUND – A Tate Chronicles Bonus Scene
(The Tate Chronicles #0.6)
by
K. A. Last
Copyright © 2013 K. A. Last
All rights reserved.
First published in Australia 2013 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
[email protected] https://www.kalastbooks.com.au
Formatting and cover design by KILA Designs
https://www.facebook.com/KILAdesigns
Image: Image: iStockphoto® ©vtorous
Also by K. A. Last
Fall For Me (The Tate Chronicles, #1)
Sacrifice (The Tate Chronicles, #0.5)
For all the Seth fans out there.
Table of Contents
DEAL WITH THE DEVIL
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
The course of true love never did run smooth.
William Shakespeare – A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act I, Scene I
DEAL WITH THE DEVIL
2003 – Hopetown Valley
The forest was still, as if it were holding its breath, waiting for something to happen. I stopped in a small clearing and stared at a misshapen tree. My tree. The one I’d punched harder than I’d ever hit anything before. The trunk had a split in it wide enough to slip my fingers into. The gash was filled with darkness as black as my soul.
To anyone else, all the trees would have looked the same. But for me, this particular part of the forest was unforgettable. It was the place where Michael brought me after I fell, and it bears my mark—the mark of anger and sadness.
I ran my finger down the edge of the split, hating myself for the choice I’d made. At the time I hadn’t seen any other way. My heart couldn’t stand being near her. It was too painful. But after my fall, I’d realised far too late that I’d done the wrong thing.
I’ve spent so much time trying to get her to listen, and felt tremendous pain every time she turned away. If I’m hurting this badly, I can’t imagine what my actions have done to her. Grace and I have been playing this game for a long time, dancing around the issue and never facing it.
I hurt her.
And it seemed like she would never forgive me.
I hoped what I was about to ask for would fix everything. I’d be able to make Grace listen, and she’d stop running.
My arm dropped to my side and I stepped away from the tree. When I turned my face to the sky, a star streaked across the inky darkness. It gave me a glimmer of hope that my prayer would be heard, or more importantly, answered.
“Michael,” I yelled into the night.
An owl took flight, rustling the leaves above.
I waited a few minutes.
The forest stilled.
“Michael, I need you!”
Calling an angel down from Heaven wasn’t something I did on a regular basis. The Angels of the Light weren’t exactly my friends anymore. I didn’t even know if Michael would hear me, but I had to try. He was the only one that would fully understand.
With a deep breath, I prepared myself to yell as loud as I could. But before I could open my mouth the leaves in the canopy rustled as a breeze whispered through them. Another star fell, only this time it tore away from the sky and hurtled towards me. The ball of light stopped before it hit the ground, and hovered in the small clearing. Tiny orbs broke away and swirled around it, multiplying, until a mass of lights like fireflies formed the shape of a person. Michael stepped out of the light. His wings whooshed loudly as they unfurled, and he folded his arms over his chest.
“You don’t have to yell, you know,” he said. “This better be good, Seth. I was relaxing in the cloud dust.”
I frowned and mimicked Michael’s stance, unfurling my own wings. “As much as I hate to admit it, I need your help.”
“Let me guess, this has something to do with Grace?”
Things between Michael and I have been strained for a long time. He was—and still is—mad at me for what I did to Grace. When I fell he took great pleasure pummelling me into a bloody mess. The tattoo on my left forearm burned, reminding me of that night. From the look in Michael’s eyes I guessed his anger hadn’t abated. Hell, I was mad at me, too. I wanted to lash out at him, to start a fight and pick up where we left off, but I bit back my anger. As much as I loved a good fight, it wouldn’t achieve anything, and it wouldn’t make him want to help.
“You know it does, so why even ask?” I said.
“It’s fun.” Michael shrugged. “I like watching you squirm.”
“Just forget it.” I turned away, but before I took a step, Michael orbed and landed in front of me. He planted his hand on my chest and stopped me in my tracks.
“Come on, dude. Don’t give up so easily,” Michael said, smiling. “Since when do you ever give up?”
He gave me a shove and I stumbled backwards. My fists clenched, ready to act, but I reined in my anger again. I couldn’t hit him before I told him what I wanted. And he was right. When it came to Grace, giving up was not an option.
“Okay.” I squared my shoulders and looked Michael straight in the eyes. “I want you to make me like Grace. I want you to make me young. In this incarnation, at the moment she’s only eight, which means I’d have to wait another ten years before I have any chance with her.”
“Ten years is nothing to us.”
“It’s everything to me!” I said. “I want to age like she does.”
Michael’s smile faltered. “In case you haven’t noticed, you’re immortal. You don’t age.”
“That’s the problem. This time, I want to grow up with Grace. Every generation, she starts all over again. She grows up like a normal human, and I’ve wasted so much time sitting around waiting.”
“What makes you think I can give you what you want?” Michael said.
“You’re an archangel.” I laughed. “You already knew what I wanted. And you wouldn’t be here if you couldn’t give it to me.”
“Then tell me one thing. What happens when she’s ready to move on to the next generation, and the one after that? She’ll be young again and you’ll still age. In a few generations time you’ll be an old man—”
“I’m sure you can work something into the agreement. One generation is all I want.”
“And you think doing this will change things between you?” Michael said.
“It has to. I need to make her listen to me.”
Michael chuckled. “I hate to tell you this, but you can’t make Grace do anything. She’s pretty stubborn.”
Frustration boiled inside me, rising to the surface and threatening to explode. I wanted to knock the smug smile off Michael’s face. But instead I opened and closed my fingers in an attempt to relax them, and concentrated on not letting my arms shake.
“Yes, she is stubborn, but I have to try something. Don’t you think I’ve paid enough for my decision?” I asked.
; “I don’t know, Seth. Do you think you have?”
“You don’t know how hard it is to watch her go through these incarnations, or whatever shit-crazy thing it is the Council has sent her here to do.”
“She’s a vampire hunter, she fights evil. Evil like you.”
“I’m not—”
“Oh, yes you are.” Michael poked me with his finger, his face so close to mine our noses almost touched. His nostrils flared with anger—it looked like I wasn’t the only one trying to hold back. “You may not be evil like a blood-sucker, but the moment you renounced your God and fell from Heaven, is the exact moment you became something else. Your soul is no longer connected to us, it’s connected to him.”
“Who, the Devil?” I shook my head. “He and I have already had words. I won’t be stepping a foot in Hell any time soon.”
“Well, if you want me to give you youth, you may very well be having words with him again,” Michael said.
My anger finally got the better of me. I shoved Michael, hard. He stumbled backwards, but spread his wings and regained his feet quickly. Michael was stronger and more powerful than I was, or ever would be. Still, there was something immensely satisfying about giving your enemy a good smack in the jaw. I completely lost the battle with my anger and raised my fist to strike, but when I unleashed my rage all I struck was air.
“You really should get a hold on your aggression,” Michael said.
I spun towards his voice and he orbed again, landing back in the small clearing.
“Stop playing with me,” I said through gritted teeth.
“I don’t know why you’re so angry.” Michael bent and picked up a stick, which he snapped between his fingers. “You of all people should know everything comes with a price. You have to suffer the consequences of your actions.”
“What do you think I’ve been doing for the past one-hundred and twenty-nine years?”
“This request will also come with consequences.”
“Anything. Just name it,” I said.
Michael studied me for a few moments. “You really love her that much, you’d do anything?”
“It’s what got me here in the first place, isn’t it?” I scowled.
Michael fell silent. The only sound in the forest was the stick in his hand as he snapped little pieces off. I didn’t want to be the one to break the silence. He knew what I wanted, and I knew he would give it to me.
“One generation, that’s all you get—”
“I told you, it’s all I want.”
“Let me finish,” Michael said. “If she doesn’t love you and give you her heart before this incarnation is through, you relinquish your wings, and take a one-way trip to the In-between. Otherwise, I’ll strip you and make sure you get a personal invitation to Hell’s Gate.”
“And if she does?”
“I won’t bother you. But I can’t promise that other Angels of the Light will leave you alone. A lot of them are angry with you.”
“I guess that’s a fair price to pay,” I said.
“Most fallen angels shudder at the mere mention of the In-between.”
“I’m not most fallen angels.” I narrowed my eyes and stared at Michael. “After the pain I’ve suffered, the concept of oblivion doesn’t scare me.”
“You’re not even going to think about it?”
“I don’t have to. I’ve had plenty of time to think. And I won’t ever need to repay this debt.”
“We’ll see.” Michael raised his eyebrows and smirked.
He grabbed my wrist and yanked my hand towards him. Tiny bursts of starlight danced across the black stone in my creation ring. Michael conjured an orb of light in his other palm. It reflected my face, which went through a series of changes as it morphed into a younger version of me. My hair was slightly longer, the lines on my face softened, and my skin smoothed. The light spun until it became a blur. Michael drew his fingers together and the light reduced in size until a ball the size of a marble sat on the tip of his finger. He gently blew on it, and it floated over my hand where it hovered above my ring.
“You can change your mind if you want to,” Michael said.
“What, and lose the opportunity to be free of you? No chance.”
“Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
Michael tapped the top of the ball. It landed on the stone in my ring and exploded.