Thank you for the positive reviews, hope you like this update :-)
charlie-BVB: Yay, I'm from Yorkshire too! Us Yorkshire folk are the best ;) Haha
A week later, Grace was making sure her apartment was perfectly clean. Her New York apartment was by far her favourite. The entire left side wall was made of a thick glass, giving her a perfect view of the empire state building. There were two bedrooms - both of which were large and decorated in a red, black and white theme, each with en-suite bathrooms. The front door led straight into the living room which was also a part of the kitchen, but they were separated by an elegant flower-designed archway. The living room had a huge TV with an X-Box 360 and a Playstation 3 (Grace secretly loved video games), a large L-shaped red leather sofa and matching chair, and a beautiful mahogany bookcases full to the brim.
She wasn't happy that she was having a visitor over, but she knew there wasn't much she could do about it. Although she didn't do any work for the Savant Net, she was listed down under their employees and often got phone calls asking to do a job: she always vehemently refused, of course. The phone call she'd received yesterday however, had been somebody asking if she was up for having a meeting with somebody from the Net which made her think that maybe the job they wanted her to take part in was extra serious, however she still planned on refusing. She informed them to send the person over to her apartment so she wasn't photographed having the meeting publicly.
When a loud resounded knock against her door echoed in the apartment, Grace sighed and went to unlock the door, swinging it open. In front of her stood a tall, lean but muscular young man with dark hair styled into a tall, messy quiff. His olive skin and bright blue eyes were a perfect combination and looks-wise he reminded Grace of Adam Lambert… Apart from the out-there outfits and the make-up, of course. This guy was wearing a smart black suit and tie, with a white shirt. And Grace recognized him.
"You're the guy that saved me last week!" She exclaimed with a smile, before narrowing her eyes. "What are you doing here? Because you know, saving my life doesn't mean you can stalk me."
The guy laughed and shook his head before saying, "no, no, I'm not stalking you. I'm William Benedict from the Savant Net - you can call me Will. I'm here to talk to you about the new job."
"Why don't I make it easy for you, William? Whatever you propose, I will say no to," she smiled, quite sarcastically. "I don't care how much money they offer me or whatever, I don't want anything to do with this."
Will shuffled nervously on the spot, as if he were intimidated by the petite girl in front of him. "I seriously wish you'd reconsider. At least hear what I have to say to. Please? I think you'll want to hear this."
Grace sighed and stepped back so he could enter the apartment. "Fine. But I really don't think you'll be able to change my mind about this."
"We'll see," he grinned and stepped into the room, looking around as Grace closed the door behind him. "This is a really nice place you have here."
"Thanks," she mumbled, gesturing for him to sit on the sofa with her. "So, what is they want me to do, William?"
"It's Will."
"I prefer William," she shrugged and smiled, her eyes drifting up to look at the tall height of his perfectly styled hair. Her fingers itched to reach out and run her fingers through it to see if it was as soft as it looked. She obviously resisted the urge considering he was a stranger. "So let's just get straight to it. What's going on?"
Will gave her an apologetic smile and said, "I'm sorry I'm here, I read that you don't really want anything to do with the Savant world. But with a power like yours, you're bound to get attention considering how useful it can be…"
"Useful?" Grace laughed. "Maybe for other people, but not me. I'm immortal but trust me, it's not as cool as it sounds. My grandma has the power, as did her grandma, and so on. It always skips a generation so I kind of just got the power from my genes. But it's horrible. If I die from natural causes or an accident, like old age or a car accident, I'm dead for good. But if I get killed by unnatural reasons, like being shot, I come back to life. It's such a bother! And it hurts coming back to life; I'm weak for days afterwards. But no, the Net don't think about me in all this. They just want me to go in and save somebody and sacrifice my life for theirs. I'm not doing it." Rant over, Grace let out a long breath.
"I understand," Will nodded. "It's just that the Savant group we're trying to take down this time… We think that their leader is the woman who killed your parents."
Grace's world stopped. Her parents… She didn't really remember them considering she had been four when they were murdered but every now then a memory came into her mind; she didn't know if they were real or not, but she treasured them. Her grandparents were like parents to her, but she always hated the fact she never got the chance to get to know her actual parents. She'd sworn that if she ever had the chance to, she'd take revenge on the woman who had killed her parents. Considering nobody knew the name of this woman and hadn't got a proper view of her on the CCTV of the area, she never thought she'd have the chance for revenge.
"Why would you think it's her?" Grace whispered, so quiet she didn't expect him to hear.
Surprisingly, Will actually did hear her though. "We're not one hundred percent sure," he said gently, resting one of his hands on Grace's which was strangely comforting to her. "It's just from little glimpses that have been seen of her on camera."
"And what do the Net want me to do?"
"Well, for now we don't need you. We're trying to pinpoint the location the group are based at - they seem to move around a lot so it's turning out to be quite difficult. They've been using their powers to steal things, a lot like a group my sister-in-law Phoenix grew up in. And these lot aren't afraid to kill people - Savant or not - to get what they want. But once we figure out their location and operations and that, we want you to go in undercover and try and get back a memory stick they stole from the Net that has details of all Savant's on it. Because you'll come back to life if they kill you, well… It's not as risky as if somebody else did it."
Grace opened her mouth to refuse to do a job for the Net like she usually did but stopped herself… If they were right about the leader being that woman, she could get revenge for her parents' death, for the trust and love issues it led her to have, for everything. She sighed and suddenly didn't even have the effort to talk out loud anymore. "I'll think about it, okay?" She said telepathically to Will, looking straight into his eyes as she did so.
Will looked as if somebody had shot him. He gasped out loud, his whole body frozen in shock as he stared unblinkingly at Grace: shock, awe, love and admiration glowed in his beautiful blue eyes. "You're my Soulfinder," he replied simply. And with that statement, Grace knew that it was true. Her mind didn't 'light up' like male Savants described, but she felt genuinely happy for the first time in ages and his thought-voice sounded different to other ones she had heard. Grace's Soulfinder was right in front of her… She could be happy, she could have a good life and somebody that would love her unconditionally, somebody that she could return that love for… No. No, she couldn't have that. She couldn't let herself get close to somebody because sooner or later everybody let her down or left her because she had so many issues. And if they didn't let her down, she let them down. Will seemed like a decent guy; he deserved better than her. He deserved somebody that wasn't afraid to fall in love with him.
"Please leave," she said quietly.
"What?" Will looked positively heartbroken as Grace stood up and walked over to the door, swinging it open. "But… We're Soulfinders, Grace. We're made for each other."
"But I want you to leave," she said sternly. "Please, William. Just go. I have things to do and I really don't want to deal with having a Soulfinder."
Will stood up and took a few steps towards her. "You don't want to deal with it? Grace, this is something amazing! Why would you want us to be apart as soon as we've found each other?"
"Please," she begged. "I just want you to leave."
Looking depressed and dejected, Will nodded respectively, and after a final glance full of longing at Grace, he left the apartment and Grace shut the door behind him with shaking hands.